What's up guys? All right? So we're going to do a little segment here called Driving with Ross. Take a Little drive. We're going to talk about life, we're going to talk about the stock Market, and we're going to talk about some of my biggest struggles as a trader. So over the years, um, you know, I've always spent a lot of time in the car when I was driving back and forth from New York City to Vermont and then just living in Vermont.

It's a rural area so you know anytime you want to go somewhere it's a good 20 minutes, 30 minutes, sometimes longer. So you end up spending a lot of time in the car, which is nice and for me it's always giving me time to kind of reflect on. You know what's going on in my life and trading has been a really big part of my life for quite a long time now. and of course as a beginner trader, it was a real.

It was a real struggle for me and so the time I would spend in the car would be kind of reflecting on the struggles I was having the challenges and trying to kind of brainstorm how I could really get a grasp on. you know how to make a living as a trader. One of the things that for me was always, you know, kind of a challenge was seeing how successful you could be as a trader and that you can see that just uh. you know, whether you're looking at other people you know, talking about their wins or even seeing when you take a couple trades, how within minutes you can be up or down you know, hundreds or thousands of dollars.

So you realize the market offers potential to be extremely profitable and to become fairly wealthy if you can just master, uh, some type of strategy to give you right good entries uh and to know when to sell sounds easy, but obviously for most, um, that doesn't come easily and it doesn't doesn't ever come at all. Only ten percent of the traders who try to trade the markets profitably will end up uh, making a career out of it and the rest just you know, leave the market frustrated with big losses and sometimes very angry. And I could understand that because I felt very frustrated during my early years trying to learn how to trade. It was seeming like everything I tried was the exact opposite.

Every time I went long it should have been going short. every time I bought calls I should have been buying puts it was just really a very frustrating process and so I would spend time in the car. uh kind of thinking about it. I can remember days.

um I remember a summer day I was driving and I had just taken a 4 000 loss and I just felt so devastated and I was kind of you know, talking to myself about what are you doing here? How much longer are you gonna? You know, keep doing this. I mean, you're taking these big losses. You have a winning streak of two or three weeks where you make maybe a thousand dollars a week and then in one day you lose four grand. You just get back a months of progress and you know what is wrong with me.

Why do I keep doing that? And you know, through that kind of period of self-reflection um, combined with you know, later, going home and actually pouring through my trade logs and trying to figure out, is there some rhyme or reason to what I'm doing? Is there a pattern where I do really well with one thing and I'm doing badly with another? Through all of that, I was able to kind of hone in on a couple of strategies that were moderately consistent. that was trading momentum and in the form of like bull flag patterns, flat top breakouts, stuff like that. And I found that I was most successful on those patterns on lower price stocks although I traded higher price stocks for quite a while also. and those patterns do work on higher priced stocks and they can work really well.

You just can't take as much size, you can't make as much money, usually your risk is going to be higher and then also trading reversals bottom bounces stocks that have had you know, 10 15 consecutive red candles looking for that first green candle. It's pretty consistent when you dial in and really have all the filters tuned properly and then trading the Gappers stocks that were gapping up or gapping down and then trading those you know either to the upside with the trend or the downside depending on the setup and I was able to generate some success focusing on just those three strategies. And so you know, those are the three strategies that we teach now in the training courses. and they're the three strategies that I pretty much use to make a living as a trader.

This week, I made Eleven thousand dollars. Last week I made Eleven thousand dollars. It's it's crazy. that's more money in two weeks than I made my whole first year of trading.

That's more than I made net in my first 18 months of trading because I was red the whole time. So you know that that was sort of like knowing that that was the potential as a beginner trader, that in one week I could make eleven thousand dollars. That's kind of what kept me going for a long time is knowing that if I can get this, I can do really well. It's just a matter of you know, adopting that strategy and for me, it was just developing it.

I didn't really have a strategy that I could adopt, and so all of our students are fortunate in that sense because you can look at my strategy as sort of a template of what works and it's not to say it's going to work for everybody because we all have different trading styles and you know different aptitudes for you know, computers and success in the market. But it's a strategy that does work for me and it's a good idea to look at it as kind of a you know, a plan or a template or a strategy for potentially being successful in the market. So you guys are at a pretty big advantage by having someone that can teach you that. I didn't have that really when I was learning to trade.

And it's not to say that there weren't people out there that were you know, teaching trading and stuff like that, I just I, I suppose I was being a little stubborn and I didn't want to take a class. you know, the classes that I saw out there. I just couldn't tell if they were reputable and the chat rooms I would try out didn't feel very educational, so there was really no desire to try to learn more from whoever was running that room. And you know things are different now.

And we offer of course the chat room, which gives people a kind of real-time glimpse into what it's like to be. You know, a professional, full-time trader, and then of course all of the trades that we call out in the room come with a deep analysis, the commentary, you know, the trade reviews and so it's not just I bought X Y Z and that's it. it's I bought this because it's this strategy. This is the setup.

This is what I like about it and that all gives a lot more context to the trades and that allows students to really learn and then if they're ready to dedicate themselves, they can of course join our training courses. So um, in any case, kind of talk a little bit about my trades from the week here and the month of August. So far this month has been really crazy because I have done really well. I've had some really huge winners.

I had a ten thousand dollar day this week and I had a ten thousand dollar day. uh, last week as well. so some big days. But during the last two weeks I've also seen a lot of volatility where I've seen my biggest single trade winner of the year, my biggest single trade loss of the year, and my biggest, uh, point gain of the year.

which was crazy. So uh, let's just kind of do a a brief recap of where I'm at on the month and this is what I'm gonna do here is is basically the type of thing I would do, um, just by myself for myself for my own benefit because this is the type of thing that I needed to do to really get a better understanding of my trading as having these periods of reflection. So what's going on this month with me? Why am I trading in such a kind of whippy way? Well, I think that I've had it in my mind that August was going to be a tough month. It's kind of historically been a hard month for me the last couple years, so I was sort of worried that it would be slow summer trading, we wouldn't be seeing good resolution on the momentum, and that I would really have to be super aggressive on you know, a small number of trades if I was going to do well this month.

So I kind of came into the month with a little bit of a mental bias that it was going to be a hard month and then with that said, I also get a little aggressive at the beginning of each month because I really want to get myself into the driver's seat. Everyone wants to be in the driver's seat. and to me that means I'm green on the month, I've got a cushion, and now anything that I'm adding is just like icing on the cake. But you got to do the hard work before you can get into the driver's seat.

You can't Just you know, start in the driver's seat and I feel this way at the beginning of each calendar year. I feel it a little bit the beginning of each month and a little bit at the beginning of each week. It's just sort of that mental. You know, you're sort of starting over fresh week, fresh month, fresh year and you really want to get yourself into the green as quickly as possible.

Sometimes that's led me to be overly aggressive at the beginning of the month, kind of in like desperation to get myself in that driver's seat. Uh, that happened a little bit this month. Uh, I got aggressive pretty early on and on on Tuesday the second count, the second trading day of August, I traded ship. I was up three thousand dollars on it, which was awesome, but I wasn't happy with that because I missed the good entry At four dollars, I saw it at four dollars and I thought the volume was a little bit too low so I was like, uh, I mean I like the setup.

it looks good, but there was only maybe 50 or 60 000 shares of volume so I was just kind of like I don't know if people are, if anyone's really watching this stock, I'm not sure if it's going to be a hot stock. Next thing I know, it spikes up to five dollars and then up to 550. So I was like oh man oh really missed. Uh, missed the boat on this one, but I decided to jump in at 5 50 anyways.

on a micro pullback small bull flag under 550, I jump in for the breakout and I ride it up to 650 and I scale out on the move to 650 making three thousand dollars. I thought, hey, that's great. Good job. Next thing I know it's seven dollars.

Now it's a 750 and I'm starting to feel frustrated. I've got that kind of fear of missing out. the feeling that man, this stock just ran from four dollars to 750 and I I didn't capitalize on it properly. Um, you know what is going on with me? What I should have been holding this longer? Maybe this is the stock that's going to run to.

You know, ten dollars? How far is it gonna go? So I add back a 750. I stop out of 650 and I lose six thousand dollars. So I go from being up three grand to down three grand. It was brutal and and there's nothing worse than going from being way above your daily goal to being at your max loss on the day.

It's one of the single worst things you can do emotionally and psychologically for yourself. So I was like oh great. You know I really just screwed myself up there and that was my That was kind of the start of my cushion on the month and I just threw it away being overly aggressive chasing so I was very disappointed with myself on that day. I don't mind losing, but I I don't like losing when I feel like it's just unnecessary because I kind of broke a rule like chasing or something like that or mismanaging risk, which I did.

Also, I took too much size. I took six thousand shares, which was too much size for a second entry after a second hall. It's just not smart. So you know if you're gonna get aggressive and this is no matter what it is.

If it's trading, you know, if it's skiing. Um, you know, mountain biking When you get aggressive. Sometimes you you get knocked down and you just have to know that that's what comes with the territory. So if you want to be aggressive, that's fine.

It's fun when it works out, but when it doesn't work out, you just have to be prepared for it to hurt a little bit. Some people aren't and so they're going to, you know, kind of gravitate to a more moderate strategy that's more conservative. Other people, they want to feel those big extremes and they're going to go big for stuff. and sometimes it's going to pay off big time and sometimes it won't.

So anyways, had that red day early in the month. I bounced back the next day with a aggressive trade and I made ten thousand dollars. It's not uncommon for me to have uh, back-to-back trades that are really big losses and then really big winners. And I know it's because I'm compensating for the loss by being more aggressive on the following trade.

That can be good and it can be bad. The the risk is that if you're a beginner trader, when you decide to overcompensate and be aggressive because you're still new, your accuracy is probably not as good, so you're more apt to be aggressive on not a very good setup on a bad setup. and then you have a good chance of losing even more. Now you've lost once you went into a double the size, Now you've lost double the amount and you're down three times.

You know I mean it's that's what happened to me a lot as a beginner trader. and that's what would cause those snowball days where you know I would have a red day and then the next day would be even more red than even more and even more. and I'd have three days or so where I would give back. You know a ton of progress so that instinct can be dangerous.

But once you have good intuition and you can say that all of your trading decisions are, you know, educated and well informed. And for me, I have a 70 success rate. And that's even when I'm making kind of risky decisions, my success rate is still about 70 because generally I make good decisions. so that means that even if I'm going to be aggressive, I still have a 70 chance that I'm gonna be right.

And those are pretty good odds, so statistics are in my favor. So the next day I had a big bounce back which was good. The day after that I hit my max loss again. So um, you know I was trying to be aggressive again, hit my max loss and then that was on sp.

No S-a-e-x The stock that went from like two dollars to or what was it ten dolla. It went from ten dollars to thirty dollars and I got in at 30 thinking look, this thing is strong. A break over the whole dollar looks good. It breaks over 30, up to maybe 30, 50 or 31 and it drops down to 25.

I lost like four points. It was pathetic. It was a just pathetic display. I had small size but I still ended up hitting my max loss and I was really frustrated.

The next day I get back in I look at it and it had gone up to forty eight dollars from ten dollars to forty eight dollars in one day, which is crazy. I saw it gapping up the next day and looking like it was opening just under 48 and I thought, you know what if this thing opens and breaks 48 yesterday's high, it's going to be a squeeze. This looks just like you know, Aqxp, Kbio, some of those stocks that just went crazy and then the following day even crazier. So I got in at 48 and I scaled out on the move to 72 dollars per share.

With only 200 shares, I made 4 000 for my biggest point gainer ever. I think that might be my biggest point gainer ever. I had a really good trade on Vrx last year. I don't know how many points it was, but in any case, it was definitely my biggest point gainer of the year.

Being up, uh, like 22 points or 24 points per share. 24 per share, which is ridiculous so you know. Came back on that Friday up, whatever it was. four thousand dollars on the day, really solid day.

and then this week, you know again, I was like early in the week I was like, look, you got to kind of stabilize this volatility because you're I don't I want to. Just I'd love to make 10 000 a week consistently doing 2500 a day or something like that, not having a day where I'm down four grand and then up 10 grand or whatever. But uh, nonetheless, I got aggressive this week and I went red. First day of the week, I was up three thousand dollars or 2 800.

um, solid day. Solid Monday. Great start to the week. and then I come back.

After lunch, I'm sitting in front of my computer. which I do. I mean, I come back. I don't leave for the day, I come back.

and I usually work. I'll maybe do a blog post or I have meetings with students mentor sessions stuff like that. So I'm working in one way or another, but I don't usually trade in the afternoon because my accuracy is low and I just I usually screw up. But for whatever reason I decided to take a trade in the afternoon and I took 5 000 shares.

I think it was five thousand and I promptly lost thirteen hundred bucks. So I okay and I went from being up twenty eight hundred to up only about a thousand dollars. Thirteen hundred dollars which still my daily goal but was annoying. I come in Tuesday, take three trades, the first one I lose on second one, I lose on the third one.

I lost on three trades in a lot in a row down 2 800 bucks max loss. I'm done for the day. My last trade was like the Big Loser so so annoying. Stopped out.

you know This is also something that I find I'm either on or I'm off my green days, I'm green on you know, five out of five names and on my red days I'm usually red on everything. And I have a rule where if I take three losses in a row back to back, I'm done trading on the day. I also have a rule that once I'm down more than a thousand bucks I won't take on any new trades. But that doesn't stop me from being down 400 and taking 10 000 shares and then losing 20 cents.

Which is what happened on uh on Tuesday Wednesday I come back and uh, I only made 29. There was just nothing moving. the market felt slow, so I was like, all right, that's fine, it's kind of a rest day, you know not. It's not a bounce back day, but I'm just kind of break even whatever.

And then, uh, Thursday, ten thousand dollar day crushed it. Two big trades. Uh, seven thousand on one name, like 3 000 or so on another. Just really solid.

Awesome trades, nice momentum and I was being aggressive. 5 10 000 shares looking for big moves and I got them a Friday another 2500 bucks. Again, good success, good accuracy. Finished the week up 11 000, 11 000 customers right around there.

about the same. Almost about the same within probably 30 of of uh last week. So puts me up about 22 000 on the month. Uh, my best month ever right now is 34 000.

So that was June and then in July I did 32 000. almost breaking my record. I was in Paris for a week in July and when I was on vacation, you know I was trading on my laptops and I typically trade with smaller size when I'm on vacation. And I did, I trade with smaller size.

So even with a week where I was being really conservative, I still made 32 000. And now here we are in August. typically a slow month and I'm up 22 000 still with I think 13 or 14 trading days left in the month. So I would really like to.

I'd love to be able to break my goal from June. On the other hand, my monthly goal. I've already beaten it being up 22 000. so I don't want to be super aggressive and then have you know a big loss as a result, if I can do just you know, kind of scale it back down to five to seven thousand dollars a week.

I still have a good chance of beating my June goal and adding some icing to the cake. Now this month I I do get competitive. I want to beat my own record, but I don't want to let that cloud my judgment and cause me to make high-risk decisions. So hopefully we'll continue to see good opportunities.

When I see a good opportunity, I'll be aggressive, and if I don't see anything good, I won't trade at all. That's pretty much the way I'm going to do it. Uh, that's going to mean I have high percentage of success, really good accuracy, hopefully I'll have good profit loss ratios, and even if I'm not taking really big size, I should be able to generate some solid profits. So the goal is to try to level out this equity curve a little bit in you know, the next two weeks, but also hopefully finish the month with some good gains.

All right. So um, I guess that about wraps up this episode of Driving with Ross. I hope you guys have enjoyed it. Uh, you can leave comments or of course email me Ross Warriortrading.com All right guys, We'll see in the chat room.

Uh, first thing tomorrow morning.