YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → How to Make Any Trading Strategy Work for You

How to Make Any Trading Strategy Work for You — Transcript

by Lewis Kelly · 7,492 words · 1,110 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00No matter what trading strategy that you
0:02try, you just can't seem to make it
0:05work. You can't make money over a long
0:07period of time. You've probably blown
0:09accounts, failed funded challenges, and
0:11tried multiple trading strategies, and
0:13you're still stuck where you are now,
0:15which is why you're watching this video.
0:16You've likely tried one of these
0:18strategies and maybe many more. Smart
0:20money concepts: ICT, support and
0:22resistance, order flow, candlestick
0:24patterns, the list goes on. And yet, no
0:26matter what you tried or who taught you,
0:29nothing seemed to work. And you see all
0:31these traders online trading the exact
0:33strategies that they're telling you to
0:35trade and they're making hundreds of
0:37thousands of dollars. And you're left
0:39wondering, why does this not work for
0:41me? What am I doing wrong? Or maybe, are
0:44any of these traders even legit? Is this
0:47all one big scam? Well, essentially, I
0:49want to explain to you that there's
0:51something more important than just the
0:54trader strategy. In fact, there are
0:55three things that any trader who takes
0:58any trading strategy, if they don't do
1:01these three things, they will never see
1:04success with any strategy. That's why
1:06I'm here to tell you that strategy is
1:07not the number one thing. So, 98% of
1:10traders get stuck in this one failure
1:14cycle. And it goes something like this.
1:16You start out, maybe you go to YouTube,
1:18you open YouTube, and you see a shiny
1:21trading strategy. Someone who promises
1:23an 80% win rate that makes a $100,000 a
1:26month. And although you're a little bit
1:29skeptical, a part of you is excited. And
1:32so you go, you check it out and you
1:35become interested. Then you see that
1:37trader break down this strategy in so
1:39much detail. why it's so powerful, how
1:42it works, how you can trade it just like
1:45them, step by step. Maybe they even show
1:48you some live examples of them taking
1:50trades using this exact strategy. Then
1:52you head into the trap. This is step
1:56number three. Without any preparation,
1:58you just go to the live markets. You had
2:00a good understanding. Everything was
2:02clicking. Everything made sense when he
2:03was explaining it. Now, it's your job to
2:05replicate that same edge. You go to the
2:07live market. You start taking trades.
2:10You take one trade, it's a winner. When
2:14you win that trade, that gives you so
2:16much euphoria. You're at a point now
2:18where you think, "Maybe I've got it.
2:20Maybe this is the strategy. Maybe this
2:22is what's going to solve all of my
2:24problems." Maybe you take another trade.
2:27Maybe it's another winner. At that
2:29point, you're so confident in this
2:31strategy, maybe you begin going to
2:33search for funded accounts. Maybe you
2:35begin funding your own personal account.
2:37But at some point the inevitable
2:39happens. You will go on a losing streak.
2:44That's point number four. What happens
2:46is you go on a losing streak. You take a
2:48couple of trades. You take a trade. You
2:49take a loss. No problem. I'm still
2:51profitable. Another trade. Another loss.
2:54Third trade. Another loss. By the third
2:56trade, you're starting to doubt things.
2:59How could this be happening? This is an
3:0180% win rate. I don't understand. Maybe
3:03I'm doing something wrong. Maybe the
3:04strategy doesn't work. Maybe he lied to
3:05me. This is where all the problems start
3:07coming back in and before you know it,
3:09you're a couple of weeks into trading
3:11the strategy and you've blown a funded
3:12account. You've lost half of your
3:14personal account and you're back to
3:16square one. This is a very depressing
3:20point to reach because this isn't your
3:22first time. This is your fifth time,
3:24your sixth time, your seventh time
3:26finding a strategy online, thinking that
3:29it works, but then being proved wrong by
3:32the market. And eventually what happens
3:35you'll end up back in the same cycle.
3:37You'll end up finding another strategy,
3:38giving someone else another chance,
3:40another video another chance. Now the
3:42issue is is any strategy can work. The
3:49problem is is that you're doing it
3:51wrong. You see, there are three things
3:54that you have to do in order to validate
3:57any strategy or validate your ability to
4:00trade that strategy. You will not make
4:02money unless you do these three things.
4:04So the first thing is you must validate
4:07that system. So you must validate that
4:10system. Now what validation looks like
4:15in the sense of a system is
4:18understanding the stepby-step strategy.
4:21You must know all of the rules involved
4:24with that trading plan. But here's the
4:26kicker. The problem is is instead of
4:29validating the system, you just go and
4:30trade it at the live market. Well, now
4:32you have a huge problem because all of
4:35those losses that you took, even all of
4:37those wins that you took, you don't
4:38actually know whether this system is set
4:41to make returns consistently. Because
4:43here's what many traders can do,
4:45especially online. They can tell you an
4:4880% win rate strategy. They can make a
4:50YouTube video on it and they can show
4:52you live trades of that strategy. Here's
4:54the kicker. Maybe they show you five
4:57trades. Maybe four of those five trades
4:59win. The problem is, do you want to be
5:02profitable over five trades or do you
5:04want to be profitable over five years?
5:07That's the big difference. You see, you
5:10don't know that that strategy is
5:12profitable until you've validated it.
5:15Now, here's the kicker again. Most
5:17traders simply just do not know how to
5:19validate a system. That's why they don't
5:21do it. They think this person's already
5:23validated the system, so I don't need to
5:25validate the system. That's mistake
5:27number one. Because until you validate
5:29the system, you don't know whether
5:31you're trading the system, right? You
5:33don't know whether it's actually going
5:34to work. And the problem then becomes
5:37every loss that you take with that
5:38system hurts a million times more. This
5:42leads to doubt, frustration. Now, here's
5:44the thing with trading. You see, the
5:48biggest killer of a trader isn't losses
5:53necessarily. It's not necessarily
5:56blowing a funded account. You see, for
5:59me personally, the most difficult thing
6:02to deal with is the doubt, the
6:05uncertainty. It's the not knowing what
6:09I'm actually doing. It's this gut
6:12feeling inside of you that's screaming,
6:16"I'm lost. I don't actually know what
6:19I'm doing." And there's this sense of
6:23hopelessness because the more you try
6:26something, it doesn't work, the more you
6:30reinforce that same self-doubt. And so
6:33the doubt and the
6:35uncertainty is what creates the
6:38discomfort. It's what creates the
6:41anxiety. It's what makes most traders
6:43quit. I've been so close to quitting on
6:47so many occasions. Not because of the
6:49lost trades, not because of the blown
6:51accounts. I can deal with that. Yes, it
6:53sucks. Yes, it's painful. But nothing
6:56comes close to
6:58hopelessness. When you reach a point
7:01where you just feel like you're trying
7:02and trying and trying and nothing seems
7:05to be working, that's the most difficult
7:07place to be in trading. And it's a place
7:09where I've been many of times and every
7:11time I feel like quit. And obviously I
7:13look back and I'm super grateful that I
7:15didn't because all of those painful
7:17moments led to the eventual success. You
7:20see the difficult thing is that trading
7:22doesn't give you that same linear
7:24progression that society tells us that
7:26is so good. Like in the normal world,
7:28let's say for example, right? In the
7:30normal world, you have a pretty simple
7:34system. You have your
7:37inputs and you have your
7:42outputs. Society tells you work hard, go
7:45to school, get a good paying job,
7:48progress up the corporate ladder, and
7:49then you'll be happy. And so what
7:51happens? You come, you take that same
7:54mindset into trading. Now, in the real
7:56world, your inputs are pretty linear to
8:00your outputs. You get a job and your job
8:04pays you an hourly rate. So you
8:06understand that one hour of your time
8:09equals X amount of dollars, right? The
8:13more you work, so the more input, the
8:17more output, right? That's what society
8:20tells you. Trading isn't like that and
8:24people aren't used to that. See, trading
8:26is technically somewhat of the opposite.
8:30So this is your kind of normal 9-to-f5
8:33standard society job. Safe, easier. But
8:37the problem is is that your output is
8:40extremely limited. There's only so much
8:44money you can make working a job.
8:46There's only so much freedom that you
8:47can have. There's only so much freedom
8:49financially, so much freedom to travel,
8:51and so much freedom with your actual
8:52time. So in life, typically speaking,
8:56the bigger the reward, the higher the
8:59risk. And usually the harder the thing
9:00is to achieve. So trading looks more
9:03like this. You
9:06have your output
9:09capability and your inputs, right? So
9:11this is let's say this is
9:14trading. Here you have output and output
9:18can essentially be dollar, right? And
9:22input this is kind of your capital. This
9:25is your time. Trading them more
9:27something like this.
9:29You actually may start like this and
9:32you're putting in all this work and this
9:35here is a very difficult place to be.
9:39Essentially this is what I call the
9:42valley of despair. This is why because
9:46in normal
9:47life it looks something like this.
9:49Right? So you can see from the
9:52beginning, which is where a lot of
9:54people start, which is where everyone
9:57starts, you're immediately used to
9:59getting results. Trading is not like
10:02that. You see, trading requires delayed
10:04gratification. And so this area here
10:07where your inputs from trading are not
10:11matching what you think or feel like you
10:13deserve, you've been trading for a year
10:16now. You've tried multiple different
10:17strategies. You spent countless hours
10:19trying to do it. and you haven't made a
10:20single dollar. In fact, you've spent
10:22money, right? So, you are at a net loss
10:25in trading. You put all this time in,
10:27all this effort, all this money, and you
10:29got nothing back. Whereas, flip it.
10:32Everybody around you telling you you're
10:34borderline crazy. Everyone around you
10:36who's got normal, safe, secure paying
10:37jobs, they're saying, "Why are you
10:39wasting your time? Get a second job if
10:41you want more money. Spend more time
10:43with your kids. Spend more time with
10:45your wife. Go and get a partner. Live a
10:47life. Have friends." Right? But you're
10:49tunnel visioned. You see, you don't want
10:52normal. You don't want average. You want
10:55superior. And so trading is your
10:57vehicle. But again, in the beginning,
10:59it's difficult because no matter what
11:00you're doing, you're just not getting
11:02the results, right? And it looks like
11:04this. Here's the difference. At some
11:07point in time, a shift happens.
11:11that moment that you know exists but you
11:14haven't quite got yet that you're
11:15waiting for that people like me are
11:18telling you exists and trying to show
11:20you how to get there. It happens and
11:22when it
11:24happens this
11:26happens. Now all of a sudden your input
11:31can be the same level as what it was at
11:35the beginning maybe even less. Right?
11:37Maybe you're putting less time in than
11:39you were at the beginning, but your
11:41outputs, what you're actually achieving,
11:44are far superior to anything that you
11:48could imagine with a normal job or even
11:50anything that you could have imagined
11:51when you first started out. And so
11:54that's a huge misconception and that's
11:57the difficult part. But hear me out,
12:00getting through this, that's the test,
12:03right? If you see trading differently,
12:05if you see trading as my ability to
12:10endure the pain and get through the
12:13valley of despair, that is success in
12:15trading. If you can have that mindset
12:17instead of when I make x amount of
12:19dollars, when I buy this car, when I
12:21retire my this, when I retire my that,
12:23instead of those being the goal, instead
12:25make it let me follow the process, stick
12:27to it long enough until I eventually
12:29escape the value of despair. That's when
12:31you'll see the real results. So tying
12:34this then back to why it's so important
12:38to validate the system because the
12:41problem is you want to get out of this
12:43valley of despair as soon as possible. I
12:46mean obviously everybody wants to be
12:49rewarded for the effort that they're
12:51putting in and in an ideal world they
12:54want to be rewarded more for their
12:56effort than their effort in something
12:58else. Here's the problem. As much as I
13:01believe in working hard, as much as I
13:04believe in, you know, the grind and
13:08discipline and sacrifice, I also believe
13:12in working smart. You see, I still want
13:15to get the maximum amount of output for
13:19every moment that I invest. Of course, I
13:22mean, who wouldn't? So that's why it's
13:25so important to validate the system
13:27because if you continue trading all of
13:30these strategies that you think work but
13:34you haven't validated, you are wasting
13:37time because you're essentially
13:39gambling. You're hoping that this
13:41strategy works. And I'm going to tell
13:43you now, hope isn't a good strategy.
13:46Proof, data, that's a good strategy. So
13:50you need to move from a gambler to a
13:54proper data scientist when it comes to
13:57trader. And I throw that term around
13:58data scientists and it sounds difficult.
14:00Actually, it's very simple. Just most
14:02people don't understand how to test a
14:04system, collect the data of that system,
14:06refine that system. And that is what you
14:09need to do in order to validate a
14:11system. And that's essentially exactly
14:13what I teach my members. Now I'm someone
14:16who teaches my members a trading
14:18strategy. the same way that you'll be
14:20learning trading strategies online. The
14:22difference is is that I prove mine works
14:24long term. You see, I have a 15-month
14:28verified live day in day out back tested
14:32track record. And I could go way longer,
14:34but 15 months to show every single day,
14:36every trade taken, wins, losses, break
14:39evens, the entire thing, just to prove
14:41that the strategy works. So that
14:43validates the system in of itself. But
14:45most importantly, I show the members how
14:48to validate the system themselves.
14:51That's the key differentiator. Which
14:53moves me onto point number two. Let's
14:55say you validate a system. You know that
14:58the system works, but now you have to
15:03validate yourself. So
15:06validating yourself is
15:09essentially proving that you can
15:13adequately follow that system because
15:16it's one thing having a trading plan.
15:18This is why I say all the time so many
15:20traders can have a trading plan. I've
15:22worked with thousands of traders. Some
15:24of my students have gone on to get seven
15:26figures in funding, make hundreds of
15:28thousands of dollars, life-changing
15:29amounts of money. And some of them
15:31struggle for a long time until they
15:34eventually validate themselves. It's
15:37something that so many traders overlook.
15:39And again, similar to validation of
15:41system, traders don't understand how to
15:43validate themselves. They don't have
15:45operating systems. You see, trading
15:47isn't as simple as just having a plan,
15:49showing up to the markets, and taking
15:51trades and making boatloads of money.
15:53Not how the game works. You need to move
15:56like an operator. You need to treat
15:58trading like a business. Trading is a
16:03business. Trading is just a solo
16:06business. So trading is a business. Now
16:11you need to treat trading like a
16:15business. So can you imagine any
16:17business in the world not knowing their
16:20numbers? Can you imagine any business in
16:22the world having a business plan, having
16:24a strategy, but then never reviewing
16:28their performance? You know, all
16:30companies in the world, if you work for
16:32a company, you know this. You have
16:34goals, you have targets, you have
16:36reviews, you have monthly reviews,
16:38quarterly reviews. And what's that all
16:40about? That's about understanding where
16:42your performance as an individual, as a
16:44collective, as an entire company, where
16:47the performance deviates from the actual
16:50goal itself. Did you hit the target?
16:52Exceed it? Did you fall below it? Okay,
16:54what happened? Why didn't we hit it?
16:56Okay, let's fix those problems. That's
16:59operational. That's problem analysis,
17:01problem solution. Traders don't do that.
17:04For some reason, traders just think that
17:05becoming a profitable trader is going to
17:07YouTube, finding a trading strategy,
17:09seeing someone make money with it, and
17:11then taking it to the markets
17:12themselves, thinking they'll make money,
17:15not making money, and then doubting the
17:17strategy or doubting the person who
17:19taught them when actually maybe the
17:22issue is you. Now, what would you tell
17:24me if I said to you that I was
17:28someone, right? That's me. And I've
17:32tried these seven different ways to lose
17:37weight. And all of these seven different
17:39ways were taught by people who had a
17:44track record of helping other people
17:46lose weight. In fact, they even have
17:50themselves stories, pictures, images,
17:54proof that they've gone from where they
17:57were to where they are. And they're
17:59telling you follow this framework. And
18:02if you just do these things, that's how
18:04you will lose weight. Now, what if I
18:06come into you and tell you like, "Hey,
18:07man, like I just can't lose weight. all
18:10these seven experts have told me how to
18:13lose weight and for some reason I just
18:16can't seem to do it. What would you say?
18:19You would probably say something along
18:21the lines of, "Hey man, like maybe
18:24you're the problem. Like maybe you're
18:27doing something wrong." It's just
18:30too coincidental that all of those
18:33people with all of that proof and all of
18:35that track record is giving you the
18:37information and somehow you think you're
18:39so special that it doesn't work for you.
18:42Right? That's an ego thing. Imagine if
18:44we flipped it for a second so you can
18:46psychologically process what I'm
18:47explaining for you. Imagine for a
18:49second, right, we're talking about the
18:52lottery. Now, I'm against the lottery. I
18:54don't believe in gambling. I'm a trader.
18:56It doesn't make sense to I'd rather put
18:58my money somewhere where I have a
18:59control over my return. But imagine,
19:02let's take the lottery for example,
19:04right? Now, one person, one person out
19:09of a million or tens of millions of
19:13people, hundreds of millions of people
19:14in the world play the lottery and one of
19:17them win mega money. Now, what do you
19:21say when that one person wins that
19:24lottery? It's a miracle. they're
19:26extremely lucky. It's impossible. Those
19:29are the things that you would say if
19:31someone said like, "I'm gonna win the
19:32lottery next week and there's 10 million
19:35100 million people competing." You're
19:36like, "Bro, that's impossible. No way."
19:39Right? Well, that's essentially what
19:42you're doing. When you're
19:44telling yourself that something that has
19:47worked for so many people just doesn't
19:51work for you, you're essentially saying
19:53the same thing. And so it doesn't
19:54actually make sense. You have to look at
19:56something else, which is
19:58why it's about validation of the self.
20:02Now again, validation of the self is
20:04essentially your ability to trade that
20:08plan properly. That's the issue. The
20:11thing is is there's a huge
20:12misunderstanding in the trading space.
20:15People think just because a strategy
20:18works then that automatically qualifies
20:21them to make money with that strategy.
20:25That's not entirely the truth
20:28because trading has this funny thing
20:31that's called
20:34a performance
20:36gap.
20:40Right? Performance gap. A performance
20:42gap is the difference
20:46between your expected returns. So if you
20:49have a strategy and it's proven to be
20:51profitable in back testing, maybe it
20:52made 100% in that one one year. Well,
20:57the performance gap is when you come to
20:58the live market, how much of that 100%
21:02are you able to capture? The goal as a
21:04trader is to maximize the potential of
21:08their strategy and that comes with their
21:10ability to follow their rules and
21:12understand their trading plan. Don't
21:14deviate. The problem is is the
21:15performance gap comes in when a trader
21:17comes in and only captures 10% of their
21:22actual edge. Right? That happens so many
21:25times. In fact, some people, maybe
21:27you've experienced this yourself, which
21:29you probably have if you're here. You've
21:31had a strategy that has returned 100% in
21:34a year, right? I have strategies on on
21:36YouTube that I show that have returned
21:38100% last year. Guaranteed track record
21:42proven. Returned 100%. The strategy is
21:45there. And yet somehow there are
21:48thousands of traders that have tried
21:50that strategy and got a negative
21:53performance gap. Instead of making 100%
21:56with that strategy, they lost 20%. And
21:59so it's not a strategy problem, it's a
22:01you problem. And the problem is that you
22:03keep running around in this same loop of
22:07trying a strategy. Strategy doesn't
22:10work. Find the new strategy. This one
22:12doesn't work either. That one doesn't
22:13work either. It's not the strategy.
22:15Maybe it's you. That's why I'm here to
22:17tell you that you can make any strategy
22:19work, but you must first validate the
22:23strategy. No one wants to be trading a
22:24strategy that doesn't work. You have to
22:26validate the strategy. And the way you
22:27do that is by properly testing a
22:29step-by-step if this then that system, a
22:32rule, a playbook on historical data.
22:35Most people don't do that. That's again
22:37what I've said. This is something that I
22:38teach hundreds of people that I've gone
22:40on to get multiple seven figures in
22:42funding, hundreds of thousand dollars in
22:43payouts. I'm doing it every single day.
22:46Validate the system. Step number two,
22:48validate the self. Your ability to
22:50execute on your edge to reduce this
22:53performance gap. That's the difference.
22:55I see traders that come into my
22:57mentorship all the time. They come in,
22:59they jump on live session. They're like,
23:01"Hey, man. Like, uh, I've been through
23:03the content. I understand everything.
23:05There was some things I was missing.
23:07That's amazing. But actually, the
23:09strategy is is pretty similar to to what
23:11I already seen." Okay, cool. Great. But
23:13for some reason, when I was not doing
23:16the things that you're now explaining
23:18and helping me do, I was losing money.
23:20And now I've learned how to validate the
23:22system myself, which gives you
23:24confidence and the ability to know that
23:25you can show up and do it. You know how
23:27to trade it. You don't have the doubt.
23:29You don't have the uncertainty. You have
23:30the confidence, the clarity, the
23:32conviction every single day that you
23:34should take that trade. Huge problem
23:36again. Well, the one of the biggest
23:38mistakes that you're making right now
23:39that's causing you to have this
23:40performance gap is hesitation. You see a
23:42trade, you know that you should take it,
23:44and you don't take it. You don't take
23:46it. The trade plays out. It runs to
23:48profit. The next trade shows up. This
23:50one, you're like, "Damn, the last one
23:51won. I should have taken. Now I'm going
23:53to take this one." You take the trade.
23:55What happens? The trade hits your
23:58stop-loss. You only have to do that a
24:00couple of times until you've completely
24:02ruined the performance of your strategy.
24:04Because if you just take the losing
24:07trades in a strategy, bear in mind,
24:08every single trading strategy loses a
24:11lot of trades. The best strategies in
24:13the world have maybe
24:1650%
24:1860% win rate, right? Meaning that if
24:22they take, you know, a 100 trades, 60 of
24:26them will win. Maybe 50 of them will
24:28win. Again, win rate is not the biggest
24:30indicator of the success of a strategy.
24:32I personally know traders that have made
24:34millions of dollars trading a
24:3730% win rate strategy. 30%. Meaning that
24:41every 10 trades they take, they know
24:44they're going to lose seven trades and
24:45they still make hundreds of thousands of
24:47dollars. Right? My strategy personally
24:50over the last one and a half years has
24:53averaged at a
24:5542% win rate. Meaning for every 10
24:58trades I take, I am going to lose six of
25:01them. And yet I'm still able to make
25:04hundreds of thousands of dollars. Right?
25:07That's the power of win rate. But the
25:09issue is is none of this matters unless
25:12you validate yourself. And to validate
25:15yourself, you must have an operating
25:18system the same as a business does. You
25:20must be able to see every single trade
25:22that you're taking. The reason why
25:25you're taking that trade, you must
25:28understand and be able to see where
25:30you're going wrong. Because I'm telling
25:32you now, you are most likely the
25:34problem. You're making mistakes. And Ray
25:36Dalio, he's the owner or he stepped down
25:40now but was the owner of the world's
25:42largest institution hedge fund um
25:45Bridgewater Associates right
25:47Bridgewwater now absolute huge hedge
25:51fund one of my personal favorite mentors
25:53and he had this principle and this is a
25:56principle that I live by and I tell all
25:58of my students he says
26:02pain
26:04pain plus
26:12reflection
26:18equals progress. And he has that in a
26:22loop. And so what he does is he says we
26:24go through life, we take action, we make
26:27mistakes, we go through painful things,
26:29we begin to reflect on them, we make the
26:32changes required, we go to a new level.
26:34At that new level, we make more
26:36mistakes, we go through more pain, we
26:38reflect, and we grow. And
26:40this
26:42this is the growth that Ray Dalio says
26:46that all humans go through. And I would
26:49take his word for that. Something that I
26:50personally experienced myself. The
26:52problem is you right now, you're going
26:55through pain after pain after pain. And
26:58you're not reflecting. Instead, you're
27:00escaping. you're going to find the new
27:02shiny object. It's like being in a toxic
27:05relationship and you've been in that
27:06relationship for too long and eventually
27:09the relationship ends. You don't go and
27:12get into another relationship and expect
27:14a different outcome. Einstein said the
27:17definition of insanity is doing the same
27:19thing over and over again expecting
27:22something different. Huge different.
27:24Same thing, same actions lead to the
27:28same results. That is stagnation, right?
27:32You're stuck doing the same thing trying
27:35to get different results. Not going to
27:37happen, right? Dalio is sure you can
27:40make mistakes but when you reflect on
27:44those mistakes and you find out the
27:47where you went wrong and then you use
27:50that as an opportunity to learn and grow
27:54from those mistakes then you will start
27:56to see progress and that is what
28:00validation of self is all about. So I
28:03can guarantee you don't have a personal
28:06operating system set up right now for
28:08trading. That is a system with processes
28:12where every single trade you take, you
28:14are reviewing that trade, why you took
28:16it, when you took it, the confluences
28:19behind it, was it a A+ setup, was it a
28:22B-level setup, right? What was the
28:24expected return of that trade? Did you
28:27make any mistakes? Did you close it too
28:29early? You don't know. You could ask me,
28:32"Hey, how much money did you make on
28:35February the
28:3722nd in 2024?" I'll go and find out.
28:42I'll go pull up that data, tell you the
28:44exact trades I took, why I took them,
28:47how much money I made from those trades,
28:49if I made any mistakes from those
28:51trades. That's the level of detail that
28:54you need to have to validate yourself.
28:56Because listen, trading is very simple.
28:59People all the time tell me trading is
29:02hard. Let's debunk this right now.
29:05Trading is
29:07hard. Wrong. You know what's hard? A
29:10rocket scientist is hard. Being a
29:13neurosurgeon is hard. Right? Those are
29:16hard things. Trading is finding
29:18something that works. And there are
29:20people out there like myself that will
29:22show you what works. All you have to do
29:25is do it and not make mistakes.
29:29Hello. It doesn't get much easier than
29:31that. The problem is you. You're lazy.
29:34You don't want to do the work. Or for
29:36most people, I understand you don't know
29:38what to do. Again, like I said, that is
29:41what I am here to do. This is exactly
29:44what I help traders do. With Prosperity
29:47School, which is a program that we have,
29:49this is the thing that we do. We give
29:51people systems, two trading strategies,
29:53years of data, step by step, day in day
29:57out, proof, every single trade taken,
30:00recorded
30:02myself, analyzed all of the data over
30:05and over again to make this system work.
30:07Two, the validation of self build your
30:10personal
30:13trading operating system. Right? You see
30:16this all the time. This OS, you see
30:18Apple have it, all these companies have
30:19it. an OS, an operating system. You need
30:21an operating system. You need a system
30:23that you operate from that enables you
30:25to stay aligned with your progress.
30:28Again, trading isn't as simple as just
30:31finding a strategy, thinking that it's
30:33going to work. I'm going to go do it,
30:34and then it works. No, you have to make
30:37sure the strategy works, which is the
30:39first thing that people go wrong with.
30:40There's so many gurus on YouTube that
30:43will tell you this five minute trading
30:46strategy that will make you a million
30:48dollars. And the reality is is most of
30:49them don't even make money from trading.
30:51Just the truth. You need to validate the
30:53system. The second is okay cool. Now you
30:55have a winning strategy. Now you need to
30:57validate yourself. Your ability to
31:00follow that plan. Which leads me on to
31:02my third point which is ultimately
31:05deviance. Right? I touched on it briefly
31:08in the validation of self. But the
31:10purpose of valid validation of self was
31:13to help you understand the trading
31:14operating system. Your trading operating
31:16system is the system you're going to use
31:20to validate yourself.
31:22Deviance, devian is different. Devian is
31:26your inability to follow that. Because
31:29the problem is is there are things that
31:32are happening that are causing you to
31:35deviate. So it's very simple. If you
31:38have a profitable strategy, right, we'll
31:40mark that in green. If you have a
31:42profitable strategy that is proven to
31:45work, other people are trading it, it it
31:47works, the data is there, but for some
31:50reason you are unable to make money with
31:53it or you're only able to, which is a
31:57problem that I had in the beginning. And
31:58I had a strategy that worked great, but
32:01the potential of that strategy, I was
32:03only capturing a very small percentage
32:06of that potential, which in reality
32:09doesn't really change your life. Right?
32:11So, you have two problems. You have a
32:16complete deviance, which is just
32:18straight gambling. You are literally
32:19just not following your plan at all. Or
32:21you have inefficiency, which is you're
32:24not able to maximize the potential of
32:26your strategy. That's what devian is.
32:29Now, we have to ask the
32:31question,
32:33why? Great. You know what it is. Devian
32:37is I should take this trade. It meets my
32:39plan. I don't take it. Devian is I'm in
32:43a trade right now, right? I'm entering
32:46the market. I enter the market. Price is
32:49sitting at my entry level. It comes
32:51down. It's near my stop loss. What do
32:54you do? You get scared. You get anxious.
32:56You look at this. You're like, if I if
32:58this level gets hit, I'm going to lose
32:59$2,000. Right now, I'm only down $1,000.
33:02I think the market is going to trade
33:04lower. Okay, [ __ ] it. I'm just going to
33:06close the position. You close the
33:07position. You lose $1,000 only to watch
33:10price go all the way to your profit
33:13target where you would have just made
33:15$10,000. That's devian. And those things
33:18happen because of
33:21your mind.
33:25because of your mindset, your
33:27psychology, because the truth is the
33:29mind that you were born with is not
33:31designed to make you win in the game of
33:34trading. Trading is essentially going
33:37against your
33:38biological response to danger. You are a
33:42biological animal, if you will, if we're
33:44going to get real with it. We're animals
33:47and we have these instincts that we've
33:50eventually kind of evolved through,
33:51right? We have our own survival
33:53mechanisms and our job as humans, the
33:55number one goal is to not die. It's to
34:00preserve and reproduce. That's our goal.
34:02Our goal is safety, right? That's all we
34:05want as humans, right? We complicate
34:08life a lot. But really, all we really
34:11want everything we do, even money for
34:14example, right? You want money not
34:17because, and this is on a deep level
34:19that most people don't even understand.
34:21You want money not just for the freedom,
34:24right? Because why do people who achieve
34:27financial freedom keep going? Why do
34:29these people that have made $100 million
34:32don't stop? They can't stop. It's not
34:34about freedom. They could have had
34:36freedom years ago. It's about something
34:37deeper. It's about safety because money
34:42essentially has the potentiality to keep
34:45you safe. Think about all of the
34:47experiences in the world where money
34:49could ultimately keep you safe. And then
34:52on top of that, we also have the desire
34:54to essentially
34:56reproduce, right? We are designed
34:58biologically to want to reproduce. So we
35:00want to stay safe and reproduce. That is
35:03us deep inside. And so everything we do,
35:07unless we've properly cultivated
35:09ourselves, we've come to a level of
35:11self-awareness within ourselves, able to
35:13understand our actions and reactions,
35:16everything that we do stems from these
35:18two things. The desire to be safe and
35:20the desire to reproduce. That's it. And
35:22so what happens when you're taking a
35:24trade, right? You're taking a trade
35:26right now. Price comes into this level
35:28and price is going down and you're
35:29looking at your chart and you're seeing
35:31your money fluctuate. It's down $100.
35:35It's down $1,500. Right? Logically, you
35:41know that that's fine. If you've done
35:44these two steps, you know that your
35:46system, you don't get tagged into your
35:48trade and then it just goes. Sometimes
35:50you might sit around in this area where
35:52your entry is. You may be looking at
35:54your MetaTrader or your C trader or
35:56whatever you're using and you're seeing
35:57your your P&L fluctuate. It's going up,
36:00it's going down, right?
36:02Logically, you know that's part of your
36:04plan. You know that all you need to do
36:06is just get in that trade and follow
36:07your rules. On a physiological level,
36:10what's happening inside is there's this
36:12little chimp. There's this little animal
36:16that's trying to do everything it can to
36:20make you close this position because it
36:21can't handle it. It can't handle this
36:24because the loss the loss here is
36:28triggering so much pain and so much
36:30unsafety. if I lose this money d your
36:33your brain isn't able to think logically
36:35at that moment right there's a there's
36:36real biological um occurrences that are
36:39taking place essentially if we put it
36:41very simply right your brain like this
36:43when information comes into your brain
36:46right what happens is and again this is
36:49evolution of of humans right you go back
36:53100 years ago 200 years ago 300 years
36:54ago whatever it is and you're a human
36:58and you're hunting or whatever and you
37:00see a saber-tooth tiger. Now, your your
37:05brain has wired itself to see that and
37:09before you can even think, you're
37:11already in fight or flight. You're
37:13already, I'm going to fight it or I'm
37:15done. That's it. And for the most part,
37:17you see it, boom, gone, danger. Or the
37:21other way around, maybe you see it and
37:23it's actually time to engage with it,
37:24right? That's your fight orflight
37:25response system. So, what happens?
37:27information comes into the brain and
37:29information is your perception of
37:31reality. So when you're sitting there
37:32and you're trading and you're saying
37:33your P&L down 1,500, 1,700, 1,300,
37:38right? That is essentially data, bits of
37:40information that have been coming into
37:41your brain. Now, instead of using the
37:44CEO of your brain, which is your
37:45decision-making functionality, which is
37:47your neoortex, what happens is a little
37:49area in the back of the brain called the
37:51amygdala. And that information goes
37:54straight to the amygdala and the
37:56amygdala immediately starts freaking
37:58out. Now, unless you understand
38:01everything that I'm telling you now, and
38:02I'm touching the surface. This is
38:03something that I go so deep into inside
38:07of Prosperity School with my members.
38:09Again, this is something that I truly
38:10believe you have no chance of becoming a
38:12profitable trader unless you can rewire
38:14your mind to think like a trader. But
38:16again, I want to show you the things
38:18that are holding you back from traders.
38:19So you just at least get out of that
38:21cycle of just keep trying the same thing
38:23and not getting the results. Because
38:25I've seen traders traders have come to
38:27us been trading for seven years. Seven
38:30years no results within six months
38:32hundreds of thousands of dollars in
38:33funding, $10,000, $20,000 payouts within
38:37within months have been with us. Why?
38:41Not because we're amazingly great and
38:44superior and we have some secrets and
38:46stuff like that. No, it's just because
38:48for seven years he was doing the wrong
38:50things. Like if you want to get a
38:52result, you have to do the things that
38:53get the results. That's why I hate the
38:55idea that people just say like it's
38:57about time. How long you spend trading,
38:59you need the experience. It's like I was
39:01profitable before so many other traders
39:03because I've been doing this stuff for
39:05such a long period of time, especially
39:06the psychology stuff. So, I was able to
39:09get ahead of the expected average time
39:13for a trader to become profitable.
39:15Granted, I had a lot of improvement over
39:17time. But yeah, again, back to the
39:20point, deviants essentially, if if
39:23you're not able to control your mind,
39:25which most of you simply aren't because
39:27you don't understand what's happening,
39:28you can't solve a problem that you don't
39:31know exists. I think there's a lot of
39:33people out there that say like a problem
39:35identified is a problem halfsolved. So
39:39there's we as humans, we have so many
39:41problems that because we haven't
39:44actually identified them, they just eat
39:45at us inside and it causes us so much
39:48discomfort. And the reality is if you
39:50just get a pen and paper out and you
39:51just list out all of the problems that
39:52you have, well now you have power
39:54because now you can decide what you want
39:56to do with those problems. You have the
39:58power to solve those problems. So that's
40:01essentially it. Your final problem is a
40:04devian. And I I could talk about
40:06deviance for hours. In fact, I do. I
40:08have over well over 20 modules. I think
40:11it's like 27 or 30 or something like
40:13that modules of me talking about things
40:17like deviance and psychology and the
40:19biological wiring and the beliefs that
40:21you hold, the neuroscience behind
40:22trading. like such deep details of why
40:25traders sabotage themselves, for
40:27example, and why traders just can't seem
40:29to follow their trading plan, why
40:31hesitation, why fear, why greed, and get
40:33to the root cause of them. Moving from
40:35how to think like a normal person,
40:38because normal doesn't win in trading,
40:40to how to think like an actual
40:41professional trader. And the biggest
40:44problem we're solving here is deviance,
40:46which is your inability to follow your
40:48rules and do what you need to do to get
40:50the results. So to summarize,
40:52essentially any strategy can work. You
40:55can give me any concept in the world. I
40:57personally trade smart money concepts
40:58because I think it's superior. I
41:00personally am the type of person who
41:02really likes to understand the why
41:04behind price. I'm obsessed with
41:06understanding the institutional order
41:08flow, the intricacies of how the market
41:12actually operates, the liquidity, the
41:13actual absorptions and exorions in the
41:15market, how supply and demand inter
41:17relates with each other, the actual
41:18order flow of price. I'm obsessed with
41:21getting to the root cause of things. And
41:23so for me personally, smart money
41:24concepts is the way that I like to
41:26trade. But you can give me anything. You
41:27can give me candlestick patterns. You
41:29can give me trend lines. You can give me
41:31anything. I will find a way to make that
41:34strategy make money. That doesn't
41:36necessarily mean I'm going to use it
41:37because I have a way superior system in
41:39my opinion. But you can give me any
41:42strategy and by applying this framework,
41:45by validating the system. And by the
41:47way, validating the system, someone can
41:48teach a strategy. Doesn't mean it's
41:50necessarily profitable. I need to go and
41:52test that system. I need to break it
41:54down into all of the different
41:55variables, right? I have a trading
41:56strategy. It's one playbook and there's
41:5820 22 different variations of that
42:02setup, and they're all graded based off
42:04of their actual performance with proper
42:06tracking and detailing. It sounds
42:07complicated, but it's really not. I need
42:09to take that system apart, go and test
42:11it, split it into its variables, and
42:13then go and test the entire system. And
42:15I'm only needing to do that four or five
42:16times until I eventually get a model
42:19that is as efficient as I would like it
42:22to be. That's first thing. I could
42:23validate it because I can I I know how
42:25to build a system. I know how to build
42:27an edge, right? It's not about the
42:29concepts. It's about being able to
42:30validate the concepts into a playbook.
42:33Then it's about validating the self. The
42:35validation of self is just simple. My my
42:36personal operating system, I already
42:38have one. It's something that I teach to
42:39all of my members. I know how to track
42:43everything, how to review everything.
42:45Um, because it's super important. Again,
42:48pain plus reflection equals progress.
42:50You have to know when you're making
42:52mistakes because if you don't if you
42:54don't know whether 3 weeks ago you were
42:58making mistakes and that's why your your
43:00strategy is not performing or whether
43:01your strategy is just inefficient,
43:03you're not going to be able to make the
43:04best decisions. You don't know whether
43:05you should try a different strategy if
43:07you don't know whether the actual
43:08strategy is the problem or whether
43:09you're the problem. So you have to
43:10validate it, your ability to follow that
43:12plan, which is what I use my personal
43:14operating system for. And then finally,
43:16devian, right? I can control myself. I'm
43:19not perfect. I'm not a robot. Sometimes
43:21I make mistakes, but it's about becoming
43:23as efficient as possible. I'm able to
43:25control myself because I just understand
43:27my edge. I understand my numbers. I
43:29understand my data. I understand the
43:31likely scenario of if I take a 100
43:33trades that I'm going to be profitable.
43:34So I don't mind if I lose three trades
43:36in a row. I don't avoid the fourth
43:37trade. I also equally don't double up on
43:40the fourth trade because I have the
43:41gamblers gamblers fallacy that the next
43:44trade should make money. That's not how
43:46it works either, which a lot of traders
43:47do. I just understand I take each trade
43:50as it comes and I take it according to
43:52my system and I do my very best. My
43:55definition of success is my ability to
43:58follow my process. It's not about how
44:00much money I make. It's not about how
44:02many Lambos I buy. It's not about how
44:04much money in the bank. It's about my
44:07obsession with mastery. That's the
44:10reality. And if you can get to that
44:12level, then it's impossible that you
44:15won't make a boatload of money. It's
44:17impossible you won't achieve the freedom
44:18that you want to achieve. But in order
44:19to do that, please, please, please
44:21figure out how to validate your system.
44:23Figure out how to validate yourself and
44:25figure out how to get beyond deviants
44:27because if you don't, you're never going
44:28to achieve the level of success. And
44:30again, if you would like my help and my
44:32team's help in doing this, in setting
44:34this up, in guiding you, walking you
44:36through it, in the link in the
44:37description, I'll leave an application.
44:39You can book a call, speak to one of my
44:41team, and we'll hold your hand through
44:42this entire process. Or feel free, go
44:45and try and figure it out yourself. But
44:47hopefully you enjoyed, you took the
44:49value and get out of that trap.

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of How to Make Any Trading Strategy Work for You by Lewis Kelly, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 7,492 words across 1,110 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to choose a caption track available on the video.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, caption language selection, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.