Day Trading: How To Start From ZERO (Beginner's Guide)

[Music]

in today's episode I'm going to teach

you how I would begin trading if I were

starting over today from zero now this

is actually a question that a lot of

Traders ask me they'll say Ross if

you're starting over as a beginner how

would you ensure that you made your way

to trading with consistency and

confidence without blowing up your

account we know the majority of Traders

lose money so is the N9 out of 10

traders who lose is it is it just the

luck of the draw that some succeed and

others lose or is it that the 10% who

succeed are doing some specific things

differently from the rest I'm in a very

unique position here as the head of

warrior trading and by putting all this

content here on YouTube where I'm able

to see the comments from traders who are

both very successful and from those who

struggle in fact I've been able to

aggregate all of what I think are the

causes of failure down to two very

specific reasons that people will lose

money in today's episode I'm going to

share those reasons with you and I'm

also going to share the seven steps that

I would take if I were starting over

today okay so the first step is

understanding The Phases so Step One is

phases I want to understand the phases

of learning how to trade most beginner

Traders go through a learning curve that

looks a lot like this there's a period

of what I would call a little bit of

beginners luck where they make a little

bit of money maybe you put $1,000 in the

account and you end up going up to 1,500

or something like that but then

inevitably there's reality reality sets

in and you end up drawing the account

down maybe you draw it all the way down

to 200 bucks who knows maybe you even go

negative and you have to add more money

into the account to keep it above zero

so you keep adding money and adding

money whatever the case is this is sort

of that early phase one and this is

where the market is extremely humbling

you're going to learn all the things

that you don't know about trading you

don't know how to use level two you

don't know how to read Candlestick

charts you don't know how to choose the

strong stocks to trade you don't know

how to use hot Keys you don't understand

the market makers it's this that and the

other thing and you feel overwhelmed and

for some people this is where they bow

out they say you know what this is not

for me I'm out of here so if we did a a

graph here we'll do it in a different

color this is 100% of traders who begin

on day one and now we're going to start

tracking the drop off so probably right

in here you've already lost 20 % of all

the possible Traders they've given up

there so now you're down to 80% and this

is I'm just speculating but this is

where people are just giving up they're

like you know what I've been doing this

for this period of time phase one I'm

done I'm out of here so they don't ever

move forward to phase two phase two is a

critical and very interesting period

where you are a break even Trader being

a break even Trader is highly underrated

now I understand you're thinking I

didn't spend all this time time studying

the markets and learning to trade just

to be Break Even but break even means

you're treading water and if you're

trying to learn how to swim what's the

first step it's keeping your head above

water so if you can tread water if you

can hold your own that is a really big

indicator that you're building a

foundation because what it shows is that

you're able to make money but what's

most likely happening is every few weeks

maybe even once a week you're giving

back what you make so how many of you

have experienced that you have three

four nice days and you give it all back

in one bad day three four nice days and

you give it all back in one day that's

that break even phase and even if you're

in that phase but you're slightly

negative you're losing a little bit more

than you're making so you're kind of

still losing you're proving during this

period that you actually do know how to

make money because on the days you're

green obviously something is working so

this is phase two it's where I would say

you're a break even Trader phase three

is when you begin to pull away you start

essentially having having longer

stretches of green days before these red

days and your your p&l just starts to

slowly move higher it's not anything

crazy but it's moving higher then you

have what I would call phase four P4 and

that is your first real draw down after

having some success you have a little

bit of success and then you begin to

lose a little bit of money so let's say

you start with $1,000 you drop down to

200 you made your way back up to, 1500

and then you drop back down to 1,000 and

this is the point again where through

this are you'll have more people that

drop out maybe now you're down to 50% of

Traders maybe even less who knows right

we've lost a lot of Traders along the

way just through this period of time

because it's taking time and you're not

seeing immediate results the thing

that's frustrating about trading is that

the results come over time they don't

come right away you have to spend time

paying your does gaining educated

intuition learning the fundamentals of

how the market works the basic knowledge

so if you don't understand the phases

you're much more likely to give up early

because all you see is well I'm just

losing and you have nothing to picture

you don't have any kind of vision of

where this could go if it gets better

you're probably just visualizing it's

just going to keep getting worse but

recovering from your first draw down so

we have our first draw down here and

recovering from that first draw down is

a massive important moment because once

you've recovered from that first draw

down you now are beginning to to do what

I would call stair stepping up you have

some pullbacks and you'll keep moving

higher and you're now on your way to

long-term consistency you didn't know at

this point right here that that was your

Turning Point you'll only know that in

hindsight once you've kind of had this

push higher you've pulled back and then

you've recovered so this is the area

where I'm really interested in helping

you guys because a lot of you are still

in P1 if you've even started trading

you're still at the very beginning where

you maybe have had a little beginner's

luck or that luck is running out and

you're right here I want to help you go

to the next phase so if it's from P1 to

P2 or P2 to P3 I want to help you make

that transition so the first step of

learning how to trade is understanding

and recognizing these five phases P1

through P5 the five phases because by

understanding The Phases you can better

identify with where you're at in your

current journey and once you understand

where you're at you have some kind

context of where you're going this is

the problem for a lot of beginner

Traders when they jump into the market

and they just start losing money they

get frustrated they get deflated and

they give up and it's not necessarily

that they lose a lot of money they just

lose enough where they're like this

isn't worth my time so 6 eight weeks you

know two months three months later

they're like I'm done I'm giving up and

you know what some of those Traders

probably had the potential to become

very successful if they had had the

vision of understanding what this

learning curve actually looks like

there's so many people out there that

say you can learn how to trade in 14

days do this follow this boom boom

you're done and it's not like that so I

really encourage you to think of trading

as a marathon not a Sprint so you're

going to have periods in this Marathon

that are very difficult but you're also

going to have periods where you start to

feel like you're really gaining momentum

and you've got a little bit of a

tailwind and all you have to do right

now is maintain discipline and hold your

course okay so step one is understanding

the phases of trading step two is

understanding just the general concept

of how trading Works uh so this is what

I would call um the education phase so

this is where you're gaining education

now I actually um just this week I went

up to Vermont to visit an old friend I

haven't seen him since we couldn't

remember if it was 2007 or 2008 so 15

years was the last time I saw this

friend he was my best friend friend when

we were growing up he lives in

California now but he came home to

Vermont cuz he wanted to see his old

neighborhood so I drove up uh to visit

with him and as we were sitting talking

he was asking me about the trading stuff

and I thought man I wish I was recording

this right now cuz the questions that he

was asking and the conversation it was

perfect for a beginner aspiring Trader

and so what I want to do is I want to

kind of give you the chance to listen in

on that conversation and so he was

asking me questions like um like Ross

high level what is it that you do like I

don't even really understand it and so I

explain that as an active Trader what I

am essentially doing each day is I'm

looking for stocks that have volatility

I'm looking for stocks that are moving

quickly that have the potential to move

quickly and I explained to him that

typically you know why would a stock go

up 30% or 50% in one day it's because it

has breaking news so what active Traders

are doing is we're trading volatility in

the market and it's typically associated

with these breaking news catalysts now

during really hot markets we'll find

that we'll get heightened volatility

even when the Catalyst isn't clear like

what we saw during GameStop and with all

the meme stocks some stocks start just

going up because Traders are jumping on

it and that in a sense becomes its own

Catalyst which is fine but for my

strategy I focus on trading stocks that

are within a very set price range that

have a news Catalyst that have a float

and all of this was the result of an

extensive amount of well I guess you

could say just trial and error in the

market so I'm going to put a link it's

going to be pinned at the top of the

comments and link to the description and

it's a link where you can download my

strategy it's my small account strategy

PDF and that's going to outline for you

my stock selection process where I'm

getting in where I'm getting out and

it's it's the highlevel blueprint for my

strategy so phase two is developing an

understanding of the general concepts of

how the market works and you know sort

of here it's

terminology terminology and of course

I've got a lot of breakaway classes here

on YouTube that go into these various

details so we we talk about terminology

we talk about um

volatility supply and

demand supply and demand we got to uh

understand basic uh fundamental analysis

fundamental analysis is understanding

the news headlines and their context

we've got technical analysis so I'll

just do Tech a I should just do ta I

don't want to do Tech anal so um ta

we'll just do Tech analysis right there

um this is understanding how to read

Candlestick charts so if you don't know

how to read Candlestick charts I have

Breakaway episodes that are full hour

length classes on how to read

Candlestick charts how to read

Candlestick chart patterns how to read

supply and demand how to perform stock

selection so stock selection here is

another part of um I would say the the

basics of how trading works the right

types of stocks to trade so this is all

of the kind of peripheral information

that you need to understand you know

trading platforms how to actually buy

and sell and a lot of it is fairly easy

to learn now for me I'm the type of

person that I really like to learn by

doing so when I was learning how to

trade well I I kind of did what I'm

going to tell you not to do I funded

account with real money and I start

pressing the buy button but by doing

that I invariably had to learn things

like the types of orders to use the

difference between limit orders and

Market orders the difference how to use

level two you know like all of these

sort of little nuances and I learned

those by looking at YouTube videos or

looking at the documentation for the

platform that I was using so you know I

was able to pick up all of that

information but sort of throwing myself

into the platform forced me to to learn

now I'm going to tell you you don't need

to do that with real money you can gain

that same experience and all that

knowledge even by setting up a simulated

trading account we'll talk about that in

just a second all right so so step one

is understanding the phases of trading

step two is learning uh the fundamentals

the the basics of how trading works and

for those of you that are in a place

where you don't understand some of those

then I encourage you at the end of this

episode to go check those Breakaway

classes where you can fill in those

details number three is um

adopt a strategy now the reason I'm

using the word adopt a strategy is

because I don't think in this day and

age is honestly realistic for a beginner

Trader to try to create their own

strategy from nothing in fact I think

that that would be a really inefficient

way to approach trading if you look at

other businesses in the world it's very

uncommon that a business pops up that

has never existed before you know like

an Uber or something like that usually

most businesses are variations on

existing businesses that are just done a

little differently or a little bit

better think about coffee shops coffee

shops have been around forever Starbucks

wasn't new they just took it to the next

level Dunkin Donuts I mean you've got

all these different coffee shops so it I

think of trading in a similar way that

the trading as a strategy like the

strategy that I trade this is basically

something I've spent a lot of time with

trial and error developing but there's

no reason that you have to go through

that same trial and error when I'm happy

to share my strategy with you it's like

trying to reinvent the wheel if you go

through all the trial and error now if I

put up on screen share here um you can

see uh I'm going to pull up my metrics

here really quickly because one of the

things that I think is really important

is that you make sure if you're learning

a strategy and you're going to adopt

someone else's strategy that the

strategy that you're learning is proven

profitable because there's a lot of

people out there on social media on Tik

Tok and Instagram and whatever else

talking about a strategy they have but

then you ask them well where are the

broker statements can you show me how

much you've made what are your average

returns and they don't have any of that

so I just want you to know for those

that don't already I have my statements

audited at the end of each trading year

so this is 2017 18 19 20 21 22 2 23 so

you've got seven years six seven years

here of trading broker statements

audited where I started with $583 in my

account beginning balance and the

account has produced a total profit of

$1,719 th000 for an average monthly

return of

$127,000 and average percentage return

of

64% each month I will tell you right now

that my results are not typical you

shouldn't expect that you'll achieve

achiev the same performance that I

achieved however if you want a strategy

that actually works I'm happy to share

my strategy with you again the link is

in the comments it's a PDF that you can

download you can print it out and you

can just start testing it out now that

strategy is a blueprint it it is not

enough by itself to make anyone a

profitable Trader you need the rules but

you need more than that so let's jump

back to the Whiteboard here so when we

talk about step three adopting a

strategy when you adopt a strategy again

whether it be from me or from someone

else you're taking a strategy that

someone else has proven is profitable

and that it works for them how do you

know it will work for you that's when we

go into step four Sim trade trade in a

simulator the strategy right practice

that strategy prove to see whether or

not you have the app

itude and just the physical skills to

trade it because ultimately being a

Trader it requires an ability to have

the discipline to follow the rules of

the strategy but there are certain

aptitudes that you'll need you'll need

to be able to execute orders fairly

quickly you'll need to make sure that

the tools you're using the platform

you're using work for the strategy

you're trying to implement so now I'm

going to share with you the number one

cause of failure that I've seen over my

years for beginner Traders the number

one cause is that they don't have have a

strategy that they're trading they don't

have a system they don't have a set of

rules all they have really is a little

bit of gut intuition they're doing a

little trial and error and in in other

words in my opinion they're gambling in

the market so they'll throw a little bit

of money on this stock a little bit on

this stock but they don't set stops they

don't really know where where to get out

they they are really just following and

chasing the market it is not reasonable

to expect that you'll be able to make a

six figure seven figure annual salary in

the market without first putting in the

time to create a business plan because

that's what a strategy is it's a

business plan it's going to lay out for

you the time of day you trade the price

stocks you trade how you find those

stocks what chart patterns you like

where you're getting in where you're

getting out if you don't have all of

that written down how do you expect to

outperform some of the best traders in

the market or the best hedge funds in

the market now I don't outperform some

of the best I'm in the top right I I'm

certainly in the top 10% I'm a Trader

who's successful I've made it but

there's obviously traders that are going

to be better than me your goal is just

to get yourself to the point where first

you're treading water and then where

you're starting to actually pull away

right phase four and phase five you need

a strategy to help you get there so

while you're trading in the Sim you know

what you're doing you're beginning to

generate your own track record of

metrics so when you look at my metrics

here I use this software called Trader

view now this software's uh $49 a month

but this is software and by the way I

don't have any affiliate relationship

with them so use them if you want don't

use them if you don't want you could

also just track your trades in an Excel

doc if you want uh but however you track

your trades what's important is that you

track your trading metrics because those

metrics become your sense of confidence

now for me these metrics give me a

tremendous sense of confidence I've got

12.8 million right here in gross profit

I've got 68% accuracy I mean you could

see all of these metrics right here and

you know what if you're asking me Ross

how did you choose the price stocks that

you trade right well in my small account

strategy PDF I lay out the price stocks

that I focus on and my metrics back up

the reason why I trade those stocks now

early on my metrics look the same but

the numbers were much smaller and I also

had some big losses and some of these

other areas what I learned to do was I

learned to cut out the elements of my

strategy that weren't working at all and

double down on the areas where I was

Finding success part of sim trading is

collecting data analyzing that data and

then making improvements making changes

to get your trading better ultimately

the goal for a lot of beginner Traders

is to look at someone who's trading

their strategy consistently and with a

lot of success to look at their metrics

and then kind of compare where you're at

to where they're at once you have that

comparison then you set kind of like

this is my A to B how do I get there

right what are the steps I need to take

to improve my metrics now to go from

making a th000 a day to 5,000 a day

logically you have to usually take much

larger position sizes and trade more

frequently but to go from a losing

Trader to a profitable Trader that's

where you have to look at more details

like what what are you doing that's

producing the outsize losses so for me

when I pull up my metrics I could always

look at a period of time where I had a

poor month so let's just say uh this

year the month of the month of March was

a little bit um tough as I recall so

we'll pull up March we'll apply this

we'll click go and oh so here we go

right so now this is giving me data that

is actionable I can take this

information and going into the next

month I might decide I should avoid

trading stocks over $10 for the time

being because it's not producing profit

or if I looked at time a day I could say

Mondays and Tuesdays are a little tough

for me that's interesting I should be

more cautious or I look at time a day

and I see uh 6: a.m is tough and

afternoon is tough maybe I should focus

in on this area here and I can tell you

that I did exactly that going into the

month of April so if you look at my

metrics for the month of April I pivoted

I felt like I had to I ended up doubling

the profit for April got myself to

$45,000 day of the week was better I

started later and I stopped sooner I did

still have some losses here in this

window but it was better my accuracy

across the board in in uh the days of

the week was better the price range was

better I wouldn't have been able to make

those changes if I didn't first see my

data and so it's a big mistake that a

lot of Traders make to trade without

tracking any of this data so I want to

ask you if you've been trading for a

while and you have not yet imported that

data to analyze it do yourself a favor

spend the $49 for one month import all

of those trades and analyze your metrics

what time of day do you make the most

money when do you lose the most money

those are the themes that you're looking

for when you see that it's plain as day

it gives you actionable steps that you

can take to improve your trading you

then Implement those steps for a period

of time a week a month you analyze your

data after each session and you see am I

seeing progress and then new things are

going to pop out and of course it's

important to understand the market is

dynamic and always changing to a certain

degree now I've been trading a momentum

strategy for my entire career so

momentum means I'm buying stocks with

the belief that they're going to

continue their Trend that means I'm a

trend Trader so Trend Traders are

typically trading stocks that have

breaking news or trading sectors or

stocks within sectors that are very

strong because of sector-wide news and

we benefit from that kind of rising tide

when the overall Market is strong it

often just keeps kind kind of moving a

little higher and a little higher so

that's a strategy that's been around for

ultimately forever trading momentum I

mean you could go back 400 years and

there are markets where people were

chasing momentum so there's nothing new

about that it's just the way we apply it

on a day-to-day basis and make subtle

adjustments to accommodate for slight

variations in today's market okay so

let's jump back to the Whiteboard so

step one is understanding the phases

step two is learning the basics of how

trading Works step three is adopting a

strategy preferably one that's proven

profitable by someone else and step four

is Sim trading and I'll also note um uh

and

analyzing metrics this is very important

okay so now step

five um and and perhaps step five um and

step four could be interchanged um but

I'm going to just leave it as five

understanding

um the right tools to

use so there are a lot of tools that are

accessible for beginner Traders and some

beginner Traders fall into the Trap of

subscribing to dozens of different tools

which end up costing them a lot of money

each month and it's well it's not really

necessary so I want to walk you through

what I would consider to be the Bare

Bones tools required to trade the the

strategy that I'm trading every single

day so of course we have our simulator

so a Sim is a critical tool and most

Sims will include level two data which

is the depth of Market your time in

sales and charts now the charts included

with a lot of simulators are going to be

fairly basic they might not be the most

sophisticated charts but they can do for

the time being now you can spend more

money on more sophisticated charts those

could be available well for instance I

used to subscribe to e signal those

charts are about

$185 a month that's very expensive I

don't subscribe to them anymore because

it just doesn't really make sense even I

mean I can afford it but just it's not

really the best tool to use and because

a lot of Traders want to use the same

tool that I'm using because they see oh

Ross is using this tool I should use it

too I decided to start using a tool

that's a lot cheaper so we integrated

our charts into the platform that we

offer at Warrior trading so it's all

part of your monthly subscription so you

could use that but you could also use

charts for free with E Trade Fidelity or

thicker swim and most likely they would

be just fine so you do need some type of

charts you need level two and you need a

simulator that's critical now another

tool that you need are um

scanners you need a news

feed and you need some research tools

so let me walk you through um how these

work so with the scanners the scanners

that I have developed I built out for my

own use but I also made them available

to all of our members previously I was

subscribing to a tool that was about I

think it was

$225 a month it was just scanners it

didn't have charts it didn't have I

don't think it had news it was it was

just the scans and although it was good

it was a platform that most Traders

weren't maximizing all the things that

you could do with it so they were kind

of using just the minimum features

including myself and it felt like I was

paying a premium for that so I made the

decision to develop my own custom set of

scanners that would be suitable for me

and that our members at Warrior trading

could use as well so those scanners are

uh called the day trade Dash platform

and that's um what you see right here

and this is the software that I use for

my trading it's web-based software so it

works on Mac and windows so we've got

all the scanners right here and what

these scanners are doing is they're

searching so SCV right now is our second

leading percentage gainer in the market

it's up

187% now this is a stock that I traded I

had some great trades on it made some

money on it this is the chart right here

so this platform you could click on the

stock and it's going to update the chart

so you could switch back and forth so

we'll switch back to serve SCV so um so

this makes a really really nice big

squeeze and um what's interesting about

this one you've got a couple different

headlines on it so the headline was um

sares 140% after an Nvidia Nvidia

reveals a major stake all right that's a

big headline for a small cap company

like this so This stock was literally

trading under $2 and then the next day

it goes up to $9 a share well it's got a

big headline with Nvidia it's not a

surprise so my process each day of

trading well first of all and you know

kind of to go back to that conversation

I was having with my friend up in

Vermont what am I doing each day I'm

trading volatility I'm looking for stuff

that's moving well how do you find it

Well we have these things that are

called scanners and these scanners are

searching the market in real time for

stocks that are moving and they've got

to be moving quickly once a stock hits

that scanner what do I do next well I

pull up the chart and I try to figure

out what the news is when I pull up the

chart and I look at the news this gives

me context now know that the headline on

this is um you know with Nvidia that's a

great headline now I see the chart and I

see that it's clearly trending up so I'm

going to start looking for my entries

using the chart patterns that uh I trade

every single day so this is sort of what

I would say is is a really great

starting point and this is also has the

research tools built in because you can

go look at more data about the stock you

can see what the flow is the volume the

relative volume you can look at the high

price the low price now if you want to

take it a step step further you can go

into uh the SEC filings that a company

will make so SCV for instance I go into

the SEC filings and now I can do some

research here and better understand some

different elements of the company I

could read about the company I could

check their balance sheet their

financials by checking their financials

I can get a sense of what's their cash

position how much cash do they currently

have on hand is that position increasing

or is it decreasing so it takes some

training to learn how to read these

filings and one of the things that I

think all the members at Warrior trading

benefit from is that when I'm trading

I'm broadcasting so everyone can tune in

to my broadcast and by listening to my

broadcast they're able to piggyback on

my educated intuition and on my ability

to read these filings to understand the

news to interpret what I'm seeing both

in the price action and and certainly um

you know just in in the fundamentals of

that uh particular stock so number five

is understanding the right tools to use

um the news feed you've got to

understand the news Catalyst you've got

to find stocks that are moving you need

some research tools and for the most

part the research tools in the news feed

you can get generally for free uh bam

SEC there's a free subscription news

feed you can find usually on Google or

Yahoo finance scanners you cannot get

for free because they include Market

data and what's really interesting on

Market data is that uh the exchanges is

have a really stronghold on that market

data they make millions and millions of

dollars selling that market data to

different uh individual Traders and

different big hedge funds so they do not

allow that data to be given away for

free they'll find people a lot of money

they see people giving away that data

for free so you do have to pay for the

scanners and the charts that have

real-time Market data but other tools uh

can be free so then number six is

setting

up setting up the

perfect station and this is uh a trading

station so when I'm talking about

setting up the Perfect Trading station

it doesn't have to be as complex as

everything you see here this is 1 2 3 4

five six monitors three computers are

powering it and I've got three monitors

right here so nine so I have 10 monitors

right here but this is what I use not

just for tra I use this for YouTube for

editing the videos for you guys you know

for hitting the comments and everything

else so this computer here is a computer

that I use for YouTube and social media

and this is the setup that I use for

trading so five monitors for trading is

a little bit more than what most

beginner Traders need so let me walk you

through what I would say is a great

starting setup for a

beginner I'm going to give you um this

setup right right here this is a

laptop and right here you're going to

have monitor 1 and monitor 2 on a rack

so you're going to have external monitor

One external monitor 2 and then you're

going to have your laptop screen now

some of you're going to say Ross what in

the world are you kidding me you're

trading on a laptop with a little teeny

keyboard and a little trackpad you're

right I am and I know that that sounds

crazy but you can see that's what I've

got right here and the reason that I

like that is because for my workflow for

the way that I'm trading and I'll just

move this computer so you could see it

um under where the Whiteboard is I like

this because I trade so quickly here

that when I'm moving around I I want to

be able to very quickly move move the

mouse here like this so quickly move the

mouse click and start typing the symbol

so this is the stock that I'm watching

so I type the stock in and then I'm

pressing you know shift one and uh shift

two and I'm I'm adding shares I'm

getting in getting out I I need all of

this to be in a really tight space I

don't want to be reaching over here for

an external monitor you know I I just

this works for me and it's also kind of

leaning in to one of the things that's

really nice about trading which is the

fact that you can actually do this from

anywhere in the world so for those of

you who have been tuning in for a long

time you've seen me trade from all these

different places and I did that because

I was able to bring my laptop with me so

there's no reason to be kind of locked

down to one spot now when I'm traveling

I use um these external monitors right

here these are um you can see right here

these are really super skinny monitors

if you can see closely um these are USB

monitors and I put two of them in my

carry-on bag I put those right next to

the laptop and that's all I need that's

my full trading station so that's when

I'm traveling however these monitors are

kind of I mean they're 15 inch they're a

little small so when I'm at home I like

having these 24-in monitors there are

24-in monitors I bought an Amazon some

of these are from 2013 2014 I've had

them for more than 10 years they work

just great they're totally fine so

they're not crazy fancy it's not like a

big curved screen or anything like that

it's just a standard 24-in Monitor and I

love it so now what do I have on these

monitors so this laptop monitor right

here is where I would have if I were you

a beginner Trader I would have my sim

account here and this is going to have

all of your level two window windows and

it's going to have your order entry

window and it's going to show you your

p&l you know how much you're up and how

much you're down so this is where you're

actually going to have your eye looking

most of the time right at this then you

have on monitor number one right here

what the way I do it and this is just

preference but you could do however you

want so I have um watch list stock

number two and watch list stock number

three right here and on this side I have

watch list stock number one and then

here I have my

scanners so this for me is the perfect

workflow so the most part my eye is

going back and forth between this

monitor right here and the stock that

I'm watching which is my primary stock

that I'm trading and then these are my

scanners which show my news feed so if

you actually looked at my monitors the

way they're set up this one is um

monitor number two right here this over

here is Monitor number one one the

external monitor number one I've got the

S&P 500 on one chart uh and this is a

10sec a 1 minute a 5 minute and a daily

chart for these time frames if you're

not familiar with these types of

Candlestick charts you could check out

my full length episode on how to read

Candlestick charts from zero I think

you'll appreciate that a lot and then

this is a second stock where I have four

different time frames as well the 10c

the 1 minute the 5 minute and the daily

so those are over there on the side so I

glance over it though those I keep an

eye on them and that for me is enough

now as you can see with this trading

station I also have this monitor up here

in the corner and this is an exact copy

of monitor number one so it's except

with two other stocks so that's the way

I've got mine set up right now is I've

got this additional monitor up here

which has um watch list stock four watch

list four and watch list five so having

more monitors means you can watch a

couple more stocks and then on this side

here this is where I actually have my um

my metrics so I have my metrics up on

this um screen here which it's kind of I

don't really use it that much for

trading it but anyways I just have it

and it's kind of uh symmetrically

balanced to have that monitor there

anyways so that's the way I have it set

up and I think for me this is a really

great setup and like just as an example

when we had uh the pandemic in 2020 I

was working in a nice office where I had

you know similar setup like this 10 12

monitors the whole thing set up and then

um you know we had the lockdown so I was

like well I guess I'm going to just move

home and so that's when I moved back

here and set up back in my house and I I

brought home one laptop and two monitors

and that was it and that was all I used

for a long time and then I added a third

one and then I added a fourth one and

then eventually I brought the whole

whole station home and you know I've

been working here at home now for four

plus years and actually it's great I

enjoy it but all that was to say that

when I came back I was like you know I'm

actually almost in some ways doing

better with less maybe all those

monitors were sort of a distraction and

sort of condensing down just to the most

important tools for me was really

helpful so it's the most important

things that I need on each one of these

monitors the most important indicators

the most important research tools I mean

all of it is like I just want what I

absolutely need each day for trading and

the same goes for when I'm on my

traveling trading station I'm not going

to bring you know I'm not going to put

something like this in my carry-on bag

it's crazy it's not necessary but at the

same time I'm going to be honest one

laptop screen is not enough it's not

enough with one laptop screen unless you

had a 52 or 55 in screen it's just not

enough there's too much stuff

that you need to be able to monitor

while you're trading so use the space

it's going to cost 100 bucks or whatever

it is to buy one of these monitors 125

but it's money well spent so even if you

don't get the stand you just prop it up

against something whatever you do is

fine but get yourself a couple external

monitors and my opinion is the nice

thing about the laptop is that it's

something you can bring with you

wherever you go so you get the laptop

you got a couple external monitors now

you're on the go all right so I think

I've given you a pretty good um

explanation of setting up what I would

call the perfect station so I would say

again a minimum of three monitors but

you know you do as you'd like number

seven okay number seven is discipline um

I'm so bad at spelling um when I'm uh

when I'm talking so with discipline this

is one of the biggest challenges for

beginner Trader so challenging for me

even I sometimes struggle as we see to

spell it so here's the thing with

discipline remember how I said that

there's I can consolidate all the

reasons for failure down really to two

big reasons there there are a couple

others that I'll mention in a moment I

also want to share with you by the way

some recommended reading that I think

will be really helpful for you as an

aspiring Trader as you're getting

started uh so I'll share some

recommended reading with you in a moment

as well but number seven is discipline

so the number one cause of failure for

beginner Traders is that they are

trading without a strategy they have no

strategy they're shooting from the hip

so it's no surprise that they're

inconsistent they don't have a set of

rules they're following etc etc the

number two reason the Traders will fail

they have strategy they've gone through

this to for the most part they've set up

a trading station they're using the

right tools maybe they Sim traded maybe

not they've adopted a strategy they

understand how trading Works they're

going through the phases but right here

they don't have the discipline to follow

the rules and if I give you the rules

but you choose not to follow them you

cannot expect to do well because you're

deviating from the plan and this is for

me it's really frustrating when I see it

because I'll give you the rules download

it right go into the description the pin

comment download my small count strategy

PDF I'm giving you the blueprint I'm

putting it right there for you I'm

leading you to water but I can't trade

for you I can't trade for you and by the

way just as a PSA so you know there's a

lot of people out there that will make

claims that hey all you have to do is

blindly follow my alerts this and that

that's not a recipe for long-term

success I want to teach you how to be

self-sufficient I want to teach you how

to find the right stocks to trade each

day and so for what it's worth for the

members at Warrior trading who have done

really well and as always results are

not typical but for those who have done

well um I've got our success stories

page here uh we don't not a broker

dealer as you probably know so we don't

have access to um the records of all of

our uh members at Warrior trading but we

do have a a system where people can

voluntarily submit broker statements and

verify their profitability and earn a

badge and so some of these badge holders

like Max and andoli Hong you know who

have 100K 500k $2.5 million badges these

are not traders who are blindly

following me nor anyone else these are

traders who have developed the strategy

who who have learned my strategy and if

proven they can trade it profitably on

their own and they may have made you

know some minor adjustments to it based

on their um you know what their risk

profile and this and that but I I want

you just to kind of have that big

picture understanding that success in

trading will not come just from blindly

following someone else it doesn't work

that way and no one like me is going to

trade on your behalf the only way

someone else can trade your money is if

they're a licensed financial adviser and

you have to be an accredit investor to

invest in a hedge fund which means you

need to have at least 2 million bucks so

no one like me is going to be able to

trade for you on your behalf we can

teach you how to trade we can teach you

what works for us but you've got to be

the one who actually is taking the

trades and so as I teach you the

strategy and I give you the rules what

that's what I'm putting out and what I

need from you is to show that you can

have the dedication the discipline and

the drive to follow those rules and so

it's super disappointing when I see a

Trader who's a chronic rule breaker they

keep deviating from the rules so let me

give you an example of one of the rules

that we follow in trading when we're

trading we have to have what's called a

Max loss so I set a Max loss on my

account of uh daily

goal uh times one that's my Max loss my

daily goal is um I'll just make that

$5,000 so $5,000 is my daily goal so my

Max loss is five grand so my weekly goal

for what it's worth um weekly goal is

daily oops Daily Times three so the way

I figure it is Monday let's say I'm up

five grand Tuesday I'm up another five

grand Wednesday I lose five grand I have

a Max loss day but then Thursday I'm

back up five grand and Friday I'm back

up five grand so these two days cancel

each other out which leaves me with 15

grand on the week 15 grand on the week

approximately 60 Grand on the month 720k

more or less on the year that for me is

a pretty nice year now I'll have some

years where I'm way above it I'll have

some years where I'm below it but that's

the way I think of it now if I keep if I

have 5K as my Max loss and I go down

5,000 I have to stop trading I can't let

myself have days where I'm up 5K you

know

5K and then I'm down 50k and then I'm up

5K 5 K these are the days where you're

going to learn the hard way if if you're

not willing to listen to the rules that

days like this will end your career you

have to be able to cap your losses now

we don't want to cap our upside when the

Market's hot and I'm up 5K I won't stop

trading I will keep trading until I have

given

back I'll show you this is how I do it

so my first goal on the day is $1,000 of

profit so when I start each day at zero

that's when I carry the most risk

because I could go red and I don't want

to go I don't want to go red if I can so

until I'm up over $1,000 I trade with

about a quarter of my full position size

so that means these first few trades are

with small size so if I go red I'm

usually only going red 1,500 or 2 or

3,000 at the most I'm not going down 10

15,000 once I'm up more than a th once

I've unlocked by breaking over this

level Big Share size now I start to step

up and take bigger risks this is where I

make my my way up to you know 5K oops

sorry so 5K right here and I'll keep

trading but something that's very

important is that if I give back half of

my profit on the day after crossing my

goal this is a cue to walk away so if I

give back half my profit I have to walk

away absolutely have to and typically I

say if I give back

20% it's a good indic that I should walk

so that means I'll keep trading until

you know I've kind of had these two

losses like this and then that's the

spot to walk I've seen traders who have

had days where they went like this and

then they go all the way back down to

red and you've got to learn when to walk

away it's part of a system so being

disciplined as a Trader means you become

systematic in the way you trade it's not

that you're trading with an absence of

emotion but you're so focused on

following the rules it takes emotion out

of it because all I'm doing here is

following the rules and if I follow the

rules I know that there'll be some days

where I I end in the red but the losses

are manageable most days I'll finish in

the green some days I'll go up 10 15,000

then I'll give back half and I say well

I've got to walk away here I guess I

push my Lu but at least it's a green day

and I've watched different Traders

follow different paths some Traders take

the approach of I'm going to trade

without any rules at all if the Market's

hot I'm just going to keep trading no

matter how red I go I'm just going to

keep trading keep trading and what I've

seen is that traders that that don't

sort of restrain themselves will end up

having some really big outsize days some

of them will be green but a lot of them

will be R and those big swings can be

really emotional and once you get

emotionally triggered it's really hard

to maintain discipline so discipline is

about state of mind keeping yourself in

a calm cool collected state of mind

we're not sprinting for a finish this is

a marathon you got to settle in you got

to pace yourself so here's an example I

know a Trader who had a goal of having a

$500,000 year having a really big green

year which is is great it's always nice

to have a really big green year but you

know it may or may not happen so the way

you get to $500,000 of profit on the

year we have about 250 trading days each

year so if you are averaging 2,000 day

that'll be 500 Grand now the thing

that's really interesting is that this

Trader is regularly having 4 and $5,000

green days routinely so they're doing

really well they're far exceeding but

they chronically are having days where

they're going down8 and

$10,000 and these 8 and $10,000 red days

it's it's pulling down the average so

instead of averaging $22,000 a day after

you take away all these big red days

they're only averaging like 1,200 a day

right now I'm not saying 1 12200 a day

is not great that's going to have them

on track for you know $300,000 a year

but if you want to get to that 500k Mark

it's not about making more money on the

green days it honestly isn't it's about

losing Less on the days that are bad and

this is a really interesting uh topic

that I had with uh some of my successful

students I've got um this one student uh

Jess he said um we asked him uh what was

your turning point we did an interview

together I said what was your turning

point and he said you know I I don't

really recall a turning point right I

think he had the experience of going

through you know phase one um kind of

break even and then this sort of slow

Ascension back up here so his

progression through to you know P5 phase

five so we had phase one sort of

learning curve phase two going sideways

you know phase three starting to make a

little progress phase four having that

sort of first setback and then

recovering from it let's just say right

around there but he said you know I I

don't really recall like oh it was this

day that I implemented these you know

one two three changes that changed it

all for me once I did that it was like

Smooth Sailing for him he said it just

felt like I started sucking a little bit

less I thought that was really

interesting so he was like I still had

red days they were just a little farther

apart when I would have them right so

they were just a little more spaced

apart when I would have those big red

days and and that was kind of the

difference and you know I I think that

there's a lot to be said for that it it

can be very subtle that shift now for me

my turning point was a lot more uh a lot

more concrete to an event because what

happened for me was I had a day where uh

I was so mine looks more like this where

I was going sideways like this and after

a sort of bigger drop like that that

became where I was basically at all-time

lows that became for me the Catalyst to

look at my metrics really closely and

ask myself some hard questions um and

that's when I said you know what are you

doing right now that's working because

this is in total not working and that's

when I said all right wait a second this

is the price stock that's working really

well for me this is the time of day

that's working really well for me it was

like 9:30 to 10:30 and I thought even if

I only trade for an hour a day but you

know I could just take two good trades

three good trades that could be my

turning point and then I had a six-month

period where I was stair stepping up and

then I remember in one day I had a big

drop back down and I looked back at my

metrics and I said you know what Ross

you're the same person who just did this

you had a lapse you had a momentary

lapse of judgment that results in that

loss you could do that again and I did

it again except that the next time I

didn't stop till my account was at 100K

and that was like my that was like a

really big moment for me and this

happened within about 12 months um I

this was like two years into trading so

I was at about the 24mth point right

here when this moment happened little

bit of beginner's luck in the first year

ran out in the second year then had this

big drop then had a nice recovery 6

months drop down and then the next 6

months got myself back up to here so

from implementing the these changes here

to this was about a year and look some

of you guys are going to say wow Ross

sounds like learning how to trade

starting from zero is going to take six

months a year maybe longer I hate to

break it to you but it's going to take

some time it doesn't happen overnight

and it requires a high degree of

dedication discipline and drive but if

you have that if you're really driven

and you're willing to just make

incremental progress like learning a

little bit each day watching my recaps

watching YouTube videos just like this

reading some books right that

incremental progress it's all going to

filter down and add to your educated

intuition one of the things I'm a big

advocate of is trying to trade a little

bit every day so if you could trade a

little bit every day you know in a cash

account with just a small 10 shares just

to gain that experience of course in the

simulator is better but just keep

gaining experience because here's the

cool thing the Market's going to be here

so you could spend the next 5 years

saying uh I'll wait till I have more

time or you could spend the next 5 Years

Learning a little bit each day while you

continue doing other things think about

where you'll be it's going to be a big

difference so now let's talk about some

of this um some of the books that are on

my reading list so one that I'll start

with here uh that I think is great for

beginners um is the Happiness Advantage

this is by Shan aor and this talks about

attitude it's about H you've got to have

the attitude to get through the learning

curve because it's so emotionally

difficult attitude really does make the

difference another book Annie Duke

thinking in bets this is a great book

she's a a semi-professional professional

poker player and um although poker is

certainly different from Trading there

are areas of thinking and best that I

think this really does align with the

type of stuff that we're talking about

pretty much every single day another

book here by Annie Duke quit the power

of knowing when to walk away this is a

really good one um I do have my own book

if you haven't read it it's on Amazon on

how to day trade the plain truth this is

a book that um is much more

conversational it's I have the audio

book so you could listen to it if you'd

like um this talks about the guard rails

uh that help keep me in line learning

how to trade uh kind of is like learning

how to ride a bike with training wheels

on you got to keep yourself safe so I

talk about some of those steps um that

I've taken in my trading so and then one

last book that I think is really helpful

on the emotional side is this book

called trade mindfully by Gary Dayton

because there's no question that emotion

is is a huge factor in fact um you know

when we're looking at our list here of

the seven steps to becoming a

Trader you can't I mean they're not

weighted equally it's just it's just not

the way it works I mean obviously

understanding phase is important but

that's not nearly as important as having

discipline understanding how trading

Works yes that's foundational Concepts

you've got to have that but like

discipline is a huge one this is really

huge and of course adopting a strategy

is really important so I I really would

encourage you to do some work on the

discipline side of trading because I

think you're going to find sooner or

later that you'll be faced with the big

emotion that comes with having a big

trade it could be a big winner but more

likely a big loser and now you're faced

with okay I've dug myself a hole right I

was having a nice run whatever it was

like I was you know in this in this

period here where I had this nice leg up

and then boom I give it all back in one

day it's like how could I lose 30 Grand

in one day how could I be so stupid all

the self-doubt comes in oh my gosh maybe

this is the place I'm going to give up

and then how do you get yourself back on

the horse so a certain degree of it is

the ability uh to give yourself that pep

talk that selft talk um to be your

biggest ad your own biggest Advocate um

and and a lot of that does come from

looking at data the data is going to

tell you you know what you're doing when

you follow follow the rules when you

break the rules that's when we have

problems stop breaking the rules and the

pain becomes so great from breaking the

rules at a certain point that most

people will stop uh but we know that

that's not true for everyone there are

some people that even in the face of

this pain will continue to make really

bad decisions and they'll continue to

lose money and that's one of the biggest

risks with trading I often say there's a

blessing in a curse with trading the

curse is that you could spend two years

struggling to make just $10 a day and

you're not trying to be greedy you're

not trying to fly in a private jet or

drive a fancy car $10 a day just enough

for you know whatever something small

and you can spend two years not able to

do it consistently and then the blessing

is it once you're consistently making

$10 a day you're consistently making $10

a day all right let's say you're doing

$10 a day trading with 10 shares all

right now well let's just say you're

doing it with 100 shares doesn't matter

so that's 10 cents that's 10 cents per

share so now what if you increase your

share size to a th000 holy smokes would

we actually go to $100 a day well maybe

we don't go from 100 to a th000 in one

jump but what if you did what if you

went to

10,000 because if your strategy is

consistent and it's working 10 cents 10

cents 10 cents it's the same trade the

only difference is your position size

and that's when trading gets really

exciting and that's where I've seen some

traders who have really excelled who

have done really well because they first

set the foundation they learn the seven

steps for Success they follow the steps

they've got the discipline to follow the

rules and then they scale their strategy

so I guess you could say step eight is

scaling but but really this is the these

are the seven steps for getting started

I hope that this has been really

educational for you if it has please hit

that thumbs up subscribe the channel for

more episodes on trading strategy just

like this and I'll remind you as always

that trading is risky my results aren't

typical so manage your risk by

practicing in a simulator especially

when you're learning a new strategy if

you didn't already download my small

account strategy PDF link is in the

description pin at the to top of the

comments and I'll see you for the next

episode real soon thanks as always for

tuning in