First of all, the minute I got down to the floor I knew it was for me. the adrenaline, the action. you know it's not for everybody right? I just had to keep going right? sometimes the only way out is through and so I just kept fighting, fighting fighting and I knew no opportunity was going to find me hiding under the covers in my bedroom say anything to anybody. One of the regrets I have having just lost my wife was that I did not take enough time to spend with her since you've been given that name Einstein Wall Street has there has that affected your life I'm a big proponent of of invol of trying to break the ceilings for women in finance so I'm on the board of many many different women-owned companies on Wall Street uh there's a picture of Shaquille O'Neal the basketball player kissing me on the head oh my God I need to see this very if you it's the first thing that pops up on on Google oh my God Peter Tuckman, also known as the Einstein award Wall Street has always appeared as a very charismatic, humorous and inspirational traitor on social media.

However, we tend to forget that this man is just like everyone else. He's also a son, a father and a husband. It is truly my honor to have Peter on the Humble Traitor Podcast today to share the story of his life. You're going to learn about his family background, education, and early career.

how did Peter become the Einstein of Wall Street and the impact it had on his life. And finally, you're going to learn about a day in his life, especially outside of the stock market. This is a very special video to me and I would really encourage you to share it with your friends. You're about to hear the untold story of Peter Tuckman the Einstein of Wall Street So Peter Welcome to the Humble Traders Podcast My pleasure I'm happy to be here.

Yeah, so a lot of people I'm humbled to oh, you're also humble Trader There you go. Um, a lot of people know you as the you know obviously the most famous Trader and broker on Wall Street Uh, specifically New York Stock Exchange But not a lot of people know about how you got here right? Like who's the Peter before uh, you became you know, the the most famous Trader So I Kind of want to ask you, you know what? What's your background? What's your family background like? What did you study um before before you got here? Absolutely. It's my pleasure to answer the question cuz it's been in amazing journey I'm really. uh, my life has been unusual and Incredibly exciting and full of successes and failures.

and I think it's super important for people to know that, right? They look at somebody who's successful perhaps and think that it's just been an easy Road all along and that's definitely not the case. So I Uh, I grew up in New York City my parents are Holocaust Survivors so they came into America 1949 after spending four years in prison in Aitz, the worst concentration camp in the world and most lost. About 90% of their family were murdered during the war and um, they met in a Uh displaced person's Camp after the war, my father survived with his father, his mother was murdered in front of him by a Gapo and my mother lost almost 80. 85% of her family were killed uh by the Nazis During the war, they met in a displaced person's Camp After the war when uh when the war was over, they were liberated by the Russians and the Uh English and the Uni and the Americans and they were put in camps to be sort of filed around to be dis uh to be taken to different countries around the world.

and uh, they met. They fell in love. Love it first sight. My father was actually on a going, my father was in medical school in Heidleberg as was my mother and he was set up on a blind date with my mother's roommate and she came home late from work that day day and my father went to the house for the date.

My mother opened the door and they looked at each other and they fell in love immediately. So that's a beautiful part of the story. They spent the next three years in Germany uh studying to become doctors both of them and then in 1949 they were lucky enough to get on a boat. uh to the United States was not an easy thing to do.

Not a lot of people people went to South America some went to Israel, some went to different parts of Europe but they were able to come to America and um, so I you know my father became a Doctor ended up becoming quite a well-known doctor. My mother dropped out of medical school to start a family. Yeah, and so uh, I was born in New York City and uh, so I grew up with a in a very somewhat privileged background my parents. My father was successful.

We had everything we always wanted to have. We were not rich by any means, but we had everything we needed and there were certain things that were very important to them. Family was important, education was important, yeah, and uh. what? What went on to be something that really built me as a person was the importance of that human element one person to another, and it's really curated my life going forward throughout throughout my whole life, which I I'm hoping is not even half over yet.

So I grew up in New York City and I went to Uh High School in Uh, in a private school in New York. So and my parents, even though they did not have a lot of money, felt it super important to go to a really good school so that I would have possibilities in the future. So that was good. I was always a bit of an entrepreneur during high school.

I had a number of small businesses that I did I was in the I made t-shirts and I sold them at rock and roll shows and whatever. You have to realize it was the 70s at the time so it was kind of the hippie days. in In in New York City and in America and then uh after he at the end of High School Uh, I had become interested in agriculture for some reason I don't I know I don't really know why I had had a we have a home in the country and I had had a garden. but for some reason agriculture seemed intriguing to me and so I decided I would go and live in Israel for a year on a Kabut which is sort of a a communal living space.

uh and I spent a year there and uh, when I came home I went to I got a uh I went to the University of Massachusetts which was the number one agricultural School in uh, the United States and I got a full degree in agriculture a 2-year degree. Okay and but I you know along the way I realized this really there's no future in it I did not I could not see what my future was going to be and I had um during the war, my father had adopted a young young boy at the age of 8 years old whose parents had been killed and uh, he survived the war and my parent my parents sent him to America to be raised by foster parents and then when they moved to America he came to live with them them and he was an engineer but he went on to become a very successful businessman. So even though he's many many years older than me I just actually came from Texas I went to visit him he's 93 years old. um he was sort of a very.

he was sort of a uh he he became a very prominent businessman in the oil business and in the stock market and so after two years of getting this agricultural degree, he said you know what, enough is enough We sort of looked at each other as brothers but also like an older Uncle because he's 30 plus years older than I am. Yeah, he said it's time to get down to business right? I want you to go back to this University and get a degree in business and finance and you're going to and then you will come and work for me. So wanting to be successful, wanting to be comfortable? uh I said okay I always listened to him because he he almost a mentor. He was a big time Mentor for me and um by that point he had already done a number.

He was a corporate Raider so he had done a number of big takeovers during the 70s on Wall Street so he's quite quite well. um and so I went back to college and I spent the next three years getting a degree in International Finance and business and so I finished College I moved back to New York City and I started to trade Commodities I became very interested in Commodities and so I um he had given me $1,500 and I started trading orange Juw, Futures and uh Lumber and a number of other Commodities back in the day on the Sibo and and uh and that was very exciting for me I like the action I likeed I like the gambling part of it and so I turned $1,500 into about $45,000 Oh wow! trading mostly orange juice Futures it's kind of like a Trading Places story, right? and you just trading for yourself, right? That's your own. I was getting a master's in business at Baroo University in New York in the evening I was uh trading Commodities during the day and then I also opened up a record store in Greenage Village and you a hustler? I mean you still are I was a hustler? absolutely I Let's call it an entrepreneur. So um I uh so I opened up a beautiful record store that was modeled after a European record store.

We had an African art gallery, We had a coffee bar, We had a a live music in the back and then we sold records out front and it was incredibly fun. It was very exciting for me I Loved I loved the action I've always got been somebody who liked to be where the action is and so uh, I did this for about a year and a half and then it was not successful. There were a number of reasons within business within the record business that made it, uh, unsustainable and um, it was the early 1980s and I had sort of gotten myself in a little bit of, uh, trouble in business. It was time to sort of move on and so I had a friend who ran an oil company in the People's Republic of Benin in West Africa and uh, which used to be called Dome and Dome was a country in the armpit of Africa where a lot of amazing natural resources oil comes from, diamonds, gold, big business, and also slaver slaves come from there.

Voodoo comes from there. so it was one of the powerful countries within the African continent. so I went there and I spent a year and a half there. um being the accountant for this Norwegian oil company.

so I was always good with numbers although I didn't never like the counting but I I needed to get away I needed a job and so I studied. It was the beginning of computers right? 1983 There were no computers yet it was just Lotus 123. It was the beginning of the original spreadsheet with computers. so I studied it on the plane over.

I Ended up getting a job for this company and I stayed for about a year and a half in 1985. I came back to New York Once again, my older brother, my mentor, said it's time to get a real job. Stop messing around and so my father, who was by then a very well-known doctor, had a number of patients who ran brokerage firms. one of them was the market maker for AT&T and and one of them was a senior partner at Cow in Company, which was a brokerage firm that later got taken over by Societ.

General and so I got a summer job as a telet typist for Cow and Company on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange the minute I walked on the floor. So as as you may know, um, there's no training for the job of working on the floor, right? You learn on the spot you you work, you put your feet in the fire, you work, you've got to pay your dues you out. It's kind of like a cast system. You start out as a telet typist or a squad a runner.

then you become a clerk. Then you become a um, uh, after you become a clerk, you become a retail clerk institutional. Clerk And your goal is to become a broker, Right to have a seat on the stock Exchange. That's your end goal.

and so it would often take 12 to 15 years to become a broker because it was a job nobody wanted to give up. It was very lucrative, it was very exciting and so I started as a telet typist I May moved on to become an option clerk, retail clerk Institutional Clerk and I happen to be in the right place at the right time. First of all, the minute I got down to the floor I knew it was for me. the adrenaline, the action.

You know it's not for everybody right people who need time to have a coffee and wake up and sit and read the paper and all that. that's not the floor of the exchange. realize that Wall Street has many different parts to it. Upstairs are the the investment bankers and the the portfolio managers.

But people who trade and work on the floor of the exchange are more of the real hot hot action people and that was more part of my personality. the the minute I arrived there I loved it and I knew this was my going to be my job forever and ever and ever so. I I Followed went through the ranks and I was lucky one guy got fired, one guy died, one guy moved on to another company and in two and a half years I went from telet typus to broker two and a half years years Oh wow, instead of 12 instead of 12, I was good at what I did I was very lucky I was in the right place at the right time I Got to say that. but also the environment was perfect for my personality, right? I Thrive on chaos I Love the action I love numbers and I love the people game because the floor of the exchange.

it's all about people, right? It's about how do you buy and sell stock and how do you get the best price for people. It's like if you are in a casino and you are, um, playing blackjack, you're playing with other players and the dealer, right? Same thing with the market. you're trading with other Brokers and the market maker and if you're good with that and you don't, everyone doesn't know what you're doing and you're kind of Sly and you're working the game, you can be a good broker. Turned out I was a good broker so I got my seat in the April April 9th of 1988.

So the crash of 1987 I was still a clerk and that really, that was a place that kind of where you cut your teeth as they say because the that day a Black Monday was the busiest day in history to that date it was the largest crash uh in history after 1929 and uh, I clerked it and I made no errors and we we although it was a devastating day for the market, the economy I did really well at my job and that kind of catapulted me into becoming a broker. So I got my seat on April 9th I believe it was 1988 and uh I stayed at cow and Company so I I was given a seat on the stock change I rep I was called a house broker and uh and I had I had I had gone even though it took me a shorter time than most people, I had really gone through the ranks and I had learned all the different jobs and I was well-liked by people and uh I had I had a good rapport with the market makers and all the other Brokers and whatnot. So I I knew this was a place that I was comfortable in and that I could really Thrive So uh, my career. so that's how I got to Wall Street right? I mean my career has changed changed over the years.

I've always been a broker, I was a broker for Cowen then I was a broker for um I went into convertible Arbitrage So convertible is a So when you issue stock there's common stock and then there's preferred stock. but if you need to raise capital for more more Ventures they they have a thing called convertible preferred stock. It offers you a much higher dividend. Okay so when you when you when you split stock or issue preferred stock the value of the stock be gets smaller.

Yeah, and if you don't want that to happen but you still need to raise Capital you issue convertible Preferred, which is stock that has a high dividend uh but is also convertible to the common stock so it has inherent value. So and and it's a wonderful trade too because there's a you get to write many tickets and make a lot of money and so I traded convertible Arbitrage for a number of years and then over the years I moved from from different places I I worked for Aselin company and I worked uh for a number of dependent firms on Wall Street and uh, and you know and I There were there were periods of times where I was successful. There were a period of times along the way. you know I met my wife I ended up having two children and um, but life was challenging.

You know I mean it was challenging, You know, just as a person growing up in. New York um you know I had uh, my family was incredibly important. um uh I um but I loved what I did and I loved coming to work every day so that never faltered, right? I I traveled a lot I did a number of different things I always sort of had a side hustle besides what I did on Wall Street and then I think in 2000. So also you have to realize that the nature of the markets changed depending on the economy and obviously we had the crash of 87, we had the bubble of 2000, we had the financial crisis of 2007, uh, 2008 and then we had uh, obviously, uh, coid.

All right. so we've seen different crisises along the way and I surviv my way through them on Wall Street I. You know, even though I changed jobs a number of times, I was still quite quite well uh, liked and I I I kept my job even though I moved from company to company. yeah, it was just a function of the way the markets were trading.

during 2006. After the financial crisis, it was very hard. It was a real struggle to make money on. Wall Street It was very difficult for a broker because so many people lost their jobs and so many people were struggling and the markets took a big hit, right? It took nine years to get back to.

Even so, Wall Street definitely ran into some serious obstacles, as did I as a broker, I lost a lot of customers I lost a lot of um accounts. Yeah, and so basically. but I knew that I wasn't willing to give up on the job and I knew that this was a job I loved and I really wasn't clear that I could I wanted to do anything else. So in 2006, I was struggling and things were, things were not working and I ended up spending three years going to work.

The business dried up a lot on the floor for independent Brokers like myself and basically I I realized that I was going to struggle for a while and my wife had a job. She was a a career woman, she was a documentary filmmaker and quite successful and so I just said, you know what? I'm just going to fight my way through it and I uh, went to work for three years making very little money but I just kind of faked it I just went in every day and even though I wasn't making a lot of money, I kept grinding and grinding and finding hoping that I'd be able to rebuild my Empire and my business. and in about 2008 I ran into a broker who I had known on Wall Street who was a well-known broker I I I Met him on the subway on the way to work one morning and I didn't tell anybody that I was not making any money I just showed up for work and acted as if I was making money and uh cuz I knew that no opportunity and this is a good point for your audience. I knew that no opportunity.

Look, we we learn from success and failure. I believe I've learned a lot more from failure than success. Life doesn't always give you know if life gives you lemon lemons, you make lemonade right? So I I I knew that uh I just had to keep going right? sometimes the only way out is through and so I just kept fighting, fighting, fighting and I knew no opportunity was going to find me hiding under the covers in my bedroom. Nobody was knocking on the door.

So I said I'm going to go to work and go to work until something comes I got to go keep my eyes open and look for the signals for success and I ran into a broker on the Uh Subway and he said how you doing and for some reason I just decided to be honest with him and I said you know I'm struggling I'm not making any money and he goes. you know what? I need a broker on the floor? He had been on the floor for many, many years. uh and he goes. you know what? I need a broker and uh and I told him what the business model I had built a trading model which I still do to this day around Market on clothes and balances and he said I love that idea.

how about we you and I we get into business together and we traded up until 3 weeks ago. He and I were in business from 2006 until 3 weeks ago we kept in business and he we became great friends. We became business partners and so um so I made it I got my business back and then once again it grew to the point where you know I'm still very successful. I mean I can I can go on forever about this story I've I've done so many things since then, but that's my journey to Wall Street So when you said um Brokers were struggling, they weren making a lot of money.

Was it because they have less clients? Less and less clients want to buy and sell stocks? Or you know what does it mean I Think there were probably a bunch of different reasons. The economy was faltering. Yeah, we had just gone through a major financial crisis. They called it the great Financial Crisis right there.

The banks were bailing everybody out, nobody had any money, people were losing their jobs, 25,000 people were laid off from Leeman brothers. So in the industry everyone was losing their jobs and so there was a lot less trading going on to buy. Well, people were just buying and selling less stocks, people were struggling, people had lost a lot of money, and when things get rough, they tend to really pull back and they don't give out as much. I was what's called an independent $2 broker.

So normally when when things are flourishing then there's enough to give everybody business, but when things are hard, they're much less likely to give out order flow. So they keep it in house. So there was less opportunity because as a broker, I used to get overflow business right? so when there's less to give out, there's less business to be had. Oh okay, that makes sense.

Okay, so in which year did you were you given the nicknam the Einstein at Wall Street is that quite recent? Yeah, yeah, it is quite recent actually. So there was a woman named Aaron Bernett Aaron Bernett used to work for CNBC Okay, and uh, she worked with CNBC with a guy named Mark Haynes who he passed away and Aaron Bernett went on to work for CNN she's still at CNN but uh, she was the one who called me Einstein it was not Einstein at Wall Street Street yet. oh but um, she called me Einstein obviously because I look like Einstein yeah and uh and jokingly Mark Haynes who was a very well-known Financial reporter for CNBC used to sit outside the stock exchange and used to always joke that where he would sit out on the fire pump smoking a cigarette and I would walk into work and I always had very uh you know, boisterous hair do and so he would always say if I'm having if Einstein's having a good hair day then the Market's going to go up and if he's not, the Market's going to go down. That kind of developed the Persona of Einstein of Wall Street but I was actually given the name by a uh by uh, a woman named Adrienne Russo I'm sure she'd be surprised that I'm bringing her up.

it was a woman I hired to do social media. Social media started to happen at the time and I was trying to build this brand around Einstein and she said why don't we nickname you the Einstein of Wall Street and it took and that kind of took off I mean it started with an article on BuzzFeed It started with a lot of photograph s all over. you know when I started on on a on April April 8th I think 2007 Okay uh was the first time a photograph was taken of me and it was on the front page of the newspaper the New York Daily News and it was me with my arms up in the air and and it it became a big deal. The internet was not a big deal yet but the photo went everywhere and the next day of the New York Post that's the competitors newspaper in New York we have the Daily News and the post.

Okay, the competitor's newspaper wrote an article saying who is that guy on the cover of the Daily News and so they did an article. They interviewed me and did an article about me as the Einstein of Wall Street and sort of. There had always been one guy who the news people used to take a picture of. his name was Alan Gersowitz and he just had.

he was retiring on that day that they took the picture of me and he said I'm going to I'm going to pass the Baton to Peter Tuckman and from now on you guys take a picture of him and that started my career Okay but it started with BuzzFeed and then two news outlet and then and then look they started my my there was a there I started getting front pages all over the country thousands of them and then they they took pictures that went Global all over the world and then many a number of years later they started asking me to speak uh about the markets I never thought I had very much to say about the markets and I don't talk about if you notice you and I are a little different than a lot of the other people we we have a different take on thek market and so what? I My analysis of the market was a little bit different than most and that I started out by um I had a TV show in Germany that I did I used to do with a German accent I don't speak German but I my parents were European they spoke many languages my parents spoke 11 languages and so I grew up very good with accents so I used to joke around in different accents so I did it Finance TV show with a German accent and that became very popular on YouTube it kind of went viral. Oh really and it became known as the Einstein of Wall Street in Germany and that was sort of the beginning of my other career. is that the name of the show inside the Wall Street or the show was called inside Veroff. it was a finance station in Germany and they kind of gave me a little bit of a free reign.

They were to do what I wanted to do. so I did the show with a German accent. it was very funny. Oh wow and you were commentating on the market or I did I did I I analyzed the market on on the at the end of every day m it's interesting e the whole world is so interested in a in the US Stock Market specifically even though in Europe they have obviously the Amsterdam stock exchange Stockholm everywhere everyone's interesting Us markets, you know what? Look, it has a lot to do with the times, right? you know? I Think that was the beginning of a time where uh, all eyes were on the stock market.

It happened again during coid. It happened during the financial crisis when people are struggling. then people look to the markets to try and make money or to stop losing money. I see and that was one of the uh things that happened okay and and has since you've been given that name I of Wall Street has there has that affected your life cuz I'm I'm sure people stop you on the sidewalks or take pictures or talk to you How how has that positively or negatively affected your life? You know what? it for me it's been really a wonderful gift because I Love people I Love interacting with people I've become famous I've become an influencer on social media you know I I have an Academy where we teach people to trade I do motivational speaking all over the world about markets and about other things.

Um and so my I built a brand around the Einstein of Wall Street You know we came out with Nfts and I we we we we I teach I do webinars for colleges all over the United States Uh so it's given me a brand new career. My face is is actually is worth something I get paid for my face to be used by brokerage firms all over. Europe My there's a company in Uh in Germany called IG it's the largest brokerage firm in In Europe Okay and so the the, the, the, the um their advertising is. they use my face to be the ad.

so uh yeah it's become a whole another career. So I I I Love the fact I'm having a lot of fun with it since you received a nickname and over so many years and remind me again how long it's been 40 years at N. I've been on N since 85 So that's for 38 years. So how's how has your role at N changed over time? Obviously, you started as a type uh, typ, telet typist and now you're a broker.

But you know what? I I I I I I I Get the question. It's changed a lot. You have to realize that everybody's jobs have changed with the with the incurrence of, uh, incursion of, uh, technology, right? everybody's job publishing, uh, uh, advertising, uh, brokering Finance Everything You know when you bring a technology into a situation, human beings are outsourced and things change, right? So things have changed a lot lot. I've had to reinvent myself many, many times.

The business on the floor of the Exchange with Technology with Algorithms has changed a lot. so I had to Bob and weave I don't have the same kind of customers I used to even though recently I I brought back the trading strategy that I built many, many years ago. I still do that and it's very successful. but you know I started doing education I started running an academy to teach young people to trade I started to do motivational speaking so my role and my job have complet completely changed.

I Like to have multiple streams of Revenue I Like to do so many different things So while I'm using my brand to build my recognition I do a lot of things on social media I'm an influencer on Instagram and Twitter and Tik Tok. You know I've done a lot of things as far as trying to educate new young people about the markets. Uh I I I'm working with a lot of these new Young I'm a big proponent of of invol of trying to break the ceilings for women in finance. So I'm on the board of many many different women-owned companies on Wall Street one of them is called Alenia.

It's a trading app for young women first-time women investors. Um I'm on the board of a number of different companies uh that relate to women Boss Beauties is a Uh Social is a is a Uh company that empowers young women, scholarship and and internships for young women. uh to create a safe space for high schools and colleges. So look, it's opened the doors for me.

Even though my role on Wall Street has changed, I still go into work every day I Trade the markets. my son is my partner. That's one of the greatest thing that's happened is you know in the old days family businesses were Wall Street was built on Fathers and Sons and uncles and family businesses when I got to Wall Street in 1980, five there were 70 Market making firms that were families on the floor of the exchange. Now there's only three firm Market making firms left and none of them.

My son and I are the last Father and Son team on Wall Street So the doors have opened, look and and it's it's sort of been I'm I'm a I'm a real uh I like to be motivated I like to be inspired by things and so and I like to look at the big picture. So all along the way even though I still keep my day job as a broker trading the markets lately my son has been running the business for me and I've been focusing on social media on uh uh, traveling, uh, doing motivational speaking all over the world. I've spok in Switzerland and in Amsterdam and uh and in Italy I spoke last year at the Italian Stock Exchange so my job is changed uh I've had to reinvent myself many, many times. but I Love advertising and branding I Love the social media aspect to my life and I Love trading at the end of the day.

Trading to me is the most exciting thing in the world. It is not an easy thing to do. it is the opportunities are not as open as they used to be. Although to be a day trader is something that is available now.

the democratization of the trading Community which happened during Coid in the old days, you had to be a qualified investor to be able to trade the market. That meant that the money you invested if you lost it all would have no effect on your standard of living for five years. Well, very few people can have that except rich people. So what happened with Robin Hood and and TDM Merit Trade and all these new uh uh uh trading apps meant that basically anybody with an iPhone and $100 and fractional investing anybody with an iPhone and $100 could trade the market.

So that's opened up huge doors. But as I said to you earlier, you know if I wanted to be a pilot I wouldn't just grab the keys and hop on a plane and hope I could fly. So I've spent a lot of my time trying to educate and teach people now that the barriers to entry are down for anybody to become a Trader I Want them to have all the benefits of what I know to try and teach them and educate them so that they can do the best job they can. So do you personally invest or trade stocks for yourself? No, I do not.

So one of the reasons I don't is because I trade 347 stocks for my customers every day. Yeah, and historically, over the years, I'm not allowed to be in a stock for myself personally and customers in a 30-day period. And Since and since the strategy I built involves every stock that's in the S&P 500 that's traded on the nice, it's very difficult for me to find a stock that I'm not in every day that I could invest in. Also for me, you know money is a funny thing if I'm worried about my own personal Investments I would not be focused on the the my fiduciary responsibility for for my customer I see and so I make enough of a good living trading for other people that I did not choose to invest in the stock market.

uh recently I think I inherited a little money and I gave it to somebody to manage for me. but um uh but for me it's more important to focus on my I'm a customer man I like I like to make my customer happy. Have you ever Googled yourself your only name? absolutely I So according to Google I'm worth I'm worth $1.5 billion I was about to ask when my my wife unfortunately who passed away a month ago when that came out uh that came out maybe three months ago. Some guy interviewed me on Wall Street and apparently I don't know you know Google they'll write anything but uh he posted the interview and he said Peter Tuckman is worth Einstein on Wall Street is worth 1.5 million billion dollars and my wife saw it the the post and she called me into the bedroom.

She was already not feeling very well and she goes is there something I need to know I didn't know you were worth $1.5 billion I said sweetie I'm not trust me I'm not hiding anything from you it's not true Is that why you asked the question? That's why I was about to ask I'm like is that true I broke us to make that I know you guys make a lot of money but I didn't know you make that much. So yesterday as I walked out of the stock exchange some guy walked up to me with a microphone and you can if you look on Tik Tok It came it went viral this morning and he said to me what do you do for a living I said I'm a Trader on the floor of the stock exchange he said I hate when people ask you how much money you make it's it's a rude question So he said well how much money do you make so I said I said jokingly I said10 billion do a year he says really well what's the best job of what's the best part of your job So I said making alling money is what I said and so that he put it on Tik Tok and I guess it went viral because I came into work this morning and everyone's going 10 billion 10 billion So anyway look if you Google me you will see a lot of wonderful photographs. There's a lot of pictures of me with with famous people. that's very fun for me.

I Love it you know I'm a I don't go out and Chase it. but as a broker on the exchange and the most notable person within social media, whenever there's a celebrity comes to the floor they most of them know who I am because everybody has M pictures Exactly. everybody has money in the market so they usually come up to me and I'm kind of a a chill guy so we usually have a lot of fun. We meet and talk.

There's a very famous photograph of uh if you Google Sha kisses tiny Trader uh there's a picture of Shaquille O'Neal the basketball player kissing me on the head oh my God I need to see this very if you the first thing pops up on on Google uh if you you sh type in sha and Trader and it's a picture of him grabbing me by the head like a basketball and kissing me. So there's a lot of fun things if you Google me it tells a little bit of the story of my life. There's a fun Wikipedia page wait. can I see it? oh my God he's holding my head like it's a basketball.

oh my God you're half his size I'm more less than half a I could fit in his pocket. We so now we know a lot about the Peter Tuckman at Work work. What? What's the Peter like outside of work Peter What do you do for fun after the Market's closed? Uh, that's a good question. So what do I like to what do I do after work I'm a real family man I have two children.

my son 20 Benny is 29 uh also broker with you. He's also a broker and he's basically my partner now and runs my business I have a daughter who's 25 uh 26 I think now. um who just got a degree in uh uh, she got a uh she went to Connecticut College and got a degree in social Administration or something. She's very interested in politics and in saving the world.

She got a degree in saving the world. Let's say that her name is very important degree too. Very important. She loves policy and she loves changing the world and doing the right thing.

and her name is Lucy Tuckman. She's wonderful and so I spend a lot of time with my children. that's super important to me and uh uh. up until recently, uh I was a real family man I spent most of my time with my wife.

We like to travel, we like to, uh uh, what else did we love to cook? We love to, um, listen to music together and we were together for 33 years and she was absolutely wonderful. She unfortunately got cancer a number of years ago and uh, we treated it quite well and she was cancer-free for three years and then last August the cancer came back and uh, since January of this year the cancer became very aggressive and ended up. She lost her life on August 99th. So that's just four weeks ago, it's recent.

I'm sorry, it's very recent. So um I took probably one day off, but I realized that nothing good was going to happen at home. It's just you know it's such a she was my best friend and so and you know, very close to the kids and to me obviously. and so it's you know, sitting at home and and and wallowing in my grief doesn't really do that much for me.

So as I love what I do and I love the people around me I decided to, just you know, put on my my big boy pants and get back to work. So I came back to work quite quickly. um uh so uh, that's what I did. but uh so what do I do I love to ski I love to play tennis I have a house in the country uh where I go I love to swim I love to Garden I love to climb uh mountains? uh I love to travel I've been many, many places I uh I don't think I told you as part of the story I went in 1983 I ended up moving to Oh I did mention it I went to West Africa and lived in the People's Republic of Benin for a couple of years.

I and you know I I Love jazz music I play uh, the saxophone so music is important. traveling is important. Climbing, skiing, tennis so you know and I'm just a very chill guy I don't really love to go out and and party a lot I you know that's not me I mean I Have to admit, you know back in the 80s I was definitely you know I wasn't I wasn't a really bad guy Like The Wolf of Wall Street but I I had some of the I had some of the qualities of the Wolf of Wall Street and uh so. but you know a big part of a big part of what.

who I am at work is a big part of who I am at home right? I mean I spend a lot of my time working on educating people, inspiring and motivating people I Love art I have a gallery at the New York Stock Exchange on the sixth floor I Mentor A lot of young people in finance in in in life I'm a bit of a life coach to a many people I've had people who have mentored me and helped me along the way and so I like to sort of uplift people up. Uh, so a lot of my life is spent doing that. I mean I uh I have many artists who I mentor and there's a I have so many projects that I'm involved in I Love marketing and advertising so I do a lot of stuff around that I love my my life within social media right as a Instagram influencer I do a lot of fun things there. Um, as you described I am I mean I'm noticed on I'm recognized on the street.

That's a new thing for me I say over the last four or five years so that's a lot of fun and uh so I've I've developed this platform uh on social media where I get a lot of attention and it gives me the opportunity to really Inspire and motivate people for me. You know success is about money and fulfillment and purpose are are very important to me and that's about affecting other people in a positive way, right? I'm not about I don't need cash and prizes I don't have fancy cars and you know I don't take pictures of me you know, lying on the front of a Bugatti or a Lamborghini uh with lots of cash I'm much more of a P people person and a humanist. That's something. I learned from my father that the touch of another human being and communicating with them and trying to you know for me somebody when you die the the more A Life That's a a life of fulfillment is more important having uplifted uplifted other people to be their best self than just you know, dying something dying with a whole bunch of money and a bunch of toys.

So I I thrive off of uh of the attention I get on social media and the opportunity to motivate and Inspire other people and that's my life I go to work every day and at home I'm I'm working also I'm a bit of a workaholic if I can say anything to anybody. One of the regrets I have having just lost my wife was that I did not take enough time to spend with her. you know, uh, you know there were often times where she would say let why don't you take off a Friday and a Monday and let's go hang out and I would say work is way too important I can't do that And now in retrospect, I regret that you know that I I would I would I would really love to have a Friday and a Monday you know to hang out with her. So if I can tell anybody what I've learned from this uh experience of losing somebody you love is don't take work that seriously.

never lose the opportunity to spend time with family when you can because you don't Really, we don't know what the future is going to bring. so and just you know and being with your your the people that you love is super important. Yeah and thank you so much for using your platform for such positive messages. Yeah, you have a great reach and people not only learn from you, they also feel inspired and to eventually live and hopefully trade and work like the way you do as well.

I appreciate it. Thank you Yeah yeah I like to share this Like as I said to you, it's my line but it's a great line. If you find something you love to do, you'll never work a day in your life. I Love my life except for obviously what's happened to me recently and so and and I know that everybody's struggling.

We just went through coid that's you know. I come from a background where my parents struggled right? I mean you? You look at me, you know it's it's not far away. It's one generation ago my parents had their whole families murdered and my grandmother was shot in the head with by a godun. You know they went through.

You know one of the worst pieces of history and so they life is very precious and they taught me that growing up. and so you know and uh so I Value That life is very precious and it's super important and that's something that you can share with other people. You know just having a lot for me is not that important obviously. I Take care of my children to the best of my ability and I want them to be happy and also find that.

but you know there's nothing better than than experiencing Joy with someone else. You know we from the trading point of view we get when when my partner David green and I get on a phone call with a student and they were struggling or lost their job and now they're trading and they were losing money and now they're making money. It's the greatest thing in the world or someone was you know, struggling with mental illness or or or depression or something like that and I was able to just kind of put make their day a little brighter and give them a little hope, right? Uh, um, then that's worth it's all worthwhile. Do do you think you ever, maybe not retire completely, but retire just a little bit where you have more free time.

You know what? I you juggling so many projects right? You know what? I don't know I mean for me, you know, lying around doing nothing may maybe I would I'm trying to incorporate that taking off some time with working. it's so funny right? So the after my wife died I thought okay I got to I got to change it up now I'm you know it's cuz it's so depressing for me and I'm so sad and and it's so dark that I thought I would you know as opposed to just go travel I thought I would travel and and work and you know and do some motivational speaking and and talk about trading and whatnot. So whether I will I I don't think so I'm a bit of a workaholic I mean I think I will hopefully learn from. you know the fact that I did probably work you know and not enough.

pay enough attention to the fact that I could have taken more time off when I had the chance. Um, but you know I I Love I Love every day pretty much and and uh so you know and I love what I do so I I think I'll hang out there Okay, thank you so much for sharing our story. my pleasure. What's the one message that you want our audience to learn as a takeaway as a final takeaway from this podcast? Okay, I mean I think I probably Incorporated it into your questions.

The questions were very good I Appreciate That is that somebody needs to find out find something they love to do. That's the important thing that there is nothing you can't do if you try that. we learn more from failure than success. That success needs to be uh uh, gauged by purpose and fulfillment.

Not by by uh, cash and prizes? Yeah, right. These are the things that are important to me, you know and that you know, uh, surround yourself by people who who lift you up and that you can lift up right? Uh, that's super important. Uh, people who want good for you and that some someone you can help. um you know I've seen it.

There are a lot of people out there who are big mentors to me who have committed their lives to helping others. There's a guy named Charlie in the dream machine young guy who's had a lot of success. Then he he he fell, he fell off the uh the pedestal and really struggled and now committed his life to helping people who are are are are uh you know on the on the bad side of luck. uh there's a young there's a these two brothers.

The Snider brothers who spend their lives committed to charity and feeding uh the homeless people There are you know, people who are struggling in my business who would love to be able to uh do better. So all that stuff is is super important. So you know, uh don't think that there's no door you can't knock down. Look there's nothing wrong with trying something.

It's not a matter of how many times you you you get knocked down, it's a matter of how many times you get you get back. you know brush yourself off and and get back up. So don't think that you can't do anything knock on every door. The worst thing that's going to happen is they'll say no and then you just move on to the next door and know that no opportunity is going to come knocking on your door.

You got to go out there and find it. Yeah, it's interesting cuz people talk about Wall Street as if it's something really cold, right? A lot of numbers, stocks flying around. It's all about cash and money like you said, but you are extremely warm, welcoming and the messages you send to all the audience watching is extremely motivating as well. So thank you so much for showing us that there is some War warm I I Appreciate it's not I don't know if it's really is a lot, it's a lot of it on Wall Street people have come to me and said you know said like you know you you somebody recently oh oh it was act yeah there's a very big influencer on social media who came to me and wanted to do a video with me and he said you know what we we you we've taken notice of you because you know most people are are pretty crusty and and sort of stiff on Wall Street and you you have committed yourself to really spreading the message of of Hope and and education uh in a different way.

uh from someone who's you know who's been around as long as you you're a lot warmer than people think of Wall Street and that's that's yeah, that's who I am. Well thank you so much Peter Thank you so much for your time, my pleasure thank you! Wow! I Know we've all seen Peter's personality and social media posts online. However, I never would have imagined to be able to hear firsthand his personal account of his entire story, stories about his career experiences aing outside of the stock market and of course about his family who he holds very dearly to his heart. I hope you enjoyed listening to his inspirational story as much as I did.

Please feel free to share your thoughts Down Below in the comments or you can tell Peter yourself on his Instagram If you want to learn about the stories and experiences of other professional Traders Please feel free to check out this playlist over here.