Topics:
1. Sweden Dealing with COVID-19
2. $20 Bottom call in Crude Oil
3. Oil Supply & Demand Before COVID-19 & After
4. China Back to Work
5. OPEC Meeting
6. Best & Worst-Cases For Oil Prices
Guest:
Samir Madani
Co-Founder TankerTrackers.com #OOTT
Sam’s Resources
Rapid Fire ?
Q. Who has influenced your life the most and why?
A. My older brother, Amir. He’s taught me what it takes to thrive in life, health, family and business, especially after setbacks in all categories. We are very close even if continents apart. He’s got the brains for business, and helped mold me from a tech geek to an entrepreneur. I love him to death.
Q. What was one of the hardest things you’ve had to overcome in tracking tankers?
A. Initially, subterfuge. A lot of tankers move oil around the world with their AIS transponders switched off in order to avoid detection. This is normally due to sanctions. I had to devise an entire system on how to deal with that.
Q. How has your tracking process evolved since we first spoke about tracking in 2016?
A. A lot. It’s unrecognizable compared to where we were back then. We created more methods and fine-tuned our barrel counts.
Q. What is one attribute that you believe every trader should have?
A. Distance. We get too emotionally attached to our trade and think of growth as continuous. This works if you’re a long term investor, but hardly ever as a day trader. I have respect for those who survive this game because they have a system in place. For everyone else, I would suggest going into a fund after a heavy drop (such as we’ve seen now) and let someone else manage it.
Q. What’s the best advice you’ve received about tracking tankers?
A. Just knowledge in general. I still sometimes turn to peers in the industry with questions even though they mostly turn to me nowadays, but I want to give a shout-out to my friend Matt Smith of Clipperdata for having patiently answered my questions in good detail back in 2016 when I was just getting started. I decided to pay it forward and answer as many people as possible today on Twitter.
Q. If you could give the younger you advice after everything you’ve learned about trading and the oil markets, what would it be?
A. There’s investing and there’s trading. The objective for both is to make a positive return. Find out who you are first and go with that. I’d say I’m better at finding a bottom in the market and investing long term than I am at going in and out of the graph every day.
Q. If you had to elevator pitch me your edge in tracking tankers would it be?
A. We track down the vessels you didn’t know were there, and give you context no one else does.
If you enjoyed this interview with Sam be sure to listen to these other episodes:
Evolving As A Trader — Merritt Black
Less About Fundamentals, More About Risk Management – Mark Dow
