For today’s member feature, we will be getting to know Antonio, a.k.a. Ando, a 30-year-old department manager from southern Italy, now residing in Germany. He is a man of many interests, including sports, reading, old video games, and 90’s hip hop. He is fascinated by astronomy, science, the human body, and crowd behavior.
Ando’s interest in forex was sparked by an ad promoting the ease of making money through trading options. He got hooked on trading and started his career with the M5 and M1 timeframe, but soon realized that this type of “trading” was just gambling. Despite initially falling for the gimmick, Ando quickly became determined to master forex trading through extensive demo trading and the guidance of our School of Pipsology.
He describes himself as a mechanical short-term swing trader, and his emotionless personality allows him to trade what he sees. He avoids news and media, relies on price action, and trades without indicators. He will also be walking us through his typical trading day and how he manages his time effectively.
So, without further ado, we give you @this_is_ando!
1. Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from? What are your hobbies, interests, favorites?
Hi. I’m Antonio but everyone calls me Ando, some call me Andoconda. I’m 30 years old and originally from southern Italy but living in Germany near Stuttgart/Munich (both cities can be reached by car in just 2 hours from my place).
I work at a big global company as a department manager and my hobbies are sports and reading. I also have some time for old video games every now and then. Music, 90s Hip Hop to be precise, is more or less the light of my life.
I’m very interested in astronomy, science, the human body and crowd behavior/psychology.
I don’t really have any favorites and I first had to google how to answer such a question, but right off the bat I’d say my favorite meal is rice/meat, my favorite car is my Audi A5, dream car Nissan GT-R, my favorite rapper is Nas / Mobb Deep and my favorite type of girls are feminine women with long dark hair and a pretty face just like Dua Lipa or a body like Nadia Khar. Hold on, did I really say this? I can already smell those “feminist”. Yes, I like girls like these but I wouldn’t ask them for a date. I mean I’m not a hot model and sincerely, who wants to date women who show their butt at every concert or posting pictures in lingerie on social media? Fellas are you googling Nadia right now? Are you stuck now? C’mon please, close that tab! Focus on souls not bodies.
2. What inspired you to become a forex trader, and how did you get started in the industry?
Well my main inspiration was of course the idea to be my own boss and the financial freedom - I haven’t achieved either of these yet.
I remember in 2018/19 I saw an ad about trading options. It promoted how easy it is to make money. All you have to do is either go long or go short - it was that simple. Usually I don’t fall for ads or media at all but I heard about that topic back then when I was younger, completing my training as a bank clerk. So I immediately googled it and got hooked to trading.
I remember how I started my career with the M5 and M1 timeframe. Oh look, a green candle? Ha! Buy immediately! Red candle? How easy! Sell immediately! I realized very quickly that this kind of “trading” hasn’t really anything to do with trading, it’s just gambling and doesn’t work like that. I also wondered why all my trades immediately turned into a red minus when opening (I do not have any clue about spreads back then). However, I blamed everything on the difficult situation in the global economy, because Brexit was a big issue at the time and CoViD was on the rise. So I decided to quit trading until the situation calmed down. Nevertheless, I couldn’t get forex out of my mind and I spent the time dealing intensively with the topic and demo-traded millions. I quickly came across your site and “The School of Pipsology”. At this point a huge compliment, the course is really awesome, funny and is written in a very instructive and amusing way. That was a real game changer to me. This was the first time I started to understand forex and economy, how to trade, how to look at timeframes and what exactly supports and resistances are, ironically I heard something about all those things during my school days, but only really understood it much later through your website, and although it all wasn’t written in my native language! How could this be? At this point a big shoutout to our school system! Or at least at my former “sensei”
3. What type of trader would you say you are, and how does this influence your approach to trading?
Personally, I would describe myself as a mechanical short term swing trader. I’m naturally a very emotionless person, feeling neither anger nor joy, so it’s really easy for me to ignore my gut feeling and just trade what I’m actually seeing, which is price action. I also try to avoid media and news since in my opinion the media is full of nasty tricks but this shouldn’t be the deal today! So with this state of mind I could never be a day-trader since they have to rely on news more or less. I don’t have any problem to hold on my trades for a few days so I think Swing-Trader really applies to me (We should be careful with the term “swing-trader”. A trader holding trades for more than a day isn’t automatically a swing trader).
I have to confess that I’m a big fan of indicators but I also have to admit that they don’t work for me so I’m a naked trader too, this doesn’t mean that I’m sitting without clothes in front of my PC why y’all always have those nasty thoughts? This just means that I trade without any indicator. Currently I’m experimenting with how to include one or two moving averages in my system though.
4. Can you walk us through your typical trading day or week? How do you manage your time effectively?
Oh, this is gonna be a detailed answer.
I get up at 6:15 AM, have a big breakfast and start to work by 7:00 AM. I’m lucky that I only live 2.5 kilometers / 4 miles away from my workplace.
By 10:00 AM I’m having my second breakfast at work and check Babypip’s Economic Calendar. I only care about the high impact news for the current day but ain’t giving a damn about the numbers. I will just use it as a filter to see which pair I’m trading today and which pair I’m not. For example I won’t trade any JPY-Pair if a high impact event/report for Japan’s economy is about to be released today.
By 12:00 PM I’m having my lunch and checking my (previous day’s) open trades and if necessary moving stop loss near breakeven or a profit, but NEVER moving SL wider. Sometimes I also need to adjust my take profit, however, in both cases I prefer to leave the exits just as setted when I was opening the trade(s).
When I quit work by 3:00 PM, I immediately come back home, take some liquid carbohydrates to me and hit the gym by 3:30 pm till 4:45 /5:00 PM. Then I take a shower and my day starts. Cleaning up my flat, cooking/preparing meals for the next day… Just everyday tasks. This is my typical Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
It’s 7 to 7:30 PM by now and on workout days (Mo, We, Fr) I will hit any restaurant and eat for dinner and come back home by 8:30 / 9:00 PM. This is the time where my trading activity really starts. Since it’s 9 PM by now in Europe, meaning the Asian-Session is about to open, I will mainly focus on AUD, NZD and JPY pairs. I also have the advantage that the day/weekend-noise should be priced in by now (especially on Mondays) and I don’t really have to care about any report or news. But remember: I won’t trade any of those pairs if there’s a relevant high impact event to happen.
On rest days (Tuesday, Thursday) of course I already have time at 3:30 PM to trade, let’s remember: I’m living in Europe this means more or less to trade during the best time for forex (London + NY Session overlapping). On those days I trade any pair I want, however, I only stick to crosses in general and as mentioned above I stay away from pairs who had or are about to have any high-impact events today.
As I mentioned above I’m a naked trader so I just will try to find a major trend on a higher TF like H4/D1/ or sometimes even W1 without any indicator (“pro”tip: when watching W1 look out for the 13rd and 26th candle, if current price is above/below BOTH candles there is 55% chance that price will continue moving up/down. But this method is more suited for a long-term trading style and bigger accounts…) It’s important to keep in mind that you can’t force yourself to find a trend. Either there is one or not. Market only trends 20% of time. So don’t be mad if you won’t find any trend. There are a lot of days where I just don’t trade and stay away from the market.
Then I switch down to a shorter TF like H4/H1 and draw 1 or 2 support/resistance lines, maybe even a trend line or Fibonacci-Retracement (“pro”tip: Fibo works best on H4). My last step is a further switch down to an even lower TF like M15 to get a candlestick confirmation. I only open the trade if all 3 TFs confluence. I usually risk 2% of my total capital per trade, sometimes even 2.5 if there is a really nice and clear set up.
After entering the market, I will shut down my PC and stay away from screens. My whole actively trading –activity takes me 20 to 35 minutes a day. You can’t control market by looking at charts so why wasting precious time when you just can check the next day your phone with a big smile and a hit take profit (or stop loss, and yes this is also a reason to smile: you should be happy that your stop loss protected your capital.
As you see I ain’t got any problem finding time to trade and managing life effectively, you just need to find a plan which fits your personal life and setting priorities. Remember that the market doesn’t run away.
5. How do you deal with the stress and pressure of trading, and what techniques do you use to maintain a healthy work-life balance?
I always wondered why people have stress while trading or stress at all. I can’t really remember the last time I was stressed. Maybe it’s because I meditate or because I don’t really use social media or ignore news at all? I know this may sound stupid and small-minded but look out your window, THIS is what is happening in your life, not what you see on TV. I mean why should I care about a tragic car accident which happened in China or Sweden where 25 people died? Again, don’t get me wrong, condolence would go out to all the moms who had lost their children in such an accident but how does this big misfortune affect my life over here in Germany except putting my mind in an awful state? So just ignore it and focus on your environment, birds don’t care about other birds in a country thousands of miles away. Free your mind.
Surely my physical activity helps a lot too to keep a healthy work-life balance but I remember that I used to be calm even before. My momma always tells me that I barely cried as a baby and always stayed calm in any situation of life. I think this is a big psychological edge in life and in trading too.
6. What advice would you give to new traders who are just starting out in the forex market?
My tip for new traders is to trade on a demo account until you are constantly profitable. Master Babypips School of Pipsology on this site. Avoid leverages higher than 1:30 and begin trading with daily or H4 timeframe until you get a feeling for it. Then you can move to shorter timeframes or just stay right there. “Pro”-Tip: Inform yourself about the characteristics of the different sessions and why forex is the most manipulated market in the world. Don’t copy any strategy, create your own. The right choice of your timeframe is crucial.
7. What do you think is the biggest misconception that people have about forex trading?
I think we all should forget those get-rich-quick-scheme. Whoever said trading is an easy way to make money fast couldn’t understand the mechanics and the workings of the market and needs a reality check.
8. What are your long-term goals for your trading career, and how do you plan to achieve them?
My goal is to become so profitable that I no longer have to work or at least only work part-time and just have more time for my private life and hobbies. I won’t tell exactly how I’ll do it, you don’t want to spend the rest of your day listening to me and we all have better things to do but personally I think that a man with a concentrated power of will, discipline and patience can achieve anything he wants in life, which has been proven to me many times.
9. What’s the most important lesson in life you’ve learned in life so far?
I lost my dad when I was 7 years old. A drunken girl hit him with a car on his birthday so I had to learn how Life works really soon. Now I’m 30 years old but I still have sooooooo much to learn. But basically, the most important lessons I’ve learned in life so far can be summarized in a couple of quotes some also could be applied to trading:
#1 Be friendly to anybody but don’t be anybody’s friend
#2 Only trust your ability to not trust
#3 Enjoy ANY challenge life throws at you
#4 Never forget that people want to see you do good but never better than them
#5 Accept the truth and bend to its power or live a lie
#6 Only focus on things you can control
#7 Always smile and think positive
#8 Don’t talk the talk if you can’t walk the walk
#9 Draw your line and don’t let anything or anybody cross it
#10 If you are a man quit porn, soya, sugar and alcohol immediately
10. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you choose to live and why?
What a lovely question, actually I have some plans to move to Australia or New Zealand one day. I think those countries have enough resources to offer a (even) better life than in Europe (am I the only one smelling some Thanos-Vibes right now ?). The weather and nature seems to be nice there but on the other side I couldn’t imagine lying at the beach on Christmas so maybe I will strand in Canada, Costa Rica or just buy a caravan and travel around Europe. But sometimes I also think just to stay here since I got everything I want just next door, the whole universe is my couch.
