Even for me, i'm like i've just thought like look, you know what it is. The last three months you haven't been uh haven't been doing what you could make the last couple months. You haven't been doing what you could. Maybe you just got a bit sloppy thinking.

Like i'm average and like whatever i'm like i'm taking like 5 6k a month, that's enough for me and but then i think, if you're not moving forward you're going to start moving backwards, and i think that's that's what started to happen. For me. I've started. I've have i've moved backwards from not climbing forward every day lost.

I lost a bit of fire just getting comfortable yeah yeah, so the concept of taking training seriously, perhaps is not just something that new traders need to hear. But perhaps uh more mature traders need to hear as well to keep to keep lighting the fire that, like pilot light to make sure that you're still taking it seriously every day. Welcome back everybody to the short bites of trading eq. That stephen johnson and i are doing this - is a four part series today is uh part three and today we're going to be talking about.

When is it time for you to actually take your trading more seriously than perhaps you do now and since our listeners are primarily newbies uh, i think it's a great topic. We've done through four uh three recordings before two recordings before this one is being trigger happy versus gun shy. The other second episode is about over trading to stay stimulated and today we're going to kind of dive into when is it time to really take this as serious as a heart attack? That's the metaphor: i'm gon na. So when do you think steven's the time to take this as serious as a heart attack? Um i was, i was always um depends what you want right.

I mean, i don't think, there's i don't think there's such a thing as a is a half-hearted. I'm going with the the same metaphor. Don't think this half a thing. I don't think there's there's such a thing as a profitable, wholehearted trader yeah.

I don't think they exist. I think i think trading is an outrageously difficult game. It's outrageously difficult, i've been reminded i've been sometimes on twitter. I've said it's easy and, and people have come to me and said steven you complained for four years about how hard it was and now you've made it.

You forgot, you forgot well forgot how hard it was um and i'm like yeah you're right. It's it's outrageously, hard um and it can't be taken lightly and it can't be done half-hearted and it has to be taken seriously at all times and if you, if you're, not taking it seriously, you you can bet your bottom dollar. There's 99 other people who are who are ready to claim in your shoes and take your money. So that's that's the best way.

I can. I can describe this. You know, i think it's i. It is the most competitive game in the world with the smartest people in the world involved in it.

So i think it always confuses me that those that think, oh, this is going to be a cakewalk and especially those who perhaps are unfamiliar with it right. Those mom and pops now that all got robin hood on their uh iphone. You know, there's a a gal that i know who works in a little store here: she's never been interested in finance or trading or investing for that matter, and yet she's like yeah, i'm treating kim on robinhood and i'm like really so you're seeing people that have Never kind of gone into these waters kind of jumping in to the deep end overnight and i'm sort of like wow. Nobody seems as often as it used to be.

Nobody seems to have as much caution or respect that this actually may not be a game like. I don't know you name an iphone game because i don't play them yeah. I don't play them either, but um. I think the problem with trading is it's the opposite of the restaurant business.

So in the restaurant business, if you've got if you've got a complaint, you'll tell 10 people and if you've actually did a good job, you'll not tell anyone and it's the opposite in trading. If you're a novice trader - and you get you take a few trades and they go your way - you'll tell 10 people, but if you're a novice trader - and you lose your money straight away - you're not really as inclined to want to talk about it, especially with strangers Or people that you don't know you might tell a close friend like messed up but you're not going to tell you're not going to tell a bunch of people you're not going to tell 10 people, and i think that kind of happens with trading like everyone talks About how they made money and how they're good at it - and they remember all the wins, but they don't remember the losses and it creates this kind of social. I don't know if it's a construct or whatever, but it creates this thing where it's a mis. It's a misguided belief where it's people think it's easier than it is, and it's um it's not it's the hardest thing in the world with the most competitive people in the world and you can earn as much money as you want, depending on how good you are, And we're talking billions, we're talking millions and billions if you're good enough and you put the work in millions and billions yeah yeah, it's pretty cool, it's pretty enticing to to have that opportunity.

So i think that alone is almost the best argument to enroll somebody in taking it very seriously like. If you want to experience an opportunity to move into profitability at any kind of serious monetary level, then wouldn't it make sense that you probably have to get as sophisticated as possible as experienced as possible as uh disciplined as possible. Because if not it's just like going to vegas and throwing your 600 bucks at the crap tables to just see what happens yeah well, i mean, i think i think trading is the only game that directly rewards uh talent and hard work. So it's the only game.

Uh other other things like work, or maybe sports, but particularly corporate environments, favor, who you know yeah the favor uh. How well you like how well you get on with people? Yes, so, but there's no, there's no um either the market's a good friend to me today. There's none of that! Oh there's! No such and such uh noses, so i'm gon na i'm gon na do well today in the markets. Yeah, it's purely it's purely based on on how hard you work and how good you are at it.

How much of a natural ability you have at it yeah do you think, do you think platforms like wall street bets and and having uh robin hood and all the other apps that are coming up behind them? Do you feel that that perhaps has misled some of the more new traders into thinking that this is different than what it really is? Not sure? I think that um, i think that what wall street bets do, or have done quite rightly, is convince people that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity when 90 of traders lose, but we'll all win this time and for a lot of people that did win. That time and and all of the hedge funds lost - and they won so maybe maybe they did flip the odds - maybe 40 percent one, instead of only five percent that would normally win, maybe maybe 40 of wall street better one. I have no idea but um, but did they win stephen if they stayed in if they're still holding did they bought another bomb, they're, probably still winning yeah yeah, probably probably still winning but um? It's like anything. I mean in any of the dot com like in the dot-com boom or the tulip mania or any of the significant booms um if, if you're around at that time, you'll win yeah you'll win um yeah, but the problem is that when the markets crash, everyone loses Again and it's it's, can you be the smart one that recognizes that they're in the they're, in a bubble and and and not be greedy? But but no i mean robin hood 95 or lose uh wall street batman.

Maybe it's a one-off and more than more than five percent 10 percent one but um yeah. You know, i i think a part of me wants to you know just encourage people to consider listening to the most successful traitors and what they all have to say, and it seems to me that they're all saying the same thing when it comes to discipline when It comes to time spent watching patterns uh that across the board, they all say, has to be a legion of hours dedicated to studying it's a weird one, because i think, like it's a tough one discipline, you can read books, you can create a lost channel. You can follow a course, but a lot of it's just really owning that really owning that and really having respect for yourself to say. I'm gon na do what i said i was gon na do and if i don't wan na put my head on the pillow, i'm gon na be a bit disappointed in myself tonight.

Oh, if i can't trust what, if i can't trust the word of what many other people say like see, you've got a lot of friends and will say one thing and they'll. Let you down if i can't trust them, at least at least. Let me trust myself like at least if i can't trust myself to stick to what i see. Who can i trust, yeah, i agree agreed and a lot of it with discipline is just really being being truly a word and true to yourself, yeah yeah for sure what would you say if somebody came in and let's say, they're just six months in and they're, Like oh, this is much harder than i thought.

What would you say to them about that pivot point or fork, they're kind of at a fork in the road? Do they want to start to realize? Oh they they may be at that point now, where they're, like? Okay, this is a much more serious game than i thought it was. This is not going to be a cakewalk. What would you say to them? They need to ask themselves before they commit yeah. Well, i mean it's it's not about.

It's never been about the profits. For me, it's never been about that. It's it's! It's about loving, studying, loving the game, loving. What i'm doing excited to wake up every morning and do it again, yeah profits are exciting.

Profits are they're they're a product of hard work. They're the result of hard work, they're the recognition factor of it but um. What i would say is i mean it shouldn't be a question if it shouldn't really be too much of a question, because it's it's more of a question of, am i enjoying what i'm doing right now and yeah? Is it hard yeah, it might be hard, but but do i enjoy it? Am i enjoying this process? Am i gon na enjoy figuring out what to do next? If it's really difficult, i'm not going to enjoy figuring it out for the next five years, yeah and uh. And if the answer is yes, then keep going and if you don't enjoy what you do and then stop i mean if you don't enjoy studying, then you've got a lifetime of it because that's the game's a lifetime of study yeah, that's, i think, a really good Point, i do think some newbie traders think oh well, if i just study for maybe a couple of years, and what i just heard you say is that studying is part of the entire process for the rest of your trading life.

Look i mean i like even for me, i'm like i've, just thought like look, you know what it is. The last three months you haven't been uh haven't been doing what you could make the last couple of months. You haven't been doing what you could. Maybe you just got a bit sloppy thinking like i'm averaging, like whatever i'm like i'm taking like five 6k a month.

That's enough for me and but then i think if you're not moving forward you're going to start moving backwards and i think that's stop. That's what's started to happen. For me, i've started. I have i've moved backwards from not climbing forward every day lost.

I lost a bit of fire just getting comfortable yeah yeah, so the concept of taking training seriously, perhaps is not just something that new traders need to hear. But perhaps uh more mature traders need to hear as well to keep to keep lighting the fire that, like pilot light to make sure that you're still taking it seriously every day. It's tough! It's tough because um drive and motivation is it's it's something inside and we've talked before about kind of big garnered kind of be built, or is it just intrinsic? We've talked about this before, but it's hard to like that fire when the fire's not lit there's. No.

If there's not enough, not enough embers burning, put some paper on and give it a bit of blow some oxygen yeah. Sometimes it can't be lit. What's the bruce springsteen lawyer can't can't light a fire without a spark, but baby will just be dancing in the dark. That's right, true! That's right! You know, i think, when we talk about a traitor taking it seriously, that to me represents a person who's not only willing to give the time, energy and bandwidth, but also a curiosity around understanding what the market is, why it moves, how it moves like these are All pieces of what i think are in place for those that take it seriously, so i just want to say to those who are listening.

Do you really want to understand it? Do you really want to get why it moves, how it moves? What you know what the underlying factors are, if that curiosity, isn't that spark sparked for you, i think it might be hard for you to take him seriously yeah. I know i mean it remains as a. I had a call with a with a guy a little a little way back and he was just complaining about how tough it was yeah, it's just so hard and uh, i'm just not getting in i'm making these mistakes and it's quite isolated and he's like it's Just like it's so tough how long, how long had he been at it for about a year, probably nine months, ten months - and i was just like it's like dude like i don't want to carry it like. I don't i don't want to hear the bad.

I don't want to hear we've got, we've got a call together. We've got some time to speak with each other like you've got me time. I'm talking to you yeah, you got to give you advice, yeah. Why stop talking about stop talking about like the problems and start asking us questions about the solutions? Like don't i'm like it's all about attitude, and it's like you should be excited to confront these problems.

You should be curious to find the answers to these problems. Shouldn't be beaten down, everyone gets beaten down, everyone does yeah, but you for me. You get beat down for five minutes and then you get extremely excited yeah to solve the problem yeah like so is it possibly that is that person perhaps a good example of that? Being appropriate time for them to really question whether this is the you know future for them, maybe they can't get themselves into the headspace, maybe for them, and it's just too hard, maybe there's it just sounds to me like that person is surprised how hard it is, And that's like a flag to me a red flag, like ha didn't you know this was gon na be hard yeah, but it's it's it's like when people say ah, but you know like i'm like i'm really like above average clever and i'm like, oh like i Was really good at this, and i'm really good at that, so i should be naturally good at this and i'm like nah hold up. This is the hardest thing you'll ever do in your life.

This is the hardest thing ever hardest thing ever and it's not a measure of your intelligence. It's a ma. It's a measure of your resilience, so so don't don't be dropping the i'm above average intelligence - and i did well here - and i said well, yeah - don't care. I care about how resilient you are.

You know what i mean. I do i care about i care about. If you're can do, if you're a can do person a doer or a daughter yeah, because if you're i don't know, you're not going to make it you've got you've got to be a doer with resilience yeah for sure. There's, a great quote that i've used.

I'm sure before that says, when you're a hammer everything looks like now and it's true and look, i i might even feel in a couple of years i might even blow up and my attitude is like a crazy resilience. Very candy attitude always will get back up. Yeah and i might even feel yeah, do you know what i mean? I don't think so i hope not, but i'm ace, yeah, and so that resiliency, i guess, is actually perhaps then a a gateway like perhaps that concept of okay are you, somebody who's a resilient, and i always like traders to look at their life outside of trading. Do do you see yourself in your overall life and the choices you've made to be somebody who has been resilient and if the answer is no, i have not really been that resilient.

Perhaps that's uh a caution. Cautionary reflection, yeah you've got to be careful with that, though, because i remember i remember, as in a bout of therapy a few years ago, yeah best best woman, i've ever spoke to like helped us tremendously to this day, um yeah. It was crazy that that was literally at a certain onset of anxiety every day, didn't even know what it was went to the doctor like you've got anxiety. I was like, what's that it's like what's anxiety, i don't know what it is, but i just feel all these things and like that's anxiety, but um, but anyway, one thing that she said to me, which is one of the best things that any psychologist has ever Said it was if it's yeah psychologist, i think they are um.

I said you know what it is i said here. I don't think i can do trading because i think i'll just quit said why, and i said this back in the day this was five years ago um and she said why. Why do you think you're gon na quit and i said because i quit everything and she said - tell us something that you've quit. She says you've played pogba for five years, you've done three-year degree and then five years in advertising, you're doing well in it and that you've been running for the last three years played the drums for two or three years.

Everything you've done you've, given massive glass. Whatever you quit says, i might have not learned spanish. Do you know what i mean? I tried spanish foreign, but you know what i mean though, but yeah, but be very careful how you judge yourself because you you might have more resilience than you think. Yes, that's a really good point, and that tells me that your gremlin, your inner saboteur, was really working on you over time.

Then, because it was telling you that you were at risk for being a quitter when there was really no evidence other than spanish no question there. There was no quitter inside so you're gon na fail you're gon na quit. You have never quit anything before it's crazy. Huh it is, but i think that's such a great story, because it it's a cautionary tale to make sure that perhaps who you're listening to is actually you instead of your inner saboteur.

So maybe ask someone, maybe ask your family, your best friend, that's tough, asking family. Do you think i'll quit trading? Do you think i'll make it first thing my dad would say? No don't do it. So it's a tough, it's a tough question as well. Like everyone, everyone said: don't do it.

Maybe you have to be selective in who you choose and and perhaps you have to find somebody who does have experience in the trading world to be able to really look at you a pr like look and ask the questions that are appropriate. So, let's just let's pretend they're standing in front of us now stephen. What would be the question somebody's saying, i'm not sure i'm going to take trading seriously, i'm on the fence and i don't have anybody to ask. Let's pretend they're standing right in front of us now.

What would we say we? What would we ask them to? I always think of little brahma's little brown brown bomb alarm. Do you remember a little dutch? I do. How is brown brilliant he's really got a chat to him every single day. Everyone take all the trades and trade, the same system and he's he's just 10 and profitable uh lost for a few years.

We'll have to get him back on. He lost for a few years and he lost like two years straight every day, he's mom your brother's going to college. Why aren't you going to college and he's like mom he's like mom i'd love? This he's like i love it and i hate college. So so, with brahm he's, just this month made his first 500 a month he's up 500 dollars on his thousand dollar account, but once it clicks, you start up 500 than a thousand, then 15.

brahms only 18, like he's not going to get more than 2 000 Euros a month in his job 1500 in the little village where all the cows are in holland, wherever he is yeah because he's not so he's going to get a thousand euros a month, he's going to make more than that trading, yeah yeah yeah, but the quest. So when, when i think about questions, i always think about what bram got, because what brahma i saw myself and i saw on him, yeah and and i'd say it here. What are you studying and i'd? Wait for the answer, whether it's video lessons, whether it's um an excel data tracking and whether it's just move this forward, whether it's excel data tracking, whether it's um reviewing trades analysis. Anything like that, any oh, but books, yep and i i'd probably say: what are you doing and i'd say: what are your results and i'd like to know what what are you learning how and why yeah and the final question is, is how much? How much are you enjoying what you're learning yeah, how much are you enjoying what you're doing and what you're learning and what, based on the finance that you've had what you plan on doing next and how excited are you about that yeah and when bram says to Me i'm sitting three hours a day, i'm entering these numbers if all these tickets into excel - and i just absolutely love it he's like.

I just love it, because i'm finding out the answers to the stock market yeah and it's just it blows my mind yeah. That's it right bram, you will be a trader forever wow! That's it yeah, they're, great great questions, great questions. My question, i think, would probably be a couple of questions would be uh. What are your expectations by way of timeline? Because i do find that a lot of times, new traders have fairly unreasonable expectations around their profitability and their consistency.

And that worries me because i feel among some of those there could be traders who do have what it takes to go the distance. But they won't because they've put them the bar at such an unreasonably high level in such a unreasonable amount of time that they are expecting themselves to deliver at mastery when they've just gotten underway. Do you see that too? I totally agree um and another i'd say i'd say, tell me two reasons why you're trading tell me two reasons, and one of them can be the money, but what's the other reason, and if the second reason is that you absolutely love the game yeah then you've, Probably not probably shouldn't be trading if you don't say that you love the game and you've got two reasons to explain why why you in trading yeah fine, won't be the money, but the other one has to be that you love the game. Yeah yeah, if it's not you shouldn't be trading, yeah yeah and you know, look taking trading seriously is something that is going to come up, whether you like it or not, like at some point, there's going to be a reckoning and you're going to have life or The market hold that gun to your head and the question is like: wouldn't it be better to find out before that moment, whether or not you're really taking it seriously so that you can navigate the jungle with the right gear? It's like a jungle.

You got ta, you got ta bring your machete, you got, ta have a backup supply of water. You know, if you don't go into this like you're going into the amazon jungle, you know, did you ever reap wild? There was. There was a book by charles straight wild where she was trying to i've, never read any books. I've read like one book, it's it's it's an audio, so you could listen to it.

She she goes on the pacific, north uh, uh, pacific coast, high, it's pacific north highway trail. It's like this very intense trail on the west coast, like the appalachian trail on the east coast, but their version of it uh and she is woefully underprepared and uh has some interesting situations happen along this track, but when you think about what she ultimately discovers about, How unprepared she was she starts to adapt as quickly as possible to the reality of this trail hike being way more intense than she planned on and - and i feel a lot of newbie traders are kind of like cheryl strait in that book. They go in woefully underpaired and then they have an encounter with the reality of how big a deal. This is, and you could do one or two things run back to where you started to enter the forest, or you could say this shit's gon na get real right now and i am going to play full out.

So i would say: ask yourself, ask yourself and that that's the true definition of intelligence right? How how fast can you adapt to a new situation? How quickly can you adapt to a new environment or a new situation? Yep, that's it! That's it uh all right! Well, we'll probably bring it to a close there. This is a little bite, three of four bites that stephen johnson and i are putting together that are talking about uh trading, emotional intelligence and we're also just talking about ways to like observe yourself. So you can become a better trader. The next episode we're going to talk about finding and building your edge on the emotional side on the technical side.

We hope we see you in that episode. Please let us know what you think about it in the comments and thank you for watching the steady trade podcast. I hope you guys enjoyed that video thanks so much for watching and being part of the stocks trade community - we wouldn't be here without you guys make sure you hit that like button and subscribe to the channel. If you have not already, our goal is to hit a hundred thousand subscribers by the end of the year, but we can't do it without you guys.

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