Winning the 1st Quarter

Hi fellow traders, I want to wish all that are celebrating a very Merry Christmas and to everyone a safe and happy holiday season.  I feel one of the most beautiful things about the world we live in are the diverse cultures we have and how much we can learn from one another.   With the emerging technologies and our ability to reach some previously untouched facets of our society, we are becoming closer than ever.  This is an exciting time to be alive!

Last year we focused on starting where you were with what you had.  I started over 6 times with $1500 in my Suretrader account this year.  We only have 4 days left in this quarter but to put this in perspective, I have made $45339.30 to date in this year trading small.  I started a community in the time span of a weekend and have spent all year trying to turn it into something special.  All of this while trying to focus on my trading and teaching in chat.  I proved what you can do because you in the community saw it unfold live.

The focus again this year is starting where you are with what you have.  Getting started perusing a goal or dream is one of the hardest things we face as adults.  Too often we wait for the perfect time or the perfect opportunity and it never comes.  It doesn’t take near as much to get started as you think.  I changed the dynamic of my community going into this year to provide all those who are sitting on the fence waiting to get the money, or the time to get started an opportunity to do so.  Just by joining the AJT community you get a first-class education free.

So, you can start now, work at your own pace, and develop the skills you need to be a successful trader.  Don’t worry about trying to save 3k to 4k to join a community and start learning, or saving for extra monitors or a trading computer.  For as little as $50 a month, if you elect an annual subscription, you can learn and trade live beside me every day.  You get access to the live day, swing, and trading psychology classes as well as the recordings. My goal is to educate you and help you develop the skills needed to build a successful trading career.

Back in October I started the 4th quarter challenge.  We needed to finish the fourth quarter strong to set us up for the next year.  I pointed out the obvious:
 The first 3 quarters are history
 The only thing that mattered then was the 4th quarter
 If you were unhappy with your first 3 quarters performance, then:
 You had to change your mindset and habits
 You had to identify and change everything that created your poor performance
The worse thing we could have done was continue to do the same thing and expect different results.

Let’s look at some numbers.  I had 21 traders to sign up.  I had a goal of 25 so this was good.  However, I had 9 to not stay past the 1st month.  I started with $1500 in the toughest market that I have seen recently, and I struggled to make any progress through the first 3 weeks of October. I only ended up making $399. The struggle was real and in the back of my mind even though I was frustrated I was happy that you were able to see the real deal.  Unfortunately, some did not see it that way. In my experience in education I have a good feeling that these are the prospective traders that may not have what it takes to see these tough times through and become successful.  You have to have mental fortitude and take the bad times with the good.  Now I am sitting at $10,304.30

This 4th quarter challenge was about facing adversity head on and building a foundation that we can take into the next year.  If you stuck with me, you saw this transition first hand and the mental fortitude needed to get through the hard times and into prosperity.  You saw exactly what it took live and unscripted, which at times was very embarrassing.  I didn’t quit.  I didn’t give up. But if you quit during this process, you missed the most important and valuable lessons of the 4th quarter.
To finish summing it up I had 12 stay active and out of that 12, I have 7 that have subscribed for the 1st quarter and one took advance of the early bird yearly subscription deal.  4 I guess are still on the fence!

You guys know by now that I am a college sports junkie so in line with that I want to share this example with you.  I watched South Florida and Texas Tech in the Birmingham Bowl.  As you can see, Texas Tech won the 1st quarter but they didn’t finish it strong. They lost the 2nd, won the 3rd, but didn’t finish it strong.  Meanwhile South Florida stayed consistent and continued to build momentum and finished the 4th quarter strong. That’s what won them the game. The body of work they put in during the 1st quarter, not folding up under adversity, and finishing the 4th quarter strong!

This year, we are not only looking toward the first quarter and wining it, we’re looking at finishing it strong.  Here is an example of a team, who didn’t have the skill, talent, or the capital backing them that their opponent had, but they won the 1st half and finished strong, and in turn won the game.  The game for Wofford was one in the foundation they laid in the first half.  The blows they landed in the 1st half set the stage and they followed through.  Sure, they took hits as well, but they remained focused and stuck to their game plan, UNC did not. Wofford College is a very small independent liberal arts school here in South Carolina.   Enrollment was 1,683 this past semester.  UNC is a public institution with an enrollment of 18,523 this semester and is a college basketball powerhouse.

This is what we need to do as traders going into this first quarter.  Don’t worry about the professional traders who may be more talented, experienced, or capitalized.  We stick to our game plan and see it through.  There is a lane for us.  Sure, we will take hits in the form of losing trades, but if we stay in our lane and stick to our game plan, we will be victorious.  So lets make 2018 our best year yet!

Ed

When I Make a Wrong Turn

At different points in our day trading career, we will take a wrong turn.  One time it may be on accident, another may be on purpose.  But, one thing is for sure, we will end up going down the wrong path several times in our career.  It doesn’t matter whether we have been trading 2 weeks, 2 months 2 years, or 20 years.  The only difference is that the longer we trade, the fewer and farther between these incidents will occur.  The one thing that stays constant, no matter our experience level, we will need to have a process for getting through it and back on the right path.

If you have followed me for some time, you know that I am all about simplicity.  The fewer steps in the process, the less moving parts I have, the more precise and consistent I can be working my way through a crisis.  In this blog, I will share the simple process I use to help me find my way back to the straight and narrow path to success in this industry.  There are several key principles that I employ to help me achieve this.

The first principle is to realize that you are having a problem and have taken a wrong turn somewhere.  It is important that you develop this skill of understanding who you are as a trader and when something is just not quite right.  Understanding who you are and being able to self-assess is a very important component in your development as a trader.

The next principle is to take responsibility for your actions.  We cannot play the “blame game” at this stage, regardless of what caused us to veer off course.  Blaming others is admitting you don't control your own trading, and if that is the case, why are you trading? If you control your trading, then you can fix it. If others control your trading, you can't fix anything.

The fact is, the ultimate decision was made by us.   It would be so easy to take the pressure and responsibility off us and place it on something else.  But the reality is that if we do this, we have suspended any chance we have of growth.  We will not learn anything by blaming something else and we are setting ourselves up to repeat the same action.

It doesn’t matter if there were surprise events, or technological equipment failures, or trading platform issues.  There is always an excuse for a string of losses or bad trades.  Some are actually good excuses, but as traders, we ultimately must accept all the risks. Until we are willing to do that, history will likely repeat and the same thing will happen again and again.  The bottom line is that we are responsible for whatever happens with our trading and we must accept that.

The third principle is to reflect on how you ended up where you are.  Reflection, or thinking about our experiences, is the key to learning. Reflection allows us to analyze our experiences, make changes based on our mistakes, keep doing what is successful, and build upon or modify past knowledge based on new knowledge.  I have a simple six step process that I use.  Below is an illustration of it and how I use it.

The fourth and final principle is, Make the adjustments.  Address issues as to what is causing the problem and make any necessary trading plan changes. Get back to the basics.  Return to your core trading strategies.  Get back to really knowing your strategy. Knowing what market conditions it works best in, and what the profit and risk expectations are. Get back to what attracted you to trading in the first place: building or learning a strategy that made money consistently. Trading is hard, so get back to loving and embracing the challenge.

By going back to the basics, you will be taking things slow.  You will trade with smaller size and slowly increase.  You may even want to trade a few days in the simulator while you just observe the market.  Even if you hit the ground running and string a few winning days together in a row, increase your position size incrementally, so it takes about a month to get back to your full position size.

I know it's annoying to start back with a small position size, but it's for the best. Bouncing back from a losing streak or a bad trading streak is about getting back to basics and implementing your core strategy well. Bouncing back is not actually about making money. Money comes from implementing a strategy well and re-establishing the skill that you developed. Trading small position sizes gets you refocused on what's important, so you can start building your confidence again. Then the money will come, naturally, without being forced.

Start Where You Are, With What You Have

A few years ago, when I was first beginning my journey into day trading, I saw this movie titled, “The Pursuit of Happiness”.  I am sure most of us have seen or heard of that movie so I won’t spend much time talking about it but just for reference I will give a brief synopsis.  This was the story of Chris Gardner, a man whose wife lost faith in him and his vision and left. A man who refused to have his son grow up fatherless the way he did.  A man who became homeless, and eventually took a job as an intern at a prestigious brokerage firm that unfortunately paid no money, and more importantly, no guarantee for a job at the end. But he didn’t look at what he was starting with, he was looking at what he could end up with.  He knew he would be homeless through this transitional phase in his life.  He knew that he would have to struggle to provide for his son during this time, but he believed in something bigger than what he had in his reality at the time.  He believed in himself and his potential to be great.  He was determined to make the best of this opportunity he was given.  He gave 120%.  Even though he didn't have any money, no home for his son, he was one of the first people in the office in the morning and one of the last one to leave. The company goal was to make 100 calls a day but his personal goal was to make 200.  He refused to be outworked.

This movie was the beginning of my inspiration to make a better life for myself and my family.  The beginning of my inspiration to pursue my happiness, because I knew if I achieved that, my family would receive countless benefits of my suffering and hard work.  But, there was a piece of the puzzle missing.  I tried to get things in place but it seemed like for every step I made forward, I made two or three steps back.  Every time I would come up with the same excuses: “If I just had a little more capital”; “If I just had more time to work on trading, “If I just could afford the right tools”.  “If I just had the right opportunity”. You know the list!

Fast forward a couple of years and my wife attended a conference in which Chris Gardner was the keynote speaker.  My wife knew how inspired I was by the movie and promptly bought both of his books.  One obviously was The Pursuit of Happiness, but the other was, Start Where You Are: Life Lessons in Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.  I’d have to say that was the book that nullified any excuse I ever had as I was trying to build a career in trading.  The speech he gave that day was really meant for me, but my wife received it in proxy and I am so thankful that she did.

So, now to the core of my message.  You all know by now I made a conscious decision to start with $1500 at the beginning of January with the goal of demonstrating how you can grow your account safely and consistently if you employ the right process.  My process is what brought me from $1500 that I had to start with to over 235k. You can check out my first interview here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5mQ3Q7p_ew&t=798s  .  The updated story to $196k you can find here:  http://bit.ly/2a1JA6A  It all started from reading this book, Start Where You Are: Life Lessons in Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, by Chris Gardner.  As I mentioned before I had every excuse as to why I could not be successful.  But, after reading this book, thankfully I realized that none of those excuses held water.  They were just BS stories I was telling myself as to why I couldn’t be successful.

 

So, just as in 2017, In 2018 my message is start where you are, with what you have.  If you sit around and wait for the perfect moment in time, I can promise you that it will never come.  If everyone did that, we would not be where we are today as a human race.  I remember hearing a very prominent motivation speaker say that the richest places on earth are the graveyards, because in there lies most of the earths untapped potential.  Buried there are inventions that we will never have a chance to experience because someone was waiting for the perfect opportunity to take a chance.  Buried there are some of the world’s greatest minds who never shared it with the world because instead of creating an opportunity to share it, they were waiting on an opportunity to share it.  If these people had started where they were, with what they had, there is no telling where we would be as a people right now.

Start where you are with what you have.  Don’t focus on what you don’t have to start out 2018, focus on what you do have.  Don’t focus on your lack of resources, but on your resourcefulness.  The truth is our resources are limited but our resourcefulness is limitless! When I learned, and accepted this fact, I became a better person, a better trader, a better father, a better husband.  Everything that was once an obstacle in my trading became a potential gain.  I started looking at what I could do with what I did have, and maximize my potential with it.  This is what I challenge you to do in 2018:

       >  Believe in yourself!

       >  Change your limiting mindset. 
 >    >  Start where you are with what you have! 

       >  Stop thinking about what you don’t have, but what you can do with what you do have. 

Let’s make 2018 phenomenal!

Can Learning Chess Improve Your Trading Skills?

The simple answer, yes it can!  One very important trait they both have in common is that once you make a move, you cannot predict the outcome of that move.  In chess, you can make your move, and have your next move planned, or even the next several moves planned, but you do not know how your opponent will react.  In trading, we make our move, we have our subsequent moves planned, but we do not know how the market will react. 

Day traders are always looking for ways to hone and sharpen their mental skills.  On the surface chess, may seem like a game that would not have any relevance to day trading, but it is actually a strategic game that can hone your decision-making skills and strengthen your mental game.  This can lead to more consistent profits from your trading.  In this blog, I will explore several reasons why I believe that the game of chess can be a big asset to day traders.

First and foremost, chess helps you improve your decision-making processes.  A solid chess player is analytical, and understands that with each of his moves, he will need to simultaneously reassess his position on the board, so he can take advantage of the opportunities that presents itself.  Each move will present the player with new data that he uses to determine his next move. Successful day traders are no different from this. Day trading, like chess, requires that you are steps ahead of your opponent, which in this case is the market.  They analyze each decision that they make in the market.  When a day trader is planning his trade, he is thinking about what his next move will be based on how he is predicting the way the market will react.  In both instances, you are planning an initial move, then planning subsequent moves based on a strategy and the predicted reaction from your opponent. While it is impossible to be right all the time, making decisions with the future in mind helps day traders plan to make decisions on trades when the market is behaving as predicted.

Secondly, and this could be considered a spinoff of the first, is that chess helps day traders adapt to the uncertainty in the market.  In chess, you learn to accept the fact that despite having a 50 percent chance of being right, that other 50 percent can creep up and hurt a perfect play setup.  Now in day trading, we are searching for strategies that will give us better odds, which are closer to 70-30.  But, chess helps teach us we cannot control our opponents moves, but we can develop the skill to react accordingly.  This is a very important skill for day traders.  We need to handle and react to that 30 percent uncertainty that is inherent on our trading.  A day trader, like a chess player, needs to be able to handle these losses without losing focus on the game.

Chess skills emphasize strategic intelligence. Good chess players will constantly search for their own weaknesses in their decision making and chess moves; therefore, it makes them a good chess player. As a good and consistent day trader, you need to constantly look for where your strategy or trading ideas may be weak and find ways to strengthen.

Lastly, chess teaches you the importance of the end game.  Playing chess can also help you develop the focus you need as a day trader. It takes tremendous focus to win chess games because it is not just each move you make but the entire process of analyzing the board for potential moves. Day trading is very similar. It’s not just about trading the stocks, but learning to value each step in the process of making the trade.  With each trade a series of decisions must be made. To make sure you make these decisions efficiently and effectively, you must focus on the end of the trade, your strategical final objective of the trade. Traders who are skilled in strategy games like chess develop these strong focusing skills needed to be successful day traders. They learn to stay in the game and look at it through to the end, not just individual chess pieces. They focus on how their opponent is playing as well as themselves. In trading, your opponent is the market, and staying focused on the market allows you to better navigate and make decisions within it.

So, as you can see, a trader who plays chess correctly, can bring these skills to their trading.  Not only can chess can improve a day trader's decision making and critical thinking skills, it can also help with managing the emotions inherent to trading.

Do Traders Really Need a Mentor?

As children, everything we do in life comes with a coach, a teacher, or a parent directing us and helping us along the way. Words of encouragement are plentiful, and there always seems to be someone looking out for our well-being. As adults, this relationship is much more difficult to establish. Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone assisting you in life and helping you find success in everything you do?

As a technology education teacher, I realized early on the importance of being more than a teacher to my students.  According to Webster’s, a teacher is: “a person or thing that teaches something; a person whose job is to teach students about certain subjects”.  Webster’s defines a mentor as: “someone who teaches, gives help, and advice to a less experienced person; a trusted counselor or guide. I believe my decision to be a mentor to them was crucial in helping my students connect the dots between the theory that I taught and their abilities, potential, and goals. By being a mentor to them I was able to provide the advice, confidence, and the network that allowed them to achieve the level of success they envisioned for themselves at the beginning of my class.  So which one would you want helping you through your journey into trading; a teacher or a mentor?

Why is it so difficult to make consistent profits when you are working to be a day trader? I have all this education, but somehow I just can't connect the dots and make money. Why is that? This is a question I get asked a lot and the answer is really very simple.  A common mistake they make is thinking they can figure out the rules and develop the strategies themselves, but end up losing not just time but most or all of their savings trying to reinvent the wheel. I know because I have been there. Numerous places on the Internet will attempt to give you an education on how to trade stocks but the real secret is not only finding the right education but finding the right mentor as well.  Building a solid foundation on which to base your trading is of the utmost importance to survival in this industry. That is what I focus on when I am mentoring traders. As a mentor I educate traders in the proper way to trade stocks in today's market by helping them build a solid foundation which can ultimately lead to consistent profits. To put it simply I help new traders connect the dots.  

If you examine any successful trader, they typically have one thing in common: a mentor. Nearly every successful person in history had someone who they could confide in and learn from when times were tough. To be successful in life it is very important to have a mentor, a coach, or someone with more experience than you. You need someone who has been where you are and is in a position in life that you desire to be in the future. Most people underestimate the value of a mentor and this is the biggest reasons for failure in any endeavor, especially stock trading. A mentor offers valuable insight to things that only experience can teach as well as a host of other things.  A mentor is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction.  A mentor can help to shorten your learning curve and open your mind to new ideas and possibilities.  

Learning from a good mentor or trading coach is one of the best investments you can make for your long term success.  You invest in yourself with workout trainers or lessons from golf pros.  Why not invest in your financial future with someone who can help you use the knowledge you have and help you connect it to the skills to make money in the stock market for years to come?  Most people never get to live off of their trading because they never learn how to apply the knowledge and skills with the rules of the game and play it well.   Why set yourself up for failure?  Trading mentoring programs help transfer knowledge from the experienced traders to those who are just beginning. You get to see the way they interpret market movement and how they play the game. You’ll also understand the strategic trade-offs that they consider before making a trading decision.

Mentoring can be done in two different ways: one-on-one or small group sessions. One-on-one private sessions will obviously cost more, but, with a good mentor, can be tailored to your specific skills, problems, and goals.  On the other hand, a small group session allows for collaboration and discussion that can stimulate the mind and lead to other types of trading techniques that might have otherwise gone untouched.  The most important thing to think about when choosing a trading mentor is whether he or she can teach you something you’re comfortable with, not just what they want to teach.  Bad mentors are usually one-trick ponies who only know a couple of things and try to make money off of unsuspecting amateur traders.  

Now, do you even have to ask yourself if you need a mentor?  I hope not.  This blog should help you realize the importance of mentoring in the success of your trading career.   To sum it up, a mentor can give you the benefit of his or her perspective and experience which is vital in developing your trading identity.  A mentor can help you look at situations in new ways. He or she can ask hard questions and help you solve problems.  A mentor can help you define your trading and ensure that you don’t lose focus and continue down that road even when you become distracted by day-to-day pressures.  A mentor who knows you well can be a strong champion of your positive attributes and an ally during any bumpy spots in your career.  A mentor whose trading you admire can be a strong inspiration. With the help of a good mentor, you can trade more effectively with a clearer view of the goals you are trying to reach.  Having a mentor is not just a great idea, it is a proven concept.

The Anatomy of Making a Trade

As a fellow trader who teaches and mentors new traders, one of the most common questions I get is related to the actual process of planning and making a trade. They understand the setup they want to trade and they know what it looks like on a still chart after the fact, but they have a hard time planning and initiating a trade beforehand so they never enter or enter a trade at the wrong times.  I believe the answer lies in developing a process to your trading.

As a professional educator and engineer, I firmly believe in the process approach to trading.  I can safely say that this is a big secret to my success.  My trading process looks like this:
 Morning Routine
 Develop Watch list
 Build a trade plan
 Initiate the trade according to plan
 Execute the trade according to plan
 Reflection
This process is slightly modified when I switch to my reversal scans after the morning session. Intraday I eliminate my morning routine and my watch list becomes the reversal scan.

The first question I get when I start presenting this is, “Does HOW you do things actually matter”? Think about something significant you do.  Then think of how it can best be done. Now, consider how you do it currently. This is a great thought process for traders to have. When you take a trade, you need to ensure that you are focused on the right things prior to entering it as well as during the trade. Creating a system for this thought process will take away most of the emotional hang-ups traders experience when looking to enter into a trade as well as managing it while they are in it.

The first thing we must do is develop a perspective of what matters.  This will come from education and practice.  Once a trader has the perspective of what matters, they can proceed to identify the specific processes on which to focus. In each of the steps in my process, there are key leverage points that often make the difference between me having a successful trade or an unsuccessful trade.  The key to success in most full time traders and, often not sufficiently focused upon by beginning traders, is the planning process that enables a trader to focus the important elements of a trade which maximizes their chances of success.

So why do I feel that developing a process important in trading? It is important because it describes how a trade will be put together, provides the focus for executing and managing them, and after the trade, provide a tool for reflecting on to determine if there is something that you missed or could improve on for the next time.

I start my trading process by following the same routine when I get up in the morning.  Trading cannot be looked at as a hobby.  You have to approach trading seriously and as such I wake up, go work out, take a shower, get dressed, and eat breakfast prior to firing up my trading station.  I am awake, alert, and motivated when I start building my watch list.  This morning routine has helped my mental preparation coming into the market tremendously.  So whatever you do, starting the morning out the same way will pay invaluable dividends.   However, rolling out of bed and throwing water on your face 30 minutes prior to open just doesn’t give you enough time to get prepared for the market open.  Sitting at your computer in your pj’s or underwear does not put you in the right mindset to attack the market.  I know because I have experienced all of these scenarios.

My watch list comes from a specific scan that I use every morning.  I will not look anywhere else because I am confident that the stocks on that scanner will have the best opportunity to setup for me to trade.  I will vet each stock the same way using a checklist I have to determine if it is actually tradeable for me.  My watch list is built by 9am and I will not add anything to it after that time.  This allows me to watch the tickers on my watch list for the 30 minutes into the open.  This actually leads into the next step in my process.

During the 30 minutes prior to open I am watching the tickers on my watch list and developing trade plans for them based on the price action I am seeing.  This helped me with that deer in the headlight look I used to get when the opening bell rung and all of the lights started flashing on my charts. When the bell rings I’ll have my plans in place written on note cards because it is too easy to forget what you saw on each ticker coming into the open.  What is my plan if it sets up to the long side? What’s my plan if it sets up to the short side?  What setup do I want to see? What are my profit targets? Where will my stop be? Is the profit window large enough for the trade to make sense? Just asking yourself questions like these when you are planning your trades will give you a big advantage because you can then go in with a battle plan and stick to it.  If it is written down in my face I can easily refer to it and that eliminates the anxiety that I used to feel when that bell rang.  All I’m doing at the open is looking for my signal and trigger to enter the trade.

Once the stock sets up, signals, and triggers an entry, I will enter without question, well that is the plan anyway.  Sometimes I may second guess myself, but not often.  I have my profit targets written out on my trade plan and well as the technical level that I am basing my stops on, so after entry I am just concentrating on hitting my marks and booking profit.  There are some that say that knowing when to exit is the hardest part of the trade.  It can be extremely tough to not exit the trade too early if you do not have a pre-set plan. So if you have a plan ahead of time and you stick to it, you will have a better chance of letting your winning trades work and cutting your losses off quickly instead of the other way around.  This will also help with managing your emotions while in the trade.  Last week I talked to our Warrior Pro students about filtering out the noise.  This strategy goes a long way to help do that so that you can focus on the trade.

Once the trade is done I will reflect on how well my plan worked and how well I stuck to what I had written.  Most of the reflection on my trades will come in the evening when I review and recap my trades from the day.   I believe one of the key things forgotten is reflection. “What did I do right?”, “What did I do wrong?”, “Should I have sold earlier?”, etc. are all extremely important for the development of your trading. Just because you made good profits doesn’t mean you are a perfect trader. How you play both sides of the table are extremely important.  Write down or do a video recap of the trade and everything that comes to mind lesson wise. Then, file it away with other past lessons and use them as a reference for the future. Some lessons hit harder than others, but be confident that with time you will only get better. It only takes one time of getting your hand slammed in a door to figure out to be more careful, but may take two or three times to learn to turn on the lights before walking around your house at night.

Why are processes in trading important? They are important because they describe how things are done to prepare for a trade and then provides the focus for executing them.  It helps filter out the emotional social noise giving you a better chance for a more successful winning trade.  It provides you with a tool to go back and reflect on your trades and make you a better trader.   If you focus on the right processes, in the right way, you can design your way to trading success.

The Power of Being Broke

I am constantly asked about why I wire out my account every month.  My first response is always, I'm not comfortable with my money being off shore, but the reality is Suretrader has a bank here in the US that they service their US clients with, so that reason is a little weak.  My fear of not having enough money to pay my taxes is another reason but if I lose it all, I wouldn't have to pay taxes on it anyway so that argument is also weak.  I also say that I want to protect my gains, which is true.  I like the feeling of having my gains safe from the chance of me giving it back.  Am I a coward?  Do I not have the true mindset of a day trader?  These are the questions that I get asked, and I also ask myself at times.  The truth is, for some reason I didn't realize until this weekend, I am more comfortable and successful trading with a smaller account.  My trading strategy was and is based around growing a small account.  What is it about trading with that mindset that makes me comfortable and more focused everyday in the market?  I never really had an answer until now.  One book I read over this weekend unlocked the mystery of why my strategy works.

You see for a few weeks I tried trading with a larger account well over the PDT rule.  I felt this was my time to take off and not look back.  It was an epic failure.  I only lost about $1500 over a period of 6 weeks because I did have my risk management strategies in tact.  It was like I forgot who I was overnight.  I couldn't see my setups like I used to.  I found myself trying to follow larger traders.  I felt I had to trade like them since I was where they were.  My whole mindset toward trading was different.  I spent too many days watching the market in a daze, not knowing what to do.  I was completely lost, just like I was when I first started trading.  Toward the end of this trial I began getting some professional help from a retired hedge fund manager.  I felt that I needed to get some guidance from someone who was used to trading with larger sums of money.  I got good advice, but that wasn't my problem.  I had lost my identity as a trader.

After this experience ended, I refunded my Suretrader account and almost immediately regained my identity.  I felt that maybe this was as far as I would be able to go.  I mean I almost made 100k for the year trading with my smaller account.  I truly believe I would have hit my goal if I had not tried to trade larger.  But at this point I had accepted the fact that I did not have what it took to trade larger, or that I just wasn't ready yet.  I decided to increase my base account size I started every month off with from 5k to 7.5k at the beginning of 2016 to see how I did with it.  It has worked out great.  At the beginning of the month my share sizes are smaller and I gradually build up my size as the month progresses, providing I am making a profit and my buying power is increasing.   Why does this work so well with me?  I mean for this month of February, I started with 8k and I am up 13,688.89 for the month. Just by employing the same strategies and increasing position sizing as my buying power grows.  I just couldn't understand why I can do it with Suretrader, but when I made the switch I folded up like an envelope.

I mentioned earlier that I read a book over the weekend that unlocked everything for me about how I am able to trade better with a small account versus a larger account.  The book is titled, "The Power of Broke", by Daymond John, the creator of the clothing brand FUBU, and more famously known as one of the sharks from the hit TV show "Shark Tank".  It talks about when you are broke, how having not a whole lot to lose and everything to gain drives you to dig deeper and work harder to get it.  That "sometimes having your back against the wall, leveraging your last dollar, and having no place to go but up; because if you have to succeed to survive, you will."

This is exactly the mentality that had driven me for the past 2 years.  I never knew it had a name.  It is what kept me up until 2 am studying charts of my trades, other traders trades and trying to identify setups.  It is what woke me up at 6 am every morning to get ready for the market before I had to go to work.  It is the Power of Broke that still drives me everyday to work harder and smarter than the next guy.  That 90% failure rate of new traders may just be a little low.  It may be a little higher.  I can tell you about 2 traders, one being myself, out of 25 who started this journey into trading together, that are still in the game.  We worked harder and longer than everyone else.  We were driven to succeed.  You see we were older, had small kids, wanted to spend more time with our families, wanted make sure we could provide the educational opportunities our children would need to make it in this world, and were essentially broke.  We had tried for years to make it the traditional way.  Working a 9 to 5, trying to save $ and provide a comfortable life for our families.  To put it simply, we had our backs against the wall.  We had no other option other than to do what it took to succeed.  This was the mindset that we have.  The Power of Broke.

I know everyone has seen the "Rocky" movies but I want to specifically refer to "Rocky 3".  When Rocky got his block knocked off by Klubber Lang at the beginning of the movie, he had lost something.  The money and fame caused him to lose his hunger.  His will and desire to win at all costs.  You see, he wasn't broke any more.  He wasn't hungry.  He wasn't hurting for anything.  He didn't have that fire deep down inside that burned because he had to win to survive.  All of it was gone the minute he experienced the success of being a champion.  Apollo Creed described it best. "You lost your edge...... You didn't look hungry. No, when we fought, you had the eye of the tiger man.  The edge.  And now you got to get it back.  And the way to get it back is to go back to the beginning".  He had to find that hunger again to get that edge back.

That is exactly what happened to my mind when I switched to a larger account.  When I looked at over 200k buying power after being used to looking at 30k to 60k, I felt I had made it.  I felt like I didn't need to be who I was, that I could be that guy that I always saw as a successful trader.  Suddenly I didn't feel like my back was against the wall.  I'm here to tell you it makes a difference.  I needed that hunger to drive me.  I needed that hunger to keep me moving forward.  That's why the minute I switched back and I was back to square one, where I started, everything fell back in to place.  I needed that lesson. I needed to understand how I worked and what I needed to be aware of as I progressed in this industry.  I am very thankful that I had this lesson when I did.  Now, when the opportunity presents itself again, I will be ready.

I feel that I have finally unlocked the secret of my success as a trader.  The Power of Broke only works for you if you tap into it and put it to work.  You don't have to be broke financially to use this power.  The Power of Broke is a mindset.  There is tremendous power in it.  The more you need to succeed, the more likely it is that you will succeed.  The more you've invested, not a financial investment but an emotional and personal investment, the more you will get back in return.  This is the fuel that will power your passion.  The fuel that keeps you driving forward when everything around you says quit.  Tap into it.  It is there for anyone that wants it.

So what have I learned.  I need to keep the Power of Broke mindset throughout my career.  It is what drives me.  It is what drives my trading strategy.  It doesn't matter how much I make or how much I keep in my trading account, I will always keep that hunger, that desire to grow, that desire to get better.  I will have a goal every day.  I will do my homework everyday.  I will bring my passion to the market every day.  I will remember I am "The Average Joe Trader".  And I will always remember the ways of the shark.  Even when a shark is sleeping, he is still swimming, still moving forward, still ready to attack when an opportunity presents itself.  You see if a shark stops swimming, he will die.  In order to succeed in this industry, you have to live the ways of the shark.  You can find out more about the SHARK mindset here:  "The Power of Broke", by Daymond John  and download the shark points.  I know this book is written more for entrepreneurs  looking to start a business but if you think about it, as traders that's exactly what we are trying to do.

My Thoughts on Suretrader

When I decided to get into day trading I made sure I did my research.  How day trading worked, what tools I would need, what the minimum investment I would need to get started, as well as the tax and legal codes I would run in to.  I am a big fan of the TV show American Greed, and it showcased some of the most prolific violators of the SEC laws so I was more concerned with those laws than most.  Upon reviewing them, I came across the Pattern Day Trader (PDT) rule.  I was crushed.  How am I supposed to be able to make it when I can’t day trade due to the fact that I had less than 25k to put in a brokerage account?  I began searching for answers.  At the time the only conclusion I came to was to open multiple accounts, but with my limited funds, that wasn’t feasible. 

I don’t remember how but I came across Suretrader.  As usual, I did my due diligence and found some conflicting and concerning results.  I knew from experience that you could not trust everything that you read but I was very concerned about using an off shore broker.  There was something about not being in closer contact with my money.  Maybe if they offered debit cards or something like that I would have felt better but, at that point, I did not have any other choice so I decided to open an account with them.  This blog will share my experiences that I have had with Suretrader from the beginning of my time with them.

Let me first start by saying that I would not be here right now without Suretrader.  There is no way I could have started day trading without them.  I am a true “Average Joe” blue collar American who had to work and struggle for every penny I made so this decision was not made lightly.  So thus begins my journey with Suretrader.

I had a pretty easy time opening an account with them.  The application process was a little different but once I had the application completed I received an email a few days later saying that my account was ready to fund.  The only extra form US citizens have to fill out now is a W9 tax form.  They asked for professional references and bank references but they never contacted them.

I opened a bank account specifically for funding and withdrawing from Suretrader, again just being careful because of the off shore deal, and ordered a debit/credit card for that account.  I funded my account using my credit card and the money was available for trading the next business day.  I have read many negative posts about people having issues opening an account with Suretrader but I can honestly say that everyone I personally know that opened an account did not have any issues opening and funding their account.  There have been some changes in funding since I opened my account back in 2014 but everything for the most part is the same.  Funding with a credit/debit card is the fastest, but it costs 3.5% for it.  The only way this fee adds up and becomes a problem is if you constantly blow up your account and you have to keep adding back.  It’s free to fund via bank wire transfer but it takes longer for the money to be credited to your account.

The only issue I had with withdrawing any money was the rule they had that your first withdrawal had to be done by the same method you funded with, and for no more money than what you originally funded with.  After that there were no restrictions.  To get your withdrawal through bank wire, you will pay a $40 fee.  You have to go through a bank verification process that takes about a week to complete.  Then there is another process to go through on the i-boss platform.  However, once you have done it one time it will be a lot easier.  I withdraw from my account every month using bank wire and the process in pretty painless.  The money is in my account within a few days.  Actually now the wires are cleared for US clients through Citibank in New York so that makes the processing quicker for us.

When I started I was budget minded so I opted to stick with the Active Web platform.  For day trading that platform is a handicap.  It’s only as reliable as your internet connection and in the 2 years I have been with them their server has been attacked numerous times.  Not that your information or account are compromised, but your ability to enter and exit trades would be.  Also, if you lose money during these crashes, Suretrader will not refund your money.  They have a risk disclaimer on their website that states that they are not responsible for losses incurred due to trading malfunctions or system disruptions.  I highly recommend getting the Suretrader Pro platform.  I have not experience any major problems with it.  All of my issues with the Pro platform have been due to my firewall.  I have the Suretrader Pro platform, $49, Market Depth Data Access $40, Regional Quotes (Basic Level 2) $15, and NASDAQ Total View (Book Depth) $20 for a total of $124 per month.  It is well worth the subscription costs.

Their customer service is good but it can get bad during crisis times for two reasons.  They do not have a lot of customer service reps and most of their client base are made up of new traders who do not have a clue what they are doing.  You can’t imagine how many people open up trading accounts who do not even know how to enter a buy or sell order.  The chat lines and phone lines are jammed all day with questions that are similar to that with things traders should learn through taking courses and paper trading prior to opening an account.  So I really don't bash them about their slow customer service. When these traders lose money, of course they blame Suretrader.  They never blame the shortcuts they took or the education they didn’t receive prior to trying to trade live.  Is Suretrader completely innocent?  Of course not.  If you are not careful and keep up with your account, you can “accidently” get double charged for commissions or platform fees.  It won’t happen to you often but it does.  They will refund it though.  You just have to stay on top of that.

Here’s the deal; Suretrader is a necessary evil if you have less than 25k to open a trading account with.    90% of their clients are brand new traders so they are a lot more at risk to lose their money in addition to money they don't have so Suretrader treats us like a high risk client the same way a bank would treat a high risk customer that doesn't have a good credit record.  Therefore they have a few more fees and rules than most.    

So what advice do I have to those who want to open accounts with Suretrader?  Well first, invest in your education.  Without it you are a mark and they will take every dime you send them.  The plan I recommend is laid out here:  http://www.warriortrading.com/getting-started/ Never open any brokerage account and start trading without the proper education.  Make sure you read all of the rules and understand all of the fee schedules.  They are not outrageous.  You just have to make sure you understand how to not make a mistake and incur these additional fees.  Open up a bank account specifically for funding and withdrawing from Suretrader.  Do not keep any more money than absolutely necessary in there.  This should give you peace of mind as it relates to your protecting your other money.  Do not over trade.  Over trading leads to increased fees and exposed risk in the market.  Get the Pro platform.  This will save you a lot of headaches and greatly reduce your risk of losing money due to execution issues.  Just because you can open an account with $500 and day trade doesn’t mean you need to trade.  I would not recommend trading with less than $2500.  I know I started with $1500 but I believe I was lucky to catch some major short squeezes when my account was very low.  Make sure you understand margin and how to use it correctly.  Margin can destroy an inexperienced trader before he even gets started good. 

SureTrader is actually one of the leading online brokers for day trading. With a multitude of features, advantages, and benefits, you should definitely giving them a shot. Just make sure you know their trading rules and regulations thoroughly.  They have good, but sometimes slow customer service but will answer any of your questions or concerns. If you’re under 25k and looking for a solid broker to day trade with, SureTrader has everything you need, so it’s worth checking them out! 

How I Overcame my Fear of Taking Trades

A fellow trader asked me to do a blog about how I overcame my fear to take trades.  I have to admit that it was a long process for me to truly overcome my fear of trading.  Once I realized that it is natural to feel the way I do because to be a successful trader you have to react contrary to human nature.  This caused me to go out and try to understand what is happening in my brain so that I could figure out how to retrain my way of thinking.

The reason why I believed that I could retrain my brain is because when I was in college I was diagnosed with dyslexia.  I had been able to mask the problem up until that point because I learned how to adapt to my disability and function in school just like an average student.  My teachers nor my parents ever knew.  Then when I started college I had a professor who wanted us to write in pen because she wanted to see our corrections.  That wouldn't have been a problem if we did it out of class but we had to write essays in class.  So I tried to adapt again and buy erasable ink pens.  My professor knew that trick. Needless to say she once she saw all the corrections I had to make she knew I had a problem and referred  me to be tested.


What I Learned

Once I began getting help with my dyslexia I began to gain confidence in myself and I was able to take more chances and risks as it related to my scholastic career.  All this was made possible because they helped me reprogram my brain as to how it processed the information I was taking in and the information that was coming out of it.  So once I made the connection with the fear I had in trading and whether or not I was seeing the patterns or the setups correctly with the same fear I had with my schoolwork, I knew I needed to do some research on the psychological aspect of trading.

So in my research I found something called Neurofinance.  This studies the relationship between the brain and money. Studies have shown that trading activates the same primitive centers in the brain that are responsible for self-preservation. These are the primal emotional and defensive layers of the brain that do not respond very well to will power (self talk). In fact, the brain is hardwired to prevent you from turning off its primal circuits, its core defensive and reactive processes.

Why? These processes, such as fight, flight and pursuit have great survival value. When these primal parts of the brain are in control of your trading you are most likely to automatically do the opposite of what you consciously intend. It may feel like self-sabotage, but it is not diabolical… it is biological. It is just your self-preservation instincts taking control. It is difficult to manage an instinct, which is one reason why so many traders under-perform and eventually fail.

Normal human instinctual fear, which may be worsened by your genetic makeup, will interfere with trading success because it will make you more reactive to the randomness in the market. Winning traders are either not afraid or carefully manage their fear.


Most traders who trade scared are also trading scarred.  Normal losing trades and periods of drawdown are processed normally, as expectable--if somewhat disappointing--events. When losses are substantial, however, they can be processed as traumatic events. Instead of being processed through normal, explicit, verbal channels, they activate the flight/fight emergency mechanisms of mind and body, leaving their emotional imprint. Later, events similar to the traumatic losses--even normal ones--can trigger the emotional and physical reactions of emergency, including paralyzing anxiety.

Once trading becomes associated with painful experiences, traders come to expect losses and betrayal by the market. Because risk cannot be eliminated from trading, the inability to tolerate risk works against you. It makes you late in pulling the trigger (waiting for confirmation) or makes it impossible to stay in a good trade and let winners run.

To trade successfully, you need to reduce fear to a level where it is healthy, i.e. you respect the reality of risk, but your judgment and behavior are not impaired by fear.  To eliminate self-sabotage, you have to reduce your fear to manageable levels. You can’t trade well with a scared brain.


How I Overcame my Fear to Take Trades

Once I realized the problem I had to think of ways to train my brain to have a trader's mentality.  The first obstacle I faced was the confidence in my ability to identify a setup, plan, and execute a successful trade.  My confidence was shot because of what I explained a little earlier.  My emotions kept associating the painful experiences when I wanted to enter a trade.  I had suffered some losses and had lost over 1/2 of my account.  I started believing that I really didn't know what I was doing, which I didn't.  So my first step was to become educated.  I picked 1 strategy to learn, which was the ABCD long setup that Nate teaches in his DVD.  I learned and I practiced using the On-Demand feature on the TOS platform.  I practiced making a trading plan by establishing entry and exits and using position sizing to establish the correct risk/reward. Once my education was complete I was ready to move on to the next step.

I then had to convince myself that losing was OK.  That taking losses occasionally was part of the business and there was no way around it.  It was even more difficult convincing myself because my account was so small.  A few small losses and I would have been done.  This is the 2nd largest reason most new traders fail or quit.  The ones that are smart enough to get the education often only have a little money left to fund an account so mentally it is very difficult to accept losses.  Human nature makes you want to protect the little capital you have

I had to look at it this way.  I give myself about $150 a week for gas, food, and personal incidentals. I would play the lottery every week spending $100 to $150 a week.  I figured that If I'm willing to throw that money away for a million to 1 chance of making any decent money and I was OK with it, then I should be OK risking $50 in a trade to make $100 on something that I have a better than average of coming out a winner.  In the lottery I had no control over whether I won or not outside of picking the numbers or the scratch-off and buying the tickets.  On a trade I had a lot more control over the entry and the outcome of the trade.  The lottery was a gamble, the trade was an investment.  

With that I didn't have much trouble entering trades but then another problem surfaced.  When I was in the trade I was a nervous wreck.  I would consistently take the trade off as soon as I made over $25 if the price action slowed down.  I didn't use the exit strategy I had.  I found myself watching my P&L.  If I was up $40 or $50 and I saw my unrealized gains dropping I immediately sold.  I began to hide my P&L and traded the chart and tried to stick to my plan.  Some I did well and some I still got scared when I saw too many red candles print and I took it off early.  What helped me get better with letting my trades work was studying the charts of my trades every night and seeing how my plan worked but I didn't trade it correctly.  I guess the only good thing that happened during this time was that I was sticking to my stops and not letting losing trades get out of hand.  

This is how I programmed my mind to become a trader.

1. I got educated.  Even being an educator I sometimes forget the value of education and how important it is to have someone help you organize the information so that it makes sense.

2. I learned and became proficient with 1 setup at a time.  This helped my confidence as well.

3. Practice trading.  I admit I practiced with my money more than I should have at first but once I learned how to use the on-demand feature on TOS I began practicing trades at nights and on weekends.  The more I practiced the more entering and letting trades work become automatic

4. I used small position sizing at first to reduce the effect of my emotions.  I was more inclined to let a 100 share position size have the room it needed to work.  I was able to stick to my plan and let my winners run.  I had to in order to make $ with a 100 share position!

5. I hid my unrealized gains so that I couldn't see whether I was up or down on a trade.  This also helped to keep my emotions in check and focus on the trade.

6. I never traded alone.  I needed to be a part of a community that trades my setups because when I was new, and even today, I need support throughout the trading day. I could always ask a question to a moderator in chat when I felt lost.

7. I found a mentor to give me in depth individualized instruction and feedback.  Again I wanted someone who trades the same setups and has the same trading ideology that I have

8. I stopped watching my TweetDeck and chat trying to catch every move.  Just because there are people on Twitter and in chat calling out trades all day doesn't mean I'm not looking at the right stocks.  I just stuck to my scans and my setup.  Besides, 60% of whats called out is BS anyway.

Once you have your education out the way, the key is staying small until you are ready.  There is no shame in making $50 a day to start with on 100 share positions when you are trading the entire move. Slowly increase your share size and risk making sure you are completely comfortable at every step letting the trade work.  That is what I did. Stick to your stops.  1 missed stop can destroy months of hard work.  Remember, no one is perfect.  You will make mistakes.  I make mistakes.  But if you stay disciplined and trade within yourself, you will make it.  You will minimize the effects of your mistakes.  Work with a proven guru and community.  One that fits your style of trading.  Everyone knows I have found mine and how it has improved my trading.  I know now what they mean by "this is a marathon, not a sprint".

I hope this helps and that this is what those who asked me about this wanted.  As always just shoot me an email if you want to.

Which Statistic Do You Want to Be: 90 or 10?

I know this may be a blog that you may not want to read.  Maybe by now you are in "education overload" because everyone and their mother is stressing and offering education.  I also know that you are tired of hearing that 90% of all people that try day trading fail.  I have been hearing that for years as well and I am sick of it too.  But I sat back and thought about it this week because our state is in the process of changing the way we evaluate teachers.  Now, teachers will be evaluated on the success of their students.  I wondered why in the last 5 years there hasn't been an improvement in the 90% failure rate of day traders.  We have seen a boom in the last few years in gurus offering "education packages" to help you get started in the right way.  And still, we are stuck with the 90% rule.  So why can't we get past this.  As a professional educator complete with advanced degrees, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that most of the education being offered by these gurus to aspiring day traders is missing the mark.

 The largest fatal mistake an aspiring day trader makes has to deal with education.  Some believe that they can watch a few free videos and webinars and then they are ready to attack the market.  Then you have some that choose a guru and education package that is based on glitz and glamour and the promise of money and freedom that do not produce.  Or you have those proud individuals who believe they know what to do and that they do not need anyone to tell them how to trade because it's simply buy low and sell high.  How hard is that?  But those individuals that really drives me crazy are the ones who are too lazy to want to learn and just wants to pay a guru to provide them with alerts.  Since I have started my journey into trading several years ago, I have associated with many aspiring traders and I can count on 1 hand those who are still trading with me.

Here is what I know; education is the key to success in day trading.  You cannot expect to master a skill if you skip through a curriculum and not fully educate yourself.  This profession requires lifelong learning.  Above all of that, you must choose the right educational package and guru.  You must make sure that you take it serious and not take any shortcuts. While most gurus and their educational packages out there are horrible and just want your money, there are good people that truly want to help.  The hard part as a person brand new to this industry is to know how to navigate though the sea of gurus.  I am writing this blog to help those who may be lost at sea in this to find their way home.

Education, experience and knowledge are 3 of the most important factors when it comes to beginning your trading career.  You do not need to try and save money on education by ignoring it's importance. This is why you need to invest in your education and knowledge.  I would recommend finding a coach or mentor to help you get through this period.  Someone who is not trying to sell their own trading education packages but someone who knows and understand what you are going through during this time.  I feel that this is the most important time in a new traders career dealing with expectations and emotions.

The next step is to research professional traders and get to know their style of teaching and trading before you purchase any education package.  The best traders will have free lessons posted on YouTube or their Web page so that you will be able to "test drive" their style.  You want to find someone that actually trades everyday and that trading is their primary source of income.  Also you want to find a community with several professional traders with complementing styles.  This will give you a good chance for a well rounded education.

I have found a community with excellent and complete trading education packages that are written by traders who actually trade everyday. In fact, I can see their trades, scans, and charts on my screen in real time as I trade throughout the day. I would rather learn from successful trading educators who are willing to apply their knowledge, strategies and education with their own capital rather than just talk about it.  The community I have found is Warrior Trading.  Ross, Mike, and Jeff are trading and teaching real time throughout the trading day.  Unfortunately I found them too late to take advantage of the packages with the simulator. The content is second to none and I have experienced all three of them teaching so I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt they are the real deal.  They have occasional free chat days and you can find some great videos on Ross's YouTube channel.

At the time I wrote this I was a subscriber/member of the WT community and not a paid affiliate so my thoughts and feelings were genuine and based on my own personal experiences.  I am now a moderator in the chat room and one of the Warrior Pro instructors and my feelings has even grown stronger because I have input in the education we provide.

The Warrior Pro Bundle includes 3 live small group mentor sessions a week.  You will hear from Ross, Mike, and myself in these sessions.  This is invaluable because we will be trading and teaching the same setups that you just learned about.  We can help you analyze your trades and walk you through what you did right and what you did wrong.  You will have more confidence when you know you have trading mentors behind you as well as with you all day in chat.  Getting a mentor was the smartest thing I have done to date in my trading career.  I trade less, get bigger moves, and make more money now.  I have to thank Mike for mentoring me and for helping me become a better trader.  Remember, to be successful in trading you must be willing to learn throughout your career.  Even the gurus have a mentor that helped them get to where they are and stay on their game.

I really feel the biggest reason traders fail is because they do no get the proper education from the beginning.  Every new trader I meet and get to talk to I try and get them to understand that getting the right education is priority one.  If you have 2k and want to start trading look at investing in your education first and start saving up again because if you take a short cut you will be saving up again to pay for your education.  I don't care what anyone says you do not learn how to trade by blowing up your account.  The only thing you learn by blowing up your account is that you need to get educated before you trade again.  People that say that and say they are just paying tuition to the market to learn are just trying to make themselves feel better about the money they lost.  I know because I used to be that person.

Take it from me.  Education is the key to your sustained success in trading. Period.

What I Learned This Summer

Now that the summer has pretty much come to an end, I feel that it is time for me to reflect on the things I learned this summer.  I started out the summer full of excitement and enthusiasm and I truly believed I was ready to trade full time and make a living at it.  However, the very first lesson I learned was that you cannot have these types of emotions in trading.  They prevent you from making sound decisions when trading.  The first thing I had to do was to get my emotions in check so that I could approach this with my eyes wide open.  Once my eyes were open, I saw just how much I didn't know and how unprepared I was to do this full time.  You see, being consistently profitable for 6 months is just part of the equation. It is an important part, but understanding how to adapt to the changing markets and managing emotions on a daily basis were skills I lacked and it showed because the day I went live was the beginning of the summer lull in the markets.  Now I see that it was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.  Some people say blowing up a couple of accounts are the best thing but for me,this summer was it.

The next emotion I had to deal with was disappointment.  I fully expected to make twice as much as I was making before since I could give trading my full attention.  When things started out slow I started forcing trades and really got frustrated.  Once I slowed down and began to define myself as a trader and establish my go-to setups I began to settle in and start trading without emotion.  I had to learn to react the same toward a $50 loss as I did toward a $500 gain.  I had to approach each trade the same with the same focus and discipline regardless of the results of my previous trade.  I think a lot of inexperienced traders never get out of this cycle.  I also watched a lot of Clay Trader's videos and they were a big help as well. His motto is "Trade Without Emotion".

I also realized that I needed a true mentor.  Even the very successful gurus still have mentors that they talk to and work with every day.  Having a mentor really gave me more insight in my trades and kept me focused on the important aspects of my setups and strategies.  I learned the true importance of support and resistance levels and how to trade off of them.  I also learned how to use the moving averages for my intraday trades.  Both helped me be more selective in my trades.  There is always something new to learn about my setups and how to trade them in different market conditions.  It also helps that my mentor is in Warrior Trading chat everyday teaching.  It has made a tremendous difference in my trading.

I was also introduced to another "guru" that had a similar trading setup to what I trade.  Kunal from Bulls on Wall Street produced several free webinars, one being 4 days long.  His chat seems to be set up similar to Ross's but it is on steroids.  He is smart and is all in when it comes to trading and education.  I didn't try his chat because I feel the DTW community fits my personality better but I always catch his webinars and videos he posts on YouTube. I learned how to identify and the importance of the daily levels from my mentor Mike in DTW, I learned how to enter early and trade off of support or resistance versus waiting for confirmation candlestick patterns from Kunal's teachings.

I tried my hand at making video journals of my trades and I have shared a few on YouTube.  Talking through my trades seems to help me analyze them a little better. It seems like after a few weeks I forget small details from key trades but with the video and the chart it will keep it fresh in my mind.  It's also a better way for me to share what I am doing with others and get good feedback on my trades.  All of this helps me continue to improve and grow as a trader.

I didn't intend on going back to work but I received an offer that I just couldn't refuse.  I can still trade in the morning but just not at home.  I only use a laptop and an extra monitor and it helps me focus on only the best setups.  Since I went on vacation a month ago I have not used my trading station.  I have only used my traveling setup and my trading has been more focused.  I think I will stick to this until I get more solid in my trading.  I think I went too big too soon.  If I can make good money with this setup, I will continue to trade with my laptop and extra screen.

I guess everything that I learned this summer can be summed up in one word; education.  It doesn't matter how much capital you have, what tools you have, or what market you trade.  Without education, you will not succeed. Period.  But, there is so much information out there you have to know how to use it and put it together where it makes sense.  That's where choosing the right community to become a part of and having a true mentor comes in to play.

I feel I have turned the corner and I'm ready to start another chapter in my trading life.  I've even toyed with the idea of starting a trading coaching service for brand new "average joe" traders like me who are wanting to get started in trading but are overwhelmed with all that is out there.  But, I will continue learning and growing as a trader because this is what I want to do the rest of my life.

Profit.ly Stats for the Summer                                            All Trades           Long             Short

Total Net Profit	$27k	$20k	$6,659.49
Gross Profit	$29k	$21k	$7,109.76
Gross Loss	$1,809.72	$1,359.45	$450.27
Profit Factor	15.8	15.8	15.79
Total Trades	146	110	36
Percent Profitable	79.45%	80%	77.78%
Winning Trades	116	88	28
Losing Trades	30	22	8
Avg Trade Net Profit	$183.40	$182.88	$184.99
Avg Winning Trade	$246.43	$244.05	$253.92
Avg % Gain	3.54%	3.49%	3.7%
Avg Losing Trade	$60.32	$61.79	$56.28
Avg % Loss	0.86%	0.95%	0.6%
Ratio Avg Win to Avg Loss	4.09	3.95	4.51
Largest Winning Trade	$2,512.00	$2,512.00	$1,362.00
Largest Losing Trade	$196.21	$196.21	$119.00
Largest Winner as % Gross Profit	8.79%	11.7%	19.16%
Largest Loser as % Gross Loss	10.84%	14.43%	26.43%
Max Consec Winning Trades	13	13	11
Max Consec Losing Trades	4	3	3