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In today’s continuously evolving world, the ways of trading the financial markets have modernized as well. Back in the 1950s, you had to trade on the floor of the exchange and scream at the top of your lungs to get your orders filled. In the early 2000s (the Internet Era), that’s when trading off the floor became the norm. Instead of having to be on the floor of the exchange, all you needed was a computer to trade at the comfort of your own home or personal office.

In recent times, the new norm adopted by higher level investors is Quantitative Investing. This is the use of proprietary models to increase the probability of out-performing the general market. Most quant models work well when backtested thoroughly, but still face the same risks any strategy would. However, the main reason quants based investing models work is because they are based on discipline. Also, a quantitative model is not biased; it chooses to go where the opportunities lie, whether short or long.

So, is Quantitative Trading or Quants only for the high level fund managers handling millions of dollars in assets? We believe that the answer is no. It is possible for a retail investor to take advantage of Quantitative Investing, but it’s not easy, given the limitations of any retail trader. We interviewed Ethan Matthews, a New-York based currencies and equities trader, to share his experience in learning about Quants.

We first asked Ethan why he wanted to learn about Quants in the first place. He said, “I started becoming interested in Quantitative Trading in late 2017 to see how this could take my trading to the next level. I’m the type of person who wants to latch on to today’s innovate ways of doing things. And at this point in time, quants was an innovative way to trade the financial markets. I looked at the idea of trading on purely Quantitative data as a way for me to focus more on other aspects in life such as my family.”

Ethan also shared how in the early stages of his trading, he had difficulties staying disciplined on his chosen approach. “I was a know-it-all when I just began. I had a system, but I still made discretionary decisions. The system was only a mental setup, a specific chart pattern I wanted to see before I committed my money to a specific trade. However, there were times when I didn’t take on the trade despite the signal, or when I took on a trade that was not part of my setup.” He sees Quantitative Investing as a way to remain disciplined on a specific approach since Quants help realize the probabilities in one’s favor.

When asked about his learning phase, he answered “I have to admit that learning and applying Quantitative Trading to trade my strategy is no easy task. Especially coming from a business background, there’s a specific learning curve before you can start implementing your parameters for the program to detect. What’s more is that different parameters would require different codes, which I have to learn every time before I see backtested results. But at the end of the day, just like any investment, it was worth it. Now I get trade signals when my proven strategy shows an entry signal, and what’s more is that I can now dedicate more time improving my edge. I do not have to watch the markets all day.”

The last question we asked Ethan was, Do you believe Quantitative Investing can only be used by fund managers or institutional investors? He responded, “Absolutely not! Some people still think until this moment that the financial markets are only for those who have a ton of money. While some retail investors think that they are no match for the institutional investors. First of all, retail investors have a huge advantage when it comes to liquidity and freedom of choice on what to buy. Also, even retail traders can take advantage of Quants if they are willing to do the homework. Quantitative Investing is not simple, but it can do wonders for you if you make a commitment to the strategy.”

Most traders have heard of quantitative trading, and never bothered to learn more, due to the “limitations” of retail traders. It’s something most of us wish we could learn, but never got the opportunity or the push to get us started. While most of us struggle with the psychological aspect of trading, the answer has always been right around the corner.

Which is why this July 27, 2019 at the Investagrams Traders’ Summit, we are breaking barriers for you to get started in your own quantitative model. Learn from Jake Chow, a Chartered Market Technician and a professional in Quants Investing, as he jumpstarts your Quants journey.

For this week, we’d like to feature a trader who has consistently provided immense value to the entire Investagrams Community. Congratulations to our latest featured trader, Line Man! In our all-time contributing authors on the platform, Line Man ranks 10th out of hundreds of thousands of users. One of his signature posts is his leaderboard where we can see the leading stocks for the week, month, and year.

Leaderboard post:

Source: https://www.investagrams.com/Post/lineman/732656

Through Line Man’s continuous updates on his leaderboard, we are always reminded to avoid the laggard stocks and focus on the true outliers in the market. He also created filtered which stocks are leaders on different timeframes. Not only that, but there’s also a list of stocks ranked in terms of volatility for our day and swing traders looking to make a quick profit from intraday movements.

We asked TomaTrader, one of our new teammates here at Investa, how Line Man has helped him in his trading. Toma said, “He is able to make the whole process of screening stocks easier. Aside from using the InvestaScreener+, I always make sure to check out Line Man’s posts since some of the stocks that come out on his leaderboard don’t make it into my screener. I’ve been able to latch on to several market leaders just by seeing them on his leaderboards before they made significant moves.”

Wait! There’s more:

Source: https://www.investagrams.com/Post/lineman/732662

Line Man also specifically highlights the leading stocks for the month by awarding them through the medal system. He continuously updates this list and the last ones standing, the stocks that made the biggest moves for the month, will be awarded and recognized. This is also another way Line Man is able to help traders screen for stocks, by showing them the leaders for the current trading month.

Source: https://www.investagrams.com/Post/lineman/725548

“Scan your stock charts, place your bets, and good luck fellow traders!” ~ Line Man

Thank you, Line Man! Your FREE one-month InvestaJournal access will be added to your account on top of your 1-year InvestaJournal access from your Silver Pledge. Enjoy the extended access!

On behalf of the whole Investa Team, we would like to sincerely thank Line Man for being a significant member of our community. You are truly deserving of your Top 10 spot on our all-time contributing authors list. Do know that there are countless of traders that have benefitted through your consistent content. Without a shred of doubt, we are confident that the value you provide to all the trades who consume your content will come back to you in more ways than one. We are all looking forward to seeing more of your posts, Line Man!

A market wizard is a trader who has placed blood, sweat, and tears into mastering the craft. Market wizards are the few who are able to outperform the market and their peers by an astounding number. A market wizard is someone who, in the face of adversity, continues to persevere. Hitting rock bottom may be where others quit, but this is where market wizards learned the most essential things to make them successful in the financial markets.

If you’ve read The New Market Wizards by Jack Schwager, you should be aware of Mark Ritchie. He, like many other traders, went into the market and lost a fortune. However, unlike most traders, despite hitting rock bottom, Mark Ritchie did not give up. Hitting rock bottom is one of the most difficult moments to experience in life. However, it is only those who can rise up in the face of adversity who truly take their craft to the next level. That’s what Mark Ritchie did. This is why he is a true market wizard.

We conducted a short interview with David Guerrero, an equities trader from California. He has been a long time fan of the Market Wizards series throughout the years, he takes pride in having read all four. David says that one of the keys to his consistency in trading was being able to learn from those who have outperformed the market themselves, the market wizards. We asked to talk about what he learned specifically from Mark Ritchie in The New Market Wizards.

David said that one of the most significant things he learned from Mark Ritchie was to conduct his own research. When he was just starting out, he always relied on tips from his friends or from brokerage recommendations. “I thought following brokerage advisories was a no brainer since the recommendations came from professionals, I was dead wrong!” After reading about Mark Ritchie, David made a commitment to only rely on his research alone.

“Another rookie mistake I used to make was trade a large position size relative to the size of my portfolio. Even worse, I traded more when I was in a losing streak. I thought to myself, ‘If I trade twice as large then I can regain all my losses twice as fast.` Yet again, I was wrong. Another important lesson I learned from Mark Ritchie was to keep each position size small, especially if the trade hasn’t shown a profit. I will only increase my size once the position shows me a profit.”

“Lastly, I also used to be afraid of leaving money on the table, so that usually lead to me closing my positions too early.” David said. “After reading about how Mark Ritchie holds his positions for a long period of time as long as they’re still working, I began to gain confidence in allowing my winning positions to continue their move without selling prematurely. Later in my career, I started to sell a portion of my position at significant resistances in order to lock in some profits on the way up.” He added.

The story of David’s trading journey is not so uncommon. One way or another, the Market Wizards series have definitely helped a lot of traders. From the entire series, it’s easy to find that market wizard we can relate to, especially during our rookie years. Up to the time we start profiting in the markets, the Market Wizards series never fails to inspire us to continue doing better. We all aspire for their accomplishments, and yearn to be better in trading everyday.

This time, we have the chance to meet Mark Ritchie, one of the most famous Market Wizards. The experience to learn from him live, and how he has improved over the years is one of the rarest opportunities a trader can experience. This is exactly the opportunity Investagrams is giving to the community.

This July 27, at the Joyden Hall, Bugis, get to meet Mark Ritchie as he preaches about the challenges of how to be a successful trader.

KYAW

Kyaw is the founder of Sonic R System, which is one of the most popular thread in Forex Factory with thousands of followers: 78,000 post replies with 14 million views to date.

Forex Factory is ranked as the world No. 1 Forex Trading website. Sonic R System is also very popular among the FX/Index/CFD communities with the existence of growing audience of Sonic R System’s Facebook Group.

Kyaw conducts exclusive seminars for keen trading enthusiasts. His signature course “Sonic R Mastery” has been running successfully since 2015. The graduates of this course are from the countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, China, Spain, England, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, and Germany. His graduates are able to draw with the consistent profits from trading. One graduate who is also a CMC client has managed to make 144% ROI — a whopping $98,000 to $240,000 from April to July 2018.

He is also invited regularly on CMC events, Trade Fairs, SG FX Group meet ups, TRT Roundtable Seminar Talks, and SG Trader Club for regular market updates. He is well known for his down to earth approach of “Before and After” trade call with pictures of the charts sharing it on Facebook and Forex Factory pages. He made the Sonic R Trading System to be freely available, while he can keep all to himself because he believes that Sharing is Caring.

His trading style is akin to swing trading and he is a firm believer of risk management. It will eliminate risk on the positions as quickly as possible while letting the trades to maximise the profit by letting the trades run.

It also emphasises on positions building and add positions to the market once the intended trend is established to maximise the return.

Kyaw’s on-the-dot accuracy and trading philosophy has inspired many traders, and he is now the Top 20 contributors in the TradingView website.

JAMES

James is the Co-Founder and the Trainer of the famed Sonic R Mastery Course. Along with Kyaw, they have mentored over 600 students internationally along with after training program to support the members with full house attendance.

He has trained in Mudley Training Institute, a well-known and established financial trading company in Thailand to sharpen his skills and to learn how big funds manage their portfolios with minimal risk and optimise the performance for stability.

His preferred trading style is swing trading and believe in riding the first sign of reversal using pure technical chart with unique methods of identifying turning zones. He only takes trades that provides a minimum of 1:1 risk to reward and has achieve multiple 1:10 risk to reward trades by having the patience to allow his trade to run to its full potential.

Hear more from them this coming July as they join the Investagrams Traders’ Summit Singapore! Stay tuned!

Today, only a few have lived to tell the tale of how they survived the 2008 stock market crash. Even fewer are recognized as legends who got richer because of the crash. For those who barely know or remember what happened, here are the record breaking market disasters: Globally, the MSCI World Index dropped by 6%, the biggest drop since its establishment back in 1970. In the US, the Dow Jones Average dropped by 7%, the largest single day drop back then. For London, the FTSE 100 index dropped by 15%. Worse still, Brazil halted trading when their index dropped 10%. Gold jumped up to $900 an ounce (inversely correlated with USD) while, oil prices dropped to $95 a barrel. Clearly, the world of financial markets was in turmoil.

We spoke with Gary Smith, an equity investor from the United States, to share his experience during the 2008 stock market crash. “All hell broke loose!” was the first thing he said after we asked about what it was like being an investor during these times. “There was blood on the street (everyone was suffering a loss), everyone didn’t know what was happening.” Gary is in part a long term investor, as well as an active swing trader. “All of my long term bets during the time like General Motors, General Electric, IBM, and the like went down the drain so fast. To give you an example, I had IBM shares at $35 that I’ve been holding since 2005. GE crashed by around -80% during that time, I was lucky enough to get out at $24 only suffering a -30% loss.”

We asked Gary about his experience on swing trading during this period, he said “My man, these were crazy times. Almost everything you touched went down. People keep saying that this was the best time to buy more stocks as they were getting cheap, but that’s all hindsight. At the glare of the moment, it looked like the Dow was in a hole. I tried to trade through it, but I kept on getting stopped out. It was probably best to stay in cash during this period.”

Our last question for Johnny was, “What advice can you give to traders who have never experienced a global financial crisis?” Johnny answered, “Learn the ability to sit out during tough times and stay in cash. You may miss a couple of bargains, but you’ll also avoid getting wiped out entirely. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t any opportunities to make money in market declines. You can either short the index and individual stocks, or try to find bargains in the market. However, the ability to stay in cash is completely underrated.”

It is without doubt that the 2008 stock market crash was one of the most gruesome events a trader can experience. Any regular trader would be happy just to survive the crash. However, within the gardens of Singapore, lies a legend. A trader who not just made profits catching the bottom of the crash, but grew his portfolio 20 times its initial size. In the span of 15 months time, Robin Ho grew his $100 thousand to a massive $2 million during a period countless of traders around the world lost fortunes.

Yes, knowing when to stay in cash plays a huge role in staying alive in this game. Avoiding the markets when the rewards does not look favorable, as opposed to the risk, even plays a bigger role in winning this game. But the most important part of this game, is knowing when to jump back in. After all, the ultimate goal of any trader is to profit in the markets. Catching bottoms is one of the most challenging things you will do. It requires a confluence of multiple strategies to pull off really well, and the psychological burden to pull the trigger (or enter back) is even greater. But catching market bottoms can also be the most rewarding, if not life-changing, investments you can ever take. Your investment should grow exponentially as you ride through and maximize the entire trend. There are no clear shortcuts to financial freedom, but clearly there are ways to fast track it. And when that opportunity arises, it is up to us to make the move.

As the US and China trade wars continues, we cannot really predict what will happen next. More importantly, we do not know when another global crisis can break loose. However, when the time comes, what’s most vital is we know how to react. Which is why this July 27, 2019, at the Joyden Hall, we have asked a legend, Robin Ho, to share to you proven key strategies on how you can not only survive, but WIN in a global crisis.