Transcript

Clay:
Hey, it’s Clay. Real quick before we get to the episode, if you are interested in supporting the channel, supporting the website, supporting the podcast itself, then we are offering some gear, some T-shirts right now, and there will hopefully be more merchandise to come. But if you’re interested in seeing what we have to offer, claytrader.com/gear, G-E-A-R, and you can check out what we have to offer there. We’re not trying to make a killing on it, so it’s all more than fairly priced. It’s good quality material, so don’t worry. It’s not like, “Okay, am I going to get some T-shirt made out of some bootleg cheapest as possible material?” Absolutely not. It is truly good, solid, soft quality material. It’s not going to shrink as soon as you wash it. So definitely consider it.
Clay:
And then just as a quick plug, and I don’t know, maybe this is cheesy, if it’s cheesy, well then so be it. But it’s also going to be and is right now a lesson for my kids at homeschool. It’s my personal project with them, help them out with some math, some customer service, some english to write things out, and just some good old-fashioned hard work. So if you want to just support some kids that are trying to learn the skill of business, learn the skill of customer service, then it goes to a good cause in regards to all of that. So like I said, claytrader.com/gear, check it out. This is The Stock Trading Reality Podcast, Episode 341.
Announcer:
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 everyday normal people who are currently on their journey to trading success. And this is your host, Tim Hortons is his go-to at home coffee, Clay Trader.
Clay:
And I totally understand the coffee market is a vicious, vicious place. Maybe the most vicious industry, at least in America. I mean probably over in England, the tea market might be really vicious. But at least here in the United States, there are coffees and new coffees every which way. And for me, and I suppose this could change, so full disclosure if you’re listening to this episode months or years from now, maybe I’ve changed my mind. But as of right now, and it has been the case for quite a while, I mean Tim Hortons, I love it. So for you Canadians out there, shout out, I know Tim Hortons is a Canadian company, but I just really like their coffee. So if you’re maybe looking for something new, if you’re looking to… Let me put it this way, if you’re not into coffee, just keep it that way. You don’t want to get into coffee. Just stay away from it.
Clay:
But if you are already in the coffee, I don’t know, death trap, that might be too intense of a word, but if you’re already in the coffee space, there we go, I’d say consider Tim Hortons, I’m a big fan of it. Well hopefully, you saw from the title of this episode, it is another solo one. And in my mind right now, I don’t think this will be that long. You’ll have a better idea because you can look at the time stamp and figure out exactly how long this episode is. But I didn’t want to sit here and rant and rave about anything too crazy. But I did want to just walk you through, and I think this has come up multiple times in one form or the other through the podcast itself, but really just ideally motivate you, inspire you to just share something that really will give you a massive advantage.
Clay:
And the good news is it’s not difficult. Now, it’s difficult to do, which is the whole premise of it, but it’s not like it’s something that costs a bunch of money. It’s not something that requires a bunch of skill. I mean it just requires willpower. It requires the desire to do what needs to be done. And what made me think of this as an idea for the solo episode, I had to do something at one of my properties and I was like, “Okay, well I’ve got to get the newsletter done for the community.” So there’s just other stuff going on. So moral of the story, I had to wake up really early and as I’m sitting there and I drive into this stop sign, and I promise there’s a reason why this is all going to make sense. But usually, this stop sign is in an area where it’s like, “Okay, here we go.”
Clay:
You almost have to bake in a couple minutes any trip you’re making, because this has cars all over the place and you’ve got to wait because it’s a left hand turn, so you got cars going. It can be a mess. However, I pull up to the stop sign, look both ways, not a single car in sight. And it just dawned on me, that’s one of the benefits of just being up super early. People are sleeping in. People are sleeping. People like to sleep. Why are people up this early? It doesn’t make any sense really. And the proof is where is everybody? I could have ran that stop sign. I didn’t even need to technically stop. Now, I did stop, but I didn’t even need to. And I was just right on my way. And it just got me thinking of the whole okay, that would be a good little, hopefully quick episode in terms of what does it take to get ahead?
Clay:
Now, I’m going to tie this to trading, yes. But I mean really, anything in life this could be applied to. But how pain, it’s actually pleasure in the sense of when you feel, when you sense, when there’s something before you where you’re like, “Oh, I don’t want to do that. That’s not fun.” It is painful to wake up super early. And the proof is in putting people don’t like pain. I sat there at that stop sign, of course, I wasn’t the only person up awake in the state of Michigan at that time. But from what would normally be how that looked, I was the only person there because I had and was going through a relatively painful thing of having to just get up really, really early. So what I’m getting at is this, and this also goes to… Because this is a common topic of well you’ve got to have passion for trading. You’ve got to like what you do.
Clay:
And let me be very upfront. A lot of people like trading. A lot of people like the markets. A lot of people like all sorts of stuff. Now, some people are strictly doing it for the money. They don’t really have any passion for it. And they are I mean 100% in it, just for the money. And yes, without passion at all, those people have no chance. They’re going to get burned out way too quick. And it’s not going to work out. However, there are a lot of people that do have a passion for it. And passion, it’s definitely required, but it’s also one of those things where yeah, but is there anything else that you can do to just give yourself that much more ability? Because remember, at the end of the day, you are competing against other people, right? That’s how the markets work. It’s just a big old group of people.
Clay:
And you are actually competing against all these other people. So at the end of the day, it’s a competition and your mindset needs to be okay, well what can I do to give myself an advantage? And once again, having passion is an advantage. And an advantage over who? Well those people that don’t have a passion, right? You’re going to beat those people out. You’re going to outlast them. Why? Well because you have an advantage over them. But I mean if you’re listening to this, I would like to think you are somebody that seeks to be above average. Somebody that’s like, “You know what? I want to win. I’m a hustler, I’m a grinder, let’s get it done. Let’s do what it takes to get things done.” So that’s my assumption is that you’re not just somebody that’s a lazy bum, that wants to just get rich overnight, nothing like that.
Clay:
So the question for people like us becomes, “All right, well is there anything we can do to gain an advantage over those that also have passion?” Right? And again, a lot of people have passion because this stuff is fun. Trading is fun. The [inaudible 00:08:08] are fun, which is a pitfall, right, because sometimes when things are fun, you treat them in fun ways and it can get you in trouble. But there is a lot of people that have a passion for it. So how do we beat those people? Well you’ve got to find those things where you find yourself even as somebody that’s passionate saying, “Oh, really? Really? Do I really want to do that?” And I would say the classic would be just waking up early. So if I sit here and tell you, and I’m just totally making this up, I don’t know, let say you work 9:00 to 5:00, no shame there. You’ve got to have a stream of income. So you work 9:00 to 5:00.
Clay:
And I don’t know, let’s say between getting ready and driving to work, it takes you an hour and a half. So that means you have to leave at eight o’clock, right? I’m sorry, if it’s 9:00 to 5:00, you’d have to leave at 8:30, right? 8:30, 9:00. See, I’m going backwards here with the math. You would have to leave at 7:30 to get there by 9:00, okay? So you have to leave at 7:30. But what happens if I say, “You know what? We’ve got to get some studying in, right? You’ve got to get some iron sharpening iron in there.” And you maybe say, “Well no, no, Clay. I do that when I get home.” And that’s fine and okay. But that’s because you’re passionate. That’s why you’re doing it when you get home, because you’re passionate. But what happens if I said, “Well why don’t you get up at 5:00? And that way, you can give yourself two hours of study time before you even have to think about starting to get ready to be at your job by 9:00.”
Clay:
Five o’clock? I didn’t even know 5:00 AM existed. Well it does exist. And that probably sounds pretty miserable, to study, to do work for two hours before you have to go to your normal job, and then when you get back and you do more studying. Okay, wow. That does not sound very pleasant at all. That sounds actually painful. Exactly. And here’s a spoiler alert about you as a human being, you’re not special. You’re not unique. But that’s good. Why? Because everybody is sitting there thinking, “That sounds miserable. That sounds painful to wake up at five o’clock and do that whole little circumstance that you just outlined.” Exactly. But if you can overcome that pain, if you realize, “Wow, I’m officially doing something that all other normal human beings are going to find painful,” then you are now giving yourself another advantage.
Clay:
And that’s what I want you to seek to do is I understand, even as passionate, you’re going to come across circumstances and it’s not just a wake up early thing, but you’re going to come across circumstances where you’re like, “I don’t feel like doing that. It’s Saturday afternoon. It’s beautiful outside. Oh, really? Stay in and break down my trades. Maybe do some scans, maybe reanalyze some of the trades I took, maybe go through my trade journal. It’s Saturday afternoon. It’s the weekend. It’s beautiful out there.” There’s a pain point. Most people are going to say, “I’ll do that later,” and they’re going to just skip over it, come up with an excuse. They’re going to put in just a half hearted effort. But at that pain point, at that moment in time, you officially have an opportunity to use that pain and ultimately turn it into the pleasure of success, right?
Clay:
The pleasure of becoming a better trader in a cutthroat way. The pleasure of eventually beating that person that shows, “Yeah, I’m going to go to the beach instead. Yeah, I’m going to hang out with friends.” Here’s another one. “It’s Friday night. My friends, they’re heading out to the bar,” to whatever you think is fun on a Friday night. If it sounds crazy, how about you tell them, “No, because I’m going to stick here and look at charts. No, I’m going to sit here and review my trade journal of the previous week.” “What did you just say? It’s Friday night, Clay.” Again, most people are going to be saying that. “No, no, no. I want to have some fun.” Okay. All right. I understand. But there’s a pain point. There’s an opportunity again to gain an advantage over other people. With all that being said, am I saying that you just become a deadbeat father or mother, that you just become a deadbeat single person?
Clay:
Maybe. Maybe a deadbeat single person, because as a single person, you know what? That is your time in life to truly beast mode. That is your time in life to become a social deadbeat, if you will. “Yeah. Well Billy, he doesn’t come out anymore on Friday nights. I don’t know. He looks at this stuff that looks like the matrix, I don’t know what he’s doing. But he proclaims that there’s some big picture benefit and upside to all this. So yeah, he’s just a social deadbeat.” So as a single person, I don’t know, maybe. Maybe I could see him making the argument. But I understand as a parent myself, I’m not recommending that you just say, “Sorry, kids. You’re not going to see daddy. You’re not going to see mommy anymore.” No, no, don’t do that. There’s still going to be other opportunities. For you, probably going to be more of the morning, right?
Clay:
If you have kids and your time to spend with those kids is at the evening, again, here’s a spoiler. A lot of people have parents and they’re going to be using that time in the evening to spend with their kids. And then maybe after their kids go to bed, then they might do some studying. And I’m hesitating. Do I want to say it? I will say it though. That’s not totally impressive because you’re already awake. You’re already doing stuff. So I mean a lot of people are already doing that. So again, I’m glad that you’re spending time with your kids and all that. But to do it afterwards is not that impressive. But again, what makes this situation impressive is if that person is also waking up at 5:00 AM, at 4:00 AM to get another hour, another couple hours in studying. So they’re book ending it, right? They’re still able to maybe help their kids get off to school in the morning.
Clay:
But the reason why they’re doing that is well they’re waking up earlier to get that study time in before their kids wake up so that they can help get them out the door. And then they’re also going to bookend it with getting their kids to bed and then do some more studying. “Jeez, Clay. That’s a lot of studying. That’s waking up really early.” I know it is. It is. But most people are not going to do that because it’s painful. And any of those circumstances, I want you just to leverage and to think about leveraging to your ability, in your favor. And I mean I don’t want to sit here and be like, “And I used to do it because…” But I mean this is where a lot of my success came from. Now, mine wasn’t in trading in general, and I don’t mean to come across like I have it all figured out because I don’t have it all figured out.
Clay:
But if there’s one thing where you say, “Was the sacrifice worth it?” Yeah, it absolutely was. And as a college kid at Ohio State, known as a party school or at least when I was there, I didn’t party, right? Every night, every free time when I wasn’t studying, I was working on my book business. I sold books and there was a lot of times where they just knew that, “Well Clay’s not going to be here because who knows what he’s doing?” But I was there working on the book business. Now, you could maybe argue, “I don’t care, Clay. You sacrificed, you lost out on some good, memorable experiences.” Fair point. But where I sit right now, which is a result of what I did back then, case in point, making some very respectable money for a college kid and then being able to take that money. And that was what I used to seed my first trading accounts.
Clay:
And then one thing led to another and here I am now. Maybe I did sacrifice some great memories, but like I said, I now am making great memories. And I have plenty of great memories because I decided to make those sacrifices at the beginning, because that was painful. I mean what college kid wants to be there… I don’t know, go to some party, go do something, hang out with friends, or sit here and hang out on eBay and Amazon and half.com, which doesn’t exist anymore, back in the day and trying to figure out all this book business stuff. So my point here is that it does work. There is a payoff if you choose some of those painful times, because again, I’m nothing special. I’m a human being. I don’t like to make certain sacrifices just like most people don’t want to make certain sacrifices.
Clay:
But therein lies the opportunity to leverage and to give yourself a leg up on the competition. So yeah, pain, whenever you feel those painful moments, it’s going to be an opportunity that is staring you right in the face of, “Do I want to do it? Do I want to overcome it? Or do I just want to stay at status quo?” And I’ll leave that up to you. But my argument is, especially if you’re still listening right now, something tells me you don’t want to be at this status quo. You’re looking for any advantage that you can give yourself over the competition. And this is at least my theory on it. But when you’re doing stuff that’s painful to you, it’s painful to many other people and they’re probably choosing not to embrace the pain. So I want you to embrace that pain. So hopefully, you found this motivating and helpful and just give you something to chew on.
Clay:
Maybe you’re already doing it. If you are, fantastic. I love it. Keep it up. So hopefully, this just motivates you to continue to do what you’ve already been doing. But at the end of the day, just remember, passion is certainly required, but passion alone is really not enough because there are lots of passionate people out there, because trading is actually pretty fun when you get to understand it. But in terms of how do you beat those people out? Find the pain, embrace the pain. So as I wrap things up here, a few things here. If you’re listing on iTunes or any of the other podcast players, first off, please be sure to subscribe. That way, you know when new content is released. And if you’re watching on iTunes or ant of the other podcast players, then if you could leave us a rating, that goes a super long way.
Clay:
And as long as we know that people are still enjoying the podcast, finding it helpful, maybe not necessarily the solo episodes, but if you like when I interview other traders, then just leaving a five star rating… Better yet, a written review helps us out that much more and communicates to us that it’s worth it to continue to do these episodes. But like I said, those small little things go a very long way in communicating that it’s worth the time and effort to put these episodes together. As long as I know that it’s worth the effort, then we’ll continue to put out content here as far as the podcast is concerned. So thank you for listing, and yeah, get out there, embrace the pain.
Announcer:
This has 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.