Full-Time Trader Traveling the World – Etienne Crete – Episode 059

Hello and welcome to the Consistent Profits podcast brought to you by Inside out trading and Brian McAvoy, where the focus is on consistency, because when you have the consistent part down, profits become easy.

Well, welcome, everybody. This is Brian McAvoy with another episode of the wealth of the Consistent Profits podcast. Today I'm interviewing Etienne Kret of Desire to Trade. He's a. An accomplished trader himself. He's been around for a lot of years. He's worked with a lot of traders, and he's been doing a lot of cool things in the trading space, helping other traders. Etan, welcome. And thanks for taking the time today, man.

Yeah, I was happy to be here. Always happy to be on your podcast anytime.

Yeah, you got a different background. So where are you in the world today?

Just arrived here in Budapest for a couple of days. So we arrived here two days ago. Gonna be here for another two nights. So, yeah, Budapest in Hungary for now.

Nice. Nice. Yeah, it seems like every time we talk, you're someplace new, so I always have to check and see where you are.

It's a fun part. Definitely.

Yeah.

Yeah, indeed. Well, like. Like we said, like, we were just talking about what I'd like to really get, you know, get your perspective on because. Because you have been around a while. You've been through a lot of, you know, evolutions and trading space, and you got your own personal path. One thing that I try to get across to people, though, especially, you know, traders who've been, you know, trading for anywhere from, like, six months to three years, and they're still kind of having a rough time with it. One of the things that I try to get across to him is that, you know, there's the thing side of trading, you know, your tools and charts and data feed and that kind of stuff. But then, you know, there's the you side of it, and really, you have to. You have. You have to become a successful trader. So what are some of the traits that you think a person, if they want to be a successful trader, where they can do this for a living and live the lifestyle like you do, you know, where. Yeah, you're traveling the world on a regular basis, if they want to kind of reach that level, what are some of the traits that are part of that person that they need to become?

I mean, that's a very good point. I've asked traders this along the way, like, many, many times, because I do interviews myself, I do traders around the world, and I'm always curious, like, what the traits are, like, what differentiates the ones who Succeed versus the one who fail, the one who maybe are in business for six months to a year and then they give up versus the ones who are there for 20, 30 years who really build a good carry out of trading. I think the main things are a few things and some are cliche, some are not so cliche, like kind of things people don't think about. But I think the biggest one is like perseverance. If you're in it for just like you give yourself a month to succeed and then you're out, that's not good enough to thrive long term. Like you got to be willing to do whatever it takes to, to, to succeed and to, to get to, to get to the goals you want to be at. So all the traders I talk to, they always have like these ups and downs. They always have good times, bad times, sometimes they quit for a while. They go back to trading eventually because of a tough time or like a big drawdown or a bad trade they had and they're willing to go back to it now. That takes a lot of perseverance to do that. A few more things, of course, discipline, I think patience are big keys. Also being able to adapt to the market. We know markets change, we know things are always going to be the same. You're not going to treat always the same thing from day one till day 30 years later. That's going to be about a different adaptation along the way. You have to be able to adapt and change along the way. Those are big keys. And the other one thing people don't think about too much is. So we talk about discipline, patience. And I think focus, focus is key. Like people think they can just like find a strategy on YouTube and trade it. And in some cases you can, you can find a strategy online and trade it. But in most cases you gotta be able to kind of find your ads, like find what you're good at, find where your skills are at, what you can do better than other people. So what are some things you can actually do better? What's the needs you can focus on? And maybe it's only going to be like a few pairs, maybe a few time frames, maybe a few strategies you really try that you're really good at. And that's kind of part of your trading for the long term. So I think these are pretty big keys. Very general, very specific here. But in general, I think these things kind of help a lot to get results.

People.

Okay, well, one that I've heard mentioned a couple of times in, in conversations over the last couple months, what's your take on a person having a passion for trading? Where it's. They just plain really, they just got a passion for trading itself where they'd almost do it for free forever just because they love it so much. Where do you figure that comes into play with as far as being something about a person, you know, a good characteristic with trading? What's your take on that? Is it really that necessary or. Yeah, it is a big deal.

So I think you can have passion to start, or you can build patient or you can build passion over time. Both things are, are fun. I think some people who join trading, they have a big passion for it. They want to make it work. They really want to be in the market. And I think that that gets too far. That's a good thing to have because then you're gonna persevere. You're probably gonna put in more work into it also, and that's a good thing. Some people don't really know the trade out. They don't really have a passion for it. But as they go over time, they kind of, they have a passion for trading that they then use to fuel their motivation to succeed. So I think it's important. I think you cannot really do well trading if you don't have any passion. Like you don't care about the market, don't care about the charts, don't care about the, the skills. It's very hard to see that way. If you just care about the money, that's not going to lead you very far. But if you care about, like, if you really want to learn that stuff and you really care about kind of being able to be part of the market, I think that gets you a long way also.

Okay, fair enough.

Now, over the last couple of years, you've gotten more involved in the prophy prop firm trading space. Do you see much difference between, you know, like the characteristics for somebody who wants to be a prop firm trader versus more of a traditional trader, where your prop firm trader may be somebody who isn't, you know, isn't already sitting on 25 or 50 or $100,000 to trade. They're coming at it from a bit more of a modest background versus somebody who, yeah, they've, they've already, you know, established that success. They're used to operating at a higher, you know, level, particularly financially. What do you see as some of the differences there?

I think it's the same thing is always trading. You got to think about the same kind of principles overall. But I think the biggest key in terms of like profiles is gonna see it even more. So like Game of Numbers, you got its probability even more. Because these platforms, they have rules where you can pass or fail the account. And if you see that's like, oh, I'm gonna take this challenge and pass it, then if you fail and you feel bad about it, sure. Like you fail a challenge, but that's only a game of number. Anytime you take a trade, like there's a chance going to be right, there's a chance it's going to be wrong. You're lose that trade possibly also. So I see kind of profit in the same way. It's like you can take a challenge, there's a chance you'll pass it, there's a chance to not pass it, you'll fail at it. And if you just look at it over the large numbers over time, maybe you fail like three challenges, but you pass five of them. I think that's a pretty good stat. So it's all about what kind of numbers are you able to achieve? What kind of probabilities can you put in your trading? Whether odds are they in your favor or not in your favor to be able to pass these challenges. So it's not about getting funded one time, it's more about the long term and the big picture of things. I think that's what people forget and it can make a big difference also.

Okay, fair enough.

Well, with the, with the, the people you've seen get into the prop firm trading space, what are you seeing as far as what you would consider a success level? Where, yeah, they're coming in and not only are they, you know, maybe surviving, but they're actually, they're actually succeeding. What, what would you, would you consider as the, like the success rate of traders that you've seen over the last year?

I mean, it depends for everyone, but to me success is like being able to create a good income out of it. And I'm just talking about like a thousand dollars a month. Yeah, it could be fine. But if you can go within problems and you can actually replicate your salary on your job, or if you can actually make enough money to sustain your monthly expenses, that, that to me is a good success. Now that takes time to get there. Like not everyone's going to get there like in a week or in a month, it's pretty impossible. But over time you can kind of get enough funding to get to a point where you can do that. Talking about maybe like 5 or $600,000 in capital usually is the point where you start to get there Then that to me is a good number. So 4k a month, maybe 10k a month on the higher end. And that's a good sign of success. Of course you can go way, way beyond that or you can go below that too if you want, but that's a good kind of number for success.

Boom.

What percentage of traders, and kind of taking a different perspective on it, what, what percentage of traders they figure are actually making it though, hitting that, that level where, yeah, it's, it's, it's affording them what they're really looking for. Not just little, you know, income on the side, what, what percentage you say are actually making it.

So we know for a fact that with these profiles, a lot of them, they publish their stats on a monthly basis at the other maybe a quarter of the basis and they show like, what is the percentage of people who fail the challenge? Percentage of people who pass it? I think the stats were somewhere about like 87% of people fail on the first challenge and out of the 13% who passed and about half of them lose the account before the first withdrawal. That's kind of the number to work with. So that's a very kind of tight number. But now we didn't get to the 4k a month yet. That's only like the passing the first challenge. So I would say same thing as like trading. How many traders who start trading will get to a full time income eventually? That is a very small amount and people tend to take the performance way before they're ready for it. So to me that's a very tiny amount. So it's hard to calculate. But if you do it the wrong way, if you do it like too early in your career or you try to really make it happen without any strategy before, like without any mindset that will match your strategy there, that's very hard to achieve. So it's very, it's very small amount. But if you do it the right way, then you have a pretty good chance to get there eventually. You got to give yourself time to like, give yourself a year to get there or maybe even two years. Then you have a good chance of sending.

Okay, okay, yeah, that's, that's kind of.

Where I was going. I, I've seen, I've seen different numbers and I've heard different numbers from different people. But like I said, I know you're pretty thick in the space and so I wanted to ask you that question because I figured you'd have probably a more clear perspective on it.

So. Yeah, fair enough.

Well, so of the over the last, let's say year or two, just because again, you know, prop firms become so much more commonplace. How many traders would you say have enough money to be trading their own money where like a $50,000 account or more, but are choosing to not trade their own money and are trading going with the prop firm as a, as just a strategy of capital sourcing? What kind of percentage are you seeing on that? As far as, you know, traders that are actually, you know, getting into the prop firm space?

This is only from what I like people I talk to. It's not based on any kind of number or anything like very, very fancy. But it's people who, they have enough capital to maybe go for like a 50k account, maybe like $100,000 in their account, but they don't want to do it because of course it's their own capital, they could lose it. The cool thing about proffer is like you can actually pay for a challenge. Usually the amount you pay is about a percent of the whole account. So if you want to get like $100,000 in capital, you pay maybe a thousand dollars for this account. So a percent of the account, which is pretty good. If you compare this to putting your own capital on the line, maybe losing it, I think that's a pretty good number to aim for. You spend a percent, you have more capital, you're able to lose five or six times what you pay for this, this account. That makes a lot of sense for most people. So I would say about. It's about 50, 50 people. I talk to someone using your own capital because it's less pressure. They can, they feel like if they have their own capital, they can just like do whatever they want with it. They don't have any rules to follow. It's a good or a bad thing because then you still have like some rules to follow with your own money too. You don't want to blow up your whole account essentially. But then people want to maybe not use their own capital. They want to be able to reduce the risk a little bit that way, get more access to more capital, and then they can get performance account for that reason also.

Okay, all right. Yeah, fair enough. Huh.

Now, as far as what you got going on at Desire to Trade, I know you, you've got, you know, different services, different things that you do. What, what are you focusing on lately as far as your primary efforts and helping traders?

I mean, my goal is always to have people get more freedom and be able to travel if they like traveling, or just spend time with their family that whatever they like and whatever freedom means for them is the key. So we want to find ways to either reduce the time of the charts or find ways to make them more profitable faster. So we've got our goals where we actually like run the algorithms 247 or actually 24 5. It would not have to be there to monitor the algos in the account. That helps a lot. If you're traveling, you don't have time to look at the truck necessarily. You're on a flight, you're on a boat, for example, on a train and the wi fi is spotty. Like a few days ago in Georgia where I was, you don't want to be looking in the chart at that time. You want to be able to enjoy the moment. So algos help for that. The other thing is of course prop firms is scalability capital. So you both live a better lifestyle with more capital that way. And we've got kind of just strategies that you can do more hands off and be able to just spend less time in the shot and enjoy more the the moment or have more freedom overall. That that's the key.

Okay, well, so I know you're always, you know, develop, looking to develop new, new ways to help traders. You got any training programs coming up or other services that you're looking to present or maybe have, you know, here recently that you'd like to, you know, make everybody aware of?

Well, it's in the progress quite a bit, but we want to go more into technology. I think technology is a good way to get people to kind of just get better results overall. You can do a lot with technology, whether that's AI, whether that's being able to spot trades better or just having ways to be able to know like where your trading is going and find ways to trade in a better manner. So I think technology is the way to go.

Okay. Huh. Okay.

Well, as far as technology and especially AI, well actually one, no. One thing I wanted to ask you about, I'd heard because I'm not actually trading through a prop for myself but I'd heard like last week that one of the, one of the prop firms had pulled their use for your use of MT5 and went back on MT4 and that kind of created a big or somewhat of a big, you know, a little bit of a chaos storm. How did that affect you or and you know, any of the people you're working with?

So it's been a lot of changes in performance recently, mainly for the fact that, you know, there's been a Few bad players in the market. There's been a few problems that didn't kind of follow rules or kind of went, went against the traders. So that led to a lot of like more attention from the regulators wanting to see that what profits are doing and stuff MT4 which is like the main platform MT5 so metaquarts, they start to restrict what a performance can use. These, these platforms are not to trade or to provide the traders and they block some platforms that way they try to reduce it to kind of I guess limit their exposure to it. So a lot of profits that move to different companies or different platforms. We had to move to different platform DX trade and I think another one's called Mass Trader. Since then we're able to use C Trader also to be able to give our traders but that's been a bit of a change also the US traders cannot use CFDs on profferance. They were never allowed to trade CFDs but now because of the the change before they could trade CFDs to the platforms and they cannot do this anymore. So they're able to do it on different platforms now. But it's been a whole lot of a change right in the past few weeks. Definitely.

Huh.

Well any, any changes you know of on the horizon or, or do you consider likely to happen?

I mean it's probably going to get more regulated, it's probably going to get safer also for the traders because there's been a lot of like flexibility with profs. There's never been any kind of rules, any kind of things you can do versus cannot do. So I think that's, that's definitely going to be welcome for Prof. Firms to be able to provide more transparency traders provide better conditions also and provide a better framework around it. Platforms might change that's for sure but I think it's just going to be better for traders to be able to just be safer for them and more of a more strict manner.

Okay, okay, cool.

Well are you looking at doing any expansions in your offerings or you focus still mostly on your community and your trainings?

I think same thing, more technology, more waste operators that way. But we like to work with Traders112. We like to give like more support than other people sometimes. So that, that's always the key. So yeah, definitely want to keep that up and be able to support traders along the way.

Cool.

Well what are your thoughts on this being an election year? We'll shift, we'll shift focus here just a little bit. What are your thoughts on this being an election year? How's that going to make things interesting for traders or do you figure it probably really won't do much?

I think it definitely will. I think it's going to be an election that's going to be creating a lot of changes. Also, I'm not in the us I have no idea exactly what's happening, but I look at the market and I see things that are pretty volatile. It's going to get probably more volatile in the future. Also I'm looking at the US dollar, Mexican pesos always. And that's a good pair for the election times. So definitely it's probably going to make a lot of big moves. Don't look forward for that.

The dollar peso, huh?

Okay.

I never really paid attention to it. What, what's, what's interesting about that, especially in an election year.

I mean, it's so related. So you have to, of course, the US dollar, then you're going to mix some pesos, which is like so close to the US Anyway, because it's like two countries are next to each other. A lot of people, especially politicians, talk about like the, the Mexican relation versus the US like the, the wall and things like this. So I think that that makes big changes also. It's so close. Like there's a lot of things are connected or like interrelated. So I see it removed quite, quite a bit after any debate or any kind of news, any kind of. Yeah, new regulation. I see it move quite a lot usually.

Huh. Okay.

Well, yeah, this, actually, this being an election year and it's, I mean, the US is always a big deal, but my understanding is There are like 64 countries that are having like major elections this year. Where else do you see are areas of the world to pay attention to?

I don't pay a lot of attention to elections that are in the US it could affect a lot. Could, could be not too important. I'm not really sure of that. I've never really paid too much attention to it or in like big countries in the US where there's like a lot of things that are happening, but it's not really my specialty is focused on the fundamentals behind it necessarily.

Huh.

Well, do you think the, what do you want to call it, social unrest that's been going on in Europe with like the farmers protests and like I said, Europe isn't nearly as peaceful and as happy as they've been in the past. There's, there's a lot of, you know, like, you know, big upside going on. How do you see that playing into the Markets and, or you know, just the global economy in general. Do you think it's going to have much of an impact on it or, you know, it's just kind of temporary?

I don't know. To be fair, I'm not really sure about it. I think it's probably going to impact the Euro in some ways. Maybe you will go down again, so we'll see how that plays out. But definitely it's, I mean you've got the war in Ukraine, you've got the, like you said, the, the, the protests in Europe. So I'm gonna have to pay attention to it for sure.

Okay, well, like, you know, you being the world traveler, you get to talk to people from all over the place. That one thing that's always blown me away is, you know, being an American living here in America, if I, if I just talk to Americans, I'm always just only going to get this perspective and that's one of the things I love about, you know, working with people like you and other people that I know around the world. It's like sometimes I'm really surprised by the perspectives that people have based on where they are in the news that they get. I mean, best example is back in, when Bill Clinton, a long time ago, when Bill Clinton was in office here in the States, it was like just one scandal after another and you know, the sex and all this kind of stuff. And here in the U.S. you know, we're thinking we must be the laughing stock of the world. And talking with my friends down in Australia and they're like, well, yeah, you know, we understand, you know, you got that stuff going on there. But surprisingly the guy actually represents you well. And I'm like, seriously? He's like, yeah, he actually presents himself and represents the US in a very, a very positive manner and he's maintaining your level of respect around the world. And I'm like, wow, that's good to know. Because otherwise it was like, around here it's like not so high on the, on the regard level.

So, huh.

So, so you have to, you got, what are the travels you got coming up?

I mean, I'm doing a three month trip in Europe. It's crazy thing, I'm already a month to it now. So I've done a few countries over the past month. Still got two months to go. So we're heading to Romania, we're gonna head to Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, all these things in the next few weeks. So yeah, it's gonna be, it's gonna be fun. Then we go back to Eventually Frankfurt to fly back to Thailand in a few weeks.

Nice.

Wow.

Very cool.

Very cool.

Well, we started off the call, you know, talking about characteristics of, you know, the successful trader that a person should aspire to. And, you know, you talk about discipline and persistence. What. What are your. What do you figure is one of the best paths for somebody to pursue if they actually are, you know, really serious about this and they do want to develop and they recognize maybe, you know, they're not as strong on these things as they should be? What's. What's the best way for them to kind of accelerate their developmental curve? You got any recommendations? Being a seasoned veteran yourself?

I mean, for me, the best way is always to be around traders, to talk to people who are doing exactly what I want to do and people who are actually good at it. You know, obviously, of course, you can get a coach and you get, like, in courses and things, and that helps a lot. But to me was just like, to be able to connect with traders in my city. I just, like, send a bunch of emails one week, actually see who I can connect with, like, who's in my city, who is doing any kind of meetups that I can connect with. Anyone who wrote a book or talks about trading or something, you can reach out to them, meet up for coffee or something. It's fine. A lot of people will say yes. You'll be surprised. And just being able to be around these people for, like, maybe a day or two or just talking to them over time can change your mindset and perspective on so many things over time. It's definitely a big key for my success. I think it's pretty cool to be able to learn from people that way and something you cannot get if you just like, watching videos or just sort of do everything yourself and try to master all these strategies by yourself.

Yeah, that's excellent and very cool perspective. You're one of the first ones I've heard bring that up. You know, it's kind of like the notion that, you know, you become the average of the five people you spend the most time with. So, yeah, it's good to pay attention and intentionally seek out the company of others that you aspire to be like. So, yeah, that's. That's really good advice.

Very cool. Very cool.

Well, Etienne, I appreciate you taking the time today, man. This has been excellent. And for everybody, that's. That's listening, you know, watching this definitely swing by. A desire to trade Etienne's. He's a good guy. He's got some good programs for you, good training, good community, good resources for you and you know, if you like what you've been hearing, if you want to trade forex, super resource for you and, you know, definitely connect with him. There's what, what, what social channels are you busy on lately?

I mean, best way is YouTube. I put a lot of content on YouTube every week. So YouTube is desire to trade. And we have all this stuff there. Instagram also a little bit. But YouTube is the main place to, to find us.

Okay, very good.

So, yeah, again, Etienne, thanks for taking time for this and everybody that's listening, I applaud you for taking time, you know, out of the day to stop chasing strategies for a minute and actually, you know, focus on learning and growing and developing as a trader. And it'll definitely pay, you know, pay dividends well for the rest of your trading career. And again, you know, if anything at hands got to say or, you know, you just kind of like, he seems like a guy you like to hang out with, definitely seek him out. Act on what you, you know, what you've listened to today. And if you also, if you enjoyed the podcast, make sure to subscribe. And other than that, we'll see you on the next episode of the Consistent Profits podcast. Cheers.

Appreciate it.

Thank you for joining us today on the Consistent Profits podcast brought to you by Inside Out Trading. Make sure to swing by InsideOutTrading.com and pick up your free copy of break the cycle, 10 things you can do to stop reinforcing the past and get your trading on the right track. If you enjoyed the show, make sure to subscribe on your favorite channel and we'll see you on the next episode.

Cheers.