Learn To Trade Stocks and Options

The Top 2 Required Skills for Day Traders

There are many required skills for day traders if you want to make consistent money. If you are a beginner day trader, I’m sure you’re slowly realizing this the more and more you learn and jump into actual trading. I understand I could be a total stranger to you, so I’m not asking you to believe me when I talk about the top two required skills. I’d encourage you to find someone who is not a stranger to you and that you trust within the world of day trading. After you watch my video, go and ask them if they agree with the two skills I discuss. With that being said, I don’t want to discuss these skills in some kind of theoretical way. I want to show you them in the real world of trading, and that’s what I do! I will be using some of my personal day trading stock results to add some real world “feel” to the lesson. A book can only take you so far. When you can learn about a topic and then see it, live, right before your own eyes, in my opinion, there is way more value! Let’s talk about what I would consider the top two required skills for day traders!

Are You Puzzled by This? I’m Not

I want to share with you three headlines from the financial media dealing with the overall USA economy. For those of us who looking to build wealth through various means (hopefully multiple streams of income!), these headlines can give us valuable insight regarding our plans. I truly try not to be a conspiracy theorist, but the more of these types of headlines I see, the more I genuinely believe the mainstream media thinks we’re a bunch of morons. One headline presents us with a “puzzling” situation. My question to you is this, are you puzzled by it? I’m certainly not and I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to figure out why. Let’s take a look at three of these headlines and then factor in what these seem to be implying for our plans to build wealth as people seeking to be responsible with our money.

The Problem with Being Disciplined (Day Trader Truths)

Is This a Good Stock to Day Trade? (how to tell… quickly!)

If you want to be a day trader, a very straight forward and logical question becomes: is this a good stock to day trade? Everyone will be different in regards to how they define “good”. You will need to figure out (or already know) what kind of personal risk tolerance you have and what your goals as a trader are. Once you have these types of dynamics figured out, you’ll be much better able to define “good”. A required skill for all day traders is to be able to operate within the sphere of time as efficiently as possible. We need to be able to make our decisions within relatively small amounts of time. This video will help you quickly figure out whether or not a stock is “good” for you and your day trading strategy. It’s a very anti-climatic trick, yet, it remains a very important step within any day trader’s decision making process. Let me show you this quick trick that will ensure you are only trading stocks designed for your strategy and goals.

Be Careful With Your Profit Calculations

I’ve been guilty when I was a beginner trader and investor. I would get out my calculator and start typing in numbers to figure out just how much money I could make on an investment or shorter term trade. There were times where the numbers were insane! I would have to double check the calculations to make sure I did them right, and I did. Well… kind of! This is where the topic of our video comes into play. When you are just getting started as a trader and investor and doing your profit calculations, the equations can be right; however, the number you see is wrong. While I realize this sounds like a contradiction at this point, please give me a chance to explain how this can be true. Making money in the financial markets does require basic math and calculations, but there is still a bit more that needs to be factored in, so that’s what I want to focus on here. I don’t want you to mislead yourself! Let me show you what I mean!

Trading Psychology: Confirmation Bias (Class 4)

Trading Psychology: Master Your Mind. Make Money is my free online class where I do a deep dive into all things trader psychology. We’ve been doing lots of learning about blind spots within our thinking process as humans. In the previous class we discussed intuitive and deliberative thinking. These concepts are important as they will show up in our discussion of confirmation bias. One of the most interesting (and impressive in a bad way) dynamics of confirmation bias is how you can think you are avoiding it, but you’re not. In fact, not only are you not avoiding it, you’re making it worse! That may not seem to make sense, but it goes to show how crazy our mind’s can be when we have certain desires. I’ve been coaching and working with traders for over 10 years now and confirmation bias is one of the most common issues I come across. Let’s be aware of it and better understand it so it does not deceive us within our trading performance! 

Losing Your Edge as a Day Trader

If you don’t have an edge when you are day trading, then you are gambling. If you are gambling as a day trader, then it’s only a matter of time before the markets drain your account. The stock market (and any financial market) can certainly be treated as a casino. You can utilize them to “have fun” and be smart with your budget via not needing to purchase a plane ticket to Las Vegas. With all that being said, does this mean the stock market is actually a casino? Absolutely not! There are strategies and methods that can give you an edge. Having an edge does not guarantee success, but it does, over time, give you a much better opportunity at having overall consistency. There are a variety of situations and instances that can cause one to lose their edge (and it is different for everyone). The more you become self aware of your own mental framework and day trading strategy, the better chance you have to understand and realize when your trading edge is gone. Instead of “talking in theory”, let me use some of my personal day trading results to illustrate what I mean!

Stop Asking Me This Question… (Trading Broker & Platform)

Please! I’m begging you, stop asking me this question! I know this makes me sound grumpy, but I don’t like this question because I don’t like time being wasted. And if you ask me this question, you are wasting your time, therefore, I don’t like it! While I certainly understand how overwhelming it can be as a beginner who is just getting started in the market, particularly in regards to all the brokers and trading platforms, you need to be smart in your questions. The problem is, when you don’t know what you don’t know, you have zero idea what kinds of questions should be asked. As I’ll explain in this video, you could very easily be misleading yourself when you ask this question to me (or anyone else!). By asking the question about brokers and platforms as you’ll see in the video, you are putting yourself at the mercy of someone else’s assumptions. If you want to find success as a day trader or swing trader, make sure you are asking the right questions! 

If I Could Only Use ONE Trading Indicator

If I could only choose one technical trading indicator, what would it be? This is an interesting though experiment which, in my mind, helps reveal the dynamics of day trading that matter most. I’ve been coaching traders since 2013 and a common theme amongst those beginners who are just getting started is the feeling over being overwhelmed. They decide they want to learn  more about technical charts and then open up their trading platform to see a multitude of choices. In fact, it seems like every other week there is some new magical indicator that someone has created. If you’re a beginner and feeling overwhelmed, I understand! The good news is this: trading does not need to be overly complicated. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying day trading is easy; however, it does not need to be rocket science. Sometimes less is more and that, in my opinion, is how trading works. Let’s dig into this one indicator I would use is I were forced to only use one!

Day Traders and “Luck”: What’s the Relationship?

Let’s talk about relationships! In this case, the relationship existing between day traders and “luck”. The outside world oftentimes has a misinformed understanding of how day traders and the stock market as a whole operate in relation to the idea of randomness/luck. This is fair on their part. As someone that has zero experience (or is just getting started) within the world of trading, lots of what day traders do can appear as gambling and relying solely on luck. There is absolutely some truth to this; however, it’s not as nearly as simplistic as what some believe. There is no doubt about it that we as day traders need “luck” on our side if we are going to have long term success. What does this… actually… mean though? How should you view this relationship as someone who is looking to find overall success as a day trader? I will talk about that, and more, in this video. Let’s get to it!