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The 31-year-old goes on long trips every quarter but makes it a point to sit on exotic sun-kissed beaches in Thailand or Europe and enjoy live trading on Dalal Street.
“In June this year, I was in Paris when I did a swing trade
, my holding period was about 10 days and I was able to capture 15% movement. The profit from that trade covered my entire euro trip,” said Maheshwari, a SEBI-registered investment advisor and full-time trader. Edited excerpts from a chat with trader-traveler:
Take us through your family and education background. How did you start your trading journey?
I was born and brought up in a small town in Bihar, where I attended a Hindi medium school till 10th standard. I managed to secure admission in my dream college SRCC, Delhi University for graduation.
After SRCC, I worked with Deloitte’s audit team for 3 years while doing Chartered Accountancy and then I worked with OYO for one year.
Growing up, I watched my parents and grandparents trade commodities for a living and I believe that trading comes naturally to me. My family has some shares
From the 90s and I used to track portfolio values through newspapers. That’s how I got interested.
During my college days, I used to actively participate in mock stock events. I have always had an inclination towards this field and can feel the passion growing. So I opened my demat account and started trading using my pocket money.
Being on audit teams of some large listed clients during my articleship helped me gain practical understanding of business and finance and furthered my interest in techno-funda analysis. After quitting my corporate job in 2016, I decided to start my trading journey full time. I convinced my family to give me a year to follow my heart and if it didn’t work I’d go back to a corporate job but thankfully it worked out well. My initial capital was only that Reliance Industries share and I am proud that I managed to grow my capital to 100X in 6 years.
Was it a difficult decision for you to quit your job and go full-time trading?
Deciding to pursue something that you are extremely passionate about is never difficult. Obviously you have to look at all the practicalities but if you put your full dedication and heart into it you will eventually find your way.
I pursued a professional degree to have a strong backup plan so that I could give 100% to my passion without worrying about worst-case scenarios. It wasn’t very smooth in the beginning but I started to create a secondary source of income and it helped me to trade freely and slowly the capital started to grow.
Can you tell us how much return you have made in last 1-2 years?
If I talk about pure numbers, I would say a CAGR of 65%. But in terms of experience, I would say the pandemic has taught me a lot. I have witnessed such an extreme cycle for the first time in my trading career and I am proud of how I handled it.
As a swing trader, what strategies do you follow to quickly return your positions?
Now a days everyone wants to try their hand at option trading, it looks very exciting and possible from outside but we have to understand that what works for one may not work for others. You have to find what works best for swing trading for you and me.
I follow a techno-funda approach to trading. I am always looking for opportunities that make sense from a risk reward perspective. I am waiting for a breakout/breakdown of my watchlist stocks mainly from NSE 500 index. My holding period varies from 3 to 30 days depending on the trade and I aim for 5-25% for my positional trades. Obviously there are going to be losses, not every trade will be profitable but that is part of the game. You just have to commit to your strategy and system. Ultimately, short-term gains and losses don’t matter much when you’re ready to be in the game for the long term.
We also need to understand that swing trading is riskier than day trading because of longer holding period and overnight risk, so position sizing is very important here. In my view, money management, position sizing and stops are the most important. My biggest strength is exit timing, I have a strong mind in that aspect. I have never faced more than 3% drawdown on my capital. My mantra is take the loss and move on, don’t get attached to your stock. Here, the fight is not with the market, but with your emotions.
Besides swing trading, I also sell ‘cash protected puts’ on my selected stocks. The idea is to sell 5-10% OTM put options where I am ready to take a position if it reaches that level.
You also travel frequently and conduct business even during vacations. How does traveling help you de-stress?
Location traders need only two things – good internet and stop loss in place, so you can work from anywhere in the world. I love to travel and feel blessed to be able to pursue both my passions together.
We all know how overwhelming being a full-time trader can be. It’s important to take breaks and give yourself time. So I make sure to travel every quarter. It clears the mind and you get a lot of ideas by actually looking at things around, like when I realized the recent travel craze and people willing to pay high prices for properties, I took a bullish bet on a hotel stock and it paid off handsomely.
Have you done any memorable business over the holidays?
In June this year, I was in Paris when I did a swing trade on Titan, my holding period was about 10 days and I was able to capture a 15% movement. The profit on that trade covered my entire euro trip and it felt great.
What advice would you give to part-time traders who dream of quitting their jobs to one day become full-time traders?
I always give these tips to budding traders:
- Make sure you have an alternative source of income so that you are able to take some risk in the game
- Test your techniques before jumping in full-time
- Have patience and discipline to follow your strategy
- Never underestimate the power of a stop-loss. Learn to cut your losses early
- Have realistic expectations in terms of profits and don’t be fooled by the returns shown on social media.
(Disclaimer: The recommendations, advice, opinions and views given by the experts are their own. They do not represent the views of The Economic Times. The Economic Times does not endorse any product or service offered by the expert.)
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