INTERVIEW WITH VLADIMIR | #4 in Overall Ranking

Country: United States Team: Pablo | I&CB Profit: $21,539
“….then I created another watch list and put all the “cheap" shares from the 1st watch list there. Then I choose 2 good to my mind setups from them and partially went all in. It brought me $21000 by the end of the day.”

About Vladimir

Tell a bit about yourself, Where are you from? 

Originally I’m from Moscow,  Russia. But several years ago I moved to New York with my family. And we still enjoy living there.

How, when and why did you start day trading?

I started day trading 13 years ago right after my graduation from the University.

How did you learn about WSDT? 

I’ve been following Meir on YouTube for 5-6 years now. So this is how I learned about the competition.

Why did you decide to join the competition?

I decided to join it because I was intending to win it. And I did it.

What was going through your mind when you learned that you had become the winner of WSDT?

I felt more than happy. It was beyond any of the excitement! I had a game plan but the fact that I did manage to get such a great result following it is a great deal of luck after all. 

Did you really expect to become the winner? Was it your ultimate purpose?

Actually, this was a very nervous time on the last day of the competition when I wasn’t trading at all not wanting to risk my 3rd place position I was at that point in time. And finally, I turned out to be on the 4th which is very nice too. Of course when I found out the fact that I was going to become a winner.

Teamwork

How and why did you pick your team?

I decided to join Pablo’s team because my best friend’s name is Pablo too. He is a baseball player.  He once told me: “No matter how you play, you got to be in the winning team."

How has your mentor been helping you and your teammates during the competition?

Actually, I didn’t communicate with either mentor or my team at all.

Did you feel the tension in your team as you’ve been competing with each other or you did support each other instead? 

As I’ve just said I didn’t communicate with anybody so I didn’t feel any tension of that kind.

Strategy

What were your trading style and strategy for this competition?

At the beginning of the competition, I was trading following Meir and Scott and that was quite good because my profits were between $300 and $1700. Then I realized that to win that competition I had to change the strategy. So got all the picks from all the analysts in the room on Monday, put them in a watchlist,  then I created another watch list and put all the “cheap" shares from the 1st watch list there. Then I choose 2 good to my mind setups from them and partially went all in. It brought me $21,000 by the end of the day.

How many days did you trade?

I traded for 4 days.

What were your favorite hours of trading?

Most of the time I prefer to trade in the morning. 

Which stocks did you trade?

I don’t remember all the stocks I traded but the most profitable for me was OSTK. 

Were you trading your real account while trading a demo account in the competition? If yes, has it been distracting you? 

 No, I didn’t trade my real account.

Emotional well-being and future participation

Moving on to your winning odds. How did you manage to win this competition? What helped you?

I described the way I won above.

How did you manage your confidence as well as your psychological tension?

I didn’t trade every day so this is how I managed my mental strength not get exhausted. 

Will you take part in the competition next time?

 If I keep having the real account I’m going to get as a prize I don’t think I’ll need to participate anymore. 

Who would you recommend WSDT to? Why?

I would recommend WSDT to everyone who wants to learn what real trading is. Because that’s the best opportunity to do that to my mind.

Wrapping up, I’d like to ask you about your final thoughts on the WSDT competition. What would you recommend to the WSDT team to make the competition better?

Everything worked well this time.  I have no thoughts about improvement.