Q&A with Ben Holida – $200K+ in profits!

Today I sit down with a good friend of mine and successful trader who has made over $200,000 in trading profits. Some may know him as Ben Holida (pronounced Holiday without the y), or @ronburgundy on Call of Duty (clapping your cheeks and stealing your hoes), but I just call him burgos. Without further ado, I introduce the man, the myth, the legend; my pal, Ben Holida.

Chris: Sup Ben, so why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourself.

Ben: Hey man, glad I could take a break from stealing the hoes. My name is Ben or my trading screenname @ben-jammin (same on all socials). I’ve been a student of the market for roughly 6 years but I have been fortunate enough to be a full-time trader for the last 3 years. Outside of the markets, my favorite past time is to jam it up on the guitar (hence the name ben-jammin) and I also like to spend time with friends and family and throw in an occasional fishing trip with my good friend Jack (aka @jackkellogg) every once in a while.

Chris: That’s awesome man. So when did you begin your trading career?

Ben: In late 2017.

Chris: What were you doing before trading?

Ben: I was finishing up high school and saving up money from working at my local KFC.

Chris: Nice! So what got you into trading?

Ben: I first learned about it from my dad who did mutual funds preparing for his retirement and was curious of how else you could do it for a job since I didn’t really see going to college and getting a normal job a really appealing option.

Chris: I see, so would you say you’re primarily a long or short-biased trader and why?

Ben: I like splitting it up and over my career I am about 50/50 almost on the dot. And as the great Tim Sykes once said: ‘It’s great to practice your front hand and back hand.’ – So that way I am never too biased on one side or the other.

Chris: He does say that quite a bit. So are there any skills or traits that you had prior to trading that you find help you when trading?

Ben: Yes. Before I got into trading, I had always played guitar from a young age and was also really into skateboarding and with both of those things, especially skateboarding, it requires an extreme amount of discipline and persistence to land the tricks you are attempting and it reflects on my trading because without persistence and dedication, it is a nearly impossible feat to accomplish.

Chris: That makes sense. So what would you say is your typical routine during the trading week?

Ben: I tend to wake up at least an hour or sooner before the market opens (around 8:30am EST) and then I like to have my morning cup of Joe and look over the gappers as well as potentially reserve shares to short if there is a short setup I am interested in. Then once the market opens, I like to do full-focused trading from 9:30 until about 11am (EST). This is where I typically find that I have the greatest edge and try my best to take advantage of the morning volatility. After 11, I think it’s very important to occupy your mind with something other than trading while midday consolidation and chop occurs.

A few ways I like to get away from the screens during the trading hours is taking a walk outside if the weather is nice or if I am wanting to stay inside, I find it is a good time to practice my music and of course clapping cheeks and taking names (gaming it up). Around 2pm, I like to check back in to the morning movers to see what has held up and start getting an idea for what I am going to be looking at for tomorrow or potentially place a trade in the afternoon.

Chris: It is always nice to get away. So what is your go to setup?

Ben: My all-time favorite setup is the classic first red day pattern (short setup) on over extended stocks. For those of you who are not familiar, this pattern occurs when a stock has had a massive multi-day run without any significant pull backs. But my priority is to focus on whichever setups or patterns are presenting the most consistent profitability.

Chris: What type of preparation do you do that you believe is crucial to your trading success?

Ben: The most important part is knowing my strengths and weaknesses and figuring this out is crucial to know where I am most likely to make money and where I am most likely to lose money. I like to track my trades on an excel sheet as well as a trading performance platform like kinfo, tradingview or profit.ly. Because without this, it makes it much more difficult to know where to put my focus day to day.

Chris: That’s a great answer! So what is your trading setup like?

Ben: Thanks, I use a desktop setup with three different monitors. I use two 27” curved monitors for charting. I also have a third vertical monitor which I use for communication (discord) and scans (Stock Intel App).

Chris: Do you recommend any specific broker platforms, if so, which one(s) and why?

Ben: I personally think for beginners and people who are new to the market, thinkorswim is a great platform (now with Charles Schwab) as it offers paper trading and has a low minimum to begin live trading with free commissions on listed stocks. However, I personally use Cobra as my main broker since I like to go both long and short and Cobra has the most available locates for one of the best prices. I am also a big fan of their DAS trading platform.

Chris: What advice would you give to new traders that aren’t sure where to begin?

Ben: The best advice I would give to someone who is fresh to the market is to find a good mentor with a proven track record. I personally started out learning from Tim Sykes. A couple others that I personally know is Nate with Investors Underground, Roland at RW Trades and Huddie, Kyle and the fellas at Clover Trading.

Chris: What advice would you give to someone who’s considering a trading career? Should they leave their 9 to 5 and jump in?

Ben: I would highly advise before even considering going to full time trading having at least a year under your belt of consistent profitability and also having enough cash to live off of for over a year outside of trading.

Chris: In your trading journey, what have you found to be the most important decision you have made when it comes to trading?

Ben: The most important decision I have made is always having an open mind in and outside of the market. Outside of the market, I had to be open-minded and willing to learn from whoever I could. The best thing I ever did for myself was going to multiple trading conferences and creating a network of people who would help me get to the next level in trading. Within the market, it is crucial to always have an open mind because no matter how right you think you are, you can always be wrong. Having a closed mind while trading can lead to devastating losses.

Chris: That’s great advice! How long did it take you to become a consistent trader?

Ben: I really started to see consistency in June of 2020 which is when the markets started heating up and I saw the patterns that I studied come to fruition.

Chris: What do you do to overcome emotions in the market?

Ben: Emotions is always going to be the biggest struggle when it comes to trading. For me, some ways that I try to separate emotion from execution is by understanding that no one trade will make or break me. This allows me to take losses on the chin and know that there is always tomorrow.

Chris: What do you believe is one of the main reasons a trader might fail or continue to fail in the market? What could they do better?

Ben: Lack of discipline and the inability to control oneself when a trade or day is not going their way. One good solution to prevent this lack of control is to size down. Always when using larger size, there is more emotions that come into play which can drastically affect the outcome of a trade.

Chris: Do you have any trading book recommendations or ways to study trading that might be beneficial to a new trader?

Ben: I like the Brett N. Steenbarger books ‘Trading Psychology’ (part 1 and 2). Consuming as much free content from verified traders as possible. Whether that may be from youtube, blogs or people you network with.

Chris: Is tracking your trades important? Yes or No and Why or Why not?

Ben: Yes, tracking your trades is very important because if you don’t know where you are performing the best and worst, how will you know where to put your focus?

Chris: Very true. Is there anything additional that you would like to say?

Ben: If you’re looking to become a trader, never give up and understand that this is a tough game but all games can be beaten. *mic drop*

Yes, he really said mic drop. Thanks Ben! I appreciate the opportunity to get some insights into your trading journey and share your story with the Stock Intel community!

Images © Ben Holida