I’m not sure you could start out a trading journey any better than quadrupling your initial account. Trading chat room member Mike (“JustMike” alias) did exactly that when he first began. With such a strong opening act, was it all just rainbows and sweet old ladies for Mike, or were there some bumps to come? Thanks to Mike’s openness about everything, Chezz and I were offered up many friendly reminders on what should be and should not be done as a trader. There is no doubt in my mind this interview will entertain and educate you.
Notes:
Mike’s introduction to the market was a stock picking game that he participated in for college which sparked his interest in speculating in the market. After attending a seminar with a friend of his, they decided to get involved in Investools stock program they were offering which opened up Mike’s world to charting. He was fortunate to never have to go down the road of penny stocks.
Even after being able to consistently achieve 10% returns on his trades, he was unhappy at the amount of profit and this would lead him to holding and ultimately losing on the trade. Unfortunately Mike struck some ‘fools gold’ which led to a big win on earnings. Now that he has quadrupled his account, he is trading all his newly acquired money.
After thinking that earnings would be his ‘holy grail,’ Mike’s account went back to zero on one bad earnings trade. He started back with a small amount and decided to avoid earnings. Him and his family then relocated for a different job and it sparked his desire to get back into the market. While his technical analysis skills are pretty good, his risk management was not up to par yet.
Mike and his wife moved to Chicago right before having their first child. He utilized the time he had while his wife was on maternity leave to paper trade for a solid 4 months before returning to the market on his live account. This led to him focusing on strict risk management. He has a very high win rate but his losers would wipe away those wins until he remedied the problem.
Quotes:
“We went and saw their pitch. It was a ‘follow our system’ approach. It was all charting from the beginning.” tweet this quote
“The problem I had was that I would buy and even though I know 10% is a good return, I’d hold it and it would go down to zero.” tweet this quote
“I got back into options, growing the account and taking some out whenever I could. I realized that I can do this.” tweet this quote
“You just need to get used to pushing the buttons. You need to get used to seeing red on the screen. You have to get used to that.” tweet this quote
“If I’m winning 4 out of every 5 trades, that 5th trade I refuse to admit being wrong. I would think I’m right it just hasn’t happened yet.” tweet this quote
