Think Like A Trader Blog

Thursday 20 October 2016

NEW Feature - Beginner Trader Voices - Blog Post 1 by Craig Sanders

 Hello Traders.

Today we start a new feature. Two beginner traders will be posting blog posts to thinklikeatrader.co.uk. The posts will be completely unedited by me and will allow you to step into the mind of a beginner trader. You can see the ups and the downs, the mindset and the goals they set themselves as they move forward. Hopefully it will also let you see that you are not alone in what you are doing and trying to achieve - trading can be a lonely business and I hope these blog posts will shine a light on what it is that you are striving for and help you along the way.

Our first post is from Craig Sanders. He will be a regular contributor to the blog, as will 'blogger two', who will be introduced next wee.

Below is Craig's first post and introduction (I think we can all agree that he suits the hat!)

I hope you have all had a great trading week!

James Orr





Blog Post 1 - Craig Sanders

Hi guys, my names Craig Sanders, I'm 31 years old, originally from the Midlands in England and have been residing in Australia for the past 7 years.

Originally back in 2009 i arrived in Australia on a 1 way ticket with the mindset of attempting to be a carefree backpacker with an unknown view of what to expect for the year to come.

I managed to travel around for several months doing all 'backpacker' type things, like  party, live a care free attitude and much much more. Then 1 day reality hit me in the face early one morning whilst waking up from yet "another heavy night out" in a filthy hostel in the city of Brisbane, in eastern Australia. The hangover, from what I recall was so sickening painful that I recall being laid in my bottom bunk reminiscing about what i should really be doing in life or will eventually go on to do, as I knew at that point that i no longer wanted to carry on living life on the edge and feeling this way on a daily basis.

That following lunchtime I remember checking my bank balance and seeing I had $45.00 left to my name. Here I am, an english guy on the other side of the world in a city I hardly knew my way around and feeling terrible yet sorry for myself from "another" chosen heavy night with the added realty check whilst standing in the stinking hot sun with a $45.00 digital balance staring me smack in the face. "Craig, what are you going to do"  It was at this point id decided get my act together and begin to search for some form of employment and seek some "normality" again as I knew it. (Get a job, save money, survive).

Dropping out of the travelling scene and finally securing employment after several months of being in Australia seemed to give me some sense of identity back to which I remember from my life in the UK. Get a job, work hard, save, repeat.

From that point on up until 2016 I had worked for 2 Mining companies in the outback of Australia on business sponsorship agreements which enabled me to earn a salary better than id ever been exposed to before in the UK and also the opportunity to choose anywhere I wished to live on the eastern side of the country due to the nature of my job.

In a period of a 1-2 years in the above position, I had pulled my finger out and saved extremely hard most of my income in order to buy some rental properties back home in the UK and take care of my own pension at the same time. I figured this was a smart thing to do at the age of 27 years old and remember to this day thinking "ahh ill enjoy myself after thats achieved" return to work and not worry about the future .... little did i know then, until of course afterwards that it would give me the drive and hunger to seek bigger and better goals once this had been accomplished!

fast forwarding .............................................................

Back in Oct 2015 - last year, I was on a domestic flight back out to the desert in the middle of Australia on my way to start my roster with work again, yay not!
Whilst sat beside a work college at the time who happened to be sat working different percentages out on his iPhone calculator in the seat next to me. I remember asking him what it was he was working out and winding him up about his age and retirement. Little did i expect for him to turn to me and say he was working out where to take his family on holiday with the profits he had gained from his trading account.

(This is the point ill always remember the "alarm bells" going off inside my head and where my curiosity & introduction to trading finally started.)

I guess my initial interest was in property investing and always wanting to be and do better in life than just work, sleep, work sleep. This type of mindset I believe is what lead me to the initial interest in trading and once introduced as I learned I thoroughly enjoyed it, what was involved and the opportunities it could potentially create for myself.

Initially when I began trading and actually started understanding it in more detail, I had the instant image in my head of how nice it would feel if it were possible to gain a secondary income of any value at all and then to add that to my primary work income and compound my overall earnings. Then this would of course allow me to either save more for investments, in turn making it a faster turn around and having the cashflow for when an opportunity arises or begin to plant some roots down in Australia and finally buy a home to live in myself with a lot more ease.

My current aim within this next year is to continue with reaching my goal I set 'daily' which is "to be a consistently profitable trader".  No matter how small this profitability is, as long as its consistent and continues this way then I'm content for now and will continue to keep learning and progressing forwards.

My hope in the near future around year 2-3 of my trading journey would be to be well on my way of striving forward and growing my trading account and hopefully being able to withdraw a small enough income whilst also continuing to grow my knowledge, skills and of course account at the same time.
As time does progress and the years slowly pass by my overall aim is to be continually improving my trading. This meaning, rectifying any errors I make that could have been avoided and always working on turning any error into a consistent rectification moving forward. By year 5 I desire to be well on my way with trading success and for that ultimate moment of being able to acknowledge and say "I am a full time professional Trader" with that silent grin inside :)

2 comments:

  1. Great blog Craig, I look forward to following your journey, onwards and upwards 👍

    ReplyDelete