EP 074: Pocketing £100k from a trading comp, and making simplicity a priority w/ John Walsh

Aaron Fifield Podcast Leave a Comment

My guest this week is John Walsh, aka The Black Cabbie Trader.

The backstory of John; in 2012 he entered a competition—the City Index Trading Academy. The idea was to take a group of people with very little market experience to see how well they would perform as active traders, over the span of 5 weeks. John came out on top and won the £100,000 prize money which was up for grabs.

He’s of course continued trading ever since, and has developed into quite the trend/position trader—focused on US equities, making simplicity an absolute top priority. He’s also a black cab driver in London, which you’ll hear more about shortly.

In this episode we chat about; the competition, John’s trading methodology, why you must ‘stay out of your own way’ (as John puts it), and plenty more.

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“Have the patience to ride your process through the good times, and the bad.”

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Lessons learnt in this interview:

  • How John made it past hundreds of entries to participate in the City Index trading competition, and how he learnt the ropes in a trial-by-fire type of way.
  • John talks about his experience and mindset during the 5 weeks of competing, and what he did with the prize money after taking out first place.
  • Post-competition; John discusses why he made the change from being a day trader to becoming a trend/position trader, and how the transition took place.
  • John walks us through his scanning procedure and what type of technicals or fundamentals would prompt him to enter a position.
  • How John hedges against general market conditions, diversifies between sectors, thinks about maximum open positions, and balances long/short trades.

Links and resources mentioned:

  • EP 067: Jerry Parker – Hear an interview with Jerry Parker who is one of the original Turtle Traders, which John referenced during the interview.
  • Finviz.com – A free online tool that John uses to scan US equities each day for potential trade setups.
  • FreeStockCharts.com – Another free site that John uses, this one, for charting and technical analysis.
  • BlackCabbieTrader.com – To learn more about John and his trading methodology you can visit his website.
  • @_JohnWalsh_ – You can follow John on Twitter, and on StockTwits here.

Did you enjoy this interview?