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Get To Know Your Fellow Bear Bull Traders Members: Interview with MikeB

| Published: 07/7/19

1. Chat Name

  • MikeB

2. City/State/Country

  •   Currently live in Camarillo, CA. Work in San Diego, CA. Originally from Newport, OR.

3. How Long have you been trading?

  • I have been trading stocks since the crash in 2008. Well maybe not trading, more like gambling as I had no idea what I was doing.  I have been day trading live, since November 2018.

4. When and why did you join Bear Bull Traders?

  • I joined Bear Bull Traders March of 2018, after reading Andrew’s book and signing up for a trial membership. It was the honesty and humbleness of the community that really lured me. Everyone in the community was helpful and always willing to shares their experiences.

5. Recommended Trading Books/Websites/Videos

  • Books:
    • Andrew Aziz: How to Day Trade for a Living & Advanced Techniques in Day Trading.  
    • Mark Douglas: Trading in the Zone
    • Brett Steenbarger: The Daily Trading Coach 
  • Videos
    • Robert Rants Series 1-8
    • Mark Douglas How to think like a professional trader (4 videos)

6. Top 3 trading setups

  • 15 Minute Opening Range Breakdown/Breakout
  • 5 Minute Opening Range Breakdown

7. Best advice you were ever given and can pass on?

  • Without a doubt, Andrew’s repeated reminder of: “Respect your Stop Loss.”

8. Most Interesting Day Trading Story?

  •  I guess the most interesting trading story I have is not about a terrible trade or a large loss; rather, it’s about how I got into trading in the first place.

    I first became interested in stocks in 8th grade when we had to pick one stock and follow it for a month in the papers. I still remember picking Apple back in 1992 for around 2.00 a share, boy if I would have just stuck with that trade in real life, it would had been great. Fast forward to the market crash in 2008, and I decided to purchase some large cap stocks figuring the government wouldn’t let them go bankrupt. For the next 10 years I dabble in and out of the market with an awesome gambling strategy as I had no idea what I was doing, but somehow ended up making a little bit of money. Finally, after a long and great career in the Marine Corps and $30,000 spent on a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Forensic Accounting out of pocket, I found myself touring and visiting Marines on the flight line on a cold February night in Kuwait. Low and behold, there it is lying on a desk made out of pallets and 2x4s, a little paperback book titled, “How to Day Trade for a Living.” by Andrew Aziz. I read the book in a week, and that was all I needed to call my spouse and discuss trading as a business instead of seeking a forensic accounting job when I retired from the military. Everything that interested me from my first simulated trade in 8th grade, buying large cap stocks when the market crashed, and trying to swing trade with a gambling strategy came to fruition. I spent the remaining 4 months of the deployment watching charts on ToS for the first two hours of the market, and woke up each morning at 2:00 AM to watch Andrew teach his classes, where I started learning the art of journaling.

    So here I am a year and half into day trading, six months from retiring from the military, and loving each and every day. I still have a long way to go before I can survive on day trading alone, so I may have to fulfill another young adult dream, working as a bartender at Dave and Busters.

9. Anything else you would like to share?

  • Journal, journal, journal your daily trades, whether it is in a video, notes, or any other media. It is one of the best ways to identify your negative trends, which gives you a starting point to fix them.
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