If you're thinking of quitting trading.... watch this — Transcript

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1. 0:00If you're sitting there right now and
2. 0:01you've been trading for months, maybe
3. 0:03even years, and you're still not
4. 0:05profitable yet, or you're still
5. 0:06struggling, or if you're still blowing
6. 0:08accounts every single day and you have
7. 0:11no idea why, or no idea why you can't
8. 0:13stop yourself from doing that, well,
9. 0:15this video is for you. I'm not here to
10. 0:17sell you anything. I'm not going to tell
11. 0:19you that it's easy, or that trading is a
12. 0:21way to make fast cash, and it's an easy
13. 0:23way to make money, because it's not.
14. 0:25What I am going to do is I'm going to
15. 0:26tell you what it actually felt like to
16. 0:28be at one of the lowest points in my
17. 0:30life chasing this, and how I was
18. 0:32actually able to come out of it. Because
19. 0:34I talked to a lot of traders in Discord
20. 0:37communities, or in my DMs, or comments,
21. 0:40and I was exactly where a lot of you
22. 0:42guys are at right now. And nobody made
23. 0:45this video for me when I needed it. So,
24. 0:48what's up? It's Thrax. I trade futures.
25. 0:51I recently won the monthly World Trading
26. 0:53Championship. I make consistent money
27. 0:55with prop firms, and I basically trade
28. 0:58for a living. But, I was exactly just a
29. 1:00few years ago, probably in the spot that
30. 1:02you are right now, blowing account after
31. 1:04account, struggling, not being able to
32. 1:07make any money. And I want to make this
33. 1:09video to hopefully help somebody out
34. 1:12that was in the position I was in when I
35. 1:14was first starting. So, let's get into
36. 1:15it. So, let's take this back, and I want
37. 1:17you guys to understand how deep I was
38. 1:20actually in this before I hit rock
39. 1:22bottom, and before I was able to turn
40. 1:24things around. So, in the past, I've
41. 1:26traded Forex. I did it for about a year.
42. 1:28I basically gave up on it. That was back
43. 1:30in like 2018, when everybody was trading
44. 1:33Forex. Then I traded cryptocurrencies
45. 1:35for a few years. It was on spot, just
46. 1:38buying low, selling high. I thought I
47. 1:40was a genius, but realistically, what
48. 1:42you could have done is just thrown a
49. 1:43dart at the top 100 and made some money
50. 1:46if you bought it. So, then what I ended
51. 1:48up doing is majority of my life I did
52. 1:51sales. So, I did mortgages. I did all
53. 1:53different types of sales, and they were
54. 1:55all phone sales. Now, those jobs
55. 1:57actually made good money, but I was
56. 1:59working, you know, 12-hour days and it
57. 2:02was going on for maybe 6 days a week
58. 2:04where I sat in a cubicle just taking
59. 2:06calls constantly. And I didn't really
60. 2:08like it. I felt like I couldn't really
61. 2:10enjoy the hard work that I was putting
62. 2:12in. Yeah, I was making decent money, but
63. 2:15I didn't really feel like I was living.
64. 2:17I just felt like I was working. So, what
65. 2:19I ended up doing is I ended up quitting
66. 2:21my job and when I quit my job, I quit my
67. 2:24job to actually go travel. I built up a
68. 2:26nice little nest egg of some money in my
69. 2:29savings as well as I had a lot of money
70. 2:31or a decent amount of money in my crypto
71. 2:33portfolio at the time. And while I was
72. 2:35traveling and doom scrolling through my
73. 2:37phone, well, I saw somebody day trading
74. 2:39and I remember thinking to myself, this
75. 2:41is what I want to do, right? I don't
76. 2:42want to get another job. I don't want to
77. 2:44take phone calls anymore. I want to
78. 2:46trade. I want to travel. Seemed like the
79. 2:48life for me. I thought, this is it,
80. 2:51right? I'm not going to get another job.
81. 2:52I'm just going to do this and I'm going
82. 2:54to figure it out. And here's the thing
83. 2:55about me. Majority of my life, right? If
84. 2:58I've ever wanted to do anything, as long
85. 3:00as I put my time and my effort into it,
86. 3:03I've usually been able to get it done.
87. 3:05So, I thought trading was going to be
88. 3:06the same thing. You put in the effort,
89. 3:08you get the results. Pretty simple. As
90. 3:11long as I work hard at it, I'll get it.
91. 3:13Sounded pretty easy at the time. And
92. 3:15what ended up happening was the very
93. 3:17first account I ever bought. It was a
94. 3:19valuation, a 50k valuation. I joined
95. 3:22some guy's Discord. I copied his trades
96. 3:24when he was on a winning streak and I
97. 3:26passed my very first account. And I got
98. 3:28so excited that I told everybody that I
99. 3:31know. I told family, I told friends, I
100. 3:34told them trading's amazing. You got to
101. 3:36do trading. Trading's the way. And you
102. 3:38know exactly how it goes when you get
103. 3:41your first taste of making money with
104. 3:43trading or passing an account, let's
105. 3:45just say. But that excitement is exactly
106. 3:49what set the trap. Because now, everyone
107. 3:51I know knows that I'm trading, right?
108. 3:54And everybody was watching, constantly
109. 3:56asking me how it's going, how much money
110. 3:58are you making? So, then what happens?
111. 4:00Well, life starts closing in, right? I
112. 4:02thought I needed to lock in, right? So,
113. 4:05I stopped going outside, I stopped
114. 4:07hanging out with friends, I sat in front
115. 4:08of these charts for hours and hours and
116. 4:11hours every single day doing nothing but
117. 4:15just looking at candlesticks, looking at
118. 4:17order flow charts, backtesting, replay
119. 4:20mode, the whole nine. You guys know
120. 4:21exactly what I'm talking about. I ended
121. 4:23up isolating myself because I thought to
122. 4:26myself, if I just locked in for a couple
123. 4:28months, I'm going to figure it out, and
124. 4:30then everything after that was just
125. 4:31going to be sunshine and rainbows. And,
126. 4:33of course, slowly I ended up losing all
127. 4:37of my money. I lost basically all of my
128. 4:41savings, and at the same time, my crypto
129. 4:44portfolio that basically held majority
130. 4:47of my net worth started dumping and
131. 4:50dumping and entering into a bear market.
132. 4:53And, all while this was happening, I
133. 4:56kept getting more and more aggressive
134. 4:58with trading prop firms. But, I ended up
135. 5:00just blowing account after account after
136. 5:03account because I was trying to force my
137. 5:06way to make money trading prop firms.
138. 5:10But, I was trading out of desperation. I
139. 5:12really wasn't trading at all. Rather, I
140. 5:14was just gambling and hoping that a moon
141. 5:16shot would work, and that I can get a
142. 5:18payout to replenish my savings, to help
143. 5:21pay my bills. And, I went pretty far
144. 5:24into that doing this. Not only did I
145. 5:26lose all my money, but I also ended up
146. 5:29putting a bunch of expenses, a bunch of
147. 5:32stuff on credit cards, and I racked up
148. 5:35like a $50,000 debt on credit cards with
149. 5:37no income, no job. And, honestly, I
150. 5:40started freaking out. thing you know,
151. 5:43I'm a year and a half in, I've maybe
152. 5:45only passed a couple evals, I've never
153. 5:48pulled a payout, I was barely scraping
154. 5:50through evals to get the funded account
155. 5:52just to blow it right after I activated
156. 5:55the account, and it was crushing me.
157. 5:57Like every single day, day after day,
158. 5:59the same mistakes, the same thing over
159. 6:02and over and over again. And then people
160. 6:04start asking, "How's trading going? How
161. 6:06much money are you making?" And at
162. 6:07first, I'd actually tell them the truth.
163. 6:09I'd tell them, you know, "I'm still
164. 6:10figuring it out. I'm still learning. I'm
165. 6:12working my way through it." Not really
166. 6:14telling them how much I'm really losing,
167. 6:16but just telling them I'm figuring it
168. 6:17out, right? But then what happened as
169. 6:19time went on is it became rather
170. 6:22embarrassing. So, I started to lie to
171. 6:25people about it. I wasn't telling them
172. 6:27the truth. I wouldn't say I was killing
173. 6:29it or making money, but I sure as hell
174. 6:32wasn't going to tell them the truth that
175. 6:34I was far into debt. I was waking up
176. 6:36every single morning here on the West
177. 6:38Coast trying to trade New York open at
178. 6:396:30 a.m. and losing every single day.
179. 6:43Almost to the point where it was so
180. 6:45impressive how consistently I was losing
181. 6:48that I probably could have just done the
182. 6:49opposite of what I was doing and I would
183. 6:51have made money. I didn't want to admit
184. 6:53to anybody how much time and effort I
185. 6:56put into this and how much money I've
186. 6:58still lost and how there was no progress
187. 7:00being made. I didn't want to admit it. I
188. 7:03felt like some type of closet addict,
189. 7:06like some delusional person chasing
190. 7:09something that was never going to work.
191. 7:11The same thing happening day after day.
192. 7:14It was like a hell loop of a cycle, and
193. 7:16I honestly just couldn't tell a soul.
194. 7:19That's just how I felt at the time.
195. 7:21Because here's the thing, anything in
196. 7:22life, right? You go to the gym, you see
197. 7:25progress. You learn a sport, you get
198. 7:28better. You put in the work and then you
199. 7:30actually get something back. Trading was
200. 7:33the first thing that I have ever touched
201. 7:35in my life where I could put everything
202. 7:38into it, all of my time, all of my
203. 7:40effort, all of my attention, and still
204. 7:43lose consistently. And that was
205. 7:46infuriating because I didn't have a map
206. 7:48for that, and at first, nobody does. And
207. 7:50then there was a day I was sitting in my
208. 7:52room at my computer, looking at the
209. 7:55screens. I was already deep into debt at
210. 7:57this point. I didn't know what I was
211. 7:59going to do. I was freaking out.
212. 8:01And because I was trading out of
213. 8:03desperation, just trying to full port my
214. 8:05way to a payout, I ended up blowing four
215. 8:08accounts in a single session
216. 8:10back-to-back, not even copy trading
217. 8:11them. I would blow an account in like 5
218. 8:13to 10 minutes. I'd go pull out the
219. 8:15credit card, buy another, then another,
220. 8:17then another, and then I blew four, and
221. 8:19I lost like $450
222. 8:22of my own money, money that I couldn't
223. 8:24afford to lose. Another
224. 8:27few hundred bucks added to the balance.
225. 8:30I was honestly just trading out of pure
226. 8:32rage at that point. And I was not angry
227. 8:35at the session or the charts or price
228. 8:38action.
229. 8:40I was angry at the whole thing, the
230. 8:41whole experience, a year and a half of
231. 8:44this [ __ ] where I just can't find
232. 8:47any success in what I'm doing. And I
233. 8:50wanted to I remember I wanted to scream.
234. 8:52I wanted to break something, but you
235. 8:54know what stopped me from breaking
236. 8:56anything is just
237. 8:59the fact that I couldn't afford to
238. 9:01replace whatever I broke. I was so
239. 9:03broke, I couldn't even afford to smash
240. 9:05my own stuff. So, I just sat there, and
241. 9:07if I'm being honest with you guys, I
242. 9:09remember that day I actually ended up
243. 9:10crying. Now, I wasn't bawling, okay, but
244. 9:14I was so frustrated at all of the things
245. 9:16that I've been doing and all of this
246. 9:17time and effort and how I was seeing no
247. 9:19progress, it just was killing me inside.
248. 9:23It was killing me. And I want to be real
249. 9:25with you guys because I told you that I
250. 9:26would be. I'm not usually the type of
251. 9:28guy that cries, okay? As a man, you kind
252. 9:31of just suck it up, take a deep breath,
253. 9:34and then move forward, as it should be.
254. 9:37But that day I was just so frustrated
255. 9:40and so defeated that it just kind of
256. 9:43came out of me and I and I couldn't talk
257. 9:45to anyone about this. And honestly, I
258. 9:48haven't really told people that that
259. 9:50happened, but it's just the truth of
260. 9:52what I was doing and how I was going
261. 9:54about it and how I was trying to
262. 9:57uh
263. 9:58full port my way to success essentially.
264. 10:01And the worst part of that really wasn't
265. 10:02even the money. The worst part was that
266. 10:04I couldn't really talk to anybody about
267. 10:06this. I couldn't really talk to anybody
268. 10:08about trading because everyone I knew
269. 10:10didn't trade. Because for one, well,
270. 10:13it's embarrassing, right? And for two,
271. 10:16if I told anybody what was really
272. 10:17happening, what were they going to tell
273. 10:19me? They're going to tell me to stop.
274. 10:21And there's nothing wrong with that
275. 10:22because as a person looking in from the
276. 10:24outside, that's probably the most
277. 10:26logical thing you can say to somebody if
278. 10:28you actually care about them. And that
279. 10:30was the day. That was the day that I
280. 10:32realized I had two options. Either I
281. 10:34change something or I have to quit. And
282. 10:37that right there, that moment in my
283. 10:39trading journey is probably the moment
284. 10:42where most people just end up quitting.
285. 10:43Now, here's the thing that I didn't
286. 10:45understand about trading back then that
287. 10:47I understand now. I wasn't trading. I
288. 10:49was just full on gambling. And I knew
289. 10:51that feeling because I knew the casino.
290. 10:54When I go to the casino, I'm not really
291. 10:56expecting to make money, okay? If I make
292. 10:58money, great. But I'm not really
293. 10:59expecting to make money playing slots,
294. 11:02playing roulette, playing blackjack. I
295. 11:04mean, let's be honest. Usually I just go
296. 11:06there to have a good time or get a
297. 11:07little bit of adrenaline and I'm just
298. 11:09there for the rush. And there's this one
299. 11:11mindset that would take over every
300. 11:13single time, you know, I got a couple of
301. 11:14drinks in me and I'm sitting there
302. 11:16gambling at the casino. And it's the
303. 11:19exact same mindset that I brought to the
304. 11:21charts. And what that mindset is is the
305. 11:24mindset is the [ __ ] it mindset. That's
306. 11:26what I like to call it. For example, I'm
307. 11:28playing blackjack. I'm up, I'm down, I'm
308. 11:30down even more, then I get back up, then
309. 11:33I'm down, then I'm up, then I'm down
310. 11:34back to break even. And then eventually
311. 11:36it just gets to a certain point where
312. 11:38you're just like, "Fuck it, I'm all in.
313. 11:39All my money right here, this hand. If I
314. 11:42win big, I made it, I'm out of there.
315. 11:44Hopefully I'll leave the casino. If I
316. 11:46lose and I crash out, then whatever.
317. 11:50[ __ ] it." That was the exact mindset I
318. 11:52was taking into my trading account. And
319. 11:55it's the same thing with like a slot
320. 11:57machine. You hit the bonus, you see the
321. 11:59money pop up, then what do you do? You
322. 12:01think, "I'll hit again, just one more
323. 12:03time. Just see if it happens again." And
324. 12:05then you sit there slamming the button
325. 12:07like a [ __ ] idiot, giving it all
326. 12:10back. Just hit after hit after hit, and
327. 12:12they're all losses. And here's one thing
328. 12:15I really want you guys to hear, because
329. 12:17I hear all the time from traders, and I
330. 12:19guarantee some of you guys do this on
331. 12:21the chart. It's called the gambler's
332. 12:22fallacy. Let's say at the casino, you
333. 12:25watch the roulette board. And when
334. 12:27you're looking at the numbers on the
335. 12:28roulette board, black has just hit 10
336. 12:31times in a row. And your brain goes,
337. 12:33"Oh, 10 times in a row, red is so due.
338. 12:36Red is due. The next spin is going to be
339. 12:38red, it's got to be." So then you bet on
340. 12:40red, because it's been black for way too
341. 12:42long. Now, tell me if that sounds
342. 12:44familiar. You're looking at a chart,
343. 12:46price has just gone up and up and up and
344. 12:49up. And your brain goes, "Oh, it's gone
345. 12:51way too up. It's bound to come down
346. 12:54now." So you end up just shorting it for
347. 12:56no reason other than you felt like it
348. 12:58has to come back down. It can't just
349. 13:00keep going up. That is the same exact
350. 13:03broken brain. That is you sitting at the
351. 13:06roulette table betting red because black
352. 13:08hit 10 times. The market doesn't owe you
353. 13:11a reversal any more than that wheel owed
354. 13:13you a red. But I was doing that every
355. 13:16single day and just calling it trading.
356. 13:19Just trading based off of how I felt,
357. 13:22trading based off of emotions and off of
358. 13:24a gut feeling. And I want to tell you
359. 13:26about the part that nobody saw. And I
360. 13:29really have never talked about it until
361. 13:31this video. Because from the outside, I
362. 13:33was fine, but I wasn't. There were
363. 13:35nights that I would just lie there
364. 13:37staring at the ceiling for hours. Just
365. 13:39staring and thinking like, what the hell
366. 13:42am I even doing? What am I doing with my
367. 13:45life at this point? I'm getting older. I
368. 13:48feel like a loser. I was so broke I
369. 13:50couldn't go do anything. I couldn't go
370. 13:52out. I couldn't even afford dinner with
371. 13:55friends or anything like that. I
372. 13:57couldn't do anything that made you feel
373. 13:58like a normal person. So I just sit
374. 14:00there scrolling, doom scrolling on my
375. 14:03phone. And that was basically my life.
376. 14:05And of course, what do I see when I'm
377. 14:07doom scrolling? Everybody else winning.
378. 14:09Everyone who trades is winning, yet I
379. 14:13feel like I'm the only person who's
380. 14:14losing. Why? And I'll tell you guys
381. 14:16something I've I've never really said to
382. 14:18anybody. I used to think that depression
383. 14:21was for weak-minded people, honestly.
384. 14:24Like I couldn't even fathom how somebody
385. 14:26could be depressed. It was a naive way
386. 14:28to think. I know that now. Cuz the truth
387. 14:31is is that I've loved my life basically
388. 14:33for the most part. And I've always been
389. 14:35able to get through the rough stuff. And
390. 14:36I genuinely just couldn't understand how
391. 14:39I could ever feel depressed, let's just
392. 14:41say. But during that time, there was
393. 14:43like this weight in my chest, right?
394. 14:46Constantly. Like this thing that's just
395. 14:48always hanging over my head. This hell
396. 14:51loop of a cycle that's happening every
397. 14:53single day. And I remember just thinking
398. 14:55to myself like, [ __ ] Like is this what
399. 14:57depression feels like? Now, I don't know
400. 14:59if I was ever depressed. And if I was,
401. 15:01well, I'm definitely not anymore. But I
402. 15:03felt something in that period of my
403. 15:05trading journey here that I've never
404. 15:07felt at any other period in my life. So
405. 15:09if you're feeling that right now, trying
406. 15:11to figure this out, I'm not going to sit
407. 15:13here and tell you that I don't know what
408. 15:15you're talking about because I do. So
409. 15:17with all that, the money being gone, the
410. 15:19debt, not knowing what I was doing, not
411. 15:22knowing how I was going to get out of
412. 15:24debt, the nights just staring at the
413. 15:26ceiling. Why didn't I just quit? Why
414. 15:28didn't I just quit? Here's the honest
415. 15:29answer to that. Pride, ego, and the fact
416. 15:33that I'd sunk so much time, so much
417. 15:35money into this that I literally
418. 15:37couldn't stop. I just couldn't bring
419. 15:39myself to walk away from it. I would
420. 15:41have felt like I honestly I would have
421. 15:43felt like such a [ __ ] dude. Like I
422. 15:45already felt like a loser and I thought,
423. 15:48why would I go through all of this, feel
424. 15:50like a loser, just to actually quit and
425. 15:53then really become a loser? At least let
426. 15:56me win. At least let me win. I'm in way
427. 15:59too deep. That's basically what I was
428. 16:01thinking in my head. And I made a
429. 16:02decision. It was a reckless decision,
430. 16:04I'll admit that, but I made it anyways.
431. 16:07I decided that I'm either going to go
432. 16:09completely broke trying to figure this
433. 16:10out or I was going to get my act
434. 16:13together, change what I needed to
435. 16:14change, and then actually make progress
436. 16:17in the right direction with trading. So,
437. 16:19I want to tell you guys about a
438. 16:21conversation that I had with a close
439. 16:23family member. Maybe you guys have had
440. 16:24one of these, too. I used to talk about
441. 16:26trading a lot and I would talk about
442. 16:28trading a lot with family and with
443. 16:30friends. And one day my family member
444. 16:33asked me, "How's trading going?" And I
445. 16:35told him the truth. I told him that I
446. 16:37was just constantly losing money every
447. 16:40single day and that, you know, I'm still
448. 16:41trying to figure it out. At this point,
449. 16:43I'm like a year and a half in, right?
450. 16:45Still trying to figure it out. And he
451. 16:47told me just straight up like, "Look,
452. 16:50you should probably just quit. I mean,
453. 16:51this isn't working, right? You should
454. 16:54spend your time on something productive
455. 16:56that actually makes money." And it was
456. 16:58the most logical thing in the world for
457. 17:01that person to tell me at the time. If I
458. 17:03was looking at me from the outside, a
459. 17:05guy who doesn't trade, I would have said
460. 17:08the exact same thing. I look like an
461. 17:09idiot. But I remember telling that I
462. 17:11remember getting angry and I remember
463. 17:13telling them like, "Don't ever tell me
464. 17:14not to do something, right? Don't ever
465. 17:16tell me not to try to be successful at
466. 17:19something. And here's the thing I
467. 17:20finally understand about why that made
468. 17:22me so angry. It wasn't them, because
469. 17:24when they said it, when my friends said
470. 17:26it, when other people around me said it,
471. 17:29told me to quit, it made me furious. And
472. 17:32it's because they're are saying the
473. 17:33exact thing out loud that I was thinking
474. 17:35to myself the entire time, that I was
475. 17:38fighting in the back of my head, right?
476. 17:40That I should just quit. But hearing
477. 17:42someone else say it just made it louder.
478. 17:44So then what do I do? Well, then I just
479. 17:45stopped talking about it completely.
480. 17:47Anyone who asked me about trading, I
481. 17:48just shut down every single
482. 17:50conversation. I'd tell them, "Good. Yep.
483. 17:52It's fine. Whatever." I didn't want to
484. 17:54talk about it. And I didn't talk about
485. 17:55trading again until the day I actually
486. 17:57started making money. And obviously I'm
487. 17:59posting content on the internet, so now
488. 18:01people see it, right? But I essentially
489. 18:03just went silent and I just dealt with
490. 18:05it alone. So then what actually changed?
491. 18:07How do I go from that to then being able
492. 18:09to consistently pull payouts with prop
493. 18:11firms and then even end up winning a
494. 18:14trading championship? And I need to be
495. 18:15honest with you guys, because this is
496. 18:17where a lot of videos will just go and
497. 18:19lie to you, right? This It doesn't
498. 18:21happen overnight. Anyone who sits there
499. 18:24and tells you that one day they just
500. 18:25decide they're going to flip a switch
501. 18:27and then there was some aha moment and
502. 18:29then everything changed overnight is
503. 18:30full of [ __ ] That's not how it works. A
504. 18:32lot of these things that are holding us
505. 18:33back in trading are habits. And bad
506. 18:36habits take forever to break. You have
507. 18:38to grind at them. For a long time I knew
508. 18:41I needed to change. I just wasn't doing
509. 18:43it. And you know why? You know why I
510. 18:44wasn't You know why I wasn't doing it?
511. 18:46It's because I was trying to rush the
512. 18:47process. I was broke. I was desperate.
513. 18:51And I was trading this like boom or bust
514. 18:53because I needed the boom just to
515. 18:55survive. I needed the money so badly at
516. 18:58the time that I couldn't let go of
517. 19:00chasing that money. And that was the
518. 19:03exact thing that was stopping me from
519. 19:05progressing in trading. So the shift,
520. 19:08the shift when it finally came, and it
521. 19:10came slowly, was this. I stopped
522. 19:13focusing on the money. As much as I
523. 19:15possibly could, at least. And I put all
524. 19:18of my focus on trading itself, the
525. 19:21actual process of trading, on the
526. 19:23quality of my execution, on the quality
527. 19:25of my decision-making, on having some
528. 19:27self-control and actually staying
529. 19:30contained. And that's it. That's the
530. 19:32whole thing. When all I cared about was
531. 19:34money,
532. 19:35and I was trying to trade, well, I
533. 19:36stayed broke. Unfortunately,
534. 19:39and some of you guys don't want to hear
535. 19:40this,
536. 19:41trading is probably, if not, the worst
537. 19:45business model that you could possibly
538. 19:47ever do if you're in desperate need of
539. 19:50cash.
540. 19:52Not a good idea. But the second I
541. 19:54started caring more about the process
542. 19:56rather than the money, and let the money
543. 19:59be the result of that process, well,
544. 20:01then the money finally came. It comes
545. 20:03after. It always comes after. But you
546. 20:06can't sit here and try and fake that
547. 20:08order. You can't chase it and then like
548. 20:10pretend you're not chasing it. I mean, I
549. 20:12understand why everyone gets into
550. 20:13trading. We get into trading because we
551. 20:15want to make money. Let's not fool
552. 20:16ourselves here. But there's a process of
553. 20:19how you need to learn how to trade in
554. 20:22order to make money. Doesn't start with
555. 20:24the focus being on the money. Yet, most
556. 20:27people will start with that being their
557. 20:28focus, and then they just self-sabotage
558. 20:31themselves out of desperation, and
559. 20:33they'll never make any money trading.
560. 20:34You'll just end up being like the 90 to
561. 20:3695% of traders who never make a single
562. 20:39dollar trading. You're going to be the
563. 20:40trader that ends up causing these prop
564. 20:42firms to be really liquid, to have a lot
565. 20:45of money, and pay their employees a nice
566. 20:47little bonus off your frustration and
567. 20:49your desperation. So, let me give you
568. 20:51something real that I did. Let me give
569. 20:53you one real thing that I did. Not some
570. 20:56motivational [ __ ] okay? But at
571. 20:58first, let me actually tell you what I
572. 21:00didn't do. I didn't do that whole thing
573. 21:02you hear from, you know, gurus and
574. 21:04traders about like all that punishment
575. 21:07stuff. Like, oh, if you break your
576. 21:08rules, do 50 push-ups. That's [ __ ]
577. 21:11And it's [ __ ] well, here's why. If
578. 21:13you're not disciplined enough to follow
579. 21:15your trading rules, if they're even real
580. 21:17rules in the first place, what makes you
581. 21:19think that you're going to follow some
582. 21:22half-assed punishment that you made up
583. 21:24for yourself? You made it yourself.
584. 21:26You'll delay it, you'll half-ass it, or
585. 21:29you're going to choose some punishment
586. 21:31that you secretly wanted to do anyways.
587. 21:34Like let's say your punishment is
588. 21:35push-ups. Okay, well, you wanted to get
589. 21:37in shape, so what type of [ __ ] is
590. 21:40that? Like let's let's be let's be
591. 21:41serious. You know what I mean? So here's
592. 21:43what I actually did. I stopped
593. 21:44journaling my feelings. Like everyone
594. 21:46likes to journal their feelings, how
595. 21:47they feel, okay? Well, that's not really
596. 21:49going to help you. I started journaling
597. 21:51the sequence of events, and I have
598. 21:52hundreds of pages of this in a document,
599. 21:56an old document on my computer, hundreds
600. 21:58of pages going all the way back to 2023.
601. 22:00It's not how I felt today after I lost
602. 22:04my money. No, it's what actually
603. 22:06happened step-by-step through the
604. 22:08session. Because before you can fix a
605. 22:11problem, you need to diagnose it, and
606. 22:13you need to diagnose the correct issue.
607. 22:15You can't just fix or provide a solution
608. 22:18to a problem that you haven't actually
609. 22:20properly diagnosed. And what I was
610. 22:22hunting for in all of those pages was
611. 22:25the tipping point, the line in the sand,
612. 22:27the exact moment that I go from making
613. 22:29solid, clean, clear decisions to making
614. 22:32stupid ones. Now, every trader has that
615. 22:35line in the sand, and most of them have
616. 22:37never gone looking for it, or they have
617. 22:39not diagnosed the real one. But once I
618. 22:42found mine, once I found what actually
619. 22:44causes me to break, then and only then
620. 22:48did I actually start making progress on
621. 22:49anything. Because when you find that
622. 22:51spot, you find that specific spot, and
623. 22:53there's going to be a couple of them,
624. 22:55like multiple lines in the sand where
625. 22:57you go from making calculated decisions
626. 22:59to stupid decisions, what you do is you
627. 23:03create guardrails around those breaking
628. 23:06points or those tipping points. And that
629. 23:09is what became the system that I trade
630. 23:11today. But it's not built for good days.
631. 23:13Anybody can follow their rules or do
632. 23:14what they're supposed to do on a good
633. 23:16day. The system that you need to build
634. 23:19is to protect yourself on the bad days.
635. 23:21The days that it's the hardest to follow
636. 23:24them. Rules are not for when you're
637. 23:26winning, they're for when you're about
638. 23:28to have a catastrophic session and blow
639. 23:31everything. And a real rule has to be
640. 23:33specific. It has to have an action.
641. 23:36Don't overtrade. Don't force a trade.
642. 23:39Don't chase. Don't FOMO. Don't oversize.
643. 23:43Those are useless. Those are not rules.
644. 23:46That's a wish, okay? A rule is a
645. 23:49specific line with a specific action
646. 23:52attached to it. Because that is what
647. 23:54actually holds. So, let me talk to the
648. 23:58person I made this video for. I still
649. 24:00have all those old journal entries. I
650. 24:02have all the video diaries I used to
651. 24:04make for years talking about how bad
652. 24:07this all was while I was trying to
653. 24:09figure out how to trade. And sometimes I
654. 24:12go back and I watch them. And I'll be
655. 24:14honest with you guys because sometimes
656. 24:15when I do that, well, sometimes it makes
657. 24:17me emotional. Because I can see it. I
658. 24:20can see how lost that guy or that
659. 24:22version of me was. I can see how much
660. 24:24pain and frustration I was in at the
661. 24:26time trying to figure this out and not
662. 24:30being sure or not knowing if this was
663. 24:32ever going to work out or if I was going
664. 24:33to lose all my money and I was just
665. 24:36going to be a complete failure and just
666. 24:38a loser and then have to go do something
667. 24:40else. And I am so grateful that I did
668. 24:43not quit. Not because I sit here and I
669. 24:46think, oh, I made it. I don't even think
670. 24:48like that. But because I got to the
671. 24:51point where I've proved something to
672. 24:53myself. I've proved something to that
673. 24:55past version of me. Here's the thing
674. 24:57that I hold on to that I want to give to
675. 24:59you guys. I can feel like a loser.
676. 25:01That's allowed. That's totally allowed.
677. 25:03We can feel like a loser sometimes,
678. 25:05especially on the hard days. But, the
679. 25:07only time you actually become one, the
680. 25:10only time you cement it into reality, is
681. 25:13the day that you quit. That's it. That's
682. 25:15literally the whole difference. As long
683. 25:17as you're still in it, you're still
684. 25:19working on it, you're still showing up
685. 25:21trying to do the right thing, well, the
686. 25:22story isn't over. market and these
687. 25:26charts humbled me in a way that nothing
688. 25:29in my life ever had. But, I'm grateful
689. 25:31for it because it forced me to become
690. 25:33someone who can actually do this. So, if
691. 25:35you're in that room right now, if you're
692. 25:37just like me staring at the ceiling not
693. 25:40knowing if this is ever going to work
694. 25:42out, embarrassed to tell people around
695. 25:44you what's really happening, I'm not
696. 25:46going to sit here and tell you that this
697. 25:48is easy because we all know it's not.
698. 25:50And if you think this is easy, then you
699. 25:53probably didn't get that far into this
700. 25:54video. I'm just going to tell you that I
701. 25:56was there. I was exactly where you are.
702. 25:58And the only reason that I'm here now is
703. 26:01because I refused to make that feeling
704. 26:04permanent. Change one thing, then change
705. 26:07one more. It's gradual. It's supposed to
706. 26:10be. So, I don't know. I just got on to
707. 26:12just yap, basically.
708. 26:15And hopefully this helps somebody out.
709. 26:17If it does, let me know in the comments
710. 26:19section down below. That's it. I'll
711. 26:21catch you guys next time. Peace.