'I normally get up between 5.30am and 6am, then put in half an hour to 45 minutes of exercise, mostly Pilates, stretching and strengthening. Occasionally I do a ballet barre. I herniated two discs in my lower back, so Pilates has had to become a big part of my routine. The doctor thought I'd have to give up my dancing career, but I went on for another 13 years. I attribute that to doing Pilates religiously every morning, without fail, no matter how late I went to sleep.
I have a very simple breakfast - a bowl of cereal or a couple of pieces of toast - and often eat on the run, in the car. I drive myself to work and get there before 8.30am. Sometimes I get up even earlier to take my youngest child to gymnastics. She has gymnastics three mornings each week and starts at about 6.30am. But that suits me fine; I get to work earlier and get more done before all the action of the stock market takes place.
The stock market doesn't open until 10am, however, as a stockbroker you do the maximum amount of reading beforehand and make quite a few phone calls. I like to familiarise myself with the overseas markets and how they have done. My clients are mainly in Australia, but some are on the mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and America. I invest in a lot of Australian shares, but Asian and American shares, too.
I became a stockbroker because I knew that, financially, teaching dancing wasn't going to cut it for my family. My oldest daughter was born deaf so my wife, a wonderful ballerina, had to give up her career prematurely and I was the only breadwinner. I was also supporting my parents and, to a certain extent, my brothers back in China so there was huge pressure on me. As soon as I left my family when I was 11 to study ballet in Beijing, I took the decision to help them, and still do today. Nobody ever forced me to do that - I wanted to do it.
The best part of being a stockbroker is that it allows me to get my family onto a sound financial footing. For me, money is never for myself, it's always for my family. Probably the worst part of the stock market is the massive greed I see all the time.
We have a meeting from 8.30am to 9am every morning and listen to our research analyst briefing us. That gives us ideas - whether we should be calling clients to get in or out of certain stocks - and we have an hour to start speaking to them. At 10am it gets quite crazy. It quietens down from 12.30pm to 1.30pm as most people go out for lunch. Either I do a bit of exercise during that hour or I often meet clients.
Then you are very busy till the market closes at 4pm. After that, there's all the record-keeping and follow-up work: clients want you to inform them if transactions they requested have been done during the day and you have to be prepared for the next day as well. I take quite a lot of reading home.