The Stock Trading Reality Podcast

"No guts. No glory." That's definitely the attitude our guest took when first entering into the markets. Romeo (chat room alias, "YankeesVsBoston") has some very bizarre luck when he first started trading, leading to a very false sense of confidence. Enough confidence in fact to give him the guts to take a loan out to fund his trading account! Like I was saying, "go big or go home" was his philosophy early on. How'd that all work out? Was it a wise move on his part? Let's find out... Notes: After graduating from college, Romeo decided to set some money aside to speculate in the market. He was not happy with the returns of CDs and savings accounts. This led him to the world of penny stocks. His initial penny stock purchase immediately went to 0 but to Romeo’s surprise, a few months later this ticker had a flurry of volume and tripled his money. This led him to believe he was the king of trading but continued to fuel his interest in the market. Romeo took a $5,000 loan to add to his trading account now and tried to utilize it on 2 trades but luckily for him, he could not get a fill and essentially avoided two massive pump and dumps that would have wiped his account out. Unfortunately, he went all in at the top of his next trade and sold the low to cover his first loan payment. This event led him to realize the importance of practicing his craft so he spent months paper trading to find what specific type of strategy worked best for him. After chatting with another member he decided to join CTU and further his education. His dedication was only further compounded by having his friend believe in him and give him a generous loan to help kickstart his trading attempt. At the time of this recording, Romeo is now trading full time and has almost completely cleared out his old debts. Quotes: “As soon as I bought it, it went straight to .0001 the next day. I thought ‘Wow, that’s it. It’s gone.’ “ tweet this quote “I finally got filled and it was at the very top. I held and sold at the bottom and barely had enough for the loan payment.” tweet this quote "I probably spent 6 hours of my time a day studying and studying. I had zombie eyes. I was really focused on what worked for me.” tweet this quote

Wow! That's really all that can be said about the perfect storm that hit this trader. I won't spoil anything, but a lot of weird and crappy things happen... all at once, leading to a not-so-ideal spot for our member Chris ('xzbt' is his alias the community chat room). He was backed into a corner and had to change things up quite a bit, but he did what he had to do to keep himself engaged in the markets. This journey is definitely one of the more unique ones we've heard, so sit back, relax and enjoy the ride! Notes: Chris had a few family members and friends who were quite active in the market. His uncle had the foresight to go to cash before the 2008 crash. Unfortunately, Chris listened to his CFP advisor and was caught in the melt down. His first introduction to Clay was actually during the first iteration of Robotic Trading before the website and community existed. It was presented to iHub which is where he found Clay initially. While all of this was happening his business was also in decline so he became quite aware that he would be unable to trade actively for a while so this led to a multi-year trading hiatus. However, his interest in the market did not wane and during that hiatus he continued to check the various charts and industries of interest. Even though Chris’ ‘hand of cards’ has been quite rough over the past few years, his passion for the market has never wavered. Regardless of the fact that he is not live trading currently, he is practicing his craft and paper trading realistically which will only serve to help him transition back to the live market with good habits. Quotes: “It was a perfect storm of a market crash and massive unexpected expenses and literally wiped out my savings.” tweet this quote “I try to live my life with the philosophy that I try to learn from my mistakes and not make the same mistakes twice.” tweet this quote “That was a mistake I made. I did mental exercises looking at the charts but I didn’t write it down.” tweet this quote “I still battle with the fear of missing out. Sometimes you just have to take that split second to think about it.” tweet this quote “If I see an alert I actually research it to decide if that is something I would trade. If I’m too late, oh well.” tweet this quote Links: Course: Robotic Trading Video: How To Paper Trade Video: How To Paper Trade With a Purpose Course: The Cash Flow Creation Guide

Thanks to a very open and honest sharing of his journey from chat room member Andre, we all get a behind-the-scenes view of the chaos emotions can create. Throw in the fact that he did not really have a plan either, and the snowball (he's from Canada, get the joke? haha) of chaos becomes that much larger and picks up that much more momentum. Andre had a few key events that caused him to stop the snowball, and then reanalyze a different way to go about this whole trading business. What were these events and what steps did Andre take? Let's find out... Notes: Andre’s introduction to the market was a stock picking contest through a newspaper many years ago and while he didn’t do well, this contest had piqued his interest in the market. After doing some Google research, Andre began trading based on tickers he would read other people talk about (Stocktwits, iHub, etc.). His trading was very unsteady at first and even when he made money, he was trading US stock with Canadian currency so he would also get hit with conversion fees every trade he made. He did end up opening a $10,000 account with much lower fees and began trading again but still had no real strategy at this point. He had a successful strategy of buying toward the close and selling into any pop in the morning but he would then give back all those gains in the afternoon. While going through the courses, Andre realized he was trading very emotionally which led to most of his losses. Now he is planning out solid trading plans with proper risk versus reward. Even though he is not comfortable swing trading yet (since he does work a full time job) he plans on working through the Advanced Options course to see if it would be viable for him. Quotes: “I opened up a $1000 account and blew it immediately. I came across some penny stocks and just threw some in.” “I didn’t fully understand the market back then. I hoped it would climb and just keep climbing.” “If there wasn’t any major sell off at the close, I would use that as an indicator to stay in. I’d then give it back in the afternoon.” “I usually just jump in and then put my stop. I’ll use my risk vs reward ratio and continue to work on my entries.” “Don’t run at it. It will come to you in due time. Take your time and don’t get riled up.”

It's an odd thing to think about, but in all reality, it's a logic worth discussing deeper: if you are going to do something wrong, at least be wise about it. This is the overarching theme of our interview with chat room member Garrett. I realize it seems like a contradiction, I mean how can something be "wise" if by definition, it is already "wrong". We talk about that and much more with Garrett, who very well may be one of the more skeptical people we've had on the show. I don't say that in a bad way, but it created some great conversation pieces and perspectives. Notes: Garrett’s introduction the market began by having a friend tell him that he should let someone else manage his money. Being skeptical by nature, he figured that he could manage it better than anybody else and keep his best interest in mind. He was smart enough to limit his risk right off the bat by only funding his trading account with $500 of his initial $12,000. After putting this in 2 stocks that were household names, he immediately took losses to the tune of 50% of that initial $500. These losses led Garrett to realize that he needed to get educated to compete against the professionals in the market. He was smart enough to be skeptical of penny stocks and didn’t think he could compete in commodity futures so he settled on indices futures. Considering he opened a small account, he once again took more strings of losses that led Garrett to pursue some paid education vs the free Google and Youtube trading videos he had watched prior. After stumbling upon a day trading ‘guru,’ he quickly realized this person’s style did not mesh well with him and eventually he found Clay. After going through the courses Garrett realized he needed to go to paper trading until he had a firm grasp on all the techniques and risk management. He’s currently in the break even stage of his option trading and that’s where he will most likely hone his edge in the market and continue to improve as time goes on. Quotes: “I just went ahead and put 500 in eTrade. I did absolutely no research at all and just bought a couple stocks.” tweet this quote “I really wasn’t paying too much attention to the chart. I just bought into the stock and was hoping it would go up.” tweet this quote “I’ve done so much research and if I still can’t become profitable, I still need to go do some more research.” tweet this quote “I’m not going to give up and I recover well from losses. I don’t let it ruin me.” tweet this quote

I give episode guest, Charlie, a lot of credit as he was willing to sit down with just me and be interviewed. Our co-host, Chezz, had other obligations, so Charlie got stuck with me... and he did great! His analogy and description about the emotion of greed was absolutely awesome and almost brought a tear to my eye! Charlie is one of the younger guests we've had on the show; however, in his very short journey thus far, he's already experienced as much as some people who have been trading for years. Thanks to Charlie's openness, there are many mistakes that we all can learn from (that don't cost us any money!). Let's go! Notes: Charlie had a real sense of urgency to be successful in life except he didn’t know what he wanted to be successful at. After working a few different jobs, he finally found one that he enjoyed but was still exploring what other opportunities are available. After stumbling on a stock picker website, his interest was piqued. After doing some exploration on Reddit and other free websites, Charlie frantically opened 3 brokerage accounts because the application process was taking too long at some other brokerages. He just wanted to get his money there and start trading ASAP. Charlie did do a good job of managing his risk by limiting the size he enter with on these penny stocks. He did get addicted to larger gains which led to the greed voice and we all know how that ends. He does realize that he got lucky and actually ended up making money on the year. Even though Charlie had made 2,000 dollars over the course of a year, he did not like the fact that he was dependent on Reddit for his trade ideas. If Reddit were to go down, he would not know how to find stocks to trade. This epiphany led him to realize that he needed how to learn to ‘fish’ on his own and that is when he decided to invest his profits into his education. Charlie recognizes that this trading journey is just that, a journey. This is not a get rich quick scheme and now with realistic expectations, Charlie is getting through the content and planning on pursuing paper trading so that his future profits can be a result of his hard work and not luck. Quotes: “You don’t know what this guy is talking about or what angle he’s taking. He just talks about this stock that will make you millions.” tweet this quote “My strategy was if someone's talking about it it’s definitely going to go up because of hype. Hopefully get out before it plunges.” tweet this quote “I was thinking this was going to the moon. They were going to cure everything. I got in during the dump stage of that.” tweet this quote “Alright, it’s house money anyways. I made 2,000 bucks and spent it on education. Pretty cool how that works out.” tweet this quote “It’s easy to learn from other people's mistakes rather than losing a bunch of money. It discourages you from doing something stupid.” tweet this quote

We close out our journey with chat room member "CPO" in Part 2 of his interview. We left off with him deciding to meet Chezz and I in Baltimore as he wasn't too happy with the chat room experience thus far. Where did things go from here? CPO has learned quite a bit since then. His knowledge is now unfolding before his eyes in terms of feeling confident in not only build trading strategies that fit his personal risk tolerance levels, but in executing them. Once again, many nuggets of wisdom based on experience are shared thanks to CPO's openness. Notes: CPO recognized that if he wants to trade some of these volatile tech names he should focus on how they move. With deliberate focus you can definitely learn how certain names move and what their ‘personality’ is. Considering CPO is unable to trade at work, he has started to look at the futures markets since they trade for about 23 hours of the day. He used to try to day trade regular equities and options during lunch on his phone from his car but he was tired of just forcing trades and seeing he would be stopped out later in the day. Market preparation is always key and CPO takes a few hours out of his day to prepare by reviewing the main tickers that he trades. He also stresses the point that learning how to read charts takes time. This combined with your trade plan and the ability to recognize when your trade plan loses its appeal allows him to take the excitement out of his trading and put the odds in his favor. Quotes: “I’m not actually trading against the market. I’m trading against other people just like me. I’m my own adversary.” tweet this quote "It’s really hard to day trade when you don’t have access to your trading platform while you are day trading.” tweet this quote “All indicators are just to cue you that you’re on the right track with your trade plan. It helps me make decisions.” tweet this quote

We have another two part episode as we dig into the journey of chat room member "CPO". He has been on an adventurous ride ever since first being introduced into the markets. This included signing up for the chat room and not being too happy about it. In fact, he was still not very happy about it when he decided to come meet up with Chezz and I during our Baltimore Meet-and-Greet. How'd this meeting go? Did he choke me out with this knowledge from his SWAT Team training? We shall see... Notes: CPO had an interest in the market at a relatively young age but he believed he was unable to participate. He thought it was for big wigs on Wall Street. As he got older and transitioned into a new career, he was offered stock options, matching 401k contributions, and those are all great but he disliked the fact that he did not have a say in where the money was invested. He wanted more control over his finances. He was pleasantly surprised to find that he actually had a brokerage account sitting idle and decided that he would utilize this money to invest/trade with some knowledge he acquired from a book and google. The unfortunate thing about this trading account is that CPO had treated it like Monopoly money since he didn’t recognize that it was his hard earned dollars. After being unfamiliar with the pattern day trader rule, CPO was eventually flagged and this led to him not being able to day trade further in his account. He then went and opened a new account. The mistake he made at this time was that he was trying to trade alerts from the Inner Circle but wasn’t familiar with the alerts or strategies that are best suited to them. This led to losing trades and frustration. He had tried to reverse engineer the alerts but was unsuccessful. Since the Baltimore meet and greet was not far from where he was living, he decided to take a chance and come meet some fellow traders to hopefully learn something. Quotes: "All I know is I’m thinking long term. Put it in and watch it increase like my 401k. I bought 50 shares of Microsoft and Disney.” tweet this quote “Unfortunately, adrenaline in the market will sometimes cost you money.” tweet this quote “I think the worst place to be in is not knowing what you don’t know and being overconfident in what you do know.” tweet this quote “I was trying to rush into the market because I thought the market was going to leave me behind if I didn’t jump in.” tweet this quote Links: Course: The Trading Freedom Pathway

This interview causes me to revert back to being a little boy again as I thought it was pretty cool to get to talk with a "real life helicopter pilot". Hopefully it isn't too apparent in the interview! Anyways, talking with trading community member Micah was a great time and one filled with numerous ups and downs (pun intended!) that create some valuable learning opportunities for new and old traders alike. Notes: Micah had some friends who were making money day trading. Considering they had taken no formal education, he is under the assumption they were just getting lucky. Micah did not experience the same luck. After seeing Clay’s YouTube chart analysis, Micah decided to invest in his education and stop live trading immediately. He did need to take a huge loss in a petroleum penny stock before he saw the light though. Micah focuses primarily on a basket of 20 stocks that have good movement and volume so that he can generally find something that is tradable. He is utilizing options to trade directionally instead of stock (which is generally much cheaper from a cash flow standpoint). A large focus going forward is reducing the size of his losses since they are doing a good amount of damage to his profits. Considering his busy season is coming up, Clay and Chezz deduce that possibly using advanced option strategies may help him reduce his downside by setting his max loss in advance. Quotes: “I was doing the headline trading and reading up on everything but couldn’t understand it and lost quite a bit of money.” tweet this quote “I needed to completely stop trading. This money would be better spent on some sort of education.” tweet this quote “Now I just cut my losses and look at it again. Maybe this charts just not doing what it’s suppose to do.” tweet this quote “As I take the classes and it opens new doors who knows, maybe I will be trading forex or futures. I’m happy with options.” tweet this quote Links: Course: Options Trading Simplified Course: Advanced Options Trading

I can totally relate to our guest, Delgado (same name in chat room), as he started on the same path I did. He first got involved in the markets doing the "boring" stuff by investing into blue chips, but like myself, he became fascinated even more with the market and wanted to get hands on. There is certainly nothing wrong at all with wanting to become more involved in your own money's growth; however, going down the wrong rabbit holes can lead to a world of headaches. Notes: Delgado’s introduction the market was somewhat similar to others. He had a teacher in school who would have the students pick 5 stocks each week and then see how it worked out the following week. He did open up a trading account with about $5,000 and invested in some relatively stable blue-chip dividend stocks. Even though he experienced success with his long term holdings, he had always aspired to be a day trader but didn’t know anything about technical analysis or methods to accomplish this goal. After a friend introduced him to technical analysis and options, he wanted to find a more reasonably priced location to learn. That is what led him to the Inner Circle. While he didn’t know what to expect when he joined, he quickly realized that the community had a no BS type approach and would always be straightforward and honest with him. Considering he wanted a place that wasn’t going to make false promises, he decided to dive in and join CTU. To this day, Delgado is still going through a few of the courses while focusing on a small basket of high option volume stocks. He still primarily trades TSLA. When you strictly focus on a small amount of names to learn how they act we call that getting ‘romantic’ with a ticker. Quotes: “When the market tanked in 2008, I was all about Warren Buffett and just long term investing.” tweet this quote “Instead of just getting out, I started to hope and wish. It was me being cocky thinking that this is easy.” tweet this quote “It blew my mind how much money I could lose in 5 minutes. I could feel the sweat running down my face.” tweet this quote “I learned patience. You don’t have to trade every day. Once I started trading, I felt like I always had to be in a trade.” tweet this quote “Arm yourself with a little bit of knowledge and your aim improves.” tweet this quote Links: Video: Getting Romantic with Options Trading

We've heard many different approaches to trade plans over the 50 plus episodes, but today's guest gives us something quite unique. Shawn ("dimliwitti" in chat room) talks about a fourth "trend" indicator that he likes to use, and it truly has an important place within his strategy. I've been tempted to give his approach a try because it does make a whole lot of sense; however, I have not made the leap as of yet. Shawn has been around the markets for a while, so there are all sorts of ups and downs to talk about, which as always creates many experiences that we can all learn from. Notes: Shawn’s grandfather managed portfolios for a living and really taught him how to manage an extensive sized portfolio. These were all longer term swing trades and had no short intraday trades. He relied heavily on fundamental analysis at this time. As time went on, Shawn recognized that there were many short term trade setups that he could recognize and the idea of quick profits really appealed to him so he tried his hand at active trading. This led to quite a sizeable loss and led him down the path to education. A very unique way that Shawn trades involves the use of fundamental analysis as a filter. He likes to find chart setups that are aligned with either a up trend in the fundamentals or a downtrend in the fundamentals. Shawn is a huge proponent of continuous education. He has already mapped out the path of what he is choosing to learn. Building upon what you already know is absolutely critical because the market is ever evolving. The moment you decide you have it all figured out will be the moment in which your performance begins to slip. Quotes: “My wife calms me down a lot with her good, conservative view of investing. It has saved me a number of times.” tweet this quote “I didn’t have all the tools yet. I latched into using trailing stops but that assumed I would be winning in the first place.” tweet this quote “I got in this trade by shorting in the last minute. I was watching a lot of silly people buying in so I shorted at the highest point I could.” tweet this quote “I have losing days. We all do. It happens. I’m not saying I’m an angel. Sometimes those voices takeover.” tweet this quote