Hi I'm Ross Cameron and this is my podcast where we'll explore everything related to day trading. You'll hear me recap trades, analyze strategy, dive into trading, psychology, and interview other Traders I'll share with you the biggest ups and the biggest Downs of being a Trader and you'll pick up tips and tricks along the way that you won't hear anywhere else. If you love what you hear and you want to keep learning, you can check out more free content over on my YouTube channel or visit Warrior Trading.com to see my premium membersonly chat rooms, scanners, and trading courses. I Want to remind you as always that trading is risky and my results and experiences as a Trader are not typical.

There's no guarantee that you'll find success whether you trade on your own or you'll earn for me. So please take it slow and practice in a simulator before you put real money on the line. And remember, these episodes are for educational purposes only and are not Financial advice or buy sale recommendations. So let's go ahead and jump in to this episode in today's episode I'll be interviewing Max He's the most recent student at Warrior trading.

AC cross over $1 million in verified profits. We are super proud of him! I'm really excited to interview him and as always when I interview profitable Traders I'm going to be asking him questions about his learning curve, what were his turning points, and of course we'll talk about his strategy. So as an aspiring Trader these are awesome sessions to tune in to and one of the things that I did after interviewing a number of traders who had made over a million dollars uh, Max is uh, the 10th Trader at Warrior trading the 10th student to make over a million dollars After interviewing all these Traders I decided to write a blog because what I noticed was that a lot of these Traders had very similar characteristics both in strategy and in mindset. and so I wanted to try to articulate these and condense them all into a brief podcast.

There's a link in the bottom of this uh description for the podcast where you can check out the Allstar Traders page over at Warrior trading. So after you listen to this interview, I hope you're inspired I hope you're excited I hope you check out that Allstar uh Traders page and as again as always I have to remind you that Max's results are not typical and there is no guarantee that you will find similar results because trading is in fact risky. So please take it slow. But if you're here to learn you want to study, let's go ahead and jump in to today's interview with Max All right everyone.

Well, um I am excited here because I'm going to sit down and uh, talk with Max he is the newest member of the Warrior Community who has gotten his $1 million badge over a million dollars of profit from Trading. So this is an opportunity for us to sit down and talk to you and hear a little bit about your experience, your strategy, your turning point. And then we'll talk about some of the nitty-gritty things: what platform he uses broker? um, order routing? what kind of tools he's using? I'll you know, ask some questions around that stuff and um, then we'll give, um, hopefully some inspiration to beginner Traders out there. and uh, maybe there'll be a few really good pieces of um, advice.

good takeaways from what he's gone through in his journey. This is always is meant to inspire you. Not for you to think that his result or mine are typical. We don't track the typical result traders in our community, so we can't say that you're any more or less likely to succeed.

But I hope this inspires you I hope you find it interesting and um, let's go ahead and jump in. So Max Welcome thank you! I'm so proud of you man. Be here. you've that's awesome.

Yeah about like a long time coming, but super excited to be here. So how long have you been? Uh, how long you been trading? This is the first time we've ever talked. so for those tuning in just so you know, I've we've never talked before so you're we're learning at the same time about Max Yeah! so the first time that I started really taking up trading, you know it was kind of similar to a lot of others where it was just just Robin Hood You know, investing in stocks for overnight, whatever it might be, but that never found success in that. Okay, um, but I followed back up after one of my friends actually got back into it.

Um, and I started learning more about it and just patterns and strategies and all that. So it was February of 2020 right before the pandemic, right before the market crashed and everything like that. Yeah, um so I was able to learn a good bit from it. Um, at first I was really just trying to find anything any um, education at all, but found you Ross and ever since it was just a lot easier to succeed.

a lot easier to learn, but good. Now what is your um, what's your, what's your primary strategy? If if you were going to summarize, you know you didn't think I knew anything about trading, what would you tell me your strategy is? how do you trade? Um, so I'm just like you Ross I'm Momo or so I just find highay stocks that are continue higher Max What does Momo mean? momentum momentum Ross Okay, but I'll look for momentum stocks or leading gappers each day. Yeah, and through that I'll look for dips, micro dips, any other kind of dips I Really like to take dip trades through that. Um, my favorite tip: My my favorite kind of trade actually is taking a dip trade off of support, holding that up to a break of high day, adding into it, and then taking profit after you sometimes find bottoming Tails Um, and shorts obviously don't like bottoming Tails if I ever see a bottoming tail, I'm all over it and that'll also give it through the high day that much more.

Go and get that much more of a scooze too. So so for those tuning in, you know the bottoming tail. This is something we talk about a lot and I'll just I'll draw it for you here. So um, when we have a stock that's pulling back so we'll have you know this big green candle right here and then we have a maybe micro pullback kind of forming right here.

and then you have this candle that opens, it sells off here and then immediately reverses and comes back up. That's a lower candle wick and when it closes green like that, that is a bottoming tail and it's super bullish because even though it's bearish that it sold off, the Bulls bought it right back up and it closes strong and that can create a a bear trap. And you know, as my son was asking the other day, Dad what's a bear trap I said Son Bears aren't very smart. They fall into the bear trap and that's how we catch bare meat.

So when you have a stock that flushes like that, it looks like it's rolling over, it looks like it's dead, and then it comes right back up. And then what you have is double buying. You have buying short cover and you have buying long. Momo Traders double buying double volume.

bigger breakout. So this is all about the language of the market and and you're able to visualize that language through you know, through the chart pattern and and through the ultimately, even sometimes individual candlesticks. what are you using for your charts? Are you on, um, a broker for charts? or are you doing it? Yeah I'm on thinkers So through TD Okay, yeah, so TD charts that's good and are you using TD for order execution also yeah, I did try light speed at 1.2 for premarket because I couldn't really figure out um, right, think or Swim for premarket which isn't the best situation. but at the same time though I didn't find it to be all that useful.

it just I struggled with it. So I went back some stuff. Yeah, yeah. okay, all right that makes sense.

No, no piano playing. My son's looking at the piano. hi um it's like the it's just not a great time to play the piano. He's like it's just going to be too loud.

Um so that's interesting on thinker Swim Um, we'll We'll come back to that in a second. So, but in terms of strategy, tell me how do you find stocks to trade? Um so each morning I'll look at the leading gappers that um your your scanners find me. um I'll often times look at the biggest, of course, most volume. I Don't really like stocks over $30 um I've kind of tried to go into the large caps at certain points too, and small caps were kind of bad, but not my not my strong suit in there.

Um, but yeah. I'll really just look for leading gappers or sometimes continuation from the last day. I'll look for daily setups, sometimes too very occasionally. um, stuff is just super sold off.

I Don't swing really, but just really, just look for daily setups or leading Gaers is the main strategy. So since you're with Tdmr trade, how much are you relying in using level two? Do you use the level two? or do you use the ladder? Um, I use level two. um, pretty much entirely I'll have okay, the active Trader that's where the ladder is. It's really just the order execution window, whatever you want to call it y.

but um I I Rely solely on hot Keys though too, and unlike a lot of others, um, unless it's pre market I will only buy and sell with market so like going to Market not limit orders so it's a little different. but yeah, well. I you know honestly. So what's kind of interesting here is that that's what a lot of traders who are with TDM a trade use because it's the easiest within the platform.

so you've kind of adapted your strategy to fit the tool you're using. which, um, you know is is fine. it works. There's some, you know.

there's some argument, um, that you can have between market and and limit orders. Um, I use marketable limit orders so if the ask is four, I put a limit of 410. So essentially it performs and functions as a market order unless the stock rips to 450. In which case, I might only fill a couple shares or none.

And I generally think that's better than filling at 450, which is what a market order would ultimately do. Do you ever have that happen or not Too bad? Yeah, yeah. There are certain times where it goes from up that jump of 50 cents where there's just no other sellers in that area. Um, so there's certain times that I will get filled much higher than where I want to be filled, but right at the same time it's sometimes it can also kind of less me.

in a way where I'm actually selling as that happens. I mean there's sometimes where I'll make mistakes though and it'll just go without me and then I get filled up. Yeah, yeah, but no, you're right. I mean there, There's times.

You probably catch both sides at various points. There's times where you feel bad on the buy side. there's times where you feel bad on the cell side, but there's times you get the sort of just great feel on one side or the other. Yeah, okay.

so um, so your process of finding stocks to trade, you're using the Gap scanners. You're looking for the top two sort of leading gappers. You're avoiding stocks over 30. You don't care as much about float as long as it's obvious, but probably low float you know is are the ones that can be more crazy.

Um, you are using Hot Keys you're using Market orders during regular trading hours pre-market you're using. Is it just the the ladder or you're using buy Ask I'll do, um, buy, ask and sell bid and stuff like that. still hot keys and all that. I'll just switch to time and force to extended hours rather than day.

Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah. and I mean the other thing with a market order is you're never going to be. You're never going to fill on the ask, right? So that's sort of that. the punishment with with marketable orders.

The way the way I kind of feel about it is when I want to get in something really quick. I'm going to buy basically market and I'll pay the extra price of the spread to get in right now because I'm not going to be patient and sit and wait on the bid on a stock that's breaking out. But if I'm in and I have a good position, have you tried clicking join Ask during regular trading hours to see how it fills? I actually I I did a while ago. Now with the Shar size I'm taking now so I'll buy in 2,000 share blocks too.

because it'll it'll fill a lot faster than say I take 10,000 shares rather than just filling one order. I'll press five times rather than that. um, but I haven't tried that for a while though. so I not not really sure on the joining a bit or ask.

Interesting when I was using TD I was um, buying ask and I was trying to join the ask to sell at the ask price. That way at least I could be a little patient on the other side of the order. and then that kind of recoups the loss of the spread that I got from the beginning right? I buy ask. But then if I sell, ask, then I'm I'm kind of even out for me.

Yeah, okay, um yeah. so then and then you've got the hocks and then you've got the micro pullbacks that you're focusing on. And what hours do you usually trade? um I I tend to make the most profit between like 8:30 or sorry I'm from Illinois so 8:30 um 9:30 right when the Market opens. I'll make the most from then um, about two hours past into at about 10:30 or so.

but awesome when I when I tend to stay longer I tend to give back I tend to ruin my days and yeah, just it's just a cycle. So really try and stick between those two hours though. try and be done at that point. Good.

So then what do you do for the rest of the day? Whatever. I want? That's the beauty of trading. Nice. That's cool.

Um now. unfortunately though, I'll I'll still always watch charts though sometimes I'll put up alerts. Um okay. I always have an eye on everything that's going on okay, especially in a market like right now.

Um, yeah, in the beginning of June where it's just super slow I I really want to I have a lot of fomo I don't want to miss that one that's going on right now and I don't know I I I Sort of have this rule that I'm not always good at following, which is when I'm done, don't go back and don't keep looking because then what ends up happening is if I come back at two and I miss this big move from 11 to one, then I can't change the fact that I missed it. but I tend to sort of overcompensate and then you know with my luck it'll be. you know, crap from 2: to 4 and then I end up losing the gains I made on the morning and I still miss that opportunity and then I'm just agitated frustrated. It's really easy to carry that then into the next day.

Feels like you're that one stock in the morning too. It has a certain price action. You go back later though and it's just a lot more whippy. Sometimes more choppy, sometimes not.

But yeah it. it just trades differently too. at certain point time points right? Exactly Yeah. And that's that's where I feel sometimes like it's that Fomo causes traders to lose sight of what they already have.

You know if and you know you, it doesn't matter. You could be up 200, you could be up 500, you could be up 5,000 And anyone any Trader can say oh, that's not enough when they see the stock they were trading go up another. You know, 200% without them. But it's like you know what? man like you made your money and you made more in that two hours this morning than most people probably make in a couple hours of work.

Why isn't that enough? Why you? Why you have to go back? Why do you have to let that Fomo get to you? Your your next best chance is to wait probably and hit it tomorrow tomorrow morning during your your best time. And that's kind of that funny thing where the the the the the gain if you come back and take those trades and make money. what you've gained is you know you've made some money, but you sort of broke rules. a little bit on discipline, but if you lose, not only do you lose money, you have this mental kind of setback where now you, you're you, you're off your focus, you're you gave into Fomo.

You're frustrated. and that is almost worse to me than losing money. because get when you get off your kind of aame that can start to snowball and I mean I've literally had days where I was in great shape and then at 3:00 in the afternoon I lost like 30 or 40 grand and I'm like are you serious right now y what's wrong with me? What do you do when you find yourself either you know you have a big red day or H how how good are you at being able to kind of compartmentalize it? Just put it away and come back. you know, the next day with like a clean slate and not be venge trading and kind of making all those mistakes.

Sure, um, it really just depends on how big the loss was. of course. um I mean for my bigger losses, my biggest one, that was a really tough one to come up. um come out after um but some of my other ones in there too.

Just knowing that that red day was doable for a green day too. where I can make that back easily in another Green Day It's a lot easier to think about it like that where it's just oh this will just take another two or three days to come out of. or if I have a really good day I'll my do of it. So it's that's true.

It's really just thinking back too. and I mean sometimes I'll even go back into Trader viiew look at my um profit curve and just know that I'm successful. Know that what I've done has gotten me where I'm at and just know that after that loss, it's just another. like you say water under the bridge or it's really just one step closer to succeeding.

It's one less loss that you'll have in long term. So that's how I like to think about it. that's good, that's good. I mean the the fact is everyone is going to have losses and and it's really your choice whether you're going to view that through the lens of negativity and I suck and you know this is terrible and I'll probably never make this back or I'm going to be depressed all day Or you choose and it takes strength to be able to not kind of fall into that rut I think a lot of people will fall into that kind of you know, self-loathing and type of rut very easily.

That takes a certain amount of willpower to say I'm not g to go there I'm not going to spend the rest of the day thinking about this dwelling on it. This day will be water under the bridge a couple days from now and since 3 days from now I'm not going to care about it at all. I'm not going to waste any more time today being upset about this loss. But of course that's easier to say when you're able to manage your losses to not be too much more than you would make in one good day.

um, or too much more than you might make make on one good trade. I You know my my biggest loss this year is twice my biggest winner this year, so you know that's that's not great. My biggest red day uh, this year I don't think it's it's not as big as my biggest Green Day So you know that so that's good I guess. but uh, you know if I took a $30,000 loss today I wouldn't be likely that I would make it back tomorrow because the Market's just so cold right now.

it would probably take a week or you know, maybe two weeks to make that back. So you know that's certainly. um, you know it's It's good to be thinking about risk a little bit with what's the market that we're in and you know, can. I Really How much do I really want to potentially draw down today? Because you know if you're having a day where you're red on four out of five stocks, you know, or whatever it's like this, just everything is telling me this isn't the day to push it and now it's my choice of whether I'm going to listen to those signals.

CU While the chart patterns may not be communicating that your P&l in the day can, if you're read, when have you ever been read on four out of five or four out of six stocks and that was your best day ever? Like that doesn't happen. you know what I mean. So, so when you step up and try to swing hard on the six stock that comes up, you're really setting yourself up to potentially Get Wrecked Yeah, the best days? Usually we're green on all the stocks we trade on the best days, right? Maybe it's two out of two or three out of three or four out of four stocks. I mean I've had days where I've traded 10 or 15 stocks and I'm green on most of them.

You know those are the days where it makes sense to dig deep. put the P of the metal. You're seeing this sort of fomo momo across the whole Market Everything is moving higher. That's the day to be aggressive, not the day where you're red on the majority of stocks and everything that pops up runs right into a wall and then comes right back down.

Yep, those days days you get green early, you get a good profit cushion early. Um, stick within your parameters of whenever you're going to trade. Like you say, if you're not green pre market, if you haven't taken trade pre market, you're likely not to take a trade that day too. Yeah, Also another thing to think about too.

something. I was um, noting earlier this or maybe it was end of last week I was looking at my metrics and I've had I've had two really really good days this year and you know we're we're like 40% through the year right now. I mean we're almost halfway through the year by the of this month, so I was like should I be trading the rest of this year? Hope you know trying each day hoping that it'll be one of maybe the two days in the second half of the year that are that good or should I focus on the 125 other days which you know statistically will probably just be small base hits. but if and I think for me, this is a big one for the rest of this year.

If I can keep my losses smaller, I'm going to finish much better the second half than I've done in the first half. The first half I've been churning a lot I've let losses get too big because I try to scale up for that big move and then it Rejects and rather than just being grateful for the you know smaller gains of 2 to 3,000 a day which is totally respectable and is 750,000 a year potentially I'm sizing up for this big move and then finishing down 10,000 and it happens again and again and again. a cold market and I'm trying to just stop thinking about hitting. You know, 30, 40, 50, 75,000 $100,000 green days because it isn't happening right now and every time I try swing for it I feel like I'm striking out I mean literally I've only had two days where I was I think over $50,000 this year which you know was awesome those two days but we're already over 100 days into the trading year so that's only 2% of my trading days.

You can't focus all your attention on what has the likelihood of being only 2% of the time what's happening, the remaining 98% of the time. how are you trading? and if that whole time you're stretching and pushing yourself too hard and digging yourself holes and being sloppy, that's not good. I think so. that's kind of what I'm thinking about right now because you know we are in a bare market and so you know.

The question is, um, it's not about really to me making a ton of money. Year: I'm not going to set any records this year trading small caps in a bare Market but can I keep my head above water? Can I stay green and can I make a little bit and can I improve my trading by being more disciplined because if I could do those things then I'm going to come out of this and into the next bull market really well equipped to thrive. I'll only do better when things are hotter. If I can be more disciplined y, it's not going to hurt, it's only going to help y similar to you.

Similar actually. that last, um August I was actually red that month about 26,000 That was my biggest loss. Biggest red month that was. That was tough.

Yeah, coming out of that too. I mean talking about discipline too I Focused a lot on just taking the A quality setups, focusing on stocks that are only over Vwap, not really taking many dip trades, just taking the most high profitability and just a couple trades a day and done. get out. That's yeah, like I'm probably G have to go back to that pretty soon too.

It's been a little bit of a struggle early. yeah, end of May early June But but those thing is, those days add up right? and what what they do. Not only do they add up when you have a stretch of 5 days, 10 days like that, you get this big boost of confidence because you're like I'm back. This is.

this is what it feels like and and that those small green days after five or 10 of them in a row that feels so much better than the big red days you were having before. So even though you might not make a ton in those small base hits, you feel so so much better. You're like, thank you this. It's reaffirming that I know what I'm doing I'm back on track I Just need to stay focused on this if I keep doing this.

I'll recoup the losses that I dug, being way too aggressive, being stupid, whatever and now I just need to stay focused and and I feel like you know I'll stay super focused and then things start to get hot and you could start to get a little looser. You could start having trades where you hold through a huge dip, but the Market's hot, it does rip back up and then you know you kind of get into this expansion where things are so hot you're just really pushing it. you're killing it. and then you get caught.

you get spanked for being a little a little looser and then that's the reminder and that's where you have to make that transition to going into a little bit of a colder Market It's like okay, that's the one that got me I need to go back to being disciplined and get really tight again and then recoup those losses and then start to, you know, expand out but you know sometimes I I don't know Traders have asked me sometimes Ross You know you've been trading for so long it feels like you're making it too complicated. Just trade the same same share size every day. just always trade 15,000 shares. just do the same.

like why why do you try to like throttle up and throttle back and I'm like I'm like, well you know there are some markets where I'm literally trying to push almost my like entire account into a trade because I'm like this is so hot I want to capitalize as much as I can on it? So I might go up to 35 45, 50,000 shares or 100,000 shares. Whatever it is. Whatever I can afford because it's so hot and yet and of course sometimes I'll be wrong and take a huge loss. But enough times I've done that and I've been right and I've been like it was worth it.

And then there's other markets where it's like I don't even feel comfortable taking the full 10,000 shares. Yeah, so it feels like it would. I Think that people like the idea of being able to automate a strategy? you know, just take the take the guesswork out of it, take the you know, make it easy, and just do the exact same every day. Sure, and you know what? if you did that, you would probably have a a sort of a bit more flatter curve because you wouldn't have those expansions of those huge green days.

sure. But then you would also have the draw Downs that you know come hand in hand. MH Uh, so I don't know I mean at the end of the day, maybe someone who trades like that would be much more emotionless in their trading. And just like I'm coming in 10,000 in 10,000 out some days I I make more some days I make less but I feel like it's you Know this is just the human aspect of trading that when it's hot, you try to get as much as you can and when it's cold, you try to take shelter and ease off.

right? Yeah, definitely. And just like Jeff says too, I mean cash is a position too. So I mean I like to think about that too during a cold Market Um, it definitely does help just knowing that if I don't trade, it's better than losing or taking a huge share size though on a on a similar pattern looking on a chart and losing big in a cold Market that I can't make back very shortly like I wouldn't Hot Market So I think it's definitely important to size up and size down with the markets too, depending on whatever is each person feels comfortable with, but especially in a cold. Market I Definitely think it is best to sides down.

Um, and if it's for me sometimes I still have that mental blockage I guess of being able to do that? Really? Um, so what I'll do is I'll actually withdraw almost all of my accounts that I don't have much in there. Um, makes it a lot easier just because when I do click that buy button Eony, I'm not able to take 20,000 shares and I'll do I do the same thing. Um I just cut my account in half. Uh, at the end of last week I just I was like no.

I I just don't need the ability to swing big right now. Yeah, I haven't I haven't taken a huge position in I don't know how long it's been a couple months and I don't want the buying power to be able to do it because I'm afraid that for whatever reason I'll have a day where I get a little I get a little emotional I get a little frustrated I get stubborn and then I just I get wrecked and to just completely diffuse the situation, make it so I can't do that. The only way is to take the money out. You know you.

you can call your broker and have them limits, but then you can also just call them and ask them to increase those or take them off. so if the money's not there, it's not there. you can't Yeah, nothing you can do so I think that's a smart move I've heard a lot of Traders do that and I I think that that's a good cold Market strategy and you know the the thing is, what's has stopped me from doing that at times. In the past has been Fomo because it's been like dude the the the one day you know that GameStop is going to go crazy, you're not going to have enough money in your account and what was that money doing sitting anywhere other than in your trading account cuz there's nowhere else it could be where it would be making more than it's making in your trading account.

You know you put half a million dollars in the S&P 500. Maybe it goes up 10% in in a year it's 50 Grand that same 500 Grand You put that whole thing on a $5 you know, stock that goes from five to six, 7 to eight. You know it goes to 10. You're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars of profit in one day.

So you know that's where the Fomo starts to kick in of just leave the money there because that's the one day you need it. it's going to pay for all the days it was just sitting there doing nothing. But what that doesn't take into account is the risk that comes with having it there. Yeah yeah.

Similar story actually is that I actually just took about two-thirds of my account out like two or three weeks ago. Um, same stories that as you is that I didn't want to take it out for a while even though I knew that the market was slowing down I knew it was getting choppier I knew that getting more dangerous from my account I didn't I didn't want to do it just in case there was going to be that one day. that one stock that goes 50 100, 200% right? Yeah, definitely that's just to figure it out and just call it a day and work with what you got. Yeah, yeah.

I think it's I think it's the right move. Um, you know I think within reason. I I've known some people who have taken money out of their account to you know, pay taxes or you know, buy something or whatever and then they didn't leave them elves enough in the account and then when things really did start to pick up, they really weren't able to trade as aggressively as they could. So I I I don't think it's probably a good idea to drop an account down to like PDT 25,000 No, you know I think for some Traders 30 to 40, 45 to 50,000 in a PD PDT account is is a good place to leave it.

I I did that for quite a while I kind of would grow it up to 100 and then take out 50, grow it up to 100, take out 5050 and and that kept me in a good kind of you know spot. But then you know eventually as I started feeling comfortable taking more size I need more buying power and so I need to leave more money in there and um, you know I so it's it's just it's it's got to be a personal decision but that that was, that's I'm glad you mentioned that because I think that's a good technique that Traders can use when they're feeling they're having a hard time. kind of self-regulating and and in a way it kind of sometimes can go back to like the basics of like a small account challenge like get in, get and get out, be disciplined one trade a day and for some people, trade or rehab. you know I mean if you need to do trade or rehab it people have to do it from time to time me included and it's just an opportunity to press the reset button in a big way to go back to basics and the during the first two weeks of Trader rehab.

What you're hoping to have are um, you know, a nice stretch of small green days and then your emotional. the emotional place you're in 2 weeks in after you know, eight or what, whatever decent small little base hits. you're in such a different place than where you were sort of at the bottom of the hole when you were still losing and you getting more and more amped up and fueled up. So yeah, no, that's good.

Um so what? Um so we've talked about high LEL Strategy: We talked a little about some of the nitty-gritty stuff with routing and your broker. um the the the Turning Point um I guess it so I guess one of the things that you did that was really really valuable was you actually followed the the good advice of trading a simulator. Yeah, yeah. Simulator for as long as I could.

Um, good. There was times that I wanted to put the money in a lot sooner than I Um, actually did I mean months sooner? But I suck it out and just made sure that I knew what I was doing through hot through through cold. Well, listen guys. I'm you know I I'm never going to tell you for those listening that trading is easy because it's not.

Trading is hard and I'm sure Max would agree. right? Trading is hard. Oh, absolutely, you set the right foundation by trading in a simulator. If you had trade with real money and made money, okay, that would have been great.

But if you had traded and lost money, what you would have done is you would have started your trading career from an emotionally fueled place of loss. Then desperation kicks in, then frustration, then impulsivity, and next thing you know, you can start spiraling digging the hole deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper. And then boom, you're out of the market and you're a St static of a failed Trader That's what happens when you start with real money and you're not lucky. The people who start with real money and get lucky.

you know the small handful and just take off and go. That's great. but the fact is, they were taking this risk that if it went badly for them, they were losing. That that was it.

That it. It almost guarantees that you're going to fail by starting in a simulator. It's okay to lose because the emotions don't get that high. You're able able to build experience and then you have 6 Months 8 months, almost a year in the simulator.

Whatever it is. 8 months, 10 months in the simulator, and now you have all of that historical data that is giving you the confidence when you start trading real money that you actually know what you're doing. Yeah, and then when you start with real money, if you do lose a little bit, you have this big reinforcement, this confidence booster that you can still look back on and this is what I've done. So okay.

First first month I lost a little bit, but this is what I've done I Know what I'm doing, Stick with the plan, stay focused, and just is such a different emotional perspective and you know a big part of success. and trading is the mental game. And so you started. You laid the foundation the right way.

You know I mean there's going to be people that lay the foundation the right way and they don't succeed And you know I Think this. This speaks a little bit to aptitude. So what is it about you and me? What is it about us that we have the aptitude to be a successful? Trader So how many words per minute do you think you could type? Are you pretty fast on the computer? No, not really. No.

My. God So what is it You good? I Mean what is it That sort of has made you good? You obviously have to make quick decisions? Sure. Um, that's a good question. I Don't know.

I I've always grown up playing sports and just thinking about sports and just one loss isn't going to set you back a whole season. It's just about moving on from that loss and continuing forward. Really, it's just I Think it. It's very similar to Sports in that sense where you just you get, you have to move on.

You're not going to succeed if you don't move on. Um, it's about going the next day and flushing the last day. It's a lot harder said than done. Um, or a lot easier set than done.

But it's definitely all mental is. Just think about moving on to the next. It's the next trade. You can't dwell on the past.

if you already lost, you can't change that. It's really just about going to the next trade the next day. Whatever, it might be focusing on each day or each week. Whatever, each month it might be.

Just focus on being successful for those certain C time frames. Really? H Interesting. Well, I Think that from the emotional aptitude standpoint, you definitely are coming in as a pretty. You seem like a pretty levelheaded person, and it seems like your approach to trading from the sort of mental side is very centered.

yeah, which not everyone is able to achieve. So that's a that's an aptitude that you have U emotional intelligence or whatever you might call it that you naturally seem to have. Um, but there are some physical aptitudes uh, mechanical aptitudes like being able to use a computer, being able to use trading software, being able to have hand eye coordination to press the keys when you're seeing something on the chart moving which you clearly have you could disc discounted. but you you definitely have it because otherwise you wouldn't be able to trade as quickly as you do.

And one one minute long trades is definitely very rapid decision making. An ability to get in, see what's happening. Get out? Are you using? Um, using a laptop or a mouse and a keyboard? Um, I'm on laptop, but I do have a 35 inch monitor that I hook it up too with another portable monitor on the side of it too. Okay, sometimes when I'm traveling, I'll have two of those portable monitors similar to your setup too when you travel Y for the most part be one screen so you use the laptop.

Do you use trackpad and and the right on the laptop? No, No. I tried that like you did. but I just yeah. I can't get used to I'll have a mouse and a keyboard hooked up to it I'll have the laptop closed kind of behind my desk or on on the side of it.

But got it. It'll be basically a desktop setup, but in a laptop powering it. What were you doing before you got into trading? Did you have a career or a Um study? I was actually in college so I'm I'm only 22 right now so um I had just graduated college um in February So I'm I'm fortunate enough to be where I'm at with trading career and not having having to find a job and hopefully never will have to find a job. that's that's the main goal.

I Don't want to be in the office, but making over a million dollars trading by the age of 22, it's phenomenal. You are. I Mean you're you're you're years ahead. I hadn't even started day trading fulltime when I was 22.

I mean I had dabbled in the market, but I wasn't full-time when I was 22. You are years ahead of where I was and I hope that that means by the time you're my age, you'll be years ahead of where I am today. I mean honestly, those sorry, those are some big shoes to Phil Ross and you're what you've done. Your strategy clearly works.

I mean I'll throw the disc out there but you know our our um I guess success isn't normal Yeah, but it's super cool. Just your strategy really does work and you've proven that. Thank yous have proven it. I'm 37 years old and I've at 10 million right now in in gross profit you're at.

You're at a million and you're 22 and you did that pretty quick. So you've got you know the next 15 years until you're 37. Even if you don't even have to average a million dollars a year to be over 10 million by 37, you are tracking for that. Certainly I mean you know it's always.

there's no sense in putting a putting out a goalpost so far away. It's not not really that big of a deal either way, but um, but you've you've got something that's working and you know. the thing that I always encourage people is if you find something that's working, double down on it. Just go all in on it.

Don't give up Focus as much as you can on it and within your strategy. If there's aspects of your trading that aren't going well, set them on the side. Leave them alone. Focus on what's working.

Don't obsess about what's not working, Don't obsess about your losses, Focus on your winners, what you're doing right on those winners, and how to make those types of Trades happen more and more frequently. and with bigger size, that's how you scale it. So I'm I'm so excited to see Um you know how you do in the the coming years. So what? What's um what are a couple pieces of um advice that you would give to someone who came up to you and said hey, I I Want to learn how to um, dat trade? What if your um Grandma Millie came up and said max I'd like to learn how to day trade what would you tell her um well other than the fact that hey, you should look up Warrior trading on YouTube or anything like that that I did um I'd probably just say don't let don't let the losses get to you um it's really just about moving on from that again.

I know I know I've hit on it a lot through this um interview. but really, just moving on from the losses is super important too and just stick with it. Stick with your strategy. don't like you said to if something works out for you like the small caps would work out for me.

Um, and if large caps don't work out for you, there's no point in going there even if small caps are slow. If large caps don't work out for you, don't don't risk it. It's not worth it. But yeah, that's good.

Yeah I you know usually I I have so many people you know of course that know that I trade and everything that will come up to me and ask me. Um, you know how to get started and it's not uncommon for me to sort of look at someone and think to myself that this is probably not a good fit for you and I think that it's I you know it's It's often like don't think that you are going to be good enough on the computer I Don't think you maybe are going to really be quick enough I I don't think I think that the learning curve is just too steep. there's just too much that you need to learn and this you know this is sometimes on. um, you know, a family member or a friend that'll come up.

to me that's on the older side and I'm thinking I I want to just I want to talk you about trading because this is not easy and it didn't happen overnight For me. this isn't like. oh I can pick up trading. You know, for an hour a day in retirement and start making an extra.

You know, six figures a year. It's not like that. if it were like that, everyone who's retired would do that. Yeah, there's some people who are retired who it works for, but you know it's because they probably already came to the table with a certain set of aptitudes that made them more likely to be successful.

and you know a whole bunch of variables that just were in their favor so you know. But but then on the other hand, there are people that I'll meet and there sharp. They're quick. You could tell just the way you're talking with them that they're they're very sharp people and those the type of people that I look at and pretty quickly I can think you should at least try it.

Yeah, and maybe it won't work, but but you seem like you're firing on all cylinders and you're at a place where you have the mechanical aptitude. it seems like you've got the emotional aptitude. You should try it, but do it in a safe way. Practice a simulator.

you know, do all the right things. That way if it doesn't work out, it's like no harm, no foul. You know you didn't lose a ton, but um, but you know that's it's something. and I don't know if you notice that with you know friends or family that you could kind of look at them and get a sense of like this wouldn't work for you.

um oh AB There's certain times too where people you can kind of tell just don't value money the same way or it's just kind of different. like Financial um I guess beliefs really but kind of look at them they say oh hey, can I try it out and you can but I don't really recommend it just for I just don't think that a lot of those that that kind of value money or even for the same um I guess sentence too. It's just if you think about money or like what you're losing in a trade that you lose on um, it's probably that takes a little while to get over too say you lose $300 Oh, that's my bills for the month. Um, it's You know it's pretty hard to get over that, but it's definitely important to get over that though too, just to realize that it's you're running a business really and losses are going to happen.

Yeah, that's that's such an important thing. The relationship you have with the gains and the losses is, um, and it's something that's you know it's it's hard because it's not. It's not natural to become that detached to money. Most people you know the thought of losing, even if they have a lot of money.

The thought of losing, you know, pressing two buttons and all of a sudden losing $700 or $1,000 or 10,000 is like horrible gut-wrenching just I can't possibly and that's you know. I I Get that. I totally get people that come from that point and and you know they can either try to condition themselves to become comfortable with it or they can just eventually say this is just. it's so against my nature to be okay with this.

but yeah, yeah, that's I Think that for me, growing up a little bit in sort of this culture of like gaming, computer games and stuff like that, the gamification of trading in a way that it's just sort of like you know I I don't have like if I had the amount of money stacked up that I started each day with and then I had to like give that many thousands of dollars back to the market like if it was that if it felt that real that would be a lot harder for me. But it's not like that. you know it's there's a number on the screen and I often don't even look at what my account balance is and so I'm able just to focus on the chart patterns and the level two and and kind of it. it.

it feels in a way. um, you know that trading is kind of like a video game and and and that's the thing is, it's kind of like a fun puzzle for me. it's trying to solve the puzzle better and that's that competition that there's other people out there kind of playing the same game and trying to trade as well as they can and it's fun. It's enjoyable.

so I don't know I think that some people can approach it that way and I don't know that that is the way all Traders look at it. but um, you know that that seems like one approach that's helped make it feel less, uh, emotional when you know there's ups and downs. Yeah, I totally agree. It definitely does start to feel like a to I think that is something that helped me actually get over my emotions and taking losses too.

Um, I mean there's a PlayStation right next to my computer but it's like I don't know. it's just it's funny I'm not really sure which one I'm playing sometimes obviously. but yeah, it's definitely important without. Think of it as a video game almost in a way.

But yeah, yeah. I mean you know you can't lose sight of the fact that you're taking real trades. There's real risk involved and you know if you get crazy you can. You know you can lose a lot of real money so you know obviously there's you know there's a line there.

but yeah, but I think with most people following on the the side of the line where they're Paralyzed by fear that they can't trade I think that that's the more common experience and um, you know everyone always says trading is. you know this is a high-risk Behavior it's a high-risk activity. You know this is something that Adrenaline Junkies or you know, men who like to jump off skyscrapers would do, you know, like free free jumping or something. um, base jumping I don't know.

whatever you call it free basing I don't know I'm I'm not good with my my uh, adrenaline activities, but sure, uh, you know I I I think there is. There's certainly something to be said for the demographics that there's a lot more men that are Traders than women. and you know they say it's anecdotally I mean this is what people say. It's because it's such a high-risk activity Women are Smarter and they don't do it.

They don't engage in it and you know sure there's logic to that cuz a lot of people lose money. Uh, but uh, you know, having that willingness and ability to take risk? Yeah, it it takes a special kind of personality. So I think a lot of people want the profits, but if the personality doesn't fit and the mindsets not there and all the me, the physical mechanical aptitudes aren't there. the profits won't follow, so there's got to be a lot of things kind of pointing in the right direction.

And the only way you really ultimately know is by practicing a simulator. So it gets back to that. That's just the best way to start. That's good advice for people, All right? Well um, this has been great and you know you're of course you know in the Warrior Community you've got your million doll badge and I see you typing every day and I I always look really closely at all the traders that have those big badges.

you know, million dollars, 500k? whatever. So I I I pay close attention to you in the community. I'm I'm always happy to see your ideas and see what you're looking at and you know for me, it's reaffirming. If you know you say oh, I don't know, that looks a little risky I'm like okay, double check yourself, you know, yeah he he's on a similar Pages made the way he trades.

double check your bias or if you're like I like this and I'm not liking I'm like, well okay, what does he like about it? So that's the value of of you know you being there with with your badge So thank you for being in the community. Really appreciate it. Same same can be said for you though too. I mean there are certain times that I'm in a trig where you say you don't like it and like oh you're right, that's a big topping tail in the five minute and I don't like that So yeah, same thing for you but but thank you though Ross you're welcome, you're welcome.

Thank you All right? So I'll end this recording. Um so thank you guys who have tuned in and watched I Hope you learned something and you can join us for the next interview we've got. um of course many of you already have seen all the interviews we've done with traders who have had badges but uh you go check out one of the old ones or check out one of the next ones. uh coming up all right Thanks guys.

All right well if you listen to this entire episode I Hope you will give it a rating. Hit the thumbs up if you're watching it on YouTube and make sure you check out the Allstar Traders page over at Warrior Trading again. it's a Blog that I wrote after interviewing a number of traders who either hit 100K 500k or a million dollars in trading profits and one of the things that I've learned is that a lot of these profitable Traders have a lot of things in common. So if you are not yet a profitable Trader it is super valuable to try to get yourself into the head space and the mindset of what it is to be profitable and what those profitable Traders all have in common that you may not have yet.

So check out that page and I'll see you for the next episode right here.