Investagrams Trading Cup 2017 Archives

10 Lessons from the Trading Cup’s Top 10 Winners

Last January 20 marked the culminating event of Investagrams’ first major competition—the Investagrams Trading Cup 2017—and the turnout was absolutely incredible! Our hearts are truly overflowing and we are sincerely thankful for all the support from newbies, experienced traders, and even masters of the market.

We created the Investagrams Trading Cup to provide a fun avenue where everyone could showcase and improve their trading skills, but the turnout was more than anything we could have imagined. The competition was intense and we were amazed by the caliber of traders that came out on top.

Out of the almost 2000 traders who joined the competition, those who led the pack were truly inspiring and extremely generous in sharing their wisdom and experiences. Here are just 10 lessons out of the hundreds we learned from the Trading Cup 2017’s top 10 players.

#10

@joelduque: Work smarter, not harder.

Joel duque is the living proof that you don’t have to trade actively to earn significant profits. Through proper filtering, he was able to handpick stocks that had great potential and allowed him to bag the top 10 spot.

#9

@tris0314: Always be learning—from others and from yourself.

Tristran Montano shared his most significant trades throughout the competition, and highlighted the importance of learning continuously if you want to achieve success. He learns from various online blogs, websites, and his own history of trades.

#8

@MoneyGrowersPH: It’s never too late.

Despite lagging in the competition early on, he kept his composure and his winning attitude. In the end MoneyGrowersPH was able to rise up and prove that he indeed is one of the top traders.

#7

@Smalltime: There’s always a way to make it work.

Richard Baco is an OFW based in the Middle East. Despite holding down a full-time job, being in a different country, and even being in a different time zone, he still found a way to get the top 7 spot. He even gave a recorded video presentation since he couldn’t fly home for the culminating event.

#6

@Junster: Quality is more important than quantity.

You don’t have to have tons of trades to be profitable. In life and in trading, quality is almost always more important than quantity. When executing your trades, Joseph gave us these words of wisdom: Losing is inevitable. It’s part of the game. Just remember that you can win small, win big, lose small, but never lose big.

#5

@chad3ie: Focus on what’s really important.

Chad is one of the best traders of Citisecurities and a teacher in the Caylum Trading Institute. Aside from sharing some of his best tips, for life and trading, he reminded us of what’s really important—at the end of the day, what (or who) is it that we are trading for?

#4

@Scraffycoco: You can achieve your dreams at any age.

Rafael won 6th place in the Investagrams Stock Market Challenge last 2016 and has always dreamt of sharing his passion with a larger audience. Despite his young age, he proved that age is not a measure of mastery, and that with hard work and passion you can compete even at the highest level.

#3

@zeefreaks: It’s a jungle out there, but you can conquer it.

The mysterious head of the Zeefreaks Tribe and definitely a deserving leader in terms of skills and passion. During the competition, he proved to everyone that he is indeed one of the best traders in the Philippines. He shared his insights on how he studies and understands his prey before striking at the precise moment to capture the most profits.

#1

@bobbyaxelrod: There are always opportunities. You just have to know how to find them.

Edu bagged the most profits in the competition through his skills in finding momentum based trading opportunities. He shared simple but incredibly powerful tips for how he makes the most of the opportunities in the market.

#1

@Taylor: Above everything else, commitment is key.

One of the few masters of Elliot Wave here in the country, Javi used the Elliot Wave together with set-up based trading to consistently find great opportunities in the market. Through years of sharpening his trading style and skills, he was able to become a master trader and the champion of the Investagrams Trading Cup 2017.

These guys presented their strategies and trading tips in our Breaking Highs event last Jan 20, and even those of us who are experienced traders still learned a lot from them.

For those who weren’t able to attend, don’t worry! You can still watch the FULL VIDEO of all presentations and discussions. Click here to get access.

BREAKING NEWS: BobbyAxel and Taylor Go Head-to-Head in Championship Round!

First of all, we would like to congratulate each and every one of the participants in the Investagrams Trading Cup 2017! Not only have we opened up a fun avenue for both beginners and experts to improve their skills, we have also made history in our country making this the BIGGEST stock trading competition to date in the Philippines.

We’ve had a very intense competition these past few months, which was led by two great traders in the top spot—BobbyAxel Rod and Taylor. They whizzed past the rest of the pack, with each of them turning their PHP 100,000 virtual portfolios into PHP 364,160.13 and PHP 354,225.97 respectively. Only a tight margin of around 3% separates these two competitors—both superb performances for sure.

We want to share with you however, that there were certain concerns brought up to us during the span of the competition regarding the trading of illiquid stocks. As many of you know, part of our rules are protection measures against typical rinse-and-repeat trading methods that are not applicable in the real market. Because of this, we previously sent out warnings and communications to all players so that we keep the integrity of the competition intact. Our goal here was to emphasize the importance of applying strategies that are realistic and applicable in the PSE.

But we realized during the competition that since our virtual trading platform is not yet as perfect as we would like it to be, there were some opportunities in the competition that were not perfectly in sync with those in real life. That is not to say that these opportunities were unrealistic altogether, but there were some disputable trades that came up. Admittedly on our part, we also understand that we could have done a better job defining which trades would be considered valid and which ones would not be allowed. This is something we will definitely improve for the next competitions.

In an effort to maintain the fairness and integrity in this situation, we reviewed all of the top players’ trades. During this review, we saw that a certain degree of illiquid trades are really unavoidable due to the sudden and often inevitable inactivity of some stocks—whether due to general liquidity or because of the holiday season last December. In line with the concerns raised, we revisited the standings of the top players assuming all remotely illiquid trades were removed. After doing this, we found that even after taking out all the profits from illiquid situations among top 10, the standings still remain the same with Taylor and BobbyAxel Rod still claiming the top 2 spots, except with their rankings switched.

We have discussed this issue with both BobbyAxel Rod and Taylor in great detail over the past couple of weeks. After taking into account all of the issues that were brought up, and seeing how both of these traders have performed and competed with their best effort, our team has decided that the fairest thing to do is to award them BOTH with the 1st prize of PHP 100,000 and the travel package.

In addition, both contenders have also agreed to help us keep the essence of Investagrams Trading Cup by proceeding to a CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND!

On January 20, both BobbyAxel Rod and Taylor will present their strategies and defend in front of an external panel composed of different professionals from the industry. They will be graded by the panel based on metrics such as Strategy, Risk Management, Execution, Comprehensiveness of Defense, and more. These will compose of 90% of their score. However, 10% of the scoring will be based on the Audience’s Vote—to also take into consideration the view of our community.

Both of them have shown immense trading skills, both of them are first prize winners, but only one of them will be the CHAMPION and win the Investagrams Trading CUP! An exciting match ahead, see you on January 20!

#10