Lana Nagornaya -trader with 15 years of experience, founder of the online courses “Invest”. Got a higher education
In 2009, she began working as a financial director in an IT company, she was engaged in her own business - an online project for the exchange of electronic currency, a chain of stores and a restaurant in Miami.
“I downloaded the broker application and everything is clear to you”
— Now the coronavirus crisis is raging all over the world: the economies of countries are falling, development has come to a standstill, and people’s incomes are declining. What opportunities does trading offer in the current environment?
- Good question.It is worth saying that not only are incomes falling, but the budget is literally being eaten away. Not everyone was able to switch to remote work mode, and now they simply have nothing to do. Trading is an opportunity to convert your time and skills into good income. You are not tied to bosses, deadlines or contractors. There is you and the stock exchange. You can work anywhere and anytime - at the dacha and grill barbecue at this time, in your office, in an apartment or in a luxurious house, from anywhere in the world, the main thing is that you have the Internet.
- Do you need any special devices for trading?
- Not today. Nothing but a laptop or smartphone is needed.
— How has the availability of trading on the stock exchange changed?
— Over the past five years, brokers have become activelyattract clients because people are the commission on which both brokers and banks actually live. The benefit is obvious: the more traders there are, the more they will earn. How to attract a person to trade on the stock exchange? Of course, accessible software and user friendly applications. Therefore, brokers entered the race for the best and most understandable application, for the most convenient interface. We live in a cool time when you can download a broker app to your phone and everything is clear to you.
“We are already in the midst of a crisis”
— At the beginning of the twentieth century, before the Great Depression in the United States, even shoemakers were actively lured into trading on the stock exchange, and then a disaster happened. Is there a similar situation now? How soon will the collapse happen?
— Let's start with the fact that we are already in the midst of a crisis.And yes, the economy has been growing for the last few years, and from every voice they heard: “Invest your money, everything will be fine!” We really overcame maximum after maximum. Of course, this could not pass by ordinary people and those who love easy money. Hundreds of advertising banners told us: “If you invest today, there will be more tomorrow. There are no drawdowns." And this myth was partly reinforced by brokers, who benefit from more people coming to the exchange. And indeed there was a very powerful bullish period.
What is happening now? Everything fell, and those who came to the exchange without knowledge, simply because the market made it possible to earn money, are in the “minuses” and do not understand what to do now. The broker does not prompt for free, this service also costs some money. Moreover, even for money, the broker and his consultants are not responsible for unsuccessful ideas and losses. The time when you could earn without knowledge has ended - the shop is covered. As the saying goes: "Do not confuse skill and the bull market."
Bull Market- a market in which rising prices predominate, an upward trend. In a bull market, transactions should only be based on the trend, that is, buy.
In contrast to the bull market, there is a bear market, which is characterized by a falling trend.
- And what now do these people do?
“The simplest thing is to wait.” In a couple of years we will grow. Despite some exceptions, the trend on the exchange is always up. This advice is suitable for those who did not have knowledge and do not want to learn anything. And for those who are ready to delve into it all and use the crisis period for themselves, I wait at my courses (winks).
"Put the robot to dry"
— How will the development of technology change or has already changed the functioning of exchanges?
— The sharpest breakthrough occurred at the end of the 2000s,when high-frequency traders entered the exchange. During the same period, Internet speeds increased rapidly. This allowed transactions to be completed in milliseconds. The exchange began to develop. Data processing processes have accelerated.
Now many funds are abandoning livingtraders in favor of algorithms. But do not forget that the price on the stock exchange is formed, including due to expectations. For example, now the shares of cruise companies, cinemas or airlines have fallen. The robot sees this and thinks that they are not worth buying. But you and I know that the crisis will end, and people will fly on airplanes, go on cruises and go to watch movies. The algorithm is not able to “think” and think in terms of expectations.
- It turns out that predictive analytics or forecasting systems are not yet developed enough to predict foreign policy events or just a human factor?
— Yes, people prevent robots from trading well.Because there are events that even we, experienced and professional traders, cannot predict. For example, two weeks ago, Elon Musk wrote on Twitter: “Guys, Tesla shares are trading too high.” And overnight, the price of his company's shares fell. Who could have guessed this? Even in my wildest fantasies I cannot imagine that a person could do such a thing.
- How has the human role on the exchange changed, if now there are also robots there?
- Firstly, high-frequency trading isthe struggle of robots and algorithms with each other. They fight for cents, pennies, for small price gaps, and thereby create liquidity in the market. Thanks to robots, there are people who want to both buy and sell. It has become easier for traders to enter the market, because there is always supply and demand. That is, these transactions add us benefits, and do not rob us of money.
Also, since these algorithms work onvery narrow price fluctuations, rarely robots leave trades overnight. And if this is, for example, a medium-term transaction, then a person can calculate the movement for several days ahead, we are able to live up to expectations or look at the level of price reaction and orientate ourselves to leave this transaction not only for one day, but for several at once. This is not available to robots. Robots without people on the exchange will not be able to. A robot, as a mechanism, it also needs to go through MOT, lubricate gears. I am not against robots, it's cool that you can algorithmize processes, give some kind of routine work to the system. The advantage of robots is that they do not get tired and do not experience emotions.
Medium-term trading- a strategy that involves retentionopen positions for several days or weeks. The ability to trade in the medium term is created due to the fact that the formed trends, levels of resistance and support remain on the market for a long time. For medium-term trading, the “stop” can be in the amount of 30 to 50 points.
- Will you still be able to earn money on the exchange, provided that there is already an asymmetry of information - can algorithms work with huge amounts of data?
- At its core, the exchange is a buyer and a seller. When one earns, the other loses. Now look: if we create this grail - artificial intelligence, which is always able to make 100% transactions, our exchange will immediately “break down”. Nothing just happens. Others will stop trading without seeing profit. With whom then should such a superbot work?
- That is, a person will always find a place in the trade? Is full automation impossible?
— It is impossible to take into account all factors; at any moment it canthe so-called “black swan” will arrive, which will change the situation on the market. The robot will not be able to handle such events; it is not able to predict them. A person can control risks and calculate potential probabilities. For example, a robot would not be able to predict how today's crisis would behave. First of all, because each time we deal with completely different crises. First there was the dot-com bubble, then mortgages and unsecured certificates, and now the coronavirus crisis. What will be the next crisis? We humans can at least fantasize - for example, we will be captured by aliens. A robot simply cannot do this. At this stage of development of algorithms, there will always be a person to control and make amendments. I have several robots. But I regularly get into the algorithm and correct something, because you have to adapt to the market. Robots are unable to adapt.
- How is high-frequency trading arranged?
- High-frequency trading is trading onmilliseconds, or maybe even microseconds. On such short periods of time when a person would not have time to press a button. Now, experienced traders working in the terminal always have hot keys, because transactions are very fast. So, for the time that a person presses hot keys, the robot can complete three transactions, or even more.
What are the benefits of trading on such tiny sharesseconds? You can earn money on the market due to the quality of the transaction or due to the number of small but successful transactions. The robot "picks up" the tiny difference, but does it often, thereby accumulating profits. Most sites also have special algorithms that form a constant demand or supply at a certain level. The exchange itself allows them to trade and calls them “market makers”.
Market maker, from English. "market creator"- a broker or dealer that takes overthe risk of acquiring and storing securities of a certain issuer in their accounts in order to organize their sales. Market makers operate on the stock and over-the-counter markets as direct participants in transactions.
Trading uses a lot of indicators,oscillators based on mathematical formulas. As soon as we hear about the formulas, we immediately present the computer, robots and algorithms. All robots are built on this. In fact, this is some kind of own trading system, algorithm or small code. And there can be any number of similar systems.
And there’s such a thing as “put a robotto dry. " This means that I turn it off when the market behaves very unpredictably. Because my robot can do a lot of extra deals. But everyone who thinks that he will buy a robot and get rich will have to keep in mind that without knowledge, nothing will succeed. You will have to periodically reconfigure it, eliminate errors, delve into its device and monitor its activity.
- Can a system working with quantum (and therefore large) computing power make the game on the exchange so predictable that the trading paradigm will change forever?
— On May 6, 2010 there was a very cool phenomenon —Flash Crash. Then the robot accidentally collapsed the S&P index in a few minutes. But what happened: someone got burned, and someone got their bearings and started working. Therefore, if the power of all these computers suddenly increases greatly, and robots become super fast, people will adapt to this, don’t worry (laughs). I'm calm about this.
What does the robot not know how to do, but man does? Be tricky. We are resourceful and enterprising. The time has passed when laziness was the engine of progress. Now the trick has replaced her. When we need to replay a robot or some event.
- How is the security of transactions now ensured? Does the average trader think about this?
— How does the stock exchange work?You, as a trader, decided to purchase securities, for example, shares. But how do you do this? You know that stocks exist on the stock exchange. How do you get there? Directly - no way. Even through connections (laughs). You definitely need a broker, who is essentially a layer. This is the basic principle of trader safety. The broker must be licensed. Then we make all transactions through a broker. He keeps a record of all our transactions, but the final settlement takes place on the exchange. That is, there will not be a situation where the broker goes bankrupt and your securities are lost. You just need to send a request to the authorities and ask to transfer all data to a new broker. In this regard, traders are protected.
But in what cases can there be danger?If the broker has money that is not yet in securities. That is, we have not yet made transactions on them, and the broker has already gone bankrupt. In such a situation, it will be extremely difficult to get your money out.
- And what about cyber threats? Can an attacker, for example, make transactions on behalf of a trader?
— Almost all brokers have collateralsecurity - you can withdraw money from your account only to your own account. It turns out that in this regard we are protected. Even if a thief somehow found out the password and entered the terminal, at most he can withdraw money to our account. For this to be beneficial to someone, there must be some kind of large-scale plans and a whole group of criminals. As a trader, I don't feel any threat. Because if they withdraw my money somewhere, it will be my own account. This means that you also need to capture the person and his entire account.
And if we talk about deals, I don’t even knowwho might need to hack a terminal to make transactions there. Perhaps the hacker will want to “disperse” some kind of action at my expense. Then it will be easy to find someone who will benefit from it.
“Offline Trading Training - The Last Century”
- What is the role of educational courses in trading, if the user thanks to native applications is already clear?
- It’s clear only from a technical point of view - where to press which button. It’s one thing to understand how the application works, and quite another to understand the principles of trading.
The trader has two options, how can hetrade. Experienced traders trade with terminals. And they still look like the interface of Basic, remember such a programming language? That is, everything is so miserable, ugly and incomprehensible - no user friendly interface for you. The second option is the one that brokers did for ordinary people. We are talking about natively understandable applications. But what exactly to do in them must be studied. Moreover, now thanks to these cool applications, we are entering a stage when computers become a rudiment. Your terminal is already in the smartphone.
- How has online education in the field of trading in the context of the coronavirus pandemic?
— Nowadays there really aren’t any seminars ontrading, there are no live lectures, because we are quarantined together, and we go outside using a QR code. But this doesn’t matter for trading, since trading on the stock exchange means working online. Therefore, there have been no fundamental changes in this area. Moreover, for trading the most logical training is online. When you take a seminar and write something down in a notepad, you can't immediately open the computer, stop the lecturer and try everything he tells you. But online everything is simple - you pause the video and, for example, immediately try out the material about oscillators you just covered on paper. Therefore, offline training for online work is a thing of the past.
Oscillators- leading indicators that may indicatea possible trend change that has not yet begun. This type of indicator fluctuates between two limits, above and below the midpoint, and its value helps assess the strength and direction of the trend. Oscillators typically let you know when a market is overbought or oversold (that is, the price is unreasonably high or unreasonably low), which can indicate a trend reversal.
- How important is live communication, feedback from the teacher or other students?
— In fact, my courses are especially strongstand out in the market because I give people chats. I have two weeks devoted to mandatory practice in chats, with me and with curators. In them, students can ask any questions about trading, and I answer and analyze each case. Few people do this, because it is much easier to sell video lectures, calculate the profit and leave. Then there is no responsibility to the student. Of course, there are people who don’t need any communication - they don’t want to ask, discuss or simply receive support. But I am one of those people who like to talk, work on mistakes or, conversely, analyze a profitable deal.
- How to distinguish a professional trader from a “seller of courses”? Are there any characteristic signs that they will teach you something here?
— The simplest check is to analyzethe seller’s social networks regarding his transactions. Since any trader, when he makes a great deal, wants to brag about it, honestly! (laughs). Especially if he has a well-promoted social network with an army of traders. I post my successful trades very often because I am proud of them. Someone takes my transactions for analysis as a standard or to analyze their mistakes. So if you don't see your teacher's deals, you may be a "course seller" rather than a professional. There is also an interesting point: you may be alarmed by the regular posting of a million stories in the midst of a trading session. When an ordinary trader works, and a person posts a video about what kind of flowers he has in his yard, questions arise.
Women trade better because they are neater
- In trading, as in science, and in technologycompanies, there is a gender bias - low salaries for women working as top managers, absence or unprofitable social guarantees. What is the matter with this in trading?
— The work of traders exists in two versions.The first is when a trader works for himself. In this case, gender, age and other characteristics are not important. The second option is to work for a large fund. Here everything that you listed will happen in the case of female top managers - this is oppression, a salary lower than that of male colleagues, an unpleasant tone on their part from the series: “Where are you going? I’d rather make cutlets.”
Moreover, I am a private trader and work with mycapital, and I have an Instagram in which I regularly post my deals, and boast about the results of my students. I regularly receive hater messages in Direct: “And do you think this is a trade? Is it really like that ?! ” etc. Guess from whom?
- From men?
- Always only from men. Never a woman wrote to me: "Well, why are you crawling into all this." Moreover, these messages from men are written in such a tone that, they say, your children are not fed, and you are stuck on the stock exchange. This is very unpleasant, and I ran into it just now. I used to work for a finance company, and that wasn't there. For some reason, traditionally, for some reason, finances are considered “female territory”. And then she went out with her trading to the public and was faced with sexist sentiments. I do not like this. I am ready to become the first feminist trader to defend women's rights on the stock exchange.
- But in trading, is it easier for a woman to realize herself in view of the fact that you can do this without leaving your home?
- Yes it is.There is no boss, no customer, no contacts with men, unless, of course, you go to trader chats. Where, as soon as it turns out that your nickname is Princess and you are a woman, they will immediately tell you how wrong you are, even if you are right. Therefore, the goal of my trading Instagram is to create my own community, where there will be women like me with whom we can chat and joke calmly. For example, each stock has its own ticker symbol (the abbreviated name is “High-Tech”). There is a ticker LB - this is Victoria's Secret, a company that sells lingerie. That’s why we write: “Who bought panties today?” If a man sees this, he will probably be very surprised.
- How popular is trading among women?
- You know, judging by the series Billions,there are few women traders. But I don’t know why. Women trade much more accurately. Our trade is safe. Women, in principle, are not risk averse. That is, we will never go into a high-risk transaction, even if it promises us very good profitability. We have responsibility behind us - children, the house. And we will not risk capital for the crane in the sky. Therefore, it is not clear to me why women are so neglected in trading - to be honest, we trade better than men.
When registering for online courses “Invest”, the “HAITEC” promotional code gives a discount of 3,000 rubles for the tariffs “Almost by myself” and “Into space”.