“You’re in for a long, difficult journey” @BubbityDog
In Members in Profile we interview stand-out members that show strong aptitude and work ethic. Our goal is to highlight different folks so that you can see the effort that our members are putting into their trading and hopefully learn from their experiences of the Convergent Trading Community.
We hope you enjoy hearing what @BubbityDog has to say!
What brought you into trading?
I tried dabbling in stocks and options way back in 1994 as the original tech bull run was starting. Like a lot of beginners, the worst possible thing happened to me: I turned $10K into about $45K in 6 weeks just buying calls and thought “wow, this is easy”. I think most experienced members will know what happened next.
In any case, I kept my day job and came back to trying my hand in the markets from time to time over the years, but never really made any real progress, until I matured and got more comfortable in life.
The volatility in late 2018 brought me back into the game and I’ve dedicated much more focus to it since, going full time starting in August of 2020.
What do you like most about Convergent?
The quality, depth, and consistency of content in the webinar archive is probably unmatched anywhere in terms of trader education, especially for the price. If you take the time to watch through the webinars, there are a lot of gems of wisdom from FuturesTrader71, sometimes directly related to the topic, sometimes tangential, but always helpful.
How have these aspects helped you grow as a trader?
Even long before the Trade Right Program, Convergent helped me get in line in terms of having a disciplined approach, from trade plan, to pre-market prep, to journaling and analysis. Also, I’m really kind of an independent, cynical person. In STEM fields they might praise that as “critical thinking” but in many ways that’s made my trading journey a lot harder. By seeing how others have approached trading, and seeing that sometimes that $100 bill in the corner really is a $100 bill, I’ve gotten a lot more confidence in terms of finding my own trader identity and path.
Do you have a favorite community quote or webinar?
I’ve probably watched a majority of the webinars at this point. There are a lot of great ones but oddly enough one of my favorites is the one from November 8, 2018, “Managing a Losing Streak”. This is because the webinar reviewed the results of an actual prop trader which helped me think about various aspects of trading that often aren’t addressed tangibly (as opposed to conceptually), such as sample size, account growth rate based on expectancy, and how much you might be able to bend the rules without getting into trouble.
Do you have any advice for new members?
Be patient – at all levels. I’ve worked for startup style companies in the past and those environments are the complete opposite of patience. You’re in for a long, difficult journey and Convergent will make a great partner on that journey, but it’s going to take longer than you expect, even when you think you’re close. You’ll need patience to survive until the time that you have enough knowledge from the fire hose of trading education to really make sense, how to prioritize what you know, and how to sort out all the paradoxes and contradictory opinions.
You need patience when you ask a question and the answer is “it depends” and you get frustrated because you just want someone to give you a straight answer. You need patience to get the market experience to know what is a good trade and to understand the various market regimes and conditions and how to trade them. You’ll need patience to wait for your setup to appear and to let a good trade reach its target. You need patience towards yourself after you make the same mistake over and over again. You need patience to make a set of trades, taking losses in the process, before being able to determine if what you’re doing is right or wrong. You need patience to grow your account to the point that you can size up properly. Trading is a numbers game that involves randomness on all time frames, so there are never any quick fixes.
What is your favorite non-trading activity/hobby?
I love traveling to foreign countries, taking in the culture, and trying out everything from street food to fancy restaurants, though with the pandemic that has been shut down for a bit. I’m also a PC gamer – in fact, I used to work in the game industry. Finally, I practice the Japanese Tea Ceremony; the principles of the Tea Ceremony have really helped me with my trading. The Tea Ceremony promotes the concepts of “wa, kei, sei, jaku” – which means harmony, respect, purity, and tranquility. This is the state of mind that is analogous to a “flow” state in trading.
