Glenn Nabua and Reid Hicks of Hawaii Trading Academy join Niiamah Ashong on the Outlier's Edge Podcast to talk about how a friendship between two traders became a community created to help their own people. They explore confronting their own trading, taking ownership instead of blaming the market, and what an edge means in trading and in life. What emerged is a principled approach built on honesty: with each other, with their community and with themselves.
Episode at a glance
- Guest: Glenn Nabua and Reid Hicks, Traders who co-created Hawaii Trading Academy, a trading community in Hawaii
- Host: Niiamah Ashong, coach to outlier leaders
- Show: Outlier’s Edge Podcast, released June 14, 2022
- Format: conversation, 48 minutes
- Topics: Co-creating a trading community, Confronting one's own trading, Ownership over a victim mindset, What an edge really is, Staying in uncharted territory, Principles over best practices
What Glenn brought to the conversation
Glenn Nabua and Reid Hicks created Hawaii Trading Academy less than a year before this conversation, after a message on social media turned into a coffee and a genuine friendship. When friends and family came to them after handing money to people who weren't even in the islands, the two decided to guide and teach their community instead, starting with one-on-ones. The academy rests on three pillars: psychology and mindset, edge or strategy, and risk management, and Reid says he's all about the mindset and the psychology. Glenn describes their goal as helping create and cultivate traders, and connecting with people locally and in person. They were already producing consistent content and a podcast, with in-person boot camps, live trading seminars and a psychology course for traders on the way.
What emerged
The thread running through the conversation is ownership. Both traders name confronting their own decisions, rather than blaming the market, as the foundation of growth, and they hold each other to it: when they first met, Reid shared his trading journal, and Glenn flipped his computer around to show his own and said he needed to work on it too. Niiamah Ashong connects their idea of an edge, a time-proven strategy that increases the probability of a win, to how leaders find their own edge. He names the principled nature of their approach, noting that a practice works in a very specific environment while a principle is more timeless.
Questions this episode answers
How did Hawaii Trading Academy start?
Glenn Nabua reached out to Reid Hicks on social media after seeing that he was a local trader, and they met for coffee and talked for about an hour and a half. They formed a genuine friendship and later created Hawaii Trading Academy together, because, as Glenn puts it, it's already hard to start trading and harder to do it alone.
What does it mean to confront your trading?
Reid Hicks describes it as looking honestly at what a trader was thinking during a trade, what was going on in their life at the time, and their own actions that led to the outcome. He names ego as the biggest thing in trading psychology. Glenn Nabua adds that it means looking in the mirror instead of pointing fingers at the market, and taking ownership rather than playing the victim.
What is an edge in trading, and how does it apply to leading a business?
Reid Hicks defines an edge as the probability that a plan will work out: a time-proven strategy that is quantifiable. Glenn Nabua translates it into business as how a business stands out in its niche and which actions it can repeat to increase its chances, knowing it won't always win. Niiamah Ashong calls this a probabilistic approach rather than a deterministic one.
How should a leader act in uncharted territory?
The advice from the conversation is to stay there rather than go back to what's familiar, and to stick to one's system and principles. Reid Hicks adds that growth comes from stepping into discomfort until it becomes comfortable, and that keeping an edge means always being willing and open to learning.
Why does honesty with yourself matter so much?
Reid Hicks says being honest with oneself may be the hardest thing for some people, and that it means neither praising oneself into arrogance nor beating oneself up. For him, being honest is admitting weakness at something while knowing it can improve, or seeing strength in something that could still get better.
In their words
That's what I mean by confronting: you're confronting yourself, you're confronting your own actions that led to this outcome.
Reid Hicks
Looking at yourself, confronting your situation, being aware of it, that's the thing that's gonna allow you to grow.
Glenn Nabua
Just be honest, honest with yourself, and that's maybe the hardest thing for some people.
Reid Hicks
Key moments
01:32 – A friendship that became an academy
03:34 – Protecting the community from scams
06:05 – The academy's three pillars
09:40 – Taking the first step to reach out
15:46 – Sharing trading journals at first meeting
17:19 – What confronting your trading means
24:25 – What edge means in trading
32:37 – Staying grounded in uncharted territory
40:51 – The next edge: boot camps and courses
45:54 – Be honest with yourself
About Niiamah Ashong
Niiamah Ashong is a coach to outlier leaders, host of the Outlier’s Edge Podcast, and founder of the Trailblazer Collective. He coaches leaders who are creating something only they can make: a company, a body of work or a movement. Make a difference with your difference.
Work with Niiamah: 1:1 with Niiamah | World of Difference
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