I'm Nick.A little about me
I co-founded TraderLion and co-authored the Trader's Handbook.
2014
In 2014 I placed over 600 trades and finished the year down 15%. I worked so hard every day to lose money.
This was frustrating to say the least and I never considered at the time that all of my activity might have been the problem.
2014
600+ trades
-15% return
2024
~30 trades
+62% return
I was looking for answers that didnt exist
For the first 5 years I was looking at the market like it was black and white. I thought there was a secret strategy or something that I would discover that would make me become a money making machine.
Eventually I started to realize there was no secret strategy. There isn't even a universal best strategy. All of the best traders I knew traded differently and all were successful. I stopped focusing on finding the best way to trade and started focusing on finding the best way to trade for me. One that fits who I am and my personality.
Trading like myself
As I started to use weekly charts more I noticed they help slow me down. They give me enough room to see the setup, make a plan, and let a trade develop, while giving me less to react to. That fit me better than watching every little move and feeling like I needed to constantly be doing something.
How I think about trading now
The more I do, the worse I trade.
If I zoom in and watch too closely I become reactive and make too many decisions that didn't need to be made.
Context over setup.
The most important thing is the market environment. Even if the setups look perfect and my entries are A+, they are likely to fail if the market around it is a mess.
Risk comes first.
Every trade I take I need to know where I am wrong and how much I'm willing to lose if the stop hits.
The goal is to sit.
I want to get positioned well in a trend and ideally leave it alone for as long as it keeps working. I am not trying to constantly get buy and sell.
I still get in my own way a lot. I am always learning. I just understand myself a lot better now than I did in 2014. I know I trade better when I slow down, make fewer decisions, and leave things alone.