Equitimax Insiders Circle - Why Derek Evans Became A Trader. Find out why Derek changed patsh 20 years ago and chose trading

2. Tell me, why would I want to be a trader?
Becoming a trader and making money in the financial markets is something that either
appeals to you or it doesn't. So does it appeal to you? And why would you would want
to be a trader?
Well, part of the answer's easy. Most people want a better job. You know what better
means, don't you? Work less and get paid more. Now a great trader's income can be
almost unbelievable, so there's at least one reason you'd definitely want to be a trader.
But apart from the financial rewards, there are lots of other reasons you could be
interested. Money can't be the only reason, simply because not every trader makes
millions.
Some of those same reasons may do the opposite and convince you that it's just not for
you, so I can't make your mind up for you. But I can tell you how it was for me. If you
bear with me, I'll try to keep the history short and get to the main points as soon as
possible.
From where I sit, trading the markets is better than digging ditches in the sun, polishing
my pants on a seat in an office, or selling my friends soap powder. Perhaps you can
associate with part of my reasoning somewhere in the story?

3. Before I start, I want you to know that common sense will tell you that anything that can
provide great rewards like being a great trader can't come to you without effort. You
have to actually do something to make it happen. It takes practice to be good at
anything.
I grew up in an average family. At least it was then - two parents, three kids. We owned
our modest house after the mortgage was paid, we had a recent model car and a
caravan for holidays. We got new clothes when we needed them and a few treats. On
the whole, everything was pretty rosy. Dad worked hard to support the family and put
food on the table, and mum worked hard too – but she worked at home, not in a job.
Mum never had a job after she got married and got pregnant. She was a typical example
of that dying breed, the suburban housewife.
Families could afford to have a housewife back then. We got woken up each morning,
breakfast on the table and lunch neatly packed for school. During the day mum cleaned
the house, did the shopping and met some other mums for social events. She was
happy. Dad was happy. We were all happy. Life was probably pretty average, but we
didn't really want anything else.
Then something changed.

4. Petrol became dearer. House prices started to rise, and so did the cost of a beer. The
government started creating more departments and employing more bureaucrats, so
taxes went up. Unions started striking for all sorts of reasons. Then we got McDonalds,
and all those copycats weren't far behind. They bombarded us with advertising to eat
junk food. We were being told our lives weren't as good as they could be, so we worked
harder. Mums had to start looking for a job so that the family could get a bigger house
and keep up with the Joneses.
I grew up and got married, had children. Attitudes became more American. The TV told
us so, with more and more American content. Everyone started wanting more. More
money, more fun, more holidays. Many people were locked on a treadmill and didn't
care. Not only did they just not realise there was another way, they simply weren't
aware there was even any problem.
New drugs for stress management popped up and became fashionable.
I was leaving home at 6:25am precisely each day to arrive in the office at 7:00am. Then
leaving the office around 5pm to get home about six. I was working as a consultant in a
government office and on call 24 hours, including weekends. I did it for years.

5. The view was great as I crossed the Sydney harbour bridge each morning, and I saw the
wretched thing thousands of times. Often it was dark by the time I got home. The pay
and the high roller job wasn't really compensation for feeling totally drained most
waking hours.
Jump in the time capsule and zoom forward to today...
There are nowhere near as many suburban housewives as there used to be. Girls have
to survive financially too, and once they get their independence they often don't want
to be housewives because there's too many other things to do. Dads go to work, kids go
to school, mums go to work. The housework comes last. The kids want to go to soccer or
piano or dancing, everyone's timetable is so much fuller. The letterbox is full of junk
mail. The TV's full of advertisements telling you what you should own or how you should
look.
The government takes more than ever before. Now you need two incomes because your
car registration has doubled, insurance costs are up and they're taking up a petition to
sack the council because they're wasting our rates. With half our adult population
supported either directly or indirectly by the government, no wonder costs are soaring.

6. But what the heck can you do about it?
I can tell you what I did.
I decided I'd had enough of the rat race in 1995. I had a new daughter, though I saw little
of her, except when she was asleep. I think I finally made the decision to change when I
realised I hadn't seen my baby awake for the whole working week. Except in the middle
of the night, of course, when I was too tired and just put my head under the blanket
when mum got up to feed her.
I was well paid, so I had the luxury of some financial security. I started reading the paper
looking for ideas. Businesses for sale, investment opportunities, all that sort of thing. I
went from an ice cream shop in Byron Bay to a tyre retailer and on to a training
organisation touring South East Asia. Nothing really grabbed me.
One day, I stopped to think about it. These were the options I faced:
• Keep doing my job, working myself to death. I was over it, and so I never really
considered doing this.
• Improve my position using further education to get myself a better pay rate or
promotion. This also seemed to be just more of the same old treadmill. It wasn't about
the money and retirement was miles away anyway.
• Change jobs – still more of the same.

7. • Become spiritual and sit on a mountain. Curses. Flower power had died in the
seventies.
• Find a way to leverage my time and money using some business and/or investment
ideas. This sounded really attractive, but I really didn't have much experience.
What sort of investment would be suitable? Lots of my work associates were buying
negatively geared investment properties hoping for big capital gains, and that sounded
nice except I'd have to keep my job to finance the debt.
I'd already invested in the stock market using a margin loan facility. That was
recommended by my financial advisor, but the recommended shares didn't do quite as
well as she'd told me they might, so I was a bit sour about the stock market too.
I was stumped. I went back to looking at businesses.
The local coffee shop looked like a good idea until I found out how many hours I'd be
working a week, particularly on the weekends. Then there was the small problem that I
didn't drink coffee. Cross that one out.
Some years before I had signed up to become an Amway distributor, until I realised that
the price paid for every product had to support an enormous up-line commission
scheme. Not many of us get a kick out of selling expensive soap to our friends and
neighbours. Cross that one out too.

8. I quickly figured that most business opportunities required a rather large investment in
capital, with no guarantee of success. They also usually required leasing premises which
meant financial obligations for years even if the business failed. I'd have to buy stock and
try to guess whether customers would want to buy it. I'd need licences and compliance
with the rules and regulations. I'd have accounting work to do. I figured that a lot of
people did this because they wanted to work for themselves, but to replace my salary I
was going to need to make a huge investment first, in the order of hundreds of
thousands of dollars. That sounded too risky.
So I looked at work from home businesses so that I wouldn't have to commit to an
extended outlay in the form of a commercial lease. I soon discovered mostly multi level
marketing so-called opportunities – and I just wasn't an MLM type of person.
I seemed to be running out of options. I was becoming desperate.
A light at the end of the tunnel.
Then one day I saw a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. It was a small ad in the
Sydney Morning Herald. It said:
Learn to trade the financial markets from home
Want to get out of the rat race? Join our four day intensive workshop and discover the
exciting world of international futures and options. Be independent.. Get unlimited
earning potential. Call now.

9. So I did. I called the number and spoke to a polite and mature sounding gentleman for
about half an hour. He invited me along to an information evening later in the month. I
accepted immediately, even though I knew it was a sales pitch.
When I got there, the room was full of people talking in English, but using words I didn't
understand.
The room became quiet as the guru got up and started talking, weaving a kind of magic
in a soft and mesmerising voice. He explained how it was possible to profit from the
movement of a curious financial beast called a stock index future. He said I could sell
stock that I didn't even own, and I could buy lots of it without having enough money to
do so. This sounded a bit scary, but kind of exciting at the same time. I understood this
idea of leveraging a little from the margin loan facility I had had.
The guru spent a couple of hours spinning a spell I haven't forgotten. As he talked, my
excitement grew. In my mind, I started ticking boxes. This might have the potential of the
business I was looking for. These were some of my ticks:
• Low start-up cost, so low risk
• Not tied to wages
• No boss
• Can sell stock I don't have
• No lease

10. No staff worries
• No creditors
• Work as many days as I liked
• Unlimited income potential
• No more driving over the wretched harbour bridge!!!
I looked for the downside. While I was doing so, my new friend explained that there
were no secrets, and no Holy Grail of success. He pointed out that a wish list like the one
I was ticking wasn't just there for the taking, but would have to be earned. He said
enigmatically that the downside was only within ourselves, and we each would have to
learn to deal with that. My buoyant enthusiasm after checking off my tick list brushed
his comment and any other potential problems aside. Who wouldn't be interested in
working a job where you could tick a list like mine?
So, I signed up immediately for the $2500 intensive four day course.
Four weeks later I was educated and bristling with enthusiasm. Another week and I had
a live futures trading account open with a Sydney broker. I was ready to go.

11. In a nutshell, this is what I learned:
• There are thousands of financial markets worldwide that trade the price of stocks,
commodities, bonds and other financial instruments. Some are even made up and mean
nothing.
• Using a charting program that shows the history of prices as a guide, and with a bank
account opened at a brokerage house, a trader can buy or sell these financial
instruments hoping to profit from the changing prices.
• I could rent a charting program and data delivery system (prices coming live over the
phone network to my computer screen) so I could trade the markets any time they're
open, and somewhere in the world there is a market open right now Monday to Friday.
• I had to take the weekend off because all the markets were closed. This was getting
better and better.
• Unlike stocks which I had to buy low and sell higher to make a profit, I could also sell
high first, then buy lower later. In other words, I didn't need to own the commodity first
to profit from its price movement.
• There was a specific language of terms I had to know. I now knew it. Well, some of it.
Later, I discovered I was missing some really important bits.
• Charts could have 'indicators' attached to them that helped show the true direction, or
trend, of the prices.

12. Now let me explain, back then (18 years ago) things were different. We didn't really have
the internet. Mobile phones were bricks. To get access to live stock and futures data was
expensive. Trading sizes were large – even as an absolute beginner I needed to have big
market exposure. Every time the market moved the tiniest bit up or down my bank
balance varied by at least $25. If it went on a run I could easily be out of pocket
hundreds of dollars in a few minutes. That could (and did) happen several times a day. It
could soon make mincemeat of my previous 'executive' salary.
Nowadays, access to the markets is very different. If you want to trade stocks, futures,
forex or just about anything, you can do it online. Not so then, you had to make a
telephone call and there were strictly coded rapid messages you had to learn before you
could communicate with your broker. He was busy, really busy. So you had to get the
order right first time, and be quick about it. The pressure was quite remarkable. I can
still remember my heart thumping during those first phone calls. My broker was going to
be placing my trades on the dealing floors of Sydney, Singapore and Hong Kong. I was a
big man now.

13. Despite the nerves, I wasn't put off. I'd paid for the education and was was committed. I
opened a trading account with $6,000 which was about as small an account as possible.
My new broker looked at me like I was cannon fodder. He'd paid a commission to the
guru to get my business, and it wasn't looking like he'd done a good deal.
He was right. It only took me two weeks to reduce my $6,000 to under $2,000. My new
broker friend made a few bucks on the commission he was charging me for each trade I
took. I was stunned. Numb. I stopped trading. I had to.
My total lack of ability was apparent.
Persistence pays
My education had got me to speak the lingo, and taught me the mechanics, but that was
all. I really had no idea what I was doing. I still remember my broker's words, when he
called to let me know the outcome of my trades. They were always along the lines of
“Another loss I'm afraid”or “Stopped out on that one, chum”. Chum?
So I'd paid $2,500 for the education and over $4,000 in losses, about $6,500 all up. But,
ever optimistic, I decided who cares, because now I knew what a limit order was and
what SPI and OCO meant. I was a trader. Yahoo!

14. After a deep breath and when the numb feeling wore off a few days later, I realised that
even if this particular trader was maybe just a little deflated, he was nevertheless still
determined. Some analysis was needed. I realised I had often been buying when the
market had already gone up, and was about to fall. My method of trading was poor. I'd
been given it by a fellow trader who must have found it inside a cornflakes packet. I had
trusted him because he was more experienced.
I was learning some unwritten rules of the game.
So where to next?
My conclusion after about three seconds was that more work was needed. There was no
way I was giving this up and having to keep crossing the old coat-hanger twice a day.
So, having a background in computers, I decided to use a load of historical chart data ,
going back a number of years, and see if I could find any repeating patterns in the
markets. Then I should be able to find a way to exploit these patterns.

15. I paid another $2000 for some testing software called Tradestation. Then there was the
pager I had to buy so I could keep up with the market prices – I think it was about $500
plus about $95 a week. Within a couple of months I was down the tube to the sum of
about $10,000. I still wasn't giving up, and I still didn't have a way of trading the markets.
I reassessed my position. OK, so I had spent about $10,000. How did that compare with
buying or starting a small business? I realised I had this thing totally out of perspective. I
was looking for a new lifestyle and had been contemplating spending well over 10 times
that amount to get it. I laughed at myself. What a dope. Now I realised that even if I
needed to spend double or three times my $10,000 to make this new business a
success, I would still be well ahead of the alternative.
Over the years as a trader I did spend perhaps $30,000 on courses, books, training
classes and so on. I found a simple formula for making money on a couple of markets. I
stuck to that for a couple of years until one day it simply stopped working. I certainly had
a lucky start.
I had discovered a very basic rule of how to make money in the markets.
You need a systematic approach to eliminate the emotion.

16. This is really, really important!
When I was placing trades worth tens of thousands of dollars, there was no way I was
going to trust myself to make a decision worth that amount of money at that very
moment. What if I had just had an argument with the wife? I would be feeling badly and
be tempted to do something in the market I normally wouldn't. And equally importantly,
what if my last ten trades had all been winners? Would I get cocky and forget my normal
careful procedure before trading? Could I jump the gun and give the broker the wrong
order?
This is worth repeating for emphasis. To become a successful trader, you must have a
defined method of trading you can trust and stick to. Later, when you are more in
harmony with the markets, you can deviate. That will be after you fully understand your
method and have used it many times. It's like when your Dad taught you to drive. Mine
always said “Do what I say, not what I do”.

17. So what is a trading method?
A method of trading is a group of rules that you can apply to the market. You open a
chart, have a look at it and use it to tick the boxes on your list. Your boxes might be
things like:
• Is this a market I usually trade?
• Is this a good time of day to trade?
• Is it a public holiday?
• Are there any economic news releases expected that could impact the market?
• Does my crystal ball say buy, or sell?
• Do the wiggly lines on the chart look like a possum's tail?
So it's a set of rules. You can have a very simple trading system, like If this market goes
higher today I'm going to buy it, or you can build a complex system with dozens of rules.
The simpler your rules, the easier it is to develop faith in your method and the easier it is
to follow.
I personally spent years trading in ways so simple I'd be embarrassed to tell a pre-schooler.
Sadly, the markets are more complex these days and my really simple methods
don't work nearly so well any more.

18. Ways to trade
There are lots of different ways of trading, but they can be broadly broken down into
two groups. You can either:
• trade in the overall direction of the market, or
• you can trade against it.
After many years of trying both ways, looking back I can see I have made my best money
by trading in the same direction that the market is generally moving. You can tell if the
trend is up. Look at a price chart and if the prices start lower on the left hand side than
they are on the right, the trend is up. Don't laugh, it made me money.
It might seem obvious to some, but I can tell you there are definitely successful ways of
trading against the overall trend of the market. Consider this. It is easier in your thought
process to want to buy into a market that looks low rather than one that is already high
– but the outcome is often the opposite. Do you start to get the picture?
You can break it down another way too. You can trade for lots of short, sharp profits,
occasionally taking a large loss, or you can trade for a small number of large wins but be
prepared to take lots of little losses in the search for those big wins. It's great to say that
90% of your trades are wins, but if your next loss is ten times as big as your usual win.....
then ouch.

19. I have found for peace of mind the best way is a compromise between the two. If I can
make two wins for each loss, and the wins and the losses are of a similar size, then over
a series of trades I'm going to make money.
You can't avoid the losses. They are a cost of doing business, and sometimes a loss is a
relief after a series of wins (strange how the mind works) because it takes away the
threat of an upcoming loss.
The thrill/despair of trading
Something I wasn't prepared for before I started trading was the emotional charge it
gave me. Taking trades in the market is at first a very draining emotional experience and
your foolish brain will try to talk you into trades you shouldn't take, and it will talk you
out of trades that you should take. Wait till you try it, you'll find out.
If you're prone to gambling, you may find yourself taking more trades than you should,
just for the buzz it gives you. If you're not a gambler by nature, you'll probably take
fewer trades than you should. I'm the second type.
Trading is not about the buzz. It's a way of getting a life that you like more than the one
you have now. If you learn it and do it well, I will guarantee you one day you will find it
boring. That day, you will likely have become a successful trader.

20. Was it all worth it?
That initial investment in training has paid me back dozens of times. But it did take many
years for me to be able to read the markets well, and even now I understand I can never
read any market with anything like perfect accuracy. More importantly perhaps, I now
realise neither can anyone else.
For years as a beginner I suspected there was a way to make money by understanding
the markets. You see, even though I made good money trading, I still had lots of losses.
Many young traders make the mistake of believing there is a magic way of seeing the
market and being able to take money from it at will. They strive for that Holy Grail of
trading, the pure method that will allow them to simply turn on the computer screen
and place trades that always make money.
Surprise! There is no such thing.
Now I'm sure you don't find that a surprise at all.
On the other hand, you may be surprised to know that there really are traders who can
take money out of the markets whenever they feel like it. Every one of these people has
common traits. I found out what they are, and I'll share them with you.

21. They are persistent
• They are disciplined
• They are really persistent
• They put their ego on a shelf when trading
• They are very persistent
• They are not afraid
Easy really, isn't it? Now most of these more mature, successful traders had to learn the
ropes themselves. There was no internet to learn from. Other successful traders were
hard to find. So the process took years. Nowadays there are some genuine training
organisations that can help shorten the process considerably. It can be much easier.
Be aware though, no amount of training can make you a successful trader unless you
have, or build, the traits I've listed above.
If I had to do it again...
Looking back, for me, there was one vital component missing in my education.
It was that of a mentor.

22. I never had anyone tell tell me whether my train of thought was heading down the right
track. Yes, I read books. Yes, I attended training classes. Yes, I talked to my broker. When
he told me I was the only private trader on his books that had been there a year ago, I
was stunned. I knew nothing. How could that be? Much later I understood it was
because I had displayed exactly those traits I've listed above, and despite my lack of
technical knowledge I had used a good trading method to make consistent profit.
Despite this I still thought there was something I wasn't getting, and I spent years feeling
that way. All I needed was an older and wiser successful trader to tell me that I already
had what I needed. There was no need to search for something more. It would have
saved me years of study, doubt and worry. My original guru had turned out to be a great
salesman and coach, but a poor trader. (This is not a criticism. Even world champions
have coaches and we've never heard of them.)
In hindsight, having a mentor is probably the most important factor in shortening the
time to becoming a profitable trader. Without this, it is just so easy to head off in the
wrong direction and spend ages trying to get out.

23. Hit and run criminals
Not one of the training classes or courses I took provided any mentoring service. I
started to refer to all these educators as hit and run.. I called them this because some
would drag you into a weekend 'intensive' class session with a hundred others, charge
you a grand a day, fill your head full of mumbo jumbo, and pop you out the other side.
Voila! Just add water and you're an expert. Oh, and if that doesn't work, then there's the
phase 2 super class. Just wait. If you want to know the top secrets, and you're struggling
with what we've taught, for just $5000 more come along for a week and get the stuff
that really works.
Avoid those jokers. A weekend? A week? What can you learn in that? It infuriates me to
think that anyone would be so naïve to imagine they could tick off my whole list in a
week
This weekend, you can learn foreign exchange Next weekend, maybe accountancy, The
following weekend, a bit of neurosurgery.

24. Trading today
Trading nowadays is much easier than it used to be. You can trade Retail forex on the
internet. The charts that used to be so expensive to obtain are now provided free to
entice new players into the market.
There are dozens of online brokers now, and countless home traders. There are even
more aspiring home traders. However, there are very few home traders making a
consistent living out of online retail forex. It's really easy to get involved, you can
download demonstration accounts free of charge and watch charts all day if you wish.
So you can learn the basic mechanics for nothing. It's a bit like you can buy any tool you
like at Bunnings, take it home and have a go. Eventually you'll get the hang of it.
So if it's all so good, why isn't my butcher and the postman doing it?
Well, your butcher could try it, but he probably wouldn't succeed. He'd give up before
he got too far, and so would most people. That's what happens. Try it, because it's free
and give it a few hours. Make a few losing trades and give up. Some even get as far as
opening a live (real money) trading account, but usually quickly lose their money. They
don't understand the rules of the game.

25. Zero sum?
Some financial markets are called zero-sum, because there's only a fixed amount of
money in the system and for every buyer there has to be a seller – for every loser there's
a winner.The point about a zero sum game is that there are position holders on both
sides of the trade and that the gain on one side is a loss on the other side. This is true of
forex and futures markets, and some others, but it isn't true of a market like stocks and
other actual assets. In most financial markets there is a cost of doing business, called
brokerage. That's a fee the broker charges you for executing your order. So if you take
out the brokerage fee (he always wins) there's still most of the money to be given to the
winners by the losers. The losers come and go, there's a new batch every day, week,
month. The winners hang around to take the money from the these bright-eyed, bushy-tailed
hopefuls.It can never be any other way. Everyone can't win, so the players with
the most experience do, and the others don't. That's why you might have heard that the
number one reason for business and trader failure is under-capitalisation. If you're going
to get involved, you need the money so you don't get knocked out in the first round.
Forex is essentially a zero sum game. Every currency exchange needs two participants.
There are however, a lot of participants who are not speculating for profit. International
commercial transactions and tourism transactions are two examples. So as a trader,
you're not actually competing against everyone else in the market.

26. Technical and fundamental analysis
Much has been written about this, so I'm not going to dwell on it. Fundamentals are the
economic realities that drive the markets – interest rate changes, the strength of one
economy over another, statistics releases about CPI, unemployment and other factors
that can be leading indicators about the future direction of a country's economy and the
demand for it's currency.
It's practically impossible for a home trader to be a fundamental trader. Your trades
need to last a long time, you need to do a lot of research and importantly, you need
deep pockets. You can, however, make money by being a technical trader.
A technical trader believes that all you need to know is presented to you on a chart. By
adding straight and squiggly lines to the chart (technical indicators) a technical trader
can sometimes predict, with reasonable probability, the future direction of a currency.
Of course, you have to know what you're looking for.

27. So, now, would you want to be a trader?
If you have read this far, you might be considering it.
Here's one way. This way, all it costs you is your time and a small outlay in cash.
Type forex forum or a variation of this into your favourite internet search engine. Ask
someone to tell you when it's the weekend, because you'll need that much time just to
become orientated. Read about a hundred different ways of building a trading method.
Wake up dazed and no wiser in six months.
While you're doing this, get a demo account with a forex broker. Type forex broker into
the search engine, you'll find quite a few. Download the trading platform and spend a
few days working out how to use it. Wake up dazed and still playing with monopoly
money in six months.
Read some books on trading. The forums will tell you which ones. This is the way I did it,
but without the internet of course. I would never do it that way again, not now there are
much better tools and training facilities. Your chance of failure is, without exaggeration,
close to 100%.
Here's another way.

28. A better process?
Exchange months of your time for some of your money. Find a reputable training
organisation. There are a few, but beware of their Holy Grail promises. Trading for a
living is not a way to get rich quickly, but at some time nearly everyone thinks that it can
be. Wake up! It's not. Trading can however tick the boxes for you like it did for me.
Remember I wrote about the difficulty of not having a mentor? Without a mentor you
can spend an awful lot of time wandering down blind alleys in the search for the things
that really count. Wouldn't it be nice if someone could just serve you those things on a
plate?
Remember too I wrote about the hit and run merchants? They don't care too much
about you, they want to take your money and move on to the next client. You won't
make progress there either. You'll end up paying for several of their courses and dancing
from one educator to the next. This could be expensive.
Here's a list of what I think you need to become a successful trader:

29. Education about the markets and its terminology
• An understanding of the mechanics of placing trades
• Basic computer skills
• Some simple technical analysis tools
• A plan, a strategy
• The ability to test and stick to your plan
• A great deal of psychological awareness of how you can be derailed
• An understanding of risk and how to take correctly sized trades
• The ability to take responsibility for your own actions
And here's a list of what you don't need:
A huge amount of money
Knowledge of every technical indicator
Exceptional computer skills
An ego
Preconceived ideas and bad trading habits (easy to pick up)

30. Where does it lead?
Now to the point. If you're going to choose someone to help you become a trader, you
need to find a friend who understands the markets and has made money consistently.
Now that's a tough call. Otherwise you can employ a professional company that:
• Provides you with individual training. You don't want to sit in a class with others,
because you're not going to get the attention you need, nor detailed enough answers to
your questions. There's always questions, and usually after the session is over. One on
one training is vital. Everyone learns at a different pace, and in different ways.
• Provides you with training materials in both written and audio visual form. One
reinforces the other. You'll need a personal trainer to make sure you understand
everything, who sets you homework based on the training material, and reviews your
work one on one with just you and you alone.
• Spreads the training out so you can get some real market practice while you make
progress. You need to learn step 1, then practice it. Only then should you go to step 2.
That's the way they do it in school, isn't it?
• Gives you feedback about your performance, what you're doing right, and what you're
doing wrong. Individually.
• Takes you on a personal journey from total novice up to a stage where you know
everything you need to know to become a successful trader.

31. Supports you individually along the way, over a period of months rather than days.
Now that I'm older, I'm finding there's a buzz in helping others achieve their goals too. I
lacked a mentor and it cost me years. I never had someone to tell me when I was
heading in the right direction.
As a result, I set up the Equitimax Insiders Circle, yes I still trade and I manage all the
trading for the Equitimax Managed Trading Fund but these days i also get my thrills by
helping our clients learn about the markets and how they can make money there. Other
people who, like me, are getting tired of the daily grind.

32. Equitimax Insiders Circle (EIC)
EIC is an educator in trading. We have a very structured and detailed training course. It
provides:
• Individual tailored weekly one on one lessons
• Mandatory homework tasks
• Audio visual presentations
• A specific method of trading the markets allowing you to develop your own trading
plan
• Feedback and fine tuning of your trading plan
• Training events several times a week on the internet
• A challenge to you to trade the markets, once you understand what to do. Every trade
you take in this challenge stage is individually reviewed and assessed by your trading
mentor. We nag you to do better.
• Weekly market reviews each Monday, in a live trading environment.
• Ongoing trading and technical personal support for 12 months or more.
And it's in this ongoing support you will find the mentoring service that you need to be
successful at this business. Now remember I said right at the start
“common sense will tell you that anything that can provide great rewards like being a
great trader can't come to you without effort”

33. It's true. EIC will not guarantee your success. We don't hand out ATM cards. You have to
want to do it, and you have to be willing to make the effort. Do you, and will you?
If you're interested in this lifestyle, take a good look at EIC. We're not the biggest or
flashiest, but that's not what you need.
We won't show you expensive cars (except to make a point) or the lifestyles of the rich
and famous so we can entice you into a dream you'll never realise. But we will give you a
practical, down to earth education and save you many, many hours of frustration. So you
can give yourself a chance.
Will you make it? Can you make it? I don't know. You may or you may not, it's up to you
and nobody else. You can be assured, however, that we will do everything we can to
make sure you do make it. When you ask, we help.
EIC intends to – Turn people into traders. That's what we are about