Chapter 2 :The Art of Trading

One of the trees of wealth that I have chosen in my path to wealth creation was Investment, which involves buying low and selling high in certain financial products such as stocks and currencies to make money. But to explain it clearly, I was actually pursuing the path of Trading which is a bit different to Investing. People who trades are called Traders, while people who invest are called Investors. In general explanation , I can say that trading and investment are different as in the following aspects:

• Time Frame - A trader would get expose in the market at very much shorter time frame compare to the investor, sometimes between minutes to months where as a investor would stay invested for a long time, maybe for years. 
• Market Direction - A trader makes money in the financial market through three directions which is up, down and sideways. He can short the market when it is going down to make money. An investor can only participate in the up trending market, which is long the market. 
• Leverage - A trader use leverage to margin trade which means using borrow money from the financial institutions to trade. Through leveraging, he can participate in multi-million worth of contracts trading by just providing only a fraction of that capital amount. A investor instead would require to come up the whole capital to invest in that particular financial instrument.

Trading can be done in various categories of financial instruments available such as stocks, futures, commodities, option and currencies. Trading also require two skills to be learn, which in this part have some familiarity with investment. These two skills are the Fundamental Analysis and Technical Analysis a.k.a TA.

• Fundamental analysis is the study of market economies and financial situations which can influence the long term movement of the related financial instrument, examples like a company annual reports and a country interest rates decision over the years.
• Technical Analysis is a skill where one involves the plotting and analyzing graph of the related financial instrument to catch its short term direction to trade. Traders use this method to buy low and sell high as well opposite transaction in certain stocks and currencies to make money.

Trading is a fascinating path to wealth creation which was not really known to most people in the world, it's probably one of the best kept secret to create wealth today. One of reason could be the non exposure to common people today, especially people with no financial education. It's also the most riskiest way to create wealth today, as it's stated 95% of people who trades or invest will loose money to the 5%.

When I was growing up in my small hometown Kuala Terengganu in the sunny beach side of East coast Malaysia many years ago, there wasn't any exposure to such opportunity around. Even when I started working in Kuala Lumpur after graduated from university few years ago, there wasn't people around me who have the exposure too. It wasn't until after three years of working in Singapore, this wonderful world of trading opened itself to me through seminars talk by some of the successful traders. Since then. I attended various free trading seminars all over Singapore and some of invest fairs held from time to time. After a year of continuous studying,. my knowledge of trading have definitely increased tremendously.

I started trading Forex a year ago after attended the only course I paid throughout the whole learning journey, which cost me around SGD 2300. I can say it's a money worth spending because this course teaches me a whole lot about TA in trading. The reason I choose Forex is because it's uses the most TA to trade in this instrument, so I can learn faster about TA skill. With TA, a trader can develop a trading system plan that can suits his style of trading to be successful in this field. Beside learning TA, I also took the initiative to learn about trading psychology and risk management skill as these are important ingredients to be successful in trading, as touted by most of the successful traders in the world.

Basically, there are four important elements to be successful in trading which are :

1. A sound trading business plan - A trading plan that incorporates trade entry and exit in which financial instrument to trade, as well the appropriate time frame to trade.
2. A systematic trading methodology that works - A trading system which use TA to find signals and triggers in the financial instruments to catch the timing for the trade entry and exit as well potential profits and losses.
3. A discipline mindset - A very discipline mindset is require to take the trades when the signals and triggers been provided, as well the determination to see through the process for potential profits and loses.
4. A proper risk management plan - The proper amount of capital to use in trading as well the potential losses which a trader is willing to take to enable himself to continue trading  in the long run.

Some masters had said that trading is like a journey and I couldn't disagree it more. Over the year course, I had read and listen through numerous successful traders talks about how to be successful in the trading business. They all said the same thing, trading involves continuous learning and getting hard experiences through making mistakes overtime while learning to correct it. To state it clearly, Trading is not a Get Rich Quick Scheme thing where there's no effort being done to get that wealth.  A successful trader have to endure the pains and hardship over many years to become a consistent profitable trader who can really make money.

This is not an easy road to walk, but I already knew about it when the decision to take the path was made. I had learned and made few mistakes along the one year period, but I expect to continue making mistakes and learn along the road ahead. Hopefully over the next year years I can truly be one the consistent profitable trader who can claim the wealth prize.

Chapter 1 :The Five Trees of Wealth Creation

Wealth creation in general definition means the building of one's abundance of valuable resources and material possessions. Every individual in the current world society have the drives of desire to have a lot of wealth and live richly to one's maximum potentials. To live a lifestyle of very rich and have no worries to financial burden is the ultimate dream a person could have, denial of such dream is to wreck one's happiness and people around his life circle.

Unfortunately since the turn of 21st century, 2% of the world population has own more than 90% of the world's total wealth while the richest 10% of this wealthy group controls 85% of the total wealth itself. The rest of population are made out of the middle class society and the poor people, squeezing to share the remaining 10% of wealth. According to Rich Dad author Robert Kiyosaki, this has been made possible thanks to the lack of financial education in our already outdated old education systems. Our current school education just doesn't teach about the subject of money in school, that's why there has been so little rich people in our society. Rich people are rich because of their knowledge in wealth creation, some are passed down through the family generation while some have found the answer through journeys of search. For me, I have no other choices than the later path since I was born to a poor middle class family. There's a saying, it doesn't matter where one comes from as long he knows where he is going, he will succeed.

After many years of searches and endurance of hardship, I have found the five ways of wealth creation proven by all the successful people and rich people in the world. No matter what millionaires or billionaires, wealth inherited or created from nothing, those successful people have achieved their wealth through five ways. I called this five ways the Five Trees of Wealth Creation. They are Business, Investment, Property, Internet and Networking, or in short form B.I.P.I.N. In definition, they are defined as follows:

1. Business - Any form of registered business involving selling and buying of material products or services, it could be a huge corporation or small business depending on the size of capital. This is also the most simplest way of accumulating wealth acknowledge by all every individuals, yet also the most challenging. Business can be passed down from one generation to another in the form of inheritances. Some of the most successful people in this category are like Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and Robert Kuok, the Sugar King of Asia.
2. Investment - It's a form of way to putting one's money in the financially traded market instrument such as stocks, futures, commodities, option and currency. This has comes to norm to most common people nowadays especially in the stock market where they invest in company shares to generate wealth through capital gains and dividends. This is the most riskiest way of wealth creation as it's stated 95% of the people invested will loose money to the 5%. Some of the most famous investor or trader in this category are like Warren Buffett, George Soros and Jim Rogers.
3. Property - The most recognizable form of wealth creation known by common people around the world, especially in the residential property. Other properties that can also be acquire comes in the likes of commercial property and any vacant land. Property can generate wealth through Capital Gains which is the appreciation of the asset over and Passive Income which is the rental income collected from rental tenanted property. 80% of the wealthiest people in the world created their wealth through property. Some of the most successful people in this category are like Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad Poor Dad series and Sir Li Ka Shing, the richest property tycoon in Hong Kong.
4. Internet - At the dawn of 20th century, a lot of successful individual have created their wealth through the new established internet platform. Giant companies like Google, Yahoo, Ebay and Amazon are born in this era and still few of the largest internet companies in the world. In the turn of 21st century, Facebook emerges as the new giant of internet companies, with users number approaching the one billion mark very soon. Internet also change the nature of business in the retails industry, such as products and fashion since. The most successful people in this category are like Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook and Larry Page, founder of Google.
5. Networking - It's categorized as a form of business technique used by entities such as Insurance, Direct Selling and Direct Marketing where the concept of generating down lines of distributors can add up to the passive income of the top distributor. This is a very powerful wealth creation tool as successful people from this category built their wealth through the treelike networking framework over years, enabling them to retire in financial freedom at the later years. Networking business such as Insurance is also a wealth that can be pass down the generation through inheritance. Few of my friends are in this line of business and I can see it's huge potential.

As I identified the five trees of wealth creation above, most successful people in the world have focus on at least two aspect out of five to generate their massive wealth. Bill Gates built his wealth through Business and Internet, while Warren Buffett created his wealth through Investing and Business. It's advisable anyone who wishes to create wealth must choose their focus on at least two of trees of wealth as their path, and I extremely amplify they should not to just focus on their existing job career only. Job is not an asset and it can't be pass down to your next generation. Beside that, Job is dangerous and not secure in this turbulent times where recession can strike anytime to claim retrenchment.

For my starting part of the the wealth creation journey, I had decided to focus on Investing and Property as my trees of wealth for whole life. If I have achieve success later on in the future, Business is another tree of wealth I wish to create.To accomplish these goals, I have attained valuable knowledge from reading books and attending seminar from all possible resources. It's crucial to understand to create wealth, one must have the knowledge how to create wealth. Beside that, I had started trading Forex for over a year to gain experience of the financial market. The learning curve was tough but fill with fun, as it makes me more confidence to face the unforeseeable future.

Knowledge is a powerful tool, but only if Actions are taken to use the knowledge. However, without knowledge one can't know which direction to focus on, so it's very advisable everyone who wishes to create wealth must equip themselves with wealth creation knowledge.It's also better to start now rather than later as time is our most precious asset, learning now enable us to use it earlier in life to achieve success. These knowledge are also an asset for one to use forever in life, whenever and wherever. Learning and taking action earlier also enable one to make mistakes earlier in life, so they can learn and do it better the next time.

I firmly believe creating wealth is the path to achieve financial freedom, where one's most meaningful in life is achieved. As stated earlier, it doesn't matter where one comes from as long he knows where he's going, he will succeed. I sincerely hopeful my path will reach that destination :)