“I’ve actually saved more money despite going through 10-12 accounts.“
Jimmy L., 29 years old, from Canada.
Jimmy has successfully passed our Mini Buying Power program, and he is now TTP’s funded trader managing a $20K 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 Jimmy about his trading plan, insights, and lessons gained while trading in the markets and our platform as a funded trader.
Jimmy’s evaluation statistics
Q&A With Jimmy
Tell us a little bit about yourself
My name is Jimmy. I am from Canada. My hobbies are photography, dance, guitar, and working out.
How long have you been trading?
I started day trading smalls caps in 2017 to 2019. Took a break due to personal reasons and returned last year full time.
Briefly describe your trading plan and how it contributes to your success
I keep my trading plan simple.
It shouldn’t take longer than 5 minutes to determine whether I trade a ticker or not.
You can always find a reason to trade a ticker, so it’s very important to try and find red flags so we know when to NOT trade a ticker.
I always check a tickers profile, filings and catalyst whether it’s moving up or down. Then review its peers to see if it’s a sympathy play.
Then it’s straight into the daily and lower time frames to see days of highest volume traded, as well as previous days it had gaps.
Next is determining whether there is enough risk to reward range.
If there is, next is risk and size calculation.
Predetermine a fixed amount whether in dollar or % that you are willing to put on this trade. From there you have your max size. Do not deviate from this.
Let the trade play out. If you don’t like what you see, you can cut early. Don’t make a bad habit of eating full size losses and taking partial profits. Do the opposite.
Last step is log and review the trade. This will be crucial when the ticker comes back into play or a sympathy with similar behaviour.
Share with us a challenge you faced in your trading career and how you overcame it?
One of the biggest challenges was accepting my losers which ties in with discipline.
Everyone that comes into trading comes in with the notion of winning. Society shapes us to only succeed or fail. Pass that exam or fail. When in reality in trading your losers are equally as important as your winners. As in all in life, the ups are followed by the downs. No one is perfect, no system is perfect, and you should be careful of anyone who sells perfection.
Overcoming this challenge was difficult at the start because I was entering inside consolidations rather than at critical points of price action. As my trading progressed and I learned to take better entries. From there it was easy to see that if I did not cut my losers, it would break out and I run the risk of getting caught into up halts.
How did you adjust risk management to your trading personality?
Describe a key moment in your trading career
A key moment in my career was finding my own independence in trading. Not relying on anyone for trades or alerts. This was hard because when you start, you don’t know what you don’t know. You have to seek mentors, compile their words of wisdom with your own experience. Then take the bits and pieces of what resonate with you into your trading journey. The biggest mistake is falling into a cycle of copying someone’s style. With independence means owning up to your own mistakes.
How long did it take for you to become a consistent trader, and what aspects did you change for that?
I’d say since I’ve come back last year in 2022. It took me about 6-8 months. The most important thing I had to change was to risking so much on “experimental trades”. Testing and taking new ideas is good but it will make it very hard for you to be consistent. I always have lots of ideas and love trying new things out. This worked against me and I had to learn to backtest test or try them in a separate account.
What is your mental/psychological strength, and how did you develop it
One of my strengths is I never give up. I may take a break or hiatus, but I will always come back to it. My background is in Computer Networking and my passion is dance, guitar and photography, all which require discipline. So problem solving paired with discipline helps me a lot. Back when I picked up any hobby I would spend 16 hours learning, practicing and eventually performing in front of a hundreds of people. It is quite normal to me spend my entire life pursuing what interests me. I believe in hard work over talent. I needed to work very hard in all aspects of my life.
What was your strategy for successfully passing the evaluation phase?
I’ve been with TTP since May of 2023. Since then I’ve tried the 200k, 160k, and 20k accounts. I’ve come very close for the 160k and lost it. Here’s what I would share. Don’t jump strategies. Don’t vary size too much. Don’t be afraid to take the trade. Stay humble. After a big win or good trade usually follows a loss equally as big or even larger. This is what happens to a lot due to ego or overconfidence. Recognize and understand that just as there are market cycles, there are daily and weekly cycles. Notice the changes in what stocks are in play. Their sector, float, market cap, type of news, certain filings. Notice the time when high and low of day are occurring. Notice what is happening pre and post market. All of these things are important for painting a picture. A picture is worth a thousand words. Don’t stay zoomed into the 1 minute chart. Before you have any bias, check the 15 minute chart. If you have FOMO, check the a line chart.
How has Trade The Pool improved your trading?
When I was by myself, I had no daily max loss and account max loss. This was something I tried implementing before and was unsuccessful. After I got caught in a T10 halt I realized, you are one ticker away from losing it all. Also with TTP I don’t have attachment to money. I simply focus on trading. It is a never ending game. It’s like never ending Tetris. If you don’t like gaming, why are you playing Tetris?
What would you recommend to someone who is just starting with us?
If you think TTP will magically solve your trading problems, it just might. However if you have been trading on your own, break even or unprofitable, your problems are trading without a max loss and stubborn to take losses. You will have to learn to accept your losers and learn to trade with a stop loss, max loss and so forth. How long this takes is up to how stubborn you want to be. If you are already a profitable trader and have great risk management, join ASAP! If you run the numbers, it just makes sense! Plus you can scale up to a million dollars with TTP. What do you have to lose? Also if you are small cap trader, you definitely need to try TTP. I have no regrets. I’ve actually saved more money despite going through 10-12 accounts.
Share online resources that were/are significant in your trading development.
Key figures and resources that were important on my journey:
Kevin – https://www.kevinlkx.com/
Alex & Bao – https://myinvestingclub.com/
ADF – https://twitter.com/team3dstocks
JRUT – https://x.com/jasonrutkowski3
Brian – https://x.com/brianleetrades
TSB – https://x.com/theshortbear
Would you like to share anything else with us?
Thank you to Tim and Emy from TTP support! I always appreciate your help!
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