You want to be a stock market trader? An investor? A stock options extraordinaire? If you do, you need to say YES to a lot in order to be successful.
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You need to be a strategist to get your money to work for you. Money only makes you more of who you currently are.
Everything is magnified when you are blessed financially. You want to be blessed with finances, needs, and wants… you need to think about who you are at the CORE. If you are a mean person and aren’t giving, these qualities will be magnified. You will be asking for these personality flaws to be enhanced.
What will you have to say yes to to be successful in the stock market (or any other goals you may have)?
There are character elements you must say either yes or no to. If you aren’t having the success you want to have in the market, it may not be the technical information that is going wrong, it may honestly be the character flaws you need to approach and alter.
Here’s what you have to say YES to:
1. Learning how to read stock charts and patterns
I never wake up in the morning and say, “I want to make a lot of money today” because that is the wrong thing to say! I wake up and say, “I would love to find the best stock today, the best chart or pattern today”. Making money is a BYPRODUCT of being able to read charts and patterns well.
In network marketing, Andre Maronian said, “Yes you want to make money and get out of debt, but that is a byproduct of wanting to build an organization to help others”.
It is the same thing with the stock market: You don’t really want to master making a lot of money, that in itself is not a skill. You want to master how to spot the pattern that applies the lowest risk and the highest return. If you can master that, the money will flow. But when people think about this industry, they only focus on the money.
That is like saying I want to win an NBA championship. And that means you are saying “yes” to: working out everyday, running on the treadmill, eating right, working with a trainer, etc. So saying I want to be a stock trader also means saying “yes” to: learning how to read the charts, recognizing patterns, practicing what you learn, etc.
2. Learning how to take risks
There is no reward without risks! No gain without pain, whatever saying you want to use, it’s true. At the end of the day, if there were a way to take money with NO RISKS then I would be doing it!! People will tell me, “Yeah I will get into the stock market if you can guarantee me that I won’t lose any money”. If I could or anyone could guarantee it, then EVERYONE would be doing this! There would be no hold-backs. Everyone would be gazillionaires.
You take risks right now, every single day. Think about it: When you get into your car, you do not have guaranteed safety. But you have faith, you feel you have practiced enough to be able to handle the road well, to recognize danger, etc. This is exactly how the stock market works. You have learned enough to say “I have seen this pattern before, or this chart before, I understand the SIGNS and what it means”. Likewise you also can recognize the danger. You know what to look for and what strategies to apply and build your own airbags in case of a collision.
You need to learn how to take calculated risks. How can I say yes to this and learn how to do it in a safe manner?
3. Studying and researching
There isn’t a “lucky newsletter” that sends you the stock picks. You can sign up for something like this, but this is only beneficial to those who already understand how to read stock charts to even decipher if this would be a good pick. People want to take short cuts when they don’t even know how the game works yet.
You need to say yes to studying and researching any stocks you find or are recommended to you. When you come into this industry, you need to be ready to study. If you aren’t ready for it, you are not ready for this industry.
4. Delayed gratification
We live in a “microwave society”. This is NOT how stocks work – you can’t pop ’em in and “Oh cool the popcorn is ready” a few seconds later.
This is some tree planting stuff: You plant a seed in the ground, you water it, you let the sunshine on it, you’re not even sure if it going to work, and it will not be fully grown the next day. This is SEASONAL. It can take months – be willing to commit to it!
Some people come to me and say, “I have been trading for a few weeks now and I still am not seeing the bank account rise”. If it were THAT EASY, everyone would be doing it. No one would be working their regular jobs if this process only took two weeks.
I know this is tough for most people – because most don’t have vision.
I have learned some of the best mindset things from network marketing. It is tough! But it teaches you a lot of life skills – how to handle rejection and delayed gratification. They lay out the plan for 5 years and say, “get two people and then they get two and they get two etc…” Would it be worth it? Yes it would if it only took 5 years. Because 5 years is going to come ANYWAYS. Why not put something into place NOW so in 5 years you can reap the benefits?
You are going to have to plant some seeds today to reap the shade in 5 years. But the kicker is: 5 years pass by anyways! But you just have to say yes to delayed gratification. If it takes you a year to learn how to trade, a year to practice it, a year to have some bad trades, but then in year 4 and 5 you are rocking it and bringing in that dough, the 5 years were going to go by anyway. Is it worth it? I have been doing this over 14 years and I am here to tell you: Yes, it is worth it.
5. Saying, “I was wrong”
LISTEN, listen… You need to say “yes” to saying “I was wrong”. Still to this day I enter a trade that I am not right about. So I have to say, “Yes, I was wrong” and take a small loss. But STILL CONTINUE trading and investing. It doesn’t tarnish the future.
A lot of people say things like, “Yeahhhh I tried stuff like that before and it didn’t work out”. You don’t try this before – you were wrong, you learned why, you get BETTER, and you KEEP GOING.
Others like to blame other people – “The course didn’t explain it right” or “I need a better teacher”. They don’t look in the mirror and say, “I was wrong. I read the chart wrong. I didn’t put enough time in it.”
If you can’t admit this, you will stay in wrong trades longer than you should and you will lose your entire account.
This is about your character: if you always blame others, you will always blame others when you have set backs in the stock market.
The market is neutral. It doesn’t care who your married to, who your family is, where you went to school. When the stock goes down, it doesn’t care who you are: your account is going down with it. UNLESS you admit you are wrong and take the loss.
6. Paying taxes
Being real, I used to hate tax time. Life was not cool – I made money and I had to give a lot back. I could have said, well I am never going to invest again or starting a business again. But NOW I say yes to paying taxes. I even have to pay them quarterly! I owe 4 times a year.
Most people are not ready for it. They forget you are net positive, but yes you must pay taxes on it. They are used to people taking out the amount for them and hoping for a refund. This is a different mentality and look on taxes.
7. Planning your finances
This is especially true to people who want to be a “full-time trader”. Do you REALLY want that life? I am not even a full time trader. I trade, but have other businesses and investments.
When you think about trading and investing full time, this is your only income. When you say yes to this, you say yes to handling your own healthcare, to paying yourself every two weeks, to taking your own taxes out, etc. It was worth it for me to learn how to plan a budget and do all of that because of the lifestyle I get in return.
I am not saying it isn’t worth it, I am just saying that it is WORK. This is what you say yes to when you want to have trading be one of, or only, sources of income. You need to PLAN financially years in advance.
There is no way I would have quit my job if I didn’t think this wouldn’t last more than 3 or 4 years. If you don’t have a track record of this working, and a years worth of money to live on, as well as money to put up for your trades… then you need to realllllllly think about this. You need to map it out and see what you need to succeed.
8. Believing in yourself
This is critical because most people do not – they believe that someone else knows what’s better for them, and dictate what they should do.
SOME people shouldn’t actually be managing their own money because they don’t have the work ethic to make it happen. They can’t say yes to any of the above topics. And there is nothing to be ashamed of in that – just recognize you can’t be one of those people.
But if you DO have the work ethic and CAN say yes to the above, then you need to BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.
I have to wake up every day and believe I have what it takes to make it happen. Anytime I take a loss, I have to believe that that was a one-time event, I’ve still got this, and I can bounce back.
You need to believe in yourself deep-down, not just saying the words, but truly convinced at your core that you have got this. You have what it takes to create your own lifestyle and system.
Can you say yes to all of these 8 things? If you want to become a successful stock trader, you need to. Be sure to tune in to our NEXT episode for some of the things you need to say “no” to.