July 31, 2012; Tuesday
From TopStepTrader.com questions…
1. Why did you consider becoming a professional trader?
Answer:
I considered becoming a professional trader because of the freedom of working for yourself and the convenience of doing it at your own pace. And the benefit of making a living about the potential opportunities that the market offers.
2. How long have you been trading?
Answer:
I’ve been trading intermittently for 5 years now.
3. What product or products do you trade?
Answer:
The first three years I was trading stocks and then I switched to futures market last year trading the emini-Dow. Right now I am concentrating on NQ (Nasdaq emini).
4. Can you describe your first steps in trading compared to today?
Answer:
I can describe my first step in trading as horrible! Lots of frustration due to lack of funding and also lack of understanding of how the market works. I kept blowing-up my account because of the usual impression of looking for the shortcuts to make money right away. Right now I consider my trading has improved considerably, I learned the process of trading mainly because of my patience in learning how to put trades and continuously practicing my skills.
5. What have you done to improve your knowledge and skill?
Answer:
I did a lot of reading from hundreds of trading books, researching ideas and strategies from reliable traders’ and molding them into my own to suit my personality. Besides my journal that I write summarizing my comments of what happened to the market on a daily basis, I post ideas (in my blog) of how to put trades to further my knowledge and skills even if I am not doing actual trades, thus my daily encounters with the market is continuous and improving.
6. As a trader, what are your greatest strengths? Weaknesses?
Answer:
My greatest strength are when my parameters are congruent, that is, if I can sense the market is acting on a positive environment coupled with the signal of my strategy indicators, I can trade confidently. My weakness is my impulsiveness to trade early, so I am working on it by watching myself.
7. How do you handle highly volatile sessions, times when you are wrong more than right, and indecision?
Answer:
I try not to participate if the market is highly volatile. If I may participate, I try to wait when the market settles and from there figure out if its conducive to participate. If not, I remain on the sidelines and just observe - studying its movement until it closes. I stop trading and step back if I am wrong more than right.
8. What type of training have you received as a trader if any, and what would you suggest as the best type of education for a trader trying to go live?
Answer:
I did not receive any formal training except that I just read books and got ideas in my research from reliable sources and implement what I gather by making trades. It’s like trial and error. I failed a thousand times, and what I did was, I eliminated those thousands of failures and retain those ideas/setups that are working. And for traders wanting to go live, I suggest you go on simulation and keep on practicing putting trades. Record each trade and find out which one is working and which ones are not. Find a trading style or technique that suits ones personality and keep on doing it until it becomes familiar and workable.
9. What kind of advice do you have for novice traders or struggling traders looking to get better?
Answer.
Be patient and keep on practicing putting trades, even if you are not doing it live, make a journal (or a blog maybe) and record all your thoughts on what have you learned or the mistakes you made. Just like what I did, even if I don’t have an account, I am putting my real time trade ideas into work and posting them in my blog to monitor my progress. And you have to invest a lot of time. Keep focus and at the same time have a commitment.
10. What trading strategy do you personally prefer using and what kind of trading schedule do you have?
Answer:
I rely mostly through pattern recognition, the base and break trades that is building up from small tight bars consolidation with a sloping 9 and 20 MA’s that originates either from the pivot or the S/R levels. I trade early in the open especially if there is a big chance of capturing the breakout. If I get pummeled in the open, I will wait when the market settles between 9:30 to 12:00 Central Time and see if there is a pattern building up.
11. Have you taken the IDT and are you starting with the 70/30 profit split?
Answer:
Yes I did take the IDT course from my first Combine. I am starting with the 70/30 profit split.
12. How did having a loss limit help you become a disciplined trader?
Answer:
Having a loss limit helped me a lot to be disciplined because I don’t need to risk more of my capital.
13. What is your best trading day ever?
Answer:
I can say my best trading day ever is if I didn’t lose any and made a good trade early by capturing the breakout. In this way I don’t need to stay in the market for so long because I already accomplished my goal.
14. What are your goals as a trader with TST?
Answer:
To learn more by trading consistently and looking forward I can make something different and build a long term trading relationship with TST.
Thanks for having me!
