 Hi, my name is Leon Rowe, currency trader and trading coach at Trading180.com and today we have Sam who is in the Trading180 group, Trading180 student and Sam has been with me for a while and I wanted to get him on to get his experience really with being Trading180 in the highs and lows, I guess. Sam, welcome. Hi, Leon. Absolutely. How are you doing? You all right, yeah? Yeah, I'm great. Thanks. Brilliant. So just starting off, just tell us a bit about your background and how you kind of got into forex trading. Okay. So I don't know really what drew me to trading originally. Maybe it was like, you know, you see it in films and TV, like you see stock trading and stuff like that. Then eventually you do some, I did some research online along those lines and I came across something called binary options. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah. It's very like, you could say it's gambling because you have to trade against time. Yeah. But when I was young, this is like when I was 17 or something, very attractive, like you could probably turn like 100 quid to 200 quid and like when you're young, it just, it drew me to that. But that's what got me into kind of looking at forex, but then I went through a journey of like finding out how to trade where I joined loads of different groups, paid like obscene membership fees and been like, been hurt a couple of times. But you know, eventually I came across Drew, one of your past students, right? Yeah. They're the same uni as me. And he told me about trading 180. Yeah. I remember. Yeah. Yeah. He did. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That's how I came. What else did you want to know? No, that's fine. Asking like, you know, how you came across, I guess, trading forex trading and I guess, you know, how you met, you know, me was through Drew, who's doing really well, isn't he? Yeah. He's been really successful, I believe. Yeah. Brilliant. I'm going to try and get Drew on and we'll organize something as well and interview with Drew. So when you first got into, I guess, trading, most traders, I guess, they kind of start off with technical strategies, right? So do you remember what types of technical strategies you were using before, you know, joining Trading 180? Yes. So it was like, you know, like channels, triangles, like, oh, when there's three touches in the channel, then you enter here. So and in those types of groups, I remember they had like, you had pairs that you just don't go near for some reason. So like Euro Swiss was a pair you don't touch because it traded like quotation, it was like an ugly pair to trade and, you know, it was just, it was a bit crazy. Like, I don't know, at the time you go for technical strategies because it's quite appealing, like, oh, you look for this pattern recognition, you know, we can all do that. We can all draw some lines and if it makes you money, then it's amazing. It's like, oh my God, why don't, why aren't there so many people trading? This is crazy. But yeah, it's mainly pattern trading like that. Yeah. I mean, I've had the same journey, right? And, you know, you buy, I bought a whole load of courses and more drawn to the technical side, right? Because it is literally just pattern trading. It's like, you see, you know, touches against support and resistance or like you say channels or it's just this indicator saying buy or sell. And generally, you know, when we get into trading, you know, it seems like that's what it is. But for some reason, technicals, you know, you quickly find, I say quickly or maybe slowly find out that, you know what, there's something more to this, right? Exactly. You don't, you kind of like, you don't believe like the banks are trading by looking at a channel or something like that. The institutional traders aren't trading like that. And I knew there was more behind it because it was, for me, it was like, I was just breaking even. It was like, oh, sometimes this pattern isn't always working. Like, and you go on a whole rabbit hole, you're like, oh, what's the best pattern to trade? Or like, you try and refine it. Like you try to find a way. But like, eventually you realize you find out about fundamental analysis and then, yeah, incomes like trading 180 and all that. Yeah, that's, that's, that's a great segue, right? So what was it, I guess, about fundamental analysis? And maybe what, what made you decide? Do you remember the moment that you said, you know what, there's more to this technical analysis thing? I've got to learn fundamental analysis. What was it about fundamental analysis, you know, that kind of drew you to thinking that you had to maybe, you know, learn a bit more, that might be what was missing from your trading. So like, I think I'm trying to remember the key event. I think it was, it could have been Brexit or something. I'm not sure there was just a key event in the news that like moved the market crazy. And I'm like, wow, you could probably profit off this because you could like, like certain events you could see coming and then it moves price like crazy. It's like, how can I profit off this? And like, at the time I was like, maybe I could combine it with my technical trading, you know, if I, if a pattern lined up and then there's like news and all that. But yeah, eventually I just started reading into like news more, like you start off with like looking at the economic calendar thinking, oh, there's an event at this time it's going to move the market and then there's like no movement. So then that's like a learning curve in itself. Yeah, I remember those days as well. Yeah. So you've got to go further. The basis of my fundamental learning was from your course for sure. Okay. So fundamental analysis. What were, what are I guess some of the benefits to learning fundamental analysis because because a lot of traders think that fundamental analysis is, you know, it's a bit of mumbo jumbo and it doesn't work. Everything you need to know about, you know, what's going to happen is in a price chart. You know, you hear this, this type of, this type of talk. So if somebody's, you know, out there listening right now and is, you know, maybe that way inclined or maybe just sitting on the fence about learning fundamental analysis, what would you say were, you know, some of the key things about learning fundamental analysis and why would you, why would you even bother take the time? I would do it because it helps refine your trades. Like I remember when I used to scroll through all 28 pairs trying to find opportunities and it, it takes a toll on your time as well. So learning fundamental analysis, you can really refine your, the pairs that you want to trade. You can, and you know it's backed fundamentally by maybe we'll delve into it a bit later, but like interest rates, inflation. So like you're only trading the best divergences. You don't have to focus on 28 pairs. You can focus on like five and you're sure of the, the long term direction or like, or like at least 80% sure. And it gives you a greater sense of confidence as well. Yeah, it really does, right? Because we know the rules to the fundamental analysis game, which, you know, when it comes to, you know, any, I guess, asset class, there are fundamental drivers. It's crazy how people would say, oh, technical analysis is, is what drives price. And it's like, well, that doesn't make any sense because people are just buying and selling based not, first of all, not everyone's looking at a price chart whenever they buy and sell. Do you know what I mean? Like, like, do you buy and sell, you know, property based off the technical analysis? Crazy. You know, you don't, you buy it based off of, is it in a nice area? Is the crime rate high or low? Are they good schools? Is there good transport links? I mean, like, that is what is fundamental analysis. I know it's an everyday life. You kind of incorporate it without knowing. Yeah. But for some reason in forex or in, you know, other, other asset classes, there are people that think, you know, that it doesn't apply. Right. It's crazy. It's crazy. But so you were saying that, for example, fundamentals helps with pair selection and direction. What about things like just holding trades and taking profit and things like that? Oh, yeah, exactly. So if you are, if you're confident in the long-term direction, it's easier to hold a trade rather than maybe like in the past, I would have taken 100% off the table at this level for a certain reason. But when you know the long-term direction, you have much, you have greater confidence to hold longer. And then a trade I'll show later, I left it in for, I just left in like 0.2%. So I took out like the majority of the position, but I left that bit because I knew I was fundamentally correct. And it brought in like a good amount of like extra profits. Yeah. Brilliant. Go on. Sorry. Oh, no, no, no, that's what I was going to say. It's just that. Yeah. And I was going to say that, that, you know, fundamental analysis is like when it comes to picking and choosing our direction, Sam, you've been with me for a while and I'm consistently calling the medium to long-term trends, right? Short-term is, you know, more driven by liquidity and stock hunting, et cetera. But generally, you know, we don't have to be right all the time on a trade idea, but when we are right on a trade idea, we know we can capitalize and we know that we're buying low and selling high, right? So how accurate would you say fundamental analysis, you know, the spreadsheet that we use, for example, is in terms of, I'm not saying that it's never 100% accurate, right? But from a foundation of if you're just buying the divergences with risk-off or risk-on sentiment, et cetera, how accurate would you say it is in terms of maybe a percentage from maybe 90%, 80% or something like that? Ooh. Okay. So I would say it's changed. COVID's definitely changed the way that I looked at the spreadsheet, because before COVID, I would say it was like 90%. It was like, you could just look at that, trade one versus six, seven, eight, and the divergence would be there, but since COVID, you know, everything's, everything changed dramatically. Like central banks can't, and now they're hiking and you can cough it off that. So the spreadsheet, you can't rely 90% on the spreadsheet. Maybe like it's 70%, but then you have to do outside reading as well and back it up for sure. Of course. And as we know, for example, we take risk, we're talking about maybe risk-off, right? So when we talk about maybe accuracy, we're talking about maybe, let's say, for example, we want to buy the Canadian dollar Swiss franc, right? Yeah. Maybe a four versus a seven or something like that. But we know that in a risk-off scenario, the Swiss franc is going to strengthen and the Canadian dollar is going to, so we still know the value cycle and what typically happens, right? So even though it might not be prudent to buy the Canadian dollar in a risk-off environment, but we still generally know that when risk-on comes back, that the Canadian dollar is a buy. And you was here when I was saying to buy the Canadian dollar over Christmas, I mean from December and look at what it's done now, right? Yeah. And I was also going to say, it's lost to me. I was going to say something about the spreadsheet. Oh, yeah. No, I was going to say, it's a great tool because it has all the data laid out in front of you. You don't have to be scouring the internet. You've got your interest rates, you've got inflation rate, unemployment rate, GDP. The key information is all there in front of you. So I really like it for that as well. Yeah. It simplifies the process because, you know, fundamental analysis can be overwhelming, right? A lot of people tend to look into all these different things when it comes to fundamentals from money supply to all different types of stuff, but we basically focus on what really matters. And again, Sam has seen the track record of the fundamental analysis spreadsheet and it's really a godsend. It really is. So from the perspective of trading psychology, how has, how have I, I guess, in the group and maybe improved your trading psychology? So what, you know, were maybe your flaws or what psychologically was causing you a lot of maybe problems in your trading and then coming into the group, highlighting it and then, you know, fixing it. And definitely over trading was like my and revenge trading. Those were key ones. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I used to over trade a lot, especially when I was in profit with like a position where I made profit recently. I would over trade because I don't know, maybe in the, in the back of my mind, you get a bit hyped. You know, okay, made some money here. I could do some more here, more trading here, make some more off the move. But the group really helped me like tone it down, be patient, wait for like a one set ups. And yeah, take my time with it for sure. Yeah. Brilliant. And you're right. Over trading is, is a massive thing because we come into trading and we want to work and we feel that working hard is by taking trade. Right. But, but in fact, a lot of the hard work is done in the background with reading up on the fundamental and mental preparation. And that, you know, is really what, you know, allows us to kind of pick the best opportunities. And that's what really kind of fundamentals, I guess in the group allow you to do, right? It's just identify the best trades and keeps you in check. Yeah. And I'm always improving psychology. Like I'm always have to work on it. Like I'm not like a, I'm not a robot. I've still got emotions, but it's not as bad as it used to be for sure. Like I've definitely improved a ton. And I have to, I keep improving bit by bit, you know, and it's great. Brilliant. Brilliant. So what was some of your biggest light bulb moments? Right. You've had, you know, I think you probably had a few, but off the top of the head, could you think of anything where, you know what, you've been in the group and then all of a sudden maybe I've said something or you've read something that another trader has said and it's just literally just been like mind blowing. You're like, ah, you've had that kind of epiphany. Oh, epiphany moments. I'm trying to, there was probably, I don't know, I'd say epiphany moments when you find out about the fundamental divergences, like the whole, the whole like, why was like before joining the trade 180, I was probably trading like strength to be strength. So epiphany, like you realize, like, wow, like there's these economic indicators, they're completely different. Economy is going two different ways. Why was I doing this before? Like, how could I, how could I not know about this? You know, I'd say that's my main one. I can't think off the top of my head. I'm sure there was definitely more, but. Yeah. I know it's a hard question to maybe think off off the top of the head, but if there is, as during the course of this interview, maybe if you do think of something that comes to mind, then yeah, just, you know, let me know. And, but I've, you know, a lot of the traders before have had, you know, their own kind of aha moments where, I know Lawrence had a few, but what, one of the, one of the, one of them, he said, Oh, do you know what? And it's just gone through my mind now. I'm suffering from some sort of a thing. But yeah. Cause I might be able to back it off as well. I might have shared something. Yeah. For example, you, you, you were trading with me during 2020, right? And where we were calling buying gold. Oh yes. Like buying gold during COVID, like that was, it was just crazy. Like realizing like it was just constant buys because of the interest rates being caught. I think it was. Yeah. They were being caught. Yeah. Yeah. And it was just a simple buy. And then yeah, just being like finding out like how we combined fundamentals with that trade idea and how it was just, it was going along with it. You know, that was brilliant. Yeah. And I think a lot of people kind of weren't ready for it in a sense that maybe because belief is a big part of fundamental analysis, right? You have to believe that the rules are going to work eventually short-term price action sometimes can convince you otherwise because price is really kind of pulled back. And in fact, let's go to a gold chart, right? You can go to the gold at the time. And there was, and I've got in on the silver trade, but you know, that worked out to be like a, about an 80 to one type trade. Yeah, that was cool. Yeah. But Sam was there, by the way, as well as when, when we were calling it, right? We were calling that trade. So gold, again, we were talking about buying around here, weren't we? We're talking about here. And sometimes, you know, while you're in the trade, you know, you might want to buy gold, right? We're like, okay, buy gold because the central bank is cutting rates and they're trying to devalue the dollar to support the economy, right? And you're seeing gold go the other way. And it's like, well, why is gold going the other way? Fundamentals don't work. We know that what they were doing was just buying as prices were going cheaper and cheaper and cheaper because fundamentally they knew where gold was going to go. Yeah, they knew what was coming. You know, so short term, we know fundamentals, there's a lot going on in the short term, but medium to long term, you know, so I think some of the traders ended up buying around here. Did you buy, did you buy a gold or silver? I bought, I was in, I was in gold and silver at times, but I remember like on one of my bro, because I got liquidity haunted. It was silly, you remember that? Yes, otherwise you would have been in that chain. In fact, I think I did a video about that. Yes, you did. It was just with one broker, like no one else had that spike. It was crazy. Yeah, it was pesky brokers, man. But yeah, fundamentally, you know, this wasn't, again, a massive eye opener for traders because in the short term, it must have looked like I was talking a lot of craziness and saying, well, you know, Leon says that gold should be going up right now. Silver should be going up right now. But in the short term, this was just the buying opportunity, right? And then we saw what was happening, you know, banks have got a scale in with, you know, due to iceberg orders, they're trying to avoid slippage and trying to get as much liquidity for their buys as possible. So this is the stuff that happens. This is the stuff that I guess I teach and you'll get to know about if, you know, where you joined. So talk us through matter of fact, one of your biggest trades or maybe the last profitable trade that you've taken from top to bottom. So I can remember my last biggest trade was Cadjian. I'll give you the date. Hold on. Yeah, Cadjian. Let's have a look. The date is 21st of September 2021. Okay. So 2021 September. Yes. You bought down here. Yeah. 21st September. Brilliant. Yeah. I remember that trade. That was a nice CPR, right? I'm pretty sure. I don't have it. I wish I had the journal that I had it in, but you might be able to, yeah. Yeah. That's it. That's it. That's the CPR. And I kind of had a demand zone there as well for that pin. Yeah. I kind of had one drawn out. It was a demand zone. I think there might have been something, but it was there, right? Yeah. It was a bit of a demand zone in and around this area here. Quite a wide one, but that was a really nice CPR, which would have started from this zone from here, right? Yeah. That's it. I do remember that trade. No, it's like I took like a one hour outside candle. Oh, really? Down there. Yeah, down here. Excellent. Excellent. Excellent. So that was it, right? Brilliant. So do you remember the actual entry? If you turn on, if you have the outside candle indicator, it's one that you should be able to see it. Yeah. Yeah. It's that the left. To the left. Yeah. That one, that one. That one there, yeah. And the stop was, my stop was behind that large wick. Brilliant. So there it was. Boom. Excellent. Right there. And stop was just behind that. That large wick. Maybe about 10. Yeah. About 10, 15. Like I usually. Something like maybe there. Yeah. So really nice trade. Oh, look at that. I know. It's crazy. Really nice. And you held it to where? I think, let me check on my chart. Yeah. I think I held it to the top and it went back down, took me out, but I took profit on the way. Yeah. So if you have the target Fib out. Yeah. I took the majority at 80%. And that will give the risk award. How is that? Probably in one second. So. So I'll get. Oh, that's the other way around. Filly me. Reverse. There we are. So somewhere around there. And I held the, I took like 80% off then. And then it came back down and taking me out. That point two left and I've trailed my stops. Yeah. So about nearly a 10 to one. Yeah. Fantastic trade. Fantastic trade. Did you ever, did you ever scalp? Did you go through a scalping phase? Yes. I'm like on, yeah, back in the, yeah, back in the day, I had scalping and I had like M24 indicators of like sniper arrows or something silly. Yeah. It's just too much stress. And you have to be at your computer. Like it's much better just setting alerts and waiting for opportunity. Absolutely. Right. Absolutely. So this was one of your biggest trades. What was the last trade you, you took? The last trade I took recently. Yeah. The, actually the last trade. The New Zealand stop fund. The one that we took, you took that one. Yeah. Yeah. Brilliant. Brilliant. So that was the, that was the stop fund. Excellent. So it's just right there. A lot of people took this trade. Yeah. It lined up decent. Yeah. It did line up really nice. Really, really nice. There it was. So your entry was, I'll tell you, hold up. My entry is at 77.839. 83. So 83 was probably around there. Yeah. But 83. Yep. And stop loss of. My stop loss was 77.52. 52. So a bit below there. Yeah. Right. Just below there. And at the moment it went around the three to one. Right. Lovely. Yeah. I'm still holding it. I took, I took half a position off at two to one. Because I only got in one. Yeah. So you can't pull trade now. Right. So you can't lose from here. You definitely can't lose from there. But did you manage to only enter into one position? Yeah. Yeah. Only one position. Yeah. Because it didn't pull back enough. Right. No, no, no. Back enough. But yeah. We enter into multiple positions. That would have been a really nice trade if it would, you know, entered into, you know, a few, maybe two positions. And yeah, following fundamentals, but I'm happy to hold it. Of course. You don't get worried about, that doesn't really matter because we know, you know, long term, this is, you know, these are the things that happen, but your trading is judged not over the, you know, your last, you know, five trades just judged over, you know, the last 50 trades, right? Last 100 trades and the process and making sure that you're taking those A1 setups. Yeah. Exactly. Long term for sure. Yeah. So, so yeah, Sam, thanks for that. And so if you were to convince somebody, or I should really phrase the question differently. I don't want to convince anybody to do anything because it's not financial advice, but from the perspective of if someone is out there listening to this video, this podcast, and they are on the fence, right? They're a struggling trader or they're a break-even trader. They may be interested in the bit of fundamentals. What would you say to that person when it comes to joining Trading 180? I would say go for it. Like, because what's the worst that could happen? You know, I've only gained from being in this group and I'm sure if, even if you have like, you've heard nothing of fundamentals or technicals, you have like, there's so much to learn. There's a, there's so much on value that can be gained. But, you know, I'll just say go for it. What's the worst that could happen? You know, Yeah. What's the worst that can happen? I mean, I mean, to me, in the case of they, you know, people might just, and people do, right? They generally tend to, some of the, a lot of the guys, and it's funny because I get this question a lot, right? From in emails and some, like someone recently said this to me and said, well, what's the success rate of your students? Yeah. As far as how many of them are profitable? And so I always reply, I would reply probably maybe around about 10%, 10, 15% maybe. And so somebody out there might be thinking, well, that means you're a, you're a terrible teacher. And I'm like, no, because not really, it's just the natural order of things. So if you go to class, how many, how many students are going to get A's? Exactly. It's a minority. Exactly. It's just a minority, right? If you look at society, how many people earn over a certain amount? Or do not, I mean, I mean, and successes measured differently in different, not necessarily financially or anything like that, just from, if we are looking at it financially, you know, you've got the top, you know, 2% of the world that own like probably 99% of the wealth, right? So it is always a, there's always a difference as far as, there's always going to be a small minority that do make it. It's not because I'm a bad teacher or the strategy doesn't work. Things like even life happens, right? Students will come in thinking that it's, you know, I'm going to learn this in, you know, a couple of weeks and then I can just bounce, right? Yeah. Then they come in thinking, all right, it's a lot harder than I thought. Some people don't take to fundamental analysis. Some people haven't got the time because like I said, life happens, right? You've got children, you've got your job, you've got other stresses and things like that in life. Some people just don't follow the process. They're mixing and matching strategies. Do you know what I mean? There's so many different things as to the reasons why traders or the 85%, maybe 90% of people don't necessarily benefit from, you know, trading 180. Yeah. I have to also say that you have to be really driven and enjoy trading. You have to enjoy it. Yes. Because you have to enjoy it. You have to get up. You have to, if you're reading fundamentals, you really got to enjoy the process. And when you're taking losses, you still have to enjoy it. That's just part of trading. You're going to take losses. You're going to lose a bit of money. But at the end of the day, like you're enjoying doing it. You're doing the process of trading. Yeah. That will, that definitely, you have to have that. You have to. And that's a great point, Sam. You have to actually like trading. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Because some people get into this thinking, like you say, it's just, oh, I'm going to, you know, just do the technicals and fundamentals. Just tell me what I need to know. Tell me what I need to know. But the minute you come up against, for example, you know, maybe a loss or two or three, which is normal in trading, right? Yeah. You have losing streaks. I think not last year, the year before, I think I had a losing streak of 11 trades in a row. I think you're crazy in it, but I made it back in like the next five trades. Exactly. Do you know what I mean? So it happens, but you will not go through that losing streak. Yeah. And come out the other side. If you're not interested or you haven't got the belief that, you know, you want to learn about trading and still continue trading and figure it out, right? You have to enjoy it because what's going to make you want to read articles on interest rates and inflation and economy if you're not interested in it, right? Yeah, exactly. I can just watch cat videos. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Or something else. Exactly. It's always going to be something else to take your attention away. So that's a great point, Sam, is that you actually have to like trading. You have to like the fundamentals. You have to enjoy the technicals and really find it interesting and fascinating and want to, you know, go continue on moving. Right. And like watching trades played out, like I wish there's a few trades that I've just missed, but I was right about like, remember when pound had the surprise hold in November? Yeah. I saw that coming. Like you can see it in pound USD. You can see that. Pound.org, right? Is here. Yeah. When they held off the November hike, I think about November time at the top. Yeah. At the top of that, I was waiting for an entry and then I was on holiday seeing my grandparents in America. Even further up, I think it started, I was entering trades right at the top of that peak. Right. And I got stopped out a few times and I was on holiday. I couldn't enter and then they, they held and it just dropped and dropped. But it's, I find it, I'm still satisfied knowing that like, it played out. You know, I wasn't even in it, but I was just that feeling. And that's another great point as well. Right. It's seeing your fundamental idea, even if you're not in the trade, it's knowing that you're right about the direction and the more right you are about the trade idea, eventually you're going to catch that move. Exactly. I go through the same thing happened to me. Right. So I wanted to get in on the Cad Yen, Cad Swiss. Yeah. In December. I remember I told everybody that I'm not really trading around December. Right. Oh God. Yeah. I missed trades. Yeah. So I missed, I missed this move. Yeah. I missed this move. Where is it now? Where's the, sorry, that's the Cad Yen, Cad Swiss. Right. I missed this move. Yeah. I missed also as well, the New Zealand moves. This one. Right. And this one. Well, this one didn't really go anywhere, but you know what I mean? It's, it's, it actually, There's your eyes on. There wasn't even an entry here. There wasn't an entry. I was, I'm waiting for a bit of a stop hunt below that. But this was the move because prices came back down and I was waiting for that. Yeah. I wasn't even looking at my trading view, but then I come back to the discord in the new year. Oh my God. Yeah. And there was a, and there was a dollar, there was a dollar, a dollar Yen trade. I think Ken got into it as well. It was before, it was before Christmas anyway. It was like the beginning of December. Right. So he got involved in that as well. So, so yeah, there was loads of fundamentally divergent trade that went trades that went for like, you know, hundreds of pips. Yeah. But, but we take, we take comfort in the fact that our analysis is correct. Right. That is the thing. So, you know, when you're doing the fundamentals in a play out, that's, you know, it motivates me. It's just no motivation to, but you know, you know what you're doing. Yeah. Yeah. So Sam, thank you very much for that. Really, really appreciate you coming on and giving your honest opinion on the, on the group and, you know, the mentoring and, and yeah, thank you so much for that, man. No problem. My pleasure. Yeah. All right, all right.