Craig is an experienced trader based in London who approached me a few months back to assist him with his trading development. He has been kind enough for forward the following testimonial:
"I have been developing automated trading systems, in my spare time and then later part-time, for over 10 years and have been actively trading equities for significant periods within that period. I’ve never had a trading mentor until now.
Even though I was fairly happy with my trading process at the time, I knew that tweaks and improvements could be made, particularly in the area of risk management, where my system was particularly prone to making uncomfortably large drawdowns (30%-40%).
From our initial correspondence about 5 months ago, I found Steve extremely responsive to queries I had about trading method and risk management. Our entry methods are different but we’re both trend-followers in essence, and I knew pretty early on that I could benefit from his mentorship, particularly in risk management.
It’s now been 3 months since I joined the mentoring programme. The tweaks to my system that I have implemented as a direct result of Steve’s insight has already comfortably paid for the annual mentoring!
My goals for what I wanted out of the year have also already been met (and exceeded in places). My risk management skills have reached a new level of competence. Take December 2015 for example. This was a pretty choppy month for equities. I had 8 trades during December (7 losers and 1 winner), yet remarkably because of the risk management techniques I now employ, I still ended up with a +0.2R profit.
Also something else happened, which I did not really think about much or expect. My psychological state of mind has also improved since joining the mentoring programme.
I can honestly say that I have never felt so serene about my trading process and where I am at in my life, in all the years I have been trading. Even though my system is fully automated, I am still human and I can say that having such a serene state of mind is beneficial for life in general.
How has this happened? The application of new risk management techniques has definitely helped. But I think belonging to a trading community, has given me a new perspective on my trading. It’s given me raw experience of what others are going through on a day-to-day basis, through up days and down days. It’s made me appreciate my own edge on the markets more, and just generally given me even more confidence in my whole trading process.
The market conditions in equities for the last 3 to 5 months (September 2015 – January 2016) have not been great for trend-following in general. But in terms of my trading process, the last 5 months have been game-changing for me. I look forward to the rest of the year!"
As Craig says, his own entry methods are totally different to mine - he relies more on classical 'Edwards and Magee' type charting patterns. Yet on quite a few of the trade setups that we have discussed, the potential entries would have been remarkably similar.
The bit I found very interesting is the change in Craig's psychology and his new-found 'serenity'. Just as poor emotional control when trading can spill over into other aspects of someone's life, an improvement in this area is not solely confined to the trading arena!
Craig is part of our small mentoring group - all of whom have different levels of experience and equity, and who are dotted around the globe. But we work together as a team, identifying potential trades but also discuss all topics trading, both on our members twitter feed but also on our regular webinars.
Why not come and join Craig and the rest of the group?
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