Interview  |  MAY 2007

Interview: Lee Lowell by Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan

Stocks & Commodities V. 25:5 (62-68): Interview: Lee Lowell by Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan Having spent six years as an option market maker on the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange, Mt. Vernon Research commodities trading expert Lee Lowell is one of very few privy to the rare insider tips and secrets that the pros use every day to make money. In his new book Get Rich With Options: Four Winning Strategies Straight From The Exchange Floor, he reveals the strategies he uses to churn out profits for him in the option arena. And using real-life examples of actual trades, Lowell shows how to use techniques for the fastest route to riches in the option trading game. Lowell is also a regular contributor to the Accelerated Profits Report newsletter and the twice-weekly Smart Options eReport, and he is the editor of the Delta Force Trader — a trading service that specializes in commodity investing. Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES Editor Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan interviewed Lee Lowell via telephone on March 7, 2007. Q: How did you get into option trading? A: My option trading career hired by a Chicago-based option market-making firm that had started a branch in New York City. We traded in the energy markets, specifically crude oil, natural gas, heating oil, and unleaded gasoline options. About a year later I was promoted to option trader. I worked with this company for about five years as an option market maker, trading those crude oil and natural gas options. Then I went off to trade on my own using my own capital, still trading on the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). I did that for another year, at which point I moved off the floor to trade over the Internet. I realized getting quotes over the Internet was easy. I didn’t need to be down in the pits as much, concentrating on only one commodity; I could watch the computer at home and trade different commodities. I could save myself a lot of money on the seat lease I had to pay for the NYMEX. Once I learned that having a computer and an Internet connection was all I needed, I realized I could work anywhere in the world. I moved myself and my family out to Hawaii for four years, and traded out there over the computer.

by Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan