The 100-Pip Traderwith me was very supportive and basically said, “Never do that
again.” We remained friends.
Q: What is your favorite part of trading?
A: I think it’s solving the pieces of the puzzle. It’s approaching a
problem and each trading system that I build or each trade that I
take is really the foundation of having taken a complex set of infor-
mation or data and coming up with a solution and then getting some
what immediate feedback. So I like that process of the immediate
feedback loop and putting together the pieces of a puzzle.
Q: Do you think it is more about entries or exits?
A: It’s about both. It’s about money management, and entries,
and exits, and being disciplined. It’s a complete package. I hear
nonsense all the time about, “It’s not where you enter, it’s where
you exit.” And I have been guilty of saying those types of things
myself and I was wrong if I ever did say it. Trading successfully is
more like surgery or flying a plane. You’ve got to get all of it right.
You can’t say as a surgeon, it’s not about the incision, it’s about the
stitches later on—that would mean it’s ok to cut a leg off to do a
skin graft. As a pilot, it’s about the takeoffandthe landing. You’ve
got to get both right.
And how do you get them right? You test. You never trade
anything before you test it.
Q: Lets talk a bit about the business of trading. How often do
you pay yourself or extract your trading profits?
A: Every two weeks. I actually am set up as a business, and I
am an employee of the company. I get paid and taxes are withheld
automatically. This makes it a lot easier at the end of the year. We
are paying taxes along the way. I’ve been told a thousand times that
this is not the most economical way to do it, but I live well, I don’t
ever have to worry about it, and I am very happy.