Media Info about Runaway Trader

Runaway Trader is a Web log created by Charles Wetherall,  a self-taught stock trader from suburban Minneapolis, who finances his adventure travels with “on-the-go” online stock trades. His globe trotting itinerary demonstrates the world-wide dependability of today’s electronic gadgetry that has enabled him to trade wirelessly from exotic destinations anywhere in the world.

Want to write a story about Runaway Trader? Feel free to quote directly from any writing on this site. You may want to look first at the Who's Charlie? page. While this FAQ is by necessity incomplete, you do get a sense that I've spent a lifetime in the communications media, including radio, television, newspaper, magazine and book writing. For a more complete rundown with names and places, check my bio. It's nestled inside my Press Kit page.

You can email me with any specific questions. We could also arrange a phone conversation or online chat.

If you do write about this madness, please drop me a note. If you're writing for a print publication, I'd appreciate a copy.

Story Angles

You could get started with one of these hooks:

It's an idyllic idea, a peripatetic holy grail. The notion that today's wireless Internet technologies allow savvy surfers to simply pack up and runway— and earn their keep as they travel. No, not by earning minimum wage picking grapes in Beaujolais or teaching English to junior high kids in Japan. That's been done to death (see Work Your Way Around The World by Susan Griffith). I mean earning serious cash, the kind that Internet stock trading readily provides. And now, it can be reliably done from anywhere on the planet.

Pervasiveness of the Web. Is there really an Internet café in Timbuktu? Can you actually day-trade stocks in a base camp Internet cafe high on Mt. Everest? How has the Web changed travel - and staying wired while you're overseas?

American abroad in a changing world. Considering the current state of world affairs, is it safe to visit Islamic countries such as Egypt? What about the tensions in Israel? Is there any place left on the globe that hasn't been touched by the Internet? By violence?

As a former newspaper reporter and magazine editor, I'd be delighted to hear from you.