Here standing by the No Standing sign to tell you a couple of important things. We're going to get real here. I'm going to talk a little bit about my journey, learning to trade and why I was down here in New York for so long. So let's see um, 12 years ago.

No, 14 years ago. Today 14 years ago. today I would have been at work on just off of 6th Avenue between 6th and Broadway and I was down here all those years ago because at that time I had a little bit of a a passion that I was pursuing. And you know the funny thing about being down here in the city is that you know I'm not uh, you know I'm from I'm from Vermont I grew up uh, in the Northeast I grew up in New England Being down in the city, you know this wasn't really something that I sort of thought as I was, uh, growing up necessarily that I'd end up living down in New York But here's the thing.

it was part of the path of finding my passion, finding something that I could get really, really passionate about. So what I want to tell you guys is I think one of the most important things is finding something that you really love and I I So when I was down here, I was pursuing something at the time that I really loved. and you know every day today when I'm up at my house and I'm Trading that is part of me finding something that I'm really passionate about which is trading in the market. so you know the interesting thing with trading for a lot of people is that day trading is a it's a means to an end.

You know you're day trading. not because you're necessarily super super passionate about it, but because if you find success as a Trader it can enable you to spend more time doing the things you really love. So when I was down here 14 years ago, I was working at an architecture and design firm and by the way, anyone tuning in on the stream on the on the live chat just let me know you can hear me. okay I don't know how great the audio is um but hopefully hopefully it's it's okay.

So when I was down here uh 14 years ago today I would have been working in um uh, down in Chelsea in the studio and I was working at an architecture and design firm and so when I was growing up one of the things that I really enjoyed was uh not really not really like architecture like building buildings or building skyscrapers but I was really into uh floor plans which is a funny thing for someone to be into. but I was like obsessed with floor plans and you know we would go to someone's house and that night I would be at home like drawing like a little floor plan of the house and my parents were always like you know they're like what do you want for Christmas I was like graphing paper graphing paper what do you want that for? it's for drawing my plans. um so you know going through high school and everything my parents were like you should this kid's gonna become an architect that's that's what his thing is. He really likes doing the you know, the floor plans, the those kind of drafting drawing things and so I was like all right you know maybe that maybe that is going to be my thing and so when I uh was going through college I got an internship um down here in the city and this is one of those things where um if you if you know if you think of something like for me at the time it was architecture and I was like if this is my thing I need to immerse myself in this environment I need to find someone who's doing what I want to do and I want to I want to work for him So I got an internship working at a architecture design firm you know down here in the city and so I lived in the city and I was doing that and that gave me during the years that I was working there.

It gave me this really awesome experience which has ended up helping me a lot today. So the the guy that I worked for he ran a small kind of like high-end um interior Architecture Firm and and So the the cool thing um, that he was doing which was like totally right up my alley is you know there would be clients that would buy, uh you know, whatever apartment in one of these big buildings and they would, they would come in and they'd be like here's the floor plan. we want to we you know we want to redo it And so it was a gut renovation. But the floor plan of course has to stay stay the same because you're working within the confines of the the structure and you've got the puzzle which is you've got the you know, the gas risers and you've got the electrical and you've got the the water.

You've got all these things that you can't move so you're working within the this floor plan to sort of recreate it, change the bedroom layout or whatever it is. Um, so that was like exactly what I really had been really into. And so here's the thing. if I hadn't worked for him I wouldn't have learned that the majority of that job isn't the fun part of the design.

it's client management That was the majority of that work. It was. It was managing clients. it was.

You know you had these clients that are. You know they've spent a lot of money, They know they know what they want and you know you've got contractors who go behind, fall behind schedule and you have price things go up, prices move. You know the unforeseen conditions, things like this and you have a contingency. It just becomes that if at least in my experience it was a lot of dealing with client expectations and a lot of client management and and his job.

The guy that I worked for I mean he was constantly out trying to find new clients and the the easiest part and the tiniest part of that project was really the the initial design. you know finding a design someone likes is kind of not that hard and then it's it's everything else related to it. And so I I was working down here and I I realized in that experience that I realized a couple things. Number one: I immediately was like I I never want to have I really don't want to have a boss I want to become My Own Boss I don't really like working for other people and I'd kind of already known that you know before I had come down here.

but I I put it in my head that I'm gonna work for this guy and this is going to be training I'm gonna train myself of how to run a business just like his. That's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna I'm gonna figure out how he's finding clients I'm gonna figure out you know what his what the business, sort of back end structures like that. what the Consultants are you know sort of figure out the whole thing, gain enough experience working for him and then I'm gonna I'm gonna do it myself I'm gonna open my own business and I'm gonna be the boss. uh and so that was sort of.

that was the way I um sort of I guess compartmentalized or uh, sort of came to terms with the fact that I was going to have a boss for a while I was like it's okay I don't mind having a boss for a while because this is training and this is he's someone that I look up to because he's built this business and you know some of these projects. These were multi-million dollar projects and he had he was working on a commission at 20 percent so you know a two million dollar project. His architecture architecture design fee was 400 Grand and you know so I mean I was like wow this guy's making a ton of money and this was something that I learned that was really interesting so he ended up investing the money that he was making in this sort of side hustle side project that he had which was he wanted to create his own interior lighting, furniture and and rug like designs and so he was putting all this money into like the R D of the electrical for the lighting and Manufacturing and like all this stuff and trying to find people that might you know be investors or like one of the big um you know one of these big design firms that might go ahead and say like we wanted we want to take you on. We want you to, We're going to sell your your designs and none of that ended up happening for him And in the meantime what was what was happening in the global economy.

14 years ago 2007-2008 the market was tanking and so what ended up happening in the architecture design space was there was a little bit of a lag. You know because we had started these projects. Uh, some of these projects. You know these are 12 18 month long projects.

We'd started them a while ago and so they were still running. Even though you know things were going kind of crazy with the economy, these projects were still going. People weren't just going to stop them in the middle of the project. So the projects are still running and um you know he was still spending money like crazy.

And then what happened were new projects stopped coming in and all of a sudden he went from having staffed up I was 10 maybe 12 people in the office to having a staff back down and during the time that things were good he wasn't making good like he wasn't paying. He still had student loans. He had like 200 Grand in student loans and he wasn't paying those. He had this, You know, all these big expenses.

Everything was leased he wanted and this was really interesting. He wanted people to see him as being successful because setting the impression that he was really really successful was how he was going to get more clients and so everything was leased. everything was, you know, on credit, everything on credit cards. So he was living in this you know, fancy apartment.

it was beyond his means and he dug himself into this hole and what that ended up doing was it ended up costing him his ability to continue to run the business and so I ended up moving back up to Vermont because I didn't like work I didn't like working for him and for me it was like it was really only meant to be like a temporary thing and I learned enough working for him that I was like you know what this isn't this isn't for me. The part about it that's not for me is that I don't want to be working for some other person I don't think that I actually like, um, the idea of uh, you know, doing all this client management and all this stuff. So I was like, you know what I think I'm actually all good I think I'm I think I'm going to figure out something different and so I moved back to Vermont and that was you know, 2008 2009 when we moved back up there and that was when I was really kind of struggling because I was like what's my passion gonna be You know what is my thing going to be you know I I thought it was going to be architecture I thought I was going to go down this path but now I don't know if I'm in love with it anymore and so when I kind of realized that uh, that wasn't going to be my thing I I really had this period of feeling lost and feeling like I just don't know what I'm gonna do instead right? So what I ended up doing uh, that's that was kind of when I started getting into the trading stuff I was like you know what I need to make some money while I figure my other stuff out I need to just have some income coming through. So that's when I was like you know what I'm gonna do is I have this friend who had made some money trading penny stocks when I was when we were in high school when we were like 17 years old.

I was like you know what I think I'm gonna do I think I'm gonna try trading penny stocks right? That's what I'm gonna do. that's gonna be my thing and so you know I I Got into trading penny stocks because I had a small account I didn't have a lot of money and it wasn't at that time. It wasn't like this was a passion, it wasn't like I was like oh, you know this is what I've always wanted to do. it was.

it was really just okay. Can I make a little bit of money doing this? because if I can make a little bit money doing this, then you know I buy myself some more time to figure out what I really want to do. And one of the things I had done a lot when I was a bit younger I did it in high school I did it in college before I came down to the city and then I did a little bit after is I was working in this Pottery Studio ceramic Studio up in Vermont and I did in New Hampshire also and I was teaching Ceramics classes. so I'm doing these Ceramics classes and I was teaching kids and adults and stuff like that and you know it was something that in uh, that I had taken classes when I was really young so I had gotten good enough to teach you know, kids and adults and whatever and I really enjoyed that.

it was something that was a lot of fun for me. I was like this feels good I I like teaching it's not what I thought I was going to be doing. It's definitely not the architecture stuff, but you know that's all right I'm I'm liking it. so I was like all right I'm gonna.

this is like my thing I'm gonna do this. So when I was back up in Vermont I got into the trading and again it was just sort of like a way to pay some bills and buy myself a little bit time and what I was thinking about doing I was thinking about again be my own boss I was like I'm gonna set up my own ceramic Studio like I said on my own ceramic studio and I'm gonna uh, are going to teach classes and I'm going to do my own ceramics too and I'll sell it at farmers markets and you know things like that sell it in some art, craft stores. whatever. So that was kind of what I was thinking at that time and then you know I got so sort of fixated on this puzzle of learning how to trade.

trying to figure this out because the thing that was really interesting for me about learning how to trade was that I was so I was so uh I just became so like fixated on it I saw the potential you know I saw other people out there who were doing really well making a lot of money and I realized that this could be more than just something I was doing to pay the bills you know I realized that this actually could be like if I get this, you know and this is what I talk about. Sometimes the hardest part is just kind of like turning the corner because you know when you're struggling, you might have a day where you make a thousand and the next day you lose 1500. Then the next day you make 2 000, then you lose a thousand. So you're just like one step four, one step back.

At the end of each month you're not making money. so you're just like I'm not making progress. But once you start consistently, you know, make getting some money and it can start small. It can be.

You know, whatever you start doing consistently 50 a day and then maybe you get up to 100 a day. 200 a day. What's really the difference between 100 and 200 a day and a thousand a day? That's when you start getting into share size, right? And that's when you realize how incredibly scalable this trading is and again, it's it's not to say that you're going to necessarily go from, you know, 100 a day average to a thousand a day overnight. It takes a process of being able to scale up emotionally to be able to handle the ups and downs that come with that, you know? But but having said that once I started to see that potential, the possibility of trading became so much more than just you know this being like kind of a means to an end.

I started realizing that if I got good at this, this could be this could be huge and so I kept and so it what ended up happening inadvertently: I stumbled on a passion I wasn't expecting it I wasn't expecting it when I first got into trading, there used to be a Blockbusters right on that corner I wasn't expecting it but I ended up going all in and I wanted to make it happen and I knew that if I was able to make it happen, it could be a real you know game changer. foreign. So I went all in and I'm one of those people who you guys probably know this because I've said it a million times I didn't turn the corner until I was you know, basically at the bottom I mean I had lost a lot of money I'd gotten myself super super frustrated I dug myself a really big hole and I was like all right this is I I don't know if I'm gonna I don't know if I am gonna turn the corner and one of the things that I started doing I created that blog which many of you guys you know know about the day trade Warrior blog I set up the blog and I started kind of you know, chronicling what was working and what wasn't working and I was just putting stuff out there and here's the thing that's really interesting I found a passion and so every night you know from eight o'clock till 10 11 o'clock at night instead of sitting on my computer and looking at cars or watching Netflix or something like that, what was I doing I was writing articles, writing well, articles, writing blog posts or making YouTube videos about what it was like learning to trade. I was putting out all this content.

All this content and what ended up happening which I wasn't expecting is people were engaging with it I was getting a ton of a ton of views on YouTube I was getting a ton of views on the website my blog thank you and I realized that this was actually a door was opening in front of me and the door was. People want to learn. There's a lot of people who want to learn about trading. There's a lot of people who just like you are confused.

They don't really know where to start and this could be this could be your chance to be a teacher. I Got to teach. But to teach something definitely a little bit different than ceramics, you know. and um, to teach something where the stakes are high.

and for a lot of people, it might not happen. but for the one or two, or three, or four or five of you out there, like right now, five, five, or six of you out there, they're gonna take this idea of learning how to trade the markets, of learning this puzzle. they're gonna take it and actually run with it and try to make this happen. That for you guys, this can be a life-changing moment.

SO Trading It ended up becoming this this passion and I I wasn't expecting it at all. but every single day I've been so excited to wake up in the morning to try to solve this puzzle of how to trade the market better, how to trade it better, how to trade it better. And so every day when I get up early to trade, every afternoon or every evening when I'm reviewing metrics or I'm making YouTube videos, none of that feels like work now. One of the things that's interesting is that for some of you guys, trading really is just going to still be a means to an end.

This is going to be something that you do to try to make a little bit of money so you can spend more time doing the things that you love doing so. last year, for instance, uh, I traded an average of two hours a day and you guys can see on my website you can see how much I made last year averaging two hours a day and the whole rest of my day. I could do whatever I wanted if I wanted to teach classes if I wanted to do some great content for YouTube I could do that and I did because I enjoy doing it. but I had the whole rest of my day to focus on my passion If I want to.

if trading for me was only a means to an end, then in the morning I could just do my two hours and then the rest of the day I could do the thing that got me really, really excited. and I talk about this all the time because you know so many people spend all this time. you know we see it on on social media. So many people spend all this time talking about making a million dollars.

making the million dollars. you're going to be a millionaire You're Gonna Be A Millionaire and you don't hear me talking about that and you don't see me. I Don't go take a hundred thousand dollars out of the bank and then spread it all over the bed and take pictures of me with it. I Don't go stand next to a Lamborghini and take pictures.

The problem in this country is so many people just like my boss want to look successful. They want to look the part they want to look successful. What they don't want to do? the work that it takes to get there and the work that it took to get to where I'm at as a Trader it was years it was. It didn't happen overnight and that was partly because I didn't have someone that I could learn from.

So I was trying to figure it all out myself. But there's a million different ways that you could trade the market. You could find your own strategy. You could spend you know, months or years or whatever you want trying to figure it out, and that's fine.

There's different ways to do it, but you know one of the things like I'm not as popular as some of the guys out there that are telling you that you're gonna get rich overnight or basically saying that with some of the things that they show you. you know the uh, you know the the private jets or the the boats and the girls and all this stuff. I mean that stuff drives me nuts and and what drives me nuts is that you know sure enough, the people that post that kind of stuff they've got. they've got a ton more followers on Instagram You know I don't have any followers on Instagram No one cares about me on Instagram because I don't post anything exciting I don't post anything interesting.

The stuff that I post is I mean nobody cares about it. Yeah, in terms of like it's it's not, it's not Kardashian You know it's not flashy. but some of you guys who are on our Channel especially on YouTube You know why do I do well on YouTube Because people go on YouTube Because they want to learn how to do something they want to learn. They're willing to put in the time and whether it's how to rewire an outlet, how to, um, how to connect a dishwasher I mean whatever it is, people go on YouTube Because they want to learn and so I've done well on YouTube Because you guys, you know this is a group of people that for the most part you guys are wanting to learn and you're willing to spend the time to learn something.

I mean no, it's not easy and that's the thing. That and that's one of the reasons that I'm I'm probably not as popular as some of the other guys out there because I'm gonna tell you the truth I'm gonna tell you right now that it's hard, but I'm also going to tell you that you know for me, it's been amazing and I'm so grateful that I took the leap and tried to make this happen because you know a lot of people they won't take the lead and you know maybe they wouldn't Maybe it's for the best, maybe they wouldn't have been successful. but but they'll never know, right? Because they didn't take the lead, they didn't try and you know you do. You do what you want.

I'm not talking just about trading, but just in general like taking taking the leap and actually trying to start your own business. like if I had done that with the architecture stuff. Every you know if you're not failing I feel like you're not pushing yourself hard enough because you've got to be taking risks. You've got to be stepping outside your comfort zone otherwise you're not going to grow.

So with trading, you know I really wasn't afraid of failing when I got started I and to be honest, I didn't think I would fail. but I wasn't really afraid of failing because I thought that even if I wasn't super successful trading, that I would learn enough about the market in general that that would help me in other areas of my life, right? So I was like it. It doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be like just that. I'll make a ton of money on trading I Can I I Can you know? learn about dividend investing, dividend income, and stuff like that? Learn how to choose better stocks, learn how to, you know, make a little bit of money that way and not have to hire a financial advisor for you know, whatever they cost each year.

but you know that's the whole thing is like if you find something that you love, you won't work a day in your life. And I think about this with my kids a lot because I you know when I grew up, you know I grew up with parents who both worked um, you know, like nine to five jobs and they both worked at the hospital in town. It was a psychiatric hospital so they both worked at that hospital. My mom worked about hospital for like 40 years and then she got laid off.

So you know she put 40 years in with one at one place getting her checked. But you know she got her. She got her vacation time, she got her sick days, she got her benefits, you know we were able to take. oh there's a little puppy dog hi hi hello hello oh she's so cute she was able to take her you know, vacations and we you know she didn't have the stress really of being a business owner.

but I didn't grow up with parents who were like business owners. you know I didn't grow up with um I didn't really grow up with that kind of in that kind of environment and so you know I think about with my kids, you know what do I want? What do I want to be teaching them? especially? You know because they're going to grow up. you know I think with quite a bit more they already are. We're going up quite a bit more than I had when I was growing up.

So you know how do you raise them to? You know, want to work hard and have work ethic when maybe they'll have more things than I have. So I don't know but one of the things that I I tell my kids which you know they're really young but I'm like I'm like if you work hard you know if you find something you love, you won't work a day in your life. and I don't like to say that like you can do anything because you know I feel like my generation people are like you could do anything you want. You could be anything you want and that sets you up for this huge amount of disappointment when you realize no, you can't you can't really do anything you want.

You know some people get dealt a hand of cards that isn't going to give them that opportunity. but I think the real lesson there I think the real thing is what you do with the opportunity you have. You know what you do with the cards that you are given and that you know. This is why I say to the kids, if you work hard if you work hard, you can do almost anything.

So I I Always say if you work hard if you work hard if you work hard I could do almost anything but you got to be willing to work. and um, you know, well poodle And if you're not willing to work then no, you're not gonna. you're not gonna get it. You're not gonna get those things.

that's just you have to have that and I try to instill that in them and you know they're young. So it's I got a lot of time but something that I've been thinking about a lot. Um, foreign. You know, just in terms of like how to and it's not just with them, it's with.

it's with other people too. I mean it's it's even with you guys right here. it's You know, some of you guys are in a nine degree grind, some nine to five grind. Some of you guys are, some of you guys are still in school, some of you guys are retired, some of you guys make a ton less than me and some of you guys are and you're really happy.

You're happy. or maybe then I'll ever be. Some of you guys make a lot more than me and you're miserable. So this whole thing of like you know once you make your million dollars, you'll be happy.

I can tell you that that's not true. You know when I made my first million did I get happy or no? you know what I did after I had made a million bucks I bought I bought my kind of first like nice car and did that make me happier I mean it made me happy for you know a little while and I kind of thought oh wow you know I've got I've really kind of made it I've got a nice car and that that says something I still have that car now and you know so now it's it's old, uh but you know it's fine. but that feeling goes away and it'll go away real quick. So you know my kind of feeling is that what you really need is to find something that you are so excited about every morning.

And for a lot of you guys who are into trading like me, you guys are excited every morning because it's like a new crossword puzzle you know or a new new Sudoku puzzle. It's so exciting it's like all right this is my chance and every day is an opportunity to try to do a little bit better, a little bit better and you see you know this is this puzzle of the market. It's a game in a way you know every every day is your opportunity a little bit better. I used to play video games until I started to trade and then I was like why would I why would I play video games when I could be studying trading trading became like a way a video game for me because you know I do it every day and I'm always trying to get better I feel like I'm trying to beat my my own performance I'm trying to do better and better and better you know but again like in my my experience it's been um it's it's turned into a passion and for some of you guys it may not be.

You know it may really just be like this is a thing that I do to try to make some money so I could spend more time you know, doing whatever it is that you really really like so you know I don't know. Tell me those of you guys tuned in. you know what's the thing that gets you really fired up? You know what's your what's your passion? I Mean is it Trading Maybe it is. or maybe it's something else.

But if you find that thing and you guys I mean we are so so fortunate today because today you know in this like world with the internet and everything else, it feels like you could turn fishing. So Alex says fishing I mean you could turn that. that thing that you really love. you can actually turn that into a business right? How would you do that? You make a Blog Start with a Blog You start writing articles about fishing, you make YouTube videos you start doing reviews of phishing uh, different kinds of tackle, different types of types of fishing poles you have affiliate links with Amazon or a couple other you know, big companies and next thing you know, you realize you're making a little bit of money on your honest thing that you love.

and then maybe you decide to take it a step further. You know? and you start traveling around to really cool fishing places to get really good content because you're getting paid by YouTube to do it. Or you decide to create a you know monthly membership that gives you gives members a bunch of content around the great places to go fishing or you know, access to your sort of private you know, recommendations each month of whatever it is I Don't know I'm just talking out loud, but this stuff and the ability to to create a business online as a side Hustle like that that was something I'm and I feel so so fortunate. You know from the trading perspective because that's something that you know 20 30 years ago you just couldn't do and we could do that now.

So you know you got to find that thing that you know you really like and if you know you're Diversified and you could do a little trading in the morning, that's awesome. Or maybe you're doing some investing or whatever it is, it doesn't have to all be one thing. Well tell me. Peter What's what do you think? It's not to say that it's not.

you know, competitive out there it is, but it doesn't feel like hard work, right? Doesn't feel like hard work when when you really enjoy it. Hey, Ben well you know, and so and I'm just reading the comments here. Thanks you guys for tuning in and thanks for hitting the thumbs up! So I mean the thing is like you know I've been doing this for a long time with the trading stuff so you know I'm not disagreeing that I make more money than most you know people who are just getting started. but that's not what it was like when I got started and I had to work really, really hard to get here I had to be willing to spend so much time sitting in front of charts studying the charts trying to figure out what I was doing wrong.

how to get better I mean that's what I was doing just constantly I was trying to get better, trying to get better, trying to get better and you know this is something that I talk about a lot in the classes but you got to figure out what you're good at and then that's what you really focus on and so you know for me and one of the things that so on, um what day is it it's going to be Tuesday Next week I'm going to do a um I'm gonna do a kind of a workshop for our students. um but I'll put the link for YouTube people. Also, I'm going to talk about um how I learned how to start trading during that workshop and I can talk about what I would do differently if I was going to start over today. if I was going to start over today.

day one: trading what I would do differently because there are things I would do differently from the way that I learned how to do it. So I'm gonna I'm gonna uh I'll put something on YouTube about that. um I'll give you guys something a link for that. um it'll be Tuesday Tuesday afternoon.

but one of the things I talk about there is figuring out what you're good at and finding your strengths and so like with the trading stuff. For me, One of the things that I was focusing on was looking at my metrics constantly, looking at those metrics and trying to figure out you know what? I what I was actually doing really well with because um, you know it wasn't focusing and some this is what Traders sometimes do is they get into the habit of focusing on everything they're sucking at, focusing on all the losses, focusing on how much they're losing, then you're just staring down at the hole. You've got to focus on where you're doing well, and you've got to double down on that. You've got to be even more aggressive on that.

And you know, yeah, if you have an area that's really holding you back, it's not to say you have. you should ignore it. But by just focusing only on your losers, you've got to focus on your winners and you got to focus on what they have in common, what's working for them. and then you know, get really aggressive on them.

So yeah, so John says he's not going to swing trading and yeah, swing trading is hard. I mean swing trading. You got to be right about what the Stock's going to do over the next couple days. so or even longer.

So yeah, swing trading to me is harder than day trading and I don't feel comfortable taking the risk. um, on swing trades because I'm like I I don't have the confidence that something's not gonna happen overnight. that's going to ruin the trade. So I just say you know what I'm I'm just I'd rather just day trade, just focus on that.

So yeah I I was you know as I was coming down here I was thinking about um you know living down the city and thinking about how 14 years ago you know if I could walk by me of then you know what would I say you know the thing is it's like I was down here because at that time I was following something I was really passionate about and that I thought might legitimately work for me and be a career for me. and then I ended up. you know I ended up changing my mind and you know what, sometimes people do that after years of college they'll do four years College they'll do a PhD program and then they realize I don't like this I changed my mind right? So you know I think that that's also part of being okay with and I don't even want to say that's failing because that's not to me that's not failing if you change your mind, but you know you thought of it that way. I mean that is what it is but being okay with taking that risk because if you're if you're never having you know setbacks then you know my feeling is that you're just not taking enough risk.

You know you're just staying too much in your comfort zone and that's you. Know that's that's in all areas. I Mean it can be on the business side. It can be on the you know the trading side as a Trader You want to keep growing, You want to try to keep getting better.

You want to try to keep improving. And that means pushing yourself. You've gotta. You've got to push yourself to have those breakthroughs.

If you just stay in your comfort zone, you're not going to grow. You're not going to get better. But I get it when you're You know when you're trading and things aren't going well, you feel like I can't afford to take risk. So there's a whole process of being able to get comfortable enough that you can start to take a little bit more risk.

So one of the things for a lot of beginner traders that I'm a big advocate of is trading. You know a lot less just taking like one trade a day because so many beginner Traders get into this habit of over trading over trading. they get more and more aggressive and then they end up just. It's like capitulates and then snowballs.

so you have to slow down, focus on one two trades a day and then put that aside and then spend the rest of the day on your other side hustle. You know that's the thing that I'm like just as passionate about what I've been able to do with Warrior was was 100 because of that I mean it helped me because I was able to say okay, I'm gonna put the trading stuff on the side for the rest of the day like I'm not going to trade my account I'm going to work on YouTube videos I'm going to work on blog posts and so being able to kind of spread yourself out like that and then you're not stuck with all your eggs in one basket. But you know I I Get that. It's easy to say that and the reality is, you know you've got to be willing.

You've got to be willing to work and to take that risk and not everyone's going to. but having when I was down here when I was living down here. So you know, 14 years ago I didn't have a lot of money in the job that I was working at. you know, interning that didn't pay a lot of money when I was living in Vermont I didn't have a lot of money.

So having kind of been at those two extremes of really not having a lot of money or just grinding in the middle you know, grinding working eight hours, nine hours a day, just trying to kind of keep my head above water. That wasn't fun. That wasn't fun, Especially when I didn't feel like I was doing that to kind of really get to the next level when I just felt like I was just like clocking and clocking out when I was working at a gas station when I was in high school right? that was. That was not fun but like and this is the thing that like I get why it's so hard to hire people because why in the world would you want to work at a gas station? sorry I think I just my service cup for a second.

So yeah, I was doing some work for this um business class that I'm working on and I was I found this uh Matchbox car on eBay for I think it was like 35 dollars for a pack of 10. I saw that same car just that one selling on Etsy.com for 600 bucks there's a like a collectible Matchbox car and you know if I was, you know if I was in a position right now where I needed to hustle and try to make an extra a couple hundred bucks I wouldn't go get a job at a gas station. There are so many other ways that people can hustle so you know that's the thing where. I I get why it's hard to hire people for those kind of jobs right now because I I don't I I don't see why you why you want to work that kind of job I mean if you and even if I did, I would do it for as little time as possible just long enough for me to buy a smartphone and save up enough money.

So I could start. you know, buying things and selling them on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace or Ebay because that's what I did when I was trying to make some money for my trading account. You know, years ago that was one of the ways that I made some money. It can happen.

So I think it all comes back to feeling like you've got this thing that you're working towards and that's what gets you pushing yourself really hard and driven to take it to the next level because you you have. because I think that's one of the things you know in this sort of world. So many people are, They have this vision of what they want to be. They want to be a successful business owner.

but it's so vague There's no, there's no path from here to there. So then you know, just there's there's no, there's no steps, there's no logical steps that you could take and so no, nothing happens and then it doesn't happen. And then you just kind of keep with the nine to five grind. You keep just.

you know, buying a couple things that at the very short term make you feel good, but then you know, a month later or whatever it's it does make you feel good anymore and you're just in that grind. You're in that just in the middle. This is such a such an awesome time for people that want to be able to Branch out I want to turn that side hustle into a business and make a little bit of extra money and you know whether it's trading or not. I mean there's just so many different ways you could do it today and that's exactly it is the freedom.

That's why I wanted to work for myself. that's why I didn't want to ever have a boss again and I haven't I haven't had a boss. So 14 years ago that was the last boss that I had when I was working down here. So I've been able to do it and it started with a side hustle.

It started with you know yeah selling some stuff on Craigslist you know making making a little bit of money and then you know the trading I was like all right this is something that can you know help me pay some bills I could do a little bit of trading stuff and then you know it's just it just kept going from there. So while I'm while I'm on and before my battery uh dies is that there anyone tuning in that wants to ask me any questions? I'm gonna put the chat up here so I can see your questions. Um what was my first uh aha moment? You know, so it's a Boss 429 is a 429 not a 428. um but my first aha moment when it comes to Trading foreign.

That's a good question. It's hard to say because when one of the things that happened pretty early on you know was early success, you know I mean any one of you right now if you take a trade I mean in theory, you've got a 50 chance of it being a winner, right? So the first time you have a winner, you're like oh my god I've got this. This is easy. I just have to do this every day and then the next day you come in, you lose money and you're like oh man, okay, that was.

that was weird. Well let's try it again. The next day you make money, the next day you lose money, you make money and then after you know a year of that, you're like huh? Well I'm down. you know, whatever amount of money.

but I feel like I do know about trading because I've clearly made money. It's not like I just had, you know, 100 red days in a row. Um, but yeah, this is a little trickier than I thought it was. So I think one of the big things for me and I've talked about this you know a million times.

you know it's sort of part of the my story of the learning curve that I had was um it was August and I was I was living up in Vermont and so you know it's the first week of the new, the new month and I ended up taking like a four or five thousand dollar loss you know I got I got smoked and because of that my account was below the PDT level. So I wasn't going to be able to trade for well until I came up with 5 dollars to sell to you know, fund my account back up above 25k. So I had a couple old cars um one I had bought for 350 bucks uh from a from a friend because now I bought that car I put in a new battery I did some other stuff to it anyways I ended up selling it for 1800 bucks so made a little bit of money on that I had another car just kind of like that that I sold so scrapped together scrape together a little bit of money, funded the account again and during the time that the account was offline because I couldn't trade what did I do I reviewed the metrics I went to the metrics and I was like what are you doing right I didn't focus on my losers I mean I knew I was losing money in general but I was like where am I making money, what is working in my strategy and as I went through that and I tried to figure out what was actually working in my strategy, that's when I realized that there was something in common with my winners I was doing better on stocks with high relative volume I was doing better on stocks that were gapping up I was doing better on stocks that were up at least 10 or 15 20 percent and I was like okay, the and I was doing better on lower price stocks. it was the higher priced stocks than the 15, 20, 30 price range that just worked like getting me day after day.

I mean it was like it's terrible. So so that was part of okay I need to cut those out I need to only focus on this and let's see what happens if I do that. And that was the beginning of my turning point because after that I had about six months of doing pretty well. I made some good money I grew my account from 25 000 up to about fifty five thousand dollars and then in one day I lost 30 grand and I was like oh my God this is unbelievable I'm back to uh, you know, back to square One here on this.

but I wasn't back to square one because what I had just done over the last six months was proven that I could grow an account. And what did I do on the day where I lost money I was trading a stock that was like fifty dollars a share and had breaking news. It was not a good setup and so no, it's not. It shouldn't be, you know.

surprising I ended up losing money on it. It was not a good setup so once again I was like okay I got a little complacent. um I needed I need to tighten this up and I did I tightened it up and then I went for another six eight months and I grew my account back up to 50 up to 75 up to 100 000 and that's when I was like I've got it so there I'm not going to say that there was like a day where I was like I Now have it. It was very much a progression because that's trading.

It's two steps forward. two steps back, two steps forward. two steps back, two steps forward. Two steps back.

Three steps forward. Two steps back. Three steps forward. Two steps back.

So you're making a little progress. and then it's four steps forward. Two steps back. four steps forward.

Two steps back. And then maybe you have one day where you take four steps back and you're like, oh, that sucked. and then you re you regroup. You get dialed in.

you focus on what's working and then again three steps forward. two steps back, three steps forward. four steps back, four steps forward. two steps back.

you know and you start. You start slowly making progress. It's like it would be like your car is stuck in mud and you're like what was the Aha moment when you knew you weren't stuck anymore I was like, well, we were kind of going back and forth. It was like really kind of close there for a while and then then all of a sudden we were going because I don't know and we still weren't totally sure until we were really like out.

So I don't know if that's good, but you know that's kind of. That's kind of what it what it's like. um I think or what it was like for me. So so yeah.

thanks. Thanks for that question. I was A that was a good question. hey Jack hey Ethan should I risk the same amount per trade? So that's a good question on risk management with trading.

I I would say I don't usually risk the same amount on every single trade. There will be some trades where you know I am taking more risks because I think it's a really strong setup. However, I'm not going to risk a hundred thousand on one trade and then 500 on the next trade. so you know your risk has to be somewhat proportional from trade to trade.

So I think at the very least you've got to do that. Um, let's see. so um, friends family supported or understood. so that's a great question.

So how are my friends and family when I was learning how to trade in a lot of ways? Um, I was on my own and I think this is true for a lot of people that are trying to do something that is a little bit risky and trading is certainly one of them. I was trying to do this thing that you know my family they were. They were very skeptical and and even still, you know I have some family members who are like it's just gambling. he's just he's he's a good Gambler I don't know what to say guys.

good gambler but he's just gambling and you know that's they can have their opinion. they can have that opinion. I I It doesn't really make any difference to me. Um, you know there are times where trading does feel like gambling because there's so much risk involved.

but but it's obviously and I know that you know I know that it's more than it's certainly more than that. So they weren't super supportive. Um, and I think that it came from a good place of being. you know, being being worried about, uh, you know, me losing and failing.

But here's the thing that I didn't do a very good job of I didn't do a really good job reassuring them that that wouldn't happen and part of that was because at that point I was too young and I didn't know better and I traded with real money even though I shouldn't have I lost real money and I didn't want to tell them because I did exactly what they told me I should you know what would happen? So I kept it all inside and so I think that they probably sensed that I was not being super straightforward about how things were going and you know. so I think I made it worse on myself I think what I should have done is I should have said and they should have approached the whole thing differently and again, this is like I'll get into this more on Tuesday when I talk about sort of what I would do differently but I should have done it in a way where um I was managing my risk in a smarter uh way where I wasn't putting so much money on the table and this is one of the problems with the PDT rule because in those days I just thought I need a 25 000 account and when my father had died when I was um, 20, 21, 22 it's right after my 22nd birthday and he was 61. 15 years ago when he died at 100, he had a hundred thousand dollars that was split or 200 000 was split between me and my sister and I got 100 and she got 100 but I wouldn't get I didn't get that until she turned 18. and so I I used that money to set up my first trading account and I felt incredibly guilty because I lost that money I felt so guilty I mean it was like my mom was telling me, don't trade, don't day trade, You're going to lose your money you know I mean that's what people said in those days.

they probably do. still say it now and then. Sure enough, I trade with this money I lost and I felt so terrible so that that was not a good situation and you know what? what it ended up doing was to create this relationship that I still have today with losing money. Where I feel like the biggest you know piece of dirt in the world I just feel terrible about myself whenever I lose money and it's I I can't I it's just like still in me because that was sort of.

You know it's like my early trading experience trained me whenever I lost money to feel like I was letting down my dad and I was just a loser and a piece of garbage and that's a really hard that's a really hard thing not you know, in your brain to unwire and I got that real bad I still have it today but you know that's that's part of the deal for me So but in any case, um, you know my I don't I still even today like I don't really talk to my family that much about my trading I don't tell them when I have bad days I don't want to get into it I don't tell them when I have good days either because I don't really want to get into that either. You know, because it's like, well, yeah, I had a good day but hey, let's not forget they're not all like that. but I don't want to talk about the bad days. so I just don't talk about it that much.

Um, you know and that's I don't know that that's the that's the best way but you know that's what I ended up. That's what ended up happening for me. So you know I think I think if I had more confidence I might have been able to say you know, I'm gonna try this thing and you know what? Maybe you're right, maybe you're right that I'm gonna lose. uh, but maybe I'm right, maybe I'm right.

this thing's gonna work and I'm gonna try it because you know what? I don't want to be. You know, 60 years old and live with regret. You know my dad. He died at the age of 61.

he didn't even get retired. I mean he really didn't get like your true kind of retirement that most people would think you would have. So you know that's and his dad died at 61 too. So you know I I'm kind of like at 37.

you know I'm I might be halfway through here I mean I don't know. but if I live past 61 I'm doing something that the last two generations weren't able to do I'm trying to take good care of myself, but at the same time I don't want to live you know and have something happen when I'm 61 years old or whatever and be like I didn't man I should have taken I should I should have Why didn't I step up Why didn't I take more risk? Why didn't I Why didn't I try to start my own business? Why didn't I try to, you know, really create something that I could whatever you know give to my kids? Why didn't I teach my kids how to trade? Why didn't I You know, try to teach more people and you know, So that's the thing. I I Wasn't expecting to enjoy teaching as much as I Do you know I'm sitting here I have two hours to spare. You know I I didn't have to come on here and do YouTube I do this because I love to do it I love to be able to be connecting with you guys I love to be able to see other people out there.

Who are you know for many of you, you're exactly where I was. You know 14 years ago when I was still working a nine-to-five job. or maybe you're where I was 10 years ago and I was just starting to learn how to trade. or maybe you are where I was you know four or five years ago when I was things were starting to turn around for me or whatever.

you know it's like I love being able to connect with you guys and there might be one or two of you out there that take this and you're like, you know what? today's the day I'm gonna I'm gonna make this happen I'm gonna start committing to it I'm really gonna give it a try. so you know I'm not saying that's going to work for everyone and that's like I said earlier. You know one of the reasons that I'm not going to be as popular as some of the other guys out there is because I'm going to tell you the truth that this is hard and it's going to test you. It's really hard.

Emotionally losing money is not easy I Lose money all the time I Lost money today, You know? I'm green on the week and green on the month. Whatever. But you're going to lose money and you've got to be able to handle that and that's not easy. So you've got to be able to keep your head on straight despite losses, despite setbacks and keep pushing.

Keep trying to do better. So you know the other guys out there. You know, just generally speaking who say this is a guaranteed way that you're going to make x amount of money or you're going to be the next millionaire I'm not talking about how many of you guys I think are going to be millionaires. you know what I mean Like first of all, I Don't think that that's what's going to make you happy.

Yeah, it's better having a million bucks than not having it. But more importantly is how you get it. And if you get it because you found a passion and you were able to put in a hundred percent on that and you were able to really lean on your strengths and you found success coming out of that, then you're gonna really love it and you're gonna have the money's gonna follow. I really really believe it will.

and I I Didn't think trading you know would become a passion. but look, some people have a passion for Scrabble some people have a passion for Sudoku some people have a passion for Rubik's Cubes Trading is a is a puzzle. every single day it's a puzzle and I I Love solving the puzzle and every single day when I'm trying to solve the puzzle I'm thinking to myself man, I could have done better I'm going to try to do better tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow I'm gonna try to do better and I keep trying to do better tomorrow and I keep trying to share with you guys everything that I've learned so you guys can hopefully avoid some of the mistakes that I made. But you know I'm not going to be I'm not my Instagram's not going to have pictures of Lamborghinis it's not going to have you know, pictures of me laying on the bed with you know, whatever million dollars of cash or whatever it is.

So I'm not I'm not going to be that guy and I've never been that guy. I You know I've had people come to me and say you would probably have so many more people that joined if you started. You know, if you did that, why don't you go rent a Ferrari and start taking pictures. You know I I See people do it.

But you know the thing is, this is the problem. I I Can guarantee you that if I started doing that, you know the type of people that would start joining the people who want to get rich quick without working hard and you know what that would end up doing is it would it would kill the good uh, testimonials that we have right now. You know the good momentum that we have right now because we've had thousands of students who have come through the classes who the last time I checked we had like 2 200 testimonials and uh, 92 percent of them were, uh, five-star You know I mean that's that doesn't happen by accident, right? That's because we're thoughtful about the type of people that are that we are wanting to attract. So you know if I start putting out that type of content, maybe I can attract more people.

Maybe I would maybe I'd have a million subscribers on um Instagram Maybe I would finally cross over a million subscribers on YouTube which has been like an epic struggle. Um, but I don't know if I don't know if I'd be bringing in the type of people that but then I'd actually want? so I don't know I mean I'm not sure. let's see. let me look at the comments.

so um well thanks for saying that. Laura So you know I I'm I Just had to tell your father I was very proud of you. You know it's it's hard for me to um, you know, take that in because because I I feel like he wouldn't get it. You know he never used a computer.

He didn't know how to use a computer. You know he would have used a smartphone. Um, you know 2007 wasn't that long ago. I mean he certainly could have.

There were a lot of people using computers in 2007. I was using computers but he wasn't he didn't want to. he was he. that was not his thing.

So I don't know that he would really get it. Um, but but he and I were really close so I would I would have tried to help him understand, but it's it's confusing. You know I mean the whole the whole Market I mean it's it's not just day trading. it's crypto.

It's Bitcoin it's Nfts. It's the amount of money that people can make is crazy crazy. It's I think it's hard for old school people to understand someone who could make twenty thousand dollars pressing keys on their keyboard like that's real money? That's not I mean that's insane. So yeah, thanks for those tuning in.

I hope you hit the thumbs up. Um I I will do. um I'll give you guys a link to join I'm gonna do a talk on Tuesday in the afternoon and I'll I'll put a link down here if you guys want to check that out. Um, well, I'm not going to put the link down today, but I'll do it I'll do it maybe over the weekend.

I've got to figure out how we'll get. um, you guys get the YouTube people um into that. but just just keep it in the back of your mind that I'll do something on Tuesday but I'll put some stuff together for it I won't be walking around I'll be I'll be at my desk and I'll I'll be talking about. you know, talking a little bit more detail about how I learned and what I would do differently today.

So maple syrup season is over. We had a good season I got about maybe four, maybe five gallons. So it's about to get one gallon of syrup with the trees that that I have. Um, takes about 80 gallons of sap.

80 to 100 gallons of sap. so it's like one percent. I have the sugar a good sugar maple. you could get two percent but I don't seem to have I don't seem to get two percent I seem to be more like one.

One point five percent, So it's about 500 gallons almost of sap that I had to boil down to get those four gallons of syrup and it's nice and warm. It's almost 80 degrees here in New York today so came down to the city um for the day and then I'll be back up I'll be back home tomorrow. But yeah, whenever I come down, you know I think about the fact that you know 14 years ago 15 years ago when I was living down here I was driving back and forth all the time I was you know I mean this was where I lived 18 degrees in Minnesota oh man, I'm cold hey Ryan thanks how long was it between my aha moment and my good goodbye to the regular job? So I quit the job in New York and then moved up to Vermont I Continued working for him for might have been like two and two more years. Almost about two.

Yeah, a year and a half. maybe two. almost two more years and I was freelancing for him which was given me a little bit of money so that was good. Um, but then you know that dried up and so I I ended up.

uh I was I was done with that income before I started Trading So yeah, that that got me. Um, that got me for a while but then I had to do it on my own. Why do I think day trading is considered taboo by some I've never really heard any I've never heard someone say taboo but um I mean I I think the reason that it's you know frowned upon if you want I don't even want to say frown upon but the reason is some people approach it with so much skepticism. I think is is the fact that a lot of people lose money and you know if you're if you said you were going to become a professional poker player I think people would be like oh my God do anything.

other than that, you know what I mean because so many people lose money and it feels like if you're a professional poker player you know, couldn't you at any given time have one day that you know room that you're done and obviously if you know how to manage your risk you wouldn't allow that to happen. Uh, you know. But the fact with trading is is kind of similar that you could have. You can do really really really really really really really well for years and years and years and years.

and then one day potentially you can make a huge mistake and that's that is pretty scary. It is scary so you've got to. You've got to stay on your game for sure. And one of the things that's really important is you gotta draw money out of your account so you don't leave enough cash in your account to go Rogue because you have to remember that you cannot always.

um you can't always trust that In the Heat of the Moment you won't do something crazy so you know taking money out of the market and then putting it into you know wherever you want you could put it, you could reinvest it. You could. There's a million things we talk about it in the classes, but you know I wouldn't leave too much in there because you know you're just putting yourself at kind of a a level of risk that you don't need. but you want enough to be able to trade so you know for me the minimum I would say at this point for me for the way I trade let's see, um probably 250 000.

probably I mean I don't need you know sometimes people will say Ross you know if you thought about you should open a hedge fund or you should open a you know, something like that. The problem with that is you know if you gave me more money I wouldn't be able to make more money you know I'm I'm as a day trader moving in and out of the markets I mean I can't move in and out with two million share positions. You know you gave me 30 million dollars to day trade