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About Us

My name is Eddie Z and I am a full-time day trader and total computer geek. I think it’s important for you to know a little about my history and experiences in the markets and with computer technology, so that you can understand my passion and motivation for creating this site. As you may already know, the link between advances in technology and Wall Street is pretty amazing. In fact, many innovations over the last 175 years were created for the necessity of knowing price information and processing transactions. Wall Street is credited as the major driving force in the development of the telegraph, telephone and the computer.

Passion for Computers Started at a Young Age

My interest in computers began in 1980 at age 11 when a friend of mine got an Apple II. Back then the name brand computers were Commodore, TRS-80 (by Tandy aka Radio Shack) and Apple. Shortly after that, I got my first computer; the Commodore VIC-20. I was so disappointed with its capability that I took it apart to see what was wrong with it. My goal was to figure out how to make my computer more powerful. What I learned was that my computer was significantly underpowered compared to my friend’s and it had only 5 kb (kilobytes) of memory. Today, our coffee makers have more memory! This was my first exploration inside a computer and the beginning of a lifelong hobby and passion (and even obsession!). As you will read in the paragraphs that follow, my Wall Street career began in 1987. Ever since then, I have been building my own trading computer systems in an effort to stay ahead of the crowd. In the mid 1990’s, I was the first stockbroker at my firm to connect more than 1 monitor to his machine. My colleagues were more than jealous!

A Commitment to Educating Traders About Computers

Over the last 20 years or so I have built and tested 100’s of trading computer configurations in an effort to determine which components work the best together and which will give the stability and reliability we need as a full time traders. I have kept trading colleagues and peers in the latest and greatest during this time while not even considering the business possibilities. I built EZ Trading Computers in 2010 after a friend pointed me to a Google search of “Trading Computers”. I nearly fell off my chair after seeing what some computer builders were charging for trading technology. What started off as lifelong hobby and passion for computers has now turned into a mission! My mission is this:

Educate fellow traders on trading technology and offer them the highest quality computers, at the lowest prices possible with the best customer service.

As a trader, it makes me queasy knowing that there are technology suppliers taking advantage of trader’s lack of computer knowledge. Part of my mission is to represent us traders in the world of trading technology so that we don’t get ripped off. If you haven’t already, please get my FREE guide “How To Buy A Trading Computer.”

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Who is Eddie Z?

I built EZ Trading Computers and EZBreakouts as a way to share my passion for trading. Trading is an endless game of balancing a sound trading methodology with inner emotions. Discipline versus Greed & Fear if you will. You need to have both a system, that if followed makes money, and the understanding of how your mind works. Over my 34 years of Wall Street experience I have accumulated and developed a winning set of strategies to play both sides of this game. Please feel free to grab a free copy of trading playbook  “The Ultimate Guide to Trading Stocks”. In fact, I draw up the “plays” every day for the members of EZBreakouts.

Introduction to Trading at a Young Age

My realization that trading was something VERY exciting started in the mid-1970’s. I was seven years old and my father would take me to work with him. My dad was a commodity futures trader on the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). I was mesmerized by all the people huddled in a circle screaming and shouting and getting very carried away.  There was an immense energy in this place that I could already feel, even at a young age. As I got older, my dad taught me how to draw point and figure charts using a pencil and graph paper. He even explained some of the chart formations and how he could use these formations to predict what would happen next. That is how he made a living. It was so different from what my friends’ dads were doing and I thought it was so cool. I became completely fascinated with charts and graphs. I didn’t realize until deep into my own career that my dad was one of the purest “day traders” and “swing traders” of his time. Day trader and swing trader are terms that have only been coined in the last 20 years with the introduction of online electronic trading. My dad drew charts by hand and stood in the pit and traded for his own account. Talk about old-school original!

Wall Street Experience

My first full-time job on Wall Street started in 1987 on the floor of the NYMEX; the Monday after I graduated high school. One of my main responsibilities was keeping charts up to date for the brokers I worked for. Within a few years, charts were generated by computerized charting services and the art of hand charting was lost forever. I spent every summer, Christmas break and spring break, all the way through graduate school, working on the floor of the NYMEX. The best memory I have from those times was working for a guy in the crude oil pit. The date was January 15th, 1991 and Tariq Aziz, one of Saddam Hussein’s right-hand men, came out of a meeting with US diplomats at the United Nations. The deadline had expired for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait. When no deal was announced, I watched as crude oil went from about $27.00 a barrel to over $40.00 a barrel within 2 minutes (this type of move was unheard of at the time!). The trading pit went absolutely berserk! The guy I was working for made over $100,000 that day! A number I will never forget.

Hard Won Lessons as a Stock Broker

Upon graduating college, the plan was to become a floor trader on the NYMEX. However, a friend who graduated collage a year ahead of me, got in my ear and recruited me to become a stockbroker . In the 1990s, it was fairly easy to pick stocks. You really didn’t have to know too much about charts (or any fundamentals for that matter). Usually, if you held a stock long enough it worked! Especially anything related to technology. Additionally, I was fortunate enough to participate in the very early stages of the dotcom boom. Finding new clients was pretty easy back then. People become “accustomed” to the bull market that began in 1982 and really wanted brokers’ ideas. The 1990s was truly an amazing time for stocks. It was not uncommon to see stocks double and triple over a very short period of time. I was simply in the right place at the right time. When the bubble burst in March of 2000, I was actually on my honeymoon in Hawaii. I had gotten all of my clients out of the market just before I left, so that I wouldn’t have to worry about their accounts while I was gone. The preceding 6 month period from October 1999 to March of 2000 was like nothing I had ever seen before. Stocks exploded! I was buying stocks for clients at 9:45 AM and selling them 10% to 25% higher by 3:00 PM. I was doing more commission in a day than I did in a month just 5 years earlier! I was getting referrals left and right. The phone rang off the hook. Believe it or not, people were taking cash advances on credit cards to buy stocks. It seemed too good to be true….and it was!! I was no genius for getting my people out. I just didn’t want to think about it while I was away. Sadly, when I came back, I thought the correction was over and got my people right back into the market. Yikes! Over the next 9 months to a year I battled the stock market to no avail. I lost clients’ money. In some cases, clients were down as much as 80%!!! I knew I had to do something, so I went to the library (yes we still went to the library in those days!) and started reading every book on the stock market I could get my hands on. Even though I have an MBA, my knowledge at the time had no basis in market cycles.

A Trading System Changed Everything

I studied dozens of books, but the one book that stuck out the most was “How to Make Money in Stocks” by William O’Neil. No one could explain the gyrations of the markets better than O’Neil. His book was based on facts and research, and most importantly, the main focus of his system is charts! Duh! Charts!!!! As soon as I began reading this book I knew EXACTLY what I needed do. I managed to get all of my clients out of the market and save my business. Additionally, my passion for charts was reinvigorated. Over the next two years, I watched as the brokers around me dropped like flies. Ninety-five percent of the guys I knew at the time are out of the business today. As I read the book “How to Make Money In Stocks”, I realized that this simple-to-read book would become my bible; the ultimate playbook! All I needed to do was be patient, study and follow the system as O’Neil laid it out. When the new bull market began in March 2003, I began to slowly tip-toe back into stocks to test out O’Neil’s system. After a few months, I realized that the system worked and my clients began making money again.

Refining and Mastery Evolves Into EZBreakouts

As time went on, I began to apply the system to my personal account with great success. At some point in the learning curve, I realized I could make a lot more money trading for myself than worrying about other peoples’ money. At last, no more hand holding! The more I practiced the system, the more I began to develop my own set of rules that added further precision in terms of points and sell points. Using this more exact approach, I could enter at my precise buy point and sell the stock in the same day or next day after it has made its initial move. This methodology has become quite profitable for me over time. I have spent years refining and mastering this approach. Essentially, what I have done is taken the basics out of the O’Neil system and added further exactness in terms of buy points and sell points. Over time, I’ve established my own rules; adapting the method to a shorter time period. My experience has shown much higher rates of return and much shorter time in positions. In fact, I rarely keep a stock overnight and I no longer worry about what happens around the world after the market closes. I sleep much better! The purpose of EZBreakouts is to share with you my hard earned knowledge, experience and passion on a daily basis. Please feel free to visit the site. I sincerely wish you success in all of your trading endeavors. “Eddie Z” (Eddie Z is how I am known in the Trading Computer world. My real name is Russ Hazelcorn.)

 

Professional Career Timeline

  • 1987-1994: Worked on Floor of New York Mercantile Exchange every summer, Christmas, Spring Breaks as floor clerk while attending college. Graduated from Penn State with degree in Accounting followed by an MBA from Lehigh University.
  • 1994-2003: Worked as a stock broker for several NYSE member firms. Won “Top Gun” Broker award in the Fort Lauderdale office of Janney Montgomery Scott LLC for the year 2000.
  • 2003-2010: Opened an independent trading office, with a partner, specifically utilizing EZBreakouts trading strategy. Transitioned away from trading others money to trading my own capital.
  • 2010-Present: Launched EZ Trading Computers after seeing a Google search of “Trading Computers” in effort to bring value to traders of all markets. Launched EZBreakouts to share trading knowledge and experience.