Diaz Mussalimov

mentor of WSDT Spring 2021 winner, speaks about his trading path

Diaz Mussalimov: \”It’s [trading] a great mental test. You’re studying not only technicalities but yourself, which was probably more important for me\”

Written by a teamleader and edited by WSDT team

I started trading in January 2021, and to follow more of my trading adventures, follow my Instagram.

My operation is relatively new, a boutique with approximately 15 people. What initially drew me to the financial world was a conversation I had with my friend about his interest in trading. From there, I started to learn and quickly realized that the more you learn, the more you wanted to learn.

Once I started down this path of trading, I realized what a great mental test it was. When trading, you’re studying not only technicalities but yourself, and he saw the importance of this kind of self-discovery. Every day, you’re trying something new and making mistakes until you realize who you are as a trader.

In time, I began to understand that while trading isn’t an easy occupation, if you take the time to tame it, it’s one of the best. Anyone can hop onto the internet and start trading, but without proper knowledge, you can’t expect to make it too far. Like many beginners, I made some mistakes from lack of experience, but trading quickly started to become a daily passion. Anyone can succeed at it with a cool head and focus.

Thus far, my best trade happened during the GME rush, when Reddit helped the stock to reach the moon. I can still vividly remember the day I went 20 shares at 92 long.

One of my riskiest trades happened at the very beginning of a trading session, when I took a big size in RIOT before a huge pullback came in. I only stepped away from the computer for a few minutes, but when I came back, it was a cent away from my stop and a margin call. Thankfully, I was able to profit a little later.

To help evaluate risks such as these, I start with formation, volume, and round numbers—depending on where the timeline currently is. I also stay abreast of the industry, listening to my mentors and podcasts, as well as doing plenty of reading.

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Pablo Martínez García

founder of Trading Cero company, speaks about his trading path

Pablo Martínez García: \”The most important lesson is to have the maximum discipline in trading. Discipline is the most important thing, without a doubt\”

Written by a teamleader and edited by WSDT team

I started trading 5 years ago. Currently, I’m 100% focused on trading and aim to make it my main source of income.

I trade the first two hours of the session, and every day, I freely share my trading sessions on YouTube for all of the community.

I got into the financial world for a simple reason: I want the possibility of making money with nothing more than my knowledge and a computer.

But the road getting to where I am wasn’t easy. The beginning had its fair share of difficulties. When you start in the world of trading, the possibility of losing your account is 95%. And the only way I was able to advance and mature as a trader is by respecting the rules and managing my trading account well.

With all I have experienced, I know that anyone can start trading without special education, but it is complicated. The free content on the internet can help … but it can take an awful lot of time to find something that guides you correctly, step-by-step, and helps you make the right market decisions.

The most important lesson I can share with people just starting is to approach trading with maximum discipline. Discipline is everything. It helps you respect your plan, respect your stops, your daily risk, and take firm steps to mature every day.

To me, that is, without a doubt, the most important thing. Discipline is key to not allowing trading, one of the most difficult occupations in the world, to bring out the worst in you. And it can, which is something nobody tells you. Many newcomers start trading their first accounts, lose them, and abandon them because they realize how hard and difficult trading is. Making sure you are disciplined can help immensely with this.

My laser focus and discipline have benefitted me in the long run. I’m not someone who constantly watches the news. I’m a daytrader and specifically a scalper. This mindset allows me to distance myself from the news. It’s just not something I’m interested in. The only thing I do is measure the market sentiment in my pre-market session, which happens twenty minutes before the opening of Wall Street.

My adherence to discipline helped me to place 15th WSDT competition with an amazing long in OCGN. I opened the position with 3,000 shares and waited for the moment to add to the position, always respecting the risk and capital management.

Then, I added 5,000 more shares, which allowed me to close a position of more than $15,000 in my favor. On that day, I scored a great deal of points in the competition and finished rank 15.

My discipline also helped me avoid any trade that was too risky during the competition—I fully respected my trading plan and risk management. A risky operation would have potentially killed all my chances of qualifying.

To evaluate risk, my strategy is simple: I have a daily risk of $200 that I distribute in a maximum of three operations a day. To accomplish this, I strive to detect interesting trades with very short stops. These trades allow me to enter with the appropriate size with respect to my maximum risk per trade, which is between $60 and $70.

I’m still working to become a profitable trader but, in the last year, I’ve noticeably improved, and I’m satisfied with my maturation. This process has given me the necessary experience to finish rank 15 in this edition of the WSDT.

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STELIOS STYLIANOU

founder of Stocklock trading academy speaks about his trading path

Stelios Stylianou: \”I never stop learning, I never stop reading, and I question everything I see\”

Written by a teamleader and edited by WSDT team

I’ve been trading for twelve years; three years ago, I created the Stocklock Community with the main goal of helping new traders reduce their learning curve and become profitable in this game.

These efforts have led to my own masterclass, where people can learn 10 different strategies to day trade on the stock market. They will also receive more than 50 hours of video lessons covering every aspect of trading—money management, position-sizing, psychology, and a lot more. Currently, more than 10000 people have joined my free chatroom for trade ideas during market hours.

I was led to the financial world by the 2008 stock market bubble and crash, which affected not only my country but also my family. After seeing so many people losing their money, and only a few making a fortune, I had to understand why. What did these few people know that the rest didn't? Were they smarter? I began reading everything I could find on the subject, and then I discovered day trading.

At first, I joined a chatroom, which made me think that trading was easy and that just by following alerts, I would be profitable. But I was wrong. I lost three different accounts in two years, and $15000 in total.

From there, I took a year off and dedicated my time to educate myself on trading. I bought every single course I could find and started practicing new strategies on a demo account. I was adding my own things to each strategy until I was able to make it profitable. That's how I turned things around. My first profitable strategy (SL-6) was the turning point, and I started live trading again and never looked back. Now, I use 10 different strategies.

Now, trading is my passion. Even on holidays, I can't keep myself from taking trades. When something becomes your passion, you can never call it a job.

If I had any advice to give to newcomers, it would be to learn how to trade first. Doing so will save you a lot of money and time. It’s like trying to climb Mount Everest alone. Even experienced climbers hire a guide when the mountain is unknown to them.

In trading, you need a guide, someone who took the same path as you years ago and is now successful. They will take you by the hand and show you exactly what you need to be doing to preserve your capital and become profitable. Choose someone you can trust because you can see their results every single day. There are a lot of fake educators out there, and you need to be careful.

Newcomers can learn a lot in my more than 50 hours of video lessons. In them, I cover every aspect of trading: strategies, risk management, psychology, market sentiment, journaling, and how to find your edge. Trading will likely be one of the hardest things a newcomer will do in their life, but it's not impossible.

One of my most recent successful trades happened on March 9th, 2021, when I made $234,000 on DIS. I received an alert on a technical long pattern in the free chatroom at 196.25. About 18 minutes later, news came that DIS was opening its parks after the COVID-19 lockdown.

I saw the news and added heavily to my position. Literally, a few seconds later, the price exploded, and in less than a minute, it went from 196 to almost 200. I sold into that spike for a huge profit.

This to have much to do with luck; we were already in long, following my SL-15 strategy signal. When the news came, I was fast enough to see them and add. You can check out this trade on the chart on my Instagram—the May 9th post.

Some of my riskiest situations are whenever I try to average down on a loser—I try to avoid that as much as possible now and add only to winners and not losers. Recently, I received a $127,000 loss on AYRO trying to average down beyond my max loss. That hurt.

To help evaluate risks such as these, I trade in risk units. Typically, a risk unit should be 1% to 2% of your total account. If my account value is 200k, then my risk unit is 4k or 2%. That would be 1R, so my goal is to make at least 2R in my profitable trades. I always leave a partial of my size on in case he gets a runner for multiple Rs.

When I trade, I use 10 different strategies depending on the setup. For example, I will use a different strategy to trade an all-time breakout gap, and a different strategy to trade a dead cat bounce gap below the 50ma.

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Describe your strategy during the competition – did you have a plan, or decided to take advantage of the situation on the spot?

I had a plan to get a big win early in the contest and that is what happened. From there on in risk management was the key to my win.

What were the key factors, in your opinion, that helped you to achieve victory?

A black swan of a day in the market for Day 1 helped tremendously. Patience, risk management, and using my go to strategies were key for me.

Were there any key moments that set you on the path to win the competition – planned decisions, luck or crucial mistakes?

The first trades I took on APVO the first day were really home run trades and set my pace for the rest of the competition.

Did you have a plan, or did you decide to take advantage of the situation there and then?

I defined a trading plan whereby I established a risk unit of US$1700 per trade. If I had two stop losses, I would stop and stay within the rules. If, however, the result was positive, I continued for as long as I considered it appropriate.

In your opinion, what were the key factors that helped you to achieve the victory?

The key was risk management and complying with the rules of the tournament, that kept me in force throughout the competition. I also set a goal for the final balance and this is why I didn’t take any more risks at the end of the tournament.

Were there key moments on the path to winning the competition: planned decisions, luck or crucial errors?

Of course, there were key moments, which combined a bit of luck with planned decisions. For example, on the first day of the competition I made a supremely positive trade but as the platform failed, I couldn’t close it, and I ended up breaking even. They then informed us that they did not count this day and that they had postponed the beginning of the tournament. Later, everything was more grounded and as I said before, I fulfilled my trading plan without breaking any of the tournament rules.

For more information, follow the link:
https://youtu.be/wUIRI1tStoM

Describe your strategy during the competition: did you have a plan, or did you decide to take advantage of the situation on the spot?

Yes, I had a plan. My plan was based on a daily risk of 3000 USD divided into 2 trades. Each one had a maximum risk of 1500 USD. My strategy was based on range breakouts and, to a lesser extent, on reversals.

What were the key factors, in your opinion, that helped you to achieve victory?

I think my success was based on following my plan 100%. I respected the strategy and the previously marked stops.

Were there any key moments that set you on the path to win the competition, any planned decisions, lucky strikes or crucial mistakes?

Yes, Day 5 of competition. I knew I had to wait for the opportunity to catch a trend, and that's what I did that day. I took full advantage of this trend, and, thanks to that trade, I got 27,000 USD which enabled me to move up to the top ranks.