From I Quit to Dreaming Big

Trader Nick: "I love the idea of creating a few longer-term trend-following robotic systems that will trade on my behalf."

We spoke to TraderNick about his forex journey, trading strategies, and challenges. For those, who have a fascination with foreign currency and financial markets, he is an inspiration. Also, because Nick maintains his feet on the ground and yet, dares to dream big about innovative trading systems.  

Last year you quit your secure job to become a full-time trader. Can you tell us about your forex journey till the moment you made that “I quit” call to your boss?

Like most people, I went to YouTube and online forums to try to search up that “best strategy” that would change my life. In the end, it was keeping it simple that worked for me.

I realized after some time that to do this for a living, you need capital. It takes money to make money, after all. Fortunately, I had started a series of businesses and side hustles through school, and had a decent amount of capital to trade with.

Although I finally started seeing consistent growth a few years into my trading journey, the money I was making still wasn’t quite enough to compete with the computer science job I landed after school.

Somewhere along the way, I started making YouTube videos about my trading journey and sharing my thoughts with whoever cared to listen. People started sending me emails, asking if I would program software tools for them like the ones I was showing in my videos.

As the business grew, I hired some employees to help me program for clients, film and edit videos, and manage an online VIP community. Together our team built a community for traders to discuss the markets, learn more about trading, and follow along with trades taken by myself and our other top trading analysts.

As the business grew, so did my trading, and after some time this was outpacing my software job by a longshot. Running the business, trading my own accounts, and working a full-time software job was becoming too much, and something had to give.

So I took the jump, left my job, and haven’t looked back!

In a very short time, you were able to build a strong online community. Your content on social media is very informative, instructional, easy to understand. Do you think this is the main reason people join your Youtube or Instagram channels?

I think the content definitely helps to attract the right kinds of members and subscribers. People are starting to catch on to the fake hype out there on social media. We’re not about fancy cars or stacks of cash. We’re about realistic approaches and learning a skill that can change your life - over the course of a lifetime. The content being delivered is a top priority for our team. We spend a ton of time planning, filming, and editing it to make sure it resonates well with our audience.

Forex traders like to talk about their success, lifestyle, wealth. But you bring something else to the forex community. You show traders that there are different scenarios to involve forex in your life. How important is it to stay realistic?

It is not only important, but crucial to success in my opinion. Being motivated only by material gains or the idea of striking it rich will lose every time to the person who is in love with their craft.

Every profitable trader I’ve met has a fascination and love for markets, not necessarily a love for Lamborghinis!

Any sort of arrogance that you have when you come to the market, the market will rip you up and destroy you. These are your words, and they are very true. How do you curb your personality, so it doesn’t lead to bad trading decisions?

I think that at the end of the day, we’re only human. A simple trick I’ve learned is to know when to step away from the charts for a bit and keep position sizes small to reduce the emotional swings.

Having humility when trading is a powerful thing.

Arrogance and being stubborn are dangerous traits to have in markets because the market is bigger and stronger than any of us. I always have to remind myself to accept when I’m wrong and control losses. I really think that’s key to managing risk in the markets.

Which events do you look at the economic calendar? It looks like 2020 will be quite turbulent.

I keep an eye on fundamental news, but it doesn’t necessarily drive my trading decisions. Things like knowing when Brexit decisions will be made, watching NFP releases, and keeping track of interest rate decisions are some of the main things I’ll be paying attention to. For the most part, however, I stick to using price movements and historical patterns to place my trades.

In 2020, will your forex trading strategies differ from previous years?

I won’t be drastically changing anything, though I have been working on some additional strategy ideas to implement into my portfolio. I love the idea of creating a few longer-term trend-following robotic systems that will trade on my behalf.

With the TraderNick brand, you built a business around forex trading. How important is it to diversify and creating multiple income streams?

Having multiple sources of income is the way to go. Our company does work for a few brokerages, provides an online community for traders, builds software, and creates media content online. This, combined with my personal trading and investing, allows me to have a diverse income stream, which to me is a blessing.

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