Episode 21 … Brice Foose (79:41)

Interview from 2019
Lives in St. Louis
Trades remotely for Seven Points Capital
Pharmacist at CVS in evenings and weekends
Started trading in 2011
Graduated from pharmacy school in 2013
Started at Seven Points in January 2019
Joined subscription website, Bio Runup in 2012
Focused on biotech stocks, had an edge being a pharmacist
Good year in 2013
2014 learned how to short and lost money for the next three years
2016 took a loss in DRYS that was huge, shorted at $12 (it went to $100)
Account went from $55,000 to $8,000 after DRYS loss
January 2017 finally got traction, green year
Couldn't overcome fees when shorting with small account
In 2017 with $40K account, had $68K in gains, fees were $70K, so a red year
2018 his best year, 2019 should be even better
Put in the time and never give up
Every trader who is good has battled through things to get them where they're at
Main things is controlling losses
Have to have confidence in your method that you can make your losses back
Got $20K from his stepdad
Wanted a method that he could use for the rest of his life
Anyone looking for a quick buck, trading is not the profession for this
Oversized losses mainly explain his red years
If you feel enough pain, you're going to change
"Getting away with stuff" before big DRYS loss
DRYS loss the best thing that ever happened to him
Insitituted max loss after DRYS
Can see through press releases since he's a pharmacist
Does biotech catalysts, wants hard date and doesn't hold through catalyst
Anything up huge in the morning that has an ATM, he's interested in shorting
Knows all the companies that are notorious for pumping stock price
Combines technicals with fundamental bias
Looking for things to fade all day or a couple days
Tough to have long bias with scammy company
Liked Mike Katz on Twitter, impressed with attitude and demeanor
Attended every Traders 4 a Cause since 2014
Met Katz in Vegas at Traders 4 a Cause in 2018
Asked Katz if he could trade remotely for Seven Points
Failed one of his licensing tests at first, but it was a blessing in disguise (missed a bad market)
Seven Points has great borrows and gave him more buying power
People on TWTR never post about fees, they can be a killer
Seven Points internal messaging system is key, surrounded by good traders
A trader's midset can be fragile, good to have pep talks from fellow traders
Uses hard stops for every short position, already mentally accepted the loss
Tries to be positive, life is short, cut out the constantly negative people
Dreamed of going to the NBA, realized he wasn't going to make it
Worked out a lot in high school and college
Did body building for two years, ultimate exercise in discipline
Hard stops and max losses keep him disciplined, can't spiral out of control
No more adding, no more holding and hoping (which he did in the past)
If you trade with edge, and avoid bad losses, the sky is the limit
If he takes a loss, he's confident he can make it back quickly
Uses wide stops, sizes position to lose a certain dollar amount
Uses 1-minute charts during the day
Uses technical levels for targets
His strength is he can hold winners for a long time, tries not to take partial profits
Doesn't think of risk reward when he places his stops
90% win rate means risk reward can be 1 to 1 [or worse]
Talked to a lot of top traders in person at Traders 4 a Cause, like Phil Goedeker (who spent 25 minutes with Brice)
Met Brian (Lee?) at Traders 4 a Cause in 2016, became buddies, helped each other through tough times
Another buddy, Justin, talks with him during Brice's half-hour commute
Talks with ViperofDC (Jay) about mindset
Essential to have some trading buddies who are on your level and have the same mindset
Trading is a lonely business, amount of traders who come and go is staggering
He wasn't profitable the first three years he attended Traders 4 a Cause (a tax deductible business expense)
He had his eye on the big picture, looking 20 to 30 years ahead
Traders 4 a Cause in October, best trader networking event he knows of
Tips for beginners: trading is tough, you need to put in 10,000 hours at least
Use ThinkOrSwim OnDemand ... it's an incredible resource, speed up your learning curve, use every weekend
Embrace your losses and learn from them
A losing year is not the end of the world, learn from it and move on
The amount of money you can make is totally insane, mind-boggling to a normal person
Use negative energy to improve your trading, channel it to motivate yourself
His CPA in 2014 saw his statements and said, "you know we have investment services down the hall"
Pissed off, motivated him, said to himself that yearly loss I will make in one day in future
Feel the pain and build the habits
You need to have a side income, pay your bills while you're learning
Big believer in trading podcasts, loves listening to them
Intuition developed through screen time is huge
He never paper traded, need the emotions that come with risking real money
Build a process that you can eventually scale
Don't give up ... learn and improve ... focus on continuous improvement ... learn from your losses
"Train the Brain" -- a SmashTheBid saying ... hold something longer than you planned to, build patience
Had cancer when he was two years old, a survivor
Pharmacist income is very high, opportunity cost too high to quit, spent seven years in school for it
Focused on paying off his debt: car, mortgage, student loans
Has real estate LLC, needs the W-2 to secure loans, lenders look askance at trader income (too volatile)
On Twitter, but rarely posts, turned off by the nonsense ... @PharmDFoose