Mind Over Markets

In today’s episode, we speak on ego and trading, more specifically, what the ego is, warning signs that ego is getting in the way of your trading, and finally some rules to help you keep your ego under control while trading! Most people that enter this industry believe that the markets are against them, when in reality, they are the ones holding themselves back from success! This happens beneath the surface because of the ego!  While you can’t trade without ego, for the majority of traders, their ego is working against them and not for them. Have you ever asked considered the question “Do I want to be right or do I want to make money”?  Most people would believe that if you are right, then you are going to be making money - but this isn’t really the case!  How many times has it occurred that you might have an idea for a trade and then you execute the trade, get stopped out, and then the market goes in the direction of the trend without you onboard?  You were right - right? But did you make money? Probably not - you actually lost money AND you were right at the same time. How does your ego handle that? If you are like most people - your sense of self is in the thought of the loss and that taps into all the previous times you failed and felt a similar pain which leaves you vulnerable to start trading emotionally and can become a very slippery slope quickly!  So let’s get started by first defining the word EGO: “Ego is your idea or opinion of yourself, especially your feeling of your own importance and ability”;  The Ego is the part of a person’s mind that tries to match the wishes or desires of the unconscious mind with the demands of the real world. Your identity - who you think you are - is formed through a collection of thoughts, beliefs, experiences, memories, emotions, and perceptions all working together.  As human beings, the ego wants to uphold the ideal versions of ourselves that only allow for success and not failures - we don’t want to admit that we are wrong about anything including trades.  Your ego will be very defensive about what it believes to be true - outright rejecting anything that does not align with your confirmed thoughts, behaviors or beliefs which is why traders lose lots of money trying to protect the “ego's version of reality.  In fact,  Albert Einstein had a great quote about ego which went along the lines of “More the knowledge lesser the ego, lesser the knowledge more the ego.” When we relate this back to trading, the more knowledge you acquire the less your ego is present in your trading, whereas, the less knowledge you have the more ego plays into your trading.  One of the major psychological challenges for new traders is that our conditioning throughout life is based on being right! It’s all about self-preservation!  Our grades are determined by how right we are on tests, we then move into the corporate world where our livelihood depends on us doing our job “correctly” without making mistakes. So when we enter the trading arena - we bring along these existing beliefs that we have to be right to make money.  A lot of smart people tend to make poor traders at first because they are used to being right when they apply their “brainpower” to a task - so they just assume that this will carry over into their trading and equate to profits.  But what happens when things don’t go as planned? When something we believe should have happened, doesn’t? The ego takes a hit and can create wreak all kinds of havoc on your trading account if not kept in check!  So how can you determine if your ego is coming into play while you are trading?  The easiest way to do this is to perform some self-analysis by asking yourself the following questions:  Am I attached to the outcomes of my trades?  Do I take my losses personally?  Am I focusing on my P/L as soon as I get into a trade? Do I need my analysis to be right?  If the answer to any one of these questions was yes, then that means that your ego is controlling your trading.  Self-concern lies at the root of ego-related issues, so by taking things personally instead of remaining objective, your ego believes that being wrong say’s something about “you and your abilities” and actually threatens your survival.  As soon as you give in to these thoughts, you become vulnerable to making the following “ego-centric trading” mistakes:  Trying  different setups consistently because you believe that you can make money with every trade Moving or canceling stops on a trade when it starts going against you because you do not want to take a loss Trying to force a trade at a level several times despite clear evidence from price action telling you differently  Handcuffing winning trades by taking profit as soon as they become available  Taking large amounts of risks on individual trades  Adding to  losers  Marrying a trade  Hesitating to pull the trigger So how can you keep your ego under control when trading?  Identify your “why” statement for trading and keep that front of mind  Understand your strategy and know your numbers Accept that the market is always right; detach yourself from the idea that individual trade results are not a reflection of yourself as a person  Remain objective in your trading by implementing rule-based processes to protect you from yourself (talk about shit like what Chris did the kitchen timer. Etc ) Perfection is impossible; trading is a business and that’s how you should operate as well 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 are going to be discussing limiting beliefs about money and how they are affecting your trading performance! If you don't think you have an issue with money, ask yourself this: Do you have a fear of entering trades because you are scared to take a loss  Do you jumping out of trades with little (or no) profit  Do you beat yourself up after taking a loss  Do you revenge trade to make losses back?  Do you lie to yourself and others about your trading performance? These are all associated with your beliefs about money that you learned a long time ago. If you have never done any mindset work, then you are walking around with the beliefs that you held since childhood ( seven years old)  The mindset about money that you bring into trading is NOT the mindset that will produce the results that you want! You might be wondering if I know how to trade, then why do I always seem to drop the bell when the money counts?  We see it all the time - traders that have a great knowledge and understanding of what to do, but when it comes time to apply their knowledge in the live environments they seem to fall apart.  Intellectually they may be top of the totem pole but when put under pressure, all of that knowledge seems to escape them just when they need it most - why might you ask?  Simply because they are blind to the beliefs that they currently hold about money.  What is a belief? An acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists. You are born into an environment and circumstance where your brain organizes you to survive - you are not born with beliefs, you inherit them from family members, and experiences - they become the lens through which you see and interpret the world and this holds especially true as it relates to your relationship with money!  Common Limiting Beliefs About Money “Money doesn’t grow on trees”  “Only smart people make money in the markets”  “I probably won’t make money but I’ll give it a try”  “If I’m not good at this, it’s not for me”  “I can’t afford this”  “We aren’t part of the wealthy”  “You need money to make money”  “I’ll never be rich or successful”  “The rich get richer while the poor get poorer”  “I can't ever make millions of dollars. It’s impossible”   “ You have to work hard to get wealthy”  “ I’m just not good with money”  “Money can’t buy happiness”  “Only materialistic people want to make money”  “Rich people think they are better than everyone else” The Truth About Money Money is nothing more than a medium and we give it too much importance and too much power  If you want to do good and make a real change: you need money Do you think plants say: water is the root of all evil? No, they use water as a tool to grow!  Money is the same thing… a tool! The universe does not know money - it’s man made You DESERVE to be abundant, to have anything you want You ARE already abundant  If you are living, you are growing But there is a law… you only get what you want.. If you want to be broke, you will receive Steps to Change Your Limiting Beliefs Identify your limiting beliefs first List the way the limiting belief is limiting you and decide how you want to be/act/feel Create a new belief or affirmation and repeat these affirmations! 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 your negative self-talk and how this misunderstood concept actually creates your reality and your trading results!  How we talk to ourselves about ourselves and our world shapes our reality -unfortunately for the majority of the population, they live out their lives stuck as prisoners of the mind.  If you tend to beat yourself up inside when you make a mistake or worse yet, if you allow yourself to only feel as good as the result of your most recent trade, then you may be prone to negative thinking -  but if you are here with us today, then you’re in luck because we will provide you with some actionable steps to turn your mind into your best friend!  Did you know that on average, humans have about 12k-60k thoughts per day? Of those daily thoughts, about 80% are negative and 95% are repetitive thoughts day in and day out! So it is any surprise that the general population, yourself included, is so familiar with their inner critic?  The inner critic is who we face when trading so our success depends on our ability to remain positive and not feed into negativity! What is Self-Talk? The dialogue and conversation directed towards the self  Occurs out loud or internally; manifests as self-statements or things said about the self  Negative self-talk is any self-talk that puts you down, diminishes you, reduces self-confidence or self-esteem, or prevents you from being the best self  You might not be aware of inner dialogue but you engage in self-talk most of the time What actually happens from a neuroscientific perspective when you participate in negative self-talk? Humans have over a hundred thousand neural connections within the brain; neural pathways are connected by and communicate with synapses; the more neurons that fire and communicate with each other, the stronger these neural pathways become.  Negative self-talk creates neural pathways within the brain; like walking trail on a forest; the more you walk it the more the trail gets etched out  Negative self-talk can increase levels of cortisol (stress hormone) and is also linked to other mental health concerns such as depression and anxiety  The choice of our language during our trading will definitely help to empower the decisions we make and help control our emotional state. Creating a new path is much like creating positive self-talk; the more you do it the more you will create neural connections How  Negative Self-Talk Manifests itself in Trading When setting up for a trading session you might hear a small voice saying “ Will today be one of those losing days?” or even “I wonder if I can even get a good trade today”  Coming off the back of some great trades, you might start hearing that inner critic again saying “Most likely I'm going to blow it cause I will do something stupid”  After taking a losing trade “Ah why did I do that, that was stupid, I should’ve known that was a bad trade”  So how do you identify and reverse negative self-talk in its tracks? Stick around until the end of the episode to find out some actionable steps to get you started! 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 talking about the process of getting back into trading after taking some time off! Keeping mentally sharp throughout each trading session while battling fear and greed on a daily basis can definitely wear on a trader's psychology and sometimes it's best to take a break in order to prevent burnout from affecting your bottom line. Whether it's a voluntary decision or a forced one - many traders that end up taking a break from trading go about it the wrong way. They simply disconnect from the markets and return on a whim - often expecting different results while doing the same things as before - the definition of insanity! If you are considering taking a break from trading or are currently on a break from trading - understand this - there is work to be done on the "internal operator" before you return to the markets. We've got your back here at TRADEPRO Academy, so we will share some of our own processes today that you can use and implement during your time-off in order to ensure that you are ready to hit the ground running on your return! Before we get into the process of getting back into trading after taking time off, let’s first discuss why you might take time off in the first place: Feeling burned out (not in the right headspace) Stuck in a rut (not following your plan, self sabotaging)  Life circumstances ( health scare or life change <aka kid>)  Losing motivation for the process  Loss of hunger for success  Summer markets If high-performance athletes such as football stars and hockey players have an off-season, should you too? Think about it - performing day in and day out over a series of 8-9 months will take its toll on you - it will affect you mentally and physically and even spill into your daily life (lack of sleep, etc)  These athletes NEED the time in the off-season to recover their minds and bodies and to also build up the foundation in order to come into the next season stronger and more dominant.  Trading isn’t much different, albeit there is not as much physical activity, there is a lot of mental stress and pressure that goes into day trading and if we ignore our own well-being these things can spiral and affect our bottom line-performance.  Getting out of the daily trading routine is one of the best things that you can do after several consecutive months of the daily grind! Why? Because trading requires constant focus, discipline, diligence and patience.  A proper “break” removes that daily stress and brings the trader back into balance with life: family, relationships and any other hobbies or interests.  More importantly a proper break will bring the trader’s motivation back for the return.  The idea is to add balance back into life, work on other aspects of life (outside of trading) and slowly start to work on the “blueprint” and goals for returning back to trading - like a Reset button if you will.  So you’ve identified that you are going to take a break, what’s the process now? Assuming that you’re on board with taking some time off, let’s look at how you can make the most of an off-season: The first thing that we’d recommend is getting your sleep in line. Your body is very capable of recovering on its own, but recovers optimally when it’s not expending energy staying up late!!  The second thing is to spend at least a few days doing nothing. Yes, nothing. This accomplishes two things. It gives your mind a chance to recover from the wear and tear of the daily grind and stress and for most traders, it will also create a mental hunger to get back to their trading desks.  Finally, after a few days off, start working on your "internal operator" - identify areas of strengths and weakness in your trading and psychology and work on a plan to come back at 150%  Whether we want to admit it or not, every single one of us has something they can improve and the "off-season" is the ideal time to take care of these issues so they don’t affect you while in competition!  Some Things We Discuss in Today's Show: Some reasons why you should consider taking a break from trading 02:21 How trader's could use an "off-season" that is similar to professional athletes 07:17 Using time off to mitigate the chances of burning out 12:28 Hitting the reset button on your trading 16:35 The importance of getting your sleep in line during your time-0ff 23:57 Doing nothing and falling out of routine to rejuvenate your mental hunger  26:45 Working on your internal operator and your values to come back stronger 29:20 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 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