The Stock Trading Reality Podcast

It might sound a bit backwards, but "going small" in order to get "big results" is something that is overlooked in the world of trading all the time. Our guest, Chad (same name in chat room), explains this bizarre concept via the journey he has been on, and is currently still exploring. Although only being involved in the markets for a relatively short amount of time, Chad has already been through a lot and learned many valuable lessons which he graciously passes on to the listeners. Notes: Chad first got interested in trading after setting up a Roth IRA and decided that he wanted to make his riches with penny stocks. He did some googling for hot penny stocks and eventually found a list of high volume names and did his message board research to see what others thought would go up. After finding quick success in his first penny stock trade, his profits soon turned into losses and that's when Chad decided he needed to learn more about technical analysis before he traded again. As he went through the courses, he was paper trading alongside of it (which we recommend). However, he was not using realistic trading size so this did not help him prepare for the live market when he decided to return. After a few rough trades when he went live, Clay helped Chad realize he could trade smaller than 100 share lots which still helps him get used to having money on the line (and deal with the voices that appear when money is on the line). Even though Chad is in the beginning stages of his journey now, he is taking steps to ensure he is forming good, consistent habits which will eventually turn into long term consistent gains. He, like many others, approached this as a way to get rich quick but was quickly humbled by the penny stock market. He knows what he excels at and where he is weak. With that knowledge he is capable of fixing the issues and improving. Quotes: "There was about 2 weeks where the stock doubled. I thought 'this is going to be my new job.' The next day it tanked." tweet this quote "Here I am paper trading 1000 shares and making 2,600 dollars in a few minutes. It was very unrealistic." tweet this quote "One of the things I've learned from you guys is to create good habits." tweet this quote "Now when I take a loss it's just like 'okay, it broke support or resistance and I don't want to be in it anymore." tweet this quote

Have you been here before? You place your buy order, it executes, and then down...down...down... the price goes. This is where our guest, Jules (same name in chat room), found himself during the early part of his trading journey. Wandering the world of penny stocks, Jules located himself a good ol' fashioned pump-and-dump to blindly buy. After this experience, Jules found himself needing to find a new way if he was going to survive in the world of trading. Where did he go from here? What has he learned so far? That and much more in our interview. Notes: Jules introduction to the market was based on someone he idolized in the professional Call of Duty scene that was talking about how well he was doing in marijuana penny stocks. After funding his account, he decided to follow trades from a known stock pumper on Twitter. Jules was just blindly puppet trading him in an effort to emulate the success of one of his idols that introduced him to the market. Jules went through Penny Stock Survival Guide in a very short time and after he completed that course, he closed out all of his penny stock trades leaving him with about 15% of his initial account left. After learning about options, Jules was swing trading advanced options making weekly income by selling out of the money spreads. These are Jules 'set and forget' trades (to which he now checks on daily to ensure they are acting how he would like). Jules recognized that his over confidence is something he needs to keep in check but by abiding by his trading rules, he is establishing good habits that can lead to long term success. Quotes: "I dropped 10,000 into an account and as soon as it was ready I jumped in headfirst." tweet this quote "I literally bought the top. I bought the day it stopped moving up. It never moved up further than the point I bought it." tweet this quote "You have a higher percent of profitability when you are selling options. You can profit in many different ways." tweet this quote "My directional trading wasn't good at the time. For the last 3 months I've been paper trading and it has helped a lot." tweet this quote "When I take a loss, it's just part of the game. I just move onto the next trade. Wipe it off and move on." tweet this quote Links: Course The Penny Stock Survival Guide

The one thing that amazes me is despite the fact that many guests have had "wild journeys", there is always a unique little twist that people bring to the table. This show's guest, Jaime (goes by the same alias in the chat room) first got started trading mutual funds. A pretty bizarre thing, but an interesting way for sure to get him interested in trading in general. From there, Jaime made many pit stops along the way until now where he has arrived at BEING the casino in options trading. Notes: Jamie joined the Navy at a young age and they had him set up a retirement account. He had set the account to take 10% of his income every paycheck and didn't check on it for years. After a few years he started to investigate various funds and attempted to catch the top and bottom of the line graphs for fun. It was only after he got in trouble for too many transfers that he once again let the retirement account sit. Seven years later, Jamie revisited the market after hearing coworkers talking about the marijuana penny stock boom. The interesting thing is that he didn't actually trade penny stocks until a few years later. That phenomenon was just the catalyst that rekindled his market interest. After putting his entire account in the Facebook IPO, he stumbled upon Claytrader from a Youtube video and that led him to the education available to further his skills and become more proficient in technical analysis and trading. Jamie has found great success selling options premium on expiration Friday with 2 hours left in the session. To translate, Jamie is selling options to folks who are looking for large outlandish move at the end of the session. The probabilities are highly in his favor that a move that large will not happen and this leads him to capture the entire profit. Quotes: "I decided to see if I could find the top and find the bottom of these funds. After 2 months I got in trouble for too many transfers." tweet this quote "I was using CNBC to scan and it would list the top losers for the day which I would then buy." tweet this quote "I found that options premium in the first 15 minutes gets skyrocketed or drops out during that time." tweet this quote "I wish I would have stuck with regular stocks instead of trying penny stocks. I wouldn't have taken the time off from my losses." tweet this quote Links: Podcast: Episode 34

Well... this episode may be ground breaking, or a total train wreck, but we're about to find out. ClayTrader.com has officially been active for two years now, so I wanted to try something different to celebrate this event. Chezz and I decided to bring back some past/former guests and just shoot the breeze and talk about whatever topics organically popped up. We talk about everything from hateful emails to trade management to favorite memories thus far about the community. We all had a great time doing this, so I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! Notes: In this episode we are celebrating the 2 year anniversary of Claytrader.com . We have RD, Nate Wilson, and Doc as guests this week and will be discussing various topics we encounter in trading. Topics discussed in this episode include: Passing blame upon someone else instead of owning up to your decisions and mistakes. Liquidity problems in penny stocks, stocks, and options. The addiction that we call trading and the pitfalls of overtrading (and how to avoid it). The importance of a trade plan. How low the barrier to entry is for trading and how that hurts new traders who are uneducated and treat it like gambling. Our favorite memories from the Inner Circle over the past 2 years. Quotes: "I think he was hoping for Clay to wave his magic wand and make his problems disappear." tweet this quote "You can buy it. Someone will be happy to sell it to you but good luck trying to get out of it." tweet this quote "For me, winning streaks is like crack cocaine. It just gets to where I can't get enough of it." tweet this quote "There is more to a trade plan than 'I'm going to buy and it will be a swing trade.' That's not a trade plan." tweet this quote "There are zero shortcuts in this game but it's been the most fulfilling and challenging thing I've done in my entire life." tweet this quote

There is one thing that stops many people dead in their tracks before they ever get started in the markets: FALSE assumptions. That was the case for today's guest, chat room member "Zep". For the longest time his mind created a faulty illusion about how the markets actually worked causing him to avoid getting involved. He finally was able to overcome this illusion and is now going strong in his journey as a trader. He has done quite a bit right in his journey so far, but like anyone who is being honest, he's also experienced some bumps. Notes: Zep was a musician on a cruise ship for quite a few years but came to realize that he wanted the ability to be more selective in choosing his gigs. He wanted to have a music job and a 'numbers' job. After joining Robinhood (commission free broker), we placed his first trade and made 3 dollars. This opened his eyes to take his finances into his own hands. He realized that it would be in his best interest to get educated so he dove straight into the courses from here. On a $10,000 account, he had grown his account to 23,000 in just a few trades. Zep was smart enough to realize that he might be losing control of his risk management and decided to scale back. Even while finding success relatively fast, Zep realizes that he is very fresh on his path to consistent profitability. He strives for perfection and this takes its toll on him when trades go against him but the more seat time he accumulates, the more comfortable he will become with his proper trade management habits. Quotes: "The market always seemed inaccessible to me. Like there was a barrier there or you needed a ton of money." tweet this quote "I would be up until 8 in the morning studying, take a 20 minute nap and then wake up for market open to watch the action." tweet this quote "If I would have just slept in, I would have been up 2 or 3 thousand dollars." tweet this quote "Options will bite you fast. That's the cool thing about them is you can make high percentages but the opposite is also true." tweet this quote Links: Course: Robotic Trading Blog: The Most Effective Order Entry Breakout Chart Band: Older American Junk Band: KyleMenga.com

A common theme around these parts is the importance of risk management. Thanks to chat room member Jeremy's openness and honesty, we get a perfect real life example on why we preach risk management so much. Jeremy's account got off to a booming start as he grew it over 200%; however, in a matter of only one trade, he gave up all the gains and was right back to where he started. What did this teach him? Where did his journey go from here? That's what we learn about in this week's podcast. Notes: Jeremy's introduction to the market was in 2012 when a financial advisor wanted to put his money in mutual funds. He decided that he would learn how find opportunities himself to generate larger returns. Being on a smaller account, Jeremy was trading lower priced names in an attempt to own more shares and generate larger returns. He also had a friend who turned 3k into 300k over a few years and this friend was the one who pointed out to him that he needed to expand his education first before diving headfirst into the market. He decided to puppet trade a biotech trader friend of his. While he grew his account from 2k to 6k, one bad trade took 66% of his account and put him back at even for the year. Since he decided to trade options, Jeremy is capable of trading much higher cost names for a drastically lower price and simultaneously manage his risk based on how he structures his option spread trading. Utilizing the advanced options techniques, Jeremy has found his place in the trading world to generate weekly profits based on probabilities while adhering to the agreement he made with his wife about not adding to the account. He is growing the account naturally based on a solid trading plan. Quotes: "I just realized that number 1, I cannot predict the stock market and number 2, you had to hold shares for a long time." tweet this quote "We did a spit handshake agreement that I could not take any other funds from our account to add to my broker account." tweet this quote "75-80% of my spreads expire worthless on Friday's and it has been awesome to do with a small trading account." tweet this quote Links: Course: Advanced Options Trading

There are three words that many of us have experienced when first getting started in trading (well... at least I have), "this is easy." We make our first trade, it is profitable and we think that we have it all figured out. Chat room member Nate ("etan") tells us about this very relate-able start to his trading journey and where it has gone from there after reality smacked him in the face. Notes: Etan got his introduction to the stock market in high school while doing some paper trading for a finance class. After seeing the exponential nature of penny stocks from various message boards, Etan decided that he was going to park his money in a few very low cost names. Early in 2015, Etan did some investigating regarding options so that he could trade the larger names without putting up large amounts of capital. Realizing that he would need to be more consistent in his trading, Etan decided to invest in education to help solidify good trading practices. Etan decided to go back to paper trading and solidify his strategy and risk management before putting real money back on the line. The important part of this is that he is keeping his paper size realistic and inline with his real account size. Quotes: "After Ralph suggested I make my money work for me, I funded an eTrade account the following week." tweet this quote "I had somewhat of a plan but I didn't have the knowledge of why I should be buying here or selling here." tweet this quote "This is easy I thought. The next week I was losing thousands of dollars each day." tweet this quote "There is a lot that is involved in options. It's not just pick a price and pick an exit. There is other stuff to take into account." tweet this quote "Losses used to make me want to rip my heart out. Now I close my loser's quick." tweet this quote

We've already interviewed a member from Denmark, for this interview we head south of the equator to chat with a member in Chile. Jose is an extremely successful business man, so I am honored he was willing to take time out of his day to tell us about his trading journey. I truly enjoy hearing from people who are successful in their own personal fields as they always bring fantastic perspectives based of previous experiences, and Jose does not disappoint. Notes: Jose had a friend who made some big money buying various names during multiple crises and this is what led him to get interested in the market. He set money aside and started his stock trading adventure. After finding limited success, Jose got interested in penny stocks and started to follow some newsletters for 'hot stock picks.' Jose stumbled upon ClayTrader based on an advertisement on the side of a stock message board. Technical analysis and the ability to read charts appealed to him and he wanted to learn more. While Jose still holds a full time job, he is applying what he has learned to a larger time frame and his trades generally take around four days. Quotes: "My strategy was buy and wait for a couple years and then this will turn into millions." tweet this quote "I invested in 1 ticker. No stop loss, no risk management. I took a trip to Columbia for work and when I got off the plane it was all gone." tweet this quote "I wanted to speed up my retirement but without a strategy it was all based on hope and luck." tweet this quote "My biggest weakness is risk management. Managing my head and managing my heart." tweet this quote "You don't need to go to Harvard to make money in the market. You need to be focused. You need to study and be true to yourself." tweet this quote Links: Video: 10000 Calorie Challenge

There is always a first, and that's what chatroom member "JC" gave us in this interview. Thanks to his brutal honesty, he let us know that he was at a pretty rough patch at the exact time we were conducting the interview. This was very unique in the sense that Chezz and I were able to give him some "real time" feedback and suggestions to help guide him through this rough spot in his journey. I am very thankful JC was honest enough to share this as it gave us all a chance to truly witness the realities of how trading is not always sunshine and rainbows. Notes: JC's dad was the first person to introduce him to the market. Another interesting fact is that his dad was interested in penny stocks so that is where JC started also. Unfortunately, JC blew up his account in the first trade he took. He ended up going back to work and refunding an account after a few months to try his hand at the market one more time. JC decided to investigate into education options and found a well known source but after finding out that their package cost around 18 thousand dollars, he decided to look elsewhere and eventually found Clay. After going through some courses, JC decided he wanted to keep practicing during the evenings after work. This led him to get interested in the forex market since it trades for almost 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. While he works full time, he is finding where he fits in his swing trading. He has now traded equities, forex, and options. JC tells us an interesting story about an options trade that goes bad and what subsequently happened to his forex account. Quotes: "My dad said if you just buy sub-pennies they got nowhere to go but up." tweet this quote "My very first trade and I dump my entire account into this ticker before it dumped. I was all in and it was all gone." tweet this quote "You're just some regular guys. You're not some overwhelming power of Lamborghini stock traders that say 'this is the way it is.' " tweet this quote "The reason I traded forex was because it traded 24 hours and I could actively practice. It was more of a practicing tool to me." tweet this quote "I was so emotional I could not make a rational decision." tweet this quote Links: http://investorshub.advfn.com/ClayTradercom-27618/

If you've listened to any of the podcasts before, you know a huge theme is always having a trade plan. Chatroom member, Matt (known as "Dirt Wolf"), gives what I would consider to be one of the better overviews of what it truly means to have a trade plan in place before putting any money at risk. For those of you trading penny stocks and wanting a better way, I'm confident Matt's perspective on this area of the market can open your eyes to other possibilities. Notes: Matt went to college to become a math teacher but soon realized a profession in the finance industry would better fit his personality. He was worried about not having enough capital to trade larger more well known names so he dove into penny stocks that had endorsement from various sports figures. Matt won the penny stock lottery. One of the tickers he was holding was taken over and rode the marijuana boom up exponentially. While he gave back about half his total gains, he finished with a healthy profit and decided to use the money to get educated in an effort to become consistent. After taking a break from trading, Matt decided he wanted to come back head first and accepted that this was going to be a lifelong journey, not a get rich quick scheme. Being well versed in options from his previous job, Matt now employs advanced options strategies which give him a much higher probability of profit. Quotes: "I didn't really think I could trade the big board stocks. That's why I got into the pennies. You could buy a ton of shares." tweet this quote "I had a buddy who took out a line of credit on his house and put a couple hundred thousand into a ticker." tweet this quote "I'm just counting all the dollar signs in my head, thinking about what I'm going to do with all my money." tweet this quote "Options trading and technical analysis go hand in hand." tweet this quote

For those of you who are members of the chat room, you've seen that our guest, Curtis, has been doing extremely well for himself. There have been some days that are flat are crazy (and I mean that in a good way!). Many have wanted to hear from Curtis, so that time has come! Unfortunately though, the "secret sauce" that Curtis shares with us is not going to be something that many people want to hear. While it is 110% honest/good/realistic advice, it is what I call the unpopular key to trading success. Notes: Curtis started trading by doing dollar cost averaging pre-1999. He was able to cash out for a nice gain from these strategies. Curtis knew an in-person pumper that would promote various penny stocks that himself and his coworkers would trade. He was fortunate enough to have a large life event happen that caused him to sell near the top of the run. After a 10 year break, Curtis was following an ex-trader who was able to retire at an early age and travel the world and decided he wanted to try his hand at the market one more time. While he tried to follow various traders and modify their techniques, the strategies they were employing did not fit with his personality and led him to lose money. After blowing up his account during a stock halt, Curtis decided to go back to paper trading and really find his strengths. He bought a good notebook and wrote down his daily trades for over 6 months before applying the same strategies to the live market. Curtis then started at half his paper size and slowly scaled up into the same size he was trading on paper. He now is confident in his methods and able to consistently generate more profits relative to losses. Quotes: "I had those dreams of mansions and everything but I was buying a house so I cashed out." tweet quote "I would try to trade these ridiculous option spreads and there's just no way unless it's a freight train." tweet quote "If I could automate it and backtest it, I could say 'ok computer, go do it' and not be in the way." tweet quote "Your mind gets in the way all the time. I try not to do two things at once. I lose money when I try to." tweet quote Links: Video: Stock Trading 101 – How to Paper Trade Video: How To Paper Trade With A Purpose

I'll be honest. I was a bit nervous to do this interview. I was big into playing sports in high school, and our guest from the chat room, Dan, is currently a college coach. As you will hear, Dan is an awesome guy who has a great perspective on life and who has been through quite a bit in his trading journey. I personally think he's being too hard on himself in regards to the awesome progress he has made, but I guess that's what you'd expect from a college coach who expects the absolute best from his players. Notes: Dan started to get involved in trading and investing while his son was in a finance class. He funded his account but unfortunately his son ultimately lost all the money in there. After not finding too much success in blue chip stocks, Dan started to focus on small cap stocks with lower share prices to control more. While Dan is still trying to determine if he is a better day trader or swing trader, he is starting to apply more focus to risk management techniques to improve his overall consistency and profitability. Options provided Dan the opportunity to trade higher 'quality' stocks that provide daily volatility. Dan is fully aware he is still on the journey to finding where he fits best in the market. That recognition alone puts him ahead of the curve by helping him realize that there is not just one way to make money in this market. We all have to find where the market meets our personality and risk tolerance. Quotes: "I thought I was going to be actively trading with stocks as an investment. Lesson, that doesn't go together." tweet this quote "I had to lay down on the floor after that trade because I was so nauseous." tweet this quote "Without a plan you end up bouncing all around. I didn't know if I was a day trader or swing trader." tweet this quote "Trading without a plan was the number one problem I experienced." tweet this quote "Paper. Trade. Learn what you are doing before you put your financial future at risk." tweet this quote

I really enjoy today's interview due to the honesty portrayed in regards to the first impressions that were given from our trading community. Tony from the chat room originally showed up, and to be polite, really was not too fond of our trading group. To his credit, he did not give up on us and over time eventually realized that our group was not actually as nasty as he had originally thought. The amount of lessons that can be learned through this experience are some that can truly benefit you as an overall trader. What matters? What doesn't matter? What should you actually be focused on? We'll discuss all these key components of trading. Notes: Tony had a friend who found some success trading stocks and told him to contact him if he was ever interested. Fourteen years later, he started to get interested in the market as he started to have more income to use. Tony was under the impression that trading penny stocks was the key to real wealth. He joined a well known chat room, found a ticker, tried to do some fundamental research, and even went as far as buying the actual product. He was that drunk on the Kool-Aid! While he managed to make a nice gain on one ticker, he eventually lost it all slowly trying to trade other tickers. This is when he realized he needed to look into furthering his education. After going through a few courses Tony realized that there are many better choices instead of penny stocks. He started to paper trade options after his eyes were opened. As time has passed, Tony now understands the importance of risk management and that has really turned his trading around in regards to minimizing those losses and hanging onto those winners. Quotes: "This stock is legit. Their CEO is legit. I maxed out my account and bought all the shares I could." tweet this quote "I was up 10k and I thought this was it. I imagined quitting my job the next day. Then it crashed back down." tweet this quote "I bought some technical analysis book but they didn't make too much sense to me." tweet this quote "Every time I took a loss I thought to myself that this isn't for me. It's for someone with more patience and discipline." tweet this quote Links: https://claytrader.com/videos/buy-sell-alerts/

I will be the first to admit, hearing anything about "needing to take a break" can be extremely annoying... especially when it pertains to something as fun and intriguing as the market. At times, the most annoying stuff is the most beneficial for you. Chat room member "Moppy" discusses his journey with us, in which a huge factor of how his now consistent success is due to stepping back and taking a break. Notes: Moppy's grandfather made his money from buying and holding stocks. As Moppy aged he realized that there might be a better way. After going through a college textbook on trading, Moppy decided to use options to leverage his small amount of capital to hopefully make some large percent returns on what little he had. A few years later Moppy heard about the marijuana boom that was happening in penny stocks. While he missed this particular 'boom' he wanted to have an account funded for the next hot sector. Moppy blew up a few small accounts trading penny stocks and he eventually stumbled across ClayTrader. It was after this that he decided to take a break for 6 months and focus on education while he saved up to fund a new account. Quotes: "I jumped into options because I didn't have a lot of money. I had a young family and not much money." tweet this quote "I didn't know how to plan my own trades so in essence, I was gambling." tweet this quote "I just got my platform... flashy lights, pretty buttons. Had some money and thought this is it. I'm going to work it." tweet this quote "It was either put money toward education or put money into the slot machine and I felt the education was a better value." tweet this quote "I reduced my position size a bunch. I thought I was playing Texas Hold Em and go all-in and hope for the best." tweet this quote

Out of all the members we've interviewed so far, I don't think we've talked to anyone who has had as good of timing as Adam ("Yountske" in the chat room) in terms of market timing. This is where the interesting part comes in... even with the impeccable timing, as you will hear about, Adam still struggled to make trading work. His journey truly goes to show that there is much more to trading than simply getting a good entry point. Notes: Yountske's introduction to the market was in an investing class when they paper traded some tickers. He placed near the top of his class. After having some success bartering, he decided to open up a trading account and started trading penny stocks. He subscribed to some newsletters and picked one at random to trade. Yountske saw the potential for the marijuana boom prior to the actual pump of the sector. He became a walking/talking pumper adding to his profitable position on the way up. A well known twitter trade essentially scared him out of his position (for a nice gain). After achieving mixed results for multiple years, he joined the Inner Circle and eventually The Trading Freedom Pathway to help achieve more consistency in his trading. He also left penny stocks and moved to options to avoid the pattern day trading rules with a cash account. Quotes: "People were willing to take a loss and then I would turn it around into a gain for myself." tweet this quote "Averaging down was just basically stupidity. I held for 2 years and then sold for around break even before it really ran." tweet this quote "I basically become a walking/talking pumper. I was telling all my friends that they wouldn't want to miss out." tweet this quote "MJNA started to trickle down past my entry point. I was still living under the Warren Buffett model of 'never take a loss.' " tweet this quote "It was just a constant up and down… make a bunch of money, lose a bunch of money." tweet this quote

Chat room member Ricky (from Pittsburgh) has a journey that, if you're honest with yourself, I'm sure you can relate to in one particular way. That is, being a total innocent guppy at the beginning of his trading journey swimming in shark infested waters. There is nothing wrong at all with having a history of being a guppy, but the key question is, have you begun to transition into being a shark? Ricky has, and he tells us what he has been doing to transform his trading into that of a shark, rather than that of a dumb guppy. Notes: Ricky's introduction to the market was in 2007 when his friend and himself witnessed an IPO skyrocket and they thought about how much money they could have made. When Ricky first began trading he was very good at cutting his losses immediately. As time went on and he was drinking the Kool-Aid of the tickers he was trading, he was more open to taking much larger losses by holding bad positions. After doing more research over the years, Ricky decided to join CTU. He saw folks finding success in liquid options that would prevent the liquidity trap that penny stocks present. Ricky has actually made more money flipping penny stocks vs. trading options, however, he continues to work toward finding consistency in options. Quotes: "I drove down to the Scottrade office to try to get shares for the next IPO. I didn't even know there was a wait time for that." tweet this quote "Everyone has an agenda. I have even been caught up in pumping stocks without even realizing it." tweet this quote "I just started watching some charts. Took 2-3 weeks before I placed a trade. It was like starting over brand new." tweet this quote Links: Video: Penny Stocks vs Options... Which Ones Better?

We've talked with over 25 traders thus far, but for one reason or another, we have never ventured into the world of ETF's. Thanks to chatroom member Mark ("Zman" is his alias), the podcast has now officially interviewed someone who specializes in ETF trading. Mark never planned on trading ETF's the way he is at this point in time, his journey started in a much different place, but after some bumpy roads, he's found success focusing on the ETF market. Notes: ZMan is one of our younger students who has been trading for less than 2 years. He originally planned to be a 'buy and hold' investor but became more active after his first trade. He began to check out various finance boards online to find where the Kool-Aid was. It only took a few occurrences for him to realize the importance of liquidity. ZMan was searching YouTube in an effort to learn more about trading and stumbled across ClayTrader. He enjoyed the short term trading he saw and decided to invest in his education. After going through some courses, ZMan was actually kicked out of another chat room because he called out some people for 'pumping' a stock that obviously in shambles. ZMan is currently trading leveraged ETFs that track commodities. He does strongly emphasize that this is not a product for beginners and we completely agree. Quotes: "I was familiar with GPRO's CEO and I had the product. I liked it so I decided to park my money there." tweet this quote "I decided I didn't want to be puppet trading and I needed to learn how to fish for myself." tweet this quote "Your parents tell you to dream all the time but a dream in the market will get your money taken." tweet this quote "I look at all my losses as a learning experience. I just try to keep them small. Everyone's going to have some losing trades." tweet this quote Links: Video: The High Risk Of Free Education

We've talked to traders of all age ranges, but in this episode we hear from someone a bit younger in years. Chris (known as "cubs" in the chat room) tells us all the things he has already experienced in trading, along with what he has learned in what many would consider a relatively short amount of time. This includes turning $3,000 into $25,000 and then losing it all... ouch! That stings to just type that, but what has Cubs done since then to bounce back? The answer to that and much more, including what Cubs is currently doing to profit in the markets, in today's interview. Notes: Cubs got interested in the market during an economics class stock market picking game. While caddying as a summer job he saved up some money and bought 3 stocks to which he is still holding today. Once he got through school with a finance degree he joined a finance firm and has continued to buy good dividend stocks for his long term portfolio. During the pot stock boom, Cubs decided to gamble with some penny stocks and got very excited from the large returns. He took 3-4k to 25k before losing it all. He tried day trading while at his full time job but decided it wasn't worth the risk of possibly losing his job. Cubs decided to take a swing trading approach after this attempt. Now Cubs is utilizing options to swing trade with an edge. He can take a neutral position and profit from the passing of time. Quotes: "I wasn't using what I learned in college… it was more the gambler in me when trading penny stocks." tweet this quote "I maybe lost a few hundred dollars day trading but it was just too much stress while working full time." tweet this quote "I like being the casino and selling people sucker bets that have low probability of success." tweet this quote Links: Course: Advanced Options Trading Strategies Explained

The much anticipated Part 2 of the "Paddy" interview is now here. The feedback for the first part has been extremely positive, and it's time to see where the journey now heads. The enthusiasm from Paddy does not dwindle in the least as he tells us about where his journey headed after locating ClayTrader.com. His first impressions of me are not the nicest, I will say that as a little spoiler - haha. Notes: Paddy discovered ClayTrader.com after coming across him on StockTwits. After comparing what Tim Sykes had to offer, Paddy decided to try the Inner Circle for 1 year. After 3 days in the community, he decided to join CTU. After testing the water for those few days he knew that he could benefit from the educational training. He went through almost all of the courses, got his computer all setup for trading and decided to 'get romantic' with AAPL for the future. He wanted to get to know the stock while applying his new found information acquired from the courses. Paddy has done a great job realizing his strengths and weaknesses. Hesitation, forcing trades, taking revenge trades has got him in trouble in the past but he has put those bad habits to bed. Quotes: "I knew what these indicators were for 10 years and in one weekend I finally understood what they were for." tweet this quote "I don't want to work for the man. I want to work for myself. The whole idea here is so I can get my freedom." tweet this quote "Losses are part of the game. To not expect losses would be unreasonable." tweet this quote "I used to think 'go big or go home.' I'm much better at managing my position size now." tweet this quote Links: Link: ClayTrader Resources Video: Getting Romantic With Options Trading

I get short of breath just thinking about this interview. I promise I'm not exaggerating either, in fact, this was such a whirlwind of a journey that Chezz and I decided to divide it into two parts! Chat room member Patrick ("Paddy") delves into all the nooks and crannies of his journey, and with such enthusiasm, it was easy to just sit back and listen with enjoyment. It took us a while to get him to agree to be interviewed, but wow... thank goodness he finally agreed! We've heard some crazy journeys already, but this journey has plenty of twists and turns to make your head spin. Brace yourself... Notes: Paddy's introduction to the market was his father's reaction the 1987 stock market crash after he suffered a substantial loss. He began trading in 2005 puppet trading options via a trading educator he found multiple years prior. Throughout the next 9 years Paddy would find various 'gurus' to help find trade ideas. While he did find some success he gave back all his gains and more. That is when he realized he needed to get educated. Quotes: "I never traded penny stocks. Every advertisement for penny stocks was a typical, skeevy, snake oil salesman approach." tweet this quote "I have no concept of positions size so I'm making 30, 40,000 dollar trades because I had 4x margin." tweet this quote "By the end of 2014 I went from 153k to 107k at eTrade. Almost half of what I lost was in commissions." tweet this quote

We heard it all the time as kids: "Stay away from drugs". As we discuss in our interview with chatroom member Jeff ("Doc"), if you are not careful, the stock market can act as the ultimate drug. While I understand this may sound dramatic, it is a dynamic that I can certainly relate to during the time when I was first getting into the markets. When you allow the markets to corrupt you like a drug, the decisions you make as a trader are not good for your trading health... sit back and enjoy yourself through a journey of some major ups and downs. Notes: Doc's first introduction to the market was when he was 16 years old. He purchased 25 shares of PNC with money he earned from being a paperboy. He took substantial losses during the various market sell offs. While he was utilizing option strategies that had 66% probability to profit, that 66% started working against him. While he did invest in education, his old methodologies did not work in application. He became a CTU member, rewired his entire outlook on actively trading and is now bringing in consistent gains with his new found knowledge. Quotes: "I had no clue. I was jumping into stocks from the high dive. Little did I know that I was diving into cement instead of water." "If I have a good paper trade I missed an opportunity to make money. So lets just go balls to the wall and make money." "I was educated but I was educated wrong. And I needed somebody to reprogram my wires." "I was driving down a road at 100 mph throwing handfuls of cash out the window. That was my trading life."

It's easy to talk about success as a trader. Telling people about all the "ups" in a journey does not take courage. While success stories are without question motivating, hearing about the "dumb" things people do is where the true learning occurs. This is the focus of our discussion with chat room member Alex. I truly respect the transparency and courageousness Alex displayed in his candid talk with us. What are some of the major pitfalls in the markets? Where do the dangers lie? These are just a few of the things we discuss. Notes: During a lunch with some friends, Alex decided that he wanted to trade stocks for some additional income. He opened up an account the next week and started trading penny stocks. He took a break after getting bored trading tickers that didn't have much liquidity/movement. He returned in 2013 to trade penny stocks once again. Alex continued to refill his account as he would deplete it. A friend approached Alex and let him trade his 30k account. He found early success trading the morning and then would lose it all and more by lunch time. He started trading options and while finding some fools gold at first was quickly wiped out in 1 trade. Alex decided to step back and invest in his education before coming back to the market. Quotes: "I got bored and quit in 2009. One day in 2013 I decided to just get back in the market." tweet this quote "I rushed into things so bad. I didn't stop playing penny stocks. I didn't listen and learn from my previous experience." tweet this quote "I had the desire to learn but I couldn't get myself to step back and slow down with my trading." tweet this quote "I wasn't even counting how much I averaged down. I had a 10,000 share position and a $50,000 position." tweet this quote "I lost 10,000 dollars of that man's money in one day. One day." tweet this quote

John ("ESVA") has been a member from the very beginning. When I first started my service, he was one of the first people to sign up and has been a valuable asset to the community ever since. With 20 years experience in the markets, ESVA has been through many ups and downs, but one thing has remained constant... his never ending journey for continuing to improve himself and get better. From starting in the markets needing to call a broker to place a trade to now having excessive technology at his finger tips, this is a journey that is extremely interesting. Notes: ESVA (John)was introduced to stocks relatively early on in life through his father. Later in life he decided to revisit trading and investing and start his journey. He decided to try a penny stock picking service but decided to find other chat rooms and message boards after being involved in a few pump and dumps (and losing money in them). John was one of the first 300 people to join the Inner Circle and that is when he transitioned into trading small cap stucks (under 10$). Once Clay put out Options Trading Simplified, John decided to continue investing in his education and see how he could utilize smaller amounts of capital to amplify gains exponentially. Quotes: "In your early 20s you really don't think about investing. You get away from it because you're young and doing different things." tweet this quote "Some traders told me you need to start learning, don't trust anyone, and you need to do your homework. That was my turning point." tweet this quote "You can have fun trading but you have to treat it like a business. Nobody wants to just throw their money out the door." tweet this quote "Sometimes getting in at the lower price isn't better. It's better to have the chart setup and pay a few cents more." tweet this quote Links: Chat Room: Inner Circle

As someone who enjoys the topic of economics, it was a boatload of fun to interview "Arch_Steve" about his trading journey. Steve has a PhD in economics and is a college professor... in other words, a real life economist! With this being the case, "how" exactly does having a vast knowledge of economic markets translate into trading markets? Out of all the interviews so far, this interview truly gives a unique perspective on trading as a whole and what should be focused on. Notes: Steve has had an interest in markets economics from a very early age in high school. He decided to pursued a PhD in economics because of this interest later in life. He initially was a buy and hold investor to begin with and didn't do too bad. It wasn't until he had a large unrealized gain go back to zero that he recognized he needed to get educated to be better equipped to trade the markets. Steve now applies his technical knowledge to his swing trading and now has the independence needed to find stocks that he wants to trade instead of whatever the street thinks is a "hot pick." Quotes: "If you're an economist it doesn't mean that you can manage money. I always had this pressure to learn the market." "If there is no monetary gain on a gamble then your incentives will be tons different than when there is money on the line." "The stock market will be there the next day and if you have the right tools you can play in any kind of market that's out there." Links: Course: Risk vs Reward Trading

Today we speak with a Viking. Yes, you read that right... a Viking! Our guest, "Norse", comes to us all the way from across the Atlantic Ocean in Norway. The interview and insight into this trader's journey is one I'm confident can provide inspiration via the many moments he jokes about having experienced. Buying when he should have been selling, selling when he should have been buying and many other amateur mistakes. Despite the pitfalls, Norse is now a full time trader mainly focusing in the Forex markets. He started in penny stocks, so how did he end up trading currencies full time? Listen and find out! Notes: Norse competed in the Norwegian Stock Trading Championship and this coincided with the booming penny stock marijuana bubble. He realized that with technical knowledge of charts, you are much more capable of making modest gains more often instead of always going for home runs in penny stocks. Norse became interested in the forex markets based on the recommendation from a friend. He is now trading full time and his success can be attributed to treating this as a business. He has set hours and hard data to look back on and ensure he is doing what is in his best interest to profit over the long term. Quotes: "I just went in and bought because I was going to be rich from this no matter what. I didn't care. I just bought." tweet this quote "Clay used fibs in one of his videos. That to me was like black magic and I thought I have to learn this. You can have an edge." tweet this quote "Forex was a whole new environment. A chart is a chart but I treated it like it was something else." tweet this quote "I took my losses personally. I was partially educated, I had a strategy, and couldn't figure out how I could lose." tweet this quote "Be more patient. Let the trade come to you. You can't chase price because price will whip you in the face." tweet this quote

We preach it all the time on the show. Trading is a business of hard work, NOT "get rich quick" despite how some conman out there market it. Our guest for this interview, Andrew ("Ava"), is a shining star of what hard work and dedication looks like. Better yet, he provides a perfect case study example of why "I don't have the time" is not a valid excuse. As you will learn, Ava is a busy guy with all sorts of stuff going on in his life, HOWEVER, he still makes time to better himself as a trader. I have little doubt this interview will motivate you to stop using silly excuses on "why" you haven't attempted trading or aren't being successful at it. Notes: Ava was involved in a workplace injury and found himself with time on his hands. He decided he wanted to put his money to work for him and invest in the stock market. When he began he would just follow whatever the most popularly talked about tickers were on iHub. He even went as far as trying to find individual stock pumpers that had a high success rate to find some trades. Ava has always treated trading as a business. He had no desire for excitement (realizing that this is not a casino). He wanted to learn to trade so he could build wealth and increase his income. His business approach led him to decide to get educated so that he was better equipped to deal with the market. Quotes: "I was trying to figure out how to get rich trading something only worth a penny." tweet this quote "I was still really blind to what was going on. I hate losing money and that led me to purchasing courses on technical analysis." tweet this quote "Averaging down, it's a killer. The worst part is that it does work but that one time it doesn't will take you to the woodshed." tweet this quote "The gains from my options trades were so much larger than my straight up equity trades so it made sense to just trade options." tweet this quote "You can make decent money scalping but you will make the majority of money off of those runners if you let them work for you." tweet this quote Links: Video: Live Trades

Bad starts. If we're all being honest with ourselves, I'm sure we can relate to getting involved in something and then having things not go very well. That is the spot today's guest found himself in after attempting to get into the stock market. Chat room member, Nick, shares his experience of the tough start he had, but then, more importantly and inspiring, "what" he did to bounce back. As the saying goes, "it's not how to start, but how you finish" and Nick's story is very applicable to this. I was quite inspired by it. Nick got knocked down pretty hard, but he didn't let the beginning experience keep him down. Notes: Nick started with penny stocks based on what was popular on iHub. He thought it was a good idea based on the fact that it required a small amount of capital and people always talked about how extraordinary the gains could be. He had lost a good amount of money due to lack of liquidity and inability to sell out of his losers. Nick put in a few orders to close those positions and shut off his platform for a few years until he made his way back to trading in the winter of 2014. Nick ventured back into the market now armed with education. He found what strategies work best with his risk profile and personality. Treating trading as a business is certainly a requirement for long term success in the stock market. Quotes: "I started holding some bags at one point. Had a bad experience and quit trading for a few years until I came back December 2014." tweet this quote "I was a little bit jaded. I kind of felt entitled to a 100% gain on every trade since that's what happened with my first trade." tweet this quote "I don't look at any indicators. They are all lagging and are all derived from the chart unfolding in front of your eyes." tweet this quote

I'm sure you've noticed: many stock trading sites out there like to focus on all the glitz and glamour areas of life. Sure, if you are trying to sell people products and services, why not turn your advertising into a late night infomercial? A sucker is born every minute. Today's guest, Alex, gives us the truth and realistic side of trading and the markets. Hard work. Trading is possible, but it doesn't happen overnight and Alex shares all the ups and downs of his current journey in a very open and honest way. Notes: Alex's father used to look at the stock prices in the newspaper every Saturday and that was what sparked his initial interest. He did some light trading with a few friends in high school but completely stepped away from it after he graduated. His interest was sparked with the rise of the marijuana stock boom. After watching ClayTrader profit on almost a daily basis, Alex decided to invest in his education and stop the bleeding his account was suffering from. Quotes: "We took $300 we made from selling collectable cards and bought 3 shares of $AMZN with it. It was great." tweet this quote "We would check the price everyday and it would go up a dollar then down a dollar. It wasn't doing anything." tweet this quote "60-70% would have a sudden jump up and I'd feel like I missed the boat. I wasn't accounting for the gap up and trap." tweet this quote "I spent my entire Christmas break going through every course. Especially RvR Trading. That one was revolutionary for me." tweet this quote "I was getting paralysis by analysis. I was trying to find the holy grail but there is no holy grail." tweet this quote "This isn't a journey of money. This is a journey of emotions." tweet this quote Links: Course: The Trading Freedom Pathway

When you decide to get into world of trading, it's important to take your time and go through the necessary steps; however, at the end of the day, you need to just do it! That's the attitude of our guest today, Pendar, and we'll learn how this attitude has both helped and hindered him in his journey. This is certainly a great outlook to have, but it can get you into trouble if it is not focused on the right paths as you will see. Sit back and enjoy the interview as we learn about the pros and cons of "just doing it." Notes: Pendar was driving under the Chicago Mercantile Exchange when the thought occurred to him that trading might be of interest to him. He jumped in headfirst and invested in his education. He got his feet wet right away and traded penny stocks before trying to trade options. Pendar employs various options strategies while utilizing the charts and the quantitative data to put all the factors in his favor for his trades. Quotes: "Trading to me was like another video game. Just to learn the ropes, click on all the buttons. That's how I learn. Just do it." "I never paper traded because it didn't feel real. The real emotions just wouldn't kick in." "If you guys have any debt, you should not trade. Pay off your debt first, pay off your credit cards, and then trade." "My stop loss was like a police officer right behind me telling me to pull over and I wanted to get away."

Today we have a conversation with Stephan about his current goal to reinvent himself into a trader. Like the markets, life can take many unknown turns, and today we'll learn about how the Great Recession forced Stephan to reevaluate his situation from both a personal and financial perspective. At age 49, needing to pivot in life and do some reinventing probably is not the most preferable thing to do, but Stephan has jumped in with both feet in order to once again place him in a successful spot in life. Come with us on this wild ride which includes a very interesting dynamic regarding Stephan's wife and her field of employment. Notes: Stephen had worked with many large tech companies whose stock prices were growing exponentially. This was when he jumped in buying many well known tech companies. While riding up the tech bubble and riding it back down, Stephen had sat on a pretty large unrealized loss before taking his broker's advice and unwinding his losing positions. He redeployed his remaining capital to launch a business which was very successful. The recession had a delayed onset and reduced his revenue by 50% when it eventually caught up. Stephen decided to get educated and approach the market once more but with full control of his portfolio (not using investment advisors). His initial interest was in penny stocks but he soon realized the benefits of trading options. Stephen's support system was the Inner Circle as his spouse works in risk management and sees many traders who fail but she is slowly coming around after recognizing his risk management techniques. His recognition that trading needs to be treated as a business is a key element to takeaway from this podcast. That really is the key to longevity. Quotes: "I rode the tech bubble all the way up and rode it all the way down. I made big mistakes not taking profits when I should have." tweet this quote "At the height of all this my account value was around 250k but of course I did not take any profits." tweet this quote "I was at a crossroads. I had to reinvent myself once again. And at 49, that's not ideal." tweet this quote "I approached trading as a business. I wasn't about to jump into something without getting educated and develop skills." tweet this quote "I was making money but I wasn't consistent. I was making all the rookie mistakes… not honoring stop losses, averaging down, etc." tweet this quote "Don't think that just because someone has a designation after their name that they know more than you." tweet this quote Links: Course: The Trading Freedom Pathway Video: The Trade Plan Destroyer Video: Is Stock Trading Gambling?

We look at diversification in a slightly different way in today's interview. Our guest, Darren, operates his own business; however, due to realizing the need to create additional income streams for himself decided to venture into the world of the stock market and trading. Due to Darren's experience already with starting and running a business, he approached his trading career the same way. What did he do? How did he set-up his trading business? We learn about this and more. Notes: Darren owns his own business but quickly came to realize you are at the mercy of reliable employees to continually grow the business. He wanted to take some of that financial dependence into his own hands and opened a trading account. While Darren was not hesitant to invest in his education right away, the training he took did not include any technical analysis and because of this he was unable to develop consistent profits. He is now trading directional options and has focused on a select set of stocks to get intimate with while learning how they act to be able to capitalize on their moves daily. Darren would recommend that all new traders spend a healthy time practicing because with practice comes confidence in yourself and that is a strong attribute to have while trading. Quotes: "I did take an $8k extensive options course but it lacked the charting. Not knowing the charting made it too difficult to stick with." tweet this quote "I look at the chat and then I look at the chart and then I make an educated analysis. Before I would just buy an alert." tweet this quote "I used to think 'it will come back' when I was taking a loss. Now it's just like hitting a pothole. You hit it and you move on." tweet this quote "1. Get educated. 2. Practice that education. 3. Continue to practice until you are confident in your abilities." tweet this quote Links: Video: The Trade Plan Destroyer Video: Getting Romantic With Options

While a very private individual, today's guest stepped out from the shadows to talk about his journey as a trader. "DS" takes us through first getting started, realizing he wasn't nearly as smart as he thought he was, and then hopping onto the true path of success: figuring out the "sweet spot" in his trading personality. We learn about the steps he had to take in order to construct a trading system that fit his personal risk tolerance profile and therefore allowed for trading consistency. There is a huge amount of great nuggets of information in today's interview, so you'll want to be sure to soak it all in. Notes: DS was invested in mutual funds for many years and after he semi-retired he decided to take control of his finances and decided to learn how to trade. He was struggling to realize why some of his trades wouldn't follow through when he realized he was competing against other timeframes. DS recognized that everyone has their own trading parameters and comforts. He designed a strategy that fit his risk profile and provided comfort. There are many tools out there for traders to use but what matters is finding ones that work for you. Quotes: "I was looking for something larger than 100$ a day. I could win that on the golf course. The moves just weren't large enough." tweet this quote "You're not smart when you first start. You're either lucky or run out of money until you figure out what works." tweet this quote "It's not like you are making money off the company. You are making money off someones inability to read a chart." tweet this quote "When you lose 10k in a week multiple times you come to realize very quickly that you are not that damn smart." tweet this quote "You may not have winning days everyday but if you have more green days than red you are able to grow it and retire." tweet this quote Links: Course: Robotic Trading

Ambition is a great thing. Today's guest has three college degrees, so "ambitious" is probably not even a good enough word to describe her. With this being said, ambition in the world of trading can lead to some pain, and that's exactly what happened to today's guest, "Keisha." She came out of the gates blazing and quickly got into trading without really taking the proper steps, and as you will hear about, she got herself into some trouble. How did she react to this? What was her new plan of action? The answers to these questions and much more in today's episode. I hope you all take to heart what is being communicated within this interview about the pitfalls of going "too fast" compared with the benefits of "slowing down." Notes: Keshia got involved in the penny stock market while she was finished up her college education. She found InvestorsHub and started reading up on various tickers. One of her first trades took her account from $1,200 to $10,000 but greed had kept her from selling. She was determined to get educated and trade smarter after that gain had dwindled to $300. She studied for a minimum of 4 hours a day for months while she was preparing to get back into the stock market. Keshia understands that it takes time and effort to be successful. After stringing together multiple green and consistent months, Keshia is now at the point where she is starting to scale up her size in a slow and controlled manner. She is comfortable with her risk and without that comfort, your trading will certainly be uneasy. Quotes: "I enjoyed watching the level 2 and the candles form on the chart even though I didn't understand everything they meant." tweet this quote "My husband really wanted me to pursue the stock market. He really has been my biggest supporter." tweet this quote "At first I was trying to use all the indicators and it was just too much. All of that is not really necessary." tweet this quote "In school you are taught that you are right or wrong but with trading it is okay to take a controlled loss." tweet this quote "If I allow a loser to get larger and larger, that's a good way to blow up your account and I don't want that happening." tweet this quote "You're better off investing in your education instead of relying on someone else to give you a hot stock pick." tweet this quote Links: Course: The Trading Freedom Pathway

Winning 80% of the time does not mean you will make money. This valuable lesson comes to us thanks to the blunt honesty and transparency of today's guest, "ZenTrader". His highs and lows as a trader provide many situations that I'm confident many of you listeners will be able to relate to. While "talking wins" is certainly the more exciting topic and marketing point, today's discussion revolves around the importance of risk management... a much less attractive topic, but one of the utmost importance. Notes: Zen decided to take his tax return for the year and put it to work in the market. He was lured into the large gains penny stocks are known for making and decided to find some traders to follow. After finding initial success, he attempted to day trade and even with an 80% win rate, his losses were much larger than his wins and that is when he decided he needed to delve deeper into technical analysis. Zen found himself in a vicious circle of puppet trading others successfully and then taking losses when trading on his own. He would alternate between those two types of trading for some time before deciding to get educated. After listening to a recommendation to check out options, Zen spent time practicing and perfecting his methods to find what strategy works best for him. Quotes: "At one point I was looking at 24,000 from 2,000. I thought to myself, I don't want 24,000 , I want 200,000." tweet this quote "I would purchase at what I thought was a support then promptly watched it fall through. I then decided to stop trading blindly." tweet this quote "I had a few successful trades and I didn't need an education. I didn't need anyone to tell me what to do. I was a trader." tweet this quote "Just using risk vs. reward and buying stuff when it makes sense seems to be working out a lot better for me." tweet this quote "You can't learn how to be disciplined. You can't learn how not to be emotional. You have to train yourself to do that." tweet this quote Links: Course: Penny Stock Survival Guide Course: Options Trading Simplified Twitter: NJZenTrader

Today we talk with Justin, aka FreeFall909, and discuss a journey that I'm sure many people can relate to. After being inspired by a Hollywood movie about the stock market, Justin found himself in the Wild Wild West of penny stock trading and eventually turned himself into someone else's puppet. It was not until he got honest with himself that his journey was put on the bullish pathway. While Justin is not a professional trader or anything like that, his story is one that hits the heart and soul of the goal of this podcast: giving insight into the life of a normal guy who is on a quest to conquer the markets. Not only does honesty go a long way in normal life, but when it comes to trading, being honest is a critical piece to the puzzle as you will hear about in this episode. Notes: Justin was interested in the stock market at an early age and decided to get involved after the movie 'Wolf of Wall Street' came out. While he was able to find some penny stocks that moved, he was very inconsistent and gave back his earnings most times. He started to follow various people on Twitter and it was on one of those 'plays' that he took a significant loss and then decided to take some time off. After seeing people on InvestorsHub talk about technical analysis and charting and decided this would be something worth educating himself on. Justin is not rich and didn't think he would ever be able to trade big board stocks but then learned about options and completely abandoned penny stocks to trade these larger name companies. While he doesn't trade huge size, Justin's winners are drastically larger than his losers and that is an attribute that can scale up to larger trading size in time. Quotes: "I didn't really take out of it that penny stocks were scams. I thought that they were going to make me rich." tweet this quote "I thought that any and all marijuana stocks were going to go to the moon. I wouldn't even pull up a chart." tweet this quote "I was just pumping the money in until I was at a pretty significant loss." tweet this quote "I got the options course, realized I could actually play big board stocks and I knew it was going to work at that point." tweet this quote "I'm trying to manage my risk more than I am trying to get huge gains." tweet this quote "It's nice to know now, even if I only make 15$, I actually knew what I was looking at and was rewarded." tweet this quote Links: Course: Robotic Trading Course: Options Trading Simplified Videos: Live Trade Playlist

This episode's guest is a bit different compared to everyone else we've interviewed who trades with a day job. Nate Wilson (same name in the chat room) is successfully trading with a job, but that's not the unique part. He actually enjoys his job and has no ambitions of quitting it to trade full time. Nate trades for the enjoyment of it and to create supplemental income for his personal finances. I really enjoy this interview as it is a great example of how trading does not need to have the end goal of "I want to trade full time." When done right, trading stocks and options can simply be a solid source of additional income to your monthly budget, or as we call it "fun money." Notes: Nate's introduction the market was a 'friends and family' plan for the Under Armour initial public offering. His background involves looking at companies financials and doing fundamental research. He applied this to his trading for 9 years before learning technical analysis. Nate then started trading penny stocks during the marijuana boom and found continued success. He hesitated taking profits but eventually realized he was riding a bubble and sold before the bottom fell out. After getting educated, he started trading too large to start and while he didnt suffer any large losses, his account wasn't growing. Once he realized risk management was the issue, he corrected it and has been growing his account ever since. Nate honed his trading strategy to fit his full time work schedule and is now focused on building consistency while managing risk. Quotes: 10:30 "I didn't even know what a candlestick chart was. I knew my broker had a line that went up or down with stock price." tweet this quote 12:00 "I was up hundreds of percents and I was still holding thinking it was going to the moon until I took some courses." tweet this quote 15:20 "I would read these penny stock 8-K's and knowing how they look for real companies, I knew they were hogwash." tweet this quote 17:00 "I got lucky through the pot stock stuff and didn't take any huge losses. I probably didn't make all I could have though." tweet this quote 22:35 "I would make a good amount of money when I got it right and I'd lose a lot of money when I got it wrong." tweet this quote 34:30 "I already watched stuff get out of control and I knew not let my losses get out of control." tweet this quote Links: Course: The Penny Stock Survival Guide Video: How To Average Down Trade Ideas Twitter: @natewilson2

Chezz and I sit down with Steven King (same name in the chat room) and hear about one of the craziest stories to date. In fact, the story is so crazy that I asked for verifiable documentation to support some of the claims being made. Becoming a high school dropout after turning $900 into $40,000 is just the start to a journey that truly covers some highs and lows of trader emotion. Despite making some extremely large amounts of money, you'll be shocked to hear about the reality of the situation in terms of the emotions involved. Sit back and buckle your seat belt. This is one crazy ride journey with some very valuable insights and lesson's learned. Notes: Steven had a strong desire to get rich dating all the way back to his time in high school. He dropped out in 10th grade after finding initial trading success. He got caught up in the lifestyle that accompanies coming into large amounts of money and faced many struggles to get back on his feet. After spending more than half of his profits, the IRS sent him a bill for 170,000 dollars to which he did not have anymore. He took a job on an oil rig, was able to pay off that bill and started to get his life back on track. After he finished getting his college degree he began trading again and realized the benefits of options. You can get the exponential returns penny stock players are used to while simultaneously being able to control your risk up front. Steven recognized that he needed to approach trading like a business. He formed a plan and now he sticks to it wholeheartedly. Quotes: "I started with 900 dollars and after I turned that into 40k I decided that there wasn't a reason to keep going to school." tweet this quote "Charts isn't the hard part in trading. The hard part is the emotions. It's the mental mindset, risk management, all those pieces." tweet this quote "The worst day that I ever had in my life was the day that I made the most money. 283k dollars in 1 day but no one to share it with." tweet this quote "If you have trouble sleeping at night because you're worrying about your positions, you're not managing your size correctly." tweet this quote "If you can count to ten, you can be an amazing trader." tweet this quote "The important thing is 'why are you trading.' Today I trade because I want to help people. I want to become a philanthropist." tweet this quote "It's all written down just like a business plan because this is a business. If you're going to trade you do it like a business." tweet this quote Links: Video: The Trade Plan Destroyer Video: The Stock Trader Career Zapper Course: Robotic Trading Course: Risk Vs Reward Trading Course: Options Trading Simplified Twitter: @stevenhking

The passion this episode's guest has for succeeding as a trader is hard to rival. Ted Williams ("BigT") is a member of the 'early birds' group in the chat room as I've coined it - meaning, you can routinely find him in the chat room every morning before 6 am est. His story paints a true picture of how trading is an ongoing journey. After originally turning $300 into $20,000 on a single penny stock, BigT has continued to evolve as a trader in his quest to meeting his personal goals. Get ready to hear some of the best quotes I've heard yet from any guest. In fact, his advice he gives at the end of the podcast is priceless, and it is only two words. Notes: Ted first became interested in the markets as a hobby. His wife had many hobbies and he wanted to find something he could devote a good amount of time to. Before he learned how to trade options, BigT was trading penny stocks and he made an absolute killing on one of his trades. Ted then moved fully to the options market based on the vast amount of volume that exists compared to the penny stock world. He experimented with some 'trading robots' and quickly realized they were nothing more than a few glorified indicators. That's when he decided to form his own trading plan. After trying advanced options strategies, Ted decided to focus strictly on directional plays and found much better success taking stocks both long and short. With time, experience, and education, BigT now is able to completely trust the chart and tune out his emotions. Quotes: "My wife had lots of hobbies and I had none. I had some extra money, started studying and in 2011 I made my first purchase." tweet this quote "I turned a little over $300 into 20-something thousand dollars. It took like a year and a half but I was in it." tweet this quote "I thought I was good. I thought I had the gift and could do that over and over again. In the end, it was fools gold." tweet this quote "Because the money was so easy with NTEK, it became Monopoly money. It wasn't real to me. I didn't treat it with respect." tweet this quote "When I wake up in the morning I'm looking at charts again. Am I green every day? No because I still fight with emotion." tweet this quote "Before, when I'd be down, I'd almost have to see a grief counselor. Now, I see where I messed up and go onto the next trade." tweet this quote Links: The Trading Freedom Pathway Twitter: tmw61165

In this episode, we interview full time trader Derek Chernault ("hokiez28") whose primary strategy is swing trading; however, also does some day trading to compliment his overall strategy. Like many traders (myself included), emotions were a major thorn in the side of Derek's early trading experiences. Learn how Derek was able to not only eliminate the emotions from this trading, but also build up the confidence in order to trade full time. Whether you are thinking about swing trading or day trading, this episode will give you a very realistic view into both of these strategies. Notes: Derek's introduction to the stock market was based on a product he used to help him quit smoking. He put $4,000 into 2 penny stocks as a long term investment and then used another $1,000 for active day trading. Derek was completely content taking 30-50% gains but greed had started to set in after he watched a few run 1000%+. Once he realized his initial success was luck, he decided to invest in some trading education to help him approach the market from a skillful standpoint, not a lucky one. A huge turning point for Derek's trading was moving out of penny stocks and into larger capitalization names because of the increase in liquidity. Derek's biggest problem was managing his risk and once he applied it to his swing trading it really clicked. We discuss the misconception of the 'holy grail' with a combination of indicators. Derek suffered from paralysis by analysis and now trades the 2 king indicators… Price and volume. Quotes: "I was immediately intrigued by watching the value of my money go up and down but I wasn't really trading. I was parking my money." tweet this quote "I was happy with 30, 40, 50% profit. But then the greed started getting to me because I'd watch some go up 1,000%." tweet this quote "Within 2 weeks that couple thousand dollar investment was worth 20k. But I didn't sell a single share." tweet this quote "That luck I had in the beginning had run out and I realized that I didn't have any skill. It was all luck." tweet this quote "That's when things really turned around is when I got out of the penny stocks and moved onto the big boards." tweet this quote "Early on I never wanted to take a loss. I would just keep holding and usually sell the very bottom." tweet this quote "One of the biggest things I've learned in trading is that you have to accept that you are going to be wrong sometimes." tweet this quote Links: Twitter: @hokiez28 investorshub Robotic Trading The Penny Stock Survival Guide Risk vs Reward Trading

When first getting started many traders find themselves in a situation with a smaller trading account. This leads to the common thought process of "I need to trade penny stocks in order to build up my account." Richard Davis (RDTrader12) discusses his experience with this same thought process and where it lead him in his journey. Spoiler alert... it was not to the land of riches and success. He learned some valuable lessons along the way and he is kind enough to share the experience with us. Are you currently under the impression that the "only" way to trade with smaller accounts is through small cap and penny stocks? If so, definitely set some time aside to listen to this interview. Notes: RD began trading as a puppet and was fortunate enough to find early success before giving it all back. After taking a few months off, he attempted to start paper trading but fell into the trap of hindsight before realizing the issue. RD decided to invest in his education as a final attempt to become profitable and once he developed a trade plan his account started to skew positively. A big stumbling block for RD was the amount of risk he took on and once he corrected that he developed much more confidence in his long term trading ability. RD abandoned penny stocks as the volume dried up and now trades options fully. Quotes: "Within the first month of trading, that 2000 dollars evaporated to about 550 and not quite understanding how it happened." tweet this quote "There is a right way to do this, and I know this because people make a living and I have to figure out what that is." tweet this quote "Now, if I have a loser, I don't even blink an eye because I understand what my max loss can be." tweet this quote "You're going to have losers. When you accept that/learn how to handle those it will just put you that much farther ahead." tweet this quote "I really had to back down my entry size almost to the point where I didn't care. I just had to practice." tweet this quote Links: Clay's Story Video: How to Avoid the Pattern Day Trader Rule Video: Getting Romantic With Options Trading

Dennis Campbell ("GatorDC") gives great insight into the life of a trader who trades stocks and options while managing a full time job. Given the nature of trading, it is extremely hard to simply "become" a full time trader from the start, so having a full time job while trading is extremely common. We learn about what has worked, what hasn't worked, and what strategies and systems "Gator" has put into place in order to help make his profits as consistent and efficient as possible. If you are someone who has inspirations to being a full time trader, yet still has to deal with the "day job", don't miss this very informative (and of course, "realistic") interview! Notes: Dennis got his first taste of the market in the 2008 recession, made 100% on his few trades and took a break for 5 years. Even with early success trading, his main focus at the time was on his career. Gator approached his trading as a business instead of a hobby and decided to get educated first before putting money on the line. Throughout his full time trading he continued to invest in his education and that really helped him develop his own strategy. With time and experience, Dennis was able to reduce his emotional response to gains or losses to almost zero because he had a plan and trusted his trading system. Gator moved to trading options about 85% of the time based on the lower capital outlay required and the risk established up front. Now having a full time job, Dennis went from worrying about using a mobile platform to being the most comfortable using it strictly. Many traders with full time jobs utilize conditional orders and trailing stops to allow the platform to manage the trade for them if they need to step away for work. Gator came to the realization that discipline is a huge part of trading and worked on that heavily right from the beginning. Quotes: "I realized I wasn't educated and stayed away from the market because I knew the professionals would run me right over" tweet this quote "I liked the idea of being emotionless and a fully technical trader. I just wanted to trade the chart." tweet this quote "I studied for a month before putting on a trade. I wanted to figure out what my trading style was." tweet this quote "I knew in the back of my mind that I needed to educate myself before I went into a business where there were other professional traders. tweet this quote "My trading was mixed to start. I went through Robotic Trading 4 or 5 times to pound into my head what I needed to know. Once I was in the trade, I didn't really have a plan." tweet this quote "If I see the candles making certain shapes and patterns, I need to know whether that's good for the offense (bulls) or good for the defense (bears). In learning one side of the trade, you learn what the other side doesn't want to see." tweet this quote "I realized emotions and psychology were a big part of trading. Looking at the psychology side of it, I tried my best to not get overly emotional about either gains or losses. It was hard to do." tweet this quote "Probably 75% of my trades that were really big losers were because I failed to follow my rules. At some point I had to put my foot down and say, "If I'm going to do dumb things, I need to be punished by putting myself in timeout." tweet this quote "I did not like having a lot of money out there on the table. I liked the lower capital outlay using options while still using my strategy." tweet this quote "Going long on a stock is like walking up the stairs of a slide and being short is like going down a slide, and that's the fun part." tweet this quote "One of the stages you will go through as a trader includes buying the top and then it will go against you and you will sell the bottom." tweet this quote "At the end of the day when I put on a trade, I have a strategy and I have a plan. Whether that trade makes a profit or a loss, when I follow that plan, it is a successful trade." tweet this quote Links thinkorswim Robotic Trading Penny Stock Survival Guide RvR Trading Trampoline Trading Shorting for Profit Episode #002 (h00ch)

In this episode we discuss a topic that is near the top of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to trading. Whether it be stocks, options, Forex, etc., many people want to know if their personal computer set-up is sufficient enough to get the job done in an efficient manner. In reality, this topic is actually quite tricky. How so? There is a balancing act that must take place in the sense of you don't want to spend "too much" of your trading capital on a system that is more than you need; however, at the same time, you don't want to spend "too little" on a system that won't allow you to trade to your full potential. Chezz and myself have a free flowing discussion with Nate, the "geek" who works behind the scenes at ClayTrader.com, about this balancing act and other "techie" areas within the world of financial markets and trading. Notes: Clay started trading on a one-monitor setup during college. Your motherboard is the foundation of your trading computer. This will determine if you are capable of expanding in the future. Memory is a cheap and easy way to improve your computers multi-tasking once you start maxing out your current setup. Video cards are going to determine how many monitors your computer can run. There are a few routes you can take regarding initial setup or expansion. Benefits of a solid-state drive for your trading computer versus a traditional hard-disk drive. Any modern operating system will suit your trading machine assuming it has up-to-date support. USB monitors are great for those who travel and need to be portable. It is not the best option for those who trade at a desk. Quotes: "The processor and motherboard are going to be the main heart and soul of your computer." tweet this quote "I think two monitors is the sweet spot especially if you are just getting started in trading." tweet this quote "Dockable laptops are great because they are designed to be used at a desk with lots of monitors." tweet this quote "People who trade on-the-go tend to favor brokers with great mobile apps." tweet this quote Links: Build The Best Stock Trading Computer for Your Money 6 Multi Monitor Stock Trading Laptop Setups NVidia NVS Graphics Cards ClayTrader Resources ClayTrader Contact Nates Twitter: donky353

While certainly not the greatest "thing" from a marketing sales pitch perspective, the story of Dave Purnell ("h00ch") is one that is both extremely inspiring AND very humbling in regards to this business not being a "get rich overnight" type deal (as so many portray it to be). In this interview we learn about the 15 year journey that took him from the .com bubble, to penny stocks, to his trading career turning point, to options... where he now truly flourishes. In fact, below you can see a screen shot from the trading in his "small account" (he has 2 accounts he uses) on the day we recorded this podcast. Notes: Hooch had 0 interest in the stock market until he took a job at the bank in 1996. Riding the tech boom up and down by puppet trading and throwing darts. From 1997 to 2004 Hooch was in the market taking huge swings before he decided to hang up his gloves. In 2008 Hooch met a technical trader at work and that sparked his interest to get back in the market. He was trading based off daily and weekly charts, occasionally the 60 minute. Hooch's job loss was unexpected in 2011 and unfortunately there were not many job opportunities in his field. Hooch discovered iHub message boards and ClayTrader when he was getting involved in penny stocks. After taking a substantial loss, Hooch learned the lesson to never invest in penny stocks. After trading on and off for 12 years, he funded a $1,000 options account just to limit his risk since he was new to them. Hooch discusses the importance of not taking losses personal. If Hooch could go back and give himself one piece of advice it would be to get educated and practice practice practice. Quotes: "You could buy any ticker that had a website and you were pretty much guaranteed a 200% gain" tweet this quote "I turned 5 or 10 thousand into over 100 thousand and of course I didn't take any profit." tweet this quote "It was more like a hobby for me. I wasn't putting too much on the line so that it wouldn't affect my retirement plan or anything like that." tweet this quote "I just didn't have the discipline to trust the chart and do what I was suppose to do. If it fell through support I'd wait for the next support for it to bounce." tweet this quote "I did start looking into day trading and basically just taking the same bad habits and doing it on a lower time frame." tweet this quote "I was finding myself being in the green more often but taking huge swings. I didn't have the consistency." tweet this quote "I was involved in more pumps than dumps and then eventually the dumps starting biting me." tweet this quote "When it comes down to it (trading equities vs. options) you're just trading the chart, just like anything else." tweet this quote "You have to find what suits you and what you're comfortable with and really stick with it. Don't get overconfident and raise your risk." tweet this quote "It's better to start all your good habits up front because it's a lot easier to learn something correctly right off the bat than to unlearn bad habits." tweet this quote Links: Risk vs Reward Trading twitter.com/h00ch71

Today on The Stock Trading Reality Podcast I am excited to introduce my new show. I give a quick history of my idea behind the show and how it has now come to fruition. I also introduce my partner in this journey, who will be co-hosting, "Chezz". This is someone I have had a close eye on ever since he joined my private trading group almost a year ago. Michael Chesna ("Chezz") took the traditional route in his younger years of life. High school, college, and then eventually dead-end job. In 2014, he decided to take things into his own hands and determined the financial markets were a great way to do this. His journey began trading with bitcoin and penny stocks. After learning many valuable lessons along the way, he has now settled on weekly options trading. Stubbornness and persistence have kept him alive during the tough times most new traders face. In This Episode... ClayTrader discusses his background and introduction to the stock market. We discuss the purpose of the podcast. Chezz shares his pre-trading life from working in middle-management to moving across the country. How trading requires creativity to find what works for you. Chezz talks about drinking the Bitcoin and penny stock kool-aid. Making false assumtions about trading being too difficult. How a huge loss pushed Chezz towards education. Chezz talks about his ah-ha moment regarding charting and embracing the herd mentality. The importance of support systems and how they are vital when begining your traing journey. Tweetable Quotes: "You need to get creative. You need to figure out what works in your mind for personal risk tolerance." tweet this quote "I thought I was going to go full-time with Bitcoin" tweet this quote "Stubbornness and resilience are two things you need in any type of venture in life. You can't just be discouraged at every dip." tweet this quote "Candlestick charts are just a history of human emotion. That was the light bulb that went off in my head." tweet this quote "Trading will push you to your absolute highs and push you to your absolute lows." tweet this quote "This is a marathon. This is not a sprint. This is not a race to quick riches." tweet this quote Links: More About Clay Stock Trading Quick Tip – The Trader Death Trap Connect With Chezz Twitter E-Mail Phone