From Accountant to Confident Futures Trader:
Carol’s Trading Journey with IDTA
Interview with IDTA Member Carol R
Meet Carol, a Perth-based accountant who transitioned into futures trading with zero prior experience. In this interview, she shares her journey of discovering trading through the International Day Trading Academy, overcoming early challenges, and developing confidence in the markets.
Discover:
- What sparked Carol’s interest in trading
- How IDTA’s community and coaching made a difference
- Her biggest lessons about risk management and trading psychology
- Why she’s now trading smarter, not harder
- What she’d tell her past self before starting
Whether you’re curious about day trading futures or looking for a supportive community to help you grow, Carol’s story will inspire you to take the leap.
Transcript:
Dani: Hi, Carol. Thanks for joining me today. If you could just start with introducing yourself, a little bit about you, your background.
Carol: Oh, so, yeah. My name is Carol.
I live in Perth, Western Australia. I am an accountant and have been for the past thirty odd years specializing in a particular sector in the public practice accounting field. Originally from New Zealand, but I’ve lived more of my life in Western Australia than I did in New Zealand. So yeah. So still a bit of a home base in New Zealand.
A lot of family there, but, yeah, I I love living in Perth. It’s just a great place.
Dani: It is. And as you know, I’m from Perth as well, and it’s just a beautiful place in the world. So tell me, have you traded futures before, or have you traded before you came to IDTA?
Carol: No. No. I have heard about it, and I have reported, through accounting for clients with futures. But myself, no. Never ever looked at it ever.
Dani: So what got you interested in trading futures?
Carol: Really lucky. I was part of another group, and, there was a talk given at the group by Kelly and Ingela. I get to know if she’s in one owner of, IDTA. And they’re actually promoting, you know, females in the, in the industry and, how successful they can be.
And I just thought, well, this really actually sounds quite different and an opportunity to actually, I suppose, have my own business and work for myself and no longer have to deal with the the employee side of things with the business. So, yeah, it was just it just arrived when I needed and was looking for something, some other diversification out of my current job.
Dani: Mhmm. And what were your first impressions?
Carol: Well, from hearing Ingela and Kelly speaking, like, it was just it sold me.
Like, they were just so passionate about the business and and the the journey through trading. And, yeah, I just signed up to IDTA and, away we went.
Dani: Amazing. Has anything surprised you in your trading journey? Could be anything from coaching, any moments?
Carol: It’s a very solitary journey, unless you find a community that you can, be part of. And that’s actually one of the biggest things that sold me on IDTA after my first initial training, which was over, a weekend. It was a two day intensive weekend. And just the amount of effort and time that the presenters, the coaches, and everyone involved, even the IT support staff, helping me with my constant, software problems, and getting getting me around and and working working all that out, that they were just dedicated to helping everybody and everyone that was learning.
And it was just it was just wonderful because you weren’t left out on a limb to try and sort it out yourself. It’s like, got a problem? Here. Here’s an email address. And, you know, within twenty four hours, you’ve got the answer and and you’re up and running.
So it was the only thing that holds you back, I think, from training with the IDTAs yourself because the support and the training’s there. It’s, it’s your your willingness to sort of immerse yourself in it and take it on and and run with it.
Dani: And about your trading, itself, has it changed over time? Education’s been tweaked over time as well as we’ve seen better and easier ways to trade. Do you find that your strategy and your edges has changed and for the better over time?
Carol: I think in the beginning, it was, I didn’t know much better. I’d never come across trading in any way, shape, or form. But the person that I that introduced me was quite knowledgeable.
And, she introduced me to a couple of other people, and I just checked checked out the reputation. And in fact, one of the people that I met was, working with and for, IDTA. And, I got to and that person also helped me with some other investments. So I had a high degree of trust there and didn’t believe that they would be leading me into a bad investment space. And then so then I joined.
And then I, studied the education, which is very comprehensive. And I really enjoyed, the the comprehensive approach to the education. That for me gives quite a lot of credibility. And so once I was, I was in, I was hooked.
Dani: Awesome. So did anything surprise you about the education, about the community, about coaching, about anything at all?
Carol: Yeah. I floundered a fair bit at the beginning. I tried to shortcut. I did the training, but then I would try and just jump into shortcut. But realistically, since just going through the process of doing your back testing and everything, is it was very, very important.
The training itself from when I first did it, and I didn’t do it that long ago, two years ago, it has changed a huge amount over the last twelve months to the point that it would it it’s now so much easier to to pick up a trading plan, work it out for yourself, and do it. You can do it so much quicker now because there’s a lot of theoretical learning that was there that was got quite complicated, and now it’s so much a lot. So, so simple. And how would you say that your view on risk management has changed over time? It it slipped it slipped right around, you know, from really concentrating on the the dollar amount and and trying to work out, you know, how much am I risking here to click on an indicator, drag it across, click click.
Oh, yeah. I can fit that in my risk profile. Bang. Done. That that that’s so simple.
Dani: So would you say that you’re trading more confidently and more relaxed these days?
Carol: Oh, yeah. Sure. Like, my I don’t get heart racing or pounding or anything like that. I just sit back, put the trade on, and then go, yep. Okay.
I can go off and make a cup of tea. And and if I come back and it hasn’t paid and I’ve lost, it’s a training. It’s a it’s a learning, curve. I go, why didn’t that trade go to plan? And I hear Dani’s voice go, I would take that trade any day of the week.
And I look at it and go, I would take that trade any day of the week. So it’s just like, was it my plan? And I took it and it didn’t go to plan? That’s fine. If I took it and Nothing personal, Carol.
Dani: Nothing personal. Market does what it does. Right?
Carol: I can’t control it. You know, it is it does weird things sometimes. I will still manage my trades and go, you know, it’s really stalling at that 2,200.
I’m cutting out of this trade. You know? And and that’s what I do. But that’s the choice I make because I can see a market’s not doing what I want it to do as quickly as I want it to do, and I go, right. I’m out.
Dani: It’s been so inspiring to see you evolve and mature as a as a trader. You you know, you’ve your journey’s been quite amazing. And would you say that you’re spending less time in the charts these days, working smarter, not harder, not needing to trade for hours and hours? Would you say that your time in your trading sessions are reduced as well?
Carol: Probably not so much just at the moment because just at the moment, I’m doing more testing throughout a day.
So my primary time of the trade is the Asia open and just before it and usually half an hour or so after it. But I’m actually dragging that time out a little bit at the moment because of the market being a little bit volatile at times. And I like do like we’re not testing. I actually like a nonvolatile market. It it’s back to front.
I kinda like to put a trail on going, and I just like to let it run for quite a while to see how the market’s is acting in the area. But, yeah, I look. I’m not in I don’t have my charts open from 07:00 in the morning now till 06:00 at night, you know, or if they are open, I’m not at my desk anyway. So, yeah, less time and less trades as well. I take a lot of trades now.
I don’t need to take 20 trades because I have to write them up in a journal. I take a look. Hard to try and track 20 trades.
Dani: Right? So just to be clear, you’ve got a very solid edge.
You know exactly when you’re getting in, when you’re getting out, but you’re also testing another strategy in addition to this one, which is awesome. So, fantastic. So if you could go back in time, what would you tell yourself before joining IDTA?
Carol: What would I tell myself? Follow the process. I don’t know better than the market. Probably, I would stay in SIM a little bit longer. Even though I was in SIM for a little while, I went into live probably a little bit too soon.
And the other thing that’s been a really big thing for me is we started on MQ contracts, and I was adamant I would never go back to MNQ, because there’s just no money in MNQ. I I can’t make money on I can’t make $20, and, you know, $3 of it’s gone through through, the commissions, through the broke or the commissions. They I’m like, oh, no. I can’t do that. I can’t do that.
It took me a while, but I went back to MNQ, and I’m still on MNQ, and it’s easier.
Dani: It’s also because you’re not just going for 10 or 20 ticks, Carol. You’re getting much lighter targets these days, which does help. So that’s awesome. So finally, what would you say to anyone that’s on the fence who would like to join IDTA?
Carol: IDTA is a great community for the trader.
It’s also a very, very good community for learning, and learning your trade. So I also have done learning through other platforms after IDTA. The community is not there, but that’s okay with those other platforms because, I I have my community with IDTA. It’s it is a bit of a solitary journey, but it and it’s a constantly learning and evolving journey as well. Just because you’ve learned something two years ago, it may not be as relevant a year later.
And with the updated indicators that have come through IDTA with the updated learnings, having that community to to bring you through that process just invaluable.
Dani: Awesome. So it’s safe to say that you would recommend IDTA to other people?
Carol: Oh, for sure. Yeah. If you want to learn how to trade futures, definitely, IDTA would be, my number one.
Dani: Well, thank you so much for joining me today, Carol, and I wish you all the best in your trading and and in life.
Carol: Thanks a lot, Dani. Bye.