Interview with a Wandering Day Trader, Part 2/2

The following is part 2 of an interview with a wandering day trader. See part 1 here.

1. What do the people you meet think of what you are doing? Have you experienced any animosity towards your income-methods given all the public hatred of "bankers" and anything to do with finance?
   This is the beauty of what I do, I can be a day trader or a traveler (kidding). Many would be surprised to know that a lot of people don't know what day trading is. They know what the stock market is but not necessarily day trading. Instead of animosity I have found curiosity to learn exactly what I do. There are tons of people that I have trained that actually found me through my travel blog, WanderingTrader.com.
   I have found that everyone wants to live the lifestyle that I'm currently living. To have the ability to work from anywhere in the world and do anything that your heart desires is a feeling that is almost indescribable. Most people think they want the lifestyle that I have but I have found that most people aren't willing to take the risks involved. It was a lot when I took out $25,000 in student loans and lost it in a month. It was an extremely tough decision to leave an extremely well paying job and the security of a paycheck every week.
   The only time I get dirty looks is when I tell people I trade oil. Most people are extremely sensitive to that.




2. How do you judge your performance? Max P&L for year? Volatility, drawdown per month?
   This is something that is very unorthodox. Since I trade the Emini futures I focus on making a specific number of points per day. Since my end goal is not necessarily making $1 billion I don't worry about return on my investment are any of those financial statistics.
   The main thing that I worry about is making money consistently every single day.

   To put this into perspective the futures markets moves in takes and points. For those who don't know a point on the Emini S&P 500 is $50 per contract and there are four tics in a dollar. Each tick is worth $12.50. So if I make four points that is $200 per contract. If you assume 20 contracts (like shares of stock) that of $4000.

   So the only goal that I have when I trade is to stay positive at the end of the day. I am very fortunate to be able to make money on more days that I lose money. With the contract load I trade now I only have to make a few points today. Even if you only assume five to ten trading days a month (there are roughly 245 trading days in the year) making an average of roughly 2 points today that is still a great living. With a low contract load of 10 or 20 contracts that is roughly $5000 a month on the low end to $20,000 a month.

   The challenge that I have now is I can't trade enough of my money. This is one of the reasons why I am focusing on opening up day trading centers and having traders trade for me with the day trading strategy that I developed. This in the end allows me to make better returns on my money and also help others at the same time.

   I have the firm belief that everyone should have multiple streams of income. If I get sick or don't have Internet I can't make money because I cannot trade. With traders trading for me that changes the dynamic completely.

   In the end because of my focus on freedom and not necessarily money the focus is just to be consistent and make money every day.

3. Do you continue to do research after the market's closed for new strategies, etc.?
   One of the most important things when it comes to day trading is being able to adapt to the markets. The market in the last five years alone has been very different from the market that we had 10 years ago when I first started trading. One of my primary goals is to focus understand the market and be able to adapt to it.
   The conversation with any new traders that I meet on the road of eventually comes to day trading strategies. There was a trader that sought me out via Twitter and we ended up meeting and Medellin, Colombia. We had a great time at Carnaval in Barranquilla, Colombia, but I will save those epic stories for another day.
   Long story short he trades a million-dollar fund and I was able to help him improve his strategy. We currently are working together on new techniques and he is the reason for a new Pro trade that we developed. It's extremely important to always adapt to the market. When day traders begin to stagnate that's when we start losing money.




4. What happens if you lose internet connection during some big trading / moments of high volatility?
   Imagine being on the northern coast of Colombia. You're sitting on the balcony overlooking a great beach and you're working, day trading in the markets. All of a sudden Iran makes a stupid statement and brings the oral markets to the heat of turmoil.
   I lost $86,000 that day. In less than an hour. Just like that.
   It was definitely a learning lesson but there are also ways to limit this kind of activity. When there are global events affecting him market like crude just don't trade during the peak times open (American open).
   I always have a cell phone with a local phone operator so I can use the Internet and also make international calls. This has allowed me to get out of positions quickly with emergency trade desks, etc.




5. If you have a bad few days, does it affect how you plan things to do / places to go?
   The way I have designed my lifestyle is to always live under my means. I was able to rent a four bedroom penthouse in Colombia for roughly $1500 a month and even a loft the same price in Rio de Janeiro. I always make sure that no matter what happens I always have enough money to continue living this lifestyle.
   Having said that, I don't have too many losing days in the market. I generally lose a few days every few months. Due to the risk management system that I have set up with my day trading strategy I can be right only 40% of the time and still make money.
   That doesn't go without saying that I don't have a few bad days. Since I always keep a reserve of funds I'm still able to continue living the same lifestyle. The strategy I have refined over the years allows me to win more than they lose and have bigger winners and losers. At the end of the day I know I will come out on top it is just a matter of time.
   One of the great things about living this lifestyle is I can quickly change my surroundings in order to get a new outlook. If I'm ever having a rough time or need to change things a bit I just pick up and go. I only travel with two suitcases know so being able to change my environment is great for focus in my performance. This I would say is one of the big it manages to living this lifestyle.




6. What has been your biggest set-back to date and how did you recover from it?
   Due to my unique circumstances of when I first started trading it has taught me how to be able to control not only my emotions but also my performance in the markets. Losing $25,000 in student loans when I hadn't even started college at wasn't a big deal to me at that time. Looking back that was an incredible risk and an even larger hazard going back and taking out more student loans. Understanding what kind of risk that was at that point in my life there aren't too many things that scare me.
   I mentioned earlier that I lost upwards of $86,000 in one day. That does affect me but I know in the end that I'm going to come out on top so I know how to manage situations much better because of how I started my day trading career.




7. Do you have any outside investors?
   I have been approached by two different multimillion dollar hedge funds, one from the United States and the other from India. I declined to trade their money due to the regulations involved in the United States. I honestly don't want to spend the time to get any licenses in order to day trade. I also view it as having my freedom taken away from me. It's a very different when your trading someone else's money and you have to answer to what they want
   Instead what I'm doing is starting day trading centers around the world to have locals trade my money. This will allow me to diversify into other markets and also make better returns on my funds.




8. What are your long-term plans (go back to a company, settle somewhere, start a hedge fund, etc)?
   My current schedule has me going from Jordan, to Brazil in April, Singapore in May, Toronto in June, and eventually settling in Colombia in June.
   The plan right now is to focus on opening a few day trading centers around the world; Colombia, Singapore, India, Peru, South Africa, and Brazil, have all been tentatively planned. I plan on spending my time between these countries in order to help train the traders that we find to trade in our centers. Think of this as a prop floors.
   Since I have been traveling for so long I've been able to identify places that I love around the world. There is no one place that I would like to spend my time. I generally follow spring and fall around the world and there's only one place that has this whether you around, Medellin, Colombia.
   The ultimate vision is to have a day trading centers around the world followed by a possible restaurant and even residences. I see myself fusing my passion for travel and day trading. I would love to own a condo in several cities around the world including Rio de Janeiro, Medellin, Cape Town, somewhere in Europe (possibly Istanbul or Vienna), Singapore, and maybe even Toronto and the United States. This would allow me to go anywhere in the world turn a key and be home.
   I never plan to ever going back to the corporate world. I have way too much fun traveling around the world and day trading. Having the ability of teaching traders and receiving e-mails that thanked me for giving them the opportunity to live the same lifestyle is something very unique. I don't think I will ever stop living the life that I'm living now.




9. So you don't think you will ever eventually settle down in the future and try to work for/start a prop trading firm?
   I don't think that I could ever work for anyone else since I have had the taste of freedom for so long. The trading centers that I am opening in countries around the world are essentially going to be propped trading firms. The reason why I love day trading is because you can make great money in any market conditions.
   It is the only profession that I know of where you can make more money in a recession or a crisis. I'm looking to the future as I believe that many countries around the world will have a more profound impact on the global markets. I would like to have these trading centers to be able to adapt to no matter what the world throws at us.
   Day trading is my livelihood and I have been able to achieve my dreams through day trading. If there is ever any regulation or laws that are passed or I can't make a living I have to be able to prepare myself for that. The day trading centers around the world are going to allow me to adapt to any market conditions. Problems day trading in the United States or even London? No problem, start trading Indian or maybe even Colombian markets.




10. What aspects of day trading are hardest to teach?
    Discipline and focus. I started something called the learning how to day trade project (LTD Project) in order to find the answers to all the questions that people ask me about day trading.
    • How long does it take?
    • How much money do I need to start with?
    • How much money can I make?
    • Can anyone learn how to day trade?
    There have been University studies that say only one out of 10 day traders make money. I was out to prove if that was true or not. The results of the LTD Project saw results of one out of three traders instead of one out of 10.
    The biggest problem that most people have when it comes to day trading is discipline and focus. We come from a culture and a lifestyle that everything should be fast. Most day traders are extremely smart businessmen, doctors, lawyers, and even computer programmers, that are used to picking up things quickly and being very successful.
    The people that are not successful are the ones that really don't want to work for. Outside of choosing and finding a day trading strategy that actually works this is the biggest problem when it comes to day trading. The traders that I personally trained via the LTD Project failed not because they could do it, but because they didn't want to work for it.
    In my opinion anyone can learn how to day trade. I have taught traders around the world from Asia, Africa, South America, and of course Western countries. You don't have to be the smartest man in the world in order to day trade either. You could have average intellect and have an innate ability to pay attention to detail and Excel a day trading. I say this because one of the best traders I have trained fit that exact description.
    The real question is do you want to work for? Day trading is one of the hardest things to do because it isn't about indicators, technical analysis, or even trying to piggyback institutional traders on the decisions they make.
    Day trading is looking yourself in the mirror and controlling your demons. Discipline and focus is a mind game and that is something that is extremely hard to teach when someone isn't committed.




11. What was the most important book you read related to trading? Most to your life/lifestyle in general?
    I think the vision of what we have for ourselves is an extremely big part of our lives. Lionel Messi, a footballer that plays in Europe, the soccer equivalent of Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan, said that he envisions what he will do it again and then and doing it. They say that we only use 10% of our brains and it's really commanding to envision what we could do with we actually used all 100%.
    The most successful traders that I have trained didn't overcome problems of reading indicators, patterns, or charts. They learn how to control their emotions and are at peace with the decisions they make in the market.
    Trading in the zone by Mark Douglas is an excellent book, psycho cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz (make sure to get the original and not the rewritten version ), the Four Hour Work Week By Tim Ferris (I haven't read the book but agree with most of the concepts),




12. Most traders would disagree that day trading is "easy"…why do you think it is? Why do you think "anyone" can do it? (I ask this because on your blog I saw this post: Travelers Day Traders and in the video on the link you say you want to show how easy it is and that anyone can learn how to do it) a day trading academy, which operates under the belief that any can learn.
    I think that most people try to over complicate day trading. I see guys with 10 screens and a rainbow of colors on the charts. Day trading is people making decisions with their money, day traders are essentially psychologists that are reading personalities on a chart.
    When we start to get rid of the things that don't matter things are looked at from a different perspective. Removing things that complicate day trading like day trading software, indicators, and any type of automated trading system are essential if you want to be successful.
    I always tell traders that if anyone has more than three colors on the chart or anything that has software in the title to run the other way.
    What I always say that there are a million different day traders that trade a million different ways with a million different combination of indicators. Ask yourself what the bottom line is? It's being able to read and understand the market. It has nothing to do with any of these things.
    I have been in this industry for a long time and have seen what it takes to be successful. I left the last trading company I was with because they started trying to sell software instead of teaching traders. When students from that previous company asked me for help I decided to do things the right way. I now have a problem where I have so many students that are trading with their own account live that I have them help us teach newer traders.
    Keep it simple, pay attention to what is important just price action in momentum.
    You will be surprised what you will start to see when you pay attention to what's important.




13. What would you like to say to the college student / young finance professional who would love to do what you're doing but doesn't have the courage to take the first big step to make it happen?
    It is probably the most terrifying decision that someone could ever make but in the end it will be the best decision of your life. My uncle always had a quote he said to me, trust that the universe will unfold the way it's meant to.