Millionaire Tradersfocusing on shorter-term charts. People who are patient and will-
ing to sit with a trade for days or weeks at a time are best suited
for long-term trading. Hoosain Harneker is the epitome of a short-
term trader. He goes for 10 points at a time, and his trading robot
is in an out of positions within minutes. Marcelino Livian is the
complete opposite. He takes a very relaxed approach to trading
and has often held his positions for months at a time.
Each of our traders has different methodologies. Franki Law
and Paul Willette go for big profits or, more specifically, a large
number of points. Chuck Hays will trade a lot of contracts for very
small profits over and over again throughout the course of the day.
Steve Ickow places more than 200 trades a day, many of which
ends up in scratch just to probe the sentiment of the market. He
takes small risks, but when the trade moves in his direction, he
aims for big profits. The key is to figure out what works for you and
stick to that strategy.
Although it is important to know your strengths, successful
traders also fully understand their weaknesses. Ashkan Bolour for
example trades only the U.S. session in currencies, although the
currency market trades 24 hours per day. Furthermore, he limits
himself to only two trades per day. If he takes two consecutive
losses, Ashkan will walk away from the screen, fully accepting the
fact that he is out of sync with the market, but secure in knowledge
that he will come back tomorrow to trade another day. Chuck Hays
also makes it a habit to leave the screen during what he calls dead
time—11a.m.to 2p.m.East Coast time—in the stock market
because he knows that he will make many unnecessary mistakes
if he trades during that time. In fact, the success of many of our
interviewees depends on knowing whennotto trade almost as
much as it hinges on their ability to make timely entries into the
market. As Chuck Hays, observes, “First you must learn not to lose
money.” That requires the knowledge of both your strengths and
limitations.
Rob Booker said it best when he told us that after so many
years of trading, no matter how hard he tries, he is only a 50- to
100-pip-a-week trader. Beyond that, he starts getting a bit crazy
and a bit euphoric. Every one of us is similar to some degree, we