He Brakes for Cash Day-trader cabbie winning Wall St. game
nydailynews.com
By BILL HUTCHINSON
Daily News Staff Writer
With one eye on the road and the other on the stock market, Carlos Rubino is literally a wheeler and dealer. Armed with a hack license, a cell phone and a taxi full of computer gadgets, the 42-year-old New York cabbie is cashing in on the Wall Street boom between the ticks of his fare box.
Day-trading cab driver Carlos Rubino with his 3Com Palm Pilot.
"A lot of people ask me, 'What are you?'" said Rubino, as he headed north on Park Ave. yesterday in his 1997 Oasis minivan taxi. "I say, 'I'm a broker on wheels.'"
He predicts he'll also be a millionaire within five years.
Stopped at a red light in midtown, Rubino pushes a button on his 3Com Palm Pilot, a computer loaded with a Reuters program that gives him real-time stock quotes.
"I need to check my portfolio," he said, staring at the tiny screen on his dashboard. His Internet stocks looked strong, and his telecommunications stocks were stable.
But when you're a cab-driving day trader, safety always comes first, he said.
"If I have to do a trade, I stop the cab, pull over and place the trade," he said. "I don't try to do two things at the same time."
He's stocked with more than $3,500 worth of equipment to stay on top of the financial heap ? and that's not including the various monthly fees he pays to make trades on the road.
"You have to spend money to make money," said Rubino.
He boasts that last year he made a 70% return on his investments. "The best was a short sale I did," he said. "I made $2,400 in one day on 1,000 shares I bought at $19 a share."
Rubino's dial is always tuned to Bloomberg radio. But he stays a step ahead on breaking financial news by monitoring financial sites on the Internet.
On the console of his cab, Rubino has his Hitachi laptop running constantly.
"It has wireless Internet access," he explained between fares as he called up Go2net.com to check the Nasdaq, the Dow and the S&P 500. "I can be on the Internet 24 hours a day."
Rubino doesn't have a high opinion of stock brokers and certainly doesn't want to be one.
"A broker is a toll collector," he said. "They don't care if you make money or not. They just expect you to pay their fee."
A native of Sao Paulo, Brazil, the Long Island City, Queens, resident is a walking, talking, driving American success story.
He came to the United States in 1983 with $3,000 in his pocket and intentions to attend physical education college.
"Then I found out that teaching physical education doesn't pay a lot of money," said Rubino.
He wound up in New York in 1984, taking jobs in restaurants and construction. In 1987, Rubino starting driving a cab part time. He liked not having a boss to answer to, and he enjoyed the money. "On my first day, I made $120," he said.
He saved his money and bought his own medallion and cab in 1989. Three years ago, he realized he needed to do more with the time he spent waiting at cab stands and traffic lights.
"I started reading about the stock market, and I got interested," said Rubino.
He also has had a little luck and some insider information on a hot investment he jumped on a couple of years ago. He invested in his cousin's restaurant chain, Rodizio Grill, which is booming out West.
In the meantime, Rubino is content earning about $100,000 a year between his driving and trading. He's even turned a few of his fares on to a stock tip or two.
"But like Warren Buffett says," said Rubino, referring to the financial legend, "'I always sold too soon.'" |
