I have conflicting feelings with this discussion. My greedy side absolutely loves to know this happened as it provides such a great learning opportunity for others; however, I truly do feel bad and annoyed that this actually happened to such a nice guy. Community member Ben, "close2pga" (chat room alias), walks us through his journey and how at the start he was mislead into thinking someone could shove their personal strategy down his throat in order to teach him how to trade. This is one of those marketing ploys that drives me nuts. First, it's simply false and misleading and second, it gives the rest of us (myself included) a bad name as being scum bags. I digress though. Ben's willpower and determination to bounce back from this initial hiccup I found very inspiring and I'm sure you will too. Ben is a business owner himself, so he offers up some solid perspectives on market dynamics and trading that will I believe offer great value. Let's get to it! Notes: Today we interview Ben who goes by close2pga in the community. Ben is an avid golfer who gets out almost 2 times a week and also owns a driving range. Since he leases the land his business sits on, there came a time when he thought that lease would not be able to renewed which led him to look into other sources of income. Ben started looking into various online education for trading and while some of it was good, it pushed him into trading one single way. This is absolutely not a one-size-fits-all job. He had about 6 months to learn how to trade and that pressure did not help him with his learning. After finding Clay, Ben decided to go through the University program and has now put those other two education sources aside. He has noticed what triggers bad habits such as chasing price or not honoring his stop loss and has found remedies for those issues. Since Ben no longer has the pressure of time since he has no issues with his lease, he is now utilizing his patience and persistence to get through the educational content. Not only does he not have the pressure to succeed in a new line of business in 6 months, he is now set up for success by having the guaranteed trade (his JOB) to keep him even keeled as he proceeds through the program. Quotes: It looked like I was going to be forced out of my business. I knew I would have a hard time getting a regular job after working for myself. I really put in my head that I needed to make another living in less than 6 months. It was not good to put that pressure on myself. I noticed that my scanner pulled up momentum stocks that I might just jump into it. How can I stop this? Get rid of the scanner. It's not the money per say. The freedom to have time during the day is what I'd like.

It's always enjoyable to catch up with past guests and hear about their journey as it continues to unfold. That's exactly what Chezz and I do in this episode with longtime community member "Mr. Bee". If you've spent any amount of time in the chatroom, I'm sure you've seen Mr. Bee at work. He's come a long way since our last conversation with him as he learns and masters more areas of the market. The one aspect of our talk that I found intriguing and personally beneficial was how he approached increasing his personal risk tolerance within various strategies. Risk tolerance is critical component of trading success and it was awesome to hear Mr. Bee's perspective and experience with it. I hope you enjoy this discussion as much as I did. Let's go! Notes: Today we reinterview community member Mr. Bee. After picking up where we left off in his last episode, Bee had continued to focus on trading advanced options. The important thing to remember is that he stuck to the strategy in both good times and bad instead of jumping around to different strategies. A big turning point for him was developing the courage to trade 'naked' positions (all of which are explained in the course). Considering there are many mechanics to keep in mind when utilizing trading this way, Bee has always continued to try to learn more each and every month to get a better understanding. Mr. Bee has leveraged speaking to other community members heavily in the past 4 years since he started trading. The ability to bounce ideas off of other members with no agenda can provide some real insight as to potential problems in a trade idea. More eyes is generally better than less. As he continues trading into 2018, he fully accepts that he is a swing trader and wants to continue applying what he was taught even more often if the opportunities present themselves. Quotes: I really have a genuine interest in trading and options really opened that door up to me. There were days that my PnL didn't make sense. It takes you down the rabbit hole in regards of what you can learn about trading. I butcher the order while changing it. I'm going long and this thing just starts bleeding to death. I took the loss. Had to do it. You can make enough money trading options using very little money. That's what led me here. I've found a comfortable balance. I'm going to do a lot more charting in the evening since swing trading is my strategy. Links: https://claytrader.com/podcast/episode071/

Having confidence in something is a good thing in most areas of life, including the financial markets. This is where the catch-22 comes into play within the markets. Confidence vs. too much confidence ("Koolaid") can be a very big problem for both traders and investors. Our fellow member from the community, Tony, walks us through some of the major hazards that koolaid can and will introduce into your portfolio. I give him a whole lot of credit for being open and honest about just how bad the koolaid affected him, but as you'll see, by admitting his blindness and mistakes, he has now been able to put himself on the proper path to success. Looking to learn from some real life cautionary tales? Look no further. Tony shares plenty with us! Notes: Today we interview community member Tony. He decided that he wanted to have more control over his 401k so started to look into different stocks to determine if he wanted to be invested with them or not. Unfortunately, he had lost most of that account and took 8 years off from the market. He assumed that it just wasn't for him. Tony's uncle got interested in the marijuana stock boom and started to tell him about all the opportunities that were out there. Even after two bouts of failure, Tony still did not give up the dream of being involved in the market. He knows that it is possible to have his money make money for him whether it's from an active standpoint or a more passive swing trading standpoint. This led him to decide to invest in his education. He forced himself to stick with paper trading until he finished a predefined amount of courses. Tony realized that there is no point in jumping back in the market if he did not practice the material he was taught. After two months on paper, Tony is back to live trading now. Since Tony still works a full time job, he has focused strictly on swing trading which he can set up in advance the night before. This is a drastic difference than the trading style he tried before where he would just stare at a chart for hours on end hoping for a move. Now he does his homework the night before and executes the next morning. Quotes: I pretty much lost all that 401k money. There was no plan. There was no strategy. That was it. That was it for a while. People were posting that it's a real company so here I am jumping back in the bathtub of Kool-Aid watching all my money go away. I realized I have to learn how to do this or there is no point. I don't want to lose my money again. I have a plan and I'm going to stick with the plan. If I don't stick with the plan, I'm going to do the same thing trading stocks. So now because of Robotic Trading, I'm able to take that emotion out of it and not just staring at it waiting for a move.

We have a rare case of someone who experienced fool's gold… but… in a contradictory way, realized and admitted to themselves that their success was actually NOT "skill", but rather "luck". Upon this discovery and self admission, where did their journey go from here? Our guest from the community, Angelo, tells us all about the decisions he has made along with the rationale behind them. What I really enjoyed and learned from was you always need to keep your ego in check. Even though Angelo has a college degree in finance, he was still able to see through many potential pitfalls that others commonly fall into. Lots to learn, so let's go! Notes: Today we interview community member Angelo. While he has a degree in finance, his interest only spanned as far as his mutual funds and 401k. After Robinhood launched, he was intrigued by the no fees which led him to become a much more active investor/trader. A majority of Angelo's friends were just looking for low priced stocks that they could load up on and hope they went higher. Angelo also falls in the category of finding fools gold to start. The difference is that he recognized that he had been lucky and wasn't a prodigy. He realized that he didn't want to continue down the path of inconsistent trading so he decided to invest in his education AND he closed his account so that he would strictly focus on the education first. The pattern day trade rule really hindered Angelo's short term trading. He once again closed his trading accounts because his situation was suboptimal. He realized that the market will be there in the future so he decided to focus strictly on the courses and paper trade alerts from the community. Angelo still has a few courses to get through but will be considering implementing advanced option strategies so that he can still trade while having a full time job. It is crucial to understand where you are at in your journey and he is not rushing anything. Taking the logical route through training and practice leads to consistent results. Quotes: One of those degrees was in finance. It was mostly looking at my target funds and 401k's but that changed at the beginning of this year. I was up 2 grand and had no idea why or what happened but I remember feeling pretty good. In the back of my head I knew it was luck. My friend's thought I was crazy for spending that much money on education. Eight months later, it's been worth every penny. The big issue I was running into was the PDT rule. It's the worst thing in the world. It messes with your psychology. I know what I'm willing to risk on each trade so that makes it easier to find what fits your plan versus going wild wild west and wondering.

You are busy? You don't have the time to make it happen? Nah. I'm going to go ahead and say you're either lazy or simply don't want "it" bad enough. What is "it"? You tell me. Maybe you want to learn to trade. Maybe you want to improve in another area of life. After listening to this interview though, you'll understand why I have very little pity for the "I'm too busy / not enough time" statements people throw around. Our guest, Diego (same name in chat room) gives us a rundown of his current journey and you'll see this guy is not messing around. I also had the pleasure and honor of meeting Diego at our Fort Lauderdale meet-and-greet and I will attest to the fact he's a Grade A person. If you're in search of some real life inspiration based in reality, and not theory, then look no further. Let's get to it! Notes: Today we interview community member Diego. He had contributed to a TSP account which is available for military members until the time his service ended. After taking some looks at the account daily, he became interested in the daily ebbs and flows of the account. This led him to move his account into various mutual funds which ultimately led him to swing trading. This was all prior to any training. A majority of his buying and selling was based on recommendations from various media sources. Diego started to focus strictly on natural gas and would trade UGAZ and DGAZ (two gas ETF's that move inversely). After not finding much success trading those based on fundamentals, Diego looked into options. After having some missed trades, Diego stumbled on to the Inner Circle and expected to get buy and sell alerts from Clay. However, as he soon found out, there are only technical alerts being given since every member has their own risk tolerance. This led to him joining the University program. Diego continued to focus on his interest on options and now exclusively trades advanced option spreads. This works great with his busy schedule. He has also learned that he does not need to be in a trade every day. It's much more lucrative to trade good setups and pass on the mediocre ones. Quotes: I was on the kool-aid for The Street and buying based on what they were saying. My expectation was to get rich now. I want to hit it big and quit my job and live on the beach. It's harder than you expect. I read about options. I bought cheap options on CHK to cap my risk. Something happened so 120 dollars became 700. Let the past be the past. Move forward and focus on the present. The next four months, I studied CTU. I plan the trade the night before then put in my orders at the open. I look again by about 2:00 if I didn't get a fill in the morning.

Some may call me a jerk when it comes to my lack of pity, but hey… you can thank our guest for my shortfall of compassion. We speak with Mario (chatroom alias "MarioR") and as you'll learn, the man is a beast when it comes to "making his passions work". I don't want to offer up any spoilers, but if you're in need of some additional motivation to remove the "I have excuses" card from your deck, then look no further… this is the interview for you! For those of you who are members of the community and hang out in the chatroom, I'm sure you've seen Mario around along with the screenshots he posts of wins and loses. There is no need to beat around the bush, the guy puts up some very big numbers and it is quite inspirational to know what is possible. The big numbers are awesome no doubt, but getting to the point he's at now took all kinds of blood, sweat, and as he admits, literal tears. Prepare yourself for a "no excuse" ride. Notes: Today we interview community member Mario who goes by MarioR in the chat rooms. He was introduced to the market at a young age when his father was trying to day trade on the computer. After Mario got out of the military, he had a large sum of money but was unsure if he wanted to trade with it or invest it long term in mutual funds. He did eventually put it into a brokerage account and tripled his account when he admits he really knew anything. Those easy gains went as fast as they came in and his account was back to the 20k mark. He had a few bouts of success followed by drawdowns which led him to reevaluate his approach. After accidentally discovering short selling, Mario found that he has developed quite a skill to find over extended names to get short on. Just utilizing basic support and resistance, Mario strictly focuses on finding ideal setups, excluding his old boredom trades. Mario has plans to go full time in the future after all his expenses and debts are taken care of. He has a great long term plan regarding what criteria needs to be met before he embarks on that business plan. Since Mario has done this for many years, he knows where he still struggles and is taking steps to remedy those to continue trending his account up. Being honest with yourself regarding both the good and bad is crucial for growth. Quotes: I made some swing trades and eventually had 60,000 from 19,000. I had no idea what I was doing. Everything was low and I made out. If you're going to do this you need to get educated. I just picked up stuff randomly from other traders and made my own style. I can think to myself, if I was long where would I be selling? Then that's where I'm thinking to get short. My problem was I never feared losing money. Income is not a dirty word. I work second shift and that allows me to trade the morning so I stick with it. If you're treating stocks like a lotto ticket you need to change that mentality. Trade well and take what the market gives you.

This discussion certainly got my blood boiling. As someone who is in the coaching/teaching/mentoring business, it truly drives me insane when I see others creating a bad name for everyone. We have a shining example of this thanks to our guest today John ('FatherOfBear' in the chatroom) and his experience with another "coach" in the business. Even if you never spend a penny on my site, please just realize and be aware of some of the glaring red flags that many of these "I want to see you succeed" people out there display. To give John fully credit though, after the rough start due to the bad experience in attempting to learn, he didn't give up and he continued to grind onwards and upwards. Like many of us, John has taken several bumps and bruises along the way, but the great thing for us as listeners, we can learn from them and save ourselves some money in the process. I had a great time chatting with John and I'm sure you will too. Notes: Today we interview community member John who goes by FatherOfBear in the chat rooms. John was intrigued by those who traded in the market and spent some time looking around the internet in an effort to get educated. He came to the realization that if he wanted to do this successfully, he would need to seek out quality training. Unfortunately, he decided to get training via someone who put a time limit on their program and John learns best by a high amount of repetition. A 3 month time limit is not realistic to go from knowing nothing about the markets to a proficient trader. Even without a proven track record on paper, John funded an account and started trading live. After finding some initial success, he eventually dwindled that account down to scraps. John does not like to lose and in most aspects of life, it's a fantastic attribute. But in trading, it can be detrimental. After finding out the material in University was available for LIFE, John dove right into the program to rebuild his notion of trading. He is currently working through the foundational courses before he beings trading again. Quotes: I watched YouTube videos of people explaining what candlestick means. I would watch hours of videos. It was generic at best. I didn't grasp how dangerous it was to trick myself paper trading. I was trading with large size since there was no risk. I get my first big win. I was thinking, I'm not over trading… I'm doing what my teacher is doing. I must be a prodigy. I started learning all about margin calls. It really hurt my account being stubborn and holding. Reinforcing those bad habit muscles. Honestly, I'm not sure I would re-do anything. I've eaten a lot of humble pie. Education is paramount and is worth paying for. Links: https://claytrader.com/videos/big-red-flag-world-trading-educators/

We try our best to keep things as "real" as possible on the show, and in this episode I think we do a great job of that given our guest's strategy. In most instances, the topic of technical charts come up given many in our community use them; however, that's not the case with fellow member Aaron. There is still lots of fine tuning going on within his strategy, especially in the trade management department, so who knows…. maybe one day charts will find a place. As it stands now, Aarron is looking to improve with each passing week and keep his account in the green. He was open and honest which we can all respect him for. Notes: Today we interview community member Aaron who is relatively new to trading. After realizing he was making next to no return keeping his money in savings, he decided to look into the market. Aaron likes to research sectors and individual companies he believes will have future growth. Considering his 9-5 job, he choose industries and companies in that space that he believes will grow. Something Aaron picked up very early on was that most people who use financial social media are generally unable to accept responsibility for their actions. After watching a few of Clay's videos and seeing the information conveyed, Aaron decided to join the community. Aaron doesn't utilize charts to validate his investment choices. He uses the news and fundamental information he comes across. However, he hasn't bet the farm on any of his trades so even if they were all go to zero, he would be fine. Quotes: One thing I regret is that I haven't taken a lot of risks in my life. I realized that my money has sat around and done nothing. When there's a profit to be made, you have to take it. That's the discipline I have to adhere to. The idea of short manipulation is very misconstrued. It's like betting against the dice in craps and the odds are reversed. For me, that's a car payment. Wow that's a better Christmas for everyone. Don't be ashamed of profits.

The impacts of a quality plan can lead to big things. How big? How about a six figure gain within your trading account? What I love about the podcast is the many shapes and forms the motivation and inspiration can take. This time around, the motivation is that of sheer numbers and size of just what is possible. As our guest Stan ('PapaBear' in the chatroom) discloses, nothing happened over night or without a lot of hard work; however, it did happen and continues to happen! It honestly still inspires me and gets me fired up to know that by only using 30% of his account, he was able to double his ENTIRE account. This is the power of a plan and approaching this business we call trading in a logical and realistic way. Come along for a very inspirational ride! Notes: Today we interview community member Papa Bear aka Stan. Back in the 70's, Stan saw an episode of The Brady Bunch when they had an episode about the stock market. This led to an interest that he carried until much later in life. Stan unfortunately suffered a decent loss when one of the mutual funds he was invested in got too heavily invested in a stock that plummeted. This led him to pull his funds into a Roth IRA and start controlling his money himself. After putting together as much as he could from free education, Stan had a big fear about 'what do I not know yet.' This led him to investigate some structured education for trading. After looking around the industry, Stan joined the University program. Stan went through the courses and decided to focus mainly on options. The big emphasis he wants listeners to take away is that position sizing is absolutely crucial in long term survival trading. He has never needed to utilize traditional margin since he is never using the entirety of his account and he has generated a fantastic return only using ⅓ of his account. He mainly focuses on candlestick formations and keeping himself involved in multiple sectors as not to be too concentrated. Quotes: Everyone and their janitor was getting in the market during the dot.com boom. I started getting scared. What is it that I don't know is what really scared me. All these different traders trade differently. You rather eloquently showed me that I was wrong and rather than getting offended by it, I deeply appreciated it. Paper trading was good for learning mechanics. Unless you get the adrenaline of having money on the line, the lesson doesn't stick. My first year after CTU I made 100% only using 30% of my account. We're talking 6 figures. The last thing you ever want to do is turn a day trade into a swing trade. They are two different philosophies. Links: https://claytrader.com/videos/the-surgeons-delemma/

I have no idea what took so long, but we finally have a guest from the UK! I will say this though, it was worth the wait! As far as new trader horror stories are concerned, I'm pretty sure I have a new favorite. I had a great conversation with community member Sarah (alias in the chatroom, "like a glove") where she openly shared her ups and downs. Like I mentioned, her one "down" is quite comical and while that makes me sound like a jerk, I promise it's because she can laugh about it too at this point. Like many newer traders, she started out using strictly fundamental analysis in their approach to finding trades; however, Sarah quickly realized that there had to be better ways and that's when she found the tool of technical analysis. We've heard it time and time again in the past, but it's a concept that can never be overstated… as you'll learn, Sarah's experience with "rushing" didn't exactly lead to great places. I had a genuinely awesome time with this discussion, and I'm confident you will too! Notes: Today we interview Sarah from the community who goes by the handle 'like a glove.' Her introduction to the market was getting issued stock for a company she worked for but she wasn't very educated regarding the market. She tried to utilize as many free resources as she could to learn how to trade in the stock market and that is when she stumbled upon the Stock Trading Reality podcast, which she enjoyed since it interviewed people on their journey. She started off utilizing fundamental analysis for her trades but after taking a string of losers, she decided to invest into her technical analysis education and took Robotic Trading. It opened her eyes up to some of the foolish decisions she made in the past but gave her hope for the future. After taking a massive loss trading on delayed quotes, she decided that she needed to stop trading and really learn to take it seriously or to not participate at all. Sarah has now learned to love her losses because she keeps them much smaller than her winners. If she could go back and do it again she would have spent more time on education first and not been in such a rush. Patience has been a large focus for Sarah since she started to take trading seriously. Quotes: If he can do that, I can do that. I bought loads of books, read tons of stuff on the internet and got as much as I could for free. I did paper trade… for around 20 minutes and then I realized I was making money and I could do this! It was like a bombshell. I didn't know what I was doing for the past 6 months. I've been very lucky I didn't lose everything. I came out halfway through a meeting and lost 90% of my account. I was convinced the price was wrong. It was 15 minutes delayed. Be a lot more patient and less arrogant. And don't call your broker and expect to talk to the manager for a refund!