Todd Gordon is Hyper Focused

Off The Charts

From the Slopes to the Screens: Todd Gordon is hyper-focused. Flying down a mountainside on two skis while negotiating tight turns and ever-changing microclimates would be a terrible time to lose focus. Todd Gordon knows this. If he hadn’t quickly learned this skill in his journey to competitive ski racing, he would’ve likely landed himself onto a stretcher and an air-lift back to base. There was no other choice. But for Todd, he’d have it no other way. From a young age, when he found an interest in something – whether skiing or finance – he’d go all in. Nothing else mattered. And when he discovered the world of trading, he knew what he wanted to do. “There was never a question,” he said. In college, between classes, skiing, and happy hours, Todd would trade options from his dorm room. It wasn’t a matter of IF he would be a trader, it was a matter of where would he start. And that answer came right after college when at the age of 22, Todd headed west and joined a proprietary trading group based in San Diego. And from there, he never looked back. How did he handle those first twinges of pressure when early trades went awry? His background in high-pressure competitive skiing gave him the tools to stay focused on the things he could control, and keep his attention away from anything else that he couldn’t. In this episode of Off the Charts, Todd gets into all this, plus the transition he has undergone from a high-paced intraday scalper to a money manager guiding investors toward long-term gains.