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October 5, 2025 43 mins
Build Confidence & Consistency in Trading with Diana Perkins & Forex Coach Andrew Mitchem  Podcast: Find out more about Blueberry Markets – Click Here Find out more about my Online Video Forex Course Book a Call with Andrew or one of his team now Click Here to Attend my Free Masterclass #608: Build Confidence & Consistency in Trading with Diana Perkins & Forex Coach Andrew Mitchem In this video: 00:31 – My trading chat with Diana Perkins. 00:56 – Andrew & Diana trade different markets but share a common philosophy. 04:15 – Risk management and psychology. 05:27 – Removing the hype around trading. 13:15 – Lot size, risk, demo and live trading. 19:14 – Technical trading and News Trading. 22:05 – Trading FX, Metals, Indices, Cryptos and Commodities. 25:15 – Using currency Strength and Weakness. 27:07 – Fitting trading around your lifestyle. 32:05 – Enjoy your trading. 38:20 – Trading via a Prop firm. 39:25 – Knowing that you have the knowledge to trade for yourself. 42:22 – Contact Diana Andrew Mitchem One of the best ways for you to learn how to trade properly is to listen to conversations between experienced traders. So today I've got something really special for you. Just yesterday I had a chat with Diana Perkins from Trading with Diana. We trade different markets, but we both share the same philosophy, and it's going to help you massively. Andrew Mitchem Let's get into that more right now. My trading chat with Diana Perkins. Andrew Mitchem Hey traders, Andrew here at The Forex Trading Coach with video and podcast number 608. For 40 minutes you're going to get absolute gold with my interview with Diana Perkins. Let's start straight away. Everybody, it’s Andrew Mitchem here at The Forex Trading Coach. Absolutely thrilled today to be joined by Diana Perkins from Trading with Diana. Welcome along, Diana. Nice to see you so much. Diana Perkins, CPA And thank you for having me. Andrew & Diana trade different markets but share a common philosophy. Andrew Mitchem Awesome. Well, look, we got put together because I think someone thought that we would have a great education and insight to help people, because although we do slightly different things, I think our philosophy of trading and helping people is something that will align really well for people watching and listening to this. So maybe first of all, Diana, if you could introduce yourself, who you are and what you do. Diana Perkins, CPA Absolutely, and I agree with the person who connected us. I'm really excited for this conversation. So, Diana Perkins, I'm the founder of Trading with Diana, which is an educational platform where I teach everyday people how to trade the market with confidence. I do this through workshops, personalized coaching, and newsletters, and it's honestly the best part of my day. I spent a good part of my career trading and mentoring and coaching others in the space, and recently launched my own business so I can do this full time. Andrew Mitchem Awesome, awesome. So, when you coach people, what kind of markets do you generally look at? What do you help them with? Diana Perkins, CPA Yeah, it's typically the US equity market and we're focused on stocks, ETFs, you know, some index funds and, for a small subset—although it's growing—options trading, which I don't normally market. But I did used to be a professional options trader. I love it. There's so much that you can do with stock options. So focus in those areas. But it's really all market conditions, which brings up—I actually just spoke with a trader this morning about that—just looking almost, you know, the last nine months in review, but all different market conditions across all different sectors. It's really a flexible approach. And you'll hear me say that investing, it's very individual. Andrew Mitchem You know, I was reading your background about how you started when you were young with charging—I think it was the inter...
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
One of the best ways for you to learn how
to trade properly is to listen to conversations between experienced traders.
So today I've got something really special for you. Just
yesterday I had a chat with Diana Perkins from Trading
With Diana. We trade different markets, but we both share
the same philosophy and it's going to help you massively.
Let's get into it the more right now, Hey, the traders.

(00:32):
Andrew here at the Froust Trading Coach with video and
podcast number six hundred and eight for forty minutes. You're
going to get absolute gold with my interview with Diana Perkins.
Let's start straight away. Everybody is Andrew Mitcham here at
the Freust Trading Coach, absolutely thrilled today to be joined
by Diana Perkins from Trading with Diana. Welcome along, Diana,
nice to see you, Thank.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
You so much, and thank you for having me awesome.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Well, look, we got put together because I think think
someone thought that we would have a great education and
insight to help people. Because although we do slightly different things,
I think our philosophy of trading and helping people is
something that will align really well for people watching and
listening to this, So maybe, first of all, Diana, if
you could introduce yourself who you are and what you do.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
We're absolutely so, and I agree with the person who
connected us. I'm really excited for this conversation. So, Diana Perkins.
I'm the founder of Trading with Diana, which is an
educational platform where I teach everyday people how to trade
the markets with confidence. I do this through workshops, personalized coaching,
and newsletters and it's honestly the best part of my day.

(01:45):
I spent a good part of my career trading and
mentoring and coaching others in this space, and recently launched
my own business so I can do this full time.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Awesome. Awesome. So when you coach people, what kind of
markets do you look at you? What do you help
them with?

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, it's typically the US equity markets, and we're focused
on stocks, ETFs, you know, some index funds and for
a small subset, although it's growing options trading, which I
don't formally market, but I did use to be a
professional options trader. I love it. There's so much that
you can do with stock options, so focus in those areas.

(02:27):
But it's really all market conditions, which brings up right.
I actually just spoke with the trader this morning about that,
just looking almost you know, the last nine months in review,
but all different market conditions across all different sectors. It's
really a flexible approach. And you'll hear me that investing
it's very it's very individual.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
So cool. I was reading your background about how you
sided when you were young with charging I think with
your sister interest on borrowings and things like that, and
it was like, that was really cool. I love that
whole story. So I'm guessing you've been into like the
financial industry or business for most of your life.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah. Absolutely, so as long as I can remember, I
was a numbers girl. At eight years old, I learned
what compound interest was, and with my family found out
I had a little bit of petty cash. They started
asking me for money, so I charged interest because that
money could have been earning interest in the bank account.
So so yeah, so from an early age, I always

(03:30):
knew finance was my passion. Throughout my career, You're right,
I spent about twenty years in various rules in the
finance industry, but it was really it was a class
I took in college where we had a virtual stock
exchange competition, very competitive by nature, and I wanted to win.
In order to win, we don't understand what moves the markets,

(03:53):
and so that's how I learned. I knew this is
what I wanted to do, but I wanted to do
it on my own terms, which to why if you want.
But so what I did is I got my finance
and accounting degree, my CPA, good corporate job, and then
ten years in I went out on my own to
learn how to trade stock options and never look back.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
So that's interesting because I'm guessing with that kind of background,
you learned either the hard way or straight away about
risk as well, because I find it interesting that you know,
we're in especially myself in in the forduct market predominantly,
we're in this industry where people think risk is like
you know, they have to risk everything, or I don't

(04:35):
want to do it because it's too risky. I'm guessing
that we're both completely the opposite, and we're both very
conservative and risk averse in how we trade. And I'm
guessing that with your business it's the same thing.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yes, I would say that's an area where we're probably
very similar, where it's and risk management. That's what keeps
you in the markets long term. I really have a sexuicide.
I think of trading, which is why I think a
lot of trading education or you know, just when I
see that, I see it loosely like YouTube videos and
things that you know the masses are looking at. They

(05:11):
don't really hone in on that as much. By eighty percent,
discipline and mental and managing our emotions and trading and
sticking to a structure and plan and building that consistency
over time.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah, and like you brought the word emotion into that,
I think that's such a I've always said to people
when they start, there's two things you've got to control.
Ones up here and the other's in here. Your head
and your heart. Your emotions are such a massive part
of trading. And I see it that the danger, you know,
with YouTube, TikTok and all that Instagram, all that type

(05:47):
of thing. You know, there's a little bit of okay
information out there, there's obviously a lot of bad information.
People always show the flashy red ferraris and the private
jets and look what I did on this trade, and
I'm you know, make fifty percent. But we both know
that behind the scenes, that's not real. But unfortunately a

(06:08):
lot of people get I suppose, caught up in that
roller coaster of thinking they're going to make a fortune
straight away. And I noticed on your site, and there's
one thing I also say. You had a section on
there who this is not for? And I thought that
was really interesting and good because we're both upfront and
honest about you know, we're here to help teach you,

(06:31):
but if you want some ridiculous gain, you're not going
to get it with us.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
That's right, that's absolutely right, And I think a lot
of what's out there, I agree it's you know, there
are a lot of folks who want to say, oh,
you know, they see that one story like you said
with the Ferrari, right, Oh, I really want that? How
do I get that easily and quickly? It's the truth.
Like anything in life, you need to put in the
spit upfront, and it's not even you know, I mean

(07:02):
some of it, yes, dollar wise, but the investment of
time and your energy to really learn how to do
it right. And I feel there's like this misnomer out
there that I mean, you do need to make that investment,
but you don't need you know millions to start, You
don't even need thousands to start. I mean, right, and
I have a feeling you and I could get really

(07:23):
into this. But right now, the markets they're more accessible
than any time before. Right you can open and count
in you know, fifteen twenty minutes. You can start with dollars.
You you know you can't afford a five hundred dollars
share of Microsoft. You can buy a frackare on many
of these platforms. So it's so accessible. But you do

(07:43):
need to make that investment upfront on education because you
don't want to get whiplash, and you don't want to
lose money in a trade because you put in the
order backwards. You know you want to do it because
maybe you call the market wrong so much, so many learnings.
I'm sure you could have test as well, having in
one of the fifteen years.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
So would it be fair to say that it's the learning?
How like the how to do it is the most
important thing right now when someone starts, or even if
they've been doing it for a long time and have failed,
it's the learning, properly the how to, Because I say
to people, if you do that upfront, forget about the
next six months or even the next year. You know,

(08:27):
use that time as you're learning process your learning phase,
and if you do that right, then afterwards things will
be really good, you know if you know financially, But
do that that grandwork, that hard work upfront. Learn how
to do it properly, how to do it at low risk.
Learn what soil of person and trader you are and

(08:49):
the results will follow.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
Yes, and actually that last, that last piece that you
just mentioned, learn the type of trader that you are.
We offer and personal relationship with money and when it
comes to trading, and I talk to a lot of
my traders about this is many times they'll say, I
feel like you're a life coach in addition to my

(09:12):
trading coach because it back to you because it does
involve risk. So yes, yes, how two is very important,
and I run workshops just like on those tactics. But
I would argue that trading and being successful in trading
long term is probably eighty percent psychological. So when you

(09:33):
just said, it's the type of trader you are, the
type of investor you are, that relationship and then determining, okay,
like how do I want to trade? What are my goals?
You know, how much am I willing to risk? You know,
make sure you've answers to all of those questions before
you place your first trade.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
Absolutely, And do you encourage people to start on demo
accounts or do you guys straighting to like smaller live accounts?
How would someone start with you?

Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah? Great question. So I do work with contingent of
aspiring professional traders options and for X and every one
of them are required to trade on a demo account.
So absolutely yes for those folks. For my beginner traders
who are just dabbling, I do encourage a demo account.

(10:28):
If they don't trade in a demo.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
Account, then I always encourage to start small, very small.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
Our number one rule don't trade anything you can afford
to lose. And then number two we never take the
big loss. Right, So there are some that just dabble
because there is a different going back to the mindset,
it is different in demo versus live. And then finally,
I'll say probably with my most experienced traders, I mean

(10:55):
I will say I get on coaching sessions and I'm
teaching a new option strategy and are placing the trade
right there live. Oh why don't we try that? You know?
In demo first, when it's a new strategy, a new time,
a new you know, even position sizing as your account grows.
I had that question from a trader, you know, you know,

(11:17):
get your feed web if you're training with a significant
amount of capital to you, right, it's personal, get your
feet wet first, and then when you feel confident, then
go on your live account. So long story short for
the most part. Yet, although some folks who are just
you know, dabbling and news sometimes they you know, they
might try a little bit with Live to get their

(11:38):
feet wet to build their confidence. And then we go
in and we talk about all the elements you mentioned before,
the real meat.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
Of the how right now, the way that we teach people.
And again it's personal because it's up to each person
of what they determine risk and amount of money. I
personally my own trade, I trade at half of one
percent of my account risk per trade. If I trade
on prop theirms where you can trade like on other

(12:10):
companies money for a profit share, I go down to
a quarter of one percent risk per trade, and sometimes
that's even split over to trades to positions, So it's
very very small amounts because like you said, it's that
it's the psychological. The mental aspect is so huge, and
I think it's also important that you control that risk

(12:31):
so you're not then frightened to take that next trade.
Like if you have a loss, that loss I think
should be acceptable for you. If you see the position
at the time and it meets your criteria and you
take the trade and it goes against you, then you
shouldn't be scared about getting into the next trade. And

(12:52):
because providing those criteria were right and the market goes
against you, well that's sometimes what happens. So I think
that real low risk, low draw down is crucial for
people to to almost like to trade mentally because I
think unless people really get into it, that whole aspect

(13:13):
of life, trading and the emotions is so important to
get right.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
Absolutely, and there's so much I feel to unpack there
and you know it. So I mean position size on
every trade. Typically with traders, we'll talk about one to
two percent, but the half percent, quarter percent, you know
the other side of that is how many positions do
you have on yeah, your portfolio risk. So there's this

(13:39):
analogy that I share with my traders, and it hits
on just what you're talking about, you know, you don't
want one loss, you know, mentally to you know, to
make you so fearful you don't want to get back in.
And so there's this analogy of ten trades, and the
idea is you have a portfolio of te trades and

(14:00):
it can be you know, currencies, it can be you
know US stock option, you know, whatever it is. Whatever
you're trading, you have. You have ten positions on at
a given time, and you go in and you have
your ideally, you have your trading plan, you position size
either to max loss with options or you have a
stop loss you know, so you're managing your risk and

(14:21):
all ten trades, you do your analysis, you approach it right.
The reality though, going in start with the mindset of
even though maybe you did everything right and followed a
system and plan, that you'll probably have at least two
to three those trades will come out as a loss.
Maybe i'll call it, you know, three to five right,

(14:42):
will be you know, a small loss or small game,
and three ideally more on the upside if you're playing
probabilities starting but say, but we'll just call it two
to three winners, right, and you want to those up
because they're going to pay for your losers. And what
I see a lot are traders that want to get

(15:03):
out of their winners early. Is there work, and that's
where that emotional discipline comes in, which I'm sure you
could speak to as long in your experience.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah, we see exactly the same thing. And that's why
with the strategy that I've developed, our profitable trades are
like a broad range would be between a two to
one reward to risk and about a four to one,
So in other words, if you were risking one percent,
you'd make two, three, four percent, depending on the individual trades.

(15:33):
And so I think that's really important because, as you said,
you're going to have some little losers and then you
know bigger gains and you kind of step your way up.
When you look at like you're it's not an equity
curve as such, it's more of a I look at
it as like a ladder. You know, few little losses,
bigger gains, little losses gains, and I seem to think

(15:54):
that that's how people progress well. And then we talked
about compounding as well before we started, you know, and
getting people to understand the power of compounding is huge
as well. And I think a lot of people. You know,
it's a very simple concept, but I think a lot
of people don't know how powerful it can be, both

(16:14):
when you're making money and also when you're losing money
because your risky is there for the same percentage but
a smaller monetary value. So yeah, compounding time, they're both
very powerful things.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
Really, I mean compounding, that's how you build wealth. There
is a workshop or building wealth of confidence. And the
first and this is for folks like completely intimidated by
the markets, where do I start? And I always start
with why even invest? And I have a part that
starts with fifty thousand dollars And there's two lines on
this chart, fifty thousand dollars over thirty years sitting in

(16:53):
the s and P five hundred and it's over eight
hundred thousand dollars in profits sitting in of course they
used to traditional savings on the flip side, and it's
about eight thousand dollars over the same amount of time.
Now that's yeah, steady returns, which we know, gosh over
since nineteen twenty eight. There's a random stat but about

(17:15):
so the SMP obviously it's average about nine and a
half to ten percent for years. But when you it's
actually interesting when you look at the average between eight
percent and twelve percent in no return only happens about
twenty percent of the time, and so I think that
a lot of folks see it as as really volatile
because you tend to remember, you know, some of those

(17:37):
really down years or others. You know, it's just the
really the really you know, really great years that that
the SMP's return, you know, twenty five thirty percent or more.
I'm right that compounding it really makes all the difference,
and that's how you build well. You won't do that
in a traditional savings account, highyield savings around four percent.

(17:58):
You know, it's a similar concept up to maybe emergency fund.
But the financial markets, that's that's really where it is.
The other thing that you mentioned is reward risk. So
four to one is excellent. Yes, so typically we target
around you know, around two to one, although it is
swing trading, it's it's shorter term, but you hit that

(18:21):
key concept. You want to make more on your winners
than your losers. So even if batting like a fifty
to fifty win loss, you're going to come out ahead.
And that's really the key to it. We're based you know,
once in a while, you know, maybe an earnings play
or you know non foreign pay roles or you know
or you know of you know, FED meeting. You know,

(18:42):
you might play certain economic reports, corporate earnings if it
stops and really try to you know, get those home runs.
But even those I'll sometimes go in, you know, into
the one percent risk like you like you do right
half a percent or said two percent, one percent, I'll
cut that on those that you know feel more speculative, yes,
than what the other ninety five percent of trading as

(19:09):
so nice.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
So we a technical trade. I'm a technical trader. I
look it charts, Yes, I'm aware of you know, look
at the news events like you said, the non farm payrolls,
employment change, I think it's called these days. But all
those type of things, you know, we're aware of them.
But I'm personally trade and teach as a technical trader.
Do you do something similar with candle patterns? And is
that how you teach people to look for certain positions?

Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yep, yes, so I would say.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
So.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
I think there's there's definitely a place for both technical
charting and fundamental analysis. I think they work hand in hand.
But primary I teach and what I focus on with
my students is technical analysis, and the reason for that
it's it's focused on swing trading. Swing time frame, so
anywhere from well, I guess a few days up to

(19:59):
maybe seven to eight weeks on the long end. Most
of my traders around two to three weeks. Most of
my strategies actually go about four to five weeks, which
is definitely on the longer end, but because of them
menium trading technical analysis, however, there's always a fundamental check
before going into any trade, so looking at things like

(20:20):
earnings announcements if I'm not as with the industry or
that specific company, you know, looking at its competitive positioning,
analyst reports, what are you know some of the targets,
recent earnings, and I always do a scan on news
to understand, okay, what's more current is there? You know,
at their product lines, what are their competitors doing? So

(20:42):
I run through all of that before I put on
the trade. But everything up into that point is technical
analysis through top down. I would and I would love
to hear more about about your system and how you
do you know a selection as well?

Speaker 1 (20:58):
Yes, you're so. Although we called the forest trading coach.
Over the last number of years, we've had access on
our trading platforms to more markets like the indices. In fact,
I took an S and P five hundred by trade yesterday,
which was profitable for our clients. But we can trade
the indices, the metals, commodities, cryptos, and of course the currencies,

(21:20):
but the way that I trade them, they're all taken
the same way. I'm looking at a chart and it
could be the euro US dollar, or it could be
the S and P five hundred, or it could be bitcoin.
And to me, it doesn't matter what I'm trading. It's
more does is have the technical setup to move in
either the ballish or bearish direction, depending on which way

(21:42):
I'm trading. So and of course when I started and
worked this out the system, because it took me four
years of being around the circuits, you know, losing money,
buying different ideas and systems and getting nowhere, and so
it's about eighty years ago. Things came right. Sixteen years
ago we started coaching, But obviously back then cryptos didn't exist.

(22:08):
We couldn't trade metals, who couldn't trade indices. So what's
been really pleasing is because We're based on sad technical
analysis and look at candle patterns and where they occur
with on the chart, have they got room to move
to the profit target. We look at brand numbers like
strong levels, price levels, and by the way, I find
that so many people fail to look at the price

(22:29):
of something they're buying or selling. You know, can you
have your stop loss protected by a zero zero number
of things like that? So we quite heavily look at
the actual price. A lot of forest traders just fill
their charts with clutter of lines and it looks like
spaghetti on their charts. You know, there's lines and dots
and arrows, and they actually don't look at the price.

(22:50):
But simple candle patterns and analysis can work. I find
across all markets, we don't look at news as much
as you sound like you do, because of the nature
of predominantly the markets we're trading. You know, we're aware
of the main events like an interest rate or a

(23:10):
job deployment data, but we don't specifically I don't specifically
trade them. I prefer myself technical analysis because you could
have something affecting the US market, let's say, but if
I'm trading the Euro against the new Zealand dollar. It's
completely irrelevant what you know in most circumstances, what's happening

(23:35):
in a US market, or if I'm trading the Australian
against the yen, what happens out of the UK or Europe,
it's pretty much irrelevant. So I find that in currency trading,
a main news event is only relevant if you're trading
that currency. So the British, you know, in you're trading
the British PANDM, there's something out of the UK obviously

(23:57):
that would affect more likely what you're trade, or you
don't trade until that news events finished. But predominantly we're
candle patterns and technical tritis.

Speaker 2 (24:10):
Well, and I love what you said about keeping it simple.
I've definitely worked with traders and there's you know, you know,
Fibonacci retracements, and there are all these different you know, indicators,
and and you know, I was at price and volume
primary indicators start there. And you bring up an interesting
point too, around paars trading. So there was a stint
about fifteen years ago where I did dabble and four

(24:33):
x and I loved the concept of pairs trading so much.
I actually do apply that to my stock and options
trading within a sector. I might be you know, energy
is a.

Speaker 4 (24:46):
Good sector to do this because it's it's I think
you know so anyway, So basically, you know, you look
at work on relative strength and you are thought that's.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
Outpacing the SMP. You know, you have a bullish strategy
on that particular that particular company stock, and then one
that's relative weakness within the same sector. So if there's
a sector rotation, you're making it not right for one another.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
So you could use sectors in the way that I
use it, like the Euro or the US, you know,
for strength and weakness, because you know, we've got trades
setting up very shortly in half an hour, and I
was looking today for a cell trade on the euro yen.
It just happens to be looking like a reasonable trade.
But then I've gone again. I've looked at the Euro
against the US and against the Aussie and the Kiwi

(25:34):
in the Canadian and the Euro is looking really really strong.
So by looking at strength and weakness, it can actually
keep you out of losing traits because although this euro
yen looks like it's dropping, the euro is strong against
every other currency, and so I like tend to stay

(25:54):
away from taking a cell trade on the euroen today
because I'm trading against the overall predominant strength of the
Europe and I think when you blend that with your
shop analysis and your strength and weakness analysis, it can
actually help you to avoid losing trades as well.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Yeah, absolutely, really dooming out. It's a different perspective and
similar to what you were saying before with charting. One
of the great things about it, whether you're trading right, cryptocurrencies,
etf stops, commodities, currencies right, it's transferable or translatable across
different asset types. And I would say the same thing.

(26:38):
And I'm actually a little curious about this view. So
I mentioned, you know, a swing trading time frame is
my sweet spot, although I see charting right. You can
go to a fifteen minute, thirty minute hourly time frame
a trade on that, or you can buy and hold
and go heavier on the fundamental I would love to
hear more about about your approach and just in terms
of time frame and how you look at the technical analysis.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
Yeah, definitely. So I use a phrase of there's no
prizes for trading more because everybody thinks they need to
be looking at short time frame charts and the realities
you don't and you should probably do the opposite. So
as an example, tomorrow it's the first of October, and
so we'll be going through the monthly charts for the

(27:22):
September close and looking at those on our longer time
frame charts for October trades. The beginning of each week
we look at weekly charts, and every day we look
at the daily charts, and so that's the five PM
New York close, and so we make the analysis of
where we see trades based off those clothes of the

(27:45):
daily charts. At the same time, at the five pm close,
we can also go through and look at like twelve hours,
an eight hour, and six hour trades, So we look
at those shorter timeframes as well because they all close
at the same time. My other personal favorite time to
trade is five am New York time. Not great for

(28:07):
you and you don't have to be there at that
exact time, but at that time the twelve hours change
over as well, because obviously it's five pm five am,
two lots of twelve hour charts, and so I find
that those are the two best times to trade. If
I had to pick, like you, know someone's working full

(28:29):
time or the traveling, Like we've just spent a month
traveling around the US. I traded once a day at
five pm, and it doesn't matter whether you put the
trade on at six or seven or eight. Because we
use limit orders. We don't trade at the market so much.
I use a buy limits, so if I see a
bullish pattern, I will take a buy limit to buy

(28:51):
below the current price. So in all markets, things move
up and down and it comes back down bills my
buy limit and then goes up home in the anticipated direction.
So it means you don't need to be there at
that exact time because you can put the buy limit on.
If the market pulls back, triggers the trade you're in,
and if it doesn't, it just takes off, then you

(29:12):
miss the trade. And I think that's again an important thing.
Because we've got coaching clients in one hundred and nine countries.
Everybody on different time zone is different. You know, works
and family and everything else going on in busy lives.
But most people should be able to trade like for
ten to fifteen minutes once a day, and I think

(29:34):
that's the important thing. You don't have to be there.
Glue to your charts because for me, like trading your
time zone, it's like two o'clock in the morning. I've
got better things to do at two o'clock in the
morning than sit looking at my charts exactly. And you know,
so I think it's important that people focus on trading

(29:55):
less but trading better quality.

Speaker 2 (29:58):
Oh yeah, I would say. One of the biggest myths
in trading is that you need And I always asked
this question all the time when I when I was
learning trading and first getting into coaching. Is you know, Diane,
how many screens do I need? Need? One screen and
a very reliable internet connection. But right, just like you said,
through through limit orders or even through through bracket orders, right,

(30:22):
set it, set it, and forget. You have your entry
point which write limit order, your mat a limit, and
then your self stop which stop order. So but yeah,
just play. It's advanced order type, but it's so simple,
three legs pocket triggers. You're in. If it doesn't, then
it probably wasn't meant to be because it's not moving
in your direction or it's not the price that you
need to on the reward risk. But then once you're in,

(30:45):
you can sit on it. It hits your target, you're
out for a win, you know, hits your stop loss,
you're out for a small loss. And like, and I
think that's that's so important. You know a lot of
my traders, they'll do their analysis on a Sunday, for example,
and typically the analysis involves looking at the broad market.
So the smp nasdacked out forse equities, sectors, what's relatively strong,

(31:10):
what's relatively weak, and then essentially a filter or individual stops.
They go on a watch list. Market opens, you monitor
your your watch list. But just like you said, ten
to fifteen minutes a day, no otherwise risk over trading.
I think the statistic loosely is, you know, ninety five
percent of day traders lose money. And I actually tried

(31:33):
the other day. I was I think it was actually
on it, just like the S and pos. You know,
I had a short term trade, a day trade, and
I was just going to be in it for a
few hours, and I was watching every tick and I
wanted to rip out my It's just not how I trade,
It's not how I roll. Know I anyone would do
that to themselves.

Speaker 3 (31:51):
Do your analysis up front, know your numbers, know your
risk tolerance, know your time frame and then and then
place the trade and.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
Trust the Oh.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
Yeah, it's quite interesting. We've both been in the you know,
various markets for quite a long time, and we both
look happy and we're smiling, and we're enjoying it. And
I'm sure a lot of it is because we figured out,
we've worked out that you shouldn't be this glued to
your charts because you know, I think we both find
it enjoyable and we look forward to each week starting

(32:24):
because of the almost like the lack of time that
we spend doing it. I think if you're glued to it,
you know, just ten hours a day, you would be
just I need to do something else. And I think
that's where so many people go wrong, or they go
I've got a full time job where I've got lots
of kids. I can't do it. And it's like, yes,
you can. I've got five kids. You know, you know

(32:46):
you can do Luckily they're all grown up there, but
you know, I've been trading through raising five kids. You
can do it. You know you can travel and do this.
You can have a job and do this. And I
think that's where so many people think that's not possible.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
Yes, it's so true. I mean when I started trading
about fifteen twenty years ago, I was working full time
and it was a very demanded job. And that's so
that's where the bracket orders it was, you know, talking
about those many with the traders that I work with now,
you know, we meet at odd hours of the day
and evening and because we're working around those schedules and

(33:26):
they're looking for that freedom and they're not they're not greedy,
but they love the flexibility. There's a passion. I always say,
like when you're a trader, it's it's in your blood.
Like no one even now my family, we don't know
what you do to you know, you just know. And
you know I've worked with options traders, you know for

(33:47):
X traders. Yes, there's that element of risk and you
have to set expectations if you for a while look
like we have. You know, you've taken some punches to
the chin, but then you know, you come back up.
You learn about risk management and and you find a
way to be disappointed if you want, you know, in
it long term, because if you have a fifty percent DRATA,

(34:09):
you're gonna have to make one hundred.

Speaker 1 (34:10):
Percent get it back again that's right. Yeah, people don't
get that simple number, but it's so true. Yeah, So Diana,
what's the like there's a couple of questions here. What's
the pain point that people have when they come to you, Like,
what's what's going wrong? Or what do they need to
fix when they come to you? And also, I suppose
the second question is with the way that you know

(34:31):
cost of living and inflation, is that it doesn't matter
where you live in the world these days. What's the
the down side of not doing something like we're doing, Like,
you know, what's what's going to be your result in
five ten years if you don't do anything?

Speaker 2 (34:48):
Also yeah, okay, both great questions. So the biggest challenges
I see, and there's actually a bit of a spectrum.
So so I work with I run workshops for those
completely intimidated by the markets. You know, they don't even
know where to start. So the biggest challenge is there, Well,
it's where do I start? Why do I need to invest?

(35:09):
I don't understand the terminology, And so I run through
all of that and then just the tactics of opening
a brokerage account, and then I'll share some some initial
investments to start with and I have students in those
classes who they start, you know, zero knowledge of the markets.
By the end of it, like that day they're opening
brokerage accounts, come place in the first trades for the

(35:29):
first time in their lives. So maybe so that's for
my newbies and then my advanced traders and professional traders.
So many things, but I'll say the number one is
around discipline, and hey, can I tell you about this trade?
You know, it hit my profit zone. But then it
turned over should I take my profits early? I saiforre

(35:51):
are you're going to take your losses off early too
because of the PU was Your losses are going to
cut into those profits. And we talk about that that
discipline and trading. Others will come to me when and
I had this issue when I first started trading, to
I as a bit too conservative. You know, they trained
accountant CPA, and you need money to make money, and

(36:13):
I was break even for a long time, right, And
so more experienced traders they've either well almost all have
drawn down an account to zero. So so I gets
risk management. I don't know why I didn't think of
that first. And then the other is they're you know,
they're they're sitting at break even and you want to
break So it could be new strategies, looking at their
you know, uh yeah, their risk management, their strategies, their

(36:36):
trading plan or even exploring new option strategies or trying
to things something like that. It's it's so different. But yeah,
but yeah, risk management just getting started probably the two
of the biggest ones. And then just that that discipline,
like they know what to do, but applying it's very different.
So i'd say that for the first part of your question. Yeah, yeah,

(36:58):
we're right.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
Yeahs a living doing nothing.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
Pustling very expensive right now, I think dealing a bit
with the aftermath from COVID inflationary environment. But right when
we look at you know, where we place our money,
and you know, there's some folks who might be saying,
I don't have money to invest, are you crazy? But
the idea is whatever it is, even if it's you know,

(37:24):
fifty dollars a month. We talked about compounding earlier. If
you in a savings account, checking account inflation two to
three percent for your to you know, typically you know
you're losing money if you at the minimum highild savings.
But again you're still just about at par putting your
money in the stock markets over time. That's like we

(37:45):
talked about before. That's where you build well and you
start with what you have where you are. So and
that's how I was able to leave corporate. I had
I don't remember the number now, but I had to
set amount each month that I could have for and
initial proceedings later in the market, and then I checked
it ten years later and I quit my job the

(38:07):
first time. It's so important. You don't need to start
with thousands, but you want to start with and I
know you have perspective on that as well.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
Yeah, it's the same thing. It's like you know I
mentioned earlier. I think it's important to learn the how
to do something because in the forest market you could
trade your own money, you potentially could trade someone else's.
But we have prop firms as well, and prop firms
allow you to trade other people's money once you've proven
that you can do it within draw down criteria for

(38:38):
a profit share. And so that's been around for maybe
five years sort of tops. Really there's been quite a
lot more companies in the last few years, and a
lot of my clients do end up trading through prop
firms because, like you said, people go love what you do,
want to do it, but I don't have enough money.
And it's like you can either, like you said, a

(39:00):
small amount in and learn how to do it, or
you could go through to a prop them and work
on a profit share. And I think that's been a
real game changer for a lot of our clients as well,
because you don't need to have, you know, one hundred
thousand dollars yourself, and even if you had one hundred
thousand dollars, you might want to still trade the prop
fit of money and you know, a lot less of

(39:21):
your own. So there's options out there for people. And
one of the other things I think is so important,
and again it comes back to that mental aspect. It's
having that comfort and that knowledge of you can do
this for yourself, you know, through learning through you or
learning through us. And I think that's something that is massive.

(39:42):
I love that knowledge and that comfort that almost like
that feel good of I don't have to go and
hand my funds over to someone I'm never going to
meet or know or know what they're doing with my money.
I have complete control. I have the knowledge up here, yeah,
of doing what I want when I want, and how

(40:03):
much I risk or not. You know, that whole control,
a self control, I think is massive. That it's almost
that you can't underestimate how important that is.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
I completely agree. So especially during COVID. So if we
go back five years, you know, they there's you know,
all over the newspaper about newspapers about the democratization of
trading and the markets, and a lot of folks with
during that time, right, so maybe they lost their jobs
or wanted to start something new, or now they're home,
so like, what do I do with my time?

Speaker 3 (40:37):
And there's so many new entrants to trading, you knows,
as retail traders, and so it's more it's more accessible
than than ever before.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
And one of the things that I've learned is, you know,
since since starting my business, I've actually worked, you know,
met a lot of wealth managers, advisors who are picking
my brains and they're telling me. A lot of the
younger generation don't trust you know, advisors, I guess, and
so they want to learn themselves. So we've talked about
different partnerships and I'll sometimes say, you know, you know,

(41:12):
it's it is empowering, just that education, learning how to
do it yourself when you're older. You need tax strategy,
retirement strategy, estate, you know, all of that. You know,
maybe maybe you pivot or maybe or maybe you don't.
But just having just like you said, just having that
knowledge and debunking the myth that trading and the financial
markets are just for Wall Street. I always say, you know,

(41:33):
they're not Wall Street. They're for Main Street too. You know,
open a borkeage account of twenty minutes, start with ten dollars,
you know, invest in an index fund, or learn you know,
learn you know currency trading through an established program and
a system that you can plug into. And that's how
I went through a rock firm and nine months program,
met the partners in Vegas, and then I started working

(41:56):
internally and coaching and mentoring their traders. And it's you
just you have to empower yourself that way, even if
nothing else, just the terminology and understanding works. It's because
money is so insentual to everyday lives.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
And I'll get on whether we like it or not,
it is. Yeah, yeah, you have no choice in that one. Diana.
How would someone contact you, what's the best way of
getting in touch with you?

Speaker 2 (42:26):
Well, I can be reached through my website. It's Trading
with Diana dot Com. You can schedule freecall, sign up
for my free newsletter.

Speaker 3 (42:33):
And go from there.

Speaker 1 (42:35):
Awesome. Hello, it's been so enjoyable chatting with you, and
I think that we've got so many similarities with what
we do and why we do it as well. I
think that it's the why we trade with why we
help and teach as well, is really important. Well, thank
you so much for your time. I'll put links here
to your website as well and your and so people
can contact you. But thank you very much for your

(42:57):
time today and we'll keep in touch.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
Man's great. Thank you so much for having me on.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
Awesome. Thank you,
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