"More Profit, Less Trades" - Moritz Czubatinski | Trader Interview

I'm spending much less time on the charts I'm spending, much more time in trades now but, I don't have to babysit, them so. Everything. I did was basically to, get. A get, back some free, time. Let's. Pick one and say Anthony with more Olinsky, in Hong, Kong we're at the peak some, crickets who can hear in the background so, I'm not sure if you guys are gonna hear them or not but, in any case I got something very seriously which is kind, of how you've been able to grow, and adapt we've, been talking I think a year ago on. Lies that was pretty awesome but I won't talk today about kind of how you've been able to trade, less now and make. More money in before which is pretty amazing I think so, that people first a bit of background about yourself if they don't know you at all you don't know who you are, no. All right so yeah, well right, now I'm still, involved in two projects, one is EdgeRank which is a professional. Trading journal and the, other one is trade, society, which, is. A trader community, where we teach people how to trade. And. I've, been a professional, trader, for more, than. Seven. Years now roughly so. I'm. Traveling. The world mostly, in Asia though and I recently settled down in Frankfurt. So I'm there like six months per year and the. Other six months yeah, Asia are mostly Hong Kong now yeah awesome. It's a good place to be yeah sure, I started. Absolutely. So before you were doing if. I like the second a lot of day training like actively so as I met, you in Hong Kong you were capturing all night pretty much you're going from here like four five pm to the. Night so, how did that evolve like what what has changed since now exactly. Well, mostly, I switched, from day. Trading to swing. Trading and maybe. Fewer to party. So. Yeah, my new strategy is kind of like that I, still. Execute, as a day trader but. I do my watch list as a swing, trader so I set up my alarms, in the morning and. Then that's it so, let me so that makes it kind of easier for you to manage your trades now and you have to, spend less time from the chart basically exactly. Yes yes and my, average trade side has trade. Size has gone up considerably, obviously. So, I'm paying less. Commissions. In relation, to my profits, which. Made a huge difference. In my bottom line, I'm. Spending, much less time on the charts I'm spending, much more time in trades now but, I don't have to babysit, them so. Everything. I did was basically, to, get. A get, back some free, time yeah, and I. Also went into. Developing. Algorithms. So. Part. Of my bankroll is now also invested, in fully. Automated, trading, where. I don't, have to do anything except, for check, the trades every day five minutes and when the algorithm, opens, the trade I get an email with a screenshot so. That's pretty. Much all I do in, that department. Besides developing, new strategies. Yeah. Yeah, so, yeah. I mean I got more time than before and, I'm making more money I'm, quite, happy about that so how, did that transition from. Day. Trading just from tuning happen because of course it cannot just save from like one day the next or what I don't date anymore just swing trade so how did you transition to it yeah through some research first or you, knew it before, yeah. Actually it it, all started, when I read. So, rough wrote. We, both wrote, a book together rough that most of its the strategy, part and, so. I was proofreading, it and. I. Didn't, know much about rough strategy, before that okay. And he's a swing trader string, reversal, trader and. Then I read that book and I was like okay, I want to try that it sounds interesting, and, I. Put on some trades and I, quickly, realized that this, style, works for me as well so I took. That style and adapted. It to my own day trading so basically what I did is that I looked, for swing trading setups, and. With. Rasta, and then, timed. Them with my. Day. Trading strategy. So. Suddenly I had lost a lot, fewer trades, but I had much bigger targets, because, the, trades, I looked for we're on the hire, charts and my, risk reward ratio was. Much, better than before. Suddenly so. It. Was pretty epic that's, good just I think is, walking by and stuff so we'll have to kind of stop and cut a few tons.

That's. All right. Yeah. So. How did you kind of scale what, you do now because of course you didn't start shooting and guests from the same Christian side that you have now right. No. I said a trader I was risking like a quarter, of a percent, half percent, and, it's a swing trader I could, risk. 1 percent, roughly so, I was I was trading, higher precision size as a swing trader as, a day trader from, day one he can want to be comfortable with what you did first from, day one okay. It. Felt right. Mike because, it was much fewer trades. And. You knew kind of what to do first so yeah. So. You went with your foot position size from day one and then how. Did you know that you were able to do it and if you could kind of replace that and stop, the training. After. 2 months roughly so, yeah, I was, just looking at the results. After I had maybe. 30. Trades in yeah, so, as a swing trader I took maybe 10 to 15 trades per month I don't take and. Then. I just felt, everything felt right and I had the numbers and the statistics, I did some back tests of course as well. And. Then after that I. Completely. Stopped, day trading and well. Like. I still. Time the traits on the five-minute chart so. Maybe people would still say it's day trading but I let them run much longer yeah yeah then just, to the end of the day or decision, okay and, I think for look people the mistake is gonna be just say well I started thinking I'll just swing to it from now on well like yeah you got to get your back and check, the result if they didn't, make sense or not I guess, sure sure sure I mean before. You do any change, to your strategy or start a new strategy just. See. Where, where. The. Results, take you so what I usually do is 20, trades and then. We. Reanalyze. Reiterate. Take. It from there was. There any challenges. You faced when you went to swing, trading instead of day trading you, feel like I'm formal with or not. Suddenly. I had a lot of free time yeah. Definitely. Would probably have you, wonder what you would you done yeah yeah that is one part and the other part was that I wasn't used to being in trades for so long so huh I mean I have a stock. Strategy, which, I trade, on the weekly charts but. It feels more like investing. So I checked the charts once per week but, for this strategy it was like. It. Still felt like a day trade so I still had this urge to check, every, 15, minutes to chart for example but suddenly I wasn't at rates for one. Or two days and then. That would drive me crazy so, I had to stop doing that I had to force myself to only look, at the chart every four, hours and, that, also increased, my bottom, line with swing, trading in the end because I had, to start thinking like a, swing. Trader not like a day, trader and that gets, out that smallest. Pullback yeah. So. I think, we get from is like you don't know what to do with your time so how do you find like. What did you do with your time and said if, I think practice you doing. Productive. Like. For one I I started, developing. Algorithms, so, there's, something I always wanted to get into and. Well. I do a, lot, more sports, now actually, I simply. Because I'm, yeah. I'm getting bored. And. We, have a few, new projects, coming up as well like we just, open a company here in Hong Kong and. I'm. Going, to we, are going to launch a fund. In, the next one or two years as well. Yeah. Taking, care of the regulations. And the fees and, you as you know opening, bank accounts, in, Hong Kong is a lot of fun and finding investors and so on so. There's, always a lot, of stuff going on and I don't know where my time goes it just disappears, uh-huh yeah. Yeah and I've. Pretty much seen, you do it the right way which is like you want to set the fun right to the strip goal and, then you really surround yourself with white people people that either, have a phone or they can come tell, you how to do it how they leave themselves yeah so I think that's right to do it people are very.

Often Kind of wanting to stay on their own and just doing everything themselves that's. Gonna be a big mistake to talk about that process like what, do you do if you want started fun exactly so the, first thing, that you need to think. About is where. To get, your license yeah whether, you want to license your front then. Start. The research what. Kind of business model do you want to have for your funds. So. For you good start you find Germany and I guess the. Basic thing is again you know you're gonna have a lot of taxes and they, be more rules with. The head with that each one exactly. I would never open. A fund in Germany. Mm-hmm, never ever I mean. The markets here in Hong Kong also quite regulated, but if. I want to do it in Europe I go to the Netherlands, for example where. Taxes. Are easier and there. Is a lot more infrastructure. Already, so Hong. Kong Singapore they, just have all, the infrastructure, you need as a funds their. Facilitator. Companies. Or accelerator. Programs. Where they. You, pay them of course you have to pay them quite a lot of money but they do everything for you from the licensing. To. Contracts. For the investors, fee, structures, just everything. All right and the only thing they even take care of your visa and find, an apartment for you the only thing yes have to do is to generate alpha, and. Find. Investors of course is, the. Other crucial, part I mean they can help you a little bit with finding investors but. In. The end that's. Your job mm-hmm, but. I think as long as you have to test and take care of your business and trading then there's no problems like finding investors, you should have too much fun with it I guess it. Depends on your performance, of course yes of course you know if, you if. You have. So. What most investors, want to see is low volatility right, they want to have nice returns, with low draw downs and steady. Steady equity curve if you have a very, volatile. Equity curve not a lot of people are gonna give you a. Lot. Of money they maybe, they give you some seed money but. Not, much and. Like. You, can you can approach them with a year track record but. It would be two years of track record. That's. Kind, of the minimum what people yeah be, really comfortable like, it doesn't mean do not trade for someone else with the lower track record like a one, year or six month but when you want to start the fun and actually like a real business then. You need more than, just a year I think. Definitely. Yes and also. Once. You start to fund people. Want to see that you have your own skin in the game so you need to put your own money up and, also. It's gonna be hard even if you have a personal. Track record you're. Still gonna need to have a track record in the front right so, the first one to two years you, have to make sure that you can cover your overhead, and because. That's when most of the funds fail like, 95%. Of funds fail just as businesses. And most of them fail because they cannot deal with their overhead. So. For you this is kind of the first time we started fun right yeah yeah so, I guess, there are some things that you don't expect that you're gonna learn along the way like, so might learn but, let's be honest on yourself what people are gonna tell you like oh this is how you do things this is what happens it's tough yeah right so, I guess the first thing is you get like you've set it up and there's, a lot more tasks that are being involved, in trading you could trade all day but, then that doesn't you have a successful fun yeah so what are some of the things you think about like what what you have to work on to make you fun successful.

Well. The. Thing that a lot of people do wrong is that they hire, trade. Offs firstly, so okay. So you are a niche front basically and you start with maybe five to, ten million dollars, like a boutique fund and then, you have a great, return. Because. You are you are trading a niche strategy which. Is scalable, up to a certain point and then, suddenly. Because. Of your awesome, performance. You, get a lot of investment, money and then, you cannot scare your strategy up so you need to hire other traders and then. You have to diversify into, niches. Which you don't really know your, performance, deteriorates. Any, and you convert to a family office, something. Like that that's that's how a lot of funds go so, that's. The first thing if you want to scale up. Think. About how scalable your strategy is and, how. Exactly you want to, go. Go with that then secondly, if, you hire other traders the question is. How. Much salary are you gonna pay, there then. About, the firm structure the fee structure like 220, as the standard, has been the standard for many years so that's 2% Commission, over. A year plus 20% of their performance, exactly. Yeah and, a. Lot. Of people. Are not willing to pay that anymore, unless you have a very stellar. Performance, okay, so, you, might have to switch to another structure, for, example the, 0:30. Where you don't take any. Management. Fee but you take more, performance. Fees for example, and then, it's all about networking because. A lot of traders, they are like introverts. And I just yeah sitting at home in the office but, if you want to find, investors for your fund it's all about networking all the time you. Have to know the right people and, you. Have to know this person, and he knows another person, who is rich and and so on and you know there's a lot of money in the world and you only need a tiny tiny fraction yeah. It's true of it, to, think about this this way it's easier than just oh I need like that big amount of money like to be able to trade for force, it's all the fun yeah when you see it as a small part, in the universe or the, world yeah, easier to accept and certainly so. I'm. Kind of wondering how did you first start to connect with people that run funds because obviously he didn't have it fun so, how can you connect with those people oh. There. Are quite quite. A lot here in Hong Kong so, just. Find. Out which ones are performing, well and write. Them an email, hey. It's. Roger I see well I'm just wondering because people are having, a hard time sometimes to reach out with to teach out to bigger people or people like that, achieve a lot so. But I mean appreciating. Sits on email just for them email some, will answer some won't but doesn't, matter exactly and I, also got to know some. Other people through my, other projects, at home for, example. And. Networking. Networking I, also got, to know a wealthy. Investor. From, mainland, China through a connection, which I made six years back and I didn't even think, about it and. It just popped up again like totally, randomly because, back then I was already, networking. Efficiently. And, it's. Just you. Know as, always. Just. Go to the internet see. Who is at, the top of their game and try. To, get. Them for lunch or ask them whether you could take a look at their, infrastructure. Can I come to your office for an hour and take a look and we interested, in a lot, of people will, say sure yeah, yeah more, than you think, yeah. I guess it comes down to like if you try to take from them all the time then it won't work what if you tried to add value and just like be curious and be interested and, it's easier to accept, exactly. No. Awesome so, then. You start the fund you have, a couple things running out how, do you manage everything how do you make sure it's like everything's gonna be taken care of because like you're gonna assume a bunch of businesses bunch of students. Of income which is really good to have bunch of ways to make money but how do you make sure that everything. Has its place and that you take, care of everything, not. Easy, automation. Of course and. You, have to learn to delegate you. Have to hire. A few. People. That can help you out and which know your business very well after maybe. Half. A year or a year and then. Once they know your business very, well and they provide. Value to you make sure you pay them. Accordingly. So they don't leave. Because. Good employees are, really. Hard to find right yeah, seriously, it's a nightmare. 90%. Of the workforce is useless that's, just, a, sad, truth, especially. If you want someone who.

Thinks. By, themselves, and has initiative, it's so hard. And. This is real life for myself and I read this over just somewhere with the fact that you. Are better taking a year with the lower paycheck, for yourself or sorry for yourself, but how right team around you that are gonna push your business forward yep then trying to kind of make the most money for yourself right now today yeah, definitely. You can scale up much faster and. Not. Only that you. Were gonna stay sane, in the. Law yeah I. Like. To think about the current step of as a trader having a team around you and that could be a bunch of things like it, could be a coach could be some people that work for you could be some quarters. Whatever. You think about accountants who, are kind of part of your team are there kind of some roles that you want to feel absolutely as a trader well. My, dream like. My long-term dream would be to have a house here, in Hong Kong to. Where. Maybe, like 10 bedrooms and part. Of it is like, trader, Villa, so. You have maybe five six awesome, traders and. They all live under the same roof and basically. Don't. Even have to trade the same strategy, but, you. Learn so much from talking to other good. Traders and it, could be like trader. I don't know vacation, house so people just come for a month or so something. Like that it would be super, epic like, hey I've barbecue together in the evening and stuff like that and. The other half could be for, running, the business just yeah, secretaries. Accountants, and so on so. But. The, the most important, person. In my trading business right now it's. Definitely Roth, because I exchanged, a lot with him ideas, and feedback. Psychological. Feedback, and so on and we. Have an amazing, accountant. Which. Is like, he, is basically. In keeping our keeping. Our backs free like he's giving us a lot of support, that's. Great to have and besides. That like one personal, assistant, would be awesome yeah which, can, do all the administration, stuff for you because it takes a lot of time away from your, day and doesn't, add any value so if. If. You can afford a personal assistant. That. Does, basically. Everything, for you except for wiping your ass that. It. Would be it would be great yeah yeah, I think, people, are often having question about like, how you do taxes how you do this and that how you count. This and count that but, I think you can either like worry yourself or hire a good accountant is gonna kind of know the law and take, care of everything it's, absolutely, worth it to, have a good accountant. Absolutely, like, even. If you don't have a, lot of invoices. Say a. Good accountant, should do it for 50, to 100 euros per month and. But, then you have, a topknot, service, right at least in Germany and. Then. You, don't have to worry about it because all that worry adds. To your or. Takes. Away from your edge yeah. Everything, that flies around in the back of your head takes away from your edge so try to keep. Your schedule, as free as possible so you can only, focus. On, creating. Alpha yeah. I'm not sure exactly how long it would take for you to do taxes, yourself but. If you look at that like costs per hour it's probably really worth it to, hire someone else yeah. Absent. A cat I'm like build system in a year it's, gonna pay for itself in no, time, exactly. And if you for. Example if. You spend 3 hours trading. A day and, then, you can you. Make maybe 5k, per, month so. Your your. Ollie would be something like. 3. How. Much is that I need my calculator, anyway. It would make 60 it's like $30 per hour yeah something like that so, an. Accountant. It takes basically, you pay him with 2 hours of your yeah, of your, time but. He takes away so much stress and you can focus, on other projects, to increase your. Hourly. Rate yeah. And that's what it all comes down to hourly, rate how much money can you make per hour of work that you put in yeah, yeah, have. You found yourself kind, of having him a optimal. Number of hours of work in a day or set. Failures that if, I like bring all the work you can all the hours maximizing, every minute or not. 5/5. It's. Nice yeah, it's around, 4 so 5 that. Like, five hours of focused work that's. Really. The. Maximum. For, me everything, else feels like. I'm. Not making as much progress as, before, so, usually I get up in the morning without a, an alarm and. Then. I started working and, usually, I don't need anything I just go straight to my laptop I start looking for five hours, screw, morning morning routines and all that stuff I tried it for many years. Tries. Me crazy but. I just get up I go to my laptop I start working after five hours I'm done then it's 1 p.m., 2 p.m. I, have the rest of the day. Awesome. Awesome that's how you do it so. I know you have a bunch of stuff going on you have an Academy what can learn to trade like you do when Mycroft you swim, trading in day trading you.

Have Edge wonk a drilling software people can use and should use my opinion if they want to kind of take this the next, level and really become better you. Have a hedge fund coming up which is awesome so what can poor find you don't connect with you will reach out after this video was done. Sorry. What am I gonna do walk in the hole find you how can I put you after this is done. Well. People. Can find me on social media but I usually don't, don't. Post about trading now so it's like I spend, my whole day trading, on my, whole life we lost about around, trading so, whenever I have a thought which. Does not reward for on trading I will put it on social media so, you just, go to Instagram, my, username, is stock, TCM, so sto ck, tzm, i post. Mostly food and travel pictures, there and on. Twitter i have mostly. Philosophical. And. Political. Rants, same, username and then. H rom-com, EDG, wo, NK and trade, sorry calm I will, put a link for that in the description you, guys can check it out you connect with Morris maybe send him in a tweet or Instagram, so. He gets a lot of messages like that and. He's, gonna be you know a little bit but, that's fine so can do with your thoughts as always guys I wanna hear your thoughts I mean this incision below in the comment, chickadees. Is links, and everything make, sure you subscribe this channel and we'll catch you guys here pretty soon ciao. See, ya.

2019-04-09 21:33

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