 Think tech away, civil engagement lives here. Aloha and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Pauline Schickmach, Jr., host for We Like the 1%. We Like the 1% focuses on individuals and entrepreneurs, and today we're continuing our discussion with Anil Kumar, senior trader with ProFX Options. Aloha, Anil. There you are again. Aloha, Pauline. Let me get back. Great. Now, yesterday we went into the basics of Bitcoin and the basics of trading cryptocurrencies along with fiat currencies. So we're going to carry on further today, because this is the show for individuals and entrepreneurs, and you and your team at ProFX Options are entrepreneurs and innovators, in fact, in cryptocurrency trading. So would you like to tell the viewers and listeners here at Think Tech Hawaii a little bit about why you started ProFX Options? Yes, Pauline, it's a really interesting story, because I've been teaching people how to trade different asset classes for many, many years. But the one recurring thing was that actually people don't really want to learn how to trade. They want to learn how to make money, and there's a very, very distinct difference. So with my business partner, Oksana, we created a company that would fast-track people in their learning to trade any asset class, whether it's foreign effects or whether it's futures or whether it's cryptocurrencies, and we systemise our trading to fast-track people who will want to learn as quickly as possible. And it's great to see the transformation from people who have never, ever traded before to a point where they can start making consistent profits with the right guidance, with the right tools, with the right trader coach, basically. I think these are all very important elements. And you focus primarily on cryptocurrency trading, which is the fiat currency pair, such as pound yen, pound dollar, like we discussed yesterday. And you also used to concentrate quite a lot on binary options, but not so much nowadays. And why is that, Anil? Well, binary options are actually a great product because they're the easiest instrument to learn. But I think regulations across the world have kind of don't particularly like that particular instrument class. So we're really primarily focused on fiat currencies and crypto currencies, because they both still have that same exciting element where they have enough volatility for individuals to make money once they know what they're doing. And the cryptocurrency aspect is particularly exciting, because it is relatively new. And you and Oxana and Aaron teach classes on how to trade cryptocurrencies. Is that correct? Yes, we do. We hold regular workshops and regular classes in London. So if any of your viewers are on holiday in London, we would love to see. We'd love to meet you and show you. Yes, Oahu is the gathering place. So we have lots of international tourists here, lots of Brits, lots of Aussies, lots of Kiwis. And everybody from everywhere comes to Waikiki, especially. That's the resort area. So for people who would be interested in taking your classes, how can they get in contact with you? Do you have a website or a Facebook they can link up with? Yes, absolutely. If you Google profxoptions.com, that's our website. We have a Facebook, we have Twitter, and we would be happy to hear from you. And if you are interested in trading, we'll give you guidance on the best approach, not only in terms of which asset plus a trade, but expectations. And the three main tools you need, you need a strategy, you need risk management, you need psychology. They're the three tools you're going to need to become consistently proper. And that's what we teach on our workshops and courses. And Anil, can anybody sign up for your classes? Anybody of any nationality or there are certain restrictions? Yes, it does depend because opening an account has to comply with your local regulations. So depending on the jurisdiction you come from, you'll have brokers that are regulated in your jurisdiction. So we always recommend checking with your advisors to make sure that you're able to open an account in that jurisdiction. But certainly if you come to London, there are lots of brokerages and lots of houses which can facilitate that. But always I always suggest to people from different jurisdictions to check with their own regulations first. And it's probably a very good idea to take a class in trading as opposed to just going at it blank slate because it looks simple, but there are a lot of things people need to learn about trading. Otherwise you might as well just go into a casino. Is that correct? Absolutely. Actually, I use the analogy of driving a car. If I get the keys to my car and you've never ever driven before, probability A to B is massively reduced because you don't know. But if I sat next to you and said, here's first, here's the gears, here's the indicator, you look in your mirror, then it massively increases your probability of success of getting from A to B. And trading is exactly the same. You need somebody to show you where the gears are, where the indicators are, where the dangers are and where you should be heading. So it's an analogy I use all the time. So I would never recommend anybody getting into a car that hasn't had any lessons and I would never recommend anybody to begin trading without having lessons. Yes, because it can be very, very dangerous. And we don't want people to lose money. We want them to make money off trading. And there are certain ways you can minimize your risk when you've had a class. Now, in terms of your own teaching style and that of your colleagues, Oksana and Erin, what makes your classes unique and how long do they last? What do people have to look forward to? Yes, so we are a priority to individuals' expectations and their long-term focus and goal. We start with a very simple free workshop and we step them up to a two-day course where we teach them the basics and then teach them how to use some of our unique trading strategies, which they can only access by our classes. We do online courses as well, but we also have mentorship programs where people who are very serious about trading can be with them for six months or 12 months to guide them through the hoops, basically. And we love doing it because we've had so many students who we've transformed their lives in terms of, you know, had a job at nine to five, not meeting their expectations. And we help them and guide them to really open up an amazing industry, which is trading whether any asset class, because if you get it right, it gives you the freedom to basically do whatever you want. And that's I think we've seen that time and time with our students. If you go on our website, there's some testimonials from our students which will attest to that. And Oksana and myself really enjoy that whole process with them. And it's a very small team and it's very personalized. So each individual student gets attention. Is that how it works generally? Yes, we just had a class actually this last weekend and we took live trades actually on our course. People have never ever played it before and all of them had winning players. And that's posted on our Facebook. We want to have a look at the trade we took with our students. We've never played it before using our new strategies, our new systems. It kind of, you said it was actually perfectly. It's simple, but it's not easy. And I think you said it perfectly. And one of the things you focus on, particularly Oksana, is the psychology within trading, because this is something that is sometimes overlooked. What's very fashionable, especially if people go into the relevant event bright in their city is that there are a lot of forex traders and so-called companies and so-called experienced traders running these free workshops and then asking for extortion amounts of money to learn from them how to trade when they are not experienced traders, unlike yourself and Oksana and Aaron. And the danger here is that they're being given an illusion. It's like these get rich quick, learn forex. And this is not correct. You don't get rich quick with forex. You have to know what you're doing. And what you focus on is particular aspects of psychology that help traders control their impulses in trading. Is that correct? Absolutely. Well, trading actually at any time money is at risk, we have uncertainty. Trading is uncertainty. Nobody knows what's going to happen next in the markets. So it induces chemicals in our brain of fear and greed. It's a common term that's used. But whenever, particularly somebody who's never traded before, they place their first trades, the uncertainty brings a lot of fear. And that fear affects the chemistry in our brains, which affect our decision making. And what we do, what we teach and what Oksana teach in the psychology part of our courses is how to control your emotions. Because when you enter the trade, you obviously enter the trade with a system, a rule based strategy. And that should be followed through regardless and regardless of what is happening next. And I think people who can be able to understand how to control their emotions are infinitely more successful than those who can't. It's definitely something we teach and we spend a lot of time teaching on that. I think we don't have enough time to go into alpha theta waves, which can actually enhance your progress and your performance by managing those waves in the brain. Basically, we don't have time to talk about that, but we spend a lot of time. OK, next time, Anil. But the basis of all this psychology is neurolinguistic programming. Is that correct? Yes, I mean, Oksana spends a lot of time in in what how we talk to ourselves and how the positive affirmations, how having belief in yourself, having an understanding that, you know, managing greed and fear are integral success. You know, trading isn't just about is the market going up or down. It's how you as an individual control your emotions while you're in the trade. And we see transformation. We not only see transformations in trading, but actually the way that they approach, you know, their lives, actually, because once you manage and handle your psychology, you can affect you in all sorts of spheres of your life. And among the classes that you teach, which is more popular? Is it the fiat currency trading, the FX, or is it now the cryptocurrency trading? Which one? That's a really interesting question, because up until August of last year, fiat currency was the main asset class. But with the explosion of media coverage of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, there's been a massive surge in interest because people have seen the tremendous increase in percentage that people have talked about in terms of their account, the price of Bitcoin. So people want to find out. But again, like any type of trading, you know, you need the knowledge before you just jump in and buy a Bitcoin or buy a Ethereum or buy a Ripple. You have to know what you're doing. It's the same car analogy that we talked about earlier, but, you know, don't just jump into a cryptocurrency car without knowing how to drive it. So the very first thing people have to do is have a wallet. Is that correct? Yes. OK, so, you know, we touched upon it yesterday very briefly. There are three problems that you have to solve. One is where to buy safely, where to store safely and where to trade safely. And all these things are kind of unique and different to fiat currencies. So the wallet is an important aspect of holding cryptocurrencies, because as we discussed briefly yesterday, but cryptocurrency is nothing more than a digital asset. And the storage of that digital asset is critical. Whether you store it online or offline can make the difference, actually. And we encourage all our students to keep their digital assets offline by utilizing a hard wallet or a cold storage wallet. Again, these are things you need to understand before diving into cryptocurrencies. You need to know how to buy safely, where to store, whether it's online or offline, how to trade. And you mentioned cold storage, Anil. This is in reference to the small box manufactured by Trezor. Or is that the company who makes these small physical devices? We're not manufacturers of cold storage. But like everything, and what is actually interesting, the cryptocurrency sphere, on the face, it's very techy. So even the way that they have the Trezor and the way that it's managed and how you set it up and how you store your currency, you need to be shown how to do it. And I think that's one of the things that we noticed very early on is that people didn't know how to perform these functions. So we spent a lot of time on our workshops showing new demonstrations of how to buy cryptocurrency, be install your Trezor to keep your Trezor safe and also then how to trade it on the exchanges and take it off the exchange when you're no longer trading. So all very critical elements in trading cryptocurrencies. And some people again, jump into this car without knowing how to drive it. And that can cause problems. We suggest learn how to drive in the cryptocurrency concept. And these workshops are typically one or two days, is that right? Cryptocurrency ones are two days, I believe, or you've... The currency is that we want to give you a background of what cryptocurrency is, what blockchain is. And we're best to go to get the best information because we do understand and we should understand that the moment is regulated. OK, wonderful, Anil. We're just going to take a very quick break and then we'll continue with your trademark items in ProFX Option, the ALGO options and ProFX Thrust after this quick break. These are the developments that I'll tell you about. Sure. Aloha, my name is Mark Shklav. I'm the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea. Law Across the Sea comes on every other Monday at 11 a.m. Please join us. I like to bring in guests that talk about all types of things that come across the sea to Hawaii, not just law, love, people, ideas, history. Please join us for Law Across the Sea, ala. Aloha, I'm Winston Welch and every other Monday at 3 p.m. you can join me at Out and About, a show where we explore a variety of topics, organizations, events and the people who fuel them in our city, state, country and world. So please join us every other Monday at 3 and we'll see you then. Aloha and welcome back everybody. We're speaking with Anil Kumar of ProFX Options here on We Like the 1%. So now we're going to get into the fun part of your trading style at ProFX Options. Every company, every trader has their different quirks and different inventions on how to predict what's going to happen, how they can place the best possible trades they can and you've got your own, haven't you, Anil? So you've got two trademark concepts that are attached to your company, ProFX Options. One of them is algo options. So do you want to go into the algorithmic trading now? Absolutely. So as I mentioned yesterday, I've been trading for 20 years and I learned very, very early on that markets move in patterns and as an engineer, as a mathematician, I started to look at these patterns to see if I could actually program them mathematically, algorithmically and over many, many years we've developed strategies and systems to help us identify the probability of the market going up or down and we're very proud to offer to our students our own algorithmic, algo options and trust and scanner that we've recently developed, which helps new students to look for opportunities using mathematics, using our algorithms to help them and guide them on placing trades. So we're very excited about that and the way that they function basically is they make it very visual on a chart. For example, it colors the bars, magenta, blue and it tells you the zones that you should be trading in and a scanner will look for opportunities across the marketplace and present them for further analysis by yourself. Okay, so this is quite an advantage compared to when, for example, I used to trade 20 years ago like you, we had to use something like Japanese candlestick charting and there was no computer or algorithm to track the patterns. We had to find the patterns ourselves and it operates a little bit like Japanese candlestick charting in the sense that Japanese candlestick charts are red and green. So green for yes, it's going to go up and red for down. So you had to memorize certain patterns that HOMA came up with like shooting star or the three soldiers or three crows. And this would give an indication as to which way you should be placing your trades. Now, now that you've got the algorithms, I'm very jealous because that speeds things up a little bit. It makes trading and crypto trading more accessible to larger amounts of the population. Is that right? That's exactly right. You get the perfect example where different Japanese candlestick patterns are used and a probability prediction on the markets going up or down. But those patterns actually, you can put maths behind them. So we looked at these Japanese candlestick patterns and movements and put numbers to them, put formula to them. And all we've done really is put them into an algorithmic system. So rather than you having to look for these patterns, the software looks for them, you know, looks at them for you. And then to give you an indication that this is the probability is the market is going to go up or down. So we've done the hard work for you. It looks a little bit simpler for you. And why did you pick the particular colors magenta and gray and blue instead of red and green? Did you just want to be different from the Japanese candlestick charting? No, not at all. Actually, you've touched on a very, very important element. Markets, regardless of what they are, either are moving in an uptrend, a downtrend, or they're going sideways. So we decided that when the market is going sideways, we don't really want to trade. So we colored the candlesticks or bars gray and blue when markets are going up. And magenta, we didn't want to confuse it with red. So magenta was the closest color. So that's the kind of story that magenta and dark blue. But gray is the important one because there are times when you should not trade. And that is just as important as you want to trade. And what does Pro FX thrust do to help him move? The thrust is a very important element in trading because whilst markets are moving, they sometimes are energetic. They move in speed. In terms, they're lethargic and they don't move very much. So obviously, when we're trading, we really want to make sure that the market has some movement, some momentum, some thrust. That is the best time to place trade. So our proprietary algorithms is seeking out these times when markets are going to be moving and it gives an indication to the user that that's a good probability of taking a trade. And when they see the magenta, that's a good time to buy. Is that right? So blue is a good time to buy. Oh, sorry. Magenta is a good time to sell. That's right. So it's not confused with red. It's a little bit more positive than red. Now, when people take your classes, Anil, do you focus on when you're starting somebody out on cryptocurrency trading, do you start with the USD-BTC pair? Is that what you focus on? Or do you go straight into BTC against Ethereum, ETH? OK, so it is important which currency pair you trade and the most liquid ones that we suggest you start with, you know, the Bitcoin. And whether it's against fear currency or against another cryptocurrency is kind of irrelevant in a way for us because predominantly people will be trading Bitcoin against US dollar or Ethereum against US dollar. We also have strategy and we also have the ability to trade against cryptocurrency against cryptocurrency. And for us as traders, we don't really mind what we trade and it doesn't have to be a fear currency. We want movement. We want patterns. We want the ability to use predictive mathematics. I'm just asking that, Anil, because if you want movement, especially for FX, the normal fiat pairs, because you run classes on that as well, the one that has one of the highest volatility, which was one of my favorite pairs, was pound yen. So the British pound against the Japanese yen. So it's volatile, but if you place the trades correctly, it can be very lucrative because it moves. That pair moves. There's a larger spread, but it moves. Again, you touched exactly the right topic. Traders do not want markets to go sideways or flat. We want volatility. The more volatility, the more potential profit. Also more potential risk, but risk and reward has to be measured. It has to be properly handled, if you know what I mean. So cryptocurrencies are much more volatile and the currency carrier you just mentioned has a similar kind of volatility. Not quite, of course, but as traders, we want volatility. And tell me about scanner. This is the first time I'm hearing about scanner. I knew about your algorithmic trademark. This is brand new news. We're launching a new product, which is called a scanner. So where you're just looking at one currency pair, your focus and energies on that one currency pair. But in the meantime, there may be other currency pairs that are moving and have much more probability of success. So scanner will look across 10, 20, 30 cryptocurrencies simultaneously and present the best opportunities with the scanner. And we're going to be launching that very, very soon. And we'll be happy to demonstrate that to you next time. OK. And you've also, are you still mining? Is that an activity you're still engaged with at ProFX Options? We did it more as a point of interest. When we started getting involved in cryptocurrencies 18 months ago, 14 months ago, we wanted to understand what it was all about. And we wanted to understand the blockchain. We wanted to understand the mining. Just like driving the car, we wanted to understand what's under the hood. We wanted to look in the engine. We want to build the engine. So we built a mining rig, which mines Ethereum. But it was more from a hobbyist, intriguing point of view. But we learned so much from that process. And we have it in our office. It's mining away. And because of that mining activity, you are engaged in your own exchange. Is that correct? So as I said to you, when we decide to get into cryptocurrencies, we want to see the areas that we have expertise in. So trading obviously was our main expertise. The mining was more of a hobby interest. But we also partnered with an exchange because we didn't like the kind of crypto exchange that we were coming up. And we didn't really want to recommend clients to exchange that we weren't happy with. So we partnered with an exchange, which will provide high-frequency trading, will provide security, provide a regulatory framework in an FCA sandbox, which I won't go into, but it means that we can do a lot more. We don't have time for that anymore. And I just wanted to ask about your classes because I know this from Oxana that generally speaking, okay, each trader has their own quirks and their own personality and their own way of trading as long as they follow the rules at the basic guidelines that you're teaching them. In general, would you say men or women make better traders? Oh, this is a contentious issue by the way. You've touched on a contentious issue. And you're going to put me in trouble by the way. Generally speaking, Anil, there's a difference between general and universal, right? So generally in your experience, in your observation with Oxana, because she's your partner and your business partner. She's a great trader and I discovered this and I think it's widely kind of known but maybe not widely known, but actually ladies, women make better traders because they're a bit more focused and unlike men who have egos and demand to be right, I think ladies and women tend to be more pragmatic and here's the controversial part. When I'm teaching a lady or woman, kind of do what they're told. Yes, yes, yes, no, that's fine. No, I was trying to tease that out of you because that's exactly why. Because men have sometimes the tendency to be higher risk takers, especially in things like trading and extreme sports and all that sort of thing. And they also sort of go for it more impulsive sometimes, whereas females, they're a little bit more passive in their personalities. Just generally speaking, okay, I'm talking about large segments of the population, not individual persons of course. So, and they're more pliable. So one of the things that are important in education is if the person is being receptive as opposed to rebellious because in something like trading, whether it's fiat currency or cryptocurrency, you really do have to follow the instructions of the tutor. Is that right? You can't just do anything in the beginning. You can get more creative once you see what it's like. But like with anything, it's very important to stick to the basic guidelines that you're teaching with you and Oxana and Erin are teaching in the classes. Is that right? The way our formula is very, very simple. It's a rule based strategy. And therefore, if you follow the rules, you have a high probability of success than if you don't follow the rules. And I think men tend to create new rules and to create their own version of the rules whereas women tend to be, okay, tell me what the rules are. Let me follow them. And I mean that in the most respectful way that I can. That's all right. You don't have to be politically correct. It's a trait that's important for this particular context. So the other reason I bring it up is that actually in Japan, it still is to some extent quite trendy for the Japanese housewife to trade. And that's not something Western women generally do as a hobby, right? There's a whole phenomenon. There is even a term Japanese housewives trade. They make up a big portion of the retail trading sector and because they can do it at one time, they can do it around their lifestyle. Because remember with trading and currency trading, if it's 24-7, you will always be able to find one or two hours in the day to trade. And I think that's what they do. I always admire them. Wonderful, Neil. So thank you for joining us again. This is the conclusion of the two part we did on cryptocurrency trading. And we look forward to having you again at some point and I'll see you in London at some point as well along with Oksana and Aaron. And for everybody in Hawaii, I'll see you next week, next Thursday at 11 a.m. where we like the 1%.