It’s always interesting to have reflective moments….
Like to really sit back and think about the progress I’ve made as a trader — especially when I find myself speaking at a trading event when to the day, only three years ago I was nothing more than a spectator.
I’m currently at the TradersExpo in Las Vegas, Nevada. Whether you believe me or not, this now loud, proud, opinionated trader I’ve come to be…
Was not the same woman from three years ago…
You see, my dad took me to my first ever trading event (a Simpler Trading run one no less). Conveniently, it was in the exact same place I’m writing to you from today — Vegas. The city of sin as some call it, but for me it was the city of opportunity.
So here I was awkwardly shy for every bit of three days, when I finally got the courage to ask John Carter a single question. I was shocked I was even able to muster English much less, a coherent sentence. But there I was mic in hand asking John ‘how do you draw a Fibonacci extension?’ and John who teaches as easily as fish breathes underwater, pulled me up on stage and showed me just that.
Next thing I knew, I bought Carolyn Boroden’s book, took every single class she taught, and practiced like my life depended on it. Because well at the time, it kind of did. All I had was the remnants of a teacher’s salary to support both myself and my new baby.
Now as I sit here listening to Carolyn, I almost giggle to myself. Her teachings have become such an integral part of who I am as a trader, that I can’t imagine how I ever traded without her. It’s so important to my technical strategy. The crazier thing is that now, I can teach Fibonacci as well (which I do).
People always love to overuse this phrasing (but for this scenario I find it so true) if you told me three years ago in Vegas, sitting bewilderedly next to my dad, that in three years time I’d be the one talking on stage changing people’s lives… Well I would’ve either scoffed at you, or rolled my eyes so far back in my head I could’ve seen my brain.
But hey, I guess that’s what practice and crazy determination will do for you.