In this episode, we are excited to bring to you a special guest interview on the Mind Over Markets Podcast! We recently sat down with one of our very own traders and coaches, Victorio Stefanov, for a great discussion on his trading journey and the key lessons he's learned along the way. In addition to his own story, Victorio has worked with 50+ traders in a coaching capacity, so he also shares an interesting perspective on the struggles of new traders from the viewpoint of a mentor. He is one of the most disciplined traders that we know so there is a lot that you will take away from his journey! Back in 2015, Victorio had dropped out of Engineering at McMaster University and around the same time, his father ran into George at a Starbucks and set up a meeting between them. Shortly after he met with George, Victorio decided that trading was the path that he wanted to pursue and so he signed up to TRADEPRO Academy to start the journey - in fact - Victorio was actually one of the first members of TRADEPRO Academy. Victorio started to trade the options markets with some success around 2016 after going through the TRADEPRO courses and building out a trading plan, all while studying Financial Planning full-time at George Brown College. Over the next year (2017), Victorio joined the TRADEPRO Academy team on a part-time basis and started to learn how to day trade the futures markets alongside his mentor George. After encountering some initial setbacks during his early months trading futures, Victorio stuck with it and carved out his own niche which is when he started to close out back to back weeks in the green. Fast forward to 2020 and Victorio is a full-time trader and coach/mentor at TRADEPRO Academy, where he focuses on running the morning and ELITE trading rooms and coaching traders individually and in group settings to help them achieve consistent profitability. Stick around until the end because you will walk away with some great insights on trading psychology and the challenges traders face as they work towards consistent profitability. Here is a summary of what we discussed:  How Victorio got started with trading 02:20  The challenges of day trading while being a full-time student 07:40 Some of the mistakes Victorio made early in his trading journey 10:00 How Victorio gauges success in his own trading 20:00 Why you don't have to trade every single day to be a day trader 23:50  A walkthrough of Victorio's trading process 27:42 The most important part of Victorio's trading plan 34:20 Walking the fine line between holding onto a trade because of instinct vs being stubborn 36:00 Looking for trades that you are unable to disqualify 39:00 Learning when to step on it and when to stay away 42:17 The role psychology and mindset play towards successful trading 45:45 How Victorio dealt with limiting beliefs at the start of his journey 48:30 Gauging your mental capital meter before trading 50:50 Bouncing back from a losing trade with NBT's 53:07 Keeping yourself accountable if you break your trading rules 56:50 Working on weaknesses to fuel your growth 59:15 Why you will often fail the plan before the plan fails you 62:30 The characteristics of the most successful coaching students 65:00 The one thing Victorio would tell himself if he had to start all over again today 68:45 Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here  Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast

In today's episode, we continue our discussion on the common cognitive biases that traders deal with and we close out this series with some actionable steps that you can take to overcome these biases in your own trading!  Last week we introduced why cognitive biases can be a bad thing for traders and also identified four of seven common cognitive biases that we deal with as traders. If you haven't had a chance to listen to part one of this series, we suggest you listen to that episode in full in order to get up to speed for today's discussion! As a quick refresher, last week we introduced the following cognitive biases: #1. Confirmation Bias  This occurs when you seek out information that confirms your preexisting beliefs. #2. Loss Aversion Bias  This means that you will not act because you are fearful of losing money - you will hesitate to take trades. #3. Recency Bias  This occurs when you put more importance on recent events compared to historical ones - our brains tend to put more weight on recent experiences. #4. Sunk Cost Fallacy  After buying or investing time into something (planning and executing a trade), we tend to rationalize and prove that our purchase was right due to the time and capital already invested. This week we close out this list with the final three common cognitive biases we face as traders: #5 Overconfidence (Hot Hand) Bias Based on the irrational view that consecutive winning streak will continue because of the previous streak of winners. If you start winning trades consistently, you can succumb to overconfidence by starting to take trades that are not part of your high-quality setups. OR you may think that you have a hot hand and that your next trade will be a winner, so you scale up the position size. Generally, previous successful outcomes do not influence longer-term performance because each moment in the market is unique. The issue with overconfidence is that you might start taking shortcuts and relying on instinct for your trading decisions.  Falling victim to the overconfidence bias can have you giving back a majority if not, all of the gains from the hot streak  #6. Gambler’s Fallacy One of the most common human biases and is the opposite of the recency bias  It occurs when you start to believe that because a certain result happened more frequently in the past,  there is a higher probability of a different outcome in the future.  Think about roulette for a second - the ball may land on black several times consecutively - the gambler fallacy is based on a premise that the roulette ball must land on red very soon, however, a roulette table has no memory and a spin of the ball has no connection with previous spins of the wheel.  Over a large enough sample of trials, a red or black number will be evenly split, but they are randomly distributed in smaller individual samples. Similar to trading, just because you lost the last 5 trades does not mean that the 6th trade “has to go your way” and will be a winner. There is still a statistical likelihood that’s the same across all those outcomes - this is why the martingale method is so dangerous!  The fallacy is when you start to believe that the probability of one happening over the other has increased based on the previous streak!  This tendency arises out of an ingrained human desire for nature to be constantly balanced or averaged. #7. Anchoring Bias The idea that we use pre-existing information as a reference point for subsequent data.  This cognitive bias refers to giving too much weight to the “anchor” when we make our decisions - the anchor in this case being the first piece of information offered. An example would be something like being the first to name a price during negotiations as this will set the tone for the rest of the negotiation.  In the context of trading, we often anchor on our support and resistance levels or entry levels.  When we anchor to these levels, we often anchor to what they should be doing (based on pre-existing info) rather than focusing on the factors that we see - factors that could push price through our levels.  This could be holding on to a bias based on the information you initially received “ ie. If the market opened the session on a strong sell-off, you might convince yourself that the session would be a bearish trending day". If the market fails to follow through on the sell momentum and reverses higher, you may be stuck looking for short positions despite the fact that the market is clearly showing you something different.  As the market offers new information in the form of price action -we must analyze it- however, some traders remain anchored by the original information received.  You are effectively ignoring the new data because you are anchored to the information that was originally provided on the open.  Being aware that these biases exist is an important first step, however, they are so deeply ingrained in our psychology that knowing about them is not enough to manage them! That being said, there are definitely some actionable steps you can take in order to improve the quality of your decision-making.  How exactly can you accomplish this?  Plan your trades and trade your plan - you should not have to be making split-second decisions under the gun when you are trading.  Have a good trading journal with a large data set to quantify your edge is another way to mitigate the chances of emotional decision making while trading. Actively monitor yourself for these cognitive biases in real-time- now that you are aware of them you can implement a check-up on yourself to ensure you are clear-minded and objective. Talk aloud to yourself in real-time and analyze how you are feeling!  Reduce your active stimuli - commit to trading the market during predetermined times! The more you sit in front of your screens, the more stimulus your brain receives, and the more likely you are to have an emotional response!  Some Things We Discuss in Today's Show: How the overconfidence bias can lead to emotional trading 06:15 The gambler's fallacy and why it doesn't have to be different this time 12:30 Why anchoring bias can put (and keep) you on the wrong side of the market 23:49 Why volatility can have you anchored to certain expectations 27:30 Most people fail their plans before their plans fail them 37:20  Keeping a trading journal to track how well you execute your plan 41:40 Using mental checks to actively monitor for cognitive biases 44:50 Reducing your active stimuli to prevent boredom trades 52:00 Resources Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here 

Over the next two episodes, we are going to introduce you to the seven common cognitive biases that impact our decisions as traders. By building awareness of these common biases, you will be in a better position to identify them in real-time so that you can reframe your mindset right there and then in order to make better trading decisions going forward! When money is on the line and time is limited, human decision making can be flawed and trading is one of those fields where irrational behavior patterns can be quite common. So being aware of these cognitive biases can provide a trader with some advantages - namely - it helps you better manage these in your own trading, but also, they can help you understand some of the reasoning behind the moves in the market that may seem irrational!  Let’s quickly take a moment to look at some of the reasons why cognitive biases can be bad news for traders: Effects of Cognitive Biases  Missing out on valid setups because of preconceived notions of price Cutting winners too early and holding on to losers  Deviating from your trading plan  Building a reliance on crowd-driven information & opinions Handcuffing trades and getting whipsawed  Now that you are more familiar with some of the effects of feeding into these cognitive biases, today, we'll focus on four of the seven.  #1. Confirmation Bias  This occurs when you seek out information that confirms your preexisting beliefs. The majority of traders have been guilty of this! Said differently, the confirmation bias means we ignore inconvenient information.  We tend to place a lot more weight on the information that confirms our ideas and trades and filter out the information that does not agree with it.  Let’s say for example that you are in a losing trade and then you find information online, maybe it’s news or a trader you respect that supports your trade idea.  Because this information supports your bias, you may end up holding on to the trade despite what the market is telling you!  # 2 Loss Aversion Bias  Nobody likes to lose, it’s simply human nature, in fact, most people would rather not lose than win! At its heart, this cognitive bias does not accept that trading losses are part of daily business operations.  This type of cognitive bias is rooted in your top values being security and safety and that taking a loss in the markets affects your safety. This basically means that you will not act because you are fearful of losing money- you will hesitate to take trades. You have to pay to play; the money in your trading account should not be money you need to survive; have to find a balance between not being in gambler mentality and not to be averse to losses. There is a big opportunity cost to this; if you are not taking a trade when your edge is present you may be missing out on potential profits. Related back to trading, let’s say you get into a short position and the market dumps lower and you quickly move your stop to break-even - you might subconsciously be handcuffing the trade in order to take the risk of a loss off of the table.  #3 Recency Bias  Refers to illogical ways of putting more importance to recent events compared to historical ones - our brains tend to put more weight on recent experience. If an outcome has recently happened this way, you're going to then think that it will continue to happen that way. Just because it happened recently, does not dictate that future outcome  We are more affected by losing trades, so we avoid trades that remind us of the recent losses. Using a trading-related example, let’s say that you’ve taken a handful of pullback trades in a healthy trend and were stopped out on all of them; you might pass on the next valid setup because you have concluded that trading pullbacks is a losing strategy, so you might try a new strategy instead thus giving up your valuable edge  Abandoning logic and your trading plan because of emotions. #4 Sunk Cost Fallacy (aka Post-Purchase Rationalization) After buying something we tend to rationalize and prove that our purchase was right  Sunk cost is not a good perspective to be making decisions from!  For traders, the most common purchase is getting into a trade  Let’s say you waited patiently for a setup to form and you took the trade, but as soon as you get filled and it starts going against you - sunk cost fallacy starts to creep in.  You spent a considerable amount of time waiting patiently for the setup to form, disqualifying lower quality trades in the process, so you refuse to accept that THIS one trade might be a loser - after all - you did your due diligence, however, despite warning signs that the trade might not work out, you rationalize that it is a good position and give up your chance to scratch for a small win/loser.  Some Things We Discuss in Today's Show: The advantages of understanding and identifying cognitive biases 02:06 The negative effects of cognitive biases on traders 03:46 Breaking down the confirmation bias and how traders ignore "inconvenient" information 09:04 The loss aversion bias and why most people would rather not lose than win 16:50 Why the recency bias can have you skipping out on your best trading setups 26:56 The sunk cost fallacy and rationalizing your trades based on time and capital already invested 34:50 Resources Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here 

In today’s episode, we are going to be speaking about the importance of thinking for yourself as a trader! A lot of people that enter this industry look to copy other people’s trades, or worse yet, sign up for signal services in the hopes of changing around their circumstances overnight! What they might not be aware of is that the trading industry favors independence and if you have a tough time trusting your gut and tuning out the noise of other people’s opinions, you will have a tough time trying to succeed. Imagine this scenario for a quick moment; You sign up for trading signals and start to generate profits every month - before long you are ready to quit your day job and enjoy true financial freedom - no boss and no stress. Best of all - you don’t have to do any additional work other than pulling the buy or sell trigger when an alert comes in - sounds like a dream life right? Now, what happens if the service suddenly shuts its doors? You are basically SOL - you’ve lost a potential stream of income AND you have not built up any skills or confidence to trade independently. We are completely against trading signals here at TRADEPRO Academy because we are of the firm belief that it is more valuable for someone to "learn how to fish" versus "being given a fish". Let's take a quick moment to discuss the points of the journey when traders tend to gravitate towards signal services: At the beginning of the trading journey A lot of new traders believe the fastest way to make money in the markets is to copy the same trades or take trading signals from somebody that markets themselves as a consistently profitable trader. They convince themselves that if they sign up for the trade signals, they could almost eliminate the learning curve and start earning profits right away. At the very end of the trading journey Traders that have been stuck in a cycle of self-sabotage and constant drawdown will often seek signals as a last-ditch effort to convince themselves that making money trading the markets is actually possible. They are searching for the holy grail and not looking inward at the operator. Whether it's at the beginning or towards the end of the journey, the reality is that you have no chance of succeeding in this industry by following somebody's else signals. You need skill to execute signals and by the time you actually have that skill and confidence in yourself, you won't ever want to execute anyone else’s signals. If a computer can execute 12,800,000 trades before YOU blink a single time…. What is a signal really worth? And why would you expect to succeed with it? Now let's dive into the five reasons why it's important to think for yourself as a trader: #1. Accountability - Living at Cause vs Effect #2. Copying Somebody Else's Signals/Trades is not a Strategy #3. Professional Traders Dislike Knowing Where Others Are Positioned #4. Finding Your Niche and Building Confidence in Your Process #5. Finding a Good Mentor That Wants To See You Succeed Some Things We Discuss in Today's Show: Why we don't endorse signal services or signal providers 01:50 The real reasons why traders look for trading signals 05:20 What is a trading signal really worth to you? 07:10 How accountability defines how you trade 10:03 Copying somebody else's signals is not a strategy 14:55 The differences between dependent and independent traders 21:35 Finding your niche and building confidence in your process 29:26 What's the point of finding a mentor? 36:45 If you're going to be a high-performance athlete, you need a coach 41:32 The most important information in this business we don't have yet 46:22 Resources Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here 

In today’s episode, we are going to be discussing how traders can prepare for the transition to summer trading. When we say summer trading, we’re referring to low volatility market conditions with tight ranges and choppy price action.  These are the types of environments that challenge traders of all experiences and both George and I would agree that it is a lot more difficult to transition from a volatile market to a slower market than vice versa. We’ll talk about how you can prepare for the transition to summer volatility and some rules that you can implement into your trading plan to give yourself the best shot at success!  There is an old industry adage that used to be thrown around along the lines of “Sell in May and Go Away”. In fact, from 1950 - 2013, the Dow Jones posted lower returns from the May to October period compared to November through April - which gave further merit to this saying - however, it's worth noting that this trend has somewhat changed since 2013! Advances in technology over recent years have provided traders with instant access to the global markets, leading some to believe that the old "Sell in May and Go Away" adage is no longer relevant - however - in our experience, there is still some truth behind this saying.  So What Causes Lack of Volatility in the Summer?  When do you typically go on vacation? Institutional money managers and decision-makers will be doing the same!  A lack of market participants means that volume tends to dry up, ranges will narrow and volume can decrease due to low liquidity conditions  There are typically less high-impact economic releases scheduled in the summer months  High-Frequency Traders (HFT) are more active during these low liquidity periods which can cause price movements on low volume  HFT business model involves capturing profit on micro-movements day over day so they will be on and firing during the summer months  Impact of Summer Doldrums  Slow markets tend to have a negative impact on trader’s psychology  Traders can be tempted to trade more aggressively due to lack of market movement  Especially if they have a profit goal they are trying to achieve  This can result in some nonsensical price action that leads to frustrating trading experiences and getting stopped out due to low liquidity.  Low volatility = poor price action = minimal trading opportunities What do you need to do to adjust for summer volatility?  You have two choices:   Decide to take the time off  Continue trading during the summer months  Option #1: If you decide that you want to avoid the summer doldrum altogether, then it might be good to take a break from trading and do something else!  This could be a great time to enhance your knowledge of the markets, review your trading journal and refine your strategy, back-test your strategy, and build up a data set of information.  Option #2: If you decide that you want to continue trading into the summer months, then you will have to make some adjustments to your trading plan in order to accommodate for the lower volatility.  We’ve put together a list of four rules that can help you out if you plan on taking this route:  The four GOLDEN rules of summer trading  Increase patience for entries - since there is more consolidation during summer months, moves often take longer to develop and you will likely be in your trades for longer periods of time  Reduce total daily trades - With lower volatility, you will want higher quality setups over quantity;  Reduce overall trading size - Summer is a time that will test your risk tolerance, so we would recommend reducing your trading size and number of open trades at any given time. This will help prevent you from making emotional decisions because of multiple positions in low volatility  Get paid quicker, less patience on runners - As we mentioned earlier, the markets tend to consolidate a lot more during summer months, which means that directional movements are often rapid and short-lived, followed by more consolidation and range contraction. It’s a great idea to get paid quicker in these environments and to be a lot less patient with your runners as they often reverse before trading into extended take profits.  Some Things We Also Discuss in Today's Show:  "Sell in May and Go Away" - is this still relevant today?  03:58 Why summer markets tend to lack volatility 08:37 How slower markets tend to challenge new traders 15:45 Why keeping the same daily profit target for summer months can negatively affect your psychology  16:45 How market movements tend to be more rapid and short-lived these days 19:45 How to stay sharp if you plan to take the summer months off from trading 21:48 What traders can learn from elite athletes and how they train in the off-season 24:05 Why working on the "internal operator" in the off-season will make you a better trader 27:35 Why you have to increase your patience for entries in summer markets 30:40 Is it better to start your day trading career during high or low volatility market conditions? 33:40 Reducing total daily trades in order to stick with the highest quality setups 35:45 Reducing your position size to limit risk exposure 38:18 Why the idea of consistency is unfounded in this industry 41:04 Why you should get paid quicker and be less patient with runners in summer markets 42:50 Adjusting your trading brackets for summer trading 44:50 Patience pays - you will often get a second chance in summer markets 46:35 How momentum traders can adapt for summer market conditions 49:47 Tips for new traders looking to trade through their first summer market 53:15 Why screentime is your best friend as a new trader 56:00 Resources Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast

In today’s episode, we will be speaking on the topic of how to cope with burnout.  It’s been said that trading is the hardest easy money that you will ever make and we believe this to be true here at TRADEPRO Academy.  As traders, we are required to perform at a high-level and this constant grind can weigh on you after some time, after all, nobody is immune from burning out. With that being said, there are some warning signs that you can look out for because burn out doesn't just happen - there are several stages that lead up into it. Since there are several stages that lead to burning out, that means that you can prevent it from happening by being proactive from the start! If you are already dealing with burnout, then it's okay! We'll share some tips that will help you navigate through this rough patch and get you back into the right mind space. Before we can identify the stages of burnout, let's first define what it actually is! Our two favorite definitions for burnout are: "A state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by long term involvement in emotionally demanding situations." – Ayala Pines and Elliot Aronson. "A state of fatigue or frustration brought about by devotion to a cause, way of life, or relationship that failed to produce the expected reward." – Herbert J. Freudenberger. Let's dig into these definitions a little bit - note the role exhaustion plays, especially at the hands of emotionally demanding situations and how mismanaged expectations can lead to frustration. Trading successfully demands mental sharpness and emotional objectivity at all times - the longer you do this, the more emotionally demanding situations you will encounter. Think about it - the winning streaks and the periods of drawdown - all of these situations will test your emotions and if you are not proactive, they can lead to burnout! Now that we know what burnout is, what are the different stages that lead to burnout? The "Honeymoon" Phase The "Onset of Stress" Phase The "Chronic Stress" Phase The "Burnout" Phase Each phase has different symptoms that are associated with it and these symptoms can provide traders with warning signs so that they can be proactive in identifying burnout before it happens. But what if you've realized that you are already in the "Burnout" phase? What steps can you take in order to manage your way out of it? To get a better understanding of how to cope with burnout, let's take a look at how elite athletes deal with it - after all - traders are elite athletes! How do elite performers deal with burnout?  Take mental breaks Manage their expectations Find new and interesting ways to challenge themselves Take some time for rest and recreation - recharge the batteries Some Things We Also Discuss in Today's Show:  Breaking down the definition of a burnout 03:00 Are stress and burnout the same thing? 06:00 Why performance athletes burn out 09:20 The four phases that lead to burnout 12:25 The Honeymoon phase and symptoms 13:59 The Onset of Stress phase and symptoms 17:00 The Chronic Stress phase and symptoms 24:20 The Burnout Phase and symptoms 32:55 Mark's recent bout with burn out and how he handled it 38:23 How George struggled with burn out shortly after starting trading full-time 49:45 Turning down the volume on your negative thoughts that don't serve you 53:54 How elite performers deal with burnout 57:39 Resources Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast Check out the YBS Youngbloods channel on Youtube Check out the book on NLP that Mark mentioned in the show on Amazon  

In today’s episode, we will be speaking on one of the most common fears in trading; the fear of missing out!  FOMO is one of the biggest account killers that we’ve seen as educators in this industry, so we believe it is important for you to understand what it is and how to manage it before you you fall victim to it.  Have you ever jumped into trades early without confirmation because the market was moving and you didn’t want to miss out on potential profits? How about scaling up your size to catch up to other people’s results in trading groups that you are part of?  If this sounds familiar, then you have already experienced the fear of missing out to some extent in your trading. It's only natural as humans for us to want to be part of the action especially when volatility starts to pick up!  If you stick around for the full show, you will learn what FOMO is and how it manifests so that you can be better prepared to manage or even avoid it!  So what exactly is the fear of missing out?  Well by definition, it is the "fear of not being included in something (such as an interesting or enjoyable activity) that others are experiencing".  In other words, the fear of missing out is a social anxiety that extends beyond the realms of trading; it is present in everyday life! It is characterized by a desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing - translated to trading - it is the equivalent of wanting to continually be in a trade so that you don't miss out on any market action. Falling victim to FOMO can be devastating to your trading account and your psychology - traders that suffer from FOMO trading will typically experience the following cycle repeat time and time again: Buying into market tops when experiencing excitement to get into a position and letting greed turn winners into losers. Selling out of losing positions into market bottoms when experiencing peak fear and anxiety about losses. This cycle repeats every time the trader loses patience with their trading plan and can be incredibly frustrating - to the point that many go bust and exit the industry at this stage. Now that you know what FOMO is and the typical cycle that a FOMO trader experiences, let’s take a moment to discuss some common things that a FOMO trader says. This is important because if you can catch yourself saying or thinking these things in real-time, then you will be able to adjust your emotions on the fly and avoid FOMO altogether! "Everyone else is making money, it can't be that bad" "Just think about how much money I could have made on that trade" "Meh..I'll just give it a go" "I knew that was going to happen" "They must know something else that I don't" "I can't miss out on the next great opportunity" "XYZ stock looks like a pretty safe bet, everyone's trading it, why wouldn't I? " What you should realize by this point is that FOMO is an internal feeling and the words you speak can and will affect your psychology - with that said, there are some external factors that can also trigger the FOMO process! These include: Increase in market volatility Coming off of a long winning streak Taking repetitive losses Social media, especially Instagram and Twitter News and rumors While it's great to understand what FOMO is and how it can be triggered, the last piece of the puzzle is how to manage or avoid it altogether! We've put together the following tips and tricks to help you eliminate FOMO from your trading experience: Have a trading plan - know EXACTLY what you’re doing and your role - find low-risk high probability setups and only trade those  Accept that trading has its ups and downs - understand that you can’t win every trade  Be present - focus on the next best trade ALWAYS The first stock exchange in the U.S. was formed in Philadelphia in 1790 In the last 230 years...how many trades have you missed? You’ve missed more trades then you’ll ever take! Focus on the process and setup, not the end result (the score) Keep a daily gratitude journal Keep a trading journal with your emotions and thoughts pre/during/post-trade Don’t compare your results to others (learn from their approach, not their fills) Some Things We Also Discuss in Today's Show:  The fear of missing out in everyday life 04:31 How the fear of missing out shows up in trading  06:40 The typical cycles that a FOMO trader experiences 09:15 Is there really such a thing as a FOMO trader? 12:52 The seven things that a FOMO trader often says 16:50 The external factors that trigger the FOMO process 36:30 Several solutions you can implement to manage FOMO 46:50 Why tracking your emotions pre/during/post-trade can help you identify patterns 55:30 Why you should not compare your results to anybody else's 60:02 Resources Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast Check out Matthew McConaughey's speech here on Youtube 

In today’s episode, we are going to be speaking on the topic of trading while traveling! It’s no secret that one of the major benefits of trading the markets successfully is having the ability to work anywhere in the world (being location independent) while making a full-time income.  While there are several benefits of trading while traveling, there are also a number of challenges that you will face on your journey that are not often marketed on social media.  It is important to first understand the pros and the cons of trading while traveling before determining whether it is something you can consider as an option for yourself! So what are some of the benefits of trading on the road? You can trade for a few hours and then use the rest of the day to fulfill other purposes You get to see the world and experience cultures while making a full-time income Being on the road forces you to simplify things (You only keep the essentials vs overdoing it with charts on the office desktop)  Now that we've identified some benefits, here are the most common challenges traders run into when trading on the road: Finding the right place to trade (At home you have a high-performance trading environment which you will have to replicate while on the road)  Bringing the right equipment (Laptop + portable monitors)  Internet connection limitations (How to ensure you have a fast and reliable ISP when you are traveling)  Balancing the line between work and play - managing your time (Can you walk away when it’s time to shut down the monitors?)  Adapting your routine - time zone changes and giving your mental state time to adjust While there are certainly a number of challenges to trading while traveling, the benefits often outweigh them - after all, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it! With that said, it's an important point to make that there are some times when you should consider not taking the portable setup with you altogether. This is especially important if you struggle with letting emotions from your trading leak over into your personal life - good or bad! Sometimes it's better to just disconnect, recharge the batteries, and come back with a renewed sense of opportunity and we discuss these times in more detail. If you're still committed to giving this a go, then the first thing you will need is a mobile trading setup! We've put together a handy list of some of the hardware and software requirements for traveling traders which you can reference below:  Laptop  Backup battery for laptop or external power supply Portable monitors (USB -C) LAN cable for hardwire connectivity A nice portable and comfortable mouse USB hub with monitor support VGA to HDMI converter Software Download your trading templates to your laptop Move over any data you have captured in last 30 days (these files can be huge and take hours to load if you don't do this before you leave)  Once you have your portable trading setup ready, the next step is to plan ahead for your travels! The first thing you will want to do is to identify your "working hours" in the time zone of your planned destination. For example, if you live in Toronto and trade between 9.30 am - 11.30 am EST and you are planning to travel to Sydney, Australia (which is 14 hours ahead), then your working hours would effectively become 11 pm - 01:30 am. Knowing your working hours at the destination you plan on visiting will help you decide whether trading on the trip is actually a good idea or not! If you are happy with your "new" working hours, the next step is to find accommodations with access to high-speed internet so that you can actually connect to the market and trade when you arrive at your location. There are a couple of websites and apps available these days to help with this research and we've included a list of some of them below: WifiMap (Available for iPhone and Android) Hotelwifitest.com Nomadlist.com  You can also call the hotel and ask them to provide you with a screenshot of the internet speeds from their location using Speedtest.net! Now that you have put together your mobile trading office and planned ahead for your travels, you are prepared to trade while traveling! You'll walk away from this episode with a concrete understanding of trading while traveling, including what to bring along with you, how to plan ahead, and how to adapt once you arrive at your destination! Some Things We Also Discuss The benefits of trading while traveling  03:50 The challenges that traders will face when traveling  10:15 George's experience trading from the beach 14:20 Mark's most memorable experiences trading while traveling 22:16 The situations when it's not a good idea to trade while traveling 30:20 The hardware and software requirements for a mobile trading setup 36:25 Identifying your "working hours"  at your travel destinations - timezones matter! 43:40 How to research wifi hotspots and hotel internet speeds for your travels 47:35 How to pack for convenience as a traveling trader 56:10 Leveraging the benefits of travel rewards cards 61:20 How to adapt to trading while traveling 65:05 Resources Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast Check out George's Portable Trading Setup on Youtube Check out the ASUS portable monitors on Amazon

In today’s episode, we are going to be talking about something we feel strongly about and how overconfidence can really ruin your trading success. This pattern occurs when you've been on a stretch of above-average performance and suddenly your mindset shifts out of alignment and causes greed. If you've had multiple winning days or weeks at a time only to erase all of that progress in a single session, this is an episode meant for you! At TRADEPRO Academy, we refer to this overconfidence in your trading ability as the "God complex". It's called the God complex because you start to feel indestructible - it’s a point during a hot streak where you start to develop the belief that everything you touch turns to gold or said differently, you just can't seem to stop winning trades. This is where the mindset of a trader shifts from confident to cocky - the trader bypasses the process mindset which has given them confidence in their performance and turns everything into a matter of trading based on feelings. By this, we mean that a trader may start to loosen up on their trading process and begin to trade based on gut feelings and opinions on what they feel the market should do - not necessarily what the market is actually doing. Overconfidence after a hot streak is a mental aspect that really exposes the human mind and ego for how easily it is affected by results =whether success or failure! So how does the God complex start to manifest? In our experience, many traders don’t get into the God complex until they actually realize the streak that they are on! For example, Victorio shares a story of when this happened to him back in September 2019. After realizing he was up 20 days in a row, the God complex kicked into his mindset and ended up costing him a couple of week's worth of gains within a handful of sessions. If Victorio hadn’t come to that realization that he was doing really well,  he would have continued to trade seamlessly throughout the rest of the month - in a state of flow - however, he ended up losing 25% of those gains in 5 days. What is interesting is that the God complex is actually rooted in a lack mindset - it's not that you think you are above the market, rather, you are so used to everything you touch turning to profit that you've convinced yourself that taking losses is not part of your trading business. When you do take that first loser after a hot streak, it will trigger your lack mindset into wanting to "make my money back" as quickly as possible. This is where it can get dangerous for you and your trading account especially if you are a relatively newer trader and going at it on your own. If you have been on a winning streak over the last couple of days or weeks, it's important to know what the God complex is so that you can avoid it if possible -that is the best-case scenario! Your second option is to accept it, make your mistakes, and fight back and your final option is to blow out your account and accept defeat (avoid this at all costs!!) Here are a few tips on how you can work through the God complex or avoid it altogether: Remind yourself and re-affirm your skillset Constantly review your trading plan Review your hall of fame trades Take a day off to recharge your batteries Constantly work on your personal development You'll walk away from this episode with a lot of value and a solid gameplan on how to manage and avoid overconfidence from wreaking havoc on your trading! In This Episode You Will Learn The difference between confidence and cockiness in trading 02:20 Why success in other areas of life doesn't necessarily translate to instant trading success 08:25 What is confirmation bias and attempting to predict the market 11:04 How to know when overconfidence is starting to creep into your trading 20:55 How being part of a community can help you manage overconfidence  27:36 The 5 steps you can take to avoid falling into the God complex 43:15 Some Things We Also Discuss The psychological challenges of going from being a breakeven trader to a profitable trader 05:45 How to use prior success and confidence and adapt it to trading 09:25 Victorio's first experience with overconfidence creeping into trading 15:05 How this God complex cycle can stem from a self-worth issue 23:50 The three paths that classify the God complex 33:05 Resources Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast

In this episode, we're excited to bring to you a new guest interview on the Mind Over Markets Podcast! We recently sat down with our colleague and former prop trader, Brad Alcini, for a great chat on what it's like to be a professional trader. Brad shares some great insight into how big traders stay alive, what's required to be successful in this business, as well as examples of seven-figure traders and what they do to win consistently! If you are looking to level up your trading mindset, this is an interview that you will not want to miss! Brad's trading journey started back in the pits of the Chicago Board of Trade as a clerk in 1995. In his time as a clerk, Brad worked for several successful traders and was able to learn a lot about trading and mindset from people that were winning on a daily basis. In 1996, only one year after joining the CBOT as a clerk, Brad was hired on by Goldenberg Hehmeyer to trade firm capital in the 10-year T-note pits as an interest rate trader. During his time at Goldenberg, Brad was actually at the forefront of the industry's transition from the open outcry pits to electronic trading on the screens (known as "Project A" in those days). In fact, he was part of a group of traders that was the first to be able to open a position in the 10-year T-note pit and then close it out (flatten the position) electronically at the end of the session - fungible from pit to screen. Brad stayed on with Goldenberg Hehmeyer for a full year before making the decision to trade his own capital with the backing of Gelber Group, a Chicago-based prop firm in February 1997. When he joined on with Gelber, Brad had pretty much transitioned to electronic trading and would meet his mentor - a gentleman that would end up introducing Brad to the world of spread trading. With the help of his mentor, Brad went on to develop his trading strategy and psychology to a point where he was able to put on trades with size that would make the palms of most retail traders start to sweat just thinking about it! Brad stayed on with Gelber for four years until an exciting opportunity presented itself out of the blue in 2001. One of Brad's old colleagues from the pits that he had a relationship with, Harris Brumfield, was a large angel investor in Trading Technologies at the time.  Harris had some patents on a revolutionary product and was looking to build a team of senior sales managers to become the software of choice in the industry as the transition to electronic trading was in progress. What was the product you might be wondering? It was called the "Verticle Market Up Trader Ticket" at the time, however, these days it is better known as the DOM or Depth of Market! Brad spent 5 years in this capacity with Trading Technologies and was part of tremendous growth during that time! By February of 2006, Brad was running a CPO (Commodity Pool Operator) with a partner while simultaneously consulting to Ransquawk - a news aggregation service for traders. Brad and his partner decided to go separate ways - his partner became the COO of a well-respected proprietary trading firm in Chicago, while Brad took over the consultancy business to Ransquawk. In November 2019, Brad become a shareholder of Ransquawk and rebranded the business to Newsquawk, which is our go-to news source here at TRADEPRO Academy. These days, a majority of Brad's time is spent on developing and growing the Newsquawk service while passively managing his own investments. Brad has offered listeners of this podcast an exclusive 10-day free trial to the Newsquawk Multi-Asset Channel! If you want access to the same news service that is used on institutional trading desks then make sure to claim your free trial in the resources section below! Here is a summary of what we discussed:  How Brad started his trading career 01:15 "Project A" & Globex - the transition to electronic trading 02:10 The mentor that introduced Brad to spread trading  04:00 The exciting opportunity that got Brad to leave trading 06:10 How Brad got involved as a consultant to Ransquawk 07:30  How Brad dealt with the initial intimidation of trading in the pits  10:00 The one thing that helped Brad scale up his trading in the beginning 12:25 The power of scratching trades and learning to not lose money 15:45 The factors that led to Brad's decision to leave the pits and trade electronically 20:00 Finding a trading style that suits your personality - the difference between outright and spread trading 24:00 Why big money traders consider themselves professional loss takers 27:00 How professionals adjust their strategy for high volatility environments 30:36 How the average investor can use futures to hedge their portfolio 39:45 The qualities Brad would need to see from a trader in order to fund them 41:30 The characteristics and behaviors that you want to avoid as a trader 44:55 Why you must get rid of emotional baggage if you want to be a good trader 46:32 Routine, Exercise & Eating Healthy - The trifecta for protecting your mental capital 48:28 How Brad uses visualization as a reset switch 51:35 The Newsquawk service and what it is 57:15 What TRADEPRO likes about Newsquawk 60:00 Resources  Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast For more information on the Newsquawk service click here    Claim Your Exclusive 10-Day Free Trial Here