Trading Psychology & Mindset

The Loss Happened Before You Sold

One of the biggest mental traps in trading is thinking a loss is not real until you sell.

But that is not true.

If you bought a stock at $60 and it is now trading at $48, you already have the loss.

Selling does not create the loss.

Selling only converts the position back to cash.

The loss happened when the stock dropped.

This is where a lot of traders get trapped.

They say things like:

• “I do not want to take the loss.”

• “I will wait until I get back to breakeven.”

• “It cannot go much lower.”

But the market does not care where you bought.

The stock does not know your entry price.

And hope is not a strategy.

Every big loss started as a small paper loss.

That is the part traders need to fully understand.

A small paper loss is still a loss.

A large paper loss is still a loss.

The only difference is whether you are willing to admit it while the damage is still manageable.

One of the best questions you can ask yourself is:

If I did not already own this stock, would I buy it today?

If the answer is no, then why am I still holding it?

That question forces honesty.

Because once you are in a losing position, it becomes harder to think clearly. You start defending the stock. You start defending your original decision. You start looking for reasons to hold instead of objectively asking whether the trade still deserves your capital.

The professional does not wait for a paper loss to become a disaster.

The professional treats every loss as real, cuts it when the trade is no longer working, and moves back to cash where they can think clearly again.

That is how you stay in the game.

The Hidden Reason Your Trading Edge Isn’t Showing Up

Most traders do not actually know if their strategy works.

They think they do.

But they are not really measuring the strategy.

They are measuring the strategy mixed with fear, hesitation, boredom trades, oversized positions, early exits, skipped stops, revenge trades, and emotional decision-making.

That is a completely different system.

Van Tharp’s 95% discipline standard changed the way I think about reviewing trades.

• A good trade is not automatically a winning trade.

• A good trade is a trade where you followed your plan.

• A bad trade is not automatically a losing trade.

• A bad trade is a trade where you broke your rules.

That is exactly why I built the Performance Tracker inside the Momentum Trading Strategy App.

Because your brain can trick you in real time.

Your journal cannot.

Full post here: https://tradingmomentum.substack.com/p/your-trading-strategy-isnt-broken

The Money Trap That Keeps Traders Broke

Dr. Van Tharp said top traders believe “money is not important.” I pushed back on that for years. Now I think I finally understand what he meant.

At first, it sounds ridiculous.

Of course money matters.

It is why most of us started studying charts, reading Market Wizards, staying up late, taking losses, coming back, failing again, and trying again.

So when Tharp said great traders act like money is not important, I resisted it.

Hard.

Because when you read the Market Wizards books, plenty of elite traders seem to agree with him.

But plenty do not.

Some are brutally competitive. Some are clearly driven by money and say it openly. Some even say they do not believe people are not motivated by money.

And honestly, that justified my resistance.

It made me think:

“See? Money does matter. Drive matters. Competition matters.”

And I still believe that is true.

But here is the nuance.

Some traders can use money motivation without letting it sabotage them.

• They can want to win badly and still follow their rules.

• They can be aggressive and still respect risk.

• They can care about the scoreboard and still play the game correctly.

Most traders cannot do that right away.

Most traders turn money pressure into emotional pressure.

And emotional pressure turns into bad decisions.

The way I look at it now is this:

The need to make money cannot be in control of the trade.

Big difference.

When money pressure is driving the decision, the trader starts needing the market to do something.

And the second you need the market to do something, you stop seeing clearly.

• You hold losers because you need to be right.

• You sell winners because you need relief.

• You overtrade because you need action.

• You size too big because you need to catch up.

• You settle for poor setups because you are forcing action.

• You miss that the trade is not aligned across multiple timeframes.

• You miss low-risk setups that are staring you in the face because you are too emotionally attached to something else.

Sound familiar?

The best traders may be competitive.

Some are absolutely driven by money.

But the difference is they can perform under that drive without letting it hijack their execution.

Most traders cannot.

And that is not weakness.

It is feedback.

It is awareness.

Know thyself.

Start learning to treat trading like a lifelong game.

A game of process, risk, repetition, and emotional control.

When I stopped obsessing over the money, I started seeing the market cleaner.

• A loss became data.

• A bear market became opportunity.

• A missed trade became nothing.

• A correction became a reset.

• My execution got better because my mind got quieter.

I do not panic when the market corrects anymore.

I actually get excited for the next clean reset.

No drama.

That is when my performance greatly improved.

The paradox is this:

The trader who needs the money the least often trades in the way that makes the most money.

Money is just the scorecard.

A hitter in baseball who constantly checks his batting average usually struggles.

The hitter who focuses on seeing the right process gives himself the best chance to produce the average he wants.

Trading is the same.

The money matters, but it cannot be the thing making the decisions.

The Market Does Not Pay You for Being Right

Have you ever noticed how badly people want a high win rate trading strategy?

They want to be right.

They want to call the market correctly.

They want to post the perfect chart, nail the exact bottom, predict the breakout, and prove they saw it coming.

The easy answer is ego.

But I think it goes much deeper than that.

Most of us were trained from childhood to believe that being right is the goal.

In school, the kid who gets the most answers right gets the A.

The kid who gets the A gets praised.

The kid who gets the lower grade feels behind, embarrassed, or less capable.

So during some of the most formative years of our lives, we are conditioned to believe this:

More right answers equals more success.

But business, investing, and trading do not work that way.

In the real world, success often comes from being wrong over and over again, while making sure the few times you are right more than pay for the times you were wrong.

Look at Amazon.

The ideas everyone sees today are the winners.

But behind those winners were hundreds, maybe thousands, of tests, experiments, failed ideas, and things that never worked.

The public sees the outcome.

They do not see the graveyard of failed attempts that made the outcome possible.

The same thing happens in venture capital.

Some of the best investors in the world can be wrong on most of their investments.

They know many startups will fail.

They know some will go nowhere.

They also know they do not need to be right on all of them.

They just need the few big winners to pay for everything else.

That is the part most traders never fully absorb.

You do not need to be right all the time.

You need a positive expectancy.

You need risk management.

You need asymmetry.

You need the emotional ability to take a loss without turning it into an identity crisis.

And that is where most people struggle.

Because they are not just fighting the market.

They are fighting years of subconscious programming that says being wrong equals failure.

But in trading, being wrong is not failure.

Being wrong is data.

Being wrong is feedback.

Being wrong is part of the cost of finding the few trades that actually matter.

A baseball player can strike out most of the time and still be one of the best hitters in the world.

A venture investor can miss on most companies and still build a legendary track record.

A trader can have a 35% or 40% win rate and still compound capital if the winners are meaningfully larger than the losers.

But to accept that, you have to think differently.

You have to stop needing every trade idea to validate your intelligence.

You have to stop needing the market to prove you were right.

You have to stop treating every stopped-out trade like a personal insult.

This is why trading psychology matters.

This is why risk management matters.

This is why expectancy matters.

Because the market does not reward the person who needs to be right.

It rewards the person who can be wrong small, stay emotionally neutral, and keep showing up for the few big opportunities that pay for everything.

Most people are not missing the “secret” trading strategy.

They are missing the mindset required to actually follow one.

The hardest part is not finding a setup.

The hardest part is becoming the kind of person who can take losses without falling apart, stay patient without forcing trades, and let the math work without needing constant emotional validation.

That is why low win rate trading strategies are so hard for most people.

Not because they do not work.

But because they require you to unlearn the belief that being right is the same thing as being successful.

In trading, the goal is not to be right.

The goal is to make money when you are right and survive when you are wrong.

The $1,000 Car Payment Is Keeping People Poor

A lot of people complain about money while living paycheck to paycheck.

And I’m not talking about people in poverty.

I’m talking about middle-class and upper-middle-class Americans making good incomes while driving $100,000 vehicles, fully loaded Suburbans, Escalades, Mercedes, BMWs, Audis, and other status symbols they can barely justify.

They make money.

Just not enough money to support the lifestyle they are trying to maintain.

That is the trap.

So many people are stuck in the materialistic rat race of keeping up with the Joneses and because so much of society does it, it feels normal.

But normal does not mean sustainable.

How many of those same people have millions saved by their 40s or 50s?

Not many.

The problem is not always income.

The problem is that every time income goes up, liabilities go up with it.

Bigger house.

Bigger car.

Bigger payment.

Bigger lifestyle.

Same financial stress.

Now look at the chart.

$1,000 invested every month into QQQ over this 25-year period would have required $300,000 in total contributions.

That is not some impossible number.

That is the equivalent of a luxury car payment redirected into ownership instead of consumption.

The result?

Roughly $3 million.

The person who chose the car has a depreciating asset.

The person who chose discipline has a life-changing portfolio.

Past returns do not guarantee future results, and QQQ may not repeat this exact return.

BUT that is not the main point.

The point is that consistently buying productive assets beats consistently financing depreciating assets.

I’m a momentum growth trader. I own businesses that generate income. I do not rely only on passive index investing.

But even I deeply respect the power of compounding like this over time.

Even William O’Neil, long before ETFs became mainstream, understood that mutual funds could be a powerful vehicle for long-term growth when held over years.

Most people do not need a complicated strategy to change their financial future.

They need discipline.

Live on 80% of what you make.

Save and invest 20%. (yes, the 80/20 rule)

At a minimum, pay yourself first with 10% every month.

As you make more, save more.

But most people do the opposite.

They make more and add more liabilities.

That is the never-ending rat race.

Most Traders Wait Until It Feels Safe. That’s Why They Miss the Move.

The best market opportunities rarely feel comfortable.

They usually show up when the headlines are scary, social media is bearish, your gut feels uncertain, and every “smart” person has a reason why the market should go lower.

That is exactly what happened back around April 8.

The market had broken down after a multi-month Stage 3. The Nasdaq 100 was below key moving averages. Breadth was horrible. Net new lows were greatly outpacing net new highs. Most traders were scared, and bearish.

Then the market established a low and started moving higher.

For shorter-term swing traders, the early signal may have been price reclaiming the 10-day and 20-day moving averages.

For longer-term traders, the more important signal may have been price reclaiming the 50-day and 200-day moving averages.

The timeframe can be different.

The signal can be different.

But the principle is the same:

When the market starts improving after fear has already been priced in, those are often some of the best low-risk, high-reward areas to begin making pilot buys.

Not full exposure.

Not reckless buying.

Not blindly calling a bottom.

Just controlled, risk-defined entries when the evidence starts to shift.

Even if you waited until the big gap-up day on April 8, there were still a few days, April 8, April 9, and April 10, where traders had a chance to start getting back involved before the market stormed higher again.

But most people did nothing.

They were paralyzed by fear.

They had reasons.

Geopolitics.

Headlines.

Failed ceasefires.

Recession talk and AI driven job losses.

Inflation and supply chain disruptions.

Social media panic.

Very intelligent analysis explaining why they should stay out.

But the market does not pay you for having intelligent reasons to be scared.

It pays you for understanding risk and reward.

In that area, a trader could have entered with a defined stop around the 50-day or 200-day moving average, risking roughly 2% or less depending on the entry.

From there, the market has already moved roughly 11%.

That is more than five times the risk.

That is the entire point.

You do not need to know the future.

You need a repeatable strategy where the upside is meaningfully larger than the downside.

Even if you are wrong several times, one good trade can pay for the small losses and still leave you profitable.

That is why beginners struggle.

At the exact moment they should be testing the market again, they are frozen.

By the time they finally feel safe, the low-risk entry is gone.

Learn a strategy that has worked for decades.

Study price.

Study how markets move.

Study risk/reward.

Study the greats.

Then follow the process when it matters most.

One final point:

Yes, instinct matters.

Some of the best traders in history developed a real feel for the market and the tape.

But if you are new, your instincts are probably not market intuition yet.

They are fear, recency bias, and emotional self-protection.

Real instinct is earned through thousands of hours, repetition, losses, corrections, and experience.

Until then, trust the process more than your feelings.

That is how you stop reacting like the crowd.

That is how you start thinking like a professional.

This is what we study inside Momentum Trading Strategy.

Euphoria Is as Dangerous as Fear

Richard Dennis was asked in Market Wizards:

“So you are able to avoid the emotional trap?”

His answer was gold:

“Yes, but the flip side is that I also avoid the emotional elation when things are going well. There is no way to play just one side of that street. If you feel too good when things are going well, then inevitably you will feel too bad when they are going poorly. I wouldn’t claim that I realized that after three years of trading, but after you’ve done it for twenty years, it either drives you crazy, or you learn to put it into perspective.”

-Richard Dennis

Most traders think managing emotions only matters when they are losing, but it matters just as much when you are winning.

Get too high during the good streaks, and the market will humble you.

New System Will Not Fix Bad Discipline

If you are a newer trader, this is one of the most important things you will read.

It is not fancy. It is not some secret indicator, but many of us took years to understand it, and I wish I had learned it sooner.

A lot of traders study CANSLIM, O’Neil, Minervini, Darvas, and other great growth traders, then jump in before they have the full foundation.

They know what a breakout looks like. They can spot relative strength. They understand the idea of buying leaders.

But they have not mastered the part that keeps you alive.

Position sizing. Risk management. Cutting losses. Managing winners. Knowing when to press and when to back off.

That is where the damage happens.

They take a loss that is too big. They sell a winner too soon. They chase. They ignore stops. They slowly bleed through death by a thousand cuts.

Then they say, “This strategy does not work.”

Or maybe deep down they know it works. They just know they cannot follow the rules.

So they go looking for a new system.

More indicators. More signals. More backtests. More automation.

They think removing discretion will remove emotion.

But even systematic traders need discipline.

Ed Seykota and Richard Dennis did not succeed because their systems replaced discipline. They succeeded because they had enormous discipline.

Seykota could have written a book focused only on coding, backtesting, optimization, or the exact mechanics of trend following. Instead, his major standalone book is about trading psychology.

That alone tells you something.

The system is not usually the hard part. Following it is.

And it is no coincidence that Richard Dennis is often credited with the idea that you could publish trading rules in the newspaper and most people still would not follow them.

Why?

Because the real key is consistency and discipline.

The system fit their personality, but they still had to follow it.

That is the part traders miss.

A systematic approach can work. A discretionary approach can work. CANSLIM can work. Trend following can work.

But none of them work if you cannot follow the rules.

Most of the time, the system is not the real problem. The trader’s behavior is.

How do I know?

Because I have made these mistakes myself, and after years around other traders, I have seen the same patterns repeat over and over.

The root issue is usually simple.

Traders are trying to make too much money too fast. They size too big. They get emotional. Then they blame the strategy when they cannot execute it.

They are not willing to put in the time and effort required to get the results they want, so they drift into gambling.

Maybe not consciously.

But that is what it becomes.

I am not here to tell you what you want to hear. I am here to tell you what you need to hear.

If your position is too large, your rules will feel impossible to follow.

That does not mean the strategy is broken.

It means the risk is too big.

And this is not something you outgrow.

Highly skilled traders still define risk, control exposure, and respect the fact that any trade can fail.

That is the entire point of position sizing.

It keeps you in the game long enough for your system to work.

This is why I created the Momentum Trading Strategy Course.

This is not one trader’s strategy. It is a collection of principles pulled from hundreds of profitable traders, legendary operators, and real market experience.

I am just trying to consolidate it into one place in hopes of saving some traders from wasting the same years many of us wasted before we found the way.

And even if you do not learn from me, maybe I can point you toward other great educators teaching the same principles in a way that finally clicks for you.

The answer is not always to find a new system.

Sometimes the answer is to become the type of trader who can actually follow one.

The Chart Said Yes. The Process Said No

This is exactly the type of setup I look for.

Strong move up. Tight flag/pennant pattern. Volume low in the pullback, then came in at the close.

Everything about this chart was actionable.

But I still said no.

Why?

Because earnings were after the close.

This is where discipline matters most.

Not when the setup is messy. Not when the market is unclear.

But when everything looks perfect… except for one thing.

“Never trade in situations where you don’t have control. For example, I don’t risk significant amounts of money in front of key reports, since that is gambling, not trading.” — Paul Tudor Jones

I wanted to take this trade today.

But that is not part of my process.

The moment you start bending your rules for a “perfect” setup is the moment you start to lose consistency.

Earnings remove control.

Intel can gap up 20%.

It can also gap down 20%.

That’s not trading.

That’s gambling.

There’s No Escaping Pain If You Want to Grow

Everyone wants the result.

Nobody wants the process.

You want to get in great shape? You’re going to feel it.

Lifting. Cardio. Discipline. Saying no to junk food when it’s right in front of you.

That’s pain.

Business is no different.

The ones who make it aren’t the smartest. They’re the ones who don’t quit when it gets hard.

Growth hurts. Always has.

And trading?

Trading might be the most painful of all.

There’s not a single trader I’ve studied or met who made it… without going through it.

Losses. Doubt. Frustration. Blown accounts. Questioning everything.

But here’s the part most people miss:

A lot of the pain is self-inflicted.

If you sized positions correctly… If you accepted losses as part of the game… If you stopped tying your identity to outcomes…

You’d still have pain.

But it would be a lot less, and it wouldn’t break you.

That’s why two traders can go through the same market…

One is calm. Focused. Process-driven. The other is emotional. Reactive. All over the place.

Same environment. Different mindset.

Like Viktor Frankl wrote in Man’s Search for Meaning:

Suffering is unavoidable. But how you respond to it is a choice.

Most people spend their lives trying to avoid discomfort.

They quit when it gets hard. They tell themselves stories:

“The market is rigged.” “This isn’t for me.” “No one actually makes it.”

It’s easier than facing the truth.

They just didn’t push through.

If you want this…

You have to embrace the uncomfortable.

Take responsibility. Learn from every mistake. Stop making excuses.

No blaming capital. No blaming time. No blaming your situation.

The knowledge is out there.

The edge is out there.

The only question is:

Are you willing to go through the pain long enough to earn it?

Because on the other side…

The reward is worth far more than the pain it took to get there.

He Won 3 Years in a Row… Then Broke the Only Rule That Matters

Everyone talks about David Ryan and his three U.S. Investing Championship wins.

But almost nobody asks what happened next.

He came back the fourth year.

And something changed.

Not his knowledge. Not his skill. Not his experience.

His focus.

He put pressure on himself to perform again. Started thinking about results instead of process. Took larger position sizes than normal. Deviated from what made him successful in the first place.

Two big losses later…

He finished the year flat.

That’s one of the most important lessons in trading.

Even the best can fall off their process.

Not because they forgot how to trade…

But because they stopped doing what works.

This is where most traders get it wrong.

They think success comes from finding better setups, better indicators, better entries.

It doesn’t.

It comes from doing the same things… over and over… with discipline.

Position sizing correctly. Managing risk. Following your system.

That’s it.

The moment you start focusing on outcomes…

You start forcing trades. You size too big. You break your rules.

And the edge disappears.

This is the paradox of trading:

If you focus on the process, you usually get the results.

If you focus on the results, you almost guarantee you won’t.

Ryan didn’t lose his edge.

He just stopped following it.

After that, he went back to his process. Back to proper sizing. Back to discipline.

And the next year?

He finished 2nd.

Most “Smart” Content Is a Complete Waste of Your Time

Most content you’re consuming isn’t making you better.

It’s just making you feel like you’re learning.

I saw a post recently about taxes. Tons of likes. Tons of comments. Catchy title. Even got me to click and read.

It went deep into the history of taxes… why the system is broken… why it’s unfair.

And at the end?

Nothing.

No actual strategies. No actionable takeaways. No way to pay less in taxes.

Just… entertainment disguised as intelligence.

Most people hear things like:

“The rich don’t pay taxes.”

And their reaction is to complain.

Mine was different.

I thought: “How are they doing that?”

So I went and figured it out.

I started treating taxes like a game… How can I legally structure my life and businesses to pay as little as possible?

Same system. Different mindset.

And trading is no different.

Most people say:

“The market is rigged.”

“Algos are hunting stops.”

“Insiders have the advantage.”

Maybe that’s true.

But again… my reaction was different.

Instead of complaining, I picked up Market Wizards and asked:

“What are the people who actually win doing?”

Then I went to work trying to do exactly that.

You have two choices:

1. Become an expert at complaining

2. Become an expert at operating within reality

You’re probably not changing the tax code.

You’re probably not changing how markets operate.

But you can change how you play the game.

The people who win:

• Learn the rules

• Study what works

• Apply it consistently

Same with taxes. Same with trading. Same with life.

You can fight the system…

Or you can learn how to benefit from it.

Most people choose to complain, which doesn’t do anything.

That’s why most people stay stuck.

Trading Isn’t Easy… But It’s Worth It

Stop wasting time chasing get-rich-quick schemes or thinking you’ll find some magical indicator that makes you rich overnight.

Most people want trading to be simple.

Quick wins. Easy money. A few indicators and they’re set.

That’s not how this works.

Dan Zanger said it best:

“I love it… I wouldn’t trade it in for the world. Every day is new. It’s exciting… but it takes years and years of learning, hard work, long hours… a lot of ups and downs before you can put it all together.”

That’s the reality.

Not weeks. Not months.

Years.

Long days. Mistakes. Losses. Frustration.

And this is where most people go wrong.

They waste time and money chasing shortcuts that don’t exist.

Every legendary trader says the same thing…

But you still think you’re going to be the one who finds the easy way.

The indicator. The system. The hack.

Something that prints money without the work.

It doesn’t exist.

And most people learn that the hard way.

Here’s the truth:

It’s not about adding more.

It’s about stripping everything down.

Zanger again:

“Get rid of all the stupid indicators out there… all this MACD stuff and volume accumulation and money flow. I don’t use any of it. It’s totally worthless. It’s price action, it’s volume, it’s chart patterns, it’s spectacular earnings… and that’s all.”

No shortcuts.

No magic formula.

Just:

• Price

• Volume

• Chart patterns

• Earnings & Sales

And years of experience applying it.

If you’re struggling right now…

Good.

That means you’re in the part most people quit in.

The difference is simple:

Stay long enough to figure it out.

Trade Less. Make More.

Most traders don’t lose because they miss opportunities…

They lose because they trade too often.

Back in 2005, Dan Zanger was asked his biggest lesson. He said:

“The market may have two big moves during the year… they last 6 to 12 weeks. The rest of the time, the market is just consolidating the gains… the big lesson for me has been to trade less.”

Two real opportunities a year.

The rest? Noise.

And this isn’t coming from a long-term investor.

This is coming from a swing trader who compounds through frequency… not just time.

A guy who turned $18K into over $18 million.

He understood something most traders don’t:

It’s not always time to press.

It’s time to wait for the conditions to press hard.

Yet most traders are in the market every day… forcing trades… giving it all back.

The play is simple:

• Wait for good market conditions

• Focus on a few true leaders

• Ride the move

• Then go to cash and wait again

Trade less.

Wait for the real move.

Then press.

Stop Marrying Your Bias

“I can be long in the morning and short in the afternoon.”

— Paul Tudor Jones

The best traders are not loyal to a direction.

They are loyal to price.

If you cannot flip when conditions change, you are not trading.

You are hoping.

Most Traders Get This Backwards

They get bullish at the top

And bearish at the bottom

That’s why they lose.

Warren Buffett said it best:

“Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”

Most people hear that and think it only applies to value investing.

It doesn’t.

It applies to trend following.

It applies to growth stocks.

It applies to momentum.

When fear is high, leaders are quietly setting up.

When greed is everywhere, risk is at its highest.

The crowd chases emotion.

Professionals follow process.

If you can train yourself to do the opposite of what feels comfortable…

You’re already ahead of 90% of traders.

Struggling Right Now? Good.

If you just started trading around October or November…

During this choppy, sideways Stage 3 environment and recent decline…

I know it feels frustrating.

But you’re actually lucky.

One of the worst things that can happen to a new trader…

Is beginner’s luck.

After COVID in 2020–2021, a lot of traders made life-changing money.

And then gave it all back in 2022.

Explosive bull markets feel great…

But they teach bad habits.

They build overconfidence.

They prevent you from actually learning how to trade.

So if you’ve been struggling…

Don’t wish for easier conditions.

Be grateful.

Because you’re being forced to learn this the right way.

It’s a lot less painful to struggle early…

Than to make life-changing money…

And watch it all disappear.

Learn the process now.

Put in the work.

So that story isn’t yours.

You Don’t Believe It… Until You See It

David Ryan said it best:

“You become a believer once you actually see it work in your own account.”

That’s the key.

Not paper trading. Not watching others. Not collecting tips.

Your account.

So stop overthinking it.

Start small. So small you’re completely fine losing it.

Then do one thing:

Follow the system. 100%. No exceptions.

Only trade:

• Stage 2 uptrends

• High relative strength names

• Big earnings

• Big sales

• Strong ROE and/or margins

• Leading industry groups

• Proper buy points and proper stops

• No shortcuts. No rule-breaking.

Because once you see it work…

Everything changes.

You stop looking for tips. You start trusting the process.

And from there…

You no longer need validation. You trust your system.

That’s when you start making life-changing returns…

and actually keep them.

That’s the goal.

To get you to the point where you don’t need anyone for stock picks…

You have the skillset to find them yourself.

That’s why I built the course.

Not to give you fish…

But to teach you how to find them on your own, over and over again.

https://tradingmomentum.substack.com/p/momentum-trading-strategy-the-100

“You’re Chasing a Pipe Dream.”

Mark Minervini said it perfectly in a Q&A:

He’d rather chase a dream than chase a job.

Think about that.

Every great trader, athlete, or entrepreneur…

Was told the same thing at some point.

Elon Musk heard it with Tesla and SpaceX.

Even early on, legends like Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan were skeptical that commercial space companies could achieve what they were claiming.

Now look where we are.

If you’re not chasing something that sounds unrealistic to other people…

You’re probably not aiming high enough.

Most people don’t fail because they chase dreams.

They fail because they listen to people who never chased one.

Why Smart People Fail at Trading (And What Steve Cohen Looks For Instead)

One of the most important traits in trading has nothing to do with intelligence.

It’s risk.

Steve Cohen said it best:

“I’m looking for people who are not afraid to take risks.”

That’s it.

Not the smartest. Not the most educated.

The ones willing to take risk.

And he doubled down on it when talking about why some people never make it:

“…he refuses to make his own decisions.”

That’s the difference.

And it’s exactly why so many brilliant people fail in this game.

They can analyze. They can break down data. They can build models.

But when it’s time to act?

They hesitate. They freeze or they don’t take the trade at all.

Because trading isn’t about knowing.

It’s about doing.

Great traders aren’t just thinkers…

They’re decision makers.

They’re comfortable putting capital at risk. They trust themselves. They act when it matters.

That’s leadership.

And that’s where most people fall short.

They approach trading like employees.

Looking for confirmation. Looking for permission. Looking for someone to tell them what to do.

That doesn’t work here.

In trading, you are the decision maker.

You have to own it.

Now this doesn’t mean reckless risk.

It’s not about gambling or going all in.

It’s calculated risk.

Defined risk. Position sizing. A plan.

But at some point, you still have to pull the trigger.

That’s the line that separates traders from everyone else.

You can teach strategy. You can teach setups. You can teach risk management.

But you can’t force someone to act under pressure if they don’t want to.