I’m a numbers guy, so naturally I’ve always had an interest in finance. At the University of Wisconsin–Madison, it came down to either majoring in finance or engineering and I ultimately chose to study finance. Either way, I would have ended up being the diehard Wisconsin Badgers fan that I am.

I worked in finance right out of the gate. After college, I worked in fixed income at CIBC Oppenheimer and then as an OTC market maker at Spear, Leeds & Kellogg, which was acquired by Goldman Sachs.

From Pali Capital to The Benchmark Company, and now William O’Neil Securities, my main goal has always been to anticipate my clients’ needs to provide the very best service and ideas. Some of my client relationships are nearly two decades long.

I’ve always been fascinated by stock movements and charts, so O’Neil’s differentiated approach, that I first learned about from reading IBD in college, is appealing because of its focus on the quantitative and technical aspects of stock movements. With the institutional equity sales landscape evolving, you need a differentiated service and a proven methodology, like O’Neil’s, to help your clients get a leg up.

My first boss used to say, “Wall Street is a series of up and down cycles. The main goal is to protect your capital. Weather the downtrends and capitalize on the uptrends.”  This has stuck with me throughout the years.

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre is one of my favorite books. It’s a great read about discipline, rules, and hard work, which are important in our industry—no matter your investing methodology.

I learned the value of hard work from a young age. My parents emigrated from Greece to New York. They became successful small business owners who worked tirelessly seven days a week, without any vacation time throughout my childhood. Their efforts instilled in me a strong work ethic that I hope is now a model for my three young boys.

I love watching, playing, and coaching sports. There is nothing I enjoy more than coaching my sons’ teams and watching them develop a love of many different sports like I did.  Of course, yearly trips back to Wisconsin for a football game are a must.