Thanks to the Canadian government and technology, our guest was introduced to the trading markets, and has essentially never looked back. Vincent (chat room alias, “trader-vic”), as many do, became addicted to the markets and simply put, “just wanted to trade.” This lead him to the whole mindset of learning on the job… and… well… I’ll let him tell you how all that went. Oddly enough, his day job ultimately played a large role in helping to get his head screwed on the right way. Vincent was very open about his journey, especially the addiction part which I can totally relate to. All-in-all, it’s an eye opening account of just how dangerous the markets can be if you let them be.
Notes:
Vincent’s real introduction to the market didn’t occur until he got his iPhone 5. For the first time he felt that he was able to fully control his access to the market and wanted to put some of his money to work.
Canada gave its citizens 100 shares of a stock and while most people forgot about it, Vincent’s interest was piqued and this led him to start getting interested in trading more names. After opening an account he put some of his cash into gold mining companies.
Vincent eventually went down the penny stock route and had the typical experience of buying the top and selling the bottom. He also noticed that his success rate was very high when the market was rallying and then dropped significantly as the market went sideways or down. This led him to believe he ‘lost his touch.’
He unfortunately continued to trade with real money while learning how to trade with charts which created some sizeable losses. It wasn’t until he was able to pull himself away from the market (with his day job) to reset and start applying what he learned correctly.
With his newfound knowledge after going through the training, Vincent recognized that he really needed to get his platform set up to his liking and paper trade EFFECTIVELY. Effectively in the terms of keeping his paper trading as real as possible. He will find what works first on paper and then apply it with his real account.
Quotes:
“When it came time to sell I had to telephone them on a rotary phone, go down there and sign some papers downtown. Lots of rigmarole.” tweet this quote
“I didn’t know anything at all about charts. I didn’t know the difference between a bollinger band and a bean bag chair.” tweet this quote
“I was so frustrated following analyst reports. I then turned to Youtube and found Clay posting his charts. I signed up the next day.” tweet this quote
“I was saved by my day job. I had to out and work long hours day after day for a few weeks and that broke the losing spell.” tweet this quote
