Blain Reinkensmeyer, a co-founder of investor.com and Partner at parent company Reink Media Group, believes strongly in investor.com’s mission to bring unbiased, in-depth personal finance education and guidance to all consumers. Witnessing the devastating effects of untrustworthy financial advice upon family made him particularly passionate about helping Americans find trustworthy guidance.
Blain is a leading expert on the online brokerage industry and has more than 20 years of experience trading everything from stocks and options to forex and cryptocurrency. As a founder of sister site StockBrokers.com, Blain created an original scoring rubric that has powered its highly regarded annual review of the best brokers in the U.S. since 2011.
Blain has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and Fast Company, among other media outlets. At the young age of 22, Blain was honored as part of Crain's Detroit Business' “Top 20 in their 20s.”
As a writer, Blain is the author of The Interactive Guide to Technical Analysis. He has also authored numerous stock trading educational articles, formerly housed on StockTrader.com and now part of investor.com, which have been read over 20 million times over the past decade.
Blain lives in Troy, Michigan, with his wife and kids. He is a technology enthusiast who loves reading, barbecuing during summer, and spending time with his family.
Meet Blain Reinkensmeyer of Reink Media Group.
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Blain's story: Big earnings, bigger learnings
I've always had a love for building businesses. I started my first company with my brother Brandon, B&B Master Lawn Care, when I was 10 years old. By the time I turned 18 we had a monopoly over our neighborhood. The summer before I left for college, we sold the company.
During my freshman year in college I quickly realized that my love for investing and the desire to start another business was more important to me than learning in a classroom. By the end of that first year I was only attending half my classes, paying a very smart fellow student to write my papers, and was trading in my dorm room all day with three monitors spread across my desk. Since I had a nice pile of capital saved up from the sale of my business and from my trading profits, I decided to leave school and pursue my passion full-time.
That fall of 2005, I spent my newfound abundance of time trading, writing on investment forums, and experimenting with a hip new thing called blogging. In the spring of 2006, the blog "Stock Trading 101" was born. In 2007 I bought the domain stocktradingtogo.com, installed WordPress, and changed my brand to what was (for a time) StockTradingToGo. Over time that venue grew and became StockTrader.com, and is now part of investor.com
How I got started trading and then lost $72,000
At the ripe age of 15, I had 5,000-ish dollars saved up from mowing lawns and invested it, with my dad's help, in mutual funds. Unfortunately for me the 2001-2002 crash was in full force, and although I was not aware of it, I was losing some of my savings each day. These compounding losses ended up leading to a key confrontation with my dad that would spark my love for investing in the stock market.
In mid-2002 my dad called me into his office to "have a talk." (This was never a good thing.) He sat me down in the chair across from him and delivered the news that my mutual funds — which contained all my hard-earned money from lawn mowing — had lost over $3,000. Over 60% of my savings! After processing the blow I simply asked, "Can I have it back?" The answer, of course, was a quick no. I followed up and asked, "Can you give it to me back?" This too was a no. My dad was, and still is, all about lessons. I didn't understand it as a kid, but now, as an adult, I get his philosophy. I left his office that day with the biggest fire under me to learn about investing and take control of my own financial future.
I spent the rest of 2002 learning about greats like William O'Neil and Warren Buffett and sifting through thousands upon thousands of stock charts via my dad's subscription to dailygraphs.com. With the market doing so badly I discovered a liking for penny stocks, particularly biotech companies undergoing FDA approval for drugs. I ended up finishing 2002 with over 80% in returns.
For the next two years I went on a mind-boggling win streak. Between my original savings, money from mowing lawns and eventually selling the company, I kept doubling my portfolio until it reached a value of over $90,000. I was barely 18 and thought I had it made. But I soon found out I still had a lot to learn.
My trading strategy revolved around simply putting the majority of my portfolio in one biotech stock that was pending phase 3 FDA approval. When the drugs were approved, the stock would double or more. I would then rinse and repeat. Unfortunately the day came that the company I was so heavily invested in did not gain FDA approval. The stock plummeted and I couldn't sell. The "it'll come back" mindset tore me apart. By the time I finally got out the stock was trading for a measly 30-ish cents. The losses amounted to $72,000.
After this blow I simply couldn't recover psychologically. I stopped trading biotechs and spent my time studying other strategies. It took me years to really get past the losses and get back into the game. Everything happens for a reason, though — which leads me to today.
My investment philosophy today
My day job is running our portfolio of websites, which includes investor.com as well as StockBrokers.com and ForexBrokers.com. Because of this, I trade only when I have free time.
More to the point, trading is strictly a passion and hobby. I do not trade for a living. 100% of my retirement savings and over 90% of my personal portfolio is simply invested in the S&P 500 Vanguard index fund (VOO). I buy each month and forget about it. See: How to Invest.
Cutting back on trade frequency was no easy task for me. For years I struggled with overtrading, which not only leads to expensive mistakes but hefty commission charges as well. See best trading journals for a great starting point for avoiding blunders.
Other thoughts
I truly believe that there are no limits in life. On my desk is a sign with a simple question: "How bad do you want it?" The power of passion, writing down one's goals, and putting in the hard work, all happening in sync, is truly amazing. The world makes way for those who know where they are going.
