The Stock Trading Reality Podcast

What a great discussion this was! If you're looking to pick up some nuggets of wisdom from someone else's experience, look no further. I welcome back fellow member Matt ("msouza" alias in chatroom) to give us an update on his journey. Needless to say, it's been a wild ride of stupidity and pain, but hey... if we're honest with ourselves, we've all been there! Matt has made quite a few changes in his trading but most importantly, he's experienced some "stress testing" of those changes to see just how well his psychology holds up. It's one thing to make money, but it's a whole other thing to lose money within your strategy and see how you react to it. This discussion is filled with candor and honesty and I know for sure, no matter your experience level, there will be something you walk away with that makes you a better prepared trader. Let's go!

Becoming your own boss as you take that step into trading full time is a dream that many people have. Does it need to be the end goal? It does not. In many cases, using trading as a way to diversify your streams of income is more than wise; however, for our fellow community member Johnny, this is what he wanted. He follows the trend of many people in his situation. He never really had the initial goal to "go full time", he just wanted to get involved in trading to create a bit more cash for himself. After jumping in with both feet and putting in the required time and energy of studying and learning, Johnny realized just how much potential the market offers. This potential does not come easy and it does not happen overnight, but it is there and for those who want to make the effort, can be firmly grasped. Let's learn about Johnny and his journey of grasping the freedom trading allows for!

I'm sure you've heard the saying, "when it rains it pours" and that's what happened to our long time member and guest, Pendar. I have nothing but respect for these kinds of people who get slammed in the face with a sledge hammer from life, but keep on grinding. As mentioned, Pendar has been a community member for several years now and reached out to me wanting to be a guest so he could update the community on his situation, but with a twist. He wanted to really focus on all the dumb things he has done and what needs to be avoided. In this day and age of social media and everyone parading around like they have life (trading) figured out, it was a total breath of fresh air to see the more realistic and darker side of trading. Pendar is making no excuses, he's not blaming anyone, he's just doing what he needs to do to make it happen, so I'm confident you'll get some great nuggets of wisdom.

When you see potential in someone, one of the most impolite things you can do is to "beat around the bush" and not be blunt. We have a case of that here with community member Luis. As you'll see, the conversation starts off a bit rough as I questioned him and pressed him on certain areas of his journey. While it may have come across as rough around the edges, it was all being done because Luis has great potential and I didn't want to see one of the typical traps grab him. All in all though, Luis is a great guy and while he certainly still has work to do and things to improve on, he's also doing many things very well! Luis is only 19, so for you younger listeners out there, you'll get that much more motivation and inspiration from his journey.

I love me some science and psychology! I stumbled across an "effect" in the world of psychology and did more research on it... and wow, all I can say is it 100% (probably even more) applies to all of us in the challenging world of trading. In fact, it's a phenomenon where if you are being honest with yourself, it has happened to you or who knows, may be happening right now. To clarity, just because there has been money spent at a university to do research and study a topic does not mean you should blindly accept the results of it; however, given I've been around since 2013 and have interacted with 1,000's of people at this point, I can say with full certainty that this "effect" is alive and well within the financial markets. I learned a ton from it and I'm confident you will too, so let's get to it and talk some science and trading!

If there is one word that I think most new traders can relate to, it would be "randomness". When you are new and don't know what you don't know, everything can quickly become overwhelming because it all feels so random. This of course leads us on a bumpy road filled with twists and turns. This was the exact case for my guest, Andrew ("Kaizen" chatroom alias in community). To his credit, despite all the twists and turns, he stuck with it and then eventually stumbled into his "game changer" moment which has truly shifted his confidence and approach to the markets. As someone with a full time job, he is now able to trade the markets in a way that gives him great flexibility and true control. If you are someone who also works a full time job, but would like to "be a day trader", this episode is definitely for you! Let's get to it.

Brutal. That's really all I can think of to describe how this journey began. The thing is, it all started off with scoring an $8,000 win in one of his first trades. From that point? Well... not good! I had a great chat with fellow member from the community, Michael, about his journey and he held nothing back. Because of this brutal opening experience within his journey, in my opinion at least, he has established himself as an authority give advice for certain trading behaviors. When you are punched in the face several times, you may not be a professional boxer; however, you certainly can share some wisdom and advice when it comes to "getting punched in the face", and that's what we have here. Let's get to it!

When it comes to trading success (and in most areas of life), having patience is a big requirement needed. However, there are definitely some areas within trading where impatience can work in your advantage and once you realize this, good things can begin to happen! My guest from the community, Matt, shares his journey with us which started off in a very rough (and as he disclosed, "embarrassing") way. How did Matt recover from this train wreck of a start? What choices and maneuvers did he make to try and get the train back on the tracks? Matt was brutally upfront and honest in his mistakes, which serves up all kinds of valuable learning insights, so stick around for the whole thing and I know you'll walk away prepared to be a better trader!

Buckle up and get ready to do a deep dive into the human mind and the world of human emotions. Especially for us men, talking about our feelings and emotions is probably not at the top of our list of favorite things; however, as you will see within this conversation, it is a critical consideration that needs to be addressed. I had a great talk with long time member Nick ("KillerSwan" in the community) where he held nothing back and allowed us all into his journey, particularly his struggles. The back half of the conversation essentially turned into a coaching session and while it was unique to his situation, I am VERY confident there will be several talking points that you will be able to relate to. Let's do some learning!

One of the more common questions (and complaints) I see is people not having as much money as they'd like to have in their trading account. I have some great news though! Whether you want the responsibility or not, it doesn’t matter. The fact is this: YOU (yes you!) are a business owner and CEO. You might not think so given you don’t run a company that offers a product or service; however, this is a false understanding of reality. The reality of the matter is you 100% “do” offer a service/product and you need to make sure it is worth as much as possible. All successful people are great at operating this area of their life and I want you to do the same! Let’s discuss how you can run your business at maximum productivity.

Time horizons matter quite a bit in the world of trading. Time can get a bit tricky when it comes to trading unfortunately; sure, you don't want to be wasting your time but at the same time, you don't want to be rushing either. My guest from the community, Kenneth, gives us a great illustration of somehow who is approaching trading in a time efficient manner, but not rushing. When you choose to take certain steps and surround yourself with the infrastructure Kenneth has, while there are no guarantees, there is the higher probabilities that you will find success. Kenneth is still young in his journey, but his focus on setting himself up for long lasting success offers us all with some great motivation and insights.

Trading and investing can be a very emotional game. If you've ever had a single dollar of your own hard earned money in the markets, you know exactly what I mean. This leads to the next logical question, "what can be done to remove the emotion?" There is certainly no perfect system to do it, but one way is to get so focused on the numbers and data, you almost forget to have emotion. In this episode I welcome back fellow member Sean who is all about the data. To his credit though, he admits that even with a massive deep dive into the data, there can still be hiccups that arise. I enjoyed this talk and I'm sure you will too. Sean had no problems talking about his hiccups and (most importantly) what he learned from them. Let's get to it.

DO something! That's all I ask! Whether it has to do with trading the markets or not, it's amazing how when you simply "do", good things begin to happen. Add in an underlying plan with "do", and WOW... things can get extremely explosive (to the upside!). This week's guest, Davy, is a new member to the community but he sure did get me motivated. The opening part of the discussion was my favorite as he walks us through his opening journey. He actually never mentioned "the stock market" until about 15 minutes in, but the story he told beforehand is what success is all about. Grabbing your bootstraps, putting on the hard hat, and going out and "doing". If you're someone who enjoys using excuses and playing the victim card, this episode will not be for you, but if you're a hustler... then let's go!

As obvious as it may seem, I've lost track of just how many times I've seen it happen. People put their money into the market, and then upon listening or asking a few basic questions, it becomes very clear they really have no idea "why" they entered a trade. The amateur will answer that by saying, "because I think I will make money"; however, the successful trader will be able to give a much more in-depth reasoning. That's exactly what my guest this week, Amit, shares with me. Like many, he started off doing some silly things with his time and money, but to his credit he has quickly realized he needed to change ways and that's what he's been doing. Let's get to it!

What category would you place yourself into? Are you lucky or unlucky? I stumbled across an interesting scientific research study where a psychologist (support by quite a bit of funding) did a deep dive study of lucky people verses unlucky people. While I can't say the results were stunningly shocking, I can say that there are many nuggets of data that can (and should) be applied to us in the world of trading. To further support the data, thanks for a current event that was playing out at the time of this recording, we can see just how this scientific research showed its truth in a very real world setting. If you like making decisions based in logic and reasoning, then I'm sure you'll be able to walk away with at least a few bits of practical wisdom. Let's get to it!