Hello traders and welcome to the latest in the series of interviews with students have learned to trade the news course. Next up, I am delighted to be joined by Gavin, who is from London in the UK. The reason why I specifically wanted to interview Gavin is due to the fact that I've seen a very sharp uptick in his understanding and therefore, application of news based trading over the past few months and naturally supporting this has been a gradual improvement in his results. In addition to this Gavin's progression has now enabled him to evolve and trade the slightly slightly trickier central bank speeches and other news events which actually fall outside of the core course curriculum. I'm sure that Gavin will be the first to admit that he is yet to become the finished article. However, he has come on leaps and bounds since learning the fundamental side of trading.

And the thing that pleases me more than anything has been to see and hear his confidence and belief grow. Gavin as you'll soon learn He's a naturally enthusiastic and positive chap. But his passion for trading has hit new heights as things really start to cement for him. And he sees trading as an even more viable career path. I hope you not only learn a lot from the interview, but it once again gives you the inspiration to really go for it wherever you might be on your trading journey. So first things first, Gavin, thank you so much for taking time out of your weekend to conduct this interview.

It's much much appreciated, as we did with the pool interview is going to go through a series of questions and just really want to hear your feedback in regards to those questions. So thank you very much for your time today. Not at all. Not Not at all time. It's, it's a great pleasure and thanks very much for asking me again. You know, I find it very stimulating, actually, this course really enjoyed what I'm learning and I'm you know, hoping to, you know, to be putting it to good use in the future.

So if we can kick off with you just giving us a bit of a bit of background on yourself with regards to your current occupation. I think people always like to hear about the, the the lives of the students outside of trading to see if it like fits and is similar to their own circumstances. And so a bit about your your current occupation and a little bit of your brief trading History Prior to you coming on to learning about the fundamentals via the news base course. Okay, indeed, and well, I'm a photographer by profession is what I've been doing for many years now. And I enjoy that and I probably intend, in a way to, you know, to keep going with that, but the beauty of what I'm learning, I think, with the trading and, and the fundamental trading is that I'm learning how I can sort of mix the two together.

And as a freelance photographer, obviously, I haven't Little bit of flexibility with my own time, which is brilliant. And gives me the opportunity to, to pay attention to the, to the trading side of things as well. And I, because of you know, the fact that I work I'm sure that most of us are in a similar situation. We have other jobs and other commitments. I started by looking at the the option of end of day trading. And some years ago now probably like two or three straight four years, guys, I did a course there and follow that up and find it sort of compelling and interesting.

But at the same time, I was fat it was it was frustrating. We were shown how to trade technically, and specifically not to pay attention to fundamentals because that would collide the issues collide the trades apart from the biggest NFP thing I decided that we were told to you know, to just look for the technical setups and go from there. And yes often you know you've got nice trades and nice nice moves and get into a nice run of things and then something would just kind of turn around and go against you for no particular reason you felt you had already boxes checked. Nice sort of, you know, nice retracements nice resistance or support levels, nice Fibonacci is etc. All these things nice or diversions on you know, the stochastics or whatever and it was then for no particular reason to move off and then it would kick back and go against you.

And this was very frustrating actually. And often I find myself just kind of drifting away from it. The whole process and then a little bit down the line, I think, Oh my god, I gotta get back to you because I'm sure there's something here that can work and so I was a bit stop, start, stop, start. Yeah, so you find it's just it had some very, very good times the technicals let you down on other times, they read. They've been consistent. They do.

Dennis lightly undermined my confidence not to the extent I ever stopped it, but just kind of made me sort of, you know, stop start, as I was saying, and so so I was yes, I would say I was struggling to get really so properly out of the out of the starting blocks. Really? Yeah. And looking for something else to add to it. Yeah, I think you've I think you've touched on a really, really important point there. Because, as you know, I'm obviously endorsing the fundamental side of trading.

But I also am a big fan of the technical side of trading as well, because there is a lot in the technical side of trading that can be used in the markets alongside the fundamentals, but purely on their own, they are very, very inconsistent and you hit the nail on the head there in terms of it affects your confidence. And yeah, as a trader, when you lose your confidence that can be very, very damaging, and it sort of reduces your optimism about trading as a full time endeavor or being a serious contributor to your overall income. Because a lot of the people that I work with yourself included want to get a decent income coming from trading, but for that to be on a consistent basis, and by purely trading the technicals, you always have that fear at the back of your mind that one month is going to be okay followed by a really bad month or next month.

And it's like, you got no confidence in the trading side of things or your ability to earn on a consistent basis. And that's what puts off people from really taking that big leap of of trading as a full time endeavor or it being one of the major contributors to their overall income. So to me, that was a that was a that was important thing. But what's really, really good is that you do have the technical skills that you can bring into the fundamental side and emerge them together, which you have been doing. So coming from the technical background to fundamentals was the fundamental side of things felt like fairly new. So it came as as quite a new learning for you.

You hadn't done much fundamentals before. It wasn't very much so the only the only thing I'd been aware of in the past was the was the non farm payrolls is something you know the big sort of monthly things too. Some stay away from other than that, if I was generally encouraged not to think about the fundamentals, because that would show me the picture of it. But I find, actually, that this is kind of open the window. And you can sort of see behind the scenes in a way in the workings of trades and why they're moving in one direction or another. So this whole thing about tuning into central banks, getting sort of an understanding of policy divergence, and, and then, and then looking for particular news releases or data releases to kind of pair that up with, there's been a whole new sort of, you know, sort of vision really onto the onto onto the whole process of trading and it's, it's, it's really quite, you know, it's exciting and it's stimulating cuz you've suddenly see actually I can see how this is working and I can be a part of this because essentially technicals do not drive the FX markets are in any markets at all trends, big trends, and all the things that come with trends such as trend lines, Fibonacci are driven by the moves in the market are driven by fundamentals.

The technicals are more from an efficiency in Yeah, into the market. So getting good prices and, and oh, yeah, now that you're aware of the fundamentals, has that helped you understand why a market moves in the way it does? Or why certain currencies move in the way they do? Yes, absolutely. I mean, a few months ago, I didn't really understand it at all, but now, it's the picture is much clearer. tuning into and it's also the whole thing is much more interesting in a way because you're sort of part of what's going on, you know, you feel like you're not part of what's going on in the financial markets, you can tune into what you know, the big banks are saying what are the sort of you know, the, you know, what the central banks are saying.

You can look at data now and see how That's gonna help or hinder a possible trade idea or trade plan. Yeah, it's a big, it's a big sort of step forward in a way, and also makes the whole thing become more real. In that time starting to feel that actually Yes, like, you know, this is possible, I can see how it's working. And I've got results that are coming in and showing showing me that I'm actually, you know, making progress, and it's a good feeling, you know, anybody positive about it. That's brilliant to hear. And I think again, another interesting point you raised there is, it is interesting, because sometimes people get this misconception that it's scary.

It's a bit too complicated, a bit too complex, but really, you get outside of the trading, you get fantastic understanding of the world economies. Before the fundamentals, I didn't realize how much of an impact milk prices had on the New Zealand economy. I didn't realize how much of an impact on the Canadian economy I didn't realize how much of an impact just simple comments. comments from Central Bank speakers would affect your currency. So you get a good awareness and appreciation of the global economy outside of trading. And then our job as a trader is obviously to utilize that information to make better informed trading decisions.

Now, one of the misconceptions that I get a lot, which is completely understandable, but I have to obviously try and address that is that learning the fundamentals is really, really hard now, you've been on the course for a few months now. And yes, it hasn't just sunk in from day one, but you've gradually tuned into the market. So what's your feedback? I know, a lot of people get attracted to the simplicity of technicals and get scared away from the what is seen as quite complex subjects with the fundamentals. What would your feedback and comments to other people be about the complexity of learning the fundamentals and getting tuned into the market? Well, my feeling is that it's not That complicated because apparently, you know, you're, you're doing a lot of analysis for us, which is brilliant.

So I can get some charts in my desk in the morning, and read what you've analyzed and the hints and tips that you've given us. And of course, that's enormously beneficial and then coupled that with sort of going on having a look at the reports and things myself. That's true. That's brilliant. So to begin with, I was I wasn't really getting straight into the end of the intraday. I was kind of using that more in in my end of day trades.

Yeah. And that actually, significantly helped. And so I wasn't just scanning looking for technical setups here or there or anywhere. I was now looking for technical setups on an end of day thing, but with currencies that were, you know, suitably matched and that was and that was working. That was Interesting, and it was more recently than I thought I thought I'd start, you know, delving more into the intraday and did that make your life easier or harder from a time perspective because now it's yeah know much, much easier because again misconception is that you have to know and trade the news you spend hours at your charts when really you don't once you tune in to the markets and as you say you go to the effort like you do on a on a regular basis every day just doing a little bit of reading, you tune into the market and then you can identify the currency pairs, which have the way you have a very strong directional bias on and for those that you don't, you can ignore.

You don't need to go through 25 different currency pairs. You can have laser like focus on the three or four where you are confident in the direction the likes of Kiwi dollar shorts or euro dollar shorts or yen for example, dollar yen shorts, you can laser like have laser like focus on those currencies and yes, ignore the others. Yes, that's it. trader, our job is to put our money or risk our money on a trade, which has the highest probability of success, where the odds are heavily stacked in our favor. And when you've got a strong, fine, fundamental bias, and you trade in line with that bias, that's where you start to put the odds in your favor. Yeah, but I totally agree.

Like, that's one thing. One positive feedback that we've had from a lot of students is it's actually made their trading more time efficient. Yes, they're not spending longer at the charts, they're actually spending less time at the charts because the fundamentals can help them focus on certain currency pairs, but also focus on certain events. So they can schedule at the start of the week, exactly where they want to be at the charts or when they can be at their charts. So yes, much more time efficient. So that again, is a real advantage to us who, who most traders are doing a full time job or their contracts or whatever they've got other commitments to do.

So we can spend all day at the charts and probably don't want to spend all day at the charts. So having that flexibility to dip in and out throughout the week is a fantastic trait of newspaper trading. I was making that mistake a bit at the beginning with just thinking, Oh my God, I've got to get to every single news event I possibly can. Because it's impossible to do that. So as we're rushing around, trying to get to my charts, probably getting into trades that probably shouldn't have. But now I'm sort of more sort of laid back about it.

And you just as you say, select the things that you think will fit in with whatever your other other commitments are during the weekend. and not worry because, as I always say, there are other opportunities around the corner. So really, and as you as you prove recently, as you prove recently with your trading. I think it was a week or so ago when you traded milk prices. Yeah, traded with all inventors and you traded something else. And within a day you'd made comment on how much it was.

Yeah, within a few hours, you'd made a really, really good return and it was nice to show that you had time available on that day. And you took advantage of it. The next day. You won't have it You didn't trade. So it's trying to find those opportunities around your current commitments. And then obviously, taking advantage of it when it comes in.

And you know, now because you've been on the course for a few months, you know, now that it only takes 123 good trades in a month, yeah, to make a half decent return, but the most important thing is doing it consistently, every single month. And I find that satisfying thing you know, like, as you said, the other day when there was I think it was the GBP CPI data and then there was the USD, the dollar, US dollar, and then the milk quotes and there was just a little a few pips to be taken here and there and it was nice to sort of, you know, to use the knowledge and what we've learned to be able to do that and although it wasn't a massive move, it was you know, I thought they were pips nicely earned. I was pleased with those. And as I said in tomorrow, in my report I sent out this week is those those pips add up, they really start to add up if you make 50 pips in a day using the risk management approach taught in a course that's half a percent, the same which you can make in literally some of the trades to be taken.

Recently 10 minutes, five minutes, 20 minutes, one hour, half a percent. That is incredible. It's amazing. It takes the pressure off having to trade every single event and says to you, I can make trading the news work around micro commitments, whatever they may be. Exactly. And that's what I've been finding.

And, and, and and it's exciting it is you can actually see it working. Yeah, that's great. And then I just said, obviously not want to sort of get ahead of myself and to sort of, but it's great to be able to see that, you know, these things are coming together. piecing these things together the data, they're looking at the the you know, the opportunities and the pips we made. It's brilliant. Absolutely.

Fantastic. Now, just going back to an earlier point where you talked about how learning about the news helps you understand why the market moves in the way it does, rather than before where you maybe saw the market move 100 pips and you're scratching your head going, why is that happened? Yes. Sometimes people go well, it's easy to say After the event, does news, in your opinion does learning about news how you plan things in advance? Or do you do things? reactively?

Can you be very proactive? Or is it a reactive style of trading? Well, um, with this, it's it's much more of a sort of proactive in that you can have a look at the data, you can have a look at what's coming up, you can make a plan and look at your own commitments for the day or the week and see what you can make work. So I'm not just which is what I did in the past comes to charting all that there's a technical setup, let's get in there. And now I can pair that with information, valid information, and take much more sort of informed decisions on what I'm going to trade on or what I'm going to leave. So yeah, it's that sense of being able to plan ahead as well which which gives another Tier or another level to, to the fundamental base trading.

Yeah. Which is fantastic. Does that help you? Does it help it make it because decisiveness for a trader is really, really hard knowing knowing when to push the button and sometimes with the technicals and again, I don't want to dismiss the technicals too much, but I just want to get my point of view across. Sometimes the technicals can give you so much information that it makes you indecisive. Yes.

With scheduled scheduled news events, such as inflation readings that you mentioned earlier. Yeah. Does that help you become more decisive? Because it's pretty much black and white? If it comes in as you want? You trade it?

And if it doesn't, you don't? Yes, it is. It is it is almost a black and white situation. I suppose the only thing I find most important is is the degree something like you know, last like this this month, NFP was, you know, was a no brainer. It was a massive, you know, brilliant sort of feed data point. And so it was just a question of just pressing the button.

Yeah. Perhaps with the CPI data, I think it was the other day or the birth of GDP there. Whereas a little bit more, I think, you know, the, the the core was a tiny bit better, but the main results came in the same. So there's a bit of a sort of do I don't I do I don't know, but then thinking and then, you know, maybe you sort of think I did take it. I didn't stand very long. So in that no sort of incidences in that kind of instance, I would exercise probably a lot more caution, and maybe sort of just be happy with a few pips.

Yeah, I think I'm gonna sit this out and wait for it to hit my that's it. That's a fantastic point. And this was Yeah, so it's just a scalping a few maybe take five or 10 or 15. Yeah. That and this is such an important point. And this is a point that was raised in my last interview with with Jean is, she said she used to be a little bit embarrassed about taking pips too soon, because it was like, No, you must hold your position for one hour.

Exactly. Yeah, as I keep mentioning to you guys is the markets aren't perfectly the same every single time. You They're just not they're imperfect was that we, in that in those circumstances, we must use flexibility. So you've used a great example there. The last jobs report from America was absolutely clear, clear as day clear as dying, it was by the dollar. As soon as you saw those figures, easy peasy.

However, not every single event is going to be that easy to judge. So with the pound data, which wasn't as convincing, you quite rightly did, as I've been suggesting to you guys is use flexibility in those occasions where you maybe reduce your stop loss, or you reduce your risk or as you did you took your pips off the table a little bit sooner than you normally would do. And that's because there are varying degrees of news events, some that will make the market move hundreds of pips some that will only make it move a few pips. But if you can make pips on the majority of your trades, at the end of the month, things are going to look pretty good. So that's a really, really powerful element that try and conveys that the markets are not the same every single time. So he that information.

If they're not as convincing as they were previously, then adapt your approach don't Yes. Be rigidly fixed to one style of approach, because that's just going to crush you. So if you took the same approach saying I need to hold my trade for exactly three hours, yeah, in that first trade, you'd probably done quite well. But on the second trade, after probably half an hour, the market loses its momentum because it wasn't as impactful as the previous data point. So you then end up losing a handful of pips, which you shouldn't have done. So yeah, the fact that you're now understanding that is, is testament to why you're seeing some improvements in your results because you're not hanging on to the trackers, you hope it's going to go further.

You're taking on board information that's given to you either via your, your commentator on your schoolwork or you're reading for x live or you've read my reports, you're gleaning that information, you're saying this trade is not as clean cut as previous one so I need to make sure that I adjust and if pips are given to me, I'm going to take them a lot sooner than that. I normally would. So that's been brilliant to see because we do need to adapt to market conditions because they're not going to be the same every single time. Yes, I find that it's really and also on the technical side with the end of day technical trading, and I find that you're a bit more sort of bang by rigid rules, in that, you know, you enter this point you exit, you know, you follow accordingly, you follow, and you know, that there's no sort of, there's less flexibility.

So, yeah, I do understand why that is, is tall, it's because it's trying to keep people on the straight and narrow with too much. But if that's gonna stop you from being consistent, then you have to really take heed of that. And even though my course teaches a core foundation of certain things, which I need to keep fairly black and white, yes, the mentoring service that accompanies that gives then all the added elements around the intricacies that people can then evolve their trading from that point. Yes, absolutely. Still one of the cool things I do teach on the course Is to obviously have that flexibility. Not every single news event is going to be the same as, as all of them.

So to make sure that we're, yes, we're adapting to whatever the market is telling us. And because because you now know, the fundamentals, the market is constantly communicating to you from an ethical perspective, it's not really communicating to you, but the fundamentals are communicating the mood of the market to you. So you can have your finger on the pulse of the market at all times. And if anything changes, then you can use that information to quickly come out of a trade. And that adaptability I think, makes the difference between profit and loss. Because in the end, on those occasions where your trade doesn't do as you expect, if you're able to cut those losses very, very quickly, that's going to leave you in a very good position at the end of the month, because the cumulative of your losing trades will be very, very small, whilst those nice chunky trades that go and go and go are the ones that are going to see to a decent profit.

Absolutely, absolutely. I completely agree and it's great to be able to, you know, to do that too, to see how something's going thinking well, right. I think this is not quite what I'm working. So I'm going to come out now but I've got myself 10 pips. And that's brilliant. Excellent.

So yeah, wonderful. So in regards to the course, obviously, the course that I built was it was an online course. And it's maybe slightly different to to those that you've been on before. So what are your thoughts in return in regards to the actual costs, the cost structure, the topics, etc, and overall value for money for those that are maybe listening to this and going well? Yeah, I'm thinking about it. I'm not quite sure.

Well, yeah, the online aspect it, I mean, it's great because we've got fantastic access to yourself to I mean, you know, immediate responses to emails and queries. And the course itself, the online trading news course is brilliant, and you're continually sort of updating it and putting on your own experiences and thoughts and trades. So it's an ongoing, so learning resource. It's not just Of course, it goes from a to b. And that's it. Yeah, it's there.

It's like it's live the whole time. And I think it's, you know, and in a way it, it's much it's, there's a much closer contact than there was on course, I've been in the past where you were sort of booking appointments and you go and see a coach once a month, then you'd have half an hour and as mentoring, and that would be it. And then, you know, and then you'd book your next course, or your next sort of mentoring session. And this is a much closer, much more ongoing daily daily contact, daily feedback. I find it really really, you know, tremendous value, actually. Yeah, because a lot can happen in in 24 hours a lot.

Yeah, in five hours, a lot can happen in an hour, can't it so that the ability for me to be able to add a discussion to the course or send you out the three the free report. The gray covered for all of the major Sessions is at You'll hear me say this a lot is keeping your finger on the pulse of the market. Yes, tuning into the mood of the market, because that's why going back to earlier points in terms of the markets constantly communicating to us via via the fundamentals. So we need to obviously tune into that, Take heed of it and use it in our trading going forward. Now, I appreciate that not everyone can spend as long as I spend on my charts. But that's where the service arose from is I can be essentially your analyst where I can do all of the work, identify the key market moving events, and then filter that to you ideally as best as possible in in layman's terms.

So it makes a little bit more sense for people that are new to the fundamental side of trading, then that gives you the ability to say Actually, no, Tom's report told me that actually of the of the inflation figures of the two inflation figures. This one is a little bit more important. So I'm going to play a bit more attention to that because Dawn's identified it as more market moving and as we saw with the pound even though the headline figure came in, as expected, we wouldn't normally trade that the core which I'd identified as being More important, did come in better and saw the parent find some strength. So little tidbits like that, even though it's give you I can't do to regulations, I can't physically say trade this and trade that because that's deemed as investment advice. And that's a very gray area. But I can give you some very, very subtle hints and then empower you because you've got the theory from the course no you to then take that information, take the key highlights, and use that to build a trade plan or a trade ideas because essentially, that's all I do as a trader is I'm looking at what's happened in the previous session.

Okay. Really fantastic employment data out of Australia. So even though I wasn't up at midnight to trade it, I'm going to use that information to build a trading plan can I find a weak currency to put against the strong Ozzy? Okay, let's look for maybe an opportunity buying Aussie Kiwi. So your job is that you're essentially doing the same as me but using the reports and the ongoing discussions to do that and then where possible, I will be obviously updating you with the trades that I take the trade Obviously go really well, the trades that I, most of my bad trades are normally around about breakeven or small, small losses. So I'll post those as well.

So you can see that Yeah, that's great to see as well. Because it's important to know that that is our approach, keep losses really, really small, let them do their thing and the really good trades run and that gives you your net profit at the end of the day, at the end of the month. So for me to have the ability to constantly date you is very, very important because things if I was to just give you the course and that be it, then that to me is a very dangerous thing because you think I'm going to take this information and apply it in exactly the same way every single month when we know the markets are ever changing. Yes, exactly. No currencies ever changing. So hopefully that the currency watch list that's within the core.

Yeah, that's that's really keeps you in tune with the changes in the currencies. But you're now getting to the point where you as an individual because you're working hard at this and committing a lot of time and energy to it. You will get to the point where you are tuning into the central banks yourself and knowing what currency is a strong and weak and more importantly, why they're strong and weak. So that the course is initially to give you an introduction into it for you then to be able to do that for yourself. So you can then every single week, identify those currency pairs that you believe have a high probability of either going up and you buy them or coming down, and you sell them. Yes, absolutely.

And, and then, one of the things also, which I think's great about the course is, as you just mentioned, was that everything you're posting everything. So this is sort of honesty, turtle. So even if it's a trade that doesn't work, it gets posted, and we can see why you took it, but it didn't quite work out. You know, it's just the way it goes sometimes. But it's really interesting to see all these different levels from the ones that really weren't ones that don't quite work. And so often, and so often one's kind of drawn into these courses by promises of big rewards and big returns, but it doesn't really it's not that it's you know, it's nice to see that you know, trading even with the professionals, you know, it's not always every day Hundreds of pips dozens of pips we made it's, it's, it's great to sit in the days that I struggle or don't take a trade.

I'll tell you that because I think it's important. Because when you see me do it, you're more likely to do it yourself. And when you take a come out of a trade and it hasn't gone as you expected, and you know, that's happened to me on a numerous occasions, it doesn't affect you, because you actually know that that happens to Tom. And hopefully you just you just see actually, I've learned the theory. And all of these trade examples that Tom's posting, his live trades are exactly how he's taught me on the quarter. So that gives you the belief and the confidence to go and do it yourself.

Yes, I may have been doing it for longer so I'm more efficient at reacting to news and interpreting it but it's only because I've been doing it longer doesn't make me any better than than yourself or any of the other students. It's just I've been doing it for longer and as you've seen, and I can see this more, probably I can see it more as a person that's teaching you you have seen rapid progression, the way you talk about the fundamentals. Has massively improved. Now you're talking exactly how I talked to some of my peers in the city in terms of talking about central banks talking about their stance talking about the major data points that they're watching and how it could impact their currency and forward looking and all of a sudden, now, you're probably finding in the back of your mind, you know, that Kiwis weak you know that euro is weak, you know that the dollar is strong.

So you have these in the back of your mind. So you're going to become more efficient at pairing currencies together to find the currency pairs that are going to produce you the best returns and that's only down to Yes, obviously the the course has helped give you the theoretical side But absolutely, it can only lead a horse to water you can't make it drink, but I've made it to the water and you've been very, very active. You've been very thirsty. I'm sure. And and that's and that's that's testament to you, because you can have all the theory in the world but if you don't go and utilize it and put it into practice and get onto a real account and see how the emotional side works as well. Yeah, you're never gonna cement it.

I just want on that point. How have you found the news? The fundamental learning the fundamentals has helped you from a psychological perspective because I do feel that trading emotion is is probably Yeah. 90% important in trading, and how have you found learning the fundamentals as helped? Well, it's interesting. I mean, I mean, they've helped enormously I always have a slight case that just is that we all do we lie I still guess my my heartbeats counting down.

It builds suspense, doesn't it when you hear the analysts go 10 seconds, seconds. You can feel your heartbeat goes like that. Am I going to say here is what you know. Exactly. But, but to be to be fair on its use the, I've kind of sort of got the plan in my head, you know, the data needs to do this. I'm going to press the trigger one way or another.

The analyst needs to say this, and, and so that takes away a lot of a lot of that sort of sense of leaping into the unknown, obviously because there's a plan and and the If you've got a prediction, and then actually, you know, it's I find it's more easy to step aside, if it's not always a bit of a funny enough. So, you know, that sort of relief is you don't need to worry about this. It's not it's not it's not right. or strange to say that because of the same thing sometimes, especially when we've had a lot of events all in a short period of time. It's almost like, Ah, finally, I don't have to trade this one because, of course, we, whenever we were traded, we were sorry, whenever we in a trade, we're stressed. Yes, exactly stressed because we've got money on the line.

So when we're in a trade, we're stressed. So coming into the point where we're just about to click the button and start the stress, of course, yeah. But it does, but But yeah, I mean, it makes a huge difference to the kind of fundamental level of confidence that you that you go into a trade or not, because you've got some clear ideas of where it should be going. And, and if it's not, for some reason, then you just, you know, actually you know, it can really but it To yeah so i mean i think i've been falling a little bit I tend to be quite trigger happy and I'm happy to sort of be be content with 10 to 20 pips This is one of those NFP things where you just know Yes, leave it you're coming volatility. Yeah, yeah, let the volatility so ride itself out and stick with it because it's only going in one direction you are going to be like me in terms of I always say that I'm happy to have bank pips.

I think that more because I have to say it but we have seen time and time and time again you include because you're like me you like to take profits off the table quite quickly. time and time and time again. The moves just carry on going for yesterday and hundreds of pips and I always say to myself, why not just hold the position but that's that's hindsight trading. Yeah, yeah, it's easy. It's easy to say after the event. At the end of the day, if we make 20 to 100 pips in an hour or less than an hour, we should be delighted.

Absolutely delighted with that and bringing me on to that point does that do you find that helps with your emotional stroke stress levels? Because whenever we whenever we take a trade, and we've got money at risk our hard earned money at risk, we're stressed as human beings that's inevitable. We can't get away from that. Yeah. Do you find that now that you've moved more a bit more to intraday trading where you're in and out of trades quite quickly? Do you find that now that that helps, because once you're in and out the stress, you've had the stress for 15 2025 minutes, rather than holding a position, end of day for maybe seven to 10 days?

You've got the stress of the trade for seven to 10 days? Yeah, it makes a huge difference. I show that. I'm so much happier once I'm actually because this is the point that has been raised again by a number of traders how the news events has has actually reduced the level because I used to think and this was me bringing a misconception into it when I was purely an end of day trader, I'll use thing I'm going to stay in the day because it's less stressful. I don't want to be trading intraday where everything's moving quite quickly, but In a way, that was absolutely the wrong way to look at it, when you need an out of a tray within an hour, the stress has gone, the risk is off the table and you're done. You can relax and move on to the next opportunity.

But if you're holding a position for several days, and you're stressed for several days thinking about that trade for several days, and more importantly, that trade has to go several days through all the various news events that are scheduled on the on the calendar. So more potential volatility, you just don't quite know what's going to happen. You just sort of slightly on a sort of wing in a prayer, hoping he's going to continue. But absolutely, I think there's something much better. I think you were looking at a trade recently on the end of day charts and you just run run it by me saying what do you think and I think I said I wouldn't do it because there's no fresh reasons to keep the move going. Yeah, now you're you can utilize news because you can still find good setups on the daily chart, but has there then been some current or fresh, fundamental reasons why that move should continue.

Because if there's not, it's more likely to happen. have a bit of a pullback. But if you are in a trade and there's just been, let's say, Mr. Draghi comes out and they cut their interest rates again, or they add to their QE program. Even if it's massively oversold, it's going to continue because there is fresh reasons for it to do so fresh, fundamental reasons for it to do so. So as a technical trader, we can look at charts and think, oh, there's a, it's overbought, or it's oversold, or there's a strong level of resistance or a strong level of support. But if news comes out to support the direction on a trade, and it's very, very solid, impactful news, the technicals will get blown out of the water.

Yes, absolutely blown out the water. It won't matter if it's oversold, it will carry on falling. It won't matter if there's a support level there. It will carry on falling if they extend their QE program, for example. Yes, yeah, I completely understand and I think that some no having that kind of extra extra that that window that's been opened on onto onto the workings of the market is really has taken a lot of that sort of niggling stress out of getting in and out of trades. I mean, I thought The initial sort of build up of Jesus and you know, as you're as there's a countdown to two particular trades you're hoping to take, but to be able to get in into trade and activate quickly and then move on to something else, I think, psychologically is great, it's much it works for me much better actually.

I'm happy with that. Wonderful and I know you, you are similar to Paul in terms of his very clever technique to build your confidence and build your belief and build that all important trader emotion was you just for in the early days, just just watching events rather than trends and just just watching them for the first few first few weeks first. And then you get to the point where I can't now not take these trades because you continuously see. So you build your plan before the event that they say if it comes out like this, I'll trade it if it doesn't, I won't. And then you follow through and hypothetically trade them in your mind. And then you come to the conclusion after a few weeks going on.

I've actually made a significant amount of pips and I know that's how Paul move from Yes, trading on the demo to then going to live is Because he's hypothetical trades were continuously working out and that built his belief built his confidence and move them into a very strong position to trading live. I all, all too often see people that go from never training before to learning how to trade and then go live straightaway. And then wonder why they're all over the place. From an emotional perspective, what do you encourage people to do is just watch some of the events. First and foremost, build your confidence, because you will, I'm fairly confident that you will see a lot of events that work out as you expect. And then when that confidence starts to build, that is a nice time to then evolve over to the Live account because you're less likely to be affected by the emotions because you've built a strong mentality for trading or a strong belief system.

Absolutely know that, that that was that was exactly the kind of approach I had as well as to stand on the sides look at these things. And then start and make plans that seemed to do working out and I thought, you know, it's time to, it's time to sort of, you know, to do this library. And it makes it does but it's important to do that. Because then the emotional side becomes a reality. Yeah. And that you only think, you know, that's just experience and getting a little bit of success on your belt and you start to think, Well, actually, you know, this is working.

And I can, I can do this and, and, and you start to become easier bastard as well. But there's definitely a big step up I think from, as you say from going to the theoretical to the massive if it's a small account, it's still real money and yeah, but it's an important step to take because traders can change from doing really, really well on the demo account. So yes, not not following through in the same way on the Live account because emotions are affected. And that's why I think it's very important to come on to a live game pre really confident in what you're doing. Yeah, beforehand, because that then makes the transition a little bit easier to take. Not not easy, but a little bit easier.

Yes, yeah. Yeah. Completely agree actually. So yeah, there's so that's, that worked well for me as well actually. Fantastic. So anybody ticular trade recent or in the early days that that's standout for you can tell tell people about well, that you understand that for me was it wasn't some of the things that briefly mentioned earlier was not wasn't the sort of big NFP things or anything like that it was the little bit of sort of hunting for it was the last week's GBP CPI data yet, which was sort of, you know, on the edge a bit, but it was positive, followed by the USD data, the US dollar data and then the milk quota and just taking a few pips from those.

I had the day at my desk and so I was able to spend the time looking at the options and but it was that pairing of the of the, you know, the fundamentals with the news. And I sort of am keeping my eye on the squawk feedback, the live feed rather, and, and all these kind of things as they sort of came into play and I was able to just sort of get a few pips off this one and a few pips off And I think it total about 30 pips in the end but it was very satisfying. Yeah, and that was that's the pips just you know, waiting like waiting on the side waiting for this to come in yeah it's just yeah I can get in there absolutely fun today for long because you know it's not a big read it's not obviously you know sort of big data point but it's enough just to push the push it down a bit further yeah and I always always think of the the economic news events as your big bonus trades, the ones that really run your 80 pips, your 70 pips, those are your bonus trades, but you're almost your salary other 30 pips here the 30 pips there because 30 pips doesn't sound like a lot, but that's it's just shy of half a percent.

So 50 pips would be essentially half percent growth on your account. And if you're doing that, like every single day, or three days a week or even two days a week, that's going to be a nice contribution come the end of the month, and so yeah, enough to get you anywhere between that, that target that we have between one to 1% So at this stage, I'm just really happy to be you know, to be raking bit of profit. Actually, I'm not trying to get done not Setting my sights too high. So I could just find the time to get the consistency consistency. Yeah, that is the thing. And the great thing about it is you're not focusing on the money, you're focusing on the process and not the price.

You're focusing on consistency rather than trying to make hundreds of pounds, which is focusing your mind on the money. You're actually now focusing your mind on the process. How do I become consistent? How do I really get these fundamentals to work for me? And can I complement my technicals on top of the fundamentals and be confident that most months I'm going to squeeze a profit out? Yes, most months, there is an abundance of news events, which I now I'm very, very confident of taken advantage of.

Yes, no, it's a great feeling. I have to say, it's, I really felt like taking that next step up, actually, again, it's like, four, four months, around about four months. So it's still early days for you on the on the news based side of things. I think in another four months, you'll be even stronger as well. So it's just about continuing what you're doing and continuously getting feedback and using That experience as in future trades to your advantage completely. I mean, it's been it's been a fantastically helpful course, it's really taken me to the to that next step, and made me and made it a reality and I My eyes have something feeling, this is something that I can do something I can achieve.

And it's, it's, it's really good feeling wonderful. And that's that's obviously as you know, music music to my ears. Yeah, that's great. But and especially, especially for guys like yourself and my other students who have committed to this and committed not only not only money, but also time in order to make it work. So you won't get anything out of life unless we commit to something and put the effort in to get it totally anything worth doing has to have an element of commitment. And you've shown that and you start to reap the benefits and it's still early day.

So I'm very, very, very excited about the future development of you as well. Yeah, yeah. Thanks very much. Thanks. You know, it's been a great experience so far. And so what would you What would you say to traders who don't feel that the fundamentals are important for their trading?

Well, I mean, it's quite crucial. You've come from both aspects now where you didn't feel the fundamentals are important and now learning about the fundamentals and seeing how important they are. Hmm. Well, it's, it's very, it's sort of very black and white now to me that you know that they're vitally important even if you're only just trading end of day it's having awareness of the fundamentals of the fundamentals makes a significant difference to how you trade before that, as I said, I'd be just looking for technical setups, you know, some solid resistance or support, all that kind of thing. Now, I would look at that but I also make sure that I'm working with this right currencies not trying to sort of, you know, by euro against the dollar or something which I wish I will have done in the past. It If it had reached a sort of a, an area that I thought was a, you know, it was an area of support, and it has shown us sort of, you know, bearish pinbar so maybe I'll hop into this for a bit.

It technically looks like it's there. But now of course, you know, it's just, you know, the windows open and you know, I can see what what currency is makes sense, what don't and it makes a huge difference actually. But it's what's fun is taking it into the intraday stuff. And starting to sort of work with the news. choosing what your schedule, what the schedule is like for the week, what your commitments are, how you have had the weeks, you know, data is going to fit around that and just picking and choosing a few things, and getting in and out of trades quickly suits my temperament much better. And did you did you think you'd ever be a a intraday, short term trader four months ago, I just couldn't see how that would Falcon didn't make sense really because you had other other people statements I thought I can only do and a dare can't do anything else.

But actually, you can see quite clearly how it does fit in. Exactly. And essentially, news doesn't come out just during the UK day it comes out in the UK, it comes out in the morning, it comes out in the asian session. So, again, one of the attractive things about the FX markets is there are 24 hour markets. So there are news events happening all the time. Some days, we'll miss them some days we won't and it's a matter of planning and scheduling our time and our commitments around the events that we can trade.

Absolutely Tolkien I don't worry about that now but to begin with, I think oh my gosh, I got got got to get to that back to my desk for that point of that and because you can't do it, and then it would release all sorts of problems. And that's really nice. That's really nice to hear as well, because four months ago before you started to learn about the news, you'd have absolutely dismissed intraday trading. Because of your current understanding of the markets at that point. I think a lot of people are probably in a similar position to yourself. That's why I specifically wanted to interview yourself today is because you've now been able to overcome those preconceptions, and actually now using intraday trading and trading around the news to your advantage, and it's actually working more to your personality and your style than what you previously thought.

So you've opened your mind to the possibilities of news. And now it's working and paying dividends. Yes, it's true. It's complete time. I don't think it would work at all. But it has is it it's, that's a really valid point to have is like, we can't dismiss things we should explore things I'm not saying I'm not saying people should go and go and trade the new straightaway is Explorer, go and explore it, have an open mind to it, don't dismiss it, because it could be something that has a massively positive impact on your trading and hopefully these interviews across all the live trading videos and the blogs that I do is starting to really hit it home now because I know a lot of my my subscribers and followers have come from a technical background and are very different Angelica about the technicals and I still like to but it's fine to say that convey the point where combining the fundamentals with those powerful technicals.

Yes, brilliant, powerful team to have really helped with the consistency and just the understanding of the market, why the market moves the way it does, rather than scratching your head going, why did the market just move 100 pips in 10 minutes, we know almost beforehand, that there's likely to be a big move. So when it happens, it's not a surprise, and we're actually trading it and we're taking advantage of it rather than being worried by it. We're utilizing it and trading it, and that's no better feeling than making 50 pips 40 pips 30 pips in in 510 minutes. It's beautiful, beautiful feeling. And that's not luck. It's not flicking a coin.

It's actually doing a little bit of work. So we tune in to the market. So we can focus on trading events where we expect that sort of reaction when it does react as we expect, we take advantage of it and when it doesn't, because not Every news event is going to work out perfectly for us. We cut our losses possible. Yeah, I completely agree. And it's, it's been it's been a great learning curve, actually.

Brian, wonderful tinu. Long may continue along may continue. Well, I've seen that we've just got over the hour. Mark, I did mention to you before that we'd this would fly by just Yes. We're both passionate about talking about the markets, and it has absolutely flown by. So we'll come to the final question that really is, what are your future trading goals?

So obviously, you you still enjoy your photography, where do you want your Where do you want to be in in time, for example, with your trading? Well, I particularly now with a whole new sort of level of sort of looking at the markets through the fundamentals and things and seeing how this actually can work. And my plan is to make this seriously as sort of whether it's a primary or secondary viable income, so I want to you know, I want to make it work in a way that it that it that it that it paid, really, you know that it's that it's it, I enjoy the trading. But at the end of the day, we're all in it for a reason. We want to make it financially viable. And I can see that now becoming a reality.

And I don't I mean, I still I can see how it fits in around other commitments as well now, so it is something that can fit. So there's other commitments, which is complement your lifestyle conference. Yeah. I mean, maybe it will. Yeah, no, of course it changed for the better. But obviously, I want trading to come in and stop you from doing the thing that you want to do.

It's actually comes in fits around the things you want to do, but maybe takes the financial burden away, because it's bringing in a nice consistent profit for you. That's exactly that's that's exactly where where I see it. So yeah, I don't see it being too much longer, like I've still got a few few months ahead of us. But yes, the more consistent months that you get on the about the more, you're going to have confidence to put more capital in your account. So it gets to the point where you can take a few trades each month, but because you're well capitalized, that constitutes a nice amount, or potentially you get the point where you can capitalize yourself via other means. And no, we we work on a one to one basis, and we can talk on a one to one basis in terms of how you can how you can do that.

So there's many ways to do that. But first and foremost, as you've quite rightly mentioned, is get the consistency up. Then when you're consistent, you're naturally going to want to build the size of your capital, which is the key ingredient in terms of getting to the point where a few trades only a few trades each month generates a significant amount of money or enough to cover your bills comfortably and give you the access on top to do whatever you want to do with it and give you that freedom of choice. So the fact you've got that goal and no one deserves it. So based on based on knowing your history and your background, and how much time and effort you've committed to training, so you like the other students that I work with I'm, I'm, I'm motivated to, to help you get to where you want to be.

So I feel that I'm on that path now. So that's a great feeling. Fantastic. Well, Gary, thank you so much for your time. And just just a little bit of a just a little bit of a summary to finish this up. So I think that we've seen the progress that you've made in your progress is, is down to one thing, and one thing only is hard, hard work.

You may not call it that, because I know that the journey that you've been on, you've enjoyed it, because you're passionate about trading. But I've personally as the as the coach and the mentor I've seen from afar how much effort you've put in, to tune into the markets from a fundamental perspective. And this has allowed you to prepare well and therefore identify and execute some some brilliant traits. You engage all the time you ask questions, and you're not ashamed or afraid. This is important. You're not ashamed or afraid.

To point out your own mistakes and your weaknesses as to when to ask for help when you need it. And I think this attitude and approach to your learning and development has has been a major factor in your continued improvements. And to now start to generate some solid and consistent returns from your trading. And so long as you continue this, I can only see you going from strength to strength. And I think what is nice about the relationship we have and the relationship I have with many of my students is that as much as I'd be happy chatting to you about the markets, I'd be more than happy to go and share a pint with you at the pub on a Friday. And I think this relationship this friendly professional relationship is, is a really powerful combination, because on one side, I'm massively motivated and driven to help each and every client succeed on on the other side, on the other side because of that friendship relationship, my students and yourself included are also comfortable to ask me for for help and support when they need it, most of them and this for me makes a very powerful recipe for Success on the trader journey which is a challenging journey, but certainly very, very rewarding when we get when we when we crack it.

And so this just leads me now to say a massive thank you, Gavin for taking time out your weekend to do this. You've, you've enjoyed it. In fact, it's been great. It's been invaluable. So all it leaves me to say knows Have a wonderful weekend and no doubt we'll speak at some point early next week. Thanks very much.

Take care All the best.