Featured Twitter Traders: November's Picks!

This month we decided to look at our awesome Twitter community and handpicked 3 amazing members in there. Whether it be Pop Quizzes, Follow Fridays or just some random trading day, we always like talking to these guys!

If you’re thinking of joining Twitter, you might want to start following our featured members this month! You’ll be sure to have a good conversation about the FX market or even just about anything!

In the meantime, have a look at their very interesting and well-written answers and as always, you might be able to relate with or even learn from some of them. :wink:

Everyone, meet Butch Belano from the Philippines, Lydia Idem Finkley from the US and Scott Cisco also from the US!

Enjoy reading! :slight_smile:


Butch Belano

1. How long have you been trading and how did you get into forex trading?

I have been trading forex for 2 years now. How?? I worked in Japan for 18 years as a surveyor for a real estate company until the sub-prime crisis and the Lehman collapse forced our company into bankruptcy, to make the long story short, I went back to my home country, the Philippines in 2009, but even before then, I have heard of Forex trading but had no time to go into the details because I was so busy back then.

In Japan, almost all housewives are into the so-called carry trade, the so-called Mrs. Watanabe. And when I came back, I had all the time in the world to venture in this risky business called Foreign Exchange Trading, but I knew then, as I know now, that it wouldn’t be an easy task - you have to be prepared mentally and financially for subsequent losses. To stay in this business, you must have to learn continuously, as no one can master the unpredictability of the markets, whether they are forex, stocks, options, futures etc.

2. What’s your most memorable trading experience?

Memorable?? This was not a good trade, but on the contrary, this was my worst trade until now.

One time, there was a UK major news release but I completely forgot the time of the release and to make matters worse, I opened my short position on cable at the exact time as the news release, and before my order got filled, my stop-loss already got hit. Imagine hitting your stop-loss without getting your order filled.

I was shocked…I told myself “What the heck happened?”, and at the same time, the results of the data were all over the wires, and I knew my timing was so wrong I could just surrender into submission.

The specifics, it was a 51 pip loss in less than 1 minute, I wanted to kick myself in the butt but now I learned through my painful mistake, DO NOT EVER FORGET THE TIME OF MAJOR NEWS ANNOUNCEMENTS.

3. Was there ever a time when you suffered a huge drawdown and thought of giving up? How did you get through that phase?

Drawdown?? Of course, it is part of trading, like the saying goes “You can’t win em’ all”, this was when I just couldn’t do anything right, losses kept coming, and probability wise, a win is just around the corner. But I thought, I am in this business TO STAY in this business, UNLESS of course this is just my hobby. So I have to re-assess my losses - where did it go wrong? And was there any hint that it is not going in my favor? And could I have done something to cut my losses WITHOUT compromising my own rules of trading??

To get through that seemingly endless tunnel, I just stayed on course, did not deviate from my own rules and instead continued to follow them. I also did not try to seek other holy grails of trading, I did not try to learn a new indicator which would otherwise only give me conflicting signals…in other words I tried to keep my trading plan as simple as possible.

4. What’s the most challenging part of trading for you?

The challenge now for me is, how to be consistent in my trades, whether it be a daily, weekly or monthly performance. Being a consistently profitable trader is a must given that you follow strict money management principles.

5. When would you say you feel you are successful as a trader?

No, not yet I guess…like is said in the previous statement, I still am not in the consistent phase of my trading, but I am optimistic that I will be there sooner if not later.

6. Do you think anyone can become a successful trader? Why or why not?

I think people have different personalities and as such, I think people who are very emotional will not succeed. To be successful in this business, you have to get rid of your emotions, anger, greed, fear, etc. and if you can master that, you have a fairly good chance of making it.

7. How does your personality match your trading style?

I am a day trader or maybe a swing trader or I would like to think of my style as such. I do not scalp the markets and am not comfortable with faster time frames e.g. M15, M5, M1 but I base my decisions on Daily, H4 and H1.

In other words I just can’t handle the fast lanes.

8. If you could give just one piece of advice to newbie traders, what would it be?

Plan your trades WELL before they happen, meaning it should have an entry, stop-loss and take-profit. Make sure you stick to your plan thru thick and thin, meaning of course, win or lose…stick to the plan!

Your entry can be S&R levels, SMA’s or EMA’s bounces or breach, Fibonacci levels, Pivot Levels, anything for that matter, but your entry is a prerequisite to knowing your stop-loss and profit target. Without knowing these 3 key elements, there would be no guaranteed success, but of course, one could get lucky a few times, but if you want to stay in this business for the long haul, I would strongly advise to know these points before entering a trade. All of the above means DO NOT ENTER A TRADE ON IMPULSE, OR BASED ON YOUR HUNCH, OR GUT FEELING THAT IT WILL GO YOUR WAY.

9. Describe your typical day as a forex trader.

I always look at the economic calendar for the day and also the next, and then I look for relevant news that might affect the day’s trade, and also I am glued to my Bloomberg and CNBC broadcast. I also look at fx options expiry and bond rates, treasury yield, gold, oil, SPX and other indices, and lastly I look at the daily chart of the major FX pairs.

10. Who’s your favorite Forex character?

Who else??? But of course…FOREX GUMP!!! He educates all of us in such a way that even a 6 year old kid can understand with a touch of humor. I am very privileged to be his acquantance, I wish him and his team at BabyPips.com all the best and more power!!



Lydia Idem Finkley

1. How long have you been trading and how did you get into forex trading?

First off, a big thank you to BabyPips for including me in their already stellar list of featured traders. I am very honored.

I have been trading currencies actively for 5 and a half years. I began participating in the markets by investing in equities back in high school. I can thank my parents for getting me involved in the forex markets.

2. What’s your most memorable trading experience?

My most memorable trading experience has been these past 2 years trading on Twitter. Having a cadre of traders that I can trade and rapport with has truly been a wonderful trading experience every day. Not to mention, my trading career has changed tremendously in these past 2 years, so it has been a real joy.

3. Was there ever a time when you suffered a huge drawdown and thought of giving up? How did you get through that phase?

Absolutely! To get through those feelings of giving up, ultimately, I had to keep trading.

Now it wasn’t as easy as that sounds. I did have to stop trading so I could review my trading decisions. I couldn’t stay away long. But when I came back to the markets, I couldn’t enter a trade because my confidence was gone. My lack of confidence turned out to be a good thing because it made me adhere to the rules all the more.

I kept a trade journal religiously. Because I doubted myself, I would check and double check to be sure that all the criteria were met in a trade setup.

Without knowing, I was training myself. It was that discipline in reading the charts and writing my analysis every day that gave me reason to finally pull the trigger and start trading once again.

4. What’s the most challenging part of trading for you?

Patience! Sticking to my rules requires patience and I have never been the most patient person. It is something I work on every day.

5. When would you say you feel you are successful as a trader?

A successful trader can watch price action move without egotistical reaction, stick to the plan in the face of her emotions, and see consistent increases in her account over time. When you can do all three, then you are a successful trader.

6. Do you think anyone can become a successful trader? Why or why not?

It is not hard to trade. What is hard is the discipline and endurance required to be a successful trader. Not many people have that necessary combination. The trader must have bring both characteristics to work everyday in order to be successful.

7. How does your personality match your trading style?

Not at all. I am a long-term swing trader. My trading style requires patience to allow trades to set up and more patience still to allow trades to develop. I am not a patient person at all! However, as a mother, I have learned to become more patient and my trading has benefited from that.

I am a super busy, constantly wired woman with a variety of tastes and interests. I hustle between my children, my businesses and my craft. But in my trading, I only trade 3 currency pairs. So while I can be impatient and super-busy, my trading style is focused and simplistic.

8. If you could give just one piece of advice to newbie traders, what would it be?

My one piece of advice I have for newbie traders is to find out who you are as a trader! There is no quicker path to losses and frustration than to trade who you are NOT. Discover who you are as a trader and trade YOU.

9. Describe your typical day as a forex trader.

Living in California, my day starts at 10PM PST. London is just coming on and it usually get very active in the hours during the London open. I work for the next 5 hours before the family wakes up for the day. My work involves active trading, trade management, communicating trades and market information via Twitter and curating the best forex information for StockTwits FX (StockTwits FX).

Most days, my husband will take the children to school in the morning so that I can work throughout the morning. By 11AM PST, it is time to attend to business. Business could be meetings, writing, or teaching. After, it is time to pick the children up from school and the rest of the day is devoted to my family. I help with homework, go to extracurricular activities, make dinner, and run the bath. Once the kids are off to bed, I am back to the markets, reviewing charts and getting prepared for the trading session ahead. Some days I do actually manage to get some sleep in too!

10. Who’s your favorite Forex character?

My favorite forex personality is Ilian Yotov, my mentor. After 5 years, I am now learning how to work in this business. Ashraf Laidi is a very close second. I had the honor of meeting Ashraf in person and he is a character! We all know Ashraf is super-smart and since he is a regular on Twitter, I get great ideas from him.


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Scott Cisco

1. How long have you been trading and how did you get into forex trading?

I started trading 7 years ago when a close friend of mine introduced me to the equity market. He was totally a fundamental trader, he was concerned with value plays in companies that was expressed through their financial reports. He never had any use for trying to time his entries with anything technical. So I started the same way, and from there I gravitated to sub $1 stocks, over the counter, and bulletin board equities.

It wasn’t until about 3 years ago that another friend of mine asked me if I had ever heard of trading currencies. This was my first intro into FX and I ended up having a lot of money spent for training with a “guru”. That got me started into forex trading and technical trading.

2. What’s your most memorable trading experience?

I had not been trading forex very long and had started using moving average crosses to determine entries. I have 3 entries on at the same time and in a period of just over 24 hours I was up over 1050 pips. I keep a screen shot, and I was up 614 pips on the GbpJpy, 168 on the GbpUsd and 286 pips on the UsdJpy. The funny thing to me looking back on it, I was short all 3 pairs. Just tells you how bad of a day it was for the Gbp.

3. Was there ever a time when you suffered a huge drawdown and thought of giving up? How did you get through that phase?

Of course. I still travel a bit and I remember one day sitting in a hotel room and thinking, Why am I doing this? I had had an especially messy day with Cable, and was feeling like it was time to throw in the towel.

How did I get through it? I called a couple of good friends, traders I trust and had them get me down off the ledge. Too often traders are afraid of failure and afraid to admit to others the mistakes they have made or are making. It was a real help, to talk to ones who had “been there done that” and could give me some constructive criticism.

4. What’s the most challenging part of trading for you?

Sticking to my plan. I like discovery, but this is about being profitable, it’s not a scavenger hunt. Find what works and stick to your plan.

5. When would you say you feel you are successful as a trader?

When I follow my rules and when I abide by the things that make me profitable.

6. Do you think anyone can become a successful trader? Why or why not?

I thought about this question a lot and the longer I trade and the more traders I meet, I have come to realize something. Some people will just never get it.

John Maynard Keynes said “the market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent”, and I believe that is true of some people too. Some just won’t have enough time to devote to learn the skills it takes to become a successful trader.

This is not an easy way to make a living, and it challenges you on many different levels and disciplines. Some traders will not learn in time that you must trade with stops, that you can’t be moving stops, that you must trade with a positive return ratio. The list could go on and on. Yes I believe that many a good trader washes out before they hit their stride too. It takes hard work, patience, good training and support.

7. How does your personality match your trading style?

I enjoy seeing a long term plan come together. It is very satisfying to have a target and to see it accomplished. I am a swing trader and the trades that suit my personality follow the same line. I like the challenge of testing my patience with a longer term trade.

8. If you could give just one piece of advice to newbie traders, what would it be?

Recognize that learning a trading setup is not the end of the road, it is just the very start. You must learn how to manage that position with proper risk, with a clear target, and with the trust that you must trade it every time for success.

9. Describe your typical day as a forex trader.

I live in the United States and I really like to trade the London market. So for me, and I’ve done this for over two years now, I get up at 1:15AM so that I can prep for the 2:00AM London open. I trade from 2 to 4AM, then back to sleep till about 7:30AM. Take my son to school and I’m back to the screens by 8:30 for the NY session. I get about 6 to 7 hours sleep a night and only on a rare occasion will I miss a London open if I am home.

10. Who’s your favorite Forex character?

Titus Davis, aka @piptee, has been a personal friend of mine for a long time, and he is a heck of a trader. We have a lot of fun, but we also keep each other straight, I have learned a lot from him regarding discipline and sticking to a plan.


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