Interview with MetaaL
"Your exciting days should be the withdrawal hitting your bank account."
Hi MetaaL, thank you so much for doing that interview with us today.
The goals of this interview are:
Learn more about someone who has successfully implemented a robust trading framework
To show you what is possible when you work hard.
I traded with MetaaL in his room for a good part of 2023. He’s a great trader and the real deal. He developed a clear and comprehensive system that applies to basically anything that quotes. I learned a lot from him, mostly how to stop being a stupid fuck shorting too rallies too much. I still do it, but it’s rarely a big loss anymore (only 1 time in 2024 so far).
Since I’ve been a lone wolf most of my career, it was my first time seeing another consistent trader working on his craft. I have an infinite respect for him, plus he’s a super nice guy. It’s rare to have friends in this industry, and MetaaL is one of them.
I also apologize publically because MetaaL did the interview in January and I just edited the article now, so I robbed you of a few weeks of knowledge guys, sorry :)
MetaaL has his playbook available for free (!). As usual, the good things don’t get much attention on Twitter, but you can give my friend a follow.
Spoiler: MetaaL’s answer to question #4 is simple yet key to success.
Q) First of all, could you post a picture of your trading setup and one of your trading charts to show the readers your trading environment?
Q) When did you start your trading journey and why?
In early 2019 I started to invest my money into bluechip stocks and ETFs, but then quickly figured why not take advantage of the price swings some of the stocks see and try to capture those.
So in late 2019, I began swing trading stocks.
For me, there was never a real “why” I started. I found it interesting and wanted to try it out. I liked the idea of working on my terms but the real “why” has only developed later in my career.
I wanted to provide for my family and all the good things, but I could have done that in any other job or business. I have pretty good intuition and read on people so what excited me about markets was that they just reflect human behaviour. It’s human behavior displayed on a chart.
Q) What does a typical day of grind look like for you?
[Note from Retail: these times are European time, 6 hours ahead of New York]
This changed throughout the years. In my early stages, it was:
6:30 AM wakeup - walk the dog - freshen up
7:00 AM short workout & stretch
7:45 AM chart prep for today’s session and review yesterday’s DRC + session. I fill out my “Daily Prep” spreadsheet. Check if algos are live.
8:45 AM Identify locations for EU session and set alerts
9:00 AM Place trades during the EU session if setups trigger; if nothing actionable, I check my emails, review the DRCs of my pod members, and give feedback on trades. I also get some time for deep thoughts away from my desk, notebook & pen always with me.
<13:00 lunch> [Note from Retail: what a lazy man, lunch break… typical from Europeans]
2:00 PM I redo my prep, especially for indices. Did things change? What happened during the EU session? Is my bias and location still valid? Were there data releases that impacted the prep? I mark up the location on the chart where I want to do business and set alerts.
3:30 PM US session open. Focus on my top 3 opportunities for the day.
4:30 PM first hour of RTH. I take a step back, do a few pushups, and refocus. Replan trades. Reevaluate positions.
5:30 PM Start writing DRC & Journal entry, take screenshots, fill out TradeLog Spreadsheet, markup executions into Tradingview chart.
6:00 PM Chartwork - go over the pile of charts that are saved but not categorized.
7:00 PM short mid-day prep&checkin
8:00 PM - usually when I stop taking new positions. Manage my intraday trades, move stops, take profit and close positions.
9:30 PM - walk the dog and come back to see if I will keep an overnight position before the market closes.
<End of day>
10:00 PM market close. Fill out the rest of DRC - take more screenshots of the whole day played out. Rate my prep & execution. Complete the Tradelog Spreadsheet.
10:30 - 11:59 PM Work on algos and ideas. Go to bed
This is a full-on grind day. The usual day includes me working on my IT consulting business and some relaxed family time & household chores sprinkled in between.
[Note from Retail: As you can see, there is no secret. I see this man online in the middle of the night working on his craft. Do you want it bad enough?]
Q) You’ve recently become a dad. First of all, congratulations! How did it change your approach to risk and trading?
Thanks!
It’s been a big change, but I'm enjoying every second of it.
I’m trading less than before, especially on nights when I don't get much sleep. Risk-wise I have dialled it back by about 30%.
I have also increased my stop size and am going for smaller targets. Having to jump up from the desk to help the wife or take care of the baby doesn’t bode well with tighter stops and positions that I need to watch.
[Note from Retail: I think this is one of the most important aspects of trading: larger stop, less risk & more calm. Whatever is your timeframe, look at the average rotation size, and find a consistent way to have a stop that is in line with the current market conditions].
Q) You share a lot on Twitter, and you’re pretty vocal about the use of a boring framework in your trading. Could you describe your trading style in a few words to us?
Intraday Swing Trading, following the higher timeframe trend, which isn’t 100% correct because I do have reversal setups.
My trade frequency is about 3-5 trades per day on the markets I'm watching, but I can go a few days without finding a proper setup.
Q) You recently mentioned on Twitter that $CL became your best ticker in 2023. You also often say that ‘What you trade matters more than how you trade’. Can you expand on this philosophy of yours?
A trader's job is to identify potential trading opportunities and to position himself to be able to capture these opportunities.
If you have identified a market & bias correctly, 80% of your job is done.
This only works if you have predefined a playbook on how you want to interact with price. That approach should be consistent, but it doesn't matter what your approach is. You can use MAs, VWAPs, Trendlines, Orderflow, Delta, and whatever else people use nowadays.
The other 20% is having good execution - Because being right on plan and making money are two completely different things.
Now, all you need to do is put this whole process through 10000 iterations until it can’t be improved anymore.
To this day I keep improving my planning & execution. The time between changes has drastically increased, but as the market evolves, my system evolves.
Q) You’re one of the rare people I know who is successfully using algo trading. Can you share a bit about that?
In early 2022 I started to implement my trading approach into algos. I learned how to code in TradeStation EasyLanguage (I'm still shit at it). [Note from Retail: good people always are too humble. MetaaL is no exception to the rule.]
This had huge benefits for my discretionary trading because I was able to remove a few flaws from it, which wouldn’t have been shown without the work I did on algos.
In middle/late 2022, with the help of some of my great trader friends, I was able to go live with my algo.
Q) With everything that you achieved in 2023, what is your plan for 2024?
Provide for my family, take care of the people I love and whoever I come across that needs my help.
Buy a huge house with a lot of land for my family.
Trading-wise, I just want to stay consistent and not be a cunt. No particular PnL goal because we never know what the market will offer.
Q) I always ask if people have a mentor. I know you love Dante. Do you have a mentor, and if yes, what is the most valuable lesson he taught you?
I never really had a mentor that showed me how to trade. I went through this via trial and error. That has probably cost me more money than it needed to.
I love Dante. He is straightforward with people and doesn’t hold back just to be nice.
I’m also a big fan of Tom Hougaard, Kristjan Kullamägi,
& Lance Breitstein. [Note from Retail: love them all! I’d say you’re closest from TheShortBear!]The biggest lesson from Dante is: You’re only one trade away from acting like a cunt.
[Note from Retail #2: Here are my favorite videos/podcasts from these folks]
Lance (It’s a 3-part series)
Q) Do you remember your worst and best trading day ever? What did it look like?
Don't think there is a particular day that is my worst. All I remember is a week in 2021 where I lost 30% of my account in the span of 3 trading sessions.
Not willing to decrease portfolio exposure and breaching risk limits has engraved risk management into my brain since that week.
I can’t think of a worthy “best trading day”. There has been a week this year where I had a 100% winrate on all my trades. That felt amazing. Only to be met with 3 red days the next week.
There was a day where I put on a trade with SPX options as a lotto, then got frisky with wifey only to come back to the contracts being up 3000% and cashing them out. Got lucky twice that day ;)
Honestly, I think having the worst and best days could be replaced with “exciting days”.
In your trading career, you should not have a lot of exciting days.
Every day, business as usual. Your exciting days should be the withdrawal hitting your bank account.
Q) Finally, do you have one piece of advice for the readers who are struggling in their trading journey?
Find someone that is proven to be a few steps ahead of you and outwork them.
Don’t believe 90% of the things you read online about trading.
Folks, that’s a wrap! As you can see, it doesn’t get any better than this.
Here’s a summary of this interview:
“Your exciting days should be the withdrawal hitting your bank account.”
Reduce size and increase stop loss
Get rich & buy lands :)
A big thank you to MetaaL for playing the game and being generous with his time. I wish you a great day and… don’t be a cunt!
Cheers,
RC
Cheers to you both. Seems like a fun interview minus the fact it was probably while the rest of the US sleeps.
Recently followed Metal on twitter glad to have found this interview, was a great read. Looking forward for more interviews :)