Beauty For Ashes

Date: April 14, 2023

Beauty for Ashes

The idea came to me when I was thinking about how my children are typical children. They don't like to listen—just like you didn't like to listen. Most children are given enough leeway; they do whatever they want to do and discover the painful consequences by not listening to good advice.

Now, as a father, I have always imagined: When my children grow up, if they would just listen to the things that I endured painfully and choose not to do those things... they wouldn't have to feel the same types of regret and misery.

I promise we will talk about the markets. This is all about the markets. But I want to preface it by saying: I wanted to be a Father that had the ability to bail them out by saying, "This is what you do not do. Here is what it did to me. So therefore, don't do what it did to me."

Wasted time. Doubt. Chasing things that were unfruitful.

But I had to see for myself—doing many things, pursuing different things, trying to get a result that was just outside my reach or impossible.

Maybe sometimes in your development, while learning how to read the market price and find your own style, it feels like you just can't get it. Once in a while, you will have this flash of understanding. But it is too short-lived. It doesn't stay around long enough; it doesn't linger enough for you to feel confident in yourself.

Sometimes you have this amazing ability to see precise entry points, precise draws on liquidity. You can see where the bias is, what it is going to do, how it is going to behave.

But it is not happening enough for you.

So you go and you pursue something else. Because you are Impatient. You don't want to wait for the thing that you are supposed to be looking for. You chase after things.

"This thing looks like it's gonna go up." You have no real reason to believe it is going to go up. But you expect it to. You chase it. And it hurts you. It burns you.

Now, instead of taking that lesson as a deterrent from doing that again... some of you will do that same thing again, expecting a different result. And you will get burned. Again.

While doing these things, you don't see the Scar Tissue that you are creating. You think, "I'm going to beat this. I'm not going to change the way I'm doing it. I'm going to do it on my own terms."

While there may be a rule-based idea that has been explained to me by someone else's instructions... "I just want to be a kid."

It is like the Toys "R" Us slogan.

The markets are not a toy store. And it is not a place where you can be a kid. It is not a video game. It is not a game at all.

It is War.

And when you set out in an endeavor to try to do something in these markets using Limp Noodle Logic, infancy in your understanding, infancy in your aptitude, and No Model—no model at all, no patience, no specific rule-based idea to follow...

You just forge ahead and try to find yourself in the chaos. And in the process, you burn your account. You burn your hope. Over time, it burns your Desire to want to do this. And it sears into your mind that this is probably impossible for you.

You are slowly pushing yourself away from it. But you have friends online, you are part of groups, you are in this community. You can't let go of it. "I can't do it. But I can't stop."

You are not doing what you are supposed to do. You are not following the rules. You are not following the instructions. You are doing everything but the very thing that you are told to do.

You are burning your house, your dreams, your confidence, and the passion that led you to want to do this at all.

And you are lying to yourself. Because you are telling yourself that it is impossible for you to do this. And I agree—it is impossible for you to do what you are doing outside of the instructions that were given to you.

When you look at your Ashes—which you have burned up pursuing something that had no logic for potentially panning out profitably—instead of identifying the lack of control that was required, you show no concern for that.

You placed all the emphasis on doing it Your Way. Through a very myopic, limited understanding. Infantile. Pushing the button... pushing the button... expecting something to finally give you the confirmation that you are doing the right thing by not following instructions.

And you won't stop because you want that more than simply following logic that works.

That is a Discipline Issue. That is not a flawed concept, a flawed idea, fake concepts, or "too rigid" of a model.

So you will end up in this situation. Feeling as if you have never been able to do this. You are never going to find your way into consistency. The market is going to continuously beat you down. So why keep trying? Why bother? What is the point?

"Every time I try to do it, it fails."

But I see what you are trying to do. It is outside of what you started to do.

What was the Model? Are you employing the model? Or were you doing everything outside of it because you were impatient and weren't willing to wait for that model to form in the marketplace?

I can tell you, as a younger man, I had that Impulsiveness. I was reckless. I did everything outside of the rules.

I would sit down over the weekend, I'd write this plan out: "I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that."

But with the cares of the world, my job, everything that was going on around me... "I don't have time to wait for that thing to form. I think this next bar... I think it's gonna go up. I think it's gonna go down."

That is not following a model. That is being Impulsive. That is trading from your Gut. A hunch. That inclination that you think you see something that you really have never seen before. But you are lying to yourself saying, "Hey, this looks like something I've seen before."

And what you are showing is: You have no patience to wait for the Model.

To dull that ache, that pain of not being willing to sit and wait for the setup to form, for the Time of Day for that setup to form... you will push the button in times of the day when there isn't any expectation for the market to be delivering any measure of precision.

Demanding that it does tricks for you and pays you for your consideration of it. Like it Owes you something.

You identified it. You have given recognition to the market, those candlesticks. You have given some of your time. You have placed everybody else and everything to the sidelines and you have now given all your attention to that candlestick chart... so now it owes you something?

That is a Lie. But you believe it wholeheartedly.

And by pushing the button outside of the parameters, outside of the time that these setups should form, you are Victimizing Yourself. Causing a learning curve that will never end.

If your relationships and the way you conduct yourself in the world outside of trading are flawed, it will be Magnified in trading.

If you are someone that is seeking Validation, seeking acceptance... you will do things that are over the top. Expecting to be successful so you can go forth and bring it in front of other people so they can glad-hand with you. Pat on the back. "Well done. You're awesome. You're the GOAT. You're the greatest that's ever done it."

In trading, those types of things are the worst form of motivation.

Now, you might end up receiving those accolades as a result of doing things that are more focused, more purpose-driven, more detail-oriented in terms of following a model. But not trading for the sake of attention, status, or recognition. That is a rush to prove something, and that is a very, very dangerous path.

Especially for a young man that has a desire to stand out from the crowd. That has done well in other things. And you want this to be easier. Easier, because it is somehow Owed to you.

"The market owes me an easier pathway to consistency. I'm a natural. I'll be able to do this without any kind of rules."

That is what your subconscious is telling you. And that is exactly what it was telling me as a 20-year-old too.

You have to have Rules. You have to.

And if you do not recognize that, and you think that you can just impulsively press buttons, trade on your impulsiveness and your gut feeling of where price is gonna go—with no probability behind what it is you are doing—and then ignore that it is not working...

It will put you into a Gambler's Cycle.

You keep doing the same thing over and over and over again. It is not giving you the result, but you are not letting go of it. You are gonna keep doing it.

Because you accept the fact that you did that wrong then. But you want to sweep it under the rug and go right back in and say, "Yes, it didn't work that time. But I know it'll work the next time."

If you just simply Recalibrated all of that energy, all of that focus on the Right Things.

Everyone that blows their account, fails at something—it doesn't have to be trading, it can be anything... Everyone that goes outside of the Plan, the Approach, the Playbook... The results are Random.

You have no baseline to work with. You are building a new one that is outside of the scope of the rules and outlined process that you should be following.

For trading, you have a Model. Or you should have a model. And you need to follow that. Stick to the Rules.

Trust that these rules will guide you and remove all of the impulsiveness. Because the rules say: "I do this. I don't do that. I can only trade this pattern and setup in between this timeframe, this beginning and ending window."

You don't trade 15 hours after that and expect the same type of response in price action. You don't do those things.

By recalibrating that impulsiveness... by sticking to your guns... you know if you keep doing it long enough, eventually you are going to get the result that you are looking for.

But by getting a result when you are shooting outside of a model... you think that is a Reward for doing the right thing, when everything you are doing is the Wrong Thing.

You are trading impulsively. You are impatient. You aren't waiting for the setup to form.

Because you are having an issue with Discipline.

You don't want to subscribe to an idea that someone else has walked before you, laid it down in front of you, and said, "Hey, start here. Only do these things."

And you failed. And you failed again. And you failed again. Multiple times, over and over and over again.

And it becomes an Arm Wrestling Match.

You want to show the teacher that they don't know you. They don't understand you. "I'm going to be the exception. I'm the one that these models aren't built for. I'm going to redefine everything."

Humans by default, we don't like to Listen. We don't like to.

I look at the students in this community. I mean, not everyone likes the long, drawn-out teachings. "Get to the point" type thing.

Because the Attention Span of a gnat is what Social Media has cultivated.

Nobody has time to learn anything Properly.

You are doing what everybody else has done. Pushed buttons, found out. That didn't work.

So let's push more buttons and find out that it still doesn't work.

And ignore the Data that is being presented to you. Ignore the fact that you are not getting the results you are looking for.

This is exactly what I talk about. In all of my lessons.

Young men, you know what it's like. You have been there before, probably. And you are probably feeling it right now.

You want things to be easy for you. There is nothing wrong with that. There is nothing wrong with wanting things to be easier.

But you have to identify doing the things wrong repeatedly. Against the good, sound logic of something that has worked in the past.

Don't risk too much. Don't trade more than one contract.

Because these Funded Accounts... I am going to say this, and I don't need to have any more details to know this is what this is.

They exist to fleece you.

They already know the Statistical Probabilities are... you are going to fail. You are gonna fail.

Because you are going to be Impulsive. You will not use sound logic with Risk Management. You are going to trade more contracts.

And that is why they lie. They dangle that Carrot there.

"You can trade up to 15 contracts."

They didn't say trade with 15 contracts. They just said, "Hey, you can."

And he tried once. Not twice. Not five times. Six times.

Burn, burn, burn, burn. Over and over and over again.

Thinking that that was going to be the answer. Not realizing that Threshold... that is so small.

This discussion here tonight is meant to just really place the emphasis on doing the right things as a trader that would use these types of companies.

Number one, the Risk is Too Tight. And I know how to trade.

If you are saying that... you have no chance of succeeding if you only lose a couple thousand dollars. That ends it. That completely ends it.

We are not even talking about 10%. I don't know what the actual figure is, because I just don't know. But I know it is not 10%.

10% would be reasonable. To you... you just know, good god, you know... you have messed up if you go to 10%. You should be able to do better than 10%, not go to 10% drawdown.

But none of them are doing that.

When I am trading... and I take a trade that I feel is worthy of a high risk percentage behind it... I can work with 5%.

Now, I believe that would fail.

These Funded Account Challenges... if you were to use that, and you take a loss at the full 5%... I think, if I am not mistaken, I think that would fall underneath the umbrella of most, if not all of them.

And that would be considered: You Failed.

In my eyes as a trader, that is Nonsense.

Because that one trade... that one period of drawdown of 5%... that doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things.

Especially if you are pushing real hard.

And I am not suggesting that anyone should go into these companies or these combines and push real hard. That is the very thing you should not be doing.

The model was One Contract.

I don't care what these companies say... "You can trade as many as..."

That is the Hook.

That is the thing that you are going to reach for when you do the one trade that wasn't really all that heavily leveraged... and you want to fix it real quick.

"Well, you know, all I gotta do is go in here and do five contracts and get it back real quick."

They know that you are going to do that.

And it is advantageous for them to see you Fail. Because you will pay that $99... six and seven different times. And then they expect to get you right around that next new month.

You got to pay the dues.

And the whole time you are seeing all that stuff add up... Is it helping you get more Patient? No.

It revs you up to do what? Think Impulsively even more.

The words were: "I gotta get this before they ask for more money."

But you are feeding them every day.

Reset. Reset. Reset.

Not doing what you are supposed to be doing. Doing everything outside of the rules. Not just mine...

This might sound like something that you have put yourself through. And you should be encouraged to know that even my own children... this is what they are going through.

It is a Character Flaw. It is something inside of you.

And these funded accounts... You cannot trade with a lot of contracts if you don't know what you are doing, and expect to be successful.

And I am trying to put that into... say... just like that.

So there is no real advantage. There is no real advantage to do a $150,000 account when you can do profitable trading with the $50,000.

He doesn't like the idea of doing that. "No, no, no, I'm going to do it this way."

I already knew how this was going to end.

But show me daily... he builds the house. He is the Builder. He is the Architect. He is doing what he wants to do... and it burns down.

And because it is so cheap... "$9? I'll do nine." And it is all gone.

You get Beauty for your Ashes.

It doesn't... it doesn't hurt anymore. Everything I did wrong doesn't exist anymore. It is swept under the rug. It only cost me less than 100 bucks.

Doing the same thing over and over again.

When by simply doing One Contract... following the Model... taking that Piece of Flesh from the market and Stopping.

You can't break any rules.

Trading in itself is very, very difficult to learn in the beginning.

And for you all out here that are trying to rush into these Funded Account Challenges...

You are increasing the level of difficulty.

When you don't have a Model. You don't trade with real Risk Management—real risk and trade management.

I don't care what size account that you have with any of them.

If you just trade with One Contract, you will never break their rules. And you will make money.

But Greed... greed and Impatience.

"I gotta get through. Step one. I gotta do it. This is... I can do it in five days. I got to do it."

The rule was spend up to two weeks? Don't listen to that.

It says you can trade 15 contracts? Don't listen to that.

What makes this very, very hard for a new trader is the level of Drawdown that they permit is Stupid.

Now, today... because my son was basically looking at me like, "This is... this is impossible. Like, it's impossible."

For those of you that learn from me, and you don't listen to what I'm telling you to do... follow the Bias that I'm outlining.

This is where I think the market is gonna go. And you are fading that.

And then crying, sending emails, posting things on Twitter, complaining to other people in videos about me... when you are doing everything Opposite. And then struggling. And then trying to find the blame on me or something outside of yourself.

That is Nonsense. You have to snap out of it.

You have to understand that you can't do those things. Number one, the world isn't going to let you do that. You will have a Rude Awakening.

You can lie to yourself in your trading. But eventually, you are gonna have to see that person in the Mirror. And it is going to hurt when you have to come to grips with the fact that You are burning it down.

You are the one holding the Gasoline. You are the one that has the Lighter in your hand.

You are doing it.

Each time you are doing that, you are causing that fire that causes more damage. And everything has to be rebuilt all over again from scratch.

But it is not just as a Reset. You are bringing something New each time.

Depression. Fear. Concern of how many more you can afford.

All those things... you are bringing into that new reset.

It is not just $99 anymore, is it? It is really expensive. Really expensive.

And each time, it is gonna get harder and harder. Because at some point, you are going to start doing the math on how much money you can throw into resets, and how far you are behind.

See, when you first start—if you are new—you have never really put any money in the marketplace. The idea seems novel. It's wonderful. Like, "Hey, wow, this is such an opportunity for me to go in here and not really using my money."

And then suddenly, you discover you put a whole lot of your money into it. One Reset at a time. Every new monthly due payment.

And you want the maximum. So you want to give them $400 a month. While doing nothing right.

And you build up a list of resets, each one costing about 100 bucks. And not making anything. Not even getting to Step Two, where you are considered funded.

All that money being wasted. All that time being wasted.

And all of that Scar Tissue being created in your subconscious about what it is that makes you a Trader.

And it is interesting. It is almost impossible for you to recognize that what you are doing is Wrong. You are telling yourself what you are doing is right... it just has to be done longer. And it'll start working.

If you just Recalibrated that Tenacity... that Chutzpah... that Moxie... that thing that just says, "I don't care. I'm doing this."

If you apply that to a Model that works with Sound Logic... You are Invincible.

Invincible doesn't mean you won't have losing trades. It means even with losing trades, you are not going to deviate. You are gonna stick to what works.

It has proven itself to you. The Backtesting has proven it. I have proven it. I have shown live: "This is what it's going to do." And it does it. "This is what Time is going to form." And it does.

But if you are not going to reach for that logic... and what you are doing is costing you money, and resetting, and frustration, and becoming more and more agitated by not following the rules...

Imagine what would happen if you started following the rules. If you just simply did what you are told to do.

How much easier would it become?

At some point, you are gonna have a whole Pile of Ashes.

And you will be sitting here looking at all the things that you have wasted. Time, Energy, and Money.

And when you really sift through those ashes, and honestly see what you have done...

You really didn't use what I taught. You really didn't listen to the lectures and the advice about what not to do and what to do. You really didn't do that.

But hey, look at that pile of ashes you got. You were "doing something." You weren't wasting time studying, right? You were "doing something."

And the something you were doing wasn't profitable.

And that weighs on you subconsciously. And over time, it will make you Toxic. And you will start being spiteful.

Not to yourself. You won't hold yourself accountable. But you will point the finger at everyone else. Your friends, your family, me, our community, Trading in general.

Because it hurts too much to identify the fact that You did this yourself.

Nobody guided you incorrectly. You did do everything wrong, and you made those decisions.

Are you in a position to be Accountable for that?

Where you can say: "You know, if I'm being honest... I made these mistakes on my own. Nobody told me to do that. I did it on my own."

Because that is what a Trader is.

It is a person that says: "I Own My Results. Good or Bad."

I can live with myself, because I am following a Model. I have a robust idea that I am going to stick to that allows me to be Objective.

I am not going to be swayed by my notions. I am not gonna be swayed by the psychological impact of what other people think I should do, and how I should trade.

The funded route... if you are going to go that way: One Contract.

One contract is all you need to do.

If you can't lose $3,000... that is your max loss. And each point or handle in the ES is $50.

If you are trading with more than one contract, you are exponentially increasing the rate of Impossibility for you to succeed long term.

Because you are willing to take on the larger risks because the payouts are better, and you get more money faster.

Well, that could happen. I'm not saying it can't.

But what also could happen is you could be Human. You could be a little off on the day. And the market could also behave just a little bit "squirrely"—do something just a little bit unexpected and color outside the lines that you thought it was going to stay within.

And if you chose to do 10 Contracts... it stings. It takes a little bit of your backside off.

And then you got to correct all that. It now becomes: "Oh, I'm further away from the finish line. Now I gotta fix this."

Whereas if you trade One Contract... regardless of what size account funding you have... one contract is a lot of Wiggle Room.

If you only lose $3,000 and you are trading with one contract, you can be Horrible in your precision.

As long as you are right on your Draw on Liquidity and you are trading in the right Time of Day... you can still eke out profitability.

You don't need precision.

But you do have to have precision—like my level of precision—if you are trying to trade eight contracts or more. And you can only lose $3,000 before you burn it?

Most of you listening aren't in that skill set. And that is not a knock against you and me saying I am superior. I am saying that with the parameters that they are trying to place on you... you may not be versed in trading well enough. You may not know yourself well enough.

And maybe not even be able to do a precise entry continuously over and over and over again, because you haven't done it long enough. You haven't identified when it is not likely to be as precise as you would hope for.

So why would you? Why would you want to increase the likelihood of Burning Everything Down? Just to have one good, quick run? "I got to Step Two real fast."

Well done. You Gambled. Well done.

A lot of people go to Vegas and they make money. That doesn't mean they were skilled.

You want everything that you are doing in this industry, in this endeavor, this pursuit of Excellence in trading... to be that very focus: Excellence.

You want to be able to focus on being good at what you are doing, not showing up at the right time and getting Lucky.

You don't want Happenstance. You don't want Coincidence to be the common denominator in your success. That is not what you want.

But if you are being honest with yourself, that is what you are asking the Universe and Fate to come into your favor for... when you are over-leveraged, just trying to get through to Step One. Push and push and push and just try to get there real fast.

You are speeding up with more intensity, and more fever to do everything Backwards. Because Panic has set in.

And I just want to remind you that there is no reason to feel that way.

Think about it. You are gonna pay this monthly due to whatever that company is. So why not just give yourself the Full Month?

Does that make you a bad trader? Does it make you less of a trader than someone else?

Who cares how long it takes them to do it? And what they think that it should take you to do it.

Because when you get funded, and if you make money, and you do whatever those profit splits are... are you going to listen to that same person that's telling you what you should do, how you should do it, how fast you should do it?

Are you gonna let them tell you how to Spend it? No.

So why are you going to listen to them when they tell you what you should be doing to get through a specific timeframe, duration, model, or approach?

All these things are Distractions. They are all ways to keep your eye off of what it is you are trying to do, which is find Consistency.

Stop burning down things. Receive Beauty for Ashes by doing what you are supposed to do. And focus on that. Not trying to rush it. Not trying to add 20 funded accounts.

Start with One. Let's just start with one trading with One Contract. Giving yourself time is okay.

I know some of you are thinking: "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait Michael... wait, wait, wait man, wait. Listen. You said one contract, but they're asking for $400 a month. Come on, man. I can't get rich on that. They're in my pocket. They're going to be taking a portion of the profit split on top of that. It ain't worth it."

Then it's not.

You have to turn these Odds around and place them in your favor.

You got $3,000 drawdown? With one contract? That is a lot of Wiggle Room. It is very forgiving.

And to make $400 over the course of a month with one contract is Easy.

See, you don't know it. Because you are trading with larger leverage every time you are trying to do these Combines to get through it real quick.

Because you probably told yourself: "I'll break all these rules to get through it. I'll trade with five contracts, I'll trade with eight contracts, just to accelerate my way through Step One. But when I get to Step Two, I'm going to be a 'Good Boy'. I'm going to trade with no more than two contracts. Because it would be silly for me to lose that funded account by over-leveraging."

But you are not using that same logic going through the first part of it. Silly, isn't it?

And this is really no different than what people do with their Live Accounts.

Before they even send the money to the broker... "I'm going to follow all the rules. I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that."

As soon as the account is opened up and you had the first losing trade? Out the window.

What do they say? The Casino Never Closes.

That is exactly what I am here for. "Push it with the most contracts I can trade!" That is what we are doing.

All Logic goes out the window when you are using Real Money.

Which is why I tell you: You have to be bored with the results in Demo for six months.

If you just do it for a month, you are not really desensitized. You are not Conditioned. You are not Initiated. You just dabbled.

That is equivalent to anybody else that starts in Forex or Trading. And they use a demo account. "Oh, well, that sounds like a plan. Oh, let's go ahead and just put $5,000 or $10,000 into an account, I'm probably going to make money."

It doesn't work like that, does it?

Suddenly, there is a Scorecard. It has a Dollar Sign right in front of it.

You don't want to do all the wrong things multiple times. And realize over the course of a month, none of the things that you did panned out. None of them resulted in Step Two Funded.

That is frustrating.

You trade with One Contract.

I don't care who you see "Live" getting it, making money. You don't know if they are resetting accounts. You don't know if they are really trading with a funded account or trading with a practice account.

Just a little bit of Scar Tissue... just a little bit. That is healthy.

But when you constantly just keep going...

I have students that came to me that tried to do other people's way of trading and such. And they have spent like $8,000... $10,000... in all of these funded account companies.

Hopping from one to the next and just paying all these things. And never one time got to a point where they could be in a position to be funded.

So what is the point of doing this? Then you should have just took that money and put it in a Live Account.

Because you basically did the same thing. If you are not going to follow rules... just flush it away anyway.

But see, you are Tricked.

You are thinking: "It's only 100 bucks. I can take this trade and over-leverage it. Because if whatever happens... what happens if it works? I am only really risking $99."

That is what you are thinking, right? Because that is exactly what he was saying.

And you are Hooked. Like Crack.

"I might not win, but I could."

It is like the Lottery. Everybody is gonna be out there playing these lottery games.

Funded Companies & The Russian Roulette Analogy

Funding companies aren't getting rich by your measly little $99. But they are getting rich with the masses that keep doing that same thing—just like the lottery administration.

It is in their design to give you the freedom and rope to hang yourself. But they didn't kick the chair out from underneath you. So they are not the "bad guy."

They laid a single round of ammunition on a table in front of you. They laid an empty handgun on the table in front of you. They made this Russian Roulette available for you to play. But you decided to pick the ball up. You placed it in the chamber. You spun it, and you put it to your head.

Whose fault is it when you pull the trigger? What is the consequence and result after you pushing that trade, doing that thing that you did? Who is going to have the responsibility when that trigger is pulled?

Not them. Their hands are clean. They are getting paid. And they don't care if you go away, because there is going to be someone else that is going to jump in your spot—everyone else's spot that says, "I'm tapped out. I can't afford to pay anymore."

The Trap of "Speed" & Excuses

That same voice saying, "I might not win..." There are a lot of things saying I can't likely succeed doing this. But "If I win, I can get through Step One faster."

Like that is somehow going to change your level of discipline or personal responsibility. And now you are gonna suddenly follow the rules?

You won't. Because now you are gonna say: "Well listen, I just took 10 contracts. And I made $1,500 on three handles. It was in, like, seconds. It only took me seconds to do that. Let me just go in here with my live stage-two funded account. I can just do that every day."

That is not the Model. That is not the Model.

You are gonna make every excuse to do the wrong things. Like a married man that caught the eye of another woman that he knows he should not talk to. He knows where he is at. But he is making excuses.

"Honey, we need bread."

"No, I got bread today."

"All right, well... I mean, I'm gonna go get some soda."

"What do you need soda for? I don't..."

"I'm thirsty!"

You are doing anything you can to get out of the house to go find yourself in the position to be in that "Step Two Funded" position where you can over-leverage and play Russian Roulette with a Hoochie Mama.

That is Human Nature. That is a Character Flaw. You are inviting chaos; you are asking for it. In this case, you are buying it. You are paying for it.

The Odds & The Ego

If you don't do the right thing by having less leverage, you give them the opportunity to see you fail so quickly and easily. Because they know the majority of you are going to over-leverage. They know you want to get to the part that makes money.

And they have a 90% likelihood that you are never getting there.

And even if you did, and you get lucky—maybe one payout was great—great. You agree it is going to tap you there and say, "Okay, I need to make more. Or I need to go quicker this time."

All they had to do is sit back and let circumstances be what they are. Recklessness and Chaos show up.

And for a period of time, for those that are getting lucky with it... Ego. Ego is going to be that friend that leads you to ruin.

"I'm always going to be able to make money now. Look at me. We are [winning]."

Unfortunately, that kind of mindset leads to ruin, too. Don't invite it. Don't make it about a spectacle. Don't make it about "over-the-top" types of results, or Olympic-size feats, or the speed at which you get the stage.

Take your time. Relax. Just relax.

Expectations vs. Reality

One day... one day like today... anybody that uses what I am teaching could get funded to Stage Two in a day like today with One Contract. That is not impossible. With one contract, I could have been done today.

But you are looking at a move like today, and you are thinking: "If I had five contracts here... and five contracts here... and five contracts there..."

Yeah, it could have been like that for you. But do you have that experience yet? Probably not.

So don't have your expectations so high and lofty where it is easy for you to fall and not feel like you can do it. In other words: Don't set yourself up for more than just a temporary failure.

Because traders and trading is a lifetime of failure. How do you deal with that?

I ask that question on my interviews now. How do my students that are funded and consistently making money deal with losing?

Everybody does something different. Some people take it harder than others. Other people say, "You know, it sucks, but I ain't worried about it. I'm going to do the next trade because that trade didn't lose enough for me to feel like I've been beaten."

Now, contrast that with: "I'm not going to stick to a model. I'm going to over-leverage. I'm going to keep pushing and pushing and pushing because it only cost me $99 to reset."

Are they the same? No.

The trader that has a Model is taking very small, calculated risks. Sometimes it does not pan out, and that small loss is insignificant in the grand scheme of their entire career as a speculator. They are not worried about trying to avoid the losing trade.

Because the Model and the Rules say: "Do this. And this is what should happen."

If it doesn't, you are not abandoning that model because it didn't pan out for you that transaction. The loss was insignificant; it will not have such a weight on your psyche.

So that way, when you look at Price Action, you won't be thinking: "Generally, in other times, this is a trade I would be taking. But I'm going to wait for confirmation now. Because I have to make sure."

Why? Why would you feel that? Because you have taken a loss that is larger than you were comfortable with.

If you are trading with a "quote-unquote" $150,000 account, and you are using a 5-handle Stop Loss on One Contract, you are risking what? $250.

That is not $3,000. That is a very, very small, insignificant amount. So it gives you Wiggle Room.

Business Hours & Narrative

There are 5 handles all over the course of the week. Lots of them. Some form at specific times of the day that are very predictable.

You don't trade 30 minutes before Midnight in New York local time because you are done playing Xbox Live with your buddies and now "Let's go see if I can do something in the market."

Don't do that. You have Business Hours. You stick to them.

Bank of America is not open 24 hours a day; they have banking hours. You don't want to create this atmosphere in your trading where you feel like you have to always know what the next move is gonna be.

Narrative is understanding what the Algorithm is going to do in price next. It is not an "every second of the day" narrative.

The narrative is: "When we go into New York Session, during this period, I am looking for the Algorithm to do a specific thing. Behave a certain way. Present an opportunity—like the Fair Value Gap drawing to Liquidity."

That is a simple, rule-based idea. It is Time-Based. Why would you want to complicate that? There is nothing easier than that.

The 2022 Model

When you first started, and you wanted to get into this industry and find out more about it, you felt like a child on Christmas Eve. Like you couldn't wait to get more involved.

And that is what it is like when students come to my YouTube channel. They get their hands on something like the 2022 Model.

If you are brand new—you have never gone through any of my videos—the 2022 Model. There are 40 videos. That is where you start.

Because that right there will give you a 100%... right now... drill into the charts and see it every day. You don't need to know anything about Price Action. Everything that is discussed in that 40-video series will give you enough to know.

If that doesn't convince you that there is worth and value in what I am teaching... if you don't see it there, don't waste any more time with me. Just move along, find somebody else. And I wish you good luck with it.

I promise you, if you don't see the value in those 40 videos—that communicates Precision, Time-Based Ideas, things that repeat, a logic of knowing where to get in, where is your Stop Loss, where do you take Partials, where is your Target... Done.

That is a complete 100%. Everything you are looking for when you buy a course. Everything you are looking for when you join a mentorship. Everything you are looking for if you are trying to buy a book that supposedly taught you how to trade.

It is a one-stop shop. Here it is.

And if you liked that, and you want to dig deeper, then go on to the Core Content and all the other lessons I have on the YouTube channel, at whatever pace and in whatever direction you want to go. Because you will have something that you are going into the charts, Backtesting, and looking and studying—whether it be in old moves or real-time.

Because that 2022 Model is Perfect. It's pure. It's easy. It may not be easy for you when you are brand new, because there are a lot of things you have to understand. But spend time with it. And you will see right away that that is the easiest thing there is in trading.

It checks all the boxes that you would want for Precision and Algorithmic Theory. There is nothing to guess about its logic. It is not flawed. It is proven. It makes money, and other people are making Fortunes with it now.

Yes, fortunes. Six figures, in my opinion, is a small fortune. We are not talking about Mickey Mouse, minimum wages. That is a significant amount of money; it is a respectable measure of money.

We are not talking about $1,000 and $500 here and there—which is still, in some people's eyes... if you put on the table that you made an extra $500 a month, and that is all you could do... would you say, "I don't want that $500"? No. No, you wouldn't. So it is all about perspective.

The Surgeon Analogy

I am not going to sugarcoat anything for you. I am not going to pull any punches. I am going to tell you: It is gonna be hard. It is gonna take longer than you want it to.

And you are gonna learn in a setting that makes you no money. That is exactly how you want it.

Doctors don't go out there and ask people to come off the streets and say, "I'm studying for my exam tomorrow. Can I cut open your abdomen and remove your spleen?"

No. That's not happening. They use cadavers.

Think: Do you want a surgeon that has never done any kind of cutting at all on a body to put their scalpel into you? Nobody is gonna feel safe with that.

So what experience do they have if you are Patient One that they are going to now treat?

"You don't know this, but... hey, nice to meet you. Congratulations. You're my first patient. I've never done surgery before. So what time... what time do you want to come in?"

"No, I'm out of here. See you later."

So why would you expect anything different with your trading? You are that Surgeon in Trading.

The Surgeon in Development

You are going through this process of learning how to trade. You are that Surgeon in Development.

So learning how to do this in a condition where you can't cause any harm.

The surgeon that is learning how to do a surgical procedure on a cadaver... are they afraid that they are going to put the cadaver in the ground or kill them? No. That body is dead.

It has been submitted to the Department of Science. And they are making that body available to do whatever they want to do with it. That is a Cadaver.

So a surgeon works with a once-living person, but no longer is living. It is expired. That body is lifeless.

And they get to have all of the advantages of cutting on a Real Body. Feeling the restrictions of certain types of tissues even with a scalpel. How to navigate inside of the cavity of an abdomen, or ribcage, or a brain... without the risk of loss.

In trading, you want to learn how to navigate the marketplace and engage without having loss.

Do you think the surgeon's first procedure on a living person... do you think they are calm, cool, and collected? No.

But they are going to lean on all the experience they gathered with cutting on those cadavers.

When they were doing their case studies in textbooks, writing out their ideas... That is not the same. That is you writing out your Model.

But then when you go to that Cadaver—which is a Demo Account or Paper Trading Account—you are doing the theory in a setting that can't hurt you or anyone else.

That is Proper Learning.

You are doing it without any concern psychologically or emotionally about the outcome. You are focusing on doing what the theory suggests you are supposed to do.

What is the Process? What is the Protocol?

You are following that. That is your Model.

Don't let anybody make fun of you, and make you feel like, "Oh, you know, I'm learning how to do this on a demo account."

It doesn't matter. Your results are gonna be yours.

If your results are going to be unbelievably successful, there is gonna be a lot of people that say, "That ain't real."

And are you going to care?

Are you going to care when you start making Real Money... if people don't believe that how you learned was a good or bad way?

You don't care.

The only way I think he—and anyone else—will do well is by never really over-leveraging. And never really doing that trade with anything but a very small number of contracts.

Even if they give you the freedom to do more.

Because you are really not trading with $150,000.

You are trading $3,000.

And $3,000 is undercapitalized. Grossly Undercapitalized.

And anyone that says other than that is full of Grade A Cow Patties.

It is just the way it is, folks. Drawdown is a real part of trading.

And when you burn your funded account... and you burn your funded accounts... you will feel like:

"Well, I'm gonna go back in and I'm gonna be a little bit more selective... but I'm not going to change anything I've done. Over-leveraging is part of it."

You are going to Fail.

Just give it enough time. You are going to fail.

If you listen to my students and other people that do this, they build up these... well, they have like a Deck of Cards at their disposal.

Multiple funded accounts. Multiple ones. Because it allows them to have a card to play.

When one is Roasted... when it is Burned... they can't use that one anymore. They have something else they can lean on.

How about just have One? One account. Don't over-leverage it. Don't demand more than it is going to pay out.

Make enough money to go with a company like AMP. Where it offers you Real Trading... very, very low margins.

No broker is going to be Perfect. You are going to complain about all of them. But that is the world, man. Like this. You are not going to have a Silver Lining. That is seen by everyone in agreement.

You are gonna have your favorite things about a broker, and you are gonna have these Pet Peeves that you don't like about them. Everybody is gonna have that because they are the Middleman.

But I don't think your best interest is suited for only dealing Funded Accounts.

And I have said: I just don't believe that that segment of our industry is going to be allowed to stay around in the capacity that we have it right now.

And that is the reason why they are doing what they can to get what they can from whoever is willing to give it to them. Because the Time is Probably Limited for them to do what they are doing.

So if you are going to do that... Do it the Right Way.

Don't over-leverage it. Make what you need to cover the costs. And build up enough money to go with a Real Broker that allows you to trade with Real Funds and a real account that allows you to have more Drawdown—like in the real world—greater than $3,000.

Because $3,000 is Nothing. Literally nothing.

I spent $3,000 this morning just shopping for things that would never really cost that much five years ago. But if I want to stock up on stuff, that is what it costs now.

The $3,000 in trading... you are really Undercapitalized. And you are paying Monthly Dues to be undercapitalized.

And you can't trade past 4:00 o'clock. When, hey... sometimes Earnings Season, you will see moves that are After Hours, right? You will never be able to capture any of that.

Now, is that a deciding factor that should keep you from going for that account? Probably not. But it is something that a Real Brokerage Account doesn't place a limit on.

So just food for thought.

I can have him in a Stage Two funded account... like that. No problem at all.

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy.

Trading is hard enough already. For new traders, it is already hard enough.

Don't compound the difficulty by forcing your results to perform in an Ultra-Trailed Stop Loss—which is what these companies are placing you underneath.

They are charging you money to trade in such a Difficult Parameter.

If you are trying to trade with leverage... the way you beat it is: Don't use the Leverage.

That is the only way you are going to beat it.

One Contract. Two at most.

But with one contract, your losses won't be so large that you can't fix them easily—even with one contract.

And they can't screw you out of that account that you are working towards getting funded, or a funded account.

The Trailed Stop Loss thing... my understanding—I might be wrong. So I'm open to being corrected here.

But it seems like that never goes away.

So you are always going to have this limit of unrealistic drawdown that completely ends your career.

Within, you know, a Real Account with your own money... you are not going to stop because you had a 5% loss. That's not happening. You are going to trade.

So it is already making things that are difficult, next to impossible for an Impulsive Gambler that doesn't have an idea of how to trade or use a Model.

And that is why there is such a high rate of failure in that.

That is why you don't see a lot of other people out there being interviewed. Yet you are seeing people interviewed, you are seeing people make money... but the ones that are really killing it?

They are Disciplined.

They are not guessing. They are not gambling. They are doing things with a Model.

And they are not trying to blow up the account Overnight.

They are working towards building up incrementally and outpacing the cost that they know they are gonna have to pay.

And I promise you, they probably have a Game Plan that they are doing that to take it from there and placing it with a Real Brokerage Firm.

In my opinion, that is what you should do.

Because Tomorrow is not promised to no one in that segment of our industry.

That could change overnight. They can say: "You know what? This isn't happening anymore." And they have to comply.

Thinking about that... that would be upsetting.

Now, what if your frame of trading right now is only on the basis of Funded Accounts?

And what would happen if they said, "This is no longer allowed. You got to stop doing it. Shut down all operations"?

How would that impact your trading and your ability to make money?

Hmm. Something to think about.

They have to Break Themselves.

And they have to burn it down enough times. And then sit there with the Ashes... in the ashes... and come to grips with the fact that they were the ones that did it to themselves.

They are the ones that are going to have to come up out of that wash themselves. And that is what I had to do. I wasn't spared any of that.

And you think that you are going to spare yourself that uncomfortable period?

Because you are going to do it to yourself at some time in the future. You are going to eventually trade to not trade... to trade in a setting that is taking on real monetary risk and/or trading in this Pseudo Environment of a funded account.

Trying to get funded, where you have something to lose. What do you lose? The money you are putting into it.

You got to pay those Monthly Dues, and you got to pay that Reset every time you need to utilize it.

But have you considered—for those of you that have done multiple resets over and over and over again—Is there a line that you are not going to cross?

"I won't reset seven times. I won't do it a tenth time. I won't do it after three times. Three times, I'm done. I'm just gonna have to do something else."

What is that Limit for you? Have you considered what it is?

Because if you don't have the right mindset, and a Predetermined Exit Strategy—like, when do you call it quits and say: "Okay, this endeavor, this approach to dealing with it isn't meeting what I need. And I can't hit that objective. So therefore, I'm going to stop all funding to it."

Which is... That is what an Entrepreneur does.

They say: "I'm not going to waste any more money on this. This is not yielding a return for me. So I'm not going to water it. Because it's not going to produce any more fruit."

So what is it for you that does that? Where is the limit that you won't cross?

There is a number. There is an amount of money that you are willing to invest in it. And when you hit that number—I don't care what video I make, or what I do in a livestream, or what somebody else does, or whatever they are selling—You are never doing it again.

Do you ever think about that?

It should be something you have in mind. Because you shouldn't treat it like a Cable TV Bill, or your Netflix Bill.

"Ah, you know, I'm just gonna keep making the payment. It'll happen one day. You know, I'll eventually get what I need."

Maybe. But in reality, for some of you... It won't ever happen.

And that is what makes me unpleasant as a Mentor, because I'm not gonna sugarcoat it.

Some of you want to do this, but you don't want to Work for it.

Some of you want to do this, but you don't want to pay for Live Data.

Some of you want to do this, but you don't want to invest the Time into it.

Some of you want to make money and replace your job. But you don't want to defer the things that are going to require your time to study. Your girl, your money, the weekend.

That can't happen.

On the weekend, and over the week, going out to the clubs and hanging out with this one and that one... You should be studying.

Some of you ain't gonna work for it. Some of you are going to say you are going to do it. You are going to talk a good game online with me and other people in the community. And you won't do anything with it.

You can't Pretend.

You can't go through the process of pretending that you are gonna do it. Pretending and going through the motions on Social Media.

"Yeah, I'm a trader. I'm a student. I'm a funded trader. I'm this and I'm that."

Are you really working? Are you really studying? Are you really trying to Prune all the bad things out of you that are Character Flaws?

Keeping up with who is doing what on social media... "Who's making money today? And how much? Who had the biggest drawdown? Who lost today?"

These are all things that really don't do anything to make You better.

And nobody is keeping score by that stuff. Nobody cares.

Keep all the Drama out of it. Whatever it is you are doing in trading, keep it out.