Trading Retrospective: Lone Wolf or Bro?

Trading is seriously a lonely endeavor. Initially we wonder if joining something will improve our skills, then, I believe, the question becomes “how much of this is noise?”

I’ve gone through a couple of different phases where I’ve been totally on my own, joined chatrooms, created my own tight-knit groups and eventually to the point where we started to find our focus and branch off. At every stage there was something to learn and, in retrospect, each thing felt necessary as part of my own development as a trader.

Let’s start at the beginning —

The first thing I think a lot of traders go through is looking for a room to be apart of. We think that we can find mentorship, friends and pickup bits and pieces from fellow traders, at least that’s what I thought. So that’s what I did, I subscribed to a cheap ass chatroom and sat in there like a fly on the wall for months. I tried to pm some people who I thought seemed confident, consumed all the materials but never really found myself. It still really felt like I was alone and a lot of the times if I followed an alert, it was surely an unmitigated disaster; no plan, no reason to be in and trust in a complete stranger. It’s crazy how these guys seemed to always bank but whenever I followed the trade I would get crushed like a bug, and so would they. “GOD, why did I do that?”

I decided that a cheap chatroom would attract all kinds of newbies and that investing in my education might be a better plan of attack, something where you get what you pay for. I budgeted a bit more $ per month on a better room that was more or less limited to a few slots and decided to do it differently this time. No more fly on the wall, I went in guns blazing. I introduced myself on day 1, background and all. I mentioned wanting to start something with anyone interested and that we have voice chats and really work together.

The first person, G, who welcomed me ended up being one of my best trading buddies to this day. G knew a lot more than the other guys I messaged before. He had a rough idea of fundamentals and was in the game for a while. We talked everyday about improving our skills and learning as much as we could. It was great, I had finally found someone who was right there with me on the journey and wanted the knowledge I sought all the same. Together we worked on criteria for A+ setups, helping each other work on strengths and weaknesses and giving each other support.

We were getting involved with Twitter at the time as well and followed all the great traders. My eyes were opened to different types of traders in our niche and I wanted to really grow our group with some of these guys. I started trying hard to show that I was worth a salt and posting some of my charts. I tried to keep in touch with them and go back and forth on their trades.

Eventually we got into private conversations and merged our parties together to create a mastermind (Stephen Covey). From there our results really skyrocketed, we learned more about each others strengths and built upon them as a little family. We started eyeing the same tickers, teaching each other about the game and reviewing. We shared books, videos, tweets and anything that was related to success/trading. It was a blast, I had a ton of fun making jokes with those guys and it was great that we were all learning together.

I learned a lot by teaching others what I knew by reinforcing the principles behind it and it motivated me to be accurate. I personally witnessed some big transformations in traders who’ve found their way based on ONE single idea that another trader gave them. There was power in this little family.

At some point I started to feel that I had developed my ideology and process and it really came down to trading my plans. I found myself picking up on biases and learning a lot less. I would see someone else’s methodology or speak and get FOMO or lose conviction in my plan.

It was definitely not for my benefit and I realized it, so I started to distance myself. I muted the chat before and during market hours to guarantee that I was trading my process. This ended up working a lot better for me.

From there I started performing really well. No bias, but my own. No one to alert me to something I shouldn’t care about or wouldn’t have noticed personally. And in hindsight, really all of the best trading I’ve ever done was in solitude. I’ve made so many mistakes losing myself to another traders thesis or idea. Psychologically it is called “Anchoring Bias” —

Anchoring or focalism is a cognitive bias where an individual relies too heavily on an initial piece of information offered (considered to be the “anchor”) when making decisions.

Sometimes I just couldn’t shake the idea that I could be wrong. I know that it might be perceived as being mentally weak or not confident, but I know myself and I get FOMO, I get biased, I am very flawed as an individual.

Everything I’ve ever truly learned about discipline and focus stems from experiencing the exact opposite and realizing it’s just about avoidance. As long as I take away opportunities to fail in advance, I am far more likely to succeed (max losses, walking away, ‘Do not disturb’ on chats, ignoring twitter etc). Trading isn’t even about being right or wrong, it’s about letting the thesis play out and using your edge. You’d love to be right more often, but that isn’t really even the defining factor in a trader’s success, it’s really about limiting mistakes and managing risk.

One aspect of trading in groups is that sometimes people start to question themselves and their behaviors. They start looking for answers outside of themselves and their process. This has a very negative impact on the trader. Excerpts from Michael Martin’s “Inner Voice of Trading”:

Every trader needs to be responsible for themselves and needs to hold themselves accountable. As much as trading can be made into a team game, it is not a sustainable. I’ve always been about self-reliance when it comes to work and nearly every time I’ve asked myself or others questions like this, I’ve ignored my inner voice and wisdom, only to regret it later. I regret it even if I succeed, that had nothing to do with me. I don’t respect progress without pain and I don’t respect a poorly executed win, I want perfection.

There are people out there who tend to ask the same questions and get the same exact answer a dozen times. Beyond that, they want to know what you’re in, what your avg is, what your PT is, what the news is, what the float is, if there’s dilution, is it in effect, when did you enter, why did you enter, what is on your scan etc. Honestly it’s hard NOT to be curious about others, especially if they’re killing it. A lot of the time they’ll share it, but personally it leaves a sour taste in my mouth when it’s a repeatable offense. I once had a trader tell me that I was being selfish for not sharing what was on my scan… he didn’t even have his own fucking scanner, imagine that.

Naturally the group began to grow apart. Some people stop trading for a while, some people fall behind, and others accelerate faster. We all started on the same page, hungry for success, and that’s what made it powerful. However, as time passed by we just couldn’t keep it up. FuturesTrader71, in his Chat with traders interview (AMAZING episode btw), talked about how traders end up finding their own methodologies and becoming absorbed by it. They become obsessed and go down that rabbit hole. Unfortunately, what this does is that it bores people who do not quite see it the same way, it falls on deaf ears. Naturally someone who is trading a certain system can no longer relate to someone trading another and we all find ourselves drifting. And really, in my opinion, trading is a journey for one. Traders can give you the exact strategy they use to perform but it’s up to the pupil to take it seriously and go through all of the hoops to achieve similar results. It’s a process, it’s a journey and without the critical experiences and failures there is no trader.

This leads me into the present —

Without any major groups, I started refining my process even further and was totally self-absorbed. I kept practicing in and outside of the market hours, day after day and that lead me to having one of the most consistent months of my entire trading career. At this point I had already had an edge, a strategy, I had the skills necessary and learned so much. All that mattered now was execution, precision and leveling up. I was destroying it, I had made, in a week, what I had made in one of my best months to date. Yet I couldn’t help but feel lonely.

I like to keep trading out of my personal life so my success was kind of kept to myself. I started posting on twitter again to share some value and use my positive emotions to empower other traders and give them something other than the usual boasting and bragging. This started to garner more attention and helped me connect with a lot of traders. I wondered if it was worth it to try and create or join a group once more. Surely, there are always these three types of people in your career: those below, with you, and above you. Ideally I would be able to connect with all 3, knowing that it was a deadly combination for self-improvement and growth.

I started connecting with traders and getting in 1-on-1 voice conversations with them. Traders love talking, I sense it’s because they can’t really laugh about blowing up or losing a shit ton of money to their families :). It’s a great time honestly, and it’s always surprising to meet the type of people who become traders. A lot of them have been successful in other endeavors in life. I’m not used to that, I was mostly surrounded by young adults and teenagers in esports — At best they could tell you which anime to watch. It really took me a while to realize the trading community is awesome! There are some major geeks out there that put in so much work and it inspires me to work harder as well.

I talked to a guy who was in a pretty impressive group. I asked him what it was like and he basically told me that they have the same issues as any group. You respect some traders and follow their ideas and biases, you start dabbling in different types of setups and ultimately need to ween off of it to stay true to yourself. He told me that he was performing far better when he stuck to what he knew, admitting that some poor trading decisions were made as a result of being in that environment. That basically sealed the deal for me.

I realized that the grass may always be greener and ultimately it was what I suspected. We all must be our own traders, no matter what. I learned that just having a conversation here and there with another trader can really be as refreshing as constantly being in chat. At this point, that’s where I aim to be.

By having these conversations I picked up on a few ideas and thoughts that have given me the same feelings as the first group we made. I learned by teaching, I learned by questioning myself outwardly, I learned by the experience of others and learned different perspectives.

Overall in my journey, I think this is the best way forward for ME. I don’t regret any step of the way to get to this point, they were all lessons and experiences that shaped who I am today. Wherever you may be in the journey, I hope that you can relate and take bits and pieces of my experience for your own benefit.