Welcome back for another installment of the Chat With Traders podcast. I’ve got an awesome guest lined up for you, John Carter, from Austin Texas.
In short; John is an options trader (and also futures, to a slightly lesser extent), he’s been trading for around about 25 years now. His typical holding time for any given trade is just a couple days, and he classifies himself as an aggressive trader – which I think you’ll pick up on pretty quickly.
In this interview, you’ll hear I ask John about the multiple boom ‘n bust cycles he endured over the space of about 8 years before gaining real consistency. I also ask, is a high risk tolerance essential for becoming a successful trader?
Then we get into some talk about options, and John has some really great advice for those who are still trying to find their feet. Additionally, we talk about indicators and technical analysis, and we go step-by-step through John’s million dollar TSLA trade.
So there’s a lot packed into this episode, I hope you enjoy it, but more than that, I hope you can take at least just one thing away from this and apply it to your own trading.
“If you have a setup you can’t explain to a 12yo, it’s too complicated.”
“You have to develop confidence in a situation where the result is always uncertain.”
Lessons learnt in this interview:
- John openly speaks about how he still misses great trading opportunities, plus the dangers of emotionally chasing a move and lacking patience.
- Why John was good at making money early on, but even better at giving it back… And the turning point that lead him to consistency after 8 years.
- Understanding that ‘flat’ is a good position to be in, because that’s when you have a neutral view on the market. Don’t trade out of boredom!
- The two overarching reasons why John is drawn to trading options, after trading almost every market/product at some point during his career.
- John gives advice to novice options traders, that he wish someone had given him when he was starting out.
- Why John will not look at a chart for anymore than a couple seconds to determine whether or not there is a decent setup. And where indicators serve a purpose.
- Step-by-step, John walks us through his million dollar trade on TSLA. Key lesson: Big moves happen when a lot of people are wrong!
Links and resources mentioned:
- Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas – John believes that any discretionary trader is at a disadvantage without reading this book, as well as The Disciplined Trader.
- Option Alpha podcast – During this episode I referenced John’s interview with Kirk Du Plessis a few times, you can listen to the full interview here.
- SimplerTrading.com – To learn more about John, Simpler Trading and their resources for traders of options, futures, stocks and forex, visit their site here.
- @JohnFCarter – Tweet John to tell him what you liked about the interview!
Did you enjoy this interview?
- Please leave a 5 star review on iTunes to support the show.
- Subscribe to receive a free guide and an email when new interviews go live.
- Leave a comment below, what was your greatest takeaway from this interview?
- Share this interview with your friends and followers.