The Stock Trading Reality Podcast

There is a common theme among our community that follows the mind-set that "there are no excuses". I'm happy to report that we, once again, have another data point that proves this mindset is not unrealistic or impossible to put into action in real life. Our guest, Mike, was on a very... very... nice path, but then some "life evens" happened that set him back a bit. Speaking for myself, I was inspired by Mike's story and how he never threw a pity party for himself, but adapted the attitude of "get-er-done" and started chipping away. There is little question in my mind on whether or not you'll find any motivation in this interview... I'm confident you will! Notes: Mike’s introduction to the market was in highschool when he would follow the quotes in the newspaper. During college, Mike always had a huge interest in historical figures especially in the realm of finance. While he maintained an interest in the market, he actually passed up a job to work for a very large broker. Knowing one of the higher ups there, he saw how awful he was to his employees and decided that wasn’t an environment he wanted to be subjected to. Once Mike had some capital to put into the market, he went the way of value investing. These were all very long, multi month-year holds. He did quite well investing this way and admits he may have stumbled into some fool's gold but an unfortunate divorce wiped away his worth and actually left him in quite a bit of debt. After working hard for many years, Mike has cleared all the debt and problems in his life and has now been working toward rebuilding his trading account. He has been focusing on options so he can trade larger names with much less capital outlay (utilizing technical analysis). He will continue to focus on names and industries that he knows well blending in his older investment style criteria. Quotes: “If Vanderbilt had enemies he wanted to do away with, he would manipulate his stocks to drive his competition bankrupt.” “I got interested in value investing. I’m the kind of person that does a ton of research on anything I’m interested in.” “I only invested in businesses that I understand. I really didn’t understand technology so I didn’t own any of them.” “Investing is like watching paint dry. I thought trading would be a good way to accumulate funds for investing.” “I’ll give you two words to sum up successful trading. Impulse control.”

For you long time listeners of the show, Shawn is well known "as that lady who took $250 and turned it into over $10,000". If you are a member of the private chat room community, then I'm sure you've seen Shawn or perhaps even interacted with her. Well, she's back for another interview so that Chezz and I can check in with her and see how things have been going. What I loved is that despite her continued success trading, she has a few "other things" going on in her grand plan that make trading a bit more mentally easy. On top of that, she is a master at staying in tune with her emotions which is vital for us as traders. All sorts of good stuff and we're excited to bring it to you! Notes: In this week's episode, we revisit with Shawn who we interviewed this previous year. After a brief recap of her journey up to this point, we dive into her more recent trading endeavors. She stresses the importance of practice and how it was instrumental in helping her turn her trading around. After going through how she grew her watchlist from 2 tickers to a handful, Shawn tells us the process she used to learn how to spot what tickers work better for her with options or straight up stock. When she started trading, Shawn focused on small monetary goals that would lead her to earn more than the bank could offer. Since then, she has learned how to let her runners run to their logical conclusion and extract more profit out of trades that go in her favor. Shawn believes it is crucial to be in tune with yourself if you are trading the market. She recommends writing down the emotions you are feeling whether good or bad and taking a hard look at how to resolve them or make sure they don’t interfere with trading. Members of the community chime in some questions for Shawn. This includes what time frames she uses, and some various ways she chooses her trades which includes the importance of liquidity. Quotes: “You get a million dollars on paper money and I thought ‘alright, I’m going to trade.’ I thought this would be simple.” “SPY and AAPL were the two that I got the feel for. I didn’t really pay attention to other names.” “If you’re not on your game, don’t press that buy button. That’s bad practice.” “It’s 3 things to me. Being in tune with yourself, risk versus rewards and stops. If you’re wrong, get out.” “You gave me the tools, I put the work in. I was very excited to personally thank you.” Links: https://claytrader.com/podcast/episode057/ https://claytrader.com/podcast/episode058/

One of the coolest things about hosting the podcast is hearing the career fields people are in. I'm not sure we've ever had one as interesting as our guest, Justin, (alias in chat room "JustinT") who works alongside traders where he tells them what to buy/sell. Because of this interesting career field, Justin has quite the unique path in regards to learning the markets and how to trade them. It is intriguing to see where he has been, where he is now, and where he is headed. Justin offers no excuses and is in full blown "ax-to-the-grindstone" mode. Notes: When Justin was in college, it was the middle of the dot.com boom and he perceived this as an opportunity. Considering he was into technology, he was there for the beginning of the online brokerage industry. After coming into some money, Justin opened his first brokerage account. Initially, Justin lost some money right from the get go and decided to put his money into IRA’s and let them grow for 15 years. After going through a few different jobs during the 08-09 recession, Justin got a job in the natural gas industry as a scheduler and works with traders daily. After scouring StockTwits and trying to find good traders to learn from, Justin ultimately went on to find trading specific podcasts which led him here. After 20 episodes, he decided that he would investigate Claytrader further to see if it would be worth it for him to invest in his education. Justin has always been very open with his wife about his endeavors in trading and they jointly agreed that it would be beneficial for him to invest in his education since he is serious about using trading as a form of supplemental income. Not only does he have a paper trading plan and a time frame, he has a plan on how he will proceed further with live trading. He treats this as a business and that is how you get ahead. Quotes: “There were IPOs all the time and I heard about how they would skyrocket after they hit the market.” “I’m the logistics guy and the traders are the traders but I get to tell them how much they can sell everyday.” “I knew it was possible but I was missing something. I tried to piggyback on some traders from StockTwits.” “I’ll start out small and trade equities for a while. Just to utilize the technical analysis I’ve been taught.” “Be patient. Relax. The market will always be there. I’m just going to keep practicing because it pays off.”

This episode holds a special place in my heart as our guest, Louis, from the chatroom was quite the customer service challenge. He was about as hard headed as it got when it came to him actually deciding to come aboard, but I'm glad he did. He's one of those traders who even after making a boatload of money, was still aware enough to know that he need to tap the brakes a bit. He started off guns-a-blazin' and rolling in the dough, but where did that lead him? Well come along for an enjoyable discussion about the bumpy road we call trading. Notes: Louis’s introduction to the market started as a child. He would farm crawfish and he wanted to know why the prices would change all the time. He was witnessing supply and demand at it’s truest form. While Louis was stationed in Iraq, he saw someone on base looking at charts and struck up a conversation with him. Since Louis was always outside of the base, he was unable to really trade similar to this guy but he decided that once he got back stateside he would start to learn how to trade in the market. He joined a buy and sell alert service and his first and only trade was to go long gold (as a hedge against the ‘end of the world’). He put his whole account into this trade and then left it for 6 months. This resulted in him just about doubling his 100k account. Louis heeded the advice of a co worker who warned him that he could just as easily lose all that money he recently made. This led him to start investigating how to further his education. After utilizing as much free education as he could find, he realized that it wasn’t the whole picture so he eventually joined Claytrader University. Recognizing that he shouldn’t risk all the profits he came into, he stopped trading and spent time going through the training. He was also paper trading while going through the courses. This has led Louis to become a completely methodical trader who has a process for spotting entries, managing risk and determining logical places to take profits. Quotes: “The price always changed. That’s what really got me interested in the market. I wanted to know why they changed.” “Well I just forgot about it. I treated it like the Fidelity account. Six months later that trade made me 90,000 dollars.” “I’m cheap by nature so I didn’t want to splurge on the courses. I got to the point where the free stuff stopped working.” “I only put 4 grand in there and wanted to see what I could do with a small account. I saved that money from shoeing horses.” “I experienced a big gap down and my stop loss got hit. My co workers are still hanging on to it and hoping it recovers.”

Every single Monday for 100 weeks straight, we've put out a brand new episode... I would be a total liar if I said I thought that would happen when Chezz and I first began our podcast journey. Sure, I planned it would have success, but literally 100 weeks straight of new episodes? No way! With that being said, thank you to YOU, our listeners, for providing enough interest to keep the show going. In this special episode we bring back a couple of guests who are well known among the community and absolutely killing it with their trading. We all just sit back, shoot the breeze, and let the conversation take us down rabbit holes and whatever topics we want. Thanks again to all you listeners and we look forward to another 100 episodes! Notes: In this special episode we have two staple community members on with us, Shawn and h00ch. This podcast will be much more off the cuff than our usual structure since we have interviews with both the guests already. A common problem we encounter here is that people want to quickly double their money. During the discussion, it becomes very clear that there is no ‘one size fits all’ and while some people fall into quick riches, that fools gold is generally quickly lost. Learning to trade is a journey and becoming consistent is part of that journey. We have a good discussion regarding penny stocks versus options. Both Shawn and h00ch have transitioned from penny stocks to options for the various benefits that are discussed. It makes a strong case on why you may want to consider trading options instead of penny stocks. Going back down memory lane, we each list our favorite moments from the past 99 episodes. We get quite a diverse set of answers from everyone and we look forward to 100 more podcasts! Quotes: “This is not a ‘get rich quick scheme.’ You have to be smart. There are bigger dogs out there not afraid to take your money.” “You press the buy and sell button. Nobody else is pushing that button for you. You are completely responsible for what happens.” “If you want that kind of fun you’re better off going to Niagara Falls to hit the casino.” “They think penny stocks are their only hope for a small account. Don’t think it’s either penny stocks or bigger stocks.” “I originally got a part time job to take the pressure off myself so that my needs would be met in order for me to not force a trade.”

If you're newer to the markets and your plan of action is "learning as I go", then all I ask is that you please listen to our guest, Mike ('HeyFordy' alias in chat room), who took the same path. What I like about Mike is that he's from the Northeast, so he's got that accent and has no problem being blunt and telling you like it is. He doesn't hold back any punches and speaks his mind, for better or worse. Mike is an amateur boxer, so his views on mindset and psychology are fascinating. Whether you are new or an experienced trader, I'm willing to bet there will be at least something that stands out to you and assists you in your personal trading. Notes: Mike’s introduction to the market was his buddy who was trading with his free Robinhood account. He funded his account and just dove straight into it. Mike was just puppet trading his friend who gave him some ‘picks.’ Unfortunately, Mike ended up becoming a bag holder and maintained his losing position for a few months. He went on a search for a good group of traders that he could follow. Mike grew his small account by the thousands with sheer blind luck but eventually that luck ran out. After getting stuck in a trade that he was unable to sell, he started to wise up and realize that he needed to learn how to spot his own entries and determine his exits. Mike went on to search for as much free information as he could find but struggled with it since it had absolutely no structure. After this he went on to try some subscription services that offered hot picks. He quickly found out that this didn’t work either. He joined the Claytrader community shortly after this and eventually went on to take the first course, Robotic Trading. Mike said that this was a big eye opener and he know wanted to learn even more. He now started to understand WHY he should be buying and WHY he should be selling. This led him to take a few other courses since he recognized that education for the market is a continuous process. Mike is now truly enjoying the freedom that comes with education in the form of not needing anyone to give him ‘hot picks’ or steer him into various tickers. He has developed his own strategy, applies solid risk management and executes trades that he has personally planned. This is the true path to long term consistent success. Quotes: “I downloaded it, funded the account and dove in. I didn’t have any education or anything. I wanted to do the ‘learn as you go.’ “ "I grew a small account by the thousands very quickly just off of luck. I thought I had everything figured out.” “His DVD was like panhandling for gold. You had to go through a ton of dirt just to get a small speck of gold. It was ridiculous.” “Robotic Trading was eye opening. A lot of the uncertainty went out the window and I started seeing things in a logical way.” “I like swing trading a lot better. I like to manage them over a bit of an extended time.”

The financial services industry. One that has more than likely touched all of us in one way or another. For many people, the "touch" comes from the fact they sit down with a "financial adviser" for advise them on how to grow their money. But is their advice really in your best interest? We talk with chat room member, Danny, who has experience in this industry... and yeah, I'll just say he holds nothing back from how it all 'actually' works. We definitely talk trading too (and his journey is just as interesting as what he shares about financial advisers), but I think this interview will be a big warning to many. Notes: Danny is actually a financial planner by trade so it is safe to assume he has had an interest in the market for quite a long time. After working his way through the ranks of the bank, he eventually came to the realization that he could achieve better returns than many of these mutual funds or other products from the bank that all came with attached fees. Danny had befriended someone while traveling who apparently followed someone elses stock picks and was using his profits to travel the world. Instead of following in his friend's footsteps, he decided he wanted to learn how to trade himself so that he could be fully self reliant. Danny also knew that he would need to invest in his education if he wanted to really learn. After going through training elsewhere, Danny did not like how the teachers pushed one strategy on the students. He knew that there had to be multiple ways to view and trade the market. However, Danny now knew just enough of the basics to be dangerous so he jumped in headfirst with his 14k account. After some fast losses, that is when he found Claytrader. Danny learned how to read charts and manage risk and then took his training into the Forex market. He liked that he could trade at different hours of the day and that the market is 24 hours, so it has no closing and opening gaps. He is now paper trading and solidifying his strategy and risk management. He plans on practicing for a full year before re-entering the market with his hard earned money. Quotes: “When you work in the bank, you understand how much advisors do not know anything about the market.” “I didn’t want to be a follower. I’m the kind of guy that when I do something, I want to know everything about it.” “I got the basics. I know how to trade. I said, ‘lets go!’ I didn’t know anything about risk vs. reward.” “I’m into forex because it’s a 24 hour market. I can get home from work and still trade. I know there will be no gaps.”

Talk about a crazy start to your journey. You get a mentor and then all of a sudden he's in JAIL! Uh... yikes! Talk about a great way to become jaded towards the trading markets - and understandably so! This is exactly what happened to our fellow member from the community, Chris, as he began his journey over 18 years ago. With such an "odd" event kicking off his journey, how did he deal with it and what path did he end up on? He's been through a lot, and with that comes lots of experiencetial wisdom which he shares with us. There is something, no matter how long you've been trading, that everyone can take away from Chris' journey. Notes: Chris had a buddy who was trading stock options and this piqued his interest. This was back in 1999 and interestingly enough, the person he was studying under ended up going to prison for his shady business practices and tax avoidance. Chris still applied what was taught and was now trading directional options. Chris would focus on tech companies that he knew of. Unfortunately, he dwindled his account down to zero and had to figure out where to go from here. He recognized that options have the power to change your life with powerful gains but at the same time, the magnitude of profits can also translate into losses. After hearing about penny stocks, Chris got into the pot stock boom. To his own misfortune, he entered right at the end of the boom and got caught in the overall collapse of the sector. After running into liquidity issues as the market dried up, he decided to get back into stocks and stock options. Chris saw some of Clay’s free material and decided to join the community. With his current job though, he was unable to login during the day as the site was blocked. After about 6 months, he noticed that he really enjoyed Clay’s teaching style and decided to join Claytrader University. After going through the foundational material, Chris now focuses on a basket of stocks that have high option liquidity. He equates his trading to becoming a sniper and spotting good opportunities to enter versus his old methodology where he would just jump into a trade haphazardly. Quotes: “I put a couple grand in and had some success and thought I was pretty smart. We all know it was more luck than anything.” “I felt options were too complicated for me. I jumped into penny stocks during the marijuana stock boom.” “Penny stocks are great but you have to be in there when they are hot and heavy. You have to get in and out quickly.” “People don’t want to put the time into education and research. They just want people to pick trades for them.” “You can take all the training that’s available but you have to be able to implement it and treat it like a business, not a casino.”

Yup. It has happened yet again. The bright and shiny world of penny stocks and their apparent ability to grow small accounts punched another trader in the face. While the punch to the face knocked down our guest, AlphaThor (his alias in the chat room), it didn't knock him out. Being the mentally tough guy he is, he has gotten up from the mat and found a new way. In the markets, there is no shame in getting punched in the face, the key things that matter come from HOW you react to the punch. Notes: Alpha’s introduction to the market was a Tony Robbins book that focused on the sooner you invest, the easier it will be to retire and grow your wealth. He decided to open up an IRA account to start preparing for his retirement and decided to invest in some IPO stock that Carl Icahn was involved in. After seeing people talking about multiple 100% gainers in the penny stock world, Alpha decided to abandon his original plan and went on to trade penny stocks. He joined a few chat rooms and was unfortunately a victim of the all too common pump and dump occurrences. When his chat room subscription ran out, Alpha found lots of Clay’s free videos on Youtube and found a lot of great information from it. This led him to join the community especially considering it was a fraction of the cost compared to the other chat rooms he frequented in the past. Alpha noticed that many people in the community were trading options with a good amount of success. He decided to invest in his education and joined Claytrader University so that he could learn about technical analysis, risk management, and ultimately options. Options appealed to him and the ability to use a smaller amount of capital while also having more opportunities than what was available in the penny stock market. As he continues practicing and finding what works best for him, we’re sure that he will start to find his niche in the market and continue to grow his accounts. We’re very passionate about financial independence and have no doubt that he will be able to achieve that with his continued hard work. Quotes: “I had no knowledge about the stock market. I was just happy with that profit and decided to exit there.” “I’d figure out sooner than later that I bought the top and ended up selling into consolidation.” “I just felt I was learning more from your free content on Youtube than anywhere else so I joined the Inner Circle.” “I came to the realization that options can move just as fast as penny stocks.” “That’s why they call it a journey. I didn’t expect to be a consistent trader in less than a year.” Links: Blog: Best Online Stock Broker Video: Avoid The Pattern Day Trader Rule

For someone like myself who got started in trading after the introduction of the internet and computers, it's hard to imagine what it "used to be like" before technology really came to age. We get a great taste of that in our interview with Mike (chat room alias "TraderMike"). His journey first began back in the 1990's and over 20 years later, he's still here and improving. Mike trades full time; however, he has one of the more creative ways in which he accomplished this goal. Mike is a great asset to the community and someone who is very active in the chat room, so now you get to hear this story! Notes: Trader Mike started getting interested in the market in the ‘90s and recognized very early that he wanted to be in full control of his investments. He didn’t want to pay someone else a fee to pick stocks or funds for him. Mike utilized fundamental analysis to start his trading journey and focused primarily on what other analysts were saying. When he would find that 11/15 would agree that something was a buy, he would enter a trade. However, his exit criteria was pretty wishy washy and was much closer to throwing darts or exiting based on his feelings. After two decades, Mike delved down the path of trying to expand his education and was using more internet based newsletters for his trading. His timeframe for trades at this point was 3-6 months. While his portfolio was still trending up, he definitely got into some hot water with large losers and felt paralyzed which led him to hold. He decided that he wanted a career change and decided to dive into trading full time. Mike realized relatively quickly that now that he was trading for income, his longer term trades would not pay the bills or result in daily/weekly income. This is when he decided to investigate further into technical analysis and ultimately Claytrader University. Mike made an agreement with his wife to give him 1 year to see if his trading would work out. If not, he would go back to work. He had capital set aside for this journey so that absolutely nothing would change in their daily living. By no means did he use his family's nest egg to attempt this new career. Quotes: “I learned young that I needed to take care of my money and self invest it so I would have something to retire on.” “I was subscribing to what other people were recommending. I was using Google more to understand how stocks move.” “In the past I didn’t care if something went down for weeks but trading for income I realized I didn’t have the tools to make decisions.” “I wanted to understand and learn this so I could manage my own trade plans for the future and forever.” “I’ll watch the 2, 5, 15, and 1 hour charts to develop my trade plans.” “I like to watch the first 15 minutes evolve and then establish my trade plans based on my comfort level of what I see.” Links: Course: The Trading Freedom Pathway

Being wealthy is something we all dream of. I say this with complete confidence because I define "wealthy" a much different way than many may. To be honest though, even if you want to be wealthy in the sense of driving a Rolls Royce, there are some initial steps that you must take in order to make that dream a reality. Whether you acknowledge it or not, there is one fact that we ALL have in common... we're all a CEO. While that may not make much sense now, I promise you it will after you're done listening to this podcast. Notes: In today’s podcast, Clay and Chezz discuss personal finances and the power of a budget. The goal of this entire podcast is to help reduce your stress with a set of good habits and routines. The foundation for all wealth building, no matter what avenue you take (stock market, business ownership, etc) is going to be your budget. You are the king of your castle in the sense of you are in charge of your spending decisions. Your budget will be able to tell you what is financially responsible and what is not while helping you target your longer term goals. Another way to create peace of mind is growing a ‘rainy day fund.’ Setbacks happen in life (your car breaks, furnace stops working, unexpected medical expenses) but if you have prepared in advance for when Murphy strikes, this can alleviate your stress greatly because you were ready for whatever the world threw at you. Clay brings up a great point about choice of college and career choices. Please do the math and budget to help determine what your potential salary will be versus your college loans that you will be paying for years. More often than not, you can find a comparable school that will offer the same degree for a lower cost. The power of a budget can help you achieve your long term goals and it really is as simple as addition and subtraction. Take some steps and a hard look at your income stream versus your spending and start to be the CEO of your financial future. Quotes: “To me, wealth is the ability to sleep. If you can lay in bed at night and have no worries, that’s a beautiful thing.” “You become the CEO of your finances. We are all CEOs of our own personal life.” “Get organized with your personal finances and odds are you will have money leftover. That leftover money can be put into investments.” “It’s a list of priorities specifically. Now I always bring up is ‘is this money better on a purchase or better for the land fund?’ “ “Once you get a job, you see this sparkly new paycheck and you think ‘wow, I’ve waited so long to have money’ and I threw it around.” “How does it know it’s not in the cards? Because he has a budget. Because he’s organized. Because he’s CEO of his life.” Links: Course: Cash Flow Creation Guide Mint: https://www.mint.com/ You Need A Budget: https://www.youneedabudget.com/

We've done many interviews at this point in our podcasting journey, but thinking off the top of my head, I can only think of one other person who is taking the approach Ward (our guest and chat room member) is using. According to Ward's logic, which makes perfect sense to me, he is first focusing on developing as a person, to which he believes will then allow him to develop better as a trader. The awesome part is, Ward has a few years under his belt, so it just goes to show that it is never too late to work on oneself for the better. This was a refreshing interview and inspired me for sure. Notes: In 1998, Ward read a few books about trading but wasn’t in a financial position to put money in the market. However, the fire was lit. After getting married, his wife had her money in a mutual fund that wasn’t growing fast enough in his opinion and thought he could do a better job. He didn’t even fully realize that the market just experienced a huge downturn. Ward started to trade in stocks that had a steady uptrend. After reading 40 books about how to trade, he would still look back at his trading journal and question why exactly he entered particular stocks. He recognized he did not have a solid methodology. Unfortunately, Ward went through a cycle of trying a strategy, getting discouraged and then taking a break. This lasted for 4 years until he found Clay’s youtube videos. He thought that looking over someone's shoulder and watching them execute trades would be more beneficial than reading the theory of trading from books. Ward was actually in retirement when he discovered Clay’s videos. After seeing how well the course was structured, he went back to work for 2 months to pay for Claytrader University and to keep from having to utilize his savings for the package. At the same time, Ward discovered the power of self development and the power of a plan/goal. This ties into such a larger topic such that life isn’t all about trading. Trading is a part of Ward’s life but it is not the only thing that matters to him. Developing solid plans and planning the path to success played a crucial role in turning Ward’s trading around along with many other parts of his life. Quotes: “When I thought about trading this money, it didn’t even occur to me that the money hadn’t grown because of the market correction.” “I wasn’t losing any ground but wasn’t making any either. Even after all those books I read, none of them taught me how to trade.” “I’ve got money and read a bunch of books and think I can compete against professionals. I realized there was an education problem there.”

If there is one personality trait that is a "must have" for long term trading success, I think I'd choose: self awareness. If you are not being honest with yourself and admitting what needs to be admitted, you will spin your wheels in the mud and never improve. Chat room member, Eric, is a shining example of being self aware and using that personality trait to progress his path forward. I really enjoyed our talk with Eric as he was very passionate and energized about the markets; however, was also extremely aware of his situation too. Notes: Eric’s introduction to the market consisted of watching his father and some coworkers always checking their trading portfolios. He decided to open his own brokerage account in college with his student loans and that was how he first entered the market. He used basic fundamentals and general knowledge of what he thought would be a good stock to own to choose where he put his money. He decided to subscribe to a weekly newsletter that offered trade picks and after trading these for a while (with not much success) Eric decided to continue his search to find a system that worked for him. He struggled to find an education suite that worked for him. After college, he saved up another $3,000 to swing trade but he couldn’t put his finger on proper entry and exit criteria. After a long YouTube search for helpful info, Eric found ClayTrader and perceived him as an honest person who will shoot straight and tell it like it is. This is when he started to invest in himself via education. The beautiful thing that Eric realized is that once you have learned how to read charts and manage your risk, you are FREE to find trades on your own. You no longer need to seek a ‘guru’ for ‘hot picks.’ As Eric increased his education in terms of risk and options, Eric has found lots of success trading advanced option spreads. He can control his probability of profit and his max loss, all of which are crucial for long term success. A few members have also inspired him to stay mechanical in all his trades instead of style jumping. By no means is he saying that this is the be-all end-all and he always wins but when he is wrong, he is wrong small and it doesn’t take much to recover. Quotes: “When I was 15, my dad traded futures and used to tell me that trading in the stock market was dangerous.” “I noticed every time, what basis did I have for deciding when to buy and when to sell? There was just nothing.” “I didn’t want to go down the path of watching 1000s of videos and in the end I’m not a better trader. It was a waste of time.” “My whole life has been cycles of getting into and out of the market.” “Once you start learning you can come up with your own plays.” Links: Book: Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

I really enjoyed this interview because it was a change of pace (in a good way). We've had many guests who rant and rave about the power of options, which is true for sure, however our guest (minor spoiler) was not a huge fan and chose another trading opportunity: Forex (the trading of currencies). Chezz and I sit down with community member Jaime and hear all about his journey with options and why he ultimately chose to take another path. What caught his eye about Forex? How is he doing with it? We cover that and much more in this refreshing interview. Notes: Jaime’s introduction the market was a co worker who traded penny stocks. After watching him trade for some time, Jaime opened up a brokerage account to ‘dabble’ himself. His first few trades turned into investments in the hold and hope fashion. Jaime also only focused on playing the long side and avoided the short side (where he thinks the price would go down for profit). After sitting in a few tickers for a while with very little movement, Jaime wised up and decided to take a few years off before returning to the market with the goal of avoiding penny stocks. He wanted to focus on some larger names that actually had good liquidity. While Jaime began focusing on high volume options he unfortunately did not have a true risk management strategy yet. After learning about the nuances of options including the greeks, he started to realize all the things he was fighting when he first started trading them. This led him to the Forex course offered here which opened his eyes to the opportunities available for him (especially since there is no pattern day trader rules). Jaime practiced for a month before going live and has been doing very well since going live to the tune of tripling his account value. The glaring differences between his old trading and how he trades now is his outlook on risk management. Now, instead of focusing on only recouping his losses, which makes him greedy and stay in his winning trades too long, he willingly takes small losers because he knows that one winner will pay for many losers. This is the recipe for long term success and steady account growth. Quotes: “There was no strategy at all. Just going off of penny stock fundamentals which we all know is laughable.” “I was able to get out of most of my investments. For the most part, I wised up pretty quickly and decided to be done with it.” “There really was no risk mitigation or stop loss. Put some money in and it’s either going to go up or not.” “I’m at 50:1 leverage. I paper traded for a month and now trading live. I’ve done remarkably well. The chart just agrees with me.”

When it comes to just flat out being lucky, in the history of the podcast, I think we have a new winner! To give credit where credit is due, our community member, Josh, worked hard and saved up $1,000. So it is not a situation where he just lucked out in regards to having money, but yeah... I don't want to run anything, just listen - haha. After the initial luckiness, Josh quickly discovered that there is much more to trading than what he had originally thought. While he joins a long list of many who have thought this same way, the way Josh conducted himself after this realization is something we can all learn from, myself included. Notes: Josh’s introduction to the market was a virtual game and after he learned the mechanics of it was able to pad his virtual account. This led him to want to do it with actual money. After saving up $1,000, he asked his dad for some tickers on his watch list but his dad is a notoriously bad typist and ended up giving him a recommendation on something he didn’t intend. Lucky for Josh, after holding for 8 months that ticker was bought out for triple what he paid. Josh and his friend had been following the marijuana legislation in 2013 and decided to spread their money into a few different names. They had actually caught the start of the ‘pot stock boom’ and instead of holding and hoping, Josh ended up taking profits to be safe and not get caught in the dump. After finding little success in the penny stock market, he shifted his money back into larger names that he didn’t mind holding longer term. He was busy with school and life so he prefered to not sweat the small moves that stocks tend to make intraday. After watching some of Clay’s videos he decided to change brokerages and find a good platform for day trading. While Josh didn’t have a risk management plan on paper, he was extremely protective of his money and refused to let any future trades go against him by a large margin. He falls into a small percent of people who DO NOT go big and ultimately go home. Josh is now keeping himself accountable by paper trading with an Excel spreadsheet. He also realizes that less is more when it comes to indicators. Price action and volume are king. Quotes: “I figured out I was good at reading the programming of the game, make a bunch of money and get really ahead.” “We saw that legislation was coming out for marijuana. My friend and I did some research and spread our money into some penny stocks.” “I started looking into .0001 stocks. I’ve been trying to sell some of these since 2014 but liquidity trap for sure.” “I thought, oooh all IPO’s go up right? I’m going to get in and get out but I couldn’t get out quick enough.” “I stopped putting money on the line to figure out why I was unable to predict the market right.” “I used to have bollinger bands and histograms but didn’t know what any of them meant. I thought I was cool like the Youtube videos.” Links: Video: Sales Pitch or Belief