Emma’s Note: Recently, you’ve been hearing from our colleague Tom Dyson about his Dow-to-Gold ratio-based investing strategy… and how he believes it will mean his family will never have to worry about money ever again.

Right now, Tom’s on a two-year adventure with his ex-wife, Kate, and their three kids. So far, they’ve traveled to 29 countries over four continents… and they’re currently traveling from Florida to Alaska in a small pop-up camper van.

But this isn’t Tom’s first time taking to the open road… In the first of a series of short essays, he tells us how his quest to meet and work with Bill took him on an escapade-filled odyssey across the world…

Over the next few days, I’d like to tell you the story of how I met your editor, Bill Bonner.

I was working for Salomon Brothers in London on the legendary trading floor Michael Lewis wrote about in Liar’s Poker. It was the largest trading floor in Europe. The year was 2003.

I was hungry – to be a hedge fund manager or a “Big Swinging Dick” (as Lewis put it) on a trading floor somewhere. And I was indoctrinating myself night and day in the art of speculation… by reading books, playing poker, and trading futures.

And then, I discovered e-newsletters… penned by characters like Richard Maybury, Richard Russell, John Mauldin, Kurt Richebächer, Stratfor… and Bill Bonner.

Their ideas captivated me.

I felt like I’d broken into an underground club… or become a member of a modern resistance…

I’d ride the Tube – the underground train in London – reading the latest issue of whatever it was, sunk low in my seat, casting an occasional furtive glance to make sure no investment bankers were reading over my shoulder.

I’d found my place… on the investment fringe.

Crazy

Then, I did two things any investment banker would think were crazy…

First, I put my entire life savings into gold mining shares and gold futures contracts.

Second, I wrote to Bill and told him I’d quit my job at Salomon Brothers and come work for him – for free – if he’d give me a job at the newsletter he was writing at the time.

Bill forwarded my note to Addison Wiggin, his managing editor at the time, who took me out to dinner. But Addison never followed up with me.

I quit Salomon anyway, and flew to Mexico City without any money (literally no money or credit cards). My mother was so worried about this, she cried at the airport and tried to give me a credit card “for emergencies.”

I was going to live like a hobo for a while.

But as I gazed out over Mexico City through the airplane window – knowing I was about to be sleeping rough in the streets below – I seriously questioned the wisdom of this plan. I called the flight attendant and ordered a quadruple whiskey.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you what happened next – Stay tuned…

Regards,

Tom Dyson,
Editor, Postcards From the Fringe

P.S. My entire outlook on investing changed the day I started reading Bill Bonner’s writing. Little did I know then that I would come to invest my entire life savings – about $1 million – in a simple strategy that I learned from him. It’s already generated about $200,000. And I expect it to return that many times over by the time this specific trend has run its course.

Last night, Bill and I held an online briefing all about it… Tens of thousands of people tuned in. If you missed it, our publisher has agreed to make the recording of our briefing available for a short while. Click here to catch up.

Like what you’re reading? Send your thoughts to [email protected].