Thanks to a very open and honest sharing of his journey from chat room member Andre, we all get a behind-the-scenes view of the chaos emotions can create. Throw in the fact that he did not really have a plan either, and the snowball (he's from Canada, get the joke? haha) of chaos becomes that much larger and picks up that much more momentum. Andre had a few key events that caused him to stop the snowball, and then reanalyze a different way to go about this whole trading business. What were these events and what steps did Andre take? Let's find out... Notes: Andre’s introduction to the market was a stock picking contest through a newspaper many years ago and while he didn’t do well, this contest had piqued his interest in the market. After doing some Google research, Andre began trading based on tickers he would read other people talk about (Stocktwits, iHub, etc.). His trading was very unsteady at first and even when he made money, he was trading US stock with Canadian currency so he would also get hit with conversion fees every trade he made. He did end up opening a $10,000 account with much lower fees and began trading again but still had no real strategy at this point. He had a successful strategy of buying toward the close and selling into any pop in the morning but he would then give back all those gains in the afternoon. While going through the courses, Andre realized he was trading very emotionally which led to most of his losses. Now he is planning out solid trading plans with proper risk versus reward. Even though he is not comfortable swing trading yet (since he does work a full time job) he plans on working through the Advanced Options course to see if it would be viable for him. Quotes: “I opened up a $1000 account and blew it immediately. I came across some penny stocks and just threw some in.” “I didn’t fully understand the market back then. I hoped it would climb and just keep climbing.” “If there wasn’t any major sell off at the close, I would use that as an indicator to stay in. I’d then give it back in the afternoon.” “I usually just jump in and then put my stop. I’ll use my risk vs reward ratio and continue to work on my entries.” “Don’t run at it. It will come to you in due time. Take your time and don’t get riled up.”