As someone with numerous hobbies and interests, @wilczasty makes the most out of every moment! He’s passionate about programming and process optimization, but also enjoys quality time in the kitchen– baking and cooking for his family. Among these interests, however, forex trading is one that has certainly made a big impact on his life.
His trading journey began around 17 years ago, after participating in their high school’s paper trading competition. His interest in forex grew, and the rest is history! Today, he enthusiastically shares the trading knowledge he has gained with the BabyPips community. You’ll often see him answering newbie questions or adding insights to discussions among other experienced traders.
In this interview, he shares more about his journey, what he thinks are the stages to becoming a successful trader, indicators, trading books, and more!
So, without further ado, let’s welcome @wilczasty!
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? What are your hobbies, interests, favorites?
I’m from Kraków, Poland. Kraków is a major centre of education and culture. Dropping a few photos below to make this answer more colorful (Wawel Castle, Market Square and one of bridges on Vistula river crossing the city).
Guitar and game of go are my passions (yet, I have little or no time to pick up the guitar recently). Apart from these two, I like programming, cooking/baking, bicycle trips, trading/investing (duh) and if any free time is left I will pick up a book or playstation pad. 
Probably due to my line of work, I am interested in process optimization, delivering efficiency and broadly taken (project) management.
2. How long have you been trading and how did you get into forex trading?
I started trading in high school during one of the school paper trading competitions organized by Warsaw Stock Exchange. It could be around 17 years ago? We were an awful team and did not know anything about trading But I liked the feeling of (rare) gains. Once I was 18, I opened up my own brokerage account and lost some small money during the learning process. It was hard to get a decent book or training, the UI on the platform was disgusting and I was using mostly luck and gut feeling
During my first year at uni, I’ve won a small chart reading contest ran during some workshops and my confidence reignited. It was then when I first heard about forex, but still hesitated, as it was perceived as deadly dangerous. Later I was trying to work as a trader in a small trading shop (US stocks scalping, nothing fun) without much success. At last I’ve dared to open a forex broker account (broker who allows unit size trading). With risking only a few cents on trade I was perfectly comfortable and started learning in a more consistent manner.
3. Describe your current daily or weekly trading routine. What do you do before you trade?
I know it’s not a good example, but I don’t have one I’m very inconsistent if it comes to when I trade and how I trade. Just a few months ago, I started to regularly look through charts on the weekend and plan some D1/H4 emerging setups I would like to take. Still, sometimes during coffee break, I launch a broker platform, see some setup and jump ahead on the M1 or M5 chart - guilty pleasure of compulsive trading.
4. Do you have a go-to indicator? Why or why not?
For live trading I use mostly just candles, support/resistance levels and volume on lower time frames. Quite often various EMA (anything between 2-period to 1000-period in different combinations). Sometimes ATR to know how far is far on the chart. For adventurous demo experiments, I use any indicator I can get my hands on including a few developed by myself. I am not expecting to have one, golden indicator to fit my trading style. I would love to, but there are too many perspectives to look from. Anything that helps understand what is going on with the asset is a good indicator. Most of them out there are not explaining the market, but just give you excuse to open a trade
5. When would you say a trader is “successful”? Do you consider yourself one?
Generally I would say a trader is successful when he meets his objectives. And it’s very individual. When I started forex, my objective was to not lose more than 50% of capital during the first year. I was successful
I’m working on a “success tier” basis to keep myself motivated.
Beer Tier - I have a gain, with which I can buy myself a beer at the end of the month
Consistent Beer Tier - I have confidence, I will be able to buy myself one beer at the end of each month
Bill Tier - I can pay my bills with profits
Retirement Tier - I can quit my job
Apart from obvious financial differences, each of the above carries different psychological challenges. There is a difference between being confident, betting more money on this confidence and ultimately relying on your performance.
Right now I am somewhere between Beer Tier and Consistent Beer Tier. I feel successful, as I have reached one level of my objectives. I strongly believe in small steps, milestones and anything that keeps the motivation. Carrot needs to be close enough, regardless the carrot size.
6. What is your most memorable trading experience?
My most memorable trading experience was having my first relatively large gain on the stock market. I’ve had a really good feeling about my chart analysis and caught a wonderful few weeks’ move. Small capital, but huge adrenaline.
7. What are the top 3 trading books you would recommend for aspiring traders?
Classics:
- Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques - Steve Nison
- Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets - John Murphy
- Trading for a Living - Alexander Elder
If I can add one more (not exactly trading) it would be The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham
8. Do you think anyone can become a forex trader? Why or why not?
Anyone (who meets local legal requirements) can become a trader. Can anyone become a profitable trader is a whole different story. Regardless, if someone has the “talent” factor or not, trading requires hard work - learning, trying, failing, losing, analyzing, setting goals, perseverance in continuous improvement. Can anyone do this? I would say that technically, with different amounts of effort and/or support - yes. On the other hand, if someone is failing for years and his objectives (how small would they be) are still out of reach, it may be not worth pursuing. Just from cost/value added perspective. Giving up on trading does not necessarily mean we cannot get profitable at some point. It means that maybe our goal of extra income can be achieved in other way, long term investments, creating some e-content or opening llama farm. I am a strong advocate of treating trading/investing as business in the first place (hobby maybe in the second).
9. If you could thank one person who contributed positively to your trading journey, who would you thank?
I gave this one a good thought. In terms of trading alone I don’t see any single contributor - throughout the years I’ve gathered bits and pieces of knowledge and ideas from many forum members, book authors, youtube creators etc. The biggest contribution for the whole journey could be from my mom, who never discouraged me from having any hobby/passion - trading included.
10. What are you most looking forward to in the next 5 years?
My focus is on my family. I’m looking forward to see how my little son will grow during the next years, planning to arrange our new apartment this year.
Definitely I’m looking forward for whole pandemic situation to come to an end (with it’s all economic consequences).
I’m looking forward to where I will be with my career. I expect some changes here but not sure of direction at the moment.
From trading perspective, I would like to allocate more time and improve quality of my trading. I will continue to write multiple EAs and maybe neural network I’m working on will become profitable in the long run - who knows.
