I think we can all agree that driving downhill with your car in neutral is going to be exponentially easier than doing it the other way around.. driving your car uphill in neutral. That doesn't make much sense now does it?

In the past I've written about the importance of being “directionally neutral” when trading. Part of having a neutral attitude is creating what's called a hedged thesis. I've talked about this in the past and I want to elaborate on it a little bit more. I also want to share a video with you on a past trade that I put on. The idea of being directionally neutral is such that you don't have a bias towards the markets direction

 The struggle is real…and the learning curve is never ending! The best advice that I can give ANYONE…anyone that is doing anything worthy and of value…is this: Never stop being a student of your craft. In this case it's the markets and trading. Make sure that you’re always educating yourself on what it is you’re investing your time into! You’ll be grateful that you did!

With that said we’re going to be talking about one of my community members' and the journey that they’re currently on. I am going to respect their anonymity throughout this blog, so I wont be mentioning their name…but I will say this, the statement that you're about to read which was typed by them is very real. It's a set of challenges that a lot of traders have. It's something that we all have to work on throughout our trading career. So, please read the following without judgment and understand that this is just their Journey.. and a lot of what you're going to read also was present in my trading Journey once upon a Time.

One of the biggest common misconceptions I've run into over the years as a performance coach, is that people seem to think that they can follow a couple of traders on YouTube, copy their trading strategy and participate in the markets. WRONG! This idea could not be further from the truth.. not only is this idea far off but it's also extremely dangerous. The greatest thing any new participant can do is understand one core concept that resides in the market, which always has and always will. And that is that this is a game of taking calculated risks. The entire approach to trading that any participant should take is that from the stance of risk management. Taking calculated risks is a form of risk management. There's an old saying that this game is not about return on capital…but safe return of capital. It's a famous saying that suggests that risk management is the fundamental aspect of trading that all participants should focus on. With that in mind I want to talk about three things that all traders of all skill levels should constantly be focused on

Successful traders think in terms of probabilities. Rather than looking at the outcome of a single trade by itself. Historical market data, used earlier for the market forecasting, could be useful for analyzing the current market situation. For example, imagine that you have analyzed the efficiency of your trading strategy on the historical data for several years. The market has been in a trend during this period. But what if the market has changed and moved to the consolidation stage? Do you think it makes sense to rely on the past statistics in this case? Can it provide a clear understanding of the future price movement? Probably not.

Backtesting is one of the most important aspects of developing a trading system. If created and interpreted properly, it can help traders optimize and improve their strategies, find any technical or theoretical flaws, as well as gain confidence in their strategy before applying it to the real world markets.

Backtesting works because you can falsify or confirm a trading idea, you can automate all your trading based on the backtests, exploit the law of large numbers, limit behavioral mistakes, and lastly you can save a lot of time in executions. Backtesting is definitely not a waste of time.

It's all about the set up…in Friday's session there were a number of solid opportunities that came up. The main one was $DIDI I was walking the team through my trade idea and how to play it. $DIDI isn't a flow float…the float is actually pretty high compared to what I like setting in the range of 130m plus, with that said the opportunity that came up was pretty solid.

Markets are dynamic, but most trading strategies are static and do not adjust to changing markets. By analyzing volatility and adjusting your trading approach accordingly you can take your trading to a whole new level. As a trader, you have to know what to change, when to change it and why. Then you can succeed. No trading strategy will work 100% of the time, but it’s a trader’s responsibility to find ways to make his trading strategy work in all market conditions. A perfect time to adjust is when market volatility becomes high. When market volatility is higher than usual this is when trading can become very difficult.

Success in life is whatever you define it to be. Maybe for you, you want to determine how to be successful in achieving financial freedom or have a flexible work schedule… or maybe success is having a side hustle that generates enough income so you can kick back and spend your time the way that you see fit. 

“Success” is not one size fits all!

Some may want to travel the world while others just want to pursue what they’re passionate about…there is no wrong reason to want to be successful!

Being successful isn’t necessarily about being rich or winning awards, it can also be about personal fulfillment.

There is a high percentage of individual investors and traders that have described their six-month outlook for the U.S. stock market as “bearish”! It’s just that simple…General market sentiment has spoken and it’s all over the charts! Just have a look at the highs on the S&P in early January when markets were sitting at $4803…Now look at the S&P 500! It has since done a consistent job of moving lower and lower. As of Friday's close, even with two sessions closing higher, we’re still 9% off of the jan highs and are still positioned below the 200 SMA!. With that being said, the “optimistic bounce” we saw which started on thursday and carried through into fridays close, was still "well below normal levels."

Being Part of A Trading is KEY

In my humble opinion gaining a solid educational foothold with trading is a must. It’s not smart to simply run to market with your hard earned cash and start speculating. It wont end well…The unfortunate truth is this, you’ll probably do just fine in the beginning, but with time (being uneducated with how the markets work) you’ll end up giving BACK more than you received…not always…but that is true most of the time!

There are some truths about trading that traders must accept wholeheartedly. One of them, which is the topic of this blog, is the importance of taking a break from trading. Trading, like any other full contact sport, demands that participants take breaks. In football you have defensive and offensive lines. Both lines have a time and a place in which they're in play. In between shifts players are on the sidelines taking both a mental and physical break. That break affords players the opportunity to regain total alertness. Trading is NO different.

As I have mentioned in past blogs that Trading is a “full contact, gladiator sport” ! The saying “ only the strong survive” was never more true than with trading. With that said, in all its harshness, there is a way to successfully navigate your way through the trading jungle. Like anything in life a solid system that is understood and followed will lead us to success. Trading is NO DIFFERENT

The truth of the matter is EVERY successful trader has a routine that they follow. Whether its for Day Trading, Swing Trading or looking at longer term investments. EVERY participant has some form of a routine that they subscribe to. A traders routine, simply put, are a series of steps that are taken to set themselves up for success. That routine, in my case anyways, is part of an overall trading plan

“Short selling plays an important role in efficient capital markets, conferring positive benefits by facilitating secondary market trading of securities through improved price discovery and liquidity, while also positively impacting corporate governance and, ultimately, the real economy.”-Internet definition

Do This!

It's been said, and I agree with this, that you don't have to be the best trader if you know how to pick “the right stocks' '. What does that mean? It means you need to know what stocks are in play and why. It’s important that you know that if you’re going to trade you’ll need volatility. Not all stocks are going to be volatile..that’s why you need to have a scanner that will scrub the market for you to find volatile stocks that are in play!

For the last 5 years we've been doing a ton of one-on-one coaching. I’ve always liked being a Performance Coach! Our whole business has been built on helping people that haven’t seen success with other Trading Academies.

I’m going to discuss the most Common Mistakes New Traders Make for two reasons…

#1) to shed light on where new traders go wrong 

 #2) So if you can STOP making these mistakes! With that being said, making mistakes is part of the learning process traders need to go through. It’s part of the process and totally healthy.

 well-thought-out strategy.

within the same session. 

for Active Traders

but the outcome will be wildly polarized!

Those three words are the bedrock of ANY successful trader! It's the foundation that the J. Lewis Trading Academy was built on and exactly what has led us to have one of the MOST successful Boutique Trading Academies around… YES, we’re small and selective with who we work with, and it’s for that reason our traders kill it on a consistent basis!

A few months ago I wrote a blog on the importance of having a strategy. The blog was well received and garnered a number of very valuable questions. The most valuable question that came up was with respects to pattern recognition.

So why is pattern recognition so important?

Let me start off by saying this,saving enough money to fund a trading account takes a great deal of time and effort. It can be even more difficult and frustrating if you have to do it twice….or three or four times! For many, this is the harsh reality of learning how to trade… TOO many people are so focused on making money that they lose sight of how they’re really supposed to be focusing on NOT losing money! Does that make sense?

Let's talk about Gambler's Fallacy …You might be asking yourself, What's that? Simply put: the gambler's fallacy is when People believe past events affect the probability of something happening in the future. Now, pattern recognition is a real thing and millions of traders depend on 

it which makes it a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts...

A trading plan, which is no different than a business plan of sorts, is a written set of rules that specifies a trader's approach to the markets and the type of vehicle they are using for market exposure! entries, exits, patterns, position sizing and money management criteria for every position are all written into the Trading Plan.

Being a Trader AND a trading educator is a doubly (yes doubly) more interesting thing to be. As an educator there is an expectation to coach people through this insane business. The attempt is to show them the promised land of more time and money. Something we all long for . As an educator it's on me to teach you what to buy, when, how to manage risk and where to take profits.