Born in Beijing, raised in London and currently studying in St. Louis, Amy Wang has an international outlook on life. This lends itself to her profitable and unique pastime-trading foreign currencies.
Wang, a sophomore and resident adviser in Marchetti East, is a native of China, but she moved to the United Kingdom at age 9. She completed her secondary education in Wimbledon, outside London, where she developed her distinctive British accent.
Longing not to conform to her peers, she chose to attend college away from England by enrolling at Saint Louis University.
“I come from what you would call a privileged family and went to the best schools in the country,” Wang said. “Half of my friends went to Christ Church at Oxford. I wanted to be different because my whole life I’ve been with the same group of people.”
Some of Wang’s hobbies include collecting fountain pens, cigars and cufflinks; her real passion, however, is trading foreign currencies.
“[Trading] is not my hobby,” she said. “This is my way of life. Hobbies are my side dishes; this is the main course.”
In fact, she does not consider her pastime trading at all, but rather a form of gambling.
“It’s a way of living,” Wang said. “That’s what you fall in love with-it’s gambling.”
Wang’s father first introduced her to trading foreign currencies, which was part of the family business.
“My dad is a trader,” she said. “He works like 100 hours a week. I worked at his offices for two summers and saw people getting very excited in their jobs.”
Wang’s says that she favors the Japanese yen and the British pound sterling. She says that her favorite is the yen because “it surprises you.”
“The yen does not follow any patterns or charts,” Wang said. “It’s very unpredictable.”
According to Wang, this unpredictability is part of the thrill associated with the currency market.
“You have to make a decision in a millionth of a second,” Wang said. “It’s all about achievement.”
Playing the markets can be risky. Wang knows that there are chances for great success or drastic losses.
She said that her personality is well suited to trading foreign currencies because, unlike most people, she is very capable of handling failures.
“I’ve had my ups and downs,” she said. “It’s broken my heart, and I’ve seen the peak. . [But] I won’t regret it.”
Asked if the current financial crisis in the United States is affecting her holdings, Wang said that it has “certainly made my trading more exciting. I’ve been staying up and watching.”
For anyone interested in following Wang into the foreign currency market, she suggests otherwise. “I don’t suggest anyone do it. Why would you gamble as a college kid?”
For those who do decide to take up the challenge, she does offer one piece of advice from her own experience: “What I tell most people like myself is that I trade like I’ve never lost a gamble.”
