Trading Competitions with Rob Hoffman

Rob Hoffman has come a long way since paper charts on graph paper to competing in trade competitions. Rob is a 25-time domestic and international trading champion who’s won more real money onsite trading competitions than anyone else in the entire world. Rob talks Wealth365 which is an online conglomeration of some of the top wealth experts in the world coming together every three months. It’s a virtual summit over a period of four or five days with sessions going all day long that people can pick and have the opportunity to see what they’d like to see because as the experts cover stocks, futures options for cryptocurrencies, business entrepreneurship, starting a business, growing a business, selling a business, retirement planning, real estate, both commercial and residential, and all other aspects of wealth. Rob says nobody’s going to care about your money as much as you do, and so they’re helping people get the education they want regarding wealth in the areas that they want it when they want it.

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Trading Competitions with Rob Hoffman

With me as always is the inventor of the infomercial and the original hit TV show, Shark Tank, Kevin Harrington. Kevin, thanks so much for joining us.

Seth, a pleasure to be here. It’s always a great day and I know we’ve got a special guest. I’m excited.

We do. We are very fortunate to have Rob Hoffman from Wealth365.com. Rob is a 25-time domestic and international trading champion who’s got the title of winning more real money onsite trading competitions than anyone else in the entire world. It’s almost like I’m interviewing somebody who’s won 25 bracelets at the World Series of Poker. Rob, thanks so much for joining us.

It’s great to be here with you and Kevin.

Rob, how does one wake up one day and go, “I’m going to start trading and competing in it?” How did you get started?

The competing didn’t come until later in life. It started when I was a kid. I had a lot of interest in charts. I checked out books from the library. They’re in my library just off in front of me here. I was learning how to read the Wall Street Journal. I had different books like that, very elementary books. I look back now and say, “It’s a different world back then.” I started this interest at a very young age. It might be fifteen, sixteen years old, then it just built from there. It was in the last decade or so I started competing in those trading competitions to keep my skills sharp.

Obviously, we can see the nine-screen display behind you. You’ve come a long way since paper charts on graph paper. You started interest in investing young. At that age, did you have money to invest? There was no online brokerage back then. You had to place physical orders with physical brokers over a telephone. Talk a little about the evolution of how you actually got started trading and then how that turned into Wealth365.

Back then I was only looking at hand-drawn charts predicting. I looked at the Wall Street Journal Charts in the Investor’s Business Daily charts in the newspaper. Then I would predict where I thought the market was going to go in the days to come. Back then for me, everything was strictly by hand. There were no computers for me and there was no trading. I was too young. I didn’t have my own account. I was on my own at a young age. I did not go ahead and have your parental consent to have some account opened for me. Everything was self-done. It wasn’t until I got into my early twenties where I was able to trade for myself. At that point there were finally products that started to come out there, like what was called e-Schwab for instance and whatnot. Back then what you’d have to do is you’d have to dial in on a telephone keypad, enter the symbols that you want to hear and then you’d get a quote back through a telephone line. That was about as close to real time as I was getting back then in the early years. Then by my late twenties, I was using a great deal of computer technology.

Trading Competitions: Wealth365 is a conglomeration of some of the top wealth experts in the world coming together every three months.

You’ve obviously got a gift and obviously honed over many years to be a world champion trader. What is Wealth365 for our audience and why did you start it?

Wealth365 is a conglomeration of some of the top wealth experts in the world coming together every three months. We have an incredible event take place where we have some of the foremost experts in the world like Kevin here. People that know wealth. They don’t just talk about it but a lot of people actually are doing it in their day-to-day lives as we’re speaking. People like Kevin, several $100-million businesses under his belt, he knows wealth. What we’re doing is trying to bring these experts to the audience without having to have them travel because there’s so much inconvenience these days. As Kevin said he raced into an airport for a two-hour drive. Then he’s going to sit there and wait for customs and get pat downs and shakedowns at TSA, it can be rather burdensome. Then for us these physical show environments, then you’ve got to sit there. You’ve got to get to the hotel, book hotel. It’s very expensive between the airfare, the hotels. Then when you’re at these events you’ve got to move around from room to room, event to event, trying to find out where you’re going to go. There are a lot of challenges associated with the physical event. What we did was we tried to create an online wealth event where everybody can have access to people like Kevin, no matter where you are, you’re not confined by geography and expensive travel.

I started reading Wall Street Journal when I was about fifteen years old also. My father encouraged me. He called it curiosity overload and surrounding yourself with lots of information and trade journals and going to trade shows. I traveled with my dad. He was a great mentor for me and it was also around the same time I was reading Think and Grow Rich and getting all fired up mentally and everything. I love what you’re doing because in Wealth365 you can tune in whatever is working for you and your schedule from the convenience of your phone or your computer and get some of the most unbelievable information that the market has out there. It’s a modern-day way to provide information and it’s a great concept. You do this every 90 days, did you say?

That’s exactly right. We spend six months to prepare for the next event. That’s only three months away, so we’re already preparing for the event, but of course we’re excited about our event with you.

It’s a Virtual Online Summit, almost like a virtual seminar over a period of four or five days with sessions going all day long that people can pick and choose what they attend. Is that right? 

It’s Monday through Saturday. There are a few different tracks because we have so many great speakers speaking for us that we sometimes have up to two rooms going at any given time so that people have the opportunity to see what they’d like to see because we cover stocks, futures, options, Forex, cryptocurrencies, and all things business entrepreneurship. We’re talking about starting a business, growing a business, selling a business, retirement planning, real estate, both commercial and residential, cover all aspects of wealth. People could pick the tracks that they’d like to be part of.

What about artificial intelligence, the AI space? Is that something you’re seeing in the trading space, Rob? 

Absolutely, Kevin. In fact, we’ve got a couple of great presenters that are going to be speaking about artificial intelligence in their investing and wealth generation. We actually have a couple of great speakers that are going to be doing that at our next event so we’re very excited to present about artificial intelligence at the event.

I know we’re involved, you and I in this amazing conference coming up. You want to share a little more about that? We touched on it here, but maybe for those that don’t know exactly what’s happening there, it’s going to be six days, right?

What people can actually do is they can go to Wealth365.com/Shark and they can actually go to a page that will be greeted by you and a great video that you actually shot to say hello to everybody. They can go to that page, get themselves registered for the event and then there’s a lot of great information because we want to provide great quality information right from the get-go. As soon as they get registered, they can even tell us what preferences of things that they’re interested in because we have a full financial channel as well.

[Tweet “Politics obviously affects our wealth and our investment decisions these days.”]

If people go to News.Wealth365 directly, they’ll see our financial news channels. We have a lot of great content on all things wealth and so what can happen is if they started out by going to Wealth365.com/Shark, then they could get registered for the summit. It’s absolutely free to register and then there’ll be able to get access to you, the free gift that you’re going ahead and giving everybody that’s attending and it’s all completely online so there was no travel. Then they can actually see a complete schedule of all the different types of speakers and the different topics they’ll be covering there as well. It’s quite extensive. If it’s wealth-related, it’s probably on our show.

What should it cost for somebody to get access to all of this?

To attend, it’s absolutely free online. People do have the opportunity if they’d like to actually get recordings from the event to go ahead and have those as keepsakes on the backend from this. We actually have a VIP club where people like yourself and the other notable wealth experts come and present to the people in this VIP club and they can ask you to ask us for the recordings, but for the purpose of coming to the summit, or joining us online for the summit, it’s completely free so they can go to Wealth365.com/Shark, get signed up right now and won’t cost them a penny.

I know it’s grown dramatically since you started it. Approximately how many people do you get attending one of these summits?

In January, we had 24,000 registrants, in April, we had 32,000 registrants and we’re expecting this time around probably between 50,000 and 75,000 registrants because we have a whole lot of several new partners as this keeps growing and growing and getting bigger and bigger. We have great partners and friends like Kevin being on the show and then wonderful avenues to get the word out like with a Sharkpreneur. That’s going to dramatically increase the registration. It’s going to be a big event.

What I love about it, I go to a lot of the trade shows that require travel and showing up and all of that. I’ve been going to Chicago Houseware Show. I’ve done 31 out of 32 years. That show gets 50,000 to 60,000 people from all over the world and that’s been going on for years and years. 30 some years for me and here you are with within a matter of a couple of years, you’ve built an amazing business where you’re going to matching those same numbers and this because it’s the modern convenience of being able to just tune in. What a great offer, no charge, and up to six days’ worth of amazing content, amazing speakers. The business model here is exceptional. It’s why I wanted to jump in and get involved and see if we could put some amazing things together here. I appreciate all that you’ve done in pulling this together. Where does this go two years from now? Where do you see your business?

Wealth365, the news site is growing exponentially. More and more people are coming to us for their daily financial news, active traders, investors, and people seeking wealth information in one single source. The news site is growing in popularity so that’s a piece that will be a heavy focus going forward. The summit as a whole, we continue to get more and more partners on the show. Likely what will happen is we’ll ultimately diversify instead of having 70 or 80 speakers over six days a week, we might have had to do in, is having three or four tracks and have that entire track split just so that we may have three or four or five days strictly on a business entrepreneurship, three or four or five days strictly on active traders versus long-term investors. The tracks will expand to be very focused.

What we do is we have all these wonderful categories and we sprinkle them in throughout the week. We’ll have multiple retirement tracks then we have institutional traders and investors. Some of the biggest names on the financial channels net, they come on the events already. What we’ll do is we’ll have a whole track just dedicated to a series of institutional investors for a whole day on a whole channel. People that that’s their passion and their interest, they can just sit there on that one particular track all day and just get the most intensive information on that one category that they’d like. We expect that the shows it’s going to get bigger. We already have wonderful names like yourself, Kevin. What I expect is we’re just going to have a more targeted, segmented information and we’re already starting that process.

Trading Competitions: Retirement planning is a big issue for a lot of people because there are several people that are struggling in the current environment just to make ends meet.

When people go to that website that I gave earlier, as soon as they get registered, they’ll be given the opportunity to select, “Are you Democrat? Are you Republican? Would you like to receive that news? Are you Libertarian? Are you an independent?” We will send them the news that’s important to them because those things, politics, obviously it affects our wealth and our investment decisions these days. As you know, the congress and we all look at taxes and those implications of taxes on our wealth and everything else. These are all impactful. We’re going to find out what you’re interested in. We’re going to send you that information. That’s going to ultimately transcend to the summits as we go forward. We continue to strive to get the best people possible to provide the most accurate wealth information that we can find and just build upon that and just make it better and more convenient for people as we go forward.

What are you finding some of the people’s biggest challenges when it comes to growing and protecting their wealth? What are some of the questions you get all the time?

Retirement planning is a big issue for a lot of people because there are several people that are struggling in the current environment just to make ends meet. They’re debt-laden or they want more out of life than they’re getting in their current positions. They’re trying to figure out, “How can I go ahead and expand my current wealth to make sure I have a nest egg for the future so that you don’t have to necessarily be a greeter at Walmart at 80 years old to try to make ends meet?” No disrespect. I always have a soft spot for those people and I go out of my way to greet them back because I understand that the challenge, the reason they’re there in many cases is to make ends meet because of the retirement planning situation.

A lot of people back here in 2008, 2007 time-frame watched their 401(k)’s become to 201 and 101k’s as they were eradicated with the global sell down in the markets. The problem is sure the markets are up at $25,000 now, but many people lost so much money, they pulled their money out and put it to cash and they didn’t participate in a lot of the movements in the last several years. They’re behind the curve after take enough financial hits back several years ago now, and so they’re trying to make up on that. Then just understanding what to do. There are more and more people that are in the same book. I want to take control of my wealth. I’m tired of just trusting a third party that they’re going to have my best interest in heart because let’s be honest, nobody’s going to care about your money as much as you do. That’s just a fact. Nobody’s going to care as much. What we’re trying to do is help people get the education that they want regarding wealth in the areas that they want it when they want it.

You’ve built an incredible business and you’re delivering an immense amount of value to your subscribers who can attend for free, which is absolutely amazing. I’m sure the news channel is probably going to become one of if not the top financial news sites in the world. We greatly appreciate all you’re doing and obviously having Kevin on the show and having Kevin on is one of your speakers is an incredible opportunity for your folks to learn from somebody like him. Anything else you want to share? We’ll send everyone to Wealth365.com/Shark. Anything else you want to share?

I’m looking forward to going and have everybody there. We’re looking forward to seeing all the great information that Kevin is going to provide on the secrets of wealth and that great free giveaway that he’s going to be given to everybody. If anybody needs anything, they’re welcome to email us at Support@Wealth365.com in advance of the show. We can help them anyway, but we’ll see them on the show for sure. It’s going to be a great one.

[Tweet “Nobody’s going to care about your money as much as you do.”]

I can vouch for that. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been working on all great ideas and just taking a look at all the years of my life and building businesses and some of the things I’ve done. I’m looking forward to sharing some of the inside secrets. This is something new for me because I’ve been the infomercial guy, the entrepreneur guy, the As Seen on TV, but this is a new and exciting territory for me to be branching into the wealth sharing side of the business. Thanks for having me. Anyone out there that wants to get a little edge and by the way, with no charge for folks to be able to come in, get a nice little education.

Rob, I just want to just say that I’m excited about my involvement in Wealth365 because it’s a chance for me to share some of the things that I generally don’t talk about. I’m an entrepreneur, I’m an As Seen on TV guy, the infomercial guy. I’ve always loved to talk about that side of me, but over the years, I’ve had quite a few good wealth strategies and a few of didn’t work also. I’ll be sharing the ups and down. What’s exciting for me is to be part of this and knowing that people get a chance at no charge to come into this six full days. They can pick and choose from what they’d like to spend their time on. I think it’s an amazing concept and this is why you build a business that’s getting 50,000, 60,000, 70,000 people coming to your event. We’ll see everybody there and I’m looking forward to a big success. Thank you.

Rob, thanks so much for joining us. We will send everybody to Wealth365.com/Shark. Thanks everybody for a great episode.

Links mentioned:

• Kevin Harrington
• Wealth365.com
• Think and Grow Rich
• Wealth365.com/Shark
• News.Wealth365
• Chicago Houseware Show
• Support@Wealth365.com
• As Seen on TV

About Rob Hoffman

Rob Hoffman is the founder and CEO of Become A Better Trader, Inc. As an Award-Winning trader, frequent speaker for the major financial exchanges, and seven-time International Trading Champion, Rob believes he is one of the few traders in the business with the experience and credentials to help you develop into the trader you want to be.

Rob uses adult learning theory in his teaching to drive home key points so his students can understand how to identify trade setups, overcome fear of pulling the trigger, make the trade, and follow the trade through to completion with the skills and coolness of a true Award-Winning trader.