Martin Haugland is the lucky winner of Investor-NM 2021
Nordic Growth Market´s yearly trading competition Investor-NM is now over and Martin Haugland is the lucky winner of Investor-NM 2021 and named the most successful investor in Norway. We had the chance to ask a few questions to the new champion.
Congratulations for being the most successful investor in Norway and the winner of Investor-NM 2021! How does it feel?
– It feels great! It was so close that I was not sure until the last few minutes, but my strategy worked out in the end.
What was your winning recipe?
– I knew I had to take big risks to have a chance at winning with so many other investors participating. I started off with attempting to take the biggest risks I could on products that were doing the best on the first day. Those bets went well and I stayed in the top 10 most days, but on Friday I was around 30% under the leader at lunchtime. The products I was holding were not volatile enough to close that gap, so I looked through the different assets that I had experience with and landed on oil as it was very volatile on Friday and could be leveraged up to 15x.
The price fell through 80$ with momentum and I decided to bet against it. Then it met resistance on 3 attempts around 78,30-78,40. I was still far behind the competition and my oil shorts were not giving returns, I decided to take the final risk and go bull on oil. Banking on the support around 78,3-78,4 holding into a rebound towards 80. And luckily that’s what happened.
When I was at 57,9% returns the competitors closest were at 55% and 52%. These products have a spread, which means you buy at higher price than you can sell at when you buy the asset, and trading a lot can be expensive. I was hoping that the competition would do a lot of trades to try to catch up to me in the last hours, and they did while paying a lot of spreads. When they found something to hold they had both lost 15-20%. The last 2 hours they gained most of that back, but ended a few % too far behind. The decision to take profits at 57,9% is what won me the competition. If I had looked for another asset at that point the risk of making a wrong choice could very easily have made me lose.
Which asset classes did you trade the most in the competition?
– Mostly bull and bear certificates in oil.
What were your expectations for this year’s competition?
– I expected a close competition with the best strategies coupled with a lot of luck would win out.
What experience do you have of trading?
– I am self-taught and have been trading on and off on Oslo Børs and Euronext Growth(prev. Merkur market) for the last 11 years.
What are your three best learnings from this year’s competition?
– Take calculated risks that are big enough to win.
Keep to assets you have experience with, in areas where you have an edge.
Take profits when they are there. In volatile assets with large leverage the profits are often short-lived.
What tips do you have for succeeding in trading?
– Make your own strategy, build on it over time and never invest more than you are fine with losing. Trading is not simple or predictable, and some parts of it only comes with experience.
My biggest tip is when it’s good enough to tell your friends about, it’s good enough to sell.
Do you have a role model when it comes to trading?
– No, I think we often forget that a lot of people don’t make a profit trading. While it is less fun, I think it’s better to learn from what they did and avoid their mistakes.
What was the most fun part about participating in Investor-NM 2021?
– To test my own strategy in a close to real market situation and see how it held up against everyone else.
Why should you participate in Investor-NM?
– To gain experience. Trading can be expensive because of all the mistakes most people will make starting out. Everyone will make a lot of mistakes, so to get the chance to test different tactics and strategies in a safe environment can be very helpful to anyone who wants to see what trading is like.
In Sweden, there is a side competition for Swedish finance influencers/Twitter profiles. Do you have any Norwegian finance influencers/Twitter profiles you would like to see compete in a side competition?
– I would like to see Karl Oscar Strøm compete.
