(gentle music) – [Man] Understand the incredible power of that little area between your two ears, and spend more time focusing there, or at least give it 50-50.
You know, forget for a little bit about oscillators and allof those other things.
Take your current trading strategy.
Take a look at where your weaknesses are.
What's highly likely is halfthe people listening to us, regardless of when they listen to us, have got a system rightnow that's really close, but they constantly are messing it up because they react basedon pain or pleasure, fear and greed, and the emotions.
So, invest more time in your trading mind, and understand the powerof building the belief about that signal, andthe power of repetitions, and I think that'll take'em to the next level.
– [Man] Learn to unplugfrom the markets as well.
Sometimes we get sowrapped up in the charts, and right now I'm zeroing in because the E-mini'scrossing my support line where I might make a decision.
(laughs) Sometimes we get sowrapped up in the charts, we don't know how to unplug.
So I would say learn how to unplug.
Because that can get alittle unhealthy as well.
It can damage relationships, so learn how to step away.
Maybe even learn somelower-effort methodologies where you don't have to betied into the market so much.
I call it tech fever, whenyou're just in a fever about every single tick of the market.
That can be unhealthy and sort of damage your trading as well, so thatwould be a pit of advice.
Just also, in addition to everything else, learn how to unplug andturn off the monitors and go for a walk.
A lot of times what I'll do is, if I'm working a strategy right now, it's a short-term trading strategy.
Every 30 days there'ssomething to do, right, about every 30 days, sometimes every 15 days.
It's in a portfolio.
Once I make the move that I gotta make for the timeframe I'm in, and once the stocks are in, I literally, the secondit's executed, I walk away.
I turn off the monitors, and I know, okay, this is a 15-day trade.
I don't have to look at the trade again for another three hours.
I will turn off the monitors, go out, be with my wife, enjoy a cup of coffee, probably what I'm gonna do unless I have to make a movehere off the E-mini (laughs) a little bit later today.
If it's a 10-hour trade, I know I don't have to be looking at that trade every three minutes.
It's a 10-hour trade, Imight have to look at it like every half hour, every45 minutes, so once I engage, once I've made a trademanagement decision, I literally turn off, click the little button, and walk out of the office.
– [Akil] The best thingabout being a trader is the massive amount of, no, (laughs) it's the freedom.
It's the freedom.
Again, I mentioned earlierabout time versus money.
It's really the freedom, the freedom to make your own schedule.
I trade the hours that Itrade because I want to.
I'm not forced to.
I don't have to report to ajob everyday at the same time.
I can kind of make my own schedule.
Now, you do wanna run yourtrade like a business.
You wanna be consistentwith when you're trading, but the point is I daytrade from eight o'clock to 11 o'clock in New York time everyday.
After 11 o'clock, I can literally do whatever I want for the rest of the day.
I have a trader friend out in the UK who, literally, this is how his day goes, he'll set up his day.
He'll wake up.
He'll identify everythinghe needs to identify in order for his trading, takes him maybe an hour or so.
He spends the rest of theday either cruising around on a yacht or on the golf course, and while he's doing this, he may check his phonea couple times a day, but he's making a massiveincome while enjoying his life.
So it's the ability to do that, it's the ability to goto the wife and say, “Hey, you wanna go out fordinner or lunch today?” “Sure.
” It's the ability to, you know, I've got an 11-month-old in the house.
It's the ability to just hangout with him during the day, and just play a little bit.
It's that freedom of time.
You can always make money back.
If I go broke, you can alwaysfind a way to make money back.
You can get a job and just work more.
The one thing you can't get back is time.
We all have a time limit, right? We expire at some point, soI'm always a big believer is you wanna make the most of your time, and I refuse to spend my lifejust working the entire time and looking back and saying, “Oh, I wish I could've done this, “I wish I could've done that.
” With trading, I can do that.
Even if I'm on the road, internet connection, a computer, I can hook it up and trade from out in California or something like that, so it's that flexibilityand that freedom of time, which I enjoy most about trading.
I would say the worst thing is that you're accountable.
You're accountable for yourself.
There's no boss to tell you, hey, you're doing good, you're doing bad.
You're your own boss, and it's very frustrating when the market doesn't go your way.
It's very hard to take fivelosing trades in a row, and then tell yourself, “Hey, I've got to take number six.
” Dealing with draw downs is hard.
No one likes losing money.
It hurts a lot.
The worst part is dealing with that, going through those time periods where you're just constantly losing money, and it's really out of your control.
We don't control what the market does.
The market's out there to hurtas many people as possible.
We have no control over that.
And it's tough not to have that control.
It's tough to be 100%right in your analysis, do everything you were supposed to do, and then still see it not comeout the way you wanted it to.
And that hurts a lot.
It's tough to overcome.
– [Kirk] Position size more.
Learn how to make moneywith a small position size, a small account size.
Because if you scale up, it'snot gonna make anything better if you don't know how to make money with the small amount of money first.
So I would say keep yourposition size small, learn how to ride beforeyou take the wheel.
– [Man] Practice.
Practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, and practice some more.
And not just the technical side, but put a lot of emphasis and practice on the mental side as well.
Traders think that, and Idid this, too, it's so easy.
All you have to do isbuy low and sell high, but it really isn't, and you really need togo through and practice, and I hear traders tell me all the time, “Hey, if it doesn't have money behind it, “it's not worth it.
“I'm not interested.
” And my response is, “Well, if you don't have “the mental fortitude tobe able to simulation trade “or paper trade or practicetrade without money on the line, “man, you don't have the mental fortitude “to trade with real money either.
” And so I think thatthat is a really, really important thing to do is topractice as much as you can.
– [Man] There's so many people.
I think this is most important.
It was true for me, I'm sureit'll be true for most people is that when you first getinto the business of trading, there is so much negativity.
Some people think this businessdoesn't even work, right, and to think that the 1% of the population that pretty much control everything come from a finance background.
In the United Kingdom, that is very, very true.
Maybe in other places, it's different, but in the UK, it's 100% true.
I always say to guys, listen.
Ignore the negativity.
You have to be sure of yourself.
It's the kind of businessthat requires confidence, so if you wanna succeed, beyond everything else, you have to be able to shut out the noise because after people talking to you, they don't know anythingabout trading, right, they're just talking, so the bottom line is, if you can shut out the noise, then you have a veryhigh chance of success because most people don't succeed because they listen tothe noise around them, so I think that's the most important, that's the only thingI'll say to a trader.
If you wanna succeed, shut out the noise.
If you take in the noise, I can almost guarantee it, it's like you're diggingyour own grave, just slowly, so you'll try, but ultimately, you gotta shut out the noise, and I think that's important.
– [Man] Trade with edge.
You need edge to make money.
What I mean by that is you need trades that will work moretimes than not for you.
And no matter how weak youthink your psychology is or how bad you think your technology is or how little capital you actually have or how bad you think yourretail broker is to you or how high the commissions are, you need to have trading edge.
It needs to be personal.
It needs to be internalized.
It needs to be a part.
It needs to highlight andaccentuate your talents.
– [Man] Find your own way as a trader.
– [Man] I love that.
Find your own way as a trader, awesome.
Delve a little bit more.
– [Man] Yeah, I'm gladyou asked me to expand because it might leavesome people hanging.
Ultimately, you have to trade in a manner that's consistent withwho you are as a person.
However, you're firstgonna have to identify, well, jeez, how am I gonna trade? Am I gonna be a fundamentaltrader, a technical trader? Whatever that is, find amethodology that seems reasonable and start chipping away at it.
Don't expect success overnight.
Give it a year, two years, and then you'll start to see, if you've done it right, some tangible results.
Don't get the impressionthat after three months, you're gonna be consistent as a trader.
Really look at it as a journey, just like you would any other profession.
It's gonna take some time, but ultimately, you gotta find your own way as a trader.
But you are gonna need help along the way.
You're gonna need toreach out to colleagues.
You're gonna need to readbooks by successful traders, and take little nuggets of information and plug it in and create your own style.
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