In the majority of situations, the biggest struggles as a trader comes from the person looking back at you in the mirror. Of course, many people will blame external forces no matter how crazy it may appear; however, for the traders who are self-aware and honest with themselves they understand trading is a battle against ones self. Our guest from the community Eric (chat room name “Gman”) does an awesome job of sharing the battle he has faced with himself. As you will hear, a strategy of listening to others is not going to lead you to profitable places in the long run, but, this is the cruel joke of the markets. If you can’t depend on others, you need to depend on yourself…YET, that is where the big battle awaits. This is why trading can be so frustrating and difficult. Eric takes us down some great rabbit holes of discussion, so let’s go!
Notes:
Today we interview Eric also known as Gman. While he doesn’t hang out in the chat rooms too often, Eric really took advantage of the education offered.
A friend of his tried to get him involved into the market 10 years ago but he wasn’t very capitalized so he gave it up for a few years before his interest was piqued again. He drank some koolaid on a 5G LTE technology company that was trading in the triple zero’s. Unfortunately he lost everything as the stock went to 0.
Eric started to recognize that message boards became a place for people who made the same mistakes to comfort each other. This was what led him to realize that there is no external factors to blame for his failure or success.
He realizes that he is more often than not trading against himself. It is his emotions and fear/greed that leads to losses generally. After 4 years of sticking with trades, he realizes this is a part of the journey that he had to go through. He emphasizes that he doesn’t want anyone to find overnight success. People who experience that generally give it all back and then some instead of learn valuable lessons.
Eric has made huge strides going from relying on other people at the message boards to give input on where to enter, how long to hold and where to exit to now being the CEO of his trading business deciding all of the above based on his risk criteria.
Quotes:
I opened an eTrade account with 1000 dollars. I enjoyed the market but didn’t have the money or education to do it.
Some guy would come on and say ‘look at this patent. In 180 days it will go through so we have to wait.’
That’s why people like message boards. You can find like minded people who are making the same mistakes you are.
I feel great but I have so much further to go. It’s a never ending process of looking at yourself and improving.
When I trade, I know my charts. I can pull those charts up and analyze it to comfortably plan a trade.
