Dave White from New Zealand received his first allocation, back in 2019, after completing 12 months professional training with us. We caught up with him for a quick Q&A over the phone to discuss some of the challenges faced and valuable insight he's gained from joining the Lepus Program.
Richard: First off congratulations on your first allocation of $50,000! You’ve now finished your 12-month training with us – what’s the biggest impact this has had and how do you think you’ve gone?
Dave: I think I’ve learnt more in the last 12 months than in the last 4 years leading up to you. For me the biggest thing was having someone who a) knows what they’re doing and b) who holds you accountable for your actions when trading. When I first came on-board with Lepus I found it difficult as it was a lot to take on at once given that it was a different style of trading than I was used to, but I found that taking to someone who’s profession is trading the markets really accelerated this process for me.
Richard: Specifically, about the learning, since you’ve done 4 years previous to us, is there anything different between what Lepus does and what you’ve learnt prior to trading with Lepus?
Dave: Well, before I joined Lepus I was more-or-less punting by myself and I didn’t really know if what I was doing was correct. With Lepus we have people who know what they’re doing and have access to a wealth of information that I could regularly refer to making you confident that what you’re reading is done by someone with experience. Nowadays every man and his dog have a subscription service so it's great knowing the information you’re getting comes from someone who’s been doing it for so long.
Richard: Lets just touch on the behavioural and psychological things Lepus has taught you. Do you feel like you’ve benefited from it and what’s the biggest take-away personally you’ve had from the training?
Dave: I’d say the psychology more than anything else is what I found the hardest. It’s changed the way I think about a lot of things – not just trading – such as objectifying your emotions leaving them at the door and keeping a clear head has translated into different parts of my life as well for the better.
Richard: Just describe what you were like performance feelings wise - before and after?
Dave: Coming into it I didn’t really know what
to expect – before-hand I knew a lot in terms of how markets and indicators work however I didn’t have a sound strategy but as I was working through the 12 months with Lepus it was helpful for someone to keep me consistent to a few strategies and making sure I really nailed them before anything else.
Richard: Okay, let’s go back to your performance. What was this really like before and after?
Dave: Performance before was a hit or a miss. I lost overall but I would have some months where I’d make heaps and others where I’d give it all back. And my performance now is a lot more consistent and deviates a lot less month-to-month.
Richard: Absolutely and I guess you had a lot of anxiety around whether that was going to be an up month or a down month?
Dave: Yeah, I found trading to be one of the aspects in my life that most certainly contributed to that.
Richard: And would you say that’s now gone, has it?
Dave: I wouldn’t say it’s gone but now I’m able to recognise how my mind allows emotions to get in the way and I now know how to package them up and throw them to the side to be clear in what I’m doing.
Richard: Now that you’re a trader and moving up the ranks, what would you say to somebody who is looking at what we do and learning about how to trade and whether they should learn from us?
Dave: It’s pretty much a no brainer – you have somebody (Richard) who has 25+ years of experience doing this and has actually shown they can do it so its worth putting in the time and effort in gathering all you can from them and actually learn how to do it properly. If I hadn’t of joined Lepus I truly believe it would take me another 5 or so years before I would even become close to achieving the performance that I am now.
Richard: Okay great. Well thanks for spending the time with me for the Q & A and congratulations again on being allocated! Best of luck trading.