The Unpopular Key to Trading Success | STR 034

11/09/15 • 61 min

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

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A College Coach Talks Trading | STR 033

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

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A Trader with a True Trade Plan | STR 035

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