The Culling

Date: March 11, 2023

Outline

00:31 - When do you set aside a time when you're not trying to be as active or not even trade at all?

06:11 - What’s going to happen if you don’t have the money to take care of things.

12:20 - As long as there’s a market, you’ll find a way to eat -.

18:11 - You have to put the work in to get this.

24:20 - If you lose your job, it will be one of the best things for you -.

30:47 - Why these fluctuations in price are not random, they go to levels that make perfect sense.

35:19 - Selling short in the fear of a gap.

41:46 - Don’t be a student of the market.

48:37 - Why it’s important to guard your mind.

54:42 - Why won’t these order blocks work? -.

59:43 - It’s so easy to psych yourself out unconvinced.

01:04:46 - Preparing yourself mentally for the worst.

01:10:26 - You have to know what you’re doing.

01:16:35 - You will never learn how to trade unless you master yourself -.

01:22:35 - You might win, but here’s what’s going to happen after 10 minutes.

01:28:37 - You’re doing your job.

01:33:55 - When the markets are moving around with the intent to take you out, why would you want to trade?

01:39:29 - What does it feel like when you see what you’ve been expecting?

01:45:25 - What’s going to happen in the market this summer.

01:51:50 - Central bank digital currencies coming.

01:58:23 - What are the buzzwords you’re going to hear?

02:03:40 - What is the currency of the interviews?

02:10:33 - What it’s like to see so many people’s lives being impacted and changed for the better because of this.

02:17:39 - The fear of missing out in crypto.

We’ve had a pretty eventful week.

This was a Non-Farm Payroll (NFP) protocol week, and as I always emphasize, these are periods when I deliberately step back from active trading.

I don’t like to trade on Thursday or Friday of an NFP week.

Yes, the market can move on those days — but that’s the exception, not the rule. The movements are often erratic, news-driven, and less precise, which reduces the reliability of the setups we look for.

There’s also been additional volatility this week, with multiple factors influencing price behavior.

Perhaps you noticed — a major bank made headlines today after being shut down by authorities.

Events like that inject uncertainty into the market, amplifying fluctuations and distorting normal algorithmic delivery.

In conditions like these, discipline means knowing when not to trade.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_United_States_banking_crisis

These markets are going to change — not just slightly, but fundamentally — over the coming months and into the next couple of years.

More specifically, as we move into the latter part of this year and the beginning of next, conditions will become far more challenging.

You must use this time wisely.

Be diligent in learning how to trade and understand market behavior now, while you still have the stability and clarity to do so. The stresses that are coming will overwhelm those who lack a plan — those who don’t know how to trade, invest, or manage themselves under pressure.

You, on the other hand, are becoming informed money.

Even if you aren’t trading live funds yet, you’re seeing what 99.9% of traders never do. You’re learning to read the chart the way the algorithm delivers price, while most people chase patterns and indicators that have no real bearing on market movement.

The reality is that many traders out there will soon face what can only be described as a purge — a forced removal from participation — because they lack preparation, discipline, and understanding.

I can’t save everyone. Each of you will have your own weaknesses to confront, and that’s normal. But for those who put in the time and effort this year, you’re developing a lifelong skill.

As long as markets exist, you’ll know how to find opportunity, how to make ends meet, and how to adapt when others can’t.

In the next 24 months, people’s idea of “the good life” will change dramatically. Many will simply be grateful to get by.

So if you have a job now — even one you hate — be thankful for it. That’s one steady stream of income while you’re building your own.

The goal is clear: use this skill to duplicate or replace your job’s income entirely.

You’re not just learning how to trade — you’re learning how to survive, and eventually, how to thrive.

This coming market culling will be brutal.

It will wipe out a massive amount of uninformed street money — traders who don’t understand what they’re doing, who panic when volatility hits, and who double down in desperation to recover losses. They’ll end up compounding their mistakes until their accounts are gone.

You’re learning how not to become one of them.

The market is difficult right now, but it still obeys structure. It still works — in both directions. You can be a buyer and a seller on the same day. You can trade with or without a bias, because you’re learning rules, logic, and timing.

You know what to look for, and just as importantly, you’re learning when not to engage — how to exit before the market turns against you.

These are lessons that no trading book teaches. They don’t even know this level of precision exists.

Most people rush ahead, chasing the next entry, the next “bag,” the next dopamine hit.

They ignore the psychology — both their own and everyone else’s — that drives every candlestick on the chart.

Every tick is a reflection of fear, greed, hope, and regret — yours and everyone else’s combined.

When you’re new, every candle feels personal. Every pullback feels like an attack. You have no baseline, no trust in your process yet.

But as you grow, as you study and experience more, you’ll learn to stay calm while others panic.

You’ll become the seasoned rider who doesn’t fear the bull — you’ve been thrown before, you’ve learned how to stay on.

And I see that progress already.

Some of you have shown real growth even within the first month. That’s what encourages me as a mentor — knowing that you’re putting in the work.

But others are still just spectators — waiting for me to call out a trade, scrolling through posts, barely scratching the surface. That won’t get you anywhere.

You need to immerse yourself in this.

We only have a few more months left, and time is moving fast. January is already a memory, and March is here.

Yes, there are a hundred other things you could do right now — things that feel easier, lighter, more entertaining. But all of that can wait.

Because once you master this skill, you’ll have freedom — the kind that allows you to control your schedule, your income, and your life.

So stay focused this year.

Do the uncomfortable work.

Delay the distractions, the weekends, the comforts.

Pour your time, energy, and money into building this skill — because it’s an investment in yourself that will pay dividends for the rest of your life.

And when the wave of layoffs and financial pressure hits — because it is coming — you won’t be one of those caught off guard.

You’ll be prepared, self-reliant, and ready to thrive when others are just trying to survive.

The best thing you can be doing right now is exactly what you’re doing — taking in information, absorbing it, and turning it into a skill that will become another stream of income.

That’s what this is — insurance.

But unlike traditional insurance that you pay for and hope you never need, this one pays you.

And as long as you continue to develop it, it will take care of you — and eventually, your family, your spouse, your children, even your family tree.

When next year arrives and the majority are panicking — unsure, unprepared, struggling to make ends meet — you’ll be in a position of strength.

You’ll have a skill that produces value no matter the economy, no matter the headlines.

Just remember: it doesn’t take massive trades or big risks to build stability.

One contract. One mini. Five handles a day.

That’s enough.

If you’re new and that sounds impossible, don’t let it discourage you.

It only feels difficult because you’re still in the early stages of learning.

By the end of this year — if you keep showing up, studying, practicing, and observing — you’ll see how simple and consistent it can really be.

Many of you say, “I live paycheck to paycheck — I can’t afford this.”

But here’s the truth: you can’t afford not to learn it.

You’re developing a skill set that, with just a little effort and discipline, can replace your entire job’s income in a single trading day.

That sounds unrealistic only because your focus is on the obstacles, not the outcome.

You’ve magnified every problem, imagined every possible failure before it even exists:

“What if I fail? What if I don’t learn fast enough? What if I’m not ready before November?”

But what if you do learn it before then?

What if you spend these next months building something that changes the rest of your life?

All that worrying — all that mental noise — will have been for nothing.

Your mindset shouldn’t be fear-based.

It should be forward-looking:

“How exciting will it be to master a skill that lets me decide my own worth — one that no employer, no paycheck, no economy can limit?”

That’s where your focus belongs.

Because once you have this skill, you’ll never again be bound to a wage that someone else decides for you.

And yes — you’ll lose trades. Everyone does.

You’ve seen me lose trades. It doesn’t change the outcome because the process works. Losing is part of the business — it’s the cost of doing what we do.

Your developing skill set is like a superpower you haven’t fully realized yet.

At first, it’ll give you confidence. Maybe too much. It might inflate your ego — that’s natural.

But eventually, you’ll learn the balance that comes with true mastery.

And that’s when you’ll recognize what this “superpower” really is:

The ability to write your own checks.

The ability to decide, every single day, what your time and skill are worth.

If you’re bearish, you’re watching how the New Week Opening Gaps draw price — how they act as magnets in the direction of liquidity.Start observing how these gaps nest together over time. Week after week, month after month, they create a visible pattern — a structure that has always existed in the market, but one that most traders never recognize.Go to your charts and study it for yourself.That nesting of gaps and lows is the silent framework the market has been built on the entire time.You’ll see how price naturally flows:from short-term lows, to intermediate-term lows, to long-term lows — and vice versa when the sentiment flips bullish.

If you’re bearish, you’re watching how the New Week Opening Gaps draw price — how they act as magnets in the direction of liquidity.

Start observing how these gaps nest together over time. Week after week, month after month, they create a visible pattern — a structure that has always existed in the market, but one that most traders never recognize.

Go to your charts and study it for yourself.

You’ll see how price naturally flows:

from short-term lows, to intermediate-term lows, to long-term lows — and vice versa when the sentiment flips bullish.

That nesting of gaps and lows is the silent framework the market has been built on the entire time.

I don’t like trading Thursday and Friday of Non-Farm Payroll week — there’s just too much intervention in the market. Too many hands in the cookie jar, pushing price around in ways that have nothing to do with normal algorithmic delivery.

I can anticipate what the algorithm wants to do, but I can’t predict when human intervention will step in and distort the move. That uncertainty makes those days unpredictable.

If you decide to trade them anyway, you have to be extremely nimble — quick to adjust, quick to exit — because those sessions often unfold in ways that defy logic and precision.

If you truly understand the first 30 minutes of trading — from 9:30 to 10:00 a.m., you’ll unlock one of the most important clues the market gives each day.

Here’s something that most overlook — in fact, none of you have noticed this yet, and it belongs in your trading journal right now:

the Fair Value Gap that forms in that opening 30-minute window is almost always the critical reference point for the rest of the session.

That’s the one that drives the day’s narrative — the one price respects, rebalances to, or rejects from.

So go back through your charts. Review the days, check those opening intervals, and compare them to the rest of the move.

You’ll see it — it’s been there all along, quietly guiding every session.

Index divergence between the three major averages — the Dow, the NASDAQ, and the S&P (ES) — often carries valuable information.

If one of them fails to confirm a lower low or higher high, that alone can be significant. It doesn’t matter which one — Dow, NASDAQ, or ES — as long as one diverges, and you already have a narrative built in your analysis, that divergence can validate it.

But here’s the catch — an SMT divergence means nothing in isolation.

If you don’t understand:

• where you are in the market structure,
• what time of day it is,
• which liquidity pools are still intact,
• or which inefficiencies price is targeting,

then the divergence can easily mislead you.

The SMT is powerful — but only when it’s contextualized within your framework of liquidity, time, and structure.

It’s funny, isn’t it — whenever I talk about SMT, it always seems to show up. Why? Because I bring the narrative. That’s what I lend you — my experience, my perspective, my fifty-year-old eyes that have watched price unfold for decades.

You’re learning to see through those eyes, step by step. That’s the only way real understanding happens — incrementally. But some of you want it faster. You’re frustrated, and you make it public — you post your doubts, your anger, your despair.

And that’s where you go wrong.

When you share negativity — “I hate myself because I can’t learn this” — you’re not venting; you’re branding yourself with that belief. You’ve just signed that message into your subconscious. You’ve tattooed the failure into your mindset. Every time you do it, you’re building emotional calluses that harden you against progress.

As traders, we need elasticity, not scar tissue. You have to stay flexible — emotionally and mentally. I’ve been stabbed in the leg before — there’s scar tissue there, and I still feel it when I stretch. The same thing happens in trading: those old emotional scars restrict your ability to move freely in the market.

So when that frustration hits, rewrite your inner dialogue.

Don’t say, “I can’t do this.”

Say, “I’m not there yet, but I’m going to crush it. I’ll master this before I ever thought I could.”

Even if you don’t believe it 100%, your subconscious will. You’ll begin programming yourself for resilience and confidence instead of fear.

Because this game — this entire craft — is won between your ears. Not with the mouse.

Before every trade, there’s already a battle raging inside your head — between belief and doubt, patience and fear.

And every time you feed your mind negativity — what if I fail, what if I lose, what if they laugh at me — you’re training yourself to be afraid of the outcome before it even happens.

That’s why pressing the button feels terrifying. You’ve already decided you’re going to lose.

And then you go on social media, looking for validation, hoping someone will say, “It’s okay, keep going.” But that’s not where real strength comes from.

You have to be your own source of belief. You have to learn to speak victory into your process before the market ever confirms it.

You’re feeding yourself toxic thinking, and that’s exactly what destroys traders long before the market ever does. You must guard your mind from that poison — it’s subtle, it feels normal when you’re new, but it’s lethal to your progress.

When you’re in the middle of learning, it’s easy to vent. You feel frustrated, confused, left behind. I understand that completely. But you have to stop giving those emotions power. Every time you emotionally charge a mistake, or interpret a small setback as proof that you’re failing, you’re reinforcing a destructive pattern.

That’s how traders self-sabotage.

They never lose because the concept didn’t work — they lose because their self-talk turned into their trading logic.

Think about professional athletes:

When a quarterback takes the snap, he’s not thinking, “What if I throw an interception?”

When a batter steps up to the plate, he’s not thinking, “I’ll probably strike out again.”

They’re locked into process, not fear.

They trust their preparation.

They execute based on their training.

They stay present.

That’s what you must do as a trader. Stop living two plays ago. Stop replaying losses in your head like highlights of failure. Every trade is a new possession, a new inning, a clean chart.

And yes, you’ll still feel frustration — everyone does. But instead of saying, “I suck at this, I’ll never get it,” you say,

“I’m improving every day. I’m learning to execute without fear. I’m building discipline.”

Your subconscious mind is your engine, and it doesn’t care whether you feed it gasoline or poison.

Feed it enough negativity, and it will make you live it out — hesitation, self-doubt, inconsistency.

Feed it confidence and belief, and it will start aligning your actions toward success.

Most people have hundreds of negative thoughts every single day — 300 or more.

If you start counting them, you’ll realize how often your mind defaults to fear, doubt, or criticism.

Catch them. Replace them. Rewire yourself.

Because your trading results are simply a reflection of your mental conditioning.

You can’t build consistency in your P&L until you build it in your thoughts.

When I first learned this idea, it came from Lucinda Bassett, one of the authors I studied when I was dealing with severe anxiety and agoraphobia — the fear of being around other people. Mine came after 9/11, fueled by constant media panic. That’s when I stopped watching television altogether.

She said the average person has around 300 negative thoughts a day — and it hit me like a brick. When you think about it, it makes sense why antidepressants have become so common: people never learned how to manage everyday stress, or how to face demanding things without self-destruction.

Trading is one of the hardest things any human can do. It doesn’t matter your background, gender, race, or culture — it tests every part of you. It’s not the markets that break people, it’s the mental warfare within. Most people — and I mean most — talk themselves into failure long before the market ever takes their money.

If you’ve ever blown an account, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

That moment when you’re deep in drawdown — over-leveraged, clicking trade after trade — you knew. You knew you were out of control, but you couldn’t stop. You weren’t trading the chart anymore; you were acting out your own subconscious script. The part of you that already believed you’d fail was simply fulfilling its prophecy.

And when it’s finally gone — when the account hits zero — the regret rushes in. That clarity that only comes afterdestruction. But it doesn’t have to get there.

If instead, you had trained your mind with positive conditioning, if you had built a habit of stopping after a loss, reminding yourself:

“This one loss doesn’t define me. I’ll stop now and protect my discipline.”

You would’ve changed the story. The next time you faced the charts, there’d be no fear, no emotional residue. You’d be operating from self-respect, not self-punishment.

The truth is, every trader’s success or failure is written in their self-talk. You can’t feed your subconscious fear and expect it to produce confidence. You can’t tell yourself you’re hopeless and expect clarity when it’s time to pull the trigger.

This work — this process of rewiring your mindset — is just as important as studying price action. Because every trade is a reflection of your inner dialogue.

When you think, “I’ll never get this,” your brain listens.

When you think, “I’m getting better every day,” it listens too.

It takes daily effort — constant awareness — to redirect your thoughts toward growth. Especially in a world that’s increasingly negative, cynical, and distracting.

But you have no choice.

No one’s coming to rewire your mind for you.

No one’s going to sit beside you and remind you to stay disciplined.

That responsibility — that mental conditioning — is yours alone.

Trading doesn’t start working just because you finally fund your account and click “Buy” or “Sell” on a live candle.

That’s not how it happens — that’s the illusion most new traders fall for.

You can’t buy consistency with real money. You have to build it.

If you can’t read price without needing to trade, you’re not ready.

If you can’t sit and observe, mark out levels, predict movement and be right about it — without risking a single cent — then pressing that button live is only going to expose your weakness.

Here’s the truth:

You’ll know you’re ready for live trading when you’re bored.

When it feels mechanical, repetitive, even dull — that’s when the skill has finally become internalized.

When you can show up every single day, see your five handles, execute calmly, and walk away — no adrenaline, no anxiety, no dopamine hit — that’s when you’re ready.

But if you’re still feeling that rush when you take a setup, even on demo — if your heart races, if you’re gripping the mouse tighter, if you get angry when you lose or euphoric when you win — you’re not ready for live money. You’re still emotionally charged, and that’s lethal in this business.

You must become indifferent.

You have to look at trades like a surgeon — or as I like to say, like a psychopath.

No emotion. No empathy. You’re operating with cold precision. Because on the other side of that trade, someone is bleeding out — and if you care about that, you’ll hesitate.

The problem is most traders are not predators. They’re prey.

They walk into the market like lambs into a slaughterhouse — timid, overleveraged, anxious, hoping this will finally be the day.

And when the lion — the market — rips through their stop, they cry out:

“Why did this happen to me? I did everything right!”

But they didn’t. They were unarmed. They didn’t understand the environment they were walking into.

Every session, every chart, every trade — it’s the same arena.

The difference is, the informed trader walks in and walks out with a pound of flesh.

The uninformed trader walks in and leaves one behind.

You need to decide which one you want to be.

The market is a jungle.

If you walk in like prey — uncertain, emotional, impulsive — you’ll get eaten.

If you walk in like a predator — patient, trained, emotionless — you’ll feed.

You have to know what you’re doing, and more importantly, you have to know how to think.

Guard your mind — this business is psychological warfare.

You can’t walk into the market assuming that whatever happens will destroy you. That mindset of “I’ll just take my beatings and learn from it” is wrong. You don’t learn by getting slaughtered; you learn by observing, by understanding, by being guided through precision.

Yes, you will have trades that don’t work. That’s normal — part of the process.

But when you think correctly, when you manage your mind, you’ll have more trades that do work, and that balance keeps you in the game long enough to grow.

That’s the difference between the ones who make it and the 90% who quit.

Most traders burn out because they never learn how to think, how to stay calm, or how to read what the market is actuallyshowing them.

That’s what I do as a mentor — I direct your attention to the moments that matter.

The subtle price shifts, the liquidity grabs, the times when the market reveals its logic.

You might not have noticed those on your own, but when I show them to you, you begin to see how order and precision live inside what you used to call chaos.

It’s not luck. It’s not magic.

It’s mental discipline and structured observation — the art of knowing what to look for, and when.

You’re borrowing my experience every time you study live price with me. You’re watching it unfold in real time — the rhythm, the behavior, the logic of it — and through that, you’re learning how to think like a professional.

Then you go to your journal and write, in your own words:

“This is what I expected.”

That’s not a throwaway line. That’s you speaking directly to your subconscious. You’re training it. The first few times, it’ll feel strange — mechanical even — but do it anyway. Because that repetition rewires your mind to expect precision, not chaos.

It’s the same principle behind meditation. When you meditate, you’re not just calming down — you’re programming peace into your nervous system. You remind yourself:

“There is no emergency. I am home in my body. I am safe right now. I’m in need of nothing. I am calm.”

You can do this anywhere — in your home, at work, even in your car on a break. Two or three moments like that each day, and your entire internal world starts to shift. Your cortisol drops. Your adrenaline evens out. You stop needing things like cigarettes or caffeine to regulate yourself — because your mind is regulating your body.

And when you start trading live, that control becomes your greatest weapon. Because the moment money enters the equation, stress amplifies. Even if it’s just $250 — it’s not life-changing, but it feels significant because it’s your money.

You wouldn’t starve if you lost it, but you’d obsess, beat yourself up, replay it in your head for days. That reaction is the real problem — not the loss.

Most traders turn every trade into a scorecard for self-worth. They never give themselves credit when they do something right. They only spotlight their mistakes. And if you constantly feed yourself that narrative, you’re reinforcing failure.

Try it in a relationship — tell your partner everything they’re doing wrong, never what they’re doing right. See how long that harmony lasts. You’ll end up sleeping on the couch.

The same thing happens internally. If you criticize yourself without balance, your subconscious rebels. You lose confidence. You lose elasticity. You stop growing.

That’s why you must guard your mind.

Cut out negative influences — gossip, toxic people, drama-filled environments. They drain you of mental energy, the very resource you need to trade.

And when you replace that noise with positive self-talk, you build an inner voice that supports you instead of sabotaging you.

You become your own mentor, your own steady voice under pressure.

This isn’t just trading psychology — this is life psychology.

Once you master it, you’ll find you can handle anything — stress at work, marriage struggles, parenting, uncertainty — all of it.

Because the truth is, trading doesn’t just teach you how to make money.

It teaches you how to master yourself.

If you walk through life believing you’ll never find a good person, you’re already closing the door on it.

That mindset becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. When someone genuine does come along, you’ll reject them — not because they did anything wrong, but because you’ve already decided how it’s supposed to end. You’re protecting yourself from pain that hasn’t even happened yet.

We do the same thing in trading. We carry fear into every decision. We convince ourselves that failure is inevitable, and then we unconsciously act in ways that make it true.

You expect loss — so you rush, you hesitate, you doubt, you second-guess. You sabotage the very progress you’re trying to make.

You can’t operate like that and expect success.

In trading, your beliefs become your behavior, and your behavior shapes your results. If your internal narrative is rooted in negativity, your execution will always mirror it.

The problem is, very few people talk about how to deal with this. Most trading psychology books skim the surface — they tell you to “control your emotions,” but they never explain how to reprogram the belief system that creates those emotions in the first place.

This is the heart of it:

You don’t need to fight your emotions — you need to understand and retrain them.

The same way a soldier trains under pressure or an athlete trains under fatigue, you train your mind under stress until calm becomes your default response.

That’s the real game no one teaches — the psychology beneath psychology.

Once you master that, trading stops being a mental battle. It becomes a performance — controlled, precise, and entirely yours.

When you see these kinds of movements in the marketplace, understand that they’re not typical of Non-Farm Payroll conditions. Make a note of that. It’s important to recognize the difference between normal market behavior and emotionally charged volatility.

Now, let’s talk about something deeper — what happens when you go into the marketplace not to execute a plan, but to fill a void. When you sit down to trade because you need to feel significant, to feel better, to find relief from emotional pain — that’s not trading. That’s self-medication. You’re using the market as a replacement for something missing in your life.

Maybe you’re feeling empty, frustrated, or desperate for a sense of control. Maybe you’ve had a loss, a heartbreak, a financial setback, or some emotional wound that hasn’t healed. So you open the charts, press the button, and win. For a few minutes, that win feels incredible — validating, empowering, even euphoric. But it’s short-lived.

Because when that brief rush fades, you’re left with the same reality that brought you to the screen in the first place. The win doesn’t fix the loneliness, the regret, or the grief. It doesn’t erase the pain of losing a loved one, or the emptiness of a failed relationship, or the frustration of feeling stuck in life. A trade can’t fix any of that.

That’s why it’s so dangerous to trade from an emotional place. You can’t bring your real-world pain into the markets and expect a profitable outcome. The market doesn’t care about what you’re going through — it only reacts to order flow, liquidity, and structure. The moment you start trading for emotional relief instead of technical opportunity, you lose your edge.

Trading success comes from process, not passion. It comes from consistency, not chaos. It comes from discipline, not drama. A sound model, solid risk management, and careful execution — that’s what delivers sustainable wins.

And those wins should never be celebrated like lottery tickets. You should be able to look at them with calm detachment. “Okay, I made another $1,000 today.” “Okay, I made $500 on this trade.” “Okay, I finished the month up $20,000.” That’s it. No excitement, no adrenaline rush, no dopamine spike. It’s just your job.

Because when trading becomes just a job — structured, measured, and emotionally neutral — that’s when you finally gain control. Not just of your account, but of yourself.

You’re not supposed to parade around after a winning trade. It’s not an accomplishment to show off — it’s simply what you expect to happen when you show up and do your job. Each win is nothing more than a participation award. You executed correctly, you followed the process, and the result was what it should be. There’s no surprise in that.

You don’t attach emotion to it. You don’t celebrate. You don’t fear it. You don’t regret it. A winning trade isn’t a reason to gloat, and a losing trade isn’t a reason to spiral into frustration. You stay neutral. You celebrate at the end of the year — when you’ve done your job, followed your plan, and have results that make you proud to pay taxes. That’s the real measure of accomplishment.

Trading should be treated like any other professional commitment. It’s business. You show up at a specific time, perform your duties, manage risk, and clock out when the session is over. Your employer expects you to show up on time, stay focused, and not waste company resources. The market expects the same from you — consistency, patience, and discipline.

When you sit down to trade, your job is to find the right opportunities, execute according to your model, and manage your personal risk. Just like driving to work, you take precautions. You wear your seatbelt, avoid distractions, and obey the rules of the road. You don’t text, speed, or act recklessly — because you know those behaviors carry consequences. The same logic applies to trading. If you ignore your plan, overleverage, or act impulsively, you’re not managing risk; you’re courting disaster.

Every day, your job is to be a risk manager first and a trader second. That discipline will set you apart from the 90% who fail. Because when the markets turn — and they will — the uninformed, overconfident traders will be washed out. The coming years will be harsh to those who haven’t learned control. But not to you. You’re being forged right now in one of the toughest environments imaginable. These markets are your training ground, and every challenge you face now is shaping you into something stronger.

Your steel is being tempered through difficulty. Every chart you study, every losing trade you reflect on, every note you write in your journal — these are the fires that make you battle-ready. You’re learning to wear your armor, to wield your tools with precision, and to think clearly under pressure. Right now, while you’re still in training mode, nothing can truly harm you. There’s no real loss, only lessons.

This is proper preparation. When you eventually move into funded or live trading, you’ll be operating from the highest level of readiness possible. Every trader experiences the emotional weight of real money differently — some will panic, others will thrive — but those who’ve been trained properly will endure.

Books and courses rarely prepare you for this because they rush the process. They prioritize subscription renewals over mastery. But what you’re doing now — the methodical study, the consistent backtesting, the disciplined journaling — this is what real education looks like.

Yes, it’s slow. It’s repetitive. It’s uncomfortable. You’ll spend hours studying charts, staring at data, and testing ideas. But that’s the foundation of trading. It’s how you develop familiarity, intuition, and control. You’re rewiring your brain to see structure, probability, and precision where others see noise.

Over time, this process transforms frustration into clarity. You’ll notice patterns where chaos used to exist. You’ll stop fearing losses because you understand context. You’ll stop chasing wins because you value process over outcome. That’s when true confidence appears — not the ego-driven kind, but the quiet assurance that you know what you’re doing.

By next year, you’ll realize how far you’ve come. While others panic and blame the market, you’ll remain composed. You’ll see opportunity where they see danger. You’ll be desensitized to volatility and emotionally neutral — ready for whatever comes next.

That’s the goal of this entire journey: not just to make money, but to build yourself into someone who can endure, adapt, and thrive no matter how the market moves.

Admittedly, we had some excellent price runs on Thursday and Friday — too good for me to ignore. That’s why I used those examples in the lesson. But I want to make something very clear: those kinds of moves are exceptions, not the rule. Don’t let this week’s performance trick you into believing that trading during Non-Farm Payroll weeks is always profitable. It’s not.

Many times, the market behaves completely differently — messy, choppy, unpredictable. It can sit still for hours, then whipsaw in both directions without reason. If you start believing that these clean runs are typical, you’ll be setting yourself up for disappointment and, more importantly, unnecessary losses.

Here’s the danger: Non-Farm Payroll weeks often fall at the start of a new month. So if you take a bad trade on Thursday or Friday, you’re beginning the month in drawdown. Then you spend the next week and a half trying to recover. By the time you claw your way back to break-even, you’re mentally exhausted — worried about losing again and afraid to execute. That’s the kind of emotional baggage that destroys confidence.

All of it can be avoided by simply not trading those days. It’s not about missing out — it’s about protecting yourself. There’s no trophy for being active during chaos. Professionals don’t chase volatility; they manage risk. That’s why, when I say I don’t trade on Thursday and Friday of Non-Farm Payroll weeks, it’s not hesitation — it’s experience.

You’ll hear people argue that you should trade when the market is moving — on Non-Farm Payrolls, CPI announcements, or FOMC days. They’ll tell you that volatility means opportunity. But volatility without control is just gambling. Would you try to catch a falling knife just because it’s moving fast? The same principle applies here.

Remember this phrase: NFP — Not For Professionals.

The professionals are on the sidelines while retail traders get lured in by the illusion of fast profits. The irony is that the same people who preach caution during FOMC or CPI events will happily risk it all during Non-Farm Payroll Friday — and pay the price for it.

This week was an exception. We saw precision, structure, and clarity during a time when conditions are usually unpredictable. You witnessed a textbook display of control, not luck. Let that encourage you — not to trade recklessly during similar weeks, but to appreciate the level of discipline and understanding it takes to navigate them successfully.

That’s the real takeaway: consistency and patience will always beat impulse and excitement.

When I’m looking at price, I’m not just seeing candles — I’m internalizing an entire narrative. Every movement tells a story. I’m asking myself: Why should price go there? Why that specific level? Why should this candle remain intact during that move? Each question builds a logical framework that guides my decision-making.

There’s reasoning behind every expectation. For example, I’ll allow for a reasonable retracement — but only to a certain depth. Beyond that, it violates the structure I’m anticipating. That’s logic. That’s precision. And that’s something you won’t find in traditional forms of analysis.

If such clarity existed in standard technical analysis, I’d tell you. It would save me countless hours of explaining. But the truth is, it doesn’t. This level of understanding only comes from studying algorithmic behavior — how price is programmed to move within certain parameters.

It’s been one month, and during this time, we’ve observed live price action together. I’ve pointed out elements that I’ve never publicly discussed before, and you’ve seen them play out exactly as expected — in real time, on a one-minute chart. Not in hindsight, not by coincidence — but with precision.

When I’m narrating those moments live, you can hear the difference. I’m not hopeful. I’m not nervous. I’m not surprised. I’m focused. I’m describing what the algorithm should be doing, right now, at this exact moment, given the structure that’s unfolding.

That’s not intuition — it’s informed observation. It’s pattern recognition based on how code governs price delivery. I’m not debating whether I’ll be right or wrong. I’m documenting what should logically occur, based on the framework I know is operating beneath the surface.

That’s the mindset of precision: detachment, logic, and trust in the process — not emotion, guessing, or fear.

I think it’s important to point out that you don’t need to copy every single model I trade. I use all of them, yes — but I have personal favorites. Some setups simply resonate with me more than others. That doesn’t mean the rest aren’t valid or profitable; it just means I’m more comfortable with certain ones.

For me, the setups I naturally gravitate toward are the second-stage distribution in a sell model and the second-stage accumulation or re-accumulation in a buy model. Those are my unicorn setups — the ones my eyes are always scanning for when I look at a chart. It’s instinctive at this point. Put me in front of any chart, give me five minutes, and I’ll find my setup. Sometimes it takes switching to a second timeframe or a different context, but it’s always there.

That’s what I’ve been doing this week — executing multiple trades in both directions, up and down the market, testing, refining, and demonstrating. But here’s what you need to understand: you don’t have to do that. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that being active means being good. Activity doesn’t equal skill, and the number of trades you take doesn’t define your progress.

The goal here isn’t to be busy — it’s to be consistent. You’re working toward one thing: sustainable profitability. That means doing the same thing, the right way, over and over again until it becomes second nature.

And your first real milestone isn’t catching every move or mastering every model. It’s something much simpler — five handles. That’s your objective. Just five handles on the ES.

We’ve already narrowed your focus to a single market — the S&P E-mini. I know some of you may resist that, saying you’d rather trade Forex, or gold, or NASDAQ. But this restriction is intentional. It’s discipline training. Mastering one instrument, one model, one setup, is how you build a foundation that actually lasts. Once you understand how to extract precision and consistency from one market, you can trade anything.

Your account is going to experience drawdown — it’s inevitable. It happens to every trader, even the best ones. You can’t avoid it, no matter how skilled or careful you are. If you’re pressing the button and taking trades, drawdown will come. What matters isn’t whether it happens — it’s how you respond when it does.

How you handle that moment — whether it’s one losing trade or a series of them — will define the course of your trading career. It will determine whether you build longevity in this business or burn out quickly. That’s the difference between traders who survive for decades and those who disappear within a year.

For some reason, most traders don’t like talking about this. They want to skip the uncomfortable conversations — the ones about losses, patience, and discipline. They want to focus only on entries, setups, and profits. But the truth is, this is the part that really matters.

You cannot build consistency or confidence without understanding how to manage losses — financially and emotionally. Drawdown management is survival training. It’s what keeps you in the game long enough to let skill and experience do their work.

That’s why we have these conversations. They’re not exciting, but they’re essential. If you avoid them, you’ll inevitably invite failure into your trading. But if you face them now — if you learn how to think correctly, how to remain calm under pressure, how to protect your capital and your mindset — then every drawdown becomes just another part of the process.

Trading isn’t about avoiding discomfort; it’s about learning to operate within it.

Usually, during the spring months — around April and May — the market tends to form some type of topping structure. You’ll often see price reach exhaustion or distribution during this period, setting the stage for a gradual decline into the summer. Historically, markets tend to drift lower through the warmer months, often leading to a seasonal low in the fall before recovering again.

Now, looking at the recent movement this week — once price pushed up into that daily chart SIBI on the ES — we saw a drop that was noticeably more energetic than usual. That’s the right word for it: energetic. It wasn’t just a routine pullback; it carried momentum and intent.

We’re in March, and that timing matters. This kind of behavior could be signaling the beginning of that typical seasonal pattern — a market preparing to roll over, or at least to consolidate before another leg. But to be clear, in this business, “it could be a lot of things.”

Seasonal tendencies are helpful for context, not prediction. They give you perspective — a framework — but you still have to read what’s actually in front of you on the chart. The goal is awareness, not assumption.

I want you to know — directly from your mentor’s lips — that I am genuinely honored you chose me to guide you. The fact that you show up every day means more than you might realize. I know exactly where I’m taking you. You might not see the full picture yet, but I do. I’ve been here before. I’ve taken others down this same path, and I know how to navigate it — even in the dark.

All you need to do is show up each day. I promise that as long as you do that, I’ll take you by the hand and walk you through this jungle. You’ll come out of it every time — not just intact, but stronger, sharper, and carrying spoils. Each time you go through the process, you’ll gain more experience, more composure, and a deeper understanding of both the market and yourself.

When the time finally comes for you to make the decision — whether to trade with a funded account or your own capital — you won’t hesitate. You’ll know. Not because of excitement or desperation to make money, but because of confidence— a deep, quiet conviction that you understand what you’re doing.

That peace of mind is priceless. You won’t be rushing into trades, you won’t be anxious about “missing out,” because you’ll understand that fear for what it really is: a lack of understanding. FOMO only exists when you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s the byproduct of uncertainty. Once you understand price behavior, structure, and expectation, that fear disappears.

We’ve seen it over and over — especially in the crypto world. Traders chasing every green candle, convinced the next small move is the beginning of another massive run. They live in a constant state of panic and euphoria, swinging between greed and fear because they have no framework. They don’t understand what they’re seeing, so they project fantasies onto every fluctuation.

I’m not attacking crypto traders personally — I’m describing the psychology that asset class has attracted. It’s chaos. It’s entertainment. It’s a circus of speculation, filled with people who’ve never traded a day in their lives before diving into one of the most volatile markets in history.

I love observing it because it shows everything I warn you about — impulsiveness, emotion, lack of structure, and the illusion of opportunity. It’s the perfect case study in why mastery of self and process always outweighs hype and excitement.

There’s no FOMO in ICT — none. Zero.

When I trade, I’m bored. Completely bored. Even when I’m talking during live streams, I can hear myself and think, “Yep, seen this before.” That’s exactly what I want for you. That’s what consistency feels like. It’s not adrenaline, it’s not excitement — it’s calm repetition.

Trading, when done correctly, becomes predictable. It becomes routine. The same setups, the same patterns, the same behaviors, again and again. That’s why I throw in the occasional dad joke during my sessions — not because the market’s thrilling, but because it’s monotonous. And that’s the point.

You want it to be boring. You need it to be boring. This isn’t supposed to feel like a rave, a casino, or a roller coaster. It’s not a techno party with flashing lights and dopamine spikes. True mastery feels like déjà vu — you’ve been here before, you’ve seen this setup, and you already know how it ends.

When you reach that point, emotions no longer control you. You stop attaching your self-worth to wins and losses. You don’t spiral after a losing trade, and you don’t inflate your ego after a winning one. You stop chasing highs and fearing lows — you just execute.

That’s how you beat this business. That’s how you survive it.

And whether you realize it or not, you’re getting there.