At once you will feel like if everyone around you is putting you down but it shouldn’t stop you from working on getting better every day. Have the discipline to keep on trying, learn how to do the same thing repeatedly, reflect where you made a mistake until you do it right. You will for sure perfect your craft and get rewarded more than you deserve

What did you do before trading and why did you choose it.

I grew up in a culture where money meant everything. As frugal as it seems, the older generation in my family have a full-blown obsession with money. I was trained to save money when I was younger as we believe it is an honorable practice. All of the money I received inside the red envelope (called “hong bao”) during my birthday and New Year, I put it in my pink piggy bank. I was in my early teenage years when my parents taught me how our family business runs and engraved to my mind that I will be doing it as well in the future. In my mind, I was not interested in doing what the past generations had been doing. Since then, I was hooked on growing / handling money, which leads to me getting a bachelor’s degree in accountancy. I enjoy everything finance-related, which is the bridge between my work, and trading. In the future I want to be the one who can cut that family tradition, be able to do anything I want without relying from anyone.

And won't their opinion change when you achieve the desired success in trading and can show results higher than your business?

I believe their opinion will change if I show them that I can generate profits higher than our family business consistently. Completely aware it is going to be a long road — I am very far from it at this point, but I made myself ready for everything. Further, they still have no idea about all the trading I am doing so I am very sure it is going to be an extensive (yet a successfull one, I hope) story.

Do you remember the moment when you realised that trading was your thing, what it was like?

It was my old friend who introduced trading to me in the past year. He traded only stocks but taught me about the other markets as well. The money he showed he’s got from the markets made me realized the opportunity we can seize together. I started studying his style and all but I stopped midway as I need to focus on my job. Early this year, I learned price action where everything clicked. Knowing why the markets move and how you can take advantage of it was like you opening your third-eye you never knew you had all along.

It’s not a secret that the path to a steady income from trading is very difficult. What psychological problems you had at the beginning and how you managed to deal with them.

I remember having an addiction to one-minute chart in the beginning. I used to want to catch every single move I ended up being mentally strained. Staring at the charts for too long, studying price action for long hours had me compressing my schedule. It affected my job in the beginning as I used to do things very quickly but not enough attention was put into the quality of my work deliverables. Juggling between the two affected my health, I was sleep deprived constantly but still made myself go to work everyday. Despite lacking the motivation, perseverance through self-discipline wins. I believe that self-discipline my parents engraved in me helped me continue what I started. We can start anything with motivation, but discipline will push us to finish it.

Can you tell more about discipline from your parents?

I have very strict parents, and even more strict grandparents. I remember when I was starting to learn how to use chopsticks, my father would scold and beat my finger using the chopsticks until I do it right. Every wrong answer I got in my exams when I was young, I would get a beating. My mother would often control and grasp my father and they would end up fighting with each other. I hated that scene, so I promised myself to excel in studies ever since. I remember my mother would always say “这都是为了你好”, which means it’s all for your own good — and it turns out that way. I once received an academic acceleration — it was one of the happiest days of my life as I made everyone proud. Had I been demotivated from all the beating I received, I wouldn’t be where I am now — so giving up should never be an option. My mother would always tell me I have no idea how dark society is and afterwards reminds me that it doesn’t matter — it is my life and I must fight. “At once you will feel like if everyone around you is putting you down but it shouldn’t stop you from working on getting better every day. Have the discipline to keep on trying, learn how to do the same thing repeatedly, reflect where you made a mistake until you do it right. You will for sure perfect your craft and get rewarded more than you deserve” — this I think is what I learned from them. The self-fulfillment once you believe that you did all you can to excel in everything you do, that I think is truly priceless.

What’s your biggest trading failure? The period when you got a lose strick, or a trade that burnt your deposit the most. What you learned and how you got out of it.

The one trade that burnt my portfolio the most was when I swing longed luna around $55 back in early May. I placed my bids before sleeping, and on the next day, I woke up to my stoploss at $47 getting hit. Lesson learnt: Never place a trade when you can’t manage it. My losing streak happened around late June and July when a relationship I valued so much for a long time has ended. All aspects of my life were affected - emotionally, psychologically, physically. Despite having emotional instability, I still continued to click buttons, which resulted to me having a losing streak for days. My patterns of thinking changed and it was reflected in my equity curve. But the loss that I felt was deeper than the money I have lost. I disconnected myself from reality, amplifying my grief. Depressed and traumatized, I had a hard time controlling my alcohol intake — I used to drink every single day until I got to the point where I don’t want to wake up anymore. What helped me was listening to the messages my friends left and writing out all my thoughts and emotions. I tried removing the curated glimpse of his life he once shared with mine — for that glimpse I weaved fantasies, believing my narratives were true. I slowly started to continue my previous life. Day by day, I started presenting myself to the world again. The weight of the grief I had been carrying started to lighten as the day goes by. I started believing that there’s always a rainbow after the rain, and in the end, it was all just a Judas swing in my equity curve.

What’s your routine? Describe your trading day.

I wake up every working day at 5:00 am, workout until 5:45 am, have breakfast, get ready to work until before 7:00 am and drive to work. I review my task list for the day, read and respond to emails. Afterwards, I spend a brief time charting to update the points of interests (POIs) on my watchlist and set alerts in time for Asia killzone session, which is 8:00 am to 12:00 pm my time. Then, I work on my professional-related task list for the day. During my lunch-break, I go back to charts to update POIs for London session, 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Every 25 minutes, I check my task progress so I can monitor my productivity. On days where I don’t have much meetings and no time-consuming or overcomplicated tasks, I try to execute planned trades I know I can manage during London session. I go home around 5:00 pm or so, eat dinner and prepare for New York killzone session (7:00 pm to 10:00 pm). Before going to sleep, I shower alongside mentally reflecting on the trades I have taken. Furthermore, I review whether there is a task I have missed and prepare myself for the next day. I try to close my eyes before 11:00 pm.

What do you do apart from trading? Any hobbies or anything that takes your mind off the charts?

I have a regular working job where I mostly get to apply the stuff I have studied in college. My learning curve has a linear relationship with experience so I am finding it relatively easier as time passes by. This enables me to free up a lot of time (which I use to spend on trading) when I get the job done efficiently and effectively. In fact I got a promotion third quarter this year — so I’m very happy my efforts are getting recognized. I also do part-time modelling since I was a teenager, but not the runway-type one. This requires me to maintain a healthy lifestyle and prioritize getting fit, which I believe is what helps me stay mentally and physically well. It is also one of the reasons I have learned to enjoy going to the gym, especially doing core workouts. When I train, I feel like I am not only training my body, but my mind as well. There is just something about knowing and feeling your strength that inspires me everytime.

A question about technique. Every trader has to evolve all the time so the charts change along with it. Can you show the archive chart from when you started and what it looks like now?

What tools you used then and what you use now? Describe briefly your entry model.

I used support and resistance (s/r), trendlines, volume, etc before. I still use the volume (y-axis) and high time frame levels which are basically s/r as well. My set-ups for bitcoin are mostly intraday or swing - using high time frame context to generate htf confluence region or poi and execute in lower time frame. (this is highly inspired by ICT, Johnnie Jacks and Mindset_BTC from Mindjacked discord) Example: Weekly - where is the draw on liquidity Daily - identify the institutional orderflow, including the reference points H4 - POI generation using combination of volume profiles, htf s/r levels, fibonacci. I set an alarm after I’ve boxxed out my POI. H1/M15 execution: Buy or sell model inside the htf poi targeting the next area of liquidity.

I have shared a notion on step by step procedures here:

https://twitter.com/lh_btc/status/1598655863035932672?s=61&t=UTWCOMOGc5f8WQXist2gnA

trade execution here:

https://twitter.com/lh_btc/status/1600419335524483072?s=61&t=UTWCOMOGc5f8WQXist2gnA

For assets aside from crypto, I combine ICT and Volume - Auction Market Theory (AMT) concepts.

If you could go back to the very start of your journey, what would you advise to yourself to do or not to do.

Don’t:

Overthink everything. Try to catch all the moves. Predict, nor be impulsive. Forget to have a life.

Do:

Study more. Be inspired by other’s strategy but focus on developing your own edge, and backtest it. Learn your A+ set-up and backtest more. Work on your execution. Embrace losses, but still have the confidence, eliminate fear. Work on your physical, emotional and overall well-being. Remember, trading more doesn’t equate to having more profits. Motivation is good, but staying disciplined is great.