Mastering Risk Management: Preparing for Trading Success

You know, everybody loves talking about risk management. How should you manage your money, how should you set up your own, your, you know, what percentage should we use on a per trade basis? And that kind of stuff. But one thing that I don't hear enough by a long shot when everybody's talking about risk management is the higher level risk management that affects everything else. And what I'm talking about is the risk management of how well prepared are you to be going into your trading day, to be going into trading in general? Did you get the proper training so that you really honestly know, you know what you're doing, you got a solid handle on this? You know how to go to the markets and make money. You know how to take a look at a strategy and decide should you pursue it or not. And if you do want to pursue it, how to take it to the markets properly. That's the kind of risk management that, that people don't talk about is how big of a risk are you as a trader, as a person going into this endeavor? What's the risk associated with you as the person running this business? It's one thing I love about the business plans and the, the formal structure to it. When the first years ago looked at a business plan and the structure and it, it was like, it seemed odd to me at first that the executive summary was the very first thing. It's like, really. But it makes absolute sense if you think about it. You can have the best business idea on the planet. You can have the next Apple or the next Uber. But the thing is, if you don't have the right people that are going to be starting up and running your business, if they don't have the skills, they don't have the experience to do that, to take that great business idea and make it a reality, if you don't have the right people there for, that's a huge risk to the opportunity, to the whole endeavor. And the same thing goes on a big scale with companies like that. But the same thing goes for trading. You know, if you've never done, if you've never traded before, if you've never done anything even, really, even close to trading, then you don't have the experience. And if you don't get the proper training to be the right person for this job where you know how to organize the business, how to make all filter through the hundred questions before you ever place your first trade. What am I going to trade? What am I? What time frame, you know, what markets, what are my goals? There's a whole ton of Questions that you have to get through before you ever place your first trade. If you're doing this right and if you just kind of jump into it, it's like, Yeah, I got $20,000, I'll just open an account, I get busy, or, hey, I heard about this prop firm thing, and I'll just join a challenge, I'll just get busy. And if that's your whole plan and you don't really have any, you're not bringing any more skill to a business acumen than that, then that represents a risk. So there's a huge chunk of the risk management that people never talk about it, and that is, you're the one running the trading business. How much risk are you bringing through lack of training, lack of experience, and lack of preparation? You know, you being prepared, you having your operation prepared, you having your system properly prepared, that kind of stuff, that kind of risk management. And if you're sincere about wanting this to be something significant in your life, where, yes, it's contributing 30, 50, a hundred thousand dollars a year to your life, and you want it to be a financial asset and not just something that stresses you out and costs you money and it's causing you to lose sleep and stuff and cause you to be in a bad mood around your kid on the kids on the weekend, or your grandkids, well, you need to step back and say, yeah, am I the person to really be running a trading business? And if not, then that's okay. If you want to do it, cool. But understand, okay, I've got some things about me that I need to attend to as a trader, as a person running this trading operation because it's this thing, you know, it's a solo operation. And so from a risk management standpoint, again, how much risk are you bringing just from the lack of training, the training that you didn't get when you started into this and you haven't gotten along the way? Where are the gaps that are still there? Again, your business acumen, your, the business skills, the managerial skills, the planning skills, the system selection skills, the system execution skills, the daily trading skills. There's a whole slew of skills that go with this job and this business. And if you're lacking any of them, it's only presenting risk to your, your money that you're putting into this. And so you want to attend to these risk factors, get your risk down, and then it's like, okay, yeah, now when you go to your trading, you know that your risk is handled. So you go to your trading pretty much any day of the week and you're okay. And then really the fear and that anxiety, that stress, that, oh my God, am I going to blow my account? Am I going to lose my butt today? That's not even there because you have a solid handle on it. You've attended to the risks at a higher level well before you ever place your first trade. And it's really important. And the cool thing is, if you'll do this, if you'll do this for yourself, if you'll do this for your business, and it is your business, if you'll do this for your business, where you step back, you set your ego aside and you say, okay, where am I presenting a risk to the business? What do I need to attend to? Where can I go get help to help me address this? Because I'm not just going to figure it out in a book. I'm probably not going to figure it out watching YouTube videos, too much garbage noise out there. It's hard to tell what's good information and what might be good information. The hype and all that's pretty easy to spot. But there's still, there's a lot of BS in what sounds legit. So you got to be careful where you go for your help, but get help because you don't know what your blind spots are. If you haven't done this successfully before, you've got blind spots and you have things to learn. And you're way better off learning from the experience of others than making the mistakes, paying the price in your psychological capital and financial capital. Learn from somebody else. And if you need to invest in yourself to skill up to fill these gaps, cool, do it. You're mitigating risk and that risk has a cost associated with it. So if you attend to that, it's just, it's saving you future expenses. Seriously, I mean, how much does it cost to have trading that's not working? You got missed profits, you got losses. And if you attend to things and you get your house in order, you get your operation proper, cool. It's a financial asset, it's a business, it produces and it is what you want it to be. And so long as you neglect the business and certain aspects of it and yourself as the person running the business and doing the business well, as long as you leave it there, there's an expense that goes with that, you're paying for it. So invest in yourself, get yourself leveled up, and things will get a whole lot easier and you'll be able to go to your trading more successfully and with A higher level of confidence, peace of mind. When you're not trading and you're spending time with friends and family, your spouse, cool. You can be present for them and relax and let go where you're trading because you know it's okay, you've got it taken care of and you can be fully present with them instead of having trading floating around in the back of your head. I know what that's like. So anyway, I hope this has been helpful and I hope you will attend to it. Seriously. This is one area that does not get enough attention. The risk management that goes along with you as a person, as a trader from a business perspective. So if you'd like to talk about this, where we can talk through your situation, see what kind of training you did get, where the gaps are, maybe even how to put together a proper business plan for your trading operation. Talk through all the myriad of questions again before you ever place your first trade. Just like you would with any other business, you got a whole lot of questions to answer. How are we going to do this? What are we going to do? What are we not going to do? Where are we going to put our resources? Where we're not going to put our resources? There's a whole ton of questions. Part of why it's so stressful because there are so many questions, there's so many options, so many choices. So if you'd like to talk to somebody that can help you through this process, sort out what needs to be attended to, what you don't, don't really need to worry about what's kind of a waste of time and you want to know where to prioritize your attention and your resources. Cool. Swing by InsideOutTrading.com InsideOutTrading.com Book a call with me. We'll talk about your situation, see where your gaps are, see where's the best place for you to get help and we'll get you pointed in the right direction. Get, get this taken care of, get your trading the way you want it to. Let's make 2025 really your best year ever. Cool. Excellent. Well, I hope this been helpful. If it has, share this with your friends. Give me a like and a subscribe down below. The like is important because that lets YouTube know that yeah, this is a worthwhile video that they should be putting in front of other people. So if you would hit the like, please the YouTube gods. And again, I hope it's been helpful. Anyway, swing by Inside Out Trading, book a call. We'll talk to you soon. Cheers.