At BrilliantRead Media, our aim is to bring to our community some of the unique and compelling stories from the ecosystem. As part of this endeavour, we invited passionate entrepreneur – Sankalp Chaturvedi for an exclusive interview with us. He is a Trader, Investor and Trainer. He is the Co-Founder of eDravin. Let’s learn more about his inspirational journey and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with him:
Please share with us your journey and story so far;
Born and raised in Jaipur, I landed myself in a job at a government bank as a management trainee in 2007 after completing my MBA in Marketing. I started as a trainee and climbed the corporate ladder through many roles and quit in 2017. The same year, I was diagnosed with an intestinal ailment and had to undergo multiple surgeries. While being hooked to the ventilator with multiple organ failures I dreamt of just one thing – walking out on my own feet holding my son’s hand – this did happen after a long battle and due to the prayers of my family and friends.
A two-month stay in the ICU and the aftereffects of the surgery forced me to quit my job and take complete bed rest. While I was on compulsory bed rest my mind was not! Jobless with overdue EMIs, medical bills and piling expenses I was searching for ways to earn an honest living.
During my banking years, I was fortunate to have come across some of the best investors and traders, which sparked my interest in stock trading. I spent 5 months studying charts non-stop and built my system on price action trading.
Sometimes! You have to take the BULL ( OR THE BEAR ) BY ITS HORNS! Since then there has been no looking back – the system and the rules that I built around it have helped me earn consistently.”
I have been a full-time intraday trader since October 2017 and have had the fortune of training successful traders my setup and methods. I make use of my setup and exit the markets as soon as my daily targets are achieved, sometimes this happens in the first 1 hour sometimes it takes a bit longer than 3 hours. Exiting at predefined levels has helped me tremendously in becoming consistent.
Though I was an extremely successful banker, Training and Trading, seem to have been my calling! While sharing my daily trades on social media and with the kind of queries I received, I realized many people are unable to make sound trading decisions in live markets. Sometimes they get stuck in over-analysis or sometimes they just miss the trend because of their pre-occupations be it while being on job or studies. So In 2019, I launched iLogic with the help of a friend. iLogic is a tool with which price action can be simplified and the end-user can get trading ideas based on my setup, live on mobile. The application of my setup is universal and can be used in stocks, futures, options, commodities and forex trading. Till now we have sold more than 500 licenses of the software which is helping traders make profitable trades both for intraday and positional trading.
Currently, we have more than 15000 followers across various social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and Telegram. You can check details of the software on my website www.isankalp.net/ilogic
Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
I don’t really believe in pre-defining life or the choices one must make. Coming from a family of scholars, each employed in the Government sector I found the PSU banking a safe and good career option. And I did well there too, but life does give you lemons by the dozen sometimes! Post my surgeries Trading was not “the only option” for me- but also the only lucrative option. Intraday Trading has not only made me self-sufficient but has also made me realize my true potential. The freedom that one gets while being one’s own boss is incomparable. On an average, I don’t trade for more than 2 hours in the day, so while providing for my family I get sufficient time to pursue my interests in designing, programming, cooking and most importantly, in spending quality time with my family.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
The stock market made me realize that I am an adrenaline junkie! I love to face challenges and emerge victoriously, and Stock Market gives me that perfect zone on a daily basis! The thrill that I get in seeing charts and seeing my system and discipline achieve results consistently in all market conditions is just amazing. Also the fact, that a good day at the market validates my hard work and points out future areas of work. My system is also my critique! I started off without a mentor, the stock market can be a lonely place to be, and that has what has inspired me to mentor those who seem to need a little motivation and direction! I have had many people approach me for guidance especially during COVID times, and I can’t deny the sheer joy of being able to inspire people- assist them in overcoming misconceptions, is therapeutic.
Why should people choose your products/services?
My products are a reflection of me when I started out- limited resources, the very little capacity to take a loss, and hope that every day I will make a decent amount. All my products and services are centred along with this mindset of mine. Also one must remember that a career in Stock Markets looks lucrative from the outside, unfortunately, there are a lot of sharks in the system which feed on this aspect and misguide new trader/investors. The products and services that I provide are built and delivered keeping in mind the realistic expectations of a retail trader with limited capital. I share both my success and failures on social media daily since the last 2 years so I can safely say my methods and products are completely transparent.
While being in markets we are constantly fighting against fear and greed. In my training, I have been fortunate in instilling the right setup and a sense of discipline in my students. My mentorship program runs for 8 weeks wherein, I interact with the students on weekends and give them sufficient time to start reading charts as per my setup. Once the training is complete I provide them handholding in live markets. You can read some of the testimonials that my students have left for me on my social media with the help of the following link https://www.isankalp.net/testimonials.
Many people have borne the brunt of The Economic Slowdown that COVID has brought and are looking for alternate sources of income – to help them understand the reality of trading and picking the right path I recently started a project wherein I share a video log on YOUTUBE daily (http://www.youtube.com/c/NiftyBaba), explaining the trades that I took, the entries and exits and my reason for taking those trades. So far in just 10 days, we have doubled the capital we started with at the start of the project. The program is aimed at educating budding traders how trading as a full-time career would look like, what are the challenges and rewards a trader faces day in and out.
What’s your competitive advantage and why can’t it be copied?
My competitive advantage is the transparency and my trademark passion for stock markets, which cant, be copied! I am most happy if someone can put my commitment towards creating a system with more takeaways and less giveaways for a regular middle-class trader is the core of my vision. I work and share the performance of both my methods and indicator. That can only be achieved with sheer hard work and deep research. There is no, absolutely NO SHORT CUT!
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
Well, I won’t beat around the bush and accept that the biggest obstacle I faced and still face is the competition from celebrity traders, with all due respect. They share MTMS worth lakhs and crores, which easily lure budding traders into their methods, but what people forget is that such profits require huge capitals. Well if one has then, great! But I did not have that luxury and many don’t. Budding traders in search of the Holy Grail deploy their hard-earned capital to methods, which are not always reliable and opens the possibilities of huge drawdowns.
But I am really happy to share the people whom I have trained so far are more content with the ways and methods taught to them in achieving consistency with a small amount of capital. They regularly share their performance with me on social media, which is a great confidence booster for me personally – to see my setup and rules generating a steady income for many.
What are your expansion plans/breakeven projections?
Presently my video log project -PROJECTNOOB occupies the front seat of my attention. And to focus on self-enrichment I have taken a break from my role as a mentor. PROJECTNOOB is getting a lot of positive attention and I am flooded with a lot of queries from people who are aspiring to become full-time traders. As an extension of the same vision, and also the fact that teaching is in my DNA, I plan to start a trading academy which can help retail traders learn the right methods and a dedicated trading room (Virtual) which can help people make educated trades and stay abreast with latest news and happenings in the financial markets.
One-Line about the Stock Market –
The Stock Market is filled with individuals who know the price of everything but don’t know how to earn from it consistently with the right setup and discipline.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
Money, of course, is a great motivator and a necessity, but ultimately motivation is also an emotion! Hence emotions first, or to say its an endless loop for me! The satisfaction that comes from the people I have facilitated in becoming consistent and self-sufficient and seeing my system delivering results in live volatile markets, keeps me motivated.
What advice would you give to someone starting out, particularly to aspiring traders?
I consciously try not to sound like a “know-it-all”, as the fact is no one can ever know it all in the stock market! Hence my advice comes from the lessons I have learnt from my own success and failures.
1) Start small, learn the right methods and then scale up gradually.
2) There is no Holy Grail, yet if you want a formula for success – then remember the skill i.e. technical analysis contributes just 15-20% rest is all psychology.
3) Never start alone, choose a right mentor who can instil the right trading psychology (not greed) in you, demonstrates strategies in the live markets and most importantly how to deal with both success and failure.
4) You win some and you can lose some too! Stock markets are always a game of probabilities and you have to be mentally competent to make the right decisions and accept all outcomes, and yet trade again confidently! (NOT OVERCONFIDENTLY)
5) Never compare your performance with that of other social media traders. They should keep their expectations realistic and scale up gradually as the conviction and discipline starts settling in.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
