B The Trader

Timothy Sykes is a millionaire trader and mentor. He primarily focuses now on teaching and helping others become self-sufficient. I must say, that the only reason I am into trading is because of him. His face is everywhere online marketing to everyone. This marketing caught my attention and he was the first teacher I hired during my journey where I can say I learned a lot of the basics, rules, and mentality one must have as a trader. I was very happy to find out he was open to being on my show and I think you will enjoy this episode as we dive into some trading psychology, philosophy, and strategies.

Trade of the day is a new series we are starting today. In this series, we will have short 5-10 min videos on youtube reviewing trades to share our thought process, and lessons we have learned. You will see how consistently profitable traders review their trades and hopefully learn from them. James Freedlender is sharing with us his trade on $TLSA, please enjoy and let me know what your thoughts are.

Krishna Joshi is the head trader at Seven Points Capital office in Florida. You will find his story unique because he originally was trading oversees in a totally different market and was able to bring his experiences and lessons to the US Stock Market. We dive deep into how he was able to do this, how it was for him when he first started at Seven Points Capital, and one of his favorite strategies.

Jim Benedict and Jack Kellogg join me to kick off season 3 of B The Trader. Jim Benedict is a regular listener to the show and a recent contest winner. He has been trading for about a year and asks some good beginner questions that many of us at one point didn't know and some of you may still be in this phase of learning. You will benefit from this episode if you are especially a beginner to trading. Jack Kellogg a successful long trader and myself, a short trader, answers his questions to the best of our ability with the hopes of putting him on the right path. I hope you enjoy this episode and please let us know what you learned.

Alex Temiz is a Co-Founder of My Investing Club. He is a successful day trader who has had a cool journey from working his way to consistency to interviewing with SMB Capital, to now co-founding a company that focuses on teaching new traders about day trading. He shares some key lessons he has learned throughout his journey and some thoughts on what newer traders should focus on. This is a special episode to me because when I first approached Alex, he told me he would appear on my 50th episode, which I'm happy to say, he is a man of his word and so am I! This is episode 50!!! Thank you all for staying with me through this journey as I will have more to come!

It has been a while since I have talked about my personal trading journey, so in this episode, I share with you my trading progress and how my month was in March, the lessons I learned and what my plans are for April!

Harry Hoss is a young successful day trader who is known around twitter as the trader who loves the first bounce long setup. Most people are amazed at how he is able to catch these momentum plays and able to have great entries and exits. What most don't know is that Harry has been trading for 4+ years and has had many different trading styles. In this episode, you will find out how he has developed as a trader over time and why he is able to read level 2 so well.

Scott or as most know him as SmashTheBid on twitter is a day trader who focuses on options trading. He started off as a longterm investor, slowly changing to day trading, and eventually finding his niche in the options world. He finds options as a good way to manage risk and increase profits. In this episode, we go into a side of trading I have zero understanding of, and I hope you learn as much as I did during this interview with Scott.

COVID-19 has created panic in the markets and many have been losing money every day and are not sure what to do. We are in a unique time in history where many people will either learn to adapt or get crushed. I hope everyone is protecting themselves during this time by staying clean and practicing social distancing. It's during these unique times of the market volatility that I wanted to get together a few traders and a trading psychology coach to get a "pulse" on the current market from a day trader's perspective and see how they are doing. In this episode you will get to see returning guests, James Freedlender, Tom Diesel, and Kim Ann Curtin The Wallstreet Coach all discuss the current market conditions and what they are doing to become better. I'd love to know what you enjoyed the most out of this episode so please let me know by commenting below

I have interviewed multiple traders, all having different backgrounds and strategies. I have noticed that each of them carries a set of keys with them that opens the door to profitability. In this episode, I am going to share with you the lessons I have learned from all of the interviews I have done so far and I share the keys they use to find consistency and how I have also made copies of these keys myself.

If you would have told me that I would have the opportunity to interview my idol in trading when I was debating on starting B The Trader I would have never believed you, or maybe I would have started this show right away. Tim Grittani recently crossed $10 Million in trading profits, he is the owner of the successful DVD "Trading Tickers" and he is one of the most humbling guys you will ever meet. In this episode, Tim Grittani shares some very insightful tips that have helped him in his trading career and some ideas for you to think about. He also shares what he is currently challenged within his day trading along with sharing the new strategy he is working on mastering.

Ricky Analog is known on twitter as a fundamental trader who shares the knowledge he finds on sec filings. He explains how technicals are still a key player in his trading even though he loves fundamentals. We talk about why it's important to use different time frames to determine risk and targets.

In a previous episode, I talk about how I took a sabbatical from trading. I was having a rough couple of weeks and decided to take some time off to get my headspace clear. Now I am not one to easily take time off, especially when I am available to trade, so this was a hard commitment but I found some great benefits afterwards that I am going to share with you in this episode.

Kim Ann Curtin The Wall Street Coach. She focuses on helping traders push through the psychological barriers we face on a daily basis. She shares the differences between Male Traders and Female Traders and what we can learn from one another. We also dive into the reason empathy is so important to help you become a better trader and how we may be taking on some other people's faults by just doing "what always has been done". She shares why we must question ideas, thoughts, and ourselves.

JTrader is a full-time day trader who started trading as a young man in his late teens and first discovered his niche in a delay in the market. After awhile though his niche disappeared and he had to adapt. He found a new way to make money in options and after "making it" he found himself having panic attacks. Once this happened, he was determined to get healthy and actually decided to step away from trading for a few years while investing in real estate and other business ventures. After his 2-3 year break he came back and started trading in the U.S Markets, starting essentially over, learning a new strategy, a new market, a new way to trade. His story is great because it shows you that you must adapt to be successful and also you must take care of your health. He is a full-time trader, a martial artist, and a bodybuilder. You will walk away with a ton of value and see the importance of discipline and adapting to the markets. Let me know how you enjoy it :)

Short selling is when you take a negative position on a stock with the hopes of it dropping. It is my favorite way to trade and my specialty, however, there is a dark side of being a short seller that nobody talks about. Most people do not talk about the fees, commissions, borrows, etc... and the additional psychological battle you have to deal with on a daily basis.

Michael Lamonthe started trading back around 1998 and during his journey has discovered what he is really passionate about is helping others through the mental challenges around trading. He is a full-time trader and trading psychology coach. He goes into great detail on how he goes about tackling some of the big issues traders face on a daily basis like our beliefs around money, FOMO, and the importance of focusing on journaling.

I have been trading out of the zone for the month of February and because of this, I have decided after several conversations with friends, colleagues, mentors and a new psych trading coach/friend Kim Ann Curtin to no longer trade for the week of 2/17. I don't have a defined date on when I will continue but the ideal situation will be after I no longer feel the anxiety to trade. Lately, I have been coming to the market with excitement and anxiety/fear to lose. This stems from the big loss I took on the first Friday in Feb. If you haven't listened to that episode I highly recommend you go back and listen to it -> February Challenge - Update on Trading Progress

In the previous episode Trading Monthly Recap - January 2020 With Carl Fred I talk about what my goals are for February, calling it Focus Feb. February has been a rough month so far, having one of my biggest losses in a while due to an unforeseen event. I share the mistakes I have made during these first two weeks and how I plan to address them and finish the month strong. You will be able to see what I learned from one of the previous episodes I did with Tim Bohen.

Tim Bohen is a full-time day trader, coach on Stocks to Trade and he also is a host for SteadyTrade podcast. He has over a decade of experience trading and has seen many traders come and go. Tim dives into the reason most traders fail and what are some ways we can become better traders.

Tom is a day trader and a MIC moderator. When Tom first started trading he lost $30k and ended up having to go back to his full time job. However, as time went on, he kept his eye on a specific trader/mentor Bao, who he looked up too and when Bao decided to teach he jumped back into the market with only $1k! Using $200 for 2 months of Bao's teaching service and $700 to trade! Since he joined them, he has become consistently profitable and now he is one of My investing clubs moderators! Tom shares how risk management is the real secret behind his success. In the past he would have weeks/months of green and lose it all in a few days due to revenge trading and big losses. Now that he has risk management he truly believes this is the POWER behind successful trading.

Me and my trading accountability buddy Carl discussed our January trading recaps. We usually do it in private, but I think that this type of analysis can be extremely beneficial to the beginner traders out there. Both me and Carl had a good month, yet we both had some drawbacks. I was doing great for most of the month, but the last week was all losses. I was practicing unfamiliar setups, and that cost me money that week. Multiple losing trades added up quickly even when I only risked $25 to a point where they negated the successful trades I had on the same day. I've learned my lesson; my focus for February will be to stick to the setups that I know well. I will also be continuing the No-Look P&L Challenge since I had a great experience with it in January and December. Carl shared that his January was mostly good except for a single big loss which put a damper on the whole month. He said that he kind of froze when SNCR stock price blew up way past his risk, and he was tempted to "manage" the situation instead of just taking the loss and making peace with it. He ended up taking a loss anyway, but it will now be his February focus to use hard stops in order to prevent huge losses and exclude the emotional response from decisions like that. I'd like to finish this episode with Carl's quote: "People tend to think that there's a Holy grail out there. And in reality, I think the Holy grail is ourselves; just to be able to control ourselves. " What do you think? Was this monthly day trading recap helpful for you?

This is a very special episode of my Interview With A Day Trader series! I've invited Akil Stokes, a professional Forex trader and a trading coach, and Noah Mayer, a beginner trader and a Twitter contest winner who got to ask us his questions. We chatted about the beginning of the trading journey and how the passion for stocks got developed. As it turns out, both Akil and Noah had school teachers who encouraged them to try out investing with fake money. I think it's a great way to become aware of the market and try yourself at trading and investing. We talked about picking specific strategies as a beginner trader, and what resources helped us become the traders that we are today. All 3 of us focus on small caps, so we discussed how we track the patterns when trading. We also talked about having an emotional response to wins and losses and the importance of rules and clear repeatable strategies that are easy to follow. Akil mentioned a process called IPDE - Identify, Predict, Decide, Execute - that he lives by in his day trading. Akil sees a lot of value in backtesting and building up the psychological part of trading. He told a great story that taught him to believe in himself and to follow through. Back when he was a part of a group training, very few people followed the original plan on a trade that was supposed to be crazy profitable and cashed in too early. He was one of the few traders that held the position as planned, and that experience stuck with him, proving how important it is to trust the game that you play. I loved a piece of advice that Akil has shared: your position size should be so small that wins don't really make you happy and losses don't make you sad. That's a great way to keep your head cool no matter what happens! How did you like this interview? What questions would you have asked if you were on the show?

Aly Angel is a trader that focuses on fundamentals. Not many people do that, and even fewer people talk about it. She is an exclusively long trader, and she found her unique niche by relying heavily on statistics and research. She described how warrants work, and how she takes advantage of the oversimplifications of this topic. She even accidentally shared a secret common misconception about the reverse split cycle that many people mess up on. Aly described why she takes paper trading seriously and how she uses it to get more data and for emerging trends and new strategies. We talked about how she manages to remain flexible in an ever-changing market thanks to her research. We had a fascinating conversation about the psychological nature of day trading and how our unresolved background issues affect our trading habits. Aly shared how she started her journey with a $1500 account and a tiny size that she couldn't bring herself to increase even after her account grew substantially. She shared her personal trading struggles, her biggest losses, why she never shorts, and how she feels about PDT and revenge trading. We talked about tracking trades for beginners and how to develop a working strategy. Her advice is to pick a trader who you think is you can emulate, research their successful trades to learn what to do and study their bad trades to learn what not to do. She also shared two questions that you need to ask yourself before committing to this strategy and that person. If doing research to improve your trading is your cup of tea, this interview will be a goldmine for you! What did you learn from this episode?

In the last video (Trader Therapy with Jack Kellogg and Kyle Williams), a subscriber asked us how to track winning setups and what criteria we use to track them. Kyle did a great job answering that question, but I just wanted to show you how I do it with a specific Excel example. Before we get into it, let me just say that there's no right or wrong way to track strategies. As traders, we all work in different ways and prefer different things. I'm also not a huge fan of Excel, but I love analyzing trading strategies, and I found spreadsheets to be the best way to record setups in order to find the edge. First, I have a separate tab for each strategy that I track. Within each tab, I list all tickers that appear on my radar (this list depends on the strategy). For each of the tickers, I write out specific criteria that matter to me - volume, support level, open, close, high of the day, low of the day, etc. The idea is to find an edge - a culprit, a common pattern that will help me decide if the setup will work for me. If I don't see an edge, maybe my criteria are too broad. Or sometimes I just need to look at more information and cross-reference it with what I already have to find a pattern. Watch the video to see me explain my tracking method on an EDAP ticker example. Was this video helpful? How do you track your strategies?

Jack Kellogg, Kyle Williams and I had a great conversation about the challenges of day trading that both beginner and experienced traders face. We talked about January trading; all three of us have a green month so far. However, Kyle mentioned that while he was still profitable, he took more losses in January than he did in all of December. Jack pointed out that he already had two red Mondays because he was so eager to trade at the beginning of each week. For me, Mondays are also generally the worst day of the week, and Kyle had some challenging Wednesdays. It is really interesting how the same principles never work exactly the same for different people. For example, I love the PnL challenge that I've been doing throughout December and January, but both Kyle and Jack agreed that it makes them mentally add numbers since they're not supposed to look at the chart to know if they're up or down. We answered a number of questions from subscribers. We talked about the dos and don'ts of day trading (gotta love Jack's opinion on OTC stocks), what keeps us motivated after big losses, and what we wish we knew back when we only started day trading. We also talked about tracking winning trading setups and finding the edge. Kyle gave a great answer, and I'll expand on that question in my next video. Subscribe to my channel to get the best day trading tips from me and other profitable traders!

Day trading seems easy at first, right? But soon you realize that you won't get too far just looking at the price chart alone. You also have to keep the volume dynamics in mind. Let's say we have a stock that's topped out. It's at $1.80 and it's creeping up to $2. It's obviously going to break the $2 mark, but you need confirmation before you enter the trade. That's where the volume chart comes in, that's your indicator. In this video, I describe 4 different volume dynamics as the stock hits a $2 mark: No change in volume. Because of the lack of interest, it goes back to $2 and holds there for a little bit. No volume means that no one is interested and it's unlikely that the stock will continue going up. Most probably, it will hold at $2 for just a few minutes and will break down soon. It breaks out with a huge volume - which is a great sign - and then goes up to $2.10, and then immediately goes back down with a huge volume too, maybe even below $2. That's a sign that there's a lot of sellers out there, and a lot of people took an opportunity to get out at a great price. It's a fakeout breakout. It breaks out with a huge volume and goes to $2.40, but you've missed it. At this point, you're better off missing it altogether rather than chasing it, because more times than not it's going to come back down. But keep an eye on volume: if it spiked at a huge volume and went down with a low volume, it means that there's still a lot of interest out there, and the stock will most likely go back up over time. If it breaks out at a mediocre volume, stays at $2 for a half-hour and then picks up more volume, that's an indicator to get in as the price will most likely go up. Volume represents interest. It describes the supply/demand curve that constantly effects the price of the stock. It also describes market expectations, giving you a hint when to jump on the bandwagon and profit from the trend. If you're trading without looking at the volume chart, you'll miss out on all these dynamics. You need both the volume and price charts to make an informed decision. 01:22 Case study: the stock is breaking out at $2

Mike, Nick, and Alex started day trading about 6 years ago. Having worked as busboys and waiters, they knew the value of a dollar and were looking for something to make them more money. They pulled money together and started an account with $1000. On his first trade, Mike scored big with Rite Aid stocks, effectively doubling their account within one year. At first, they traded big caps and well-known names. However, those stocks didn't move as much, so eventually, they moved on to OTC which provided more opportunities. In 2014, weed got legalized in several states, so there was a lot happening in the cannabis niche of the stock market. The Stock Snipers had multiple big wins, but they also experienced multiple big losses once the market started to calm down. Their trading journey includes many stories of high profits and heavy losses, but one thing that they learned to do is how to move on no matter what and stick together. They've been trading together for years, and now they educate other traders and pass the knowledge and experience that they've accumulated over time. Their journey taught them to cut losses on time, stick to the plan, and learn how to be OK with occasional missed opportunities. This is their advice for beginner traders: It takes between 50-100 traders to start getting a feel for trading, be patient and prepare for "survival mode" L is for learning, not loosing What was your takeaway from this interview? And would you start a trading account with your buddies?

During the month of December, I challenged myself to avoid my PnL chart and only look at it at the end of the month. December turned out to be profitable, but not as much as I would like it to be. This is a tip for beginner traders who are still in search of their strategies and favorite setups. As a short seller, you constantly get hit with various fees. Over time, they cut into your wins quite a lot. However, if you're buying long, you don't have any fees, so you're trading for free. That's why I've been recently dabbling into long buying myself. I'm still getting a feel for it, so I'm only risking $10 at most. Getting more experience with it will be my January focus. Another thing I'll focus on will be taking my full 3R and cutting my loss at 1R. Additionally, I will still ignore PnL chart for another month and see what it does for my trading habits. In this video, I wanted to talk about Price Action and its importance. Recently I've been noticing a trading pattern where a stock goes up (I find it through biggest % gainers), I do my research looking for news, check SEC for any warrants, offerings, and ATMs. Finding a warrant would immediately make me a short-bias trader (on top of me leaning to sell short more times than not). In this scenario, I would completely ignore price action and often take a loss. The last time it happened to me, I wasn't stubborn in that trade and I cut my losses quickly. However, that trade made me think that I should focus more on the Price Action than the research and expectations. Watch the full video to learn more about waiting for confirmation and Price Action signs. Do you ever struggle with following the news and pulling the trigger too quickly? Comment below, I'd love to know!

James is a day trader, MIC moderator, and an entrepreneur. He's been trading for almost 2 years, and December has been one of the best months of his career. We talked about a new approach that led him to have a great month. His new strategy is to wait for confirmation before entering a trade instead of jumping in out of FOMO or anticipation. James shared a 30/70 rule that protects him from getting hit with big losses upfront and how he's choosing consistency and predictability over hitting the highest numbers possible. His philosophy is that you can hit a 50c win by gaining 10 cents 5 times or winning 50 cents at once - but choose whatever suits you best. We talked about adapting strategies and rules from other traders and making them yours. The point is to make trading work for you, not the other way around. As a day trader with a full-time job and an entrepreneurship side hustle, James can only spare mornings to trade. He likes to be done by 10:30 am to be able to focus on the rest of his life, and he has adapted his trading style to do just that. Having a busy life outside of trading hours gives James another benefit - he can truly appreciate how relatively fast he can generate income with just a few successful trades in comparison with other revenue streams. He also discovered that as an experienced trader, you stop trading for your ego, you stop caring about other people's opinion and praise. You start trading for yourself, and that's when the real results start pouring in. Check out the video below to learn from this amazing young trader! What was your favorite interview moment?

Alex is a long-bias trader who focuses on penny stocks while learning more about trading big caps. Over 2019 he took his biggest loss, which prompted him to cut down his account to half of its size. After that, however, he realized that "the worst" - loosing big - has already happened, so he started to trade a full size again. As a result, he had to make peace with heavier average losses, but that also gave him a chance at higher average gains too. In 2019 he's been breaking into trading big caps. We talked about the transition from small to big caps and the difference between the tools and skill set necessary for them. For example, you need more capital to trade big caps, but you don't face liquidity issues as you do with small caps. Additionally, following the market is much easier, so it makes sense to focus on 20 or so big names and trade them since you now know how the company operates and what to expect. We talked about his big loss of May 2019 and how it changed Alex as a trader. We chatted about commission changes for long traders, getting over significant mistakes and moving on with a clear vision from both losses and wins. We had a great discussion about your 'Why' as a trader, a possible burnout, and curbing your expectations when you live your life (as you travel, have kids, have other obligations) while trading full-time. Alex described his 2020 goals, and (spoiler!) it's not just a single $ goal. Watch the video to learn more about his goal-setting and his biggest challenge for the new year.

Holiday trading is different as there's a lot more volatility in the holiday market. Short selling is challenging in the last week of December. I saw on Twitter that a lot of people were trading and taking big hits. This is my theory: everyone is off at home on their computers, there are many new traders on the market who are more familiar with the long selling, and a lot of squeezing is happening, so you have to be careful when selling short. I didn't have very successful trades on Monday and Tuesday, but Friday was profitable as I followed my trading plan and waited until I hit my target before cutting it. So if you're trading short, be extra careful during the holidays and all the way up to the New Year. Wait for a clear signal and don't waste your time on mirages that take your time and attention away from the real A stocks. Be careful trading pre-market and watch out for squeezers. Watch the video till the end to learn how I adapted my trading and daily routine now that I have a full-time day job. I also share the news about new exciting guest interviews!

We met with Matt over 9 months ago, and, funny enough, I didn't know who he was at first despite listening to his show. Matt found out about trading when he was in high school. He started trading in the summer of 2017 after the freshman year of college (he studies software engineering); his parents helped him to join the Tim Sykes challenge. 2 years later, November 2019 was his best month yet. Matt switched to big caps despite starting with the small caps as he didn't like the volatility and the fact that one loss could easily wipe out multiple wins. We talked about the benefits of trading big caps such as easy and reliable automation, low chance of sliding, and generally slower pace that allows traders to make rational decisions instead of acting impulsively. Matt shared his plans for May 2020 when he graduates. We talked about the benefits of trading part-time, and how spending less time in front of the screen makes you a more disciplined trader. We chatted about the biggest challenge Matt faces when trading and his plan to work on it. We also talked about his accomplishments - this student trader has already managed to get over the PDT by trading and working hard during his internship while going through the senior year of college. Watch the full interview to see what ticker we both successfully traded the week before. Check out his podcast Beyond The PDT on your favorite podcast platform! as I will be appearing there shortly.

As you guys know, I got a job about 2 weeks ago and I've been officially trading part-time ever since then. I wasn't planning on trading much during the first week. The trades that I did take were very safe, I only risked a quarter of what I normally do. I did it with range order - it's when you set up the profit target and the stop loss, and once one of them is hit, the other one cancels out automatically. It worked out well for me, and I'll keep using automation to manage my trades while I'm away at work. I don't really know how much I've made on that trade. The whole month of December I didn't look at my PnL as a part of the challenge that I've created for myself at the beginning of the month. The question is, how do I know if I'm doing well? Well, at the end of the day, you always know if you're up or down. And the benefit of not knowing exactly how much money I've made is that trading stopped being all about the money. I'm not tempted to trade less than ideal setups just to get the profit. The trade that I'm still in - CBIO - is the trade that I've executed differently thanks to this challenge. I got in at the $7.70s after a big squeeze and not seeing much interest from other buyers. I covered most at the $7.30s and $7.10s, and I'm still waiting for the $7 to crack. It might not crack, but it's fine since I only have ⅕ size still in the trade. Before the challenge, I would have gotten in earlier. Most probably, I would have been one of the sellers who got squeezed. I would have chased one of the minor spikes out of FOMO. The December challenge helped me with the fear of missing out. I'm not trying to instantly make up for the losses incurred, and I'm trading just to trade well while focusing on the risk/reward ratio. I'm really excited to see how this month turns out! Do you have any questions regarding the PnL challenge or any other topic? I'd be happy to answer them - hit me up on Twitter or in Youtube comments!

Trading Coach and Mentor Akil Stokes is here today! He is part owner of Tier One Trading and has his own podcast called Trading Coach Podcast which I listen to regularly. You will learn a ton from this Forex Coach/Trader and you will realize it doesn't matter if you trade Forex or Stocks, Same mentality.

This was a very special episode for me! I had 3 experienced and consistently profitable traders on the show - Kyle Williams, Harry Hoss, and Jack Kellogg. We had a great time answering Twitter questions and discussing the trades from the week before. We chatted about sticking with the chosen trading strategy and remaining consistent despite feeling tempted with the exciting yet not proven setups. We discussed the interesting tickers of the past week and the trades that the guys made or missed out on. We also talked about the FOMO - fear of missing out - and if it should affect your trading habits. We talked in-depth about the optimal win percentage in correlation with the risk/reward ratio. Guys shared their recent win percentages while talking about how random the sequence of losses and wins can sometimes be and how, if you're not careful, 1% of losses can take out 99% of wins. We chatted about the scariest moments of their trading careers as guys shared their stories. Kyle revealed that he was once ready to pick up a side gig just to recover the losses from a trade gone bad, but managed to turn it around. Harry finished this fun episode with a rant about short sellers and the strategy that burns them time after time, yet people remain falling for it. What did you like the most about this episode? What did you learn?

In December I challenged myself to not post any of the trades and not look at the daily or weekly P&L. I did it because I wanted to focus on trading well by following my trading strategy. The truth is, it's harder to stick to the 3R target than it seems. It's challenging to kick an old habit of taking profits in the support area of 1.8R. If I make most of my profits at 1.8 and take the rest at 3, the average will be somewhat close to 2R. But in the long-term, that won't leave enough room to cover for the mistakes, and I know that I will make mistakes no matter how successful and consistent I am. I've talked with experienced traders such as Kyle Williams, Brian Lee, Jack Kellogg - do check their interviews if you haven't yet - and all of them say that mistakes happen. You just have to make sure that they don't happen too often and not let them spiral out of control. At the same time, you have to learn how to not take your profits too soon. If one mistake wipes out 3 or 4 profits, that could crush your mindset. If one mistake erases 1 profit, it doesn't feel like that big of a deal. So this week I did a better job waiting to hit 2.8-3R, and I'll continue with this strategy. I will also be focusing on Big Cap markets. Looking forward to that and the added challenge of managing my time as I start a new job - watch the video to learn more about that!

Jack was 18 when his friend introduced him to day trading. His trading journey wasn't a linear path to success: he took big losses at first and struggled against brokerage fees while barely breaking even. Nevertheless, he became a successful and profitable day trader, making $1-2k a week consistently even when the market is slow. We talked about emulating mentors and following strategies of other people. Sometimes it works out, and sometimes you can't seem to get the setup right no matter how hard you try. Additionally, the market is changing, and strategies that used to bring consistent 4-figure income are not as successful anymore or don't come across as often. We discussed the difference between trading NASDAQ and OTC stocks, and how a successful strategy used on penny stocks will paper cut you all the way down on NASDAQ - and vice versa. Jack shared the brokerages that he currently uses, how busy he is with the current state of the OTC market, and how much money he generates on a good week. We chatted about the misconceptions that he used to have about day trading and how different the reality is. He also described the challenges that he faces when day trading and what he does to overcome them. What is your takeaway from Jack's interview?

Kyle Williams discovered stock market trading in June 2016 and dove straight into it. It took him 12 months to become profitable. 3.5 years later he's up $115,000, so now he's teaching other people how to do it. Still a college student, Kyle gets up at 5.30 am to trade (he lives on West Coast), then goes to school and has a normal college student life. He shared how he structures his day to be able to trade and monitor the market while maintaining a full schedule. We chatted about Kyle's journey as a beginner trader struggling to become profitable. We discussed trading strategies that he used back in 2016, and how he managed to learn the market and become consistently profitable within just one year. We talked a lot about the mental, monetary, and planning aspects of increasing risk over time. He shared how much harder it is to risk 1% once your trading account grows and how he's pushing himself to accept that the same 1% represents that much more money. Kyle compared his current strategies with the setups he used to seek out at the very beginning. We talked about feeling confident about the benefits of starting with 1 or 2 setups instead of chasing tempting experiments and spreading yourself too thin looking for multiple trades and untested strategies. What did you learn from my interview with Kyle and what do you think about his trading path?

In our recent conversation, Brian Lee shared an equity curve simulator tool, and that was a complete game-changer for me. In the simulator, you enter your win percentage, your risk/reward ratio and a time period, and you really get to see your projected results over time. When you are trading, when you are "in the moment", you only see each individual trade, each loss, and each win. In one day you may lose 6 trades and you may only win 2 trades, leaving you with a pretty bad win/loss ratio. But as long as you stick to the 3:1 rule, all you lose is 6R. At the same time, by winning twice you get the same 6R, so you are actually OK at the end. However, you only get to see it this way if you're looking at the big picture, as you do in the equity curve simulator. In the moment, 6 losses in a row might seriously hurt your confidence and destroy your mindset. The lesson here is to pay less attention to the win percentage and each loss individually. Instead, focus more on following your profit plan long-term. I'm planning to give my 3:1 Reward to Risk trading strategy at least 3 months to let my wins and losses accumulate before drawing any conclusions. Subscribe to my newsletter to see my trading tips and follow me on social media to see the latest updates.

On Monday, December 2, I was in San Antonio for a wedding. On the way out I made a stop at a restaurant for breakfast and decided to check out the stock market and see if I could trade on the go on my laptop since I had Das Trader installed. Guess what, I haven't opened it on my laptop in months. My watchlist was outdated, so I didn't know what to look for. The Friday list of active stocks was saved in Das at home on my PC, and I didn't have any of this information with me. I did my own research on the spot and I got some leads from my buddy Carl. But I ended up not trading since I didn't see any great setups. I drove home, opened Das Trader, and saw that HEPA had a first red day after moving up for several days in a row. If I was home, I would've definitely seen this setup, traded it (I typically sell short), and made a nice return. I described this situation to my buddy Brian Lee (check out his interview if you haven't yet), and he laughed at me. He said that I should've used the Thinkorswim app. I actually use it, but I just didn't think of uploading my watchlist into the app before leaving for the trip. So now I'll be using Thinkorswim for charts and Das for execution even though I prefer sticking to just one platform. I also made a trade later in the day on Roku. It was a good setup, paired with some negative news for the company it was a great short sell. I made a 2.5-3R return on it and was quite happy to see how it turned out. Watch the video to see the full trade recap!

This past week I ended up with 1R loss. That was not the best result, but at the same time I'm pleased that the loss was so low - it means that I'm becoming more disciplined with my trading, and that's something to be proud of. I can also take pride in trusting myself a little more now. When I started, I didn't really believe in myself, and I used to get out of trades despite being right at the end because of a lack of faith. I learned how to trust myself with experience, but somewhere along the way, I lost it again as I started branching out and doing risky trades. If I didn't branch out and tried new strategies with actual size, I would have been ahead of where I am right now. But that's the tricky thing: once you start trading well and feeling like you've figured it out, you start thinking that you can predict the market when in reality you just need to react to it. I took some big losses due to trading random setups with an entire account, and that's a lesson learned. When you work with full size, you can risk less at a time - a 10 cent risk will set you back a lot when you work with volume. However, if you only operate with 100 shares, you can afford the whole zone (ex. $2-$2.25 range) to be tested. If I take a small position, I can give it a bigger range to see how it does, feel the trade and learn from it. And when it comes to small trades like that, the goal is not to make money but to gain confidence. I have a background in sales, and it also took time to learn how to control my emotions such as greed and impatience. The important difference between sales and day trading is that one mistake here will set you back all the way to the beginning, while a mistake in sales will only lose a single sale.

I've been working on believing in myself as this is something I've been lacking lately. I do it by sticking to my plan and doing things that proved themselves to be leading to profits. I also promised myself to not adjust my risk too soon. I decided to not get too excited, and add when I think that I should add rather than be scared of it. I like to add when things are bouncing rather than when they are dropping, and I did that today on two tickers - SRNE and HEPA. I did my shorting very well - shorting the pops, covering the dips. But most of all I was glad that I believed in myself and did it exactly right like I knew I would. There are some strategies that I know better than others, and there are strategies that I'm not so good at. So sometimes I trade a small amount just to get a hang of it and gain confidence. This journey is about knowing my weaknesses and strengths and finding out how I can make the most out of my experience no matter if it has a positive or negative impact on me at the moment. You see, I used to feel so negative about searching for a day job, but now I realize that it will help me succeed in my business and get a smoother ride while I'm trying to make it. It is my journey, and no two journeys are alike. Maybe my experience will help other people succeed in the world of day trading and show them that you don't have to profitable from the get-go to be a successful trader long-term.

I had a really honest conversation with my childhood friend, and he said that it sounded like I didn't truly believe in myself, like I didn't think that I could actually make it as a day trader. Sadly, I realized that he was right. All of those times when I didn't stick to my risk because I didn't want to take a loss, when I entered a trade and got out right away even though I was right - all of those times I didn't believe in myself, and that's why I did all those things. I'm not sure how to fix that except for pushing myself to believe more. After all, I left a very successful career to do day trading. I didn't make it the first year because I was still learning, but this year I didn't do very well because of a lack of self-belief. I'm trading right now, and I want to keep myself accountable, so I'll share the information here. I'm trading SSI, I'm short for an average of $4.41, risking $4.62. It has just closed first red day. I'm looking for a gap down and further. I am not cutting it unless I hit $4.62 or I hit my goal. It's been so stressful to look for a day job while trying to stick to my rules and do day trading. Sometimes when I'm feeling really low it almost feels like a failure, even though I know that it's not. I will keep pushing at it, and I know that I can multitask well. It will happen for me, it will just take time, discipline and consistency. Please support my journey by subscribing to my Youtube channel and listening to my Podcast on your favorite platforms!

I just wanted to thank all my followers and subscribers and all those who comment and like my videos. Here I will answer some of the questions that I've been receiving on social media. Oscar Sanchez: "For me, the hardest part was discipline. I have discipline but it can be inconsistent because my heart is corrupted by my hopes and dreams. The problem is, we're human beings, and humans are just unstable and inconsistent. The battle with yourself never ends." I agree with the statement that it's hard for us to be consistent when the reason why we're doing trading is tied to our dearest hopes and dreams. It's ok to have goals and dreams such as buy a house, take the family on a vacation, escape the 9 to 5 grind, but you don't want to hang up on the goal alone. It's hard to stomach losses when trading is all about the outcome and not as much about the process. Watch the video to see me answer more questions about trading, starting this show, my winning and losing strategies, selling short vs buying long, tools and resources that I use for trading. Again, thank you so much to everyone who comments and likes my videos and who listens to my podcast! Subscribe to my Youtube channel to see more videos like this one and listen to my podcast to get more content about day trading and trading tips!

The week before Thanksgiving was pretty good. My win rate was 50%, I had 3 wins and 3 losses. However, my biggest win was three times bigger than my biggest loss, so I did well overall! This upcoming week I will focus on 2 main things: Trading only the best setups when I see them. Not being afraid of the setups that I've been practicing lately, but with tiny position size. Another thing that I need to focus on is the positive outcome. In a weird way, whenever I'm trying to avoid a loss, I always lose. I talked about it earlier, and I see it more and more in my trades. In his book "Trading In The Zone", Mark Douglas says that every tick that goes against you feels that much more if you're afraid of losing. When you have this mentality, you are effectively looking for signs that you will lose. This is what I experienced last week when trading MYOV. I set my exit area too low despite it being close to a key area because I didn't want to lose on trade after I missed the profit area earlier that day. So I ended up losing 5 cents. It wasn't a big deal as I broke even at the end of the day, but it proves my point entirely. For the week ahead, my focus will not just be on seeing the positive and believing in myself, but also following my trading strategy closely. How about you? What's in the store for you this upcoming week in trading?

This is the paradox of day trading: I lose money whenever I focus too much on not losing money. I missed a cover on a short trade that I had. And because I didn't realize the profit, I didn't want to turn that trade into a loss. It started as a right setup and a great position. I held MYOV overnight and was comfortable holding it pre-market because the resistance area was shown as $13.13. But as the trade opened, it showed me a new resistance area at $12.40 (now I know it was really $12.50) Initially, the stock opened up in my favor. It tanked immediately down to $11.60, but I missed it. After that, it popped back up to $12.40s where it has started. As it went back up, I set my stop at $12.40. This was my thought process: if I missed out on a profit, at least I didn't want to turn this trade into a loss. And this is one of the lessons: whenever you choose a stop, round it up to a dollar or half-dollar number. In hindsight, $12.40 was really close to $12.50 which was key for this stock. It is a magnet; the price often spikes up to hit round numbers only to move away from them in the next moment. The price hit $12.50 (which was above my stop) only to bounce back down into an $11 area. As a result, I missed out on a profit opportunity and incurred a small loss. It was only a small 5 cent loss, and I broke even at the end of the day. But I learned my lesson about estimating the resistance area and rounding my stops. Have you experienced a similar situation?

Brian Lee is a consistently profitable trader. He started in the gaming industry as a professional Dota 2 player as a part of the Team Liquid. He quit pro gaming as he wanted more flexibility with his time, and the stock market gave him just that. He invested his money into a trading account and started his journey day trading. Last year he changed the way he was managing risk by setting a max loss with his broker. There were a few reasons for that. His account grew bigger over time, and he started experiencing liquidity issues, so trades were not always getting cut right on time. Additionally, he got into a habit of bailing himself out of big losses by averaging instead of just cutting the losses. Eventually, he was stopped with his broker one time when this scheme backfired and the losses were too big. Ever since then he's been sharing his experience with risk control, as that was the information less talked about at the time. We chatted about relying on the systems for risk control and taking the human element out of the situations where we are prone to emotional response. We also talked about PDT, mentorship for the beginner traders, and the mental component of trading. Check out the full interview below. Like and comment, and stay tuned for more interviews with experienced profitable traders!

As I said in the previous episode, I love to learn from the lessons of yesterday. The lesson was that I missed out because I didn't borrow stocks ahead of the time. Today I had a pretty good day - I took a gain on CGIX. It was a low float stock - 1.6mln. Low float stocks tend to be radical as they go up and down momentarily. I noticed that the company had a ton of warrants (I check that kind of information through https://www.bamsec.com/). I also knew for a fact that it was about to rotate the float because it was trading pre-market at a half. So I decided to borrow and pay for these shares right then. It cost me 8 cents a share, but it was ok. But this is the thing - I borrowed without knowing if I'd be able to trade them after all. I generally don't like to trade low floats in the morning because the odds are not on my side. I normally don't mess with low floats because I don't like to deal with high volatility when the price goes from $2 to $7 and back within seconds. However, I discovered a strategy that works for me well in the afternoon. At first, I took a small loss of 1R and then made an overall gain of just over 3R. But to get this gain, I waited until the very end of the day. Watch the whole video to see how exactly how I managed to get over 3R on this trade and what lessons I learned from it. You can also see the chart and the detailed breakdown of this trade in this post.

On November 19, 2019, I took a small loss of 0.5R. Yet I felt good about it. The reason was quite simple - I was still doing better than I did a week before. I didn't have any trades on Monday, November 18, because I didn't see a good setup. I recently decided to focus on trading well instead of chasing questionable opportunities. No more playing revenge and jumping in after a loss. The only setup that I saw on Tuesday was with GNPX. However, the strategy that I call gap and crap doesn't seem to be working too well for the stocks under a dollar. I'm thinking of reducing the risk to 0.5R or 0.25R until I figure out how this strategy works on penny stocks specifically. I missed out on a decent opportunity with SAEX. That was a stock that I originally wanted to trade, but the price to borrow was 25 cents a share, and I didn't want to pay that. But what I'm most happy with is that when I incurred my losses, I cut them and I didn't reshort even though I had the urge to do so. You see, when trading I'm proud that I've learned not to compare myself to other traders. I only compare myself to the version of me a day, a week, a month, a year before. Last week I would've acted more impulsively, but yesterday and today I followed my rules. What do you think about it? Are you in competition with yourself or with other traders out there? What motivates you to keep going?