This interview features Adrian Reid speaking with Patrick about Patrick's transition from a skeptical, advisor-reliant investor to a confident systematic trader using the Trader Success System. Key points: Patrick was warned by his financial advisor that active traders are "sharks" and most people lose money, but after using the Trader Success System he found deep, structured education and rapid learning (he notes major learning gains within six to eight weeks). He now trades multiple markets (Australia, Hong Kong, US, CAT and preparing for Canada), uses strategic diversification and multiple systems (including short strategies) to smooth returns, and reports improved emotional outcomes—feeling empowered, visible, and less frustrated compared with passive advisor management. He also cites specific performance/operational claims (e.g., "95% of people struggle," and "we outperformed the Australian market by, well, 100% in effect").
Questions this video answers
Australia, Hong Kong, US, CAT, and preparing to go live in Canada.
Within six to eight weeks.
Approximately 95%.
He said they "outperformed the Australian market by, well, 100% in effect" (describing that their drawdown was about half of the market's decline).
Chapters
Hey, Patrick, how you doing? Fantastic. Thanks so much for being with us. Hey, what I'd love to hear from you a little about what your financial advisor told you about trading and actively managing yourself, your. Your funds yourself, and what you were led to believe before you really discovered how to trade for your. For yourself.
Oh, he definitely said that everyone in the industry was sharks.
Oh, yes.
And that, that it was a, it was a myth. Yeah, yeah. Basically that everyone loses money in that.
So now everyone. Is that true?
Certainly not in our case right now, most people.
Is that true?
Yeah, I think probably 95% of people struggle to make, you know, good returns.
At all, I would say. Now what. What do you think the difference is? Something that we've been talking about, Right?
Yeah. Well, I think with the trader success system, it's proper education, you know, it's actual education in how.
Become a trader, you know. So you. All the fundamentals.
Yeah, absolutely.
Now when we say, especially back to.
Technical trading, not the fundamentals of fundamentals, as in how.
Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
So what. When. What was the reality like when you started to learn, what was the reality like compared to what you expected in terms of the, the content and the knowledge and what you're going to get? Because, you know, you were led to believe that we were all sharks. Clearly that's, that's not true. There are sharks in the industry, I won't lie. But we're not all sharks. So what was the reality like?
Well, I've done a fair bit of research on, on what you offered. So the reality did meet expectations, actually, but it was very different to what he said it would be. Yeah, so, yeah, very, very deep material. Deep and wide, I'd say, and very, very accessible. Definitely a lot of a steep learning curve, but everything was foundational on the next thing. So once you had the next thing, then you were able to move on to the next level of learning quite quickly. So, yeah, it's a steep learning curve.
But it feels fast. Yes.
Yeah, that's right. It's steep and fast. You're just realizing within six or eight weeks how much more you knew.
Yeah, and I think that's key, right? Like, how does it feel for you when you have momentum in your learning? You're actually progressing quickly and you can see yourself progressing. How's that feel?
Ah, it's awesome. Especially to have that clarity, you know, to be certain that you're filling in a piece of knowledge that is really vital to you being profitable. Yeah, it's a great feeling.
Nice.
Very good. It creates focus.
Yeah. Now we. One of the things I talk about a lot is, is strategic diversification. We're going to cover that tomorrow. But you, you trade across quite a few different markets. Which markets are trading right now?
We're trading apart from crypto. We're trading Australia, Hong Kong, US and Cat. We're on the cusp of Canada. We've done all the work for Canada, so.
Yeah, right. Just waiting to go live. Good. So how did you feel? Because you started in Australia when you made that first step into an international market? Because there's people here from all over the world.
Yeah.
How did that first step feel? Was it. Were you nervous about trading in a different market?
Just only nervous about the unknown because we were going short in the US But I had confidence in everything that we were doing. It was just that, you know, being on the high diving platform and saying, okay, I'm jumping in the pool knowing what that, you know, knowing that wasn't blind. So, yeah, it was good. It felt, it felt adult, actually. It felt like, oh, I'm growing up. Yeah, right, yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. We call it adulting in our house.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So all the emotions that go with that, but good.
Yeah, yeah, nice. So one of the things I know is that a lot of people are nervous about trading outside their home market. So for someone sitting in the US looking at, you know, I sit in Australia, I trade Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, US Crypto, you know, you're doing basically the same thing. What would you say to someone who's worried about going outside their home market?
Well, if you've done proper back testing, I think that's. I mean, we always come back to that in the online community, don't we? Then it's just numbers on a screen. And so, you know, in terms of emotion, that's a really helpful thing to put aside. And also it provides immediate diversity and uses capital that you already have. So we didn't have to put new capital into our allocation when we went into the us so it was just, it was using capital that was already. Was not being used by our Australian system. So I'd say it's actually vital. So you've got to have a way of managing any emotions that you've got around that to provide you with smooth returns. Yeah, good.
Just. I just want to jump in and explain that because it may not be clear to everyone. So Patrick was talking about having an Australian strategy and then when he went to the US he didn't have to allocate additional capital to the strategy. And the reason was the Australian strategy was alongside, it made money when the market was going up. And the first US strategy was a short side. It made money when the market was going down. So those two strategies weren't fully invested at the same time. It was one or the other. So you can trade both. And, you know, depending on which way the market's going, one is going to be active, the other one is going to be not. So, Patrick, you didn't actually have to add any money. You could just add two different systems and that increased the percentage of time that you were able to be profitable.
Yeah, yeah. Correct. Yeah. And really helped our returns.
Yeah, absolutely. So I remember you, you said something to me way back when you first went short, and I think it went something along the lines of, I wished.
We had done it earlier. Done it earlier.
Right, that's exactly right. So, because it really helps you sleep at night and really helps smooth the equity curve.
Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We outperformed the Australian market by, well, 100% in effect, you know, so as the Australian market was going down, we only went down, you know, half as much as the Australian market did. So it was very, very strategic. Yeah, yeah.
And that was. So you're, you are much heavier in Australia, which was declining. You had a small allocation in the US which was also declining. But you're profiting from that decline.
That's right.
Buffered your, your, your losses.
Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah, it really helped.
And then we had a conversation a little while after that, and I think it was something along the lines of, I wish I had allocated more.
Capital to the side.
Yes, that's right. Yeah. Well, that's my personality. Yeah, but, but we have.
Allocated more short, and we will in the future.
The next time short goes on with, with using the capital allocation process that you teach. So it's not. We're not taking on silly risk, but we're just optimizing the way our short systems will work.
Yeah. So how does that, I want to ask you about that capital allocation. This is more of an advanced topic to serve, but when you get multiple systems and you figure out how much capital you should allocate to each of them, how does that make you feel about the kind of robustness, rigorousness of your whole trading plan?
Well, it grows each time we add more capital because what we see is like, so our confidence grows because we have this phrase that we use in the community or that I use. It's lazy capital. It's capital that's not being deployed. And so as we've matured as traders, we've been able to find systems that pick up those little bits of extra capital and just going in and out of the market a bit more nimbly, say, with a day system and that, that, that makes us feel more confident also about the long term, you know, in the future. So. Yeah, got it.
So what would you say to someone who's on the fence about systematic trading? They're kind of hearing Trader Acceleration Week for the first time and they're thinking, okay, sounds a bit technical, sounds a bit complicated. I don't know if it's for me. What would you say?
Well, I, I would say if you can manage this zoom call, then you should do systematic training. I'm not a tech, I'm not a technical person. I'm a big picture person. But my wife, who's not here, is the detail person in the team. And I could trade by myself without her. You know, I could have learned all this. And it provides so much certainty and really manages your emotions.
I did try some systematic trading on paper before I used your system. I don't want to take up too much of your time. And that was a nightmare. And this is like daylight between that and this systematic approach. And I think there's a little bit of a myth that I noticed with people coming into systematic trading in our community. They think they can outperform the system by being discretionary. You can see that they still want to be better than the system, but you can't be. And, and we didn't know anything about trading beforehand. We were just invest and hold. And so if you've got no trading knowledge, you can do it and be profitable. Yeah.
I have one, one last question for you, and it's about the emotional side. So I want you to think about when you had all of your investments under the control of the financial advisor. And I got nothing against, you know, financial advisors and all that. It's whatever people need to do. But I'm interested in your.
Your emotions when you saw the market tanking or when you saw the fluctuations in the market and it was being managed passively by someone else, compared to now, where you have some certainty about your different systems, your mix, your portfolio mix, and the fact that you can actually make money when the market is falling. How do you, how can you help us understand your emotional kind of state in each of those two situations? What's, what's.
I think beforehand, before systematic trading, I probably just felt glum.
I got a little bit like, oh, you know, this is the way it is. And then there's slowly. There was increasing frustration.
Because. Because our. Although our fees are very transparent and the fee structure is, I think, fair in the. In our particular.
Financial advisor was such a large percentage of our income, and. And that didn't change where the performance went up or down. You know, they didn't suffer if our returns were low. So. Yeah. So this just felt. This just feels so much more empowering. Also satisfying that you're getting a decent, you know, decent returns.
I love that. Empowering. Control and satisfaction.
Yeah.
I mean, that's just brilliant. I mean, if we could have more of those in our life, like, who wouldn't. Who wouldn't choose that?
And it also feels visible. You can actually see what's happening, you know?
Yes. Yeah. I think having transparency of what you're doing is huge. Whereas when someone else is doing it and you can't see behind the curtain, I actually, personally, personally, I find that really hard. You know, I. I only trade my own money. I don't give it to anyone else, at least for. For stock market and crypto investments. I find that too difficult because I like the transparency.
Yeah. You're waiting three months to get a quarterly report.
And then they're so boring.
To read as well.
Yeah. Hey, Patrick, thanks so much. You are an absolute, kind of beacon of a perfect example of a student who's dedicated, focused, asks questions, seeks understanding, and then gives it back. Because one of the great things about the community. Community is when you're new, you ask a lot of questions. And when you've got some experience now, like Patrick does, you're in a position to answer those questions. And, you know, you're Patrick, you're doing that more and more and more. And I see the student, the new students benefiting from you and your experience, which is fantastic. So thank you for everything that you do in our community. We really value yourself and Marion, who hopefully we're going to meet tomorrow. So thank you for being here and for sharing some of your experience today. Sure.
And I just say, lastly, if anyone's in the Facebook community and they want to message me more about the trader success system, I'm happy to take any messages direct. So nice.
Thanks. Yeah, absolutely. Hey, have a great day and I'll see you in our next session.
