The #1 Thing Nobody Tells You About Starting a Trading Career

Hi, Brian McAvoy here with Inside Out Trading. And today we're going to talk about something that's. I find it funny because I see it happen all the time and I was guilty of it myself. So I'm not judging anybody. But really, here's one of the biggest mistakes so many traders make, and it just kills me. I mean, if you think about it, traders in general are above average. They are. This is not the place where the average Joe shows up in the trading world. Trading is generally, you know, the whole trading world consists of above average people. And what's funny is it is a highly competitive occupation. This is a business where there's a lot of people fighting over a lot of money and it's very competitive. You got a lot of really smart people. Again, above average people. Organizations, banks, institutional traders, firms, and then players in the space that have massive resources and access to massive talent and computer programs and all this kind of stuff. And so many people. And again, I made the same mistake. I'm not judging, but I made the same mistake as an individual trader. I stepped into this almost like it was an entry level job where, yeah, just anybody can kind of stroll in here and start making money. Oh, yeah, I can just. I can do that, sure. And I just jumped into it thinking I could figure it out. Needless to say, got my butt handed to me and cost me over $47,000. Nearly cost me my marriage. You know, the end of the marriage came later, but fortunately not at that time. But, but yeah, it's seriously, so many of us, you know, we look at trading and because we're smarter than average, we look at it, we understand it and we think we can figure it out. You know, like an entry level job where it's like, sure, yeah, you know, I can go work at AutoZone. I know how to hand out parts and run a register. Sure. Where, yeah, you can just walk in again. It's, you know, we almost treat it almost like it's an entry level job. It's like, sure, you know, show me how to operate a platform so I can place trades and. Oh, well, okay, yeah, you know, I followed this guy and I see what he's, you know, what he's doing. I can just copy him. And no, this is not an entry level job. This is a business. This is a profession and this is a skill based profession. This is not a place for the average schmuck to show up. Average schmucks get their money taken and kicked out and, and this is where you have to, you have to be an A player. If you want to get paid as a professional, you have to act like a professional, you have to become a professional. And that means acquiring the skills. And again, this is not an entry level job. They're more, there's more to it than just grabbing a system and knowing how to operate a platform. If that's all there was to it, yes, it would be entry level and anybody and everybody would be here. Because the barrier to entry, even having money now is gone. With prop firms, that used to be the only barrier to entry. Seriously, if you think about it, with trading, there's been no other barrier to entry except money. Up until now. It's like, can you fund it? A Hampshire, come on in, don't care, you know, fat, ugly, you know, skinny, tall, loud, obnoxious, nice, doesn't matter. You got money, you can trade now you don't even have to have money. You just need a little bit of money and you can sign up with a prop firm. And so, you know, again. But again, it's not entry level. And even the prop firms, the prop firms, you know, a lot of people will gripe saying, you know, they're just trying to, you know, rip everybody off. It's like, no, the prop firms are actually, they're only asking for the same thing that you should insist on from yourself. And, and all they're asking for, if you want to trade their money, they're saying, show us, you know, what you're doing. Show us that you have the skill to make money as a trader and you can trade our money. And that's the whole thing. And you should insist on that from yourself. So if you've been struggling, you know, maybe kind of ask yourself the question, have I kind of been treating this like an entry level job where I can just come in and kind of BS my way into making money watching a few YouTube videos or buying, you know, some, you know, $5,000 trading system that somebody has and kind of cheat my way there without actually developing the skill set that goes with this occupation. You're running a business and you're a professional as a trader, and there's a range of skills that go with this. Yeah, there's a myriad of questions that you have to answer before you really should be getting set up before you even place your first trade. You know, what am I going to trade, what markets am I going to trade, what strategy am I going to use? What are my goals? How am I going to know how well I'm doing? How do I, you know, Pick a strategy and how do I build a, you know, a consistent process on that? How do I test it and know that it's going to work? How do I build confidence and proficiency and skill with it? Those are skills that you need to have if you want to be good at this. Because this is not an entry level job. You want to make 15 bucks an hour, 20 bucks an hour, go down to Starbucks. If you're not making even that much as a trader and you've been at this for more than six months, get the training that you need, invest in yourself, level yourself up, start making 50, 100, 500 bucks an hour. That's what traders make, that's what we make as traders, and it's really cool. And, and when you scale up, your pay rate goes up. A lot of people I know come to me, they've been trading for years, still not even making minimum wage. They would have been better off at Starbucks or Home Depot or anywhere else when you look at their hourly pay. And so you're not here for that. You're here to actually make money. You want to make money on your time. You want to, you know, you want to be, you want to be paid for your time and you want your money to make money. So insist on treating this like a profession. So you get paid like a professional. Then it's fun and profitable. So anyway, I hope it's been helpful. Like I said, I love the whole, you know, it's not an entry level job. So many of us, like I said, I was guilty of it myself. I treated it like an entry level job. It's like, yeah, I can just step in there, see what I'm supposed to do and instantly be good at it. It's like, no. And I hope to help you, you know, as far as, you know, whatever's holding you back, you know, I'd love to help you whether it's, you know, skill wise, strategy wise, psychological wise. If I'm not the one to help you, let's hop on a zoom call. At least we can explore what is holding you back and I can point you in the right direction. If it's me, great. If it's somebody else, I have a lot of good colleagues that are very, you know, high integrity people. They'll take good care of you. But the main thing is don't just sit there and keep settling for less than you should be making with your trading. Do something. Focus on developing yourself into a, you know, level up trader. Get better at this, move the needle, make more money, make trading more enjoyable. That's why you signed up for this. So I hope this been helpful. If it has, give me a like and subscribe. If you just want a simple guide, you know, to, you know, maybe just, you know, break some of the patterns that you've behavior patterns that you find yourself in, you keep making the same mistakes over and over again. SwingInsideOutTrading.com right up here and you can download a free report. It's called Break the cycle. That's 10 things you can do in the next 19 minutes, including reading the guide that will help break the patterns of the past that are causing you to lose money or it's costing you money. So swing by inside itrading. Com. It's free and it'll be helpful and you'll enjoy it. So cool. I hope this has been helpful. Talk to you soon. Cheers.