Hey, this is Jason with TradingReviewers.com and today we're joined by David Olivares, founder of TraderSync, a trading journal and analytics platform that we've been testing lately and have been extremely impressed by. David, welcome to the call.
Thank you, Jason. Thank you for having us.
Hey David, before we jump into TraderSync, I wanted to learn a bit more about your trading background. How did you initially become interested in trading and the stock market?
Yeah, well I started about seven years ago when I bought my first few courses and I had an interest about the market. I started trading and I was up about 135% in my first few months. So, what happened after I was up that much, is that my emotions took over. So, once my emotions took over, I started making bad trades and then I couldn't recover.
So, it took me then two months to almost blow up my account. And then I went to my mentor and then I asked him, what should I do? And then my mentor was asking me, "Well David, I want to ask you a few questions. First question, which set up is working for you?" I couldn't answer that question. And then he asked me, "Then, under which conditions are you making profitable trades?" I couldn't answer that either.
And then he asked me finally, "So let's just start at least by telling me, what do you think that is making you this money?" I couldn't answer that question. So, with those three questions, I kind of had a realization that I clearly didn't know what I was doing, right or wrong. And if I could answer those questions, well it was pretty obvious that I could go back, do what I was doing right at the beginning and perhaps leave out my emotions.
So, how do we do that is the question. How do we track that? It comes down to a trading journal. You need to track your trades. So, I started with using just paper, a notebook, right? Immediately, I saw the benefit. Because I started writing, I'm going to enter this trade. So, I started writing in my book, I'm going to enter this trade at this price, but then I couldn't answer the question of what was my target and my stop. I didn't have that answer after I put in the trade. So, I already immediately saw the benefit that I didn't have a plan.
I entered the trade, I was writing what I was doing, and I figured out I didn't have a plan. So, I started to be more accountable, okay? Now, journaling this on paper was great to start with, to create accountability for me, but I couldn't get more insight in terms of the aggregated information. Going back to the first question that my mentor asked me was, which setups are working for you? I couldn't answer that because going back on paper, well you have to add up all your numbers on a notebook, and then try to figure that out. It's a lot of work.
So, then I started to go into Excel, because I could answer those aggregated questions through Excel. But then I found myself for a month tweaking the Excel so it can give me the answers that I was looking for. So, then I gathered with my brother and a few people from my team and then we said okay, why don't we just do something. Initially, just for us. Because we wanted to trade, we wanted to get insights, but for us. We developed the first version of TraderSync and then people started asking us can we have access to it? Can we have access to it?
So, by then we opened the access to TraderSync, and then the idea of TraderSync again is to answer those questions, those initial questions, and plenty more aggregated questions. So, you don't have to spend too much time in your Excel trying to tweak it so it can give you different answers. We just want to give you the answer in plain English, so you focus on what you do best, which is focus on the setups that they're teaching you, apply those setups, be accountable for what you're doing and get better at trading.
So, that is the main vision of TraderSync. It's kind of how we got started.
And that was back in 2014 that you originally launched TraderSync, right?
Yeah, that's correct. Yeah.
How much does the current version of the platform resemble TraderSync back in the early days in 2014? What have been some of the biggest changes that you guys have made to the platform over that time?
So, we expanded in terms of which markets we support. For example, by now we support Crypto and Forex, but more important of that, is that our vision is how do we answer the key questions? So, we have been evolving on how to answer those key questions in an easy to digest manner. For example, we see other journals, that might get too complex, at least for our liking. So, people don't want to spend too much time looking at the reports. The people just want to know what should I do next, right.
So, our focus, or how we have been evolving is on accountability, responsibility. How do make the trader to be more accountable? So, we put a lot of focus along the years in trading management. So, we have a management tool and we put a lot of focus. We have an AI system that will learn from your trading management rules and it will tell you what you should trade or what you should not trade, or perhaps what you should avoid.
So, that's been our main focus. How do we get to the information faster? What are you doing right, what are you doing wrong?
In your mind, what differentiates TraderSync from the other trade journal and analytics platforms that are on the market currently?
Great question. Again, it comes back to accountability and easy to use. Each trader is a different person. Each one, they have different emotions and according to those emotions a set up might work for them or a set up might not work for them.
So, our tool is deciding a way that is flexible enough to adapt to potentially most of the different traders or different trading styles out there. So, we have multiple filters, numerous filters that you can apply to your trading journal and you can find the answers that you're looking for. So, we differentiate in terms of flexibility and then we create that accountability. We focus on that accountability with this management tool.
And at the moment, how frequently are new features and improvements to the platform made?
Well, I would say every week. Every week, we're deploying new features. And I would say every month we do some major, major releases. For example, next month we hope to bring at least another seventy different reports. But again, with bringing those seventy different reports, more than saying that yes we are the journal that has the most reports, what we're trying to do is yes, we have those reports, but then our system is going to tell you what you should be paying attention to.
We don't want you to spend time looking at hundreds and hundreds of reports. We just want to tell you, the system to tell you, hey, this a report that you should be looking at because we're showing you here why you're losing money and this is what you should be looking at. So, that's the main thing that we're working on right now and that we hope to release it the following the month.
And as far as the new features go and the ongoing development of the platform, how do you guys come up with the list of the next things to add? Is that the result of internal brainstorming or does this come from user feedback?
Well, it initiates with user feedback. If a user comes and asks us, maybe's he's like, hey David, or whoever, to my team, okay, I uploaded my trades but I still don't know what to do, or what should I be looking at. I still don't quite know what I'm doing wrong. So, if our system is not answering the questions, those questions for the users, then we keep brainstorming. Okay, can we do this? How can we answer that question for the trader in an easier way?
Some traders might get it with some features that we might have, for example for the management feature. But some other traders, might not understand that or that might not apply to it. So, we initiate the feature releasing with a user request. So, whatever they're telling us, that they have doubts or any suggestions that they might have, that triggers it. And then we come back, we take that to the office, to internalize with the team and then we brainstorm, and then we call them back with that solution.
We put the solution out there and we ask the person that initiated this idea what do you think of this? Does this answer now the question that you had a month ago? And if not, we iterate, we keep iterating until we get to that point, and then we keep asking the users, does that really answer your question? Is it really helping you? Again, we don't want to make a feature just because to say that we have an extra feature, we want to make something that is actually answering a question and helping you to become a better trader.
That's great. TraderSync is browser based, which I personally love that. There's no software to download and it runs flawlessly on any operating system. You guys also developed a mobile app, which is also incredible. It's available for both iOS and Android. When was the mobile app originally introduced?
Good question. So, we recently, the current version that you see of TraderSync we launched last year. That's version two, and then the idea of version number was we wanted to be able to scale more rapidly. Bringing more features or just adapt to the market or the user more rapidly. So, with that, allowed us to create a mobile app, which I think it was launched either in December or in January 2020.
And then we have a team just dedicated for the mobile app, that keeps bringing new features. The idea of, the main goal of the team on the mobile app is to bring the same features that we have on the web. So, let's say last month we brought features on the mobile and having all the filters that we have on the web, now we have it on the mobile app as well. So, the mobile app will continue to evolve.
How have users received the mobile app?
Most of the users doesn't use the mobile app, because it's more like a companionship, right. If you're on the go and then you need to review your trades, then you can do it, right. But most of your time, I would say 95% of your time is going to be spent on the full blown up app on the browser because that's when you can interact with it faster. And then if you're trading, you're at your desktop, so therefore it's best to have the web application. But if you're on the go, you're not trading anymore, perhaps it's nighttime, you're sitting on the couch, you can just use the app to go back to your trades and do some self reflection. It's a good companionship for those times.
Absolutely. And you mentioned that the ultimate goal is to get the mobile app kind of on the same page as the main browser-based app. Do you have a time frame on development of the mobile app? Do you have any idea when you might be kind of up to speed on that?
I honestly don't think it will ever get caught up to speed, because we have way more people on the, folks on the web application where the majority of people are focusing there. We believe we have a good enough value right now on the mobile app, satisfies at least 90% of the needs. I mean, you could journal any kind of trade there, for Forex, for crypto, or anything there, you can view your charts there.
I mean, features that we might not have on the mobile are the trade management to create the rules. You can view your rules that you created, you can track them, but you cannot create them on the mobile app. We don't foresee anyone doing that on the mobile app, so that's why we don't put that much weight into that. But we, again, we continue to try to do that. And because the web app just goes in a faster rate then the mobile app, we are an endless race.
Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. And you're absolutely correct, they're accessing the app from their desk. The mobile app, it's nice, it's basically supplementary. It's a supplement to the main app. So, it's nice that you guys offer that and I'm excited to see how it develops going forward. Right now, you guys offer four different plans, correct?
That's right, yeah.
I think that's also great, because a lot of different applications, not just trading journal applications, but all across the spectrum when it comes to trading, there really aren't a lot of options as far as plans available. And I think you guys have done a great job of making sure that there's something that can fit every user’s needs and every users budget. Can you tell us a little bit, briefly about the different plans that you guys have at the moment and also what differentiates them?
Yeah. And it started with the vision that we have, our mission, we really want to help every trader that we can to help them avoid a bad trade. So, we want to erase the excuse that you cannot afford this, to journal your trades. Because journaling your trades, if you're a day trader for example, or even a swing trader, you need to journal your trades. So, to erase the excuse for not being able to afford it, yes, we do have a free plan that pretty much offers you 70% of what we have to offer in the platform.
So, you have an immense amount of gains just from the free plan. Again, you can enter as many trades as you like, you can view the reports, the only thing you cannot do is you cannot import your trades. So, if you're a heavy day trader that perhaps places, six trades a day and you've been doing this for many years, and you think that might be beneficial that you upload all those trades from all those years, then you might need to upgrade to let's say the pro plan.
And the pro plan will get you, I would say to 85% of what we have to offer on the platform. The pro plan allows you to do, it's the exactly the same thing that you are allowed to do in the basic plan but allows you to import your trades. So, that's the main difference there. Then we have the premium plan, for those that are little more dedicated. We have more reporting tools there, that you can get deeper into your analytics and try to understand even better. And we focus a lot on commissions.
Because let's say, for myself, I am from Canada here, so commissions extremely expensive. Per trade it's about $10 per trade. So, we don't have as many options as the US. So, I want to watch my commissions very closely because well, it just can eat up your profits. So, when you care about that, then your going a little bit more into the premium plan. And then finally, we have the elite plan. The elite plan, we put features there that attempts to save you time.
So, that means in the pro plan and in the basic plan, you have everything. But if you want to save time on your trading journal, then you go for the Elite. So, what does Elite do for you? For example, it's going to create automatically your stop and targets. So, you don't have to answer that with your journal. You could do that in the basic plan, enter your stop and targets, but it's not automatic. In the Elite plan, let's say you say, my risk/reward is normally one to three, so you set that into the system and every time you enter a trade the system's going to automatically enter those for you.
So, you save time. The same thing does for commissions. For example, if your broker is not telling you in the report how much did it cost you to buy that trade? Well we have something in the Elite plan that you can set my commissions to where, I don't know, $10 per trade. So, every time you enter a trade, with the Elite plan, all your trades are going to have that commission. Things like that. And the management tool, is on the Elite plan. Which is, to get to that point, you need to be, you need to use your journal a lot.
Because in order for the management to work, you really need to use your journal every time you place your trade. So, we see it as a graduation process. You start with the basic, you start journaling your trades, there is no excuses for you not to do it. Then, once you feel like, okay I want to save some time, you bump into the pro, or the premium, because you want to import your trades. Now you have been importing your trades let's say for six months, and now you think, okay I want to work more on my management, on my responsibility. Then you upgrade to the Elite plan which is going to save you time and it's going to help you focus on your responsibility.
But to get to the responsibility part, you first need to log your trades, which is the basic plan.
And upgrading to the next level up, it's an easy process for an existing user, correct?
Oh, yeah. All you have to do is just click, select plan, and then the system does the transfer for you.
Awesome. Well, David, we're just about out of time for today but I wanted to ask you one last thing. Is there anything you can tell us, details perhaps about what's in the pipeline for TraderSync? Any new feature roll outs planned for the near future?
Yeah, for the month of September, we're working on, like I mentioned before, is focusing on creating more reports. And these reports should be answering the question of why? Because sometimes you see, it says that you're not performing well at 9:00 a.m. But why you don't perform well at 9:00 a.m.? No one's really asking you that question. And yes, you could potentially find the answer by digging into just the specific trades, but it's very time consuming to really find the answer why you're not trading well at 9:00 a.m.
So, our main goal for the month of September, at least the end of the month of September, is bringing enough reports and tools that will you define why, without you even asking why, but we will tell you why you're not performing well at 9:00 a.m. So, that's our main focus for September. Yeah. And that will come with numerous features, but just to answer that why, right. Again, more than features, we care about helping you. So, whatever it takes, how many features it takes, we're going to bring that and then we're going to answer those questions, and we're going to help you avoid at least one bad trade.
Well, I love how you guys have such a strong focus on providing the user with a platform and application that's going to actually help them. The focus in on the user, obviously. You guys get it. And also taking user feedback, how important that is to growing the platform. It seems like you guys have a strong focus on that. And I think that's a big advantage that you have. So, thanks again for coming on, David, and telling us a bit more about yourself and also the TraderSync platform. I think you've done a phenomenal job with the platform and I'm very excited to see how things develop going forward.
So, that's all for today everyone. Thanks for tuning in, and until next time, happy trading.
