27 Magician-turned Trader: “Reality Doesn’t Matter” with Scott Foster of Dominion Capital Management – 1of2
Summary: "You can even argue that in the markets - reality doesn't matter. Because when reality catches up, it will change perception." - Scott Foster (Tweet)<br> Our next guest was a philosophy major and a magician before he ever considered trading in the stock market. In Part 1 of our talk, he describes how philosophy and psychology determine his firm's decisions and the story of how he started trading in a small town in Pennsylvania.<br> <br> Thank you for listening and please welcome our guest, Scott Foster.<br> <br> <br> <br> Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher Radio or TuneIn<br> In This Episode, You'll Learn:<br> <br> On the 20th Anniversary of Scott's firm, he looks back on how it all started.<br> Scott's life as a magician and how the principals of magic influences his perspective on trading and the market.<br> How he became a philosophy major and how he applies philosophy to trading and everything his firm does.<br> How he started trading in the market, getting a group of his college friends to take out cash advances on their credit cards and investing it.<br> "I tripled the account size and from that point on I knew I was never going to make it to graduate school. I was hooked. It was the best thing since sliced bread. But I didn’t know anything about money management.” - Scott Foster (Tweet)<br> <br> The Austrian perspective on economics that his college was well known for.<br> How he educated himself in futures trading and invested long before he ever met another trader.<br> Scott's initial lessons learned from trading in the stock market; how he lost almost all of his capital in one day and had the first sleepless night of his life.<br> "I went from high in the sky to very very low in a matter of hours." - Scott Foster (Tweet)<br> <br> How he made the mistake of investing in coffee and cocoa in the late 1980s and what he learned from that experience.<br> "There’s a great trading maxim that says ' you should never trade anything that you can eat for breakfast'” - Scott Foster (Tweet)<br> <br> How he started his first firm in 1989.<br> How Scott traded while living in rural Western Pennsylvania.<br> "You don’t realize the pain side of it, and how much more you’re going to feel that pain then the euphoria." - Scott Foster (Tweet)<br> <br> How a philosophy major with no connections to the financial world used his network to find a mentor.<br> The story of Scott becoming a principal at one of the biggest short-term CTAs in the world.<br> The story of Dominion Capital Management, which he started in 1994 by moving to Chicago.<br> Why he is based in Traverse City, Michigan.<br> How his firm is a bit different and why they don't have any mathematicians or scientists on their team.<br> <br> Resources & Links Mentioned in this Episode:<br> <br> Learn about the Square of Opposition that Scott explains in the episode.<br> In Scott's first job at a firm, the company hired people belonging to Mensa.<br> Learn about how trading was conducted and firms operated before the use of personal computers and the Internet. Scott's firm had a VAX computer.<br> <br> This episode was sponsored by Saxo Bank:<br> <br> Connect with Dominion Capital Management:<br> Visit the Website: www.DomCap.com<br> <br> Call Dominion Capital Management: +1 (231) 995-4400 <br> <br> E-Mail Dominion Capital Management: dominion@domcap.com<br> <br> Follow Scott Foster on Linkedin<br> "The psychology of the markets is my universal affirmative: in other words how people make decisions is not going to change the next day or the next day." - Scott Foster (Tweet)
