The Stock Trading Reality Podcast

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.

I've hung out with this guest multiple times and I can speak with first hand experience he is a quality individual. Mike, or better known as "HeyFordy" in the chatroom, has been on the show two times before, but like I said, he's a great guy so why wouldn't we want an update from him? Him and I talk about some pretty profound areas that really can only be discovered from personal experience or from listening to someone who talks publicly about them, which is what Mike does. Setting all exaggeration and hype aside, please listen very closely to what Mike has discovered after his multiple year journey, it truly is the key to finding your comfort zone in this crazy world we call trading. This was truly an epic episode, don't miss it. Let's go! Notes Today we talk to Mike who goes by 'HeyFordy' in the community. This is his 3rd episode with us which is a testament to his skills considering he has been doing this consistently for quite some time. Mike has realized over the years that trading absolutely affects the quality of his life when he puts too much weight on his performance. He has had large accounts and small accounts but the main takeaway is he found a comfortable spot where he allows himself to withdraw gains while still growing his account. The biggest change in his trading is that he became content with smaller winners more often instead of going for the grand slam every day. The market doesn't present huge opportunity often but it does present smaller opportunities more often and Mike has been making a great return since this realization. Clay and Mike discuss the importance of actually pulling money out of the trading account to pay yourself and remove it from 'harms way.' It is a fool's errand to think that someone's one month's returns will repeat every single month. Pay yourself and do what makes you comfortable regarding your account. Mike mentions that trading is not for everyone. Stress was a huge topic in this week's podcast and not just strictly from a trading perspective. If you don't feel well mentally and also physically, what chance do you think you stand competing against the best in the world in the arena known as the market? Quotes I found my comfort zone. I don't get really big winners anymore but I'm happy with it. I was chasing those big wins a majority of my trading experience. I have this new state of mind regarding not having to hit a big win every time. These small wins are small wins but they add up. If you made a profit there is no shame in taking that little bit out. I use options much like I use equities. I use them on extremes. I'm looking to grow my account just not by leaving money directly in my account. I know that may sound weird but it's probably a mental thing for me. Enjoy your life. Life is not trading. Trading should be a small little part of your life. Links https://claytrader.com/podcast/episode099/ https://claytrader.com/podcast/episode134/

One of the worst things you can do to yourself in the world of trading is forcing yourself into the markets because you "need to trade". As odd as it sounds, the best time to learn about the markets and trading is when you have no pressing need to do so This is exactly what we have with our guest Orval (his chatroom community alias, 'Sandman'). Orval is a police officer who enjoys his job and has done a great job of rising through the ranks. With this being the case, he has put him in the ideal situation of wanting to learn the markets, but not in a high-pressure type of way. At times people can get blinded by the glitz and glamor of trading and look to it as a solution to all their problems. However, in many situations, this comes with people "needing" to have success, which in a cruel way, makes achieving success that much more difficult. Lots of lessons to learn from Orval and his journey so far, let's get to it! Notes: Today we talk with Orval who goes by Sandman in the community. In the 90s, Orval was a drill sergeant for a program designed for at-risk kids. This was his introduction to long term investing where he set aside a portion of his paycheck pretax and then never thought twice about it. After seeing the gains from his mutual funds, Orval decided to open a brokerage account to individually pick stocks in an attempt to beat the mutual funds' return. While he had some winners he also had some losers considering he was relatively new to all things trading. In his younger years, he was familiar with living on a very low amount of income between him and his wife. This was the spark that led him to always have the goal of padding his retirement by saving and living well within his means. This has become a habit for him to the point where he doesn't even think of the additional money he saves every month. Orval started to look into more trading resources and this led him to StockTwits. After a short time there, he saw Clay's analysis on one of the stocks he held and Orval investigated further. He really appreciated that Clay had no problem showing his losers along with his winners. He decided to focus on the guaranteed trade (a JOB) which led Orval to take a break from his trading education. While he was also working on his personal fitness, he once again found the energy to continue working through the University program. Instead of picking a hard date to start trading live trading, Orval will go live once he feels comfortable on paper. He realizes that it takes everyone a different amount of time to get there and forcing a specific date would be foolish. Quotes: I threw around 100 bucks in this stock and let it sit. It went up 1200-1700 percent. Never took profits on it … I figured it was going up and it would keep going up. That wasn't true obviously. I really didn't know anything. Maybe just a little bit of success is a dangerous thing because it makes you think that you know more than you really do. I understood that I got lucky and I didn't want to blow up my account and lose the progress that I made. If you don't have your health you don't have anything. Regardless of if you are a successful trader or not. Yeah I got kind of lucky but it could have gone the opposite way. I wouldn't have lost lots of money but it still would have hurt.

Wanting to learn how to profit from the financial markets is a tricky situation. On one hand, you need to have an extreme passion in order to ensure you have the willpower and desire to push through the tough times. On the other hand, you don't want to allow the passion to create a situation where you are burning yourself out. There is a fine line but it's a critical line that must be located for your personal situation. Our guest, Justin (his chatroom alias, 'ChunkyMonkey') talks about this aspect of his journey amongst much else. He has quite a bit of experience with other "services" in the industry and sheds quite a bit of light on some of the shadiness that exists out there. While he is still in "planning and learning" mode, given all the numerous things he's already been through on his journey there is something for everyone to take away. Let's get to it! Show Notes: Today we speak with community member Justin who goes by 'chunkymonkey' in the chat. His introduction to the market was at a relatively young age. As he got older Justin had a mentor who actively traded in the stock market so he had a slight insight into what trading entailed. While this person mainly used fundamental analysis, he did get a glimpse into technical analysis. His risk profile would be defined as very conservative and he even fears paper trading strictly for the fact that it may not reflect accurately his gains in a live environment. Justin enjoys owning a business and working but his long term goal is to be able to travel the world while making money simultaneously. This overarching idea is what led him to take a closer look at trading. He took a look at a lot of different services offered by other people in the trading industry and while he sampled a few, he didn't enjoy the degenerate gambler feel of some of the communities along with some very surface level information that Justin already knew. What he enjoyed about Inner Circle was the fact that the alert rooms had no fluff or biased opinions, just technical setups. Justin has slowed down regarding going through the courses in an effort to digest the material more fully. While he has only completed the first course he has planned out the rest of his educational journey including when he will start paper trading seriously followed by going live. Since he's learned about many indicators, he absolutely realizes that he needs to pick the ones that help him the most (versus having 10+ on his charts). Justin knows that the search for the Holy Grail is one that cannot be solved but it's more about finding what tools aid in decision making. Quotes: He would show me support and resistance and fibs but it was so overhead at that time for me." I'm very risk averse even when paper trading. I take it very personally, probably more the being wrong part." Part of the thing I love about Inner Circle is that some rooms are just for alerts. In the other chat rooms I had to filter through lots of chit chat." I had to back myself off a little bit because every waking moment I would think about trading. If I overdue it I will burn myself out so I backed off a little bit. It's not efficient to ride a motorcycle with 6 wheels. But just add a few training wheels like moving averages and MACD. Just trying to figure out what works.

Are you someone with a schedule that does not allow for you to be able to watch your screen every second of the day? If so, you are not alone and you will find great value in our discussion with community member Jon (his alias in the chatroom is also just 'Jon'). He is someone with a packed schedule and on the surface you would think there would not be any way he could "be a trader". There is power and freedom in knowledge and Jon took the steps needed to inform himself to take advantage of an area of the market he was originally not aware of (most new people have no idea about it). Around these parts we call it options farming and it is truly a great way to get involved with the markets in a very time efficient way. Jon tells us all about where he started and how he arrived to the point of making money with minimal time required each day. Lots of knowledge is coming your way, so let's go! Show Notes: Today we speak with community member Jon. His introduction to the market was actually a gift from his grandmother. She gave him some stock as a graduation gift and he eventually learned about dividend paying stocks. While passively investing in his 401k and focusing on companies he thought had potential/believe in, he started seeing a scrolling ticker of big movers for the day. This led him to start looking into penny stocks around 2013 which was quite a time for small cap stocks. After making modest gains being a passive investor, Jon started to see the allure of penny stocks and would focus on the highly discussed ones on StockTwits and iHub. While he had quite a few winners (by luck) he eventually went on a losing streak and decided to abandon penny stocks entirely. Jon saw Clay post a chart analysis video and this intrigued him to look into technical analysis. After some deliberation, he joined the program and has taken a bit of time to work through the program due to his commitments outside of his day job and hobbies. As he has worked through the program he noticed that the Advanced Options strategies work perfectly with him having a limited time during the day to trade actively. A previous podcast led him to investigate the opportunities of those strategies and he has been using them exclusively ever since. Eventually Jon will look more into day trading but Clay and Chezz try to dissuade him from jumping into that too early. While there is nothing wrong with continuing your education and expanding your knowledge, if he only has his lunch hour to trade this can turn into a slow bleed or worse, a disaster. Quotes: I thought you could only buy or sell in 100 share lots. It wasn't until 2011 when I discovered you could buy only 1 share of something if you wanted. Here I am making 1 or 2 percent on Microsoft or Ford and I see these other stocks moving 200, 300, 1000 percent in a day. That piqued my interest a bit. I would buy in and just kind of wait for the news to happen and see what the stock would do when the news did come out. There's so much material it's crazy. It's a good problem to have. There is very little time commitment once you're in the trade to maintain it. It's been awesome for me. Links: A Stock Traders Daily Routine: https://claytrader.com/videos/an-option-swing-traders-daily-routine-in-detail/