Page 23 - THE MARKET WHISPERER

22 Foreword

I’d be forced to exit with an unpleasant loss. In short, Chris would profit
and I’d lose. Yes. It was definitely time to start learning.

Statistics famously tout the figure that 90% of active traders lose money.
If you are among them, the solution is simple: do exactly the opposite of

what you think. At first I had trouble figuring the upside down logic of

the profession. I found that precisely those stock trades I considered risky,

if not downright dangerous, revealed themselves as the biggest winners,

whereas the ones I would choose and which appeared to be less scary and
more reliable, were less successful. Of course, in my early trading history, I
chose only those that failed.

But over time, I also discovered this tendency was not exclusive to me.
It’s very natural for an experienced trader to view the market completely

different than a beginner. To succeed, the beginner needs to learn the basic
principles, and slowly undergo a psychological revolution. Because I’d
skipped the stage of learning fundamentals and jumped straight into the

deep end, I concluded that I needed to understand the market. It was time

to “go back to the drawing board” and learn the basics.
I knew what I had to do. I contacted Chris, the head analyst of the trading

room, presented myself as a member, and asked him to be my personal

mentor. I was very happy when he agreed, and we settled on a fee. I packed

a bag and took the first flight out to his home in Phoenix, Arizona.

I remember our first meeting like it was yesterday. I was shocked to

meet a “boy” in his early thirties, who already had many years of Wall
Street experience under his belt serving as a “market maker” for a well-
known trading company, and later as an independent, successful day

trader. Two black cars, both Lexus models, were parked at his luxurious

home in a wealthy suburb of Phoenix, making it perfectly clear with whom
I was dealing. Chris came from an average family, and had made most of his
money as a day trader. Like so many others I met over the years, Chris left
an excellent job that brought him hundreds of thousands of dollars each

year, in order to earn his own way as a day trader!

SMART The market operates according to known rules. There is no
MONEY need to invent a new method in order to earn money. Just
adopt the existing ones.

In Phoenix, the market opens at 6:30 in the morning. We started our day
of study at 6:00, and when trading was over at 1 PM, we were off to play
golf. I was dumbfounded at Chris’sworkday structure; I was amazed at his