The legend says that he sleeps less than 2 hours per night.
Full-time trader. Coder.
No… that’s not me!
Because this man also possesses a very sexy voice and has video editing skills that I (sadly) don’t have. I’ve talked with him for two years now, and at this point, he became my online friend (yes, the internet is weird & magical). If you’re into programming and trading, you know the man!
I’m obviously talking about Trade For Opportunity!
TFO created many valuable tools, from the Python web app simulating equity curves to a plethora of TradingView indicators. He also has a YouTube channel with more than 16,000 subscribers where he discussed programming and trading.
Ladies and Gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to TFO!
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Hi TFO, thank you so much for doing that interview with us today.
The goals of this interview are:
Learn more about how you use Pine Script/programming to enhance your trading
To show people what is possible when you work hard.
Q) Why Trade For Opportunity? Where does it come from?
I just tried to make an alias that represented how I felt about trading.
My idea of success in trading has always equated to opportunity.
The opportunity to grow long-term, generational wealth, the opportunity to have more time/freedom, the opportunity to alleviate financial stress from my family, etc.
It’s always kind of reminded me that the end goal is a lot more than the short-term numbers.
Q) We started talking in private at the very beginning of our Twitter pages, and we were both working full-time back at the time. Crazy how time flies. For the readers, can you explain when you started your trading journey and why?
Bro that’s wild lol time really does fly.
I started trading about 5 years ago, pretty soon after starting my career out of college. I think my introduction to trading was a result of my initial curiosity about investing and figuring out my 401k.
I was just reading through a bunch of material and eventually stumbled upon trading and fell into the rabbit hole.
It began with Investopedia articles, which turned into learning about options, and not long after that I was going full degen trading pre-earnings strangles on Robinhood, using the classic options profit calculator website to estimate my returns, only to be disappointed the next morning by the IV crush.
You know, the good ol’ days!
Q) What does a typical day of grind look like for you? What would you say is your time split between coding and trading?
Coding probably takes up about 80% of my day on average.
Quite honestly it’s been stressful to balance as of late, as I’d like to reserve more time to trade, however, it’s also overwhelming to balance everything with social media (Twitter, YouTube), developing and publishing new free indicators, updating my premium indicators and making content for members, reserving time to build new skills and explore new areas like python, etc…
Long story short, I’ll still be coding my ass off in 2024 but will be making an effort to trade more actively.
[Note from Retail: folks, if you haven’t checked it out yet, TFO creates some amazing tools! Here’s an example he built a web app with Python that simulates equity curve based on your parameters]
Q) You developed dozens of indicators and tools in pinscript for TradingView. You ended 2023 with more than 50,000 boosts (e.g., upvote on TradingView). Firstly, congratulations. Secondly, it’s absolutely insane! Can you share with us which one is your favorite and why?
Thank you! If I had to pick one I think it’d be my Timeframe Continuity indicator “TFC”.
TFC is a concept from Rob Smith’s “The Strat,” where you evaluate price with respect to several, usually higher-timeframe open prices.
For example, if Price is above the current open of the 1h, 4h, and 1D timeframes, we can say we have “full timeframe continuity up” on those timeframes.
If it’s trading below all those open prices, we’d have “full timeframe continuity down.” It’s such a simple but effective concept.
I still use it on a regular basis as a confluence factor to help ride trends and trade in the direction of higher timeframe expansion.
Q) People always ask me how to be creative/find ideas. With everything that you coded, you’re definitely not running out of ideas. How do you do?
There are definitely times when I feel low on ideas, but at the end of the day, I just try to listen more than I speak. Everyone has different perspectives, methods, and strategies that work for them, so I eagerly try to learn from others, take bits and pieces of what I find interesting, and roll with it.
I'm also not picky with what I trade. I know plenty of people who treat their systems like the holy grail and look down on literally anything else, but I could give two fucks about what I trade.
If my algos can be improved by taking concepts from one strategy here, and one strategy there, I'm more than happy to explore that relationship. Too many people carry this unfounded confidence that just because they know one way to trade, everything else is bullshit.
There's no shortage of ideas if you can maintain an open mind.
Q) You started to move from Pine Script to Python. What motivates this choice & what are your goals for 2024?
For me, the switch to Python is mostly about getting more concrete data and having a more flexible framework (my new favorite word ;)).
TradingView provides around 10k-20k historical bars per chart depending on the subscription level, which is fine for higher timeframes.
But on a 1-minute chart, for example, that’s only a few weeks using Electronic Trading Hours, or a couple of months using Real Trading Hours. Obviously not ideal when looking to build systems with statistical significance.
Q) I always ask if people have a mentor. Do you have one, and if yes, what is the most valuable lesson he/she taught you?
I don’t currently, but I’m very open to the idea of getting one.
I love learning under mentors and I’ve been missing that part of academia and the workplace where I can learn and thrive under a subject matter expert.
I don’t particularly know if I want to explore mentors in trading specifically, or one more focused on algos, or both (if only I knew someone with knowledge in both areas, who also happens to have a great coaching service, wink wink).
But I think it would be a great move for me to get a serious coach. And in all honesty, the call we had a few weeks ago was eye-opening,
I think I could really grow under the guidance of someone with your experience.
[Note from Retail: I swear on my life that I didn’t force him to write this, I even considered removing it.]
Q) Do you remember your worst and best trading day ever? What did it look like?
My worst day was way more memorable than my best because at the moment I just found it funny.
Back in 2020, I had moved for a new job. I had very limited time to trade, let alone check my phone throughout the day, so I began to rely waaay too much on a signal service for some short-term swing trades.
It went really well for a few months, then really bad.
It basically ended in me bag-holding a bunch of shit stocks for several weeks cause the dude who ran the group (and myself) didn’t want to accept the losses. For several days straight I’d go check my phone and see big red days, then one day I saw a huge red number, and all I could do was laugh.
It was one of those “what the fuck am I doing” moments, but it helped me finally accept those losses and move on.
It also helped me realize that if I wanted to succeed in the long term, I needed to take responsibility for my own trades and never blindly trust someone else to manage them for me.
Trivial lessons, but it was a good wake-up call.
Q) What is your advice for people who want to get started in their programming journey?
There’s no perfect way to start, so pick one and just keep going.
Whether it’s a well-structured online course, or a one-off YouTube tutorial - find something that interests you and build off of it.
I’m a big fan of project-based learning, so I did just that. One YouTube channel that really helped me get started with Python and market-related coding projects, in general, was a channel called PartTimeLarry. My favorite project that his videos helped me create was an options trading bot that took TradingView signals and connected them to TD Ameritrade through an API.
I learned a ton through small projects like that. Also, ChatGPT is a super helpful tool that I wish I had when I was starting.
It’s not great for Pine Script (yet) but it’s pretty amazing for Python, whether you need a function to do XYZ or don’t understand where an error is coming from. It saves me so much time. Use it.
[Note from Retail: TFO is the perfect example of someone who started from scratch and quickly became an expert in programming. His tools are top-notch and once again, he learned from online tutorials. You can do it too.]
Q) Finally, do you have one piece of advice for the readers who are struggling in their trading journey?
Data is king.
If you aren’t using data in your trading, you should. RC has a wealth of information on the topic so I highly recommend going through his past articles if you don’t know where to start.
Where can we find you online?
All my links, social media, indicators, etc. can be found here.
TFO Youtube Channel (16,000+ subscribers)
TFO indicators (not affiliated)
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Guys, thanks for reading this interview. If you have any questions, TFO & I will meet you in the comment section.
PS: Next week we have a fantastic article on a topic that is much needed, and what makes the difference between your average trader and the 1%.