Yvan Byeajee : Surfing the trading wave

How would life look like were it to be a mixture of independence and globe-trotting at leisure? The answer with Yvan Byeajee, a freelance trader with a penchant for new destinations and social purpose.

A typical. This would be the word if 33-year old Mauritian born author of “Paradigm Shift: How to cultivate equanimity in the face of market uncertainty” Yvan Byeajee’s life had to be summed up. 

He is a full-time trader and seasonal trading coach by profession since 2007; but unlike many, is not bound by the constant rush around figures. Indeed, for this guy, the world is his oyster. He thus focuses on trading for his own sake in order to sustain his dream: travelling the world. Mauritius, of course, is always a special destination for Yvan Byeajee since he gets to spend time with his father and he is currently holidaying here.

Down-to-earth and easy-going, he has got the gift of the gab when asked to talk about his book, which essentially deals with psychology in financial markets and how self-knowledge is an indispensable ingredient to success in any kind of market. 

“Trading and investing is an area where there is a lot of information available, so you don’t really know what to choose and people are often struck with analysis per analysis. My work in terms of coaching centres on trading while my inspiration to write this book stems from basically my own struggles in trading,” says Yvan Byeajee.

Indeed, according to him, trading is a high performance endeavour where you are required to be at the top of your form day-in day-out since markets flow with uncertainty. The book is thus essentially based on his own difficulties and failures as a trader since, as he bluntly admits: “I am a slow learner, I took a very long time to be able to obtain consistent results from my trading endeavours.”

“Paradigm Shift” has been endorsed by a certain number of best-selling authors and experts in finance and psychology. It has met with the greatest success in the U.S., with over 500 copies sold. Why associate psychology with trading, which sound like contrasting terms, one may ask?

“It works together because trading is a high-performance endeavour. You have to be mentally ready to be able to take advantage of the opportunities that the market offers to you on a moment-to-moment basis. My book talks about the mental aspect of trading and how to avoid getting into the all-too-common traps of fear and greed,” replies Yvan.

He also refers a lot to meditation, an important aspect of his life which has been developed since a two-months’ stay in a Buddhist monastery in 2013. During this period, it dawned upon him that trading pertains more to a mental game rather than just mathematics and a numbers’ game. In fact, 90 per cent of people who engage in short term trading end up losing money while only 10 per cent make money consistently, he observes.

“It was a difficult time in my life when I realised that. I was depressed because I had embarked on this journey to become financially independent and all I got were losses and failures. Taking time off for this retreat was a life changing experience,” he states.

Ever since, Yvan Byeajee has noticed a gradual evolution in his attitude towards trading and he has been able to get consistent returns each year. This does not entail making money every single month but rather having a strategy that evens out by the end of the year. And so, “Paradigm Shift” is also about introspection: how to focus on the present moment and lose our attachment to money and material possessions.

“This is one of the requirement steps to make it in the market: dropping our attachment to money to be able to perform to the best of our abilities. The market doesn’t care if you need money this week or not. It is uncertain. Even life is uncertain,” he adds.

Equanimity is another key aspect of the book. The word, in its strict sense means calmness, composure and even-mindedness. In “Paradigm Shift”, its meaning is even sharper. It is about the ability to sink beneath one’s incessant thoughts to this place of inner stillness and peace in order to reach high performance in the market, observes Yvan Byeajee.

“Trading is one of the toughest jobs out there and this endeavour enabled me to learn a lot about myself. We evolve in a society that marginalises mistakes and failures early in life, especially in Mauritius,” he comments.

Early in life, we are told that being wrong is not an option and that making mistakes or experiencing failures is something to be ashamed of, he pursues. Children soak in what they are told without questioning it in the first place and sooner or later this ultimately becomes part of their belief system and personality.

“I firmly believe that our society’s mistake phobia is deeply crippling. Our educational system spends no time teaching us how to rebound from our mistakes and how critical it is to real learning. Embarking on a journey as a freelance trader or entrepreneur is not conducive to beliefs that you are actually making progress in your life. And so in the book, I argue that mistakes are learning experiences and that we should all strive to change our points of view at times,” he says.

This notion is partly the ins-piration behind “Zero to Hero”, his second book which has been released in September 2015 and was number one in the Foreign Exchange Category on amazon.com. It has now dropped to the sixth position.

YvanByeajee is now in preparation of his next work entitled “Day trading the Spy”, which will revolve around the S&P 500, one of the world’s most followed indices. The author takes pride in the freedom that his way of life brings to him. Yvan considers himself to be rich, even though he might not be making a lot of money. “I am free and that is all I aspire to in life. My profession allows me to travel and see the world,” he gushes.

This philosophy is reflected in his actions as well, since a good portion of his books’ sales goes to charity. “Our lives have to be more than an exercise of accumulating money and so this is my small and modest contribution to this world. It is something that we all should strive to do,” he muses.

Where is he off to next after this brief landing in Mauritius? “I have no idea,” is the answer. What is certain is that the trading adventure continues for this free spirit!