For you longer time listeners, you know nothing gets Chezz or myself fired up more than someone who “takes action” and offers no excuses… particularly when it comes to finding money to use to trade. Our guest from the chat room, Brandon (alias in room “bfaust25”), shares a journey filled with many ups and downs. The common theme however is due to Brandon’s awesome attitude which has allowed him (and continues to allow him) to get up whenever he may get knocked down. Brandon is a shining example of just how powerful the combination of attitude + work ethic can be. My guess is after listening, you’ll be ready to pick up a few part time jobs!
Notes:
Brandon’s introduction the market was his father-in-law who suggested he put in $200 a month from his paycheck into a brokerage account so he would have a decent size account in the future to use. He decided to focus on sector ETFs.
From what he had read, he knew that market crashes were a great time to get invested in the market at a discount price. He was able to capitalize on that during 2008 and 2009.
Brandon did a lot of research on selling options and decided to save up for another account to try that. The problem is, he still had no tool to forecast which direction the stocks/market would go. He grasped the concept of being directionally neutral but he knew there must be a way to figure out general direction.
He looked into technical analysis and that’s when he found Clay and invested in his education. After he took a few courses, he rolled into Claytrader University where he discovered that there is quite a story in all charts and with that, there is many moving parts that need to be understood.
After going through the courses, Brandon completely changed his tune from selling option premium to buying option premium and using charts. He unfortunately let his emotions and greed get involved after this which led to a downtrend in his account value.
He struggled for a bit to grasp how to trade long options based on the underlying movement. These things all take time and take practice. This led to some frustration and disappointment so he took a step back. During this time, he learned how to properly prepare his family’s budget.
Brandon has now picked up a few part time jobs to continuously fund his account and while he does that he is paper trading short options combining what he learned initially with what he has now learned technically.
Quotes:
“I read some Warren Buffett books. I was more in an investment mindset instead of trading.”
“Now there is only 1 problem. I don’t know what way the stock price is going to go. Those guys are cool and all but there is a disconnect.”
“I completely avoided risk management and didn’t use it. I pretty much blew that entire account over time.”
“I took a huge step back. I took the Cash Flow Creation Guide and I needed to hear that. I needed the discipline.”
