Is That Your P&L Or Are You Just Happy To See Me?

Date: 2023-05-20

I want to start by asking: why are you here? Why do you come to my Twitter page? Why do you come to my YouTube page? Why do you listen to my lectures?

Is it just out of morbid curiosity? Because you’ve seen other people talk about me, and you want to see for yourself? Is it really a train wreck, a car crash, where everybody wants to stop, rubberneck, and see what’s going on? Is there any carnage, any blood loss? Chances are, you probably found your way here on those premises and then discovered that there’s a little bit more going on than what other people like to say.

Or maybe it’s because you want to be part of a community—a like-minded hive mentality. That’s kind of what I’m trying to foster with this community. I want everyone to think independently and uniquely within the realm of their own personal model, and for that model to be discovered through the mentoring and the lecturing.

But these discussions, these things I do on Twitter Spaces, where I’m not monetized and there are no ads playing—you’re getting it straight from the heart, right from the trenches, real-world experience about the things you’re going to struggle with the most.

And it’s my endeavor to pull your attention away from what you think is most important, which is: buy, sell, get me in, get me out, where do I put my stop loss, what fair value gap values, what order block do I use. Those things are secondary. It may sound like that can’t be true, but it is.

And I want you to think about how many things I’ve taught—new concepts, new approaches to things that would otherwise be a hindrance to the average trader—and then ask yourself: what have you done with it?

There’s this growing community within the community that often branches off and creates smaller factions, little sub-communities, collections of like-minded individuals. And I don’t have anything against that. For me to say otherwise would be in opposition to growth and to finding your own niche and your own way in this industry.

I’m just a conduit, okay? If I were a cult leader in the sense that most people like to say I am, I wouldn’t want anyone else taking your attention away and trying to teach you something better. Because if there were something better, I would point to it. But I’m teaching you what I created. These are my concepts, and no one else is going to teach them to you better.

Some of you feel like you’re out there with a metal detector, trying to find the last piece of the ICT puzzle. We’ll talk more about that later in this presentation. But I just want to gently remind you why you’re here. What was the original reason you came to me seeking whatever it was that you saw? What was the driving passion that brought you here, and how have you been distracted since then? Is it things at work? Is it things at home?

I’ve read tweets from individuals saying their spouse is not supportive of what they’re doing. And it won’t matter even if I were to talk to them individually and say, “Hey, look, I promise you I’m going to get your husband, your wife, your significant other, your partner on the path to profitability.” They still wouldn’t believe it.

This is kind of what I was tweeting about yesterday. A couple of the fellows out there are, in my opinion, doing something really cool. I like what they’re doing. I joined their live stream on YouTube—not to share the link—but because it prompted me to talk about certain things I wanted to segue into this weekend somehow and make part of the presentation. I think this is probably going to make up 90% of it.

When you first come to someone to learn a skill—whether it’s trading, a sport, learning how to drive a golf ball better, putt better, or shoot better—you come to that teacher, that person offering their experience, and many times you come with preconceived notions about how you should be taught. So you already have in your mind what that educator should or should not do. And if it doesn’t meet that expectation, then you become dissatisfied.

But you’d have to admit that you’re coming to that person in a state of ignorance. You don’t actually know what you’re supposed to be doing. Yet you’re still holding on to the idea that you somehow know how you should be taught. When you don’t know the subject matter, you are the student. In fact, you’re not even really the student yet—you’re just arriving with a spirit of expectation.

Some of you even come with a spirit of entitlement, thinking it should happen faster for you, as if you should somehow be ushered to the front of the line ahead of everyone else who has been working diligently and very hard to learn this skill set.

Sometimes, because of cultural barriers or language barriers, I may not be able to properly articulate what is necessary for you to understand something in that regard. That’s what makes me feel like I’m not a great mentor, and that’s why I say I’m not the best mentor. But the things I’m teaching—I often pray that I find a way to get that message through to all of you. And this is probably the best medium to do that.

Because you’re only going to hear me in my native tongue, which is English, and sometimes it’s not that good. Sometimes I use words that aren’t that refined, and sometimes I use colorful words I’m not proud of. But I’m trying to do my best. Most times, like I am today, I’m trying to be very balanced, because this is a topic that, in my mind, needs to be constantly revisited throughout your progress.

And because there’s always a new influx of students coming to me, it’s important for you to come in with the right mindset and not lose sight of what you came here for. You should be here for one reason only: to learn how to make money. That’s it.

If a secondary supporting reason is that you want to be among other people who are doing what you’re doing—to see their growth, see their concerns, see the barriers and speed bumps they have to go through, so that it reminds you that it’s not just you—then that’s fine too, because everyone goes through it. I went through it too.

And like most everything else I’ve ever taught you, there’s going to be a point where, while listening to me, watching me execute, or hearing me talk about what the market is going to do, you’ll have selective hearing. Because you’re coming to me with your preconceived notions about what it is you think you need. So you think you need to know this or that, and that once you hear it, everything will make more sense when you sit down in front of the charts live. But that is an illusion.

I felt that way as a young man. I thought all I had to do was read a few books and I’d have it figured out, not realizing that I was going to be a huge barrier to myself—just like you are, and just like everyone else who does this. That seven-pound universe between your ears—your brain—has a wonderful ability to present distractions or reasons not to do certain things, or not to follow rules.

And I talk about a mindset that many people have but won’t admit to. The ones who try to resist it while learning how to trade are not going to be successful. And that trait is the need to be right.

Me talking to you right now is for you to learn how to do this correctly. But your goal is not to be right. Your goal is to be profitable, because you can be wrong. I’ve been wrong. You watched me take two trades this week, and while partial profits were taken, the remainder was stopped out in the black. That means they were not stopped out for a loss, but they were still stopped out.

So, was I right? No. Was the outcome favorable? Yes.

Some people would say no, you failed, because you thought price was going to go there. But if that had been their account, and that money had been deposited into it, they would not look at that as an incorrect execution. They would think I did something right: “Look, I made money.” And that is the mindset you need to be here with.

Because in November 2023, I’m going to turn you loose. And you’ll be left with whatever you have collected in terms of experience, notes, and the routines you’ve adopted. And you really need to be focusing on how to build more income—secondary streams, third streams of income, folks. We are in deep waters, not just in America, but everywhere. So in your heart, do the due diligence this requires.

And I saw another comment where someone said, “This guy always talks down to his students.” No, I’m correcting those individuals who are out there trying to promote an understanding that is lacking, and trying to create mentorships around something I just introduced. I just introduced something, and they’re already out there whipping up mentorships around it. That’s not the income stream I was referring to.

I understand that I’m kind of the hot topic right now. I will fizzle out when I stop putting videos up and I’m not on Twitter anymore.

I want you to be mindful that when you are training yourself, every day before you sit down to watch one of my videos or listen to these kinds of discussions—which are largely psychological—you are preparing your mind. You are preparing your mindset for what it is you are doing. You are recalibrating yourself.

You are not here to make me a celebrity. I do not want to be a celebrity. I do not want to be looked up to with the kind of high regard some of you want to place on me. I do not want that. You are here to learn how to make money. I have the ability to share with you how to find multiple ways of doing that in the marketplace.

But many of you are like that man on the beach with a metal detector, searching for coins or maybe someone’s lost wedding band. How often does he actually find something like that? Probably not that often. But he knows that if he does, it can pay for all the times he spent out there wandering through the sand. And in his mind, he is still out there getting some sun, doing something he loves. He has submitted himself to the process. And if it happens that he finds something, then all the better—but he enjoys doing what he is doing.

There is power in the tongue, okay? It has the power to give life or take life. Life and death are in the power of your tongue.

I can say to you, “You are one of my best students. You are so good at what you do. You’ve done so well training, listening, and following all the rules.” And if I said that to you, you would feel empowered. You’d feel awesome. “ICT said that about me. That’s great. I feel so good.”

Or, if I sat down with one of you and said, “Look at you. You are a waste of a student. You’ve done nothing correctly. You’ve literally wasted your time. You don’t do anything right. It’s all your fault. So be miserable. Stay in that state of mind. I don’t want to waste my time on you.” Wow. Nobody wants to hear that. Nobody wants to hear that.

I don’t talk to my students like that. What I do is show them what they’re doing incorrectly so they can correct themselves.

If a ship is off course by just one small degree early on in its journey, while leaving its port of departure and heading toward some destination, that one degree over the course of the entire trip means it will not arrive where it was supposed to. You may be able to recalibrate later in the middle of the journey when you discover you’re on the wrong path, but why would you want to do that? Keep your bearings. Know exactly why you’re here and what you’re here for. You’re here to learn how to make money and how to read these charts. Get that skill set.

If you do not focus on that and let it be your number one driving reason for being here, you’ll get distracted by other things. You won’t be diligent in your study. You’ll let the drama, the pain, and the discomfort of the process — the same process everybody has to go through — get to you. You’ll want it to be faster. And the more you want it to be faster, the longer it’s going to take, because you’re wasting time, energy, and effort worrying about how to speed it up instead of just going through the normal, everyday process. The only way through it is forward. That’s it.

There is no shortcut. There is no faster way. There is no one thing anyone can say that will suddenly condense all of this so you understand it correctly. Someone can take a small little sample of something I’ve said, and it will sound amazing to a first-time listener. They’ll think, “Oh, this is awesome. This is great.” And I understand that, because I created it. But their understanding will be shallow. They won’t know when the best time is to use that specific tool, approach, or mindset. And then they leave it to the audience to figure out the rest, and they turn it into a pony show. They say, “Look what I’m doing. I’m teaching. I’m making all my students profitable,” when the only thing they’ve done is echo me — and done it incompletely.

That’s who I’m talking to when I correct students who are too quick to go out there and create a name for themselves as teachers. If that’s what you want to do, then get the experience first. Learn it properly. You are not done learning it. Everything I’ve taught still has more depth to it. I still have things to talk about.

None of my charter members are complete. They may have a model. They may be profitable. They may not have any real need to come back to me anymore. But if you weigh it all in the balance, do they know everything that I know, everything I’ve taught, or everything I’d be willing to teach? No. Not one of them does. Because the ones who became profitable found what they were looking for while going through the process. And none of them ever came back to me and said, “What I came here looking for, and what I had in mind that I was going to learn, was exactly what I got.” Every single one of them has said some version of, “I didn’t even see this coming, and now this is what I trade, and I’m completely comfortable.”

Are you willing to be that flexible? Because that is what is required. You have to have that flexibility, that ability to adapt. Again, when you come to someone as a student — or really, before you’re even a student yet — you come here with the expectation that you’re going to learn how to make money. That’s great. Hold on to that. Because if you don’t have that, you will quit.

If you’re only here to feel good, like this is some kind of club or community that just keeps everybody emotionally hyped up, then that’s a problem. I do try to create that feeling when it’s appropriate — when we’re expecting a certain market move or a certain level to get hit. Then I may put a little spin on it, whether it’s a meme or some backhanded remark, just to create an emotional response, because that helps anchor it in your memory. You’ll remember it because of that. Whereas if I just say, “It’s going to go here,” and then it goes there, and I never talk about it again, you won’t see it as something meaningful. You won’t see it as a milestone.

And it is important to see it that way — marked, logged, recorded in a journal — because there will be times when it feels like you can’t do this. It will feel like it won’t ever make sense.

You can come to me with the right spirit of expectation and say, “Okay, I know nothing. I’m ready to learn.” But then what happens? Because I have so many things to teach, and so many approaches to entering the marketplace and finding setups, people get overwhelmed.

That was my weakness. I was afraid to enter trades because, in 1992, I had no real understanding of what I was doing. So during all of 1993 and 1994, I developed entry models, because that was what I was fearful of. I believed I needed to be in every price swing. Every time something happened in the market, I had to know why it did that. And because I’m obsessively compulsive, I poured all of my energy and time into understanding what caused those moves. That is how I ended up with 81 entry models.

Do you need 81 of them? No.

I didn’t set out to have 81. I didn’t set out to have any specific number. That was just the outcome. When I did that interview with Korbs, and he asked how many different approaches and concepts I had authored and created in this industry that people now use, I wish I had never said the number. Because now everybody assumes I’m going to teach all 81 of them. I’m not.

And if you think I’m going to put all of that into the books, and that’s why you’re going to buy them, then don’t buy the books. Okay? I don’t want you thinking I’m going to talk about all of that in three books, because I’m not. I’ll talk about some of them — even some that I taught my private mentorship group — because I want to leave an impression. I want my fingerprints to be known. So that when you look back through history, you’ll see more of that.

I want you to understand that everything I’ve taught so far is more than enough. The real question is: what have you done with it?

When you come to me to learn, and you’re in the right mindset, and you start learning new things, new concepts, new approaches, and ideas that help strengthen your understanding of price action, you can get addicted to that. And I do my best to make it sticky, so that you want to come back, because in the beginning it’s very easy to talk yourself out of this. It’s easy to say, “This is too hard. It takes too much effort. Why bother? Let me just find someone who gives signals.”

The community should come along and say: there is no better signal than the one you are going to find on your own. And I’m teaching you how to do that.

So when I say those things, folks, it’s not a tweet of shame. I’m not trying to throw somebody out there and let the wolves pack up and tear them to shreds. So if you are mean-spirited, don’t do that. That’s not what I’m doing it for. It’s to encourage them, so they can see that when they are part of this community with the proper mindset, they won’t need signals.

But I’m aware, as a mentor, and I’m also a realist, that there are going to be people who come to me with all the right intentions, even with the proper mindset, and I will still fail them as a mentor in some way because of something I simply cannot do. I’m human. I can’t meet every expectation of every student who comes to me. I understand that, and I wish I could reach every single person, especially the ones I can’t fully communicate with in the way they need. But I’m a realist. I know I’m going to fail some of you in that regard. I will.

But that does not cancel out the responsibility you have. You have to make a real, conscious effort to do this and stay motivated. And the way you stay motivated is by knowing why you’re doing it. Why are you here? Are you here because you’ve seen no evidence that this works? Or are you here because you’ve seen evidence that other people have used this material and are making real money? Chances are, that’s what is happening.

I think I’m seeing the biggest growth because of that very thing. People are making money, they’re attributing it to what they learned from me, and I’m deeply thankful and appreciative that it’s all they’re asking for. Because when they come here and hear me, they hear me say these words: I have been blessed.

Whether you choose to believe in God or not, I know He exists. And what you are learning is what He gave me. I’m a firm believer that because I cheerfully give it to you, He continues to bless me — not only in this, but in other areas of my life as well.

You do not have to go to church because you came to me as a student. I’m not saying that at all. But I do want Him to receive all the glory, all the praise, and all the attention. I do not want that for myself. If I wanted it, I would stay around.

Folks, I am at the highest point I’ve ever been. And I’m sure I’ll probably have an even bigger following by November. And I’m leaving.

Even in my personal time, when I first wake up in the morning, all of you are my first thoughts.

Every single one of you — whether you’re my private students or my public students — you’re my first thought, even before my own children. My passion is helping other people. My children are in my heart, in my care, and in my hands. I’m not worried about them in that same way. But I do worry about you — the person who watches a video, thinks they understand everything, watches it at two times speed without even taking notes, and then thinks, I’m going to go out there and do it with my live account. I do not want you to do that.

I want you to learn it properly. I want you to be absolutely bored to death because you know exactly what you’re doing. That’s how you know you’re ready to trade. That’s how you know it’s time to go after funded accounts, or to even consider trading with real money — because you know you’re not all hopped up, you’re not excited about making money, you’re just ready. You’re not scared, you’re not overly excited, you’re not overconfident. You’re simply following a rule-based idea that seems to work often. It fails sometimes, but you’re able to recover from that. It doesn’t knock the legs out from under you. It just means you took a loss, and now you keep doing what you’re supposed to be doing: keep the losses small, and let money management, trade management, and the model you follow dictate the outcome.

And don’t put time limits on your success. “I have to be this by that date.” No, you don’t. Trust me — that date on the calendar will come, and you’ll still be here breathing. The world around you will still be here, even if you haven’t reached that goal yet. Goals need to be flexible. Yes, they are time-based, but they’re not written in stone. They’re just coordinates: I’m aiming for this destination. And that destination should be excellence. That’s it. You should always be aiming for excellence.

And you’re going to find that you have to keep recalibrating yourself throughout the process of getting there. You’re not going to get there overnight. Nobody does. Believe me, if there was somebody on this planet who was going to do it overnight, I swear to God I believed it was going to be me. Look at the level of accuracy that my skill set and concepts have produced in other people, and what I’m able to explain before it happens. I tell you what’s going to happen, and I still still couldn’t become what I thought I was going to become when I first started, when I first realized what I had in my hands. Because as a human being, I had to wrestle with this too.

One of the guys who follows me on Twitter asked something like, “How do you overcome it when you don’t do it right? If you lose money, how do you keep moving forward?” Well, it gets back to what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.

I’ve worked a lot of stupid jobs. On the drive down to Florida, I asked my wife how many jobs she had when she was younger. Her list was really short. I had something like 27 jobs. Twenty-seven jobs as a young man. Some of them were only one or two days, sure — but I was there. I did the job. And then I said, to hell with this, I’m not doing it. As soon as I got under the pressure of someone who was clearly an idiot and didn’t know what they were doing, I couldn’t stay under them. I’d think, this person has no idea how to manage people, and they don’t even know their own job.

And if you sign up for a job and they don’t train you properly, what does that mean? You’re going to be stressed out. And chances are they’re going to get rid of you anyway, because you can’t do a job they never taught you how to do. So here, in this endeavor, I try to be the best manager I can be. If you come to me as a student, I look at you like a college student, and I’m the college and the professor. I’m the teacher. I’m trying to wear all those hats. I’m trying to be as personable as I possibly can.

I am giving you more time than any other person out there, whether they charge money or do it for free. Nobody is investing more into you than I am. Nobody. I’m doing it more than you are. I believe in you more than you do. I know what you’re doing incorrectly, and I know how to overcome it. But whether you’re willing to listen to that good advice or not remains to be seen.

And I have students who don’t want to listen. They stay exactly where they were when they first started here. Some of them get bent out of shape, and they blame their failure on me. That’s not accurate. They’re just doing things incorrectly, or not doing what I told them to do, or not doing it long enough.

It took me six years. Six years, folks.

What if I had said, “Alright guys, my name is Michael Huddleston. I know how to trade these markets. I’m going to show you what to do. I’m going to prove it in advance. I’ll show you what it’s going to do — bada bing, bada boom.” And then after 30 straight days of correctly calling the market, I said, “Okay, now who wants to sign up? It’s going to take you six years.”

Right away, most people would say, “I’ve got things to do. Sorry — there’s some guy on YouTube or Discord doing something for 30 hours a month, I’m going over there.”

So the way I teach is I leave breadcrumbs. I show you what I think is going to happen in the future. I predict the future using tools and concepts I’ve already taught, so you can ask yourself: does this resonate with me? Do you like the feeling of seeing us as a community expect the market to do a specific thing — and then watch it happen? How does that make you feel? Empowered? Lucky? Or just like it’s another day at the job?

It should feel like another day at the job.

When you go to work this coming week, do you feel the need to go home and tell your friends, coworkers, or people online, I had the most amazing day at work, you have no idea how many accounts I processed today? No. That’s the same thing everyone wants to do in trading. They want to go take their trades, then run to social media and say, Look at this trade I took, look at how many pips I made, how many handles I made. Yeah, I got stopped out over here, but then I got it back.

That is not the right mindset. You don’t do your job like that. Why? Because nobody gives a fuck. Nobody cares. They don’t care what you did to earn your paycheck. They only care about what you drive, where you sleep, how you spend your money, what you dress like, because they want a different life than the one they’re currently living. That’s what they’re chasing.

So yes, there is an influencer factor with my name, my brand, and who I am. But I’m not promoting fast cars, fast life, and all that other nonsense. I have nice things. I have money. I have freedom. But I’m teaching you not to care about that stuff, because that is just short-term gratification. That stuff does not make me happy.

Doing this — helping all of you — that’s what I love.

I have expensive cars that mostly sit. Most of you would say, If I had a car like that, I’d be driving it all the time. No, you wouldn’t — not if you were doing what we’re doing. You’d be looking for new things to explore, new experiences, not collecting things. Collecting things is a waste. It’s just more things to worry about.

Think about it: if you have a nice car, you don’t even like leaving it parked anywhere because people are jerks. I’ve had my cars keyed up while parked away from everybody else. So you can’t have nice things and not worry about them. And just because you can afford to replace them doesn’t mean you want them damaged.

So when you come here, you should not be looking at me as a conduit to get you to that kind of lifestyle so you can go out and influence people with it. That is one of the most repulsive things to me. I can’t stand it. I’ve never been like that — look at my cars, look at my house, look where I’m vacationing, look what I’m wearing, look how much money I wasted on watches, or walking into a Rolex store, then buying a knockoff and pretending it’s real.

That’s not what this is about.

When you come to me as a student, sometimes you fall into the trap of always learning, but never arriving at your own model.

It’s a lot like my daughter — God bless her. She has been a constant drain on my bank account. And yes, I understand, you take care of your kids. I get that. But she’s coming up on 30 years old, and she’s the oldest of all my children. She’s not biologically mine, but I’m convinced she has this deep fear of failing at whatever she originally set out to do. And to combat that, she has become someone who is always changing direction.

And that’s the point. Don’t lose sight of it or get bored by this, because it pertains to you.

Because she’s afraid to lose and afraid to fail, the things she originally went to college for, she no longer pursued. It was always a constant changing of her major. So the only thing she has really accumulated over all the years since high school is more classes and more credits that no longer apply to her original goal, which was to become a teacher. That’s what she wanted to do, and we were all behind her, encouraging her.

When she got into college — against my advice, because I told her not to do it at that time — I had already seen certain things in her as a child and as an early teen. She’s very indecisive, and she doesn’t want to fail. Now, that’s kind of like everybody when you’re a teenager. But many of you probably still have those same traits right now as fledgling students learning how to trade.

And what happens is exactly what she found herself doing: constantly learning something new. From her perspective, if you listen to her, she’ll say, “I’m doing this because I feel like this is where I should go. I should do this.” But it’s always changing — every three months, a new course, a new direction.

Now imagine you got on a cruise ship and you were supposed to go from the coast of California to Hawaii, like I’m hoping to do in the spring of next year. But the ship is always changing course, and you never actually get there. Are you going to be happy about that? No. You want to arrive at a specific destination.

And from our perspective as parents, we’re scratching our heads thinking, what the hell is going on here? You’ve been in college, college costs money, and you still haven’t even gotten your four-year degree yet. You got an associate’s degree, but then you keep changing your major.

And this is just my opinion. I’ve only really made this known now, and my wife knows how I feel about it, but I wouldn’t sit down with my daughter and say it like this because the times I tried, she clammed up, got mad, and became resentful toward me. I don’t want to discourage her. It’s her life, and she can live it however long she wants to live it that way.

But from an outside perspective — and also as her father — I think she has created the perfect excuse for herself so that she never has to experience the possibility of failure. I think, in her heart of hearts, she knows she is not equipped to be a teacher. I don’t believe she is. She doesn’t even want children. So how can you possibly be a good teacher if you’re opposed to having children and know you’ll never have them? We may never be grandparents because of her.

So how does that relate to you as a trader? And what does that mean to you while you’re listening to this?

When you come to me, and you see all these videos, and there is always something new coming from ICT, you can fall into that same trap.

If you spend time with me, you’re going to learn how to do this. But some of you will get caught in the trap of constantly learning, because you’re afraid to sit down with one model, follow the rules, stick to the process, and let it yield whatever experience is intended for you. That gives you a baseline.

That’s why I could literally give out a new model every single day, and some of you want me to do that. But all that would do is turn this into a dog in a meat market — you wouldn’t know what to do. You’d just run around chasing everything.

Instead, simply sit down and say, “You know what? I’ll just have a full-length model, thank you.” And I’ve done that with the 2022 model. I’ve done that recently with the Silver Bullet model. You don’t need anything else. I have lots more coming, but you do not need anything else.

The Optimal Trade Entry was enough.

The OTE pattern — the flagship on my YouTube channel — was enough.

The 2022 model — that’s enough.

You can use it in every session: London, New York AM, New York PM. You can use it at the London close. You can trade it in Forex, futures, crypto, or whatever the fuck you want to trade. It works.

There is zero excuse not to have some kind of baseline by now. You should have enough experience to say, “You know what? This shit works. I just need to refine it.” Because you’ve seen it in backtesting. You’ve looked at where it has happened in the past. I tell you what time to look for these things to form, so you’re not wandering around charts blindly. Go straight to the specific times of day — that’s where it’s going to form.

The people who go back through old data, study old charts, and actually do the work, they see it. They don’t need me to do 50 examples of it. They don’t need to watch me trade it live 50 times a week. They’re already sold on the idea: “Okay, there’s something here. It deserves more investigation.” Because they can see the evidence. It’s not contrived. It’s not conjecture. It’s not made up. It’s not fabricated. It’s really happening every day.

And once you see that, you don’t need anybody else to cheerlead for you. You know there’s something there, and you decide to mine it.

So I give you only a few models, because that allows you to start developing the actual skill sets that matter, instead of veering off course and hopping from one PD array to another, one approach to another — fair value gaps, inversions, breakers, market maker models, buy-sell programs. There are a thousand things out there that I teach. Every single one of them is a model. Every one of them can stand on its own.

But the way I teach is this: I’m letting you choose your weapon. I’ve opened the arsenal doors and said, “Here it is. Look at what I have. Pick your weapon.”

But nothing changes when it comes to time. Time of day — these things occur at specific times, on certain days of the week, certain weeks of the month, and certain months of the year.

I’m allowing you to bring your personality, your personal influence, because you are the problem — and you are the last puzzle piece.

See, some of you are sitting around taking diligent notes, doing this, doing that, and that’s wonderful. But you’re all waiting for that last penny to drop, the last ICT puzzle piece, and then it’s all going to come together. It’s all going to be crystal clear once I tell you this one final thing, this one final PD array, this one last approach. You think that’s it — that’s the Holy Grail.

No, it’s not.

If you walked over to your mirror right now — and if you’re driving, just glance in your rearview mirror real quick, not too long — that’s the final puzzle piece. It has always been you.

You are the reason why you will succeed, and you are the reason why you haven’t succeeded yet. And ultimately, you — and only you — will be the reason why you fail.

That’s not me talking down to you. That’s me telling you the truth. That’s just the way it is.

If you don’t have a baseline — which is what the 2022 model, the Silver Bullet, and the Optimal Trade Entry are meant to give you — then you don’t have a baseline experience of going through the motions and understanding, okay, this is the time of day the market should do these specific things.

Well, what does that mean?

One session usually creates the high or low of the day. New York is usually a continuation, unless London was consolidating and didn’t do much. Then the reversal, or the higher low of the day, will often form in New York. There you go — that’s one of those little things I tuck in when people are usually getting tired, bored, and turning the video or presentation off. They miss that. But that is the way it works.

The London close, or the end of the London session, is usually, in Forex, where the higher low or lower high of the day forms — the opposing intraday turn. That’s why I’m not a fan of trading Forex past 1:00 p.m. New York local time. Does that mean no trading after that? No. It just means shift your focus to index futures.

But like my daughter, who is a professional student because she feels safe being a professional student, I have to ask you:

Are you a professional ICT student?

Because if you are, you’re not going to succeed.

I’ll say it again: are you coming to me for a constant dose of something new, while doing nothing with what I’ve already given you? Then you are a professional student. And professional students don’t get paid — they always pay out of pocket.

Are you a professional procrastinator? Because that’s the equivalent. You keep procrastinating. You have to roll your sleeves up. You have to sit down and turn off the distractions — social media, sports, weekend living, all that stuff. There will be plenty of time for that later, and you’ll be able to afford it better than you can right now.

Right now, you do not have time for that. You cannot afford it.

You need to be putting your effort and attention into this, because what’s coming, folks, is a shitstorm that nobody has ever seen before. It’s going to ramp up very fast, and the things you’ve grown accustomed to — the things you assume will always be this way — won’t be. Things are going to get much more expensive and much harder to get.

So you want to be in a position where you have a second income, a third income, and some means of mitigating any potential job loss.

The Ministry of Truth is going to be established here, just like it is in other places. And don’t take my word for it — just sit back and watch what happens. That is going to create stress and anxiety. The fact that things are going to become so hard to afford will create stress and anxiety for everyone.

I have a lot of money, and I’m still complaining about how much things cost because it is astronomical right now. It is ridiculous what things are costing.

If you don’t have a sound baseline and a model that you have grown to trust, how do you think you’re going to trade when things get hard?

What have you done over the last six weeks? I’ve been on vacation because I knew the market was not going to perform for me.

This is what I teach my students and charter members. If you’re listening, did I not talk about this in our daily discussions? If it isn’t right, Leroy, do something else. Unplug.

So that’s what I did. I took myself away.

There was a comment that came in where a guy said, “Stop trading ES, nobody likes it anymore. Trade something else, like gold.”

No. You simply wait.

That mindset tells me that person wants to be trading all the time. That is the type of person who is going to lose their money, lose focus, and fail. You do not want to operate like that. You want to find your mindset, find your path within the things I’m teaching you, and grow there.

Look at what happened over the last six weeks. You should have been backtesting, not trying to trade and not trying to pass your funded account. I was telling you it was low probability. Were there trades available? Yes. But were they frequent, easy, and abundant? No.

Then I came out on YouTube and told you what I thought was going to happen, and isn’t it funny how, after that analysis report, things started moving again? I know what I’m looking for. I’m teaching you how to study the things I’m teaching and how to recognize when those things occur in price action. That is when you engage. That is when you attack. But if it is not there, you do nothing.

And you do not worry, wiggle in your seat, crawl out of your skin, or think you’re missing out. No. You do not jump to another market. You become a specialist and wait like a sniper. You wait, because price will eventually walk into your crosshairs. And when it does — boom. Another one bites the dust.

You are here to grow your P&L. That’s it. P&L: profit and loss. Are you profitable? Are you profitable in your learning? And, later, if you trade real money, are you profitable there? That is why you’re here. Not to hang out and be friends with ICT. Not to get ICT to respond to your tweet. I’m not a celebrity, so please don’t expect a celebrity-type response. I don’t want that, and I don’t want you to treat me like one. I’m just one of the guys. I have something I want to share, and I’m trying to be as down-to-earth, practical, and approachable as possible. Some of you keep trying to push me higher, but I don’t want to be higher than I am. The view is fine from where I’m at.

You are here to learn a skill set, and it will require you to work very hard. The Silver Bullet is time-based and can be used in every session. What are you doing with it? Are you backtesting it?

Do you have a college mindset, or are you coming to me with a scholarship mindset, where you feel like you can slack off because it didn’t come out of your pocket? That is not the right mindset. If you were paying for college out of your own pocket, you would treat it differently, wouldn’t you? You would show up on time, take diligent notes, practice, study, and cancel weekend distractions.

But many of you come to me with a grade-school mindset. You feel like you can mess around, like you have plenty of time: “I’ll watch this video when I get around to it. I’ll take notes when it’s something important. This guy talks a lot of bullshit. Okay, get to the point, ICT. I’ll write down what feels impactful to me.”

That is a grade-school mindset. You feel like you can pick and choose what matters, but you don’t yet know what you should know.

The ICT mentorship mindset is an independent-thinker mindset. You understand that what you are learning can earn you an income, and eventually you write your own checks. You are not operating from the mindset of a job.

So you have to create a baseline. I’ve only given you a small sampling of models because I want the list to be small enough to promote discipline on your part. It allows you to produce your own experience, and I cannot give that to you. You cannot buy it from someone else’s course. They cannot teach it to you. Your experience is what you gather from the time, study, and effort you put behind everything you do.

That gives you a realistic expectation and a realistic chance to make it in this, because it helps you get out of your own way. If you don’t get out of your own way, you will be the impediment. You will be the problem, the barrier, the last piece of the puzzle.

You have already been taught everything necessary to make a lot of money consistently. And I’ve also taught you when not to do anything — when to sit still. And that is okay.

Hundreds of handles have been made. You’ve seen that. I explained where price was likely to go, why it was likely to behave that way, and I introduced the Sick Sister concept and the Silver Bullet.

Stop making tutorial videos, folks, because you are not ready to teach it yet. That is not me talking down to my students. That is me telling you the truth. You are trying to promote incomplete information. I promise you, by November you will have plenty of material to spread around on your YouTube channel. But let me teach it properly first. That’s all I’m asking.

Because when you do that too early, it makes my job harder as a mentor. People come to me saying, “This guy said this,” or “This girl is doing that,” or “They said this about the 90-minute cycles.” No. Just wait. It takes time to get through this information.

I’m also doing these things in real time. I could sit down and explain everything from hindsight and make it pure theory, but then many of you would say, “This is bullshit, because if it worked, you’d be doing it.” Well, I’m doing it, then explaining how I did it. And then some of you discover, “Oh shit, that’s in the core content. Oh, it’s already on his YouTube channel.”

Exactly. I’m not reinventing the wheel. I already created the wheel. It’s on my YouTube channel. Use it. Study it. What are you doing with it?

It’s great to be part of a community, and I’m trying to cultivate a supportive one. But do not get stuck in that mindset. You came here to learn how to make money.

Don’t fucking forget that.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. Until next time, be safe.