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The Technical Traders Podcast Transcription
The Technical Traders Podcast (00:00):
Welcome to the technical trader’s podcast. The show that brings you technically proven strategies and trade ideas from experts around the world. We’re going to help you make more money with less risk, so you can take your trading to the next level. Now here’s your host, Jim Goddard.
Jim – The Technical Traders Podcast (00:20):
My guest is Chris for Vermeulen from www.TheTechnicalTraders.com. The executive producer of this podcast. Chris, do you want to share with our listeners why we’re starting this podcast series?
Chris Vermeulen (00:32):
Yeah, sure. Jim. Oh, it’s pretty straightforward. Really. The whole process is we simply want to help others learn how to become wealthier live a life, and they can do that through learning through others who have already kind of had success, or they’re on their on the journey through success as we speak. And, you know, there’s no point in learning, you know, learning the hard way through trial and error. When you can fast track your way through, the growth phase of learning more about who are, what you want to do different ways to make success. And I think this show we’re gonna bring on lots of different guests from all different aspects and areas of the world, and we’re gonna be able to show guests, you know, what those people have done, why they do it stories about how they got involved. So it’s, it’s gonna be a great way to figure out how to become more wealthy in the, and, and in life as well.
Jim – The Technical Traders Podcast (01:26):
What do you hope to share in these podcasts with a new guest every week?
Chris Vermeulen (01:30):
Yeah, so E everyone’s got, you know, a pretty incredible story and, and people come from so many different walks of life and stories, stories go from one extreme to the other. So the whole point here is we want your, you know, different individual stories and what happened, how they got involved in trading, investing different businesses and, and into their passion businesses. We want to get, you know, their, their ideas, their insight, and really, you know, it’s, it’s very interesting cuz everyone sees the world through a different lens, and they all find a unique way to either trade or investor or help people. And you, you, you know, as we talk to these people, the more people you help, the more successful you become. And it’s pretty amazing how a lot of these people have very similar qualities and traits to what they focus on.
Chris Vermeulen (02:20):
so we’re gonna be sharing stories and hearing a some pretty amazing stories from individuals, and through these stories, they’re gonna be educational as well. So when you’re, you’re finished listening to these podcasts, you’re going to hopefully be inspired. You’re gonna be excited to take on new things that you are thinking of doing or to improve processes and steps you’re already doing going forward. And, you know, that’s the best way to do it as to follow people who have gone down the path before you and listen to all the different ways it’s been done and create your own kind of path in a way that suits your personally step personality, style, your financial style, you know, just what you want to do. And I think that’s really critical for people to have success because you’ve gotta make sure you do things the way that works with who you are. You don’t wanna force things, or else it becomes a job, and jobs aren’t fun. So that’s, hopefully, what people are gonna get out of our podcast here.
Jim – The Technical Traders Podcast (03:15):
How did you get started in trading and investing?
Chris Vermeulen (03:19):
Right? So it, it was a progression. So kind of a long story here of, of where I started to where I am today. So a long story short is, I’ve always been into creating and building things. When I was a kid in high school, I built a remote control airplane. I built a camera on it and used it to take photos. I’d only be able to take one, and I’d have to land the plane rewind up the camera. I went on to build a taser out of a camera flash. I build a go car, a dirt bike with a sidecar, I’ve built a boat, an airplane. I built a log cabin with my hands and just hand tools with my best friend out in the woods. I mean, I love a good challenge. I even invented the world’s first flying electric jet surfboard.
Chris Vermeulen (04:02):
so I love challenges in general. And once I got wind of the stock market, when I was 16 in high school, I was like, this, this is, this is my next challenge. I want to master these markets. Cuz what we did in high school as we had this competition with other classes or other schools, which classroom could make the most money with a hundred thousand dollars investment in over one semester. I think we made like $180,000, and that was my eye-opening experience going. Oh my gosh, this is the next thing that I want to master. And so that that’s been it for 25 years. I’ve been focusing on the markets, constantly refining things. And it’s kind of led me down this path, and I’ve become a technical trader I’ve. I’ve kind of done the whole gauntlet. I’ve gone from trading stocks to options, Forex futures, day trading, you name it, I’ve gone through the whole cycle, and I’ve found my fit the way my brain can perceive the market find consistent trade.
Chris Vermeulen (05:01):
And it’s, it’s all based on technical analysis. I don’t use any fundamentals anymore because I’ve gone through two bear markets where you can own stocks that are growing quarter after quarter. And the stock price keeps dropping 25% in value. Every quarter it goes against, you know, all logic. And that was when I realized, Hey, fundamentals, help when the trend is right, but technicals, if you follow the charts, the only way any of us make money as an investor is if our asset goes in the direction we want. And so by following the trends, identifying them, we can find which ones are the strongest, move our money in, catch that trend. When it’s starting to show signs of weakness, we can start to trim off our position and go find something fresh in a new kind of best asset. My theory is to always rotate your money into the best sector as they become market leaders.
Chris Vermeulen (05:50):
So that’s kind of, kind of the phase of how I got into the stock market, and the guy who actually inspired me was Larry Williams. I ended up getting this little booklet in the mail. My dad got this booklet, of course, I was 16, and it was about trading commodities. And back then, commodities, there were no micro contracts or many contracts. So when you had a trade, you, you could make 30, 50, a hundred thousand dollars fairly quickly. And so that’s what got me hooked into the market. I read this little booklet a bunch of times. I remember going to my dad saying, Hey, let’s open a futures account, let’s trade together. And he’s like, I’m not touching those things. And of course, I didn’t realize the leverage involved in futures back then, but that was really what sparked my initial interest. And then of course, later that year in school is when we did the stock market challenge and that solidified the whole thing.
Chris Vermeulen (06:38):
That’s what kind of put the whole process into place. So anyway, you know, looking forward several more years, I ended up writing a book on technical trading mastery, and I actually contacted Larry. He said, Larry, I’d love for you to read the book and, and, you know, write a review on the back of, of my book because you’re the one who got me into this you’ve, you know, allowed me to live this amazing lifestyle. And so that’s what ended up happening. It go went full circle from reading his booklet, getting involved, him being part of mine. And, it was a pretty amazing thing. So, that was kind of how I phased into the markets. And then, you know, investing isn’t just in the stock market. I also started as I started to earn or save up some wealth.
Chris Vermeulen (07:24):
I started to invest in other things. I ended up starting my own health product company and built up a dealer network across Canada United States. I ended up selling that company in 2007, pretty much when the stock market was topping out. And then I took that cash. And then I was, when I decided, Hey, I’m gonna move into trading and helping others learn how to trade as well. And that’s when I founded technical traders, which is now in a figure business, which is unbelievable from, from nothing to where it is today. And, of course, now I’m able to invest in other like real estate. I own I’ve built, duplexes, super. I call them super duplexes and it, what they have access accessory apartments, which is very degenerate, a lot of income cuz you’ve got, you know, four rental units and, and more or less one building.
Chris Vermeulen (08:16):
I also own waterfront properties. I’ve gone on to build my own self-storage facilities on industrial property. So investing isn’t just in the market, it’s nice once you start to accumulate wealth, you can start to branch out and diversify among all these different asset classes, which is really, really important. And there’s one type of asset that a lot of people don’t even really factor in or don’t even know about, which are annuities, which in layman’s terms, you’re more or less paying into this insurance plan, this life insurance plan on yourself and you pay into it. And, and then 20, 40 years later, you’ve accumulated all this wealth and all this interest and is leveraged on your death. And so when you get older, you can sign that insurance plan over to the bank, and you more or less can pull like 85% of the cash value of that insurance plan.
Chris Vermeulen (09:08):
It’s almost like winning the lottery. You can have millions of dollars in there, and you get to spend that money tax-free and live off that in your later years. And then, when you die, the bank gets the rest of the insurance premium. They pay off the premium required, and the leftover cash would go on to your kids, or you can give it to charity. So that is another kind of investment that is a long-term investment. And, and I really like it because it’s not like the stock market where you can say, I’m gonna go put ten grand in right here. And then down the road, you want to go buy a car, and you’re like, you know what? I’m gonna pull money out of the stock market and go buy a car. The nice thing about annuities is it’s a contract, and you are locking yourself to pay premiums every month or every year, and you can’t just pull it out.
Chris Vermeulen (09:55):
So I like it because it keeps people accountable. It doesn’t allow them to pull their money out, and it’s forcing them to have this amazing retirement down the road. And what’s really cool if we just wrote a book about this actually is the younger you are, the less painful it is to be wealthy. So time is money. Time is the biggest leverage. The biggest tool you have other than compound interest. But more or less, if you’re young, you know, you can put a hundred dollars away a month and do that for 20 or 40 years and have a lot of wealth with one of these plans, and that’s painless. But if you’re, you know, 55 and you wanna retire at 65, you’ve gotta be putting in large lumps of money every, every year, being very protective of it. so, you know, time is, is really important, and the annuity play is something, in investment.
Chris Vermeulen (10:45):
I think almost everyone should have cuz it is your lotto ticket to, to kind of retirement down the road. And then of course, you can get into precious metals. You and I have talked about precious metals many times before. And you know, that to me is as an insurance plan on bad economic times. It’s an insurance plan on currency in case currency is devalued, precious metals. Aren’t a huge portion, just like you see in portfolios, precious metals are, you know, five, typically three to 5% of most people’s portfolios. You don’t really need a huge play. I think there’s a much better opportunity in different investments, but I think precious metals should be kind of in everyone’s investment pocket; just because right now we’re in a prime time, I think precious metals are on the verge of rallying for potentially a year or three years from now.
Chris Vermeulen (11:35):
And we’re gonna see major chaos in current agencies in, in the economy. And then the last thing that I’m investing in right now is actually into the future, helping kids become successful. And we’ve, we’re starting a, a company called early start, and we’re helping kids build their own online businesses. I’m helping my daughter. She’s got two websites. She does live stream casts like every day on her social platforms. It’s just pretty, pretty amazing. So, you know, that was the long way of how I got into trading and investing, but it all started in college, got into trading, and then starting to diversify through all these other things. And before you know it, you look back, and you’re like, you realize how balanced you are and how different, how, how many different assets you have going forward. So, you know, I’ve created financial success many times over in a whole bunch of different avenues, as I just showed you, and the journey to success while it can be difficult at times. And it’ll humble you cuz no one’s perfect in what they do. It is a fun process, and there’s nothing more exciting than working towards an amazing future where hopefully you’re healthy, and you’ve got lots of money to go do all the things you want. And so that’s kind of the process of and all the things I’ve done. As I got into that and how I’ve matured over time and built my wealth and continue to reinvest in, in new assets,
Jim – The Technical Traders Podcast (13:00):
What are your investing success philosophies, and what set of principles, beliefs, or experiences do you use to drive your decisions?
Chris Vermeulen (13:09):
Yeah, so I, you know, I, I was taught by my parents at a really young age at, working hard works and I heard it again. I was on the treadmill the other day, and I was listening to motivational features on YouTube, and some people have put together some pretty amazing talks. It makes your hair stand up. Sometimes you, you, you know, you’re so excited. Other times you almost wanna cry. It’s just so motivating these, some of these talks, but I heard somebody say this again, hard work works. And the harder you work, the more lock you tend to find. And that’s what I’ve found. I’m I am not the sharpest tool in the shed. I am not, you know, super savvy when it comes to news and fundamentals and a whole whack of stuff. I’m a very picture-oriented guy. That’s why I fell in love with charts.
Chris Vermeulen (13:55):
I’m like, oh my gosh, I get to look at these cool images and watch them update, and I can draw on them. And I mean, that’s the way, that’s the way I work. I would much rather, you know, I like working hard because it creates fun success. And I, and I don’t mind working hard because I’m doing things that I love. And one of the mentors that I had less Hewit he taught me the power of focus. He’s like, you’ve gotta have laser beam focus in order to have success. And, and so I do, I focus right in on the markets. I brought my focus right down to, I like trading, sectors, indexes, commodities, currencies, bonds trading, just ETFs. That is my focus. And I’m focusing on swing trading physician investing timeframes three different timeframes. And so that is where I’m really keeping the, you know, the focus on, and I don’t really go too far out.
Chris Vermeulen (14:46):
That’s why I don’t do much with Bitcoin. I do. Don’t do a lot of, you know, different plays. I really just stick to the ETFs and the pockets of what the best asset now at any given time is. So, another mentor that I had that I fully believe in is, Tony Jerry. He taught me, you’ve gotta delegate tasks. You’ve gotta get them off your plate. And focus only on HLAs eight CHS are highly leveraged activities. Meaning I only want to do the things that I am best at that produce the the best results for myself, for the company, whatever those things are. Those are highly leveraged. If I put four hours into this project, it could generate, you know, X amount of money down the road or new opportunities and us. So I don’t want other people doing those. I want to do those.
Chris Vermeulen (15:33):
The other thing is he taught me, make sure you do the tasks that you enjoy doing. They don’t have to be highly leveraged. It could be calling clients. It could be whatever, whatever it is that you like to do. This is one thing I, I believe people need to do is things that they enjoy. You don’t want to just work. So that, that really is a big part of my day is doing things that I enjoy doing, which is charting and, and chatting with members in the members, area, things like that, going forward. And, you know, also I think you need to work around the things that you enjoy. If you’re gonna get into a job, you just remember this, this job or your career is probably gonna be most of your life. I know a lot of us change jobs frequently, but, ideally you wanna make sure you get into something that you’re passionate about, that interests you, that you enjoy doing.
Chris Vermeulen (16:22):
You like the people in the industry and, and all those things because you’re gonna spend most of your life doing that thing. And, and when I got hooked on the stock market, I mean, that’s it, I’m you? It’s my, it’s my favorite thing. And right now, I’m branching out a little bit. I want to help kids and others become successful through entrepreneurship programs, but I love trading investing. It’s my passion. It’s the never-ending challenge. And I love challenges. So the fact that everything changes every day and every week, I is, is amazing. That, to me is part of the fun part of trying to figure it out and navigate it. And then, it comes down to, you know, trading and investing in the stock market. I believe that you can actively trade the stock market. There are people out there who say, Hey, you can’t do that.
Chris Vermeulen (17:08):
Well, I believe that you can somewhat time the market. You don’t need to be right all the time. You don’t need to pick the tops and the bottoms, and you can be wrong, and you can still make a lot of money. And, and that’s what a lot of people don’t understand. A lot of people will think, Hey, you can’t take time. The markets market timings, you know, a sucker’s game. Well, I, I can, you know, I can prove otherwise, I, I, you look at the charts, we can gate these things and manage positions. It’s not about just predicting prices. That’s what people think. It’s actually about managing your positions. You can still make money when a trade doesn’t go against or does go against you. It’s all how you manage that position. So, that is like one of the key things that I I focus on is I believe you can, more or less time the markets to some regard you can navigate through them, cuz there’s always something moving up that can counter another move. And, that’s kind of, how I see my principles with the markets and, and how I work. It’s, you know, focus on what you love, focus on, what you’re good at, make sure you enjoy it and just be really focused on what it is you wanna specialize in.
Jim – The Technical Traders Podcast (18:19):
Is there something you wish you had known earlier in life, especially before you got into this business?
Chris Vermeulen (18:26):
Ooh. Yeah, that’s a good question. I mean, I, I, I think I was actually pretty fortunate. My parents were entrepreneurs. They, I’ve watched them work, you know, 50, 60, 80 hours a week, like incredible hours. And I used to work with them. They used to get my sister and me in there, stuffing envelopes and doing all kinds of stuff for them. So, I know that you need to do hard work. I think I think the biggest thing that actually really hit me in the last year was if you want to Excel quickly, you need to hire professionals, get experts, help hire somebody who is, who knows what you need done. Usually, they want a lot more money, but those are the people the that you want. Cutting corners, it’s so easy to do; not getting the right people is a huge problem going forward cuz it can it can hold you back. It’s not as good as, as what it should be. It’s a very competitive world out there. So if you wanna make way and move ground, be successful and learn, you definitely need to hire people who are better than you. And hopefully, you know, you’re going to naturally improve on all aspects and life becomes a whole lot easier when things are done the proper way, the first time and you didn’t have to try and figure it out for someone,
Jim – The Technical Traders Podcast (19:47):
What can we expect in upcoming podcast episodes?
Chris Vermeulen (19:51):
Well, our, our goal here is for you and I, Jim, to, you know, introduce listeners to a wide range of individuals from all different walks of life. we’re gonna pretty much ask them similar questions to what you just asked me. We want to know all about them, how they got involved with that particular business or that investment or the trading in kind of lifestyle. What caused them to go that direction? What they found to be their sweet spot, because my sweet spot are, is swing trading, ETFs, mostly slower moving things, but other people’s sweet spot or day trading or currencies or precious metals or real estate. So it’s gonna be pretty interesting when, when you get to see how everyone sees the world through a different lens and where they found an area that you can build a business, find an investment and generate income, that is gonna be the whole goal. So it’s kind of gonna be like a mini-lesson and from each individual kind of woven in with their stories and yeah, that’s, the listeners should be able to walk away from this, hopefully feeling inspired and excited to go learn more about that, that topic or that investment
Jim – The Technical Traders Podcast (21:00):
Chris, before we go, how can people find out more about the show? Do you have other plans to alert them to certain broad broadcasts or podcasts?
Chris Vermeulen (21:10):
Sure. Yeah. Well, if you’re listening to this as a podcast right now, then you could probably click a subscribe button somewhere on the player here. So when we do post the new podcast, you’re gonna be alerted right away. You could also go to, thetechnicaltraders.com and get on our free email list. You’ll be notified there as well, along with all kinds of other weekly opportunities in the stock market. So that’s, that’s how people can get ahold of us. And, and of course, we would love your feedback. Love to know what topics you’d like us to talk about who you’d like us to have on the show. I mean this, this podcast is all about exploring all kinds of unique, interesting individuals from all walks of life. So, if you’ve got a comment, you’ve got an idea, make sure you, you send us an email or you put in a review and let us know what, what, what you’d like.
Jim – The Technical Traders Podcast (22:00):
Chris, thank you so much for outlining what we plan to do. All
Chris Vermeulen (22:04):
Right. Well, enjoy everybody. Thanks, Jim. And we’ll see you on the next episode.
Jim – The Technical Traders Podcast (22:08):
My guest has been Chris Vermeulen, the executive producer of The Technical Traders podcast. I’m Jim Goddard
The Technical Traders Podcast (22:16):
Thanks for joining us this week on the technical traders podcast. If you found value in our show, subscribe and give us a rating or share it with a friend. That would be greatly appreciated as well. TheTechnicalTraders.com your source for technically proven strategies to make more money with less risk. So you can take your trading to the next level comments made on the technical traders podcast or an expression of opinion only, and should not be construed as investment advice or recommendations to buy or sell any financial instrument. This information is for general information in educational purposes, only guests on the show are not compensated for their participation to view our full disclaimer. Please visit our website: www.TheTechnicalTraders.com
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