Forex, Stock Trading - Have YOU Been 'Hustled'? How to tell
A trader explains how brokers hustle beginners with demo accounts and false promises, then push them toward real money before they're ready. The real game requires mental discipline and personal development, not magic systems or get-rich schemes.
How to tell if you've been hustled as a trader? Well, let's take a look at the trading hustle. See, a lot of brokers, when they're calling around looking to build equity, that is, acquire new clients, they'll present the whole game of trading as easy to win. They're going to say, oh, yeah, well, hey, we're looking at these markets, man. We've got a great track record. And, oh, this game is. I mean, they present it as easy to win, and then they're going to put all these big dollar signs in your eyes. Hey, we can triple your money in 30 days or 60 days. And then, of course, they get you to having fun and thinking you're safe. So how do they do this? Well, kind of like in a friendly card game where people get hustled, they'll sit you down, and in trading, they'll open you up. They'll say, well, let's get you going in a demo account first here. We'll let you have a free demo account with 50 grand to play with. So, of course, in a demo account, you can have fun, and every winner you get, you're like, whoa, yeah. And you're having a great time. Kind of like with the poker game, they sit you down playing Penny Annie poker. They let you win, and, hey, you're having a great time, and, you know, it's just Penny Annie Poker. Maybe a buck game. Hey, you're safe. It's okay. Same thing with a demo account. But the key to it is, and this is the real hazard of starting in a demo account is, is they let you win. Because in a domo account, it can be really easy to trade and run that demo account up to a million bucks. But kind of like in the poker game, yeah, if they're letting you win, sure, it's going to be easy. As soon as you do start running up your demo account balance, they're going to say, hey, yeah, you've got it. Now, wait a minute, though. We need to go ahead and get you playing with some real money so you can start taking this to the bank instead of just the demo account, just like in poker. Oh, yeah, man, you've got it. Hey, you know how to play this game? All right, let's raise the stakes. And raising the stakes in trading is when they move you from the demo account over to live trading. But the thing is, did your broker see if you're really ready for trading with live money? I mean, before they let you place your first trade, did they ask you some Pretty but really important questions like, hey, have you ever had a gambling problem? That can be a real. I mean, it sounds personal and it is pointed, but hey, it's a good question to ask. Do you know how to keep your head when you have substantial and sometimes fast gains, but the winners, a lot of times what messes people up is, hey, yeah, when they hit a winning streak, especially like in the demo account. Yeah, hey, in 30 days, I ran my demo account balance from $50,000 to $200,000. Do you know how to keep your head when that happens? You got a lot of money coming in really fast and it was, so to speak, unexpected. Do you know how to handle that? Do you know how to keep your head? And, hey, the other side of the coin. Do you know how to emotionally handle losing hundreds or even thousands of dollars? Yeah. These are the questions that a broker really should ask people before they let them trade with live money. Have you ever had a gambling problem? Do you know how to keep your head when you're on a winning streak? Or are you just going to turn around and give it all back? Do you know how to handle losers without falling apart and then really just totally sabotaging yourself? These are questions brokers really should ask people before they ever let them place their first trade, but doesn't happen very often. Did they properly prepare you for trading, real trading? Did they help you to set some realistic objectives for yourself? Because the objectives are where you get your expectations set. They're setting your objective or your expectation that you're going to triple your money in 30, 60, 90 days. That may or may not be very realistic. What do you think? Did they help you establish healthy practices in your trading, including how do you deal with the wins and losses? Did they help you understand the critical metrics of trading? The win loss percentages, the profit to loss ratio, your average win size, your average return per trade? Did they teach you so you understand the critical metrics of trading? Because these are the things that make your bottom line what it is and help you get things under control when they're not going great, okay. Did they help you to understand how to properly optimize your system or your method? This is another tough one that almost never happens. Most of all, did they actually lay out a plan to help you reach your objectives, whatever your objectives might be? Did they help you lay out a plan beyond, hey, let's just get trading? Did they do that for you? Did they properly prepare you for trading for the long term? Were they really looking out for you? Hmm. Were they really looking out for you or were they mostly just trying to get you in the game as quickly as you were willing? Now, with brokers, you kind of can't blame them because they're not making any money while they're teaching you in a demo account. They're not. They're putting in time and they're not making any money. They make their money when you're placing trades. So it is in their personal best interest to get you in the game as quickly as possible. And unfortunately, quickly as possible means as quickly as you're willing. A lot of people just skip the demo account and go straight to live trading. Some say, well, I'll be a little cautious, we'll go do the demo account thing. But the broker, even if their heart is in the right place, they know that they're not getting paid so long as you're not trading. Now here's the other big trick. Did they just focus on how to play the game, that is how to pick and enter trades, or are they teaching you how to protect yourself and play it for the long haul? Things like money management, risk management, keeping your head on straight, planning, analysis, reviewing feedback, all that kind of stuff. Or are they just saying, hey, here's how you place the trades, here's how you pick the winning trades. If you feel like any of that's happened to you, you can turn the tables. That's what's nice about it, is you can become a winner and not just a player in the game of trade. First thing you got to do though, is avoid the snake oil salesman. All the people out there saying, hey, here's the magic secret. Just grab the system or use this indicator and everything will be fine. Those are your snake oil salesmen. I mean, they are. They're just like the snake oil salesman back in the days, the old west, cruising around saying, oh, you've got these elements here. Drink this bottle of snake oil and everything's fine. It'll solve all your problems. It's easy to get sucked into that, especially if you're hurting. Because if you've been in it, if you've been trading for a little bit and you've taken some losses, you've had a hard time winning the game. Yeah, it hurts. It hurts personally, it hurts the ego. So you got to avoid the snake oil salesman, though, because they're going to be selling you cure all solutions. The next thing you need to do is focus on you. Get the focus off the system so much as, you know, on you as the trader, because you're at the center of everything because the system really is secondary. A good trader can trade with a variety of different systems. I mean, a really, really good trader can trade with, like I said, a number of good systems. The system doesn't make the trader, the trader makes the system. That's really the whole key behind it. The main thing is you need to get the proper training and if you haven't, it's not too late, you can still tend to it. Here's what I'm talking about. Yes, with the Trading Pick Club, the professionals in trading, you can understand the real game of trading, not the how to pick trades, how to throw the dice, how to bet this hand. It's understanding the real game because it is a largely mental game. And you can stop being taken. I mean, that's the whole thing. You really think that the institutional investors, the hedge fund managers, the large central banks, the professional traders that are out there, you think they don't know that they're taking all the novice traders? That's where they're making their money. They know it and they're happy to. They're happy to take your money. So stop being taken and start playing the game on your own rules where you set how you're going to trade and get everything under your control. Win the game instead of just playing it. Now, if you're curious about finding out more about this, just go to InsideOutTrading.com PIT. You can find out all about the Trading Pick Club. If you're tired of just playing the game and you really do want to win it, swing on by the Trading Pick Club. Hope you've enjoyed this. There's more coming later. Cheers.
