The Stock Trading Reality Podcast

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I Called Him Out. How'd He Respond? | STR 055 Apr 04, 2016

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It's a line I struggle with quite often. Should I cross it or shouldn't I cross it? When it came to this episode's guest, Dave ("SuperDave" in the chat room), I assumed he could handle some tough love, so as he admits to in the interview, I called him out in the chat room. How'd he respond and what did he do from that point? We talk about that and much more in what I believe to be a fantastic discussion. Notes: Dave's introduction to the market was similar to many others. He started getting interested in watching how his mutual funds were trading in his retirement account. Eventually he was driving himself nuts watching the value fluctuate daily so he went cold turkey for some time before revisiting the market. After seeing a coworker experience success trading short term options, Dave decided to continue his education via books to which he accumulated quite a library. Most of the books written about options are extremely complex and this led him to try to find other avenues to make his money in the market. Dave did invest in his education which is a HUGE step many new traders fail to take. Unfortunately, two of the 'mentors' he used ultimately did not help him very much. A majority of their income is from their monthly chat subscriptions. After trying to reverse engineer alerts from the Inner Circle, Dave continued investing in his education and started to get through some courses. While getting through the content, Dave was actively paper trading to see where he was weak in his trading and where he excelled. All of Dave's paper trading lead him to find a winning system for himself. He has his set criteria that he looks for and after struggling with managing his risk vs reward he has now nailed that down too. He is a shining example of how consistent and deliberate practice can and will pay off in the long run. Quotes: "My general market overview was listening to the talking heads and sort of floundering around and guessing." tweet this quote "I just bled slowly with small daily losses. Not seeing the patterns, not seeing the trends, not understanding movement of stocks." tweet this quote "I posted that 'holy crap that was scary' and Clay called me out for trading too large and not knowing what I was doing." tweet this quote "I spent all of last year paper trading and building a trading plan. I then took my live account from 500 to 1200." tweet this quote

Starting His Journey at Age 13 | STR 054 Mar 28, 2016

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This guest is the youngest to get started in the markets. Thanks to parents that were open to showing him the power of the markets, Tony ("Tony Tan" in the chat room) began his journey at only age 13! He was feeling under the weather for this interview, but we appreciated him toughing it out and making it through the entire interview. Nice mental toughness Tony! Notes: Tony got his introduction the market at the young age of 12 after overhearing family members speaking about it. After finding some initial success trading based off of the talking heads on television, Tony took a short break and resumed trading his sophomore year in highschool. Tony tried to game the system by trading ex-dividend dates thinking he could make easy money buying before and selling after he collected the dividend. It only took him a few trades to realize that there are many computer models that already arbitrage this when available which led to him getting burned before changing strategy again. Eventually Tony joined the Inner Circle and tried to reverse engineer alerts to learn without spending any money on education. Tony recognized that there is no holy grail out there and is now keeping it simple. He has his timeframe and his methodology for entry and exits and this keeps his emotions out of the equation. Quotes: "I started trading in 2008. I opened up my first brokerage account when I was 13." tweet this quote "After the ex-dividend date, the stock dropped 6 dollars so I cashed out on that and looked for a different strategy." tweet this quote

This Guy Ain't Messin' Around… Get Er' Done! | STR 053 Mar 21, 2016

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A key aspect of trading success is realizing that it is a business. Because of this, you better be ready to step in as the CEO and operate it as such. Community member Joe ("JBH" in the chat room) gives us all a shining example of exactly what this looks like. He has built businesses before, and now he's in the business of trading and he's doing exactly what needs to be done. He's a great reason why I love doing these podcasts... he had me fired up and inspired by just how serious he treats all of this. There are way too many jokers out there that don't take trading seriously enough, only to complain "it's all rigged"... this is NOT the case with Joe! Notes: Joe had taken a long road trip to clear his head and when he arrived back home he realized that he did not want to start another company so the stock market would be his new income source. An EXTREMELY rare thing happened with Joe. He falls into one of the rarest categories because he did not do any live trading until he got educated first (which we usually never see). Since Joe has started multiple businesses from scratch he understands that any successful company requires lots of preparation, research, and overall hard work. He gave up the chase for quick riches a long time ago and recognizes anything of worth requires serious concentrated effort. Joe also realizes the importance of not lingering on previous losses and gains. After each trade it is important to learn as much as you can but remember, there are more trades to be made the next day and if you carry those previous trades with you they will certainly impact your performance. A strong trait to master is the ability to recognize your own strengths and weaknesses. Joe has identified those pesky voices that generally cause a trader to lose money and with that recognition he can see what is to be ignored and what is to be acted upon. Quotes: "I was googling, I was hash tagging. I'm kind of a nut when it comes to research. I was an investor, not a trader." tweet this quote "Robotic Trading says it is not an emotional thing. That's BS. If you're a sore loser like me that's an emotion. It's hard to take that away." tweet this quote "If I keep adding all these other indicators then I just cloud my judgement with more opportunities to screw up." tweet this quote "You don't need to risk a lot of capital to make a bit of money. The pendulum is swinging closer to gambling when you risk a lot." tweet this quote "You have to have an exit strategy and not get too greedy with a loss or with a profit. Don't ever think it's going to bounce back." tweet this quote Links: Video: Live Day Trade: How to Make $185 in 2 Minutes Video: Avoid the Pattern Day Trader Rules

How Making Money Can Be a Curse | STR 052 Mar 14, 2016

Show notes

As weird as it may sound from a logical perspective, making money can actually be one of the worst things to happen to someone new to the market. We sit down and talk with chat room member Dave ("TracknPennies") and he discusses some very insightful aspects of his journey... including of course how his early success turned out to be the "worst thing that could happen: he made $3,100". Why was this the case and where did his journey go from here? Sit back and enjoy. Notes: Dave's introduction to the market came back while he was in high school in the 80s. About 15 years later he started to get re-interested and decided to start doing some research. Like many others, he didn't want to outlay too much capital and this led him to penny stocks. The message boards and huge gains were extremely appealing considering the small amount of capital required. After having a few small wins and losses, Dave made a really good profit and now thought he had 'figured it out.' These thoughts always lead to prematurely sizing up. After having mixed success trading shorter term time frames, he started looking into the companies 'stories' and now swing trading them. On more than one occasion Dave was up $30,000 in unrealized profit but more often than not would end up only walking away with $5,000. The power of greed is something many people underestimate. Eventually after watching huge gains diminish to small gains or even losses, Dave decided that he was going to take some time off from the market. When he returned, he realized that he needed to invest in his education. The penny stock market eventually went lifeless and that is when he decided to learn how to use his technical analysis to trade options like many other traders in the community. Dave realizes that his risk vs. reward is not where it should be yet and that is his primary focus for 2016. Quotes: "When the economy took a dump the money wasn't coming in like it had been. I had to start looking for other sources of income." tweet this quote "The worst thing that could happen happened. I made $3100 in an hour. So now I'm a professional." tweet this quote "The chart was screaming sell but I was drinking the Kool-Aid. I was up $30,000 and I still didn't sell." tweet this quote "You can lead a man to knowledge but you can't make him think." tweet this quote Links: Course: The Penny Stock Survival Guide Video: Live Day Trading Reality Check

Losing 75% of Account: Time to Wake Up! | STR 051 Mar 07, 2016

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We all have different amounts of motivation that we require in order to give us a "wake up" call, and in this case, it took a loss of 75% of their account. Thanks to his honesty and transparency, chat room member Chase gives us a fantastic look into his journey... including needing to lose the majority of his account before realizing and acknowledging he needed to make some changes. Chase has been around the community for a long time and is a asset to the community, so I'm excited to be able to have him share his story with the rest of us. Get ready! Note's Chase's parents had purchased stock for him at a young age. He let these shares sit until he was an adult and somehow in passing he was reminded of this and started to investigate how he could make money in the stock market. After extensive research, Chase decided to join the Inner Circle because of the low cost. After spending some time in a few communities, he decided to stay here because of the environment. He however did not invest in his education at this point. While going through free content on the internet and giving him a sense of knowing the basics, he then would place trades from his phone in the bathroom before returning to work and then check on them again in 20-30 minutes. When Chase took his trading account from 2000 down to 500 dollars he realized he needed to spend more time investing in his education. He took 2-3 months to get through every single video and every course. He also rewatched multiple courses to hammer home the principles taught. Chase is a big believer in logging his trades via a trading journal. He writes down information concerning his mentality and attitude both before and after his trades. This detailed log provides a good amount of data for him to review when the market was closed. Without a real passion for the markets, it would be truly difficult to maintain the amount of practice and good habits that Chase exhibits. He understands that this is not a get rich quick scheme and recognizes that without consistent effort there is no way to succeed. Quotes: "I just wanted to have a really relaxed life. I hate the 9-5 jobs. I didn't even know trading was a thing. I thought it was investing." tweet this quote "The best way to describe penny stocks in general is just 'a dump.' When I got in there the big hype was Ebola." tweet this quote "Instead of being on the momo train like I am doing now, I was just getting hit by it." tweet this quote "My paper trading account is setup exactly like my live account. I'm still just focused on the process. tweet this quote

Happy #50! Taking a Look Back… | STR 050 Feb 29, 2016

Show notes

Where has the time gone? I swear it was just last week that I was sweating bullets awaiting doing the first ever interview... and here we are, now at episode 50! Chezz and I take a look back at the history of the show and discuss some common themes that have arisen time and time again. When multiple guests have made mention of the same general concepts, we figured it was worth taking note of and mentioning so that hopefully you can learn from multiple people's mistakes. Notes: In this episode, Clay and Chezz reflect over the past 50 episodes and touch on some recurring topics that are 'rant' worthy. This includes: What do you think about ticker XYZ? The importance of paper trading realistically. Growing a small account.Reluctance to invest in education and willingness to gamble 'cautiously.' Buy and sell alerts (which create dependency). There is no need to rush. The market will be there in the future. Quotes: "The more and more I learn about trading, the less and less I need anybody's opinion." tweet this quote "If you can't buy 10,000 shares when you go to real money, don't go to 10,000 shares when you are paper trading." tweet this quote "You are a CEO. What are you a CEO of? Your personal finances. You are in charge of you." tweet this quote "You wouldn't go to a doctor for heart surgery who says, 'I googled some stuff. It's cheaper than going to school.'" tweet this quote "There is a big difference between alerting something that is in-play and how to play it. We all have different risk tolerance." tweet this quote "Just keep practicing because the market will be there tomorrow, in 6 months, in 6 years. Your financial capital is finite." tweet this quote Links: Video: The Worst Possible Question To Ask Video: The Surgeons Dilemma

An Interesting Outlook and Conversation on Trading | STR 049 Feb 22, 2016

Show notes

For some people, they need to grow up fast and get the ax to the grindstone right away. Our guest from the chat room, Ricky, fits that description perfectly. Due to some rough patches in his personal life when he was young, he was forced to grow up and become "the man of the house" very early in life. This personality dynamic has given a very interesting outlook on not only trading, but life in general. It was very refreshing to sit back and listen to someone who has been through a lot, but never made excuses for themselves. There is a lot to be learned from this experience. Notes: Like many of our guests, Ricky was introduced to the market via his economics class with a paper portfolio.' Ricky was forced to be the man of the house at a very early age and this led him to find the drive to take his education and finances into his own hands and push forward into what interested him. While trying to accumulate education related to trading, Ricky realized very quickly that there is so much information spread out erratically across the internet. After frequenting lots of message boards and seeing the 'poison' of opinion, Ricky decided to invest in his education with his hard earned dollars. Ricky recognized that he is much better at taking logical trades on a higher timeframe. This gives the brain much longer to process and form plans that prevent you from taking a trade 'on a whim' or because you need the 'action.' With a set of criteria, Ricky is able to identify stocks that are aligned on multiple time frames and have momentum indicators showing an increase. He developed this system himself and the important part is that it works for him! Trading techniques certainly have an element of personal touch and what works for him may not works for others. Quotes: "I figured nobody is going to take care of my money the way I will." tweet this quote "In life, it's all about the process. It's not about being right. It's about doing it right." tweet this quote "I need to see things move up and down and that's why day trading for me isn't my strong suit." tweet this quote "Charts definitely can't see the future. You can see the indecision, the strength at support or at resistance with good chart vision." tweet this quote

Working for a Penny Stock Company… Really??? | STR 048 Feb 15, 2016

Show notes

We have almost done 50 episodes, but this interview is a first for both Chezz and I. Our guest, Tony ("elkhuntn" in the chat room), had his journey start by literally working for a penny stock company that was in the mining sector. Can you say "shady???" By getting an inside look at penny stocks, this gave Tony a very unique start to his journey which contains many twists and turns. It was an enjoyable interview that includes what I find to be very valuable nuggets of wisdom that can only be gained through experience. Notes: Tony worked for a very small mining company that was publicly traded and this is what led him to get interested in penny stocks. After losing a little bit of money, he decided to invest in his education and learned about penny stocks from Clay. After moving away from penny stocks, Tony hit some fools gold trading options right away but as most fools gold goes, he gave it back relatively fast. Even with some nice size gains on a few trades, just a few 100% losses in options completely wiped out his gains and then a majority of his account. Recognizing that he needed to focus on his strategy to emphasize consistency, Tony now has a set basket of options stocks he watches and utilizes the same setups over and over when he is able to be at the computer trading. Tony has time to trade in the morning before he starts work so he can focus on strictly day trading. With some self diagnoses, we determine that if he had only traded the morning session and skipped the rest of the day he would go from being red on the year to green. Less really is more in trading. Quotes: "Working at penny stock company, I pretty much quit trading penny stocks after better understanding how they worked." tweet this quote "I have a hard time paper trading but if I take a really small positions I can at least be honest about it." tweet this quote "I denied the losses at first. It didn't slow me down like it should have. It should have been a red flag but it wasn't." tweet this quote "If I would just trade the first hour of the day, I would be green for the year." tweet this quote Links: Course: The Penny Stock Survival Guide Video: About Pattern Day Trader Rules

Holy Crap! This Whole Story is Crazy! (Pt. 2) | STR 047 Feb 08, 2016

Show notes

At this point, hopefully I don't need to say much because you are already "in deep" with this member's journey and looking forward to hearing the conclusion. If you're not aware, this is Part 2 of our interview with chat room member "MR", so if you have not listened to Part 1, then be sure to go listen to Episode #46. Without further adieu, let's get right back into the action... Notes: When he arrived at the Inner Circle, MR was blasted for talking about fundamentals. His biggest use for a chart was to see where all time highs/lows were and if he was close. After going through CTU, he started to focus on smaller timeframe equities to apply what he just learned. This eventually led him to trading the futures market which meshed with MR's appreciation and study of the overall market movements. MR went from a long term tech supply chain investor who used fundamentals to a trader who is capable of trading time frames as small as the 2 minutes. This is a shining example that if anyone is willing to put in the effort to learn how to trade with technical analysis they can do it. Quotes: "I've made trades where I made $1600 bucks. Well actually, we lost $200 bucks because it was $1800 in commission." tweet this quote "In stocks, I see value there and I find it hard to short sell that value. But in the market indexes, I just see it as bulls and bears." tweet this quote "As soon as you lose your plan and won't admit your plan is going wrong, you're going to lose it. You'll get buried." tweet this quote "Be realistic, don't be greedy, stick to the plan, don't listen to anyone but yourself and when the market isn't safe, get out." tweet this quote Links: Course: The Trading Freedom Pathway

Holy Crap! This Whole Story is Crazy! (Pt. 1) | STR 046 Feb 01, 2016

Show notes

This was supposed to be a single interview, but as we chatted and got sucked into the story, we had no other choice to be break it up into a two part interview. Chat room member "MR" breaks down his journey with us which is truly fascinating. He's been around for a long time and has seen multiple Bull and Bear markets, including some epic "bubble pops". This included oa "pop" that took his seven figure portfolio down to below zero... in other words, he owed his broker money! Get ready for a wild ride! Notes: At a young age, MR was able to witness his parents retire at a very young age and started to wonder how we would achieve a similar feat in his lifetime. After graduating high school and college, MR joined the same electrical union many of his family members were in. While working in the field for 5 years, he had accumulated a good amount of money as he continued to live a very frugal life. MR was put in touch with an accounts manager at a brokerage house and after much resistance from this person, he agreed to take on MR's account. While MR ideally wanted to be very aggressive (considering he was a 25 year old), he decided to respect the manager's style of trading the market conservatively. To move toward something more aggressive, MR decided to open a smaller account at another firm and strictly focus on the supply chain for these major tech companies that were booming. Toward the end of the dot com bubble, MR suffered a huge portfolio swing which just about wiped him out. This has helped him recognize various topping patterns which serve as warning signs for him to close positions and stay in cash. MR went back to his roots and traded suppliers for various tech names and not only recouped his losses from earlier but took it to new all time highs. Quotes: "I asked my boss how he was going to retire. He said 'the working man is a sucker. You gotta be in the stock market.'" tweet this quote "I really knew nothing about the stock market besides it was a way to retire early." tweet this quote "I did not want to take the risk buying a '.com' website. I wanted to be involved with their suppliers." tweet this quote "This space was on fire and I had dollar signs in my eyes. I was margined heavily. Seven-figures margined." tweet this quote "On December's closing statement my account was over 7 figures then March 31st my statement was -20,000 dollars." tweet this quote "People don't understand how much of it is psychological. I believe I punished myself for all the people who got hit by not selling." tweet this quote Links: Blog: Most Effective Order Entry Blog: How To Make $51,000 In A Single Day Guide: Futures, What are They and How Do I trade Them?

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