The Stock Trading Reality Podcast

I’ve had an encounter with the mafia! Well, not really but I think my guest this episode is about as close as I’ll get given his, amazing, accent. Believe it or not, the previous statement actually pertains to an underlying theme of my discussion with fellow community member Frank. The mafia does not care your reasoning for anything if you are not behaving as you should within their system of business. The same is true for the markets. The markets do not care about anything. If you are not behaving in a way that is logical and disciplined, they will make you pay the price in a big way. Frank’s journey has been filled with many learnable moments, but at the core, the one fact he has learned is while the markets don’t care about your sex, skin color or anything else, they also don’t care if you have a wife and family or a cute little dog. The markets are indifferent and will destroy you all the same. I loved Frank and his attitude (did I mention his accent?) and how he continues to go about this crazy journey we call trading. Let’s get to it!

First off, Happy New Year! I wish you nothing but the best for this upcoming new year! I have mixed feelings on New Year resolutions. I’m not opposed to them, but at the same time, they do seem a bit overdramatized. In this solo episode, I want to throw something your way for you to consider this new year. I want you to understand that time machines do exist! In fact, they are all around you when you know what to look for and how to utilize them. While I can’t say this topic is an earth shattering one, in some ways it is because the strategy hides in plain sight. Some of the most powerful approaches to trading, business and life can be unlocked by using this time machine strategy. Whether you are trading, investing or just trying to beast mode life, I’m all for sharing what has helped me. If it can provide any sort of assistance to you and your goals, then I’ll consider this episode a massive success! Let’s get to it! 

Progress. Regardless of what you are trying to accomplish in life, that’s the core goal. It is no different within the world of trading and investing. We all start out in the same exact spot: brand new and knowing nothing. From that point it’s all about making progress. This brings up the interesting and important philosophical question though: what is, “actual”, progress? No matter what you do, you’ll be making progress; however, it could be progress in the wrong direction as you build up bad habits without even realizing you are. If could be progress towards a cliff edge because you are too new to even know it’s a cliff. This is why I enjoyed our guest from the community, Sheng, so much. He’s a great example of not only what progress looks like, but “good” progress. He was kind enough to share his journey so far and talk about the ups and downs. He’s still got plenty of work to do, but from where he started to where he is now, he’s made solid progress and will continue to do so! Let’s take a look at what progress is and how you can do the same!

Let me state the obvious. Everyone in the markets has one fact in common: we all started out as new traders. I will make another assumption about us all as traders and people: we value our time. When you combine these two facts, it would make sense to find value in time efficient learning strategies. My guest from our community, Jamie, is focused on doing exactly that. Jamie is going about his trading journey in a very methodical way. Like us all, there have been a few bumps and bruises along the way; however, he has realized the importance of focusing on learning in a manner that promotes efficiency. Jamie is very open about what he has done so far. Both those things that can been painful and those that are helping him achieve his goals. I enjoyed our conversation as he is someone we can all relate to. Our conversation takes us to several topics that I’m confident we’ll all be able to find common ground on. Let’s get to it and hear about Jamie’s story!

There’s no way around it. As traders and investors, “fine tuning” must take place in order to truly build a valid strategy. I’ll be the first to admit that fine tuning can be really annoying. Sometimes just showing up and applying broad strokes is so much better due to the, deceivingly, time efficiency. This is why not fine tuning is so dangerous. The extra time is where the details are revealed and worked out. My guest, Jeremy is a great example of this. Been been in the weeds fine tuning his strategy, particularly, in regards to “letting it breath”. Is this an area you are struggling with? Maybe you aren’t even aware it is an area to fine tune? When you’re new and don’t know what you don’t know, this can happen (it’s normal!). Jeremy was great to talk with and was completely open about his journey. He shares some great stories that can help us all build and/or safe guard ourselves within our own journeys. Let’s get to it and hear about Jeremy and his journey so far!

All of this was pretty unintended. I routinely have people asking me about my thoughts on cryptocurrency, so I chose to do a quick social media post explaining my personal long term investment and wealth building/preserving strategy. For me, I feel most comfortable and at ease with assets that have, real, value. This opened up a can of worms as the crypto diehards showed up and droves to try and refute a very simplistic argument on my end. The fact that something so basic was so stubbornly defended forced me to do some reflections. After about four seconds it dawned on me that these people had no other choice. These people needed to do what they were doing out of pure necessity. The very nature of cryptocurrency, by default, creates cults. I wanted to expand on these so you better understand how to reason with the unreasonable. More so, I hope to help you understand (and therefore save time) in regards to realizing there is nothing you can really do to change a crypto cult member’s mind. Let’s hit on a few points that will clarify the topic and help you guard your time.

Have you been there? Something happens within your trading and it is as if someone else takes over your body in pure anger and rage? To the person who has never traded with real money, it’s easy to sit back and proclaim, “I would never let myself lose control in such a way!”. To the person who has experience trading with real money, it’s a feeling that we’ve all encountered. In this episode, I welcome back fellow member Kelly (”Kellynm” in the chatroom). He’s a great guy who is easy to talk to and is very open about his journey. As I’m sure you can tell from the title of this episodes, “rage trading” has been an issue for him; however, he is well aware of it and working very diligently to kick it to the curb. Kelly and I go down several interesting rabbit holes, including a great discussion on “letting winners win”. If you want to hear from the perfect trader (warning: this person does not exist), this won’t be an episode for you. If you want to hear from a genuine trader who is sharing his experience so we can all benefit, then I promise you’ll enjoy yourself. Let’s get to it!

We did it! We’ve hit our 400th episodes in a row without missing a single Monday release! I say “we” because you as a loyal listener keep the motivation fire kindled to continue to find volunteer guests. The fact we’ve been able to find people to volunteer of their time for 400 weeks in a row is a testament to the quality of people in our community. For this special episode, I wanted to bring back to of these volunteers who I admire in many ways: Michell and Ashlee. They are what I would call, Lady Monsters. These are women who offer a very different insight into the world and life compared to the main stream medias narrative. While we don’t talk a whole lot about trading, what we do talk about with help you with your trading. How? If you want to be at trader, you need money (capital). If you approach life with the attitude and problem solving philosophy of these two Lady Monsters, you’re going to have more money to trade with. In some ways, you’ll have more money because you just simply don’t waste it! For you younger women out there who want to get into trading, please listen very closely as we go down a rabbit trail about weddings. Again, does it have anything to do with trading per-so? Nope. But both of their attitudes towards the topic reveals why they have found so much freedom of time and wealth within their lives (along with having extra money to use to trade with!). Let’s get to it!

Anything you do in life will have phases. This fact is no different when it comes to the world of trading. What I have learned over the years of doing this show and talking with almost 400 traders is most phases are, broadly speaking, the same. The big difference arises in regards to how these phases are approached and navigated. This episode, fellow member Eli breaks down the various stages he has gone through in his trading journey so far. He came prepared to the show with a structure and as a former engineer, I can always appreciate a good structured process! I’m confident you’ll enjoy Eli’s perspective on how he has approached the world of trading and how he has navigated the various twists and turns that we are all guaranteed to face. As usual, we drift down some interesting rabbit trails that take us into some quality critical thinking conversations. Eli is a very humble man and one whom I respect. I’m confident you will feel the same way as you walk away from the discussion with several pieces of common ground. Let’s get to it!

There are some people you just sit back and say, “can I be your friend?”. They are just so similar to your approach towards solving problems and overcoming hurdles that it would be foolish to not want to build a relationship with them. My guest, Ashlee (chatroom alias “SassyPantsAsh”), is one of those people. She has been through a whole lot in life, particularly back during the real estate disaster of 2008; however, she never once threw up her hands and said, “I can’t!”. She found a way to keep trending upwards and her journey only improved in strength. I mean, at this point in her life, one of her streams of income is to recruit astronauts to go to space. Yes, you read that right! This life experience and mentality towards problem solving has prepared her in big ways for trading. Like us all, she is not perfect and has had several headaches when it comes to the world of learning to trade, but, she’s doing extremely well and has a great perspective about it. Ashlee and I get into some great discussions about trade management and other key areas that traders struggle with. It’s a conversation that is both motivational and I would like to think, entertaining! Let’s get to it. Buckle up! Ashlee ain’t playin’!