About Me

Hey, I'm Justin Bergen, the creator and author of The Night Trader blog. I am 24, and married to the love of my life, Laura :-). I am a Christian, and firmly believe in the Bible, and on Christ my Savior. This is not a blog about religion by any means, but I do follow biblical principles in all areas of my life, including finances. This will come up from time to time, and I just want to make it clear where I am coming from :-). I am the oldest of 11 children, and grew up in a family with an income below the poverty level, which taught me a lot about hard work, and wise use of finances.

When I was about six years old, my father had a serious work accident, which left him unable to continue his job as a pipe-fitter. In 1993 my parents used what was left of a small worker's comp settlement to purchase a small flourmill as a way to work around my dad’s health, and make money to support their growing family. The Wheat Bin became a family business, and every member of our family was involved with the business in some way. I started out doing packaging and cleaning, but quickly grew into sales and delivery. I remember filling out my first invoice at the ripe old age of 9 :-). Getting up at 4am to help make flour deliveries to grocery stores was less than pleasant, but my outgoing personality loved the interaction with customers.

As time went on and the business grew I was given more and more responsibilities that spanned all aspects of the business. By 2001 when the business was sold I was doing almost all of the sales and marketing, as well as most of the production. All the while trying to keep up with my high-school education. I would be lying if I didn't admit that I hated the work most of the time. But looking back, I realize my dad taught me many invaluable lessons that will serve me well the rest of my life.

I still remember my first introduction to the stock market. I was sitting in our basement watching a news story about an elderly woman who had purchased Coke stock when it first went public, and how much those shares had increased in value. That was the spark that would later grow into a hobby and passion, and someday hopefully a good source of cash flow :-).

In late 1999 my uncle offered to take me with him to Minneapolis for a two-day "Wall Street Workshop" stock market training class, and that lit the fire. I attended another advanced "Next Step" two-day workshop in Kansas City a few months later. My biggest problem at the time was that I didn’t have enough money to trade with, and I wasn't old enough to start my own stock account. So my ambitions for active trading had to take a back seat for a time. Meanwhile I continued to focus on my education. After completing high-school in 2003, I started college which launched me into the “broke student” category.

My formal K-12 education was received at home from my parents. I learned many valuable lessons from homeschooling, including self-motivation. I graduated from high-school in 2003, and immediately started pursuing a college degree. To save money I spent the first year attending a junior college fulfilling all my general education requirements. The next two years were spent at Wichita State University, where I graduated in 2006 with a BBA in Management Information Systems and a minor in Computer Science.

After graduation I was hired as a full-time Product Test Engineer at a large data-storage company, where I had been working as a student for 2 years. As one of the benefits, the company offered an employee stock purchase plan (ESPP), and that blew on the coals piquing an interest in trading again. I maxed out my stock purchases as I was now making "big money" and still single. I also opened a small Roth IRA account, but I was also starting to realize that simple stock investing was not where I wanted to be.

One more milestone was coming though that would delay my stock market dreams. This event included a beautiful young lady and a custom diamond ring ;-). I was married to my wife Laura on July 7, 2007 in the beautiful state of Colorado. Our wedding was followed by a seven-day, beachfront honeymoon in sunny Barbados! We returned home as newlyweds, with a whole $200 to our name. But we were beyond happy because we were completely debt free, thanks to the wisdom of our parents, and the teachings of personal finance expert Dave Ramsey. We had incurred no debt during our dating and engagement, and our wedding and honeymoon were paid in cash.

After quickly getting our combined finances in order, I started seriously pursuing trading in the stock market. I started reading, researching, and reviewing the material from the seminars I took nine years ago. Opening a virtual trading account allowed me to start playing with specific trading tactics without risking my hard-earned money. It quickly became clear that I needed a plan that could work around my normal IT day job.

After fiddling around with a couple trading methods I found long strangles. I was fascinated right away by the simplicity and comparative safety. It took about a year of reading, online classes, and practice before I started feeling confident in my abilities. One of the big struggles I faced was finding quality, hands-on information that didn't cost an arm and a leg. I started this blog in September 2008 to share my knowledge, and hopefully glean many further insights from my readers.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me:
justin {at} thenighttrader.com (remove spaces)