The Great Trading Debate - What is more important: Your Trading Psychology OR Your Trading System

Hey, it's Adrian here from Enlightened Stock Trading. I'm here today with Brian from Inside Out Trading and we've got something new for you because Brian and I were talking last week for the first time and I really enjoyed the conversation and we came up with this concept which is super cool. Never seen it anywhere before. Basically you've seen hundreds and hundreds of traders interviewed. Yes. What we're going to do today, though, is completely different. Today is a trading debate. What is more important, your trading psychology or your trading system? Brian is very heavy on the trading psychology psychology side. I'm all about developing trading systems, so this should be interesting. I don't know where it's going to go, but here's. This is what we've got for you today. What is more important, your trading psychology or your trading system? Brian, why don't you kick it off? What's your view and why?

Well, yeah, as far as having a point counterpoint, this is always fun. I've had this debate and as I'm sure you have lots of times, especially for me, it's always fun having the debate with like the pure psychologists who are in the trading space and they're just an area you don't know. It's, you know, you got all these, you know, we need to put them on a therapist couch for a couple of years, $25,000 and it's like, no, that's not it. But as far as. Yeah, for the conversation, they haven't laid point counterpoint. Yeah, but because it is valid. I mean, it's not that either one is 100% the answer. So from the psychology standpoint, though, it really, I find it fascinating and the more I've gotten into it over the years, yeah, it is a psychology. I mean, as far as your system, yeah, you can have a great system, but if you can't keep your head together, if you can't show up and do what you need to do, your system is of limited value. So I've had a lot of people come to me over the years and there'll be, you know, Brian, yep, got a solid system. Fifteen years and, you know, I just, I can't stop hesitating and chasing bad trades. So, you know, what do I do? And a lot of times, yeah, you know, it's like got to jump into it. And we look at their system. Yeah, they got a decent system. So the whole, you know, validity of the hesitation and for me, what I found is also the big one is self sabotage.

Right.

Because self sabotage, there's a whole lot of interesting asset or aspects to self sabotage and trading that are purely psychological.

And maybe 10% related to the system. And so, you know.

It actually really is, it's all in your head. I mean trading is a mental game. It's a decision making process and if your head's not right, your system really doesn't matter. It doesn't you kind of best estimate a plan.

I jump in and interrupt for a moment because a lot of what you said I completely agree with and it is a mental decision making game. But what I've seen after coaching and counseling with hundreds of traders is that there's definitely psychological problems that are causing them to lose money. No question, right. But my view is that most of those psychological problems can be solved, eliminated or bypassed with the right system for that person. Because what I see over and over and over again is people fighting their system because they're not comfortable with the system.

And I've tried this, I've tried short term, I've tried day trading and I lost $30,000 in a space of about two or three weeks because the system was wrong for me. It didn't fit my personality, didn't fit my objectives, didn't fit my lifestyle. It was a disaster. I've tried trend following and that works amazingly well because I'm a patient sort of guy. I don't want a lot of activity, I don't want to be watching the screen all day. I just want to buy here, sell there, all good. So it's very easy and natural for me and my students when they get a system that fits them.

I find that a lot of the psychological challenge goes away because it's easy and natural. So good system is not the answer. The right good system. I feel like that actually eliminates a lot of the psychological problems. Unfortunately it also takes away the constant revenue stream from a lot of the psychologists because you no longer then need to kind of spend years in therapy because you can just follow the system because it's the right one. What do you think about that?

You're also ripping off the brokers too and the guys on the crappy trading systems.

Correct?

Actually, it's hilarious. I heard this not too long ago and I thought it was just a scream because, and I'm sure you've seen it on a sales page or two like a clickbank when they were just raging, piled up with, you know, people selling crappy trading systems and robots and stuff. The saying, you know, feed a man or you know, give a man a fish, feed him For a day. Teach man a fish and you feed him for a lifetime. And you know, here, here's the magic. You know, we're going to teach you how to fish.

I heard this a while back and this is more the mentality of a lot of people that have been in the trading space for a while is feed a man. Or give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him how to fish, and you'll ruin a good business opportunity.

Yeah, I've actually gone in my mind with my teaching and the style I use. I've gone one step further than that analogy because in trading, you can give a man a fish, follow this trait. Like, here's a tip, here's another tip, here's another tip, here's another tip. And you can, you can make an awesome business out of that, which absolutely sucks for the trader, but it's great for the educator. Okay, but I'm not into that model. I don't like that. Teach them to fish. Here's a system. Follow the system for yourself. Right? But the next thing, the next stage, which I feel like helps with this psychological challenge is teach the man or woman to build the fishing rod.

Because I can give you a fishing rod, but if it's a deep sea fishing rod and you live on a lake, you've got no chance. Right? You're not going to catch any fish, or at least not consistently. But if I can teach you how to construct the rod that you need to fish in the way you like to fish in the environment that you fish in, you get a fighting chance of success and of being independent henceforth. Similar with trading, if you can develop and build your own trading systems for your environment, your personality, objectives and lifestyle, surely that bypasses a lot of the psychological challenges that you're saying cause people to lose money. Well, yeah.

I mean, there are two different aspects of the psychology though, that really do come into play even once you fix your system.

You got. Because some people do have genuine mommy daddy issues that they came to trading. Well, I just, I picked that term up a long time ago and I like it because, you know, you talk most people with psychology, the psychologists are going to say, well, you know, most of your problems are going to be rooted to something you heard in your childhood and, you know, the environment you grew up in, whether, you know, was a poor mentality and a lot of the crap that got programmed into your head that you're not even aware of anymore.

So there is some of that that people have to deal with and they May have been able to overcome it enough to save up enough money to get, you know, start trading. But they still deal with those issues. Worthiness, the, the, you know, if they, if they become successful, they're going to kind of violate the family values because the family's always been frugal and really tight with money and that kind of stuff.

Yeah.

So they don't want to know, feel that they're breaking tradition or going against what's been the standard for the family or embarrassing. So there's, I mean the, there are some genuine psychological issues that come into play even when a person gets their system squared away.

Right.

But that aside, then you've also got to deal with because I run into this too when I'm working with people and helping them fix your system is the painful memories and triggers and cues that they have that the trigger, the old memories, really painful stuff like when they first got into trading and you know, the first time they had, you know, they blew up half their account and then had to go, you know, tell her spouse about it or one guy. And.

This is one of the worst ones I've heard. I mean, because I've had broker friends who, you know, they had a number of stories where somebody would come in, open a $10,000 account and they're done the same day because they came in and like instantly blew it out. It was like, yeah, the one day trip to Vegas thing for him. But I had this one guy call me up one day and I'm sure you've heard your horror stories, you know, people who took a huge beating. I had my own fun stuff to deal with, but I had this one guy calls me up one day and it's like, if I could just get a couple, you know, a couple thousand dollars, I could trade my way out of this. And I'm like, well, dude, you know, tell me where you're at right now. Well, you know, I haven't told my wife about this yet. But you know, I really got our house, you know, like, you know, loaned out to the hilt or mortgage to the hill. I've wiped out all our savings and our 401ks are gone and even my inheritance that my dad let me have early. And so, yeah, I've kind of gone through a little over half a million dollars and I'm like, and you haven't told your wife? Yeah, but you know, if I can just get a, you know, a couple thousand dollars, I'm not going to trade my way out of this. And I'm like, dude, here's what you're. What you're gonna do right now. I'm not suggesting it. I'm telling you. You're gonna get off the phone, you're gonna go remove any weapons from the house, make sure there aren't any knives in the kitchen or anything, and you're gonna sit down, you're gonna have a talk with your wife, and you're gonna stop trading. If you don't, she's gonna kill you. And he's like, you think so? And I'm like, you think? You basically wipe out every bit of financial security that women kind of like to have, and you haven't told her about it, so you better tend to this.

And he's like, wow. Oh, yeah. And it was like it hadn't even occurred to him. And I'm like, dude, you better quit.

But, yeah, as far as the.

Damage that people pick up, the psychological damage from the. You know, from the hard experiences, because so many people that get into trading are above average, and they've enjoyed a pretty good measure of success in their life. And they come in here and, man, they just take a beating. And it's like, damn, I'm getting. I'm getting my ass kicked over here. I'm not used to this. I don't always win, but, man, I'm just getting hammered. I'm feeling like a loser. And this sucks. And of course. And you've seen it too, I'm sure, where you got somebody and they go through the cycle where you have. They are literally sabotaging themselves. They are aware of what they're doing. They know they're not supposed to be trading this way.

But they're doing it. They're aware of it. They know they're not supposed to. They know it's just killing their account, and they can't stop themselves. A lot of times that cycle goes until they're forced to take a break.

Basically until they blow up, and that forces the break. The challenge with that situation is. And I've seen that over and over again, particularly with people with small accounts. I mean, I've seen it with big accounts, but more often with small accounts, because people don't. A lot of people aren't valuing the money in the small account, and so they're developing bad habits, which they then carry on into a big account. Now, if you do that sort of behavior with a large account, like, if you're. If you've got a large account, like, let's say six figures, and you're going into a 30, 40, 50,% drawdown and you're trying to, like, just frantically dig your way out of it, I'm going to say you should not be trading. You should stop. Because if that is the sort of gambling addiction kind of behavior, and frankly, that's what it is that you're taking into trading, I'm not sure that many people can help. And I want you to stop trading until you've actually taken a step back and really understood the math and the process of how trading profits work. Because we don't dig ourselves into a $500,000 drawdown and then dig our way out by just scraping together a few thousand dollars to trade. I mean, that's just madness, right? It's not, you know, it's not real kind of clear thinking in any, by any stretch of the imagination.

But what's interesting is I find that a lot of people. I'm going to talk about this for the people who are doing this behavior with the smaller accounts.

I find that a lot of people will take those gambles and trade in a risky way like that because they don't have faith in the process that they're using. It's kind of like, you know, when you buy a lottery ticket, you know that you're not going to win, likely to win, but you might. And if you might, if you do, then maybe you can make something of yourself.

But when I present.

A systematic approach to someone and show them the path to success.

This is methodically, step by step, how you get there and build that faith, confidence in the system through the testing.

I find that a lot of the need to be gambling and risky kind of dissipates or at least, at least reduces because there's something that you can have some faith in that it's going to work. Whereas if you've got no hope, may as well gamble because it may pay off randomly.

What do you think? Well.

No, there's definitely some merit to that.

The challenge that I find a lot of people have, and I've experienced it myself, but couple of different times is.

When you've been through the cycle of try and fail, 20 or 30 or 40 times. Whoa. Trading. Well, trading is a world where that's easy to do. True. You know, especially if you've been in the game for five or ten years, you're gonna, you know, and you're busy. You're not just sitting here just pedaling around. You're actively, you know, on the forums, on the webinars, on the different podcasts and all this kind of stuff, you're hearing about different stuff. And you know, you're looking for solutions, you're looking for more ways to, you know, go about this. And a lot of times it's funny because again, some of the smarter people, they're even more susceptible to it because they're going to be active, they know something's broken and so they're actively looking for solutions because missing a couple of key pieces. Yeah, they'll come over here and listen to this guy and it's like, man, that makes a lot of sense. Oh yeah, man. And they see the logic in it, they can follow and it's just like, you know, a highly intelligent person taking a multiple choice test. A lot of times they'll do worse than somebody of average intelligence because the person of average intelligence, the answer's obvious. Whereas the smarter person, they can argue for all the different answers.

Yeah.

And so the correct answer isn't as clear because yeah, I can see how a can work. And like I said, they can argue all the different answers anyway. But like I said, once you've been, you know, you've, you've gone through that cycle where it's like, okay, here's the solution, man. It sounds like it's going to work and you get your hopes up and your faith up and bam, it blows up. Doesn't work. And you do it again and again and again and again and again. Even when you get around over here and it's like, and it's still, yeah, this works, man. And step one, step two, step three, and here, here's the proof. All that kind of stuff, man. Shaking that doubt from just that repetitive try and fail cycle. That can be rough and that can be hard to get over. I've actually had a couple of guys where we went through the whole process, get everything squared away, get a well systemized, do all the proving and all that kind of stuff. And the first time I went through all that with this guy and I spent a lot of time with him over about two month period and man, I thought we were just solid. And he said, brian, I just, I gotta be honest with you, I'm so crushed. I just, I gotta take a break for about six months, right? I'm like, John, seriously? And he's like, man, he says, this is so compelling. And I really want to, he said, but man, my head is so beat up. I've just got to step away from this for a while because I just, if I do this one more time, I don't know if it's going to ruin me as a person. He'd been that badly beaten down where he getting him built back up again made him feel totally vulnerable and fragile and just, you know, psychologically at risk of just having it like 100% destroyed. Right. And I was like, damn. And we got back together after about nine months and he was slowly stepping back into it. But he had taken that bad of a beating.

Yeah, I mean, that's. That's common, right? Very common. What I feel is the common.

I mean, that that bad was. Was kind of extreme. I mean, because, I mean, you can hear his voice shaking. I mean, he was almost in tears. Yeah, he was a good guy and he was smart and he, outside of trading was very successful. I mean, he was like 400,000 a year in his practice.

Right.

Trading never could make it work.

What got him to that point? Because he would have tried system and process and method after method after method, each of them losing money, blowing up the account. So at the end, there's a psychological problem which is undeniable. Right. So in that particular case, yes, he has to deal with his psychology to keep going as a trader, to be a trader. What got him there was several methods that weren't right.

Oh, absolutely.

And position sizing that was too aggressive, that caused big drawdowns, that caused each of those successive accounts to blow up, or methods that didn't blow up, or systems that he couldn't follow.

Yeah, well, it was a combination of crappy systems just getting screwed over by a couple guys, solid systems. You know, one broker rip off, rip him off for about 50 grand along the way. So, I mean, he did have some pseudo successes along the way, but it's like. And that was part of what was so. Was so hard for him is because, yeah, he would actually be making a couple steps forward and again starting to feel like, hey, wow, I can like, open up and start to accept some success here. And then bam, here he is getting, you know, crushed again. So, I mean, what happened with him, that was not a common thing. That was. It was kind of an extreme. But I've seen it a few different times. And that's one of the things that people really need to safeguard. And with a couple of my programs, I wrap it up at the end and say, and we'll have specific exercises and things in place to address. Okay. Yeah, we know that for years you've been over here just getting hammered and your confidence and your faith and everything is just trash. It's like you're at about a 1 on the scale right now. So now that we've got you where you want to be. We got to safeguard your head here just so you don't have all that crap from the past creeping back up on you. And even though it's terrible, it's that familiar, that familiar place, you know, you're stepping into something new now. And so you used to the new normal and help make the new normal stick. Because we got things fixed.

Right.

We just got yourself off on a wreck just because you're so used to the old normal, right?

Yeah, absolutely. My approach to dealing with that is getting them into that new normal. Right. And for me the new normal is a system which you have confidence in, which you've back tested, which fits your personality objectives and lifestyle. And the objectives bit is critical here because if you've been beat up and you're stressed about losing money, then your drawdown tolerance is low. And so I believe that you need to trade within that tolerance.

If you exceed that, all of that past baggage is going to come right back up and you're going to, you're going to sabotage your trading or end up performing poorly. Oh yeah.

Well, part of the reason I'm grinning is.

And a lot of people don't realize this but when they're first, when they very first open their first account, right there is where a lot of things are going wrong psychologically. Right. A lot of people, they're getting into this and they're starting off trading more money than they should.

And they get the brokers as doing what they're supposed to do, saying hey, you know, don't be trading with money that you know, if you lose it it's gonna affect your lifestyle or you know, keep you from being able to feed your family and all that kind of stuff.

But of course the brokers, they want you to be funding as much as you will. Just like when people are selling your house, they're going to want you to buy as much house as you can possibly afford. Not necessarily what's smart. If they can get you in a, you know, half million dollar house, they're going to sell you half million dollar house even though, you know, a $200,000 house might be proper for you and financially prudent brokers are the same way. And what they're going to do is they're kind of like walking you over to the edge and they're like, you know, helping you hang and look over that edge and but you know, hold on to you. So you're like, even though your, you know, your chest is just pounding and you're like, holy crap, I don't know if I should be doing this or not. They're pushing you way outside those comfort zones and then having to sign off. Okay, I accept this. And so right from the get go, people are, they're being conditioned to step outside their comfort zone zones and much riskier than are probably healthy for.

Oh, absolutely. And as part of the trading system development process.

I feel like identifying the edge of that comfort zone and taking a big step way back from there is ultra important. I mean, it doesn't make the brokers happy for sure, but if you as a trader have a system that fits you and you're well back from the emotional triggers. So, you know, like it or not, trading is money and the financial fluctuations cause emotional challenges and that causes psychological misbehavior in the markets, no doubt. And I experience it myself too. I can feel my emotions when the money, the account goes up and down. I'm not a robot, but I know that my fluctuations are well within what I can stand. And so if the system is right and the portfolio management kind of rules are right, we can stand well within our comfort zone and still succeed as a trader and not trigger some of those things.

So that, that then again helps kind of reduce the impact of the psychology or bypass it because we've got rules to follow which aren't triggering us constantly because that's a hard place to trade from.

Yeah, well, in that scenario, and yeah, that's, that is very prudent. It's good to suggest that when I've had conversations with certain people along the way they were doing that and where they ran into problems was when they, and just everything was still statistically valid. But when they would get on a run where things are going better than they normally would for a period, you know, just like it could be perfectly valid for your system to, you know, maybe go through a little drawdown where, yeah, you're losing 12 out of 15 trades and it's just, it's only gonna happen once every 10 years, but it is statistically possible for your system. On the flip side of that, yeah, once in a while you might have a system that only wins 50%, but man, oh, hey, all of a sudden you're just killing it for a little while just because that's how the odds are rolling around. And what the challenge that I've had to help people through is when they start getting overconfident and the things are going better than our expectations.

No question.

Reckless and overconfident and all of a sudden yeah, it's like, yeah, they're only used, you know, used to making, you know, $500 a week. And now, man, all of a sudden, the last two weeks I made, you know, three grand each week, and damn, I'm starting to have fun now. And they're getting all amped up, and it goes on long enough that they start getting overconfident, and now they're starting to deviate from system just because things have been going so well. They're feeling the invincibility kind of thing. And that can be a real tough one to rein them back from until they've lost all their gains. That's what I found. And it sucks because I've experienced it a couple times myself where it's like, yeah, man, you're just kicking ass and taking names for a little while, and then you get too big for your britches, and then you get smacked all the way back down to where you started. Just because it took that to get you to finally say, all right, I, yeah, I gotta quit screwing around.

Sometimes it takes that to say, follow the system, right?

Oh, yeah.

You know, in the process, and we wrap this up in a second here, I mean, I got some terrible background noises. Sorry about that, everyone. But in the process of developing the system, if you can.

Do the investigation and the thought experiments to actually understand how some of those behaviors will impact your performance, then the answer starts to become more obvious that you just follow the system. You know, you have a run up, you follow the system, you have a drawdown, you follow the system because any deviation is the human psychology going on to the system, which is inevitably going to cause losses or reduced profits. So.

I am trying as much as possible with all of the people I work with to interrogate the system and understand the behavior in many different ways over many different time frames to build that understanding that your experience, what's happening through your equity curve does not matter. You just follow the system. Whether it's up, down, sideways, keep following it. Because if you've built it properly and if it fits you, then that's what keeps you out of trouble. I think that the biggest challenge most traders have is keeping themselves out of trouble. And the easiest way to deal with that is have a system that is profitable and just follow it, because anything else, any deviation, is going to get you into trouble. My view.

Probably the worst situation for somebody to have happen and speaking directly to that.

Is when they deviate from the system. And if they would have followed the system, it would have resulted in loss. But instead they won because it's like, that's a double whammy there. Not only did they not have to face the negative consequences of doing the right thing, they got rewarded for doing the wrong thing. And that can be, man, that can be so tough, especially if it happens, you know, two or three or four times in a short period of time that it's just massive, just horrible, you know, behavioral conditioning because it's like the whole carrot and stick is flipped around on and that, man, that right there can just crush their confidence in a system. So, yeah, as far as reeling them in and saying, I'll just get back to the system, like, yeah, but look, I'm like, dude, yeah, get back to the system.

Yeah. What's interesting is that is the measure of performance. And I think another big challenge a lot of traders face is their rewarding or punishing themselves based on the wrong thing. Did I make money today? Did I make money on this trade? They're actually the wrong things to measure.

The reason they're the wrong thing is because there is so much randomness in did you make money on this trade? And did you make money today or this week or this month? There is so much randomness in that that you end up rewarding and punishing yourself on factors that are actually outside of your control. Truth be known, what's inside your control as a trader is, did I follow my rules today?

Oh, yeah.

And if you can score yourself 100% on that over time, you're going to make money most likely if you've got a good system.

So I think that.

Reframing what is good performance, what do I get a pat on the back for.

Really helps. In the early stages of trading, I think the quicker traders learn that with $10,000 in an account and a trading system, you're not going to make a fortune this year, but you can reward yourself and build the right habits to make your psychology strong. So when you've got a half million or a million dollar account, you can keep following the system.

Oh yeah, well, speaking of that specifically, I mean, that was why years ago when I developed the Trading Performance analyzer order it's using for, you know, tracking your trades and running the metrics and stuff. As far as the. In the data field where you put in the trade data, I added a field where you would like, score your execution whether or not you stuck to your system. How well did you stick to your system? How well did you. Like I said, it's literally an execution score. So if you stuck to your rules and you followed your system, you gave yourself 100%. If you went way off the farm, you know, might be a, you know, 50%, and then it would tally that. And that was part of one of your metrics that you got scored on for average over the period, just specifically so they could track that. How well are you sticking to the process? How well are you, you know, how good is your execution of the system as it is simply for that reinforcement and to keep their focus there? Because, yeah, that's critical. Absolutely.

So look, my favorite thing to do for new traders and experienced traders who are not yet. Have not yet really cracked it and made, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars in the market, because if you haven't yet taken a few hundred thousand dollars out of the market, then I would. You're still in the process of really, you know, cracking the puzzle for you and building the discipline. So if you haven't yet done that, one of the most important things for me to do is to help find the style of system that makes all of this easy. Because I know for me, mean reversion, for instance, is quite hard. It takes focus and challenge and real mental energy to follow a mean reversion system to letter and make it work. I can do it now. I've been training for 18 years and all that, but I know psychologically that's harder. But for me, trend following is dead easy, brain dead easy. And it's just a matter of clicking the buttons, clicking the buttons, clicking the buttons and trading is done. So if you as a trader can get the system that fits you that well and execute it with discipline, as you're saying, Brian, with this, you know, this execution metric and making sure that's 100% every day, build that habit. I think that's what sets you up for a successful trading career because establish that rock solid habit of executing the system exactly early, then you've got the right trading habits going forward. So maybe the answer is not system psychology. We're going to wrap this up here in a second. But it's probably more than that. You need a system, you need your psychology to work. But somehow, like, they've got to come together in a way that makes it easy for you because there's enough challenge in trading as it is without trying to use a method that's hard for you as an individual. What do you think?

Oh, well. What? Yeah, a lesson I learned a long time ago is just like, you can't separate your winning percentage and your profit to loss ratio.

Right?

Who Cares if you're winning 99% of your trades, if your profit loss ratio is dreadful, that you might still have a losing system. So same thing with system and the psychology. They go hand in hand because like I said at the beginning, trading is a mental activity. It's a decision making process. And so you got to have this right, but this is where your system's running as well. This is where it's getting executed. It's in your head because you're either following it and understanding it and doing what you're supposed to do when you're not directed by your head or everything doesn't work. So they go hand in hand. It's, are you gonna develop the right system so that this, this becomes easier to function properly? And so yeah, they go hand in hand, which is really cool. That's part of what makes it such an interesting occupation.

So if you're going to go buy trading books, you need psychology books and you need system books. You can't do one without the other. I mean, study your trading psychology all day long. You still don't have a positive edge in the market, but study different systems all day long. If you can't choose the right one for you and execute it consistently, you're not going to make any money. And in fact it's probably going to be even worse because you're going to keep blowing up until you get that combination right.

So psychology and system are both critical here.

Oh yeah. Well, and just like with the system, like you know, you've been saying, yeah, you got to have a system that suits you as far as trading psychology books. And I say this with all the respect in the world to the guys out there that, you know, have established themselves as good trading psychologists and they've helped a lot of people.

At the same time understand if you're struggling with trading, it doesn't mean that you have psychological issues, right? It doesn't necessarily mean that because if you just to get into a position to trade, you've already demonstrated that you have the traits to make it as a trader. You've already proven that you're okay with money, otherwise you wouldn't have money to trade with. You're, you've proven that you can succeed, otherwise you wouldn't be here. So you've already demonstrated the traits that you need to win at trading. It's proven just in the fact that you're here and in a position to trade.

Right.

So are there other things that might be messing with you? Possibly. But what I would suggest is don't let anybody talk you into thinking that you're screwed up as a person.

Oh, absolutely.

If you can look into psychology, look into performance psychology, that's really where you're going to find what's applicable to trading necessarily. Just because somebody's saying this is trading psychology, don't necessarily buy into it. Because if they're sitting there saying, oh no, you know, you got Freudian issues, it's like, no, I'm not in love with my mom and that doesn't affect my trading. Even if I were, this is trading, you know, so how do I get good at what I'm doing and then get consistent?

Yeah, and I just, I would just add an extent to that because you know, there's whole industries around both of these things.

From the other side, from the system side.

My suggestion would be don't go into any old system and try and solve your psychology so that you can trade that system. Because if that system is wrong for you, the system is wrong for you. If you're a really patient, considered.

Long term thinking person and you're trying to day trade, you have the wrong system. And no amount of psychology is going to change who you are as a person quick enough for you to ever make any money in the market. So instead of trying to fix you, find a system that fits you and the amount of psychological work you'll have to do is dramatically less. Oh yeah, that makes so much easier. So don't just buy a system, learn how to build one for you or learn how to understand yourself so you can find the right one for you. That would be my message.

Very cool, very good. Okay, so trading psychology or trading system? Which is more important? Interesting debate. What do you think? Comment down below this video. You'll find a chat stream, let us know what you think and if you have any other questions, comment that you want debated. Because there is conflicting information everywhere in the market. And I'm super keen with Brian to kind of go head to head on some of these issues. Take different sides of the argument to help you understand what it is that's really important for your success as a trader. So comment below, let us know what you think and what else you want us to debate. Brian, any final thoughts?

Well, I hope this has been helpful for everybody.

Trading is a tough occupation. It's a skilled occupation. It's one that, well, it's a true profession. Only the people that become professionals get paid like professionals. You can't just come in here and screw around. So if you go into it and you're sincere about it and you focus on becoming a good trader. You become who you need to be with the understandings and the skills. You'll be okay. If you just want to be somebody who's here to make some money and find it like an easy push button kind of thing, you're in the wrong place. Go to Vegas, you'll probably do, you'll probably do better there and have a better time.

Well, you probably lose less, but have more fun.

Yeah. So yeah, I mean, like I said, hopefully it's been helpful for everybody. Anything, anything we can do for you. Yeah, definitely fire it in the comments.

And.

That'S all.

Hopefully the other thing we'll do is we'll put some contact details below so you can reach out to us and get in touch if you need help with some of these issues or taking your trading further. Because both Brian and I, we're very well aligned in our philosophy about how to work with traders and improve performance and help you along the way. But look, I want to do a lot more of these videos, so looking forward to the next one. Hope that helps. So that serves you. This is Adrian and Brian Enlightened Stock Trading and Inside out Trading out for now. Bye now.

Cheers, man.