Meet Jamie Whittleton
Jamie became part of Trading MasterClass in March 2020 and reached 'funded trader status' the following year! At just 20, he already brings massive value to the TMC Club contributing weekly with technical insights, general trading tips, mindset advice and more. Jamie is a huge inspiration & role model for beginner traders just starting out... he believes anyone can succeed, if they apply themselves! Read more below & connect with Jamie directly in the club.
When did your trading journey first begin?
I first was introduced to trading at 16 by a YouTube video from a trader called Lewis Mocker who promoted the IP trading course that I went through multiple times and really worked on it. Not being able to open a live account until I was 18 my plan was to demo trade until I could open one. I struggled to stay consistent as there didn’t seem to be much reward for the effort, this resulted in me being inconsistent and occasionally losing interest. I ended up getting caught in other ventures such as eBay selling and trying to start my own e-commerce business which didn’t work out. Once I turned 18 I opened my live account and 10 months later with mediocre inconsistent results I saw promotions for TMC. I decided to join in March 2020 just as covid hit the UK and free time was plentiful. This is where I would say I really started to apply myself and where my real trading journey began.
What was it that made you want to pursue trading?
My initial motivation sparked from a holiday with my parents, we visited a place called Vilamoura in Portugal, I was there for 2 weeks and the place was full of supercars and yachts. Seeing that kind of life initially drove me to find ways to live at the top 1% level. This initially motivated my trading journey but the catalyst which pushed me to commit everything was once I started working in the real world as a mechanical engineering apprentice which I recently completed and have a full time role. To be honest it is a good job and I am grateful to have it but it's just not what I want to be doing for the rest of my life. I want to do more with life, have great experiences and constantly expand my wealth and knowledge so I can live and grow self sufficient without having to rely on anyone. No matter what 9-5 job I have, personally its going to be extremely difficult to fulfil all those desires.
"I want to do more with life, have great experiences and constantly expand my wealth and knowledge..."
What is something unexpected that you love about trading?
Trading has given me something I can commit my life to and feel like I am always progressing in life, something that my job can’t do. Doing work for myself is much more rewarding and feels worthwhile. This is something I completely underestimated in the beginning stages, however once I started building momentum, hitting milestones and seeing the results start coming in it felt like I had legitimately achieved something from my own motivation and ability.
Also something which I have noticed more recently after leaving my teenage years is the traditional lifestyle becoming more prominent. Trading is my route out of this concept, trading gives you the power to forge your own lifestyle and not have it created for you. My goals in this industry have only just started ticking off, there is so much potential which can come from this & the scalability once you learn the skill is the most seamless of any industry I can think of.
What are one to three books that have profoundly impacted your journey? Why?
Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill
This was the first self development book I read when I was around 17 and one I would recommend. It opened my eyes to the concept that you create your own life by what you think and pursue. This is a vital belief that traders and anyone successful will benefit to understand and believe if they want to achieve anything extraordinary.
The Power of Habit, Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business - Charles Duhigg
This book explains why we have habits and how they work in an easy to understand format. Also more importantly it teaches you how to change those habits and create new ones which benefit you. This is great for trading as there are countless new habits that have to be created and eliminated to ensure your results are consistent.
What new belief, behaviour, or habit has helped you gain the most forward momentum since becoming a trader?
Something which helped me gain some discipline and remain focused is the concept that you need to be the same person now as you will need to be when you reach your goals. For example if you want to be trading a 7 figure account contemplate what that person will be doing every day, when do they wake up, how do they do their analysis, what sacrifices would that person take to ensure nothing external effects their trading results. You need to be doing the same actions in the present if you want that future lifestyle to follow suit. This doesn’t happen instantly there is a lag time which is the hard part as you feel you are doing the extra work for nothing but the environment will one day catch up.
What advice would you give to an inspired, driven individual about to step into the trading world?
It takes a great deal of work and it can be very overwhelming in the beginning stages, so it's important to keep your vision on the monumental long term potential that trading can provide you as long as you remain consistent and disciplined. There will likely be times of doubt when everything you do is to be met with defeat and becoming a trader seems an impossible feat. This happens to all traders, the ones which succeed are the individuals who learn from the mistakes that got them into that situation. They journal the mistakes and review their performance every week to ensure it never happens again. However the majority tend to find an easy excuse to escape the pain and throw in the towel. So when times get tough you need to be careful you don’t allow yourself to become entangled with this limited thinking and keep going despite the discomfort.
"It's important to keep your vision on the monumental long term potential that trading can provide you..."
How has Trading MasterClass (TMC) assisted your evolution?
I had been with other trading education courses in the past which where great but TMC is different in many ways. It's not a one size fits all course, you learn the TMC strategies and you then create your personal plan around them to suit your personal goals and current lifestyle situation. This aspect is something which is lacking in other courses and was the missing element in my trading. The TMC team provides you the foundation and guidance to do the work yourself, they don’t do the work for you they guide you to a trading style which best suits your situation. You then build it, test it, trade it and review it yourself with the guidance of Insights and Market Updates from Jonny and Irek within the week. This way you will eventually arrive at a point where you can trade the style that suits you the best not having to rely on anyone. This also means you can change your trading style in conjunction with lifestyle changes so you're always trading at peak efficiency. On top of that TMC always emphasizes constant evolution within all aspects of life as well as trading which is essential if you want to stay at the top level of any industry.
The TMC community is like no other, it has a mix of all traders at all levels all wanting to succeed. It is essential to have a group of individuals like this especially when first learning as in most circumstances there are very few people in your life which are going to encourage you to pursue trading. The TMC group is nothing but encouragement and inspiration constantly hitting new milestones and proving trading is possible for anyone.
What is your next immediate trading goal?
My next goal is to build up my personal liquid capital significantly into 6 figures so I can comfortably leave my day job on my own capital. Earlier this year I achieved funding from a proprietary trading firm, the amount of capital I acquired from the firm means my capital goal was met but I think it is important to acknowledge that the money is not yours its just for you to manage, realistically they have full power over it. Besides that it is a big boost to my trading returns and will reduce the time to my personal capital goal.
My thought process behind this approach is while I am working my day job I am depositing almost all of my wage into trading and investments as my expenses are very low, this speeds up the compound growth of my accounts. However if I am to leave my job I would have to withdraw profit therefore slowing the compound growth which in the long term makes a significant difference. This is a personal approach as I am young and have very low expenses so I have the ability to do it, the opportunity will not last forever as I get older. I'm sure many if not most people will be aiming to leave once their living expenses are covered plus some for growth, but my goal is to have my withdrawals almost negligible to the compound growth until I reach a specific figure so I can get there as quick as possible, it's an approach I am sure my future self will be thankful for.
Any final words of wisdom?
Traditional thinking will give you a traditional life, as mentioned before conduct the actions of the person that has already reached the goals you desire. You don’t have to be super intelligent to succeed in trading you just need to be dedicated and anyone can achieve success in this industry if they apply themselves, hard work will beat talent every time.
How can we keep up with you?
My instagram is @jamie_whittleton, I occasionally post trading related stories to the TMC traders. I am also active in the TMC Slack Group and my DMs are always open to any questions.
