Martin

Living life , hobby trader , USIC 2024, USIC 2025

[Martin @MartinAustro]

@TaPlot Keep up the fight you will win this battle . You have god on your side . We keep praying my friend 🙏🙏

[Martin @MartinAustro]

Year 3 at the United States Trading Championship 🇺🇸
The hardest one yet and nothing to report, because in this competition you only report positive figures. That’s fine.
Within certain trading circles, it’s no secret that many of us are in the same position this year. That’s also fine. I have always been straight with you, and that won’t change.
Today marks a personal milestone my last platform subscription just expired. After years of subscribing to services from some of the top traders out there, I have reached the moment where I have to stand on my own two feet.
Besides TradingView and MarketSurge, I need nothing else just my own time and the knowledge I have built.
I would like to say to anyone just starting out or somewhere in the middle of the journey: never give up. Whatever you put in, you get out and most times, more.
The most valuable lesson I can give you:
You cannot keep paying to sit inside someone else’s circle when YOU are already the best version of yourself without outside input.
Let the price action speak. Let the market lead. Trust the signals YOU have developed. Follow the alarms YOU have set.
That is your edge. That is your guidance.
Wishing you guys all the best for the rest of this trading year .
#Trading #StockMarket #TradingChampionship #PriceAction #TraderMindset #Stocks #DayTrading #TradingJourney

[Martin @MartinAustro]

Just got my copy of “The Greatest Story Ever Told” by @BearGrylls an eyewitness account of Jesus life that brings the people & world around him to life like never before. Mind blowing read.
We are now in the year 2026 and we’re STILL fighting over whose God is right.

Facts: Out of 1,763 recorded historical conflicts, only ~7% had religion as the PRIMARY cause. Most wars? Power. Money. Land. Religion just makes people feel MORE justified fighting.
Jesus preached love. Muhammad preached compassion. Buddha preached peace.
The problem was NEVER the message. It’s what people do with it.
This book is a reminder the world needs more open minds & less judgment. Respect others beliefs even when they differ from yours. At the core of every faith is the same thing: our shared humanity. ❤️
#GreatestStoryEverTold #BearGrylls #Faith #OpenMind #Peace #ReligionAndWar #BookRecommendation

[Martin @MartinAustro]

I was just thinking today and did some research on it . Here is what I found about Bill O Neil ,

Bill O’Neil barely gave public interviews his entire career.
No media circuit. No podcast. He just wrote his books and let the work speak.
So why does half the trading education space claim they worked with him or learned directly from him?
Maybe because that industry is completely unregulated. No license. No proof required. Anyone can claim anything.
He passed in 2023. He can’t speak for himself anymore.
The books are still there. Same price they have always been.
Food for thought.

[Martin @MartinAustro]

@TheoGustincic I posted something similar yesterday Theo take a look . We have one life to live therefore we need to make the most of it . Sending my best wishes to you . Hope you doing great 👏🙏

[Martin @MartinAustro]

The traders who post every day aren’t selling trades. They’re selling you the idea of trading.
The Patreon. The paid Twitter. The subscription signals. The exclusive community. That’s the actual business. You are the market they’re in your attention, your hope, your monthly fee.
It works because when you’re new, the noise feels like knowledge. Every post feels like a lesson. Every alert feels like an edge.
Then time passes.
You start to notice the ones who were loudest a year ago have either disappeared or pivoted to selling a course. You start to realize that the information stops compounding after a certain point. You start to see that your own screen time, your own journal, your own mistakes that’s where the real education lives.
Also you start ask yourself what happened to the ones actually making consistent money?
They went quiet a long time ago. Not because they failed, because they stopped needing the validation. The market already gave them their feedback. Privately. Daily.
There are two worlds in trading. One performs for an audience. One just does the work.
Most people never figure out which world they’re actually in or which world the people they’re following are in.
You have to find it out yourself!

[Martin @MartinAustro]

Months of red and everyone goes quiet. Market bounces once and suddenly the timeline is flooded with I called it posts and picks that were obviously right all along. The losses? Never happened apparently.
This has a name: survivorship bias. Only the wins survive to be posted. The failures quietly disappear and your brain fills in the rest with a distorted picture of reality.
Social media has turbocharged this. Every trading screenshot shows gains, never losses. Every financial freedom story highlights the triumph, not the years of struggle or the luck involved.

The GameStop era was a perfect example viral stories of retail traders making fortunes, while the people who followed the same strategy and lost everything generated no content at all.
If you have spent any time on X and follow some finance topics or people in the trading field , you have probably noticed, 3 out of 4 of these posts are from people selling subscriptions. The bragging isn’t about being right. It’s a sales pitch. Been there, seen it firsthand.
Here’s the uncomfortable math behind it: research suggests 70 to 90% of retail traders lose money.

Bloomberg found that 80% of day traders quit within the first two years. The ones who remain are the survivors and they are the only voices you hear.
The real edge in trading isn’t a hot take or a newsletter. It’s knowing when NOT to trade, sitting on your hands when conditions are unfavorable, and only stepping in when the tide seems to be turning. That’s it. That’s the whole game.
Everything else is noise.

[Martin @MartinAustro]

@TheoGustincic Thanks for sharing your story and experience always Theo , really happy for you that you were able to make it !
I like how you never forget your roots and your humble beginnings. You are a real star !

[Martin @MartinAustro]

@wey_how12640 Very beautiful thank you for sharing these fantastic videos 🙏

[Martin @MartinAustro]

The internet gave a voice to people who would have never been heard otherwise. In many ways that is beautiful. In other ways it created a space where words lost their weight because there are no real consequences anymore.
In a free world everyone deserves to share their opinion but with that comes the responsibility to also take criticism with the same energy you give it.
That is where a lot of people fall short.
We live in a time where we rarely get to sit across from someone and have a real conversation. Everything is filtered through a screen and that changes perception completely. Things that would never be said face to face get typed without a second thought.
Ironically even genuine compliments and great work get buried under those comments.
I think the answer is simple. Highlight the good more. Celebrate the people doing real work. Ignore the noise without losing yourself in it.
Staying true to yourself in a world that rewards reaction is one of the hardest things to do.
It was a genuine pleasure meeting you twice. Everything I have learned from you has stayed with me and shaped the way I think about markets and about life. Keep doing what you do. The people paying attention are the ones that matter.

[Martin @MartinAustro]

Great point and honestly one of the better observations I have seen today.
I want to add something to that. These days we do not even know what smart money looks like anymore. The lines are so blurred.
High frequency algorithms reacting to keywords in a headline. Institutions hedging in both directions simultaneously. Retail now moving markets in ways they never could before. Who is actually smart money in this environment is a genuine question.
What we do know is that a 600 point drop recovering on an unconfirmed rumor about the Strait of Hormuz is not organic buying. Something is moving these markets and it is not fundamentals.
That is what makes this tape so dangerous for everyone. Not just retail. Everyone.
Stay sharp and keep sharing these observations. This kind of thinking is exactly what is needed right now.

[Martin @MartinAustro]

Always appreciate your posts and the way you think about the market. As a former student of yours I have learned so much from you and that knowledge stays with me every single day and you are right. Plenty of RS names printing new highs on the weekly is always a good sign and worth paying attention to.
I just want to add if that is ok with one thought to this. The last few weeks have shown us that even the strongest RS names are not immune in this environment. We have seen leaders become serious casualties overnight on pure macro pressure with nothing company specific behind it.
Today alone the Dow was down over 600 points at its lows. The S&P 500 dropped 1.5% and the Nasdaq fell over 2% intraday.
All of that recovered on a single headline. I don’t think that is not market strength I believe that is more headline dependency.
Oil near multi year highs. Bank of America calling for slower growth and higher inflation through the rest of 2026.
If a market can swing 800 points on a single geopolitical development I have my doubts that even the strongest names are not safe from that.
Please keep posting I can always learn from you.
Just wanted to add that layer of caution on top of what is otherwise a very valid observation.

[Martin @MartinAustro]

In the last couple of days I got quite some inspiration to post about some topics through comments I made on other traders posts, And this one I had to turn into its own post again.

I replied to someone today who said this is the least fun it has ever been to work on markets. I had to stop and say I completely agree.
And here is the honest truth nobody wants to post.
The last few years created an explosion of trading subscriptions, courses, and self proclaimed experts. Everyone looked like a genius in a bull market. Alerts flying. Wins being celebrated. Followers growing. Money coming in but we are not in that market anymore.
Here is the problem nobody talks about. When you are running a subscription service and the market stops delivering wins you cannot afford to be bearish. You cannot afford to be honest because honesty in a downtrend loses you customers. The tone has to stay somehow bullish. The bad calls disappear quietly. The narrative gets adjusted to protect the business not to reflect reality.
That is not analysis. That is a business model pretending to be expertise.
Short sell or long buy alerts are still being issued.
On top of that we are living through a period where propaganda has made it almost impossible to separate truth from lies. A war with information being weaponized on every side. A political climate so divided that left vs right has become louder than the actual issues destroying people’s financial lives.
Tariffs restructuring global trade. Inflation still eating purchasing power. Multiple war fronts creating uncertainty no algorithm was built to handle and in the middle of all of this people are still selling you the next hot setup of the week.
The most valuable thing anyone can offer right now is honesty. Straight forward. No agenda. No subscription to protect.
Sometimes the most professional thing you can say is I don’t know. The data is unclear and I am not going to pretend otherwise just to keep you engaged because I don’t sell anything.
That kind of voice is rare right now and it is exactly what this moment demands. Stay true to yourself and be patient .

[Martin @MartinAustro]

Completely agree and I want to add something honest to this.
I have never experienced anything like this. People so locked into one side that facts don’t even enter the conversation anymore. Everyone talking. Nobody really saying anything. Just noise dressed up as analysis.
What I value most right now is exactly what you are doing. Straight forward. No agenda. No politics. Just the data as it comes.
And here is the part nobody wants to say out loud. The last few years created an explosion of subscriptions, courses, and self proclaimed experts. Everyone became a guru in a bull market. But we are not in that market anymore.
When you are selling a service and the market stops delivering wins you have a problem. You cannot keep subscribers happy with losing trades and prolonged downtrends. So what happens?
The tone stays bullish. The bad calls get quietly buried. The narrative bends to protect the business not to reflect reality.
That is not analysis. That is a business model dressed up as expertise.
The propaganda around this war has made it even worse. Nobody knows what is true anymore and yet everyone is posting with full confidence like they have the answers.
The most honest thing anyone can say right now is this is hard, the data is unclear, and I am not going to pretend otherwise just to keep you engaged.
That kind of honesty is rare. And it is exactly what this market moment needs more of.

[Martin @MartinAustro]

I replied to someone today about the trader lifestyle and I have to say it straight.
We glorify trading too much. We make it a lifestyle. We make it an identity. We put traders on pedestals.
But when was the last time we talked about our soldiers who leave their families to protect ours. Our farmers who wake up before the sun to feed the world. Our doctors and nurses who carry the weight of human life on their shoulders every single day. Our teachers shaping the next generation for a salary that doesn’t reflect half of what they give.
These are the people we should be talking about more. These are the real stories worth telling.
And here is what else we never talk about. Trading has destroyed livelihoods. Quietly. Permanently. We hear the one story about the guy who sold his car, put everything in, and made millions. That story gets shared a million times. What we don’t share is that 3 out of 4 people who lose it all never come back. Never. That story stays silent because it doesn’t sell a course or grow a following.
The person who lost their savings, their confidence, their marriage, their stability nobody is making content about them.
When you have people depending on you that bet it all story is not inspiration. It is reckless. And we need to stop presenting it as courage.
Trading has its place. But it was never meant to be a culture built on desperate hope.
Honor the professions that keep this world standing. Build something real and stable first. And if you trade do it responsibly, from a place of security, with money you can truly afford to lose.
Not every hero has a chart on their screen. Most of them never will.

[Martin @MartinAustro]

Powerful words. But let’s stop glorifying the trader lifestyle for a second.
Yes trading has changed lives. Yes it has pulled people out of poverty and yes it demands real skill and courage.
But let’s be honest about the other side nobody talks about.
Trading has also destroyed livelihoods. Families broken. Savings wiped out. People who came in desperate for a way out and left with nothing. Because they were sold the dream before they were taught the reality.
The truth is most people enter trading not with a plan but with hope. And hope without structure in this market is just gambling with extra steps.
The courage to fail sounds beautiful until that failure is rent money. Until it’s a family that trusted you. Until it’s years of savings gone in months chasing a lifestyle you saw on social media.
Hard work has always paid off. A stable income. A solid foundation. Those aren’t boring they are the platform that gives you the freedom to trade responsibly without desperation clouding your judgment.
Trade from strength not from survival. And before you trade at all build something secure to stand on first.
The best traders I’ve seen didn’t need trading to survive. That’s exactly why they thrived.

[Martin @MartinAustro]

Traders are out here calling market bottoms while the world is literally restructuring itself.
Iran. Ukraine. Taiwan. A global tariff war. Inflation destroying real purchasing power. Oil spiking. Global demand slowing. These aren’t isolated events they are connected dominoes.
This is the most dangerous market environment in decades and people are treating it like a routine pullback. The ones calling turning points right now are either overconfident or selling you something.
The smartest trade right now is no trade. Protect your capital. Have your plan ready. And when the market actually proves a directional change not just a bounce, a real reclaim with follow through then you move.
Until then, the traders talking about bottoms are just noise.
Cash is not a missed opportunity.

Cash is survival!

[Martin @MartinAustro]

Great analysis Theo, and the bullish case is certainly what we all hope for but I think there’s a critical variable being left out here: war and global oil supply.
When you factor in active geopolitical conflicts and energy market instability, historical statistics and chart patterns become far less reliable as predictors. These aren’t normal market correction conditions.
If we’re going to use historical precedent, we should arguably go much further back to periods like WWII or the Vietnam War era where markets operated under genuine geopolitical stress. That data tells a very different story than post-2000 corrections driven by valuation or credit cycles.
The bullish outlook is nice, and we genuinely hope for it. But the reality on the ground right now shows countries dealing with rising inflation, supply chain pressure, energy insecurity, and real human suffering. These aren’t variables that show up cleanly in a QQQ chart.
Statistics and forecasts work well in stable environments. We may not be in one.