Unspoken keys to trading success

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• 0:00Speaker 00

  What do you think the number one indicator is that you're gonna have success as a trader? However you define success, what do you think it is? You think it's your P and L? Do you think it's the timeframe? Do you think it's the instrument? You think it's the... Did I say holding period? I can't remember. So, I get this question a lot. Hi, everybody, I'm Michael Martin. Thanks for being here. And I think the number one aspect or character trait that would be like a leading indicator to your success is can you behave consistently? Right? And I get a lot of emails from folks asking about this.

• 0:42Speaker 00

  And this week, we're gonna talk about the things that aren't spoken about enough in trading. Because a lot of people wanna talk about, "Show me chart patterns," all this and that. And my take is, there's too much chart patterns out there. And there's too much chart analysis on YouTube, right? You could cut it by 90%, and you'd still have too much. You know, you have to be consistent before you can become prolific. And I think that's true in anything in life, right? So, go back in your life and say, "Where have you behaved consistently before?" Now, if you have trouble with that and trouble finding that, just be mindful that this might be really new for you. And the idea that you're gonna become a successful trader

• 1:25Speaker 00

  without having consistency in your behavior anywhere else in your life, I think it's an uphill battle for you. It doesn't mean you can't develop it, but it might be, it might mean that you're gonna be developing it for the first time in your life. And that means, if you're on a diet, you don't cheat. And if you quit smoking, you don't, "Oh, I just smoke when I drink." Now, when you diet, sure, you can have a cheat meal. Some people have a cheat day, that's kinda built in. But in my experience, it's better to have very, like, teetotaler kind of discipline around that. And so, when I start speaking with prospective clients, we start talking about consistency.

• 2:08Speaker 00

  One of the things I ask, just to manage their expectations, is, "Well, where have you shown consistency in anything else in your life? Are you 15 minutes late for everything?" I guess that's consistency, right? You know, do you, do you finish projects on time? Do you do what you say? Or are you a bullshit artist? You know, because all that matters. It all comes deep, you know, from your upbringing, which usually means your parents or whoever your nuclear family was, you know, or wasn't. A lot of families out there in certain communities don't have a full nuclear family. So, you have to look at that as well. So, again, consistency before you become prolific.

• 2:50Speaker 00

  And that's why, again, I studied, that's why I paint. That's why I do, you know, I still can play guitar since I was, you know, a young boy. That's why I do jiu-jitsu, is I wanna constantly exercise that muscle, you know, of putting in the work and having the discipline. Because to me, then, that, the discipline, leads to the consistency. And there are days I just don't wanna do it. There's days where I just don't feel like making a mess. I got plastic wrap and, and drop cloths everywhere. I have an enormous amount of material. And there's days where I'm just not feeling the creative spark. But I follow, like, I don't think it was maybe Stephen King,

• 3:33Speaker 00

  the author, who said, "Doesn't matter what you're feeling. You sit down in front of the typewriter, the word processor, the keyboard, whatever it is, and you, you know, you type from 9:00 to 10:00 in the morning. Doesn't matter what comes out. Just be in the practice of creating." You know, and so, you know, you do that. And that's the consistency, that's the discipline. Doesn't matter how you feel, you do it anyway. You know? Again, if it sucks, good. Because that's you doing the hard thing that most other people can't do. I'm certain that a good chunk of my ever getting promoted through the belts in jiu-jitsu was largely because of my attendance. I don't know that I'm any good.

• 4:15Speaker 00

  I know that there are probably really good purple belts at my school that can beat me with a black belt. And so, but the point is, is that you're graded on your own effort according to your own, you know, strengths and weaknesses. So, when you think about chart reading, what the hell does chart reading matter if you can't do anything from one week to the next consistently? Don't kid yourself, right? Now, I was broke, I told you this, when I was starting. So, I had a great motivation to not wanna have to go back and wait tables while I was working on Wall Street, you know, to complement my income.

• 4:57Speaker 00

  I had every reason and every motivation to wanna win. So, you have to find what that is inside of you. But chart patterns are the least of your concerns if you can't be consistent, right? Go back and watch some of the episodes from last week. And I talked about, you know, where is it? I'm gonna find it right here. It was, "Iteration is the key to your, is the key to discovery." This is where we talked about being in the simulator. And the great thing about the simulator is that it's not costing you any real money. But you do get to put all your ideas to work to see how you would do. You might not like the results, but at least it's not costing you money, right? And you get to actually test and check in every day and say, "Okay, I'm gonna go give it my best.

• 5:42Speaker 00

  And if nothing else, I'm certainly gonna learn a lot. And then I'll be able to evolve." And there's nothing wrong with that. Evolution is a good thing, because it's gonna happen anyway. The market's gonna change and evolve whether you like it or not. Right? So, so, to me, do you wanna be a scalper of MNQ? Awesome, go do it. You wanna be a position trader of just components of the Dow? Knock yourself out. You wanna trade old crop, new crop, you know, or intra-commodity spreads in futures? The world, the world is waiting for you. There's a lot of liquidity in those.

• 6:21Speaker 00

  You know, you wanna sell SPX puts, three standard deviations out of the money for a living. It's all legit. But the question is, can you do that day after day after day, week after week after week? Right? The hardest part for me in getting, you know, a black belt is... Because the other stuff is subjective, right? The painting is subjective, the guitar playing is subjective. I've played for a long time. But what constitutes good, who cares, really? The idea is to be musical, right? That's the idea. It doesn't matter who you studied with. And I've had really famous teachers, I've had unknown teachers, and they were very, very good.

• 7:06Speaker 00

  So, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter who your, who your role model is. I would be, I'll speak for myself. I would be a phony if I had these role models, but I wasn't able to put the stuff to work and do it, right? Otherwise, you're just talking smack. And I think you know kinda when you're BSing yourself. So, to me, that's why I said last week as well, in, in a certain episode... Or maybe it was, it was published on the first. It's called "Narrow Your Focus to Speed Your Progress." Guys especially wanna get there tomorrow. Like, they wanna get it all done, have it done. They want the, the sense of security. They wanna remove the uncertainty.

• 7:51Speaker 00

  And I can share with you, after, you know, going on almost 40 years, the uncertainty never goes away. Even when you think you know what you're doing, and even when you act consistently, because you can't predict what's gonna happen tomorrow. The best you can do is know what your edge is, you know, what your expected value is, and then kinda stick with it. As you get older and better and more mature, you learn to adjust position size, you know, perhaps for, for different market regimes. But that's much more sophisticated for a newer trader to kinda learn. You know, simplify for one setup or one trade or one chart pattern and go from there. I wouldn't try to set up six different patterns and try to trade them all, because it's overwhelming.

• 8:36Speaker 00

  And it's hard to do six things consistently when you can't even do one thing consistently in your life. So, start with something that's bite-sized, especially if your life's been erratic and you have had a lot of, you know, crazy things going on. You know, focus on trying to set yourself up to win the best way you possibly can without making the whole thing overwhelming. Because the majority of people that reach out to me for help are trying to do too much. And I don't even have to charge them any money. I'm just like, "You need to calm down. You need, your, your workday is too junked up with stuff that doesn't matter, that's never gonna make you any money, and you're spinning your wheels." So, reclaim your power, reclaim your time, focus on doing one thing very, very well,

• 9:20Speaker 00

  and then, you know, kinda knock yourself out that way. But don't, you know, put yourself in a spot where you're on overwhelm and you have too many things going on at the same time. It's very difficult to execute and build consistency across six, you know, three, four, five different things, different setups, A, A+, A, B, C, D. Forget that. Find one setup or chart pattern that really resonates with you and trade that and get really good on that, on the simulator. And then, once you, and once you build the confidence, then to me, you're much more close to becoming unstoppable and then being able to execute day after day after day. And then you can build on that, right?

• 10:04Speaker 00

  Then you can become more prolific. So, in order to build any type of ability, I think you have to have the consistency first. More, more important than any particular chart pattern or this and that. Okay? Anyway, I appreciate all your comments and questions. Please like and subscribe, and I'll see you tomorrow.