"I came to the market not to make money, but out of deep curiosity," Anton Kolganov

Anton Kolganov, on the market since 2004, graduated from the Faculty of Finance with a degree in Banking. He is engaged in trading on personal accounts, as well as making forecasts on currency markets. At the moment he works as an analyst in the company "trend". Anton is known to our readers as a gold columnist.

Y.A.: Hello, Anton. Our traditional question for our guests is, how did you end up on the stock exchange? What attracted you to it?
A.K.: Hello, Julia. I guess I should start with the fact that I am a very curious person and I am always interested in where things come from and where they go. In this regard, I liked to play "economic strategies" in which you can trace the process of creation and development. Over time, having played everything that was possible, I realized that simple classic games were no longer interesting and started to play stock simulators, where you could buy and sell shares of companies, breaking down the structure of each in detail.
Once, while looking for another economic game, I got a disk with a virtual om, where charts were automatically generated, news was published... It was very interesting to follow it.
Then I accidentally found out that there is real Forex, where everything happens for real. I found dealing centerI opened an account and started trying things out. Thanks to this, I decided to graduate from the Faculty of Finance.
I started working on the stock exchange quite early, at the age of 16. I did not come to it to earn money, but out of deep curiosity. Therefore, my motivation is positive and, I think, in this regard, it can be said that the stock exchange is my element.

Y.A.: So the stock exchange and interest in it is practically "in your blood"? Do you plan to continue developing in this direction?
A.K.: Yes, I plan to, as it's a hobby I'm already deeply immersed in and I don't want to leave it, because with each step forward there are new and more difficult tasks to solve. This makes me a stronger person. I can say that Forex is a kind of "kung-fu" for me. That is, even at the moment, the motivation for me to continue working on the stock exchange is not money, but interest in the process itself.

Y.A.: Would you like to introduce something innovative and your own into the process or structure of the Exchange's work?
A.K.: Basically no, I'm fine with it.

Y.A.: And what do you think is the most important in trade?
A.K.: I believe that the most important thing is a calm attitude towards trading. A person is not born to trade on the stock exchange, so one should not set the number one goal as achieving success in trading. Otherwise, a psychological dependence will appear, which will put a trader's logic and intuition in a deadlock.
Even successful traders have periods in their lives when for some reason they lose the opportunity for alternative life self-realization, and then they begin to give all their unspent energy to the market, and then losses begin. It is possible to have a super profitable trading system and you can even buy it, but if a trader starts to fixate on trading, he will lose.

Y.A.: What is your secret to maintaining calmness in trading?
A.K.: I am calm because I have alternative sources of income, which I am quite happy with. And even if I start trading unprofitable, lose all my money and can no longer be a trader, I know that, without trading income, I will be able to continue a comfortable lifestyle.

Y.A.: Have you ever thought of devoting yourself to trading completely? Or do you think that having an alternative income is obligatory?
A.K.: When a trader becomes a professional, trading starts to take as much time as it takes to open a position and analyze the market situation. I spend about an hour a day on trading, the rest of the time I can do other things. Therefore, in any case, it is not only desirable but also necessary to move in other spheres of life... to occupy the remaining time. Moreover, a professional trader is a person with a high level of intelligence, and if he is able to trade profitably, it means that he will be successful in other spheres, for example, such as business.

Y.A.: You are a practicing trader. Is your trading strategy mainly long-term?
A.K.: My strategy is to combine both long term and day trading. The long term strategy is to open at the top of the trend reversal of the daily chart, adding trades on its internal waves until it is completed. The intraday strategy is to open one trade per day and earn 40-50 pips. As a result, if there is no opportunity to trade in the long term (there is a sideways trend on the daily chart), I do not sit idle, but earn on the intraday strategy.

Y.A.: During such a long time of trading, has your system changed many times?

Y.A.: What technical indicator would you call the best in trading?
A.K.: A good indicator can only be one whose working principle you understand. For example, in a trading system based on rebound trading (based on Wolf waves) you can use indicators such as RSI or MACD and they will be clearly useful. But you can collect a whole bunch of indicators on one chart, look at them and not understand what they show. In general, the most successful indicator I consider to be a simple moving average, and if you understand the principle of market movement, you can profitably trade on it alone.

Y.A.: You probably also have your favorite instruments (currency pairs). Which ones would you single out and why?
A.K.: My favorite instruments are: eur/usd, gbp/usd, eur/jpy, gbp/jpy and gold. On eur/usd and gbp/usd it is convenient to trade in the long term, because the technical picture of these instruments is more stable, i.e. they are better subjected to classical analysis. And I prefer eur/jpy and gbp/jpy for intraday trading due to their high intraday volatility, which allows me to take 40-50 pips on a pattern breakout. Gold is a very technical instrument and I use it for all types of trading.

Y.A.: What is your attitude to the automation of the trading process?
A.K.: I have a good attitude, as I know automated trading systems that consistently bring profit. But for me personally it is more interesting to trade with my own hands, as I want to follow the evolutionary path of a trader from start to finish.

Y.A.: How do you see yourself at the end of this path? What do you aspire to in your development?
A.K.: At the end of the road, I want to steadily invest in large amounts to be financially independent.

Y.A.: Would you like to repeat the fate of Soros?
A.K.: I don't want to repeat anyone's destiny, I want to have my own. After all, the goal of every person is to be happy, not to be one of the richest people on the planet. Money is only a component of happiness, which consists of many elements.

Y.A.: What would you advise our readers?
A.K.: The first question to ask yourself is: "Is it your business to do this? currency trading?". And if you yourself can answer this question in the affirmative, then my advice to you is: never be discouraged, do not give up and believe in your strength!

SA: Thank you for your time. Good luck!
A.K.: Thank you, all the best to you as well.