Text Us: (213) 458-5997

Watch

Listen

James 0:02
What’s going on guys? We’re back with another episode of the After Hours Podcast. We have a very special episode today we have Joe Angelo on who has been an MIC member for a long time now. And I know he’s a club favorite. So Joe, thank you for coming on. Oh, yeah. I know, Harry’s always talks so highly of you. So I’m glad to actually finally get to put a face to the name and actually talk to you. So that’s cool. But I guess to start it out, so how did you find them? I see. And like, how did you kind of, like, get into trading? And how did you find us and go from there?

How Did You Get Into Trading?

Joe 0:38
Yeah, so um, for me, the, the journey started long, a while not a long, long time ago, but in a galaxy far away, but like, in 2000, in 2011, you know, I, I came from a, you know, like a blue collar family. My dad’s a truck driver. You know, you work hard to make money. You know, I was never taught that you could use money to make money. And, and so I did a lot of, you know, hard work when I was young and everything, I’m 47 now, but But anyways, I came across, you know, who Tim Sykes you know, some ad on internet or email, or I don’t know, how the heck it was, and, you know, you know, started looking into the trading, you know, you know, what he was doing, and then, you know, it kind of led to another service that he was, he was, you know, kind of touting on Prophet Li and at the time, I liked it, because, you know, the guy that, that, that I switched to was, you know, broadcasting his screen and warnings. And, you know, I just felt like, oh, man, I’ll get a better in depth, you know, view of what’s going on and, you know, kind of learn about this. I always knew of investing, but I never, you know, knew about, you know, actual day trading. And so, um, so that’s kind of, you know, what, got me got me started. And then I remember my first trade was like, on NVDA. And it was like, three bucks back then. And I fucking, you know, I transferred five 5000 into my account, and I used it all, and I made 100 bucks, like, right off within seconds. gotta be fucking kidding.

James 2:21
That’s pretty good. First trade, man. Yeah,

Joe 2:23
that’s how Yeah, I was, you know, I was a teacher at the time. And my salary as a teacher was 32,000 a year. That was after 15 years of teaching, you know, to my

James 2:38
So my girlfriend doesn’t show like see, like a day of trading. She’s like, What in God’s name? Am I doing? Exactly? Yeah, yeah. That’s funny. So so sorry. Go ahead.

Joe 2:46
Yeah, so So anyway, started to kind of lead from there. And that was during the summer. And so I traded throughout the summer. And I was, you know, watching the that chat room at that time. And, you know, I couldn’t discern between alerts and trading for yourself, when I was starting to get the idea of dip buying, and things like that it was worth doing for me.

Joe 2:46
You were mostly a long trader at that kind of time trading. Yeah. You’re trading more dip buying, you’re buying breakouts, you’re doing that sort of stuff. Yep. NASDAQ, that’s kind of how you’re kind of running it.

Joe 3:24
Yeah, because that was like a monkey on a cupcake. And I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing. So I traded, like, you know, with my small account, like 50 times in the first day, you know, and out in and out, and then the next day, and all month long. And then next thing I know, I get, you know, pattern day trade day trade, you know, you no longer have margin, you know, so, then they’re out, within like, a few weeks of like a year, like a year, you know, handcuffs on, you know, you cannot have a margin account. And that was with Schwab, you know, at the time. I just didn’t know anything about it. I thought you could just buy and buy out buy in by cash settlement. I didn’t know about anything yet. So I did learn a lot about that. But then I got to the school year, you know, being a teacher, you know, I just, I didn’t realise like, oh, wow, I’m not going to be able to do this, you know, because my full focus, you know, teaching starts really early in the morning, you know, you have to be focused on kids, you can’t just look at your phone or, you know, and do it, you know, so I, you know, I struggled with that for about two or three months. And then I said, I’ve got to, I can’t really even do it. So, from 2012 until, you know, like 2015 or so I just, you know, I may may have had a couple of trades a year. Yep. And I tried to do it during the summer, but then I had other things going on. I just didn’t get back into it. But I knew it was always something that I wanted to do. I wanted to learn more. about and I was kind of passionate about it at that time I, I loved it. But then the room that I was with, you know, kind of turned more into a short room, a shorting room and the guy that was running it, he’s very good. He’s down here in Florida now, but um, and you guys know him!

Harry 5:22
Mike Spinoza, right. Yeah. Mike Spinoza

James 5:25
I love Mike, bro.

Harry 5:26
I love my guy. He’s a good guy.

Joe 5:28
Mad respect for that guy.

James 5:31
Yeah, he’s an animal. Yeah, he’s good

Joe 5:35
You know, I like him for other things, too, you know, just as you know, view on health. And, you know, the way

James 5:41
I talked to him about that stuff all the time. But like, yeah, like, like biohacking and stuff. I was just talking to him the other day about it. I think it’s super interesting. Yeah, cool. Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. Sorry.

Joe 5:53
Yeah. So, um, but but I knew that, you know, I was a long trader, you know, and I, I, like, you know, to do long and to be honest with you, you know, he’s the one who mentioned bow, he said, if you’re gonna follow anyone on Twitter, or Instagram, you got to follow this guy. And this was like back in. Yeah, this is probably back in 2014 2015. I started falling bow. And then somehow, I got Harry’s Twitter on on top of that. And then I was really falling following Harry, and he was going through a time of, I don’t know what yours was, because there was a long span of time there that they didn’t do trading a lot. But I just really locked into what he was saying he was refining his craft, he was convicted. And like, that pumped me up every time, you know, like, I locked into that. And then, and then I started, you know, seeing the advertisements for him. I see. And I said, you know, I told myself that, you know, I think this is where I want to be. This sounds like, you know, a place where I’m gonna have a life lifelong learning. And and, and commit to this and really learn for the long term. Yeah, yep. So that’s, yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s what led me to MIC. That’s cool.

Harry 7:07
You kind of found out my See, I guess more so through me, then. Well, you found it out through a bow, but you also started following me? Yeah. Because I know that we’ve had a lot of, we’ve had a lot of talks about, you know, certain stuff and just longing and in general, and how so how would you say that you’re kind of doing now. So I mean, we have your kind of story of like, you know, in and out of, like different kinds of chat rooms and in and out or whatever. And, like, so maybe you could talk about, like how you’ve been now like any, any struggles and stuff like that, because, I mean, we really wanted to have these type of podcasts to as like, more of a, a kind of, you know, I guess like mentor session as well as like, you know, people who are on the come up and just lessons and you know, kind of learning and stuff like that. So maybe you could kind of talk about like how you’re doing now like any struggles that Jameson can maybe talk about things that we’ve been through or you know, whatever. I mean, we can just shoot the shit and drink here all night. I’m fine with that. But, I mean, maybe we take the weekend. Kind of fast,

Joe 8:14
guys. Cheers. Yeah, no, I know.

Harry 8:17
All right. I know. This is the first time I’d usually never drink on these. But you know, I opened one up for for Joe,

James 8:24
Like a fish out of water right now. I’m like, yes, that alcohol. I don’t know what I’m doing. For you, James. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right.

Harry 8:33
So we’ll kind of fast forward more so to now.

Joe 8:37
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, um, yeah. So so my trading now is, you know, like, I’m in a, I feel like I’m in a conflicted zone. You know, in my trading, like I there’s a couple of things that I’ve, I’ve you know, when I when I started with him, I see Yeah, I was really learning a lot and there was a there was a lot of like, breaking breaking me in to, you know, to knowing what to do. I couldn’t even find the hot chick at that time. I was struggling I think I

James 9:12
Remember I do remember dude.

Joe 9:15
I like I could not find it I was like, Well, what do you know what the hell and then I saw all the shorts you know, talking about all theirs and I’m like, Well, you know, the stocks that they were looking at and then you know, you know, call them out lines and things like that and I’ve like well oh, maybe that’s line I need to you know, get in and it’s going to break break higher.

James 9:38
Chasing broken stocks like trying for a breakout and like an inner line just hoping it would just keep going Yeah,

Joe 9:43
I was like, you know, first first red day I hadn’t studied completely yet. Course I’m going along at the VWAP. Where it’s breaking down. You know, and I hate it,

James 9:56

We’ve all been there and so I got past

Joe 9:59

And then and then I got to, you know, identifying the stocks and that that has been really helpful what I’m struggling with right now in my trading, there’s, there’s a couple of things, you know, I’m, I’m that I’m that guy who’s like, I have all the struggles, you know, you know, on multiple facets but you know, the number one is probably like, you know, when I have an idea I have an idea on a lot of different Long’s, you know, it’s like I’m seeing and I don’t you know, sometimes I don’t know me. You know, Midtown is one of my, you know, tabs and like, he says, you’ve got too many fucking charts on your top screen, bro. Get rid of some of those charts, but then it’s like, I see I see the setups and, and all of them. You know, like, today I wrote, I wrote down you know, you know, see CRDF ATR SPRT, and why even close, I saw the dip and rip possibly coming on those at the open and I couldn’t execute on any, you know, you know, because I was fucking paralysed. And in like, everything that Aloha, you know, and Austin talks about, you know, those types of, you know, psychological things, you know, really, really get to me, and they freeze you, they freeze.

.How to Prepare for the Open of the Market?

Joe 11:24
Yeah. And freezing is a big thing. And then I miss, and then, and then, and then I’m fumbling in sometimes, and it’s like, son of a bitch, if I would have taken the original line that I saw that I should have taken, I wouldn’t be throwing my clipboard halfway across the room.

James 11:43
And you because I see some charts that are pretty never very good, actually, like, you have some times where you post when I’m like, Damn, man, like, I’m happy for him, like, you catch a big chunk of move sometimes. And I love it, you know? So it’s like, you know, you know, deep down you have it, it’s just these little things that are definitely like, hindering you a little bit. Right. So I think as a as a long bias, Harry, if you want to start and then I can follow up with that for this first problem, and then go from there.

Harry 12:05
Yeah, yeah, I think as far as, so like, let’s just go from like, how you would normally set up a plan that open, you know, like, you know, because like to me, like I watch a lot of different stocks a day like, you know, we might have a random like, well, first of all, what I do every single day, and I’ve been doing this for about two years now is I take a piece of computer paper every single day. And every single stock that is mentioned in the MIT chat, I write it down, doesn’t matter if it’s a first read day doesn’t matter if it’s a whatever, I write it down, because then I have a record of it. You know, I’m hogging the chat all the time, I’m paying attention to every single goddamn thing that’s going on. The first thing that I want to do, right, because later in the day, when I’m sitting here in the afternoon, and I’m bored as shit. And there’s a setup that’s kind of maybe subpar, I’m going to say to myself, Okay, let me scan through all the rest of these stocks, and maybe see if something’s setting up just like you, right. You know, so I guess that’s the first thing that I always want to do. I mean, having a lot of stocks is great, right? Big that was mentioning to avoid earlier on the day, later in the afternoon, like I didn’t catch it, but it ended up popping, you know, going like 10%, right, that’s something that you want to kind of look at. So for me, like, it’s not FOMO it’s just I want to be looking at all the charts, just to see what’s kind of going on just to see what’s kind of moving. I mean, as far as the like, missing shit at the open, the open is the most difficult time to trade, you know, pre market as a long trader, if you’re on the hot chick stock pre market, right? That that’s it time, like, if you have a small account, you can make your day. So I mean, that’s that pre market is a very, very good edge for Long’s, as long as we’re under stock that’s doing consistent volume, you know, that’s trying to break out or whatever, that’s a kind of good time where you want to be in long, you know, at the open, it gets way more challenging and way more harder. Now, what I’ve been finding lately is that my biggest trades have been coming in the afternoon. They’ve been coming, you know, as we’re about to go into after hours or they’ve been coming in the afternoon, right, where we’ve had a stock that’s kind of popped up midday, you know, sbrt for instance, today popped up midday hovered view up all day. And then at the end of the day, you know, during that kind of long reversal time that bow talks about we get that big, big, big move, right. And so for a lot of people, their problem is that, you know, as a long trader, they want to go in and at the open they’re thinking oh, this is the dip in rep, this is the time this is the time right? But on a date like today I didn’t see anything like that. I miss G vo today. And then I said to myself, You know what? I’m not gonna go crazy. I don’t give a shit. I’m happy for the stock, right? highly diluted ticker probably shouldn’t have ran that much. It did. That’s okay for me. But I mean, I’m not gonna I’m not going to FOMO into GEVO. When is that $9 Or whatever the price was only to get stuffed on lower right. I gotta say, All right, this stock needs some time to reset this stock needs some time. If GEVO wanted to run again, it would go, you know, underneath VWAP. start curling higher, you know, for that kind of hide a clear out or hide a push, that’s something that you can kind of look for. But pay attention if stocks move and they have a very, very big kind of first move, like a first kind of move. I’ll always keep that on watch to see, okay, maybe this can have kind of a secondary push, and you look to get in on that secondary push, rather than right long, some fucking random stock that is a broken stock piece of shit, right? You don’t want to be in those type of stocks. If I have a rule where if it’s done something once it can do it again. And that’s what you want to be kind of looking for. Okay, SPRT has ran once we know that this stock is a runner, it’s highly manipulated. You know, it’s a it’s a ticker that has been giving shorts trouble. Okay, that’s something to keep on your main watch, right? Rather, you know, something that hasn’t ran before that’s broken, that’s a piece of shit, you can take that off. Like, that’s not something that wants to be near the top of the list, right? That’s just how I kind of see those type of struggles.

How to Fix Your Short-Biased Trading?

James 16:03
Yeah, so I think for me, like, because I had the same issue for a long time where especially as a short, biassed trader, because as long as you know, you’re looking for the hot chick, a short bias guy is like we have low hanging fruit, we have day ones we have, you know, first red days, we have all these different setups. And for a long time, I would end up hitting all that I’d have like eight charts, I would hit them all but would like small size and end up like making no money or at end up like, like you said falling into one and maybe taking a loss on and all that stuff. So what kind of fix that, for me was was two things. One, I just started looking if I had more than like, like now I only have three charts on my screen. And if I have more than three Stocks On Watch, and that’s for me, because I know for myself, personally, I can watch three stocks. And I can also trade three stocks with almost 100% attention to either ones. But you could only Maybe for you it’s only two maybe for you, it’s only one, you know, and I know guys who can do that with eight like bow. So it’s a you got to find your rhythm and what stuff how many you can watch. But for me, once it gets over three stocks that I’m watching, it gets down to my statistics at that point where I’m not a huge stack guy, but I pay attention to the stocks that I’ve made the most money, so are the setups. So like, if it gets down to eight names, I go, Well, this stock has a little bit higher float, and I like that I usually trade my edge is like under 30 million float less than 30% in in IO, you know, XYZ, all that. And then that’s how I start to just get rid of the other ones. So for you, as a long you kind of I think it would make sense to look at where you make the most money. And if all of your setups have like the same equal opportunity of working, then I would just start to kind of eliminate the ones that you’re like, I might not, it’s fine, like this stock is like a higher price, I’m more focused and make more money on this setup. And once you swallow the pill of like, you’re not going to nail every setup and you also don’t have to, you will make 10 times more money. Because trying to nail every stock that’s moving, you end up like fucking yourself, you end up screwing yourself over barely making money on any of them. Whereas again, if you just focus on one in your niche, nine times out of 10 In my opinion, that’s the one where you’re going to bank the most. And it like it. Like I said earlier, just it takes a long time to understand that. Like, you don’t have to hit everything. If you try to hit everything, you’re gonna miss all of it. And so just like I said, I would find out, find where your niche is, find what your best setups are, and sometimes you just need to zoned in on them and forget the rest. If they hit they hit you can look back and say Ah shit, I missed that. You know, like big today, it was my main watch of the day I nailed the additional rule was very excited about it. It popped back up to like 1040 or whatever it was. And I missed it because I was watching something else and I just said shit, you know, I could have chased it. I could have started shorting the red line to for when it’s going red but I just said shit, I missed it. I’m okay, you know, let’s divert my attention back to the next stock and stay there so I think those are the kinds of things that like long term will help you a lot

Harry 19:13
Yeah, no, I’d like that. Like if you look at all your trades if you take your broker statements or your trade you know whatever you want to do, you know look at the setups that are paying you the most you know are you making the majority of your money and things change I mean the market changes all the time but what type of setups are you making the majority of your money on you know if you’re not confident pre market you know don’t keep trying pre market and saying well pre markets got to work one day pre markets gotta work one day, right? Like maybe you and you know I mean you know because a lot of people have just been trying to do these pre market Long’s for months now and they’re just still not getting it so it’s like why do you keep doing this you know, just say okay I’m not going to pre market Long’s drop your ego and just say okay, I’m better afternoon, right or I’m better on stocks that are run paying this much per centre with this daily chart, I mean, there’s a lot of things that you can kind of look at, rather than just saying to yourself, you know, I need to keep doing this and keep trying and keep trying, you know, because I watched 10 to 12 tickers pop up in the morning, and there’s only one that I’m going to be training. So I’m like, very selective premarket. I’m very selective and you know, and that’s something that a lot of people need to work on.

James 20:26
Yeah, people get blinded by opportunity. I think like, what one thing to recognize is like Alex, Alex makes a watchlist for tickers. But the bulk of his money usually comes from one. Like, if you look at his p&l, I mean, he has four tickers on watch, but one ticker usually pays him out the most. And the rest are just small scale. But I think people I think people get blinded by the opportunity, like you think I’m gonna miss this setup. And it’s like, Oh, shit. It’s like, why do people think that that setups never gonna happen again? Or that like, I would rather use my Mac size on a setup that’s going to work? Then use 30% size on eight different tickers? Because it just, it’s too stressful for me. Yeah. And, yeah, and Joe, like I said, I think I see a lot of your charts and like, I feel like when you’re focused on a ticker, you get the meat of the move. I’ve seen them. I’m like, Shit, this dude, just, that’s a hairy house long, right? That’s like a nice, you know, but it’s like, if you just end up trying to shoot bullets at everything, then that’s when I can I guarantee your frustrations coming in. And that’s, that’s what you got to work to eliminate. And I think these little things really will help you like.

Sizing in on Your Best Setups

John 21:27
Yeah, I find that I do that, you know, what, it’s when I miss, you know, if I hesitate, and when I miss for you, that’s the trigger. And then sometimes, you know, I’ll, you know, I go on a rampage over there, he knows, I’m like, What the fuck, you know, what the hell, you know, that I just do. But, um, you know, I, I feel like, right now, my, my, you know, if a stock has high, you know, it’s above V whap. It’s got high, steady, consistent volume, you know, and it’s really conforming to the line. So those are the ones that you know, if I’m presetting my orders, those are the ones that are are hitting, and I need to be sizing in but you know, and that leads leads me to the other problem that I’m having is that I’m a single size trader, I’m a one in one out, and I don’t scale unnecessarily. I do some sometimes maybe, you know, one or two, you know, entries but, but I don’t, I haven’t, I haven’t learned to size in on my best setups. And I think it comes from you know, just wanting to I want to be a CPT right now, I want to be consistently profitable right now. And other things in my life lead me to that, you know, like, Harry knows, I want I I don’t ever want to work for another boss again, in my life I’ve been, I’ve been literally hurt, destroyed, career destroyed by losses, and I can’t like, it’s hard. 47 you know, to be at that point where you, you, you know, you want something so bad, you know it, it can, you know, create freedom for you know, not just money, you know, monetary freedom, but just, you know, freedom from you know, the stress for the world. No, yeah, absolutely. I get locked into that. And then but that works against me. You know, it definitely works against me. Another thing that works works against me is like, I’m I’m close to PDT. You know, and I want to get over that. The closer I get, the tighter the tighter clinch I get on my sizing. And the next thing I know, the AC goes out in the home and you know, 1500 bucks into that and and then I’m down, you know, back to you know, you know, a couple of 1000 from being Pvt. And I’m like, oh, a son of a gun. It took me all this time to get there. Oh, I’ll put more size on. Oh, shit. You know what the hell I do. And now I’m wanting it so bad. I just lost more. And then I’m back to some small size. You know, super, super small size and frustration.

James 24:12
I just think you’re on this. Yeah. Good. Here. Go ahead, man.

Harry 24:16

phone just started ringing again.

James 24:19
Hey, good economics.

A Simple Mind Hack to Improve Your Trading

Harry 24:21
I just wanted to kind of cut into this where, you know, a simple mind hack. Because a lot of people like once a while I’ll post like p&l. And you know, maybe maybe Joe is like CNET. Like I’m in a couple of tab groups and like, I’ll do it there. I’m not really a big kind of show off or like type of ego guy. But for me, instead of instead of, you know, having the mindset of Oh, my AC broke, I need to fix this. Oh, this I need to do that. Right? I’m saying okay, all I want to do is just keep following the process. So, you know, my name is Joe and I’m gonna I’m gonna you know, Take the next week I’m gonna I’m gonna look at all my trades, I’m gonna see what type of trades paid me out the most, you know, take that printer behind you that Canon printer behind you, and print out all your all Yeah, take those charts and print out all your best setups right? Now you have a blueprint to say, okay, you know, you can even go on Microsoft Paint and roughly draw something out. I mean, you know, it’s pretty easy. Once you kind of look at what you’ve been making money on, it’s easy. And then you’re just saying, Okay, I want to fix that AC? Well, I need to follow the process and do this, right? Don’t worry about some line at the open, if that’s not what has been making you money, right? If premarket has not been making you money, say fuck it, I’m gonna sleep in every day and be well rested for the opportunity and the times that are making me the most money, right? That is what takes you to that freedom level, right? The Freedom level is being able to say to yourself, Okay, you know, for someone like me, I used to just trade the morning and now I just sit here all day. And you know, if I see something in the afternoon, I’ll take it, if I see something in the whatever, I’ll take it, but I’m waiting for things to set up. Right? I’m not saying oh, I need to pay for this, I need to pay for that. I’m saying okay, I’m going to wait and be as patient as I can for a really good setup. And then after that, you know, I’ll get paid out of it and whatever. But I’m not even really focused on p&l During the trade. I’m saying, Okay, is there is there a seller at 1940 that I need to be aware of? Is there a seller at 1980? Then after that, I’m like, wow, it’s a big trade. Wow, nice. But the initial thought process, because there’s a difference when I go into a trade, and I’m like, wow, this is gonna be a big one. I’m gonna bank so fucking big. Those are going to be my biggest losses, right? My biggest wins are when I don’t have to think about it. If you have to hesitate and you miss something, say okay, that trade wasn’t for me. Right? That essentially it was not for me. Okay, you know, I hesitated today on GEVO, I missed it. But I was able to say, Okay, I’m gonna wait for a really good setup that I know, that’s gonna pay me out later on the day, right? And I had to watch an hour of GMO continuously and continuously going up, and then apply the same patience that I had on that initial Jivaro kind of breakout entry trade to a new one. And it’s just saying to yourself, Okay, I need to apply the same amount of patience on every single ticker. I have a patience rule, I have an hour rule, where if something goes up insanely, insanely crazy and halts, Okay, I gotta wait an hour, I need to wait for the stock to cool down and then see if we can do a second leg higher. There’s all these little FOMO rules, like we all deal with it, we all have FOMO but it’s creating rules around your FOMO and it’s creating rules. So you, you know, if you hesitate to Okay, I’m gonna take a 30 to 45 minute break, I’m gonna I’m gonna take a piss come back and you know, reevaluate stuff like that can make you a better trader, in my opinion.

How to Deal With the Term Max Size

James 27:52
I think you’re, I think your emotional stuff to like, your emotional journey will make your trading skin a lot thicker. And I think it you know, as you become like a CBT. And like, you start gaining that, that perspective, and you get there, you’re gonna like, you appreciate it much more because you’ve been through like the heartache of it. So I think that’s one thing to never think of that emotional like part of it as like a negative either, because we’ve all been there we’ve all had that kind of shit to deal with while we’re learning to trade and like how it affects you. So never feel like you’re alone in neck. Trust me. I I know that everyone has it at a point and you know, like you said you were a teacher right. So I think the way to deal with like your max sizing issue is the way I started to deal with it was I just stopped caring about necessarily like I think the term max size is kind of funny. I think people think every tray is a short trade unless it’s max size, which is just not true. Like max size. Like in my opinion, like if you like again, I’m all on myself, like trading try to be off like Alex like when Alex is max size. That’s because it’s a fucking setup. That’s like he’s like, oh shit, this is about to happen. I’ve been on the phone with him when he’s like, slamming on on a shorter first red day like it was a test the first red day or oh no is the Coronavirus sector. And when he’s full size, it’s like because it’s fucking on. But every trade up until then it’s just like, just because he locates 10,000 shares or whatever doesn’t mean he’s using that he might only use 2000, but still make 2000 bucks or whatever. So I think the term MAX SIZE confuses people like max size is not for every single trade. It’s max size is just what you make of it. Like I can say my max size is 10 million shares. But oh, what’s weird, I’m only using 1000. So it’s just it’s all mental. It’s all in your head. So you kind of got to stray away from that and get to the idea of grounding yourself to a level like you said you’re a teacher. Right teachers that they are the most they should be the most respected people in the country but they don’t get paid the most right? Me my girlfriend have this conversation all the time. And a teacher would say at the end of the year after tax you get 32k I mean, now think about it in your each an individual trade. One trade does not need to make you fucking $5,000 Doesn’t mean you make $1,000 Yes, that’s the overall goal. But if every trade adds up compounding, you’re just going to make the same amount of money long term regardless. So like, for example, one of my friends is getting into trading. And he was, you know, he does carpentry and you know, he loves carpentry, but he doesn’t make as much money as he wants. And his mindset is perfect, because he’s like, all I have to do. He’s like, my life would be made. If I could make 200 a day. He’s like, I’m not going into it thinking I’m gonna make 200 a day. He’s like, That’s just, I could live so comfortably off that. And he’s the way he’s thinking of it is like, alright, well, if Monday I take one trade, I maybe only maybe his MAX SIZE 200 shares. He’s like, What if I only get 100 shares on but I make 50 bucks, cool. The next day, you make 70 bucks. And the next day, you make 200 bucks. And the next day you make five or whatever, it’s, that’s how I think of it in terms of like, I just want to consistently be green, because I’ve realised at the end of five days, five trading day period, if one day like my p&l is are funny, because Monday, I might only make like 600 bucks, right? But then like Tuesday, I could make like 1800. And then Wednesday, I could make like 300.

Follow the Process and Stick To It

James 31:01
Like, it’s, it really is what Harry said, You just come in every day. Once you know the process that works for you, all you do is your job is to stick to it. And whatever it spits out, like the way Alex can make 700,000 On Monday, and then make 500 on Tuesday and walk away from the screens and experiment with steak. Like that’s what you need to kind of that’s very drastic, but those are the that’s where your goal should be is it’s just you follow the process. Like Harry said, you print out your charts, you know what makes you the most money, you stick to that. And if on Monday, it spits you out a million dollars and Tuesday it spits you out $10 You did your best to stick to the process and you walked away with good risk management. And it’s it’s easy to get drowned with the I got off Twitter, actually for a long time. And I still really don’t go on it much because I got intoxicated and like, I focus too much on the profits. And I was like, well, if I’m only making $1,000 and this guy’s making $10,000 Like I’m a loser. Like that’s, that’s stupid. Yeah, you know, but the reality is like, yeah, life is expensive, and like, there’s shit going on around you like, yeah, I want to buy a fucking Lambo, I want to buy a fucking nice watch, I want to go on vacations. But the reality is like, you know, your time will come, it’s just comes to now showing up doing your job sticking to the process and letting the process the profits kind of spit out, you know, and it’s, it’s not easy to be in a position where you need to make money, which is why bow says doesn’t recommend it. But I would, I would just kind of take a wider stance in a different approach of like, Oh, if I only make 50 bucks today, I know if I stick to the process, I can make 500 bucks tomorrow, you know, it’s just, that’s how I approach it.

Harry 32:39
The thing is, is that like if I could talk to, if I could talk to myself, like on the come up when I was in, let’s say, you know, I was even doing well in university, but like, let’s say I talk to myself, let’s say, you know, hypothetically, you know, I’m talking to myself, and I’m learning whatever, right? The biggest mindfuck is that if you told yourself, all right, just stop chasing, stop following and do things, be patient, just allow things to emerge and just wait and just, you know, if you can just develop that level of patience to really say to yourself, Okay, you know, random XYZ pops up, you do not need to log into that. Right, right. If something falls down, you know, a similar situation, right? We had big kind of go lower and then go 11 point or go two or three points higher. Right. You know, that’s not my, my setup. That’s not the shit that I do. You know, it the biggest mindfuck is that you’re probably like, two or three issues away from being a consistently profitable trader, right? Like, I know, we talk a lot, you know, right. But the things that are holding you back, is that you’re, you know, you should be worried about Missed consistency, and not about missed opportunity. And that’s a quote from you know, I believe Dr. Brett, wrote that that’s, that’s what you need to be worried about, say, Okay, Miss something in the market, you know, that’s okay. I miss all the fucking time. Literally miss all the time. You know, it’s like a stuff move, right? You get stuffed on it’s the price action that comes after the stuff move that really matters. Does that think tank does that sucker do an offering and go lower? Or does that keep grinding up and grinding and grinding up and stop you out as a short or you know, continue to go higher for you as long? It’s that type of stuff. It’s the mindfuck Is that what’s holding you back is just your ability to just, you know, let go of whatever the fuck happens. You know, let go of everything that has happened. And you know, start fresh and start new every single day and start fresh and start new after you missed a move right? Say to yourself every single day. I can be a consistently profitable trader. If I don’t get angry, if I don’t get emotional after I miss something Seeing if I’m not, you know, chasing a random stock because it went up. If I’m not, you know, just shooting bullets and fucking spraying everywhere like I got a gun, right? It’s stuff like that, that gets you on the right track and gets you profitable, right? You know, I know you, you have some some really, really, really good charts right?

Harry 35:23
So how did you do that? And how can you repeat that? Right? How do you get into situations like that? For some people that I know, it’s I’ve lost, the person has lost six times in a row and on the seventh time they’re like, You know what, fuck it, this is finally set up, I’m just holding it and they get that end of bigger trade. So how can you eliminate those five to six prior trades in order to get that seven big one and just make that seven big one your first trade? That type of stuff is what is what is allowed me? You know, I you know, it’s funny, I was thinking about this podcast reading Earlier, I talked to James before, and there was a stock that was setting up for me, I don’t know the name. And I you know, it rushed to a level and it got there too quick for me. So I said, You know what, this is a bit too quick for me, this stock needs to take a break before it can go higher. So it kind of faded off a little bit. And then it kind of grinded higher, and it got to the level the way that I wanted it to. So I started to take some I’m like, You know what, fuck it like this is what I want to see. This is I told myself what I wanted to see, I waited for it. And then I got paid for it. And that is my type of trading. That’s what I love. I want to see this, do this at this support line. And then I’ll be able to take the trade I self taught before take things all the time. Or also as long trader, I don’t think you’ll make it. I want to see this happen at this level. Or I’m out, right? I want to see break through this 25 level right away and get to 2520 2530. Right, that’s what I want to see. But if we struggle at 2510 25 Oh, wait, I’m taking the $25 off, right didn’t break that line with authority. So I’m myself about my selling. I’m talking to myself about my buying. And I’m saying what I want to see before I enter a trade and that is what, in my opinion, it’s just that self talk that self awareness that is really helping me a lot.

James 37:19
Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think that’s awesome. And I think I mean, we are coming up on our kind of our strong iPhone, we are coming up kind of on the time limit here. And, you know, I guess the last thing I just wanted to add for Joe would just be that, you know, I hit a point where I emotionally was just like, so stressed out about trading at one point, like early on, where I would look at myself in the mirror and be like, Yo, what are you fucking doing? Like, you know what it takes, like, we’re, you know, Harry and I like kind of gave you like some small blueprints and stuff and you know, it is up to you to follow but like it just it hit this point for me, I remember that I remember crying I remember thinking like, Dude, I can do this, like, I know I can. It’s just yourself getting in the way you’re just getting in your own way!

Joe 37:58
Years are so you know, are going on two years. And I know, I feel like I know what to do, I know what to do. And then I beat myself up over it. You know, big time you

James 38:10
Dude when I get on a trade or call with people and sometimes when they’re just they’re pitching, they’re crying like I can’t I’m struggling with this. And I just said dude, sometimes it takes really looking at yourself in the mirror and like, I used to be like, Dude, you’re I wouldn’t beat myself up kind of like not a bad way. But dude, if you can’t follow these guidelines, then this is not your career. So I had to take a step back and think like, do you want this to be a career? Yes or No? If the answer is yes, it’s time to kind of like man up like not up a little bit. Or woman I prefer a woman and follow the process that is laid out in front of you by other consistent, profitable traders. Because if you can’t, it’s gonna be a long hard journey. Right and like I love giving the tough the tough love because that’s that’s what I got from like Alex and bow to and like, you know, it’s just start kind of finding reasons to follow the process other than reasons to get mad at yourself, you know, it’s just, I think once you kind of eliminate those personal stuff and I know you can man I know you can do it, you know, you’re a smart guy seven nice level ahead. It’s just net from now on today on it’s time to eliminate that emotion and just like you Harry said, Man, that’s seven trade. You’re always looking for that next trade those six up to it, who the fuck cares? If it’s a good trade in the bedroom, whatever, but you’re always looking for that next one that’s gonna be gonna be the hitter. So, you know, maybe I would love to actually I think we should have Joe back on even like a month or two and let’s see kind of how you’re progressing from there. And yeah, I think that’d be really cool.

Joe 39:36
Cool. Yeah, I appreciate it guys, you know, I mean, like, you know, NYC has been just, you know, and you got you guys know, you know, a couple years or a year and a half ago, I went through, you know, kind of a personal life crisis thing. And and just the fact that the NIC community was there for me, especially you guys, you know, I and James on a day you know, You, you send them me, you know, a couple articles just to read. And that helped me out so much. But, but But beyond beyond all that, you know, it’s like, you know, I feel like I’ve, you know, like, I’m at that point where, you know, I started, you know, back back in, I think it was 2019. What when I joined April, and then the December before that have 1000 in my account, you know, and I grew up, I’ve grown it, I’ve grown it to 2024. I’m at 24 right now, and I know, that’s not a significant, you know, pace, but most people can do whatever, it’s a small pace, and it’s always, you know, going forward, but I think you obviously exactly what you’re saying, you know, I have to, you know, I really have to treat this like a job, you know, I have to, you know, I have to, I have to, you know, execute correctly, you know, and follow the process to a tee, you know, to get to get there. So, yeah, I would look forward to coming back on,

James 41:04
You know, yeah, then I’d love that.

Harry 41:06
I you know, I mean, a challenge for you, like, you know, so you’ve grown your account from, let’s say, eight grand to 22 grand. And one thing that you can do is that, you know, take take the trades that have made you the most money and DM them to me, right, you know, so my challenge for you, DM me, 10, trades, dates, entries, exits, you know, DME, your biggest 1020 trades and all go through them, and I’ll help you kind of make your process and, you know, I’ll tell you what I kind of see. And, you know, we can help kind of develop a process and kind of, and when we have you on in a month or two, you know, let let us know how it’s been going. And something that I’ll commit to I’ll say that all kind of help you develop that and we can kind of go over and then you know, we can talk about it and talk it over, you know, how’s that sound?

Joe 42:00
Hell. ya, this sounds awesome.

James 42:03
Great. I love it. It’s so awesome, man. I mean, that’s it. So we have a plan. Jesus, we have a nice quote for you, Joe. We’re gonna get you. Thanks, brother. Oh, yeah, man. So thank you again for coming on. And I honestly appreciate you being personal and letting people kind of into your journey. So thank you again, and we’ll look forward to having you on a second time.

Joe 42:21
Yeah, thank you guys too, man. Course. Yeah.

 

About the Author
117 posts
James F.

James Freedlender is a driven day trader and entrepreneur hailing from Boston. Since embarking on his trading journey in 2018, James has honed his skills and specialized in trading penny stocks, with a focus on longer time frame moves. His dedication and sharp instincts have contributed to his success in the competitive financial world. In addition to his day trading accomplishments, James is a thriving business owner, running a popular barbershop and collaborating with his family in the design and renovation of homes and businesses. His entrepreneurial spirit and keen eye for detail have paved the way for continued success in his various ventures. Outside of his professional pursuits, James is an avid golfer and hiking enthusiast, always eager to explore new trails and perfect his swing. His love for travel has taken him to many corners of the world, enriching his life experiences and providing inspiration for his work. A firm believer in giving back, James is passionate about helping others achieve their financial goals and guiding them on the path to success. His wealth of knowledge, combined with his dedication to uplifting others, makes James Freedlender a respected and admired figure in both his professional and personal life.