Your Purpose for Trading

CLIENT QUESTIONNAIRE

YOUR PURPOSE FOR TRADING

Your purpose for trading dictates 3 very important issues in your trading development. Firstly, which strategies may be suitable. Secondly, the level of investment you will need to make and finally the flow of money in and out of your trading account.

Q1: Which of the following best describes your purpose for investing?

Choose one of the following answers:

•Income - supplemental cash flow

•Income - income replacement

•Capital growth in superannuation fund

•Capital growth as individual/trust for lump sum withdrawal in future

•Income and capital growth in separate accounts

Q2: How close are you to achieving this purpose?

Choose one of the following answers:

•I am achieving purpose now

•I am making great progress towards purpose

•I am making no/little progress towards my purpose

•I just have/or am about to start my investing

YOUR PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE

Your previous experience is an important landmark to determine what may be your next stage in moving towards the trader you can be. Remember experience is not necessarily the length of time you have done something for but what you have done in that time.

Q3: There are 5 levels of experience that we are interested in. Using these 5 levels could you grade yourself for each investment vehicle.

Score yourself for each as follows:

•This is new to me – 1

•Awareness (I know it exists)- 2

•Knowledge only (some knowledge but not traded)- 3

•New trader (have not traded this for long or often)- 4

•Experienced trader - 5:

Options - directional (call and put)

Options - Covered calls

Options - spreads

ETFs

YOUR TRADING SYSTEMS

Effective trading is based on having effective systems in place. Ideally these should be written down and reviewed on a regular basis.

Q4: These are the trading systems that we think are important to reach your FULL trading potential.

Please grade yourself using the following scale for each system:

•I don’t think this is important in my trading - score 1

•I don’t know what this is or how to develop it - score 2

•I haven’t got this system in place - score 3

•It is in my head (either partially or fully) - score 4

•I have a written down system for every strategy (where appropriate)- score 5

My trading purpose

Technical entry criteria for ALL strategies traded

Fundamental entry criteria for ALL strategies traded

Trade set up for every strategy traded

Profit taking exit strategy for every strategy traded (e.g. trail stop method)

Loss minimizingexit strategy (stop loss)

Trading journal

Trading journal review system

Contingency plan

Strategy selection system (i.e which options strategy on buy signal)

Trading time management plan

Financial and Accountancy system

A 3 month trading development plan

A system to virtual (paper) trade

A system to calculate how many i should buy (position sizing)

YOUR TRADING RESOURCES

Your trading resources are there to ensure effective and efficient trading.

Q5: We have listed resources that we think are important to have in place. Could you please score each using the following scale:

•I don’t think this is important in my trading - score 1

•I know it would be of benefit but it is not in place - score 2

•I have something in place but it is inadequate - score 3

•I have something in place but think it could be better - score 4

•I have it in place and it serves me well - score 5

Charting software

Access to live market data

List of websites to get market information

Internet access

Set up trading environment

YOUR TRADING TIME

One of the biggest concerns that people express is the time it takes for trading. We recognize this is important not only in the intensity of the strategies people are using but also the time they have for learning,

Q6: How much time in hours per week (excluding learning) can you realistically dedicate to trading?

Q7: How much time in hours per week (excluding other trading activities) are you able to dedicate to learning

Q8: The amount of time you have is often not the only time issue, what we term time flexibility is equally important.

Choose one of the following answers:

I cannot check the market at all during trading hours

I have the ability to check the markets at least once a day during trading hours

I have the ability to check the market at least twice a day during trading hours

I can check the market whenever i need to

It changes on a daily basis as to how often i can check the market

YOUR MAJOR CHALLENGES

It is essential we know what the major challenges people are facing in the journey to become the trader they can be so we can make sure that we provide enough focus to manage these in the courses we run. Your honest response here is vital.

Q9: We have come across many different challenges that people face when trading. Again, as educators who want to make a difference it is important we address these in the range and content of the courses we deliver.

For each of the listed potential challenges please score yourself using the following scale

•This is always a challenge for me - score 1

•This is a frequent challenge I have - score 2

•This is sometimes a challenge - score 3

•This is rarely a challenge- score 4

•This is never a challenge for me - score 5

Following my entry criteria

Not taking a profit when I should

Not accepting a small loss when I should

I feel very anxious when I trade

I don’t take enough notice of risk

I miss opportunities when I should trade

I don’t use a method to decide a safe number to buy in a position

I get very upset when a trade goes the wrong way

I don’t know what is happening in the market overall

I take short cuts in learning what I should

I don’t paper trade new strategies

I blame the market when I have to take a loss

I don’t know my overall net worth in the market

I become attached to stocks I own

I never take money out of my trading account and spend it

I am ashamed of my results

I don’t have a system to trade I just use a feeling about a stock

I buy things I think are at value only to see them continue to drop

I don’t believe I can make money consistently from my investing

I look at the $ profit/loss rather than the quality of my decisions to measure success

I am an ill-disciplined trader

I do not have time to trade well

The learning I should do is too hard

RISK PROFILE

Each investor has a different risk profile and a different attitude towards risk. It is important the we understand your views on risk in order to help you develop appropriate strategies for your risk profile.

Q10. Show how much you Agree or Disagree with each of the following investment statements. For each of the listed potential challenges please score yourself using the following scale:

•Strongly disagree - score 1

•Disagree - score 2

•Neither agree nor disagree - score 3

•Agree - score 4

•Strongly Agree - score 5

I can accept minor fluctuations in my account value in exchange for more income.
I can accept a small risk of loss and somewhat larger fluctuations in my account value in exchange for conservative growth opportunity and the possibility of more income.
I can accept a greater risk of loss and greater fluctuations in my account value in exchange for more aggressive growth opportunities.
I can accept the risk of significant losses and large fluctuations in my account value in exchange for very aggressive, rapid growth opportunities.

Q11. From September 2008 through November 2008, stocks lost over 31%. If I owned a stock investment that lost about 31% in 3 months, I would: (If you owned stocks during this period, select the answer that corresponds to your actual behavior.)

Sell all of the remaining investment.

Sell a portion of the remaining investment.

Hold on to the investment and sell nothing.

Buy more of the investment.

INVESTMENT INPUT

Please answer the following questions:

Q12. For your current investments, what has been your annual rate of return?

Q13. Have you been satisfied with that return? If no, why not?

Q14. What percentage of your portfolio can you afford to lose or how muchmoney can you afford to lose in any one year?

Q15. What action would you take if the market dropped 50% from its present value?

Q16. What action would you take if the value of your portfolio dropped 50% from its present value?

Q17. My current and future income sources (for example, salary, Social Security, pension) are:

Very unstable

Unstable

Somewhat stable

Stable

Very stable

Q18. Do you currently have a brokerage account with option trading capabilities? If so, who? Do they have a paper trading facility?

YOUR IDEAL LEARNING

There are many issues we need to consider when putting together a course. We are really keen to find out what works well for you and of course what doesn’t.

Please rate the following from 1-5 with one being the most valuable to you and 5 being the least valuable:

Webinars

Recorded video on-line

Interactive on-line - (i.e. education content with quizzes)

Written learning materials

One-on-one Coaching

Q19: Your investment in learning is obviously part of the costs of becoming the trader you can be. As well as the investment in time and effort, there is usually some monetary cost.

Could you comment on what you would consider to be a fair cost (assuming good quality) for the following:

A half day/evening seminar

Full day workshop

2 day course

6 x 1 hour session webinar based course

4x 1 hour coaching sessions

3 month taught course with weekly coaching

Annual subscription to quality market information/monthly group coaching

Q20: Are there any topics or concepts that you are particularly interested in learning?

Q21. What are you expecting to get out of coaching?