Tom “Canny” Canfield worked on Wall Street for two years, before starting a chain of restaurants. Ultimately, Canny began trading stocks in 1997, as he wound down the restaurant business, and went full-time by 1999, because of the freedom it provided to be at home with his wife and four kids.  Trading is an expression of love for his family and has allowed him to be actively involved in his kids’ lives. Coaching, teaching, and encouraging, is very much in his blood…from hockey with his children to trading today. Tom is now free to enjoy life on his own terms. In this episode of How To Trade It, Tom and Casey discuss the joys and pains of trading. You don’t want to miss it!

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You’ll want to hear this episode if you are interested in…

• [06:12] A strategy for this current market
• [08:59] How Tom enters a trade
• [13:22] Knowing when NOT to trade
• [23:45] Rebounding from a catastrophic loss
• [29:29] Facing your demons
• [35:29] The one year heart attack anniversary!

Strategy for this current market
According to Tom, there’s a whole lot of nothing right now.  Short trading is pretty stressful for him.  He  tends to be more of a long-term trader who looks for growth stocks that are gaining ground quickly and are in an uptrend.  So, when market conditions are under the 200 moving average, Tom tends to trade very short-term…one, two, maybe three days, at most.  There are still lots of small wins you can capture, but it’s the money he makes on those long-term trades that sustain him during these leaner times.  

Knowing when NOT to trade
Tom likes to take a break…or rest…from trading.  He believes it’s healthy for our progress to take weeks, even months, where we don’t take a trade at all.  “It’s absolutely essential to your mental health”, he chimes.  

Rebounding from a catastrophic loss
In late January 2018, Tom tragically suffered a devastating $500,000 loss in a matter of about an hour. He tried to trade again, but was spiraling out of control.  All he wanted to do was recover his money, but he was spinning his wheels.  Tom ended up taking six months off from trading because he was so psychologically damaged that he couldn’t even think straight.  It was critical that he took the time necessary to get back to “neutral”.  For Tom, that meant accepting that the money was gone, it was no longer his, he only had what he had, and then he needed to move on from there.  No looking back.  He learned that it’s essential to accept losses entirely, so you can find peace right where you are.  It took a lot of effort, and discipline, but after almost two years, Tom was back in the swing of things and had recouped his losses.   

 Resources & People Mentioned 

• CANSLIM
• William O’Neil
• The AlphaMind Podcast

 

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