Speaking With Shay: What It Takes To Be A Trader

About Shay

Shay Huang is the founder of Humbled Trader -- a community that provides tools and resources to individuals interested in mastering the art of day trading. Prior to day trading full-time for a living, Shay worked in the film and VFX industry. After several years of the grind, Shay began looking for a way out and that's when she discovered day trading. Along with the Humbled Trader community, Shay is active on YouTube, making videos to chronicle her journey and lessons learned along the way in trading. 

1) Your career comes from the film industry. How did you make the leap into fulltime trading?

My former career was in VFX film industry. Working on movies sound like fun, but it's really not as glamorous as it may seem. The film industry was and still is very taxing. It requires long hours, overtime on evenings and even weekends, and offers very little stability. I was unhappy with my 9 to 7 job and income situation, so I started looking for side hustles to supplement my income. At first I started with swing trading and then gradually got involved with day trading.

I was trading part-time while working my full-time job in the film industry for over two years. I definitely suffered a lot of losses in my first year just like 90% of all traders. Fortunately, I kept my job in the film industry so I never had to rely on trading to pay the bills. At first, I was only looking to supplement my expensive LA rent with trading. However, after some consistent progress over two years, I realized I could aim bigger. I was paying for rent with trading profits, but if I worked hard and put even more time into improving my trading, I could eventually quit my job to trade full-time.

 That's when I started cutting my living expenses, paid back all high-interest debts, and saved up over one year of emergency funds outside of my trading account. I even ended my car lease and moved into my friend's living room to save more money! I remember having saved up $28,000 cash outside of my trading account. That's when I knew I was ready to make the leap into full-time trading.

After quitting my job to day trade full-time, it still wasn't smooth sailing from there during my first year. I did go back to my 9-7 and take some short-term contracts in the film industry a couple of times during slower seasons in the stock market. However, I never regretted my decision. It wasn't just a leap of faith, it was a lot of difficult preparations that required sacrifice. I even planned a back door so if I lost my entire trading account, I could still go back to work knowing that I tried my best. After trading full-time for so many years now, I am so glad I made that calculated risk to quit my job.  

2) Many people don't understand what it takes to be a full-time trader. What are some common misconceptions people have about trading?

The biggest misconception is that people think trading is easy money. Unfortunately, it's generally associated with quick money, Lamborghinis, and all that BS. I had the same misconception too when I first started eight years ago, however, reality soon hit me quite hard in the face. Within six months I had lost my entire account.

 Becoming a trader is no different than trying to become a doctor or a lawyer, or getting into any high-paying career. You have to go through months if not years of learning, trial, and error, and sacrifices. Just because trading is now popularized and access to a trading account is as easy as depositing $100, it doesn't mean no effort is required.

 If anyone is looking to become a trader, please understand that it'll take a lot of work. You need to pay tuition to get into med school, go through years of training and residency in order to become a doctor. The same needs to be expected with trading as well. You are signing up for at least one year of education and you will be required to pay "market tuition" to the stock market.  

"Becoming a trader is no different than trying to become a doctor or lawyer or getting into any high-paying career. You have to go through months, if not years, of learning, trial and error and sacrifices"

3) You're also a content creator on YouTube with almost 1 million subscribers. How has that been beneficial to you as a trader?

Believe it or not, the biggest benefit my YouTube channel has provided for me...is taking me away from the market. In trading the toughest part isn't making money, but keeping the profit. Most traders suffer from over-trading and revenge trading, and I am no different. By cutting my time in front of my trading desk at 9am PST in order to work on other projects such as YouTube, I am essentially saving myself from giving back profits on the day. 

Another top benefit of having a YouTube channel is that it has allowed me to connect with other traders all over the world. Trading is an extremely lonely business. Long story short, after I had become a full-time trader I became extremely lone and depressed. I saw almost nobody in real life, and this was years before the pandemic. I couldn't find people who understood what I do, and whenever I tried, I was always hit with the stigma that "trading is gambling" or "you should get a real job". 

My YouTube channel, Humbled Trader, was created as a way for me to reach out and connect with other traders who understood my highs and lows. I leveraged my skills from my former job in film, and my current career in trading, to create another passion project turned business. I have made so many trader friends in real life, in Vancouver and other cities around the world. I'm forever grateful to my followers, traders or not, for connecting with me and laughing at my corny jokes in my videos.

4) Tell us a bit about the Humbled Trader Community?

The Humbled Trader Community is a full-suite program providing traders with education, mentorship, and a community to meet other like-minded traders. I created this community for novice and intermediate traders to level up their trading performance. Within the community members will be able to access daily premarket trade planning sessions, 1-on-1 coaching sessions, our flagship course Humbled Trader Academy and so much more!

Trading doesn't have to be a lonely career. The community is a place for members to meet other like-minded and driven traders and create real-life friendships. My team and I also host in-person meetups in various cities around the world and an annual multi-day in-person trading event for our members.  

5) What advice would you give someone who wishes to embark on the journey of being a full-time trader?

Don't quit your job. I believe the only reason I was able to endure over one year of losing streak is that I kept my 9-7 job in the film industry. That's why I highly recommend all new traders to keep their job and adjust their schedules to trade part time in the morning. By keeping your employment income, you won't need to stress about having to make money from trading right away.

Understand trading takes time and hard work.If you come into trading with the right expectation of time horizon and amount of effort required, you are less likely to give up or make stupid "YOLO" trades and risk all of your account capital. I would recommend all traders to take it slow and easy. Start with paper trading, then gradually move on to live trading risking only $10 or $20. This is a slow but steady way to practice trading and improve your strategies.

It's not the strategy, it's YOU. Trading is 90% a mental game. The most difficult part about trading is not making money, but keeping the profits. I recommend traders to not just track their trading strategies, but also their own trading behavior as well. From analyzing past data you can extrapolate bad behaviors such as over-trading, FOMO entries and start implementing strict rules to avoid those behaviors. 

You WILL lose money from trading, but you can determine how much. ALL new traders start out losing money in trading. It's simply inevitable. I mentioned that everyone must pay "market tuition" to the stock market, but you can determine how much you lose at first. Most new traders only think about setting their profit goals of $500 or $1000 a day. But they never considered that they would need to risk $170 or $334 to get there. I made this mistake too when I first started.

That's why now I recommend new traders to learn risk management early on in their journey, and only risk small amounts that they are comfortable with per day and per trade. For most people, the risk would be $10 or $20 at the very beginning.   

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