2 posts tagged “new york”

I went to see a client in NYC lately. He was a potential institution client for the hedge fund I recently started. After the meeting I got together with an old friend, whom I’ll refer to as “Harry”, for dinner.

Harry is a “Sales Trader”, someone who executes order for institutional customers like hedge funds and mutual funds. He was very successful in the business, and used to cover me, and I was one of the accounts he had in “Ron Pollack Bulldog Days”. Though we did continue to keep in contact with each other, he and I retired from trading around the same period of time back in 2004.

Both Harry and I had varying, though generally little, success with business ventures after our time on Wall Street. After this, Harry began to miss the game and questioned me about returning to trading. I missed it as well. When I told him in early 2008 that I was going to return to managing money, he was thrilled and couldn’t wait to get back into it as well.

The start of my new funding was postponed due to the mess of a market in the second half of the year. its surprise for me that  a always happy  and hard working man,harry ,handle million share orders in volatile stocks  looked like a depress person. Firms were closing down everywhere, and he was relying on my account for his own return but that was not there.  

Shortlyl after I saw Harry, I met "Doug", a gentleman that runs a small firm catering to hedge funds. I immediately thought of Harry and I put the two of them together. It worked out since Doug offered Harry a trial run, and of course Harry aced it. After placing a few phone calls to some old accounts, he nabbed a big order and things only went up from there.

Harry has become one of the top producers for Doug and he has only been on the job for four months.  It wasn't surprising that Harry was beaming when we met him for dinner. He’s making money, good money and having a blast. I was really happy. Then Harry announced that dinner would be his treat, in fact he said, “Ron Pollack I am going to treat you every time you come to NYC!I was already happy because we were eating at one of the great steakhouses in the City.

,“Every day we’ve been hearing stories of doom and gloom like the end of Wall Street, the end of hedge funds, the end of the world as we know it,toward the end of the evening, I asked Harry this question. Obviously things are messed up but I’d like your perspective on all of that changed in light of your recent success.Ron, there are a lot of people hurting right now and I truly feel for them, but I am living proof that if you’re good at what you do, have the willingness to work hard and apply yourself and are realistic in your expectations, you can make it and even flourish in times like these,His answer was refreshing and went something like this, he said. Although I'm not making as much as I used to, I cannot say I have anything to complain about.   we’re survivors and there’s business to be done.
 There will always be business to be done for those who find a way to be productive.here’s to you my friend!
 Continue to show us how to achieve it. Ron Pollack, signing off for now.

Ron Pollack was moved by the events of 9/11 and wanted to help. Prior to retiring from the hedge fund business, he became actively involved with the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project, whose purpose is to help the heroes of 9/11. During the rescue and recovery operations, tens of thousands of rescue workers received unprecedented exposures to toxic dust, smoke, gas and fumes; many have developed serious health effects as a result of these exposures. 

At the request of union officials and rescue workers, the detoxification project was established to help these men and women recover their health. All project services are provided on a humanitarian basis, at no cost. Ron took on the role of Chairman of the Fundraising Committee in 2002 and worked tirelessly to ensure that the project had the funds it needed to help those who came to it. As Carol Hamaker, Executive Director of the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project states, “Ron really stood up and took a leadership role to get our living heroes some help”. 

Ron himself sponsored many rescue workers for the detoxification program over the years. In a letter to Ron, the daughter of one of the many rescue workers that Ron sponsored wrote “My Dad had not been feeling well for months and his symptoms were only worsening despite his more frequent visits to doctors and increases in medication. He was not himself and it was disheartening to watch.  He lost eleven of his friends and colleagues of his firehouse on 9/11not to mention other firefighters he knew from other houses. He looked and acted old. He was pale and his mood and energy was overall down.  During his first days on his program we saw his mood brighten up. He seemed hopeful and excited. Each day my Dad improved. All of our spirits lifted and we were happy to see him getting back to his old self.  On the morning he completed his program he knew he felt “normal” again.  These were the best words he could have ever said.  Through Ron’s kindness and generosity he is giving so many people the best gift they could ever imagine; recovery, health and the best of all, hope! My Dad has been given back to us and we are all so grateful to him.”

Ron considers his participation in this project to be one of his greatest achievements. With his help, the project has been able to restore quality of life to nearly 1000 rescue workers. These recoveries have brought relief and hope to thousands more of their husbands, wives, children and colleagues. Today, the philanthropic effort that Ron brought life to has grown to include well over 150 foundations, corporations and individual sponsors.