After an unfortunate accident which kept him away from the community for a while, The Ever Rising Like A Phoenix Viper is back with even more energy!
If you’ve been hanging around the BabyPips forums, you’ve surely stumbled upon most of his posts. Ever since becoming a member in 2010, TradeViper has been actively sharing his trading journey and knowledge with the rest of the community. In his thread, “Vipers Country Store,” he even shares interesting stories that highlight numerous life and trading lessons. He reaches out to both experienced and newbie traders to foster really engaging and productive discussions about forex and anything and everything under the sun.
As a testament to the fun and positivity TradeViper brings to the forums, he has been included in the list of Top 10 most helpful members for 2018! Truly, this member needs no further introduction.
So, if you wanna learn more from this trading veteran’s experiences, read on!
Without further ado, we give you @TradeViper!
1. What are your hobbies and interests, etc.?
Wow, that will take some time. I really have diverse interests.
Right now, electronics, music, and Physics.
I’m in the middle of making some double sided circuit boards that my nephews and their friends can assemble. But instead of using a programmable chip, I am using 4 old school IC’s, 10 Led’s, and a speaker. So when you turn it on, the Led’s flash in a pattern, and then with each flash a beep, I put a mute button on the beep so that the parents don’t get mad because of incessant beeping.
I am also learning how to build tube amplifiers.
As far as music, I played in a band when I was younger and we even cut an album, but I really was never cut out to be the “starving artist till I get my big break”. Also being dyslexic, music reading was kind of hard. So now, that I am older, and understand the issue, I can be more patient and balanced. Obviously along with the computer it makes the learning easier.
Speaking of dyslexia, math was another problem, in fact I couldn’t “Do” math, until I got a job at a machine shop, then it all made sense. Also I started working for Nissan as a Technician, annnnnd, that is where I learned to do Algebra, because that is how Nissan used to set up their differentials, algebraically. Basically there was no “touch or feel”, if the numbers were right, the setup is good. It is with great pride to say I was the only one who could setup a diff right.
I have built a .40 caliber Bethlehem County Caplock muzzle loader and have shot a bunch of different “SmokePoles” competitively.
Oh, yeah, Quntum Physics and Newtonian physics. Richard Feynman “The Character of Physical Law” the lectures at cornell, and Dr. Walter Lewin, Nuff Said.
2. How long have you been trading forex?
Since 2008
3. What do you think is the biggest change you’ve incorporated into your trading strategy throughout these years?
Biggest change, to stop looking for a premade system, and or trying a new one every few months when the last one did not work.
I saw Dan Gramza at an expo, trading successfully with one, count em, one MA, on a five minute time frame, and a level. That taught me that you don’t need an EA, or 4 gazillion indicators, you just need to know the product you are trading. He also taught that once you put a trade on, there is nothing you can do about it, you let your stop take care of any losses and let your take profit take care of your take profit. Worrying about it changes nothing, so make the trade, and the rest takes care of itself.
He also emphasized the need for using “properly placed” stops, now what is a properly placed stop? It is a combination of market conditions, account size and current price action.
4. What’s your most memorable trade so far? Any lesson you’d like to share with us from this experience?
This is a difficult one.
Memorable, I have two recent ones.
One. June 14 2017 some maniac took aim at congressmen preparing for a baseball game, hitting Rep Scalise, and others. The price flashed up, and even though this was a personal tragedy, I knew that, overall, the impact would not be permanent. So I shorted at the top, in other words where it stalled on the 3min fractal, and 61 pips later, well, profit.
Two. A presidential tweet about China, spike up, “sell the news” 50 pips. These are memorable only in that how easy they were.
5. On your thread, “The Viper Couch,” you share very interesting trading stories and encounters. Which among these stories had the most impact on you and why?
The Bald Eagle, his lack of ability to control his emotions caused him to fail like a supernova. He tried for years, and just could not control himself, and still is not successful. This experience emphasized to me the importance of being self-aware, and emotionally stable. This is the whole point of these experiences, emotional balance, self-awareness, and the ability to change.
One of the hardest things for new traders is to get control of is themselves.
They can sit for hours backtesting, side testing, running Mt4, Mt5, MQL, Python programs, I’m talking hours and hours here, but to work on self control, accept the need to change, nope, not gonna do it, not interested.
6. When would you say a trader is “successful?” Do you consider yourself one?
When you are consistently profitable, and yes I am.
7. If you were to recommend a forex trading tool to a complete newbie, which tool would you recommend and why?
ATR, and learn how to use it properly
8. What do you think of bitcoin and crypto trading?
Fiat currency based on nothing, a place for Chinese mainlanders to hide their money, drug dealers to wash money, human traffickers to make arrangements, etc, etc. Well you asked.
9. What’s that one important thing you’ve learned from spending time in the BabyPips community?
How to disagree without being too disagreeable.
10. Non-forex related questions! If you could be any age for a week, what age would that be and why?
22, physical peak, the ability to move around like I was weightless, yup that’s the ticket.
11. If you could bring any person back to life, who would it be?
My Father in law, we were best buds
I think 
I always enjoy reading these things. Haha.
How long have you been trading?