The Day Trading Academy Blog presents the Great Graduate Master Trader Tour! A few years ago if someone would have told us that we would be teaching traders again we would not have believed it. Living in Ethiopia at the time with limited Internet the only goal was to connect to the markets to day trade and continue traveling around the world.
A new master plan was envisioned and a new route was taken.
We have always believed that if we are going to do something we should do it right the first time. We took steps to teach our traders to actually understand the market rather than paying attention to software or indicators. To be able to extract a consistent profit no matter what behavior the market presented.
Trending market? Check. Low volume? Check. Choppy markets? Check mate.
It wasn’t about teaching traders it was about taking responsibility after we left the last company we were with. What we didn’t realize is by teaching proper market dynamics and principles that we would end up with so many profitable traders. The day trading industry always wants to distract us from what’s important. Over the years there have been more complex trading systems and even more colorful indicators advertised as “the best thing since sliced bread.” Since we only accept a handful of students into the training program at one time we’ve been able to personally get to know a lot of our traders.
We consider many of them to be not just friends, but family.
This is one of the reasons why we have been able to create such a unique trading community. You do anything for family.
After our day trading seminar in Toronto we learned of new developments with some of our graduate Master traders who were maintaing consistent profits. One of those traders was getting married in Puerto Rico and another was quitting his job because he could now day trade full time.
At that moment we realized that we really are doing something special. Seeing the transition of student traders that convinced us to start teaching to becoming graduate master traders that were now beginning to live their dream.
It isn’t necessarily about making millions of dollars or buying fancy toys; it is really just about freedom. Having enough money to not worry about money. Having the ability to work from anywhere around the world. The freedom to have the ability to spend one’s time the way we see fit.
Whether it’s taking their entire family to Italy for a summer, spending time with their kids, or walking cheetahs in Africa. At the end of the day it is all about freedom.
We tell the story because we never envisioned having an army of successful traders. That is what we are going to call it now, the day trading army.
See what we did there? DTA = Day Trading Army. Clever.
It is one thing to live one’s dream but it is quite another thing to give someone else the opportunity to live their dream. The Graduate Master Tour is all about being there at that moment when our traders are starting to realize their dreams.
Because we have seen so much success with our in-house traders and student traders our focus changed a long time ago.
The training program principle has now come full circle with our successful traders teaching classes and helping the beginners.
This is the reason why our Congressive view of the market has been able to adapt and continue to be effective throughout various market environments. We use our own traders that have successfully graduated from the academy to help teach and develop new techniques.
We really wish we could take credit for everything that we do but we have to give credit where it is due; these traders hold us accountable for trade setups and results, they help us when we need to train others, and they are there for friendly competition and motivation.
These traders are there to remind us of how grateful we should be for being able to live the dream.
And so we arrive at the moment to meet some of our graduate master traders:
Nikolai aka Hit Man
Nikolai knows his trading so well that he and the Trading Connoisseur below took over our recent day trading seminar in Toronto. When we met for the first time at the seminar he shared that he was quitting his job in a few weeks because he was “sick and tired of being sick and tired”.
We had the opportunity to spend some time together after the seminar was over. I told him that I would have to be there for the day that he quit his job.
Nikolai had already been down this road before when he quit his job and it didn’t work out. He was one of the student traders that convinced us to start teaching again after we left the last company we were with.
This time around he was seeing the market the right way. He actually understood market movements and wasn’t paying attention to indicators. It was this time around that we told him that we would make sure he would never have another job again.
We had to be there for that moment, for that day, where he would be kissing his job goodbye forever.
We would meet with Nikolai at his home on Nantucket Island before heading to Calgary to see Mr. Millionaire.
Brice aka Mr. Millionaire
We would need to write a book to share the history we have with Brice. Upon living in Colombia he reached out to us by searching on Google “day trading and traveling“. He found our day trading blog on our sister site WanderingTrader.com.
Brice met us for our usual rendezvous of two for one sushi In Medellin, Colombia and we immediately hit it off. We had the same vision and similar outlooks on life. Making money day trading was great because of the money one could make but that isn’t what it’s all about.
Brice agreed that life is about being free from the normal constraints of what we consider normal day to day life; sitting in rush hour for hours, working 60 hours a week, not having the freedom to work from anywhere in the world, and the list goes on and on…
Turns out Brice was already trading a million-dollar fund and we began to collaborate our strategies. It was then that we shared our vision with Brice to create the Day Trading Army. He would be an integral part of our planning process to open trading centers in a few countries around the world. Our first course of action was what any two polished, intelligent, young men would do, go to Carnival in Colombia.
And so the good times starting rolling there….
Since that first meeting at sushi we have traveled the world together; we spent a month renting a penthouse in Rio De Janeiro overlooking the iconic city, attended a trading expo in London, and put our boots and cowboy hats on for the Calgary Stampede.
We met with a group of his trading buddies to host a live trading session to show the power of what we do in the markets. We soon may have a trading center in Calgary. More on that shortly.
We have met and crossed paths in three continents and may just decide to take an around the world trip just to say we have traded from every continent together.
The second WanderingTrader has now become the Trading Voyageur. Brice now shares his own experiences day trading and traveling around the world on his website, TradingVoyageur.com.
After Brice, we would head to the tropical island of Puerto Rico to meet with the Ice Man.
James aka Ice Man
We call James the Ice Man because he is a professional hockey player by trade. He was getting officially married (by the family) in Puerto Rico and brought his new born baby to meet the relatives. What better way to meet James than with his newborn, his wife, and a torrential rainstorm that would leave cars underwater in San Juan for hours?
Residents of San Juan would have to cross roads with surfboards and paddle sticks. For a moment we thought that we weren’t going to be able to meet James. He has shared so much, including countless recaps for us in our public market recaps section, that would have been a shame not to meet him.
We ended up walking around for what seemed like hours looking for a specific bar he that he liked. Half the bars and restaurants were closed due to the rain. We ended up having a few drinks near our hotel and talked about our future plans.
We really admire James because he has so much to bring to the table and has helped so many of our traders. He already knows how to compete at an elite level (professional hockey) and he carried that over to trading almost seamlessly.
We now are working with James to increase his contract load as he continues to master our pro trade setups.
Our final leg of the trip led us to Manny who brought his entire family to Italy for the summer.
Manny aka The Trading Connoisseur/Mr. Musculos
We don’t think that we have found a nickname that has stuck for Manny just yet. Seeing what he has gone through in his trading career makes us admire him almost as much as we respect him for the commitment he has to his family.
While we are going to delve deeper into each trader’s story, Manny has had one hell of a ride.
He was another one of the traders from the last company we were with that convinced us to start teaching again. His dream was to be able to have his freedom, which included being with his family. We did one of our very first “Military Training” sessions with Manny. It was a one on one in person training where we watched the live market together. This is what ensued.
When he kept reminding us about visiting him in Italy we initially thought we weren’t going to be able to make it. There was no question that we would have to be with Manny and his family in Italy for this historic event.
We just had to be there for someone that was taking a leap into living their own dream. This is what day trading for a living is really all about. Not just to be able to visit Italy but to take your entire family; wife, kids, and even his mom. All with his day trading income.
We started in Venice, visited Florence, and ended up in Rome together.
The truth is we didn’t get much trading done but when someone has worked so hard to live this kind of dream who can blame us? In our defense there was a lot of pasta interference.
All of these traders bring something unique to the table. As we continue to grow and have more and more graduate master traders come online we look forward to meeting up with them as well. Every single trader that is a part of The Day Trading Academy family brings something unique to the table and I can’t wait to meet up with more them as we continue to travel.
Something we thought about in Italy was hosting two seminars a year instead of just one. The additional seminar would be a “trading lifestyle seminar” where we would travel and day trade.
Since we are in the middle of purchasing a 5 bedroom penthouse here in Colombia we look forward to doing more one on one training. This is going to significantly shorten the learning curve for our traders in the training program.
Most importantly, it is going to shorten the learning curve for our new members of our Colombian Trading Army.
Stay tuned to the Day Trading Academy Blog for more updates……
Stay profitable my friends.