 Hi, my name is Leon Rowe, Company Trader and Trading Coach at Trading180.com and I have a special guest, Ken, who is a trader who's been with Trading180 for a while and I wanted to get his feedback, I guess, and get his experience of being and trading with Trading180 and me mentoring Ken and really how he's gotten on with his own trading since joining Trading180. How are you doing, Ken? You're all right. Yeah, good. Excellent. Excellent. So just quickly, what's your background and how did you get into forex trading? Well, I'm only about a year and 10 months into it, truthfully. Okay. Starting about June 2020. Wow. Yeah. It was kind of a time in my life where I was looking for another path, right, is either school or something. I'm a manager in retail right now and I know that the job's never going to give me like the freedom for my crazy hours and, you know, low pay that I was looking for. I noticed a friend at work was messing around with this app. It's the MT4 app. I didn't know that at the time, but I walked up, started asking him questions about it and started telling me about forex and what he was doing and kind of got hooked. Wow. I mean, the money part definitely stood out. I think that's usually what draws everybody in, I think. Absolutely. Absolutely. But he started teaching me a little bit about supply and demand, told me a bit about candlesticks, charts, stuff like that, told me how to look at forex factory. It was kind of all over the place. You can kind of see it in the way he was teaching me. He was kind of teaching me like a three-touch and break method. And then you ever heard of Ardo Chartist? Yeah, I have. They do the patents, don't they? Yeah. Well, this was some sort of number. I don't know. It's like certain numbers registered. It's kind of like levels or something. I don't know. Okay. I quickly learned he was still learning himself. I had to move away from that. So I started just self-teaching with videos on YouTube, learning everything I could, when the markets open, when they closed, understanding how to look at charts, chart time frames, what a PIP was. It came across a lot of people teaching it, but never felt any connection with how they were teaching it. They would show a trading style and always show how much they made. I knew that was never the case. It's never that easy. But then I came across trading 180, and I didn't see any of that in the videos. I just started watching the weekly videos, started learning about supply, demand, fundamentals, how important they were, and saw that it was about hard work. That's where I wanted to be. I signed up in October and the rest is history. Brilliant. So my video kind of just popped up and you were just like, all right, let's have a look. You said it was my weekly videos and I guess the weekly videos, I generally tend to focus on both, right? So the technicals and the fundamentals. But what was it maybe about the fundamentals that kind of rang true with you? Or what is it that kind of really piqued your interest? Because most people, say most people, but generally traders in the retail space, fundamentals is boring, it's complex, it's confusing, it doesn't work. So what was it about maybe the information that you were receiving with regards to the way that I was showing fundamentals? What was it about that kind of piqued your interest? I guess the first part of it was just, I knew there was more than just a technical strategy to trading forex. So I knew it had importance. And really kind of the mystery behind it, like kind of solving problems a little bit. So I mean, between all that just kind of drew me in. I knew I had to learn more about it. And truthfully, you were the only one teaching about fundamentals. So I knew that if I wanted to learn that, that I had to join this group. And like I said, you weren't showing money, how much you made in trades and all that. So I knew that you were for real. Yeah, it's funny that, isn't it? Almost like people kind of project, right? They kind of flash how much money they have rather than the actual content or their information. This is not to kind of disparage anybody else. If anyone was to do that, and they can do that. But just a little bit, I guess, about my journey, which is quite similar to yours in a sense of, you kind of get into forex, you look at, watch all the videos and you start to kind of differentiate between some of the information, right? When somebody's just flashing their Ferrari or their Lamborghini all the time and they're saying, I made 3,000, 5,000, 10,000 this week, 100,000 this week. That's not to say it's not true. But there's something sometimes where, and you know, for example, Mark Chapman, my mentor when I met Mark, he was exactly the same way as how I kind of present my videos in a sense that he wasn't flashy, nothing like that. It was just purely about the information, right? Really about the information. So at that point, fundamental analysis, was it something that you were familiar with as far as the concepts? Like, for example, you know, we look at GDP interest rates inflation, or was that just something that you kind of picked up by watching my videos? Truthfully, I had no clue about any of it. I didn't know what it was. I didn't know what it was. I didn't know what it meant. I just knew that it was important, and it had a lot to do with trading forex. And then once I joined the group, I mean, through the videos and the mentorship, I understood, I started learning, like, the importance, like, because there's only a few things in fundamentals that you really need to know. And I learned GDP, inflation, and interest rates. And, you know, you taught me how they influenced the banks to raise rates, cut rates, or hold the rates, talking about QE. I mean, I knew none of that. And after I joined the group, I started realizing that that, you know, that was what it entailed. So yeah, you can you can really kind of see it playing out over time. A lot of times, you know, fundamentals, people think, Oh, you know, it's going to happen this week, or it's going to happen today. But as we know, and as I teach, sometimes it's a process. We talk about the medium to kind of long term, right? Yeah. You know, and sometimes it does work out in the short term, as we know. But generally, we're looking at, you know, a month, two, three ahead, and looking at those longer term trends. So I guess a question would be, what benefits, I guess, do fundamentals add to your trading? So, you know, things like, you know, pair selection, for example, holding trades, taking profit, like what, you know, if you were to say to somebody, you know, as far as the benefits of fundamental analysis to their technical analysis, you know, what what what would you say specifically maybe would would would be kind of clarify why they need fundamentals? I would say it definitely helps with confidence. I guess you can you can trade technicals, but you're really going to have the confidence to hold that trade for, you know, a long period of time. I know a lot of people are just in and out. But to be in and out, you have to risk, you know, a high percentage. I mean, if you unless you have a lot of capital, but so for fundamentals, just help. Okay, well, if these guys are hiking, then I should probably be buying this for the next, you know, however long until this country is either hiking or, you know, whatever they're doing. So I just I just say it helps with the confidence. Yeah, yeah, definitely. And as far as the trade direction and even things like, for example, pair selection, right? Like Emily, I think traders are driven by the technicals. So, you know, I've seen traders make their trading decisions based off of, you know, whether price is at a supply or demand zone. Whereas we know now, if we're looking to get, for example, long on a currency pair, you know, looking to buy the base currency, do we don't care about supply zones, right? Yeah, that doesn't matter. Exactly. It doesn't matter because overall, in I mean, it matters maybe to a point where you may get some, you know, maybe a bit of a rejection, but in the medium to long term, pretty much, you know, we know where the we have what I say we know, but with a higher probability, we should know where the trend is going, right? Yeah. Yeah. So do you think we or you would have probably figured out the fundamentals and the way that is traded without joining Trading 180? Truthfully, I don't think so. I mean, I could have gone down a huge hole and started learning everything about it, kind of like how I started. But I think it would have pretty much led me to the point where I started putting every bit of news into it and started trading off of that and not really understanding how it works. So I don't think it would have been good for me at all. Yeah, it's done, especially, you know, understanding like the difference in the news between the noise that's just pushes prices around a little bit in the actual, you know, market moving news. I think a lot of people get that, you know, confused. I mean, I guess it's good for us because we call that the capture. Yes, we do. Yeah, you know, for sure. And yeah, you know, you're right. Fundamentals can be very overwhelming, right? You know, you can do so many different things about fundamentals, but it's what really matters. You know, one of the things we use, I guess, and to simplify the fundamental analysis process is the fundamental analysis spreadsheet, which again, I have to thank you, Ken, for helping, you know, update that and your knowledge with the fundamental analysis spreadsheet and how useful has the spreadsheet been and how accurate kind of thing, have you found it over the time that you've been, you know, trading with Trading 180? I really enjoyed the sheet, truthfully. It's the way it's laid out. It gives you the pairs, you know, start from the strongest to the weakest. So it kind of, I mean, you should still do the fundamental research, but it kind of gives you an insight on the bigger pairs you should be trading. And it also helps if you're trying to put the puzzle together. You look at it's got GDP, inflation, interest rates, jobless reports, jobless rates. So it's kind of got, if you know what to look for, you can kind of just, it's right there, you can look at the pieces, put it together yourself without even looking at the pair selection, but that's there. If you need it, get some overview charts. It's, it's pretty good. I like it. Yeah, and it really does simplify, I guess, the process, right? It really does, you know, like said, cut out a lot of the noise and how accurate have you found it in a sense of over the medium to long term? Because, you know, short term, we know that, you know, there's liquidity and market making that goes on. So short term, you know, is probably a bit more less reliable, but from a, but from a trending perspective, and really understanding, you know, looking at the fundamental analysis spreadsheet ranks, and then looking at what you should be buying and selling, depending again, whether we're in a, in a risk on or risk off environment, how accurate have you found the spreadsheet? Pretty accurate. I mean, if you're, if you're not short term trading, like you said, it's, it's got its ups and downs to short term, but we shouldn't be looking for short term anyways, we're looking for the medium to long term. And it's pretty accurate. I mean, I've took a lot of trades based off of that. And they've, they've come out pretty good. So brilliant, brilliant. So what would you say was some of your biggest, maybe light bulb moments, your aha moments, since joining trading 180 and, you know, maybe one of one or two of them and maybe how they've specifically impacted your trading? Let's see, the biggest moment was actually that video you made on the relationship between GDP inflation and interest rates. I mean, that, that video simplified the whole thing for me. It started taking me from learning everything, like I said, everything about the news, trying to take it all and fit it in to, you know, boil it down to these three things. I mean, after that video came out, I was, I was glad I was here. I like that video. So and then just how interest rates work, like what it takes for them to hike, cut or hold, you know what I mean? If this inflation is going in this direction, what are the, what are the banks looking to do? I mean, that graph you had on that helped me a lot. Yeah, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. So I guess from a fundamental perspective, you know, we have, I guess, an insight into how really the banks influence the appreciation and depreciation and devaluation of, of, of currencies, right? And ultimately what we're doing is trading divergences between, you know, one currency and another. And I guess online, you know, that really isn't explained in even emphasized so much, you know, when you, when you're looking at, for example, you know, things like forex factory, all generally people tend to do is look at, you know, well, is the news positive or negative by yourself, I guess, if things were that simple, you know, I mean, we'd all be millionaires, but it takes a lot more than that, right? Yeah. And then they end up losing after that. And they wonder why. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It was that simple, you know, we'd all be doing it. So I guess let's get into maybe some of the technicals, right? In a sense that we trade, you know, three main strategies. So from supply and daily supply and demand zones, capture pain relief, and stop hunts. So with those strategies, would you say that, you know, your understanding of how the market moves beyond fundamentals is, is pretty much a high level. You pretty much understand why the market was doing what it's doing at generally all times. Oh, yeah. Yep. Yeah, I can see, I can see where the market makers sit. I can see where the banks sit. Yeah, you can, you can tell the levels, like I said, tell the difference between them. The market makers are there to push the price around. So people buy and sell, especially with the news and the banks definitely have those big pushes. So yeah, I can see it. We do cover things like not only the strategy, but we, I guess, how the market works in a sense of market maker unfair auctions, right? And, you know, and liquidity, right? So, you know, we're not coming to a chart and trying to generally trying to figure out our trades as we're looking at a chart. We can, you know, we do look and plan ahead. One of the really advantages of, I guess, the way that we trade is that we can see what the banks and what market makers are doing ahead of time and what they're likely to do ahead of time, right? Yeah. And I guess once we see that, and we see the patterns that develop around certain levels, it's just a case of, and especially when we have fundamentals involved in it, it's just, you know, some, some trades are just brilliant, right? It's just, you know, you might wait maybe a week or maybe a few days for it to turn around. But generally, once they come down to certain levels, you know, we're quite patient and and some of those trades once they do work out because not every trade works out, of course, when they do work out, it can be really kind of monster trades. So yeah, exactly. So you've done so I'm just going to I guess lead on to the question which would be, you know, to maybe kind of talk us through one of your last trades, profitable trades or maybe one of the biggest trades you've taken since, you know, joining joining Trading 180. That's my last profitable one was the New Zealand yen. Okay. Go to a chart and we'll have a look. So New Zealand yen, we run it already. And yeah, so from top to bottom, I guess, from maybe the fundamental perspective risk sentiment perspective, maybe just break down the trade, you know, in general terms, I guess, you know, for anyone who's listening and how, you know, we do all we approach the markets. Well, so New Zealand yen, I wanted to be a buyer of New Zealand, because I know that they're, they're doing quite well. They're actually, they hiked already, projected it possibly hike again. In Japan, they're just, they're kind of lagging, you know, and if you look on our spreadsheet, it's actually one of the top pair, one, it's within the top five pairs of trade. And so I'd, yeah, maybe all. Yep. Yeah. So three. Yep. So that kind of showed me that I'm definitely in the right direction. I want to be buying the New Zealand over the end. So then it was just a matter of waiting for it to come back. And it was an area I was interested in. It was where you get the daily. So you get the 76th area. I was interested. You can see to the left where it kind of came down here, right? Yeah. Right over to the left is what the area I was looking for because of that. Yeah. And it kind of took off from there and came back. And then I jumped in right at the bottom there. And then I took that puppy to the top. Yeah. Because of the top. Are you out of that trade now totally? Yeah. Yeah. It stomped me out, right? Where was it? Yeah, 78.5. So that big candle where it came down. Okay. Brilliant. So you were literally just looking at this whole area here. I think this was also a bit of a CPR, right? A bit of a quite a deep CPR. Yeah. Was it, was it, did you take it based off of the CPR or was it a three liter monzone? No, it was the CPR. Because for me, I noticed that some of them kind of come down and it's not, it's not all the way down. So I kind of like to wait for the ones that come towards the bottom more. Yeah. You can see to the left, it kind of came down, but it wasn't like, I didn't really want to take that right. Yeah. I took this one. I did take this one. Oh, you did? Yeah. I did take that one. And then, yeah, that went right there to the right. Yep, I took that. Just kind of jumped in once it got down towards my level. And then I held it. It's about a couple weeks. Okay. This whole Christmas period, it was just kind of slowly drifting up. But I caught that one. And then the dollar yen was kind of the same idea. So I caught both of those. It was, yeah, remember, let's go over the dollar yen quickly. It's a dollar yen on the daily. We were looking at down here, weren't we, the 112 50s, 113s weren't we? Yeah, it was right there. Yeah. Yep. Then that was like, took a minute, but it was a capture. Yeah. Really nice. Really nice. Right there at the bottom. Yep. Yeah. Excellent. Excellent. And you rolled that up over Christmas, New Year's. Yeah, it was 15 five there is where they stopped me out. 15 15. Yeah, last week. Yep. Okay. Okay. So that's been a good 200, 300 pips, right? Yeah. And those are the those are the trades you want. Yeah, absolutely. I'm still waiting for the 600, 701. Yeah, it's coming. Yeah, it's coming. It's coming. It's coming. So, so yeah, anyone I guess to kind of wrap up the interview and thank you for doing this, by the way, really appreciate, you know, your time and your honesty on on my mentoring and, you know, how it's affected your trading. But for anyone listening, I guess, what would your message be to them to, you know, to join Trading 180 or to or to not, I guess, but but to join Trading 180? Truthfully, I'd say not to wait. I mean, if it's, I mean, seems like a lot of hard work. But, you know, in the end, you get it. And then you get to enjoy like fruits of your labor. It gets easier as you go. And especially with you mentoring, I mean, all the videos that are in there, just, it's just amazing. Truthfully, there's a lot of informational videos in the community. There's a lot of, you know, other successful traders in there that, you know, we all kind of put our trade ideas together. And, you know, it's a pretty powerful thing that I think a lot of people overlook, too. So definitely change my life. I'm definitely a better trader for coming here. And I thank you for it. Oh, thank you. Thank you, Ken. And again, I was taught, you know, in the way that I was taught by my mentor. And, you know, I thought I'd pass on the energy, right? It's it's to prove to traders that it can be done. You know, it's not a scam. It's not a get rich quick scheme. There is, as you say, there is hard work, right? It is hard. It does, it does take time. But once you do get it, you know, you do see the fruits of your labor. And I'm just glad that and happy for you that you can now, I guess, you know, catch your own fish, right? Because he eats for a day, catch a man. I mean, teach a man to fish. And he eats for a lifetime. So, you know, we that's what I'm all I'm trying to do. And I'm just so glad and happy that, you know, you've, you've got to appointing your trading where you are, independent, right? If I was to suddenly just up and leave, you have all the tools, all the skills and everything you need in order to be profitable. Oh, yeah, I could definitely get there now. Yeah, yeah, brilliant, brilliant. Thank you, Ken. Really appreciate it. And I'll speak to you in the group and I'll see you soon. Thanks for your time. Perfect. Thank you. Take care. Yep.