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I am in my mid 30s, and am Canadian Born Chinese (CBC), living in Western Canada. I have a young family and a fulltime job, which I Work From Home. I've worked in the oil and gas industry for the past 15 years as a professional engineer. I married my high school sweetheart and we have a wonderful young son who is in elementary school. They are my world. I grew up playing competitive piano, which I have found my skills and drive are transferable to trading. I am a die hard hockey fan, and still play rec league. I am very much still a novice trader, but documenting education and learnings has helped me grow exponentially. In addition, helping others is simply just good karma, and allows me to give back as so many have given to me.
I started 'investing' in 2018, not really knowing what I was doing. I had a bit of extra cash, and thought it'd be great to throw it into the stock market. It did okay, but in hindsight, I bought terribly blind, and was lucky to have come out of it with positive gains. My first real trade was actually AMRN back in fall of 2018, when I caught the fish oil craze and bought at 2.5s, and sold at 12. I was absolutely hooked, but my FT didn't afford me an opportunity to really learn to trade. The bug was planted though, and the thoughts lingered for the next 1.5 years, until COVID hit us all, and I found myself with little to no work. I took that moment to really dip my toes in.
I started 'trading' following random twitter guys and alerts, and eventually found Zack Morris and PJ, and thus Atlas Trading. I followed alerts blindly for a month, and made some pretty nice returns. But I started to lose it all, even though I was trying to understand the market. I was too spread out, focusing on too much, and too little all at the same time. I read the first 3 books noted in the Resources section (with the exception of the Example book) into Spring, and watched a handful of courses. I started with Naked Trading and Volume, then to MAs/RSI/MACD, back to Naked Trading, and was still losing money. Eventually I started to make small wins, and had settled on Volume Profile, Volume, and VPA. June 2020, I discovered Scalp Team in Atlas, and things really started to click for me in terms of knowledge. I watched the room for 4-5 weeks, not making a single trade. I asked a ton of questions, reached to many via DM, and learned as much as I could. Eventually i gained enough confidence to start trading.
As Fall 2020 started to proceed, I began to realize I'd be getting busy at work again. Day trading wasn't working for me anymore, as I didn't have the time to trade and watch the market. So I made the conscience decision to learn to swing. I discovered Brady's Education soon thereafter, and dived in hard. I realized a lot of his strategies and trading style was similar to what I was trying to do, so I really dove in and learned. I was fortunate that Brady took me under his wing to learn and grow, and he has become a great friend in addition to a great mentor.
Things really clicked for me when I learned how to combine all the tools that I had been using (Volume profile, Volume, and VPA) with Fibonaccis, and understanding multiple time frame analysis. Separately, they work in their own right, but together, create a very powerful tool set that makes trading for me much easier.
I hope the page helps you all!
Ryan
How I Manage/Balance my FT, Trading, and Family
This was the hardest thing for me to figure out. When COVID hit, and work was slow, I was able to find time to learn, daytrade, and spend time with my family. As work became more busy, I realized that I couldn't balance it properly, without one of them suffering. I had to find balance, so swinging was what did it. I don't feel the need to wake up at PM anymore and catch the runners, as my swings typically give me gains that I'm happy with. Are they day trading gains? No. But I'm focused on the process, and don't get fomo. Sometimes I'm able to day trade if my FT job is not busy, but I don't chase and get fomo.
My strategy and style now, allows me the time to focus on work, make consistent gains on good setups, and above all, spend time with my family unimpeded. I can pick my son up and take him for lunch on Friday without feeling like I have to be at my computer. I can take the odd night off and spend with my wife watching our favorite show. I can focus on work and not be worried (most of the time!) of my positions.
All this being said, with trading, I've truly found something that I love to do. Most of you already know, but I am usually up til 2-3am every night studying or reviewing. One day, I won't need to be up this late as often. But for now, putting this work in is fun for me, and my family is very supportive of my journey, to help better our lives. So while I have all the time in the world for my family when they need be, anything that comes with trading takes a complete back seat to them. The late nights always come out of my own personal time, never my wife's, and most of all never my son's. I will flatten my entire account at a loss if either needed or even wanted my time.
I love what I do. Perhaps one day, I'll be able to pursue this full time. But in the meantime, my focus is on consistency, family, and being dependable in my FT job.
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