30 Jan YouTube: Why I Left Institutional Trading to Become a Trading Educator
The experience of working in Canary Wharf was amazing. There’s no other way of describing it. I could not believe a job could be so exciting and exhilarating; I felt like I’d made it.
Reality soon set in, of course!
After the first couple of days in the office, I was brought down to earth. I realised I had far from made it and l was definitely, starting right at the bottom.
I look back at this period with gratitude, working at Barclays Capital from around 2003 up until 2009, so about six years in total.
It was very hard work; there’s a lot of pressure handling high profile clients. You can’t press the wrong button. If you do, thousands, tens of thousands if not more could be lost in one brief moment of lack of concentration or focus.
It was hard, intense work. Seven, eight, nine hours would pass in a flash. I was so busy I couldn’t even tell how long I’d been working some days.
When you are managing six screens, and you’ve got three, four, or even five people asking you things simultaneously, the day goes very, very fast.
I distinctly remember my managing director saying to me “you know you need to take your foot off the gas, or you are going to burn yourself out”. I was always the first person in and the last person out.
Again, looking back l feel very fortunate. I worked in the best part of the bank to gain a wide range of experience, the front office. I was working with central banks, I worked on hedge funds, and l had the good fortune to work with a variety of different clients, real money clients.
We worked on things like strategy, l was helping them to build their portfolios with things like trading and the execution side of things.
This was when I realised that I wanted to leave Barclays! The type of trading that you do in an investment bank, especially when you’re a junior is not what people think.
It’s not the risk-taking, the exciting stuff you imagine. There is a lot of repetitional execution type work. I didn’t feel l was being given the responsibility to do the type of trading that excited me, the type of trading that made me want to be a trader in the first place.
I got told, “Stick at this, you need to keep doing this, you need to do the boring stuff, and eventually, you’ll get there”. But I felt after a few years of doing this type of work that maybe l had to move on if l was ever going to be able to start taking those risk-taking decisions for myself.
I knew it was time for a change.
And you know, if you’re not prepared to take risks, you will always be working for somebody who does. So, this was one of those big life-changing decision of my career, and l am glad l made the right decision, at least it was the right decision for me.
Why did I Start G7FX?
It’s incredibly rewarding now, although when I started, it almost happened by accident! I think that’s the best way to start anything, to simply allow things to happen naturally!
Ironically, I’ve never been on social media for any length of time. I started showing people what l knew because l saw people on social media being taught, by guys who had learnt from their bedrooms, not in a real trading environment.
I thought, hang on! This just isn’t right!
People are learning from essentially what are good marketers, but poor traders. People who have the inclination to show they are validated because they drive a Lamborghini or because they have an expensive car or house or clothes or whatever.
When l saw this, l realised this is nothing like my experience of professional trading.
The people around me did not care about all those things. I felt that l wanted to show people what the realities of trading were really like.
Honestly, l thought no one would be interested in what l had to say. I wasn’t showing people Lamborghinis, or Ferraris, or wealth, because to me, success is not about showing wealth, it’s about a skill you learn and how you use it!
I decided l needed to show the people learning to trade what the full picture looks like.
Anyone who’s done my Foundation or Pro course will realise that YouTube videos and just talking are not enough to learn how to become a professional trader who’s consistently profitable.
I knew l had to develop a comprehensive course, and you know what, I’m really glad l did!
What’s been extremely gratifying is as anyone can see, the feedback has been great, and it’s helping a lot of people.
I feel very motivated to continue teaching professional trading education as long as people find value in it. And until that changes, I’m very passionate about continuing to grow G7FX and help more people through the professional trading courses we offer.
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