Bruce Johnson was cashbackforexpiptroduced to the futures 100%cashbackforex as early as 1965, when he worked as a bidder at the Chicago Board of Trade in 1969, after graduating from law school, he was promoted to head a futures commission merchant, PackersTradingCo. After graduating from law school in 1969, he was elected to head a futures commission merchant - PackersTradingCo. Bruce: forex cashback easyn 1965, I started law school while working part-time at the Franklin Street Exchange. I was a bidder at the time cashbackforex experienced first-hand the life of those investors. Q: What was your in cashback forexial motivation to try trading? Was it money or other factors? Bruce: Trading is just a game, and I tend to think of it as providing the opportunity to compete with others I remember the old saying forexcashbackeasy Tony Montelano used to quote - "Money is just a marker". This quote had a deep impact on me Q: What do you think a successful futures investor needs to have? What are the characteristics of a good investors personality? Bruce: Ive looked around at all the investors Ive known, and they come from all different backgrounds, you look at John Greenberg, George Siegel, Lloyd Arnold and Bob Leuvenert, they all have a very low view of money, thats their commonality. -In fact, everyone wants to "If I make a million dollars, I will withdraw immediately", but with this mentality, he will never make a million dollars. But with this mentality, you will never make a million dollars, because real investors are rarely focused on money. Bruce: I just think that the masters do not trade simply for money, but see futures as a game and a challenge money is just a marker, if you count the profit and loss of money on the books every day, I think the situation will be very different but for them, money is just some numbers they do trade, just because they like the game Q: If investors care too much about money, you think it will distract them from Do you think it will distract investors from investing? Bruce: Personally, I think so. If every time you trade, youre always muttering, "I have to make as much money as I can," its hard to trade. Ive been there myself, so I understand that when youre trading, if youre carrying a burden, as if you need the money desperately and have to work hard to get it, its hard to get what you want. When you do not need money, the market will instead send you money! I believe it has to do with the psychological world of the investor, you start trading with a lot of pressure, trying to find the way to success, then you simply can not succeed Q: I do not know if I understand correctly, as you said, the masters of the concept of indifference to money, meaning that the attention is not only on the money and now you do the same, just focus on trading, do not even think about the book profit and loss, just in Bruce: Yes, the masters always think less about money, or rather, they are all mentally free people We all saw how Gil performed in the bond market, and it really wasnt money that motivated him to make a trade A person who makes a trade in the market with money not on his mind, not to trade for money, sounds illogical, but it is true Q: What do you think are the psychological obstacles to success What are the psychological obstacles to successful futures trading? Youve already mentioned some of them, such as people being too stressed and having too much desire for money, what other factors do you think are holding people back from success? Bruce: I think one of the most important factors is the psychological structure, because its hard to change our nature I think that most investors are adapted to a certain lifestyle and they are only fit to live that way I think you have to be comfortable inside yourself and not make it difficult for yourself, theres no need to burden yourself with things like having to earn $20,000 a month, pay a deposit or whatever debt you have, dont let your psyche Its so important that you accept the market, try to get along with it, get out of the shadow of the clutter, and keep a clear view of the market Q: So, these investors are entangled in the clutter of external affairs, cocooned, but for the immediate market is lost? Bruce: Yes, they also fall into the psychological misconception that they are better than the market, which is very wrong Q: Many investors measure their talent based on how much money they make in the market, which we all know is usually not very true Bruce: Yes, many talented people who excel in other areas have difficulty adapting in the futures market and showing their talent Q: Do you think an outstanding Q: Do you think a great investor is born or does he learn to be a great investor? Bruce: Thats a good question. From the bottom of my heart, I do think its natural. For example, Gill doesnt think hes been beaten, which is puzzling. Every investor Ive interviewed thinks Gill is a "tragedy", but when asked about Gill himself, he feels very differently Bruce: Hes never felt defeated! I guess hes very sensible and maybe hes not wrong in his analysis of market movements, but hes not frustrated because hes made a mistake and disrupted his analysis in advance. I think this is very important for futures investors because sometimes it is easy to dwell on failure. If you aspire to be a successful investor, you have to put those shadows behind you and move on. Bruce: Dont always try to recover lost money, since you lost money, forget about it and move on to the next trade. What was the psychological sticking point that you had to work through? Bruce: My first two attempts ended in failure when I only had $1,800 and $3,000 in capital, and I even lost the money my wife had saved to buy a house on installment payments. I knew that my father would be disappointed in me if I didnt go into law, and all my law school classmates were already practicing law, but I still wanted to give the futures market a try, and I had to turn things around. I started to look at futures trading again, for once in my life, there were so many things I couldnt figure out, and it took me three weeks to get back on my feet and I had to borrow money to make ends meet. However, I still had to close out all my positions after that, and guess what? I started buying again in small batches, and when the live cattle market bottomed out, I recovered all my losses. Q: What did you do to encourage yourself in order to boost your morale and start over? I mean, closing out a position just provides wiggle room, however, getting back into the market is the real reason for your success, how did you come out of your depression and then make a decisive move, what was your belief? Bruce: I just got back up like I always do I bought 5 lots and then added 10 lots and like two weeks later I was holding a couple of hundred lots of positions again I think its like that familiar analogy where you fall off the horse, get back up and just roll over and get on the horse I believe that if you sit there and just give up on yourself its going to get worse I started trading again right away and then. I swore that I would never hold more than 50 lots in the future! But I never kept my promise, and two weeks later the position was back up to 200 lots and I was still eyeing the opportunity to buy more Q: You were confident that you were right about the market? Bruce: Thats right. For me, it was really etched in my mind because the market trend lasted only two weeks and started to turn down again, and I was very frustrated at that time. Bruce: I kind of make a game with myself I said to myself, you can meet unpredictable in this business, that is, in other industries, there will be trouble; in the futures market, you have had moments of euphoria, now its your turn to fail, its nothing Q: If you made a trade in the live cattle market at 75 cents, the day after going long, the market fell about 100 points, how do you feel? Bruce: I would buy more. When I make a trade, I dont just throw in the towel at a certain price, like everyone else does. So do you always have an analysis and a judgment of the market and then follow it? Bruce: I dont sit down all day and analyze all kinds of numbers, I talk to people, I talk to people that I respect, and I do technical analysis, which is necessary. Bruce: Its hard to say. I sometimes suddenly say, "Weve won the trade and we can get out of it with a profit. Bruce: Yes, when my analysis is wrong, I also feel very difficult but when the market is against me, I do not care, only when the final result does not match my expectations, I feel pain Q: As long as the market as a whole in the direction you expected, even if the market is a day or two away from the direction, you can still maintain a normal state Do you pay attention to the markets daily movements? Bruce: I watch the markets, but they dont mean much to me, I always watch the overall market action I would say, this morning the pork bellies went up to $45, so they should pull back about halfway or so and then they can stop falling if the market does move that way and the market pulls back and then goes back up to $45, but I dont take any action, I just do it after the market has achieved its expected Q: How do you feel inside when the market moves in your favor? Bruce: I just want to buy more positions, I always want to buy more if I have money lying around, and I find thats a weakness of mine, the right thing to do is to move your money around for a while, otherwise you think youre safe, but theres a crisis lurking. Bruce: Its hard to say that in April, I predicted that the price of live cattle would go up to $85, and I thought it would break through that level, but it didnt for a long time, but the market ended up very close to that level. Some people think its unthinkable to take a position in live cattle to $85, but Im convinced its going to go up to that level. Bruce: Absolutely not! Q: So how do you keep a positive mindset? Bruce: Every morning I always say to myself, "Im going to have a good day," and even if its not a good day, I always see the positive side of things. As an investor, what are your personal beliefs? Bruce: I believe in my own ability to not be swayed by others When I want to go long, even if others go short in the other direction, it doesnt affect me I have full confidence in my own judgment In addition, I think I have a strange ability to see others I can feel the market for example, when the market is moving badly, it doesnt affect me I would say to myself. "Oh, Im the bravest in this market." Also, Im decisive when it counts. I dont sit there and dream, if I decide to buy, I enter the market. If I were a car dealer and traded 100 cars, I wouldnt buy 100 cars at once when I thought it was time to buy, I would always buy 10 at the beginning and then buy at a later time. Bruce: Bob Luvernacht had a deep impact on me, I think Luvernacht was a bit of a fearless man, Luvernacht taught me not to be afraid of the size of the position in my hands I also have a lot of respect for Glen Branomigan, he was a very good man in the market but for him futures was not a game, he was very practical they Each has their own strengths, and I benefit greatly from that. I really appreciate the discipline of Buonomegan, and I also have a lot of respect for Louvernachts approach to the market Q: Do you have any words of encouragement or advice for those who are new to futures investing, or for futures investors who are eager to succeed? Bruce: I would tell people that one important thing is that you cant trade with borrowed money or you will put yourself under the pressure of only winning and not losing. He doesnt like to buy when the market comes to support at the trend line, instead, he likes to sell there and if he buys, if the market can penetrate it, its all over. -He said he couldnt believe how big the deals were at the tops and bottoms of the market every day, but strangely enough, everyone thought it was the stupidest thing hed ever done, and they admonished him, saying he was too young to do that, and they said theyd never seen a novice do that before, and they lectured him, and he agreed with them. Baldwin recognizes the need to ignore the opinions of others and fundamentally his strategy is to reduce his risk. He says he may set this limit, but doesnt think hell really lose it At the end of a losing trading day, he has the comforting thought - "Its only 10 percent of my net worth" The most hes ever lost in a day was $312,500 He doesnt give himself a day off for it -He didnt believe in this theory. He didnt think he needed to leave when he was down. He had good emotional control. He thinks it has been proven over and over again that the market goes where it wants to go, no matter who is in the middle of the road or what is in the middle of the road, and that is why one should trade ten lots as much as one lot. He needs to know where the market is going. The market repeats history. He focuses on acting quickly and never hesitates. He generally knows in advance where he will buy and sell. If what he thinks should happen does happen, he does it in a flash, he knows its right, he doesnt hesitate - if he hesitates, the opportunity runs away. He has a theory that explains why traders reach a certain level because everyone arrives at a "satisfactory" level. "Everyone starts with one contract - and if they want to succeed, they should.