Outline
I. Introduction
A. Greetings and casual conversation
B. Personal updates (weight loss progress)
II. Main Topic: Mindset and Psychology in Trading
A. Importance of consistency and focus
B. Dealing with challenges and setbacks
1. Emails from struggling community members
2. Importance of showing up daily
C. Self-assessment and goal setting
1. Defining your "why" for trading
2. Adjusting strategies based on goals
D. Psychological aspects of trading
1. Avoiding comparison to others
2. Breaking tasks into manageable steps
3. Visualization and positive thinking
E. Dealing with failure and persistence
1. Learning from mistakes
2. Importance of feedback
F. Personal development
1. Daily self-improvement practices
2. Reading and learning
III. Current Market Analysis
A. Post-Fed announcement market behavior
B. Cautious outlook
C. Specific stock examples and potential trades
1. Technology sector (AMD, DAY, GoDaddy)
2. Other sectors (Lululemon, Chipotle, Netflix)
D. Trading strategies in current market conditions
1. Taking profits quickly
2. Managing risk
IV. Q&A and Additional Topics
A. Volatility and options expiration
B. Importance of understanding market events
V. Conclusion
A. Recap of main points
B. Encouragement for self-reflection
C. Closing remarks
TRANSCRIPT
Hey, John. Good morning. Hey. Good morning, Pete.
Happy Saturday, everybody. Happy Saturday. Good morning, everybody. How's everybody doing? Anybody got any amazing plans for the weekend? Feel free to let us be jealous. Yeah. I'm going to try to get to the beach tomorrow.
We'll see. I yeah. I don't know how it is for anybody else in the country right now, but within the last week, the Florida oppressiveness has kind of, like, left the air. It's actually okay to walk outside right now.
Yep. It's getting better. It's definitely getting better. I think hurricane season as it gets late in the season, it gets a little bit, you know, it was raining mostly all of of September.
Now it's Yeah. I mean, I feel like we had 2 months of rain. Yeah. Yeah. Today's beautiful. So we'll see. So I can I report that I've lost another £3? That's great.
Yeah. I've been sticking. I've been eating good. I've been, walking at least 10 to 12000 steps every day. That's great. Haven't added, weight training yet, but I feel pretty good because I've been eating a little bit cleaner.
Yep. So I'm feeling pretty good about that. Yeah. When I when I could put on the next size pants down, then I'll really feel like, I think I've done all the ads on Facebook.
I'm not a big cardio guy. I never was. Like, you know, I used to run back in the day, but then I got injured and, you know, I just kind of stopped on the cardio side. And now I just I just hit the weights, and I added cardio recently.
I started running again. So I kind of did the opposite of what you do. I started with the weights and now I'm going into cardio because that that is what you're getting rid of.
Yeah. I was going to say, I actually the last time I was working out super heavy was before our workout, before I workout, before our wedding.
And I was I was eating a ton of protein and I really wasn't losing that much weight, but I was adding a lot of muscle. Yeah.
And I actually got to a point where I was like a little bit annoyed that my my weight wasn't going down even though I knew that it was muscle because, you know, it weighs more. So this time, I'm actually making a conscious decision.
I want to lose the fat first before I start bulking up a little bit. Yeah. But I want I want to be able to be like, yeah. Okay. I dropped it now. I'm going to Yeah. Psychologically, that definitely helps.
A topic that I want to get into which is consistency and and achieving anything.
We've gotten emails and, you know, kind of going back, you know, we're going to go back into the trading aspect. Thank you for, for, indulging me on that because I'm actually pretty proud that I'm sticking to it.
But one of one of the things that I I we're talking about this morning. My wife and I were sitting outside having coffee. We were talking about after all these years of she was an entrepreneur.
Obviously, I'm an entrepreneur, trader, and whatnot. What it actually takes to be successful. Like, you know, out of all the stuff you could possibly read and watch and and all of that kind of stuff.
And it kind of ties into what we're just talking about with working out and that and that, you know, there's a lot of talk about willpower and motivation and how bad you really have to want it and, you know, and all those kinds of things.
And to a certain degree, it has to be something that matters to you that kind of pulls you through.
But in my opinion, at this point with all the stuff that I've accomplished, all the stuff that I failed at, which believe me when I tell you I failed 10 times more than I've succeeded, but I just keep trying.
Well, success is not the opposite of failure. Inaction is. Yeah. Successfully not feedback is a part of the pursuit. It's not something to be avoided.
And I think that's a big misconception about pursuing anything. Avoiding failure is the worst thing you can do because you will never learn that way and that's with any profession, with any, you know, with anything.
So focus and consistency. Those those are the 2 words that I really wanted to bring to the to the table right now.
Because, like, even with what I'm doing right now, I'm not I'm not doing anything with a massive amount of intensity, but I am doing it showing up every day.
Yeah. You have to show up, like, you have to like, when it comes to working out as well as even trading, it all kind of goes hand in hand.
It's all mental. With with anything that you want to do in life, you have to commit, like with working out, you have to commit to the lousy workout.
And and Yeah. Especially those are when when you when you work out and you don't feel like at the end of that workout, it's usually the one that feels the best.
Yeah. Absolutely. You have to commit to the lousy workout. Just show up, and that's what and trading is the same thing. Show up, look at your stocks, look at your charts, do the process.
Doesn't mean you have to put money in harm's way every single day. If you don't mentally feel like you're prepared or if you feel like you need to take a break, there's nothing wrong with that either.
But Or if you or if you don't find anything you really like. Right. Yeah. A 100%. There's some days where you look and you just you kind of get a little bit of a block, like a writer's block.
It's the same thing. You know, just you need to keep this could be a grind. It's it's it's it's something that is rewarding. It's something that's fantastic, and it's something that is not easy. Otherwise, everybody would be good at it.
Everybody would be a a master trader. You know what I mean? And you have to put in the time and you have to have the discipline and consistency to move forward, and there's there's no shortcuts here.
So the reason I started this meeting out with with this topic is this week we got 3 emails from from different members of the community talking about that they're struggling right now or they're finding it challenging and even to the point where, somebody said that they they they don't even want to log in to their computer.
Like, they don't even want to look at the market. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that could just be a little bit of fatigue.
You know what I mean? There's nothing wrong with taking a break. If you really feel that bad, take a couple days off. You know what I mean? Don't feel like you have to put money in harm's way every single day. You know what I mean?
And there are times of the year that I really like to kind of tone down, especially in the summer months, definitely when this holidays and vacations, but also kind of towards the end of the year, I like to assess how I did and what I could improve on and did I make, you know, what what really went wrong, what didn't, and and and that kind of stuff.
You want to double down on what you're good at and what you did well at, and you want to try to eliminate, some of the things that you made mistakes on. And that's, you know, that's part of the whole, constant learning process. You know?
So I think what you just said is something that is kind of a a must know, which is actually paying attention to what you're good at, actually paying attention to where you're making money, actually paying attention to where you're losing money, actually paying attention to whether or not you're actually picking good ideas.
Yep. Because I think I think we can be 2 months down the line and not really have done any of that work and not really have a clue if what you're doing is actually correct or if you're just not the market stuff.
And Yeah. I think a lot of people don't have a process in place to measure feedback.
And I think a lot of people are actually afraid of feedback because they they have this self limiting belief that I read the book, I watched the video, I, you know, I watched all these YouTube videos, and therefore, I should be successful.
But they're not measuring the results in a way that is, feedback to take action.
A different type of action or more action if it is what you want to get. Yeah. You definitely have to be open to feedback. I think that's really important. That's really what the coaching is all about.
Like, I hope you will realize that if if you guys give us, you know, trade ideas or if you guys give us, like, something to look at and we criticize or or we, you know, we we give this up, we give you our 2¢.
We're by no means, you know, trying to criticize. We're trying to give positive feedback. That's the most important thing.
And, you know, maybe, you know, looking at things a different way, you know, from a different person's lens is really, really important because sometimes, you know, as a trader especially tend to get tunnel vision, you get into your own process and, you know, you're trying to hone in on your process so much that you realize that others might have a different perspective and you really have to be open to feedback.
I do that all the time.
I always, you know, I've always had mentors over the years and they've always taught me, you know, valuable lessons in myself psychologically as well as, in my trading. You know what I mean? Knowing yourself is really important.
And sometimes the best way to learn yourself is to get feedback from others. So one of the little lessons that I learned, and I'm going to share this with all of you, is try to get, 5 people's opinions that you that like you.
So I'm talking friends, family, best friends, people closest to you. Get 5 people that you could think of and ask them for, your best qualities and your worst qualities. Right? And then ask 5 people that don't like you.
Ask 5 people I know this might be a harder list to get, but 5 5 try to find 5 people that either acquaintances, people that you might know in business, you know, maybe not people that don't like you, but people who or maybe someone who you had a falling out with and now you're friends with again.
That's a really valuable person. If anyone who has a person like that in their life get that person's opinion of you.
And what you do is put that list together and see if there's overlap between the people like you and the people who don't really know you that well or kind of just know you in one aspect of your life and see if there's overlap.
And if you see that overlap, then it could be a personality trait that you could work on or something that you could really unlearn from learn from.
That's one exercise I've done over the years. I find it very helpful. We, when we did the, the live event in last October, my presentation a good part of my presentation was about beliefs.
What do you believe about the markets? What do you think about success? Like, I'll actually I have to re edit that video because the sound quality wasn't awesome, but I'll re edit that to give it to everybody.
How you see things is actually your reality, not necessarily what's actually happening. And if you're not willing to address whether or not what you're seeing is getting you the results you want, you're going to stay in that loop forever.
You are what you think. I think Socrates said that. Yeah. I got a bunch of those quotes. What was I was reading one the other day.
I think it was Earl Nightingale or James Allen. I forgot which one. I have a whole stack of books on my nightstand. It drives my wife crazy, but every I I we have a joke every night that I want to wake up smarter tomorrow.
That's that's, like, my mantra every single night when I go to bed and and, like, I have a stack like this big and it rotates from my library. And I I you are the sum total of your thoughts.
And you have to ask yourself, are your thoughts right now leading you to the to where you want to go? And and it's it's quite frankly, it's very simple to fix. If the answer is no, there's a problem.
And the part that bothers me the most, and I'll just say this as a loving member of this community, is when somebody's struggling and then they say I don't have the time to post a question in the coaching call.
I don't have the time to post my idea that I'm about to trade. That's an excuse. I'm just going to say it straight up. That's an excuse if you if you if it matters to you, you'll find the time.
You have time to brush your teeth in the morning? Right. Exactly. Exactly. Tie your shoes, you know, you make the time. Yeah. You know, nobody nobody doesn't have the time.
Nobody. Again, I'm not going to call anybody out here with this, you know, somebody in the community has 7 kids and trading actively. If somebody with 7 kids can trade actively, you can find the time.
Yeah. I I think that, that you get caught up in the, procrastination, then you have to understand what what's the root cause of procrastination. It might be fear, You know?
What's the real root cause? So start analyzing, well, what caused me to act this way today? One of the things I like to do at night besides read, is I try to say, well, what could've you know, what did I do today good?
What did I do bad? What could I have done better? In the morning, I try to visualize my day before I get out of bed. I don't I don't jump right out of bed.
I don't check my social media when I get right out of bed. My phone is on my nightstand. My alarm clock is my phone, obviously, like a lot of people, and I shut it off and I turn it upside down and I sit there for 10 minutes.
And I meditate a little bit. I try to visualize what my day is going to look like. I don't really think about, like, you know, the stress of what I have to accomplish, but I just try to say positive thoughts in my head.
Like, this is going to be a fantastic day. I know it sounds kind of cheesy, but it's really it's important.
Of course. No. But let's it works. It does sound cheesy. How it works. It does work. It's very effective, and you have to realize that, master of your thoughts and your thoughts create who you are.
And who you are is how you present yourself to this world. And that's that's it. So if you approach the world in a positive light, you're going to start reflecting good people with you. People are going to notice.
People are going to notice a change in your behavior. And even and some of the people that don't like you are going to are going to like start criticizing you because you're actually starting to show show positive energy.
And when that happens, you'll see a drastic change in what happens around you. It'll it'll happen it'll happen quickly. Yeah, I remember I was doing a lot of work on myself.
Believe me, this is a topic that is 100% trading related, But in the in the late nineties, I was doing a lot of self work on myself and all these types of conversations, and I went down this path of is it spirituality and God versus is it our belief system.
And so in other words, is it the law of attraction? Am I, you know, am I manifesting these things? Am I, you know, is the kingdom of heaven within?
And I'm not making this religious at all, but, you know, can can I manifest by praying and having it happen in my life versus is it just the way I choose to see things on the pot like, you know, success through a positive mental attitude?
And I remember vividly, I I went through an entire summer filling out a notebook going down this spiritual religious path versus is it a psychological path, and I got all the way to the bottom.
And I I still have the notes. I said, does it matter? Yeah. I did all of that work, and I said, what's the difference if if what you're doing is working?
Whether you're religious or not, shouldn't matter. We're all made up of energy. And if you have positive energy, it's going to create it's going to reflect positive things.
That's science. That's not whether you believe in God or not, that's science. So, you know, you have to realize that, you know, certain things attract other things.
So if you're grumpy, if you're kind of down, if you kind of have a black cloud over your head, people see that. I'm sure everybody in this in this call right now knows people like that.
You know what I mean? All that person's always cranky or they're always grumpy. They don't even want to be around them. And there are no one wants to be around them, and they just attract negative things all the time.
You know what I mean? So, you know, visualization and all that manifestation stuff is is useful because you have to realize that, you know, you're not you're not, like, faking it.
You know, a lot a lot of people say, oh, well, that's just kind of imagination. You're faking it. No. You're just putting yourself in the mindset to receive, more positive things, and that's that's kind of how it works.
You know what I mean? It's not a matter of, oh, you know, I'm I'm I'm in debt right now, and, I have to pretend like I'm rich.
That's not what you're trying to do. What you're trying to do is just be positive. Acknowledge what your problems are, but don't be don't be defined by what your current situation is, and that's a big difference.
Yeah. When when we all get together, we talk about it. Like, we could talk about the stuff that didn't work and how catastrophic it was, in your life.
But I I can tell you that shit happens to everybody. And you're not unique in that you have roadblocks. You're not unique in that you're busy. You're not unique in that, you're running a business and maybe it's not working out.
You're not unique in that. But what you do about it and how you choose to see what's happening is what will make you unique in a way that most people will just sit there and complain about it.
Yeah. You know, I I could share stories from, you know, back in the late eighties and 9 and early nineties when I first became an entrepreneur where I I shit didn't work.
You know, it just didn't work and and you see it as like your life was turned upside down and I remember vividly.
I I was like I'm on the wrong train. That's like that was my mindset. My I lost everything and I was like I'm on the wrong train.
I need to get on the other train. And I remember looking up yelling and screaming at the sky. I was like, if that's the best you have to knock me down, you're going to lose. Like, that's that's a 100% true. That actually happened to me.
And I got I'm speaking now specifically to the people that emailed us this week. If you think that your challenges right now are unique, they're not. What would make you unique is deciding to overcome them one step at a time.
That's what makes people great. Exactly. You have to show up every day. Yeah. I mean, we could talk about entrepreneurs if, you know, all you see is the end result.
All you see is Elon Musk, and you see, you know, all these different people. You know how many times they failed and almost went bankrupt or what did go bankrupt?
You know what I mean? And Yeah. You know what I mean? They they just there's so many stories out there. Like, Colonel Sanders is a great story. The the Kentucky one. Right? Became successful.
Yeah. He almost committed suicide. You know what I mean? There were so many stories about, you know, about entrepreneurs that have just hit rock bottom and then finally got that one thing. And it's not because it was luck.
It was just they they changed their way of thinking, and they were able to you have to find your own luck in the sense that if you have a positive outlook, you're going to find those that they call them synchronicities.
Right? So if you're negative, you're going to miss the synchronicities. If you're positive, you're going to find things will not only will things attract to you, but you will see things that other people don't see.
If you're negative all the time, you're going to see the whole world as negative and out to get you.
If you're positive all the time, you're going to look and and and you're going to find certain opportunities that might have been overlooked by others.
And that's not a coincidence. That's that's not luck. That's just showing up, like you said. Yeah. I mean Yeah. Are you looking for opportunity or are you only seeing obstacles? That's not a cliche. It's it's it's a fact.
I've been I've been actually reading a lot recently on the reticular activating system, which, you know, basically the things hitting us all day every day in our subconscious is like filtering things through for what we should focus on.
But then when you learn to use that positively where you start to focus on certain things, you know, it's kind of like I bought a Volkswagen Beetle and you see Volkswagen Beetles everywhere.
That's how success works. If you choose to start to see things in that way, you're going to see more of it.
But if you're choosing to constantly see how things are tough and challenging and all those kinds of things, you need to dial it back and break it down into simple steps so it's not overwhelming.
Yeah. And if you think it's tough, more tough things are going to show up.
You know what I mean? And it Like you're valid it's not you're validating your belief at that moment. And it works in the opposite way, which is really the bad thing about this whole attraction thing.
If you if you, if you're negative, it it actually it it kind of makes things worse because all you see is the negative and it just it kind of is like a snowball running down the hill.
So if you're at the stage where you don't even want to log in anymore and you can't look at your trading plot or anymore, take a step back, reassess what's going on, try to change your plan, look at your trade plan.
If you have a trade plan, you should all have a trade plan.
You know, make sure that it's make sure that it, you know, works correctly to suit your personality, make changes, and then go back to analyzing the markets, the sectors, the stocks, and apply your plan to what's going on.
And go back to paper trading if you have to. You know what I mean? Go back to until you develop some confidence. And you know what? It's it the more you try, the easier the easier getting back on the horse, so to speak, will become.
You know what I mean? And it just takes a little bit of time. But I always encourage people to just do not give up on trading because personally there has been many times in my life where I thought I should give up.
And, it has been, it's been such a rewarding experience. You know what I mean? Just just from the just from the perspective of not just trading, but being able to teach and coach just, it's changed my life.
You know, it changed the life of my family as well. You know what I mean? And it's something that is so worth it, to I can't I can't even imagine life without it.
You know what I mean? You have to keep going. Interesting what you say about teaching and coaching because that like, I do this and and I still have the same passion for it because it it's hard.
Yeah. Trading is hard. Not only technically, but the topic that we're talking about right now.
And I actually I have a passion inside of me to help people get past that limiting belief that is impossible, but you have to you have to take the first step and then you have to take the next step.
And today's call, while it's not necessarily all about let's look at charts for an hour, this is a part of what it takes to be successful.
And when I tell you again, nobody here was ever in my trading floor. I'm I'm not exaggerating when I would say 85% of my time with my traders was was on mindset and psychology. Mhmm. 85% of it.
Not about what to look at. Look to look at was easy. Yeah. Walk you know, handling, you know, if you if you have 5 or 6 losses in a row, that's very statistically possible. We could all argue, we don't make that that assessment, right?
But if you walk away from 5 or 6 or 7 losses in a row, you know, it's going to have a psychological effect on you. You're going to start second guessing your process. You're going to start second guessing.
What am I doing wrong? Did I did I miss something? And it just might be math. It might just be you pick you know, you just statistically, you had 6 losers in a row. You know what I mean? And that and that's hard to handle sometimes.
But the the more you do it, the more you prepare for it, put it in your plan and develop a strategy, the more you realize that it's just math, it's just part of the process. And, wasn't anything on you.
Now there might have been mistakes, you could look at that, but sometimes there aren't any. You just the market just went in a different direction and you might have had certain trades on that just went the other direction.
And that's just that happens sometimes. And it could be extremely frustrating. But it's you have to just kind of get back on there and just keep going.
I don't know how else to describe it. You know, there's there's, you know, obviously taking a break makes sense sometimes. Lowering your size, there's all kinds of things you can do.
Go back to paper trading if you have to, if you feel like you've made mistakes, if you feel like you need to tweak something, go back to paper trading and practice a little bit on the side.
If you're trying a new strategy, obviously, go on paper trading first and see if that works first.
Do a little back testing. There's so many things you can do. And with technology today, that's a whole other topic. But with today's technology, you can you can practice, practice, practice without losing a dime.
You know what I mean? Yeah. There's obviously something to having real capital at risk too psychologically. But if you're practicing something new, you know, take advantage of the technology.
You know what I mean? Whenever I had somebody in my office or even myself quite honestly who was in a a funk, for lack of better way putting it, not getting, you know, not getting results.
The easiest way that I found to get out of it and what obviously I've made the traders on my floor do is I would narrow their focus dramatically.
Because if you're already in a in a negative state of mind and you feel like you're burnt out or you feel like you're not getting results and and whatnot, I would have them narrow this setup and narrow the amount of stocks that they're looking at.
And the first reaction would always be, but that's going to limit my opportunities. And I'm like, well, how's that working for you right now by looking at everything?
Right. So we would dial down. Okay. Give me your favorite 2 entry setups. So your favorite one entry setup, even better. Which back then it was essentially I would just tell them don't look at anything other than an inside candle.
If it's not an inside candle for an entry because that's it's easy. It's a breakout trade of that individual candle. And then cut your list down to 5 stocks.
But, you know, depending on how much experience they would have. I'd say you're only allowed to look at these stocks and you're not allowed to miss an entry if one of these 5 stocks which has a 100% of your focus gives you an entry.
And we're trying to slowly get back on track and all of a sudden they start loving things again because now it wasn't overwhelming.
What they were looking for was very, very obvious, and that was usually the path to get to the other side.
Now burnout is something completely different. Like saying I I don't even like logging into my computer right now, you have to really think about why you're trading in the first place.
You have to think about what, you know, what kind of pressures are you putting on the act and the results of the markets to fall out of love with trading.
I could tell you myself personally, when I first started trading commodities in 1994, which is now 30 years ago, I started trading stocks in 2,000 full time.
I can't remember a time where I ever didn't love the markets. Because to me, it's 1 giant puzzle to solve through me and how I view it. So to me, there's always a higher level.
So if you get to the point where you just don't want to log in, it probably means you're forcing things. It probably means you need to reassess what the market means to you. Yeah, it sounds like fatigue.
Well, great business. Yeah, I think that everybody, I guess, is here to make money, obviously. But you have to come from a place of, you know, you don't want to come from a place of desperation and I don't not to call it anger.
Yeah, I'm not calling anybody desperate or angry, but, you know, if you if you feel like you have to make your rent this month and you have to make this trade because of that, if you come from that mindset, it's already game over.
You know what I mean? And you have to, you know, you could trade, you know, it's great.
I know plenty of people who trade full time. I know there's plenty of people who trade part time. There's no right or wrong way to trade. What's great about it is the flexibility that it offers, whether it be options or stocks, right?
But coming from the right psychological standpoint, right? Coming from a place where daily, monthly, quarterly results, but, you know, as you become a more experienced trader, you look at more annual.
You say, what kind of year did I have? You know what I mean? You start looking for a much longer timeframe, even if you're trading every day.
You know what I mean? And when you start to think like every single trade matters, that's when it starts to, I think, psychologically damage you. It starts to get heavy. You know what I mean?
Instead of, oh, I have to make this trade or I have to. When you start saying the words like I have to, then it might be time to take a step back and reassess how you're how you're perceiving things and how you're how you're doing it.
You know what I mean? Take the pressure off. You know what I mean?
When when I hear things like, oh, this has to work. You know what I mean? That's always something I worry about as well. Like, I think if that's the kind of pressure you're putting on yourself, consider, you know, having another job.
If this is all you're doing and that's the pressure you're putting on yourself, then maybe consider doing something part time so you have a little bit of income coming in, and you don't put as much pressure on yourself.
There's there's you know, that that's probably the best way to kind of to take a step back and assess it. That was very common for traders that came in and traded the firm.
They worked nights and weekends probably for about 6 months before they finally started to replace their their full time income. I mean, I waited on tables, I think, you know, I waited on tables all through college.
And then when I finally got my first real job quote unquote, it was, you know, it was an asset management that like, you know, my background has always been asset management, but it was in the accounting department because I was an accounting major in school.
And I wasn't sure if this was the right thing. I wasn't sure. I always heard of people getting laid off and all this stuff.
So I was scared. I was like, there's no way I'm giving up my waitering job. You know what I mean? So I used to work like sometimes Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday at night on top of my regular 9 to 5.
You know? I did that for, like, 2 years, and I still continue to do that because I just wanted to, a, make the money, but also have something to, like, not you know, have more than one revenue stream, really.
That's that's the best way I could describe it, And now it's kind of the same thing, you know, as an entrepreneur as an entrepreneur, you know this, you have to have it's great that multiple streams of revenue.
Trading could be your main one.
That's that's okay. But if there's other stuff going on in your life, you'll realize that if one thing starts to falter for whatever reason, whether it be the markets or what whatever, you have other things to rely on.
You know what I mean? And that takes the pressure off.
People say, why do you work so much? I'm like, because it's less pressure. You know what I mean? It's it's sounds crazy. But, You know, if if if one thing goes kind of off the rails for whatever reason, at least I have all the stuff.
I think to get back to being profitable, I think 2 of the fastest ways to get back on track, One of them is, are you actually taking good ideas?
Like, really assess whether or not you are calling out and actually putting money on an idea that has a great entry, high probability, a lot of reasons to put the trade on, or you're basically putting a trade on and saying, I really hope this trade works out, and I'm I'm willing to bet that you'd find for those that are struggling or or in a rut, probably 50% of the trades really were not really thought out and probably spur of the moment.
So that's one, is really assessing whether or not you put on a good idea or not consistently. And number 2, which is 100% in your control, which is taking losses where you're supposed to.
Yeah. Yeah. My every single trade I do, whether it be a short term trade or whether it be a more swing trade, I go through the same tests, you know, you know, target entry stop, time frame sizing, then strategy.
You know what I mean? That doesn't that doesn't change.
And if anything during that process feels a little bit off, I and I also consider my edge obviously first before I even before I even step into the water, what is what is my justification for getting in this trade?
Is there is there a real justification as opposed to the other 10,000 ideas that are out there? And then once I go through that process, then I'm able to assess how valid is this trade.
Like, you talk about, is this a really good idea or is this, like, an okay idea? And then either I decide not to do it because of that or I'll base my risk sizing based on that.
And that's, you know, that's that's the starting point always. You know? And if you don't have that process in place, you will start making trades you really shouldn't necessarily.
Well, so what would you tell somebody, like, if you if somebody's asking you, like, okay. I'm in a rut. I don't even want to log in right now.
Not knowing who it is, what would you say? The first thing I would do is I would say, okay. Take a day off, go for a walk, take a day off from work if you have another job, and just kind of assess your life.
Right? What, what what makes me happy? You know, what why am I not happy? What's going on in my life right now? Could be something personal. You know, I went through a divorce back in 2010, and I used to have custody of my children.
And I'm telling I'm sharing this personal story because when my kids when when when my when my ex wife became a doctor, she took the kids back. That was kind of the agreement.
So we always had joint custody, but I had full time I was with my kids full time for, like, about a year. And when she graduated, she took them, and that was, like, one of the most difficult times in my life.
I couldn't get off the floor, no less, log on to a computer screen. You know what I mean? So it you're going to have times in your life when that happens. That happens to every human being, like you said.
So if you're going through that, like, you know, going back to your question, if you go through that, assess what's going on in my life, is this, like, is something really messed up happening in my life right now?
And if the answer is no, if you're just in a rut, then, you know, start to come up with a plan, start to come up with, okay, does this real is this trading stuff really what I want to do?
Why am I doing it? You know what I mean? Does it suit me? And then if you're if the answer is yes, which I hope it is, start going back to your initial plan.
You know, how much risk am I taking? What am I doing wrong? What, you know, go through all your last 100 trades and and then pick them apart and see what you're doing wrong.
Spend a couple of days or even a couple weeks stronger and come back prepared and ready to face the markets. You know what I mean? Sometimes you need to take a step back in order to go forward.
I think something important too is not to compare yourself to other people because you don't know do they have other responsibilities or not have other responsibilities that you have.
You don't know how long how much experience they have to be achieving the results. The way I've always seen somebody who is is kind of at that level of doing what you might want to do.
I've always seen it as aspirational of what's possible as opposed to being jealous or pushing myself beyond what I'm currently capable of.
And I think sometimes, and I'm not saying this about this particular person, but I think sometimes people compare themselves unrealistically with somebody who might have a, you know, their 10000 hours in that you don't have yet.
Yeah. And then you start to pursue goals that aren't aren't in line with your current experience level.
Yeah. When you start when you start realizing that, you know, obviously, you know, some people care more about others' opinions more than others.
You know what I mean? I I happen to be more of an extroverted person. So when you do a personality assessment, that was one of my biggest flaws actually.
I was very because of my background, like, my, you know, my my family is very super conservative, always had one job, typical baby boomers. They work for, like, one company their whole life.
They they had pensions. Right? So they had no clue what I was doing. And then the criticism was severe, when I when I started trading. And they, you know, oh, it's gambling, blah blah blah.
You know, you've I'm sure you've heard all this before. Yeah. 24 years later, from my past, they don't know what I do. Oh, they have no clue. No clue. No. They still don't understand. Something with numbers.
I don't know. But but it's funny listening to them try to describe what I do. But but but the reason why I mentioned this is because I used to take that criticism extremely seriously, and it used to affect my psyche.
It used to affect, oh, should I really be doing this? Both my parents think I'm crazy. You know what I mean? So it definitely could could affect you. Then your close friends might think the same thing.
Realize that like, you know, and and the same thing like if someone's an expert like, you know, I've I've sat in a room I've sat in a room with monster traders, 7 figure, 8 figure traders who, it's just like the the slinging around $100,000 P and L on a daily basis.
And I'm looking at them like, oh my god. And they're, like, not even sweating.
The guy's down a quarter of a $1,000,000, and he just goes for lunch. Yeah. I remember the first time I saw something like that. I I my my chin is on the floor. Yeah. So it's like, you know, it's so it's all relative.
You know what I mean? And you have to realize that it you know, everybody's different. Everybody's on a different path, and you don't want to compare yourself on your path to what where someone else might be on theirs.
That's you can learn from them and ask them questions, but don't compare. You know what I mean? That could be that could set you off the rails for sure.
Yeah. If I was to give somebody specific advice, I would say break it down into more manageable steps right now because a lot of procrastination also happens because of the overwhelm of the totality of whatever it is you're pursuing.
Break it down into and again, Jennifer here mentioned, Nick Saban. I'm a big fan of Nick Saban, especially in like last 5 to 7 years. That whole thing with the process.
He's literally known for the process that he'd learned from somebody else and that's I mean, Alabama when he was I mean, he's got well, he's got 7 national championships, I think, between Alabama and LSU.
I believe it was the other team he he coached. Break it down into actionable steps.
I can't tell you how many times in my both entrepreneurial career and in my business career, and even now, like one of the things we're going through a transformation now in the business where our number one mantra is let's focus on something and finish it as opposed to like doing a whole bunch of things mediocre.
So anybody who's struggling right now or or you feel deep down that you're you're there's something more inside of you that you can achieve and maybe you might not be in the markets, Spend some time with the pen and pad and break down the actual steps so that you're basically just doing the next step in the process as opposed to seeing the totality of what goes into making a trading decision.
And you'll find you'll be like, okay. There's the first step. There's and it's easier. And I again, I've written courses of the last course I did was 24 hours.
It's a lot easier to finish a course that has 24 hours worth of video when you're doing it one video at a time as opposed to saying I need to get this entire thing done.
Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, you could compare it to our stuff, like, when we well, like, when you're recording, the options videos. Right? Like, if I oh my god. I kind of create how many videos? You know, if I if I it's overwhelming.
You know what I mean? But if you kind of just break it down by topic and then you break it down by subtopic and then you get one topic done, you get 2 topics done. The next next thing you get, you know, 5 or 10 topics done.
And then next thing you know, you put a dent in what your requirements are. You know what I mean? And that's kind of like, how you have to approach everything really, especially trading.
So break it down in steps. Like, you know, once you've assessed, like, your plan and what you might be doing wrong and everything else and you and you're ready to kind of tackle the markets again, okay.
Step 1, I'm going to look at the futures market. I'm going to see how Asia did overnight. I'm going to look at the top news.
I'm going to look at sectors. I'm going to see which sectors are performing. I'm going to analyze the Dow, the Russell, the Nasdaq, and the S and P, and I'm going to see which part of the market is outperforming versus the others.
That's step 1. Right? Step 2, okay, go down to the sectors, which ones are favorable, which ones are sideways, which ones are unfavorable, and break them down into subsections.
Then then if you pick a group that you really like, let's say technology, then you could break it down even further.
Okay, let's take a look at semiconductors. Let's take a look at software companies, blah, blah, blah. Right? And then you start to, you know, then it becomes easier because you're breaking it down into steps.
You know what I mean? And then, you know, on the option side strategy, okay, am I debit, am I credit, how's volatility look? That's another step I have to take.
And it just it's a process and it just it just takes time to kind of, put those into little subgroups, you know? And you have to do it though. Yes. You know? And you have to do it though. Yes. Put in the time.
When you're not getting results, if you're not willing to ask questions, if you're not willing to spend that extra 15 minutes. And look, let's be clear. Maybe everybody doesn't want to trade a little more actively and that's a 100% okay.
But you do have to ask yourself, for the amount of trading that I want to do, how much time do I need to invest in that in order to realistically say I'm giving myself a chance? And that's different for everybody.
Yeah. Everybody's going to be a little bit different. And one of the suggestions I would make if you, let's say, don't have a little bit of time to dedicate, you know, then don't drill down to individual stocks.
You could trade S and P, you could trade NASDAQ, you can trade a sector instead of like having to come up with new ideas every week.
If you don't have the time 1 week or if you're busy or if you're just learning, you can always just kind of drill down to the group or or down to, the market itself.
You might not make as much profit because you're not drilling down as much as, you know, the next person. But, again, comparing back and forth, you're at a different stage of your process.
You know what I mean? So you can't necessarily compare yourself to someone else. Different goals. Maybe you don't want to be watching the market literally every day.
Week and just say, well, I'm going to pick an outsized move in the S and P. I'm going to find the most outsized move, whether it's overbought or oversold, and I'm going to jump on it there.
That could be your strategy for 1 week. You know what I mean? And some traders will have that strategy and have 20 other things going on. You know what I mean? So it's it's all relative, really, you know.
I had one trader. It wasn't me. It's when I was trading at somebody else's prop firm when I first started trading. His entire strategy was he only looked for stocks that pulled back for 5 days.
Like he was buying he was buying strong stocks on a when they made 5 5 day lows. That's actually what it actually was. And, he made money with it, but it was the only thing he did.
Yeah. But there'll be I'm sure there's going to be months in that strategy where he does absolutely nothing. Absolutely. I mean 100%. So you need the patience to say I'd say no to everything else.
And that's the thing. So then you need to ask yourself, does a person like that can a person like that make a living doing that? You know what I mean? So the answer might be no, but that person might not care.
That person might only want to do that strategy and maybe they have 3 other things going on in their life that they're they're happy with. So it really it's all relative based on your own goals.
And why why you're trading in the first place has to be one of the first things to assess. Why why am I why is why is this giving me so much aggravation right now that I I don't even want to look at it?
You have to ask yourself, why am I trading? What is what is trading represent for me in my life? Is it are you planning to replace your job or is it just a nice challenge? Is it something you're looking for you for your retirement?
Is it a skill that which a lot of people that come into our community, is they want to learn this skill before they retire so that they could manage their own money without having to worry about social security or that pension outliving themselves?
That's a much different goal than someone who, you know, wants to maybe make a living out of it and trade, you know, trade intraday.
You know what I mean? If someone wants to manage a portfolio that's a much more long longer term. I don't want to use the word sleepy, but it's a more longer term approach where you're kind of just collecting income every month.
You're trying to, like, live off your nest egg. That's a completely different strategy than if you're day trading, you know, tick by tick. You know. And a completely different goal to be mastering a skill.
So in other words, that's you're you're actually not this is the way I want to word it. You're you're not looking necessarily for those outsized returns right now because you let's say you're 50, just for example.
You're 50 and you want to retire when you're 60. Again, just throwing basic numbers out there. Right? You are now in your mind, you're like, okay.
I'm going to spend this time learning how to replicate this with consistency so that by the time that I get that I need to use it or want to use it when I want to just call it quits and now, you know, you already you've worked on that skill within that period of time as opposed to every single trade is is life or death.
That purpose is is different in how you're pursuing the markets every day and every week.
100%. You know, mindset and and kind of, you know, approaching the market based on what your particular And that's why this community is so important.
You know, it's good to get different, takes on what people want and what people are looking to accomplish.
We could accomplish it all. You just have to start from the point of what do I want to get out of this. And that's really important. Yeah. Yeah.
This is all necessary, everybody. And I I I've actually started this conversation today simply because of the emails we got. And I wanted to address those 3 people that emailed without and without necessarily obviously, it's personal.
I don't want to call anybody out. But this is actually where the success happens. I'm I'm not exaggerating when I say 85% of my work when I own my firm was mindset, psychology, picking people off the floor.
And and even the other extreme which was making sure people weren't getting too euphoric when they were on a winning streak.
Tend to lose your risk tolerant. You you tend to throw your risk out the window when you're making a lot of money and all of a sudden, I just made $15,000.
I can afford to lose 5 on this straight. Like, what are you talking about? Your stop loss is 500. What are you what are you nuts?
Yeah. You should never adjust your stop loss based on your wins. You know what I mean? Like and but people do it. You know what I mean? And it's, yeah, that's when it gets casino like and you don't want to be in that situation.
You know what I mean? I would challenge everybody if challenge is even the right word. Just really think about what trading represents to you. What is your ultimate goal for learning this what I believe is the world's greatest business?
What is your ultimate goal? Why why are you here? Why are you pursuing this right now? And at each stage of our life, there's going to be a different goal, you know.
If if you're on that other side where you're like, you know, I need this for a living, then you might want to be thinking more about cash flow and looking at trades that last 3 to 5 days.
Getting out, booking a profit, go to the next one, get your capital back and not be exposed to overnight risk. Don't trade earnings like just put yourself in in likely positions to get that momentum to hit the road.
If it's a little if it's for your 401 k, then maybe you're looking at weekly charts and you're going to look at the you're going to look at the quote at lunchtime and that's it. You're not you're not looking at a 5 minute candle.
Think about why you're trading and what the goal is right now. For some people that goal might be learning. For some people that might be, I need to pay the electric bill at the end of the month, and I need to book those profits.
Some other people might be, I I want to learn for when I retire. Ask yourself, what is your what is the goal right now and fall in love with that goal?
Yeah. What is your why? It's very, very important. What time it's in it. Right? You know what I mean? And it's very, it's very important. Everybody's going to have a different answer, and you have to tell your planner on that question.
And that's that's and it could change over time, but for now, you need to figure out what it is and kind of reassess it on a yearly basis because it could change.
And and, you know, for me, you know, my biggest why, the reason why I do this is because I want a life I don't have to take a vacation from.
You know, I work 9 to 5, I worked in corporate America on the institutional side, you know, where I talk about my background a lot and it was a wonderful rewarding career. I met wonderful people, but I had to show up every day.
I worked for somebody else, which was always very taxing sometimes. And I always wanted to be in the position where if I had multiple revenue streams, I could just walk away from a toxic situation if I wanted to.
So that was my why. It was pretty simple. I didn't want to be like my parents. I didn't want to just settle, for, like, a 9 to 5 and a pension, which I'm not criticizing them. I think they did a great job, but I just wanted more.
And and I think that that that was my why. It was it was really that simple. I didn't want any I didn't want my mental, my mental health to be affected by my job, which a lot of my my coworkers and friends have experienced.
You know what I mean? And that's it. Why you're trading right now and what is the right what is the right pursuit to be learning right now?
Like, what what are you trading for at the moment? Are you trading for a longer term goal? Or you're trading for cash flow that's going to pay your bills right now?
And then you have to within the context of what we do, you then have to adjust your risk and your profit taking strategies and and how you're viewing your success or or what you need to work on in that frame.
Because if you're if you're viewing that through somebody else's frame, you're you're constantly going to be frustrated because it's not what's important to you.
Like you just said, John, what what matters to you and why you're doing it.
Yeah, absolutely. And and and to just, you know, to just kind of wrap that all up, you have to, you know, self assessment is really, really important in this business.
You know, and and business, you are running a business, that's how you have to treat it. You have to, you know, see what's working and do more of it and see what's not working and just do less of it or figure out why.
And you That is what that is experience. So that that's that's there's a lot to be said for that where how does somebody who has reached a certain level maintain that consistency?
You actually learn what to avoid in a big way and then you actually avoid it. So now you're actually come back to what you said before.
If you learn to avoid what's not a good idea and then you do more of what is technically your edge, now you're letting the edge do the work as opposed to you feeling like you have you were doing the work, but it's really the probabilities doing the work.
I remember one time, this is a great story, one of the analysts that I work with, he's now a very successful money manager. He was younger back then, but now he's managing 1,000,000,000 of dollars.
He had his annual performance review, by his boss. His boss was a portfolio manager, and he had his performance review, and they basically gave him his bonus based on, you know, how many good stocks he came up with.
Like, how many good ideas he came up with, where they put in the portfolio, and did they create alpha?
Did they generate returns? Right? So he's sitting back and they and he was in a he had certain sectors he used to watch, and those sectors just didn't happen to do well that year.
Right? So he was sitting back, and he got, like, a crappy bonus because of it. And it wasn't his fault. It was just because he the ideas weren't there.
Right? And he took a step back, and he said, wait a minute. What about all the ideas that I told you guys to avoid? What about all the money that you made because I told you should not do this or not do that or reduce this?
Right? And they couldn't quantify that. You know what I mean? But, you know, as a as a business owner, that is a that is probably the most important thing.
You know what I mean? And there's there's so much there's so much pressure and emphasis on performance that you have to ask yourself, well, what is performance?
It's it's not so much picking winners. It's avoiding losers and and and getting out of them early, so you don't lose so much. And that's and that's that's so overlooked not in the business world.
So when you so when you decide to quit the corporate world and go into trading, you're so fixated on performance and what can I do better and and all that stuff that sometimes you forget the downside?
The downside is really what you have to focus on in trading. You know what I mean?
And and that's so that's so overlooked sometimes. Yep. Yep. So let's, obviously, this I felt this was a really important topic today based on the depth of the emails, and it's always good to go back to this topic once in a while.
Absolutely. I don't want to I want to be clear about what I'm about to say. I'm not telling anybody to do what I do, but I will tell you that every single day I am working on myself.
Every single day I'm reading Think and Grow Rich and all of this. And I just spent the morning with Anthony Robbins, you know, having coffee this morning.
I try and show up every day because there's there's stuff that's going to happen every day that's going to knock you off or just feel like it shouldn't have happened, like something that's frustrating.
That happens to everybody. It's not a question of whether that happens to everybody. It's a question of how fast you get back on track.
Don't wallow in it. Whether it's 5 minutes of of reading Think and Grow Rich or whatever, you know, whatever personal development book matches your mindset or whatnot, Anthony Robbins or whoever it happens to be.
I again, I'm not telling anybody to mimic me. I'm telling you what works for me. Every single day, I am recalibrating my mindset.
Every single day. Sometimes couple of times a days, but that's what it takes. You can't allow those negative thoughts to manifest because you'll get into this period where you stay there and you're like, where did the last week go?
Yep. Yes. So, you know, your thoughts create your mood, your mood creates your personality, your personality is how people perceive you. So if your thoughts control your mood, you need to really control your thoughts carefully.
And it doesn't mean that you have to ignore bad things happening to you. Like if you have a death in the family or something happens or if, you know, God forbid, there's a financial issue or something.
You have to acknowledge them, but you cannot let it define who you are and you cannot let it define what mood you're in.
You could you you acknowledge it, you figure out solutions, but you do not let it affect your happiness or your your mood.
And that's the big difference. And that and and that's where you have to kind of stop yourself every single day. That's why showing up every single day is so important.
Yep. No matter how bad something is, and this is something that I I started in the late eighties when stuff was happening that wasn't going really well for me, I said I got a choice right now.
I I could I could wallow in this and be angry for however long that's going to take. But no matter how much I do that, the problem's still there.
Like, I still have to fix it. So I remember making a decision that I might as well just fix it first instead of, like, going through all these habitual steps that I learned about being angry and reacting and all those kinds of things.
I I don't know what it was. I just had so much clarity.
I was like, no matter how I'm going to feel about this and how angry and pissed off I want to be, I still have to fix it. I might as well just fix it first and let all those negative let all that negative energy go and just fix it first.
Absolutely. So kind of tying that back to trading, this shit that's going to happen. You you can wallow in it, you could be angry about it, you could say why.
But no matter what, you just just start fixing it. Ask yourself why. Why did that happen? Why did I miss it? Why am I feeling this way? And then work on fixing it instead of focusing on the fact that it happened.
That was the biggest thing for me with Think and Grow Rich. I remember vividly. 1988, the first real estate investing seminar I went to at the Uniondale Marriott in Long Island.
I know that as well. Yeah. This real estate investor guy back then was the r, where they, what was the bailout back then? I can't think of the name of it.
Savings alone something or other. It was REOs. REOs was the real estate back then. This guy named Dante Perano talked about Think and Grow Rich. It was the first time I ever I ever heard of Think and Grow Rich or whatnot.
And, I was 23 at the time. Wow. And I remember reading the book and I was like, this entire book is about how many times they failed and persisted until they succeeded. Mhmm.
We all we know all of these famous people at the famous part of their life, but what that book struck me as, okay, all these people failed for years before they finally figured it out. Who am I to quit at the first sign of adversity?
That was, like, the biggest thing that hit me with Think and Grow Rich. And then the the mantra which is definite is a purpose, which is the knowledgeable nuance and a burning desire to achieve it.
When you realize that that the parts of success or the part of the path is a part it is a part of the path, not something to be avoided, You now free yourself up from being afraid to make a mistake because everything now is feedback to get you closer as long as you're paying attention.
Paying attention is the key. You know, you know, what was it? 40,000 light bulbs Thomas Edison broke? Can you imagine making 40,000 light bulbs? Yeah. He said, what is it? 40,000 ways that didn't work. Right. It's a lot of light bulbs.
Yeah. So I I hope this illuminated the mindset aspect of what we do and helping everybody kind of really getting putting it in perspective because it I got news for you. You are not unique in that you have struggles.
You are not unique in that stuff isn't working. What will make you unique is rising above that raging river of thought that you you you have these things in your head that are driving you crazy.
You have to rise above them and see it from a higher perspective and start fixing it. Start doing something differently as opposed to being consumed by those thoughts.
Yep. Try to visualize the success too in your brain. Figure what the feeling it would be like to be successful, consistent, and having all the things you want.
You know, having that mindset too helps. First thing in the morning or at night, I personally have found the best time to recalibrate with reading books, and it could be you could be reading for 5 minutes.
Don't think you have to read the entire book. Read 3 pages. Something that will get you back in that thought process. It'll also help you sleep.
Yeah. That's true. That's true. Hey, Chris. Good morning. Yeah. Yeah. I I remember Linda Raschke a few years ago say pretty much what Alice is saying here is that trading is the most expensive form of psychotherapy you'll ever pay for.
Doesn't have to be. You know? People people trading. But, yes, it could be. So, again, it's Saturday. We don't want to keep everybody too long.
I know that we spent a lot of time on this, but I felt that it would based on what I was seeing in the community, what I was receiving, I wanted to make this a big part of what we spoke about today because also it's the weekend and you can give everybody a lot of time to think about stuff.
John, could you touch briefly on the way that the market has traded since the Fed announcement?
I personally have a massive amount of stocks that are meeting the scans, but very, very few stocks that are meeting great trading ideas right now. So many of them are way beyond a good entry at this particular moment.
Yeah. It's it's challenging right now. Believe it or not, I I did some scans this morning, and I want to say some, you know, technology kind of poked its head up a little bit.
There are some some out out performers within the group that are looking interesting because they've sold off so much and now they're starting to perk up again.
But again, just where we are in the markets makes me apprehensive to put on full risk. I think that looking what institutions are doing, they just don't seem to be too interested up here.
I just see a lot of buying a gold. I see, you know, bond markets holding up really well. So there's this cautionary kind of, woah, what's going to happen next kind of thing. We we now have an accommodative fed.
We officially have an accommodative fed. Right? I could say that. So what's next? Any buyers up here? You know what I mean? And it seems like there's a little bit of a FOMO crowd, but we had some jittery price action on Friday.
So on Friday. So we'll see what happens next week. I think there has to be, valuations are going to be more important. Earnings are going to be more important. I'm not saying markets can't go higher, but I think we need that next catalyst.
What's next? You know what I mean? Election aside, I think that we need valuations to come in. We need and we need some solid earnings. FedEx was super disappointing.
They warned about the future, and that's kind of ominous to me because FedEx kind of is it FedEx to me is is a pretty good bellwether, of of people delivering and and processes and, you know, everything else and products and services.
So, you know, we'll see what happens this earning season. So I'm cautious. I'm going to remain bullish because that's what the market's telling me to do.
Yep. Again, how I feel and what's happening in front of me could be 2 different things. So I have to be bullish, but it doesn't mean I have to put all my chips on the table either. I agree.
I I agree with all of that right now, which kind of ties us back to what we're saying at the beginning of today's call, which is you need to you need to understand when the odds are stacked in your favor right now, what that means for the kind of risk.
I'm quite positive we can find ideas. That's not a question. Even some ideas that are on optimal entries, but you have to have one eye on the market right now and say, is the market due for a little bit of a pullback?
And that means I'm going to have to manage my positions, not just set it and forget it because everything's been going up for the last 2 weeks.
So what does that mean? I'm going to take long positions off faster than I normally do? You know, you know, short short positions I'm going to do too, but I might do more stuff on the credit side.
I'm going to try to find some stuff with some higher implied volatility. Because volatility is lower than it was, but there are names here and there where their implied volatility have remained fairly high. You know, AMD is one of them.
I looked at this is on my list. Also, D A Y, those are 2 in the tech space that that look okay, but the implied vol is fairly high. So AMD is in an early stage uptrend. It kind of bro and day looks great. That's a nice pullback.
I don't really know much about day. I don't know what what kind of kind of I don't really know what kind of I don't really know what kind of I don't really know what goes on there, but they look, oh, it's a oh, is that a ETF?
Yeah. Looks like it's in a text. Yeah. So, I mean, that looks like it's in a nice uptrend. Also, you have, what's the other GoDaddy, believe it or not, GDDY. That's had some year. My gosh. Yeah. I mean, look at this thing.
So this thing has a classic cup and handle. You could see the little cup forming up there. So my target would obviously be that all time high. But again, a quick trade. That's not something I'm going to be in for like months.
That's something I'm going to look at that all time high and say, You know what I mean? If that I think that is an all time high. But anyway, that high is where I would place my target. You know what I mean?
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Look at that. So that's kind of So that's kind of, you know, if if NASDAQ continues to be strong, I will profit from a trade like that because it's going to just go in the direction of the market most likely.
The earnings on that isn't until, October 31st. So that's something I again, I'm only going to be in for a couple of days. Those are kind of names Lululemon, Chipotle, Netflix, all look pretty good.
It's actually interesting you mentioned Lulu. We actually draw a trend line in Lulu about 2 weeks ago, looking for it to get up to this level, and it actually hit that level and pulled back. We were talking about it.
Because it's gotten beat up so bad this year, we actually said we want to see it close out of that level, and even more conservatively looking for a pause out of there. And look at how it, like, textbook right to that level in Quebec.
So now I'm looking for the next test there. Right. So I'm not going to jump in on Monday on something like that. But if that thing does confirm back to the upside, that'll be my entry point for sure for a swing trade.
That might be something I'll sit in for a little while because it, obviously, if it breaks that level of resistance, it could obviously go much higher. So and and earnings on that isn't until November, late November.
So, you have time to sit in something like that. That's something I would maybe look at longer term, go out a couple of months to November, and and kind of sit in and then sell some premium against it as it kind of creeps higher.
You know what I mean? Upstart is another one. That's another one that kind of on the Fintech ish, I guess, you could call it. I don't know. You know, that kind of had a nice bounce.
So, again, that's another cup and handle. You know, there's the cup right there. So I'm not expecting this thing to rip, but, like, it's just a simple target That last high would be where I would kind of, you know, that's a quicker one.
You know what I mean? Where I'm kind of looking just to be in it for a couple of days. You know, and then on the industrial ATI is one that I looked at too. That's not that doesn't have earnings in November 5th.
So, another one that's held up pretty well, kind of in a range bound pattern, but it's still overall fairly strong. So, again, maybe I'll try to see if it could reach those all time highs, maybe a little bit past it.
Again, on on a spread trade, so if on the option side, I don't need this thing to rip in order to make money. I just needed to move a couple of points, and then I'll sell some premium on top.
And, just taking a nice little a nice little profit, not expecting the world out of this thing. I'm not expect as you can see, the last ideas I gave you with the exception maybe Lulu, they're all quick.
They're you know, I'm going to maybe a whole a week I'll be in the trade, and I'm not looking at specific targets in mind. I'm not expecting it to go ripping to new highs. We actually did that with VNO this week.
We took profits, the day after the Fed when we gapped up. Yeah. We, we we gained plan. We bought we actually very simply just bought this strong sector board to break out of this downtrend the short term downtrend, but I got out of it.
I'm like, I got out of, half of it. I'm trailing the balance, but the way the market is right now, I just I want to get cash back.
Yeah. 100%. Take a look at pizza, Papa John's. Look at that. This was an idea I had, I think, last week or the week before. Look at the move it had to the upside, and now look at the nasty downs the downswing it had.
Right? So if you didn't if you weren't fast, if you didn't, you know, if you didn't get out of that trade, around the time I I think I got out of it right the day of the Fed meeting.
I think it was Wednesday morning I bailed out of it. So, basically, it just completely rolled over. So that's what I mean by taking profits quickly.
And when you see something kind of, you know, to the upside, you don't this is not the kind of market you want to sit in things and and squeeze out that last point. You know what I mean? And that's that's the point I want to try to make.
So Ron's asking about volatility right now. In my experience, the options expiration tends to have massive volume because those contracts are expiring, but I don't usually see volatility on that day.
It's mostly in my John, you could correct me if I'm wrong. But for the most part, all those contracts are expiring and everything kind of gets pinned to those prices as the contracts expiring.
The to me, the options expiration doesn't create volatility. It actually is the expiration of of the volatility.
Yeah. I think for a typical triple witching, which is what we had on Friday, you know, you won't you won't see Vowel spike too much unless there's another event or something alongside of it.
What we did was have we did have some index rebalancing on Friday as well, but it also that's because kind of the zigzag that we saw on Friday.
You had some, you know, you had some kind of ins and outs going on, but other than that, there you know, it didn't really create volatility.
What we saw this week was volatility compressed after the Fed meeting. So uncertainty think of volatility as people placing hedging bets. That's how I want you to think about the VIX.
The VIX is basically institutions buying puts saying, okay, something might happen. So let's take a little bit of insurance out. Right? That's kind of what's going on behind the scenes. So when does that happen?
That happens maybe into earnings, it happens into an event, it'll probably happen into the election. You know what I mean? It'll probably happen when there's something that institutions have to kind of monitor and hedge around.
They don't know what the outcome is going to be. Witching, it's already pre planned, it's understood. There's no hedging that needs to go on.
And that's why volatility probably didn't spike like you might think. Okay, everybody. Hopefully we gave you some stuff to think about over the weekend. John and I will email out the research, over the weekend as well.
Have an awesome, awesome weekend. And, thank you again for your time, John, especially you on Saturday. Really appreciate it. My pleasure. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everybody.
Definitely kind of, you know, take a step back and reflect on, you know, what, you know, what you're looking to get at trading because it's all there for you as long as you are, you know, as long as you're clear as to what you want.
Exactly. Alright. Have a great weekend, everybody. We'll speak to you soon. Take care, everybody.