Notes for Chat with Traders, Episode 164

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Episode 164 ... Nick Fabrio (84:10)

  • Wanted to be a doctor
  • Started working at a casino, 4 AM to midday
  • Working in a casino is depressing, everyone's losing
  • Sold cars after that, was pretty good at that, lasted a year
  • Started frozen yoghurt shop, hard work, paid off debts, sold out, 23 yo then
  • Retail is horrible, too much competition, frozen yoghurt is "optional" [discretionary spending]
  • Doesn't regret yoghurt experience, learned a lot 
  • Got job at something called Wholesale Investor. Boutique broker. Not high pressure sales
  • Willing to take a risk, it's in his nature
  • "Bryce" turned him onto trading, back in 2010, 2011 [Bryce Edwards]
  • Learned a lot of from Bryce and others in chat room he was in 
  • Replaying stuff on Spark? [no idea what that is ... it's this]
  • Did year abroad studying in US
  • Started with $10,000. Lost $300 in first month, second month made $800
  • Added $10,000 more in second month once confident
  • Built account up to $65,000 within five to six months (January 2016)
  • Only traded stocks between 30 cents and $3
  • One tick is a full cent over $2, half a cent under $2, and then lower from there
  • Would risk $50 a tick on his highly confident trades, $25 a tick on less confident ones
  • Scalping when he began
  • Watches market all day long even though he is in trades briefly
  • Only focused on one setup at first
  • Always been fearless about losing money, unlike most people
  • Been trading full time now just under three years
  • 2016 on exchange to US, didn't trade as much
  • Scalper trading off catalysts, news
  • More comfortable short than long
  • Average holding time is ten to twenty minutes
  • Wishes he could hold for at least an hour
  • He's holding when he should scalp, and scalping when he should hold, working on this
  • Comes in each day with a watchlist, filters through looking for candidates
  • 40 stocks on his watchlist at the open, many charts open on Spark 
  • ASX opens by alphabetical group, two minutes apart [odd]
  • Earnings news, contract wins ... these are good catalysts
  • From 7 AM to 4:10 PM he's in front of the market
  • Received a cease and desist letter from GetSwift(?) after posting four page report on Twitter
  • 20 cent IPO went to $4.50 and now it's back at 35 cents
  • "Rubbed him up the wrong way"
  • Took his information to the AFR [whatever that is ... it's this]
  • In a thick book, he'll risk $500-$1000 a tick
  • Peruses the AFR [whatever that is ... see above]
  • Learned about Daily Report Card from Austin Mitchum
  • Internalize what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong
  • Trying to grade his setups in the moment now
  • Sizes by tick value and liquidity, how much protection he has in the book
  • Fair bit of spoofing in Australian market, algo activity, bid propping common
  • Recent Cobalt Blue Holdings trade was an A+ short for him
  • Illiquid stock, so good opportunity for a move, took a large sized trade
  • Got out within 20 to 30 minutes, but should have held longer
  • He is critical of himself, always room for improvement, a bit of a perfectionist
  • Does all his trades manually
  • Only uses mental stops, something else he has to work on
  • Does everything off the cuff, all feel based
  • If something goes against him, he gets out
  • If a trade does not work right away for him, he'll get out
  • Scratches lots of trades
  • Gets in and out in one go
  • He's an adrenalin junkie, if position not large enough, he loses interest
  • 70-80% of his profits happen in the first 30 minutes to an hour
  • Trades Australian market from Texas
  • Mean reversion "wallet padder" trades, "income" trades
  • Recently crossed $1MM in trading profits mark... after two and a half years
  • Has financial freedom but doesn't really care about the money, doesn't spend it
  • Bryce's mentorship was key, learning curve greatly reduced
  • "Nick is a freak" ... trading a game that suits his personality
  • Strengths: cutting losers quickly, "learn to lose," unaffected by losses, doesn't fight losers
  • Weaknesses: shorts too much, looks for reasons to short with obvious buys, doesn't relax enough
  • Plays reversals to VWAP
  • Not really a charting guy, more of an order book guy
  • Internet failures really "grind his gears"
  • Has no dollar loss limit for the day, he just grinds back
  • Lazy about doing daily report card now
  • Advice for amateurs: having a mentor is key, focus on doing one thing and doing it well, size up
  • People who aren't passionate aren't going to make it, you have to live and breathe it
  • Trading isn't a path to freedom, it's a path to prison (in front of the screens) [I'm chuckling]
  • Trading isn't stimulating or interesting to many people, yet they still try to trade and wonder why they fail
  • Trading isn't a job, it's just enjoyable
  • Don't over-plan starting, just dive in, immerse yourself
  • Let the smart people do the algos [or people who think they're smart; Nick is clearly smart :-)]
  • Paper trading is the worst thing you can do
  • Risk $1 a tick at first, don't even cover commissions, but *never* paper trade
  • Read Bella's books, they're awesome
  • Trading is like poker ... 95% psychology, 5% skill
  • Trying harder to hold longer ... at least an hour
  • Twitter: @longhorncapital

Master List of Day Trading Chat Rooms and Other Services

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Listed alphabetically ... new ones added as I discover them so check back.

(This is a work in progress. I will undoubtedly rearrange / categorize them at some point.)

If you know of one(s) that I haven't listed here, please let me know about it, and I'll add them.

Wang Jingwen -- 分不情是非

Added on by C. Maoxian.

看得见完美 and she was 王靖雯 ... I can't remember what year I got this album ... 1998 while living in Hong Kong, if memory serves? My daughter's name is 子雯 so the singer had quite an effect on me when I was a kid: 

「唱遊」數位下載及試聽 Digital download & streaming 【iTunes】 http://goo.gl/CXHynK 【KKBOX】http://kkbox.fm/0A0z79 【Spotify】http://goo.gl/0MBXvO 分不清白天　看不見黑夜 心情冷艷晝夜徘徊 分不清是非　看不見完美 十分酒醉　七分疲憊 不是想沉睡 噢　醒不來　醒來你依然不會在 不是醒不來 噢　醒來我還是發呆 分不清白天　看不見黑夜 心情冷艷晝夜徘徊 分不清是非　看不見完美 沉溺在晝夜的邊界 不是想沉睡 噢　醒不來　醒來你依然不會在 不是醒不來 噢　醒來我還是發呆 朋友都說我夜裡比較美 只因他們看不見我清醒的臉 朋友都說我夜裡更冷艷 只因他們看不見我的悲 太陽升起來 噢　醒不來　醒來依然沒有未來 月光灑下來 噢　醒不來　醒來我還是發呆

More Impressions After Sending My Son To Nerd Camp

Added on by C. Maoxian.

I wrote about this last year, but it bears repeating ... my son's fourteen classmates at nerd camp (electrical engineering this year) are all boys and here are their last names: 

  1. Chan
  2. Duan
  3. Huang
  4. Liang
  5. Liang
  6. Wang
  7. Xu
  8. Yang
  9. Zhao;
  10. Baskowsky
  11. Decker
  12. Kovacs
  13. "Wilson" (first name Ze'ev);
  14. Gupta

So 60% of the class is Chinese, 27% Jewish, 7% Indian, 7% WASP/Chinese mix. This doesn't mirror American society as a whole very well. It's clear to me that the Chinese will become an even more market-dominant minority, and the Jews will begin to get crowded out, though they're obviously doing their best to stay competitive. 

I expect there will be a backlash at some point ... I suppose it's already occurring given T___p's election win, though how public policy might change is a good question. Will there be quotas put in place, a sort of reverse Affirmative Action campaign, to keep certain ethnic/religious groups out of the top schools? It's something to keep an eye out for....

You'd Love Me As Long As You Wanted

Added on by C. Maoxian.

The great Linda Ronstadt singing Willie's wonderful song in 1976 ... goosebumps. Many think of Patsy Cline's cover as the best, but dare I say it, Linda's is even better. 

Linda Ronstadt Rockpalast Stadthalle Offenbach Offenbach, Germany November 16, 1976

First Presbyterian Church of King Ferry

Added on by C. Maoxian.

We visited the First Presbyterian Church of King Ferry on this beautiful summer morning. The congregation was vanishingly small ... I counted around a half dozen people in the pews (including us!) with another seven in the choir. A gentleman there told me it was "standing room only" at Easter when he was a boy, seventy years ago. Tellingly there is no "Time with the Children" since there are no children present, but they hopefully keep the line in the program.

They have a nice looking organ (and piano), but the music was provided by a single electric keyboard, often accompanied by the minister on electric guitar. I was told later that the organ had been tuned on the same winter day that the church ran out of heating oil, thus throwing it immediately out of tune again (each tuning costs $500). I was disappointed by the lack of organ music, or even traditional piano music.

It's a lovely old building, though showing signs of wear and tear. I was told the bell tower and steeple were added at a later date (maybe the 1860s?). There are some beautiful old trees on the property and a sizable cemetery behind, which I plan to explore at a later date.

The service started more or less on time (11 AM, they don't move to an earlier summertime hour in King Ferry) and ended around 12:15 PM. The sermon was quite short, surprisingly brief. There were a pair of white candles and a simple vase with fresh-cut flowers on the Lord's table, which pleased me.

The minister had a bushy white mustache and a nice singing voice. He used the expression "people who don't give a fig," which I hadn't heard before, and he quoted Bob Dylan (a Baby Boomer for sure). He made the good point that we shouldn't sing the black hymns as they are written, in "minstrel style." 

I plan to visit *all* the churches in the Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery in the coming year. Here are my photos and a scan of today's program below:

1798, eh?

Handicapped ramp artfully hidden ... could use some paint and repairs

More paint, more repairs

Interior

Gospel music? Wonder when it was written

Groot Papa

Added on by C. Maoxian.

This Dutch kid has my sense of humor ... sending up the whole talent-less white rap thing (think Pitbull):

WUZGOOD! JOiN DE KALFAM DOOR JE NU TE ABONNEREN OP MIJN KANAAL: http://bit.ly/1HZtz9E Check de vorige video hier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TbCyPYeVNs&t=262s Check hier de Behind The Scenes: https://youtu.be/ozvMu78k82Q Special Thanks: http://www.accu-toys.nl http://www.dekinderkeet.nl http://www.gigantisch.nl Shot & Edited by: Zino de Groot Produced by: Mick Spek Extra Thanks To: Yasmin Blake Isha van Dijk Robin de Boer Dina Kaderi Volg meer avonturen via: Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kalvijn IG: http://www.instagram.com/kalvijn Snapchat: kalvijn Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kalvijn-Kelvin-Boerma-863181737161759/ Eet paprika's want is lekker Deze video bevat geen betaalde samenwerking of gekregen producten.

Notes for Chat with Traders, Episode 95

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Episode 95 ... "Adrian" (70:28)

  • British? Accent hard to understand
  • "My missus works away from home"
  • Professional sailer for 18 years, lots of races
  • Fishermen as "opportunistic pirates"
  • Early 40s, what do old sailers do?
  • Bought systems off internet, paid for poor quality trading courses
  • Found the common link among profitable traders was their approach to the business
  • Wasn't making progress trading while doing a side job, realized he needed to focus full-time
  • Wife supported him when he went full time to learn how to trade
  • Took 18 months after that to get profitable
  • Couldn't make a living since he was undercapitalized
  • Wife believed in him and he believed in himself
  • Have to go down the dead-ends to realize they're dead-ends, not avoidable
  • Tracked his trades very closely
  • Found he had random trades that gave him random stats
  • Found he had large number of errors that if eliminated would hugely improve results
  • Found if he followed his rules and eliminated errors, he would be slightly profitable
  • Now uses Volume Profile to take trades
  • Trades German bund primarily, secondary market in DAX, used to trade Eurostoxx but stopped
  • Intraday trader: big picture: hourly, intermediate picture: 15 mins, executes off of 3 min chart
  • Didn't have enough capital to trade off the daily charts
  • Discovered that no pros traded forex, all retail pikers there; pros all traded ES or Bunds, etc.
  • Keeps a lot of stats on the markets he trades
  • Discretionary trader, couldn't code his system up
  • Has a checklist before he takes a trade
  • Always risks approximately the same amount of money in each trade
  • Uses Volume Profile to place his stops
  • Knows stats on things like "gap fill" or tests of Point of Control (POC) ... what percentage of the time is the gap filled or POC tested?
  • How far "offside" does price go before the gap is filled? He tracks these stats
  • Uses Linnsoft's platform InvestorRT and their language to keep the stats
  • Starts looking at weekly charts, marks levels, does same with daily, determines bias
  • Then looks at hourlies, judges trend, marks levels, places where price will test
  • Does same with 15 minute charts
  • Is it trending or in balance? (volume profile language)
  • Always looking at levels where he expects it to test
  • Key thing is being honest with yourself when you do your trade reviews
  • People don't like to admit that they "made a tit of it"
  • Marks his charts end of day where he entered and exited, things he missed
  • On weekend he reviews all the daily charts from the past week
  • Grades all his trades and grades all of his days ... then reviews them
  • "Why did I do shit?" ... fear of loss and fear of missing out are the two big things
  • Score: Is it in my trade plan? Playing to win or not to lose? Was he patient, how he was feeling, all recorded
  • Also tracks his intuition, what did his gut say? Scores this too
  • Spends 20 hours outside of market hours reviewing his trades every week
  • The mental side goes hand in hand with your trading edge
  • Trading like any sport: you have to practice for hours, can't just jump into the ring and box
  • Preparation as important or more important than focusing during market hours
  • Website: takingonetradeatatime.com
  • Twitter: @adeyf69

Beneath the Clear Night Sky

Added on by C. Maoxian.

I hate it when the crowd sings along, but there was some real punk energy at this show ... for some reason it's not letting me embed it to the song I like, which is at 19:53. 

Recorded on 17 December 2007.