As a Trader, you will eventually mature into the mindset that all of your actions, planning, lifestyle changes are moving you towards a life without Trading.
Eventually, you will get the epiphany that your task is to get to a net worth that removes the need to trade. Your money works for you, on autopilot.
No real estate, no businesses, no employees, no sales, no concern for competition, no energy wasting pursuits for significance.
Fixed income on a well-earned knot... most never get this.
Be the exception, work towards it.
You have the power to speak creation with your tongue. If you choose to think it is hard, difficult or impossible, it will be.
If you think you can accomplish your goals and ask God for the strength to accomplish them for more than your freshly desire, do you think He would shun you?
You can do all things, through Christ Who will strengthen you.
Believe in the God of way making. He has a record of doing some amazing feats and escapes for those who diligently seek and love Him.
Cake walk...
Over the last year I’ve worked directly for 2 trading firms, mentored multiple 8-figure P&L traders, many 7-figure traders, and everything in between.
Different styles, different personalities, but 4 universal truths.
1) Everyone starts this job clueless.
At Trillium we'd joke that every top trader starts with:
-The same company-issued monitors
-The same company-issued keyboards
-Zero idea what they were doing
At @traders4acause, I remember Gregg asking the audience how many people had blown a trading account before. It was half the people in the room, including most of the panelists.
Rough starts are COMMON in future great traders.
It's not a red flag or an omen.
I had one of the slowest starts in @TRLM history. Meanwhile, many fast out of the gate didn't make it.
Speed at the start has nothing to do with distance traveled at the end.
2) There is no “best” strategy.
Some traders I work with:
-Scalp
-trade breakouts
-Trade reversions
-Trend follow
All strats can work.
What separates winners? Once something makes sense to them hey go deep enough to see the other side.
Exploration is totally normal in the beginning! That's how you find your strengths and interests and what works for you!
It is just like dieting. Many diets work. Most fail, because very few stick through the plateaus.
Results tend to only come after the long valley of despair.
3) Trading doesn’t require genius. In fact, high IQ can becomes a liability in discretionary trading.
What matters more:
-Resilience
-Coachability
-Urgency
The best traders I know are never satisfied.
Even after great months, they want more progress.
The combo of traits I’d pick in any trainee?
Daily improvement + Real urgency to succeed.
That combo beats raw intelligence every time.
4) Treat trading like pro sports. Trading from home is dangerous.
No start time, no end time, no boss watching over you.
Structure disappears and you're left to your weakest safeguard: willpower.
Especially early on, you need to force structure:
-Fixed start and end times
-Phone away
-Distractions eliminated
-Scheduled reviews
-Routine performance checks
Just like athletes structure drills, practice, film review.
You should know EXACTLY:
-When you journal
-When you review trades
-When you analyze mistakes
Structure matters because it carries you through the bad days. And there are many bad days. The days you want to log out early are the days you learn the most.
Your trading day is game day. Sleep matters, gym matters, health matters.
THE TAKEAWAY??
Every successful trader started out right where you are. It wasn’t a matter of special unique intellect, but specific daily actions and a sense of urgent to get better each day while giving this job the professionalism it deserves.
The limiting factor for most traders isn’t their knowledge or strategy.
They just can’t get out of their own way.
They make the same mistakes over and over and over without correcting them.
Why? Because sometimes the market rewards bad behavior.
Now the feedback loop is totally broken… and you continue to assume that bad habits done right can still produce positive results.
So they never get fixed.. and as a result.. long term consistency is never achieved.
Consistent profitable trading requires you to do the same thing over and over and over regardless of the outcome.
And that… for most people… is too boring to continue doing for extended periods of time.
Welcome to the markets… where boring is profitable.
If you spend more time building your trading strategy with its aim at replacing a portion, then entirely, your living wages... you would outperform 99% of these assholes online pretending they have a clue.
Trade your time and money for market profits.
Then trade those profits for income producing assets and investments.
Wish, Rinse, Repeat.
Defer your image based bullshit.
📖 25 "Cheat-codes" to achieve Success in Life
1) If you want to flourish, you take care of the soil rather than the seed. Upgrade your environment, because your environment upgrades you.
2) A flower doesn't go after the bee. The flower flourishes, and then the bee will come. Stop chasing butterflies. Plant a garden (build) so they will come to you (results)
3) Stop hanging out with losers unless you want to be one yourself. Hanging out online included - The sources you choose to receive content from, are one very big reason for your future decisions and outcomes. Choose carefully what you fill your mind it, and what you spend your most valuable asset (time) on. Don't worry about following too many sources or having too many friends. Quality over Quantity.
4) Try to never be the smartest person in all rooms you're in. Be somewhere where you can consistently learn, and be somewhere where you can consistently teach - Teaching is learning twice and can build trustworthy networks.
5) Define one Big goal for your life. Make it explicit. It will serve as your north star. Write it down in detail on a piece of paper and look at it every once in a while to remind yourself why you're doing all of this. People who write down goals are much more likely to achieve them Vs who doesn't.
6) Once you know where you're going, stay in your lane and let the nay-sayers be. They'll try to distract you and discourage you, because deep inside they actually fear you achieve more than they ever did. Remember that you're not competing with them. You're competing with poverty and who you were yesterday. Seek progress rather than perfection.
7) The worst position to find yourself in: No money + No time. Barely anyone on the planet is victim of both combined. The person who has time can always choose to trade it for money. Once you have money, you can begin choosing to trade it for time. Learn this arbitrage and you're sorted for life.
8) There are no shortcuts to any place worth going. Focus on doing what you do, and do it consistently better. It takes thousands of hours to master anything life-changing.
9) For as long as you live remember that the only free cheese is in the mousetrap.
10) Every day, do one thing that gets you closer to your big goal. Venture out into the unknown. Get out of your comfort zone. Remember, boats are safe in the harbor, but that's not what boats are for.
11) Do not quit. Everyone who won at life, simply did not give up. It might take a while, it might be hard, it might be scary at times, but as long as you keep putting one foot in front of the other, you will eventually get to a life most can only dream of. Hardships are life's way of seeing if you're ready to level up.
12) Never assume the answer is No before you ask. Let them be the ones to tell you No. More often than not you'll be surprised by how wrong you were to assume the worst. A "No" doesn't change your reality much. A "Yes" might do. Even if you get a "No", then you can ask what would've made them say "Yes". Their feedback will help you grow. You need the right mindset to understand the value on this.
13) Let them hate. Nobody throws stones at a tree that doesn't have ripe fruit on it. If you begin having haters, you're growing.
14) Stop expecting them to see what you see. Stop expecting them to act the way you would act. Stop expecting YOU from other people. They won't be able to see the world the way you see it. When you talk growth and achievements with people who don't want to grow, to them it sounds like bragging. They'll resent you from trying to move up from where they are, because your progress makes them realize that they are less in comparison. A man with no aspirations sees dreams as arrogance.
15) Others will only see the outcome, not the effort. "Overnight success" usually takes years to accomplish.
16) Stop chasing people. Yes, sex is fun, but making your dreams come true is the ultimate climax. You can't even imagine what it's like to wake up without the stress of having to survive/follow boss's rules.
17) The only real test of intelligence is if you actually get what you want out of life. Ask yourself: "If i'm so smart why am i not rich? Why have i been so many years selling my time for cheap money to make other people rich?"
Smart people are able to figure these things out. Maybe you're just smarter than your inner circle and that makes you feel smart enough, but are you?...Self-reflect and you might find the answers to change your life moving forward.
18) Learn to use leverage (and this is not about futures...) Those who use the tools at their disposal outperform the rest. Most people's lives are cheap because they think investing in themselves is expensive.
19) Rise up early. The world is lazy and unmotivated. It's easy to compete with them if you're up before them. An extra hour awake is worth more when you're 30 than when you're 80. It pays off to cut on sleep when you're younger.
20) In life you have to choose one of two pains: The pain of Discipline, or the pain of Regret.
21) You feel bad because deep down you know you could be doing better. The gap between reality and expectations creates stress. Either bring your reality to the level of your expectations, or bring your expectations to the level of your reality. Make a choice.
22) People want you to do well in life, but not better than them. Pay attention to those who don't cheer when you win. They're always ready to give you "advice" or even laugh if you fail, because they never win.
23) You can get rich by taking large amounts of risk with low amounts of money. You stay rich by taking low amounts of risk with large amounts of money.
24) Cost of public failure is the ticket to the life you dream about. Most people live with the fear of public embarassment, so they settle for whatever society tells them to settle for. You don't need others to believe in you if you believe in yourself. You get to decide whether to be your greatest obstacle, or your biggest fan.
25) The world where you were born, no longer exists, so open up your mind and get ready for the future.
Lastly, it's not the recipe that you're missing. You're smart enough to know what needs to be done, but you have to do it rather than thinking of doing it later. What you need is 6 months of focus, productive routine. In 3 years from now your life can be so much better if for the next 6 months you put in the work on your mindset and skills.