Millionaire TradersQ: Did you ever join a support group?
A: No, because 20 years ago there wasn’t that many advanced
services for trading. Support groups did not exist. These days I
will sometimes attend a lecture, but not really take classes because
now that I have been in the industry for 20 years, I feel that I have
enough experience that I do not need to take any of the classes.
Q: Do you recommend classes for new people?
A: There are a lot of things to learn in the markets, but learning
yourself could involve a lot of time and a lot of brick walls. You may
spend time looking at tools that may not be right for the market
that you want to trade. These days, there are many classes available
which help start traders on the right foot and ease their learning.
But don’t expect to take a class no matter how expensive it may be
and be successful right away. The class will give you knowledge,
teach you techniques, help you to develop a trading plan, and
through this knowledge you will learn the product’s characteristics
and after that you can learn to develop trading techniques. A class
helps people to accelerate their learning, take the first step. But
just accelerating your learning will not guarantee success. If it did,
everyone would pay a few hundred dollars for one class and never
go to work again. No one will teach you the main secret to trading.
It is a matter of how aggressive you are at learning and your talent
at picking up the information.
Q: Do you have a number one rule for trading?
A: Yes. Stops. The number one rule I have is to use stops and
to diversify your investments and do not be afraid to lose. There
will always be risk. There are many people who analyze intensively
for hours, days, or weeks until they find a trade that they have 90
percent confidence in. But there is nothing that can be 90 percent
right all the time. As long as you find something that may only be
80 percent right, that is good enough because it still means that it
only has a 20 percent likelihood of being wrong.