Are You An Exceptionally Smart Trader Who Still Fails?

Have you ever had this thought, what I need to fix is me? Over the years, I've heard it so many times. Just got an email this morning and it cracks me up. I mean, I've been there. I'm not judging. I've been there myself. It's so easy, especially for traders. Most traders, the vast majority of traders, are above average, intelligence wise, success wise in so many ways. And to struggle with trading, to keep getting your head kicked in with trading, it's really frustrating because you're sitting there saying, I understand what I'm supposed to do. I understand how this works, know what I'm supposed to do. I've got what I think is a decent strategy, but man, I just can't seem to stick to it. I keep doing stuff that's costing me money. And so the problem must be me, because I've got a decent strategy. It should work and it does. I'm the one who screws it up. And so if, like I said, if you think, if you're sitting there thinking, what I need to fix is me, you're not alone. We've all been there. I think it's one of the rites of passage. If you ever want to turn the corner in trading, you have to recognize it's like, hey, something's going on and it's got to be me. Now that is a very logical assumption. And if you're thinking there's something wrong with you, you're right, because you are at the center of your trading. Unless you have purely algorithmic trading where you're not involved at all, you're one of the key thing. You're one of the key factors in the process. Now on in another light though, because I have so many traders come to me and they're sitting there thinking, it's like, Brian, what is it? It's some. Do I have some deep limiting belief? Do I have bad relationship with money? Is there some subconscious thing that's screwing me up? That, you know, some childhood thing that heard the pastor say that money is evil is what the heck's screwing me up. And the thing is, if that's the direction you're going with trying to figure out what's wrong with you, that's not the direction to go. And here's why. And there's proof to what I'm about to say. Just the fact that you've been able to amass 50 or 100 or quarter million dollars to trade with just the fact that you've been able to do that demonstrates it's a proof Positive that you have what it takes, that there is not a limiting belief or some other thing going on that's about you as a person that's screwing you up with your trading. Because if you had some issue with amassing money, you would never have been able to amass the money that you have if you had some. So that's not a money relationship. It's not a success related belief thing. It's not those things. Or you know that you lack discipline or emotional control because you've been able to do this, you've been able to put yourself in a position to trade. That's proof that those other limiting thoughts or notions are incorrect. As a person, you're okay, you've already demonstrated, you've proven that those things won't hold you back because you got here. Now, here's where the, here's where the trip what trips up so many traders when it comes to the psychology of trading. And unfortunately to me, I think it's unfortunate that it's not talked about more. Here's what I found in my 19 years working with traders and in my own trading experience. The biggest problem that most traders get, and this is probably 99% of traders, is the crappy mental conditioning that happens during our early weeks and months and sometimes years of trading. Because we get started and we start trading with real money before we really know what the heck we're doing. We basically all start trading with real money and we just know enough to be dangerous. We're not actually really skilled at this. We're not good, solid, competent traders. We jump into this thinking that, okay, I get it and I can kind of figure it out as I go and. Or we just kind of neglect to even think about, yeah, this is a skilled profession. It's not as easy as it looks. There are skills to go with this job. And so the thing is we jump into it and for the first several weeks and months and like I said, sometimes years, because we're trading unprepared, we're trading emotionally, we're practicing bad trading. And the whole time this is all going on because we also have the perception we're operating as an amateur or rank amateur, we're getting our head wired, we're going through all this mental conditioning is that it's horrible mental conditioning. We think, and so many people you'll hear trading is inherently emotional. No, it doesn't have to be. It's emotional because we started my first year, it was emotional because I was not properly equipped for this job and it was there's no way it wasn't going to be emotional because I didn't know what the hell I was doing. But if you look at the flip side of it, something that you're competent at for most traders and I love asking this question, do we want to go to start coaching with somebody? It's like, what do you do? And it's like usually like I'm a software engineer, I'm a doctor, I'm a project manager, I run, I run my own business. These are not entry level jobs that you do outside of trading. These are jobs that are very sophisticated and require a significant body of knowledge. And you handle that just fine every day. I mean these are things that are much more complex and difficult than trading seriously. And you handle that just fine. It's not a big emotional ride because you know what you're doing. You have a solid hand line, you have the full range of skills to deal with it. That's why you're, that's why you're successful with it. And it's not an emotional ride. Now the thing is when you start off trading the wrong way and you're not properly prepared for it, you're going to go through this period of mental conditioning. You're getting all this stuff wired into you that you're seeing. Trading is emotional, it's difficult. The uncertainty in the markets is, I'll never be able to beat that. Emotional trading is, well, and you just get practice bad emotional responses. It's like, oh man, I lost money on that, I gotta earn it back or man, now I'm hurt. And you do revenge trading, angry trading. My first year trading I practiced all kinds of bad trading. Yeah, angry trading, revenge trading, heart trading, chasing markets just to try to make money. I mean all kinds of stuff, you can probably relate to that. But once you get a handle on it, you can settle down. And you have a different experience with trading. You're not just practicing more of the same. When you have a different experience with trading and you fill in the gaps on your skills now you can have a whole different experience. Now trading becomes much more like your day job, which you handle just fine. Most days are better. I mean most days, some days are better than others. But at the end of the day, go home, live life and enjoy the family or person, personal interest, whatever. But it's not something that we're losing sleep over. And that's the cool thing about it. So if you'd like to find out maybe what some of your strengths and weaknesses are, some of the, where you have some of the gaps. I just created an assessment, a self assessment for traders@insideouttrading.com you can swing by and answer these, these just a handful of questions, like 15 questions. And it'll enlighten you as to what's going on with your trading. Like I said, where some of the gaps are. And because what's wrong with you as a trader is not anything personal, it's not anything that you bring to trading. It really. It's what's happened because of the bad start that you got. That's what's wrong with you. You didn't get properly prepared for this job and you started before you were properly prepared. So lots of bad things came out of that. That's what you need to fix. And by going through, like I said, filling in the gaps, going through mental conditioning, that's part of the training that I provide. That's how we fix all this stuff. And so you as a trader gets fixed and that's cool. And when you go through this, you find yourself, you'll feel a tremendous relief. It's almost like a redemption. Instead of sitting there thinking, God, I'm such a loser, why can't I beat this? It's like, no, you just didn't get the right start, you didn't get the right help to start with. So it can be some redemption for you. And also, it's just cool being able to go to the markets and know that I'm solid, I'm good. I know my strategy is good and I know that I'm solid trading. I don't sabotage myself anymore. I don't feel, I don't feel the urge to chase the markets anymore. And when all that stuff goes away and your emotions just naturally calm down because you have such a solid handle on it, that's when it's really cool. What to do Right now, swing by Inside out trading dot com. Take the assessment. It's free and like I said, you'll find it enlightening. It's enjoyable, it's very worthwhile. And also, if you enjoyed this video, if you found this helpful, give me a like and a subscribe down below. If you have friends who trade, you want to help them do better, share it with your friends, post it on your social channel and make sure to take the assessment. Don't just keep settling for handing money back, frustrating trading, all that kind of stuff. Don't just settle for less than you really deserve. So again, I hope it's been helpful. Talk to you soon. Cheers.