I’ll start with a confession; my trading journey actually started in 2003 (not with the Realistic Trader) when I paid about £1500 to go on a ‘learning to trade’ weekend in a very tall building in E14 – Canary Wharf as many will know it.

I was taught what the markets are, (which was self-explanatory) and then the mechanics of how to trade. It was very focused on day trading and also fitting in with my 8-6 job as well which didn’t seem to make that much sense but I thought, okay – I’ll trust in this process anyway. I was working as a driver for Enterprise rent a car at the time and 23 years old; it was simply a new skill I wanted to learn.

Following that weekend I proceeded to lose £6000 over the course of about 3 months which I would suggest from a financial perspective is a terrible ROI. I did, however, meet a very attractive girl who took a shine to me and we had some great times so I’ll chalk that weekend up as resulting in costly good times but not to do with the original intent!!

Fast forward to Feb 2020 and I’d returned from a conference in Los Angeles and found myself with jetlag and for some reason, my spidey senses were more in tune than ever; likely because I’d been in the US and could see events unfolding; at some ungodly hour Youtube suggested a video to me by Siam on ‘how I plan my life’ which I’ll take as a compliment but also found it quite ironic!

I watched several of his videos and thought okay, I’m a bit older now, have a way more finely tuned BS detector and thought, well he seems to have been around a while and overall schema is similar to myself (later I have discovered that he also attained the dizzy heights of 2xA levels, both grade D in mathematics and physics). So, I thought okay, let’s see what the Realistic Trader is about. I followed the videos as the inevitable coronavirus played out in English and we were all unable to travel as much.

A lot of what he said made sense, particularly around critical thinking which for me is essential.

Later in the year, I decided to purchase the trading test drive for £99 (I think at the time of me writing this it is available at no cost) after watching the 3 x 20 minute videos on his homepage which are actually super important if you are considering joining the realistic trader or more to the point, to understand if trading is for you.

Refreshingly, these videos are brutally honest and will disqualify most people which I think is good as trading is absolutely not for everybody and it might be for somebody but they might not be in the right place in life to get started. This stuff matters and interestingly it was all the opposite of what I was told those years ago.

Now, things do change so both what I did in 2003 could be valid as well as Siam’s videos, although it became quite obvious that I was ‘had’ during my 2003 experience.

So, the Realistic Trader test drive that I bought was exactly as described – it wasn’t about making a lot of money, it wasn’t about replacing my current income, nor was it ‘arcade mode’; it was a LOT of content – I spent probably 5 hours a day/4 days a week watching the videos and making notes and I got through the course in about 3 weeks. It is a lot of content, and a lot of big picture stuff, becoming increasing granular as you move through the videos.

In essence, it’s more than ‘a trading test drive’, it sets the stage for your trading journey and manages your expectations. The videos are easy to watch and the interface is clean and simple to use; standard e-learning but well thought out and in a structured logical order.

Upon completing the test drive I opened accounts and began trading the strategies I had learnt and quickly began acquiring data. None of it was difficult, however, the results were also not life-changing; the main point was that I was displaying consistency and that’s crucial. I am quite sure that someone with zero knowledge of trading could get a win but they couldn’t consistently do it. Of course, I don’t get a 100% win rate, no one does but that doesn’t matter as explained in the videos on expectancy and other key metrics.

I became a full-time member of the Realistic Trader shortly after and thoroughly enjoy it for the following main reasons:

– there are 2 weekly sessions, one with Siam and one with two very experienced traders, both sessions are live and interactive lasting about 2 hours each so that’s over 20 hours a month of live help as required.

– the community is superb, no one knows everything, yet collectively we share insights and data which is very useful in assessing trading strategies, analysis and what to do to grow our accounts.

– the leaderboard is excellent, something I must get more involved with!

– access to information I otherwise wouldn’t have, for example,I paid 6 months of my rent from learning about a different type of asset, then trading it.

– it’s not BS, it’s all intelligent stuff!