This weeks guest is an equities trader from Southampton, UK – Chris Sayce.
Chris’s journey to becoming a trader kicked off roughly 7 years ago, after his interest in markets was peaked from reading through a book about stocks.
While these days Chris has found his edge, he did spin his wheels for several years to begin with, and also managed to run several accounts into the ground. During this time, one of the greater turning points came when Chris found another trader who was willing to pass down his experience, and offer him some much needed guidance.
And as we all understand, to have a mentor on your side is extremely valuable, so I asked Chris a number of questions around this subject which you may find helpful.
We also discuss the importance of repetition in your learning, how to build discipline and also touch on some mindset challenges that can be early roadblocks for developing traders.
I feel like many of you listening will find Chris’s story to be relatable, and hopefully you’ll takeaway a few important lessons from this interview.
“When you can be honest with yourself, that’s when you make a massive leap in the right direction.”
“I didn’t know if what I knew was the right thing to know.”
Lessons learnt in this interview:
- The journey Chris took from newbie trader (who ran several accounts into the ground), to finding his edge and now trading with consistent profitability.
- How Chris easily got stuck on the ‘beginners cycle’, and how he was able to exit by focusing on himself, and his own trading strategy.
- Chris shares a brilliant idea that he uses to build discipline and confidence in his own methodology.
- The role of repetition in Chris’s development process, and why you should continue to run through old material as your trading experience grows.
- The major impact of mentorship and what originally motivated Chris to seek out guidance. Plus, the easily avoidable mistake that cost him an additional 6-8 months before he started making consistent money.
- How Chris found a mentor, why it was a good fit, and the ongoing level of interaction.
- An overview for how Chris trades stocks of the FTSE 300, why he doesn’t use scans, and what attracts him to a longer term swing approach.
- How Chris came to the realization that mindset challenges were the early roadblocks, and why you don’t necessarily have to go all the way back to the drawing board when you hit a rough patch.
- Plus much more…
Links and resources mentioned:
- Trend Following by Michael Covel – This is one of the books Chris read early on, which helped him turn a corner, to discover a trading strategy better suited for his personality.
- Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre – Chris has read this book more than 100 times over, now that’s saying something! Yet, each time he reads it, he picks up something new that is relevant to his current level of trading experience.
- What Makes a Successful Trader – A video by Nick Radge (EP 004) discussing the ‘quantitative vs qualitative’ aspects of trading, and how to avoid the ‘beginners cycle’.
- @ChrisSayce – Be sure to follow Chris on Twitter, and if you’d like to say something with more than 140 characters, his email address is chrissayce1983[at]googlemail.com.
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