KB Trader Interview – Tim
The second part to this series of interviews with the junior prop traders on the trading floor here in Glasgow is here! This week I had the pleasure of catching up with Tim, an ambitious 22-year-old and the newest of the proprietary traders on the trading floor. Tim’s progression in the past two months has been unbelievable to watch, his determination and worth ethic is unparalleled. He definitely has the right attributes required to succeed in this industry in my opinion. It is far from sunshine and butterflies at the moment but this is why we all thought it would be a great idea to open up and show you what really goes on behind closed doors at KB Trading. There is a great quote from author André Gide that I think beautifully illustrates Tim’s journey so far, “man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” Tim has left his family, friends and secure job back in Nottingham to move up and pursue a dream job of his in Glasgow. As the quote implies, you have to leave your comfort zone in order to truly discover new and amazing opportunities without the guarantee of actually ever discovering anything. It is a brutal industry that will chew you up and spit you out if you don’t have the determination to push through when times get tough, but Tim is not short of determination.
If you want to follow Tim’s journey closer you can do so through his Instagram, he regularly shares inside snippets of the trading floor and day-to-day life as a Proprietary Fx Trader.
Anyway, enough rambling. Enjoy!
Question: When did you first start looking into trading?
Answer:
My introduction to trading was very stereotypical I think, making an easy side income and all the flashy cars etc that supposedly comes with trading is obviously appealing and did draw me in in the beginning. I’ve had my fair share of losing money in signal groups and even inadvertently finding myself involved in one of those pyramid schemes where you can make money from signing people up. I didn’t ever follow through with this as I didn’t agree with it, I knew this wasn’t what trading was really all about, this side of the industry is the fake advertising and it does unfortunately tar the rest of the industry. I knew from here that if I were to go anywhere with trading, I would need some proper education. This is where I turned to KB for help.
Question: Have you completed any trading education?
Answer:
Yes, after finding KB Trading through youtube I was really drawn in by the honesty that Sam portrays, I knew that there must be people that really are making this work and I knew it wasn’t true seeing people trade for 30-minutes a day on a beach in the Bahamas. I purchased the bundle option that KB offers and I think my trading journey really began there. A few months later I was accepted onto the junior prop trader role and moved up to Glasgow.
Question: What were you doing before you moved up to Glasgow to join the trading floor?
Answer:
I was working in construction for 6 years before joining KB, it was a safe and secure job but I didn’t see longevity in it. I didn’t have the passion that I have for trading so I was willing to take the plunge and take the risk.
Question: Can you give us an insight into some of the sacrifices you are making to pursue this dream?
Answer:
In order to manage all of my outgoings and costs of living I am having to work night shifts at the weekend. I am working a few evening jobs after trading in the office during the week and then two or three night shifts from 10pm-8am at the weekends. Sometimes I am leaving work to go straight to work. Even though the work in the office on the trading floor doesn’t necessarily feel like work, it is very mentally draining whereas the weekend night shifts are physically draining. I want to pursue a career in trading and I know it will take a lot of hard work but I am willing to make these sacrifices.
Question: In your opinion, what does it take to be a trader?
Answer:
In my opinion the most important trait to have as a trader would be resilience, you are going to have setbacks and even times where you feel like giving up but it is at these moments where you either crumble and give up, or push through and work on what went wrong. I think it would be very difficult to find a professional trader in this industry that hasn’t been through very difficult times during their career. It takes years to really achieve the level of consistency we are all searching for, it’s just whether you can fight it out and keep getting up after being knocked down.
Question: What are your aspirations for the next 6 months?
Answer:
If I can have two profitable months out of the next six, I will be happy. I hope to be at a stage where I can feel confident in my own trading to potentially embark on an FTMO challenge as well.
I hope you enjoyed this interview and took something away from it. I think the standout point within this interview that I noticed was the sheer resoluteness of Tim to not give up and to do anything it takes to give himself the best opportunity possible. There is no doubt how much value there is from trading live on the trading floor. Tim has even said to me that what he thought he knew of trading before arriving in Glasgow was nowhere near the level he noticed the first day he arrived on the trading floor.
This ends the second of the junior prop trader interviews, next on my list is Alex so stay tuned for that coming in the following weeks. I’m looking forward to catching up with Grant and Tim for another interview in the future to see where they are then and how far they’ve come.
Until next week, safe trading!
Jake
