Investing

The next day Michael woke up and trained all morning. He had not been able to focus on training much because he was so busy earning an honest living. Michael enjoyed training; It was different from normal workouts. He had the opportunity to be Superman so there was no way he would pass up such a golden chance.

In the afternoon Michael finally stopped training. He had a hearty meal of steamed Lobster tails for lunch. Michael then applied to the university; technically speaking buying the house without even getting accepted into college was not smart. However, if the college rejects him then they are not worthy of him. Michael had scheduled an ACT exam for the evening. ACT exam was a standardized test used by colleges to evaluate student's academic potential. Getting a high score would even allow the student to attend college free with a full scholarship.

Michael drove to the testing center and completed the Test online on a monitored computer. The test was 3 hours long and the results were immediately reported. Michael looked at his score and smiled. He drove back home and went to bed conflicted; He finally had the money to pay for college but now he did not even have to pay. Life really was cruel sometimes.

The next day Michael finally turned his attention to Investments.

Michael started searching for the right type of investment. The regular stock market was meant for long-term investments. He needed investments that will have short-term returns. There is no point in being rich when you are about to die. After hours of intensive research; Michael decided on Options. Options were basically a contract that stated you get to buy or sell a stock at a fixed price before a certain date.

The goal is to buy options on certain stocks and watch it to see if its value goes up. If the value of the stock goes up then you can buy and if it doesn't then you do not have to buy the stock. Basically having an option allows you to ignore current price and lets you buy or sell at the fixed price. An example would be if Michael bought a call Option on Samsung stock for $25 for a year; If Samsung stock goes up to $50 during that year then he can still buy the stock at $25. Then he could sell it for $50 and double his money.

Of course, just like the normal stock market, you had to be able to make an accurate judgment about future trends of the stock in order to make money with Options. Michael was hoping his Intermediate Stock market skill will help him in that area.

First, he needed to open an account with a Brokerage firm. A brokerage firm provides middleman services that connect buyers and sellers. Michael looked at the available options and decided on Ameritrade because of their extensive online support. Michael set up the account online and transferred $15 million as initial capital. He decided to keep the rest for emergency use and as personal funds.

Michael was still familiarizing himself with the website when he got a call.

"Hello is this Mr. Michael Rodriguez? Sir My name is Matthew Griffin I am calling from TD Ameritrade brokerage." The caller answered.

Michael was expecting a call since he just deposited such a large amount of money in a new account; however, he was still astonished by the brokerage's response time. "Yes, You are speaking to Michael, How can I help you, Mr. Mathew?" Michael replied.

"Well, sir I am calling you because your new account set of a couple of alarms. The $15 million transfer is highly unusual. If I may ask are you a trader from a company?" Matthew asked. Usually, traders from investment companies will not open accounts like this. The company will establish corporate accounts and bargain broker fees. On the other hand, amateur traders will never start with this much capital. Michael's situation was definitely very unique.

"No, I am an independent trader. I wanted to start trading immediately." Michael replied annoyed by the brokerage.

"Well, of course, it is alright sir. Actually, all accounts that are over $10 million get a personal broker assigned and I am your assigned broker. Please feel free to ask any question. I have been a broker for over 20 years and can give helpful advice for first time traders." Matthew enthusiastically tried to suck up to Michael.

"Well, I am fine with having a personal broker as long as it does not complicate things. Thanks for the advice but I think I will be fine." Michael replied. He had an insane system to help him so why would he still need the help of a broker? Besides these brokers only truly cared about their own commission.

"Well, sir If you ever need any help please contact me. Thank you for choosing Ameritrade." Matthew replied and hung up.

"Hmph. He is probably just some spoiled kid trying to invest with his parent's money. Does he think investing is so easy that anyone can just invest in stocks and be rich? Once he fails miserably he will come crying to me and ask for my advice." Matthew did not like the fact that Michael was ignoring his attempts to give advice. He was one of the senior brokers of the firm and rarely dealt with new cases like this; However, he was chosen to handle such an unusual case because of his vast experience. Matthew looked forward to the call he would get when the arrogant client learned his lesson.

Michael ignored the phone call and turned back to learning about the new website. It did not take him long to figure out how to use the website and navigate to the section for Options trading.

Michael stumbled upon options for Tesla Motors; He could buy a call option for Tesla Motors at $90 per stock. Michael spent hours scouring the internet for articles on Tesla. Everything from financials to automotive reports; He absorbed the information like a sponge. When he started analyzing everything he read; He felt like all the junk was gone and he could see the reality of the situation.

Michael could tell from the financials that Tesla made budget cuts which made the company more efficient; laying of jobs that were not productive and cutting down on useless bureaucracy. From the automotive reports, Michael could tell that Tesla was becoming more mature; they stopped trying to build something shiny and pretty instead of focusing on reliability and efficiency. From the tweets, Michael could see the company stopped chasing new projects and tried to finish what they already started.

Michael felt like he could see connections that he would never make before. The information that was just junk before now had gems which revealed secrets. The Stock Market skill was very similar to the Animal Instincts skill; except instead of having an intuition about danger he will have an intuition about stocks.

Judging from company trends Michael knew Tesla was going to reveal something big next week. Michael spent $15 million buying the call option at $90 per stock. He knew that as a first-time investor he should not take this much risk and bet everything on one stock; However, Michael was confident in the skill and in his intelligence. Besides, he made that $15 million with gambling anyways; Old habits die hard. Now he just had to wait and see the results.