Time to make money online – Interview with Forex mentor Etienne Crete

As a professional Forex trader and education mentor online, Etienne Crete shares his insights into how to generate income online.

As the Coronavirus spread across the globe, governments ordered citizens to stay home. Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, and parts of the United States told everyone to limit contact and only go out for necessities.

All of this led to an unprecedented interest in earning money online. Many are out of work or simply have more time on their hands. An outsized portion happens to be millennials and young adults. Without the years necessary to grow and build relationships, they become the first ones cut.

Ironically, that puts them in the best position to take advantage of alternative incomes, and where we want to focus our attention today.

We sat down with Etienne Crete, a young professional himself, who’s managed to build a  significant online presence with his Desire to Trade channel. As a young trader himself, he gave us key insights into what it takes to create cash flow online.

Etienne, thanks so much for joining us today. We really appreciate it.

Thanks for having me. I hope I can help people understand how to make money online.

Briefly, can I get your take on the general subject of making money online in light of the current state of affairs?

I am an advocate of solely relying on yourself to generate income. This epidemic has only highlighted how fragile the relationships people have with their employers really are. You can do everything right and be fired or put on leave for things entirely out of your control.

The only way to truly get that control back and manage your life is by creating your own income streams. I did it through trading, but that isn’t the only option. I’ve met people that started successful online businesses in many different areas. 

For younger individuals, there isn’t a better time to start. You have an opportunity to dig into a new venture with no interruptions. I know lots of people don’t have much money at the moment, but don’t let that stop you. In fact, forcing yourself to create something with very little capital but a lot of time often creates a more sustainable income stream.

Let’s start by having you describe a little bit about how you’ve created an online business.

Sure. So, as you probably know, I trade the Forex markets fairly regularly. I am originally from Montreal, Canada, which is where I first got into Forex. At this point, I’ve expanded to educate newer traders around the world. I want to be able to take everything that I learned over the years and helped them apply it to their trading.

I also run a regular podcast where I interview traders as well as a youtube channel. Both of these are aimed at newer traders to help them gain the skills and confidence they need to become profitable Forex traders.

A lot of traders find it difficult to succeed. They are overwhelmed with the amount of information and misinformation out there. I try to cut it down so that they get clear advice on how to move through their journey. There are plenty of paths to take, so I try and share with them what I know.

As an online Forex trader, what was your journey like to get to where you are today?

I originally started trading back in 2013. I didn’t really do much for two years, working pretty much on my own. In 2015, I took a trip to Hong Kong on a student exchange. It opened me up to the idea of traveling which really appealed to me. 

When I got back to Montreal, I got a job in logistics with L’Oreal. Unfortunately, it didn’t pay well, and the job was a disaster. At that point, I sat down and thought about how I could reach my goal of traveling more. Trading seemed to be the most logical fit since I had a passion for it.

I knew that I needed a plan to improve my skills. So, I signed up for a trader meetup in Montreal. There, I was exposed to a different way of doing things. With a coach to help me, I started to learn how to prepare and organize myself better. The way I thought about trades and my strategy changed.

Around the same time, I started a podcast. I reached out to a couple of traders that I knew from online to interview. What was interesting was by listening to these traders, it actually helped me become a better trader.

One of the most obvious mistakes newer traders make is not managing their losses. They let it get out of control and take over their account. My first real change was to cut stupid mistakes. It’s what I call my professional development. I started to catalog my trades so that I could review them. Putting them in black and white helps me look at my performance in a new light. 

Is Forex something everyone can get into or do you need to have a lot of money to start?

You don’t need a lot of money to start out, but you need to be able to build a track record.

In the beginning, I lived with my parents to save money. All of the trading I did was with my savings. By the time I became a profitable trader, I realized that a $10,000 account wasn’t enough to really move the needle. That was when someone at the meetup offered me $50,000 to $60,000 to invest with. 

What’s interesting is that many people think trading takes a lot of time. It doesn’t take that much of your day, but a lot of people waste the hours unnecessarily. They don’t treat trading as a business. You can become a better trader in just one hour a day if you work effectively. If you treat it as a hobby, it won’t become much more than that. It’s something that requires commitment.

Let’s say I wanted to start generating money through an online business. Where would I start?

One thing you can do is write down what your ideal day would look like. Think about how much time you want to spend at work versus with your family. Do you want to solve problems, do analysis, or work with people? This helps put things into perspective so that you understand what your goals look like. 

The next thing you need to consider is connecting with people. I have found listening to experts and having mentors invaluable in whatever you choose to do. Going out on your own leaves you starting from scratch. You can cut the learning curve by leaning on others’ experiences. 

For me, the podcast was a great way to increase my network and connect with professionals in the field. In almost any industry, people that are successful love to talk about it. Most of them are very open and genuinely want to help others succeed. 

That’s great advice. Any final thoughts you want to share with folks?

I found it best to follow someone who knows what they’re doing first before really diving in. For example, people get to see how I work through my days in my Desire to Trade channel. Get a sense of what it’s like to actually do it every day. Then ask yourself whether you can picture yourself doing it.

You can read more about Etienne Crete here.