The Taxi Trader
You may have heard of back-seat drivers; what about front-seat traders? As the financial capital of the world shifts into overdrive each morning, the market action is also heating up in one New York City taxicab.
Forty-two-year-old Carlos Rubino is a Brazilian immigrant who left home to gamble on the American dream. And hes taking a back seat to no one. He calls himself a broker on wheels, and as 48 Hours Correspondent Harold Dow reports, he trades his portfolio of stocks from inside his cab.
To capitalize on the current Wall Street boom, Rubino has invested thousands of dollars in high-speed technology, including a cellular phone, a real-time stock quote machine and a computer with a wireless modem that hooks him into the Internet via satellite.
Rubino may seem like a smooth operator, but are the streets of America really paved with gold?
"I can't talk about money. We can talk percentage," he says. "I can make 70 percent today, and in two months from now I can be down to 20 percent....I don't think I'm a gambler because...I'm not greedy."
Still, Rubino is cashing in. According to one report, he made more than $100,000 in 1998.