Millions By The Minute Trader: Ben Marsh

[Music] okay hello everyone its Anthony here at the desk amplify trading slightly different sessions so not specifically talking about something in markets that's going on right now also the pound has just dropped quite dramatically on the back of some latest comments to do with brexit but we'll leave that for a different briefing purpose here is I'm catching up with a former trainee amplified that we had back in 2015 so you might remember amplified trading featured on a BBC documentary as I'm showing on my screen to the side of me called millions by the minute this was back in 2015 when it was aired and one of the main people that was featured on that program was a chap called Ben Marsh and then trained with us and this was a number of years ago now and I've been fortunate enough to have been make his way out from the countryside to come and join me and what I thought I'd do is just record a catch-up just a very informal conversation between me and Ben just about what he's been up to what he's been trading I thought it might be very beneficial for those a interested in potentially looking to learn to trade and for those who are more experienced and just learning from another guy of experience in essence so we'll transition over then well good morning good morning it's good to be back yeah yeah I mean it's been how many years was it when you were last in the office it was over five years ago five six years and I've got to the age where five years goes past in a heartbeat which is a little bit scary but I mean it's I suppose me being here Lance turret question that anyone that watched the documentary would would had which is is he still doing it yep because obviously this is the business where you know the failure rate is where of a 90 percent yep and for very good reason that as I'm sure the people training with you will discover trading itself is not that difficult but the psychological side is almost impossible and even when you start to master it you still get the chattering voice telling you to do all sorts of bad stuff prospect theory and all this sort of thing and it's developing the discipline because if for most people a fantasy of trading is one that I can live in a world of freedom yeah boundary lers endless possibility the only way you can survive in it is to create a really really strict set of parameters and rules right and you never deviate from them yeah and certain things you never do you never do an impulse trade because again at the beginning you imagine what if I do an impulse trade you must have a 50/50 percent chance of success right things either go up or down no they almost never work and even if they do you've actually still got to see it as a bad trade because you didn't follow your rules and it was luck and it was you know taking a punt I almost feel like I need to roll you out at the beginning of every time you know we sat in front of a new group of traders because you know certainly this is something we always communicate prior to them starting the course but also the first day yeah but then obviously as you've probably experienced weather yourself or other people you've seen you know human nature is it almost takes getting burn totally have this realization well it's a bit like as a new dad hence the fact I'm looking so tired now trading but when you you suddenly realize you know your parents always tell you loads of stuff when you're a kid yeah yeah yeah whatever you suddenly realize later in life do you know what actually they were right and you know there are certain fundamental things in trading that you cannot avoid don't over trade don't make your stops too tight don't impose trade and you know you've always got to have a very clear plan of what you're doing if you break any of these rules you will lose money if you're trading it to make your next mortgage payment don't do it because you will make a terrible series of decisions as soon as you equate it with money or if I do this I can buy my girl new BMW whatever it is you will start doing things for the wrong reasons and if you do it for the wrong reason it will result in costing you an awful lot of money and with leverage Kostas yeah yeah yeah of course of course and I mean people say it's like gambling it's actually infinitely worse because gambling you know what you're gonna lose you know trading you can lose and I've watched people you know you've got to be able to take the time amplify offers great training but the only way to come good at it is to do it yeah and again you've got to do it with real money you can be the best sort of Simek and trader in the universe yeah it means nothing because when you're there and it's your cash on the line and you start to get those feelings in your stomach or which other rather organ you want to pick you know again the impetus to do crazy stuff you know can become overwhelming until you've got the discipline and you need the length of time to be able to see it as a steer you know for example if I'm trying and you set up I'll I'll set myself twenty five attempts at it and I'll look at a period of twenty five attempts of that set up see if it's worthwhile right now clearly of the first eighteen don't worry not looking so good but you've got to remove yourself from the thing which when you start trading if it goes your way pick up a genius he goes against you I'm useless so I guess on that point then from you having traded for now several years yeah what you know what part of your development did that did you did you manage to control that as an emotion if you like that kind of where's an ongoing battle you've become better at it but it's always there and I suppose when you've lost a bit of money doing it that's a fantastic teach you not to do you know it's the Einstein you know definition of manners to keep doing same thing expecting a different result right so I mean if you keep on doing something stupid it costs you money of you carry on doing it that is madness it's but again it's just part of that if you're seeing it as a long-term process I never judged my daily results I'll never look at less than weekly because I you know I sit here and I'll conversation earlier I do a lot of meditation and the more I do trading the more is the equivalent to my meditation you've got to have absolutely no opinion and you've got to have no ego as soon as you invest ego in your belief the market should do this basically because I say it should then you're cooked because the thing is you know I university I was taught classical economics and it's lots of rational individuals making decisions in their own self-interest which is complete bollocks you know oh there you go tonight police don't eat me I didn't go Fox University which we all know yeah a lot of middle age storms are gonna come and give me a kicking okay so just a not to panic everyone where we're safe and sound but you know we all know that it's I mean for me markets looking at pulses of fear and greed and you get all sorts of groupthink and you get the fact that a move will confirm itself and then you get all and the secret to doing this well I'm first of all you always enter a market when it's quiet and get out when it's noisy you know because I mean all the suckers coming at the end of the move you know you get a FOMO thing and everyone goes oh I'm missing out right the great thing is on my screens at home I've got 38 markets something that constant moves on this I guess on that point so just so the audience is a bit more familiar with well I guess two things what is it specifically that that you trade now and also how do you trade right terms of so amplify we obviously start the training process with a global macro over V on cross asset class using fundamentals and technicals but how have you developed that okay for yourself having individual thing on when I left here and I say you know that just to promote the brand I gave me a fantastic grounding but I then spent the year deconstructing it and finding that's something that suited my personality it's essential that you find style of trading that suits you and a market that suits you is equally important doing for example personally up because I trade futures I trade oil and gold very well this is modestly our trade you know I make money doing it yep I'm good with the US indices for the life of me bonds I cannot trade at all and as Clint Eastwood famously says in the Dirty Harry movie a man's gotta know his limitations and yet I learned to come a good bond trader maybe maybe not you know I'm already a middle-aged gay I mean life's too short if you find something that works for you you know I'm not here seeking it as a thrill seeker I'm here to earn some corn yeah because you go through everyone goes through this transition we all do the same thing yep early in your trading career you complexed here's someone who uses a lot of technicals I'll just get that one more indicator you know that will reveal everything you end up piling loads of stuff on your screen rooms as you become more experienced yep you have to strip it all down because for technicals you need volatility volume oscillator and something showing a trending market because I mean at the end of the day the first thing you've got to know when you come in the morning is what's what is the market is it trending is it choppy is it range-bound if you don't know that you've got no chance because you know as you know better than me something that works brilliantly in a trending market is catastrophic in a reversion to the mean market and that that's what we were talking about earlier it was this idea I think when you when you come in to rationalize and put into context that day yeah and that every day is unique yes there is a as I will teach people there's a kind of a hierarchy of macro themes yeah like the ongoing trade war will be present and apparent for a number of months but the point is is that it goes through this herbs and flow we just had a brexit comment come out if the pound drops to 3% all of a sudden you know that becomes a focal point yes sentiment and so every day like you're right saying it's almost this this evolution of being confident in the fact that actually I can about totally market conditions but I guess this is experience and also it's a great thing I mean why if you can get it right trading is a great crew particularly in the environment we're in I'm saying earlier I don't tend to trade all this because it's a lot very light volume I mean I because I do a lot of swing trading but there's in August I shorten my timeframes because obviously low volume you'll get lots of random spikes of stuff chops around all over the place if you catch a move it all tend to be short-lived as I say you've got to know your markets you've got to know your strengths and don't try and do too many different sorts of trades you've got to find a couple of things that work for you there are guys that make have extraordinary careers doing one thing and that's great as I saw the wife two kids and an expensive lifestyle to support you want something that you can feel confident yet the start of the month actually I'm not going to end up having to give my ass and so and so then this leads on to the main point yeah it's like what you finished there you want to be confident yes and actually that is the you know as long with of course discipline yeah but having the confidence this is what really will define performance it is like with anything like with the top elite athlete you know they're all very good yes and but the difference between the winner and the loser yeah is a state of mind often rather than a technical team performance so it's got to be reasoned confidence it's not you know a lot of confidence in themselves which is not borne out by anything with the rear but I mean it at the end of the day you're playing probabilities and you've got to set yourself off I mean for example one of the best lessons I learned here because originally when I traded here we were give him full futures contracts you know start with one contract was that the other you you had to focus on limiting risk which meant my stops were far too tight and the biggest way to or one of the key ways of losing money has helped to have tight stops which may sound counterintuitive but you know at the end of the day when you're looking for a market to drop into a zone you can enter it it's arranged and you've got to be prepared to take some heat you got to be prepared for it to move against you bit and you know if necessary scaling or whatever but just so that you can enter a market with a high probability of it working in your favor or a probability that works financially at the end of the month because I mean this is again probabilities at the end of the day and at the part of it's like another key lesson that's interesting is and again an advantage of being slightly older is in Oscar Wilde said experiences the name we give our mistakes the only reason you have some wisdom later in life is not the are any smarter but you've made every mistake in the book and you've turned around and got do you know what actually that doesn't work a key thing people can do say you have a 10-grand account when you make 50% in two months the natural thing people think is if I put a hundred grand in there I'll also make fifty percent it doesn't work that way you almost certainly lose all your money because psychologically it just changes what you do I mean I was actually approached a few months ago by someone saying would I trade some of their money or some balance money was not remotely interested yeah because first of all you get far less return for equal risk you feel all the extra pressure of looking after someone else's cash and it's enough the margins between success and failure are so fine in this that anything that's ships your or your personal outlook either 5% is enough to turn you from a winning trader into someone who literally craters and unless you're on it for example you know I've got two young kids if I'm really tired I mean luckily you know I come to my place in London can't rate from there so you can get away from it but if I'm tired I don't trade the best decision you can make as a trader often is to do nothing yeah or if I'm in a swing trade don't watch it once you're in because you you know if you're in a good position and it comes massively against you yeah for a time the natural thing is to go all that's it I'm going to get out and you know it's very important to retain a sense of detachment I never make trade decisions in real time I'll always use limit orders because unless there's it it meets my criteria for getting into a trade and don't do it and we all like to think you know we're smarter than the next guy the fact is the market choose each of us up there's a guy I deal with in the States he says it's an equal opportunity dream killer and it's true and you know you've got to find the sort of trading that suits you whether you're primarily a fundamentalist or technician I've got to find the markets that suit you also down to little things chat rooms for example I was saying to you earlier I've you know I've got live speech the states and stuff from people of chat ideas I never it's just not something that suits me I like to make my own decisions for some people the yep the collective part of that is incredibly important the sense of community people throwing out ideas my cynical attitude is if there's a ninety seven percent failure rate I make the assumption that nine out of ten things I'm listening to are not worth it but there's they're both equally valid views it whatever suits you if you're someone that likes being a lone wolf you know then you must follow that path is someone that needs that group vibe then follow that and I think it's like you said a moment ago about and I know it's a bit cliche but it's understanding self yeah what your strengths and your weaknesses are and how you operate what's your emotional cues and all these different things but it is a journey and service a bit like the Koran double heart of darkness that was entered into Apocalypse Now and it's about someone journeying down a river into in the book darkest Africa to find an evil general Kurtz but it's actually a metaphor for a journey into your own soul to look at your own part of darkness and in many ways trading is that because it's a study in your own fears we all project an image it's like when you're on a first date you put on this pantomime of who you are in the you know jealous you're not angry you're not grumpy you're not this wonderful person that you can't believe no one else is snapped up yeah the great thing about the market is there's no hiding from it you know it either works or it doesn't now there's a more nuanced aspect that you can do terrible trades that make money and very good trades that lose but you and you've got to develop that understanding but the great thing about it it's it's very humbling yep you know you can't escape from the fact that if you make a terrible mistake it is there on the bottom line at the end of the day or whenever you want to yeah but that's a great way of learning yeah actually I mean that's it's almost like that's that's actually what I love about markets it's like even for my role which is more I guess from an analysis point of view it's the fact that you know you're accountable in terms of you have a view and I have to express my reasoning behind it yeah then either works or it doesn't I'm either right or I'm wrong in the sense a for a trader it's that pipe instant payoff it's actually intellectually really interesting which I'll be honest when I first started this I married someone much younger and prettier than me and there's a middle-aged all the gear you think I better impress it with something and thought you know I'll do it hopefully to earn some money because you know I invested very successfully for a long a long time and but actually it's it's a fascinating thing whatever your your preference is some people are very highly mathematical and will look at it as a series of algorithms or whatever I'm not I obviously use maths when you look at hourly price movement ranges or daily price movement ranges in factor that into your entry points and exit points but for me I find the psychology of it fascinating as I say it is pulses of fear and greed and you're watching a mask and collaboration of human irrationality and I find that really really interesting ok well well look the to wrap things up yeah because you want to keep people engaged yeah sorry Michael but what I not to put you on the spot too much but what would you what would be then if someone was still either looking to learn to trade or in the infancy of their kind of development in terms of their trading what's your kind of one piece of advice that you'd give to people having now done this for several years if you're doing it to earn the next mortgage payment do something else because you've got no chance if you're doing something to that find a fascinating way to survive in uncertain times and you've got the patience and the discipline then it's a fantastic way to earn a living good well I'm not even gonna add any more on that that's a good way to close so let me just quickly transition so guys I hope you found that interesting obviously do check out even the the original documentary I'm sure we'll all reshare that and you can see did you have been I guess from where where he started with us a couple years back to where he's got to now do feel free to leave a comment as well on the video if there's any questions until there would be more than happy to help but hopefully found it interesting thank you again to Ben for coming in I'm sure we'll keep in touch and here are updates soon okay thank you very much guys [Music]

Channel: AmplifyME

Views: 8,947

Rating: 4.9810429 out of 5

Keywords: Amplify Trading, Anthony Cheung, Ben Marsh, trader, interview, learn to trade, trading psychology, millions by the minute, trader interview, tips for trading, learning how to be a good trader, advice from experienced trader, the truth about trading, day trading, BBC Millions by the Minute, chat with traders

Id: GC4OFANCwss

Length: 20min 42sec (1242 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 03 2019