We would like to introduce Trevor, who completed our In-house Intermediate Workshop a few months ago, and is committed to building even more interesting algorithmic trading models!

Below you will find out what got him into automated trading and more about his trading journey.

Introduction

What an amazing journey I have had with my goal to make money from the markets.

In the 1980s, 90s and early 2000s I had operated several businesses. During the same period I had bought and sold properties as well. I knew a lot about running businesses and property dealings but zero about the share market. I had not even heard about futures markets or currency markets.

In late 1998, I moved to the Gold Coast to work and found that almost every weekend there were free seminars on either share trading, options trading or currency trading. I attended many of them and spent a lot of hard earned cash buying information that they promised would make me a millionaire in no time. I now know that these “educators” were just selling a dream.

Brief background about your trading

I started out in the late 1990s trading the Aussie Share market plotting a group of shares at the end of each day on huge sheets of graph paper with a ruler and pencil. This was very time consuming because the information was obtained from the newspaper and then transferred to the graph paper. Imagine how hard it was back then to find historical data. Computers were expensive and the internet was very basic.

Over the next few years I completed many hours of “training” only to find that eventually something else with a greater promise of wealth would come along. I found that because I was working in a business for 60 plus hours a week, then sitting in front of a computer screen and trading when I was half asleep and focused on what I have to do the next day was no good for my health or my bank account.

I was absolutely convinced that it was possible to make money trading the markets but my problem was time, and I was not prepared to stop working and focus on trading full time. I strongly believed that I would need a mentor who was a trader to guide me through the minefield.

There are thousands of indicators and EAs out there in cyberspace with a long list of promises attached to them. My advice to anyone just starting out is don’t get sucked in.

So, I decided to become a forex researcher until I found something that suited my profile and lifestyle. I spent thousands of dollars buying and testing systems. Over the years I noticed that more traders were turning to partial automation of their trading plans using EAs and with the development of supercomputers came algorithmic trading. This is where I want to be.  

What you learnt at Trade View

I was contacted by Bisher from Trade View after watching a Mythbusters webinar in October 2016 (I have had a demo account with IC for many years and so they sent me an invitation to attend the webinar). After that webinar I was hooked. Bisher knows how sceptical I was and I must admit I gave him a pretty hard time in the early days when it came to joining Trade View. His consistent contact and support (and my due diligence) convinced me that the Trade View guys would be my mentors.

In January this year, Trade View’s Eddie Cornelissen started a weekly on-line training series called Trading Talk. So each week Eddie would build a system and test it in Trade View X (the tool developed by Trade View that allows anyone to build and test their models). Watching these videos convinced me further that this was where the future of trading was heading and I want to be a part of it.

In August 2017, I attended the Intermediate Workshop at the Trade View trading room in Melbourne where I met Rob Bubalovski (Director and creator of Trade View) and several other traders. It was refreshing to hear Rob speak about trading and the realities of it rather than the sugar coated promises that I had heard from many of the “sellers of dreams”.

My experience at the workshop was educational and rewarding and what came through to me the most was the willingness and ability of the Trade View traders to train us in the use of Trade View X. I am still mastering Trade View X but the amazing support and ease of use means anyone can build their ideas and test them.

I have to add here that Trade View are continually adding concepts to Trade View X to make building models easier for everyone. I see this as very progressive and I know it will be a great help to me in the future.

Please share some of your successes and failures as a trader

In the early 2000s, I was fortunate enough to be involved with a group of people who opened a trading room on the Gold Coast. This started as a great success but eventually failed. I worked there as a day trader and learnt a great deal from this experience. Back then it was difficult to back test ideas and develop a trading strategy. The downfall occurred because the entry and exit rules were being constantly changed.

All the years that I have watched the markets has not made me a successful trader. Time constraints because of work, emotions and self-doubt, fear of failure, and a lack of confidence in the trading methods for the most part kept me out of the market.

I see my successes coming in the future because all the obstacles that prevented me from trading in the past will be overcome by using Trade View X and the support from the Trade View trading team.

Conclusion

The secret to successful trading is consistency and most importantly money management. To make money from trading you need a good system and it needs to be traded in accordance with the rules in a consistent manner. Hence the beauty of algorithmic trading. It covers all bases…..consistency in entry and exit with money management rules built in and the ability to back test ideas. This eliminates most of the doubt, fears, and emotions from trading.

Since completing the Trade View In-House Systems Building Workshop (which was a fantastic weekend) I have been able to easily test ideas in Trade View X. The reason I have made it to this point in my trading quest is because I never gave up looking for the best solution for me.

What are your future goals?

Over the next year my goal is to build a portfolio of trading strategies that will allow me to generate an income in my retirement. I have been around for 66 years, enjoy good health and have an amazing job…..but there are other things left for me to do. One of my grandsons (22 y/o) has indicated his desire to become a trader and I will now be in a position to guide him in the right direction.