Tuesday, December 27, 2016

What is this Traders Carnival ??

As the name suggests, it is a carnival of traders !!

This concept was started by DJ (@ra1nb0w) who is from Bangalore.

Official Twitter handle is @Traderscarnival .

The first edition was held in Bangalore in 2012, then Pune in 2013, Goa 2014,  Mumbai 2014, and it went international in 2015 (Bangkok). This year it is being held in Mumbai.

It is a gathering of traders (full time or part time) who are passionate about the stock market, and are open to exchange ideas over 3 days (2 nights included, since it is a residential event).

Firstly, ALL the speakers are humble selfless persons, and none of them are paid for speaking at the event (not even their travelling expenses). All the speakers have spent many years in the market and have seen all ups and downs that a trader goes through. It will not be wrong to say that all of them have been humbled by the market at some point in their career, and they know very well who is the BOSS --the market. 

They have learnt it the hard way, since at the time they started, internet, blogs and e-books were non existent or very slow and few.  All of them would agree that had there been such an event in their initial years, much of their miseries would have been reduced.

One might argue that with the advent of the internet, twitter, blogs, webinars, it is easier to learn about the stock market online. Yes and NO....a BIG NO, for the simple reason that during the Traders Carnival, all participants and speakers stay at the same venue throughout the event, and the process of sharing ideas goes on right from the time everyone arrives, till they depart (with a heavy heart). The learning process is enhanced much more when you actually meet people and listen to them and it goes on throughout the event.

For me, this sharing of ideas and networking is the biggest takeaway from this  Carnival.

Many people have asked me if this event is for a newbie or someone who cannot read charts well, and a simple answer is YES! They can start the process of gaining knowledge by interacting with others.

It is a fact that one can gain not only from successful strategies, but also from failed strategies and failed traders. The whole group becomes like family, and share their failures as well and no one laughs at them or mocks them, like one sees on Twitter. Neither does anyone boast about his success.

Most of the traders carry these friendships well beyond the event, and keep in touch on a regular basis in the future, sharing their studies of various charts and potential trading strategies and trade ideas.

No wonder there are a few participants who have attended ALL TC events, and others who have attended more than one, and keep looking forward to the next event.

This event has one big disadvantage though. 


Traders who like to retire early in the evening will find it tough since sometimes the sessions go on till past midnight and even after that, participants get together in small groups in someone's room and discuss maybe till 2am-3am.

For the entire duration, every participant eats, drinks, breathes stock markets and oh yes, even sleeps with fellow traders (after all...rooms are on twin sharing basis !!)