Meet Simon Blervaque

Simon has been part of the Trading MasterClass Club for 2 years. He shows up consistently and shows us all what it means to be a collaborative, engaged, committed, high-performing trader! Simon completed multiple self-development programs by Tony Robbins earlier this year and was kind enough to share his life-changing insights + take aways with the TMC Members. We love Simon’s dedication to personal growth & evolution, (which will only continue to fuel his trading performance) and we also love his collaborative nature and his desire to see everyone around him succeed! This is what Trading MasterClass is all about. Check out Simon’s full interview below to find out more about his trading journey, and make sure to reach out to him in the club, or on IG, to chat more!

When did your trading journey first begin?

My trading journey started back in 2016 in my last year of high school. I was choosing a major for university and was choosing between finance and civil engineering. I chose Finance and started finding Technical Analysis interesting and started looking at “baby pips” content during classes and basic finance information. As I started university, being a full-time student, working part time, and partying full time made me put trading to the side a bit. I believe I had a $1,000 account which I used to practice things I was learning here and there, but had no true consistency. However, since day one I had good money management which allowed me to never blow an account. To this day, that same $1,000 is in my main trading account.

As I approached my graduation, I joined Trading MasterClass and started taking trading more seriously as at the time I was doing my Chartered Financial Advisor (CFA) diploma and wanted to become a hedge fund manager or something along those lines. I believed Technical Analysis could give me an edge and always loved the analytics & mathematical part of Finance. Also, with TMC I realized how trading can be highly profitable for the traders who are at the top of the game. Graduating during the start of lock down lead me to have my planned job after graduation being canceled and decided to instead find a manual labor as they pay well in Canada and spend the rest of my time trading to accumulate as much money as possible to start trading full time. Then, at the beginning of this year (2022), I decided to go full time as I had enough money to cover my expenses for a year and to have time to grow my account and get funded. Some people might believe that it may have been too early, but I believe that by having no other choice than to make it, it puts good pressure on me to be consistent.

What was it that made you want to pursue trading?

Freedom. Trading can provide a huge amount of freedom, as you are your own boss managing your own time and usually (at least at the beginning) managing your own capital on your own schedule that you set for yourself. This is a lot of freedom, therefore you must be highly disciplined to be successful, especially as it is a competitive field which I enjoy as there is only 1 person responsible for your performance, which is yourself. The challenges and tribulations that trading bring forces you to grow above those challenges. However, once the skills and knowledge are acquired, trading can allow you to create generational wealth, helping people you love, or causes that are important to you while having time to spend with people you love. Also, there is no cap on the amount of money you can earn trading and can use the effect of compounding to the next level.

"In my opinion, trading is the perfect mix of science and art, keeping the work interesting"

In my opinion, trading is the perfect mix of science and art, keeping the work interesting. To be a successful trader you must be rule based and have clear parameters that give you a statistical edge within the market. But on the other hand, you must also have a creative mind to find new patterns, bias within the market based on your intuition of what Price Action is showing.

What is something unexpected that you love about trading?

When I started trading, I believed that all you needed to be successful was analysis and a logical mind. This is part of the equation, however another big part is psychology. As I started to trade seriously, I realized how much emotions and state of mind were influencing my mind on the chart and outside of trading. Making me emotionally responsive to how my trade was going and leading me away from logical rule based executions to emotional based executions. After losing trades, this led me to a path of self-development in particularly psychology (it started with meditation, then Tony Robbins content and currently working on limiting beliefs). One of the great things about the TMC Community is that a lot of traders had the same issues and shared about it, allowing me to cut my learning time using other members' knowledge along with TMC content.

"Trading not only makes you improve your self-awareness, it also forces you to seek knowledge and to constantly develop and improve yourself"

Trading requires you to be performing at the top of your capacity, therefore many aspects of your life must be in order to be able to do so. For example, you should eat healthy, be in shape, have a clear mind, and be organized. You must be a professional in most aspects of your life to be able to be a professional trader. But frankly, as you start seeing improvements you will fall in love with the process of self-improvement in my opinion.

What do you believe are the three most important characteristics of a successful trader?

Consistency: As Irek has said many times, you can become consistent right now, decide and do the right action right now (follow your plan). It does not mean you will be successful immediately, but it will definitely lead you to become successful. To know what to do I will often ask myself how and what would a multi-millionaire profitable trader do, what consistent action will he or she take? Then do that action. Having the TMC Community has helped me so much with that as it gave me a way to see what consistent action they were taking and doing the same. “Work your Plan and Plan your Work”.

Patience: This was the hardest for me to learn and I still struggle with it. With trading we believe that we must be in front of the chart all day long jumping from setup to setup and be as active as possible to make as much money as possible. This could not be farther from the truth. Instead, you should have your analysis done and know what you are waiting for. You must anticipate instead of reacting, as Tony Robbins said, “Anticipation is the ultimate power. Losers react; leaders anticipate". By having a clear plan of what you do and how you trade will help with this characteristic.

Striving for improvement & discomfort: I believe that as humans we are made to grow, improve and learn. When those activities are present in our life we get a sense of purpose, a sense of belonging and being useful. However, often to grow and improve we will have to go through pain, and this is fine. People might think it is unfair, hard, etc., but this pain and discomfort will force you to grow and is also an extremely great motivator. As I look back at my tribulations, they were probably my best motivation and forced me to grow, and I am grateful for the challenges I had to face as it allowed me to become the man I am today.

What advice would you give to an inspired, driven individual about to step into the trading world?

The best advice I could give to any inspiring, driven individual about trading (or anything for that matter) is to not quit, just keep working and keep improving. At the beginning you will most likely make many mistakes and it is fine and part of the process. However, learning from those mistakes and removing them is a must if you wish to become successful. The removing mistakes is perhaps one of the least enjoyable activities in trading, especially at the beginning, as it will make you face your inaptitude, but it is necessary for your growth. One quote by Irek which helped me to see failure as a positive is: “Take every failure into a positive because every failure is a learning opportunity” - Irek.

"...learning from those mistakes and removing them is a must if you wish to become successful."

How has Trading MasterClass assisted your evolution?

Trading MasterClass has helped me with trading, but also with so much more. Trading is usually an individual activity where everything is on your shoulders - which I enjoy. However, having a team behind you who are striving for the same goals is so helpful. Learning from someone like Irek and other TMC Mentors give an amazing edge, as it allows you to cut the learning process and mistakes that you may face. By having someone who has gone through those mistakes and can teach you how to overcome them is priceless. I remember at some point, I was struggling and shared a huge post with all the mistakes I believe I was making and how I was planning on fixing them. I was pissed off as I was working very hard and did not see any progress, but having the TMC team sending so many great messages and encouragement gave me an extra push which I’m grateful for as by myself it would have been much harder to face.

What are one to three books that have deeply influenced your life?

The Richest Man in Babylon – George S. Clason: I read this book not too long ago and I love how simplistic and logical it is about how to generate wealth as well as how to protect and invest that wealth. Every time someone asks me about finance or how to invest I tell them to start with this book as it is the basics of managing wealth.

Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself – Joe Dispenza: This book really gave me a better understanding of how to use visualization and meditation more effectively. For visualization “The quantum field responds not to what we want; it responds to who we are being.” In other words, thinking is not enough - it is the starting point. You must become & act like the person who achieved that goal. I really recommend most of his work when it comes to psychology.  

Principles: Life and Work – Ray Dalio: Ray Dalio is one of the best hedge fund managers in the world. This book covers many of the principles that he learned throughout his life and, in my opinion, allowed me to grow much faster by learning from his experience.

How has a ‘perceived failure’ set you up for later success in your trading journey? Tell us about this failure.

During my trading journey I have had a lot of failure, especially at the beginning. Months of drawdown and negative returns, with many times asking myself, "Is it worth it, will I make it?". Trading is hard, especially mentally, as you are by yourself in your head, and it is hard to believe you will make it. However, this taught me a great skill, which is to never give up. I’m either too dumb or too stubborn to quit and I would give up everything to succeed. If you come to the market or any goals with this attitude, you will make it. In my opinion the market will test you, and make sure you really want it, the proof is that 95% if not more retail traders lose money. However, for the 5% who never give up and outwork the 95%, they will make it, maybe not right now, but they will be successful. There is no doubt about it.

A great example of this is trading the London Open. I remember when I was starting to trade, I was complaining that many trade setups will occur during 2-5 a.m. my time and that I was asleep and could not profit because I would miss those setups. There was a simple solution, wake up at 2 a.m. and trade the London Open. It was hard at the beginning, and I had to give up sleep and normal schedule, however, this led me to my favorite schedule. I work from 2 a.m. to 10-11 a.m., and by 11 a.m. I done for the day and can go enjoy my afternoon. Life will ask you to make sacrifices to get what you want, so either accept them and work through those sacrifices, or don’t and fail. If you really want something, you will make it happen no matter what and those sacrifices will make you grow into a better person.

"If you really want something, you will make it happen no matter what"

What is your next immediate trading goal?

I like to keep busy, therefore I have a couple of trading goals that I am trying to accomplish this year. Firstly, I will keep working on passing funding challenges and reach $1 million in funded capital before the end of the year. Secondly, I will open a Fund in Dubai using the capital acquired through those challenges to create that entity. Thirdly, I will keep improving my trading returns and will make 10% per months return consistently. Fourthly, I will back test and implement my strategy on Micro-Timeframes and see if it may increase my returns. Finally, I will get more involved with the TMC community and try to help traders who are starting as I have been helped at the beginning of my journey, and it will also lead me to become more professional and a better trader overall.

Any final words of wisdom?

Don’t give up, keep working.

How can we keep up with you?

You can keep up with me on Instagram @simonblervaque, and for the TMC group feel free to reach out through DM on Slack.