This podcast is short and sweet and to the point. The more complete title should be, “the absolute way you must view the market to make money, which would shock the average person, even the average person in the market”. It will in a sense, summarize some thoughts of prior podcasts, and lead to a conclusion that you must hear, if you really want to understand how to trade/invest properly.  Set up a free coaching session with Paul: https://calendly.com/dts-paul/coaching-session-w-paul The...

I don’t want to give anything away but some of you who have been listening for a while may be thinking that there is a little sarcasm in the title of this podcast. This is going to cover several important topics including a couple of favorite lessons from a book, those cookie-cutter patterns, the language of charts, and pictures of learning. A good rule to follow is that nothing is as it seems when it comes to trading. Here's a chart to follow...

In almost anything you read or listen to about trading, you will likely read or hear that trade management is important. This is not accurate. Trade management is more than important. It is critical and will eventually determine your fate as a trader/investor. Traders that can read charts but cannot put the money in the bank are a dime a dozen. It takes some skill to read a chart, but many traders then get stuck in “breakevensville” for a long, long time. To me, management is way more...

There is a section called “Look for the Pitfalls That Stop Most” that is toward the end of the free course that I do for everybody called, Introduction to Mastering Technical Analysis. It’s a half-day course that is packed with some great information. I mention that because, as a trader/investor, today’s topic is one of the key pitfalls that often make it difficult for anyone new. Or in many cases, even more experienced traders struggle because of today’s topic. I see it all the time. Today’s...

I think this has become one of my favorite small topics to pick on, as I probably mention one or two of these when talking about other topics. I also did an event with a similar title. It’s an important topic because so many people go off looking for some training and there are an awful lot of things you read and see that vary from being at the least, not useful, and at the most, being downright wrong. You may be surprised at some of the “useful” comments and sayings that I feel are just dead...

Is the market a random walk? Well, you have to listen to the podcast to get that answer. The answer may surprise you a little bit, but the answer also has what I consider to be one of the greatest concepts you need to understand to be a successful trader or investor. I’m going to talk about my 97% rule and how I stumbled across it many years ago. We will also discuss the market being a zero-sum game (at any given moment), and how that helps answer the question Set up a free coaching session...

When a trader says that a trade was “risky”, what exactly does that mean? I hate to say it but in the absence of any other information it means that the trader is very novice. Risk can have a lot of meanings, and I want to review each of those as they are critically important to your trading. Maybe it’s just semantics, but saying any trade is risky is very difficult to define. The true definition of a trade being risky, is not anywhere near how most traders would define it. Without...

This particular podcast is actually based on an article that I wrote, well, quite a long time ago. But it was one of those that received many comments for a long time, and I felt it helped a lot of people. It discusses stages most traders go through, and where they often get stuck. Obviously, many of the comments in this podcast are concepts that I say frequently, but a lot comes together in this podcast and this will likely hit home with a lot of newer or struggling traders. Set up a free...

This is a big one to me because it gets at the very heart of what we do as traders/investors and also addresses what is perhaps one of the biggest mistakes made by traders across the board. This has to do with selecting trades on simple ordinary stocks to make money from moves that occur virtually every day.  Unfortunately, new traders are drawn into trying to find stocks that make the top gainers or top losers list, or perhaps drawn into trading crypto because of the huge volatility. You do...

FOMO, in case you have been in an underground shelter for the last 20 years, stands for “Fear of Missing Out” and it is a saying that certainly started somewhere else besides the trading world. But it probably applies to the trading world more than anywhere else. There are several very key topics in trading that are all very related. FOMO, patience, discipline. They are the top demons, not only for new traders, but for quasi-experienced traders as well. And they all live under one bigger...

The full title is simply too long to be an actual title, but it should be “ should you spend more time on self-analysis and less on technical analysis”. In trading there are SO many things that you hear as advice that seem to be the professional’s answer, but they are not. It is kind of like the doctor saying “go home and rest”, no matter what your ailment is. The advice is safe, it is not bad, and it comes from a doctor. It must be right. But is it best? Even more so in the market, lots of...

This is a great topic to me. Of course, what I think is a great topic does not necessarily line up with what new or struggling traders think is a great topic. The way odds work in trading is generally not even close to how most people picture the concept. And it is very important to understand this topic or you will struggle to make money even with good chart knowledge. Many traders learn to read a chart at an adequate level but they never put the money in the bank. Sometimes traders are...

When I say “My Story”, I am referring to how I got involved in trading/investing. I feel that my story may help the average person because it brings out a lot of issues that I discuss frequently. I was never on Wall Street or involved with any financial institution. I started off learning on my own. And it leads to several discussions that involve questions I frequently hear from many new and experienced traders about learning how to trade and invest properly. Set up a free coaching session...

Warning! Part of this may be kind of boring to some of you. However, I will get into some discussions that will enlighten even the most sophisticated trader. I’m going to start off with a basic discussion about the popular time frames that traders can trade. Anything from a monthly chart to a “tick” chart. I will discuss the appropriate charts that go with each of these time frames, but I also want to get into some of the pitfalls traders run into. Especially the misconceptions about “swing...

Proper mindset may seem like a fuzzy topic, but it will get clear once I get into the topic. It encompasses a lot of issues that I truly believe become the most important part of trading. The truth of it is that learning technical analysis is not a terribly complex procedure. As a matter of fact, I certainly don’t mean to offend anyone who is struggling, but the intelligence required to trade properly is no greater than that of any fifth-grader. But following rules and having discipline is...

One of the bigger issues I always face in training somebody new to the market (or someone struggling) is getting them to understand that trading involves structure. It’s fairly easy for me to spot this issue in a trader (very easy), all I need to do is see three or four of their trades. It doesn’t even matter if they are winning or losing trades. Good traders may have several strategies they know, but typically 90 to 95% of their trades come from two or three concepts. I’ll pick up this...

I know the “Three-Legged Stool'' concept has a lot of uses as a metaphor. For a long time however, I’ve used it to describe what people need in order to be successful in trading/investing. I have spent some of my prior podcasts discussing what you do not need, what you should never be looking at. I always make that a focus because so many people fail by looking at all the wrong things. You can glance at the slide notes to see a quick title of each of the three legs. I know it to be true that...

Without a question, the biggest disadvantage we have as traders is being human. Along with all the good things come some really bad things for traders. We come with emotions that do nothing but confuse us. We have hidden demons that we do not even know are operating. In addition, whether you realize it or not, as you develop as a human, you develop ‘biases’. A predetermined view of how something will act. Webster defines bias as “a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment”. Here are the...

Trading or investing in the market is a unique profession. The ability to make a former week’s salary in minutes can have even very educated and disciplined people doing crazy things. Just like a construction site often attracts kids, the market attracts successful people. However, the success these people have had does not translate to the market directly, sometimes not at all. Unfortunately, there is no fence we can put around the market as we do around construction sites. People have to...

This may sound like a simple question but it is actually quite a complex question and it is also a very important one. Is trading subjective or objective, should a good trader be more subjective or objective? What does it mean to be subjective or objective when it comes to trading? When traders first come to the market, they are inherently very subjective. They don’t know what else to be, although they may not characterize themselves as subjective. If they look at a chart, and they may say...

I will make this clear again when you begin listening to this podcast but in case you’re wondering what direction this is going to take or what exactly cookie-cutter patterns are (if you been trading a while you probably know, if not you may not) this podcast will be a scathing ridicule of anyone who thinks are going to make money from cookie-cutter patterns. The term cookie-cutter patterns is one that I use a lot. Don't think I invented it, but it’s a term used for those cliché chart...

I am going to bet that this podcast gets fewer downloads than the others. Discipline? Really? What a boring topic. Discipline. It is an important word in most everything we do in life. But in trading it has a very special place. When a new trader discovers that you can make a former week’s salary in a couple of hours it brings about emotions of greed and fear that have intelligent people often doing stupid things. If you’ve only half listened to half of my prior podcasts, I think you...

I am going to bet that this podcast gets fewer downloads than the others. Discipline? Really? What a boring topic. Discipline. It is an important word in most everything we do in life. But in trading it has a very special place. When a new trader discovers that you can make a former week’s salary in a couple of hours it brings about emotions of greed and fear that have intelligent people often doing stupid things. If you’ve only half listened to half of my prior podcasts, I think you...

The word Secrets is in quotation marks because I tend to make fun of crazy emails that act like trading or investing revolving around some magic formula or great new strategy. After a long time of working with many traders, one discovers that there are certain truths that cannot be denied. There are four things that are done so consistently wrong by new, and even fairly experienced traders, that each of these mistakes results in bad trades 90% of the time for most traders. If traders would...

Don’t be scared off by the title, this is not a basic question. I have a very specific definition of what trading (that would include investing as long-term trading) is all about. And it’s not what most people think. I laugh when I hear someone say, Oh, you have to be trading crypto, that is where the money is… Really? The 20 billion plus traded every day on just the NYSE is not enough? Too much volatility is NOT good. Understanding what trading is, or what it should be, is the first step...