Hi, it’s Stuart McPhee here and I’m joined today by Nial Fuller. Nial, thanks for joining me.

Thanks for having me.

Uhmm, I just thought we’d spend a few minutes with you and talk about your trading style. Yeah, and you & I have known each other for a few years now and I know you’re 24 years old but you’ve been trading quite actively for five or six years, and I also know (because you and I talk a fair bit) you don’t trade stocks. Can you give us a bit of an inkling as to what you do trade?

Short answer… Looking at things that are liquid, moving a lot. At the moment stocks are not doing a lot, they’re just going straight down. Currency is up & down always, liquid, markets, volatility… Uhmm, I know I can get in and out any time. Possibly hold over the weekend without the risk of being stopped and slipped. So, currency’s usually friendly and good to develop systems on. So I’d have to say currency’s the favourite market next to maybe stock indices

Indices!

Yea, and futures. Probably avoiding direct sea of diesel & shares as well, high leverage can be a bit of a problem. Even though the currency market is leveraged, you’re still, you know, required to put up a decent margin. But I’d definitely say, at the moment especially with the markets the way they are, staying away from highly leveraged products – I know you’d agree with that as well.

Ok. Look, I know you’ve only been trading, I mean you’ve been trading quite actively for five or six years, you’ve obviously learned a lot of things on your journey… What do you think makes, I mean what’s the key ingredient – what makes a successful trader in your eyes?

Keep it simple. Keeping things very clear. Defined – a defined set of rules for entry and exit. The biggest problem that traders are having is finding their system and their method. I’d have to say forget the system – think about the word method, and a rule set. So, a method and a ruleset is just a way of looking at the market. People need to stop looking on the internet and books and seeking mentors that wanna teach them mechanical trading systems. I’m thinking more, learn a way to look at the market, a way to feel about a chart and develop a relationship with your favourite market. Okay, so what people are doing all over the internet is promoting trading systems for all different markets. Whereas I’ll trade three instruments – the Euro, the Dollar-Swiss, the Dollar-Yen – and I’ll fall in love with those markets, and I’ll have them on my desktop, and I’ll develop methods and a way at looking at these markets. So I’d have to say, that is, the way to be successful – is to focus, write down your rules, and develop a method as opposed to a system.

Okay, and the first words out of your mouth were “keep it simple”.

Keep it simple. And avoid indicators on charts, and, you know, magical formulas. And, you know, there’s a lot of people out there promoting the exact opposite to what works.

Because I know you’re one for just looking at, basically, price. Raw price data. And you’re a big fan of that.

Do a search for price action and there’s not a lot on the internet. Do a search for, you know, a moving average crossover, and there’s plentiful. So, keeping it simple with a real price chart, works.

So you’re… Alright, so that’s I guess a key ingredient for you… What are, perhaps, some of the biggest mistakes then that traders make?

Not having a stop price I’d say if you asked a broker. For me I’d have to say, the people I’m talking to, erm, because I’m already successful it’s almost hard to know what my faults are, at the moment, even though I do have them. The people that come to me, through my website, they’re looking too deeply at the market, they’re making it too complex for themselves, they’re chopping and changing, they’re not believing in what they have. Okay, so I might be able to teach someone a system (erm sorry, a method, it’s hard to get rid of that word “system”). A method. And yet, whilst it might work for five trades in a row, it’ll lose for five trades in a row and they’ll, they’ll not wanna follow it.

They’ll ditch ya.

Yeah. And I wouldn’t say so much backtesting, because here’s we go again, we’re trying to go, you know, a proven mechanical system. I’m talking something that’s logical, that I can teach someone, yet they’ll go home and do the exact opposite to what I’ve said. And it’s actually having self-belief, in your mentors, and what you’re learning, or even learning, you know learning in your own time. So yeah, keeping it simple, developing a plan and a method, and then believing in it. Self belief. Subconscious.

So what you’re saying is, when a person has a method they have five great profitable trades, and then follow that with five losing trades, and then there’s gonna – they lose that belief in it.

Mmh! You’ll be surprised how many people I meet that email me – how wonderful they’re doing – and then they drop off the face of the planet when they lose.

To be continued. Watch the video for the full interview!