- Start by telling us about yourself and your background: who you are, what you've done, and how you came to launch TheForexRoom.com.
My professional background is in financial services in London. I worked for an assortment of firms, some large such as Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers, and a bunch of smaller ones too. As a trader, I started off trading my own capital, beginning with US equities & equity options and after a few years of that I moved to Forex. Early in my trading career, I gravitated towards Technical Analysis as my prime lens to view the market. Two books greatly affected how I chose to trade from the very beginning: John Murphy's Technical Analysis and How I Made $2m by Nicolas Darvas. Trading is a lonely business, and in order to feel a sense of connection, I started writing a blog. I had about 15 followers at the beginning, all friends of mine. I was calling live trades on my blog and my friends were following along in their live accounts and making money. I began enjoying this as much as the trading itself. As the blog grew with my friends adding their friends to the blog I wanted something more structured. This ultimately led to my work with DailyForex.com and the birth of TheForexRoom.com. I got access to DailyForex.com's international readership, support, feedback and other incredible resources. TheForexRoom.com gave me and my trading partners a way to call the trades we were taking for ourselves in a secure and structured environment.
- What does TheForexRoom.com have to offer traders? What makes it stand apart from other trading sites?
The structure of the room isn't unique – there are other live rooms of this nature. But the quality of our trade-calls is unique. I've come to suspect most live rooms aren't run by traders who are consistently profitable or earn their living from the markets. It's like a chef who can't cook but attempts to teach others. All of us, my two trading partners (Colin Jessup and Greg Ward) and I, trade for ourselves. Colin is also a professional money manager. Because we earn our keep from the markets, the members that choose to follow our calls are profitable too. We control risk, we have precise entries, we know that we have to get out when the market has proved us wrong, we have a high win rate with decent risk/reward...we do all the things you need to do to be successful in this business. And we expose our members to that same level of professionalism.
- You are also a Senior Analyst at DailyForex.com. Tell us about that.
About three years ago I started writing for DailyForex.com. My relationship with them grew beyond just submitting articles because we shared the same core values: teaching new traders to become better traders. By "?better" we mean giving traders the right information and not just lots of information. And we have to present our information in a way that's useable so it will affect their bottom line. Working with DailyForex has been tremendously rewarding: they're an innovative company and they care about the community of traders. Plus they have an extraordinary reach in the industry. For example, they communicate directly with the heads of Boston Technologies (the creators of MetaTrader). In one instance, I was lucky enough to test the release of a particular broker's new ECN platform and make recommendations on its improvement. Currently, we're working on a very exciting project for building an online school that will guide traders from the ground-up. We aim to make it the #1 destination for new traders when beginning in the Forex market. Much of what is available now is static in nature – blocks of text on webpages or random video content that isn't strung together in a meaningful way. Our education program will be organised and highly interactive to engage students by giving precise steps towards a successful trading experience. DailyForex.com is putting together a considerable full-time team including programmers, content people and other professionals to execute this. One of my favorite quotes is by the 19th century English philosopher and scientist, Herbert Spencer, "?The great aim of education is not knowledge but action." DailyForex.com is all about getting traders to take the right actions.
- You're speaking at the upcoming Forex & Options Expo. Talk about this and the topic you have chosen.
This opportunity came about through DailyForex.com. I'm going to discuss a very specific candle setup that I use. I'll go through the rules for the setup, and show recent trade examples. It'll be an objective and systematic trade strategy. Anyone, no matter their level of trading experience, will be able to walk out of there with a profitable strategy they can apply immediately.
- Have you attended previous Forex & Options Expos or other MoneyShow expos? If so, what was the experience like? If not, what brought you to the Forex & Options Expo this year?
Admittedly this is the first time at the Forex & Options Expo. Every trader faces a tricky balance: sticking to their own system yet still being open to new ideas out there in the trading universe. Expos like this help to navigate this balance.
- You left the financial sector in London to trade full-time. What were some of the challenges in making that transition?
Making that transition was the hardest change I've made in my career – much harder than other career moves. Suddenly, everything changes when you trade for yourself full-time. When you're working for a large firm, you have a sense of security, a ready made support network, accountability to a manager and even a work-social life. I miss I.T. support the most! Not having that ready made infrastructure and career development takes some adjusting. But the one thing about trading is that your own core skills, and nobody else's are tested. You don't have to worry about office politics or whether your boss notices you're any good at your job. If you apply yourself well as a trader, it will show up in your account and nobody can take that away from you. It's liberating.
- How does the financial sector differ in London from other locations throughout the world?
London's time zone is the most advantageous: it overlaps with the tail end of the Asian Session and the morning of the US Session. In Forex, the London Open is the most liquid and gets the lion's share of volume. Secondly, London has a more international outlook whereas the US is more domestically focussed. I think London has unique ties to the Middle East, South Asia and North America. It acts as a major bridge. So the international exposure you get in London is second to none.
- We love startup stories, so we'd love to hear about your experiences in founding TheForexRoom.com.
We had a lot of false starts "“firstly, we had technical issues with our webinar software and secondly, it took us a little while to figure out how to trade ourselves whilst holding a discussion with participants. We had to figure out answers to questions such as: Do we explain the logic behind the trade during the trade or afterwards? Do we answer the most basic questions about Forex, such as what is a spread, or do we direct someone to other resources? How personal do we make the discussions whilst trading in a live room? It took us about 3-4 weeks to work out the kinks and develop a smooth operation. In fact, we refused to charge anyone a cent until we'd figured it all out!
- Let's talk some more about the financial sector. It's had a rough few years"¦do you think we're finally on our way to a recovery?
Right now, it's anybody's guess. The only certainty is the overriding sense of uncertainty – and that won't go away in a hurry. Aside from the fundamental economic drivers of the financial sector, its operations have come under greater public and political scrutiny. London will always be a key financial centre – it has a certain cultural appetite for the hard work it takes to be successful, it's in a great time zone and it has a huge international focus.
- With so many firms reducing the number of traders that they hire, what would you say to the men and women on Wall Street who is currently looking for work in this sector? Is there a particular area where they should be looking?
What I'd say is develop your own independent trading skills. That's key. If you want to trade for a bank, or for anybody, you have to be so passionate about it that you want to trade for yourself. Today, you can download charting applications and real-time price feeds for free or for very little for many markets. Follow a sector or a few currency pairs, figure out what kind of trading you enjoy – short-term or long-term, fundamental or technical, liquid Forex pairs or small market-cap equities... get a handle on the trading universe and how you fit in. Even develop your own track record by trading a few simple setups, and discuss these things in your covering letters and interviews. Regularly visit sites such as DailyForex.com to find out how other professionals are doing what they do. Try out live rooms like TheForexRoom.com so you can get an idea of real-time trade analysis and execution. I know that two of our members have plans to launch professional trading careers in the future. The traditional job hunting tools such as recruitment agencies and LinkedIn are invaluable. Use them to network and build relationships.
- Do you think that high frequency trading firms will continue to take the top trading talent away from banks?
I don't know if the top talent is gravitating towards high-frequency trading. Certainly, high-frequency trading is more technically and mathematically complex than, for example, a trader drawing a trendline. But talent in trading is defined primarily as this: recognising and acting on low risk high reward opportunities. Now, if that takes a ton of math to do, so be it. But if a trader can do that with a couple a simple idea such as a candlestick pattern, then his or her talent (by my definition anyway) is comparable to that of a high-frequency trader. I know this isn't the answer you're looking for. I can tell you that I personally know bank traders who use complex systems at their desks but trade their personal accounts in very simple ways.
- What are some things that a job seeker can do to ace an interview at a financial firm?
When I interviewed for a trading job over a decade ago, I wrote in my covering letter the two trading books that had been invaluable to me in developing my own technical trading. And I added a short description of a trade that I did in my own account using a technical strategy from one of the books. Showing that level of personal interest, beyond just "?I've attained these qualifications and worked at these firms", helped me land the job.
- Is your firm hiring right now?
We plan to in about 8-12 months from now.
- What are the top 5 tips/recommendations you'd give to someone looking to launch a financial startup?
1. Understand the regulations and licenses you may need. 2. Know what value you're giving your clients relative to more established players. 3. Make sure you present yourself professionally, whether it is through the web or other media. Ask yourself, if you were seeing your own service on the web for the first time, would you hire yourself? 4. When you set a time-limit for your goals, assume it will take three times as long to get there and have the resources necessary to sustain you. 5. Enjoy what you do and look after your health regardless of your work commitments.
- Do you have anything else you'd like to share?
A couple of things. Firstly, be ambitious in your trading. I've heard a lot of traders say that they're looking just to make enough to supplement their income a little. But the effort and knowledge between making a little and a lot in trading is actually quite marginal. Secondly, I've heard a lot of people say that new traders are undercapitalised and that's a major reason for failure. I don't believe that. The founder of Bloom Energy, K. R. Sridhar, said, "?When you don't have resources, you become resourceful." When you have little, you treat it very carefully, you find superior risk/reward, you control your risk very well...essentially, you bring out the best in yourself.