However, this often leads people to seek a consensus of opinion and go along with the flow, hoping that their risk is minimised the more people agree with a particular course of action.
That’s not the right strategy according to wildly successful guy Ben Barker. He explains, “I think it’s very important to keep a level head and apply common sense to the markets as opposed to focusing on what the rest of the world is doing.”
It’s an idea that works for him. Despite a world that was already reeling from political upheaval before the coronavirus arrived, Ben is currently experiencing major growth in both his own investments and the educational community he built called BsappsFX.
BsappsFX is a training course that teaches Ben’s strategies for successful trading. Over 1,500 people have completed the course in just one year, but many more tune in to Ben’s Instagram, where he shares advice and offers mentorship to 25,000 followers.
So what qualifies Ben to advise young investors? In a word, experience.
Ben’s first foray into market trading did not go well. He admits that he was naïve when he started and that lack of understanding led to a £20,000 loss. It was devastating, and Ben’s friends and family urged him to stop trading. He was already a successful entrepreneur, having started, grown, and sold many businesses in the years prior to getting involved in the forex market. It would have been easy to stop.
But Ben was captivated by the markets and decided to follow his passion. It took a couple of hard scrabble years, during which Ben learned everything he possibly could about investing, but he was eventually able to make a very comfortable living in the markets. He sold his remaining businesses and has never looked back.
That willingness to go against the grain has informed his investment strategy as well. Ben counsels his community to take a deep breath and look past the turmoil of the moment in forming their own trading strategies. Whether it is the coronavirus, Brexit, or an inflammatory tweet from President Trump, reactionary and emotion-based trading is rarely successful.
“And I think having that contrarian thinking, you know, going against the masses, has been a prosperous move for me,” says Ben. “It’s something that’s actually made me a lot of money.”
Ben enjoys being able to share his expertise with his community, but he doesn’t stop there. BsappsFX has recently partnered with a known investment firm that offers funding to BsappsFX graduates who can pass a test on what they learned. To date, more than 90 have been funded. Ben also hopes to open his own trading floor in the coming years to help even more people.
It’s a crazy world out there, but Ben’s experience shows that there is a way to succeed in it, as long as you’re willing to go against the grain. We look forward to seeing where this strategy takes Ben and BsappsFX in the coming years.