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What I Learned From Other Traders
http://www.tigersharktrading.com/articles/21561/1/What-I-Learned-From-Other-Traders/Page1.html
By Boris Schlossberg
Published on 09/16/2011
 

Boris Schlossberg hosted a series of webinars and learned something from every trader.


What I Learned From Other Traders

This week, Kathy Lien and I hosted a series of webinars for some of the best know traders in the FX business. Although I was the MC for the event, I actually enjoyed being a member of the audience as each speaker made his presentation. The range of talent was remarkable, all the more so because everyone had a very different style of trading. Some like Kathy and I were pure market takers, trying to ride the trend in our direction. Others like Raghee Horner and Todd Gordon were pure market makers, letting price come to them before initiating a trade. And some like Rob Booker and Ed Ponsi did a little of both.

So here are some highlights from the week that I would like to pass on to you.
Ed Ponsi stressed the importance of trading on the side of the big guys -- something that most retail traders do not do well. For example, he is now long EUR/CHF trading along with the SNB as he expects the peg to hold and the pair to rally further.

It was amazing to watch Asharf Laidi operate in real time as he wove together the monthly, weekly and daily charts, monetary policy analysis, economic data and the latest news from the wires to create a fully integrated approach to trade generation.

Raghee Horner made one statement that resonated with me the whole week long. She quoted Bruce Lee in saying that he is not afraid of a man who knows 10,000 moves, but he is afraid of a man who know one move that he had practiced 10,000 times. The focus on mastering just one trading strategy is a lesson for us all.

4. Rob Booker is by far the most captivating presenter in the FX business and his hour felt like a minute as he regaled the crowd with his latest strategy, but perhaps the most valuable part of his presentation was his advice on testing the validity of any trading strategy. Rob showed how using out of sample data can separate the wheat from the chaff and determine which strategy holds promise and which strategy is just pure luck.

Unlike most traders that focused on setups and trade strategies, Todd Gordon displayed his brand new trading calculator that helped traders plan their trade and assess risk ahead of time. This was a highly unique piece of software that is much needed in the trading community.

Overall, it was a great week of camaraderie and great content and I am already making plans to organize another such event next year.

Boris Schlossberg serves as director of currency research at GFT, and runs bktraderfx.com.