Full-time Trader Brian Hoffman Demonstrates How He Makes a Living in the Markets

TraderInterviews.com: Hello everybody, welcome back to TraderInterviews.com. Thanks very much for joining me for another show this week. We are going to speak with Brian Hoffman. He's a full-time trader and we'll talk to him about how he approaches the markets and hopefully get some good ideas for you to, maybe, think about in your own trading strategies. So, Brian, thanks very much for joining me on the phone today.

Brian Hoffman: Thanks Tim. I appreciate it. I appreciate the opportunity.

TraderInterviews.com: Well, talk about what kind of trader are you, first of all? What markets do you trade?

Brian Hoffman: I primarily trade the ES, the Mini S&P 500 Futures. I have been trading that pretty much since I started trading a few years ago and I am a structure- and volatility-based trader, which means that I don't use indicators like a MACD or Fibonacci tools. Basically, I was taught a unique way at looking at and interpreting market structure. So, if you would look at my trading charts, they would probably look pretty naked to you. I have a very dim simple moving average there and, basically, I come in in the morning, I create support and resistance zones based off of the methodology and then I have, basically, a protocol. There is some discretion involved on how I approach the zones, but I just have a way of acting around the zones. My trading style is to get into a trade and, generally, to allow it to open up. A scalp for me would probably be 2 or 3 points, so usually I'm looking to catch multiples of my risks, which averages between 2.5 and 3.5 points, so I'm looking to get like a fix to 10-point run plus a lot of times. Generally, it's going to give me a 2 to 5 trades a day on the average.

TraderInterviews.com: All right. So, 2 to 5 trades a day, you got to be pretty patient especially if you're in the 2-trades-a-day zone, but to get that, do you spend a lot of time just kind of watching the markets and waiting for an opportunity to present itself?

Brian Hoffman: Absolutely. I'm on screen all day. It does take some patience. I usually don't trade the pre-markets. So, pretty much the East Coast open, if something is really starting out, if I'm sitting in an area of resistance in the morning or an area support, I'll come in and try to set up a position. Usually, as it works out, and I don't trade the clock, but I'll get one really good a.m. trade and one really good p.m. trade. So, I look to identify the prime areas in not just price or pattern. It's more of understanding how the market is going to react, what kind of expectancy I have off of a certain area and basically I'm betting on getting into an optimal position and trying to let the trade open up as best as I can. But, the flip side to that is I will often give back pretty good open equity sometimes when it doesn't work out. So, I have to manage that.

TraderInterviews.com: Do you set your stops pretty far away then, because it sounds like you do take a loss here and there that could be substantial?

Brian Hoffman: Yeah, usually, when I get into a trade, my stops are based off of structure. I don't use a fixed point value because I did that earlier in my career and it always get hit and then the market will reverse. So, I come in with usually a default stop of 3 points on the ES, $150 a contract, and I'll adjust it. I will very rarely go more than 3.5 points and I do have other entries that will allow me to get in on maybe a 2- or 2.5-point stop. Even if I'm able to get in with a 1- or 1.5-point stop, I'm going to give it 2 or 2.5 points because the market just has its way of coming back and washing you out before it moves.

TraderInterviews.com: So, that sounds there could be a little of a dangers in that. You're allowing yourself some adjustment in the stop. How do you kind of keep that discipline to make sure you just don't let it keep going for 4 or 5 points?

Brian Hoffman: Well, it's structure-based and most of my trades in the order entry, you know, I have program, so the stop is always going to be there and I adjust it so--at that point of entry, I'm going to enter the trade and I'm going to know exactly how much risk I want to have in the trade. I'm going to move to stop to wherever that it's at. So, I will very rarely get in in the middle of the trade and start adjusting my stop and I count my losses pretty quick. You know, when I'm watching the market, when I find the good entry point, really, I'm going to look to get in in an area that that's going to make the market have to prove me wrong to get stopped out. I think, earlier in my trading career, I was a bit undercapitalized, I was trading one contract at a time and I insisted on not using a 2-point stop all the time regardless of market structure and then the volatility that I was dealing with and I would very often get into the right areas, the right direction, maybe I'll catch a pullback or areas of support and resistance, like clockwork, the market would come back and it would retest my entry point usually by about a tick or two, push through it and then, go on to be a winning trade. So, I kind of had to learn through trial and error, after taking a lot of pain and watching myself get stopped out and then the market do what I thought it would do to have structure-based stops and definitely allow it to let the trade breathe--

TraderInterviews.com: Right.

Brian Hoffman: --basically.

TraderInterviews.com: Well, I want to ask you about the market structure in just a second, but I want to go back to you talking about trading one contract at the very beginning. How long did it take you to go from trading one contract and were you full-time then or did you make the transition later?

Brian Hoffman: Well, you know, I've been at this for a little bit over three years and my first year, I spent working and trading. I was actually a broker. I've got a sales and finance background and I spent that year being a broker thinking I was going to learn something about trading. I guess I did. I talked to traders from all over the world and realized that almost everybody loses. I knew upfront how difficult it was and I went cold turkey after about a year. I just went straight into trading full-time. I had a little bit of cash set aside. It turned out, it was not an optimal situation. It was extremely difficult starting a trading career. I'm still working on it obviously. But, it took me over a year or year and a half before I raised contracts and I'm still not trading too many contracts. Right now, I trade pretty small-sized. You can do a lot of damage with two to four contracts.

TraderInterviews.com: So you started out with one contract and did you have a goal that you said, "I need to be making a living with my trading rather than my savings in a year or two years," what was it for you?

Brian Hoffman: It's actually--it was a lot more aggressive than that. When I left the broker job I was working at, I said, "You know what, I think I'll be able to catch on him in two or three months," which was obviously, looking back, a pretty ridiculous expectation, but I had come to find out a lot of people feel that they're going to come in and then really going to catch on and they think there is a right and a wrong way about trading and that you just learned the material, read a book, get the right indicator or whatever, and you're going to be able to do it. I found out pretty quick that it's not going to work. I sought out on education. I did the normal rounds of buying indicators and going to different people that teach. I had a lot of difficulty when I started and, obviously, I'm still working towards my goal, but I wanted to be making income immediately. And, one thing I've learned is that it takes time and you can't think about the dollars. If you're managing your trading based off of how much you're going to make per day or per week, it is absolutely a losing battle because I believe that you should be trading volatility or movement, risk for reward, what is your edge on this market? So, even right now, I'm still trading fairly small-sized. I do have a good equity curve. I can trade profitably, but what I'm preparing myself to do right now is to trade much larger size. So, I paid very close attention to how much I'm betting, what are the lengths and the depths of my draw-downs versus my runs-up and equity. One thing a lot of people don't like to focus on, when they're starting their trading career, is the fact that they're going to lose money and I don't believe anybody ever gets to the point to where they're just trading profitably all the time. It's a series of advancements and equity and then draw-down and then advance of equity to a new high and then a draw-down and it's through that process over and over again that you're building your account and actually, actually making money. So a long answer to your question, I am basically focused on volatility, not so much income.

TraderInterviews.com: Did you get to a point where there was something that kind of put you over the edge to be on your way? I get this question a lot via email, a listener will write in so, "Can you ask them what was it that took him to the point where they were fledgling and having a tough time and there's something clicked for them and then that was it? They were all onto the next level." Can you think of anything that did that for you?

Brian Hoffman: Yeah, I can, it's series of levels. I used to wake up everyday and say, "You know what, this is going to be the day that I'm going to get it." But, you don't ever get there. Every time, you come in to the market, every morning, you're uncomfortable with it. It doesn't look right. Things aren't unfolding right and when I advance to a level or when I feel that I've hit a milestone, usually, what happens prior to that is a devastating heartbreaking defeat. I really think that has a lot to do with trading and a lot of people don't get this about the business--is that you come in and you're working on your skill every day. What really test the trader and makes him a real trader, somebody that can actually come in and make money at this under pressure is getting stamped on, coming in and either losing money or what's worse than that and my biggest problem in trading is not hitting my entries that I know were proper, watching the market unfold like it's supposed to and give you an opportunity 9 out of 10 times and you weren't in any of those moves and then you hit your losers. Something I have written about in the past is that you're going to execute on all of your losing trades. You're definitely going to execute. So, don't skip your winning trades. It's basically by being hesitant and not being able to push that button when you know you're right, you're guaranteeing yourself your losses and you're going to skip out on your winners and then it's going to cause a draw-down, it's going to make it virtually impossible to come back and make that new equity high.

TraderInterviews.com: So what did you do for yourself? How did you make that breaks that you said, "I'm taking every single thing that looks good. I'm taking it. I'm not going to hesitate." It was just sheer will or was it something else?

Brian Hoffman: Yeah, it's a matter of perseverance. I think it's-you know what it is and that this is how to best sum it up because I had a tough August. Yeah, I didn't get spanked, didn't have big losses, but I didn't make a lot either. And, it's basically the pain, taking--it might sound kind of tough--but experiencing the pain at the end of the day, of seeing all this opportunity, you know, I've studied, and pretty much all I do in life is work on my craft. I work on the trading. I do analysis. I write in my log. I've done all this work and prepared myself and gotten educated and talked to other traders and I'm not coming in and taking my entries and because of that, I made a break and even or having very low profits. I'm not able to make an equity high. It basically feeling like I've lost over and over again. You get to a point to where you've just been beaten enough and you make a stand. You draw a line on the sand and just think, "You know what, I have to take these entries. I've seen this so many times. I can't do it anymore." And you just come in and you force yourself. It's complete perseverance to come in and take your trades. This is a tough part though.

TraderInterviews.com: Yeah. I've heard that. I've heard a lot of traders will come in to this and they'll think, "I'm going to work to the point of where I'm comfortable with my trading," and I've talked to some traders who have been doing this for 15 years and they say, "No, I've never been totally comfortable with the market. It's just being able to come in every day and sit down on my chair and be okay in my uncomfortableness. That's when I started to have success as a trader." Does that make sense?

Brian Hoffman: That makes absolute sense. As a matter of fact, I make it a point, and this is an observation that I have. When I see a trade that I like, it usually doesn't work. So, I don't think you're ever going to be comfortable taking the trade because if you're right, if you're with the minority, and you're on the right side of the market, it's going to be usually a pretty ugly situation. So, as I'm going through the day and building my scenarios, if I want to see the market do something, it's never going to give it to me. What I try to do is to pick my areas and either better off or into a scenario to where it doesn't look so good to me at all. Those are best trades. The ones that are most painful to take.

TraderInterviews.com: Well, let's talk about your trading strategies and looking at market structure. Can you define for our listeners that aren't aware of how market structure works? How you use that?

Brian Hoffman: Yeah, you know, I started out as a scalper. I went to a couple different outfits that you go to webinars and stuff like that and they show you how to trade, MACD Divergence or Tech Divergence or Stochastic Cross or with the volume spread analysis. I learned about all of this stuff and I realized when I got in and I started trying to execute that I was trying to pick or choose winning trades. Basically, I thought it was about being right and picking winners. I never understood why. Why does one trade at a resistance area work when there's divergence, and another one doesn't work? And, I sought out answers to this. I came across the person who taught me how to trade. Basically, the one thing that has remained constant since markets began is the way that the price action unfolds. The market is either trending, it's standing, or it's sideways. All right, if you break it down, there are really only about five or six trades that you can take. Now, there's thousands of ways to get in and out of these trades, but there are very few actual ways or states that the market that it can be in. So, once you identify what situation the market is in a directional bias based off of what is it doing, do we have a sideways market? Do we have a higher load? Do we have a lower high? What is the expectation when it approaches the zones? And also understanding how the market works. Where is liquidity at? Where are people's bias stops at? Where are the retail traders going to be bailing out of trades and where do I have an expectation to me being able to get in right after that and ride the real direction that the market is going and that's what I mean by market and structure, the role price action, the symmetry of how it unfolds, basically.

TraderInterviews.com: You sent me some graphics this morning that we'll try to post up our link to in the description of the interview and it's talking about a line-in-the-sand trade and so talk about that, what is that, and how did that work, how did you find that? What were you looking for in that area?

Brian Hoffman: Well, yeah, if you look on the chart today, obviously, the listeners aren't going to have the benefit of doing this, but it was arranged on the ES.

TraderInterviews.com: Well, actually, if you got the chart up, if you will look at it, you can kind of talk about the levels, we'll post it, and they can bring it up as they're listening.

Brian Hoffman: Yeah, yeah, I'll take a look at it. I have it in front of me. I had today, when I post my prep and I do this for myself because it holds me accountable and we'll probably get into that later. I had what I call an inside support area at 1018.50. And I have an inside resistance area at 1027. Now, yesterday, the market traded in between that range, but it was basically a contraction all day, a symmetrical triangle. In the European session, the market traded down, it tested 1018.50. It came off of that area, ran back up to the resistance zone at 1027. So, when I came in to work this morning at 8:30, Eastern, that's an hour before the open, what I had was a market that was trading right around its resistance zone at 1027. However, overnight, it calmed down and tested support. That support area was actually a high or low in the overall more microstructure. If you look further back, over the past couple of weeks, the market has come off the 9.92 area. It's moving back up to test its high at 1030. I have 1036.50. The natural high is at 1038.75. We have a market that is trending up, currently sideways, at its inside resistance this morning, and you can see on my prep that I draw a line and there's not a very clear pivot. There's a little micro pullback there, but it's not so much the pivot. It's not a retracement zone or an indicator that I'm using. It's basically the 1023.25 area, that I identified on my prep before the market opened, was where I would have the expectation. If this market were to continue its trend up which it's going to tend to do, which the structure is telling me, this is where it's going to trade down to and move off of. So, I don't know in advance what's going to happen, but what I do know is if I lay down a bet here, I can bet 3 points and probably make 10. If I win that 40% of the time, I'm going to be profitable. This is kind of how that works and you can see I drew the line there before the market open. It doesn't always work out like this, but I've actually traded the 2325 to the tech. I took a blind unconfirmed long there as the market was trading down, so you have a lot of people that were sell stopping themselves in the orders. You have an acceleration of volume. Everything is looking like it's going to break down. Right at that point, I bought, and the market congested for about 7 to 10 minutes and made, you know, a little bit of stress there obviously. It's never going to be easy. It makes you want to just get out or wait for a breakout. I stuck with it and the market opened up and turned around in another direction, so--

TraderInterviews.com: So, it was these great lines that you drew as possibilities. It looked a whole lot like Elliott Wave or are you using that at all?

Brian Hoffman: The gray areas?

TraderInterviews.com: Yeah, exactly, the gray areas where you're going up and down and kind of charting the path of where you think the ES might go.

Brian Hoffman: You know what, they're my visualization. They're not based on the technical analysis. That's actually how I visualize the market it's going to unfold. So, what their intent is for me to take a look at the structure and you can see there's two options on there. There were two things that's why I called 1023.25 a line in the sand. Okay, if that area breaks, this market is going to almost always test 1018.50 and actually it's probably going to extend down to 1012.25. So, those arrows--it's a little bit of an art form. They're my way of visualizing how does this market going to unfold and the benefit of doing that is that I'm not reacting to a lagging indicator. I'm not waiting for a crossover or volume output or I'm not waiting for something to tell me what the market is going to do. I'm actually going to anticipate what the market is going to do. So, I don't hesitate on my entries. Of course, what does that mean? What happens if I buy 1023.25 and it runs to me right over, will I lose? Who cares? It's risk-reward areas. So, those arrows are basically my way of projecting forward and being able to anticipate what's going to happen. I think there are a lot of ways to trade. I think for a newer trader, somebody at my level right now, the best way for me to trust myself is to do my own analysis based off a structure and to make projections and basically to bet on it.

TraderInterviews.com: And in the instance of this chart, if it did break that 1018.50, where's your stop when you're in here? Is it just below that or you're going all the way down and putting it near the support at 1012.25?

Brian Hoffman: You mean the trade or the actual one I took at the 2325 area or if it came down to 1850?

TraderInterviews.com: Yeah, if it did come down to 1850, would you put it, would you get out there or would you wait, would you put it further away at the support area at 1012.25?

Brian Hoffman: It's my intent to buy 1018.50. We're talking about that scenario.

TraderInterviews.com: If you're already in. Let's say, you went long at, you know, just above 1023.25, assuming that would bounce off of there--

Brian Hoffman: Okay.

TraderInterviews.com: If it would continue higher but it did came down, where would your stop typically be?

Brian Hoffman: What I actually did, 2325 was my support. I got long at 2425. I bid into that area, I call it with a limit order. My stop was at, in this scenario, it was at 2225, so it was a 2-point stop. So--

TraderInterviews.com: And it's a mental stop. You can change that. That's just in your head where you're thinking you could be--

Brian Hoffman: No, actually, I had the hard stop in there.

TraderInterviews.com: Okay.

Brian Hoffman: I was only given that 1 or 2 points. I might have given it 2.5 points. There's a reason for this and I'm going to wax eloquent here. I hope I can. The fact that this inside support zone of 2325, I call it a blind zone, because you look on the chart there. You don't see any significant exhibit to base it off of, do you?

TraderInterviews.com: Right.

Brian Hoffman: You know, there's a little bit of a pivot that happened early in the morning, but you didn't see any accumulation or distribution there. You didn't see any bouncing around. It's basically a line in the sand. In those scenarios, when the market approaches, I don't expect it to wash down below the line like it would normally do at a support and resistance zone and then move up. So, I can use the tighter stop in this situation. If I had a more significant pivot or area to work off of prior to getting into that long, I would have needed a 3- or 3.5-point stop there, but frankly, I bet 2 points, 2.5 point smacks and I think I caught about 12 on the move, so that's a 4:1 traders. Then, it's a good trade.

TraderInterviews.com: All right. So, we will link to those, both of those chart in the description of today's interview with Brian. So, Brian, is this a pretty garden variety trade and type of chart and type of things you're looking for on a daily basis then?

Brian Hoffman: Yeah, basically, what I do and what really helped me get over the hurdle was to come in and to start doing morning preparation, to start identifying my zones, drawing the visualization arrows and actually holding myself accountable to trading what I am projecting. And, that kind of ties into the blog. After I started posting this stuff and realizing, you know what, I can't put this up here and say, "I think the market is going to do this." But then, trade something totally different because that would just look silly. So, I kind of back into being disciplined by doing that. So, this type of a trade what I call an inside support zone. It is a bread and butter trade. It works in the other direction if you have a market that's sideways or trending down. It's a very common scenario, but of course, it doesn't work. It's going to work half of the time. If I'm really good, I'm going to get it 60% of the time.

TraderInterviews.com: What percent of your overall trades are long versus short these days?

Brian Hoffman: Well, since the market has been trending up for, maybe, the past few months, I'd say it had been more profitable on the long side and I get stopped out more frequently on the short side, but that's natural. That's what should happen because you have a market that is moving up and strong and obviously fading, it is going to be lower probability. Frankly, I like sideways markets more than I like trending markets because the methodology that I practice the way that I was taught, there are a lot more opportunities back and forth on contrarian trades in a sideways market than in the trending market. A lot of traders get into trouble in trending markets because they constantly want to fade it. I like to work within the sideways markets.

TraderInterviews.com: Are you keeping an eye on volume on each of these bars that you're watching as well to see if there's some momentum there?

Brian Hoffman: I watch the volume. My primary chart that I work off of is a six-10 tick chart and right under that, I use a 2-minute volume chart. I don't make my decisions based off of volume. Mostly, what I look for in the volume is, if I'm already in a trade and I'm considering exiting, and I want to get out at the best possible price prior to have any confirmation of that exit, maybe, I'll exit into some sort of a volume spike at a zone, but I don't read into it too much because it can be subjective. And momentum is good, I observe it, but there are a lot of shenanigans that go on in the ES if you watch it throughout the day. It likes to fake you out and spiking one direction and move the other. So, I'm more focused on the macrostructure of what's going on.

TraderInterviews.com: Do you set goals for yourself in terms of how much money you will make in the market either on a weekly or some other monthly basis, daily basis?

Brian Hoffman: No, you know, I have a number in the back of my mind, but my main concern right now at this point of my career is limiting the length and depths of my draw-downs and basically understanding my edge and the biggest hurdle or the most difficult thing is consistent execution. So, I'm basically looking to capture the moves, how much am I risking, and preparing to trade much larger size, so at this point, yeah, it is about money, you know, that's why we're doing this, but I'm more concerned about managing the risk and trading as if the numbers are larger to make sure I can handle the execution under that pressure in the future.

TraderInterviews.com: And what will tell you that it's time to go from five or ten contracts to 20 contracts to 30, I mean, what's the benchmark for you?

Brian Hoffman: I would say a level of consistency and execution, not if I win X amount of times or lose X amount of times or make X amount of money in a month. I think it's time to increase size slowly over time when you're executing consistently and for me, my problem in trading where I get into trouble, if it is not taking bad trades, it is failing to execute on my good ones. So, the more consistently I execute, the better I feel about my ability to push the button, the more ready I think I'll be to increase size.

TraderInterviews.com: Are there times when you see a bunch of opportunities and you kind of have to choose which ones you're going to take or you're working toward taking all of them?

Brian Hoffman: No, well, you can't take them all. There is a level of discretion in trading. You know, we're not machines. You can have a mechanical rule set, but in my experience, the few really good traders that I've encountered, they trade with a level of discretion because these are human beings that are pushing this market and the tempo is going to change, the volatility is going to change. You have to be able to move on your feet. So, there is a level of discretion involved and you are essentially picking or choosing what setups you're going to take. Now, you can manipulate your statistics. You can quantify what your edges. You can quantify your probabilities, but when it comes down to it, what really makes a good trader is consistently executing with some level of discretion.

TraderInterviews.com: And I know you trade in the office with other traders at least one other trader, I think you mentioned, is that of benefit? Do you bounce ideas off of each other and kind of talk about what you're trading?

Brian Hoffman: Yes. Yes, it's huge benefit. I spent the first couple of years trading from home and I had the opportunity to come in and work for the firm that actually taught me how to trade and getting in here, being around with other traders, seeing what other people are doing and actually seeing an area and one trader might be long, one trader might short, neither one of them is wrong. Okay, basically, learning that there is not always going to be a right or a wrong. There are multiple ways to attack the market. It's been a huge advantage and I think it's accelerated my learning greatly.

TraderInterviews.com: I think you're on StockTwits, right? Or you're using Twitter as well to talk about some of the trade you're taking?

Brian Hoffman: No, I don't actually.

TraderInterviews.com: You don't. Okay, so it's just your blog. And, I've heard that from a lot of other traders that they use their blog as simply a way to keep themselves honest, let alone, because once they throw it out there, you can't take it back. I mean, it is what it is and you've got to either explain why you didn't trade which you said you were going to do, in which case you're probably going against your trading plan or you're having good days. I mean, do you ever have times when people ask you questions about, you know, why are you doing this? Why aren't you thinking this way instead?

Brian Hoffman: Yeah, I do. I get quite a few questions. What I get the most is, "What are you doing?" because people look at my charts and then there's nothing on them except for a couple of lines, but I like simplicity. You know, "Why I do the blog?" Really, if I didn't do the blog, I would not be open enough like I do on a pad and paper or on a word document on my machine. I don't know what it is about putting it out there in public, but it forces me every evening to look at my trades to see what I did right and see what I did wrong and I'm very pessimistic, I think a lot of traders are, skeptical. So, I write myself very hard and strangely enough, I'm hardest on myself, on my winning days, or my break even days, when I feel to execute. So, when I really get that out there and display it publicly, it does hold you to a level of accountability and it keeps you very much in tune with the market. My trading has improved immensely since I started blogging. It really has been a big benefit.

TraderInterviews.com: It sounds like you really develop your confidence over the past few years and so you are confident and secure in your ability to trade well. Any advice for listeners out there who are maybe where you were three years ago, trading a single contract, trying to get that right before jumping to the next level, any advice for them?

Brian Hoffman: Yeah, I think the best advice is have an expectation of a tough road. It is very difficult. You have to be persistent. You have to be able to get knocked down over and over again and get backed up and then continue to execute. Don't have an expectation to come in and start making money right away. I'm nowhere near where I would like to be in my career. I've made some advancements. I think I'm doing well. I've got some level of confidence. My analysis is better than ever. My execution needs work and it's always going to need work. I think 10 or 15 years from now, I will still need to make improvements on what I'm doing. People that are in their first year or in their second year, my advice to them is find somebody that trades for real that can help you. Keep at it. Work hard. Expect hardship and difficulty because it's through the pain that you're feeling and people that are listening to this, if you're trading for real, I know they felt it. Through experiencing that pain and the repetition of the difficulty that kind of evolves you into a better trader. It's going to take at least I'd say a couple of years to develop that. You can be successful sooner than that with the right assistance I think but to really start getting traction as a trader is I think it takes a couple of years and then you grow from there.

TraderInterviews.com: Well, so, when you're talking about doing better on the execution side, are you talking purely about taking trades you see or doing a better job of seeing them as they're presenting themselves?

Brian Hoffman: No, I mean actually executing what I see. It's based off of my morning prep that I do and my analysis. I know where my areas are. I, very frequently, if you follow my blog, high percentage of the time, able to get the highs and the lows of the markets and pretty much if you go back and look at the visualization arrows, they're very accurate, all right. But, that doesn't mean that I make money everyday. There are plenty of days or weeks where I lose money. And, it's a disconnect between the analysis and understanding what you know is right as a trader and as a technician and actually pushing the button under pressure. There is always that divergence there. The difficulty in trading is physically being able to execute that. That's where your edge is. So, I did a video back on the 27th, it's 37 minutes long and if you listen to it, you can hear it in my voice, I'm extremely disappointed. I came in, I got stopped out first thing in the morning for pretty at about my maximum loss and then I had a number of opportunities after that that I knew were good and I talked about in this video how I had another trader here in the room and I was telling him this is good. This is a good area. Here's your third opportunity. Here's the pullback. I didn't take any out of hesitation and basically not wanting to take that pain of getting stopped out again. But, what did that get me? Well, it made me pass on 10 or 15 points that I could have caught according to my plan. What's the worse that could happen? Well, I could have lost 2 or 3 points. So, the execution is where the difficulty is. That's what I mean by coming in and executing. It's not what indicator you're using or your methodology has a lot to do once you understand structure. After that, what makes you successful traders, your ability to push the button.

TraderInterviews.com: Good. And I think you share the sentiment of a lot of other traders out there as well. So, this has been great, Brian. I really appreciate it. Listeners, you could check out Brian's blog. We'll link you to it in the show notes and, Brian, you want to give them the URL as well?

Brian Hoffman: Yeah, it is brianhoffmantradinglog.blogspot.com or you can google Brian Hoffman Trading at it comes up there pretty high. I haven't optimized it, luckily, I guess there is not too many other Brian Hoffman traders out there. It's a good read. It's very honest. I put more negative stuff in there than I do positive because I'm hard on myself. And it really, if you're a trader and you're struggling and you want to see that people that are really doing this and then trying to make a go at it for a living, they go through the same draw-downs and losses and pain. You know, there isn't anybody out there that's coming in and knocking the ball out of the park every single day. It just doesn't happen as a professional.

TraderInterviews.com: All right. Great. Well, I'm looking forward reading more on the blog as well. Brian, thanks again for your time.

Brian Hoffman: I appreciate your time, Tim. Thanks a lot.

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