Let's talk about what
I would do differently
if I had to start over.
Now as you know I've been trading for a
long time. My first trade was actually
in 1989,
while I was still in high
school. This is what I did my my first
trade. But then.
I got serious when I got burned
out working for IBM.
And at some point,
I just couldn't do this corporate
life anymore
and decided to become a trader.
This was back in 2002.
And I remember at the beginning of my trading
career I made a I made a lot of mistakes.
Let me tell you the three things
that I would do if I had
to start over.
Number one,
I would make sure that I
have at least $10,000
that I can put in my trading account.
I remember my very very first
trading account,
my very first trading account that I blew out in
no time.
I believe I put $5,600
in there. I know that it was less than
$6,000 because I really wanted to put
$6000 in there
and trust me.
I put $5,600 in
there and this money was was gone
pretty much in no time.
First thing.
As a trader you have to have
enough money to trade.
And I believe the magic
number is $10,000
to get started with.
You don't need much more.
Because honestly if you can make money
on a $10,000 account why
do you think you'll make money on
$100,000 account.
Yeah, but 10,000 thousand to get started.
So.
Number two,
I had to start over.
I would make sure that I keep it
simple, because in the beginning of my
trading career I made it so
complicated.
You know,
I was thinking that if I plot enough
indicators on the chart,
then I have the Holy Grail right.
So.
I put so many indicators on my
chart that I couldn't see the prices
anymore.
I followed all kinds of different,
systems I want to say I hopped from one system
to another.
I followed.
Price analysis, price
action,
indicators.
I mean I was all over the place.
So If I had to start over I would
keep it simple
and focused on the three
basics which is what to
trade.
We'll talk about this in a moment about when
to enter
and then when to exit.
If I had to start over what would
I trade? Now when I started trading
many many years ago I started trading
futures.
And I think this was a big mistake because
futures have enormous leverage.
And if you don't know what you're doing
it just means that you're losing money faster.
So if I had to start over I would definitely
learn how to trade stocks
and then use options
instead of trading the stocks because this way
you have some a lot more leverage right
in order to trade options you need to know what a stock
is doing.
So whether stock is more likely to go up down
or sideways.
What would I do if I had to start
over? And Number one,
I would make sure that I have enough money my
trading account and this would be
$10,000. Number two,
I would keep it simple
and always focus on the three basics
of what to trade,
when to enter
and when to exit.
And this leads me to the third thing
that I would do differently.
I would just "trade what you see
not what you think".
See in the beginning of my trading career,
I traded what I thought is going on
in the market right. I looked at the markets
and I said I think this stock
will go up. I think this futures markets
will go up. And you know what?
I wrong. Most of the time the market
didn't care about what I thought.
Right? So when I started trading I wanted
to make sure that I never missed the move.
I was so so concerned about not missing
a move that I didn't really follow
a system.
I saw a stock moving
and then let's buy this
stupid mistake.
So these days I let the markets come to
me. I do have a system
that I follow. When I trade what I what
I see and not what I think because I'm
probably not smart enough
but whenever I thought a market
would go up it went the other way.
At some point,
whenever I thought the market would go up,
I was actually go short bet
on a falling market and that didn't work either.
What else would I do differently?
Trade what do you see
not what do you think.
Right. So I.
Would make sure that I have a system like I have
right now. Based On
indicators not done on fundamentals
or on market data.
So I like to look at indicators
and when the indicators tell me it's time to
buy.
I jump right in.
And when the indicators tell me it's time to sell I
I get out. Right.
Hope you find this helpful.
Right now I am getting ready
to give a bootcamp and during the
boot camp. This is exactly where I talk about
the three most important things
when it comes to trading which is
what to trade.
Right. So what.
Stock or option to trade.
Number two, when to enter
and number three
when to exit. And when exiting there's
two things you either are right
then you have to know when to exit
with a profit or if you're wrong you need to
know when to exit
with a loss. You always gotta limit
your losses. If you're interested in attending
one of our Bootcamps then please go to
bootcamp.rockwelltrading.com
and there will be a bunch of cities
and dates
and hopefully there's one close to you
and then we can meet one of these days in person.
We'll be in Florida.
I know that we'll be in California I know that
we'll be in Texas
or we will be in different cities.
No I'm not doing every single bootcamp
but I'm I'm doing most of them would be
great to see you.
I'll talk to you soon.