trading while backpacking the world. free from the confines of a desk to explore the new and unknown every day. to live my dream as today will happen only once. welcome to my ramblings

Thursday, August 20, 2009

A Tragic End

There really is no light way of putting this. My younger brother, Paul Nguyen, suddenly passed away at the age of 25 recently. Words cannot convey how much he meant to me and how I'm feeling now. I returned back to Canada a while ago and will no longer be traveling as I did before. My priorities in life have changed drastically. My only concern now is being here to take care of our parents and younger sister. Knowing that I would give up anything to be able to spend just a little more time with my brother I've come to realize how insignificant work and money is. The real value in life is the time you can spend with your loved ones.

My brother was loved by so many. Incredibly smart, outgoing, friendly, charming. Always had a big smile on his face that could light up any room. He was going to be a great trader one day. He had just aced his CFA level II exam, had a Bachelor of Commerce, completed tons of CSI courses, and had been trading full-time alongside me for the past several months with great success. I now can't imagine trading alone without him but I know that he would want me to continue and finish what we had started.

This will probably mark the end of this blog. So in closing, I want to thank everyone for following me even though it was only a short while. Thank you to all our friends and family for supporting us during this difficult time. And if you were to take only one thing away from my blog I hope that it is.... there's more to life than squeezing pennies out of the market and aiming for high Sharpe ratios... what's really important is those around you. I no longer have the mindset, "if I take one week off for a vacation with my family I will lose xxxx amount of dollars". Don't take your time with them for granted. You may never realize what you have until it's gone.

Peace and God bless.