Episode 132 ... Mark Gardner (55:43)

Australian, heavy accent, difficult to understand
Has four kids
Has a three strikes rule (mistakes, rule breaking, bad judgment, misses something) and he takes a break
In front of screen for 20 years, 80,000+ hours
[Can't understand him, he talks fast ... and there's the accent ... missing half of what he says]
Parents were blue collar, worked seven days a week, hard workers
Goes on "auto-pilot" when he's trading
Sets up his screens consistently, like a gamer, chart pattern recognition
Same things in his field of vision for 15 years
When he's stimulated, he's relaxed ... not worried about burnout
Working for himself, no one else ... that makes a big difference that he doesn't get sick of it
Power napper
Your rules shouldn't say "don't don't not not" ... make constructive rules when in neutral state of mind
Last year of high school in Australia, you need to get work experience
14-year old first time on Australian trading floor ... he was enthralled, exciting, knew he wanted to do this
17-year old he went right to work for brokerage
Grew up in small country town, not studious, University not something he wanted to do
Had a mentor who worked him hard, very strict, but he needed that, no regrets
Ten year apprenticeship, only two or three months of losses over ten years
Top 10% will always eat the bottom 90%
Eventually had enough capital to handle the swings psychologically
Got arrogant in 2014, thought he couldn't lose, then predictably took a big hit in March 2015
"God Complex," took position way too large, lost six or seven months of gains in four hours
Lightning strike hit house, everything knocked out, lost 20% right when that happened, once back up realized he was badly stuck, got angry, snowballed
Usually level-headed and calm, this stressed him out, he sort of freaked out, had a lot of bad thoughts, couldn't walk away, calm down
Tightened up all his redundancy measures after this event (diesel generator, backup computers, etc.)
Took six months to make it all back, which he did
Re-gained his respect for the market after this, respect for risk management
Feels his edge has diminished over the last 15 years
He's not up against another human anymore, he's up against quants
The competition had changed, he had to adapt
Quants are taking advantage of the inefficiencies of human traders
Math guys don't respect old traders, no love for the discretionary traders' pattern recognition and intuition
Human mind can adapt and make complex associations that are not quantifiable but need to be respected
Don't cuddle up to other losing traders when you're losing ... don't seek comfort
Twitter: @42trading