Shout-Out to Lee Sandford: From Football to The Financial Markets
November 12, 2020 By khansa
According to Xpro, a charity for former players, over 40% of ex-footballers declare
bankruptcy within just five years of ending their careers. This aligns with what we
see in other pro sports, too. 78% of NFL players suffer ‘financial stress’ following their
careers, while a staggering 60% of NBA players lose everything within five years.
It’s fair to say pro athletes aren’t known for their money management skills.
Footballers have the (unfair, I might add) reputation of being not too clever, to put it
politely. But Lee Stanford is proof that it can go the other way. His football career was
respectable, sure, and he made some decent money, but it’s what happened after
his career that set him up for life.
Sandford is now a successful professional trader, and even runs his own trading
course for students. He’s now been doing it for over 18 years, eclipsing the amount of
time he spent on the football pitch. Let’s just say he knows a thing or two about
markets...
Sandford’s Footballing Pedigree
Lee Sandford had a solid career in the English First Division (the forerunner of the
Premier League of today), with over 480 first-team appearances over 17 years for
storied clubs including Portsmouth, Stoke City, and Sheffield United.
His best period undoubtedly came with Stoke City. Mou Macari’s strict training
regimen paid dividends, turning Sandford into a reliable left-back who combined
fantastically well with Mark Stein. The tricky striker was at the end of a beautiful
assist from Sandford, delivering Stoke the 1992 Football League Trophy.
In 1992-93, he enjoyed the highlight of his career, being a cornerstone of a Stoke City
side that won the Second Division Title. Even though the question ‘Can they do it on
a cold, rainy night in Stoke? was made popular by Andy Gray in 2011, the club had
cemented this reputation during the Lee Sandford era.
Transition to Financial Markets
After his career ended, Sandford made the transition to becoming a full-time trader.
He already got his feet wet, so to speak, in the preceding years, dabbling in both
American and UK stocks during his free time.
Over the years, he realized he had a knack for making money on the markets. Day-
trading became his bread and butter, profiting in a big way from markets like oil and
gold.
But what he’s currently ‘obsessed’ with, as he would call it, is the foreign exchange
market (aka Forex) and currency futures. He’s written a book (Goals to Gold) and
even runs the Trading College, which provides a platform for people to get started
with trading on various markets.
His primary strategy with Forex is to trade with the trend, rather than the tempting
‘counter-trend trading’. The latter can be compared to the gambler’s fallacy, where a
trader thinks that a given stock is bound to bounce back, just because it’s reached
what they believe is rock bottom. But let me tell you something, it can drop even
further.
When you start trading it is important to gain as much knowledge as possible on
how to start, where to look, and what brokers to consult. The profitability of Forex
trading depends on a broad set of criteria, which include trading strategy, starting
capital, leverage, trading costs, and ultimately, the reliability of a broker. It goes
without saying that in-depth research before starting to trade is essential. Stanford’s
Goals to Gold highlights a clear connection between sport and trading -such as hard
work, patience, and sticking to your strategy. But useful literature on the subject
goes beyond books, as there are also many forex trading websites that cover all of
the above topics in depth.
Both can serve as a great business shortcut, especially for newcomers. In Forex in
particular, having a resource like that is a great deal better than learning through
trial and error. For example, at Topratedforexbrokers, you can learn more about The
Regulatory Guidelines of NFA and CFTC in the United States, or the most important
pointers for choosing the FX broker, along with their advantages and disadvantages,
before you begin your trading career.
Both Sandford’s course and other online resources are clear candidates for
necessary reading material for any newbie looking to learn a few tricks. What’s
encouraging about Standford’s story, is that he started as a ‘regular guy’. He didn’t
come from a finance background, had never done it before, but within a couple of
years he built up an impressive portfolio.
Sandford’s Message: You Can Do It Too
The thing that holds most people back from becoming successful traders is
confidence. Would-be traders quit too early, taking a few losses as a sign that it’s just
not meant to be.
But Sandford’s message permeates throughout his book: anybody can do it. You
don’t need a degree from a fancy university, and you don’t need to remortgage your
house to get started. So, what’s stopping you from getting started?
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