Another succes story of women in forex comes from Jody Samuels, an experienced trader who began her career in 1979. Here, she shared her experience, knowledge, and opinion about independent trading, Elliot Wave, as well as genders in forex trading.
Another success story of women in forex comes from Jody Samuels, an experienced trader who began her career in 1979. After working at JP Morgan as an institutional trader, Jody chose to become a retail trader and provide courses in FXTradersEDGE which she found. With more than 25 years of experience, Samuels once again proves that it's not impossible for women to survive in forex trading. Here, she shared her experience, knowledge, and opinion about independent trading, Elliot Wave, as well as genders in forex trading.
From An Intern to Queen of Quid
Jody Samuels was first introduced to the world of forex trading when she had an internship in a Norwegian bank. That was made possible by her membership in an international student business organization called AIESEC during her studies at Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Samuels worked in the Arbitrage (Foreign Exchange) Department as a trainee and felt fascinated by her job as a telex machine operator that quoted prices from traders in Norwegian Krones in the interbank market. Her excitement then prompted her to extend her internship for 3.5 months and applied to work for JP Morgan.
Becoming the Queen
Jody Samuels was the only woman who traded GBP/USD in the interbank market during her time in JP Morgan (1979). That was how she became known as the Queen of Quid. When asked about how it felt to be a woman in a man's world, she did not remember to have much problem even if she now thinks that it should have been more daunting. But coming from a business school where women were prepared for male-dominated industries, she definitely did not meet any significant trouble during her days as the "it" woman.
Samuels didn't feel like competing with other women in her work environment. If anything, it was herself whom she should be cautious of. In her interview with FXStreet, she claimed that The competition was with me, to see how many winning days I could have every single month. Setting and striving for goals seem to be her methods of pushing herself for the better. For instance, she has a target to have a full month of winning days.
Converting to Retail Trading
In her account of turning into an individual trader, gaining confidence came as the most prominent challenge she remembered. She received great support when she still worked at JP Morgan from many fellow institutional traders and strategists, but when she changed into an independent trader, she needed to get used to trade without all those bits of help. Samuels managed to overcome her ordeal by accepting that reaching success didn't depend on such support. Changing her belief system proved to be an effective way as she appeared to complete her transition successfully, especially after being mentored by masters in the world of independent trading.
Pros and Cons of Independent Trading
According to Jody Samuels, being an individual trader is not always fruitful. Nowadays, it is so easy for traders to trade with not enough capital. Although it attracts a lot of new retail traders, it also provides a way for traders to use higher leverage and lose their capital in just a few trades.
On the bright side, independent trading is now facilitated with access to highly transparent and cheap data. Compared with how she used to trade in the past, being a retail trader today is completely a whole different world. Samuels also stressed out the importance of right education in trading. She implicitly claimed that having an experienced mentor that can coach and communicate well with you is one of the most critical step when you learn to trade.
Jody Samuels' Keys of Success: Emotional Control and Elliot Wave
Experience teaches Samuels to never putting aside emotional control. Another key to her trading success is having Elliot Wave as her favorite technical indicator.
Balancing Fear and Greed
Jody Samuels has a good tip for you who are still worrying about unexperienced trading psychology: You don't need to worry, as every trader has it. Even Samuels herself had experienced it. She admitted that in her earlier days, her emotions were often carried out by volatile markets. However, she later found a way on how to adjust her emotional feelings when trading. I work in limiting my extreme emotions.... and practice being balanced on the vast emotional spectrum of trading. Finding the middle point between fear and greed turned out to be the perfect solution for managing her emotions.
As Samuels is a trader who also teaches, many of her experiences are made as the subjects of her teachings. Controlling emotion is one of them, in which she is bold enough to say that there isn't one emotion or situation that a trader can describe that she hasn't experienced herself.
Finding A Missing Piece In Elliot Wave
Ever since knowing Elliot Wave in her JP Morgan days, Jody Samuels had been amazed by how the indicator worked. She studied and mastered Elliot Wave on her own and made it a part of her analysis toolbox. Furthermore, Elliot Wave analysis can be regarded as the main subject that she teaches to traders. Today I love teaching it to traders and often times they feel it is the missing piece of the trading puzzle, said her. Its compatibility with any strategy when defining entry and exit points, as well as seeing the bigger picture are the reasons why Jody Samuels likes this indicator.
Traders Are Not Exactly Divided By Genders
In regard with differences between male and female traders, Jody Samuels acknowledge none except for intuition. She said no to analysis and risk aversion tendencies, but admitted that women have a certain intuition about the market.
Better Find A Middle Ground
Instead of dividing traders according to their genders, Jody Samuels advised to find a middle ground. It goes back to her opinion about women's tendency to avoid risks, that some think may bring more success. Samuels didn't fully agree with that. Despite thinking that women are sometimes more conservative, Samuels also believes that there were always exceptions.
She also said that being a risk taker is important in any trading business. While avoiding risks can give less exposure, it also guarantees only small profits. I think being too conservative isn't good either so a happy medium needs to be found. stated her.When discussing gender differences and their influence on traders' behaviors, Jody Samuels can't go along with those believing that patience belongs to women while men are limited by their aggressive nature. She disputed that kind of opinion as she had met many male traders who are very patient. Also, in the phase of trading education, Samuels didn't believe that women tend to learn more thoroughly than men. Speaking from her experience, those kinds of qualities are not gender-based.
Instead of searching for success' factors in gender qualities, Jody Samuels prefers to look into one's determination to become a profitable trader. The conclusion is, if a person has goals to become a successful trader, no matter what their gender are, then they need to do whatever it takes to learn their best. With that being said, becoming a successful trader does not depend on a spesific gender, but rather on a person's goal and their determination.
Lessons From Jody Samuels
To wrap up Samuels' story, here are the four lessons that may be beneficial for us:
- Confidence is significant to build your career in trading. Jody Samuels had encountered such experience where she found her way only after developing confidence in her early days as an individual trader.
- Find a methodology, figure it out, practice it, and master it. Samuels has been consistent in her Elliot Wave analysis. It is practically a methodology that she can relied on from time to time. Aside of picking one constant technique that you will use, you also need to make sure that you can really grasp the idea of your trading analysis.
- Look for a middle ground between agressive and conservative to control your trading emotion, as well as balancing your trading style.
- Your potential is not determined by your gender. In fact, goals and determination are far more important in striving to be a successful trader. Don't be too conscious of what your gender is, but focus on what you are capable of. If you try your best, than eventually you will get what you deserve.