Ross Maxwell - My Journey

Ross Maxwell · Test category · Beginner

Ross started out leaving school at 18 and entering the financial markets. He is now a professional trader with 20+ years of experience and has founded a trading education company, he also holds the position of Investment Manager for a fund and is a Global Operation and Strategy Leader for a leading brokerage. Find out how Ross worked his way up from the very bottom to achieve these incredible positions. The video will discuss: - His progression through roles in finance - His break away from a career in trading to build something for himself - A brief note on his style of trading - The opportunities trading has provided him - A reality check on what trading truly means Access Ross's mentorship and teaching materials through our link https://keyzonetraders.learnworlds.com/link/rEugyh

Transcript

Right. Hi there. Welcome to this uh short video series that I've done um for Reason Trading. Uh we're going to talk about a few different uh subjects, but first of all, I just wanted to introduce uh myself to you uh and tell you a little bit about my journey uh through the financial markets and and how I got to where I am today. So, uh as you can see, uh Keyzone Traders, this is branded. This is my company.

This is an an online trading education company. Uh so I just wanted to tell you a little bit about uh how I got here. So uh this is my journey. So uh my name is Ross Maxwell. Uh I'm a full-time professional trader and a founder of an online trading education company as you can see which is called Keyzone Traders. I have been uh trading now for more than 20 years.

I've got more than 20 years of experience trading in the financial markets. Um, I've been a trading coach, uh, and I've been mentoring traders around the world, uh, since 2017. Uh, and that led me to find, uh, to be the founder of Keyzone Traders in 2021. Uh, I'm also an investment manager for a fund and I am global, uh, operation and strategy lead for a leading brokerage as well. So, I've got several roles.

I've got lots of experience uh, and I've spent my whole career uh, within the financial industry. But how did I get here? So um I left school actually at 18 and I joined the financial industry. I know it's a little bit more difficult now. This was sort of 20 25 years ago now. Um and I know it's a little bit different now. Um banks institutions generally look more for that degree.

Um whereas back when I was younger you used to be able to leave at 16 18 and get sort of like entry- level positions. U my first few roles within the financial industry were in sort of back office and settlement positions. I didn't just go straight in trading. Um I definitely sort of started from the ground and worked my way up.

Um once I joined uh a company um I made it known that I wanted to get into that front office. I wanted to wanted to start trading um and I took my what was then uh FSA exams [clears throat] and that once I passed those it got me an opportunity on uh the emerging market equity derivatives desk trading South African futures and options. Now we won't talk about futures and options uh within this course as such.

Um if you uh if you know what future and options are that's great but basically they are um derivative products um based on what uh the South African version of the S&P 500 or Footsie 100. Um I also did do some uh some single stock CFDs, some forex and looking for arbitrage opportunities in those roles as well. uh but my main focus I'd say like 90 95 95% of the time was on South African futures and options.

So I also spent a few years in Hong Kong uh from 200 late 2010 uh up to 2013. Um and whilst I was there I was still trading South African futures and options. Um I took several other qualifications over the course of that sort of uh 12 years that I spent in the financial markets including uh Safex which was the South African futures exchange and the HKSI which is the Hong Kong securities institute.

Uh most of my career within the city was spent at global brokerages uh where my clients were investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, City Bank and other sort of um pension funds institutions. Um those were my those were my clients. So I worked uh with them but my um my main uh roles were with global brokerages.

So that led me up to sort of 2014. Um so that I left school in 2001. So up until 2014 that was sort of like my my career.

Um but after sort of 12 13 years in the financial industry in terms of the city I decided that I wanted to pursue a career as an independent trader to give myself more freedom to get away from working for someone work for myself have the freedom of the time uh um and the the the just general freedom in my and control over my own life.

So um I obviously had a solid understanding of the markets from working within that environment. Um but switching to trading for myself was a steep learning curve.

Um trading for yourself comes with very different psychological pressures because all of a sudden I don't have that wage to fall back on like you know the the salary that you still had when working in the financial industry. Like yes uh it's well documented that you you you you have good bonuses and stuff like that but you still had a salary at the end of each month.

So didn't matter whether markets went up, whether markets went down, whether I made money, lost money, whether anything like I still got salaried at the end of the month. So they're very different psychological pressures. Um, and I also had to change the way that I looked at the markets.

As I mentioned, my my biggest clients were those big institutions, those big banks, like so I had a lot of um visibility towards liquidity that was going through the market. Um, but I lost all of that when I when I left uh my role in the city and I had to re-educate myself on the way that I viewed the markets and I looked the market.

So yes, I had a real strong fundamental um foundation and yes I had a good strong uh fundamental understanding of risks involved in our financial markets and risks involved and how to how to to manage risk but I it was still very very different. um career path that I was going and I had to I had to adapt. So, uh my style of trading um is I consider myself a day trader. I'm a very um very cautious day trader.

I do not trade every single day. Um I've always been that way. Um I think as I have progressed over the last sort of 12 years, I've actually probably progressed up to up time frames and also reduced the number of trades that I'm that that I take. So, you know, when I very first started, I might be trading on the 1 3 5 minute time frames. Um, and I might be taking sort of 25 to 30 trades a month.

Um, and you know, like I say, I wouldn't be necessarily trading every single day. There might be some days when I don't trade and then another day when I trade two or three times. Um, but now as I've progressed, matured, um, and sort of adapted my trading, uh, I trade more off of like the 1 hour time frames and I'm really taking just sort of like maybe 8 to 12 trades a month.

So, um, whilst I am a day trader because and I consider myself a day trader because all of my trades are generally uh, finished within the same session within the same within the same day. I do not trade every single day. I'm certainly not a high frequency trader. I'm very selective uh and I make sure that I'm taking just high probability setups.

Um and I also focus on highly liquid assets such as major indices, major FX crosses, oil and gold. And as you'll come to see, I'm very much focused on managing the risk uh in my trading.

So that's my career as sort of like a a trader. Um but my role as coaching in in in terms of coaching and mentoring traders as well. So in 2017 um sort of a few years after I started trading for myself, I started coaching and mentoring traders for another um online education company. Um so I did that for a few years but in 2021 I set up uh Keyzone Traders as it is now.

And my goal for Keyzone Traders is to provide sensible riskfocused education. I think there's a lot of noise out there especially on social media um around sort of like glamorizing trading and sort of like you know making it look easy and sort of like making this like you know you can sit on a beach and do it for half an hour a day um and that is not the realities of trading you know I don't sit there in my

flip-flops and just trade like you know there there is a lot of work and background that goes into it and so I want to make sure traders understand and are prepared um for the risks involved in in the markets like they approach the journey in a responsible manner and with realistic expectations of what they can achieve.

Now I do want to sort of sit there and say something. This isn't to to to glamorize it or anything like that. It's like so for example, one of the freedoms that I have with my trading is that I do get to, you know, take extended holidays. I do get to spend a lot more time with my family.

I've got young children, so you know, I can I can go away for four to six weeks at a time during the summer holidays and spend time with them and, you know, sit around by the pool and, you know, do a little bit of work there and um sort of scale back a little bit what I'm doing. But that doesn't mean to say that is my life. That isn't my daily routine. Okay?

So, [clears throat] it the the hard work allows me in periods of time to control what I'm doing um and take that step back while still continuing to earn money. So whilst I'm on holiday, I am still having the flexibility of um actually being able to trade.

So it's it's this sort of tradeoff whereby you never sort of well you can you can take time away from the markets but I can take extended holidays but I will be working whilst I'm there and I can work for you know a couple of hours a day looking at the markets analyzing the markets and um setting my orders and and and and leaving them for the day. But that doesn't mean to say I could do that every single day.

The hard work around like journaling, analyzing, back testing, uh like reviewing trade plans, analyzing the markets, you know, all of that stuff still has to be done. And doing all of that work in other times allows me then to have those periods where I can take my step take my foot off the gas a little bit and relax whilst still participating in the market.

So like you know I just want to to just sort of clarify that that yes you can um have a lifestyle where you can take extended holidays and you can um and this is if if you're an independent trader obviously if you're going to go into a career with in terms in the financial industry that's very different but it is something that can give you the flexibilities and freedoms but you have to put in the work as well. Okay.

So that's a little bit about me, my journey. Um, and like I said, my my theory and what I like the the messaging that I like to get across that, you know, we are going into a marketplace full of professional traders. You know, um, you need to treat it with the respect that it deserves.

You need to understand the risks that um are are you are opening yourself up to and you need to be able to put in the work to be able to reap the benefits from from it. Like there's there's a there's a saying that I really like which says you have two jobs as a trader. [clears throat] One is to create a trade plan with an edge. The second is to follow that trade plan.

Now trading once you get there is is that is generally speaking that simple, but it's not that simple to get there. Um and even when you get there, it's not as simple as it sounds just to follow that um follow that plan.

So, we're going to I'm going to give a little bit more information as we go through the the upcoming videos, but I just wanted to give you a bit of an in uh introduction to myself, how my journey through the financial industry, and how I got to where I am Today.