Investing is all about making money, which, according to Robert G. Allen, is exceedingly difficult to do if one is afraid to venture off the beaten path. As he once said, “How many millionaires do you know who have become wealthy by investing in savings accounts? I rest my case.”
However, even though Mr. Allen is a name that everyone knows, Zack Morris, Co-Founder of Atlas Trading, mildly disagrees with his statement. As Morris explains, he agrees that taking risks is how someone gets rich with trading, but there is one condition for that.
“New investors rush to the online trading apps drawn to the promises of big gains, but most of them don’t know that trading is a deathtrap if you don’t know what you are doing,” he says. “That’s why the secret to success in the investing world isn’t the courage to make risky trades — it’s the knowledge to know when the risk will pay off and when it won’t.”
Zack Morris certainly speaks from experience. Four years ago, he was that young, inexperienced investor looking for a way to make money. He was ready to take risks, but his first attempts went down less than ideally.
“I’ve always known that trading was where the real money was,” he explains. “I believed that I could earn enough money to quit my job and pursue trading full-time, and while I began well and earned $60,000, my fortune quickly deteriorated as I lost them all and had only $800 to my name.”
Even though he suffered a great defeat, Zack Morris recognized that he required additional knowledge and experience to succeed. “I was determined to succeed, so I started to read everything I could find about trading,” he says. “Books, forums, online resources — everything I could find. I spent many sleepless nights learning about strategies and ways to mitigate the risks.”
Those nights Morris spent extensively researching the trading world paid off, as today, Morris is a highly successful investor worth millions of dollars. “My persistence paid off, and my dream came true,” he says. “I went through many ups and downs in my trading career, but I’m glad it all happened. I owe today’s success to my every mistake equally as I owe it to my every right move.”
However, Morris also explains that suffering too many defeats can be extremely discouraging for new traders. With that in mind and with the fact that online brokerage platforms, such as Robinhood, are reporting a rise in the number of individual day traders, Morris joined PJ Matlock and created Atlas Trading. As he puts it, Atlas Trading is “an online trading chatroom where new traders can freely access invaluable information and useful educational content on trading.”
As for the secret of success in the trading world, Morris shares his piece of mind. “Secret to success is never just one thing,” he says. “It’s everything, good and bad and everything in between. However, there are two things that are a great foundation of success — persistence, and knowledge. Those two things will ensure success no matter what you do.”