ICT - If I Knew Then - Part 1 of 4 - Where Would I Focus.srt

Last modified by Drunk Monkey on 2021-05-25 08:39
1 00:00:13,139 --> 00:00:23,939 ICT: Welcome back, folks, this is going to be a four part series. And right away, let me get your expectations in alignment. This first installment or Part
2 00:00:23,939 --> 00:00:35,999 one is basically one of those commuter episodes going back and forth to work.  You can listen to it that way, because there's not really anything in this one
3 00:00:35,999 --> 00:00:45,479 that's going to be graphic intensive numbers, no charts, nothing like that no market makers secret concepts being revealed on some charts. It's basically a
4 00:00:45,479 --> 00:00:56,789 hypothetical conversation with my younger self, I get questioned a lot by email, if I could go back in time, you know, what I like to do differently. And I kind
5 00:00:56,789 --> 00:01:08,189 of like twisted that whole idea to come up with this perspective. And if I could go back and tell myself what I know now. And this is basically a hypothetical
6 00:01:08,189 --> 00:01:09,719 conversation with my younger self.
7 00:01:18,570 --> 00:01:29,190 If I could go back to the start of it all, knowing what I know now, said, everyone. How many times have you looked at a circumstance in your life, not
8 00:01:29,190 --> 00:01:38,640 just in trading, but in anything, that every facet of your life you wish you could go back knowing what you know, now, I used to hear my grandparents say
9 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:51,570 things like that. And I was like, I couldn't relate with it at all to it. But being 47 about to turn 48 years old. There is a laundry list of things, I wish I
10 00:01:51,570 --> 00:02:01,980 could go back and change not just in my trading journey, but in all facets of my life. So I shared a bunch of those personal things today on my Twitter feed. If
11 00:02:01,980 --> 00:02:10,290 you haven't been over there, you can take a look at that and see my my open discussion about many of the frailties in my personal life coming up as a
12 00:02:10,290 --> 00:02:25,980 younger man into where I am today. I want to talk a little bit about some of the things that I wish I could go back in time and tell my younger self. Now, the
13 00:02:25,980 --> 00:02:39,240 way you can use this for yourself is take what I'm saying with a great deal of appreciation, because I weathered a lot of storms, financially and personally,
14 00:02:39,930 --> 00:02:53,700 to get to what I know now. And you may be a very young person, and or an older person just now getting involved in the markets, you're going to have the same
15 00:02:53,940 --> 00:03:02,670 growing pains that everyone else has. And some of these things are going to be things you probably read in books, heard other people talk about. But I'm going
16 00:03:02,670 --> 00:03:12,270 to give you my personal spin on some of them and how it applied to me. So it's kind of like a little bit of a little history book of what I was plagued with in
17 00:03:12,270 --> 00:03:25,140 my first six years. And the first six years of my trading development, the first six years of my trading, development is plagued with everything you could have
18 00:03:25,140 --> 00:03:37,500 possibly done wrong. And I want to kind of like use this discussion to kind of like go through some of the major hurdles that I had. And again, since I have
19 00:03:37,530 --> 00:03:51,150 children, adult children now they can hopefully listen to this, and mine. The, I guess the experience portion of it. Because a lot of the things that I've put on
20 00:03:51,150 --> 00:04:04,230 my YouTube channel, and I've taught over the years, it's heavily technical.  There's a lot of things that are going on in the chart. And I am always accused
21 00:04:04,230 --> 00:04:12,780 of being long winded. And again, if you're not into you really understanding what is most likely going to plague you if you just want to go through it
22 00:04:12,780 --> 00:04:21,390 yourself and have all that experience. Have at it and don't even listen to this video. And there's no harm and you're not listening to this part. You could
23 00:04:21,420 --> 00:04:32,220 really just say, Oh, come on, it's gonna wait the part too, but it's meant to be a resource for you to glean experience from without having to go through the
24 00:04:32,220 --> 00:04:45,930 suffering portion of it. So if I were to go back in time, and I could sit at a table and talk to my younger self, what would I tell him or me where to focus?
25 00:04:46,260 --> 00:05:00,330 What should I as a younger person, focus on in my development as a trader. First thing, don't seek the approval from others right away. That's the number One
26 00:05:00,330 --> 00:05:10,920 characteristic of a successful trader. Now, you might not agree with the things I'm going to say in this episode, I'm just speaking from my own personal walk,
27 00:05:11,310 --> 00:05:25,620 and the things that I had to endure. When I first started, the first people that I looked to get approval with, with my family. And I love my family, both my
28 00:05:25,620 --> 00:05:35,820 immediate and extended family. But none of them shared in my excitement, they gave me all the reasons why it was a poor decision, it was a bad idea to get
29 00:05:35,820 --> 00:05:44,040 involved in it, I'm going to just lose money, and just accept working for the rest of your life. And it's simply not in the cards for me, I didn't want to do
30 00:05:44,040 --> 00:05:51,690 that. So you don't want to seek approval from your family, because they're not going to understand what you're trying to do. They're going to give you all of
31 00:05:51,690 --> 00:05:59,250 the heartfelt reasons why they're going to try to protect you from yourself, when they don't really understand what it is that you're trying to do or learn.
32 00:06:01,470 --> 00:06:07,980 Don't seek the approval of your friends. Number one, your friends are only going to be interested, once you start making money, when they start seeing the
33 00:06:07,980 --> 00:06:19,500 changes in your life, Then, and only then weird friends be on board with it.  Your friends, much like your family, really don't feel comfortable with you
34 00:06:19,530 --> 00:06:30,240 being successful. Because if you tell them what you're going to do, and you get to the point where you succeed at it, you act like a mirror for them. And they
35 00:06:30,240 --> 00:06:43,860 will always look to you, as of a reminder of what they failed to pursue in their own life. So again, don't try to seek the approval of others, Family First, and
36 00:06:43,860 --> 00:06:45,780 friends, because it doesn't work out.
37 00:06:47,160 --> 00:06:47,700 Third,
38 00:06:48,270 --> 00:06:58,800 don't go to work, and tell your co workers that you're going to be quitting your jobs. And I made all those errors, okay. And many, many times I've shared the
39 00:06:58,830 --> 00:07:12,630 low income high our heavy workload job that I was doing, as a young man, when I was beginning this journey. And I just don't think that it's a good practice for
40 00:07:12,630 --> 00:07:21,360 anyone to go to work and tell their co workers number one, they're going to be given you again, all the worst feedback you're ever gonna hear. Yeah, right,
41 00:07:21,360 --> 00:07:31,230 you'll be here with me the rest of your life, you're going to retire from here, all those things, okay. So when you get this feedback from your co workers,
42 00:07:31,260 --> 00:07:38,550 you're going to hate going to work even more, because you might have liked going to work it to some degree and hanging out with the people you work with. Talking
43 00:07:38,550 --> 00:07:52,410 about sports, looking up movies, talking about the opposite sex, all these things that you had a common, I guess agreement on or an interest in, will start
44 00:07:52,410 --> 00:08:01,620 having a great divide, because you're going to look at them as a source of annoyance. And they're just gonna look at you as your pipe dreaming. And you're
45 00:08:01,620 --> 00:08:10,290 not going to get to where you're going. And it's going to be fun for them to watch, you fail. And you don't want to have someone constantly poking you every
46 00:08:10,290 --> 00:08:19,140 day. It looks like you're still here, I guess I'll see you to work tomorrow. No types of things is what I had to endure. So don't tell your co workers what
47 00:08:19,140 --> 00:08:28,530 you're going to be doing. Don't tell your boss, what you're going to be doing.  You're going to basically fire your boss and fire your co workers when the time
48 00:08:28,530 --> 00:08:39,300 is right. But you don't want to broadcast it. Because all it's going to do is provide them a timeline when they think you should be doing it and teach you the
49 00:08:39,300 --> 00:08:48,480 entire time. So your family is going to constantly give you heartfelt advice of why you shouldn't do it. Your friends are going to say I'm not really
50 00:08:48,480 --> 00:08:57,240 interested. But if you get successful, I might be interested in so what why tell them, your co workers are going to give you every negative thing because they
51 00:08:57,240 --> 00:09:09,030 hate their life too. They're at the same place you're at you're trying to escape. So why would you want them to pump you up? That's what we do as humans,
52 00:09:09,030 --> 00:09:20,700 we want to have our peers say Yeah, that's a good idea. But how many times in your life? Have you ever had that experience? I can tell you, unless it was my
53 00:09:20,700 --> 00:09:32,880 fifth grade teacher, Mr. lorber. Or it was my uncle that talked to me about commodities when I was 16 years old. And taught me about narrow sideways
54 00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:41,310 channels and 123 tops and bottoms and head and shoulders and all those bull flags and things. At 16 years old, I was looking at it and it was going in one
55 00:09:41,310 --> 00:09:49,590 ear and out the other. Okay, so when you tell all your family, your friends and your co workers, that's what's happening, and they're not going to say you know
56 00:09:49,590 --> 00:09:58,320 what, that's brilliant. I wish I would have thought of that. That's the real that's the reaction you're expecting, right? It never works out that way. But
57 00:09:58,320 --> 00:10:08,610 yet we all do it as humans. We want to Have that that's a good idea, response and it never comes. So what does it do? It causes deflation. You don't want to
58 00:10:08,610 --> 00:10:18,300 be around these people, because now you're like, I wish I would have ever said anything. But once you put it out there, it's done. And lastly, strangers. As a
59 00:10:18,300 --> 00:10:28,200 young man, when I was doing my job would finish off, you know, filling up the candy machines and the soda machines and coffee machines and such. And I used to
60 00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:43,830 do a vending route ended a long day, 13 hours or so. And during my route, I felt this an unreasonable desire to tell other people that I don't even know. Yeah,
61 00:10:44,010 --> 00:10:52,950 I'm looking at a market and hope it goes up. And then bah, bah, bah, what? What are you talking to me about that for? So when you tell strangers or if you meet
62 00:10:52,950 --> 00:11:02,820 someone in the pub, okay, are you at a club or? Well, right now, it's hard to go to those places right now. Because of all the things that's been impacted by the
63 00:11:02,820 --> 00:11:15,690 illnesses being spread around the social circles. When you run into people, they'll ask you, Hey, you know, so what do you do yourself? That's not the
64 00:11:15,690 --> 00:11:22,170 invitation to say, Well, I'm looking to start trading commodities. They're gonna like, what? Yeah, I'm
65 00:11:22,170 --> 00:11:28,050 trading the foreign exchange market right away, they're gonna be like, What is that, and that's what you want to ask you. And then when you start talking
66 00:11:28,050 --> 00:11:35,880 about, they're like, Oh, yeah, that's like the stock market, you're not interested, or they're interested, anyone know how much money you made, and you
67 00:11:35,880 --> 00:11:43,350 can't tell them that you made any money, you're just now starting. So really, you're a startup, and they're not really interested in the conversation anymore.
68 00:11:43,530 --> 00:11:51,240 So you're not going to get that feedback, again, what you're looking for. So don't seek the approval from others, you have to pursue this on your own steam
69 00:11:51,240 --> 00:12:03,210 your own energy. And if you have any dependency on an outside source, be at any one of these four groups, family, friends, co workers or strangers to give you
70 00:12:03,750 --> 00:12:16,050 that, nudge, that little bit of a pat on the back, that you're doing the right thing for yourself, you're going to struggle, because in trading, you got to be
71 00:12:16,050 --> 00:12:26,010 there to make the decisions whether anyone agrees with you or not. And when you make money, you reap the rewards of that. But when you lose it, and you will,
72 00:12:26,850 --> 00:12:35,010 you have to be able to endure that and not feel the compulsion to go to someone and say, hey, look, you know, I just lost a lot of money, it's the same thing.
73 00:12:35,490 --> 00:12:44,010 Don't turn to anyone else and say, I made a mistake today help me feel better, you have to endure that. And if you're going to start your journey with this
74 00:12:44,190 --> 00:12:54,450 mindset of seeking approval, or support outside of yourself, this is going to be a very hard journey for you. So you have to prepare yourself to seek your own
75 00:12:54,450 --> 00:13:03,360 approval, by your own study in your own development. reward yourself when you do it, right. And when you do it wrong, give yourself permission to be wrong. And
76 00:13:03,360 --> 00:13:18,540 allow yourself to grow. Next, learn risk management well, and make that your initial very first thing that you want to master. So you're controlling your
77 00:13:18,540 --> 00:13:27,600 impulses to stop telling everybody your business, okay? It's your business, it's not their business, stop giving your business to someone else. Next in line,
78 00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:36,780 it's the risk, you have to understand what you're getting involved in. If you're gonna be treated with live funds, you are losing money, that's a 100% guarantee,
79 00:13:36,960 --> 00:13:48,270 you are losing money, there is never, ever going to be a trader that starts and never has a loss. My very first trade was a loss, I lost 50% of my account
80 00:13:49,170 --> 00:14:01,800 overnight. And orange juice option. I had no idea what I was doing. I was baptized, thrown in the water and drown. Okay, it was just that short and sweet.
81 00:14:02,340 --> 00:14:13,140 And I closed the account asked for the remainder of my account. And that was the end of my Fox investments. Career that was the brokerage firm I use at the time.
82 00:14:14,310 --> 00:14:23,850 And I had to go and discover how to actually look at charts and learn a little bit more about the risks. So I didn't understand risks. When I got into trading.
83 00:14:23,940 --> 00:14:31,980 I thought that it should work right away because I saw the book. The book said it does this. So therefore, when I looked at the chart, aren't you should have
84 00:14:31,980 --> 00:14:42,660 performed the same way. Because that's what this guy said in the book. You know, this guy told me in at least three pages that the market when it does this
85 00:14:42,660 --> 00:14:56,190 wiggle and waggle didn't ask you to expect it to move this particular way. And where does he get off? telling me this? And then it not being true. You see
86 00:14:56,220 --> 00:15:06,570 where the disconnection is? That was how I looked at it. Because I didn't want to take the responsibility of the risks. And I figured, well, I'm gonna add an
87 00:15:06,570 --> 00:15:17,010 option, what's the worst that could happen? All of my money could have been gone. That's the worst. And in one day, overnight, while I was sleeping, woke up
88 00:15:17,070 --> 00:15:28,890 expecting to see I'm going to be in, I'm gonna be in the profits. Yeah, I wasn't expecting that down 50% Welcome to trading Michael. And it was a shock. And I
89 00:15:28,890 --> 00:15:38,220 just completely collapsed, said give me my money, I'm worn out. And that money couldn't get back to me fast enough. And back then they'd sent it in a check.
90 00:15:38,250 --> 00:15:47,820 And he had to wait for the check come in the mail. It was, it was awful. So the first thing you want to be focusing on is managing risk and understanding the
91 00:15:47,820 --> 00:16:02,250 underlying risks that's available to you, if you trade. You want to appreciate the percent over the dollar gain or loss. When I first started, I was interested
92 00:16:02,250 --> 00:16:12,930 in making a specific dollar amount. I didn't understand compound interest, I didn't understand the Kelly criterion, optimal F, none of the advanced money
93 00:16:12,930 --> 00:16:15,330 management theories that I adhere to now.
94 00:16:17,040 --> 00:16:28,140 And I just looked for dollars, you know, if I can make 500 bucks on this move, that's what I want to make in my stop loss was was the maximum I could take. And
95 00:16:28,140 --> 00:16:37,620 that's exactly what I was doing. Because I was afraid I'm gonna get stopped out.  So I had this unrealistic stop loss that was just unbelievably wide.
96 00:16:38,010 --> 00:16:38,550 Or
97 00:16:38,730 --> 00:16:48,450 I didn't have one, I was using a mental stop, which will drive you mental if you're driving in a truck 13 hours a day getting out loading cans, soda, and
98 00:16:49,050 --> 00:16:55,950 junk food in the candy machines and going around and fixing machines that aren't right. And you're constantly wondering what the markets doing, and you don't
99 00:16:55,950 --> 00:17:05,220 have a stoploss. Yeah, it's already bad enough that you got the time to market and pick the right direction. But now you got to add to it that you're doing it
100 00:17:05,220 --> 00:17:14,940 blind, with no stop loss, and anything can happen. And that's what I was doing.  I mean, literally, I was like a cowboy out there riding bulls
101 00:17:15,510 --> 00:17:16,020 with
102 00:17:16,800 --> 00:17:25,020 no experience whatsoever. And if I was thrown off, it was always going to be the worst case, it was really going to be bad. Every single time I took a loss, it
103 00:17:25,020 --> 00:17:32,490 was going to be bad. Either I got crushed, and I got out because I couldn't handle the pain anymore. Or if I had to stop, it was running against me taking
104 00:17:32,490 --> 00:17:42,210 me out and it was going to be the maximum risk that I could absorb in that trade. So you want to appreciate the percentage of what you are taking on as
105 00:17:42,210 --> 00:17:51,840 risk also with your gains. So don't be impressed with a specific dollar amount.  Or don't look at a specific dollar amount as well, it doesn't hurt that bad
106 00:17:51,840 --> 00:18:02,640 because it's only 300 bucks. But if your account is 3000, that's 10%. That's considerable. You don't want to do that. Because you can't do too many of those
107 00:18:02,640 --> 00:18:13,050 and not see your account be lowered to a level where it's a little bit difficult to come back from that as a new trader. So appreciate the percentage over dollar
108 00:18:13,050 --> 00:18:27,870 gain or loss. Learn to limit trade frequency. I felt that since the markets were opening up tomorrow, and I had to be in there. So I was over trading. And if I
109 00:18:27,870 --> 00:18:38,460 got a profit, and I was able to get out in intraday I was like, Well, that was fun. I want to go on here and do it again. When there was 20 minutes left in the
110 00:18:38,460 --> 00:18:47,610 trading session, because I was trading commodities. They had pit hours where it would open at this time and close at this time. And I figured well, it's still
111 00:18:47,610 --> 00:18:57,570 open, anything can happen. And if I'm right, I mean, I can make some more money before it closes. I had no idea what I was doing folks, zero idea. I was looking
112 00:18:57,570 --> 00:19:11,070 at these these charts, and they were speaking to me. And it was all the wrong things. He was telling me gamble. And that's what I was doing. I had money in
113 00:19:11,070 --> 00:19:18,900 the account, there was hours still left in the trading or 20 minutes. In this case, as an example, I pathetically and I was going in here. And if I could get
114 00:19:18,930 --> 00:19:27,330 more money before the close, that's what I was doing. And that's what hurt me.  Because I didn't understand the risk. When you're getting close to the end of
115 00:19:27,330 --> 00:19:37,950 the session, the end of the trading day or the end of the week, you have to know that there's a large degree of risk in the fact that you're probably not going
116 00:19:37,950 --> 00:19:46,680 to see any really major move at that point because it's already behind you. And you want to limit the number of trades you take because the more frequency you
117 00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:56,730 have in your trades, the more than likely you're going to lose. And if you have a lot of trades, you're going to have a lot more losses and losses mount up and
118 00:19:56,730 --> 00:20:05,400 you don't want that to occur, especially as a developing trader. You really don't want that to occur at any time, really. But you have to learn to limit
119 00:20:05,550 --> 00:20:19,800 your trade frequency. Avoid short term trading, turning it into long term trading. When I first started, I had no idea what style of trading that I was
120 00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:29,220 going to really focus on on, I was being told I wanted to be a position trader, you get on the daily chart, catch a 123, hold it for three, four or five, six
121 00:20:29,220 --> 00:20:40,110 months. And I couldn't do it just couldn't do it. And when I started trading with short term strategies, and such, when I was in winners, that started to
122 00:20:40,110 --> 00:20:50,280 move a lot for me. If you trade of any length of time, eventually you're going to get lucky with something. And when it starts moving in your favor really
123 00:20:50,280 --> 00:21:02,100 explosively. Something happens inside of our brain, it's like, Okay, this was only going to be a trade for a couple hours and maybe make, you know, five or
124 00:21:02,100 --> 00:21:16,110 six handles in the s&p, or 100 pips in the Forex, okay, or a $2.50 cent move in the stock that you're trading. But now because it's exploded, you're like, well,
125 00:21:16,110 --> 00:21:28,560 this is now a six month trade. And you end up holding on to a winner turn loser.  And you changed your strategy from it was gonna be a short term trade, to now a
126 00:21:28,560 --> 00:21:40,320 long term trade in that short term gain turns into a now an immediate loss. It's debilitating. stick to what you were trying to do. When it gets to your
127 00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:51,720 objectives, scale out and get your target and move to the sidelines, don't change strategies, while you're in a trade that never ever, ever is a good
128 00:21:51,720 --> 00:22:03,660 thing. And be content with enough. If you had a profitable week, and it's Thursday, close up shop Who says you have to trade on Friday? What happens if
129 00:22:03,660 --> 00:22:13,560 you have a good Monday and Tuesday, and it's way beyond your normal return you return? Why would you want to press your luck, the chances are,
130 00:22:13,559 --> 00:22:22,739 you're not going to give some of that back, if not all of it. And when I was younger, I did that a lot in my first six years. But I didn't care. It didn't
131 00:22:22,739 --> 00:22:33,329 bother me and didn't have any appreciation for the risk. Because I figured well, I'm gonna be right eventually, in every trade, I was swinging for the fences.
132 00:22:33,779 --> 00:22:40,709 And I wanted to make lots and lots of money. But the problem with that is, because I was taking on so much risk, when I had a little bit of a profit, I
133 00:22:40,709 --> 00:22:50,609 would close because I just couldn't handle that anymore. It was wearing me down like unexpected to make $1,000 in this trade. Alright, I'm up to 50. I'm just, I
134 00:22:50,609 --> 00:23:03,269 just gotta get out, I'm fatigued. That's what the market will do to you. If you have no appreciation for the risk. Don't undermine your trading, by not tackling
135 00:23:03,359 --> 00:23:18,179 the first lesson in risk management, you have to understand it, and how you personally engage with the marketplace and how you are, I guess, adversely
136 00:23:19,079 --> 00:23:27,869 affected, I guess that's the train of thought I'm trying to communicate here.  Because unless you feel the pain of being in a market that's not moving in your
137 00:23:27,869 --> 00:23:41,819 favor, or screaming against you. You're not going to fully appreciate what I'm saying here. And as a younger man. I saw lots of equity swings that would make
138 00:23:41,849 --> 00:23:50,819 anyone else nauseous. And I just didn't care. I had no appreciation. I had no respect for the marketplace, because I figured I'm going to get it right and
139 00:23:50,819 --> 00:24:03,029 eventually. And I went through many accounts, not one or two, many, like 14 individual trading accounts. And I would save up money, save up money. My first
140 00:24:03,059 --> 00:24:13,169 account was with a credit card. And then the second account was with another credit card 20 $600 on a nation's bank, credit card visa. And you pay a lot a
141 00:24:13,229 --> 00:24:24,059 lot of percentage in terms of interest when you borrow cash. And I just was doing everything wrong, everything wrong, but I was not going to be deterred.
142 00:24:26,879 --> 00:24:38,639 Moving on. You want to prevent life imbalances, and this is one of the things that I failed miserably yet. I have a pretty large family of five children. One
143 00:24:38,639 --> 00:24:48,629 that was brought into my marriage. I brought one into my marriage, and I had three children or three sons with my present wife. I didn't spend a lot of time
144 00:24:48,629 --> 00:24:56,759 with my kids. When I was younger. I was consumed with the marketplace. I was consumed with making money. I was consumed with building businesses. I was
145 00:24:56,789 --> 00:25:13,019 consumed with real estate, buying franchises. Just always Money, money, money, money, money, and most of my children's sporting events, I missed them. And it
146 00:25:13,019 --> 00:25:25,259 was very hard to see how much time I missed when I look back. And now look at my children as adults, not all of them, I have a 15 year old, and he shouldn't be
147 00:25:25,259 --> 00:25:37,619 13 year old, yet still living with me. But my older children, I don't have a lot of memories. Because I allowed the market to steal that. And I chased it more,
148 00:25:37,799 --> 00:25:48,689 the faster it ran away from me, the more I would pursue it, because I was telling myself that I'm doing all of this for them. And that wasn't true. I was
149 00:25:48,689 --> 00:26:04,829 doing it for me, me, because I hated my job. I hated where I was in life. And I wanted more. And I wasn't satisfied where I was. And every adversity brought on
150 00:26:04,829 --> 00:26:20,249 a new sense of urgency that I gotta get this changed right now. And days would pass and turn to weeks, to months to years. And I missed so much time with my
151 00:26:20,249 --> 00:26:28,589 wife, I missed so much time with my children. And the greatest lesson, I can tell you right now, if you're new, especially if you're a young man or woman,
152 00:26:29,309 --> 00:26:43,589 and you're getting ready to get into this, these markets are vampires, they will suck every drop in the marrow in your bones, if you give it to them. It does not
153 00:26:43,589 --> 00:26:53,309 matter how much money you think you can make or eventually make. Because I'm gonna tell you something, I've made a lot of money, millions of real dollars,
154 00:26:53,549 --> 00:27:02,939 millions. And I would give it all back. If I could go back in time, and be able to spend the time with my kids and my wife that I missed.
155 00:27:08,849 --> 00:27:20,639 I created a prison cell for myself with these markets that I willfully put myself into every single day. And it wasn't enough to be in the daytime,
156 00:27:21,209 --> 00:27:31,559 worrying that all day long at work. Was I being a good employee? No. Many times I have asked my job, because I had to get back to the truck where my quote trek
157 00:27:31,559 --> 00:27:41,969 was, which was my little quote machine telling me what the soybean market was doing, or what live cattle was doing, or what the bond market was doing. I was
158 00:27:41,969 --> 00:27:53,309 more concerned about that. And most of the time I was losing money. So I wasn't a good employee at the time. And when I got home in the evening time, what was I
159 00:27:53,309 --> 00:28:11,009 concerned about? family? No, I was concerned about the market. I was wanting to know, what can I do to make more money. And my family will be there when I'm
160 00:28:11,009 --> 00:28:26,909 done. And that's a lie. It's a lie. You're going to give up your life if you don't pay attention to it. So how do you avoid it? You have to manage your
161 00:28:26,909 --> 00:28:37,409 family time and schedule it. This is the time for your family. No markets, no charts, no TV time looking at reports and news events that would drive the
162 00:28:37,409 --> 00:28:49,199 marketplace. No newspapers, no articles and magazines, no internet, no Twitter, none of that stuff. You manage your family time and you schedule it. And then
163 00:28:49,199 --> 00:29:05,639 once you have gave your family your time, an ample amount of it, then you'd have to return back to the marketplace. You want to keep a study and trade schedule.
164 00:29:07,949 --> 00:29:18,239 That means what time of day, are you gonna be looking at the market trade. And there are specific times of the day or days of the week, months of the year that
165 00:29:18,239 --> 00:29:25,739 you want to be focusing on trading. And there are other times when you don't want to be doing that. And you want to be focusing on what they are. And what
166 00:29:25,739 --> 00:29:33,599 are you going to study how much time each day are you going to unlock for studying. Because if you don't have that, you're just going to go in there and
167 00:29:33,599 --> 00:29:42,569 say, well, it's basically like Netflix. I'm gonna sit down, binge watch and see what happens. Well, if you look at a chart long enough, it's gonna start telling
168 00:29:42,569 --> 00:29:54,509 you, you know, if you put some money into me, I might give you some more back and you're going to gamble. How long will a gambler sit in front of a slot
169 00:29:54,509 --> 00:30:04,799 machine with a pocketful of quarters before they put all the quarters in there.  As fast as they get the next one. And that's what these charts are their slot
170 00:30:04,799 --> 00:30:13,079 machines. And you're great, you're being groomed as a gambler and all the books and things that you learn from other people. And it's just an enticement to
171 00:30:13,079 --> 00:30:26,519 constantly do that feed that beast. So you have to keep a study and trade schedule, and only operate on that basis. Off, these are off days, on the
172 00:30:26,519 --> 00:30:35,579 weekends, I spent more time worrying about the marketplace when I should have been spending it with my family. So you have to absolutely hold yourself hard
173 00:30:35,579 --> 00:30:46,499 and fast to when you don't have any market activity. And it's not trading or to holiday, it may impact with lower volume, that's an off day. And you don't look
174 00:30:46,529 --> 00:30:55,589 at the charts, you don't concern yourself with looking at what could have happened, none of that stuff you poured into your family that will prevent you
175 00:30:55,589 --> 00:31:09,059 from having a life imbalance. And finally, you want to be patient with your development. I was overzealous and unrealistic about what I wanted to do once I
176 00:31:09,059 --> 00:31:17,579 started making money. That's what caught fire in me. And I was like, I want more, I want more I want more. And when I saw I could take a very small account
177 00:31:18,659 --> 00:31:32,369 1200 15 $100 to $15,000. In less than six weeks, I was like this is exactly what I want to do. Like I want to do this, I want to do anything else. And you don't
178 00:31:32,369 --> 00:31:45,419 have to rush, especially if you're younger than 30. Like if you're in your 20s you have so much time to get yourself where you want to be. But you want to take
179 00:31:45,419 --> 00:31:54,449 the time to develop yourself and learn a lot about yourself. Because if you're not aware of what you're going to likely do to yourself to throw yourself off
180 00:31:54,449 --> 00:31:54,989 the rails.
181 00:31:56,880 --> 00:32:04,650 It doesn't matter what you're going to learn or what you're going to do or how much money you start with, or how much time you put into it, it just means that
182 00:32:04,650 --> 00:32:14,940 you're going to rush to destruction. So you have to give yourself a realistic timeline. When I first started, my plan was I wanted to retire at 40. I want to
183 00:32:14,940 --> 00:32:27,180 make $1,000 a month and retire at 40. That was my plan. And I quickly learned that that was a really low objective. What was possible was a lot more than
184 00:32:27,180 --> 00:32:40,380 that. But I wasn't prepared to see that type of equity increase. When I started making a lot of money. It's like a drug in it makes you want to do more and more
185 00:32:40,380 --> 00:32:51,300 and you throw that in with you didn't care about risk because I didn't it hurt me. And I would see these huge gains and then huge draw downs. So while I'd have
186 00:32:51,510 --> 00:33:01,830 really big run up, and it had a roller coaster drop, and it would just put me back in that I gotta go back and spend more time on the charts and who was
187 00:33:01,830 --> 00:33:13,200 suffering, my family, my children didn't get to see her family, her father that much. My wife didn't get to see me as much as her husband. And I missed out on a
188 00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:27,420 lot. And seeing a couple photographs is not the same as being there to cheer your kid on. When he's up and he hits his first home run. I missed that. When
189 00:33:27,420 --> 00:33:42,720 his basketball team wins, and he made that shot great for the last bell. I missed that. But hey, I made money on lean hogs. It doesn't measure up.
190 00:33:48,510 --> 00:33:58,200 Stop buying retail logic and tools. You just don't want to be filling your head out with all of this poor thinking, okay, because that's exactly what it is.
191 00:33:58,770 --> 00:34:08,730 Everything that you learn in retail books and courses is diametrically opposed to how the actual markets work. So stop wasting money on books. And I've
192 00:34:08,730 --> 00:34:20,820 purchased either by electronic format, or actual hardcopy books, over 2000 of them, and I won't buy another book ever again. And I wish I would have stopped
193 00:34:20,970 --> 00:34:28,650 the second year that I started buying in my head. In my mind, I was gonna buy as many books as I could, because somebody out there, it's going to have the
194 00:34:28,650 --> 00:34:37,080 secret. And I'm gonna tell you after reading over 2000 books, none of them did.  And there are some real classics in there. And the ones that I do, like I've
195 00:34:37,080 --> 00:34:48,150 mentioned before, and I know some of you are new and you want to know what they are. For money management, I like everything from Ralph Vince and Ryan Jones.
196 00:34:48,210 --> 00:34:55,740 They do a lot of optimal F and Kelly criterion. It's a little bit advanced. I'm not saying that everyone that first starts trading should mess with that because
197 00:34:55,980 --> 00:35:04,380 it's meant to run your account up pretty quick and You're not going to be prepared for that. And I wasn't either. That's why I couldn't make it work right
198 00:35:04,380 --> 00:35:15,660 away. So I did learn a lot about myself, and then tune it for me. How many million dollar trading commodities last year, it's a 1970s book from Larry
199 00:35:15,660 --> 00:35:27,360 Williams, that books still is relevant today. Not every little thing in there is but majority of that book is. That was the real first inspiration for me to see
200 00:35:27,360 --> 00:35:37,500 how smart money operates in the marketplace. And then that was my pursuit for the rest of my life, I was gonna crack these markets. So that trading for a
201 00:35:37,500 --> 00:35:52,860 living buy outs and their elder market wizards wanting to just for inspiration, and street smarts, by Linda raschke. And Larry Connors. That's it. Now, if you
202 00:35:52,860 --> 00:36:03,210 want to know what to do the opposite of john Murphy's technical analysis of financial markets book, that's the retail traders Bible. I always recommend that
203 00:36:03,210 --> 00:36:10,290 one simply because you want to learn how to do the opposite of everything that's being taught in that book. And if you do that, you're going to quickly see how
204 00:36:10,290 --> 00:36:23,790 charts are really, really fun to watch, then, because it's such a high degree of percentage of failing, that, it's more likely if you just fade those moves,
205 00:36:23,910 --> 00:36:36,990 you'll probably see the chart, work in your favor. Avoid looking for hot hand gurus, I did this a lot on America Online. I chased everybody, if they had a
206 00:36:36,990 --> 00:36:47,040 service, I was trying it out, at least for well back then they would do it by the week. Now everything's by month. And everything was at the time, a
207 00:36:47,040 --> 00:36:56,400 newsletter, or a phone number, you had a call and pay a couple of dollars a minute or whatever. And he would tell you what they were trading. And I never
208 00:36:56,400 --> 00:37:07,710 made money with that stuff. Even Larry Williams, not to be disrespectful towards him, but I, at one time, was paying for his hotline. And you would just call him
209 00:37:07,710 --> 00:37:18,030 up and he would have a recording. And it was basically what he was going to do with the bond market and with the s&p market, and I did those trades, and I lost
210 00:37:18,030 --> 00:37:25,380 money. And again, I'm not saying that he's not a profitable trader, I'm not saying is not a good trader. I'm not saying he's not a good teacher. I'm just
211 00:37:25,380 --> 00:37:34,110 saying my personal experience dealing that I lost money on every single trade.  So avoid looking for hockey and gurus This is the reason why I don't hold
212 00:37:34,110 --> 00:37:42,510 people's hands I don't say is that we're gonna do buy here, sell here, stop me, I don't do that. Because all that does is create codependence and you don't want
213 00:37:42,510 --> 00:37:45,090 to be a codependent trader, you want to be an independent thinking trader,
214 00:37:47,550 --> 00:37:56,250 become your own signal generator. The big thing is always as a new trader, you want to find someone that's good. You don't want to find a mentor, you want to
215 00:37:56,250 --> 00:38:07,200 find someone that's going to tell you what they're doing and making money so you can copy them. And I fell victim to that, too. I didn't want to trust my own
216 00:38:07,350 --> 00:38:15,810 analysis, I got lazy and thinking, well, I really just wanna make a lot of money. So if I can find someone who's really good, I'll just copy them. And
217 00:38:16,350 --> 00:38:23,640 everything they do, I'm going to take the trades, since they're successful. Even if I take a couple losses here and there. I'm just gonna stick with it. So what
218 00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:34,500 am I really saying there? I'm saying that I'm going to use them as my system.  And I'm accepting losses. I knew they're probably going to come. But I'm holding
219 00:38:34,500 --> 00:38:43,560 out that they're going to have more wins than losses. Now, doesn't that make sense? If you apply it to your own strategy, but when you as a new trader start,
220 00:38:43,800 --> 00:38:55,380 you don't want to accept losses. That's not acceptable. But when you justify your suspending, when you buy other people's signals, it's somehow brought into
221 00:38:55,380 --> 00:39:03,690 the reasoning part of the decision making, that it's something that's acceptable, losing trades, it's acceptable until you take that first loss, and
222 00:39:03,690 --> 00:39:17,250 then you're not subscribing anymore. You go back to looking for another hot hand guru. Be willing to lose and lose a lot early on. It's part of it. You don't
223 00:39:17,250 --> 00:39:31,260 know what you're doing. And no book, no course even me. If I sat with you every single day, for a month, you would still take losses, you would lose. it's
224 00:39:31,530 --> 00:39:40,260 unavoidable. But early on when you are developing, you're going to be wrong a lot. And this is reasonable. I tell people do not trade with my funds until you
225 00:39:40,260 --> 00:39:47,880 know exactly what you're doing. And you understand yourself. And that may be longer than six months. It may be longer than a year. For somebody it might be
226 00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:57,510 234 years, like a college degree. And you some of you aren't prepared for that.  And there's no shame in you saying you know what this thing for me, that's good.
227 00:39:57,510 --> 00:40:03,690 That means you're not going to lose money. That means you're not going to have Have imbalances in your life, it means that you're not going to hurt yourself,
228 00:40:04,470 --> 00:40:15,090 both financially and psychologically. Because I did that. I caused physical problems with an eating disorder. I developed agoraphobia, which was a fear of
229 00:40:15,090 --> 00:40:30,810 being around other people. Because I didn't want them to find out how bad I was losing. And I wish I could go back in time and tell myself losing is normal.
230 00:40:31,560 --> 00:40:40,620 it's acceptable, it's part of the business transactions in this industry, you're going to have losses, control them. Over time, you're going to make more money
231 00:40:40,620 --> 00:40:51,330 than you lose. I didn't think that way. When I first started, I was trying to avoid losing all together. And then every single loss was a paramount event,
232 00:40:51,360 --> 00:41:04,500 like it was huge, it was elevated to some grandiose, painful, just terrible thing that I had been enduring. When it's just, I did it wrong. Simple. You made
233 00:41:04,500 --> 00:41:12,450 a mistake, Michael, and you're gonna make lots of them. 27 years from now, you're gonna have so many losing trades, you're gonna look back and say, You
234 00:41:12,450 --> 00:41:21,600 know what? It didn't kill me. So be willing to lose a lot and early on in your development. That's why you want to do it on paper. That's why you want to do it
235 00:41:21,600 --> 00:41:30,570 on demo, because you need to see what it feels like to be wrong a lot and not have the money taken from you. And then correct those problems before you put
236 00:41:30,570 --> 00:41:47,460 real money at work. Stay away from social media drains. Well, in this age, we have a lot of social media. But back when I first started November 5 1992,
237 00:41:47,700 --> 00:41:58,170 social media was just starting up with message boards, or bulletin boards they call them. So it's kind of like Twitter. Yeah, not so much Instagram, but
238 00:41:58,200 --> 00:42:08,130 basically like Twitter, he just people would just communicate with open emails, basically, as the format was whatever you would look at and see that would be
239 00:42:08,340 --> 00:42:18,840 sent by way of an email, it would just be a open source where people could see what everybody was doing a message board, basically. And I would get my feelings
240 00:42:18,840 --> 00:42:25,920 hurt back then. Because someone would say, that's a stupid idea what you're doing. And then when I was doing it, right, everybody was like, Man, you are a
241 00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:35,040 rock star. I'm taking that trade. And I was like, Yeah, I don't know, I'm making money now. Because he or she thinks it's a good trade. That's stupid. It was
242 00:42:35,040 --> 00:42:41,910 dumb. I let other people back then influence my decisions or change the level of
243 00:42:43,800 --> 00:42:55,020 that expectation I had on the trade. Because if they said me, that's a good idea. I think it's going to go to 1150. When I was looking at like, 1080, I'm
244 00:42:55,020 --> 00:43:01,920 thinking myself, yeah, they're probably right. And I would change my trade to what they're saying, because, man, I don't want them to be right. And we miss
245 00:43:01,920 --> 00:43:13,410 out on that extra profit. You see what that trapped is did. It took my trade away from me. And now I took their trade, who's in control there? It wasn't me.
246 00:43:14,040 --> 00:43:27,030 I let go on the wheel. don't join trading clubs. Okay. That means circles where everyone has the hive mentality. Because you need to discover who you are as a
247 00:43:27,030 --> 00:43:40,680 trader, and it's very, I guess, wasteful for your time. And it stunts your growth. If you start going into a group that has Well, this is the only way of
248 00:43:40,680 --> 00:43:51,030 trading. And this is all we do around here. Because what you're trying to do is be part of that. Click, okay. You're trying to take on the hive mentality, and
249 00:43:51,030 --> 00:44:00,900 it may not be suited for you. But you can waste more time and unfortunately, money. You don't want to discover that you've been wasting your time and money.
250 00:44:01,170 --> 00:44:14,070 Okay? So you want to be solo. trading is a solo sport. It's not a team sport. No matter how good your guru or mentor is. If you're doing everything they say. You
251 00:44:14,070 --> 00:44:28,260 aren't in control. You're growing codependent. don't subscribe to alerts, it gets back to signals. You want to be the source or generation of the trade
252 00:44:28,260 --> 00:44:35,160 ideas. That way when you're wrong. you're forced to assume the responsibility.  You can't say, Well, I just listened to that person. They were wrong. They suck.
253 00:44:36,150 --> 00:44:46,590 Oh, well. What are you gonna do about it? Well, I'm gonna find somebody else.  That's not responsible. That's gambling. You're going to another slot machine at
254 00:44:46,590 --> 00:45:02,220 another casino. That's all that is. Versus I want to learn how to play cards.  and manage my risk. Not bet too big. And just be steady Eddie at the table. You
255 00:45:02,220 --> 00:45:08,790 want to be the generating source of the signals? don't subscribe to someone else because you have no idea what got them in the trade. You don't know what
256 00:45:08,790 --> 00:45:20,190 influences are being imposed on them. Maybe they had a bad day. Maybe they had just recently had a spat with their spouse. And they feel like they have to feel
257 00:45:20,190 --> 00:45:31,830 good empowered me. I'm gonna go out there and just tell everybody to buy SMP tomorrow at the open. And if I'm right, I'll feel good. I'll feel better about
258 00:45:31,830 --> 00:45:44,100 this whole thing. Because they're human too. Do you want to be subscribing to someone that's like that. You don't know if that's what's going on? They're not
259 00:45:44,100 --> 00:45:52,170 going to come out and say, yeah, it's trade worked out. But let me tell you what really was going on. My wife told me I was a bomb. I spent too much time on
260 00:45:52,170 --> 00:46:02,910 these charts. And I didn't spend any time with the kids. And I walked the dog in six months. But I knew if I got this right, I'd feel stronger about myself. That
261 00:46:02,910 --> 00:46:12,450 never happens, folks, that never happens. Never subscribed to other people's alerts. Don't count other people's money. That's what's popular right? Now
262 00:46:12,450 --> 00:46:20,010 everyone wants to know how much money someone else has Instagram? What cars did he drive? What houses did they live in? Where are they having their vacation?
263 00:46:20,040 --> 00:46:31,590 What did he wear? What kind of shoes they have on? Did he wear socks? What kind of underwear do they have? What jewelry do they have? Come on. All that stuff is
264 00:46:31,590 --> 00:46:41,160 a waste. It's a waste, to waste your time, it's a waste of money. And you don't need all those things. If you're trading to do that, you're never going to get
265 00:46:41,160 --> 00:46:52,290 there. And I'm gonna repeat that. If you are trading to live like that. You're never going to get there. Because you're looking at money. And you're not
266 00:46:52,290 --> 00:47:01,320 looking at the process that's involved, that would eventually lead to profitability. So you're chasing that carrot, that little piece of candy that's
267 00:47:01,320 --> 00:47:10,350 dangled in front of a child, you may be a stranger. But if you dangle that candy in front of a child, what's the child gonna do? Reach out for that candy? And
268 00:47:10,350 --> 00:47:23,010 that's what all these people do. They dangle all this lavish toys and lifestyle, materialism. All of that is fluff. I've never done those types of things. And
269 00:47:23,010 --> 00:47:31,800 it's important to understand that the reason why I don't do it, it's not because of a lack of it. Because I have all those things. But it doesn't do anything to
270 00:47:31,800 --> 00:47:39,630 make you a better trader doesn't make you a better student. It will not in any capacity, motivate you. And then
271 00:47:39,660 --> 00:47:49,470 that translates into a greater skill set that's derived because you saw that it doesn't work like that. But how many people fall victim to that? Everyone,
272 00:47:50,310 --> 00:48:00,150 everyone, the first course I bought from Ken Roberts, that's all he talked about. You want to go on vacations, you want to have enough money to quit your
273 00:48:00,150 --> 00:48:11,010 job. You want to buy a yacht, you want to live in a mansion. That's what was sold to me. And I bought that course, in a month one trade the very first trade
274 00:48:11,010 --> 00:48:21,990 I lost 50% of what I put in? Well, I can tell you that was never said in the book that didn't get talked about at all. It just said, well, you can take some
275 00:48:21,990 --> 00:48:35,220 losses, but you don't want your losses to be too big. Okay. But what happens if it is because options are a little bit different animal. And I found out the
276 00:48:35,220 --> 00:48:45,750 hard way. Don't be enticed by other people's money. Don't count other people's money. Don't ask them what they make. Because you can't spend their money.
277 00:48:46,890 --> 00:48:55,410 That's why I don't talk about what I'm making. That's why I don't talk about what I have. That's why I don't show you what I own. Because you can't drive my
278 00:48:55,410 --> 00:49:04,140 cars. You're not going to spend a night at my house, you're not going to eat dinner, all my dishes. And you're not going to be on my vacations. So what
279 00:49:04,140 --> 00:49:12,300 difference does it make? It's not going to make me feel better about myself for doing it. In fact, I'll feel like a slime ball like I did when I was younger.
280 00:49:12,570 --> 00:49:23,610 Because I did that stuff to get people interested in me. It's not necessary.  Don't feel insignificant by contrast, when you see other people succeeding or
281 00:49:23,820 --> 00:49:37,200 supposedly succeeding, don't measure yourself against that. Because if you do, what you're saying is I'm only successful if I get to where they're at. I did
282 00:49:37,200 --> 00:49:50,850 that. And when I stopped and said, You know what? I'm going to look at a goal.  That's above everyone I've seen out there. I didn't I didn't believe anyone else
283 00:49:50,850 --> 00:50:00,870 was more successful than Larry Williams. And he took 10,000 hours or $1.2 million in one year. Actually, it was over $2 million that same year. 1987 but
284 00:50:00,870 --> 00:50:09,420 the crash Hardman had to trade it back and got it to 1.2 before the close of the Robins World Cup, that particular year, and you can see he still has the highest
285 00:50:09,780 --> 00:50:22,350 percentage gain in that contest. So I said, I'm gonna make more than that.  Because that's what that was my measuring stick. And I wanted to do better than
286 00:50:22,350 --> 00:50:35,130 that. And I always live my life. With that in mind, I didn't want to say, What am I good is at the time, Jake Bernstein which he got himself in a lot of
287 00:50:35,130 --> 00:50:47,280 trouble. And it's questionable of how much money he actually made as a trader.  point is I fell victim to that in the beginning. And you don't want to do that.
288 00:50:47,280 --> 00:50:54,000 Don't measure yourself against someone else. don't measure yourself against me, don't measure yourself against somebody else you see on social media, Instagram,
289 00:50:54,000 --> 00:51:06,240 all that these people 99% of time are fake. They are driving cars they don't own. And they're in homes that they don't sleep in. And the clothes that they
290 00:51:06,240 --> 00:51:17,490 have, many times, they're taking them back the next day. So what's the deal in watches, they're all basically fake. All that stuff is lower to make you think
291 00:51:17,490 --> 00:51:26,700 they're successful. If they're successful, they'll prove it by showing you. They know what's going to happen in the marketplace. But strangely enough, that's the
292 00:51:26,700 --> 00:51:39,900 thing they don't ever do. And that's what I focus on. I've made a reputation on telling you what I believe is the best in terms of market analysis concepts. In
293 00:51:39,900 --> 00:51:50,130 1996, I pinned what everybody else is out there now touting as market maker concepts in one capacity or another. It's a watered down version of what I put
294 00:51:50,130 --> 00:52:03,810 in lecture notes in 1996. What I started using in 1995, improved was real money.  I started teaching one on one sessions. And they have made their way through the
295 00:52:03,810 --> 00:52:13,110 internet over time. And now we see even more that people have books about it.  They've made courses about it, and then even included some of the things that
296 00:52:13,110 --> 00:52:21,870 actually occurred in my personal life, and some of their narratives. And it's all a lie. They didn't have those experiences, but I did. And I'm the only one
297 00:52:21,870 --> 00:52:31,740 that can prove that makes this stuff work. Don't feel insignificant by contrast, because majority of the people you see out there, they're fakes. They're frauds,
298 00:52:31,740 --> 00:52:33,360 and they aren't what they claim to be.
299 00:52:38,910 --> 00:52:46,050 match your style to your personality. This is something I picked up from Larry Williams, who made a lot of sense, and I avoided doing it for a long time, I
300 00:52:46,050 --> 00:52:55,560 wish I would have done it sooner. But if you're a scalper, okay, you're going to do very well if you make quick decisions. And that's as simple as that. If you
301 00:52:55,620 --> 00:53:07,170 hem and haw about trying to make a decision and you want to be a scalper or a day trader, it's going to be a problem. And if you short term trade, typically
302 00:53:07,170 --> 00:53:15,060 you're the type of person that can take a trade and sleep while you're in it.  That that is a real good general rule of thumb. If you can sleep while you're in
303 00:53:15,060 --> 00:53:24,930 a trade, then you're probably a good short term trader. Don't force yourself into any mold. There's gurus, there's mentors, there's people out there to
304 00:53:24,930 --> 00:53:36,240 educate. And unfortunately, they try to take everyone and press them into this mold, this cookie cutter approach and it doesn't work. Avoid doing that. Don't
305 00:53:36,240 --> 00:53:50,100 try to copy someone, their style, their image, their forte, their approach their vocabulary, you see where I'm going with this don't. So many people out there on
306 00:53:50,100 --> 00:54:05,340 YouTube now sound a lot like ICT. Don't try to copy someone, be original, make your own unique model. Don't change trading approaches. stick to one approach,
307 00:54:06,420 --> 00:54:19,110 one method mastered and then see how you work with it. That means you're gonna have to spend some time with it. Most people don't want to do that. Avoid system
308 00:54:19,110 --> 00:54:26,850 hopping, okay. And the trap is if you take a trade and it loses, okay, that's reasonable. But if you take another train, you lose that's it. I'm throwing this
309 00:54:26,850 --> 00:54:34,260 away. This is stupid, this, this method doesn't work. I did that a lot. And I went through all kinds of trading systems. And that's the reason why I went
310 00:54:34,260 --> 00:54:42,840 through all kinds of trading accounts, because I wasn't consistent with anything except for system hopping. That was my only consistency. The baseline and my
311 00:54:42,840 --> 00:54:55,290 consistency was all around me not being consistent with one trading approach.  Many traders fail. Every model loses. You're gonna have to accept that I
312 00:54:55,290 --> 00:55:02,040 mentioned it earlier with the risk. You can't avoid it. It's part of the business. Treat it like a no Normal transaction when you go to work, if you get
313 00:55:02,040 --> 00:55:10,260 sick, you miss a day's work. That's a loss. Did you lose your job? No. Did you lose your house? No. Did you have a little less money that week? Yeah, that's
314 00:55:10,290 --> 00:55:20,850 life. Well, that's how trading works. losses are inevitable, you're going to have them. Find your unique model and grow from it. Don't tweak it too much,
315 00:55:20,850 --> 00:55:29,580 once it's profitable, stick with it. And then what you'll find is, by using a more advanced money management approach, if you have a method that gives you a
316 00:55:29,580 --> 00:55:38,130 delivered result that's measurable, and it's consistent enough that it does it more times than it doesn't. If you add impeccable risk management and money
317 00:55:38,130 --> 00:55:46,680 management to that, you will become wealthy. And this story, there's no ifs, ands, or buts, that's the way it is. But you cannot get to that point until you
318 00:55:46,680 --> 00:56:00,570 go through all these other steps that are very, very boring, admittedly, but they're all part of the process. settle on one trade set up initially. Determine
319 00:56:00,570 --> 00:56:11,400 your asset class, pick one market asset class, it's a commodity. It's an index future. It's a forex pair. It's a cryptocurrency. It's a stock, whatever it is,
320 00:56:12,000 --> 00:56:21,630 stick to that one asset class. And inside that one asset class, pick one market.  Outline when you want to buy, that means what's the criteria that you feel
321 00:56:21,630 --> 00:56:30,300 comfortable with when it's a buy, and then outline that and make it as detailed as possible, put it on paper. And the same thing with when you want to go short?
322 00:56:30,720 --> 00:56:43,410 What's the characteristics and circumstances that would drive you to believing it's a short and with that, you want to build many study journal cases, none. As
323 00:56:43,410 --> 00:56:52,050 I said, not live trades with real money. You want to have a study journal that has a plethora of examples of where this worked in the past and when it didn't,
324 00:56:52,620 --> 00:57:01,740 and study them in great lengths. So that way you get familiar with what it looks like by recognition. And then when you see live price action, you'll recognize
325 00:57:01,740 --> 00:57:16,560 it as it forms. Now, with all those things, you have something to start with.  And now you can plan your beginning. In part two, I promise I won't be so long
326 00:57:16,560 --> 00:57:26,370 winded and boring. We're actually gonna give some insights on how you can go into the marketplace and study a very particular thing. And what that is, is the
327 00:57:26,370 --> 00:57:29,760 optimal trade entry. And I'll talk to you then I wish good luck and good trading.