Stock Trading Tips and Strategies - Why you CAN’T learn to trade by watching YouTube videos

Have you ever watched a trailer for a movie and got all excited and hyped up about how great the movie was going to be and then gone to watch the movie and been massively disappointed or let down or realize that you were misled? Well, that's kind of like learning to trade by watching YouTube videos. So why does this come up? Well, I was having this conversation today with a student who I asked the question, like, how many trading books have you read? And they said, none. And what I realized is that there's this whole generation of wannabe traders. I'm gonna say wannabe, and I'll explain why. But wannabe traders who are learning how to trade by watching YouTube videos. And watching a YouTube video is kind of like watching a commercial because they're usually pretty short, only a couple of minutes, and they, you know, might explain a short little topic or teach a certain, you know, a short point and, you know, give you some idea about the bigger picture. But the reality is it's very hard to string together a coherent picture of a profitable trading strategy by. Or trading approach by watching YouTube. So why is, you know, why is that, and why are books so much better? Well, the thing is, for me, and I've read over 200 trading books, and I've also watched a ton of YouTube videos, but I'm going to tell you, I got way more value from the books than I have from any number of YouTube videos. And I think the reason is that when you take the time to read a trading book from end to end, and you get the opportunity to let those ideas sit in your mind and kind of, you know, settle and you ponder over them as you're reading the book and you're spending a certain amount of time where you are immersed in the author's idea, the one strategy, the one point of view. And so that allows you to develop a better appreciation, a better understanding for the concepts being presented. Now, contrast that with YouTube. Now, what happens when you watch YouTube? If you Google stock trading videos or how to stock trade, or learn to stock trade on YouTube, you're going to get a whole bunch of suggestions. And what do you do? You watch the first one that looks interesting, and then at the end of the first one, you're going to get a bunch of suggestions from YouTube.

As to what to watch next. Then you choose one of them and you go watch that. Then you get more suggestions about what to watch next, and you go, and you watch that, and you watch that, and you watch that. And so what's happening is typically you're not getting multiple videos from the same educator, from the same author, the same thought leader. And so you're jumping from thought to thought, from concept to concept, from strategy to strategy, style to style. And so you never get that opportunity for the lessons to really sink in and for you to really kind of ponder over them and deeply understand them like you would if you were spending the time to read a book. Now, it's perhaps a little different. If you jump on YouTube and you go to someone's channel and you go to the very first video and you watch all of their videos in a row, that's a little different. But most people don't watch YouTube like that. And YouTube actually doesn't want you to do that, because what YouTube wants you to do, it's kind of like a casino. You know, you go into a casino and you choose a game. Now, I don't gamble, but, you know, if you go into a casino, you choose a game, you play that, and then someone brings you a drink, and then you look around and you see another table and you go play there. And then you look around, you see another table, and you go play there. It's all about keeping you distracted to keep you there. And for YouTube, it's the same thing. It's about keeping you distracted to keep you entertained so they can keep serving you ads, so they can make money. It's nothing to do with teaching how to trade well. Now, if you sit down with a good trading book, that's all about teaching you how to trade well, particularly if you've chosen the right book. Now, if you need help choosing the right book, if you haven't found them yet, comment below, say trading book. And I will give you a list of the best systematic trading books so that you can, you know, spend some time with some authors who actually really know their stuff. And, you know, rather than gambling with your time, you know, I want you to spend time with the best authors. Now, it's okay to watch trading videos on YouTube, don't get me wrong. But what I don't want you to do is delude yourself into thinking that you can learn to trade by watching YouTube videos, because it's kind of like learning the plot line of a movie by watching the trailer. It's misleading. You don't get the whole story. And it's kind of like watching commercials and fully understanding the TV shows that they're advertising. What they're trying to do is hook you in. Because most YouTube videos, there's some that are truly educational, but most of them are marketing. And I do the same thing. I have videos out there for marketing purposes. Do some education, attract people to my course? Of course. That's what happens, right? But you can't get the whole story. If you sit down and read a book from end to end. Like Trade youe Way to Financial Freedom by Van Tharp. Or Market Wizards by Jack Swager. Or the Design, Testing, Evaluation of Trading Strategies by Pardo, if you take books like that. Or Way of the Turtle by Curtis Faith. These are books where if you sit down and read them end to end, you will transform your knowledge and understanding about trading. And if you've already read those books, great, read them again and again. Because I've read all of those books and many others multiple times. Because by getting into the author's mind, you take your learning to the next level and you can really, you can continue to grow. And each time you read these great trading books, you get a different depth and different level of understanding. It's not the same with YouTube videos. If you're thinking, you know, I'll just watch a five minute YouTube video and then another one and another one and I'll learn how to trade, you're mistaken because you never get enough depth. You never get the time to sit with the concepts. So if you're in the YouTube generation, that's fine, keep doing that, but commit to reading good trading books as well because if you don't, you not going to make it because this is hard. Trading is not easy and you need to learn from the best. And the best people are, you know, authors and they've got courses and they've, you know, they teach the concepts end to end. They're not little snippets of trading videos. There's, you know, the barrier to entry to creating a video on YouTube about trading is literally zero. Anyone can pull out a smartphone like I'm doing now and record a quick video and try and teach you something about trading. And look, I hope I am, but the point is you can't just do this. You've got to go to the source, you've got to go to the books and, and do the courses and actually immerse yourself in this fully. So go read a trading book. If you don't know which one to read, comment below and I'll give you a list of suggestions. My name's Adrian Read. This is enlightened stock trading. And you need to read more trading books. I need to read more trading books. I've read over 200 books on stock trading. And I still buy books every single week to expand my knowledge. Get different inputs, different ideas, different stimulus for my trading system development. And you should be too. I'll see you in the next video. Bye for now.