If you’re feeling lost or frustrated in your trading journey, I’ve been there too.

When I first started trading over 10-years ago, I got my trading ideas from social media and seeing which stocks were being discussed (now I know pumped and dumped) the most. Funnily enough, that micro-cap company drilling off the north coast of somewhere I put nearly all my savings in never did strike it big! Or the ‘unknown gem’ of a biotech company developing an amazing new drug which was going to change the world never came to fruition! Nope, instead I basically lost my entire account on numerous occasions looking for the proverbial pot of gold. There’s a saying about a fool and his money, and I was that fool.

So, with my ‘gambling days’ behind me and realising the power of the market to quickly take everything from you, I decided to set serious.

What better way to get serious about the market than deep value investing Warren Buffett and Benjamin Graham style? The number of hours I spent reading annual reports, learning about discounted cash flow models and various fundamental metrics was staggering. Once you’ve spent tens of hours in a single week studying a company and reached the conclusion ‘I like it’, then the only logical thing to do, in my naivety back then, was to ‘blindly’ buy the stock at once. I couldn’t wait for the market to open fast enough to place my order.

Imagine my surprise when a week later the stock was down -20%, or one year later down -50%. That wasn’t supposed to happen, right?! So clearly value investing wasn’t working for me and that old saying a fool and his money was ringing in my head again.

Given my failings as a value investor, my conclusion was there must be a better time to buy a stock. This led me on the journey of technical analysis and was a game changer in terms of my development as a trader. My initial foray into technical analysis started with the usual YouTube videos like ‘make $500 a day using this amazing day trading strategy’ and ‘this super-duper trading indicator has a 99% success rate’. Hmm. A fool and his money again. Having wasted countless hours and more money, I was undeterred and going to figure this trading thing out!

Back to the drawing board I went. However, I did find technical analysis resonated with me more than value investing and crossing my fingers the FDA was going to approve that drug! So, I stayed on the technical analysis path. As any would-be market technician, I bought the books, bought the courses, and spent my nights watching YouTube videos. So many YouTube videos!

I was fortunate enough to stumble upon the works of Richard Wyckoff, Jesse Livermore, Nicolas Darvas, and William O’Neil. They don’t know it, but they changed my life and I’m extremely grateful they were kind enough to share their market experience and wisdom. Their trading strategies and methodologies are the backbone my trading process.

Eat, sleep, study, trade, repeat became my daily routine. To an extent, it still is today!

As I tried to implement the works of Wyckoff, Livermore, Darvas, and O’Neil I felt like I was getting better at trading, but something still wasn’t clicking. This is when I found the book which has had the greatest impact on my life. It’s called ‘Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise’ by Anders Ericsson. What I hadn’t realised until reading Peak, was trading is a multifaceted skillset. This sounds simple yet the implications are profound. If trading is a skillset, it means I can improve my skills in specific areas and develop as a trader.

With the Bruce Lee quote “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” ringing in my ears, I became obsessed with trading, and the concept of deliberate practice. This philosophy and mindset of ‘10,000 kicks once’ and deliberate practice helped me develop specific trading setups based on my learnings from others and own market observations and experience.

Another Bruce Lee quote helps encapsulate this phase in my trading journey, “Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, and add what is uniquely your own.”

Ultimately, the quote above sums up the journey traders go on. You study the works of other traders and investors, you absorb what you find useful, you discard what doesn’t resonate with you, then you add your own ‘flavourings’ based on your personality. That isn’t to say trading is easy or the journey of a trader is without big ups and downs. In fact, trading is very difficult and requires relentless daily discipline and perseverance.

I’ve made the mistakes, I’ve felt the frustration, and I’ve put in the hours. Now, with the benefit of experience and skill, I want to help others like you. Even now, I consider myself a perpetual student of the markets which are dynamic and ever changing. As a trader, staying adaptable and open-minded is essential. I obsessively strive to improve myself and my trading each day by evolving my trading skills, learning new insights, and refining my approach.

My membership is my way of sharing that ongoing journey with the hope that it helps you in your own trading journey.

So, whether you’re just starting your trading journey or well on your way, if you choose to join the membership then know that you’re not alone as you’re now part of our trading community.

Take care and good trading,
Jack