Interview With @theedavidchap (you don't want to miss it)
For retail traders, by a retail trader
“Give a man a fish, and he will be hungry again tomorrow; teach him to catch a fish, and he will be richer all his life.”
Happy Easter everyone!
I have the feeling that many of you will love this interview as you guys can learn a lot from his approach to trading.
Hi @theedavidchap, thank you so much for doing that interview with me today.
This is the second episode of, I hope, a very long series of interviews with retail traders grinding hard to become full-time traders. You can find the first interview here.
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?
A)
Note from Retail Capital: Man, this setup looks absolutely sick. I’m almost jealous :)
Q) Tell us more about yourself and why you have picked this pseudo.
A) I live in South Dakota but am originally from San Diego.
I love the outdoors. Fishing, Hunting, etc. Those are my passions. I was in the car business for about 10 years. I always thought I would retire from that. I loved my dealership but hated the business itself. No matter how much I made, I wasn’t happy.
In the spring of 2020, I decided to dabble in the markets. Swing trades with not much but a hunch to go on. NVAX was my first trade. It did well. Then I lost it all doing the same thing on it. It was all purely gambling from then until the middle of 2021.
I started doing some research and listening to Aaron Fifield’s Podcast, @chatwithtraders. Listening to that introduced me to many elements of trading. It gave me little snippets of strategy, methods, terminology, everything. So I started researching as much as I could.
In October I decided to leave my job. Not for trading, but to move closer to my girlfriend. I landed a position at a well-known dealership in Fargo, ND doing the same thing I was, Finance Manager. As my start date came closer, I realized I was not going to be happy doing that. I had about a month between jobs so I traded as much as possible. I saw some light early but could not be consistently profitable. I knew there was a way to do just that. Multiple ways, in fact. As I got closer to my start date, I truly felt trading was my future.
Luckily, I had saved quite a bit and also got my account over P.D.T. So, December was my first month trading full time. I went from down some in December to down less in January, minor profit in February, and even better profit for March.
The turning point for me was backtesting prior to employing a strategy. Countless hours were spent drawing on charts in order to somewhat understand the tendencies in stocks and how they react to key levels. As you can see on the chart. Luckily for me, risk management has always been pretty solid. So have my goals in trading. Modest, for sure. Since I made the decision to trade full-time, my life has been fulfilling more than ever. I do also realize that this is a journey and not a race. That helps me keep my head down and focused on small daily progress with a bigger picture in mind.
Q) How have you started trading, and what motivated you to become a trader?
A) Freedom to live a less stressed life and the potential of unlimited earnings.
Q) What does a typical day of grind look like for @theedavidchap?
A) I am up around 6 AM CST. Markets open at 8:30 so this gives me time to do some things, shower, eat, and take care of the dogs.
I have found that trading the first 30 minutes is not good for me. I don’t turn the screens on until 9:00 CST. My trading day usually lasts about an hour. I am just coming out of the testing phase and sizing up so it was important for me not to overtrade and only take decent setups. After I am done trading I grab a bite to eat and lounge around or go fishing. I record all of my trades in the evening so I can have a fresh mind and not be tempted to take more trades. After I journal I update the charts. Then I head to bed! Pretty basic day!
Q) Could you describe your trading style in a few words to us? (You don’t have to talk about strategy if you’re not comfortable with that)
A) I would categorize myself as a mean reversion trader that uses trend breaks for time entry. I also trade around key levels. As you can see from the chart.
Q) What is the biggest obstacle you face to becoming consistent?
A) Discipline, hands down. The reason I say that is, that anyone who is considering going full-time should definitely already have risk management and strategy down.
Q) Do you have a mentor or someone you look up to in your progression as a trader?
A) I have had a couple of mentoring sessions. I am in a phase right now that is discovering what kind of trader I truly am. There is so much improvement left that I didn’t want to waste a mentor’s time helping me in my self-discovery journey.
Q) Do you remember your worst and best trading day ever? What did it look like?
A) Worst trading day was on OCGN. A Swing position with some pretty good size. The best trading day was NVAX. My first trade. At least those are the most memorable.
Truthfully, any green day is a great day!
Q) If you could start from scratch tomorrow, what would you do from the beginning?
A) Take more time backtesting.
Q) Finally, do you have one piece of advice for the readers who are just starting their trading journey?
A) Don’t give up and don’t hesitate to ask for advice from someone more experienced.
Also, take everything literally when it comes to what you read or hear about trading. It requires one’s full attention and 100% of their effort! It is the hardest thing I have ever done. But also, the most rewarding!
It’s funny to do written interviews because I discover all the answers in one go, and man, I feel close to you! Love fishing too and have a similar approach to the market as you have. I’ve learned a lot from this interview so thanks for sharing your journey. It seems that you’re on the right track and I wish you all the best.
If you made it to the end, make sure to subscribe to our substack to receive more trading content. Thank you so much.
If you have questions for @theedavidchap, you can comment below, or find him on Twitter. If you’d like to be part of the next episode and want to share your story with us, feel free to reach out to me.
If you want to give it a try to Apex, you can use my affiliate link here with my 80% coupon code: RETAILCAPITAL, valid until this Sunday (April 17, 2022) at 6pm ET.
Man this is becoming one of my favorite format! Love the setup and congratulations on taking the big leap!