Long long time ago in a galaxy far far away I was doing trading. I mean, I was a little private trader on a local stock exchange (not that big one as NYCE or LSE, but not so small one either). I traded various things, stocks, bonds, options, currency futures, even the shit like structured and promissory notes. I learned that I wasn't a natural born trader, I didn't become a billionaire, but I didn't blow my account either, and after making some good money shorting local currency against USD during 2008-2009 economy crisis, I paid all my tiny mortgages off -- and finished my active trading career. Trading was simply too nervous and too time consuming for me.
During my trader years I've read a lot of "investment & trading" books, in hope that they will teach me how to become a billionaire. However, Grau ist, meine Freunde, alle Theorie, und gruen des Lebens goldner Baum, I dare say. The most of those books were pure bullshit, a few were too academic (and therefore kinda loosely related to real life), and only less than a dozen were useful and thoughtful.*
In one of those useful books I read a funny story. Unfortunately, I remember neither what book it was, nor the exact wording, so I have to present the story in my own retelling. But I swear I didn't take the story simply out of the thin air in my head!
Well, once an aged retired trader (let him be Mr. X) learnt that a friend of his, Mr. Y (equally aged and retired) started a trading company. That is, he hired people to make trades on his account under his overall supervision. Mr. X went to see how it looked like. And he saw several young boys doing trades at terminals, and Mr. Y snoozing in a chair. Then Mr. X asked if Mr.Y is not afraid that those green young noobs blow his account sooner or later while he's asleep in his chair. And Mr. Y said: "Today it's a bull trend. Unlike both of us, these boys are young and inexperienced, that is in all their life they haven't yet experienced any serious failure. They're still full of courage, they can go into x100 longs without any fear. A good dose of courage is what is required in a bull trend! Later, then the current bull trend ends and they start loosing my money -- I will fire them all and will wait for a next bull trend to hire some other completely fresh young noobs."
"So why are you telling us all that?", you might ask.
Once a trader -- always a trader...
I decided to come back into the world of trading. I just can't stand watching people pouring millions back and forth into various kinds of shit without my taking part in the process.
Fortunately, today's crypto trading has a very low entry barrier -- you don't need to file a ton of paper shit and to pile a ton of money. Today's crypto trading can be done with just a web-browser and US$10, literally! Of course, trading a 10 bucks account can hardly make you a billionaire, but 10 bucks is enough to start tossing orders back and forth at an exchange.
Besides, I believe that there's a good deal of truth in what Mr. Y said. And if you lack some essential skills -- then hire someone who has, and let him do the dirty work better than you.
No, I didn't launch a "Schoolboys" trading company, I'm not that aged, retired and wealthy. Instead, I went out and bought market calls from some young enthusiastic guy.**
If you don't know what "market calls" are -- it's when someone tells you what, when and where to buy or sell, and you simply follow his instructions. If your caller guy is a good trader, you end up in profit (in theory, at least). It's supposed also that the guy does his homework of market watching, asset picking, chart reading, tech analyses and other dirty trading shit -- and gets paid for it. You only place orders blindly, and do money management. ("The internet is full of free 'tips' and 'picks', why don't you use that?", you might ask. Good question, but I don't want to go into details here. For the moment simply trust me that there is some difference between "free picks & tips" and "paid market calls")
So, I paid around 50 bucks for a month of calls. I don't know if it's a fair price or not, 50 bucks is simply an amount I can waste. Besides I have like 30 bucks across several exchanges. So even if I double my account, I will not be able to get my calls subscription back. But it's not the case for now. I wonder, if I can do any profit, even 3-5 bucks only, this way (BTW, it would be "only" 10-16% monthly profit on my acc!).
Now about two weeks of my subscription passed. I can feel that the guy does his homework spending much his time on picking, charting, analyzing and all that. Had I been taken all his calls exactly as prescribed, I'd probably been in some good profit already.
But the real life is a bitch...
1st, the current bull trend seems over, and I stepped in a bit too late.
2nd, I couldn't take all the calls as prescribed, with proper timing and no slippage. Moreover, by some evil magic, I managed to take many loosing calls -- and to miss almost all winning calls (statistically, it may look strange, but it's not). In other words, I buy a coin upon the guy's call -- and the coin dumps leaving me with a 3% loss. I buy another coin upon another call -- it dumps too, with a 4% loss. Then I miss the next call to buy the next coin (e.g. I was away from PC when the call came) -- and that very coin pumps 40%. Real life is so a bitch...
3rd, I have some mid- and long-term positions that require weeks or even months to blossom. Maybe, in a month one of those coins will go up 1000% and make me a US$ million out of the blue.
But as an interim result, after about two weeks I'm still about where I started -- about 30 bucks on my account.
I think I still have like two more weeks of calls, maybe it will go better for me then. Maybe I even make a series of posts on my trading comeback, I'll call the series Once a trader.
But for now it's all, folks.
Let's back to trading!
* Just in case you wander what "trading & investment" book I think being "the best" one -- it's Jesse Livermore's How to Trade in Stocks.
** Just in case you wander why I don't post here my affiliate link to that guy -- it's because first I'd like to make sure he's a good guy worth my recommendation (or a bad guy who I should shame for scamming).
