We all know Dennis as the man behind one of BabyPips.com’s most popular topics: “Trading the Trend Strong Weak Analysis.” He takes time to update the community with his trades and answer questions from traders who are looking to explore his strategy.
All throughout his years as a member of the community, he’s shown true passion for forex and the dedication to sharing his knowledge with others. Many are curious about his strategy. But today, we discover so much more.
It’s time to talk about the journey that made Dennis the trader that he is today.
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? What are your hobbies? Interests?
I was born in Iowa a very long time ago, but lived most of my life in Florida.
Hobbies: Well, market analysis and chart reading since I have always been a numbers person. Now if you get me out of the house, I love flying drones and riding motorcycles. But much of my time this year has been in the renovation of an old cottage we bought, as we downsize our lives to a more minimalist life.
2. How did your trading journey begin? How long have you been trading and what got you into ForEx in the first place?
I started to self-educate in the early 2000’s. I opened my first self-directed trading account for stocks and later options just as we were going into a three year bear market. It was a good thing because by nature, I am a cautious and conservative trader. So, losses were just a small portion of my income, but the lessons learned were worth the price.
Around 2011 I started to take some interest in FOREX trading. I got sucked in by a broker offering $50 to open a new FOREX account. I quickly found out you can’t do much with just $50. Then, as I did with stocks and options, I tried to self-teach by attending online trading webcast and going through BabyPips School of Pipsology.
3. If you could thank one person who contributed positively to your trading journey, who would you thank?
Actually, I have two people, Nial Fuller and Richard Krivo.
I opened my first FOREX account in September 2011 and it was a mess. I was attending every online trading class I could find about using all kinds of different indicators-- from Bollinger Bands to Ichimoku Cloud. My charts were a confused mess. I was winning only 1 out of 3 trades, and my account balance was moving in the wrong direction. Then in January 2012, I decided I need a completely different approach to trading so I took a three-month break from live trading and went on a bit of a soul search.
I then came across Nial Fuller’s website where he taught pure price action trading, no indicator just candlesticks. He also only traded the daily charts. Trading just price action on a daily chart opened an all-new world for me. This was something I could use in Forex as well as Stocks. So I now had a chart that I could make solid high probability trades but I need to know what pair to trade. That is where Richard Krivo came to my attention.
As an account holder at FXCM, I attended many of their online trading classes, but Richard unlike most of the instructors at FXCM, focused on long-term trades. This was what I needed and Richard had a little trick where he would figure out the 3 strongest and 3 weakest currencies and that is where he would get his trades.
I did a little work on his system and modified it a bit and came up with my own Strong Weak ranking that I use today. I now have a complete trading strategy based on Pure Price Action charts and my ranking system to tell me the best pair to trade. It has now been six years and this approach still turns out a high percentage of winners.
4. When would you say a trader is “successful”? Do you consider yourself one?
I think success starts when you stop chasing after Holy Grail trading systems. They just do not exist.
Trading takes patience and total commitment to your trading approach. Do this and you will be a step ahead of the 90% of traders who are not successful.
As far as my own trading, I might be two steps ahead of the 90% but I have not yet reached the full potential of my trading.
5. You are the holder of one of the most active long-running threads in the forums: Trading the Trend with Strong Weak Analysis. What is your most memorable trading experience with this analysis?
This is actually my second go with a thread featuring my Strong Weak Analysis. I first started sharing my analysis back in 2012 on the FXCM Forum. When that Forum was shut down, I moved my thread to BabyPips and it has been a fun ride.
The most memorable experience was earlier this year when my Strong Weak ranking correctly called 21 winning trades in a row. I call a trade a winner when it is up 100 or more pip. I had a lot of good runs but I think that one got a lot of people excited about the potential of my Strong Weak rankings.
6. What motivates you to continuously share your trading experiences with the BabyPips community?
Every so often I will get a post on my thread, or sometimes a personal letter, from a trader who will tell me how my Strong Weak Analysis had completely turned around their trading experience and gave them their first winning month ever. Hearing such stories from new traders and lots of positive feedback from longtime BabyPips forum members is my motivation.
7. In the years you’ve spent with us here, what is do you think is the most important thing that the BabyPips community has taught you?
I think there are a lot of misconceptions about trading FOREX. I know I certainly had them. Having a community where you can ask questions, put your trade ideas out there and get instant feedback has taught me a lot. Now, it is my turn to teach others through my own experiences.
8. Non-forex related questions! If we were to go to your hometown, where would you recommend us to go and what should we do?
Not much left of the hometown I remember, I was 10 when my family left Iowa for Florida, that was back in 1969, oops! I guess now you know my age. I spent those first ten years in Urbandale a suburb of Des Moines.
I went back there a few years ago. Most of the places of my childhood memories are gone now, and it is funny how much smaller everything is now compared to when I was a child. That mile I told everyone I walked to school in the winter during a snow blizzard, turns out it was only 4 blocks. But if you like miles and miles of corn fields and giant windmills then Des Moines might be the place for you
9. If you could put anything on a billboard, what would it say?
You are asking for trouble with this one, I have radical political opinions, and a strong faith in God.
How about this " The Borrower is the Slave to the Lender" I would put this up next to every billboard peddling Credit Cards and over the top of those Payday Lenders.