How this stock/crypto trader made six figures after teaching himself how to trade 

Watch the full interview here : 

In this episode of Stories of Hackers, we talked with Douglas, who is the founder and educator for Charts D’ Works,a brand that focuses mainly on financial and investment education. Douglas is also a trader with 7 years of experience, he started with stocks, forex and later on cryptocurrency since the 2017 bitcoin bullrun. He believes that everyone needs to have the knowledge and skills before involving themself in investing or trading , which is also why he started Charts D’ Works, with the goal to educate and instill the proper trading mindset. We hope that you guys can gain some new insights through this interview, enjoy! 

Can you introduce yourself and about your background to our community? So they can relate to you a little bit.

My major is in Economics and Banking. Economics is my favorite subject and slowly it turns into hands-on. I have knowledge and know how the financial market works, how to take part in it.

At first I got into stock trading, stock investment and slowly from stock investment, I went to forex and also cryptocurrency. I found that currency and also cryptocurrency is the fastest market compared to the stock market. For me, my mindset is that i'm still young, i can take risks ,that's why i go for the fastest market which is cryptocurrency and  currency market. 

How do you start? Like where do you even get the first batch of money? How do you build that up?

Okay, to be honest, investing or trading right doesn't require a lot of capital or a lot of money. For example, stocks in Malaysia, the minimum is buying 1 lot which is about 100 units, let’s don’t include those blue chip stocks because blue chip stocks are quite expensive, you go for those that are cheap or small or emerging markets. Let's say AirAsia, the share price right it's only 90 cents or 80 cents so if you want to invest in it, only with 80 ringgit you can start your investment .I think that investment doesn't need a lot of capital, you can start very small. If i'm not mistaken i started my investing journey with about 400 ringgit only.

Do you have a mentor? Was there a key person who really introduced this to your life?

I first got into stocks trading was actually because of a phone call from a bank, by a relationship manager, who asked me if i am interested in stock so from there, he invited me for a one to one, from there i learned from him how to actually open up my account, how to start buying stocks and selling stock and after that  i slowly explore myself through online and also books. Books are one of the most crucial parts, you can learn a lot from books, then YouTube and Google, they are your good friends.

I actually met a lot of mentors along the journey by actually attending their courses .I can't name them all because there’s too many of them. The past few years, I switched to being a lone ranger, started to learn all by myself and then started coaching other people, from a learner to a tutor.

Would you regret paying for the University tuition fees? Since you could have used the money and invested it elsewhere for a better return, what’s your thoughts on this?

I mean it really depends on your perspective on that certification, for me to be honest there's a big regret on taking university, my student loan is about more than RM50, 000 and after learning everything from university, there's actually a slight regret for using that much of money to to invest myself just to get a cert. All this knowledge can actually be learned outside of college, there is a way to learn all this knowledge just that you need to have the pathway to to get into this kind of knowledge. In my opinion, it really depends on yourself, depends on what kind of job you're looking for. 

Not many people are doing this self-taught route because it's very difficult, so people rather go for the easier way. Another part will be the exposure, if you have enough exposure on the pathway or the self-learning way right and if you have the right mindset. Let's say for example, if at that point of time i have such exposure and such mindset i will rather go for self-learning to be honest so that's my point of view.

Was there a down phase or where you experienced a bad phase or was it all good for you?

There's a few times I would rather quit or give up.  It's really not simple at all, it might look very simple but in reality it's very tough. It's gonna affect your psychology,you need to have a very strong mindset. 

There’s this one time, I lost a huge sum of my investment fund,  but instead of giving up, I actually try to reverse the thinking. I asked myself : “Douglas why and how did you lose that sum of money? How can you correct this mistake?”. From there, I try to be a better trader and avoid those mistakes next time. In this financial or investment world, there’s always a cycle, there will be good and bad cycles and you can’t avoid it. You will need to go through all these. That's my advice for everyone that is looking into investment in this field. 

Have you ever after graduation do you work or were you ever employed?

Yes, I actually worked in an event company for a while, that's completely not related to what I learned in Uni, which is Economics and Banking. For me, I think that 9-5 life is not my cup of tea. At the same time when I am employed right, I'm using my free time to learn about investment or to increase my knowledge and from there slowly my side hustle then become my main hustle now.

Would you recommend straightaway get into business after graduation or work in a company as an employee first?

I will not recommend you guys to go straight into business because it's very high risk. It is easier to get into a company, you get employed, you work for a company. At least you know or you will understand how a company runs or how a business runs .From there you start to learn yourself and get knowledge, get experience then you can do anything you like from there and at the same point you can start your business as a side hustle first. 

How many percent of your portfolio is used to trade and how many percent you invested elsewhere?

Only 10% of my portfolio is for trading, and the profits generated from tradings, I will reinvest it into my other assets. 

What’s a typical day of life for you? As a trader.

Okay the first thing after I wake up that i will do is look at the charts, or the market then i will scroll through all the pricing and all the assets, check on my tradings or my portfolio. I will review it every day . Then, I will update my community on Chart D’ Works about my outlook and if there is any opportunity that we can enter the market ,other than that I will just continue to be busy on my ongoing cryptocurrency projects.

Do you have any closing notes for everyone out there, maybe someone wants to be a trader too?

It's never too late to learn because I even have students over the age of 50, learning is never too late but of course if you can, if possible please start early. That's my notes for everyone, thank you so much

Thanks for the awesome interview!

Hope you enjoyed this series!

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