Entrepreneurs
5 Lessons You Can Learn From A Millionaire Trader
Some of what you might read in this article could seem simplistic, that’s because success is simplistic if you let it be. This time you are going to see success from a different lens through an interview I did with the very Successful Millionaire Trader Andy Man who owns a business called Serman Traders and is the author of “How I Turned $1,600 into $1.7M In The Financial Markets”. Whether it’s trading or another business, the success principles are the same, but it’s crucial to have lots of different references from a variety of entrepreneur’s.
In 2006, Andy graduated as a civil engineer, and he knew nothing about the stock markets or trading. Once Andy got a job, he realised he wasn’t able to live the life he wanted even if he became a manager in the company. He started looking for alternative ways to make money and took a course in trading with his now business partner, Mike Ser. In 2011, Andy turned $1600 USD into $1.7M by trading silver using everything he had learnt. It was always Andy’s goal to become a millionaire by the age of thirty.
***The AHA! MOMENT Of The Interview***
The most shocking part of the interview was when I asked Andy how old he was. He started by thinking about it and then he couldn’t work it out. He just said I think I am over thirty. Andy is not a guy that remembers how old he is all the time like a lot of society, and he doesn’t even celebrate his birthday. By not focusing on his birthday, Andy says it allows him to focus his time on things that are more valuable. He says you must always think positive and whether your old or young there are benefits on both sides.
Your attitude towards success is something that Andy says will make a big difference in your entrepreneur life. If you don’t want to move, you will stay still for the next ten years. If you are motivated to achieve your goal then at least you have some hope to move forward. This doesn’t mean all the time that if you are motivated you will definitely achieve your goal, it takes a lot of hard work as well. Notice how the ultra successful like Andy always have a positive mindset? This is something that I have seen in every interview I have done on Addicted2Success.
Below are five Lessons Andy shared with me in the interview that you can apply to your life as an entrepreneur.
1. The psychology of trading can teach you a lot about entrepreneurship
In the beginning, Andy didn’t achieve financial freedom and he would lose money then make money over and over again. He says once you learn from your mistakes you get better everyday.
In the first year of trading, he lost money. The second to fourth year Andy worked on fixing up his bad trades. The mistake he was making was that he was able to turn $5000 very quickly into $100k, but then he would be too greedy on the profit side and would lose half of it. You need to secure your profit and try and ride the right trend and in 2011, with this strategy, Andy was able to turn the corner and start making some serious money.
No one is perfect and different people have different flaws. Try to identify yours and fix them, and then you can be successful. Once you know how to make money in the market, all you need to do is start to look back on your bad trades and fix those up, and then you will have more success. Andy knew to short (bet the price would go down) silver because it had happened before, and scenarios often repeat themselves in financial markets. The market for gold and silver goes up every US summer from June to August and has done so 9 out of 9 times in the last nine years. Andy puts stop losses in so he can know how much he would lose if he were wrong. Lose small and win big. You need to have a good risk management strategy otherwise you will do the reverse, lose big and win small – another lesson that applies to entrepreneurs.
The first year in trading is the toughest because you lose money more than you win, but you can never give up. Only 10% of people succeed with trading, and Andy keeps telling himself he will be part of this 10% – keep telling yourself you can do it. The hard part is staying disciplined. Being in the minority and staying disciplined will be traits you need to be an entrepreneur.
After making the $1.7 million Andy diversified his portfolio and allocated a large portion to real estate investing to get a passive income. Trading is not a stable income and Andy can’t see a big opportunity every single day so during the quiet times the real estate and Serman Traders income help provide the foundation for stability. Once the foundations are solid, this allows Andy to take calculated risks in his entrepreneurial endeavours and this is an important lesson.
2. The power of constantly learning
Driving a car is very similar to trading and being an entrepreneur, Andy says. At first he started with 1-10 leverage when he made his first million, now he is off his learner plates and uses 1-100. Just make money first and then when you get some consistency, then you can add more leverage. Trading is one of the ways to financial freedom if you take the time to understand it. A kid can do very well in trading because they follow the rules, but the older the person is, the more stubborn they are, and the less likely they are to be able to follow rules.
Part of Andy’s course involves making a daily video, which his students must watch to see what Andy is noticing in the market and where the opportunity is so that they can mirror it. The three things that people do wrong when they watch Andy’s video are they do nothing, miss the opportunity and chase the market, or they are too aggressive. If you follow the rules, then you will make money but most people can’t overcome the psychological limits that you need to have to be a good trader. There is nothing better than seeing mentors trade close to a live environment and being able to learn their strategies in the real world.
Being an entrepreneur is not about following the rules (quite the opposite) but you have to learn not to be stubborn and take the time to understand your business.
3. Plan your day for success
A day in Andy’s life involves waking up at 6am to catch the markets and trade for around two hours as well as catching up on the market news. In the afternoon, he trains his students all around the world and then late in the day he will host some live seminars in his office at night at around 4-5pm. At 7pm, he spends time with family and then between 10-11pm he will start to do the daily videos. The day then finishes between 11pm-1am where Andy does a final two hours of trading the Gold / Silver market.
The key is to be able to focus on what you’re doing, Andy says. You have to know your schedule well and plan ahead, so you know what to do. Andy always plans his trades ahead of time before the markets open. A lot of people don’t have a plan, and they plan to fail. You will get very emotional during trading if you don’t have a plan. A plan helps keep you calm and on course.
To avoid distractions like social media Andy delegates these tasks and has learnt to say no to interruptions and distractions. When delivering training Andy has his full focus with the student and doesn’t let his phone or anything distract him because he is trying to deliver the maximum value he can. Outside of trading Andy is married with a young daughter and he says allowing your loved ones to know your schedule well avoids unnecessary distractions and means that if they’re calling you it must be urgent – keep your phone on silent so you can focus.
Have a notebook next to you at all times to record your thoughts. It’s always good to write things down along with a weekly to-do list – try to work smarter rather than harder. Think before you do, if you do and think at the same time you will be very inefficient and be doing things that are unnecessary. Also, don’t forget to always leave some buffer time between appointments and build in breaks into your schedule even if you don’t plan on using them, just in case.
Plan for a busy day now and then, and know what your worse day looks like. Once you know your absolute worse day, plan how you are going to manage it and build in the meals, so you don’t starve and have no energy. Andy knows that every Tuesday is going to be a crazy day, so he knows how to deal with it.
Running your day as a trader is very similar to running you day as an entrepreneur, just focus focus focus and make sure you enjoy life at the same time!
4. Always be on a journey to mastering personal growth
We have different goals and priorities in life and natural strengths and weaknesses, which are determined by our personality type. The key is once you know your weakness you must not continually repeat the same mistake. If you do this, you will be very likely to go into a natural loop of failure. As an entrepreneur, you probably won’t notice the mistakes you make because they are too minor. When you talk about money though, a lot of people get more sensitive. It sounds easy to overcome your mistakes, but it takes time due to the psychological aspect. A good entrepreneur recognises their weakness and learns from their mistake – it’s that simple.
Andy found himself to be up and down as an entrepreneur until one day he sat down and looked at what mistakes he was making with the mindset of finding a solution. There’s only two ways to do anything, avoid making a mistake or try and figure out a solution. Once you have your solution, you need to write it down on paper so next time you see the same situation, you don’t make the same mistake again. This realisation was the key turning point for Andy to become successful and start making a profit from his trading.
To grow you need to keep yourself inspired. It’s always good to hear other people’s stories and experiences so that you can draw inspiration from them. Talking and engaging with them will deepen the learning even further. Try to broaden these moments of inspiration from different areas, and one’s that you may have nothing to do with like marine biology. Outside of variety don’t limit yourself to the same class of people either. Spend time with poorer people, middle-class people and rich people. Each of these classes will teach you different laws of success.
Between the ages of twenty to thirty most people stop learning new things. To grow you will need to be open to learning something new all the time and remember you don’t have all the answers to anything – no one does. Finding inspiration can also be found in attending meetups, talking to your friends and teaching students. Andy’s students often reveal to him things about life and networks that he has not yet tapped into.
For Andy to continue his own journey of personal growth, in 2011 after he made millions, he went on a missionary trip to China and started helping out handicap children. While staying in very poor surroundings on this trip he began to see that he is the one that is really fortunate and this motivated him to spend time helping other people. When you help other people you see the happiness even more, and you know that your wealth has helped create this. The lesson here is that even if you have nothing you can be very happy as well. If you find yourself being very aggressive towards making millions then attempt a trip like Andy did, and you will come back feeling more humble and not be so obsessed with money.
The lesson here is that even if you have nothing you can be very happy as well. If you find yourself being very aggressive towards making millions then attempt a trip like Andy did, and you will come back feeling more humble and not be so obsessed with money.
“Happiness is always a choice. You can’t wait for circumstances to change you have to create your own fortune and look for ways to be happy each day”
5. Switch your mindset from employee to entrepreneur
When Andy used to be an engineer he got paid to work but the responsibility was nowhere near as much as what it’s been since becoming an entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, you get paid for results not for showing up. Some of the work you do you may not get paid for. For example when you develop a product as an engineer you get paid through the process where as when you do the same thing as an entrepreneur you don’t, and it’s a very different mindset to get used to. During the times as an entrepreneur when you’re not getting paid, you must be able to tap into your optimism otherwise you won’t be able to get through this stage.
There is no ceiling on your income as an entrepreneur at any one time whereas working a job can be more restrictive, and there are annual limits to your earning capacity. As a trader, you can make as many millions of dollars as you like but Andy reckons he had to learn to not be too greedy. He used to have nothing but when he had something his mindset changed, and he wanted to preserve it and use it as a platform to build off of.
The way Andy explained this phenomenon to me was that before you become an entrepreneur you are all about capital gains, but once you become an entrepreneur you start thinking about how to maintain and increase a positive cashflow.