A Chat with a Trader – CommuniTraders Interviews Mike M
Mike M is a member of CommuniTraders forum since April 2016. He works in a high school helping young people coming from troubled backgrounds. He is 49 and from New Zealand but is currently in Australia where he resides. Mike has been keeping a great trading journal called: “Mike M Diary” and thanks to this, he also won the Trader of the Month. Mike has some experience from trading in 2007 where he was trading shares in the Australian Stock exchange.
How did you first get introduced to Binary Options Trading?
In November 2015 – I saw an advertisement on Yahoo and I was not even researching trading! Nevertheless, it got me interested since I had experience with trading shares since before.
How did you find your way to thatsucks.com and CommuniTraders?
Joined 2016 – I was looking for a mentor, preferably in Australia. So I went to Google and looked for “Binary Options Education” and found you guys!
If you studied at our school section, do you think it provided you with a good foundation?
Absolutely, the BOTS School was amazing. It was quite easy to get through with well-explained information.
Did you fall for any scams before you found us? If so, which scam was it?
Before I decided it was time to get myself a good mentor which led me to finding CommuniTraders, I found this site “binaryoptionsrobot.com” and the robot was a failure and I was losing money really fast. Within the hour I had already taken significant losses so I knew something was not right. They also sent me to CherryTrade – a broker with horrible reputation.
Except for the scam, you have probably made some other mistakes so far, can you mention one or two of your biggest mistakes?
Yeah! I was being charmed by these YouTube scam artists and their get-rich-quick strategies. They make you focus on the outcome like “the big payouts” instead of the journey that is ahead when it comes to learning how to trade. Interestingly, that’s what I teach my own students, that it’s about the process but at that point I suppose I was not yet listening to my own thoughts.
You won the Trader of the Month Award – how did you get there and how does it feel?
Overjoyed with the results but I know I have yet a long journey ahead but it was a good confidence-boost. Thanks to the continuous feedback I got in my trading diary from the experienced traders l advanced quicker and it was a good feeling having you guys around.
Are you trading live or on a demo account at the moment and how is it going?
I recently tried live trading but I was too nervous and didn’t do too good so I decided to go back to doing more demo trading to gain more confidence. Maybe I give the demo another one or two weeks to see if my win rate is good before going back live.
Have you used the CommuniTraders trading platform for practicing or copying trades?
In the beginning I did some trading there but no copy trading.
What else would you like to see, or more of, in the forums and the homepage?
Would be very nice to see more active diary keepers like Gary and other very active traders. I see beginners joining and introducing themselves but after that they don’t take the step towards starting their own diary and learning process.
Which broker or brokers are you with at the moment and are you happy with them?
I am trading with High/Low, the ASIC regulated broker. Haven’t tried to withdraw yet since I am just getting started with live trading but overall I am happy with them and an additional plus is that they are not pushy like other brokers I have had experiences with.
Which charting software are you using for your technical analysis?
I had trouble with MT4 so I went with TradingView and thanks to you guys guiding me in the right direction I don’t use too many indicators so I don’t need any advanced EA’s or strategies so any chart with technical tools do fine.
Which trading strategy or approach are you currently using? (talk expiry, favorite indicators or whatever, even fundamentals)
At first, I was using the simple balanced system. Today, price action is my method of trading thanks to the influence from you and Michael. And as someone who has tried it out for a while now I can say the method makes sense.
If you got to ask yourself a question and answer it, what would it be about?
“Are you enjoying trading and the journey of learning that comes with it?” – The answer is yes, I can confirm that I enjoy trading and I am actually even learning about myself, about how resilient I can be and commit to something. By the way, what is really interesting for me is being able to have all these amazing fellow traders from all around the world – making international friends.
What do you think of the future of binary options?
I am not sure but I hope it will remain a safe industry and that’s why I chose a local and regulated broker.
Final Advice from Mike to Newbies
My advice to newcomers is, be brave and remain resilient. What I mean is, don’t be afraid of “putting yourself out there”, don’t be a lurker and join the forum and share your charts and thoughts. Make yourself visible to the community here if you really want to learn. Whatever you do, go the Trading School and read it at least once – it will help you a whole lot.