Guillaume

Since 2015. After meeting a successful futures and options trader, I found out the path to proper development and important subtleties of safe and secure capital expansion. I began by studying and thoroughly analyzing the market. I worked out a strategy to minimize risk and maximize income before selecting a broker. As a result, I entered a volatile stock market fully prepared and began systematically increasing capital. A number of my first profitable transactions were short positions.

Yes and no. Investments are my life, but not my life’s end goal. The stock market is the instrument I use to achieve more general goals and endeavours. The resultant systematic increase in capital frees up a lot of time and spurs you to develop yourself in various areas and create something new. In this way, I live and surround myself in the world of finance, but am not obsessed with it.

Climbing Mount Everest. It seems impossible at the foot. As you progress, climate conditions change, new hazards appear, forcing you to wait, retreat, continue on, endure storms, cheer on and motivate the demoralized. However, unlike Everest, there is no universally-accepted summit, so records can constantly be broken, which is inspiring.

My strategy calls for spending 2-3 hours on market analysis every morning. I mostly perform medium-term transactions exceeding 2-3 months. It doesn’t eat into my personal life. Moreover, lessons from the market force me to look at people and at life’s current events in a new way, as well as treat everyone with patience and discipline.

Stocks. Despite the fairly widespread view that stocks are riskier than bonds and less lucrative than derivatives, I think it depends on the specific choice of companies and strategy. Even in times of crisis, by selecting the right companies, you can be safer than with bonds and profit more than with derivatives. Moreover, it’s nice to participate in a business’s development and not be anchored to it.

I applied the most useful and practical aspects of corporate valuation, fundamental analysis, technical schedule analysis, situational analysis. I likewise pay attention to economic indicators. I use machine-learning instruments and mathematical libraries to accelerate the company selection process across multiple indices.

The most standout trades on my path have been losses. I remember and endlessly love each one, because I couldn’t have become better without them.

Psychology in financial markets is more important than even intellect and selecting companies carefully. I would even go so far as to claim that anyone who has discipline can make money on mediocre companies, but those who lack restraint even with the most premium long-term stocks will hover around the break-even point. Investors and traders don’t play, they logically and intentionally increase their capital each year. For them, profits and losses are inevitabilities on the path to attaining their primary goal.

The market today has become as active and widely accessible as it has ever been. It’s becoming more diverse, technologically advanced and lucrative as today’s leaders are growing faster than their predecessors. Its diversity, accessibility and activity will only grow. The rules of lucrative and safe investing are eternal. They were relevant a century ago during the Dutch tulip mania, they are relevant today at the peak of a new technological revolution, and they will remain relevant in the future because they resonate with human nature, which is immutable. Whatever innovations, booms, and busts we see in the next century, the struggle in the market will take place with fundamental greed, gambling and mania on one side, and evaluation, reason and willpower on the other.

According to statistics, only about 10% of those who begin now will remain in the market in 5 years. The difference between those who leave and those who succeed lies in just one thing: while the losers worry about losses, the investors draw conclusions and improve their tactics. The first two qualities are 1) always learn, including from your mistakes 2) do not retreat when times get tough. The third important quality is the ability not only to see the current picture, but the prospects. Not everyone can perceive the amount in their investment account as existing in a +/-10% margin, e.g. not as a fixed $100 000 sum, but rather an undetermined number between $90 000 and $110 000 due to continuous market fluctuations. Those who think in categories of “now” are playing a game. Those who think according to the principle “was -- is -- will become” can come up with a strategy.

The market is constantly changing, as are strategies. You can maximize your results and comfort by understanding the principles of investing. We’re just asking for surprises by blindly following other people. Those surprises can be pleasant or catastrophic. That doesn’t matter much to the person who crafted the strategy, but the person mirroring it is in constant uncertainty, taking on risks whose consequences they cannot endure or do not understand. There are no ideal investors, but every investor has their own style they feel most at ease with. Once you find your style, success becomes only a matter of time.