The Stock Trading Reality Podcast

I want to talk about a topic that applies to all of us in one way or another. I recently had a conversation who made the argument that everyone should be paid a livable wage. I know this is not some new thought or a talking point which has not been discussed in the headlines before; however, I did want to bring another view to it that I believe many are missing in their analysis. If you ever come across someone who wants a living wage to be paid (or perhaps you already feel this way), I want to offer up a few other angles to consider. I respect everyone’s point of view and can appreciate where everyone is coming from, but if a topic is going to be addressed in the most efficient way possible, we need to ensure we’re approaching it as accurately as possible. Let’s get to it!

Yes, life is tough. It’s correct, the world is not fair. Some people start off with more of a head start than others. You can’t refute these things, they’re fact. With all that being said, there is a powerful question you can ask and it’ll get you pointed in the right direction. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. Finding the direction you should be headed in and then going with it. What is this question and what makes it so powerful? Let’s discuss it. I don’t want to overcomplicate anything but hopefully get you thinking in a way that’ll drive maximum efficiency.

If you overlook this particular dynamic in trading and investing, you’re going to experience failure. There’s a couple of reasons for this and neither of them in the big picture is going to work out well. With that being said, this is where the irony of the problem arises because it develops from a “big picture” horizon of time. This is also where additional irony comes into play because as traders and investors we need to be patient and allow consistency to add up over larger horizons of time. This all sounds fine and dandy (and it is in theory), but in reality, these things will work against you and cause pain. Let’s make sure you are well aware of this thought process so you are not caught off guard.

I recently released a video with what I thought was a good argument for the logic some people choose to use in their learning journey. I was confronted with two rather lengthy comments (from the same person) objecting to my claims. I wanted to address these as I believe it makes an interesting conversation and, hopefully, can open the eyes of people who ascribe to the line of reasoning displayed on this individuals’ part. I also believe that many of the problems in life can be solved by learning how to converse with one another and not throw logical fallacies into one another’s face. We have a bit of that here so I’d like to try and point them out so we can all learn together on how to conduct the most efficient conversations possible. There are some doubters out there, so let’s address their objections and try to clarify everyone’s perspective.

It’s nothing that has not been said here before, but trading is very difficult. One of the biggest reasons is because of all the gray territory that exists within the world of learning and improving. Much of it has to do with the way the mind works and how we process and store the information. There is a concept in psychology known as dogmatism which, when left unchecked, can truly set you up for failure and headaches. If you’re anything like me, you’ve heard this term before but never really know much of what it means. Upon studying it more though, it creates a threat that we all need to be aware of. Not only when it comes to the world of trading, but to the general way of life. The problem is, there is also a fine line within trading when it comes to this as you don’t want to pull yourself in too many directions. Let’s talk about this more and make sure we are on guard and aware of these potential pitfalls.

I’ve started to get more aggressive in my current trading with SPX options and it’s happened…I’ve been told I’m a dead man walking! I’m told it’s only a matter of time before the market owns me! Here’s the thing though, this person was right and I “got owned” in a single losing trade that erased, literally, nine days worth of gains! Yet, I’m still nicely green on the month! Huh??? This opens up a great discussion on how trading strategies can work and how you can wisely go about developing a strategy to suit your needs. I’m not the greatest trader on the planet; however, I have been trading for almost two decades so I’m done enough dumb things that I now know to avoid. Let me walk you through this accusation of being a dead man walking and how it’s accurate to an extent, but overall, not really.

The goal for us all is the same: gains. The problems for the vast majority of people can be traced back to the time component of these gains. When you are told “slow and steady”, many people scream back, “No! Get rich… now!”. I understand the allure of this. We want to have freedom and do fun things right away. Factor in being ambitious and the picture becomes that much more gray.; My guest, Morris, is a great guy who has done very well for himself in New York City. He’s grown in his career to become the Chief Financial Officer of a company and is striving to leave a legacy for his family. Morris has dipped his toes in a whole variety of strategies from investing to day trading to swing trading. He’s experienced the ups and downs the market offers and has come away with many valid learning lessons… all of which he shares with you! Let’s get to it!

Do emotions affect your trading results at all? Assuming you are a human being and honest with yourself, your answer is “yes!”. For veteran traders in the market, you know this to be true and there are a variety of ways you can tackle this problem. For some people, removing themselves from their trading completely has fantastic results. In this episode, I welcome back long time member Joe (”JoeK” chatroom alias). He has experience in both the world of day trading and, now, swing trading. Due to his job and career ambitions (which is always awesome!), he needed to adjust his trading style. How did he make this transition from day trading into swing trading? How does he find his trades and manage them? We get into that and a whole lot more. If you are someone with a job that keeps you busy but you still want to keep trading alive and well within your wealth building plans, Joe is someone who can offer you some wisdom for sure. Let’s get to it!

I recently stumbled across an article which talked about a special three word phrase. This phrase comes from a public speaking expert from Stanford. I’m well aware that just because an “expert” from a highly regarded institute such as Stanford does not make it true; however, when I think about it and apply to trading, I believe it is 100% accurate! What makes this phrase so special? I would argue the phrase is not only special, but magical for we as traders. I’ve been working with beginner traders and those who are struggling for over a decade now. While this does not make me an expert, it has given me many data points to compare this Stanford expert’s claims against. This is a very simple phrase yet it can truly rewire your brain in beneficial ways to trading. Let’s talk about it and, as always, you are more than welcome to disagree!

Driving to your local brokerage in order to set up an account and place an order. This order to purchase a stock cost you $80 in commissions. How crazy would that be? It sounds like something form a horror movie, doesn’t it? My guest this episode, Darrel, started out in this kind of environment. It makes my head hurt just how barbaric the markets uses to be and just how much I take for granted on a daily basis. Darrel’s journey started in the 1990’s and when you have that kind of experience, you’ll have plenty of stories to share along the way. Darrel did not hesitate to shares the downs (the “ups” are easy to share) and there are some great learning lessons within them. As always, for those of you willing to listen and genuinely consider the points he makes, I can say with full confidence there is great value in them. There are some areas where I lose credibility (as you’ll see); however, this is someone else preaching the same thing I do. Let’s get to it!

As has become my policy, if you are someone who is constantly looking for excuses on why you can’t do something or your main arguments revolve around “the system” being rigged against you, avoid this episode! Community member, Jean, moved to the USA from the Dominican Republic and has been in beast mode. He is a perfect example of they type of person I seek to surround myself with. The way he approaches the world and life is that of pure inspiration and motivation. While we certainly do talk trading, we also talk about several other topics that, indirectly, still do relate to trading. The main topics revolving around the idea that you need capital to trade, so how can you get capital? What kind of attitude is required to find yourself and grow the amount of money you have top trade with? Jean will make you feel guilty (as he did me) in regards to how much you and I take for granted being in the USA. Let’s go!

Imagine being entrusted with a piece of equipment that costs 10’s of millions of dollars to design and construct. You don’t entrust these sorts of things to just “any random person”. You would need to ensure this is an above board person who approaches life in a structured way. My guest this episode, Scott, is exactly that.. an airline piolet who has been entrusted with some very large pieces of equipment known as planes! How does someone of this caliber translate into the world of trading? What kind of mindset and approach do they have? Checklists! That’s one word that stands out to me about this discussion. If you’re going to fly a plane, you need checklists. If you’re going to put your hard earned money on the line, you need checklists! We talk about way more than just checklists, but this is an enjoyable conversation that is filled with an unique perspective that not many of us have. Let’s go!

Well… just when you think you’ve heard all the different approaches and attitudes about trading, you find something new! In this episode I talk Angele who looks through the trading lens in a very self ware way. She’s a younger woman who is very smart. How smart? She majored in physics! With that being said, just because you are smart does not mean trading is easy. Angele is well aware of this and is placing a huge amount of emphasis on her “energy”. She explains it very eloquently within our discussion and is very polite in humoring me with my, probably stupid, questions! I appreciated her viewpoint and can always respect the various ways people approach trading to “do what needs to be done” to get themselves under control to find consistency. Emotions play a massive role in trading and even more-so than the technical charts or anything else, Angele is all about focusing on emotions. Let’s get to it!

My data collecting has continued and now I’m to the point where I’m over 200 trades of what I call the Sniper Shot Strategy. At some point you need to draw the line and declare “this is enough data”, and that’s what I’m doing. I respect if you don’t think over 200 trades is “enough”, but I’d hope we can at least find a middle ground that is it no small number of trades either. While I’m not here to proclaim I have found a golden goose holy grail trading system, I do want to share with you the data I’ve collected. Unfortunately though, there was a train wreck that occurred near the end of the data collection. It was actually very disheartening and it caused me to stop looking at the data for a week (which is how I ended up with 207 trades instead of 200). Finally, I want to once again address the notion that “day trading is a coin flip and total gambling”. This is a topic I’ve covered a million times, but it’s one that can not be addressed enough because it’s a constant false narrative you see. Let’s jump into the data and see what we can learn about The Sniper Shot Strategy.

What would it be like for an investigative journalist to get into trading? We’re about to find out. My guest, Rosemary, is a retired investigative journalist and someone who has dedicated her life to the craft of finding the truth and researching a topic from all angles. She now finds herself in a the foreign world of day trading where, if you’re not careful, being eaten by “being overwhelmed” is a very real thing! She is definitely one of the more intelligent people I’ve conversed with, and it was a true pleasure! I loved her humility and ability to set aside her proudness and ego and simply discuss her journey: both the good and bad. I will say, although not perfect (but no one is), she made some very wise choices along the way which saved her from some potential massive headaches. Rosemary and I go down several rabbit holes that keep the conversation diverse and exciting. Let’s get to it and hear about our investigative journalist’s journey!

Have you been there before? Maybe you are in the spot right this very moment? “I can learn how to trade all on my own, why pay when it’s all on the internet and in books?”. It’s a fair objection and a more than reasonable thought process on your part. In fact, I would go as far as to say you would be somewhat irrational to think any other way. I mean let’s be fair, the internet is filled with information and a whole lot of free stuff! How does this translate into the real world of trading though? This will be an underlying theme through the course of this discussion. I’m obviously biased given I do sell trading education; however, I do my best to remain totally neutral and let our guest, Cory (”ckrager” chatroom alias) speak for himself. Like all of us who are honest, Cory has done several foolish things in his journey and he is totally open and transparent about it. I always enjoy the stories of stupidity as it makes me feel a whole lot better about myself to know I”m not alone! These are oftentimes the best learning lessons too. Let’s learn about what Cory has learned from his trading journey so far!

If you’re looking for an episode where the guest has done a whole lot of, wrong, things, look no further! These are the discussions which I believe help the most people. Don’t get me wrong, hearing from someone who is super successful certainly brings with it motivation and inspiration to keep on fighting; however, that can also be hard to relate to. We’ve all done dumb things in our trading and have ongoing struggles. When you hear about someone else’s dumb decisions and struggles, it reassures us that we’re not alone. That’s what we have with fellow community member, Brian (”BrianSchmelzle” in chatroom). Thanks to Brian being so transparent and honest, we have an invaluable lesson how just how important being patient is. When you are not patient, it’s a domino that gets pushed over which causes everything else to spin out of control. Brian gives one of the most confusing answers I’ve ever heard, but in doing so it totally makes sense as it proves the point of the power of patience. Let’s get into it!

It’s never too soon to start crushing it in life! In our culture today, there seems to be a narrative that younger people are at a massive disadvantage and have no hope. While I fully agree and understand that it’s tough being young (we were all once at that point), to go along with the general narrative is false. My guest, Jackson, is one of several data points I’ve collected over the years disproving this narrative. Jackson is working hard and making some great decisions that will be giving him an edge within the long run. Jackson first got into stocks back in high school; however, his focus and devotion has really kicked up a notch now that he’s out of high school. He’s been finding some solid success in the future’s market, but, as he admits, he’s taking it slow as he understands the dangers of getting overconfident. For you younger people who listen, know this: Jackson is the type of person you want to make friends with. You’re often the result of who you choose to hang around with, and Jackson is the type of person who will make you better! Let’s get into it and learn more about Jackson!

After 16 years, I’m making a change! Is it some kind of earth shattering change? To me it is, haha, but to you it might be a bit anti-climatic. With that being said, I still think there is a lesson to be learned no matter where you are currently residing in your trading journey. I’ve been a trader for almost 20 years now and I’m constantly learning new things about myself, with this episode pointing out a new thing I’ve learned. I’m a firm believer in being a coachable person and I can admit I’m not always perfect at it. I sometimes get stuck in my ways and don’t care to acknowledge the realities staring me right in the face. On the very practical side of trading, this episode could be a pretty ground breaking piece of information, particularly from the “cost of running your trading business” side of things. Let’s dig into this big change I’m making, why I’m making it, and how it just simply makes sense.

I welcome back a great friend of the show and community, Michelle. This is her third appearance, including episode 400 which has been one of our most popular. In this discussion we go down some fun rabbit holes that turn out to be very fruitful. One of those holes in regards to “being calm” and the importance of doing whatever needs to be done to “find the calm” is something ALL traders better be aware of, and doing. We then spend a good amount of time talking about prop trading firms. I will be the first to admit I am quite skeptical of them; however, over the past few months have lowered my guard. Why? Because people like Michelle (who I trust) and others have been digging deeper into them and in some senses, serving as lab rats. As of now, they’re all still alive so I wanted to learn amore about this and hopefully learn alongside all of you as listeners. As always with Michelle, you’re in for a treat, so buckle up and let’s go!