The Stock Trading Reality Podcast

Talking with full time traders is always a popular thing on the show, and that’s what we have this week. Jason (‘jyandcomp2’ chatroom alias) is a full time trader who made the jump the way it should be done. Technically speaking, you could quit your job today and then tomorrow “be a full time trader”, but that doesn’t mean it was a wise decision. This brings up the logical question, “Well Clay… what “would” be a wise way to do it?” You’ll get that answered and a whole lot more as you hear from Jason and the ups and downs of his journey so far. I had a lot of fun with this talk and I’m certain there will be some valuable nuggets of wisdom you can extract from it. Let’s go!

Stay away from day trading! It is too risky. This is exactly what our guest, Mark, was told when he was first learning about the markets. Here’s the seemingly contradicting thing: I agree with the person who gave him this advice! Please give me a chance to explain, but this is just one of the interesting rabbit holes we go down while learning about Mark and his trading journey up until this point. I will say at this point that Mark no longer views day trading as “risky”… how he has reached this point is yet another thing you’ll hear all about. Let’s get to it.

A unique twist on this discussion is that our guest, Paul, is now a ClayTrader University member. By the time you as a listener hear these talks, in many cases, several weeks have passed by. I think this is pretty cool because it gives us all insight to what having “many pieces” of the puzzle looks like…. But… not quite “all” of them. Perhaps you can relate to Paul in this regard? You know what you are doing, but, you just have this feeling in your gut that something might also be missing? I’ve talked with Paul quite a bit since this discussion took place, and he’ll be the first to tell you that while he certainly was not wandering around blind, there were still “pieces” he was missing out on within his trading. Paul is a great guy who I’ve apricated getting to know better and better and I’m extremely confident that whether you are brand new to trading or a seasoned veteran, there will be something that you can find of value to apply to your trading or simply use as a “reminder” of how things need to be done. Let’s get to it!

This one had me laughing. If you find yourself having to fake digestive problems in order to “make a trade”, I feel confident in saying you are NOT going about the markets in the wisest of ways – haha! Thanks to our guest, Chad, and his truthfulness we all get to see what certain “strategies” can lead to. As funny as his story is, I’m sure several of you can relate to it in one way or another. Bottom line, signing up for a service that promises to send you text and/or email alerts in order to make you money is not going to turn out well. I realize on the surface it sounds great (and the really great advertisers make it sound even greater), but in the real world and in a practical sense… it doesn’t work consistently. From both an entertainment perspective and a wisdom perspective, this discussion has lots of great stuff in it, so be sure to set some time aside to listen! Notes: Today we speak with community member Chad. His interest in the market grew after he talked to someone who retired early and was currently trading ETFs in his tax-free account to generate about $1,000 a week. After spending hundreds of hours going through free education and briefly paper trading (for a week), he pooled together about 7k and borrowed money to get his account to the 10k mark. His logic was that he could trade 1000 shares of stocks under 10 dollars with that size account. Chad started the first day positive and then promptly lost 800 dollars the next. This led him to realize he needed to find someone who could provide a more structured training. He joined a community that essentially played follow the leader. While he had some winners he had more losers which were also larger than his wins. He decided to take a break and focus on life instead of trading. Utilizing the gains from selling his house, Chad got his finances back in order and cleared his old debts that had accumulated. After getting back into trading he started to paper trade options, futures, and forex. Chad opened a futures account and began to rapidly trade intraday since his new job hours worked with market hours. He realized that he ultimately did not want to day trade. As much as he wanted it to work it just didn’t work with his personality. This led him to focus on advanced options. Now Chad is paper trading advanced options while he saves up to a certain amount for his trading account. While he has a rough idea when he will go live, he’s going to wait to see what his paper trading performance has looked like and will use that to determine when he is ready to put money on the line again. Quotes: I thought you had to be on Wall Street or work in an office building to be a part of the market. I saw the tab at the top that said ‘Options.’ I thought that was settings for the platform. I was willing to listen to complete strangers to verify my thesis that this company would do well… even though they’ve never had a positive earnings report. I like to relate free education to a 1000 piece puzzle. You don’t have the picture on the box and you’re missing 100 pieces. I came to the conclusion was that I don’t like day trading. Despite wanting to do it so badly I didn’t like the rapid decisions you had to make. Links: https://claytrader.com/videos/trade-profits-100-time/

It’s time to once again to international and talk with a longtime member who lives down in South America! Jose (alias in the chatroom of “jose.olivieri”) has been with the community since almost the start six years ago. He is now a full time trader and has adapted some interesting mindsets towards the market, which when we talk about in depth, truly do make sense. At the end of the day, because trading is such a mental battle, you need to do whatever it takes to trick your mind (and voices) into believing certain principles. This is just one of the many things Jose and I talk about. There is lots of great stuff for someone who has been in the market for several years now. It’s time to go South below the equator. Let’s go!

The first thing I did after recording this episode was run and tell my wife about it. Listen, we’ve had some great stories of people “doing what it takes” to take control of their life and situation, but I’m pretty sure Zach takes the prize. He has and continues to go to extremes in order to take destiny into his own hands and create the life for his family and himself. I won’t go any further than throwing out there… the next time you think, “Can I do it?”… think of Zach! There are also lots of great nuggets of wisdom in regards to just how tricky the human mind can be with emotions. You can be extremely confident that you will be able to control them, but… well… you’ll see what I mean. Let’s get to it! Notes: Today we talk to community member Zaher who goes by Zach in the community. Currently, his wife and children are located elsewhere and he wanted to find a good job to support himself and his family with the intention of being able to go back home to them. After funding a small binary options account, Zach started making some decent gains following someone else's instructions. He is the type of person who wants to learn instead of following blindly. It soon became clear that this particular broker/educator was all a scam. Eventually, Zach realized he needed to fund a brokerage in Canada and found a discount broker. While he deals with other people’s problems and emotions daily for his day job, he thought he was the master of his emotions. This was until he finally put his hard earned money on the line day trading. He got caught immediately buying tops and selling bottoms. Zach realized that he needed a mentor after a little while of losing money. Even regardless of all the books he consumed, it was unable to help him handle the real-life stresses trading involves. After emailing 3 different trading educators, Zach ultimately decided to start taking courses here at Claytrader.com. While Zach would fly through the books earlier in his journey, he has now recognized the fact that it’s not a matter of racing to the end. Regarding the courses, he is taking his time one course at a time and rewatching material that he has trouble grasping. He understands this is not a get rich quick scheme and takes time and effort to succeed. Quotes: I’m not the type of person who likes to follow anybody. I just really want to learn. I went and searched for every book that had to do with trading… and I bought them all. I’ve always thought I was a person who could control my feelings. That was until my first-day trade. 80% of my trades I’m reading it right but it’s so volatile it shakes me out right away. Then I re-enter and it shakes me out again. You helped me change. You helped me to think about things differently. I want to commit to being a really good student and I want to live with my kids. It’s been 6 years and they are growing up without me.

Ever since I posted a video on my YouTube channel about the $400 to $29,000 trade, you as viewers have demanded to hear from this trader! Well, here he is! Our guest, Maquan Dawkins, took some time out of his extremely busy schedule to share his journey with us… including the massive winning trade he scored. While I realize it is easy to get caught up in the hype of such crazy numbers, please keep in mind the underlying themes here of just how much work and effort Maquan has put into his trading strategy. He is by no means throwing darts and certainly is not doing the whole “go big or go home” approach. Once in a while though, the market does give you BOOMS in your favor. Maquan is a high energy guy, so be ready! Let’s GO! Notes: Today we talk with community member MaQuan. His introduction to the market was before 2008. He was friends with the president of a bank who would talk often about the market. While his friend tried to explain the market to him, he never fully grasped it at the time. After changing location and taking a pay cut, his fiance suggested he focus with much more intent upon trading. After looking around the education landscape, he ran into someone offering a program for $20,000 but he thought that was ridiculous. MaQuan invested in the University package and began working through aspects he wanted to focus on. The problem he had was his consistency so he developed a seven-step strategy that should shape what kind of volatility his portfolio will have. While he didn’t paper trade using a platform, he mentally tested his strategy over time with lots of reviews after the market was closed. A big reason for his fluctuating results earlier was not utilizing the same amount of capital per trade. Now all of that criteria is part of his seven-step strategy. He’s never going out looking for home runs. Base hits add up fast. Quotes: Fund an account with no education. Find stocks with no education. Buy stocks with no education. 2015 was a good year for me. My strategy wasn’t there so I couldn’t duplicate what I did right. Because of my job I don’t have a lot of time to sit and watch the trades. That’s why I had to form a strategy that fits for me. I’m a football player, Clay. That’s how it works. My brain is looking at a set of plays they run and the percentages. That’s exactly how I work in the stock market. Links: https://claytrader.com/videos/turning-400-into-29000/

Struggle with emotions in your trading? Taking a step back and letting numbers and data be the drivers of your decisions can make a huge difference. This is the exact pathway our guest, Sean (in the chatroom, “seantepper”), has chosen to pursue. What I found especially fascinating about Sean was his unwavering desire to stay laser-focused on the numbers and nothing else. Oftentimes, there are so many shiny objects floating around that it can be easier to distracted and pulled off our target goals, but for Sean, he’s like an iron trap clamped onto the data. This brings up a few areas of gray that he and I discuss to better position himself, but all in all, there is a lot that can be learned from his mindset and approach. Let’s get to it! Notes: Today we talk with community member Sean who rarely has time to hang out in the Inner Circle based on his current job. Coming from the tech world, Sean recognized he needed to focus on educating himself first rather than just blindly throwing money into the market. Sean utilizes Excel Spreadsheets to quantify if an option is worth buying. He sets alerts so that throughout the day he can take action if required. This sheet helps him analyze opportunities in about 30 seconds per stock which allows him some time in the morning to make decisions. While he is still focusing on paper trading, the gains in that account do not matter to him. Paper trading is to build good habits and give himself the best odds for success by having a historical record. Sean realizes that he can over-engineer this spreadsheet until the end of time but sometimes the market does what the market does… it has an element of randomness to it. This has led to some big wins and big losses but he recognizes that those events happen now and again. His key focus is the trend of his system. Quotes: I wanted to learn ‘true value investing’ like Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger but I ran into your courses first. If you move forward with uncalculated risk, you’re just gambling. I went through 5 stocks and each one was disqualified. Each one would lose money for me based on previous tests. There are no emotions. It’s just really leveraging data to make decisions for me. You look at the trends of why you’re losing and winning and see the correlations. It just takes practice. Focus on the discipline and the money will follow.

Whether or not people want to admit it, most start out as a gambler within the markets. Sure, it may not be intentional, but when you don’t know what you don’t know… odds are… you are doing something that is essentially gambling. How do you evolve away from this? What types of ups-and-downs does this bring along with it? We go into this and much more with our guest Jim (chatroom alias of ‘farmboy’). Jim experienced the world of penny stocks for a while before deciding to climb out of that mud pit and then from there still had plenty more lessons to learn. Jim is currently trading with real money as he builds up good habits which can eventually be scaled into larger trading amounts. There are some key talking points that our discussion brings about, so be sure to listen carefully so you don’t start comparing apples to oranges. Let’s get to it! Notes Today we talk to community member Jim who goes by ‘farmboy’ in the chat. When he started his first job he was able to buy into a 401k. He was limited to 3 funds and focused on the ones with the best percentage returns. Most of the capital Jim had was in safe investments such as mutual funds and various diversified funds but allocated a small amount for speculation. He did dabble in penny stocks but learned a valuable lesson regarding liquidity very quickly. Eventually, Jim realized that he needed to learn much more about trading and dove headfirst into Claytrader University. After going through the penny stock course, he decided to leave the penny stocks alone and move onto more liquid products. Jim doesn’t paper trade because it doesn’t evoke any emotions. He believes he wouldn’t make the same decisions without having money on the line. Moving forward he would like to focus on swing trading since he still spends a majority of his time working on his farm. Quotes I knew the power of compound interest. As far as the market it is, it’s still mystical to me. Kind of like an addicted gambler. Even though I know I’m throwing my money away to a certain extent, maybe I can make it on the next one. Even though I still don’t know what I’m doing, I’m still trading. I just can’t stop myself. I want to get more into swing trading. I just haven’t gotten up to those courses yet. I found myself not wanting to honor stops but realized I need to let it go and let the stop happen.

Rough times happen. Falling into a rut happens. The question becomes, how do you respond to these types of circumstances? In this episode, we talk with international member (from Denmark) Zagros who experienced some bumps in his journey, but as you’ll see, no excuses… he did what needed to be done. Even though he is a younger guy, there is something that we all (no matter our age) can take away from Zagros and his journey up until this point. For me, it was pure motivation and inspiration that when life feels “off”, you just need to look in the mirror and take matters into your own hands. He is working hard on his trading knowledge and doing what needs to be done to set himself up to give him the best possible chances to succeed in the market. Let’s get to it! Notes Today we talk with community member Zagros from Denmark. His interest in the market was due to a search online about various jobs he could work digitally with lots of flexibility. He doesn’t have the largest family but he wanted to provide for them while having the ability to travel. Zagros expressed an interest in Clay’s courses at 16 years old and after his mother was assured that he was truly interested she helped him pay for the first course. He was having a rough time in his life so he took a break from trading education and volunteered for military service. This service led him to find the discipline he lacked prior to joining. When he finished his service, he enrolled in University and began his educational journey. Zagros takes in information best by both listening, watching, and transcribing what is taught to give him the best odds of retaining the data. Zagros utilizes options in the US market because he enjoys having the ability to cap his risk and also decide what type of probability of profit he would like. This is another example of how trading is different from one person to the next. His risk profile will most likely differ from your risk profile. After trying to create a ‘holy grail’ type system, he realized that this was a fool’s errand and scaled it all back to just the very basics. Price action and volume are kings but implied volatility is also an option traders friend. Quotes I wanted to make money online so I could care for my mother and travel. I knew I could not do it with a traditional 9-5 job. Clay said ‘discipline discipline discipline.’ I wasn’t a very disciplined guy so I wanted to kick myself in the butt. A defined risk is a beautiful thing. You can theoretically have an ‘all weather’ portfolio by adjusting your positions. When I tried to make my own system, I put so many indicators on the chart that it was crazy. So I went back to basics.