You can increase the efficiency of the game within the system, but you can't change the rules of the system itself.
We all know that Atticus is a kind of nugget who came out of nowhere overnight and started setting the pace and direction of the "game" on Twitter. I've personally seen a few accounts trying to copy your trading style, I'm sure there are many others. But first I want to talk about Atticus before, who you were before you got into trading and why you chose this industry.
I had my own business before I got into full time trading, it was a legal business that brought me a good income for more than three years, but after a while I realized that I did not like the human factor in my business. A lot depended on key employees and if something happened to one of them, like getting sick, the system became vulnerable - I wasn't happy with that. The business was closed successfully, it was a conscious decision. ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ You can increase the efficiency of the game within the system, but you can't change the rules of the system itself. I'm just experimenting on Twitter and sharing it with people, not a big deal.
Where did you study trading?
It's a very funny story.
My journey in trading started in December 2019, it was buying BTC at $7,000 and selling in early November 2020 at $13,000-14,000. At that moment I thought "Oh, cool, almost 100% profit in less than one year", that's when I started looking for someone to teach me. So I found one trader from Odessa, who posted on Instagram his process of losing weight 80% of the time and the other time he was posting BTC analytics and telling about his course that he runs together with his friend. I bought the course for $500 and started to learn candles, triangles, "Dragon" pattern and other things. In parallel, I searched for information on the Internet and found all the same things that I was told in this course, that was my first doubt in this course. The second step was deposit of $10,000 into my account, I opened a trade on "Dragon" pattern the same evening, earned $4,000 and then traded all night. After a month all the money was lost because nobody even explained about risk management on the course. The only thing they told us was not to open trades with leverage more than X10 but they couldn't explain why. After another month this entire course looked to me like weekly "drawing lessons" on the chart with an incompetent mentor.
After that I stopped trading for a couple of months, but one great evening in the chat room of that course I noticed a man who was trading in entirely different way. He boldly and expertly ridiculed their trades with his trades and I realized that we had a common opinion. After talking to him he showed me that all these triangles had not been working for a long time, besides he told me about the Smart Money concept, which was more logical. I started to develop together with this man, he taught me everything, including his trading style. I will not tell the name of this person, but I can say that he learned from Cryptomannn, so I tell everyone that I also learned from Cryptoman, although it's not quite that, maybe that's why I trade a little differently.
Here's one of your entry models ( -link- ). How long have you been building this approach to work? Not gonna lie all your trades look like you know in advance where the price will be in the next minutes and you just put limit orders under the movement.
I experimented, observed, and took notes. Initially I tried everything in a row, like many others. For example m3m3 with no context, m1m1 with HTF targets analysis but no analysis towards my position, high RR, m5m5, 3-4 currency pairs and all the time I felt a state of gambling. It was the role of a victim of the market, I was like a prey, trying different ways to escape from losing deposit, instead of going to face the danger.
I stopped trading for two weeks and began to change my established patterns of behavior consciously. I kept thinking in my head that everything I needed was already at hand, I just needed to create a model, a structure, which would be my trading. A lot of backtesting and communication with more experienced people led me to construct my own trading strategy. Originally it was a couple of rules, entry criteria and 5-6 setups, but the results of the backtests showed that it was better to concentrate on one currency pair and trade with only two setups.
Is it important to have your own strategy in trading? Can you tell about yours, about the build-up and on what your work is based?
****A pilot before a flight looks at a plan and route, a racer before a race at least once makes a lap to remember turns and plan his actions, builders before groundwork build a plan of markings and step-by-step actions, so what's the difference with a trader? Everything starts with a plan, a plan is based on a path you've taken, on your experience, and experience is gained through mistakes.
My trading strategy is based on the path I have taken. Originally it contained five setups and five rules, but over time I began to improve it. Let's go over the key points.
First I removed the USDCAD, then the GBPUSD. Why? I wondered why I need 2-3 currency pairs if I can trade on one with better quality. People trade several pairs with the idea of "more pairs - more opportunities", but nobody says that more opportunities doesn't mean higher WR or better quality trades, they're just itchy to trade. Leaving only EURUSD in my trading I'm not jumping from chart to chart, I'm not nervous or worried, just waiting for my setup and taking my loot. Why do you need multiple currency pairs if you can't trade efficiently on even one?
The second step was reducing the amount of setups in favor to quality and targeting. Everything was simple - a monthly strategy backtest, based on the results of which I realized that it makes sense to trade only 1-2 setups that give the best results, rather than keep 5 sets at hand and use them poorly, get confused and don't understand what's going on.
How are you going to plan a move if you don't know what you're playing? For my trading I decided to pinpoint my mistakes, my adversary (what keeps me from reaching the target) and its causes. I analyzed my trades, made backtest and found the reasons why in one trade the price reached TP and it didn't in the other, why in some cases the price tested my entry, then reached the goal and in other cases it got the stop order almost instantly. "The only true mistake is the one from which we have learned nothing." - Henry Ford
Rules. I wrote about 20 rules, which prevent me to trade in a certain market situation or oblige me to close a trade if for example m15m1/m5m1 turned against my position. Each of these rules keeps me from stupid trades and losses.
What's the bottom line? Trading one currency pair, two sets, clear entry criteria and the rules that constitute the major part of the trading strategy. Also, there is still a lot of behind-the-scenes work, such as work on mistakes, backtests, learning new situations, notes, journal of emotions and other details, which individually are trifles, but in total, this is the system I am in.
I added the range 03.10.22 down below. How many people suffered losses from m5m1 or m1m1 inside the range? How many people couldn't find appropriate positions? A strategy with clear rules and a daily plan is what you need.
One of the rules for successful trading is "trade your plan, plan you trade", but I know from experience that most traders don't use that rule. How did you get to the point where you trade your setup only? I think this question is rather about your psychology than your strategy.
By discarding principles we let chaos in.
Here comes the question "Why do we need to do this?”. In the first question you said about "game", if we consider trading in the market as a game, then the person who deviates from his strategy, from his own rules is an amateur, an observer, a victim, but not a player.
The whole problem with entering a trade "just for fun" comes from uncertainty and lack of a clear plan. Uncertainty comes from lack of clear trading rules in your trading system, and lack of rules is the result of lack of trading system itself.
Perhaps a better analogy would be driving a car. You can drive and park, but the lack of trivial rules, such as "do not drive on red" or skip pedestrians, will lead you to an accident sooner or later. That's why you should ask yourself whether you are a driver or just know how to drive, whether you are a player or an observer.
Describe the beginning of your trading day. You woke up, a few hours before the trading session starts…
I woke up, did the routine, got at my workplace, wrote down the plan for the day, talked to the traders around me, checked their plans with mine and started working until the end of NYKZ.
Aren't you confused by other people's trading plans?
No, because everyone has their own opinion about the current market situation, but not everyone's opinion should be listened to.
What do you think, does the community help you to develop as a trader or is it better to work alone with your thoughts about the market?
Work alone, but it's better to develop together with strong people.
What mental problems did you face at the very start and what contributed to their solution?
I opened a lot of orders, felt uncertainty during a trade, uncertainty after a lose streak and other trivial problems that every trader faces at the beginning of his journey. All the problems were gone after I built a trading strategy. I just realized that I'm not ready to pay with my time for fun in the market, here you need to trade, trade and trade again, and not to make nonsense.
Describe your worst period in life related to trading. A big loss, or a long sequence of losing trades.
I haven't had a lose streak in a long time. In fact, there were no worst periods either, negative or positive experience is primarily an experience and it's up to you to decide how to react on it. It's more important to change yourself to better after a negative experience than to sit in one place and suffer. Change takes a long time, it's a process, not a state.
Well then, what was your trading experience that affected your trading the most? ( it can be either a positive or a negative experience )
In the beginning I talked about losing capital in just 1 month, that was a long time ago in 2020, and that's when I got a feel of how quickly you can enter the market and how quickly it can throw you out. After that, I started making a plan.
Earlier in the interview you wrote about "playing within a system", and looking at your trades, it looks more like a movement according to an algorithm. So, is this kind of systematization present in your work only, or do you do everything consistently in real life as well?
Only in work and important life moments.
If you had the opportunity to go back to the beginning of your journey, what tips and insights would you have left for yourself?
More backtests and more experimentation.
Blitz. (Short questions. Answers can be short too, but if there is more to write, do it)
Your top 3 CIS traders and why exactly them.
****Cryptomannn - gathered a strong team around him, created a community based on a completely new idea, has a great experience, combination of Dante and ICT in an improved version.
eNabLe - open guy who makes a great contribution to less experienced traders, shares his knowledge publicly, and has recently systematized trading for anyone with his Notion templates.
SMNV - showed everyone that m1 is not scary, made hundreds of backtests and to this day helps guys in the community to find themselves.
Also, there are many more great traders, and here are a few in between.
Martin M - the shadow, he is not on social media, but it is worth mentioning this man because he explained to me what trading with really big capital is all about.
What do you think of people who try to copy your trading technique?
No need to do the same, but it's always interesting to try something new, good luck.
Do you think your current trading experience can help people?
It's not up to me, it's up to people. I'm just sharing my experiments with trading only one currency pair or trading only LOKZ and other stuff like that.
Story of the name. Where did Atticus Wierix come from?
While learning art I came across Johannes Wierix, for some reason I remembered his last name as someone who had made a huge contribution to art. Atticus is the name of a minor character in Taboo, a mercenary who traveled all over the world (the compass tattoo on his head says it all).
Photography with a bag on a head is Steinberg's art. The idea of his work in this subject is that everyone wears a mask, real or metaphorical.
Are you happy?
Yes, but after winning over the russian aggressor will be even happier.