The Option Genius Podcast: Options Trading For Income and Growth

Hey, it's Allen again, from Option Genius. And today I learned something that I want to share with you. Over this weekend, this past weekend, I attended virtually a conference. And it was an investment conference on basically it was on funds. So how to, it was for people who want to have a fund like hedge fund or a real estate fund or crypto fund at all, there's so many different types of funds. And so they put all the people together in a room and they had speakers come and talk about the different things that they're doing and how you can do it, and how you can get investors to give you money and how you can build your track record and all this kind of stuff. So currently, I am thinking about doing that. And so I went there, and one of the speakers was a guy by the name of John Pennington, you can look him up John Pennington, he's probably a billionaire, or if not, he's worth several 100 million dollars. About a year ago, he took his company public, they were a fund, they were a real estate fund. So they were using investors to give them money. And then he would go out and buy real estate and do loans and stuff like that. And they made it to build it up pretty good—several billions of dollars of assets. And then they took the company public. And he was the I believe he was the president or the co-founder, one of them and then he retired. So now he has a lot of time on his hands. But he's still a very smart guy, because you don't build up a company and go public, you know, and make millions or millions of dollars if you're not a smart guy. So he took the stage. And he talked about a couple of different things. One of the things he talked about was he what he calls the Bitcoin cage. Now, I want to give him complete credit for this because I hadn't thought about this. This is his thing. I don't know if he got it from somewhere else. But he brought this in spoken to everybody. And it was very interesting. So I'm telling you this not because we're going to be making money, I will not be selling options on Bitcoin or anything like that. But I want to also show you how other people think and how when you're investing, you need to be looking two or three steps down the road, to really understand what is going on in the markets. It's not just hey, I want to buy this stock is gonna go up and sell puts because it's going up. Yes, that's just kind of what we do. Right, simplicity wise, but long term, we have to also know what's going on. So Ray Dalio, the guy who has the biggest hedge fund in the world is another guy, he has written several books. And he's been talking a lot about the reserve currency, as the dollar is currently the reserve currency of the world, meaning that most of the trade around the world is done in dollars. So that's very, very, very, very, very important for the United States. And if they stopped being the reserve currency, the dollar stops being the reserve currency, it's going to be very negative for our economy, our country, our debts, borrowing money, all that stuff, taxes are gonna go up all kinds of crazy stuff is gonna happen. And at this point, China really wants their currency to be the reserve currency. They don't want the dollar, they don't like the dollar anymore, and Russia is trying to get everybody off the dollar, as well. So it's gonna be interesting, the next 1520 years, see what happens with that, but call him John, John Pennington, the guy who's talking. According to him, the Fed-its main mandate there number one mandate is to keep the dollar the reserve currency. That's what he says is that their most important goal, their most important objective is to do that. Now a few years ago, nobody ever heard of Bitcoin, right? But bitcoin is billed as a currency is that's where it's supposed to be used to buy stuff with itself stuff with it, right now, because of the US tax laws, it's not really a currency, right? Because you pay taxes on it, every time you sell it, every time you buy something, you paying taxes, you got to record all that stuff, that's crazy. So until they get rid of that, it's never really going to be a true currency. But still people are using it to buy stuff with. And so it's gaining more and more traction. And it's unregulated by any government. So that's the appeal to it, right? And there's no one government that can take away your Bitcoin or and they actually found ways they can, but technically, you're not supposed to do that. And so the federal government, obviously, you know, there'll be the they got smart people that work in there, they'd be like, well, you know, this Bitcoin thing, it might take over as the reserve currency of the world, and they're going to replace the dollar, that's not gonna be a good thing. And so the Fed is thinking, okay, so how do we stop that? How do we not allow that? So before I tell you how they did that, let me give you a little bit more background. In the 2000s JP Morgan was manipulating the price of gold. Yes. JP Morgan, the bank was manipulating the entire gold market. So they were keeping prices within the range that they wanted to they were not letting go up nine where they say you can look this up and they were fined by the s&c. You know people found out about it, they were fined about it. And, you know, most people didn't even hear about it, they were fined a billion dollars, because of their manipulation. And this went on for nine years. So that's a lot of manipulation. And JP Morgan, you know, it's a big bank. But if you compare it, the resources that they have to the Fed, it's nothing, because they only have a certain amount of cash and serve on a market cap that they can tap into news, the Fed can print money as much as they want. They like unlimited supply of cash. And over the last several years, they've been printing, printing printing, and I'm sure nobody knows where all that money that the printing went to. So I'm sure the Fed has, you know, taken some of that money and done other things with it. That was just a footnote somewhere. Oh, yeah, $50 billion, went to this program over here. Nobody knows what it is. Right? And so John, he made the inference that if JP Morgan can manipulate and control the gold market, gold market is 10 times with Bitcoin, it's, it's way bigger than Bitcoin. Really even greater than that. I mean, it might be more than 10 times larger than Bitcoin at this point. So if JP Morgan with limited resources can manipulate a market 10 times bigger than Bitcoin, it means the reason that a fed with unlimited resources could easily manipulate the Bitcoin market. Make sense? Do you see what I'm going on here? I'm trying to connect the dots here. So what John was saying is that the Fed is manipulating the Bitcoin. And they bought up a lot of Bitcoin when it was at lower prices. And now as it gets higher and higher, they are selling the Bitcoin that they have. So they're keeping a lid on prices, because we had a lot of people mentioning later, oh, yeah, Bitcoin should be at 100,000, it should be valid should be at 200,000. Because every day, there's less and less Bitcoin out there. It's been mined. So it's, it's not like there's an unlimited supply, eventually, they'll stop making it. But that supply, that's the amount of mining that they're doing is becoming less and less and less. So basically, all a bit, most of the Bitcoin is already out there. There's a small percentage of it, that needs to be mined yet. But people lose their Bitcoin all the time, people put their money in their wallet, and then the guy dies. And nobody knows where their bitcoins just gone, where it can be stolen or hacked. And there's so much Bitcoin has been lost just because people forget their passwords. So the supply of Bitcoin is going down, that shouldn't be sending the prices up just by itself, but it's not. And so John is saying that the Fed is purposely keeping the price down, because they don't want interest in Bitcoin. If Bitcoin prices got super sky high, everyone's gonna be buying it, everyone's gonna start using it, all that stuff, they don't want that to happen. And so they're purposely keeping prices down. And what they what they're trying to do is most of the people who trade Bitcoin who buy bitcoin, they're doing technical analysis, right, so they look at the charts and the Bitcoin chart is going up, they're gonna start buying and holding, and if the charge is going down, then they're gonna leave it alone or sell. And so the Fed wants to create a chart of Bitcoin where it's slowly, slowly, slowly, lower highs, lower highs, lower highs, very bearish looking chatter, so that the people avoid Bitcoin and move on to something else invest in something else. And so Bitcoin eventually falls out of favor. Now they can do this for the next 15-20 years. People live on Bitcoin rises. It's crazy, but it's very possible. Now, is this accurate? Is this going to happen? The Fed really doing this? You might be thinking, Oh, conspiracy theory, conspiracy theory meaning, right, maybe that's what it is. But it makes sense. Is it doable? Yes. Is it in the favor of the Fed to do that? And the US government, if not the Fed and the US government or somebody else, you know, that wants to keep the dollar as a reserve currency? Yes, it is in their favor. And Bitcoin becomes the world's reserve currency. Whoa, big shocks all around the world, especially in the United States. So it was just eye opening to me to even hear that see is like, wow, okay, you know, this is some next not just next level thinking, this is like four stories up thinking, right? This is the kind of stuff that these guys talk about, think about. And it's like playing investing is like playing chess, right? You don't just think one or two moves ahead, you got to think 1520 moves. That's how the Masters do it, then the grandmasters they think, like 30 moves ahead. So that's how they become grandmasters. So this is the way people think on Wall Street and how they obviously there has, you know, I mean, I don't even know JP Morgan was manipulating gold prices. I didn't know that but they people know about it. And if that's possible, then there's a whole bunch of other things that are possible as well. They shouldn't be done. But they are being done. And if the government is doing it, then all bets are off because nobody's gonna go to jail eludes me, we're gonna find out about it. Probably. Right? So that is the Bitcoin cage. I know, we didn't talk about options or trading or anything like that. But, you know, I just wanted to put it out there and be like, hey, look, there's other ways to think. And you can't just look at one thing and be like, okay, Bitcoin, yeah, it's gonna go up because of XYZ. Well, there are other factors involved. So you got to look at all the offshoots as well. And when you make your investment thesis, so, you know, whatever you're investing in, look at all the different angles, think about it, you know, talk to other people that might have contrary views to what you're thinking. If you're if you're a Bitcoin bold, then talk to people who think bitcoins going to zero. You know, Warren Buffett said that Charlie Munger says that, why are these guys idiots? No, they're pretty smart. But they have reasons. So find out what those reasons are and then find out why and listen to it and keep an open mind. And then head yourself. Always head yourself. So yes, I still own Bitcoin. I'm hoping it goes 200,000. But this talk did keep me from buying more. So we'll see what happens. Right? We'll see what happens. He might be right, he might be totally off but if Bitcoin doesn't go up 200,000 over the next 10 years, then we'll know that he was right. Be crazy if he was anyway. So that's it for this episode. I'll talk to you guys soon. Bye.

Today I wanted to talk to you about the trader's journey. At least he that's what I call it. I like to learn about marketing. I don't know, it's just one of my things. I just I enjoy marketing. And I think it's because it's a lot about psychology. And so even in trading, you have to understand Psychology because, you know, people are what make markets and so when people are reacting or behaving a certain way, if you understand it, then you can profit from it. Right? So in marketing, one of the things that I've been learning about recently is something called the hero's journey. Now, the hero's journey is a common.. now it's common way to tell stories. So whether it's a movie or a book, most likely the most, you know, the most famous movies, the most famous books, the ones that you really enjoy, they follow this trajectory, this story arc, which is called the hero's journey. Now, basically, what it means is that there's obviously a hero, right, and there has to be a hero in every story, cannot be vague, it has to be very clear who the hero of the story is. Secondly, the hero has to want something, right, it just can't be about a guy just going about his daily life, because that would be boring. And we can all do that ourselves. So the hero has to want something. And then the problem occurs that there is a problem or a blockage, that is stopping the hero from getting that thing, right? So there is something that he needs to go or do or overcome, or there's people in the way, and then there is usually a guide. So a person or a tool or something that helps the hero. Now this is kind of like the Obi wan to Luke, or the Dumbledore to Harry Potter, right? There's, there's somebody that's guiding them along the way. And then at the end, the climax happens when the hero achieves his goal, or sometimes doesn't, right. And a lot of times in the more deeper stories, the thing that the hero has to overcome is external, which means that he has to actually do accomplish something or beat somebody or win something. And then there's also an internal problem that he has to overcome. So from the beginning of the story, to the end of the story, the hero has changed has grown as a person, because he had to overcome something internally, in order for him to get to the end and achieve his external goal. Okay, so now in the traders journey, obviously, we have you, you are the hero, you are the star of the show, not me, it's you. I know we do the podcast, and I talk about my own exploits or whatever. But in reality, it's all about you, the trader, the hero of our story, and there has to be something you want. Right? So what is it that you want? Now in order for us to have a successful hero's journey for you, you have to know very clearly and specifically what it is you want? Is it that, hey, I would like to make X dollars per month, for whatever reason, or I want to make enough money from trading that I can quit my job and retire early. Or is it hey, I want to buy a new Lamborghini. And I need, I don't know how much they are. But you know, maybe like $2000 or $3,000 a month to pay for this Lamborghini, or I want to pay it in cash, or I want to be a billionaire. Or a multimillionaire, I don't know, I want to start my own foundation, my own charity, and I want to be worth millions of dollars so that it lasts for hundreds of years, whatever that is, whatever that thing that you want. If you don't know it, and you're not clear about it, then we're gonna have a lot of trouble on our journey. Okay, so step number one for you to have a very successful hero's journey is to know what you want specifically Okay, so now, after that comes the guide, like, "Hey, Hi, I'm Allen, I'll be your guide on this traders journey. I'm not the hero you are, I'm just going to help you guide you along the way". Because normally times the "guide" has some special information, some special skills, maybe he's done the journey before, right? He knows the pitfalls. He knows the traps. He knows where to write the right turn left, turn all that stuff. So in case I'm going to be your guide, and I appreciate you listening to this podcast and letting me help you along on your journey, then what is it that's stopping you from your destination? That's what we have to figure out as well. And it's not as simple as oh, Allen I need more money. No. I mean, I could give you a million dollars tomorrow, but you wouldn't know what to do with it. Right? So the issue is that we need to figure out a path or a way to get to your goal that is systematic, and can be replicated, right? So that it can be done over and over and over again, it's not just a one time fluke, we don't want to just give you a lottery ticket. No, here's $10 million. And it's going to be gone in winter, right? It's something that we build over time. And we get because the internal issue also comes out, right? If you're just given money, you don't change, it's too easy. But if you grow the money, if you learn a skill, if you do it, and you go through different market cycles, and you have building up that confidence in yourself, and your trading, and the confidence that other people will have in you, around you the way they see you, the way you feel, the way you grow. All of that is part of the traders journey. And that's having all that is the only way to be and have a successful traders journey. Does that make sense? So you can't just be given the money, you just can't be given the thing. It has to be hard fought, it has to be a trial a struggle, and only then will it be worth it at the end to get it. Makes sense? So I was thinking about fuel on the podcast, I did a interview with one of our students, Todd. Okay. Now Todd's journey, his issue was that he wanted to make enough money to pay his monthly expenses. Very simple, very easy, you know, right. That's, that's a big why pretty much right? I want to I need to do this. And so for him, his number was 5000. I was like, hey, I need to make $5,000 a month. That's my goal. That's my why, that's my.. that thing, the end of the journey. It wasn't the end for him, because then he continued later. But that was for the first part of the story. That was his thing. Now, what was keeping him back? Well, he had never done before. And he wanted to do it via trading. But he had never done that before. He had dabbled in it, had some success and failure. But he'd never done it before. So he didn't have the confidence for one, and then comes the guide. Now luckily for Tom, he had already been in our circle, he was already a student, he was in our Oil Options program. And so he had the guide, the Mentor-- me, he had the education, he had the components, everything was there, he had the strategy that was proven, that was like, hey, follow this except some steps up. So he was well advanced in his storyline. If you are not that advanced, if you don't have the guy, then I would be willing to work with you, I'd love to do it. And if you don't have the methodology, you know, that's what we do. That's what I'm an option genius. That's all we do, we have different ways to get there. And we can, if you reach out to us, we can we can help you out. So Todd, had one more thing, which I left out, he had an account. And his account had about $40,000 in it. So he had everything that he needed to go from zero to gold in a short amount of time. And he did it in about three months. So within three months of trading and learning and all that, he went from not making any money in trading to paying off all of his bills every month. And then later on, he kept growing and growing, he added more money to account and, you know, he kept going from there. So it was a very successful trading journey. And that's why it made for a good interview, you know, a good podcast because he had all of the elements that make a good story. Now comes down to you. This is your story. That's why you're listening to this. That's why you're watching this, right? We want to know the hero, the heroe's you. Number 3? It's not "I don't have any money". It might be "Hey, I don't have the discipline to do this". It might be Hey, I don't have the the options approval to do this. It might be I don't have the knowledge to do this. All of those can be overcomed. Right? If the discipline is a problem, it's a question of your why of the thing that you want. You got to make that really really, really clear. Now Todd, in our story, he had been laid off. So you didn't really have a choice. You had to make your work or go get another job. Right. So that's it's a pretty big why. Now I would not tell you to go quit your job in order to do this. But there are ways to do it while you're also working. Um We have another student Mary that I interviewed recently, she is also making as much money from trading as she is from her full time job. Right. But she did it in a way that she could do both at the same time, she could trade as well as do her job at the same time. And her trading doesn't take that long. So yes, that's why I love active trading. That's why I love selling options, because it doesn't take a lot of time, doesn't take a lot of time to learn it, it does take time to really get good at it. And you do have to change internally, you have to become different, you have to become more discipline, you have to become more confident. And you have to in some cases, you have to become more humble. Look at that, right. So for some people, they gotta be more confident. Other people, they have to be more humble. And some people it's crazy, they have to do both at the same time. They're overconfident in some things, and not confident enough in other things. And they also have to know themselves. So that's another story. So all of these issues are things that we cover on the podcast, we cover in our Facebook group that's free for everybody. It's called the The Alliance, you can go to our website and get more information about that. So there's multiple ways to get to where you want to be. Step one is to know figure out what it is. And then step two is to get step by step by step. How do I get there? Okay, now, I don't have time on this episode to go through everything about how to do that. But obviously, if it was, hey, I want to make, you know, an extra $1,000 a month? Well, number one, what's the plan? The plan is we're going to do it through trading. Okay, we got that established, so I can be your mentor, what strategy, right? We've done it we've we've covered this before on the podcast, pick a strategy, pick a trading plan, work the trading plan, focus on it, figure out the numbers, like okay, if I want to make $1,000 a month, and my trading plan allows me to make 1% on my money, well, then on a monthly basis, well then if I want to make 1000, then I need $100,000 in my account. Well, maybe I don't have $100,000. Okay, so step one is going to be how do we get to the 100,000? Right? Maybe we don't go and say, Okay, we're not going to hit our goal right away, we're gonna start smaller. So maybe we only have 20,000. Okay, start with 20, make 200 200 every month to under 200, let it grow and grow and compound and come out, and eventually we'll get to our goal. So, you know, the time aspect, in a story in a movie, you know, it's done within a couple hours. But your life is not a two hour movie, right? You got years and years and years, and we've covered this in other podcasts, we're probably have a lot more years to live than we actually think we're going to be living average lifespan now was about eight years old. But with all the science technologies coming, you know, the improvements that are happening, we're probably gonna live 120-150. So these are skills, this is a story that's going to continue. So it's worth it. It is worth your time, it's worth your effort. It's worth everything for you to start your trading journey. Now. Instead of putting it off, because every day you put it off, every month, you put it off every year you put it off, that time is not coming back. Right, whatever the thing is you want. You can have it and I'm telling you, yes, you can have it. If you do those two things, number one, overcome the obstacles that are external. And then number two, overcome the obstacles that are internal. And part of that internal obstacle is to get started to start doing it to start working it to set aside one hour a day, two hours a day, whatever you can set aside to spend studying, trading, researching, listening to this podcast, watching our videos, joining our courses, going through those programs, being in our Facebook group, so that you are talking to you're building a community, you're building your knowledge, you're building your resources, and you're getting in touch with the guide. Right? You have questions, reach out to us, ask us we will guide you along the way, because we've already done it. Right. I'm probably for most of you, I probably already accomplished what you want to accomplish. And so I'm happy to share that with you. But you got to reach out. Okay, so that is the traders journey. I hope that this has been helpful. I hope that you allow me to be your guide. And I hope that you take the journey. And I mean, it's a crazy fun, wild ride. It is hard, it is a struggle. It does take time. Not everybody can get there in three months like Todd did. That was fantastic. But again, he had everything that he needed. He had the education, he had the strategy and he had the account. Okay? If you have those four, four things, you have those four things. And yes, you can get there in three months as well. Right? If you don't, then we'll need to work on those and then it'll take you a little bit longer but you can still get there. So that is it. For this one. Make sure that you trade with the odds in your favor that will definitely help you on your journey and keep hope alive. Take care, everybody. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST FREE 9 LESSON COURSE: https://optiongenius.com/ WATCH THIS FREE TRAINING: https://passivetrading.com JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP: https://optiongenius.com/alliance Like our show? Please leave us a review here - even one sentence helps. Thank you!

Vince couldn't trade like he wanted to because he was a commercial pilot and it is hard to put on a position and not be able to monitor, adjust, or exit when you are flying across the world. So we started with our Blank Check Oil Options program....and for 2 years...Vince has not has a losing month! Listen in to hear his amazing story and how we accomplished this. JOIN OUR FREE PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP: https://optiongenius.com/alliance Like our show? Please leave us a review here - even one sentence helps. Thank you!

Episode 4 of 4. In this last episode of the series, Allen helps you understand what level your trading is at on the Option Continuum and exactly how to move up to the next level. Make sure to listen to the episodes before this one to catch up. JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP: https://optiongenius.com/alliance Like our show? Please leave us a review here - even one sentence helps. Thank you!

Episode 3 of 4. In this series Allen help you understand what level your trading is at on the Option Continuum and exactly how to move up to the next level. LOVE ALLEN SAMA - OPTION GENIUS AND WANT TO LEARN MORE TRADING TIPS AND TRICKS? HERE ARE SOME NEXT STEPS... SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST FREE 9 LESSON COURSE: https://optiongenius.com/ WATCH THIS FREE TRAINING: https://passivetrading.com JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP: https://optiongenius.com/alliance Like our show? Please leave us a review here - even one sentence helps. Thank you!

Episode 2 of 4. In this series Allen helps you understand what level your trading is at on the Option Continuum and exactly how to move up to the next level. Make sure to listen to the episode before this one to catch up. So now that you know where you are, right? And you have an idea of how many levels there are ahead of you, I have some steps I can take you from one level to the next. And then I have some more steps that can take you from any level to move you along. So let's go through those. I mean, if you want, you can take screenshots of these. Level one, if you're at level one, if your Option Clueless, you know, very simple, read the passive Trading Book that we gave you, that's going to help you a lot. Get familiar with stocks and options, you know, start watching the financial media starter, covering what the words are, and try to make sense of it. And then we do have a reading list at the website OptionGenius.com/readinglist. So that's a reading list for selling options specifically. So if you want to get into options, those are some of the books that I recommend, they'll get you started, and basically just get more information, just gathering information. Okay, that's the one thing, the first thing. Option level two - options scared, here, what I want you to do is go ahead and open an account, you don't have to fund it, just open the account, go through the process, start creating what I call the watchlist. Now, the watch list is a list of stocks and ETFs that you particularly would like to watch, in particular like to trade. So if there are some companies out there that you're really interested in, add them to your watchlist, you know, and start watching them, start seeing how did their stock behave? You know, if you're working for a company, then that definitely should be on your watch list. Pay attention to the stock, how does that stock behave? You know, if you eat out like I do at fast food, I know everything about fast food, I know almost all the restaurants, I know how they're doing, I know what items are selling or not. It's just something with me. So a lot of the fast food companies, they're on my watch list, then you want to learn the basics. And you'll find the basics in the reading list. You know, you'll learn the jargon, you'll learn what is a put, what is a call, how does it work? Why do we sell the why do we buy stuff like that? And then number four, really, you got to know why that thing that we did in the last session, really, really ask yourself dig deep, you know, the deeper you go the more times you you ask yourself that why question - it gets really emotional. And I've seen people do it. And they've just been crying because they finally understood something about themselves that they didn't know before. Because we think oh yeah, I just wanna make more money. No, it's not the money. It's never about the money, there's always something more deep, more mental, more emotional. That's why we're doing this. And if we don't understand that, then we don't we don't follow through. Level three is option confused. So this is where you have an account, I want you to start trying to put on some trades. And these are virtual trades, paper trading. So you're putting on trades you're putting on, you know, maybe you buy some stock, or you sell an option, you buy an option, just seeing how it works. And then you need to list out all the questions that you have, right? Everything that doesn't make sense to write it down on paper, don't just think, oh, yeah, I got to figure it out, write it down on paper, look for the answers. And then either ask us if you can't find them. Okay, that's how it's gonna get you to the next level. The next level is option curious. Which, right here, you're going to be trading smaller trades, on stocks that you already own, or that you would like to own. So here is where I want you to actually put money to work. And maybe you put $500 in a trade, maybe put $1,000 into trade or even less 250. Sometimes, you know, and you're doing small trades, to get your feet wet, to go through the process to understand, hey, this is not as scary as I thought it was going to be. You know, if you just do it over and over and over again, it breaks down those barriers. And you'll be like, Oh, okay, I got this, this is simple, I can understand this. And then you want to keep a trade log. And this is just for everybody. Keep a trade log of all of your trades. Now I do it on paper, I have a folder here with me. And I have my trades going back for a decade. And I write them all down on paper. And I have some of them on spreadsheets, but really I like to have them on paper. And then at the end of the year, I haven't done it this year and I am to. But at the end of the year, I go back and I look at each trade. And I look at the ones that I didn't do well on the ones that I screwed up on. And that's how I learn. Because you don't learn when you do a positive trade. You're like, oh, yeah, I did it. I'm smart. I'm gonna genius. You don't learn anything. But when you get your butt handed to you, that's when you're like, Okay, what did I do wrong? What happened? Was there something I could have done differently? Or was it just the market and sometimes it is just the market. But the only way to figure that out is to go through every trade and you can't go through that until you're taking you have a record and a log of all of them. So this is how you get from option curious to the next level, which is option dangerous. So here we want to identify your risk tolerance. Okay, so this is one of the things risk tolerance is one of the reasons why I feel and I see people fail at trading when they really shouldn't. So there are and I see the ads all the time. There are plenty have newsletters and courses and ebooks and stuff that we can buy. And we can download and webinars to watch. And things that we can buy where it's the next greatest thing, right? It's the one system, that's going to teach us how to trade in one hour a day, or 20 minutes a day or two minutes a day, or whatever. And it's gonna make us a billion, a million dollars overnight. The thing is that, that thing might work. But it doesn't work for everybody. And it might not work for you if your risk tolerance doesn't match. So that's why I love trading options, because you can dial up and down the risk, you know, you can be more conservative, you can be more aggressive on all of our strategies. But most other types of trading, you can't do that, you try to be a day trader, you're going to be taking a lot of risk. Even if you put small amounts in every trade, you're still going to be taking a lot of trades a lot of risk. And for some people, you can't handle it. So if you take a square, and you put it try to put it into a hole in a round hole is not going to fit. So that's why most people cannot do most types of trading. Because the risk tolerance doesn't work. You also go in and go back to the basics. So if you're trying to do a system or a strategy, and you're not having success at it, it might be that you're trying to make it too complicated. So you need to simplify, you need to take it bare bones, start at the basics, level one, step one, step two, step three, you also need to start back testing. So depending on your broker, they might have the software available for you for free, or you might have to pay for it. But this really, really helps. And it really, really gets your confidence up where you can take your idea, you know, it's like, okay, I want to trade this way. And I'm going to do this and this, and this is how I'm going to adjust it. And this is I'm going to put on the trade. And you actually go back in time, find that situation, put the trade on, and then go forward in time to see how the trade worked out using historical data. So I've been doing this for a long time. And whenever I have a new strategy, I don't put real money to work, you know, I go back and I back test it. So I'll go back, you know, five years, 10 years, pick one particular stock, and then earnings or expiration by expiration, I'll put the trade on over and over and over and over and see how that strategy does. If it does great, then I'll try another stock. And then I'll try a different time period. Or if it doesn't do so well, I'll try to adjust it and see, okay, this didn't work, maybe I can try this, until I come up with something that works really well - then I tested with real money. And that's what small real money and then a test with more real money. And then if that works, then that's when I share it with my students. So we have an oil Option Program, you know, that's the way I did that, you know, started with backtesting, then did it with small amounts of capital, then larger capital, and it'd be like, You know what, maybe I should teach this to other people. And then we taught it, it really worked well. And then you know, since then it's been growing. So number four, you got to deal with your fear. And that the backtesting really helps with that. But dealing with the fear is just, you know, overcoming a mental block. Really, number five, you got to get over the arrogance. And I've seen you'll see this a lot online right now. Because it was.. 2020 was a year where, you know, a lot of people made money in the market because the markets went up. And whenever the markets go up, people make money and they get arrogant. No, I can do this. Oh, I'm so super smart. I'm a genius. And like Warren Buffett says, you know, you don't know who's wearing clothes until the tide goes out, or something like that. It's nothing like that, you know, you don't know who can swim until the tide goes out or whatever, and the tide is going to go out, you know, the market will not continue to go up forever. And that's when the arrogance will really hurt. So you gotta you have to have that humility aspect. And then number six is you gotta stop listening to everybody. There's a lot of people out there, and you don't know, who knows what they're talking about. So somebody could be like, Hey, I met you know, this happens a lot in Facebook groups online, somebody posts and say I made 1,000%. I mean, if you want, you know, I'll tell you how to do it. Just pay me money. Okay, but you don't know anything else. You could listen to this person and lose your shirt. Because maybe that was fake. And we're finding out that there are a lot of companies out there that sell newsletters that are fake, and they're lie, unfortunately, you know, in the book, passive trading, I talked about a guy Wade Cook, and Wade cook. I bought his book. He was very, very famous in the 80s. I mean, this guy was this guy was all over the place in the 80s. He had a dozen books and seminars all over the country. And I got one of his books and I learned what a covered call was. And I was like, holy cow. This is the coolest thing. And he's talking about how he does covered calls and he makes 20% a month and it's so easy. I think oh my god, this is amazing. I got to do this. I got to do this. Turns out Mr. Cook was not making money trading. He was losing money trading. And all he was doing was selling his books and seminars and whatnot and you was making money that way. But when they actually looked at his trading results, he was actually losing. And so he ended up in jail for tax evasion or something. There's another company right now called Raging Bull, they just shut down, because the government's coming after them, because their claims were so outrageous that they weren't backed up. And they were saying that they have traders that are making millions of dollars that were not making millions of dollars. They weren't making anything, they were losing money. So I mean, it's really a shame. And it, it really gives a black mark or black eye to what I'm trying to do. You know, because people that fall for those things, you know, the dreamers and the dabbler, they fall for those people, they see those people. Oh, you know, he's the and I actually did one of the podcasts is called the world's richest options trader, because that's what he called himself and he was flying around a plane. Turns out that guy's not making any money trading. Right? And so it gives people like me, a black guy who's really trying be like, hey, look, these are my real results, you know, I obviously made every single one of these trades. And I'm going to show you tomorrow, the results from nine years of trades. And I could not have done it five years ago, because I didn't have those nine years of trades. But now because I've been doing this for so long, I actually have the results from actual trades. And so I'll show you some actual trades of how you can double your money every year tomorrow. But again, you know, don't listen to everybody. You got to really verify who's doing it and they have to show you, they have to show you. So that's level five. Let's go to level six, Options Humble. LOVE ALLEN SAMA - OPTION GENIUS AND WANT TO LEARN MORE TRADING TIPS AND TRICKS? HERE ARE SOME NEXT STEPS... SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST FREE 9 LESSON COURSE: https://optiongenius.com/ WATCH THIS FREE TRAINING: https://passivetrading.com JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP: https://optiongenius.com/alliance Like our show? Please leave us a review here - even one sentence helps. Thank you!

Episode 1 of 4. In this series Allen help you understand what level your trading is at on the Option Continuum and exactly how to move up to the next level. LOVE ALLEN SAMA - OPTION GENIUS AND WANT TO LEARN MORE TRADING TIPS AND TRICKS? HERE ARE SOME NEXT STEPS... SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST FREE 9 LESSON COURSE: https://optiongenius.com/ WATCH THIS FREE TRAINING: https://passivetrading.com JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP: https://optiongenius.com/alliance Like our show? Please leave us a review here - even one sentence helps. Thank you!

Hey there, it's Allen from Option Genius and I wanted to share a thought with you that has really made a huge difference in my life. I can't take credit from this, I learned this from the guy who, well, he didn't even create it, but he's making it famous. And he wrote a book on it called the gap and the gain. So if you want to, if you want to learn more about this concept, that's the name of the book, the gap and the gaing and basically what it is, it's a simple way to change how you think about yourself, and your accomplishments and your future. And so, you know, for me, and I'm getting little personal here, I always thought growing up that I was a big deal, you know, little bit arrogant. And I always thought, hey, I'm special, I'm above average, I'm really smart, I can do things, I have huge potential, I have an amazing potential, I can be whatever I want, I can accomplish anything I want. And it was true. And I think it's true for a lot of people now, you know, I mean, especially if you have all the advantages of growing up in the West, and, you know, there's unlimited opportunity. So if you're watching this, and if you're a trader, then you know, my God, you know we don't have too many things to complain about. Right? We could, but we shouldn't be because there's people way worse than us. So anyway, the my thinking was that, you know, I made all these huge goals for myself first, it was, you know, by the time I graduate high school, I'm going to be a millionaire. That didn't happen. So then I was like, alright, well, I'm gonna graduate college, I would have been a millionaire. That didn't happen. Oh, by the time I turn 30, I would have been a millionaire - that didn't have any there. Okay, and then later on, you know, things out better and things have settled, but then I realized that, okay, you know, it's like, Man, I don't want to make these such big goals anymore. You know, because I started, I started getting beaten up a little bit, you know, it's taking so long my goals aren't, I'm not achieving my goals. And so I started lowering my expectations. And I remember one time I was in a mastermind group, and the idea was, you know, what's, what's your number? How much? How much do your net worth you want to be. And my goal was 2 million. I was like, you know, if I can have a $2 million net worth, and I know that I can easily make 10% on that every year, and I can live off $200,000. So that was it. That was my goal at the time. And then when I got there, the goal changed. And it got bigger, right? So then it was, you know, like 5 million. Then when I got there, I was like, Okay, now my net worth goal is even bigger, and even bigger, keeps growing. It's like a never ending thing where you get your goal. But then you always want more, because well, we're human. And that's normal. Right? I remember when, when I was first starting out trading, my goal was I want to have $100,000 trading account. When I got that, then it was oh, now I need a $250,000 trading account. Then it was like, oh my god, wouldn't it be awesome if I had a $500,000 trading account, and then a million dollar trading accoun? And I think it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. As soon as you hit your goal, you're now your your thinking is expanded, and you're like, oh, man, I want more, I want more. And the thing is that, that goal keeps moving. Right? That end desire, that end thing that we want, it just keeps moving, moving, moving, like kinda like the horizon, like when you're walking, you know, you see, oh, I want to go there to the horizon. But then you keep walking, walking, walking in that goal, the horizon just keeps moving further and further, it is a the more you go, the further further it goes. So you never get to the horizon. And for a lot of people, especially like me and others, it can cause a lot of disappointment, and self doubt and pain, being "Oh, man, I never get my goal", you know, and then you start comparing yourself to other people. It's like, "Oh, man, he got to the goal so much faster than me. And he's stupid. And I'm smart, and how come he got it? And I didn't?", you know, all kinds of self doubt self talk about, you know, what was wrong with me and why I can't do it and all this kind of stuff. And so, you know, I've suffered from this for a long time, cause depression cause serious doubt. And it really hurt my trading. It hurt my business, it hurt. My relationships hurt a lot of different things in life. And we don't we don't even realize how much our thoughts of ourselves are limiting us. Right? And so I read this book, and in the book he talks about, well, you know, this is very common. It's very common for people who are aggressive and highly motivated, and they want to achieve things they want to grow, they want to accomplish things, for them to make these big goals and then keep looking at themselves, comparing themselves to the end result from where they are now. Right? So if I look at myself where I'm at now, compared to where I want to be, it's like, oh, man, I'm not there yet. It's so far, man. I just got so far to go man. It's how long is it gonna take to get there? Why is it taking so long? Oh, man, I'm not smart enough. Look at that other guy. He got there so much faster. All kinds of these self doubts and criticisms creep up and you start hurting yourself. So in the book, they tell you that's very common, that's very normal. But that's not the most productive and best way to do it. So instead of comparing yourself where you are now, to where you want to be in the future, what you should do is you can definitely make goals, you should always be making goals and striving for nothing things. But that's not what you compare yourself to, what you compare yourself to, is, instead of looking forward, you turn around, and you'll look back. So you see where you were before and then you compare it to where you are now. And that shows you your real progress. If you're trying to look at how much progress you're making, you know, don't compare it to where you want to be, compare it to where you were before, and where you are now. And you look at that big, you know, over whatever the things you've overcome, and that will make a total shift in your mind. So for example, I remember in the beginning, when I first saw the ThinkOrSwim platform, you know, I mean, at that time, Thinkorswim was a separate company, and you know, they were a broker, but they came up with this really fancy platform, and it had all these bells and whistles and charts and colors and, and I was totally, totally overwhelmed. And I still remember what it felt like, you know, like, what button do I push? What screen Do I go to? And what tab another nine? What are all these different things here and bells and whistles and doodads and and it's still pretty overwhelming. And I, you know, I still don't use most of it. But I don't have to because I figured out what are the areas? What are the screens? What are the tools that I want to use in my trading, that helped me get the maximum out of that software? And so now I can think back and be like, wow, you know, I was I was so scared of this software. Like, I didn't know how I was gonna use it. And I was intimidated by it. But now I can go in there and two seconds and I know what I'm doing and I can make my trades and analyze trades and, and do my results and everything. And now other people when they see me doing it, they're like, they get our coaching programs, you know, the students are Oh, Allen, what did you do? Oh, can you do that again? And have to remember that oh, yeah, I need to slow down. And I need to do it slowly so they can follow along? Because they are at that starting point where I used to be right? And so we learned it together. But that is you know, looking at that, like, wow, you know, and before when I before I started getting trading, I was really scared. I was learning all these strategies. I didn't know much. I didn't know that much about the markets. Compared to now -- Wow. I've come a long, long way. And I feel so good about myself like man, I didn't give up. I kept trying even when it was hard. Even when there were losses. There were bad years bear markets, crazy markets, a financial crisis, you know, the worst financial thing in the history of the United States, where the whole economic system almost came crashing down. I traded my way through that. Wow and I've come a long way. You know, when you look at, like, I look at my net worth right now how much money I have right now. And it's not where I want to be. It's not at my goal. So I was like, I could be disappointed. Man, you know, I still, man, I saw this guy on TV nd he's making so much money. And he's so much worth and, you know, Bezos look at Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. And, you know, they're worth billions, I'm never gonna be a billionaire. You know? I don't know. If that's my goal, then. That's fine as a goal. But if I keep comparing myself to where I want to be, I'm gonna feel bad. So instead, I turned around, and I looked at, like, where was I about 20 years ago? 20 years ago, you know, I'm 45. Now. So when I was 25, I was broke. More than broke. I was sleeping on the floor, an apartment with a negative $100,000 net worth, meaning I owned nothing. And I owed $100,000, on credit cards and loans and everything. So I had a negative net worth of $100,000. So compare that to where I am today - Wow, that's a huge Mungus crazy, crazy difference. Yeah, it did take 20 years. Maybe I could have done it faster. But so what I did it, that's the thing, and that makes me feel good. That makes me feel good about myself. That makes me feel good about the future gives me confidence, it gives me energy to keep moving and keep going. Because the other way, you know, if you never get your goals, you eventually you just give up, right? Like in the beginning, when I told you that I made all these big goals, I never got them. So I shrunk my goals and I shrunk what I thought I could accomplish. Now, if I had stayed at 2 million net worth, I mean, you know, Option Genius would not be here. I wouldn't be able to I wouldn't be making this video, right? But I extended my goal because I got more confidence in myself because I felt better about myself. So that's that's the message I want to impart. The book is called the gap in the game but I kind of explained basically what it is, right? Instead of comparing yourself to where you want to be in the future. Take a look at where you were in the past. And compare that to where you are now and then feel good about yourself. If you're motivated, feel happy. Look at everything you've accomplished. Pat yourself on the back and then turn around and then head into the future and accomplish everything you want. All right. Take care of trade with the odds in your favor. We'll see you next time. LOVE ALLEN SAMA - OPTION GENIUS AND WANT TO LEARN MORE TRADING TIPS AND TRICKS? HERE ARE SOME NEXT STEPS... SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST FREE 9 LESSON COURSE: https://optiongenius.com/ WATCH THIS FREE TRAINING: https://passivetrading.com JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP: https://optiongenius.com/alliance Like our show? Please leave us a review here - even one sentence helps. Thank you!

Allen: All right, welcome, everybody. Today I have a very special friend with me, I want to let you know that she is a..I mean, she's been doing amazing, since she got started with trading with us. And the thing that stood out for me was that when she, she was going through our credit spread Mastery program, she did not attend any of the coaching calls, which most of the students think that's like the the highlight of it, because it's one on one coaching, but she did not attend any of them. And it was because that she works a full time job. And you know, at a very stressful I guess, manner of stressful, but it's a very important job for the government. And so she was working full time, she takes care of her family. So she does not like she had a lot of free time to do this stuff. And she's also in a different time zone in Hawaii. So take all those three things together. And it's like, wow, if she can do it, you know, I think everyone that has excuses, it just goes out the window. And I think it goes to show that when you want to do something when you really have a desire that you can figure it out, and then she's gonna tell you how well she did. But you know, I'm very proud of her. She did amazing. And so with that, you know, Lori, aloha. Lori: Thank you for inviting me here. Allen: No, it's wonderful. I'm glad to get you on here. You know, for whatever reason, trading is more male-dominated. And so whenever we see a female in it, it's like, wow, this is awesome. You know, and I think we need more females in the in the trading space. And we do, I do find it that females do trade better than men for whatever reason. You know, like, like, I remember when I was learning how to trade originally, and I got some back testing software. And then my wife would come and ask me, Hey, what are you doing? And I'm like, Oh, look, I'm doing this strategy now. And she, she'd be like, oh, you should do this. And this, and I'd look at her. I'm like, "you know, I just spent like the whole, you know, six weeks learning this thing, and you just come and you just go Blah Blah Blah and tell me what to do. No, it doesn't work that way". And she goes, 'Oh, yeah, let's try it". And I'm like, What do you mean? She goes, Well, you have a testing software, right? I'm like, yeah, she goes, all right. You test it your way, all test it my way. And because I had explained it to her, and I was like, you know, this is a like, I don't know what I think was a credit spread. I was like, you know, this is the trade and we want to just pick where the stock is not gonna go. You know, we don't have to pick where it's going. We have to pick where it's not going, and then make a decent profit. So I think that was the basic intro I gave her. And we tested it for like six months or so. And she beat the pants off of me. And she's like, Oh, this is easy. I don't understand why you hate it. Why can't you make more money doing it? Oh, my God, I was about to cry. But no, but still. So Lori, is your, are you married? I've never asked you before. Lori: Yes, I am. We kind of celebrated our 19th anniversary. Allen: Oh, awesome. Congratulations. Yeah, you don't look that old. Does your husband trade? Lori: Oh, he is actually a financial advisor. But oh, yeah. But his is mostly, you know, mutual funds. You know, trying to preserve capital for his clients and everything. And I wanted to do something that, you know, generated, you know, consistent cash flow, something that eventually would replace my, you know, salary that I get from my 9-5 job. Allen: Right. So what does he think about options in the way you're trading? Lori: He doesn't want to touch options. You know, didn't want to, you know, hey, don't go Forex, don't do options. Don't do crypto, you know, he's, he's pretty much the traditional, hey, let's do mutual funds. He doesn't even do individual stocks, either. It's more of a whole portfolio type of approach that he takes. Allen: Oh, wow. So yes, I can imagine the discussions you guys have had in the past. It's interesting, because when we do have a lot of clients, and they come in, and they're like, Yeah, you know, my wife really, really, she hates this stuff. Like, she won't let me do it. Or she, she doesn't she lets me do it. But you know, like, it wasn't an easy conversation. Oh, wow. Okay. So let's just start off, you know, how have you been trading? How's it going? How your results? Lori: Actually, it was because of your program. It's the first time I've been consistently making money. And I think a lot of it is because you provide the structure. And you know, when you were talking about, hey, there's not many women, and a lot of times they're better traders. I kind of equated my husband when he coaches basketball with the kids and stuff. He said, he always found that the girls did better than the boys because the girls would focus and master the fundamentals more than the boys would. The boys always want to do the trick shots and you know, be all fancy and I think that's what helps you teach the fundamentals of "hey, what to look for, step by step". And that's all I have to do is I just have to follow it. I don't have to try and come up with it. You know, fancy, you know things, it's just simple things to follow. And if I can follow it, I can make money. So.. Allen: That's awesome how long you been trading? Lori: I actually was 30 years ago, I got into mutual funds. So I think when IRAs first started, I was in the Air Force. And people who were higher ranking than me, were giving me advice and saying, hey, you need to start putting away money invest, do your maximum at that time thing was 1500 to 2000 A year into your IRA. And that's where I started, I was terrified to pick the worst mutual funds that didn't make (inaudible) money. And then I think probably maybe 10-15 years later, I just started saying, Hey, let's go do stocks, I didn't fare any better in stocks, I tried options. At one point, you know, I put aside a little bit of money, I lost it all. Because I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't have anybody to, you know, teach me how to do anything. I was just trying to, I was just kind of, you know, muddling my way through and not getting anywhere. So I found the value of finding somebody that can help me, you know, teach me the ropes. And I tried alert systems. And I don't know, I maybe I just kept picking the wrong alerts and I end losing money on the alerts. So.. Allen: But you kept trying. Lori: I kept trying, I see people making money. So if other people can do it, there's got to be a way for me to do it. And so, 30 years later on, I'm finally starting to make money. Allen: Wow. Better late than never I guess. Oh, yeah. You know, some people ask me, oh, can I start this? And can I, you know, can I start making money online or trading? And, you know, I got six months, I'm like, yeah, maybe we'll try to get you there. But yeah, usually it takes longer. But, but that's so but okay, so you're going from a place of where you've tried all these different things, and nothing really seems to be working. And then you go into what we do is like selling options. And that's a little bit more, I don't know, if it's more advanced, but people are more intimidated by that. So how did you make that leap? Lori: I knew you could make more money with Options just because you could leverage what, cuz I have a, you know, small account, you know, less than 10,000. And so I wanted something that was, I could generate money faster, and I knew options was the way to do it. But you know, you also hear on the everybody saying, hey, well, options is risky. And so it wasn't until I heard about yours, where you say, "well, you can do it safely". And so I just, I thought I'd give it a try. And listening to you know, starting off with the passive trading formula, kind of was the first introduction. And I said, yeah, it all makes sense. And so I, I just went all in with the credit spread Mastery program. Allen: Okay. And so what have your trading results been? Since you started that? Lori: Gosh, I didn't do the calculations, but I do have over, I think it's at least 80% win rate. The challenge came in when, you know, my first 20, something trades were all winners, and I had a loser, and I didn't follow your rules on cutting my losses. So that one, you know, kind of really messed up my overall profit. But it kind of highlighted. The other factor that I have to really take into account is the psychology of trading. And I just started reading a book on trading mindfully. And it highlighted all the things that I was doing, I would get overconfident and I wasn't, you know, things, hey, I don't really have to follow that rule or you know, kind of, and so then the losses came and then I get hesitant. Oh, my and that was a huge loss and you know, kind of weary about getting back in. So I kind of had to take a step back, and then I'm back in and I'm doing a lot better now. You know, I'm cutting my losses when I should be cutting my losses. So I think 2022 I think is going to be a really good year. Now that I'm starting to, you know, see what's I can do, where my weaknesses are and then building from there. Allen: Okay, good. So the name of that book is "trading mindfully"? Lori: I think it was "Trade Mindfully" Allen: "Trade Mindfully" Lori: Yeah. . Allen: Yeah, I'll take a look at that. Because, you know, like you were talking about basketball, you got the fundamentals. And you proved it because like you said, you did over 20 trades, or maybe you did the first 20 And then you had one loser. But I remember during our class, you had done well over 30 trades, and you only had like one loss. So I was like, Wow, you did better than I did in that in that three month timeframe. So I was like, okay, she's doing maybe I need to learn from her. So that was really cool, you know? And then since then, okay, so you're still winning. But the the issue was that you just didn't let you just didn't cover the loss fast enough. And so maybe that's why the.. Lori: Yeah, and I had a hard time, you know, after the class, we just started talking about scaling up, it's just really hard for me to pull that trigger of scaling up. So you know, I'm still doing the, you know, I'm just starting now okay, let's, let's go up to, you know, two contracts, or, you know, three, depending on how big the spread is. So I'm starting to feel a little bit more comfortable with the bigger trades. Allen: Cool, and what strategies do you use? Lori: So, right now, mostly, I'm focusing on the credit spread mastery, I'm starting since you know, I'm getting closer to retirement, I'm starting to look at maybe getting some dividend paying stocks into my portfolio. Allen: Okay Lori: And some other long term consistent things. But I, I would actually like to get some, you know, now that I'm starting to get that baseline, I'd like to start getting into something more like swing trading, where I have the ability to kind of take advantage of the movements that in the stock market to make even more money. Allen: Okay, cool. Yeah. You know, the, the idea there were like, so you're talking about, okay, so you're doing credit spreads, you're also going to be, you know, buying dividend stocks. So that's like the second strategy, and then swing trading would be a third strategy. So I would probably advise you maybe to focus on one at a time, you know, you got the credit spreads under your belt. But if we can get a little bit higher in contracts, you'll feel a little bit more comfortable. And then you already have the the passive trading formula program where we all we talk about, you know, the dividend stocks and the covered calls the naked puts, that'll give you a good foundation. And then from time to time, when you do see an opportunity. If one of your favorite stocks is really has dipped below, then definitely you can add the swing trading to that, but like, from what you're telling me, I don't want you to jump didn't get too much and get just overwhelmed and confused about oh, what decision you know how well I use this rule over here and all that kind of thing. So But definitely, you have the ability. And then if you have more time, I'm sure you'll be able to pick it up really quickly. So So in terms of you said you had a $10,000 account. So how well are you up this year, down this year? Do you have an idea? Lori: I'm up this year? Um, Allen: About what percentage? Lori: I am up about 10 15% I think this year, Allen: Okay. And that's even after giving most of it back, right? Because you said you had some a couple big losses that you didn't stop. Yeah. So okay. Because when you were when you were in the class, and you know, you were hitting it, so if you do 30 trades or whatever, and you only have one or two losses, then you must have had a really big loss. So, but yeah, so now you're working on the mental aspect. And that's, that's really crucial, especially for scaling, because I think when it comes to scaling, that's the biggest, because otherwise, it's just numbers, you know, so if I'm trading one, or if I'm trading zero, or 10, is just an extra zero, the trade that I'm looking for is the same, we do the same type of work for that the strategies the same, the return that we're looking for is going to be the same percentage wise. It's just the seeing those extra digits that kind of gets us like, Oh, my God, oh, my God, you know, you're you're a little bit more careful. You're watching it, you might be overtrading. So I like it going from how many trades do you do at one time? Lori: I don't have more than six going at one time. Okay. And I try to spread it out. You know, no, more than a couple every week. I'm getting stuff in there. Allen: Okay. Yeah. So, you know, have you gotten yet from one to or? Lori: Yes, I have. Okay. And that just happened over the last few months. Allen: Okay. And then so now we're looking at what two to three, three to two to four? Lori: Yeah, maybe two to three. Allen: Okay. Good. I mean, see that, like, you know, we tell everybody that once you learn this skill? I mean, you can use it for the next 2030 years. Yeah. Right. So it's, we're not really in a rush to learn it. We're in a, we want to get consistent, and we want to get to the point where we're comfortable. And then once we understand it, it I mean, the numbers they compound so fast, and you've seen it, you know, you've seen it in your own accounts that, yeah, you just do it with and you have a regular just consistency. If you start doing 40 - 50 more percent a year. I mean, those numbers get really big really fast so you don't really need to like Oh, my I got to get it right now. You know, there's no rush. And I know.. Lori: There's gonna be another stock that will meet the criteria that'll fit the pattern. Allen: Yep. Like when, you know, I see some of these ads, you know, from the other gurus. They're like, Oh, yeah, you gotta buy this one stock by this date and this thing is going to happen - are you gonna miss it? I was like, well, you know, I mean, I could just go into the market, and every other week, there's another trade and there's 1000s of them available. So we don't ever have to have that scarcity mindset where it's like, Okay, I'm going to miss it. No, we got time, you know, every month is a new cycle, every week is a new cycle. And there's 1000s of stocks that fit our criteria that we could be trading on. So it's not like there's anything that we're gonna be missing out on. So, you know, even like, if you go, hey, you know, the holiday breaks are coming up, I'm just gonna take my money off the table and not trade for a little bit. And not go risking, because I don't feel like it. You know? So when you're going through this, what are some of the lessons that you learned along the way? Was there anything that would that stuck out to you like, oh, man, I wish I had known this before? Lori: Being patient, what you mentioned before that fear of missing out, you know, I had to it was hard not to chase after trades like wow, this one is, this would be a perfect one. But it had already taken off them just telling myself, hey, there's another one, just be patient look for the right criteria and stuff that meets the criteria. That I think was the hardest part from the psychology of it. And then what you helped was with trade management, right? How much I should put in a trade, you know, trying to help build up confidence. That was really hard, you know, because I went 30 years without really not making money to do and stuff. So trying to get the confidence, hey, that I can actually do this was a hard one as well, to kind of overcome. Allen: You still having issues with that? Lori: Oh, not as much. Now, now that I've seen some success. Allen: Awesome because I know, I know, I dealt with it. And I know others, I've seen it with others to where, if it if they go a long time, without having too much success, you know, maybe they do a little bit in one year. And then they give it back and goes up and down. And then they finally find something that works really well. And they're doing it, they're doing it. And then there's this element of self sabotage, you know, where like, I remember doing this, like, I would have months where I would make make, make, make make, and then I just wouldn't pay attention. I'd be like, all the trades are fine, I'm not gonna worry about it. And I wouldn't even check in on them. And then the market would start getting, you know, crazy. And then boom, big loss. It's like, Oh, what happened? Oh, duh, I didn't pay attention, you know, that I kicked myself. And I'm like, Why do I do that? It's like, oh, it's confidence is all, you know, comes back to all confidence. Most of you know, trading is like 90% of trading is all mental. Yes. So that's a big realization that you have there. So what what were the big? What were the big realizations that you had? Like, what was the any aha moments? Lori: The biggest, aha was my my mindset that, you know, I'm my own worst enemy, when it comes to trading? second guessing myself, especially after, you know, not getting anywhere for so long. You know, I'm thinking, Yeah, can I really do this, you know, maybe it's, you know, times gone, you know, maybe this isn't for me, you know, kind of giving up. But now, I've having a strategy, a structure, that was big for me, right, saying, Hey, this is, you know, and your stuff is so simple, you know, just, hey, look for it going in one direction over a period of time, you know, check the volatility, and hey, pick this delta and, you know, go ahead and put the trade so that you can get your 10% you know, you're not trying to shoot to, you know, make 300% in one trade, it is just keeping consistent over a long period of time. And that's big. Right? I don't I don't need that. 200% and, you know, two days kind of thing. I can do this over the long haul. Allen: Yeah. I mean, that's part of it. Like sometimes people see it for the first time. And they're like, Wow, that's kind of too simple. But, I mean, you know, you look at it over and over again over the years. Yeah, but it's been working. And I think it's continues to do it. So do you have any the stuff that was holding you back originally? Do you think that that you've overcome those obstacles? Now? Lori: They're still, I don't think I'll ever, you know, totally get over the mindset issues. That's just, I think, just human nature that, hey, we're gonna do well, we start getting a little overconfident or if we make a mistake, you know, you're going to be hesitant to kind of jump back in, but at least I'm aware of it now. And I can address it. So.. Allen: That's awesome. So where do you where do you see the future now, like you said, you know, next year you're looking at, it's gonna be a really good year, and then talk about further down the line - what do you think you're gonna be doing? Lori: I think I will end up doing this full time. Allen: Really? Okay. Lori: We're trading you know, part time to get a full time. Allen: Right. Right. Right. Lori: In about 3 years, I'll be able to retire from my job. And then, you know, I can see it where I don't have to worry about, Okay I'm going to have to live on a lot less money. I'll have something here that I can just maintain or even get, have a better lifestyle than I've got now. Allen: Nice. I love. I love hearing that. And then the fact that, you know, most people, they're like, oh, yeah, you know, I'm going to retire and then I'm going to move to the islands or somewhere. You're, you're already there. You're you're one step ahead of everybody else. Cool. Cool. Is there any any words of wisdom you would give to people who are you know, they're still maybe a little hesitant? They're like, No, no, is this? Is this stuff real? Is sounds too good to be true? What would you tell those type of people? Lori: It is real. All you got to do is follow that path that you have laid out. You have made it so simple, and I am so grateful that I came across your program. Allen: Cool. Okay, and then, so I still want to go back to your husband, like, I want him, I want to get him on board. I don't know how we're going to do that. But I want to, because I always bash financial planners a lot. You know, I mean, they they do a great job. But there's some bad ones. And there's something there -most of them are pretty good. And they're they want to help people, but the whole, their whole business model, it doesn't really work for, you know, people who want to do it themselves. If you don't want to worry about your money, you don't want to think about it or learn about it, then yeah, you give it to a financial planner, and you'll take good care of it. But if you.. Lori: That's the people he works with, he doesn't. He says, you know, he's run into people that are do it yourselfers and stuff. And he says, I can't help you there. That's just not his expertise. And so, but you know, he goes, Hey, if you get really good, maybe you can start managing people's money for him or, you know Allen: Yeah. Yeah, we have a few students that have gone that route. So it's doable. But I do know that once those financial planners, when they start seeing it, and they start learning it for themselves, they go, they go nuts, they can't believe it, they're like, well, I'd really like Oh, my God, I didn't Why didn't I know about this earlier? Because they're not talking about it, you know, they're not taught about options and the way their commission structures work. And then they have their whatever the broker dealers or their their business setup, it's too hard to handle all the little options. So it's cool, cool, awesome. Okay, so I think we've already covered like, you know, what was the hardest part was the the mental aspect. Yeah, you're still working on the scaling? So in you're retiring in three years? I think you said, so you're gonna focus on trading a lot more. Do you feel that you have any special skills? Or that drew you to this? Or can anybody just anybody off the street do it? Lori: I think anybody, if you if you can follow simple directions, you can do it. Yeah, it just takes a little bit of practice. And it's great, you know, doing, you know, start off with paper trading. That way you can get to get your confidence that really helped me is the paper trading because you make all your mistakes there. And it'll help you when you actually pull the trigger with real money. Allen: So when do you think you'll feel that you're you're okay with adding some more money to the trading account? Have you thought about that? Lori: Ah, actually, I have not thought about that. Allen: Okay. Lori: I probably should. Allen: I'm not, you know, that's up to you. I am not licensed to give you financial advise. Yeah, but like, you know, because when when you told me, because first, I had seen your, your trades, and then later on, you told me that hey, I, you know, I want to scale it. So I was like, Okay, sure. And you're like, Well, I'm stuck with this account. I thought you had already probably added more to it, because you had so much success earlier on. Lori: I think maybe when I get more comfortable with the scaling that I will probably start adding more. But it still scares me. Right? Seeing the extra zero trying to go, you know, even when you said two to four, and you know, just okay and then I start to hang a little faster, so.. Allen: Well, yeah, then then you don't do it. You know, it's like, if you can't sleep at night, then yeah, it's not worth it. It's not worth it. And how much time do you does it take on your trading, how much time you spend? Lori: Oh, it doesn't take very long at all, maybe 20 - 30 minutes at the most so in the morning before I go to work.. Allen: Okay. Lori: ..and take a look. Either put some trades in or check what you know, how my existing trades are going to see if I have to manage any of those. Allen: And that includes everything so managing researching. Lori: Uh huh because because you walked us through on how to create a watch list. So I have my watch list and I just go through that you can easily find a couple of trades every day. And so just takes a few minutes to evaluate which one probably would be the best one that's going to get you your profit faster. Allen: Okay, and you're saying you're doing about two a week or so average? Yeah. Okay, so yeah, so everyday, you don't even need to find trades. It's, yeah, it's just whenever you need. Awesome Lori: So a lot of times, I'm just there trying to, you know, checking on my existing trades to, to see how they're doing. So, you know, that could be as quick as five minutes. Allen: And you check in. So okay, so you're in Hawaii time, which is three or four hours behind me. So when you go to work, what time is it? Like the market is going to close in a couple hours already? Is that how it works? Lori: The market closes? I think before lunchtime here in Hawaii. Allen: Okay. So yeah, so just one time while you're going before you're going to work, that seems to be enough. Fun time. Okay. Cool. Yeah, yeah, we have some students a, you know, they, they get, they get, they wake up early, and then they'll check it before the market opens. And then they check it when the market opens. And then they check it, you know, during lunch, and then a couple of times during the day and like, yeah, you're going too crazy, you know, just you need to chill out, relax. Don't make it so stressful. Lori: That's what I like about this system, I don't have to be on the computer all day watching where everything is going. So I can just 20-30 minutes a day at the most and I'm good. Allen: What was it originally, that made you want to get into trading was there are a specific reason or a desire that you had or? Lori: A lot of it is I wanted to be able to generate a full time income part time. I really didn't want to have to Okay, I got to keep getting up, you know, certain hours, do eight, nine hours a day come home and you know, then you got to take care of all the stuff around the house. You know, it's it's tedious after a while, so I wanted a little bit of more freedom more control of my time. Allen: Okay, makes sense. Makes a lot of sense. Yep. Didn't get there. Maybe right? there didn't get there. But the future now he's bright, but you got there eventually. So now the future looks really bright. And now you'll have, you know, probably when you retire when you do retire, then you'll have plenty of extra money to go do whatever you want. Lori: Like if my kids are interested, you know, they're tired of their jobs. And that's something I can pass on to. to them. That may be something they might want to. Yeah, you know, pursue. Allen: Yeah, that would be I mean, could you imagine? It's like, yeah, you know, I learned a little late, but if you learn it now you can you can quit your job years ahead of time, right? That would be like the biggest best gift you could give. Like, forget College, I'm just gonna teach you this. Cool. Okay, any final words you want to share with our viewers? Lori: She said, if, if I can do it, you know, after 30 years of struggling, you know, anybody can do it. You know, if you have the desire, and you're willing to follow the instructions, the rules, you can do it. Allen: I'll say, most said, well, Laurie, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for your time. Appreciate your candor and being open about you know, the losses and sometimes people are a little bit you know, they try to they talk about the good stuff, but they don't really share all the all the hard stuff. But you're like, Yeah, you know, 30 years that sucked. And I know you know, you were a little shy, and I do appreciate you coming on you did you know, I'm sure this is going to help a lot of people, you know. Lori: I sure hope so.. Allen: They're gonna listen, they're gonna see it and they're gonna be like, "Wow, I want to be like Lori". All right, appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Lori: Thank you, Allen. LOVE ALLEN SAMA - OPTION GENIUS AND WANT TO LEARN MORE TRADING TIPS AND TRICKS? HERE ARE SOME NEXT STEPS... SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST FREE 9 LESSON COURSE: https://optiongenius.com/ WATCH THIS FREE TRAINING: https://passivetrading.com JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP: https://optiongenius.com/alliance Like our show? Please leave us a review here - even one sentence helps. Thank you!

Hey, this is Allen from option genius. And I am coming to you today from Galveston, which is a beach. So I drove down here today took day off, you know, just hanging out, get some time to think, enjoy the weather. It's not that hot, it's not that cold. But then take a look at this when I get here. This is what it looks like. All foggy, everything was fine. The whole day, everything - the whole road here was fine. It took us about an hour and a half to get here. Everything was fine, good here, and it's all foggy, you can barely see too far in the distance. But that's okay, because that gives me time to shoot you a quick video. And today what I wanted to ask you was are you treating your trading as a business? Or are you treating it as something else? Now, a lot of folks when they talk about their trading, you know, they compare it to their job. It's like, oh, how much do you want to make? Well, I want to make as much as I'm making my job. So they compare trading to their job. Now in the job, you have a performance review, right? So the company manager, whatever the boss tells you how you're doing you personally. And if you're doing well, if you're doing badly, it's all on you. And so if you compare your trading to your job, and you say, Oh yeah, this is my job, this is my second job, then it reflects on you, your results reflect on you. So what I want you to do instead is I want you to think about your trading as a business. Now a business in corporate speak, right? If you incorporate, you are not your business, you might own the business, but the business is a separate entity. Right now, I'm not telling you to go out and form a corporation for your trading - that's a separate topic. But I want you to think of your trading as a business. Now, you might have heard the statistics right from the SBA, most companies go out of business within the first few years, almost 95% of them go out of business in the first 10 years. Now option genius has been around for 10 years, or more than 10 years, I think 1314 years now. So we must be doing something right. So that's good. I'm happy about that, that we survived. But when you think of your trading as a business, you understand that not everything goes smoothly, not everything goes perfectly. Right. Now, for example, at Option Genius, we might have a new marketing campaign. And we might launch it and I cost a bunch of money. And I have really high hopes and be really excited about it and it falls flat and it doesn't do anything. Every people hate it doesn't work. We lose money. Ah, man, it's disappointing. But it's not a personal failure. Right? It's something that we tried, that did not work. So big difference mentally, versus "Oh, my God", attaching it the results to yourself personally, versus "Oh, it was something else that we tried, and it did not work. Now everybody knows that a business. There are ups and downs, right? There's yours are you make profit, and there's years that you don't make profit. And in trading, we seem to forget that. We seem to think that we should always be making money, we seem to think that we should always every year should be profitable making money. But in the long run, it's not like that. And so if you think of it as a business, if you have a losing year, that's okay. Right? Because that happens. Maybe something happened differently this year in the economy or whatever that caused your business to lose money. That's okay. Business is still found sound, the the foundation of the business, it's still sound, we're not going to just throw the business away because it lost money. Especially if you'd lost money for a whole year. Right? We'll make it back. We have that confidence. Now, most entrepreneurs and then I think of us small time traders as entrepreneurs, because, you know, unless you're a professional managing other people's money, then you might be like, you know, a big CEO of a Fortune 500 company or whatever, you know, bear yourself to that. Well, most of us, I can compare us to entrepreneurs, you know, scrappy, hardworking grinders, right? We really we enjoy the grind and entrepreneurs really enjoy the grind, they enjoy startup phase, they start, you know, bootstrapping, where you learn, and you try new things, and you see what works and what doesn't work and you adapt, and you overcome. And you really learn from every single mistake. Now, for a lot of entrepreneurs, the confidence that comes from success. So for example, if you're talking to a rich person or a rich business person, they are not confident because they have a lot of money. And this might be counterintuitive, having a lot of money does not give you confidence actually brings you depending on how you got the money, it can actually cause you a lot of anxiety, because you're worried about not losing the money, if you don't know how to make it, right. If it was just given to you, then your whole thought process is I can't lose it, I can't lose it, I can't lose it. Because I don't know how to get more, right. And that's what happens to a lot of people who inherit money or get the lottery, they get it, they can't handle it mentally, it's totally mind blowing. So they lose it all and they can't get back. But as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, if you make the money in the first place, you have that confidence that wow, I made it, I made it right, I did the work, I tried the new things, I took the risk, and it worked. And then if it stops working, or if something happens, and the business goes out of business, and that could happen all the time, they have the confidence that they can get it back, they can make it again, right, because businesses go out of business for all kinds of ways, they might be good for five years, 10 years, and all of a sudden, maybe a new competitor comes and knocks them out. Or maybe the market shifts, or maybe nobody wants that product anymore, or there's a new technology or the government changes the rules or the legislation or who knows what can happen. And this is quite a business all the time. In fact, you know, you look back 100 years ago, let's look at like a 1900, you look at the fortune 100 list, and most of those companies have been around anymore, for whatever reason. So as a business owner, you understand is this goes out of business, you lose money, okay, you get back on the horse, start something else, and you build it back up again. But as traders, we think like oh my god, if I lose my money, that's it, I'm done. I'm done for I can't do anymore, it's a failure, I have to give up, I have to move on, I can't do anything else. That's what is not only limiting to you, but it won't let you trade properly and mentally, that's the wrong way to look at it. So a lot of times we have losses. And a lot of times it's nothing that we did, right? And we lose money. And it might be a big loss, or maybe 100% loss, you might lose the whole account that happens to most people. But if you can get back on the horse, you can do it again, if you've already made the money once, if you already know, hey, I was trading this way it was working, it was successful. But something happened, something shifted. Or maybe I made a mistake, and I lost the money or the business lost the money, right? Not me, it lives in the business lost, then you know that you can get it back. And it's that mental shift, that it's not over when you lose. That gives you the confidence. And so having confidence in yourself as a trader, and your strategy is probably the most important thing in trading, whether it's trading options, or stocks or futures or whatever you're trading, if you've made it once, you can make it again, to many people, they make it once and it works for six months, a year, two years, and then they have a big loss. And they just give up. Well, maybe that's the right thing to do. But if an entrepreneur lost his business, they have a choice, right? They could be like, oh, man, no, I'm horrible. I sucked at a business and my business went out of business, and they'll never get back on the horse. And it's just, they have a fear and they can't do it again. And your life is gonna be miserable, they're gonna be miserable personally, because they're gonna think they're a failure. And financially, they're not going to get back on the horse, and they're not going to recover. So they're going to be resentful, their family's going to be resentful of them -- all kinds of weird stuff. And that's not what you want to be. So think of it as a business. But think that, hey, if I could do it once, I could do it again, again and again. And that's the confidence that you need to develop. And the only way to do that is to get in the game practice, find a strategy that works for you, make it work, and then keep doing it. So think of it not as a personal thing. Think of it as a separate entity. Number one think of your business as separate from you. So it's not a personal indication or of net worth or personal worth, right? It's net worth yeah, sure, you know, as part of your net worth the asset or the account size, but it's not something that's tied to you personally. So if your account goes down if the stock market goes down if your trades don't work doesn't mean that you are a bad person. It doesn't mean that you're a bad trader, it just means that something didn't work, we need to change it, we need to adapt it, we need to learn what didn't work, how to fix it. And then we keep going. We don't just give up. When something bad happens, we change it, and we keep our confidence high. We do it once we do it again, and again and again. And some sometimes, you know, entrepreneurs are like, Yeah, you know, I want to lose it all. Like, if you you've ever heard of this guy called Gary Vaynerchuk. He said that a few times, he said, You know, I wish that I could lose it all. Because I know I get it back. And it's going to be more fun getting it back the second time. Right now, when I have too much money, I can do as many cool things as I want to because there's too risky. But if I don't have anything that I can try anything, and it's all on me, and that what it lives for. So, you don't have to be that extreme. If you have money and you lose it. But I do want you to have the confidence that hey, I made it once, you can make it again. So that's it for now and we'll talk to you again soon. Take care. LOVE ALLEN SAMA - OPTION GENIUS AND WANT TO LEARN MORE TRADING TIPS AND TRICKS? HERE ARE SOME NEXT STEPS... SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST FREE 9 LESSON COURSE: https://optiongenius.com/ WATCH THIS FREE TRAINING: https://passivetrading.com JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP: https://optiongenius.com/alliance Like our show? Please leave us a review here - even one sentence helps.