The Runaway Trader Challenge

OK. Screw it. I quit. There, I finally said it.  And now I'm doing it!

I've slipped the bonds of the workaday world and am now attempt the financial equivalent of running away to join the circus or exploring the world from the oily decks of a tramp steamer. Except in my intrepid scheme, adventure travel meets online stock trading.

When I say I'm leaving the workaday world I'm not talking about a 7-day vacation in Cancun or raiding my savings account so I can bum around Europe for a couple of weeks. Nor am I planning to pick grapes in Italy or teach English in Japan to pay for a single room in some flophouse. Anybody can do that.

I'm talking about traveling the world "in style" by creating an inexhaustible supply of money that can propel me on a non-stop trek around the globe.

Now, doesn't that grab your attention? Sure it does. Well here's the pitch: Today’s dazzling array of computer products and Internet services has enabled millions of ordinary mortals to earn serious cash through online stock trading.  But even better, there's no need to be chained to a 30-lb. desktop while you stare at an unblinking monitor all day long in Hometown USA. A skilled trader can now skip town with little more than a laptop computer and an ATM card in his rucksack and finance his wanderlust with online stock trades on the go—from practically anywhere on the planet. And that's what I'm doing.

Charlie Wetherall is the Runaway Trader.

I've divorce my life as an author and journalist and I'm now roaming the world—all made possible by new millennium electronic technologies. I’ve selected some of the most exotic and fun-filled locales I can find in the U.S. and abroad. Each location will demonstrate the dependable reach of the World Wide Web.  And the wilder, the woollier, the better.

If I’m good, I’ll enjoy the high-life at ritzy ports of call and I may never come back. One week I'll be eco-diving between stock trades in Manado, Indonesia and the next I'll be trekking in the footsteps of Tenzing Norgay to trade online at an Internet cafe on Mt. Everest . Or, I might be trading and tanning my haole buns amid the pristine coral reefs of Oahu’s famed Hanauma Bay.

And if I screw-up? Well, I suppose you'll find me changing dirty linens at a Motel 6 in Poughkeepsie or actually earning my passage back home by swabbing decks on that tramp steamer. Actually, that scenario is not too far fetched, since if I hadn't committed one of the most egregious trading errors of my stock market career I would have left months ago. But, I've learned my lessons.

The Runaway Trader Will Answer the Question: Can I travel the world and pay for my decadence with online stock trades as I go and return home with more money than I started with? That's Menado Indonesia One of Charlie's ports of call →

Whatever my fate, you can follow my trading, travels and foibles and get the skinny on all the computer and related gear that will make my world-wide trading mission possible. And, if you like, you can send me your photos that demonstrate that online stock trading is possible from practically anywhere on the globe. Whether you’re a day trader, swing trader, momentum trader, or something in between, I'll publish your stuff and we'll make the whole world a richer place.

Sure, I wish you could go with me on this trailblazing wireless journey. But think of it this way: I’m hoping you'll learn enough from this site that someday soon, you’ll be trading away in Margaritaville like I am (or getting rich right at home). Runaway Trader can make them both happen.    Ahhh . . .  the wonders of modern technology.

So where’s Charlie? Who knows? Check my blog. The epic journey is now underway!