Eight months after the start of World Top Investor 2014-2015 the Bulgarian trader Todor Angelov is at the top of the charts, almost since the beginning of the competition. Todor often attends the Trader’s club of Karoll Brokerage and spoke about his trading style. I now know that he prefers fundamental analysis and tends to hold positions for long periods of time – months and sometimes even years. Curiously, Todor relies on consulting with a trusted friend who is a technical analyst regarding the entry points of his positions. His ‘’kind’’ assistant tracks the support and resistance levels in the markets.

During a conversation with Todor Angelov we tried to find out more about his way of trading, which is far from typical in comparison to the majority of other Bulgarian traders.

Is your normal trading style different from the one you use to compete in the World Top Investor 2014-2015?

No, I trade the same way. Frankly, in the beginning I even forgot the fact I was part of a competition. A few months after the start I even went to withdraw money from my account, which a competitor can´t. It was staff from my brokerage Karoll that reminded me that this would violate the rules of WTI and automatically disqualified me. It was this way that I found out that I was second or third place in the world ranking of the WTI. This motivated me to carry on and even… I became little more conservative especially because of the competition. 

Are you still “indifferent” to your results or are you tempted to check the ranking every day?

I check and consider my account performance every day and then I take my trading decisions. However, I don’t look at the ranking in WTI website that often (laughing). To be honest, I am proud that I succeed up until now to maintain the highest gains. On the other hand, I try to disregard this fact in order not to spoil my trading.

Tell us something more about your method of analysis and about the information you keep in mind when trading.

I follow and trade the main commodities, gold, silver, oil and about 20 major currencies. I keep track of the overall performance of the markets in Asia, Europe and US, the main indexes in Australia, USA and Europe, as well as some particular stocks from their components.  In my opinion this forms the fundamentals that make the markets move, and my goal is to grab the long term trends.

Which instruments you use to take advantage of these long term trends?

Usually I use the commodities directly, but choose companies instead, which I think would be influenced heavily by these trends. I trade with CFDs on stocks to get leverage and also indexes.

So you open trades with targets that lie months ahead?

What I do is manage the position by reducing or increasing its size depending on the markets. However, the core of the position stays open for months or sometimes over a year.

Share with us how you take your decisions regarding your open trades. Does the chart provide you signals or is it all about the current condition of your account, as you mentioned earlier?

Naturally, I use both of them. Especially when you trade with various types of instruments with leverage, you should always pay attention at the current situation of the account and the amount of free funds. This is exactly why I check my account relatively often, despite the fact that I only trade once a week sometimes even less. The leverage effect can be an advantage, but in the same time it can be dangerous and bring not only big profits, but also heavy losses to your account. This is why you can’t ignore the current trend, and the margin coverage with free funds.

According to your opinion, where is the balance between the pursuit of profit and staying aside of high risk taking?

In general, I like taking higher risks, but after 7-8 years experience in trading everybody comes up with some base strategies, especially when people track the main assets in the market.

Is the trading your main profession and do you think a man can rely on trading for a living?

Currently it isn’t but I hope it’s going to be very soon.