I still can’t quite put my finger on it, but the way self-awareness as a person and trader was presented and explained truly intrigued me. Our guest, Wojtek (chatroom alias ‘Surlymac’), started out with dollar signs in his eyes and wanting the good life. As he will explain, in very self-aware fashion, this lead him to become blinded to logic and reasoning. When logic and reason go out the window because of greed, this opens up the emotional box of demons… the big one for Wojtek being stress. In fact, as I write this and think about it, the way he described his situation is that of absolute misery… ugh! If you take nothing else away from the interview, please take away the power of being honest with yourself when reflecting. It becomes much easier to fix things when you acknowledge them. I know you’ll enjoy this discussion, so let’s get to it! Notes: Today we interview community member Wojtek who goes by Surlymac in the community. After looking for some more ways to earn money, Surly ended up finding ‘gurus’ who pitched their wonderful lives as a result of trading penny stocks. After falling prey to the Stocktwits group think trap, he was broken both mentally and financially after a string of losers. He had heard of Clay and his nonexistent ‘shorting army’ shortly after this and he figured that if he couldn’t beat them, join them. After talking with Chezz and finding out that shorting army did not exist, he still decided to join the community. After a few days as a member, he enrolled in the University program. While he was learning a lot, this actually made him more dangerous in terms of trading. He knew enough to think he had solid plans but still wasn’t able to see the larger picture of what trading really entails. Surly eventually realized that trading advanced options fit the best with his personality because he could define his risk from onset of a trade. This allows him to sleep easy at night knowing that even if the market completely collapses over night, his max loss is capped at a level he is comfortable with. Along with finding strategies that work best for him and his personality, Surly now focuses on a smaller basket of stocks to focus on and this leads to a higher success rate for his trading. Realizing that success does not come overnight, he understands that consistency is what ultimately wins the game. Quotes: I was sitting on Google looking for easy ways to make money. Lots of videos with Lamborghini’s promising millions. You presented information in a very dry way. This piqued my interest. Also, everyone hated you. I realized how much I didn’t know and how dangerous I was. Robotic Trading showed me that there is so much beyond just one course. One of the big things I took away from last year was that I have time. I don’t like to see red. If it’s within the trade plan, don’t react. When I first started I was anxious, excited, fearful, joyful, the full gambit. Today, trading is incredibly boring.