Adam Talbot – VIC

Prior to doing the Boardroom last year, my results were mediocre at best, but this year post-boardroom I have turned things around significantly. Boardroom truly is life changing.

As you can see my equity is trending up beautifully and is currently at +31.39R as I write this. But trading this system was a real test on my psychology.

I draw your attention to the red box I have drawn. It doesn’t look like much of a drawdown relative to that big line up next to it, but it was significant. My equity peak was +7.43R and then plummeted to -3.32R when the market pummeled me with loss after loss. To put that in perspective, if my risk size was $1,000 then my account would have went from $7,430 in profit down to -$3,320. As you can understand, it was incredibly hard on my psychology to keep going.

Prior to the Boardroom I would have either a) stopped trading the system all together and thrown the towel in, or b) tinkered with my rules. Both these would have stopped me getting in to what was about to come.

So my biggest lessons post boardroom so far have been:

a) CT/LB harp on and on about archetypes, and for good reason. Having a strict archetype was my key here. Your archetype needs to be so strict and binary that you can give it to someone else and they get the exact same signals. If not, you’ll get mediocre results (which my past history proved to me).

b) Perseverance to keep taking signals when the market is hitting you for six. The biggest thing that changed my thinking was to think in probabilities. I did this by trading in sample sizes of 20 trades, where I would commit to taking 20 trades with my rules no matter what. After that 20 trades I would tinker after analysing my results, then run another 20 trades. You quickly notice what works and what doesn’t work. Over time you’ll finesse your system. But you need to give things time do work, otherwise how do you know if they are effective or not?

c) Good record keeping. Keep a detailed spreadsheet and journal all of your trades and always take screenshots of your entry and exit. Analysing my results has helped significantly.

d) OUTLIERS! It’s been said a million times in the mentor program, but you need to truly believe that the money comes from outliers as you can see below:

As you can see I went for a pretty crappy run there in the middle, but then BANG a few outliers changed everything. Keep taking signals, keep your losses small and pyramid like a pig when trades are going your way. Raise your risk % when your equity is going well, drop your risk % when things are not going as well. Protect your capital and let compounding weave its magic.

e) Networking! Keeping in touch with my fellow boardroomer’s after the program ended last year also made a big difference. Make sure to utlise the amazing network of people we have here and bounce ideas off each other.