Mind Over Markets

In today’s episode, we discuss why boring is actually good when it comes to trading!  This statement might be a bit off-putting - especially for traders just beginning their journey because how can trading not be exciting when you can be making life-changing money? While you certainly can make great money in this industry, the reality is that if you are in this business for excitement, you will eventually blow out your account.  Real trading is all about earning risk-adjusted returns which is dull and unexciting - the real fun part is getting to spend the gains and your time however you like!  You have to be willing to take the boring, systematic approach to your trading goals. and we’ll explain exactly how to do that today! To put it simply - a trader's job is to make risk-adjusted returns.  For those unfamiliar with what this means, let’s break it down for you:  The risk-adjusted return measures the profit your investment has made relative to the amount of risk the investment has represented throughout a given period of time.  This is an important concept to understand because many new traders believe that the final P/L is the only important measurement of their “success” and they strive to achieve outsized returns without focusing on risk management.  Profitable trading is both effortless and boring - if you find yourself stressing, feeling excited, and/or frustrated, your mental capital will get drained a lot faster and your performance is likely to suffer.  In order to achieve risk-adjusted returns, a trader must find low-risk, high probability trades that offer favorable risk v reward profiles and execute only on those setups - if you are doing things right, you should be doing nothing MOST of the time. Money is attracted to traders that can control themselves and remain disciplined regardless of market conditions.  Sounds pretty straightforward right? So why do so many fail at reaching consistency then? Because good trading requires a lot of sitting on your hands and we, as human beings, are not the most patient especially when money is involved. How to Make Trading Boring?  The simple answer: Follow a consistent routine! Find a trading strategy that resonates with you and take the same trades over and over again Know exactly what you are looking for and what you consider to be a low-risk, high-probability trading setups Map out your levels and identify your if-then scenarios before the market opens Once the session starts, you are only looking for the market to come into your level and meet your setup criteria Only take a trade when all of your criteria are met  Think like a hedge fund manager trading millions of dollars; would you still want to take that trade? If not, you should pass on it.  Control Your Risk Instead of Looking For Huge Gains A profitable traders main job is to make risk-adjusted returns  In order to do this, you must know exactly how much you will be risking on any given trade  Understand that one single trade does not mean much over the course of a large set of trades  Post Trade Review  Once the session is over, review your trades and grade how well or poorly you followed your process Write down 1-3 learnings lessons and takeaways from the session Continue to build confidence in your process and your profits will Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate it 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 focusing our discussion on some strategies that traders can use to overcome the psychological barrier of letting profits run.  After all, one of the golden rules in trading is to cut your losses quickly and to run your profits but the reality is that it’s easier said than done!  This concept itself makes intellectual and financial sense, however, when it comes time to actually execute this, most traders fumble and actually do the opposite - they cut winners too soon and let their losers run. Take a moment now to reflect on your own trading experience to see if this rings true. How often do you get out of winners too early and watch the markets run without you?  How about your losses? How often do you give your trades more “room to breath” and end up running your losers?  If you find that this is a common occurrence in your trading, then today’s episode is for you! What's interesting to note is that our natural instincts are the opposite of what is required in order to become successful in trading:  For example, as humans, we do not like to lose because we are conditioned to be right through our societal upbringing.  This manifests itself in our attachment to the ego - taking a loss in trading can be "seen" as being wrong and therefore being wrong can be a hit to the ego so we try to avoid losses while taking profit early to confirm we are right and stoke the ego. So how can you go about reconditioning these instincts to serve you? Try some of these strategies:  1 Accept on a deep level that losses are a part of trading  Before you can apply any of the other strategies to your trading, you truly have to be comfortable and accept the fact that you will take losses in your career. Losses are a reality of trading and to believe that you are the exception to the rule is a fast track to disappointment and frustration. The benefits of being comfortable with losses to mean that you can maintain your focus on executing your trading process instead of focusing on the result of that last trade. 2 Battle test your strategy One of the recommendations from Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas is to trade a specific strategy for 100 trades before risking any money and to journal each trade. Doing this, and keeping track of your results, will give you the information you need to quantify your edge which is important because it’s going to be difficult for you to let your winners run if you have limited experience with that specific set-up!  It’s a lot easier on you mentally to hold a winner when you know from your journal that on average your setup hits target say 70% of the time.  3 Have predefined stops and targets for each trade When you enter a new trade and you have money on the line with an uncertain outcome, your mind becomes your worst enemy. It's easy to wind up letting your losses run and cutting your winners early when emotions creep into your trading but when you predefine your stops and targets for your trade, you keep it objective and much easier to execute and manage in real-time.  4 Take partials and leave a runner  One of the best ways to learn to run your profits is to get paid on 75% of the initial portion of the position at your predefined targets and to the last 25% to potentially run for extended targets This method allows you to get paid on the initial trade idea and removes the internal dialogue you have that's screaming at you to get paid while you have profits. We're going for singles and doubles, here but on occasion, that runner might just become your next grand slam trade! Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate it 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

As we celebrate International Women's Day today, the team at TRADEPRO sends our appreciation and gratitude to all of the female traders out there!  If you look at the trading industry these days, the unfortunate reality is that it still remains a "boys club", however, we are happy to see that there are a growing number of female traders out there silently killing the markets. One of those traders, Sarah Glass, happens to be the new face on our TRADEPRO trading desk and in today's episode, Sarah joins us to discuss her trading journey and some great insights for other women looking to get started on their own trading journeys.  Since joining our team at TRADEPRO, Sarah has become a community favorite in the Options room because she is an amazing options trader with an impeccable understanding of order flow and her ability to decipher institutional orders into actionable trades is unparalleled. Learn about how Sarah got started in this industry and how she is quickly becoming a role model for the women in our TRADEPRO community! Some of the topics we discussed in today's episode include:  How Sarah got started in the trading industry What it takes to become a successful, full-time trader The benefits of being trained by an institutional trader off the get-go The importance of meditation in a trader's routine How women can get more involved with trading The lack of female role models in the industry How Sarah's psychology has developed with trading experience Advice to beginners if she had to start over from scratch Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate it 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 how traders can tap into the subconscious mind to remove their fears about trading It’s no secret that we are our own biggest obstacles - and our minds - more specifically our thoughts - play a huge role in the actions that we take and the realities that we manifest.  If we can only get out of our own heads and get out of our own way- what kind of effect would that have on your trading performance?  If you feel like fear is holding you back from becoming the trader that you can be, stay tuned, because this episode is for you!  Fear is False Evidence Appearing Real  A person’s greatest enemy is fear  What most don’t realize is that fear is simply a negative thought in your mind  In simple terms, you are afraid of your thoughts   When you combine the thoughts you have with emotion, these are realized in the subconscious mind The reality is that the best way to tackle your fears is head on  But before you can do this, you must first make the conscious decision to master your fears In doing so, you will release the power of the subconscious mind which will manifest that which you think and truly believe. Suggestions control your subconscious mind and when the mind is calm and present, your conscious thoughts can sink into the subconscious. The more positive thoughts you provide to your subconscious, the more these will grow into your reality The Two Types of Fears  Normal Fears  There are two basic fears we are all born with as humans A fear of falling and fear of sudden loud noises  These fears serve as a method of self-preservation and are not the issue  All other fears are abnormal and were caused by  Abnormal Fears  Abnormal fears are caused by experiences from your past and/or passed along to you from others during your imprint years (0-7 years old)  These fears occur when we let our minds run wild and are the destructive ones that lead to fears and self-sabotage Examples of abnormal fears include fear of bankruptcy, fear of heights, fear of the dark, etc.  Fearing something persistently causes panic and terror - the things we fear do not exist but we manifest them into reality by constantly fearing, believing, and expecting the worse. A Technique to Overcome Fear  Whenever thoughts of fear start to appear, find a quiet place without any distractions and put yourself into a deep state of relaxation  Sit still and shift your focus to the opposite of what you fear Visualize yourself tackling your fears head-on and make these images as detailed as possible  The goal is to put emotion into it, really feel these visualize as if you were actually realizing them in that very moment What you are doing is actually feeding your subconscious mind with the visuals and emotions from your imagination. You are shifting your attention from what you fear to what you desire and by doing so you are no longer giving emotion or energy to that which you fear. Expect the good, mentally concentrate on it, and just know that your subconscious has your back Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate it 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 speaking on affirmations and how traders can benefit from adding this daily practice into their routines so as to help build a mental edge for optimal trading performance.  You will walk away from this episode with a better understanding of what affirmations are, how they work, as well as how to craft your own powerful affirmations. Stay tuned.  What are affirmations? Affirmations are a powerful tool that many successful people in business, professional sports, and many other professions use on a daily basis.  They are short statements that help you become the trader and more importantly, the person that you want to be - said differently, they are an assertion that something exists or is true.  Now you might be wondering how speaking a bunch of statements out loud might help you make better trading decisions and I don’t blame you.  It goes back to that old saying from Napoleon Hill  “What you think, so you will become” and nowadays, science confirms this to be true. The Science  Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s potential to create new neural pathways and to reorganize itself  Science has proven that the brain is a dynamic organ that constantly changes as we develop new knowledge and go through new experiences.  The more that we use a certain area of the brain, the bigger and stronger that area becomes while the opposite holds true for less frequently used areas of the brain; they become weaker and less effective  Neurons that wire together, fire together! What does this mean for you? Many of us constantly engage in negative self-talk and we don’t even realize it consciously because these thoughts are programmed at a subconscious level.  So when you engage in negative self-talk, you are effectively manifesting these negative thoughts into your reality. Some examples of such self-talk for traders would include the following : "I can't buy myself a winning trade"  "The market is out for my stops"  "I am a horrible trader"  "I can’t do this" When we deeply believe in something, our behavior is often aligned with that belief, so every time you tell yourself you can’t do something, you are creating a feedback loop for your limiting beliefs and strengthening that neural pathway.  If you keep telling yourself these negative things, then you will start to believe them and ultimately, you will manifest them into your reality - but on the flip side of that coin, if you start to tell yourself “I can” then your behavior will follow in line with that statement, and you will create a new feedback loop that will be reinforced and strengthened the more actively you practice these statements.  The reality is this... if you aren’t getting what you want in life then that is the major clue that you might have a negative program running your life on autopilot.  It's never too late to start utilizing positive affirmations to neutralize and replace your limiting thoughts and beliefs with empowering and serving ones so that you can reframe your focus from negativity and scarcity to positivity and abundance. This will take some time before you start to get noticeable results - after all, some of these beliefs and values have been running since you were a child. Repeating affirmations over weeks, months and years will retrain your subconscious mind to think a different way.  At the end of the day, we use affirmations in our daily lives without even knowing that we do, so why not put them to good use and train your brain to a better way of thinking? Now that you know what they are and the benefits of affirmations, let’s discuss how to write powerful affirmations for trading!  There are 3 steps to this process:  Step 1: State your affirmations in the present tense as if it has already happened  Your subconscious mind cannot tell difference between vivid imagery and something that’s actually happened. If you keep telling yourself that you are a successful, profitable trader, then you will start to feel this way after some time even if your current reality does not represent the end goal. You will take on the identity of that which you are affirming and your subconscious will find ways to align your internal feelings with your external reality. You might feel like this is lying to yourself at first - but you already have the ability to become a successful trader inside of you - it's up to you to choose whether you embrace it or reject it. Step 2: Be positive, keep it short and keep it specific  Your subconscious does not hear “not”; so you have to frame the affirmation in a positive light. If you tell yourself “I will not let my winners turn into losers”, your subconscious mind registers this as “I will let my winners turn into losers”. Keeping affirmations short helps you memorize them more easily so they are more likely to stick!  Being extremely specific with your affirmations will help you bring up more vivid imagery in your mind - this is important because the more vivid the visual, the more it feels real and the more likely you are to manifest this into reality.  Step 3: Always include action and emotion in your affirmations Emotions are the key to making affirmations work; you have to believe in the affirmations so much that you put all of your passion and desire behind them  Including actions and emotional words by starting your affirmations with “I am” Stick around until the end of the episode for some great examples of powerfully crated affirmations for traders using the 3-step process discussed above. Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate it 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

Think back to the single worst event in your life; Did it defeat you or did you use it to your advantage and turn it into the greatest moment that ever happened to you? In today’s episode, we've got a special guest by the name of AJ Garcia, whose story is nothing short of inspirational! From rubbing shoulders with celebrities as a high-flying marketing executive to suddenly staring at a prison sentence of 25 years to life,  AJ shares the day that everything changed for him and how he ended up beating the charges but still hitting rock bottom when the judge sentenced him to serve 7 years in prison. Despite being written off by friends and family, AJ never wrote himself off and actually committed himself to develop his mindset and psychology while serving his time.  Our goal with this episode is to provide insight to help you with whatever obstacles you’re facing in life. This is a story of how AJ used prison as the launching pad for his personal success, but it's also about how you can use a potential setback to set up your future. Some of the topics we discussed in today's episode include:  The fall from grace and the day that everything changed Being written off by family and friends but keeping it together mentally  Making opportunities out of setbacks Finding motivation during the darkest times Not having control over anything other than what you could control Disassociating from thoughts like “What might happen” and embodying “it is what it is” as a driving motivator The importance of routines in developing and maintaining a strong mindset  The role of gratitude in maintaining a positive outlook on life  Developing an indestructible “I am not going to lose” mindset  Life after prison and being introduced to options trading  The role a strong mindset plays in developing as a trader  Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate it 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 the recent euphoria around the GameStop short squeeze, what actually happened and some of the important lessons that new traders can learn from this recent saga! What Happened with GameStop (Ticker: GME)?  Around this time last year (2020), GME was trading below the $5 mark and over the course of the year, the price traded as high as $20 in January 2021. Then on January 13th and January 14th, 2021, the price doubled to $40 - two days later, it doubled again. As a result of this rapid price increase, the media caught wind of this and started running stories on the stock - anywhere you looked, all you saw was “GME” and how retail traders were making life-changing money overnight and beating Wall Street at its own game.  There was euphoria in the air and everybody and their grandmothers were rushing to open brokerage accounts and pour their savings at GME to catch a piece of the pie. On each of the following two days, the stock doubled again, bringing the price to an all-time high of $483.00 over the span of two weeks - this represented a 2,265.33% increase in prices. At the time of this recording, GME price was trading around the $65.00 price level - down almost 80% from the Jan 28th highs suggesting that the short squeeze is now over.   How Did the Short Squeeze Happen? Late last year, some posters on a subreddit called r/wallstreetbets, started arguing that GameStop actually might be a good buy because the business had a lot of upside relative to the price.  In addition to this, a number of hedge funds had taken short positions on this stock - so much so, that the short float on GameStop was 120%  Shorting a stock is simply borrowing shares at higher prices and buying them back at lower prices to make a profit - essentially, these hedge funds were positioned to profit from the price of GameStop falling.  The Reddit community saw that Wall Street was heavily short this stock and realized that they could potentially orchestrate a massive short squeeze by buying shares of GME together in a coordinated effort, which would drive the price up, and the hedge funds who were short the stock would have to buy those shares back to close their out their position, which would fuel the rally even higher and result in massive losses for the hedge funds. What started out as an investment thesis based on fundamentals quickly transformed into a battle against Wall Street that actually gained momentum and mainstream acceptance from the retail crowd - and they were successful in causing some damage to Wall Street - namely Melvin Capital - which had to get bailed out with around $3 billion in order to shore up its finances and ended up covering their position for a massive loss. Avoiding a Systemic Collapse Using The Silent Exit  Instead of going out on the open market and buying GME stock to close out their short positions, hedge funds actually went to the Retail ETF (ticker: XRT) to unwind their positions! GME represented 20% of the ETF holdings, so while the hedge funds spent more money to buy the other 80% of the stocks, they took delivery of the assets out of the ETF and that's effectively how they closed out their position in the market. Have the hedge funds been squeezed out? The short float of around 20% would suggest yes. This short squeeze really had the potential to create a systemic collapse in the financial markets as hedge funds would have had to pay for margin losses by selling large stakes of their positions in big-name stocks like Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook to name a few, which would have provided downside pressure to the stock indices.  Fortunately, it did not get to this point, but in the aftermath, the ones really affected by this were those that joined the party late, bought into the hype near the highs, and held all the way down "hoping" it would come back. Here are the 5 Important Lessons That We Can Learn From This Someone always ends up holding the bag  We can't all win and somebody always loses When you buy shares, the only way to get paid is to sell them at a higher price and somebody has to buy them from you When everyone that wants the stock has already bought it, who is going to buy it from them at a higher price if demand fizzles out? Nobody - they become sellers waiting to happen Holding regardless of developments in the market is a losing strategy overall  Every stock symbol you could put up will have paid off at some point in its trading history Think about the companies that don't exist anymore (ie. Enron, Nortel Networks) All of the companies that are now defunct exceed the total number of stocks available to trade today  Just buying something and holding it forever without any rational analysis on it on a continuous basis is not a good idea  In the long run, more companies go bankrupt then they stay afloat Looking at the symbols in the market right now is not an accurate way to predict what will happen because you are not looking at the universe of all companies, just the ones that survived. Remember it only takes one bankrupt company to wipe out a portfolio when you are getting greedy  Amateur traders chase gains; professionals focus on managing risk  The biggest focus for amateur traders is to what they will do with all of the profits they imagine that they will make when considering buying a stock seeing momentum  There is no focus on risk management nor is there any strategy or plan; just trading based on emotions Professional traders, on the other hand, concern themselves with entry & exit plans, as well as risk management. They have a trading plan before taking on a position; if you don’t have a plan to get out before you get in, then you are getting out based on emotion. Huge opportunities don't last a long time  Whenever a huge deviation of a move happens that exceeds the level of what it should be, it’s a only temporary opportunity. This is because there are trillions of dollars at work in the market to make it efficient again - this takes the form of arbitrage  If you are in a position and the market moves in a way that exceeds what you were looking for when you entered, it's a good idea not to get greedy but to take profit. Following other people's trades is a horrible idea  The worst thing that you can do to yourself is to lose money on someone else’s idea  If you wanna do that, you can use a financial advisor  It’s your money, you work for it, so why invest in someone's opinion? You should learn how to think for yourself and to build confidence in an approach that meshes well with your personality. The journey is not easy, but it is well worth it! Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate it 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

We often compare the mindset of professional traders to that of professional athletes on this podcast so we are very excited for today's special guest, Natey Adjei, who is a professional wide receiver for the Toronto Argonauts in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Natey has been playing football since the fourth grade and has been playing as a professional in the big leagues for the last seven years. He was originally drafted by the Toronto Argonauts in the 2013 CFL Draft where he played for two seasons before joining the Edmonton Eskimos prior to the 2016 season. Natey enjoyed four seasons playing as a receiver for the Eskimos before rejoining the Argonauts as a free agent in February 2020.   Making it to the highest level of a sport is one thing, but to perform as consistently as Natey has, for as long as he has, takes a different type of mindset - the mind of a champion. What does it take to make it to the top? How do champions bounce back from setbacks? How do professionals stay motivated? What do winners focus on? The answer to these questions and more is a short listen away! Here is a summary of what we discussed:  Who is Natey and what does he do? 01:35 Synergies between trading and athletic performance 04:09 What drove Natey to become a professional athlete 04:51 How self-accountability is what makes the difference between being good versus being great 07:51 Good days and bad days will happen - what matters is how you respond 10:07 Dealing with discouragement and gaining confidence through hard work 14:02 Focusing on the present and winning one day at a time 16:52 Using daily routines to track and understand your performance 20.35 Building mental strength by putting in work when you don't feel like it 25:02 Analyzing your mistakes and correcting your course 31:43 Not all mistakes are created equal 34:30 Why checking the scoreboard in-game is a loser's mentality - it's always a zero-zero game 39:30 How professional athletes self-reflect on their individual performance after a game  43:30 Using visualization to win the battle in your head and improve performance 46:32 Situational awareness and its role in real-time risk management 51:00 If you're going to make a mistake, make it at full speed - no matter what you do 54:45 You can't reach the top without thinking and believing that you are the best 61:32 Self-worth and dealing with the negative pressure and expectations from fans on social media 64:35 When it's really close margins it's the mental game that defines the best 68:00 Finding motivation by striving to get better every day 71:11 Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate it 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 How to Find Natey Adjei?  Love sports? Listen to Natey's All Ball Podcast on Apple Podcasts or on Youtube Follow Natey on Twitter and Instagram

In this episode, we focus our discussion on resilience and why it's such an important characteristic for you to develop as a trader!  Despite what you see on social media, trading is not as easy as it is portrayed and the reality is that you will face challenges and obstacles on your journey that will test you financially, mentally, and even physically.  Every single trader, yourself included, will go through periods of losses and drawdown and whether you can bounce back and recover to new highs will largely depend on your resilience. Our goal with this episode is to introduce you to resilience, the role it represents in your trading, and some strategies that you can apply to start becoming a more resilient trader! What is Resilience? the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. Why Is resilience such an important characteristic for traders?  Trading is a very demanding job; you will be presented with challenges, pressure, and adversity The largest source of adversity in trading will be dealing with losses and drawdowns.  Your ability to keep a level head will determine whether you will bounce back successfully or not.  The key is not to try to avoid these periods, but to be in a position to be able to bounce back from these challenges.  Successful traders will endure these challenges and overcome these adversities whereas unsuccessful traders will fail to do the same Now when we consider how to build resilience, we like to break it down into 3 different sub-categories that we can work on as traders. These sub-categories include: Financial Resilience  Physical Resilience  Psychological resilience  Let's dig a bit deeper into each one: Financial Resilience;  If you are going to survive rough patches in the market, you will need a sufficient supply of capital.  To build your resilience in this category, you will want to focus on having enough personal capital to survive slow periods and drawdowns without the need to make money trading in order to pay the bills If trading capital is a large portion of your personal wealth then every loss will have a double impact; both your trading capital and personal wealth will take a hit which increases the pain and emotional impact of the loss If trading capital is small, then you can either accept it for what it is and manage risk accordingly or you will force yourself to take on too much risk while chasing unrealistic expectations. Having a good base of capital will allow you to take risks appropriate for the account size Physical Resilience:  This relates to having the energy required to cope with all of the stress and challenges when things aren’t going our way  When trading is tough it can take a lot of out you mentally and emotionally but also physically  You can build up your physical resilience by practicing good habits; getting enough rest, eating well, doing meditations and getting active, and working out.  Psychological Resilience:  This relates to how you mentally deal with tough situations What you choose to think and say to yourself in tough times and the beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions you have about them determines the outcome that you will manifest.  Cortisol production shoots up when you are stressed and adrenaline increases when you are elated; this takes energy to produce and removes energy from you - almost like a withdrawal from your energy bank  Similar to what we refer to as the mental capital meter- you need to have a high amount of mental capital (7+ out of 10) in order to be able to handle the stresses and pressure from trading.  When you are low in energy your mood gets affected and you become more easily irritated and frustrated which is the opposite of what we want as traders  One strategy you can use to build resilience in this category is to ask yourself what a loss and/or drawdown means to you and examine your responses. Take note of positive and negative beliefs and commit to reframing the negative ones with positive beliefs (ie. I am not a successful trader if I make a mistake - reframe to mistakes are an opportunity to learn, trading is not a game of perfection ) Consider taking the “big picture” approach to events and looking for the positive in any situation; Ask yourself  “What can I learn from this”. This line of thinking generates new possibilities for future outcomes; see losses or setbacks are a cost of learning. Another idea is to think back to a loss or setback and visualize yourself 6 months or more into the future reflecting on the loss or setback - what do you notice?  Practical Strategies to Building Resilience Ensure a positive relationship with personal capital, your trading capital, and the size traded  Maintain and top up your mental capital meter; focus on sleep, exercise and nutrition  Develop positive resilient beliefs, take positive perspective of events and practice positive self talk 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 excited to bring to you an interview with a special guest by the name of Etienne Crete, who is a full-time swing trader and is also the founder of the Desire To Trade podcast. Etienne is known as the traveling forex trader and he really practices what he preaches - in fact, he has built a life of freedom that allows him to travel the world and pursue his passions while making a full-time income swing trading the forex markets. When he's not out exploring new cities and destinations, Etienne also mentors serious traders looking to quit their jobs and pursue trading full-time while also providing huge value to the global trading community in the form of his well-known Desire to Trade podcast. Our very own George Papazov has made several guest appearances on Etienne's show and you can check out his latest interview here.  We recently had the chance to sit down with Etienne (virtually, of course) for a great discussion on what it takes to be a successful full-time trader, how he made his breakthrough to profitable trading, the importance of developing a trading strategy that fits around your lifestyle, as well as the process of getting funded as a trader. If you are even remotely interested in making a full-time career out of trading while creating a life of ultimate freedom, you do not want to miss this episode! Here is a summary of what we discussed:  Who is Etienne and what does he do? 01:25 How Etienne was introduced to the financial markets 02:30 What attracted Etienne to trading the forex markets 06:22 Initial challenges Etienne ran into when he started trading 08:00 The importance of developing your strategy as you mature as a trader 10:10 How Etienne used trading as a means to pursue his passion of traveling 15:00 The daily routine that Etienne practices in order to stay mentally sharp  18:20 The big realization that led to Etienne's breakthrough into profitable trading 22:15 How seeing himself as the CEO of a company helped Etienne find consistency in his trading approach 27:15 Some of the limiting beliefs Etienne struggled with and how he overcame them  30:20 Why working with a performance coach helped Etienne develop his trading mindset 33:00 How professional traders handle losses and drawdowns  38:57 Starting a trading podcast to meet other traders and learn from them 42:50 The most common characteristic of successful traders 46:20 Getting funded by a private investor and going full-time with trading 50:00 How to know when it's the right time to leverage your trading by taking on other people's money 53:15 What Etienne would tell himself if he had to start trading all over again 57:12 Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate it 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 How to Find Etienne Crete?  Check out his website and podcast here: Desire to Trade  Check him out on Youtube Follow him on Twitter and Instagram