From time to time I would see at various New York functions a starting National Football League lineman who played enough seasons to qualify for the NFL pension. He was and is a very gracious and intelligent man. The point of this anecdote is  that professional athletes often work at other jobs to prepare for life after their athletic careers are finished and he was no different.  So?………….. When his first season was over, he decided to enter the brokerage industry with a “big name” American brokerage house that of course gave people the impression that it (and its’ esteemed analysts) had all the answers. Yeah sure!  It was obvious that the brokerage firm believed that the player would have a perfect entree to other high salaried  players as large potential clients with cash to put in the markets. In the end, he said that it was a very unpleasant experience to say the least………. After following his the major firm’s brilliant investment recommendations, the results for his clients proved to be disastrous. “I was very embarrassed by what happened” he told me. So after the following football season he returned to the brokerage industry but instead joined a small brokerage house; this time he took a different approach. “I moved into the trading room with traders and market makers and for the first time I was regularly making money; I was able to see what the informed and smart money was doing.”……….  The fact is that he saw what the experienced […]