Category Archives for Meet the Traders
Ifan Wei Interview: From the Boxing Ring to the Trading Floor
To help you get to know T3 Live’s growing bench of trading talent, we’ve launched a series called “Meet the Traders” so you can get an inside look at how our team operates. Today, we are proud to introduce you to Ifan Wei, one of our moderators in the T3 Live Black Room. 1) Welcome Ifan! Tell us a little bit about yourself. I grew up in Texas. I attended the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, where I boxed for 4 years. Upon graduation, I began my career in marketing in big tech and the NFL. So even before I became a trader, I had the privilege of exciting, fulfilling, and challenging opportunities. Trading is a progression of that. 2) What’s Tougher? Trading or Boxing? Progress came more naturally in boxing, but both have their challenges, both physically and mentally. 3) Do you think your boxing background has helped you as a trader? Yes, absolutely. I think training for any competitive event makes you stronger mentally and emotionally. And competing in sports emphasizes a cycle of practice and preparation to be highly functional in a stressful, dynamic arena. That can help any trader. 4) How did you first get involved with the markets? My dad has always kept an eye on the markets, but not as a very active participant. So while I was aware of its existence and daily fluctuations, I was not introduced to price charts until an accounting class case presentation. Comparing company 10/K’s and curiosity about the impact on a company’s stock price led me to charts. So, there wasn’t a seminal moment that turned me into a trader. I just progressively became more interested in reading charts. 5) How would you describe your trading methodology? I use a top-down approach to technical analysis in order to anticipate momentum. I speculate on momentum based on two strategies: broken support/resistance and climactics (parabolic exhaustion). My most common strategy is when support or resistance is broken overnight, producing a gap in price at the open. To time my entrie, I use variations on 2 basic repeating patterns: bases and retracements. 6) What is your day-to-day focus these days? My #1 focus each day are stocks that gap. While most stocks gap each day, I am looking for the outliers. Inside the universe of the 2,000 most liquid equities, I focus on the extreme gainers and decliners. Typically, I am looking for a pattern/entry in the direction of the momentum. Other times, I am looking for signs of parabolic acceleration into exhaustion. If that sets up, I will begin to look to play against the trend. 7) What is the 1 thing you wish you knew when you started as a trader? The importance of patience. I did not know what kind of trader I was when I started. While I was fortunate enough to get an education at the beginning of my trading career, I lacked the self-awareness and understanding to internalize and apply it. 8) Do you believe in setting specific stop loss and target prices? Yes. A stop loss is there for me to know when I should admit I’m wrong. If the trade sets up again, then I can always re-enter. My targets come from the concept of support and resistance areas, and I trail my stops when those areas are reached. 9) Are you concerned about high-frequency and algorithmic grading? Yes, but my risk management acknowledges that anything can happen at anytime. I don’t make any specific adjustments in my trading to account for them. 10) What is 1 thing traders can do today to start getting better results? Track your trades. If you already track your trade entries and exit, be sure to journal your thoughts throughout the trading day. Log your observations. You will pass on trades that work, and pass on trades that don’t work. These decisions can be just as enlightening as the trades that you take. 11) What book should every beginning trader read? I’ve read and reread the commonly cited classics like Reminisces of a Stock Operator, Trading in the Zone, and The Zurich Axioms. They’re great. But I think anything that provides self-reflection and introspection can help you become a better trader, even if it’s not a trading-specific text. Psychology/philosophy books like Thinking, Fast and Slow and The Tao of Jeet Kune Do can be just as enlightening for a trader. 12) Are there any traders you look up to? I admire Sami Abusaad, Mark Harila, and Kurt Capra, my co-moderators in the Black Room, as well as my previous mentors. I try to keep in touch with a number of other professional traders. Consistency is a quality that they all share, and they are key to longevity in this business. They vary in style and approach but are consistent day-in and day-out in their method. 13) What would you be doing if you weren’t a trader? I’d probably still be in sports marketing. I have friends working for the big agencies and teams who still love what they do. Click here to learn more about the T3 Live Black Room
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To help you get to know T3 Live’s growing bench of trading talent, we’ve launched a new series called “Meet the Traders” so you can get a direct introduction to our team. Today, we’d like you to meet Mark Harila, who is a moderator for the T3 Live Black Room on our Virtual Trading Floor®. Thank you for joining us Mark! 1) Tell Us a Little About Yourself Mark. The hardest question I have to answer these days is “so what do you do?” My wife and I own 9 small businesses. Yes, 9. But I identify as a trader because that’s what first comes to mind when people ask what I do. Before I entered the trading world, I worked on over 30 installations across all branches of the US military. I enjoy traveling, and I love spending time with anyone who can handle a few quips and a little sarcasm. 2) How did you first get involved with the markets? I have been interested in the market for as long as I can remember. When I was in high school, my economics teacher held an investing contest and the winner was guaranteed an A for the semester. This piqued my interest doubly: a chance to get an easy A and learn how to make money? It turns out that even then I was a trader, not an investor. Every day I ran to the paper to see how my stock picks did and figure out what to buy or sell next. Between my competitive nature, a ton of reading, and lots of trial and error (so much for an “easy A”), I got an A in the class. But more importantly, I stoked a lifelong love affair with the markets 3) How would you describe your trading methodology? I am a technical analyst and trader. Many people believe technical analysis is about learning patterns. The truth isn’t that simple. Technical analysis is about understanding the psychology and emotions of market participants. If you can understand others traders’ emotions, expectations, hopes, and fears, then you will have a greater understanding of price movement. I tend to look for multiple elements converging in an area, with a compelling reason or impetus (such as a gap, void, pattern matching the market bias. etc) to find high quality patterns that are most likely to move in my direction. 4) You’ve said that when you started trading, you focused on learning on only one pattern at a time. Is this something you recommend to all new traders? YES! In T3 Technical Strategies, we teach a number of patterns but not every pattern is for every trader. When I started with our system, I spent weeks trading only one pattern until I knew it inside and out. I thought I was learning which setups worked beest, what time frames I should trade, which amplifiers were more likely to help, etc. But what I was really learning was my own psychology, preferences, and most importantly, my weaknesses. And believe me, there were more than I expected. The bottom line is, in order to be successful, you need to know yourself first. And by focusing on mastering each concept in isolation, you’ll essentially create a customized methodology that works best for your personality. 5) What is your day-to-day focus these days? My focus is on everything and nothing. It changes based on the time of day and the opportunities that present themselves. In the morning I focus on gaps, especially those that create huge emotional reactions in traders, like euphoria or pain. Later in the day I focus on my universe of about 900 stocks that meet my daily volume, ATR (average true range), and price requirements. I keep all 900 on 15-minute thumbnail charts sorted by sector. At lunch, I scan the entire universe in search of my afternoon trades. 6) What is the 1 thing you wish you knew when you started as a trade? I can’t say this enough: Novice traders look for ALL the reasons TO take a trade. Professional traders look for ALL the reasons NOT TO take a trade. My job as a trader is to find everything wrong with a trade and all the reasons it might fail. Then and only then can I take a trade in accordance with my plan. 7) Do you have a certain risk management strategy for cutting losses? Every trade I take has a clearly defined Stop Loss, Entry Price, and Target. I wrote Stop Loss first because it’s the most important, and because adhering to stops is non-negotiable. The stop is predicated on a chart area that if violated, represents a significant change in the trade. At that point, I no longer want to be in that trade. I risk the same amount of money on each trade, and the number of shares I take is predicated on the entry and the stop. In other words, my entire trading plan is a risk management strategy to cut losses, and Losses are an inevitable part of trading. They are even acceptable when viewed as a cost of business — I consider losses to be an education expense. 8) Are you concerned about high-frequency and algorithmic grading? There is no question in my mind that HFT’s and Algos can affect trading. But, I am not concerned about them. In fact if you know what to look for, they can give you a number of opportunities. 9) What is 1 thing traders can do today to start getting better results? I’m going to give you 3. First and foremost create a written plan. Trading without a plan is like cooking without a recipe. It can be done but you can expect mixed results. Plus, it’s nearly impossible to replicate your successes you don’t know how you got them. Second, track your trading activity, and don’t limit yourself to your P&L. You should be noting which setups you use, trade management tactics, what happened after you got out, and whether the trade met your plan. If you are not tracking
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