“Trade the Pool is filling a void in the trading community”
Tom W., 22 years old, from Germany.
Tom has successfully passed our Extra Buying Power program, and he is now TTP’s funded trader managing a $160K account, or as we call it, he is a true “Stock Star”.
Every time he reaches 5 consecutive winning days, we will boost his buying power and max exposure.
We spoke with Tom about his trading plan, insights, and lessons gained while trading in the markets and our platform as a funded trader.
Tom’s evaluation statistics
Q&A With Tom
Tell us a little bit about yourself
My name is Tom, and I am born and raised in Germany. My biggest Passion is Trading and Self-Improvement. I started trading when I was 17 right after finishing school and been on the journey to becoming a great trader ever since. I like to read a lot and exchange ideas with other like minded people and especially traders. In my free-time I am also studying for my University Degree.
How long have you been trading?
Four years
Briefly describe your trading plan and how it contributes to your success
I am a Short Seller only and focus on Hard to Borrow Small Cap Tickers. My Trading Plan revolves around the Technical Analysis Aspects of these Tickers to analyse their Daily-Setups and Intraday-Setups and find Risk- and Entry-Points. Additionally, I utilize Fundamental Analysis to Confirm my Short-Thesis because my main Thesis always revolves around the Concept of Dilution and thus the creation of overhead Supply. From a quantitative Perspective, I apply a systematic approach to my Strategy as well, using the Statistics of my Setups to gauge the past, present, and expected future performance of my Setups.
Share with us a challenge you faced in your trading career and how you overcame it?
My biggest Challenge in the past 4 years where unexpected Cycle-Shifts in the Market that i am trading in. The Small Cap Market tends to have shorter Cycles in general and quicker Cycle-Shifts than the bigger Markets which meant that i had to adapt and adjust my Strategies constantly. In the beginning this was a big challenge and i usually entered smaller Drawdowns because of that. To overcome this challenge i developed a discretionary and statistical Routine that gave me the opportunity to analyse the Cycle-State more objectively. That combined with the experience that i have collected in the past 4 years helped me to overcome the challenge and be more proactive for Cycle-Shifts.
How did you adjust risk management to your trading personality?
Describe a key moment in your trading career
The Key-Moment in my Trading Career was when i introduced quantitative Analysis and thus statistics into my Playbook. This enabled me to get a quantitative understanding of the expectancy of all my Setups and created room for a dynamic sizing approach and a clear segregation of Setups when it comes to “quality” of a Setup (A+ Setup, A Setup, B Setup). Because of the Data i was able to understand what is actually working and not working in my Playbook and helped me to only focus on the good and worthy Setups.
How long did it take for you to become a consistent trader, and what aspects did you change for that?
I became a consistent Trader 3 years into my career. The biggest aspect that i changed to become consistent was switching from the Long-Side to the Short-Side. I used to trade both Sides but 80% of my Losses were created on the Long-Side so i cut it out completely and became consistent with my Short-Setups.
What is your mental/psychological strength, and how did you develop it
My strength is my patience and the fact that i am willing to stay cash for more than 1 day if i do not see any worthy trades to take. This strength developed alongside my own journey as a trader. Approximately 2 years ago i started to understand that “Cash” is also a Position in the Market and because of that i started to be more selective in the trades that i would take. Combined with the Data, i know that if i just stick to my criteria i will be profitable over the long-term so there would be no need to take 50/50 trades where conviction is lacking.
What was your strategy for successfully passing the evaluation phase?
My Strategy was to only trade the A+ Setups in my Playbook and ignore the lower quality Setups. This meant a lower Frequency of Trades but because of it i was able to use more Size and take less unnecessary losses
How has Trade The Pool improved your trading?
I combined my own Risk-Rules with the Rules of TTP and adjusted them to the new Size i am trading with. So in terms of Risk-Management there is no difference. What i like is that i now have more access to more capital which makes discipline even more important. This makes me an even more disciplined trader than if I would be trading for myself.
What would you recommend to someone who is just starting with us?
Have a Strategy and proof that you are already profitable before starting a Evaluation. Do not think that just because you have access to more capital that you will become automatically profitable, it is the other way around. Proof to yourself first that you are profitable and then proof it to TTP in the Evaluation.
Share online resources that were/are significant in your trading development.
Twitter and Youtube were my only Sources and 80% just tracking my own Data.
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