My name is Erik Conley, and for 24 years I was an equity trader and money manager for Northern Trust, Oakmark Funds, and Kemper Securities. I no longer manage money for others. Since 2001 I’ve been a private investor – managing my own money and advising a few close friends and associates. I consider myself extremely fortunate to be in a position where I can practice my two life passions – Trading and Teaching.
Of course there are thousands of people out there claiming they can help you get rich in the market. Why should you listen to me? Because everything I have learned about investing comes from first hand, personal experience. Here are a few of my career accomplishments:
- I got my first trading job in 1977 when a small brokerage firm in Milwaukee Wisconsin gave me $200,000 in seed money and turned me loose on the stock market. Six years later, my trading account was worth $2.4 million. That works out to a 52% annual return on their investment in me. My bosses were very pleased.
- Next they built me a trading floor and gave me an additional $5 million and a four person support staff. Five years later, the account was worth $65 million, a 47% annual return on investment.
- As word got around about my trading, I was recruited by a private wealth management firm in Chicago in 1992 to manage over $8 billion dollars in client assets.
-1995 I was again recruited away, this time to run the entire trading department of one of the largest banks in the Midwest. I was responsible for a staff of 8 and $90 billion dollars in client assets.
By the time I retired in 2001, I found myself at the very top of the wealth management food chain. My firm catered exclusively to wealthy families, businesses, foundations, and endowments. New clients had to have at least $5 million to open an account with us.
That kind of money exposes you to information and strategies that are just not accessible anywhere else.
I could have spent the rest of my life making rich people richer, and in the process made myself even wealthier than I already was. But something was missing.
In each of the firms I worked for, one of my responsibilities was hiring and training new traders. My partners recognized that I was a natural at this. And I truly enjoyed training and developing the skills that make a successful trader. I get tremendous personal satisfaction from helping a rookie trader succeed. The best ones move on to their own successful careers in the investment business. I know it sounds corny, but sharing my knowledge and experience with others, and seeing them do well in the market, is one of the main reasons why I love this business.
Many of the young traders I hired and trained went on to achieve great success as key players in the investment management business.
But there was a problem: The investment business is highly regulated, and one of the rules is that I couldn’t give advice to anyone who was not a client of my firm. I was helping rich people get richer, but was prevented from helping the people who needed it the most.
I came to the conclusion that the only way I could do this was to start my own firm, and offer the same level of advice and support, but without the $5 million account minimum. That was the founding principle of ZenInvestor.org.
I created ZenInvestor.org to train those who were ready to learn, to teach them the systems I developed and which have proven successful time and time again. I want to train you to not just make a ton of money in the stock market, but also how to keep it when the economy crashes.
Zen Investing is not a miracle trading system or a get-rich-quick scheme.
I want to train you in the time-tested strategies that were previously only available to wealthy and sophisticated investors and institutions – like pension funds, foundations and endowments.
I will show you how to avoid getting ripped off by hidden fees, misleading performance claims, and all of the other tricks that are part of our predatory financial services industry.
Most importantly, I will show you the key to my success – the ability to get completely out of the market when a significant, threatening economic event is on the horizon.
The biggest, nastiest, and longest-lasting bear markets always begin right before a recession hits the economy. My research enables me to warn my clients when a recession is imminent. In the last 40 years there have been 7 recessions, and my model has correctly predicted all of them, with no false signals. The last call I made was in September 2007 – 3 months before the most recent recession started.
My clients were able to get out of the market before the crash of 2008, saving themselves from a 38% market decline.
I do not offer a one-size-fits-all approach. I am not going to spam your inbox with hot stock tips or tell you to buy the latest hot stock. I am going to teach you the principles you need to know, and then I will work with you PERSONALLY to ensure you’re maximizing your returns while protecting yourself and your investment nest egg at the same time.
The easiest way to get started is by reading my recent blog posts, signing up for my free newsletter, or asking me directly about how my coaching program could help you get to where you want to be. Drop me a line at info@zeninvestor.org. I respect your privacy. I will never spam your inbox. I will never share your information with anyone.
(For a full list of my credentials you can check out my career highlights here.)
