Jeffrey McLarty

I was born in ‘84, currently live in Waterloo, Ontario, and like the header of my blog suggests, I’m an entrepreneur, an investor, and engineer. I’ve been investing since I was 12. Sooner or later, I’m going to get a money management fund of some kind off the ground.  Likely a private thing will come to fruition.  I love being an active investor. I currently manage my own portfolio, and help several others, harvesting profits however I feel like. I use derivatives in combination with equities most of the time.  My one downfall, is I like being all in.  Gift and a curse. I blog about investing at http://blog.bluemoat.com. I graduated from Mechatronics Engineering, from the University of Waterloo, a great 5 year program. I have been fortunate enough to have had some amazing engineering contracts, at some great companies including Research In Motion, Ontario Power Generation, Anchor Danley, and Christie Digital. I’m currently transitioning to my next, hopefully last, regular job, Deloitte.

Rules to being Jeff:

1. “Success is a vector, only a question of magnitude and direction”
2. “Never Stop Moving”
3. “Goals are optional, checkpoints are mandatory. Set checkpoints”
4. “These are the best timez of our lives”
5. “Always consider the present value of every decision”

Things I can proudly say I’ve done:

1. Sold ice cream at a huge mark-up, via Jet-Skii
2. Taken 8 plane rides in 14 days to cover 2 latin american opportunities
3. Sold an algorithm I wrote for fun
4. Earned every penny I’m worth
5. Owned my first house at 19
6. Worked inside a Nuclear Power Plant
7. Worked in the brainstorming department at the blackberry maker, RIM.
8. Published on Yahoo! Finance & Marketwatch.com via Seeking Alpha.
9. Kept an average above ~70 at the University of Waterloo (Graduate in Apr 2008)
10. Survived Essex.
11. Shingled a roof, tiled a floor & drywalled over electrical work I did myself
12. Drove a Bobcat
13. Sold steel, springs, and bushings, over the phone.
14. Learned French then forgot French. Same for piano.

People I look up to (Even if they are shorter than me) In no particular order:

1. Peter Thiel
2. William Gates
3. Howard Lindzon
4. Thiago Avila
5. Fyke & Griffin
6. Doug & Gisele McLarty
7. Dennis Blain
8. Warren Buffett
9. Joe Dowling
10. Teeple & Overing
11. Dan Conway & Jeff Gendell
12. Eric Sprott
13. T. Rowe Price
14. Ray Kroc
15. Thomas Edison
16. Bernard Arnault
17. Steve Jobs, or maybe I should say Jeff Han
18. Fred Wilson
19. Larry Smith

Before I kick the Bucket, I’d like to attend:

1. TED - Cost: $6000/yr + Get an Invite + Make an Impact
2. Woodstock for Capitalists - Cost: Out Invest Warren Buffet so that I can justify buying an A class share (and still run a well balanced portfolio with my own ideas).
3. LindzonPalooza - Cost: Plane ticket to Pheonix + Embarrasing Myself at Golf + Launch several great entrepreneurial endeavors, and get noticed.
4. the North American International Auto Show
5. CUTC
6. MacWorld
7. BIL - Cost: something like $15, and plane ticket?
8. World Economic Forum- Cost: Hahah…riiiight.
9. SXSW - cost: ~A few hundred, plus a week off.
10. Pop!Tech - cost: ~$3.5K, and get there before everyone else does

• I’m sure this list will grow, now that I’ve started it

Current projects/plans include:

• An Algorithmic & Actively Managed, Market Making, Buy-Write using Interactive Brokers API.
• StoxBox - A blog widget, but it’s going to secretly turn blog readers into market data. My hypothesis is, it should 1) help share and speed up the flow of information to all stakeholders 2) create anti-causal data for the blog owner 3) help investors leverage their network. On top of it all, it’s sortof sexy.
• blog.BlueMoat.com
• My portfolio - top priority
• 4 *.com ideas nowhere near production or ready to scale. Pipe dreams. Everyone a 6 week project, anyone could make me my first million.
• Learning guitar, for the third time…working out…being a bachelor…learning golf…blah blah blah

Recipe For This Blog

Ingredients:

5 cups of random information (best if worth sharing)

2 cups of stocks

3 lbs of thought

a dash of sarcasm or ground up irony

an oz of hope

a teaspoon of inspiration

a ton of leadership

a bunch of present value

a bit of networking

Note: 3 lbs of thought can be substituted for 2 1/2 lbs of insight.

Stir ingredients in a large internet sized bowl with a 23 year old spoon. Drop dabs of batter chronologically as seen necessary. Spell Check in Word press for less than 30 seconds. Publish & Ping Technorati immediately. Open in browser and share with friends. Wait 10 - 15 minutes before commenting. Best served fresh, can be canned and enjoyed later.

Books I Could Write

…one day…hahah…I have fun with this list, I don’t know why.

1. While you’re at it, Capitalize
2. Option Trading for Analytical Thinkers
3. Go Long a Person: Watch what happens
4. Present Value: Don’t Do Anything Without It!
5. Learning to Lead
6. Growing up McLarty: I wasn’t normal, but who was?
7. Jumping on the Bandwagon too Fast.
8. Go Long the Flow [of information]