Thread by @modern_rock

LONG THREAD On How It Finally “Clicked” For Me Trading:

I lost a lot of $$ when I started trading. That’s b/c when I started I thought the stock market was random. I thought it was pure gambling. I went for home runs. I hit many HRs, but always stuck out in the end, losing all

I would be up a lot, get greedy & cancel my sell orders, hoping the stock would dip so I can add more b/c I didn’t have enough. So when the stock came down, I kept adding thinking I will become rich b/c the press release they put out said it would cure cancer, etc.

As the stock tanked, i thought to myself it must be because they are shaking out the weak longs & I’m no chicken. I have CONVICTION! They can’t shake me out! I will put more money into my acct to add more! Cheap shares now, keep adding! I would go from up 50% to down 50%.

The reason I was so convicted is b/c the previous plays I saw shot up huge w/o me, or that I would always sell too early and it kept going up more w/o me. So this time I won’t get shaken out and will add & make back my losses. This is the mentality of most uninformed & gamblers

Then I joined chatrooms to learn & see what others are trading. Wow so many “experts” in these chat rooms they know SO MUCH! I thought they were all professionals on Wall Street and I was a newbie so I must follow them! So I chased all their picks/alerts.

When I lost I thought it was b/c I was too slow. So I bought news scanners & whatever tool i thought can help. O highlighted the supposedly top guys in the room & made sure to be the first to chase their alerts. Wow it worked! I was so fast chasing alerts & now up!

The problem now is man the stock would tank so fast when these guys post they sold. So I made sure to now sell before them. Cool so now I’m making money. How easy is this! However the losses were always bigger than my gains so I was slowly bleeding. All i learned was how to chase

Then I started to try to find my own trades & somehow it wasn’t the same. How come whenever I bought a stock it never spiked like when these other “top chatroom pros” do it. Eventually I learned to trade for myself w/o chasing. But then I encountered repeatedly the biggest hurdle

Biggest hurdle of trading: I would be consistent for weeks & one trade would always wipe away weeks/months of gains. This occurred over & over. By year end I was still down, but at least now broke as before when I chased alerts.

Problem was back then I had NO PROCESS whatsoever

Zero understanding of process or a repeatable system. Every trade was random on the fly, winging it. I would sit by the scanner, wait to buy anything that came. There was zero understanding behind the moves. I was solely reacting & at end of the day, I was still chasing alerts!

No one taught me or mentored me the concept of risk management. I never used stops. Never knew of any sort of technical analysis b/c I thought stocks were random

💡 came on when I analyzed my trades, saw I was actually a consistent trader but had one BIG problem: lack of control

I had zero understanding of risk management, no process, lack of technical analysis undertaking.

I was very good at my day job. I had a huge ego. I didn’t think I needed help. Moment I dropped my ego, I started to learn & realized I actually knew NOTHING about trading!

I dropped my ego, started to learn and review trades. I SPOKE LESS and listened more!

I realized trading is NOT random & NOT gambling. I proved it by being consistent for days/weeks/months but one bad trade wiped it all away. So I learned how to stop that pattern of blowing up

That’s when I realized Risk management was the key to it all! Simply being consistent was not good enough if u cannot keep those profits. 100 profitable trades is meaningless if that 1 loss trade wipes out the 100 profitable trades! A HA the magic moment where I cracked the code!

I learned to stop chasing alerts. I learned PRs are to pump stock, that u should never blindly believe any news they put out. I realized patterns of stocks and it’s amazing how these patterns repeat over & over. Moment I realized all stocks are Pump & Dumps I created my process

The rest is history but the takeaway I want to let everyone know is that stocks are NOT random! That risk management is essential. That greed is the killer.

U won’t get rich overnight. It takes long time to master. I am still learning daily now! It is not easy altho gets easier

Lastly, if ur trading solely for $ there are plenty of other things that is MUCH easier to do to make $ than trading. Most will fail & lose

U must LOVE it for more than just $! I love it as it is a battle against myself. No one to blame but myself. I am in control of my destiny!