Zak Mir Interviews Vince Stanzione Part 2

Zak Mir: So you are effectively vetting your students before they start. Does this mean that the demographic they represent have the best chance of winning in the markets? It clearly helps if they have been successful in their life to date, is that what you are saying?

Vince Stanzione: Yes you are so right, success breeds success, not necessarily that they have trading experience. I will give you an example: I had a lady I taught to trade that ran a successful florist shop. She knew nothing about shares or markets, but she did know about profit margins, buying from the flower market, having too much stock and so on. So really her life experience was helpful when trading stocks. I did a study on the most successful age groups.

 Zak Mir: What would you say that the minimum requirements are for successful trading — financial, knowledge, mindset, account size?

Vince Stanzione: I think the minimum to open an account these days is £20,000; it can and has been done on less, but really that is what you should be starting with. Knowledge wise, really sometimes less is better than more, my workbook takes the assumption that you have never traded before. Mindset? Really someone that does not get upset when trades don’t work out, losing is part of the business and people that are not in a hurry to see instant results generally are more profitable. Returns are also not evenly distributed, trading is not a job or pay packet where you earn X a month, some months you will make nothing or lose money, other months you will do very well. Anyone that is self-employed will know it’s not a smooth curve.
I think trading is like dating, if you are desperate for a date it shows and women don’t want to date a desperate man! If you are desperate to make money, you overtrade making trades when you should do nothing and normally it ends badly.

 Zak Mir: Can you describe to us your trading style/system and why you think it gives you an “edge” over the markets?

 Vince Stanzione: I do not use one system, I would describe myself as the “Bruce Lee” of trading — I change and adapt, but at heart am a trend trader, although sometimes can be contrarian, and I also pay heed of seasonality and sentiment.