In the ring with Jeff Quinto in my corner

I’ve used many analogies, but have settled on boxing as the closest fit to trading where your opponent represents the market.

Why, because one mistake can result in complete ruin. Lose your focus, drop your guard and one punch can be lethal. Other sports, you can strike out, lose a hole of golf or lose a game, but you always have the next at bat, the next hole or the next shot. Not necessarily in boxing. One mistake on my part can lead to one punch landing and I end up knocked out on the canvas. Like trading, one bad trade can have devastating consequences to my account.

I began my mentorship with Jeff in March 2007.

It’s been a long journey or many rounds to where I am at today. I often wondered will I ever have any success. I’m at the point of having my first success and I can pinch myself and it’s not a dream. I have a plan and I am following it. I’m the real slow guy at the high end of the time frame it takes to see the first success.

When I first started I figured if the best took nine months I should take a year. I figured I could just sit in front of a screen and pick up the rhythm of the market and if I practiced enough I should be pretty good at it. After all, it’s like picking up most things. Shoot some baskets and you get good enough at basketball. Just go with getting the feel of the game. How difficult could it be? Yeah, I learned how to shoot baskets well enough for a pick up game, but in trading you play against professional NBA players everyday. Backyard basketball doesn’t stand a chance.

In boxing, it’s the equivalent to getting in the ring with Muhammad Ali at his peak after just a few weeks of sparring in a gym.

By the time I discovered Jeff, I had bought systems, written systems, traded along with traders in trading rooms using their set-ups, gone to courses, tried every new set-up and on and on. I hadn’t made any money and the only reason I wasn’t broke was because I’m risk averse. When I’m in the ring I avoid pain. I choose flight over fight, so the market never knocked me out and I never landed much of a punch (made money).

Jeff quickly got me into the gym and outfitted me with head gear (simulator) and showed me defense: how to move away from and block punches. He also gave me a left jab (Keltner retracement to 21 exponential moving average) to spar (practice scratch trades) while he watched. Unlike most mentors who tell you the way they execute a left jab (you trade their set-ups their way), Jeff explained what a left jab was and watched how I did a left jab. Rather than try to fit me to the set-up, he guided me to fit the set-up to me. He watched my style. He was kind in his comments and patient, oh was he patient, but pushed me to match the set-up to my personality not change me to trade the set-up his way.

This distinction wasn’t apparent until I looked back on the mentorship during the 2008 Holiday break. It wasn’t until I understood the importance of matching my plan including the set-ups to my capability and confidence to execute that I really understood and had a full appreciation for Jeff’s style of mentoring. He taught me how to find my own way and imparted invaluable market wisdom during the mentorship.

I’ve had long journey. I’ve made 5,000 or so live trades averaging three quarters of a tick loss including commission and probably another 10,000 simulator trades. I was rarely profitable, but never lost much either. Jeff encouraged me by pointing out patience and discipline are the cornerstones to success. Several times he kept me “in the ring” by saying he wasn’t ready to throw in the towel and I shouldn’t be either.

I eventually found some set-ups that worked for me through Jeff, by reading books and researching websites. I’ve learned simple set-ups executed with precision and researched in great detail work the best. Less is always more. I have found a lot of set-ups and methods that are profitable, but I couldn’t match them to my style.

Jeff’s really good at listening and then getting you to really look at your match to the set-up and how to squeeze out the most profit. It took me a long time to realize I needed to have a well written plan with detailed metrics on each trade and only trade the set-ups in the plan. I have a tendency to get caught up in the market and make too many impulsive trades.

If the market punches me because I let a punch get through (I make an out-of-plan trade), I tend to start punching (trading to recover the loss) back before I move away and reset my defense (take a break) and that’s when the market unleashes a volley of punches (I give the market more money).

I still venture into trading rooms (turn them off when you’re trading your plan) and watch outstanding traders trading their plan. Whenever I want to give the market some money I follow one of their trades that I don’t fully understand figuring their successful so I’ll ride on their coattails. Of course that turns out to be one that doesn’t work and I stay in the trade longer than I should because I think it will turn around because they know what they are doing. I finally broke that habit in November 2008 and will only trade my plan. I listen to the offers of a week’s mentorship to learn how to trade their plan and their set-up.

Now, I spend my time developing my plan and work with my mentor, Jeff, to make my plan better.

Bob

Robert T. Eggleston