TRAVEL INTERVIEW WITH MARCELLO ARRAMBIDE OF WANDERING TRADER-LashWorld

Wandering Trader- Galibi Nature Reserve- Suriname

TRAVEL INTERVIEW WITH MARCELLO ARRAMBIDE OF WANDERING TRADER

In today’s travel interview, I’m excited to present a very unique, fearless and outgoing ‘grab the world and run’ kind of guy by the name of Marcello Arrambide, aka the Wandering Trader. Marcello’s remarkable capacity for hard work and risk taking have lead him on a remarkable journey through life thus far. And from what I’m hearing, sounds like he’s just getting started!

In this interview, let’s find out what makes this interesting guy tick and what he’ll be getting up to next. Here’s Marcello:

Q1. Hi Marcello. Sounds like you started your entrepreneurial mind set at a very young age-13 when you started working. Where did you pick up that work hard/earn money attitude? Did it come from your parents? Or was it just you?

I have never considered my childhood to be a very hard one, but it was also far from easy. My family officially moved to the United States from a third world country when I was 6 years old and if I ever wanted something, I needed to go out and get it myself. Identifying this at an early age, this alone is where I got my hard work ethic.

I knew that my single mother was not able to provide most things outside of necessities since she was working two jobs in order to support two kids. I had to work harder than everyone else to get ahead.

I’ll add to that that after a while I realized that I needed to stop “working hard” and start “working smart”. I was always fascinated with business and I realized early on that people who are successful don’t work hard, they work smart.

Wandering Trader- Feeding Hyenas in Harar Ethiopia

Marcello Feeding Hyenas in Harar Ethiopia

Q2. You tried a lot of jobs between the age of 12 and 20-something when you started day trading. Were there any jobs that you especially liked and/or really hated? If so, which and why?

I remember one of my first official jobs (I say official because I worked a lot of jobs under the table when I was very young) at Winn Dixie. I thought it would be something I could do since it was easy to bag groceries. I remind you that I lived part of my life in Florida and the summers are sweltering hot. The day that they wanted me to go outside and round up the carts, I told them I am never going to do that for minimum wage and quit. I can’t believe people actually put up with that when they can work in the A/C for the same amount of money!

One of the most interesting jobs I ever had was working to install custom home theaters in multimillion dollar homes. It was really interesting to learn how to put something so unique together. That is one of the things that opened my eyes to the other side of living. I would drive my $1,000 used car to these neighborhoods where houses would sell for millions of dollars. Safe to say, it was eye opening.

Wandering Trader- salar de uyuni Bolivia

Q3. You mentioned that from a young age you had the idea of gaining freedom. Did you hold a specific lifestyle or dreams in mind? Did you know exactly what you wanted to do once you were financially free?

I have always wanted to have money, but never for the sake of having money and buying things. The only lifestyle that I wanted to have was the lifestyle that involved not worrying about money. The dream was to be free: free of debt, free of responsibility, free of a nagging boss, free of the reliance on other people to make money. I just wanted to be able to do what I wanted whenever I wanted. I was constantly getting in trouble at school because I have always been against authority and having to follow the rules. Often times I was either skipping school or getting suspended for not being there.

Marcello at Kaieteur Falls- Guyana

Q4. How did you hit on the idea of day trading and get started?

I was always selling something in order to make money: cd’s when they first came out, fake purses, bakery products, even calculators. When I moved back to the United States from Italy I teamed up with my partner in crime and we immediately agreed that we needed to make some real money and stop trying small things. The stock market is a place where you don’t have to sell anything to anyone and anyone can get in and out at any time of the day. Most importantly, there is a lot of money to be made in the stock market. You just have to learn how to do it.

Q5. Was it scary or nerve-wracking when you started out? Weren’t you nervous about losing your money?

Although money was important in my life because I have never had it, I never allowed money to control me. Money isn’t important to me. It’s the freedom that comes with it. I never had a lot of money when I was young, but I knew that money wasn’t my end goal. There is no sense to worry about money because anyone can make a lot of money and lose a lot of money.

My uncle always told me that things have a way of working out and sometimes you have to have faith that the world will turn out the way it was supposed to. I took out $25,000 in student loans in order to start day trading and I lost that in a month. Thinking back it probably was a little wreckless. So I did what any person would do: I took out more loans to feed my new addiction.

Wandering Trader posing at Machu Picchu

Q6. How long did it take you to learn and succeed at day trading well enough that you could live off your trading?

It became profitable roughly two years after starting. The main problem with my training was that I needed to earn a living by working full time and finish my degree since I promised my mother I would finish. I was working full time, going to school full time, and trying to day trade at the same time.

I would pull two to three all nighters every week and I would take Nyquil in order to get to bed early the days when I had a test the next morning. It wasn’t easy. but now I am traveling around the world and teaching other people how to make money in the markets. It was worth every second.

Q7. In the meantime (before your day trading covered your cost of living) how did you earn a living?

I was working at dead end jobs until I found a good position at Bank Of America. I found the perfect schedule that allowed me to balance day trading, going to school, and working full time. Since I was so good at my job, they would adjust my schedule so I could attend my classes and work weekends.

Eventually when I finished school, I would day trade in the mornings from 9am to 1pm and then work from 2pm til 11pm. I even tried to convince myself that I would wake up in the mornings at 5am to work out since I was a gym rat then. That usually worked one or two days a week when I could drag myself out of bed!

Wandering Trader- Walking & petting cheetahs

Marcello walking & petting cheetahs

Q8. Once you gained your financial freedom and set off to explore the world, where did you go first? Why that destination?

I was very afraid to quit my job and didn’t quit right away because I was hesitant to just rely on my day trading income. I didn’t have anything when I was younger and I had a steady paycheck. It’s hard coming from a “for sure” situation to a situation of “maybies”. Even though I was making money in day trading, it was the idea that I had something for sure coming in every month. I just couldn’t let that go right away.

Another big reason that I didn’t leave right away was because I was making such good money since I was so good at my job. I made more than most of the managers in that department. Imagine a young man making close to $60,000 at an entry level position without any responsibilities. I knew that I had a great job and I was hesitant to leave because I had it so good.

In line with my ever-changing personality, one day I decided that I was ready to go and I put in my two weeks immediately. I decided to move to Toronto, Canada, EH. I determined that Toronto was first on my list simply because I wanted to be in a developed country where I could find reliable internet. I needed to ensure that I could indeed travel and day trade around the world.

I loved Canada but hated their coffee (Tim Hortons), EH.

Wandering Trader- Sunset At Christ Statue

Sunset At Christ Statue- Rio Brazil

Q9. Last year you traveled extensively through Eastern Africa, including Somaliland and S.Sudan. I have to admit Somalia is a place I would personally chose to stay far far away from, especially after hearing about all the piracy, kidnapping, and even murders of western sailing travelers passing by in recent years. Weren’t you afraid to visit? If not, why not?

I like to visit places that people rarely go because usually those are the sites that are the most interesting. I also like to see things and get to know cultures that people don’t otherwise know about. I have been to so many places that I have a bad reputation that I don’t pay attention to any reviews or comments. I visit those places first and then base my own opinion. This allows me to be in a unique situation to be one of the few people to visit those countries and also shatter misconceptions.

Even though I had to travel outside the capital of Somaliland (Somalia) with a body guard, it was more about making sure nothing happened rather than being in any actual danger. Somaliland is a very safe place, assuming you stay in the center to west part of the country territory. I found Somalilanders to be some of the nicest and most gracious people in the world.

Marcello para gliding in Rio- Brazil

Q10. Now that you’ve traveled through Eastern African, do you have a desire and/or plans to travel through the rest of Africa? If so, when and where? If not, why not?

I am not going to give this a yes, I am going to give this HELL YES. Once I arrived in Africa, I realized that there is an entire world that most people have never seen or heard of before. I refuse to travel to Europe because everyone does that! Not many people know that Madagascar is one of the most unique places in the world or that Rwanda is actually the Germany of Africa.

I like to divide my travels into regions and I split Africa into 4 regions; North, South, East, and West. My next African adventure will take me either to the north, Morocco & Tunisia, or to the South where I plan on living in Cape Town. I am dying to visit Senegal, Namibia, and Mozambique. I honestly don’t know when I will make it out there, but do plan on doing that in the future.

Ipanema Beach- Brazil

Q11. What are your travel plans for the rest of 2012?

Right now I am sitting in Chile on a brief trip through Peru, Argentina, and Chile. I am currently living in Brazil and plan on visiting the last major tourist attractions that I haven’t seen in South America, which include Easter Island, Ecuador & the Galapagos islands, and the northern parts of Brazil.

I plan on touring through Europe since a tourism board in Belgium invited me to visit the Ghant festival and I also have a day trading expo in London to attend. I plan on knocking out some of the major tourist sites in Europe and also visiting my Europe crush, Barcelona.

After Europe I was planning to move to India as I have an idea to build a day trading center there and that will begin my new adventure through Asia. I have already visited roughly 25% of the world and lived in 10 countries across 4 continents. Asia is my next project and why not start in one of the most fascinating places in the world, the subcontinent of India? I also like the central location of India where I can access any country in Africa and Asia.

Q12. Are there any places you’re still dying to visit? If so, where and why?

Right now there aren’t any countries that I am dying to visit. What I am most interested in are developing countries and their investment opportunities. Living in India will surely allow me to access a much larger portion of the world!

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Thanks, Marcello, for sharing your life story with us! Good luck with your trading business ventures in India and Asia. Hope to meet you on the road one day. cheers, Lash

Follow Marcello on his continued world adventures and day trading businesses:

Wandering Trader