On most blogs, the “About Me” page is the only place where readers can learn more about the author. I wanted to take a slightly different approach, so I decided to write this page as a fictional interview with myself. Hopefully, you’ll find it more enjoyable than the usual paragraphs about where I studied and how passionate I am about financial markets 🙂
What’s your name?
FinancialHacker or FinHacker for short.
Where are you from?
I live in Czech Republic. It is small country in the middle of Europe. I bet you have never heard of it, have you?
Why are you appearing under the blog name?
For a long time, I have been solving the dilemma of whether to appear anonymously or under my real identity on the blog, finally I decided to appear anonymously under the FinHacker pseudonym for one simple reason. I want to post real numbers here regarding my assets, trading account and progress, but at the same time I want to keep enough privacy (the avatar on the right is quite similar to me :)). So, in the end, I figured that real numbers would be more interesting to readers than vague sums or austere percentages. That’s all there is to it.
How old are you?
Between 35 and 45. I don’t want to be completely specific for reasons of anonymity.
About the title of your blog… Are you going to write about hacking banking systems and stealing bitcoins?
I don’t intend to, and I don’t think those things are even very legal :-) I will be writing here about investing and systematic trading in financial markets, various tutorials, tips and hacks from the personal finance and FIRE community.
Ufff, another blog about personal finance and trading?
The problem I see here in Czech Republic is that there are very few good blogs on this subject, but abroad it is different. There are plenty of sellers of training courses (very often of poor quality) who live mainly on income from sales, but they don’t go to market with „skin in the game“. There are a few very good blogs, but unfortunately some of them are not updated or dead.
Can you reveal how much money you manage?
Sure. As of early 2025, my real trading account holds over 1.3 million USD (you can find the latest published value and performance on the My Portfolio page). This is entirely my own capital — I’m not a fund manager, and I don’t manage money for friends or family (thank goodness!).
Where did you get all that money?
I’ve been in the „online“ business since 2011, so mostly from there. There is no success story regarding getting fabulously rich by daytrading e-mini contracts, betting on Tesla in 2013 or buying hundreds of Bitcoins in 2016.
Are you suggesting that you can’t get rich on the stock market?
I am of the opinion that the stock market is good for further appreciation of funds. I’m not saying you can’t make a fabulous fortune on the exchange, but the chances of you doing just that are very low. For anyone to hit the jackpot in the stock market, a high level of risk will be required, which entails an increased failure rate.
So are you a full-time trader or just a hobbyist?
This question is quite „tricky“… I consider a full-time trader to be someone who actually trades/invests for a living on a daily basis and usually receives management fees for doing so, i.e. a fund manager. I don’t really like daytrading, although there are certainly a few individuals who make a living at it.
Since my income also comes from business and I don’t trade on a daily basis (I want to spend my time more efficiently and not sitting in front of a monitor), I consider myself a hobbyist or better said a retail trader, although the account size may not correspond to a classic retail account, which is somewhere between 5,000 and 50,000 USD in Czech Republic.
How long have you been involved in financial markets and what is your expertise?
My first real encounter with financial markets dates back to early 2005, when I registered on an online discussion forum about trading and investing. Since then, I’ve followed the markets with varying intensity – sometimes actively trading, other times focusing more on research and study.
I hold a university degree in economics with a focus on capital markets. That academic foundation helped me understand how the financial system works, how assets are valued, and how market behavior develops. In practice, though, my expertise comes mainly from hands-on experience, historical data analysis, and long-term market study and strategy testing. I’ve never pursued broker exams or professional certifications, as they aren’t particularly relevant for individual investing based on my experience. What has always mattered most to me are real market conditions, practical experimentation, and my own research.
Can you describe your journey as a trader/investor?
How much do you make a year trading?
Combined with the business, enough to have a nice life. However, there is one thing to note here… I am still in the accumulation phase, i.e. I invest or actively use almost all the money I earn in trading, i.e. I don’t make any withdrawals from my account because I don’t need to for now.
If we calculate e.g. a 7% p.a. appreciation including dividends, then in a year this makes $70,000 from $1,000,000.
Wait, you’re not diversified into real estate or alternative investments at all?
Basically, you could say I’m not, and I don’t mind at all. I own a couple of low-maintenance properties (a small percentage of my net worth) and then one property that I live in. Unlike the stock market, real estate from my perspective is time consuming and requires patience with tenants, on the other hand it is definitely less volatile. I’m comfortable with it that way.
What about some alternative investments, bitcoin, forex, commodities…?
If by alternative investments you mean collectibles, I don’t understand that at all (except for frequent consumption of wine and good rum) and I don’t have time for it. I haven’t found a purpose in cryptocurrencies yet, I only use the forex market for currency hedging. I stand by the fact that if one wants to trade commodities like gold or oil, it is still more profitable to buy shares of miners or royalty companies than to flock to the commodity markets, which very often suffer from a malady called contango.
What trading styles do you use?
If you mean the way I value my money, then these are the following:
- Long term holding of stocks/ETFs (buy & hold) – the vast majority of my account,
systematic medium-term trading – about 10-20% of the account,a small percentage of the account I devote to commodity spread trading.
What is the composition of your portfolio?
I’m glad you asked. I’m mostly long term invested 100% in US stocks and ETFs. For a more detailed look at my portfolio (in Czech language). From the composition of my portfolio, it is probably obvious that I am focused only on the US market. I will leave experimenting with emerging markets etc. to others.
Can you tell me what stocks are in your portfolio?
I’m a proponent of passive index investing, i.e. holding different baskets of stocks (typically ETFs) for the long term. I am not a stockpicker or value investor, meaning I don’t spend time analyzing balance sheets and looking for undervalued companies. I am a firm believer that over the long term, no normal person is capable of outperforming an index. Despite this, I do hold one stock in my portfolio – Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B). But in the case of Berkshire, it is also essentially an index, hence the exception. For a more detailed look at my portfolio, see My Portfolio (in Czech language).
What broker do you manage your money through?
I use Interactive Brokers as my main broker. I also have an account with Tradestation and a few others, but I’m not very active there. Foreign brokers have the advantage of very low execution fees, so I have never even thought about trading US stocks through a Czech broker. The amount of fees is incomparable!
Okay, but aren’t you worried that you might lose all your money if the broker goes bust?
I’m not. US brokers are very tightly controlled, plus with IB all deposits are insured and held separately with a commercial bank. In the case of larger accounts, what is still done is that the deposit is chopped up into several smaller amounts, which are then held by multiple commercial banks.
Why did you decide to write this blog?
I explained it above. There is relatively little quality information on investing and trading in the Czech Republic (honorable exceptions), and when there is some, it is either in the form of paid courses or affiliate marketing to all sorts of brokers of varying quality. Moreover, financial markets and everything around them are my passion. Thanks to my established business, I can devote quite a bit of my working time to studying and producing various analyses for my purposes. I am happy to share some interesting things with my readers. And maybe I’ll even enjoy blogging.
I notice you’re taking shots at course vendors. You’re not selling any courses?
No, I won’t. I’ve purchased a few courses in the past, too, but I’ve eventually figured out anyway that the best information is that which can be found for free without having to pay anything. It just takes time and patience.
Can you tell us something about your private life?
I live most of the year in the Czech Republic, I am a father of two naughty children, an active sports junkie, a former traveler, a cottage dweller and a fan of fast cars. All this with a positive attitude towards alcohol consumption. Now I’ve revealed everything about myself…
And we’re supposed to believe all this?
You don’t have to, but I don’t see any reason to make anything up if I’m not selling or offering anything to anyone. Plus, I blog anonymously under a pseudonym, so I’m not glossing over my friends anyway.
Thanks for the interview!
I’m glad I could introduce myself to you with this fictitious but true interview. I hope it was more entertaining than the boring „About me“ pages.