In this second part of The London Conference Podcast, Walter and Hugh break down Raul’s presentation and how he got his dream trading job. You will also learn about “The Professor” and how his very simple psychology technique and algorithm helped him get into working for this ginormous hedge fund.
Another talented presenter is Alex Upton who’s trading techniques are still being used today by Walter himself. You will also hear how Reima made his transition into becoming a full time trader and why this changed his life.
Hugh also unravels the “big surprise” of this event. More of these in this episode of Truth About FX.
Download (Duration: 16:36 / 19.0 MB)
In This Episode:
01:06 – cool techniques
03:29 – behind the scene look
05:43 – mad runner
07:13 – the power of Psychology
09:48 – freedom
11:05 – see the world
13:00 – spontaneous applause
15:10 – watching the flames
Tweetables:
Share what you learn [Click To Tweet].
People want to trade for different reasons [Click To Tweet].
Trading is a constant learning process [Click To Tweet].
Announcer: Sometimes, forex trading is a wild and wooly place to be. That’s why Hugh is here, to post your questions to Walter, the naked forex guy. Hugh’s got questions and Walter’s got the answers. Here at the Truth About FX Podcast.
Walter: Welcome back. It’s Walter here and you’re going to listen to the Truth About FX Podcast Episode 135. This Part Two of the two-part series where we talked about the Truth About FX London Conference.
You’re going to hear about Raul and how Raul went out and got the job that he really wanted as a Bank Trader — and he still is a bank trader to this day. You will hear about Adam. I like to call Adam “The Professor”, smartest guy in the room. He shares two things and you’ll hear about those two things that he presented at the conference.
You’ll hear all about Alex. Alex is incredibly talented presenter and he presented some really cool techniques that I’m actually even using to this day. Truth be told so, Alex had a great presentation and you’ll hear about that.
You’ll hear all about Reima who’s made the transition from part time to full time trader and why this has completely changed his life. He talks about the strategies that he traded and that he trades and then he tested. All of that in this episode.
You’ll also hear from Hugh about the surprise of the event. The number one surprise of the event that shocked me — and to be honest, I think it shocked you as well. You’ll hear all about that. It was well-deserved and it’s an awesome, awesome thing to see.
All of these and more in this episode. Episode 135 of the Truth About FX Podcast.
Walter: … And then, with Day 2, we had Adam who is our “Resident Professo”r to perform and he’s awesome. He almost like gave us two talks, that’s how I saw it.
Hugh: Yeah, exactly.
Walter: He had this really cool Psychology technique. For those of you who didn’t know Adam, he worked for one of the Market Wizards. He worked for a ginormous hedge fund — for the Tudor Fund. I guess his name is John Paul Tudor in the Market Wizard.
Anyway, he was a programmer for them and worked on the algos and what Adam shared with us was very simple psychology technique which I heard that you’re now starting to double in.
Hugh: Yeah, and it’s been amusingly effective.
Walter: Really? Wow. Okay, I’m going to do it. That’s it, sold. It’s working? Okay, I’m doing it. I’m a sucker for those things.
And then we also shared with us, Darren, who was our “Resident Recluse Trader” and shared Darren’s really unusual system that’s completely contrary to almost anything you’ll ever see in trading.
He shared with everyone how that works. It’s kind of good to step back and see a completely different way of trading, kind of like Goncalo’s talk. That was cool too to see Adam share that as well.
I think people got a lot out of that. If you didn’t like the trading side of it, you’ve got the Psychology. If the Psychology thing was too weird for you, then you definitely had the trading. It was almost like he had two talks in one.
Hugh: Yeah, that was great. It was great to get a behind the scenes look at Darren’s methods because he has screenshot in his videos but I think hearing somebody else explaining it, is beneficial also.
Walter: Yeah. And I think it helps too sometimes when you are hearing a system explained by someone else because they might highlight some of the things that the originator of the system kind of glosses over because they’ve been so used to trading it.
Hugh: Yeah.
Walter: That is so true. Then, we had Reima. Reima came in and people loved — from the surveys we know people loved Reima’s talk. I’m super impressed with Reima, to be honest with you.
Over the last couple of years, he has completely taken his trades to a new level and he shared his trades. He showed you how he trades. He had some great charts for everyone. He showed you how his, basically he had 58% win rate, and a 1.8R and it’s a very, very simple way of trading.
I thought that it was really cool to see that and obviously it was well received because people comment about that in the surveys, in the conference surveys, that we received. That was really cool to see Reima share that and he did great.
He was really comfortable. I even said to him, “Are you nervous Reima?” “I’m not nervous.” He’s like, “These are all my friends. It’s like I’m sitting here in front of all my friends, just having a chat.” I was like, “Really?” Because I was worried.
I was worried because you know Hugh, these people at this conference, they’re not professional speakers. They don’t go around selling books or whatever, courses or whatever. They’re just traders and they came out on their own time and they basically offered what works for them.
It was really cool to have Reima come from the other side of Europe to this event and shares his charts and show people, “This is how I built up my confidence. This is how I trade now and this is how it fits into my life”.
Just put it this way, knowing Reima and where he is right now with his trading, from where he was two and a half years ago, I’m just so happy for him. I’m so happy for him. He’s an awesome guy. He shares it with everyone on the Forum, he shared it with everyone at the event.
If you see his presentation, you’ll see how simple it can really be so that was cool to see Reima.
Hugh: Yeah, that was awesome. Funny hanging out with him too.
Walter: Yeah, he’s a great guy. A mad runner too, definitely a mad runner. He’s always like, ever time I see him, he’s like, “I think I can go for a run here.” He’s trying to figure out where he can run, that’s pretty funny.
Alex Upton gave us “Finding Trading Success with Positive Psychology” and he gave us an absolute boat load of psychological techniques in his talk. In fact, that’s what people were saying in the reviews of the conference, in the surveys that came back.
They were just saying, “Wow, we were so impressed with the volume of the usable practical information that Alex gave everyone in his talk.” So, that was pretty cool.
Hugh: Yeah. And I’ve been using one of his strategies actually and it’s definitely helping me so I’ve got a lot out of that too.
Walter: That’s great. People might not noticed but Alex actually, I think he’s done one or two other talks where he’s done a similar thing for a conference. He was our most practiced presenter and he does it just to help people. That’s what he does.
He doesn’t go to these conferences to say “Okay, now buy my book,” or whatever. He just go and shares what he’s learned. He’s such a great guy. He actually — I’ve noticed — he shared with me also, just setting this aside that since he’s been working really hard on the Psychology, his trading has really taken off as well.
He uses a lot of really cool techniques. It was nice for him to share that and see the power of Psychology. I think some of the things that he said, walking in to that weekend, people probably wouldn’t have thought of that and then walking out, I think it’s kind of an eye opener. At least, that’s how I saw it.
Hugh: Yeah, for sure. I think that it was great that he gave specific examples of those things that affected him and I think that helps you believe it, right?
Walter: Yes, exactly. Well received. A lot of people really rated it highly. So then, we move on to Raul. Raul Gonzales is a Bank Trader. It’s interesting. I didn’t know that he basically “forced” his way into the job.
He really wanted the job and he basically weaseled his way to an interview and nailed the job and got the job. I didn’t realize that. I thought it was one of those things, we had to know somebody and he didn’t know anybody and he got the job.
Here it is 26 years later and he’s been trading for banks. He talked about the difference between trading for the bank, trading at home and why they do things the way they do and how it’s changed since the GFC and all these stuff that people just don’t know about bank trading.
Bank trading and hedge fund are kind of like the Boogeyman. People talk about them and whisper about them and say these things but that was cool to hear what Raul had to say about bank trading because he’s been around the block. He’s traded for many banks and he knows what goes on there.
He was actually an expert witness in a trial about the banks and the whole live force scandal. He’s a very knowledgeable dude and it was pretty cool to have him relay what it’s like to be a bank trader.
Coming away from that, I think a lot of people thought, “I don’t think I really want to be a bank trader.” Hearing all the paperwork and stuff, what do you think?
Hugh: Yeah. I think that was the consensus like there’s so much regulation and everything had to be approved and all that stuff. I think it’s definitely, you can obviously travel like he has but I think it’s within a certain set of rules.
It was interesting, I actually had the opportunity talk with Raul for maybe about two hours like the day before the Conference and like the day after. We went to lunch with Enho and it was interesting to hear all that stuff.
You know what goes on, how he sees the market and what just goes on behind the scenes. That was cool for me.
Walter: Yeah. He’s such a great guy too.
Hugh: Yeah.
Walter: Then, after Raul, the last and this was the finale was your talk Hugh which is awesome. Here’s the thing, this is the way I look at it. People want to trade because, I believe they want freedom.
Some of them want recognition, some of them want a Ferrari or whatever but a lot of them, they just want freedom. They want to get out of their job or whatever and so, what was interesting was you were like saying, “Look, I know that a lot of you want the freedom in your life and that is why you’re attracted to trading.” It’s not because we like to look at the candlesticks on a computer, we want freedom.
What was interesting about your talk was you’re saying, “Look, you can actually still learn how to trade. You can still be working on your trading, fine tuning it, not quite there yet where you’re consistent but you can have all this freedom in your life if you just do these things.”
As you offered a lot of websites, a lot of hacks, a lot of tools and tricks that people probably aren’t that aware of. I wasn’t aware of them. I know a lot of people weren’t aware of them.
Honestly, this is what I think it is. If you’re thinking about retirement then maybe some of those things aren’t going to work for you. But, if you’re younger, like if you’re in your 20’s or 30’s and maybe even early 40’s, if you’re on that stage where you were like, “You know what? Screw this. I want to leave my job. I want to get out of my cubicle” or whatever, then I thought your talk was the best one and you weren’t consistently profitable as a trader. You could do exactly what Hugh said and get out and see the world.
If that is really the driving thing that you want to do and so I thought that was good. I know Hugh were saying, “ Oh, you know…” You’re pretty modest about it but I thought it was really a good talk because it enables you to see that there’s a different angle to this.
You don’t have to just pull in 300 pips a week to be able to go, jet off to Estonia or Albania or the Maldives or whatever. You can actually do these and you can still get that freedom.
Hugh: Yeah. I just want to give a little different perspective from what I’ve seen, experienced, on my own and from what I’ve gotten from people who read my blog. I think it can be a good alternative for some people.
Like you say, if you’re older, you’re looking for retirement, you have kids to support or whatever. Maybe some of these stuffs won’t be the best thing for you but you can pick and choose what might work. Who knows, it could help you free up your time, free up your energy and free up your mental overhead to learn how to trade.
Walter: Yup, absolutely. There were a lot of tools there for you, for people who were thinking, “You know what? I just want to leave my job and I want to do it tomorrow.” That was all in there.
The other thing that really struck me, Hugh and I don’t know if you remember this but you had by far the loudest response and applause. It’s one of the reasons why I was hoping it would be okay to have you as the last talk because I thought people would be hanging to hear what you’re going to say.
What was interesting is when I said, “How long have you had your website?” Because you had that website, “tradingheroes” and how long is “tradingheroes” been around for — I’ll link it up in the shownotes of this episode for everyone. If you haven’t seen it, I’m sure most of you have but if you haven’t, — it’s like in 2007, right? Is that what you said 2007?
Hugh: Yeah.
Walter: Yeah. And people just like broke into spontaneous applause, they were just like “Yeah!”
Hugh: I wasn’t expecting that either.
Walter: Yeah, it was awesome because it just validates what you’re doing. What you’re doing is like an honest look at trading and let me share with you what I’ve learned about trading and that’s what your website — to me — that is what your website is all about.
Here’s an honest look at trading. Here is what trading is all about. Here’s what I’ve learned from this person, that person. Here’s what I’ve found from here and there. It’s like a really great portal of info for the forex trader.
When you said that, when I said, “How long was your website been around?” You said, “2007” and the people were just like, “Yeah!” that was awesome, man. That was like the highlight. You know what I mean?
Because obviously, you were the one that everyone knew. Everyone knew what you’re about. These other traders, they’re just private traders people don’t know. To me that was like the validation that what you’re doing is helping the trading community. I thought that was so cool.
Hugh: I was very honored by that and I appreciate you, encouraging me to speak.
Walter: Yeah, it was great. So, there you have it, that’s basically the wrap on what we had at the event. It exceeded my expectations. If you didn’t make it, you can certainly click the link down here in the show notes and get your copy of the recordings.
That’ll be like an instant thing. It’ll be an online membership, like an online portal thing. Actually, just so everyone knows, you’ll get the videos, you’ll get the slides of the presenter he had in his slides.
You can download the slides. You’ll get the transcripts so you can read it if that’s what you want to do and then you’ll also get the audio. If you want to listen to it as a podcast or whatever on your phone or in your car or whatever, you can do that too.
You can get all those formats if you’ll click the link down there in the show notes and get the recordings for the first Truth About FX Conference. Thanks, Hugh for making it all the way over there and helping us make this happen.
It was pretty cool to get a group of traders together and have that vibe. Like you say, everyone was very positive, everyone was really cool and outside the conference hour, everyone was happy. It was funny that people were watching the flames take off like from the balcony.
For people who don’t know, the hotel is right up at the airport and there was this like balcony out there and it was stinking hot too. Think like a hit in tarmac so there’s this people out there outside on the barb balcony and it’s like concrete. It’s like next to the tarmac so it’s like you’re getting this radiating heat.
It’s really hot and everyone is out there, drinking beers, watching these flames take off. It’s really funny.
Hugh: It was fun.
Walter: It’s not good for having a conversation. You had to go inside to have a conversation but outside you can watch flames. It was pretty funny.
Hugh: Thanks, Walter, for putting everything all together. That was awesome and one of the best trading experience for sure.
Walter: Yeah. I was pretty happy and we’ll see if we can put another one together. I’ll let you guys know but thanks so much, Hugh for helping make it happen. Thanks for everything you did.
For those of you that missed it, you can certainly get the recordings in the show notes and I will see you in the next episode, Hugh.
Hugh: Alright. See you, Walter.
Walter: Thanks, bye.
Hugh: Thanks, bye.
SHOWNOTES
THE 2017 LONDON CONFERENCE PRESENTERS
Raul Gonzalez: Forex Flow Trader
Adam Hartley: Programmer and Forex Trader
Reima Huovinen: Home-Based Naked Trader
Alex Upton: Affirmations
Nicola McLaughlin: Economist and FX Trader
Hugh Kimura: Living the Trading Lifestyle
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