A great day

Yesterday I was able to travel to London and meet a couple of the traders in our mentoring group.

It was an interesting meet up for me because both of these guys are in the IT industry, and have used their own skill set to enhance their own trading approach or routine. 

The first guy has been in our group for a while, and yesterday was our third meeting. I've talked before about his progress here.

As he said when he were finishing up, the difference in his approach and mindset between now and our last meeting a year ago is like night and day. It has been quite a journey, and it is only in the last few months that the tangible rewards are starting to show - he is up 40% in his account since March, in conditions that have not been particular favourable to trading breakouts and following trends.

The exciting thing is that, as yet, he has not had the fortune of getting into a major 'home run' style trade, where you end up with a large multiple R winner, say greater than +10R (I've had some in excess of +20R). These only come along once in a while, but when they do, they allow you to make a huge increase in your trading equity. 

Once he gets one of those big winners, then he will truly be on his way - he has gone through the process of making and eliminating the major mistakes that were holding him back, become a lot more focused and disciplined in his approach, and is continuing to utilise his own skills to systemise or automate certain elements of his trading. If he keeps on the same path, the only way is up...

The second guy joined our group a few months back, and trades in a different manner to me. His own trading is based around some of the classical charting patterns, in the style of Edwards and Magee. However, he is well aware of the potential benefits of a trend following approach, and has been toying with making some changes to his own approach. He runs his own programs and scans, which he has built from scratch, and started this whole process a decade ago - now that's commitment!

Before yesterday, we had already discussed issues relating to risk management or portfolio heat, and some specific 'technical' aspects of his trading approach, and we took these points further yesterday. 

What all this shows yet again is that people who are passionate and committed, with a desire to learn and improve, will continue to move forwards in their trading endeavours - initially in their methods and mindset, before translating into a tangible improvement in performance. They both know where they are going, and are happy to put in the time, effort and money in to travel that journey.

It is fair to say that we all got something positive out of the meeting, and went away with some ideas to think about, test and some additional insight into other traders think about similar issues and problems. 

All in all a great day - thanks guys!