The Wisdom of Experienceclear opportunity or setup to get into the market because it avoids
letting the market dictate my profits and losses and allows me to
be the decision maker once again. I get to choose when to get into
the market, what product, and what size and this control is very
important to me.
Q: How long did it take you to realize that stops are important?
A: It was something that I realized later on. I remember the first
trade that I lost money, I did not learn that lesson. The second
trade, I didn’t as well but by the third losing trade, I finally realized
the importance of using stops. In addition to stops, there are other
methods that I use to reduce risk. They include spreading out my
entry levels so that I can spread out my risk as well as diversifying
by product or entry levels. If I am very confident, I could put my
whole investment into one entry, but I will scatter my exit levels.
If I am not as confident, I would spread out my entry.
Q: How long did it take you to develop a strategy that worked
well for you?
A: In approximately 1998 when I started making changes to
my trading style. So as you can see, it took approximately 10
years of success, failures and essentially gaining trading experi-
ence for me to get where I am today. Although this may seem like
a long time, since then I’ve had 10 years to act effectively on these
experiences—which would be post 98.
Q: Why did your strategy change?
A: After a series of failures, you want to change yourself because
the right direction to look is forward. And the other reason for
the change is age. Before you are 30, you are very aggressive. If
you have$300, you could risk the entire$300. But after 30, you
become more conservative. The younger you are, the riskier, the
older, the more conservative. So I believe people change with age,