Between 2000 and 2002, I worked as head weather derivative trader at PG&E National Energy Group. On the side, I also traded stocks for my personal account.

By the time the Enron Debacle happened, I had already become the third largest weather derivative trader in the country. Given another year, I am quite sure I would have become #1 in this field. Well, that’s a story for another time.

My stock trading, however, was a lot less successful. All the stocks I picked lost money, except for one. The one exception was PCG, the company I worked for. Granted, the time between 2000 and 2002 was a time of market collapse due to the burst of the dotcom bubble, but there is still an important lesson I learned and that I want to share with you.

The lesson was about  information advantage.

Though I was not in management and therefore was not privy to any material insider information, just from the ambiance noise of the trading floor I know so much more about my company than folks outside of the company.That’s why I was able to make money on PCG. That’s also why I didn’t make money in all those other stocks  – I didn’t  have any information advantage. In fact, by trading those other stocks, I made myself available to be taken advantage of by people who had stronger information.

I highly recommend against stock picking with maybe the exception of the company you work for. Even there I counsel caution. I know a senior exec who worked for MCI Worldcom and all his investment was in MCI Worldcom. When the company went under, all of his wealth was gone like a puff of smoke.