Still Under Construction, but in an Overall Uptrend | STR 125

08/07/17 • 76 min

An open and transparent book. That was certainly the overall theme of this Welcome Back interview. Our guest has not only been on the podcast before, but I've also hung out with him in person on two occasions so I wasn't shocked by his honesty... the guy is a quality individual without question. Stephen (chatroom alias, "PH") shares his continued quest to gain solid consistency in the market as he trades and goes through many situations most people can relate to. He still has things to work on, but he's overall in an uptrend and that is what matters. Higher highs and higher lows. He also revealed a new venture he is undertaking that is designed to help all new traders. Be sure to stay until the end as we talk more about it. Notes: Today we are speaking with Stephen a.k.a. PH. His original podcast is linked in the notes below. Stephen started off mainly investing in companies he was familiar with when he just started. While Stephen went through many different strategies starting out, he had to go through that to find what exactly he is comfortable with and excels at. Now he primarily focuses on trading gaps which has led him to a high win rate and much smaller losers than winners. Stephen has utilized the concept of R, which is initial risk. This ties directly into Risk vs Reward and the big emphasis Stephen makes is the fact that it is dynamic. While he accepts the risk on entry, if he sees a more logical location to move his stop loss and lose less, he always will! If a trade doesn’t meet his determined targets vs risk, he passes on the trade. He has rules that he sticks to every trade but there is a need to have some flexibility. Considering Stephen is an entrepreneur, he launched https://www.stocktradersjourney.com/ to document his journey through education and his trading. He offers reviews of various trading education, trading signals and anything else that pertains to trading the market. He is doing this without any affiliation compensation. We truly enjoy these follow up interviews to really show the progress our community members have made. Learning to trade and trade well is not an overnight process but with hard work and dedication, any one truly can learn how to do it. Quotes: It’s the evolution of the journey and trying to find the strategy that most fits our individual personalities. The R is your risk value. Every single trade I’m willing to risk 1R to make 2 or ideally 3R. I don’t just set it and leave it though. You want to have rules but need to remain flexible. The market isn’t a rigid thing. It’s a living, breathing thing you can’t control. The purpose of this website is to share with people the mistakes I’ve made so they can learn from them. Links: https://claytrader.com/podcast/episode015/ https://www.stocktradersjourney.com/

Previous Episode

Trading Against the Person in the Mirror | STR 124

In the majority of situations, the biggest struggles as a trader comes from the person looking back at you in the mirror. Of course, many people will blame external forces no matter how crazy it may appear; however, for the traders who are self-aware and honest with themselves they understand trading is a battle against ones self. Our guest from the community Eric (chat room name "Gman") does an awesome job of sharing the battle he has faced with himself. As you will hear, a strategy of listening to others is not going to lead you to profitable places in the long run, but, this is the cruel joke of the markets. If you can't depend on others, you need to depend on yourself...YET, that is where the big battle awaits. This is why trading can be so frustrating and difficult. Eric takes us down some great rabbit holes of discussion, so let's go! Notes: Today we interview Eric also known as Gman. While he doesn’t hang out in the chat rooms too often, Eric really took advantage of the education offered. A friend of his tried to get him involved into the market 10 years ago but he wasn’t very capitalized so he gave it up for a few years before his interest was piqued again. He drank some koolaid on a 5G LTE technology company that was trading in the triple zero’s. Unfortunately he lost everything as the stock went to 0. Eric started to recognize that message boards became a place for people who made the same mistakes to comfort each other. This was what led him to realize that there is no external factors to blame for his failure or success. He realizes that he is more often than not trading against himself. It is his emotions and fear/greed that leads to losses generally. After 4 years of sticking with trades, he realizes this is a part of the journey that he had to go through. He emphasizes that he doesn’t want anyone to find overnight success. People who experience that generally give it all back and then some instead of learn valuable lessons. Eric has made huge strides going from relying on other people at the message boards to give input on where to enter, how long to hold and where to exit to now being the CEO of his trading business deciding all of the above based on his risk criteria. Quotes: I opened an eTrade account with 1000 dollars. I enjoyed the market but didn’t have the money or education to do it. Some guy would come on and say ‘look at this patent. In 180 days it will go through so we have to wait.’ That’s why people like message boards. You can find like minded people who are making the same mistakes you are. I feel great but I have so much further to go. It’s a never ending process of looking at yourself and improving. When I trade, I know my charts. I can pull those charts up and analyze it to comfortably plan a trade. Links: https://claytrader.com/videos/1-penny-stock-short-scam/

Next Episode

My New Computer Set-Up and the Guy Who Built It | STR 126

I recently got an entire new trading computer that was a custom build. The person I used to build it is the "techie on staff" - itNate as we call him. He is essentially like Batman as he usually is operating in the shadows of the site doing all the behind-the-scenes stuff..... however, today he's stepping into the light to talk about computer stuff and why/what he chose for my new computer. Our esteemed cohost Chezz is also quite tech savvy, so him and itNate has plenty to talk about as I listed and asked newbie questions. If you are thinking about getting a new trading computer or perhaps doing a bit of upgrading, this discussion will please you I'm sure. Notes: Today we interview our IT guru, Nate. We discuss the logical order for building a Computer. Step 1: Pick your processor. Nate recommends a Core i7 7700K but remember, there is always updated processors every few months. The big emphasis would be to focus on an i7 over an i3 or i5. We are big advocates of Intel over AMD based on our personal use. Step 2: Pick your motherboard. Things to focus on include making sure your socket type is compatible with your processor (CPU). You’ll need to forecast how many video cards you may need and this will be based on how many monitors you plan on having. 2 video card slots is pretty standard and will cover almost everyone's needs. Nate purchased a MSI Arsenal Intel Z 270M board for Clay’s most recent build. Step 3: Monitors. We have a deep discussion on how many monitors you think you will need. We are firm believers that less is more. Clay and Chezz rarely use more than 2 monitors for trading. Monitors are also the easiest thing to upgrade and add in the future so if you’re budget is tight, start with 1 and expand later. Nate picked out Dell 4k 27” screens. Model # P2715Q Step 4: Video card. Nate picked a PNY Quadro K1200 which handles all of Clay’s 4k monitors. While you don’t need a gaming graphics card to handle trading, you just need to do some long term forecasting regarding what you will be using the computer for. Workstation video cards will be absolutely fine for trading. We also highly recommend Nvidia cards over AMD. Step 5: Memory. Your motherboard will determine what specific speeds you need for your RAM. We recommend never going below 8 gigs of RAM and 16+ will set you up for ‘future proofing’ the build. The new standard is DDR4 and it is also recommended if you ever upgrade in the future keep it the same brand, same model. You want complete compatibility when it comes to memory. Step 6: Storage. We recommend solid state drives (SSD) since they make programs and windows load many multiples faster. While traditional hard drives (HDD) are a good amount cheaper, they are more prone to crashes and as stated above, much slower in terms of loading programs. Step 7: Case. These typically don’t matter as long as you get the size that your motherboard requires. Nate used a micro ATX motherboard so he got Clay a micro ATX case. Step 8: Power supply. PCPartPicker can help you estimate what the power draw will be based on your components so as long as you get one that sufficiently meets the needs, you will be fine. Ex. Your components use 400w of power. Buying a 500W power supply would be more than enough. Step 9: Operating System. You will want to get a 64bit operating system as that is the new standard. We are content to recommend Windows 10 since it has been out for a while and has patched any major issues. Trading platforms are mainly focused on Windows over Apple since a majority of their user base uses Windows. Additional: Uninterruptible Power Supply. This is what we call an insurance policy. If the power goes while you are actively trading and your power goes out, you’re out of luck and better hope you can get on the phone to call a brokerage to close your trades. We prefer to have power supplied from this power supply (UPS) to give us 15 minutes of battery power to close our trades and not have to deal with the headache of literally being in the dark. Computer Parts: Processor: Intel Core i7 i7-7700K – http://amzn.to/2tsWuoB Motherboard: MSI Z270M MORTAR – http://amzn.to/2ttaTkT Memory: Ballistix Sport LT 16GB – http://amzn.to/2tti7Fq SSD: Samsung 960 PRO Series – http://amzn.to/2usGrUC Optical: ASUS DRW-24F1ST – http://amzn.to/2tyA7yF Video: NVIDIA Quadro K1200 – http://amzn.to/2sKzuCc Power: Corsair CX430 – http://amzn.to/2ttbovh Case: Antec VSK3000E – http://amzn.to/2tyjhzT OS: Windows 10 – http://amzn.to/2tsWKnz Links: Video: How To Build A Trade Computer https://www.cpubenchmark.net/ http://www.pcpartpicker.com/