Maria Helena Coutinho winner of the 2005-2006 WTI competition decided to close the account in the present edition. We asked her a few questions.  

How did you learn to trade?

 

First let me say that I do not believe that no one can teach you how to trade. Someone can teach you a method but much of trading is you conquering your own psychological fears and doubts.

 

So how long you think someone will take to master the art of trading?

 

A lifetime, because it is a continuous process to master how to make money since you are always reminded by the markets that you can lose money. The distance from mastering the markets is always much greater than what you perceive at times. Bottom line you have to put a lot of yourself to succeed a lot of patience and a lot of common sense.

 Is this the reason you have abandon the present edition of WTI?

Yes I was losing over 75% on my account and it was very difficult to recover with the actual volatility. I have always questions to myself, because questions establish the focus of my mind. Is this the right market for me to trade? With all these losses should I take more risks?

 

You are very much into trading psychology aren't you?

 Well if I mention some examples of questions is because questions set up a behavior and my mind was not there anymore, so it was better to stop.