Andrew Aziz - How to Day Trade for a Living: A Beginners Guide to Trading Tools and Tactics, Money Management, Discipline and Trading Psychology

A Beginners Guide to Tools and Tactics, Money Management, Discipline and Trading Psychology

Andrew Aziz, Ph.D.

Founder and CEO, Peak Capital Trading
www.PeakCapitalTrading.com
Founder and Trader, Bear Bull Traders
www.BearBullTraders.com

DISCLAIMER:

The author and www.BearBullTraders.com (the Company), including its employees, contractors, shareholders and affiliates, is NOT an investment advisory service, a registered investment advisor or a broker-dealer and does not undertake to advise clients on which securities they should buy or sell for themselves. It must be understood that a very high degree of risk is involved in trading securities. The Company, the authors, the publisher and the affiliates of the Company assume no responsibility or liability for trading and investment results. Statements on the Companys website and in its publications are made as of the date stated and are subject to change without notice. It should not be assumed that the methods, techniques or indicators presented in these products will be profitable nor that they will not result in losses. In addition, the indicators, strategies, rules and all other features of the Companys products (collectively, the Information) are provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. Examples presented are for educational purposes only. Accordingly, readers should not rely solely on the Information in making any trades or investments. Rather, they should use the Information only as a starting point for doing additional independent research in order to allow them to form their own opinions regarding trading and investments. Investors and traders must always consult with their licensed financial advisors and tax advisors to determine the suitability of any investment.

Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean. Ryunosuke Satoro

The first time I met Andrew, he taught me an important lesson.

I was sitting in Sarabeths, my absolute favorite weekend brunch spot in New York City, waiting to meet a new acquaintance in the trading community who I was starting to hear a lot about. For the most part, I keep my head down and spend 85 percent of my time running our proprietary trading desk in NYC. And while my firm also has a separate trader education division (SMB Training), I frequently am made fun of by our staff for not knowing others in the trading education space. Andrew walks in. We meet. We order. We talk shop. He politely indulges me in my complete lack of knowledge of his work and most things outside of the walls of SMB Capital, that prop firm I co-founded in 2005.

Sipping on my fresh brewed iced tea, with extra lemon, I wait for the answer to the question I have just posed to Andrew, Hey, how many members are a part of Bear Bulls? Andrew matter-of-factly replies, Over 600.

I literally almost spit out my iced tea. I think to myself, You are such an idiot. How do you not know this guy? What an impressive number of members to have inspired in such a short period of time. More importantly, he schooled me on the culture of learning he had built for retail and independent traders at his trading community, Bear Bull Traders. Andrew taught me to never again show up to another meeting with a leader in the retail and independent trader space, like him, unprepared and uninformed about the important work they are doing with and for so many.

I greatly appreciated that lesson and I still remember it every day in my work.

Since that conversation, Bear Bull Traders has continued to grow. It is not just the number of members that are impressive, but rather the entire community and learning culture that Andrew has built. Let me share a few anecdotes.

After my clueless brunch, SMB and Bear Bull Traders partnered on an educational webinar for their trading community. Here is where I learned quickly about the goodness of their culture- their learning culture. Normally when asked to present for a webinar, I am also asked what topic I would like to present. Unfortunately, but in reality, no one really cares what it is as long as they are getting that trading author and Co-Founder of SMB to present. Except that is when I was asked to present to the Bear Bull Traders community. With them, I had an entirely different and pleasantly surprising experience. A key member of their community suggested that he present a PlayBook trade to me and receive my critical feedback on his work. Excuse me? That would be something I had never done before and a smashing learning opportunity for webinar attendees. Who were these people (at Bear Bull Traders)?

So we chose the topic: How to become a consistently profitable trader using the PlayBook.

Let me provide some context for this webinar topic. The second book I wrote is called The PlayBook, and it lays out how a serious trader can build their trading business. In short, you build a PlayBook of very specific trades that you trade best. And you then just trade that PlayBook. Producing a PlayBook trade is an exercise that our homegrown new traders at SMB utilize daily to develop their business. Andrew writes convincingly inside this book about the importance of a business plan to a traders success. So in its truest context, the ask for this webinar topic was:

I am a serious retail trader who would like to show you my serious work so that our trading community of serious developing traders will make real and significant progress.

And we had a substantive and high-level teaching session on this members PlayBook that truly benefited their trading community.

In addition, of course, the webinar was packed and as large as any of the ones I have participated in. This author and trader was sensing a pattern with this Bear Bull Traders community.

And then there was the Q&A. This always unmasks the culture of a trading community. Are the questions about all of the money our trades make or about the process that leads to success? Their questions were about the process. Or said better, the type of questions we would expect our professional developing traders from our own desk to ask of me.

Important communities require great leaders. In my experience, great leaders think about how they can help others before anything else. I found that with Andrew.

So Andrew and I had built a bit of a relationship, but admittedly we were still feeling each other out. Around the same time, I had recently signed on to become a board member for Traders4ACause, and I was assisting with the creation of the agenda of speakers for our in-person Las Vegas event. We were seeking quality speakers, who were real traders, who offered real value to the trading community, and were not the hucksters that all too often permeate trader education. I thought of Andrew.

I reached out to Andrew to see if he might speak and help us promote the charity event. Usually this requires a long presentation of how involvement in the charity would help the presenter and their company. We actually have a lengthy slide deck that says as much. Within a few minutes of the conversation though, Andrew said he was in. And not only that, Bear Bull Traders was in. And not only that, he would be donating, and he would be alerting his mailing list to encourage his community members to attend. He could not have been more generous and gracious, and all without even caring or knowing how it might help him and/or his company.

And I cannot leave out the time that SMB and Bear Bull Traders were partnering to do another webinar for his trading community. This time we settled on: Collective Learning In A Trading Community / Including An Inside Look At How An NYC Proprietary Trading Firm Mentors Their New Traders