Interview with Kolyo – Five Years In the Making Series
ThatSucks.com (former BinaryOptionsThatSuck.com) celebrates 5 years in the making with 5 interviews you must read!
Q: You’ve been with us almost right from the beginning of CommuniTraders Forum. That’s almost 4 years now and you’ve been an important part of our success story. Tell us about your personal experience of being part of this project.
A: Yes, that’s right! We started working together the last quarter of 2012. I still remember how I found you by pure chance and at the beginning I don’t even imagine it will be such a long term partnership, but as always good things happen suddenly without a notice and I am happy that I had the chance been part of this amazing project! First of all, despite my previous experience in other fields like science and trading, CommuniTraders taught me how to manage serious projects, how to keep pace with deadlines, how to coordinate a team and many other precious things, which I never knew of them before. I still feel excited to be part of such a great team, where everyone is expert in his field but always open for cooperation, discussion and respect the other one’s opinion. Working with you guys is such a pleasure! I would never do so much work without your encouragement and especially from you Martin!
Q: You’ve been the CommuniTraders Forum leader since its very inception. Give us your view on its evolution throughout the years.
A: We managed to do something really extraordinary. Starting from scratch we succeeded not only to build a robust forum community, but also to attract large flow of binary options traders to come and most importantly to stay in our forum and to actively participate. Now we are the largest and most engaged binary trading community in the world. It took a lot of efforts and dedication to build it, but now we can see the results. I attribute our success mostly to our efforts to invite respected traders like Michael, Okane and Bogdan, who are not only good traders and analysts but also fantastic writers and community contributors. Without them we wouldn’t achieve even a fraction of our success. The second very important thing we did was the CommuniTraders demo trading platform. It was a big boost and the lunch of the platform attracted much more traders than before. So for me these are the two key ingredients for our success and the third component which is not as visible from the outside is a lot of hard work on organizing the community, stopping the spammers’ attempts, answering the newbies and more and more.
Q: What motivates you the most in CommuniTraders? What keeps you going in this never ending battle with scammers and spammers?
A: The main motivation in this battle is that thanks to all of our efforts we have a safe place for all binary options traders to communicate without the risk of been scammed by the first guru around. I understand newbie traders, because many years ago I was like them. They are ready to believe everyone who promises them an easy path to riches. That’s why all the education stuff and community discussions we have are so vital to help the beginner traders to understand faster the real nature of this business and to not fall into the trap most newbie traders fall. If this single thing is achieved I will be happy of my work and will be motivated to continue forward.
Q: How did you first come in contact with trading?
A: It was about 10 years ago in 2006. I couldn’t remember how exactly it happened but I believe it was through advertisement of a mutual fund. This was my first investment back than and it did quite well before I closed it. From than it was a very long journey with a lot of ups and downs and a lot of changes in my trading philosophy from long term investing to scalping and back, but I don’t regret for any of the numerous mistakes I made because I learned a valuable lessons from them.
Q: Do you see a difference between the binary trading industry now as opposed to when you first met binary options?
A: Yes, there is such a difference and it is for good. Much more companies are regulated now. There is a lot more information on the net to compare and review all the different brokers, and especially thanks to thatsucks.com it is now easy for a newbie to spot good binary options broker and to distinguish them from a bad broker. Unfortunately there are also bad differences. Now there even more scams out there, but I believe people are more informed and more difficult to fall into these traps. At least we are working hard to prevent this happen!
Q: What is your trading style? How do you approach the markets?
A: I have a flexible trading style which can easily adapt to the current market conditions. I am searching for low risk and high reward setups, but I don’t like to use technical analysis very often. My entries are based mostly on price action, sentiment analysis and of course the underlining fundamentals. I believe each trader who wants to have a long term edge in the market should take closer looks on the fundamentals and to avoid trading against them. I like the saying “When the market moves without a clear reason, than better to not trade”. I prefer been more selective than been more proactive. On the basis of all my experience till now I know that the results are much better when I carefully select my setups and execute them precisely.
Q: Do you believe that trading is a sure way to a steady income? Can someone live exclusively from trading profits?
A: This is the question each newbie want to know, but I will disappoint them because I won’t give a definitive answer here. Of course there are many successful traders, who live entirely on their trading profits. However I think a trader who relies only on his trading for a living is in very stressful situation and in most cases can’t make clear decisions. Trading profits always fluctuates and it is much better to have other sources of income as well which can supplement trading in more difficult periods of time. Also don’t forget that living entirely on trading needs a very well capitalized account which is not something achievable for a regular beginner trader. That’s why I have to say, don’t believe in shiny promises for steady income from trading. If you like the game and put the necessary efforts you will win, but you won’t become millionaire from trading unless you have exceptional trading qualities.
Q: How do you split your time between CommuniTraders management and trading? Tell us a bit about your regular working day.
A: I have to say managing a community of traders and trading is not difficult, both activities supplement each other. Now I am placing more emphasis on the community and I am not trading too often, but my trading charts are always open and it is very easy to take a look of what is happening in the markets.
Q: Do you think CommuniTraders help you one or other way to trade better?
A: Definitely! It helps a lot to clear my mind and to achieve the right mindset for trading. Trading is very lonely business if not done in a community and that’s why I believe everybody in CommuniTraders benefits a lot, like me and improves his trading while communicating with the other traders here.
Q: Can I ask you where do you see BOTS and CommuniTraders in another 5 years from now?
A: Not an easy question, but I am absolutely sure it will grow bigger and more populated than it is now. We will have much more traders and all the information, reviews and learning stuff will be a lot more and better organized. That’s for sure. I believe only good things will happen with the community in the next 5 years!
Q: And where do you see binary options in 5 years from now?
A: The interest in binary options is already in a 5 year rising trend and I bet it will continue to rise in the next 5 years. Trading binary options is much easier to learn than forex for example and that’s why I think many more newbie traders will continue to show higher interest in binary options compared to all sorts of other trading possibilities. On the other hand the regulators will continue to do their job and on the market will stay only the big and reputable broker names. There always will be scams and people who believe in them but I hope the whole industry will reach maturity in the next 5 years and will be more like the forex world now.
More 5 Years in the Making Interviews: