CHRISTMAS PROMOTION
LTOptions at a 33% discount during the Year End Holidays.
Tell me More

BookingAlpha Option Trading Advisory

About

For any inquiries (except for partnerships, promotion of trading newsletters, brokers, etc) you can contact me at henrik@the-lazy-trader.com

Hello and thanks for dropping by.

My name is Henrik and I am the Lazy Trader. I was born and lived in Havana, Cuba for 26 years of my life. I migrated to Canada alone, in May 2009 and then moved to Florida US 6 years later, in March 2015 to join my family. Believe it or not, there is a Cuban totally involved in the markets.

If I were to impress you this is the paragraph where I should start enumerating my academic degrees and post a picture of myself on a nice expensive suit showing you how successful I am. But that's not the point here. I am a software developer (I also run The Lazy Coder blog, which is focused on software development) and I still don't trade full time for a living. I'm definitely a consistently profitable trader after a lot of work and thanks in part to this blog and the tons of lessons I've humbly digested from others. My goal is to at some point trade/invest full time for a living. Before that, I simply need to be well capitalized and have some other things guaranteed for my family. Plus, frankly I still enjoy the challenges of software development on a day to day basis.

Why the markets?
I never really had a single penny in my pocket during my days in Cuba even as an IT professional. Trading and Investing responsibly offers the possibility of reaching true financial independence, which is a really attractive goal. My appetite for risk is way above average when compared to the average person, but definitely conservative when compared to the average trader. As I like to say "I'm a conservative risk taker". Coming from a poor nation and having had nothing for so many years is one of my mental strengths when it comes to dealing with losses. Losses will exist in any trading methodology, but with a well laid out, proven trading system and discipline, trading can become a nice source of consistent, supplemental income. I'm in the markets because they offer way better odds than the Lottery. Way better.

Why a lazy trader?
I'm not lazy person at all, but as a trader I don't have the time to look at the markets permanently all day. I have a day job, like most people. I also don't believe in over-trading and overspending in commissions. In order to day-trade you need plenty of free time and probably plenty of money so that your life doesn't depend on making profits every single month. Those characteristics don't match the profile of most mortals out there. So, by using mechanical Forex systems with proven statistical edge or by trading Options using passive strategies that are not really concerned about the daily moves of the markets, or by investing in solid dividend paying companies, you have an opportunity to make some extra income without following every tick on the charts while suffering much less stress.

The reason for this blog
The internet is inundated with financial websites that only reflect news, websites that lack actionable trading ideas, writers who only talk about general trading topics without offering real value. There is a total lack of transparency and finding authentic traders who openly show all their trades for free, admit their losses and keep a public, honest track record for years is very difficult.

You quickly realize this is a fools game. I have the impression that there are more people making money by only talking or writing or promoting garbage than actual successful traders. From the media, the banks, the big funds with all their early redemption fees, the deferred sales charges, all the other penalty fees. Fees and penalties for under performing funds that can't beat the S&P500 most of the time. Penny stock promoters; marketers throwing you their garbage and a bunch of internet gurus and twitter legends that never show an actual track record. The industry is so full of scum and BS that it gets really tricky to find useful and inexpensive information. This blog exists so that you see the struggles of a real trader in his journey to trading for a living. All the legends write their stories in retrospective once they reach success, but nobody gets the opportunity to live the process with them. I'm pretty sure I will never be a legend, I just want to be a consistent and profitable trader and share my experiences while I walk down this road. One day the lack of guidance in this enormous ocean of misinformation; the insane costs of trading education; the fake affiliate reviews everywhere just sickened me too much. There had been just too much frustration accumulated in me. That day I decided to start blogging, hoping to meet other transparent and honest traders with whom I could share some valuable ideas.

I spent almost the whole 2011 trading real money in Forex and stopped trading Forex by October 2011 as I didn't find significant edge in hundreds of strategies that I programmed myself nor did I find solid newsletters issuing reliable alerts over long periods of time. I figured, there were more established names in the Options arena and that's why I decided to close my Forex account. I stopped trading Forex for a couple of years, but I came back. Much wiser and knowledgeable about the design of Mechanical Trading strategies I designed the LT Trend Sniper system which was in Live Forward testing phase for 2013 and 2014 and which I started trading live with real money on December 21, 2014. Results publicly tracked here.

As for Options, I paper traded them in 2010. Fun at the beginning, boring after a month. Then I subscribed to a couple of options trading newsletters in May 2011 and started to form my own style. Both services were important in my formation as a trader. I learned from their strategies, their wins and more importantly their losses. I pretty much stopped trading their ideas by mid-2012. I felt that I had the skills to earn my own bread at that point. After years developing my own style, I created LT Options, which is my Options Trading system detailed to the last minutiae, where I try to leave very little to subjectivity and focus on objective, mechanical and measurable rules. My goal with this system is to consistently grow my capital by +20% to +30% per year while keeping draw-downs that never exceed 10%.

After being subscribed to several services, the best piece of advice I can offer is: Find a style that matches your personality and time availability. Little by little start using your own ideas until eventually you stop following others. When you are searching for a trading newsletter, you are always tempted to use those currently performing exceptionally well. Unfortunately, those are likely to be close to draw-downs as nobody can consistently outperform the markets every month. Likewise, you will be scared of hiring services that are in a draw-down at the moment, which are the ones with  a chance of getting out of it sooner than late. Consequently, most newbies chasing recent performance end up losing money, even after hiring subscription services that may be more or less competent. Learn to trade your own ideas, develop a style that matches your personality, time availability and risk tolerance. Become truly free as a trader.

In October 2013 I started investing long term in Dividend Growth companies. My main goal is to build up an additional stream of predictable, passive income via dividends that grow above inflation every year. With the addition of the Investing subject, this site now discusses Options trading, Forex trading and Long Term investing.

I hope you enjoy this site and that my efforts help you during your journey in the markets.
Here's to your success!
LT