Retail Trading for a Living Milestone - "Feed my ego"/Thought sharing

Well done Minwa..Inspiring!!

Just goes to prove once again that anything is possible in life if you have an unwavering desire and commitment to succeed....

Having the right mentors and your own style helps.

Been pretty busy with Lunar New Year, sorry left a few questions unanswered. Thanks everyone else for the encouragement/acknowledgement.

fiftyeight said:

Finding good mentors seems to be a common theme when reading about successful traders, how did you find yours?

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Went through the "guru" phase for a couple of years, after spending a few grand I got delusional, and believe whatever crap I was fed, just so I don't like an idiot for paying and studying crap that don't work (system was trendline + stochastics + RSI + bollinger bands). I think I clung to that false hope to make myself feel better. I kept the subscriptions (of course they charge monthly subscription fees on top of their overpriced brokerage after spending few grand on junk course) going until my trading & bank account were emptied.

Thank god I was still in high school then with no job, if I had a job I would've had the money to keep the subscriptions going, not sure how much longer I would've been stuck in that crap. It was the lowest point of my trading career, but also the start of the beginning of a turnaround. I then turned to studying random stuff on the internet (thanks err "sharers" - I heard from one of my schoolteachers that pirating for educational purposes is legal) went through a few popular authors and settled on Larry Williams, his price action stuff made sense to me.

I then found an online group studying his stuff, it was OK but no breakthroughs and after a while chatting with another participant introduced me to someone else who taught for free. He's a former Citibank trader. It wasn't a direct personal mentoring (although I'm sure I was noticed as I participated in everything I could & asked questions.). One time he asked who wanted a more in depth service where for a few days a week he would analyse the market live and teach for like $200/month. After doing a poll, he showed the results and said there was like a hundred something people who were willing. Then he stated he can easily collect $25k+ per month, but he doesn't need that money and was just a demonstration. Those who need to collect are not doing as well as they present themselves to be - all he wanted is a success story and someone to take his tools & eventually soar above him. He stated his trading weaknesses and gaps in his tools, and was excited about the prospect of someone possibly filling them.

It took almost a year of study while working but was amazing. He has retired already from teaching otherwise I'd just point those interested to him. Although trading is very personal, he has many critics who found no value in his method, definitely more so than his real dedicated students.

Modest said:

Congratulation mate that is awesome. And thanks for posting it is very encouraging.

I expect no less than 2 bottles of Dom Perignon this weekend for your celebration.

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Cheers but I think stated earlier I don't touch anything alcoholic .

Trembling Hand said:

Nice work, 10 years of work and refining skill . Aint there a rule about that somewhere?



Bet you do now..... they can smell compound returns......

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LOL I try not to explain too much about it, my current GF still thinks it's some sort of gambling. She can't know I am mostly bored & free most of the day or I will be asked to run too much errands for her

Trendnomics said:

"There are old traders, there are bold traders, but there are no old, bold traders" - Ed Seykota

+

"The markets are the best ego regulator" - Unknown​

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Good quotes, my ego is my weakness, I have to keep reminding myself I will be humbled, which really helps me notice it when it happens and keeps the draw down in check.

--

Been busy haven't been trading too much for Feb..don't mind though while there were good opportunities with the volatility, I still prefer steadier markets and more slower consistency. My inflated trading ego will probably sabotage me too, probably would've tried to match last month's awesome results & forced trades.

minwa said:

One time he asked who wanted a more in depth service where for a few days a week he would analyse the market live and teach for like $200/month. After doing a poll, he showed the results and said there was like a hundred something people who were willing. Then he stated he can easily collect $25k+ per month, but he doesn't need that money and was just a demonstration. Those who need to collect are not doing as well as they present themselves to be - all he wanted is a success story and someone to take his tools & eventually soar above him. He stated his trading weaknesses and gaps in his tools, and was excited about the prospect of someone possibly filling them.

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Great story

There's some genuine people out there and quite a few on this forum who are happy to share with no expectation of anything in return other than the satisfaction of seeing someone else succeed.

I remember when I first started using Amibroker I was amazed at some of the stuff people had put together (eg. GreatPig's Looping PDF on ASF) and shared. I always make an effort now to answer questions in the Amibroker section here particularly, hoping one of the newbies starting out comes back in a couple of years and posts something that I can learn from.

Always loved those trading stories

minwa said:

Been pretty busy with Lunar New Year, sorry left a few questions unanswered. Thanks everyone else for the encouragement/acknowledgement.

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Cheers for this, great post

Especially this, love it

After doing a poll, he showed the results and said there was like a hundred something people who were willing. Then he stated he can easily collect $25k+ per month, but he doesn't need that money and was just a demonstration.

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Any more updates minwa?

Capital funding and along with seminar BS they probably invested $15k initially in me. Then after a very bad first year in Uni I took a year break from uni, worked full time in a crappy job (13/hr cash laborious job). Saved $10k myself and all while refining my trading, this is when I started seeing success. My brother also joined in and learned a bit on trading and after about another year of results parents were convinced and funded me $150k(relatives also added about another $100k few months later).

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Wish my parents had this much faith in me. $250k on their most trustworthy son/relative....

Wysiwyg said:

Wish my parents had this much faith in me. $250k on their most trustworthy son/relative....

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Love and faith are intangibles. Money on the other hand...

Wow, here I was with a 10k trading account somewhat happy with my results up 2.5% market overall down 5%.

Good job mate keep it up. I have a long way to go!

aramz said:

Any more updates minwa?

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Feb was a boring trading month, didn't trade much because of LNY. March was pretty good, not spectacular like Jan but still got close to 6 figures.





Love the power of compound..Always surprise myself every time when totalling $ amount, even though I know my % , it gets easier and easier as your account grows.

I also reached a target profit earnings and have just ordered a BMW M2 Pure Editon . It won't be here until towards end of year though..very slow production

Not sure how financially sensible this decision will be..we will find out I guess. Live & learn.

Unsure what to continue this thread with..feel free to ask any questions. Maybe I will rant on some of technical analyst's favorite tools..

minwa said:

I also reached a target profit earnings and have just ordered a BMW M2 Pure Editon . It won't be here until towards end of year though..very slow production

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What colour, green?

minwa said:

Unsure what to continue this thread with..feel free to ask any questions. Maybe I will rant on some of technical analyst's favorite tools..

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I am already looking forward to this...

Balling Minwa - very cool.

How many round trips a day on average?

Awesome work Minwa! - For an aspiring trader, but not yet successful investor - what are the top books you would recommend for either equities or options (I haven't yet progressed to futures)?

Can you tell us a little more about your options journey? (Something I dabble in, but have yet to achieve something to write home about).

Cheers,
dryath

Minwa, whenever someone makes big money like this, I wonder what stops the broker from exploiting the situation?

A simple program could piggyback or front run every move you make, surely?

Gringotts Bank said:

Minwa, whenever someone makes big money like this, I wonder what stops the broker from exploiting the situation?

A simple program could piggyback or front run every move you make, surely?

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The edge would be eroded if more money is thrown at it, noticeable worse fills would raise customer suspicions. Plus the paper trail (in T+3 T&S is there for the world to see).

Also jail.

Gringotts Bank said:

Minwa, whenever someone makes big money like this, I wonder what stops the broker from exploiting the situation?

A simple program could piggyback or front run every move you make, surely?

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I'm not sure..may be a problem if you're with a small broker but IB has millions of customers..and there are much bigger sharks than me for me to start worrying yet. I'm mainly in the ES, it's very liquid and have never had limit orders not fill when price trades there. Good question though, anyone know anything about it ?

kid hustlr said:

Balling Minwa - very cool.

How many round trips a day on average?

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About 2. Usually more during Tue & Wed, and less during Mon & Fri. Most of the time only one setup per day and I might take 2 shots at it if first time gets stopped. Another setup only happens about once a week, it's simple and I will share that one later..actually I already shared it in simple form in another thread (it was either in Sam or Modest or Can's futures thread..I forget which)

Modest said:

What colour, green?

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Alpine White ! The blue looks awesome but I'm forecasting it will be too popular because it's the promotional color..gotta be a contrarian



Also inevitably will be adding carbon fire boot lips, rear diffussers, front lips eventually & carbon fibre on white is best !

dryath said:

Awesome work Minwa! - For an aspiring trader, but not yet successful investor - what are the top books you would recommend for either equities or options (I haven't yet progressed to futures)?

Can you tell us a little more about your options journey? (Something I dabble in, but have yet to achieve something to write home about).

Cheers,
dryath

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Kind of hard to recommend trading books on trading as what clicks for me might not for you. But universally I think everyone will benefit from reading the first Market Wizards book, and eventually Brett Steenbarger's psychology books after trading for a while.

I haven't really read any options books..they're full of maths and theory. I think those can be grasped from plenty of free stuff on the internet and the rest can only be gained from actually trading..

I'll write on my options journey tomorrow or the next few days.

minwa said:

Feb was a boring trading month, didn't trade much because of LNY. March was pretty good, not spectacular like Jan but still got close to 6 figures.

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10% to 20% return per month is astounding along with a high win rate (possibly over 80%) and high reward to risk ratio. I have always believed this is possible (hence why am still around) but have never even come close. Inspirational stuff.

skyQuake said:

The edge would be eroded if more money is thrown at it, noticeable worse fills would raise customer suspicions. Plus the paper trail (in T+3 T&S is there for the world to see).

Also jail.

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The edge wouldn't necessarily erode if the broker is simply following (rather than front running). Broker might be happy to get in 1 tick higher on every single long trade and make 60k/month rather than 100k.

I can think of an easy way around such a paper trail, but it's probably not wise to mention it.

I guess so long as minwa is getting paid, it's not a problem. And boy, is he getting paid.

minwa said:

But universally I think everyone will benefit from reading the first Market Wizards book, and eventually Brett Steenbarger's psychology books after trading for a while.

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That's basically my trading "library" - what the top guys do and how to manage psychology. And yet I'm not ordering a new beema! Time to read them again, this time I might try reading between the lines as well.