Transcript

Hey, it’s Clay. Real quick, before we get to the episode, I want to talk about something that I get asked all the time. Clay, what broker do you suggest? What platform is the best one out there? While that’s always subjective, one thing that I can say is, as somebody that loves technical charts and as a technical trader, needs quality charts so that I can make good decisions, the one aspect that I would definitely say matters to me and should matter to you, especially, like I said, if you do choose to be a technical trader is a quality platform that gives you good visually appealing charts. That’s why I always recommend WeBull to people, because they are a situation where not only are they very budget friendly, meaning there’s no commissions, there’s no fees, and that’s for both options and stocks.

If you’re somebody with a smaller account and really is commission conscientious and you don’t want to be paying and giving away all your gains with fees, then WeBull, like I said, offers $0 commissions, but they also have really quality charts, which is important for the reasons, like I said, I discussed. But if you are curious and seen the platform, seen how it behaves, seen how it all looks, then I’d encourage you to go to claytrader.com/webull. Again, claytrader.com/webull. That way you can see how they behave. Now, maybe for your eye, you’re not necessarily going to like what they see, and that’s okay. But I think they offer some very, very quality technical charts. It’s a nice platform, very customizable.

But again, if you’re curious, and if you’re out there wondering, maybe looking to change from a broker or a platform that you’re not happy with, for whatever reason, again, consider WeBull, and again, claychart.com/webull. So, W-E, and Bull, WeBull. Like I said, then I have a little video review there that you can check things out. Like I said, check out WeBull. I think you’ll like what you see there if you like the technical charts. Let’s now move on to the actual episode. This is The Stock Trading Reality Podcast, episode 285.

This is the Stock Trading Reality Podcast, where you get to see the realistic side of a trader’s journey. Get inspired and stay motivated by every day normal people who are currently on their journey to trading success. This is your host, some hate it, he loves it, what are your thoughts on the chalkboard? ClayTrader.

I’m not quite sure I ever really imagined it being as decisive. I’m sure these people are exaggerating a little bit, but there are some situations where you just got to tell a person, “Listen, it’s okay. The world will keep on turning. Everything will be okay. I’m sorry that you don’t like the chalkboard, or I’m sorry that you used to like the white board that I used, or you think the white board was terrible and now you’re so glad I went to the chalkboard, but I mean, do you really need to be that dramatic about it?” Again, I get it. Some people, they’re just trolling around, they’re goofing around, and I’m all for a good time, but there is also that point where you can just tell with people that they have a very, very stringent, a very, very cut and dry black and white definition of no, it’s got to be a blackboard. No, it’s got to be a whiteboard.

For those of you who maybe have no idea what I’m talking about, when I started my YouTube channel back in 2013, started off with a blackboard, and actually, my wife found some cool paint. You like paint the wall and it becomes a blackboard. But did that for a while, I don’t know, three or four years, then went to a whiteboard, stuck with that for a few years. Then Nate and I, Nate being the show producer and the behind the scenes guy, we just thought, why don’t we bring back the chalkboard? It’s easier to light. I’ve always just liked the nitty gritty feel of it and brought back the chalkboard. It seems like this time around is when the majority of the opinions, the thoughts have come out. Like I said, I get it, but you can’t please everybody.

The best way to please nobody is to try to please everybody. I’m sorry, if you don’t like the chalkboard, then I don’t know what to tell you, but the good news is not every single video on my YouTube channel has a chalkboard in it. There are some with whiteboards, there are some where you don’t even see my ugly mug because it’s just my screen. There’s a variety for everybody, but yeah, I don’t know. Where do you stand? Let me know somehow. Whether you’re a member already, I don’t know, drop me something on social media. Blackboard or whiteboard, where do you stand? Or maybe, and hopefully you fall into this camp, maybe you’re just like “Clay, I really don’t care. I care about the actual content I care about what is being taught, not necessarily the means by which it is being brought.”

Hopefully, you’re in that camp, but if you’re not, I respect a good, strong opinion, I respect somebody that’s like, no, I feel this way, because sometimes you got to just stick with what you believe in life, and maybe you just really believe in the chalkboard, but anyways, maybe you can tell by the episode title here, I am going solo again. We are once again talking some signs, and I want to really focus on here, and I thought this was fantastic, but how do you learn? Let’s use some science, let’s understand how our brain actually works so that learning can be accomplished in the best way possible. But also, hopefully, maybe for some of you, I can also offer up some reassurance and just let you know, hey, you know what, it’s not that you’re a slacker, it’s not that you’re not smart enough, it’s not that well, I’m just not cut out to be a trader.

No, it’s none of those things. Maybe it’s just one of these other things. If I can offer you up a little reassurance, a little motivation to perhaps maybe not be so hard on yourself or perhaps not go down the pathways that you’re tempted to go down, then perfect. I’ll also consider this mission accomplished, because yeah, I want to make learning as easy as possible, but I also want to make sure that you don’t come down too hard on yourself because maybe you’re just doing something wrong according to the different ways that our brain works. Again, like I said, this is all going to be scientifically backed. Now, what I like about the article here that I found is everything is cited. This is not just one single study. There’s various things. In fact, there’s 10, and it’s called The 10 Biggest Breakthroughs in the Science of Learning. In each one of these 10 components, everything is validated.

I’ll leave a link to this on the show notes at claytrader.com, so If you’re curious and want to know what site, or go back and look at the actual research, look at the actual studies, then I’ll leave that all for you. But if you just want to take it at face value, then that’s awesome too. But like I said, that’s why I like the article because it really just gave a good backdrop of everything. It wasn’t just one study. Not that there’s anything wrong with a single study, but multiple studies, multiple sources cited. There’s just a lot of good science going on here. Again, name the article, the 10 Biggest Breakthroughs in the Science of Learning. To pick up here, at the beginning of the article. “Greater understanding of our brain’s functioning abilities and limitations allows us to constantly improve our teaching skills and the productivity of Brainscape study sessions and working hours, and after work hours for that matter.”

This is coming from a site who specializes in teaching. In other words, let me just for this way, it benefits them to be as good as them teachers as possible, because that is their business. That is how they’re going to be putting food on the table and keeping the lights on. They want to be very, very good at teaching. Same with mine, right? I offer courses. I offer teaching. One of the same, but to give full credit or credits due, they have sure dug into the science much deeper than I have, but here I am digging into the science through them. But the point there being, they are an educational company where this is all coming from. They’ve definitely done the research because truly, they’re financially motivated. They have financial incentives to understand the signs so that they can provide the best product possible. This is what they’ve learned, and this is how, in all the different areas of learning and science and discoveries that have come out through the human brain and learning.

Picking back up here, “When it comes to human organs, none is quite so mysterious as the brain. For centuries, humans have had numerous misconceptions and misunderstandings about how the organ works, grows and shapes our ability to we learn. While we celebrate a long way before we truly unravel all the mysteries that the brain has to offer, scientist have been making some major breakthroughs that have gone a long way in explaining how the brain functions and how we use it to organize, recall and acquire new information. Here are a few of the biggest and most important of these breakthroughs in the science of learning. Number one, more information doesn’t mean more learning.” Let me repeat that again, because this is the one that I see all the time. If I was forced to make one guest on why somebody is struggling, why somebody is just not seeing consistent profits is because of this one. Again, number one more information doesn’t mean more learning.

“The brain is equipped to tackle a pretty hefty load of information and sensory input. But there is a point at which the brain becomes overwhelmed, an effect what scientists call cognitive overload. While our brains do appreciate new and novel information,” as we’ll discuss later, “when there’s too much of it, we become overwhelmed. Our mind simply can’t divide our attention between all the different elements. This term in science or this term has become a major talking point in criticisms of multitasking, especially given the modern information saturated world we live in.” Yes. “But the discovery of this cognitive phenomenon also has major implications for education. In order to reduce mental noise, teachers have had to take new approaches to presenting the material. These methods include chunking, focusing on past experiences and eliminating non-essential elements to help students remember a large body of information.”

I want to focus on that last part, because maybe you didn’t think much of it, but I see it all the time. What are they trying to eliminate? What is the research? What is the science? What has all this led to, in terms of new teaching, especially in this world of so much information? Focus on the last thing here, “And eliminating non-essential elements to help students remember a large body of information.” This is what really had the light bulb go on for me is all the stuff out there that matters, but it doesn’t matter. It’s nice to know, but you really don’t need to know it. The markets, trying to learn how to trade. Let me put it this way, try to learn how to trade consistently and profitable. There is so much stuff out there that, it just doesn’t really matter. Now, it’s information, it’s a fact, it needs to be there, but does it need to be learned? Is it an essential element?

No, it’s not essential. It’s one of those non-essential, kind of just as in, hey, FYI type thing, and Hey, FYIs, that’s great. If I want to learn how to become a really good baseball player and bring up my batting average, yeah, there are certain things that you need to know, but knowing who’s got the best batting average right now, or knowing who owns a home run record, that’s just non-essential stuff. Those things don’t actually help you become a better batter, a better baseball player. There’s so many of those things within the world of trading. Then these compounds the fact, which like they said earlier, and to steal their slogan here, especially given the modern information saturated world we live in. Yes. Oh, Clay, why would I ever do anything? It’s all for free at my fingertips on Google and YouTube and the library.

Wow, that is a lot of information, and a lot of that information is going to be just non-essential stuff. I’m not saying that any of those sources at all have malicious intent and teaching you stuff that is just non-essential, but that doesn’t really matter, their intent. The point is, while you’re learning and just that much information that you don’t need to, and it’s just convoluting everything that much more. Now, I do want to spend a moment here because this is one of the points, where I said at the beginning, if I can offer up some inspiration, some motivation, some reassurance that you know what, it’s probably not you. If you are struggling, if you’re getting frustrated, if you just feel like you’re spinning in circles, you know what? My sneaky suspicion is, you are suffering from, again, what, and the effect in science, is called cognitive overload. You just have way, way, way too much stuff going on.

You’re just piling way too much stuff. It’s not that you’re too stupid. It’s just, you’re a human being. Your brain is like most other people’s brains. Now, yes, you have the freaks of nature out there where they’re just flat out geniuses, but I’m not a genius. Most people are not able to just absorb and digest information at the rates of those few freaks of nature out there. Just keep that in mind. Don’t give up too soon. Now, if you’re saying, “Well, Clay …” that’s where things get tricky again. There’s also the other end of the spectrum where it’s, “Well, Clay, I watched like two YouTube videos and I’m struggling. I can’t really …” Well, there you’ve probably haven’t really done enough. You got to find that middle ground, and in many situations, that can be difficult to find, especially think back to a couple of episodes ago. The last one I did on science about the Dunning-Kruger effect, when you don’t know what you don’t know, well, yeah, it’s definitely hard to find that middle ground.

That’s the overarching umbrella here is, not only does the human brain get cognitive overload, think about it within the context of the Dunning-Kruger effect, and the Dunning Kruger effect, as the umbrella over all of this information, already that’s too overwhelming. Do you see why trading can be very difficult? Why, you know what? I’m just going to do it on my own, everything’s for free out there. That’s fine. It is all for free out there. This is not my opinion. This is science. This is well-documented research. Let’s be real. I think if we’re all honest with ourselves, we don’t necessarily need some expensive scientific study to let us know that, hey, you know what? If there’s too much information and if you’re going through things with not enough structure, well, yeah, things can get very overwhelming in a hurry.

But like I said, it’s always nice to have a little additional scientific evidence here, but there we go, more doesn’t mean more learning. Number two, the brain is a highly dynamic organ. Until the past few decades, people believe that the connections between the neurons in your brain were fixed by the time you were a teenager, and perhaps even earlier. One of the biggest breakthroughs in understanding the science of learning happened when scientists began to realize that this just wasn’t the case. In fact, the brain’s wiring can change at any, age and it can grow new neurons and adapt to new situations. Though the rate at which this happens does slow down with age. This phenomenon is called neuroplasticity, and it has had major ramifications in our understanding of how the brain works and how we can understand, or use that understanding to improve learning outcomes, which is, again, one of these hopefully motivating, hopefully inspiring points, where it’s never too late to start.

Now, sure, are you going to be learning at the rate of my four kids under the age of eight? No. They just pick up and they’re learning the English language and they’re learning all this stuff at a very rapid rate. So, no, your brain is not going to be that good, but the science says your brain can still do it. You can still grow new neurons. You can still patch things together, and therefore, learn about new topics, learn about new skills. Once more, not going to happen overnight. You’re not going to be like a kid that has it happen very, very quickly, but it’s totally possible. This is also one of these things where, just be realistic. Learning to trade doesn’t happen overnight. Learning to trade doesn’t happen in 90 days, I get it, from a sales perspective, it sure is easier to make a sell when you’re telling somebody, hey, listen, buy my program, use my system, use my strategy and hear my gains, you’ll be doing this.

It’ll take you three months, 60 days, 30 days, I don’t know, two weeks, and you’re going to have it figured out. No, that’s not how it works. Okay? That’s just not how it works. Scientifically, that’s not how it works. Again, I get it this is just anecdotal evidence, but I see it all the time. Well, I know what the reason, because they believe in all this marketing and stuff from other people, but they show up thinking, they’re like, “I should be a profitable trader by now. I should know what I’m doing. I should be able to scale up my position size. It’s like, calm down. No, I don’t say this. Maybe I’ll start saying it to the people this way. Hey, let your brain build those neurons. It’s going to take a little while. It’s totally possible though. Science says it’s possible, but it’s just going to take a little bit. It’s not going to happen overnight. Be motivated. You can learn a new skill. It’s not going to happen overnight, but it’s legitimately possible.

You can build those new neurons so just keep that in mind. Number three, emotion influences the ability to learn. The ability to learn, retain, and use information isn’t just based on our raw IQ. Over the past few decades, it has become increasingly clear that how we feel our overall emotional state can have a major impact on how well we learn new things. Educational situations where students feel stressed, shamed, or just uncomfortable can actually make it more difficult for them to learn, increasing negative emotions and sparking a vicious cycle that may leave some children reluctant to attend class. Now, this will mean a whole lot to those of you that have traded before, but if you have not traded before, now, sure, this is not an educational situation, but trading is situations where stress, uncomfortable.

You will be uncomfortable, you will be stressed, you will feel so many emotions when you trade. I get it. So many people say it. Hey, I learn better by doing. I’m going to learn better by just putting my money in the market, I’m going to learn better by just trading, but what is the research saying? The research is literally saying educational situations. You’re trading situations that, in your case, according to your premise, are supposed to be educational situations. Hey, I learn better than doing so let’s just do it, where students feel stressed, shamed, uncomfortable can actually make it what? Easier for them to learn? No, more difficult for them to learn. Just the science, it makes so much more sense. The more I dig into this stuff, about how failure rates can be at 90%. Some people say 95%. When again, all this stuff is for free out there. It’s all for free, but I’ve lost track. Maybe you’re doing it. Maybe you used to do it. [inaudible 00:19:33] say, I learned better that by doing.

It just is literally saying that it makes it more difficult to actually learn that way because of the emotions, because of a stress you’re putting yourself under. Under that same point, research, as revealing why as the emotional part of the brain, the limbic system has the ability to open up or shut off access to learning and memory. When under stress or anxiety, the brain blocks. Blocks access to higher processing and stops forming new connections, making it difficult or impossible to learn. It may seem like commonsense that classrooms should be welcoming non-stressful environments, but different students have different triggers for negative emotional states, making it key for educators to watch for signs that indicate this problem is afflicting their students. Did you hear what the brain literally does?

Your human brain, when you experienced situations that are unpleasant, and I assure you, trading can be very, very unpleasant, trading can be very stressful. Well, Clay, I’m in my simulator. I’m paper trading. I do just fine. I’m sorry. I’m not saying that paper trading, I’m not saying that simulator trading doesn’t have a place in the market, but there is a whole another ball game when you have real money on the line, when you are seeing data flashing all over the place, it is not a comfortable spot to be in. It’s a very uncomfortable spot to be in. What does the emotional part of our brain, again, the limbic system? Literally, it shuts off access to learning and memory. When under stress or anxiety, the brain blocks, it blocks access to higher processing and stops forming new connections. We want our brain, we want those neurons, think back to number two, we want our neurons to build those connections, we want our neurons to build all sorts of pathways. That is what we want.

But when we put ourselves in situations that trading by default definitely puts yourself in, your brain shuts off. It stops building new connections. What is a result of the new connections not being made? Well, it makes it difficult or basically impossible to learn. Let’s not even go to impossible. Let’s just say it’s difficult to learn. Okay, well, Clay, if it’s difficult to learn, you are still learning, it’s just more difficult. Okay, fine. Fair point. You’re right. If we agree that it’s not impossible, but it’s difficult, then yeah, you are still learning. Here’s a problem with that though. Unless you have money trees growing out in your backyard, unless you have somebody that’s just willing to throw cash after cash, after cash, having something that’s difficult to learn, odds are you’re just going to run out of money before you actually ever learn it.

I’m sorry, but that’s don’t … “Well, Clay, it’s just more difficult.” Okay, well, have fun trying to learn in a difficult environment where money actually matters. Whereas, I want to become a good free throw shooter. The only cost there is time. You got to just find the time and you go and do it, but it’s not like you missing a free throw actually hurts your bank account. It doesn’t prevent you from trying again. You just go grab the ball and you shoot again. Oh, I missed again. Hey, that’s no problem, but in trading when you’re missing those free throws, when you’re experimenting and when you’re doing all this and you compound that with the fact that you’re making it more difficult, literally there is so much from a mental psychology standpoint that is building up against you, especially just keeping in the background here.

If you didn’t, go back and listen to the Dunning-Kruger effect episode I did. It’s called The Science of Fool’s Gold. Please, listen to that, and just as you listen to that one, I mean, stick with me here, but then, when you go and listen to that one, just keep in mind. Everything I’ve talked about here in combination with the Dunning-Kruger effect, savage, it’s a savage place out there. Number four, mistakes are an essential part of learning. Failure is a dirty word in the most aspects of modern American society. But when it comes to the science of learning, research shows that failure is essential. A recent study found that students perform better in school and felt more confident when they were told that a failure was normal part of learning, bolstering a growing body of research that suggest the same conclusion.

Now, here’s the thing, because I know what a lot of people are going to say. I know what a lot of people are going to do. Well, Clay, but there we go, mistakes, you have to make mistakes out there. That’s part of it. In fact, it just says, the research shows that failure is essential. Losing trades, losing money, that’s essential. That’s true, but don’t forget the most important thing here. A recent study found that students performed better in school and felt more confident when they were told that failure was a normal part of learning. In other words, they’ve experienced some hardship, some sort of failure, but then what happened? They had the context of being told, hey, that’s okay. Here’s what happens in trading. You’re out there, you’re new, you’re being overwhelmed by information. You take a loss, you do something, you make a mistake, and then you don’t really have anybody letting you know, hey, this is what you need to learn. Hey, that’s okay. That’s part of it.

Hey, that, that’s not okay. That should not be part of it. See it all the time, I took a loss, but you know what? I had to stop loss, so I managed the risk. Then you go and look at the trade and you’re like, you totally learned the wrong lesson. You should never have been in that trade in the first place. That risk made zero sense to take. They’re walking away, they’re thinking, hey, you know what? I use the stop loss. Therefore, I manage risk. Therefore, I’m doing a good job with risk management. That’s true, you’re managing risk. That’s true, you’re working on your risk management department. That’s true you didn’t blow up your account, but you don’t have anybody there saying, “Yeah, but you shouldn’t never even taken that risk in the first place.”

What a lot of people always forget is, they just think that, well, if my risk is controlled, that’s all that matters. No, is your risk even logical to take? It’s just one of those things where, “Yeah, mistakes, they are an essential part of learning. Assuming you have the backdrop of something, somebody, a community, some structure that’s going to let you to know, oh yeah, that’s a mistake, but that mistake is okay, that that’s part of it. Or no, no, no, that’s not a good mistake. Yeah, you made that mistake, but yeah, you’re … Or, yeah, you made that mistake, but you’re totally learning the wrong lesson. Once again, and I don’t mean to bring it up, but like I said, it’s amazing how much the Dunning-Kruger effect has tentacles that reach down and tell them why all this stuff makes sense.

But it’s hard to know what mistake is actually a mistake, what mistake maybe actually is not a mistake. But when you don’t know what you don’t know, Dunning-Kruger effect, it’s hard to differentiate any of these. That’s why you got to … Oh, Clay, you’re just saying that because you want me to buy your class? I’m not saying that all. All I’m saying is the science says, you need to give yourself some backdrop, some context that somebody can help walk you through those mistakes, because you can oftentimes reach the wrong conclusions about those mistakes, or in trading sometimes, what feels like a mistake is not a mistake. It’s just, hey, you know what? That’s how the market goes sometimes. Nothing’s guaranteed. You could have the perfect trade setup. You could behave in a very wise way, but because the market does not offer any guarantees, that’s just how things work out sometimes. You need some infrastructure in place to let you know that. Number five, the brain needs novelty.

Turns out boredom can really kill you, or at least, your willpower to pay attention and learn. Reputation is critical in learning, but what the brain really craves is novelty. Researchers have found that novelty causes the dopamine system in the brain to become activated sending the chemical throughout the brain. While we often disregard dopamine as the feel-good chemical, scientists have shown that it can actually play a much bigger role, encouraging feelings of motivation and prompting the brain to learn about these new and novel stimuli. This breakthrough has led to some major changes in how we think about learning and has motivated many schools to embrace learning methods that cater to our brain’s need for new and different experiences. Now, this one’s fine, but this one doesn’t really, I can’t say pertain to anything because by … It does pertain, but in maybe a little misdirection type of way, because I get it. Your brain needs novelty. You want to have a good teacher, right?

The nice thing about all the free information out there is yeah, if you stumble upon somebody’s YouTube channel, they’re like, this is the worst thing ever, I’m bored. Well, at least, that’s not like a school setting where it’s sorry, buddy. You’re stuck in that system because this is who your teacher is, and that’s your teacher’s method. Well, in the world of YouTube, which is nice about free information is you can just, nope. Go find somebody else’s channel. Ah, there’s some novelty. I feel like I’m learning. Ah, I’m feeling good. Which is good. Because as it says, dopamine, it can give you feelings of motivation and prompting you to learn better, to be more efficient in learning, but the flip side of this, and like I said, the indirect way is that you also got to be very careful.

Are you sure that the novelty you’re getting is based off of … Let me put it this way, think back to number one, is this novelty coming based in essential information, or is this a lot of non-essential information that’s just kind of, it’s there, but because it sounds great, it looks great, it gets the dopamine going, maybe it gets you motivated, but the core, it’s not really doing anything for you? So, yeah, you do need novelty. You’re not going to learn if you find somebody is just boring out of their mind, but you also don’t want to swing too far to the other end, make sure that the person you’re following or whatever infrastructure you’re trying to put yourself into is not just because of you got a bunch of feel good stuff that is at the core, non-essential and doesn’t really make any difference at the end of the day.

That one, pretty straight forward. I think commonsense, but maybe not as much because sometimes, like I said, people can make things all novel, but there’s not much bark behind the bite. Number seven, there are no learning styles. Now, this is one I was not aware of until I read the article and looked at the research. I thought, oh, that’s actually pretty interesting. What kind of learner are you? Chances are good that, at some point during your educational career, someone labeled you as a particular type of learner, either visual, auditory or kinesthetic. This idea that there are distinct types of learners who learn best with certain assortments of stimuli has been showing up in the education and brain science for decades. But recent studies have shown that this idea really doesn’t hold much water.

Students may have preferences for how they learn, but when put to the test, students were found to have equivalent levels of learning, regardless of how information is presented. Attention to the individual talents, preferences and abilities of students, which helps to cater to the emotional and social needs of students and improve their ability to learn is much more important than styles of which have been … there’s been a 71 different models over the past few decades. Think about that. You need to be very careful. Again, this is one of these things where, just be aware of it, and maybe it’s one of this situations where you can have some motivation. You can have some hope. Maybe it’s not you. “I’m just not cut out to be a trader. I’m not smart enough.”

No, maybe you just were told at some point or you believe that you’re some sort of, or I’m a fill in the blank type of learner, so I’m just going to always learn in that way. Well, no, and you’re not wrong, because like I said, I always thought there was styles of learning, but that would make sense if you were told somewhere along the way, or you just believe you were in … well, my learning style was this. If that’s all you do is this, well, according to the science, that could be hindering you. Just something to keep in mind is maybe that’s something that’s holding you back. Maybe that’s something that’s causing some confusion, some struggles, is you keep trying to learn in a way that, again, I’m not going to even say it’s your fault. Because somewhere along the line you were told that, but in all actuality, it’s just not the case. Just something to keep in mind. There are no learning styles.

Number seven, brains operate on the use it or lose it principle. There’s a reason that you forget how to speak a language or work out a trigonometry problem if you don’t use those skills on a regular basis. Information in the brain that hasn’t been used as often lost as neural pathways weaken over time. Research has found that brains generates more cells than it needs, with those that receive chemical and electrical stimuli surviving and the rest dying off. Now, I’m not going to spend much more time on this one just because this is the benefit about trading. If you want to be a trader, well then, you’re trading … I suppose this could play, if you’re like, “Well, I’m going to make like two trades a year,” but I don’t know anybody that wants to make two trades a year.

If that’s the case, then yeah, I can see you forgetting what you should be looking for, how things work. If you’re doing one trade every several weeks or several months, but I think the majority of people that are listening to this, you’re thinking you want to be a day trader, you want to be a swing trader. Even if you just want to be an investor, but you’re somebody that wants to be more hands-on with the market, you want to be more active. While I’m not saying you’re going to be watching the market eight hours a day, you’re going to be paying attention to the market on a very routine basis where I can’t foresee your brain really losing it. It’s a cool little bit of science here, but as far as traders, yeah, probably doesn’t really pertain to us.

Number eight, learning is social. While some select individuals may learn while clustered in a library with stacks of books, the majority of people need a social environment to maximize their learning. Research has found that from infancy on people learn better through social cues, such as recalling and emulating the actions or words of another person. Aside from social cues, socializing has been shown to have other learning benefits. Peer collaboration offers students access to a diverse array of experiences and requires a use of nearly all the body senses, which in turn creates greater activation throughout the brain and enhances long-term memory. That sounds good. Enhancing long-term memory, activating everything in the brain. That sounds good. Group work, especially when it capitalizes on the strengths of its members may be more beneficial than many realize. This is why, I mean, I offer a community.

Now, when I was structuring my educational program, was I citing the science and the stats? No, but I think this is something where a lot of us have just benefited from this, a lot of us are aware of this just through life in general. You’ve heard me say it many times before, iron sharpens iron. Who you’re surrounding yourself with, if you’re surrounding yourself with a bunch of people that are go getters, that want to go out there and be smart, that want to get out there and hustle and grind, odds are you’re going to want to go out there and do the exact same thing. Right? When people are all learning about the same things, learning about how to do it the proper way, learning about how to behave as traders, that’s the value of community brings, that’s why I offer community. But again, full disclosure, I’m not trying to come across like, and I have the only community on the internet, so you have to join my community, because learning is social. It’s scientifically proven. That’s not what I’m saying.

I would love to have you part of the community. Heck, that’s the whole idea. That’s whole history of this podcast in and of itself way back when just to help motivate, help to inspire, help us all learn by hearing about other members’ stories. That is, quite frankly, quite literally, the whole idea about where this all started back several years ago. There is a whole lot of power in a community. There’s a whole lot of power, whether that’s a chat room or whatever, but surrounding yourself with other people, iron sharpens iron, so definitely … Like I said, I’d love for you to be mine, but consider joining some sort of community that’s out there.

Number nine, learning is best when innate abilities are capitalized on. All of us, from the time we were born, possess innate abilities to see and hear patterns. Something that psychologists doubted was true for decades, but that we now know to be the case. Research suggests that reinforcing those innate capabilities by teaching patterns early on may actually help kids learn more and sharpen their brains. Aside from being able to see and hear patterns, the human mind has a number of innate abilities. The ability to learn a language for instance, that when capitalized on in the right way, we can make learning any concept, even one that is abstract much easier. Combining these innate abilities with structured practice, what kind of practice? Structured practice, repetition and trading can help make new ideas and concepts stick and make more sense.

Structured practice, structured practice. It goes back to number one. So much information everywhere, all over the place, which is the exact opposite of a structured environment. Structured practice. That’s like the epitome of why you would get overwhelmed. Think about that. I think they should have maybe made this one number two because it perfectly flows. Well, yeah, you want to have structured practice, repetition. I love how they start off with structured, because think about it. Let’s take away the word structured practice, repetition training. Okay, yeah, you can be practicing all sorts of random stuff because you have all sorts of random information. Yeah, you can be doing repetitive stuff with all that random information with all that cognitive overload. Yeah, you can be training. You can be training with all that information, everything flying all over the place. But I mean, if it’s just random, if it’s just all over the place, if there’s no true structure behind it, then …

Do you see that there’s a big disconnect here, right? But when you throw in that word structured, that makes a huge, huge difference. There’s a reason why they’re throwing that word, because when you have structure, then you know what directions to go. When you know what directions to go, it’s not going to be as stressful. Remember, think back, are stressful educational situations good for learning? No, they literally shut off. The brain shuts off its ability to connect and make connections. But when you have structure, when you know, okay, yeah, I got to learn about this first, and then you got to learn about that, there is so much benefit to having structure. That’s why I believe you should invest in the training.

Yes, I offer training. My biggest, I guess, rebuttal to, oh Clay, you’re just saying that because you offer a training and you want me to buy your training course. Before I did my first real estate deal, I invested just shy of $5,000 into my training because I realized that after the whole training trading thing, that if I was ever going to learn something new, I wanted structure. I didn’t want to be in situations where I just felt totally overwhelmed and did too many stupid things. It was a disaster and I wanted to avoid it. I truly, truly do believe in structured learning, structured education and the receipts of my, like I said, just shy of $5,000 in real estate investment. I put my money where my mouth is when I say I really do believe in that. Not to Pat myself on the back, but hey, it makes sense scientifically speaking, why I’ve done quite well with my real estate investing also, because hey, you know what? I actually learned with some structure.

Then number 10, learning can change brain structure. Brain structure and function are intertwined and you can’t improve one without taking the other into consideration. Yet, in years past, most ideas about learning ignored ways that the brain structure itself could be modified, instead focusing on brain function or the brain’s output. The reality is that brain function can only be changed through changing brain structure, which is actually less complicated than it sounds. For example, brain cells fired up during both perception and action overlap in people and lessons that engage both allow students to more easily identify with their teachers and learn concepts more quickly as their brain cells are getting twice the attention and workout. In fact, any new information, if used enough, can modify the structure of the brain, something educators in neuroscientists are just starting to fully explore.

Just keep that in mind, is you want to be changing. You want your brain structure to be changed. I see why this is number 10, at the core of the way I read this is number 10, you just got to take into consideration one through nine. How do you change brain structure? And yes, brain structure is required to change, or in order to do something, it needs to change. How do you change it? Well, like I said, number one through nine, I think is pretty much what they were getting at here. Maybe not, but like I said, when you go about things the right way, when you go about things the efficient way, then you’re going to be able to actually change that brain structure, which is going to get you to where your ultimate goals actually are. So, hopefully this was helpful. I got a lot from it, especially, well, again, going back to …

Let me know. Are you alone? Were you always taught there’s different types of learning styles out there? Oh, well, you’re more visual, oh, you’re more this, oh, you’re more hands-on. But no, it doesn’t really pertain, and like I said, if you want to dig more into the scientific studies for each of those areas, then just go to the show notes page and I’ll link this article. Then the article itself, like I said, links to the difference stats areas of the research. But overall, whole of this helps because yeah, learning is important. We want to learn as fast as possible, right? That’s human, I’d argue that’s efficient.

Let’s get things done as fast as possible, but in order to do things as fast possible and as smart as possible, you got to understand the learning process in and of itself, which is why I found this very fascinating and very, for me, at least helpful because I’m always looking to learn other things too. I’m learning those other things, and now I have some more ideas about little tweaks and stuff that can be put into motion that will help me, hopefully, learn that much better. Like I said, keep this in mind. If anything, maybe it offers you some motivation, offers you up some clarity of, ah, you know what? Maybe it’s not me. Maybe it is me in the sense of I’ve been just doing it wrong, but it’s not me in the sense of I’m just too stupid, I’m just not working hard enough, I’m just not doing it.

So, you might be working smart, or excuse me, you might be working hard, you’re just not working smart. Maybe that’s something you can consider and help open up some pathways. Like I said, I’d love to have you a part of the community, I’d love to have you join my program. You can learn about all that stuff at claytrader.com, but even if you feel comfortable with somebody else and you want to go with them, that’s totally cool too. But please, just find yourself some structure, get out of the random sea of information. Like I said, that also assumes that all the information out there is good, but it’s not. That’s just, again, another layer of complication that you need to be considering as progress on and continue on with this trading journey.

Now, before we go though, a final few things. First off, if you enjoy these types of episodes, please let me know. Ideally, in the ratings, just give us a nice rating. If you’re on iTunes, then better yet, a written review goes a long way and I would really appreciate it. If you’re listening on the show notes page, then feel free to reach out. There’s a chat box in the bottom right hand corner and you can always click on that. Nothing better than hearing somebody say, “Hey, Clay, I listened to the podcast,” and ideally at some sort of feedback or suggestion or constructive criticism. Not something, “Hey, Clay, I listened to the podcast. You’re stupid.” I’ll say okay, that’s … No, that helps. That makes life a lot easier. No, I’m just kidding. But yeah, we’d love to hear from you. So, reach out, and that exists as another way to establish contact, but all in all, get out there, learn, but learn efficiently, learn properly.

This as been The Stock Trading Reality Podcast. Thanks for taking the time to hang out. To learn more about Clay and the ClayTrader community, including the trading team premium training and more, visit claytrader.com.