Top Psychological Mistake Traders Make (from a Golf Perspective)

Hi, Brian McAvoy here with Inside Out Trading, and you're about to discover the top psychological mistake traders make. In the 11 and a half years that I've been helping traders, I found that this is the biggest deal. It affects everything. Now, I'm also going to share with you in a short video what I found to be the best kept secret there really is when it comes to trading and making money at it. So let's get started. Okay, to illustrate this and really to drive the point home, because this really is that big of a deal. This is a game changer. If you pay attention, you'll see what I'm talking about. This can be huge for you right now, simple as it sounds in the next few minutes anyway. Okay, so to illustrate this, let's look at it from a golf perspective. Let's say you're just a regular person. You know, you're not, you know, a scratch golfer already a competition golfer, but one day, you know, maybe you've been to a motivational seminar, say, you know, pursue the life of your dreams. And so you decide, gosh, you know, I would just love to be a pro golfer and, you know, make my living. Those guys make nice money. They're always playing on nice courses, staying in beautiful, beautiful places around the world, playing on great courses. And it's just, I would love to do that. Okay, so that's what you decide to do now. Would you then immediately run out, buy a couple thousand dollars worth of golf clubs and all the gear and accessories and start signing up for tournaments? No, of course you wouldn't. Well, why not? I mean, it's not because you don't understand the game. You know, the game. It's pretty straightforward, and it's just simply a matter of, you know. Yes, you know, when you're driving off the tee, you keep it in the middle of the fairway, and you're perfectly capable of doing that same thing as far as using your irons and the putter and all that kind of stuff. You're perfectly capable physically of doing all these things. But you understand, and the reason you wouldn't just immediately sign up for a tournament, you understand that it is a game of skill. It's also largely a mental game, because the mental game plays into your performance, how well you can do it. Like I said, you're perfectly capable of hitting a good drive or hitting a good iron shot or getting on the green or making a great putt. You're perfectly capable of it. You probably have done it a few times, but doing it On a consistent basis, that's a whole different story. And doing it on different courses where now, yes, you have changing landscapes. What you would do then, if you were smart, and you probably would, because you're an above average person, you would say, all right, yes, this is what I want to do. But rather than just go out and start signing up for tournaments and learning as I go in the tournament circuit, I'll go find me a good pro to work with. Because, yes, this is a game of skill and I'm going to work with a pro so that he teaches me how to do what I need to do. And it is more than just swinging the club right, and hitting it that way. So there's more to it than just that. And it's also, well, yes, it is a game of skills. So I need to get my skills up so that I can play consistently. So you'd spend plenty of time at the driving range and not just going out there to hammer whack away at a bunch of balls and see how far you can hit it, right? Or if you can hit the guy in the cart that's cruising around shagging all the balls, although that is a lot of fun. You would be there and you would be working on your drive. You'd be working on your stance and your backswing and your posture and your follow through and your grip, all that kind of stuff. You'd be focusing on what you're doing. You're not just there goofing around. Okay, same thing. You'd also go to a par three to work on your irons and your short game and getting on the green. You would also probably spend lots of time on the putting green so you could get to where no matter where you are, if you get on a green, you can plan on a two putt instead of a three or four or five. And here you are with multiple bogeys. So you would take the time to make sure that you honed your skills long before you ever sign up for your first tournament. Now, what does this have to do with trading? Well, I'll tell you in just a second, but here's the thing. From a golf perspective, if you didn't take the time on the driving range and the par threes and on the putting green and the time with the pro when you sign up for the first tournament, if you didn't do all that preparatory work when you sign up for the first tournament, you would be a nervous wreck. You would be filled with anxiety, massive self doubt. It would be virtually impossible for it not to be a tremendously emotional experience. It would be so hard to concentrate and keep your head clear and just mentally from that mental perspective because of the lack of preparation and the pressure on you when you go to that tournament unprepared, it's going to mess with everything. It's going to mess with every aspect of your game. Okay, so what does this have to do with trading? Well, really everything, especially from a psychological standpoint. If you're going into your trading, whether you're a brand new trader, you're just starting out, a beginning trader, or you've been at it for a while, a lot of people come to me for help. They've been trading 4, 5, 8, 10 years, 12 years, sometimes even more. Here's the situation that they've put themselves in and this is the huge mistake, giant mistake. They're going into their trading and they're working with a system or their own skill level or both. And they're not really 100% solid with what they've got. They're going into their trading hoping to make money, hoping that they'll get things ironed out. They're hoping that things will somehow smooth out and start working. It's not for lack of sincerity. These are good people, smart people, hard working people, and I count you amongst them. But here's the thing, somewhere along the way it got put in your head that trading this way is normal, that you can trade from a position of not being sure or having a high level of confidence. One of the biggest things people come to me for help for, they say, Brian, I just want to have some confidence in what I'm doing. Well, here's the cool thing and the big mistake is, yes, trading with real money, when you don't have a high level of confidence in what you're doing and in yourself and in your system. That's the huge mistake. Because you don't have to. One of the absolute fantastic things about trading versus any other business versus anything you can trade in a demo account in the real world. Not some made up stuff with real market information, real market activity. You can trade in the real world without risking money and get your skills and your system and yourself honed to where yes, you are really you now go from, instead of going into operating from a position of doubt and anxiety and not knowing, hoping you can get yourself, you can position yourself so that you're trading, you're going into your trading day from a position of knowing, from a position of well founded confidence where, yeah, you can. Like with the golf, yes, you can go to the driving range and the par threes and the putting green, and you can go as often as you want, as long as you want, until you're confident that, yes, the odds are strongly in your favor, you really are likely to make money. You can position yourself and psychologically, that's what I'm talking about. This is huge. This is the top mistake. Because look at it this way, if you're over here in a position and you've got a lot of anxiety, a lot of doubt, you don't know if your system will deliver or not. You don't know if it's going to perform. You don't know what to expect from it. You don't know what its strengths and weaknesses are. You've got a lot of doubt about yourself. You don't know what's going on with the markets. And you're just sitting here operating with a whole lot of question marks and a lot of unknowns. Psychologically, that sucks. And financially, functionally, that is a horrible. Psychologically, that's a horrible position to be in. When you're trading the cool thing, and this is the best kept secret, you don't have to, you can over here in a demo account, practice and get skilled up and get good, get really good with what you're doing to the point that, yes, now when it comes time to trade with real money, you know that the odds are strongly in your favor. Because you've already established success, you've established competence, you've given yourself that confidence in what you're doing and in yourself and in your system and the whole nine yards. And now when you start trading with real money, you're going into it solid. You know that you're in good shape, you know that the odds are in your favor, you know that you're likely to do well and it doesn't cost a thing. That's the cool thing about it, and that's the best kept secret, is you don't have to trade from a position of weakness or putting yourself at a disadvantage in trading. You can trade from a position of knowing, from a position of strength. And that's absolutely cool. Actually, when you hear the term treat your trading as a business, this is really what that means. It means you get yourself so properly prepared and so well organized before you ever risk money that your success is almost guaranteed because you go into it again so well prepared that you know you're going to make money. You can do that with trading. That's the best kept secret about it. If you go into Something and it's a challenging situation and you're not properly prepared for it and you kind of know you don't have a solid handle on it. Psychologically, that's a tough position. Especially when you compare that with, hey, I'm trained, I'm practiced, I'm good at what I'm doing and I know that I'm going to be successful. I mean, odds are really strong that I'm going to make money. From a psychological standpoint, this is huge. I tell my clients, if you're not making money right now, stop trading with real money. There's no point in risking it, there's no point in continuing to lose money. Take a break from it. Let's get you properly trained and then you can come back to it. From a position of knowing, from a position of strength, from a position of being properly prepared and you really know that the odds are now in your favor. This is tremendously effective. Trading is a skill based business and if you understand that, so long as you're lacking in the skills and the competency again, just knowing what you're supposed to do doesn't mean that you have all the skills that you need for this job. Consistency is a skill. Getting properly organized is a skill. There are lots of skills that go with being in the business of being a self directed trader. This is cool. This is really simple. This is a matter of a couple of simple decisions. First one is you decide, before I go risking any more money, I'm going to get properly prepared. I'm going to go into it so well prepared that I have absolutely zero doubt, zero anxiety, zero uncertainty going into it. I'm going into it knowing that the odds are in my favor. You can make that simple decision and it makes all the difference in the world from a psychological standpoint, from a functional standpoint, from a financial standpoint, huge. And I would love to help you with that. That's what I do. I help you gain the skills that you need to be a self directed, independent, consistent, confident trader who's properly prepared to take on the markets. I mean, whether we're talking about, you know, beginning traders or seasoned traders, you've been at it for a while. Doesn't matter if you're trading, you know, stocks, futures, forex, options, whatever. This is absolutely true. I mean this is trading 101, trading for beginners. This is like what everybody should realize and be taught Day one. When you're thinking about getting into trading, this is really that big of a deal again. So quick recap. We're Talking about the top psychological mistake traders make is really getting into trading and trading with real money before you are properly and truly prepared. So many people, they feel compelled to go ahead and get started knowing that they're not really ready, knowing that they're filled with anxiety, knowing that they have a lot of doubts and they feel compelled to go ahead and trade anyway. That's the big mistake. Trading anyway. The best kept secret is you don't have to. You can trade in a SIM account, never risking real money, never losing money, and get your skills up, get your confidence up. That's the best kept secret. You can prepare yourself without ever risking money. And you can come into this occupation and start trading with real money when you know you're absolutely ready and odds are in your favor. And that is absolutely cool. The question that I usually get after sharing this with people and it's a natural question. Well, Brian, I keep reading in all these trading books that it'll take anywhere from five to even 20 years for a person to really become solid as a trader. Well, does it really need to take that long? Here you're sitting there saying get solid before you go trading with real money. I don't want to wait five or 10 or 20 years. So it's a natural question. I'll tell you what, you don't have to wait that long. I'll answer that question in the next video. Now, if you enjoyed this video and you found it helpful, if you would give me a thumbs up down below, please do go ahead and subscribe to my channel if you would. Also, if you're on any of the social trading sites or any of the other social sites, you want to share this with your friends, by all means. You'd be doing them a favor. And yes, I want to get the word out about this to help people avoid the heartache in trading. Lastly, if you want to swing by my site if you're anxious to go ahead and get on with good trading, things haven't been going the way you'd like. I've got a free online training class which you can come to my site and get access to it there. It's called how to Rewrite youe Trading. How to Become a Confident, Consistent and profitable trader in 60 days or less. Even if you've never had a profitable month, it's free and the link for that class is in the description below. Anyway, again, I hope this has been helpful for you. Talk to you soon. Cheers.