February 1, 2026 • 30 mins
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In this video: 00:25 – The mental side of trading well.
00:49 – Tom’s background.
02:40 – You don’t need to be perfect.
06:34 – Ideas for new traders.
09:25 – AI and the future as a trader.
14:25 – Closing the trade early for profit.
16:52 – False results from gurus online.
19:50 – Trading and stress.
23:14 – Andrew looking at D1 charts in a few minutes.
26:25 – People need support and community. Andrew Mitchem
Hi everybody. It's Andrew Mitchem here at the Forex Trading Coach. Welcome to another video on podcast. I'm really excited today to be joined by Tom Winterstein, who is a certified mental performance coach and trader over in the US. Welcome a long time. Nice to see you Tom Winterstein
Great. Thank you. Great to be here. The mental side of trading well. Andrew Mitchem
Tom, look, I think we've got a lot of great information that we're going to help people with on this, video on podcast. Because we were just chatting about the mental aspect of trading and how it's something we're both huge on, but it's something that most people just completely overlook in their trading, especially if they're new. Andrew Mitchem
So maybe you can give us a bit of background on yourself and that aspect of your trading and how it's crucial to someone's success. Tom’s background. Tom Winterstein
Sure, sure. Thank you. Thank you for that. Well, I've spent over 30 years in the markets as a trader, an investor and an educator, and I've been focus on, you know, global markets like futures and, equities and commodities, forex and, and even crypto using a price action based approach. But that wasn't always the case. That wasn't how I started. Tom Winterstein
Like most traders, I went through various different systems, indicators, you know, gurus, signals and stuff and totally ignored, any of the, the trading psychology or mental performance side because I thought I didn't need it. You know, I could succeed without that. You know, most traders, you know, like yourself and like me have been very successful. We've had successful periods in our life and we approach this as something that it's another thing we can be successful in. Tom Winterstein
Although it's not quite that easy, it doesn't translate that as well. If you leave out certain parts of it. So what I realized is that most traders don't struggle because they they lack a strategy. You know, most traders have a strategy. They're not just, you know, throwing a dart and buying or selling willy nilly. They struggle because their execution breaks down when there's real money on the line and in their emotions take over the, the class and that that right there, you know, that experience was the shift that led me to focus on building a repeatable performance environment. Tom Winterstein
Okay. Right. Hence the mental side of it had to be combined with price action or whatever your strategy or edge was today. My work centers not only in price action, but risk management and mental performance systems that help traders perform consistently, not perfectly, but consistently. And that's that's really, you know, the best we can strive for as traders or investors is to be consistent and have a system that that, you know, takes us through the decision making process. You don’t need to be perfect. Tom Winterstein
So in the heat of the moment, those decisions are outsourced to our process. Andrew Mitchem
Yeah. Interesting. I like I really like the phrase that you use to that not making it perfect because I think when people get into trading and, you know, they buy a course or they read an e-book, whatever it might be, they see that boring bit at the top that talks about risk management and psychology and mind control, you know, mining everything, the all the important things that we're going to talk about. Andrew Mitchem
But they get that, oh, I don't need that. I scroll down through the important bit because I want the strategy. And then when they do things like backtesting, they they want the perfect strategy. And and your phrase about it's not perfect is so true because as we both know, we can see wha
In this video: 00:25 – The mental side of trading well.
00:49 – Tom’s background.
02:40 – You don’t need to be perfect.
06:34 – Ideas for new traders.
09:25 – AI and the future as a trader.
14:25 – Closing the trade early for profit.
16:52 – False results from gurus online.
19:50 – Trading and stress.
23:14 – Andrew looking at D1 charts in a few minutes.
26:25 – People need support and community. Andrew Mitchem
Hi everybody. It's Andrew Mitchem here at the Forex Trading Coach. Welcome to another video on podcast. I'm really excited today to be joined by Tom Winterstein, who is a certified mental performance coach and trader over in the US. Welcome a long time. Nice to see you Tom Winterstein
Great. Thank you. Great to be here. The mental side of trading well. Andrew Mitchem
Tom, look, I think we've got a lot of great information that we're going to help people with on this, video on podcast. Because we were just chatting about the mental aspect of trading and how it's something we're both huge on, but it's something that most people just completely overlook in their trading, especially if they're new. Andrew Mitchem
So maybe you can give us a bit of background on yourself and that aspect of your trading and how it's crucial to someone's success. Tom’s background. Tom Winterstein
Sure, sure. Thank you. Thank you for that. Well, I've spent over 30 years in the markets as a trader, an investor and an educator, and I've been focus on, you know, global markets like futures and, equities and commodities, forex and, and even crypto using a price action based approach. But that wasn't always the case. That wasn't how I started. Tom Winterstein
Like most traders, I went through various different systems, indicators, you know, gurus, signals and stuff and totally ignored, any of the, the trading psychology or mental performance side because I thought I didn't need it. You know, I could succeed without that. You know, most traders, you know, like yourself and like me have been very successful. We've had successful periods in our life and we approach this as something that it's another thing we can be successful in. Tom Winterstein
Although it's not quite that easy, it doesn't translate that as well. If you leave out certain parts of it. So what I realized is that most traders don't struggle because they they lack a strategy. You know, most traders have a strategy. They're not just, you know, throwing a dart and buying or selling willy nilly. They struggle because their execution breaks down when there's real money on the line and in their emotions take over the, the class and that that right there, you know, that experience was the shift that led me to focus on building a repeatable performance environment. Tom Winterstein
Okay. Right. Hence the mental side of it had to be combined with price action or whatever your strategy or edge was today. My work centers not only in price action, but risk management and mental performance systems that help traders perform consistently, not perfectly, but consistently. And that's that's really, you know, the best we can strive for as traders or investors is to be consistent and have a system that that, you know, takes us through the decision making process. You don’t need to be perfect. Tom Winterstein
So in the heat of the moment, those decisions are outsourced to our process. Andrew Mitchem
Yeah. Interesting. I like I really like the phrase that you use to that not making it perfect because I think when people get into trading and, you know, they buy a course or they read an e-book, whatever it might be, they see that boring bit at the top that talks about risk management and psychology and mind control, you know, mining everything, the all the important things that we're going to talk about. Andrew Mitchem
But they get that, oh, I don't need that. I scroll down through the important bit because I want the strategy. And then when they do things like backtesting, they they want the perfect strategy. And and your phrase about it's not perfect is so true because as we both know, we can see wha
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everybody, it's Andrew Mitcham here at the First Trading Coach.
Welcome to another video and podcast. I'm really excited today
to be joined by Tom Winterstein, who is a certified
mental performance coach and trader over in the US. Welcome along, Tom,
Nice to see.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
You, great, Thank you. Great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Tom, Like I think we've got a lot of great
information that we're going to help people with on this
video on podcast, because we were just chatting about the
mental aspect of trading and how it's something we're both
huge on, but it's something that most people just completely
overlook in their trading, especially if they're you. So maybe
(00:38):
you can give us a bit of background on yourself
and that aspect of your trading and how it's crucial
to someone's success.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Sure, sure, thank you, Thank you for that. Well. I've
spent over thirty years in the markets as a trader, investor,
and educator, and I've been focused on global markets like
futures and equities and commodities for X and even crypto
using a price action based approach. But that wasn't always
(01:06):
the case. That wasn't how I started. Like most traders,
I went through various just different systems, indicators, you know, gurus,
signals and stuff, and totally ignored any of the the
trading psychology or mental performance side because I thought I
didn't need it. You know, I could succeed without that.
(01:26):
You know, most traders, you know, like yourself and like me,
have been very successful. We've had successful periods in our life,
and we approach this as something that it's another thing
we can be successful in. Although it's not quite that easy.
It doesn't translate that as well if you leave out
certain parts of it. So what I realized is that
most traders don't struggle because they lack of strategy. You know,
(01:49):
most traders have a strategy. They're not just you know,
throwing a dart and buying or selling willy nilly. They
struggle because their execution breaks down when there's real money
on the line, in their emotion take over. Okay, And
that right there, you know, that experience was the shift
that led me to focus on building a repeatable performance environment. Okay.
(02:12):
Hence the mental side of it had to be combined
with price action or whatever you strategy or edge was.
And today my work center is not only in price action,
but risk management and mental performance systems that help traders
perform consistently, not perfectly, but consistently, and that's that's really,
you know, the best we can strive for as traders
(02:33):
or investors is to be consistent and have a system
that that you know, takes us through the decision making
process so in the heat of the moment, those decisions
are outsourced to our process.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah. Interesting, I like, I really like the phrase that
you used about not making it perfect, because I think
when people get into trading, and you know, they buy
a course or they read the need book, whatever it
might be, they see that boring bit at the top
that talks about risk management and psychology and mind control,
(03:06):
you know everything, all the important things that we're going
to talk about, but they just I don't need that.
I'll scroll down through the important pick because I want
the strategy. And then when they do things like baptisting,
they want the perfect strategy. And your phrase about it's
not perfect is so true because as we both know,
we can see what we think is an a grade setup.
(03:29):
You take your trade and it still doesn't work sometimes,
So that's just the way of the markets. But not
being perfect is something that people don't want. They want
to be perfect, but they ignore the important in front,
the risk and the mind control. Why why is that?
Why do people do that? Is it just a boring topic?
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Well, it's many cases. Like even myself when I was younger,
is I didn't know what I didn't know? Now my
background of formal education is more in information systems computer science.
You know, I have postgraduate degree, I have a master's
degree in business administration with a concentration on finance. But
it didn't teach me about human emotions. When it comes
(04:11):
in to an environment like this and it's trading, is
is pretty much a scenario unlike any others in the world. Okay,
you know when it comes down because you have your
money at stake and you know it's it's and really
we're performers, okay, And there's a lot of different roles
where people perform. Could be a doctor, a lawyer, pilot,
(04:34):
could be a skilled you know, craftsman, a welder, whatever
that those are all acquired skills, and trading is an
acquired skill. However, when when you get into you know,
the actual trading and the heat of the moment, there's
you know, there's psychological things beyond our awareness or beyond
our control that we just don't realize that are taking over.
(04:56):
I give you one real simple example, and we call it,
you know, and this is how a lot of traders
will sabotage themselves. And we call it the identity gap.
And what I mean by that is, you know, like
you mentioned, people will read books, take courses, watch videos,
and they're highly skilled, okay, but what happens is their
performance lags their skill, meaning that they have all these tools,
(05:19):
they know what to do, but the performance has seemingly
lagged their skill acquisition, and so their subconscious labels them
as an inconsistent trader. Yeah, okay, And that's a really
hard label to break because ninety percent of our over
actions are are directed and guided by our subconscious. And
(05:40):
that was something that I didn't really understand. I didn't
want to understand when I was a new trader. I'm
like that that has nothing to do with trading charts,
you know, or anything, until I realized in her and
I had done quite extensive study under you know, a
high performance psychologist. When the concept was was approached to
(06:00):
me that hey, your subconscious is getting in your way.
But it's something that can be reprogrammed and what's stuck
out with me out of that whole sentence was reprogrammed
because of my computer science backing, and like, oh okay,
I need to understand the syntax, tell me the language.
What can we do? Are there? And there are specific
tools to work on, you know, how you get in
(06:21):
your own way as a trader, you know, without getting
And I'm not a psychologist, but but I understand the
tools and know how they apply in the trading and
investing world.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Right. Interesting, So someone starting out that's watching this, you know,
let's say that new Ish trader. The difference that we
would see as people who help and we've been through
this ourselves, you know, the difference between a demo account
and a live account. And people struggle with that transition,
don't they They go, ah, a demo account of making
(06:55):
money and I go live and I'm not making money?
Why is that?
Speaker 2 (07:01):
What?
Speaker 1 (07:01):
What what's going on in their mind that creates that change?
Because in theory, if you're profitable on a demo, don't
do anything different, and you should be profitable in a life.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, well that's the theory. And the demo account, the
demo account can be a trap for many people because
demo trading doesn't really prepare traders. And what I mean
by that is without emotional consequences, execution habits never fully form. Okay,
so there's no there's no real risk of a consequence.
(07:34):
In this case, when you trade, you lose money. That's
a consequence, and there's no real risk of that consequence.
So therefore we don't develop habits to overcome that potential.
And and people will tend to do things in a
demo account that they wouldn't do with their with their
live account. Yes, yeah, you and I see that all
the time.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
And when I first started up, yeah done, you know,
years ago, yeah, right right, And I so different when
I first started, especially when I first started trading futures,
that I felt so different with demo. It didn't I
didn't think it was helping me, and so I really
didn't trade demo very much. To the point was that, Okay,
even you know, and this is you know, before micro contracts,
(08:14):
but even with one micro contract, people's palms will get
sweaty and you can you can feel your heart and
you can hear your heartbeat and think with one micro
contract in a in a uh, you know, on the
Nasdaq or or the Futures or or if you're you're
doing you know, the smallest of contract size in the
four x market. It's just different in a live account
(08:34):
than it is demo. And so I don't don't I
don't advocate that people don't. Demo is a great place
to learn the software platform that you're treating on, you know,
so whatever your platform happens to be, because you know,
in many cases, I've even recently, I make procedural errors
on the software, and you know, sometimes in the heat
(08:55):
of the moment when you know you meant to close
part of the position and you added to it or
vice versa. But demo is a great place to get acclimated,
you know, to the software, especially if you're making a
recent change or you're new to it. Demo's a great
place to practice the software.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Yeah, and to work out your you know, you you
buy limit as opposed to by stop or using a
script or an expert advisor, whatever it is, use it
for that reason. Now, leading on from that, you know,
everybody's now talking about going to AI, and you know,
I've been trying to trade bots for years on Meti
(09:34):
Trader and things like that. However, to me, there's still
whether you want to go that route or not. There's
so much human emotion and common sense and understanding of
what that automation is about that comes into it. You
can't just simply go, I've spent one thousand dollars, I've
bought a bot, I've plugged it in, I let it go.
(09:55):
You just can't do that, can you. So there's still
even if you go automate or to some degree, there's
still the emotions come into it. How does that bot work?
Why does it stop working? How do I change the parameters?
All those things?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Right? Yeah, And to me, AI is just another tool
like a like an indicator for a strategy or a
study or something like that. That's how I characterize it.
And I know people will use the bots and stuff.
I personally do not, although I do believe AI has
a significant place in trading and investing, but it's more
(10:31):
on the preparation than it is on the execution. I
still believe it's best left to a human to execute,
because you know, I don't and I use AI quite
a bit, but I don't know that AI can adapt
my risk management tolerance and things like that. Now, sure,
I can program it to do whatever, But I like,
(10:52):
you know, I like the human element more than I
like the AI component for that, So I do believe
AI has a place in trading and investing, but it's
more in the preparation I believe.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Yeah, I agree. And also I think from a mental aspect,
if you're a good trader, there's nothing more rewarding than
knowing that up here you have that information and that
skill to do this, to pass it on to other people,
whatever it might be. And if your trading is purely
to free up time in your life or to create
(11:22):
a financial future, then that I suppose that emotion of
knowing I can do this is something you're never ever
going to get from relying completely on automation.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Oh no, absolutely, And there's nothing better than, you know,
self made success, especially when it comes to trading, because
it does build confidence, but traders and investors have to
be careful that that confidence doesn't change parameters like Okay,
well i'm having a good day, I'm having a good week,
(11:57):
I'm having a good month. I'm going to size up.
And it's okay to size up, but you really have
to have a mechanical process to do this, and you know,
some of the things that we advocate inside of our
mental performance programs is to keep a trader scorecard, you know,
where I'm actually documenting and I have to have metrics
of success, meaning before I scale up, I have to
(12:19):
have three out of four green weeks before I can
move contract sides. And that's that's just a simple example
of outsourcing a decision to the process rather than think, hey,
I'm having a great day, let me double down, or
I'm having a bad day, let me double down. Like, no,
the process has to be consistent because you know, over
the long run, that's that's what keeps the math and
(12:39):
the probability in the edge in your favor.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yeah. Do you find that when you're helping people and
that you start to see them successful? They have very
low control risk over like all trades at that time,
you know, and regardless of the pattern or maybe the
time frame or in the forest, you know, whether it's
t trading the U O US dollar or whatever it is,
(13:02):
they're trading the same risk per trade. And also they
generally have a high reward to risk outcome on most
of their trades.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Do you find that, well, that's what breeds success, That's
what's required consistent. But then, you know we talked about
trading isn't always perfect, yes, you know, and so people
will break their rules from time to time where they
will size up. Even though they have a written rule,
they don't follow it. And that's because you have that
(13:30):
little voice inside of you saying, oh, just do it,
just do it. Yeah, you can do it at one time,
be perfect, right because right this one, this one will
be perfect. Or they will have an identity of they
start to assume the identity of their last trade. And
this is another another thing that can sabotage somebody is
you know, I just I have had a really good
(13:52):
trade and it's gone, well, okay, so I'm going to
go trade something else because I'm really smart. I'm going
to apply what I've learned in the euro dollar over
here to some market I've never traded before. But they're
getting out of their process. You know, they don't. And
it's okay to do that, but you have to have
a structured approach in an environment to work yourself into that.
(14:15):
It's almost like, you know, you have to be able
to reward yourself by accomplishing things that get you to
that milestone that you'd like to do.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yeah. Interesting. So there's another idea that I've just suddenly
thought of, and again I used to do these years
ago before I understood the importance of risk per trade.
Is that a lot of people will not trade with
the stop loss, let's say, or they may not put
a profit target in. And why is it, in your
opinion that people find it easy to let a trade
(14:45):
go negative and a bigger negative in the hope that
it's turning around. But they won't take the profit on
a trade even though it hasn't got to where it
probably should get to, because they always want to close
a profitable trade early and bank them money. Is that
like that fee, you're going to lose out, but when
the trade's going to gainst you, they're happy to let
(15:06):
it get bigger and bigger loss because it might just
turn around and be smaller. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Well, the reason they do that is because they have
an outsourced their decision making. They're making decisions on the
fly in the trade. Yeah, and you had a set
of rules that define your risk management before trade ever started.
Some of these things are easy to say and hard
to do, but once you put them into practice, you know,
for the people that don't trade with a stop loss,
(15:31):
or they'll add to to a loser, or they'll just
let it go. What they're unknowingly doing is they're putting
the mathematical odds against them. So instead of happen a
one to one are to R or a pop two
to one, three to one, four to one, they now
have a negative are to R. And they don't realize
that over time that math isn't going to work in
(15:52):
their favor. And I see that that's a quite common
thing with newer traders, is they're like, they're there, They're
they're risking ten to make three. I'm like, well, that's
not going to work long term mathematically. You know. I
wasn't a math major, but I understand statistics. And once,
but once they once you can reveal to them that hey,
(16:14):
the odds are stacked against you. But then share a
process of okay, you know, And this goes back to
like some of the teachings from Mark Douglas. You know,
anytime you introduce something new, you have to give it
at least twenty trades in a series. You don't you
don't statistically know whether or not it's going to work.
And so I will strongly advocate for that. You know, Okay,
(16:35):
let's let's work on your order r. But we're gonna
let it run twenty trades then in value it, let
the numbers tell us what to do. Don't let us,
you know, don't don't make a decision based on what
we think or feel. Let's let the data tell it.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yeah, is that a risk that a lot of people
today when we're getting shorter and shorter attention span and
everybody wants to go on Instagram and TikTok and all that,
and they see these results because I've looked at a
few and they go, I've made one thousand dollars on
this trade. And then you look close, like, and that
looks really attractive, doesn't it. And then as an experienced trader,
(17:10):
you look into that further and you go, wow, you've
just risked fifty percent of your account to get that. Right.
People don't see that aspect of.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
It, No, they don't. And the reality is that those people,
you know, as you and I would probably consider, they're
not traders. They're gamblers. Yeah. Yeah, they're out there with
a gambling mentality. And you know, even in the casinos,
people are going to win sometimes but even the winners
usually stick around long enough to lose their money too.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
You know. That's why there was the biggest buildings in America.
I was there last year and saw.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Some huge realness. Oh yeah, uh huh yeaheah. And they're
building more and more all the time.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
There's only one reason for that.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
So, in terms of a mindset of someone, why is
it that we see and I'm assuming you see the same,
I'd certainly see this. Someone's gone and let's say paid
for a course and they go, I know it works
because I've seen it work and it's been proven to work,
and they have. They start with like a bit of
(18:18):
a hiss and a all hope. You know, if you
understand that phrase, that's a phrase that we use. You know,
they start and they're all enthusiastic, and then they might
have a few losing trades and then you don't see
them showing up and they go, oh, look out, some
losing trades and they're onto that next shiny object. And
I find that really frustrating because it's from a coaching
(18:40):
perspective because so many times I've had that happen and
people then come back and go, oh, I know I
joined you a year ago, and I've been through all
these other courses since, and I've come back and I
realized that yours was the best strategy, and now I'm
on it, and now I'm loving it. And it's like
you've just wasted a year of your time losing money. Yeah.
(19:01):
People just chase the next shiny object if things don't
go perfect in the first week of months.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Yeah, And I have seen that quite a bit myself,
Like just was identical to the way you described it.
And really it comes down to education verse conditioning, because education,
education is very important. We have we have to have
an edge if we have to, we have to have
a strategy, strategy. But that knowledge or strategy alone does
(19:29):
not translate into behavior under stress, right, And that's the
that's the part that traders and investors don't understand and
don't realize, or if they do, they ignore it, you know,
just like I did when I was younger. Is you know,
we we as humans behave differently under stress.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Yes, that's interesting. I suppose I'm not sure if you were.
But I fly a helicopter privately, and you know, you
do those auto rotations and you have those tests and
they deliberately put you under so much stress because especially
when intro with dual controls in because I almost want
to see that person go oh, I can't do it, it's
too hard, stop annoying me. You do it. Whereas, of
(20:07):
course you can't do that when you're in charge. If
things go wrong, you've got to use your mental clarity
and go straight and instant to that process. And I
think that trading is kind of similar. I've done a
lot of martial arts. I wish I still did it.
I'm not fitting up now, but you know, years ago
I did a lot of martial arts. Same thing, that
(20:29):
mental aspect of martial arts, it's all up here. And again,
I think if people have these kind of other skills
and or they relate to another skill that they have,
it would help them to become a better trader, quicker.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Right, right, And that there's a lot of things. When
I was younger, I was a single engine aircraft pilot,
right And as you know, someone that's never flown a
plane or a helicopter may not know this, but everything
you do, and everything I did as a pilot revolves
around a little checklist, yes, a pre flight checklist, you know,
(21:08):
in flight, emergency fuel, you have a checklist to park
the darn thing. And I sit right here. I keep
my trading checklist right here at my death because I
go through it every that's my that I call it
my pre flight trade checklist, even though I'm not flying.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
That's why it's on my wall. I'm looking at it
right the same thing, yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
And so and so that's that's part of the mental
performance environment that we create is is you have to have,
you know, not only a pre trade checklist, but I
do checklists for everything, you know, and just giving my
technical background, everything for me needs to be logical, has
to be and it doesn't have to be sequential, but
(21:46):
there has to be parameters around it. And then you know,
my works as a pilot, you know, just translates beautifully
into trading because you really need you need to have
a system. You know, you need to have these parameters.
So you need to have checklist and whether it's I
even have a post you know, post trade you know,
checklist to what I do at the end of the day,
(22:08):
you know, and I have you know, it's more of
a schedule than it is a checklist. That's that's governed
by rules that during an intra day, you know time
period and you know the US it's the New York
Stock Exchange open nine thirty am to four pm. But
that doesn't mean I'm sitting in front of my computer
that entire time. And so I'll use analogies that a
(22:29):
lot of people are probably more familiar with if they
haven't flown a helicopter or a plane, and I'll ask
them to say, you know, have you ever do you
now go to the gym to work out? You know
you mentioned martial arts and they're like, oh, yeah, I
work out three times a week. And well, I'm like,
what did you do? You go to the gym at
nine thirty and then leave at four? Oh no, no,
I go there, I do my routine and I'm done
(22:50):
in an hour. I'm like, well, you can do the
same thing with trading.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
You can show up to the markets and get your
work done in an hour or two and then be done. Yeah,
even though just because the market's open twenty three hours
a day, you know, five days a week, doesn't mean
you have to be in a trade just because price
is moving regardless of what you're trading.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
That's interesting because you know as we're talking. As we're
recording this, it's four thirty pm New York time, and
in half an hour we'll be looking at daily charts,
because obviously they in the forest market they change over
at five pm. I've already been through the daily charts
before talking to you, so I know already there's only
one trade that I'm looking at taking right now, because
(23:32):
of there were gapses today at the beginning, but I
already know up here mentally and everything else, I'm prepared
for that one trade, providing in half an hour it
closes correctly. I already know what I'm doing. Place to
the trade, Let the trade do its thing. I've got
the risk set. I know it's x percent of my
account if it goes against me, I know the profit target,
(23:52):
and it becomes in this case, I think it's about
two point eight to one reward to risk, and I
will lead the trade to do its think. And I
find that so many people want to fiddle with trades.
They want to interfere, or they don't understand when to trade,
and they'll go, oh, simply because I'm on the charts
(24:14):
like right now, or you know, I put the kids
to bed, or the program on TV's Finish whatever it is.
They go to their computer and they go, I'm finding
a trade right now, rather than the other way round.
It's like the market's presenting me with the trade. Now
I take the.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Trade right right. Well, I think you know a lot
of traders they realize that discipline matters, But what they
don't realize is discipline fails when they're forced to make
too many decisions in real time.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Yeah. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
You've already got all your decisions made. It it's done
with that, I know. Yeah, but the majority of people
that you and I probably both see don't do that right,
And that's one of the biggest downfalls is you know,
they don't have an environment that sets them up for success.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Yeah. So, in summary, then, Tom, what can someone who's
watching or listening to this do in terms of checklists
showing up at the right time each day or the
same time depending on their strategy? What kind of like
sort of tips can you give someone what they should
be looking at?
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Yeah? So, so, really they you know, in addition to
having a strategy, is they need to immerse themselves into
a performance execution environment, you know, regardless of whose it
is or where it is, but without you know, a
performance environment to immerse themselves in, which is going to
have things like you know, trading rules, to pre trade
(25:40):
checklists like we talked about, you know, and just some
general awareness around human behavior, and we talked about the
identity gap or how you resonate you're only as good
as your last trade, you know that types of things,
and just how the human mind can really sabotage and
show up in the markets because you know, you know,
you and I have seen those traders that you know,
(26:03):
they they bought and all of a sudden the market
drops significantly. You know that they're just doing and they
can't they think that the market's out to get them.
And that's the first sign of not being prepared and
not being immersed in a you know, in an environment
that's set in force. That's from a performance standpoint.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Interesting. I've just written a word, Dan as you were
talking then, and I wrote down support. And the reason
I wrote that down is at the end of last year,
at the end of twenty twenty five, I sent out
a survey to non clients. A lot of people, a
lot of people filled it. In What surprised me is
that one of the biggest things that most people said
they were missing was support and community and help. And
(26:46):
I think back to when I started back in the
days of dial up internet, you know, and probably you
might have been the same. Nobody was there to help you.
If you said you were a trader, people kind of
looked at you like what EGO, get a real job
or you know, and and so there was no one
to talk to, no one to consult. Forums are generally
(27:09):
dominated by the right wrong type of people and who
don't really know about trading, but they're very good at
typing afilation. And so again I think that's an important
aspect of a community of or to be able to
contact someone. Do you find that as well? People are
(27:29):
lacking that and when they have it, it's a crucial
aspect of their their learning.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Kive, Oh, I mean absolutely. When when you look at
at a trader, that's an isolation versus in a performance environment.
You know, a performance environment is can include these things
like you know, routines, feedback capability, stuff like that. But
isolation is one of the most expensive hidden costs for traders. Yeah,
(27:56):
when it boils right down to it, and so your
your survey is spot on and and I'm sure that
you know, the the research and responses that you you
got would support those statements that, Yeah, you know, performance
environment can amplify your success whereas trading and isolation can
mute your success.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah. Interesting, Yeah, and that's what we're finding. So Tom,
how can someone contact you? How can someone find you
if they would like to make contact with you?
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Yeah, So so we're on the web. We're at stock
chartpros dot com. You know, it can be a mouthful,
but you know, if you find us, it is stock
chartpros dot com. And you know, in addition to you know,
price action courses that we have that the biggest thing
that you know, my push has been around, you know,
(28:45):
the whole patent pending neurotrading method is to build a
performance environment because most traders have an execution gap and
most people they don't realize they have that gap where
if they realize, hey, I've got a performance execution and gap,
they don't know how to fix it. And so that's
that's what we provide, is a system and environment in
a place, you know, in an environment where traders can
(29:08):
succeed and we see all different walks of life. You know,
they're not just US based traders. You know, we have
traders from all over the world that trade all kinds
of different things. Many of them come to us with
their strategy and edge and they know that it works,
but what they can't do is perform it consistently.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Interesting. Yeah, yeah, that's fascinating. Well, Tom, thank you so
much for being here. It's really interesting speaking with another
experienced trader and someone puts such a high, you know,
influence on the mental aspect of it and low risk
and understanding what you're doing and showing up consistently. Like
you said, we've both been through the ups and downs
(29:47):
of trading, we've both made any mistakes over the years,
and we're both here to be able to suppose pass
on that knowledge and help people who want to help
themselves to become better traders. So thank you so much
for being here. I really enjoyed the chat with you.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
It's been my pleasure. Thank you so much. Great talking
with you.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Thanks so all right, go by
Hi everybody, it's Andrew Mitcham here at the First Trading Coach.
Welcome to another video and podcast. I'm really excited today
to be joined by Tom Winterstein, who is a certified
mental performance coach and trader over in the US. Welcome along, Tom,
Nice to see.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
You, great, Thank you. Great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Tom, Like I think we've got a lot of great
information that we're going to help people with on this
video on podcast, because we were just chatting about the
mental aspect of trading and how it's something we're both
huge on, but it's something that most people just completely
overlook in their trading, especially if they're you. So maybe
(00:38):
you can give us a bit of background on yourself
and that aspect of your trading and how it's crucial
to someone's success.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Sure, sure, thank you, Thank you for that. Well. I've
spent over thirty years in the markets as a trader, investor,
and educator, and I've been focused on global markets like
futures and equities and commodities for X and even crypto
using a price action based approach. But that wasn't always
(01:06):
the case. That wasn't how I started. Like most traders,
I went through various just different systems, indicators, you know, gurus,
signals and stuff, and totally ignored any of the the
trading psychology or mental performance side because I thought I
didn't need it. You know, I could succeed without that.
(01:26):
You know, most traders, you know, like yourself and like me,
have been very successful. We've had successful periods in our life,
and we approach this as something that it's another thing
we can be successful in. Although it's not quite that easy.
It doesn't translate that as well if you leave out
certain parts of it. So what I realized is that
most traders don't struggle because they lack of strategy. You know,
(01:49):
most traders have a strategy. They're not just you know,
throwing a dart and buying or selling willy nilly. They
struggle because their execution breaks down when there's real money
on the line, in their emotion take over. Okay, And
that right there, you know, that experience was the shift
that led me to focus on building a repeatable performance environment. Okay.
(02:12):
Hence the mental side of it had to be combined
with price action or whatever you strategy or edge was.
And today my work center is not only in price action,
but risk management and mental performance systems that help traders
perform consistently, not perfectly, but consistently, and that's that's really,
you know, the best we can strive for as traders
(02:33):
or investors is to be consistent and have a system
that that you know, takes us through the decision making
process so in the heat of the moment, those decisions
are outsourced to our process.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah. Interesting, I like, I really like the phrase that
you used about not making it perfect, because I think
when people get into trading, and you know, they buy
a course or they read the need book, whatever it
might be, they see that boring bit at the top
that talks about risk management and psychology and mind control,
(03:06):
you know everything, all the important things that we're going
to talk about, but they just I don't need that.
I'll scroll down through the important pick because I want
the strategy. And then when they do things like baptisting,
they want the perfect strategy. And your phrase about it's
not perfect is so true because as we both know,
we can see what we think is an a grade setup.
(03:29):
You take your trade and it still doesn't work sometimes,
So that's just the way of the markets. But not
being perfect is something that people don't want. They want
to be perfect, but they ignore the important in front,
the risk and the mind control. Why why is that?
Why do people do that? Is it just a boring topic?
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Well, it's many cases. Like even myself when I was younger,
is I didn't know what I didn't know? Now my
background of formal education is more in information systems computer science.
You know, I have postgraduate degree, I have a master's
degree in business administration with a concentration on finance. But
it didn't teach me about human emotions. When it comes
(04:11):
in to an environment like this and it's trading, is
is pretty much a scenario unlike any others in the world. Okay,
you know when it comes down because you have your
money at stake and you know it's it's and really
we're performers, okay, And there's a lot of different roles
where people perform. Could be a doctor, a lawyer, pilot,
(04:34):
could be a skilled you know, craftsman, a welder, whatever
that those are all acquired skills, and trading is an
acquired skill. However, when when you get into you know,
the actual trading and the heat of the moment, there's
you know, there's psychological things beyond our awareness or beyond
our control that we just don't realize that are taking over.
(04:56):
I give you one real simple example, and we call it,
you know, and this is how a lot of traders
will sabotage themselves. And we call it the identity gap.
And what I mean by that is, you know, like
you mentioned, people will read books, take courses, watch videos,
and they're highly skilled, okay, but what happens is their
performance lags their skill, meaning that they have all these tools,
(05:19):
they know what to do, but the performance has seemingly
lagged their skill acquisition, and so their subconscious labels them
as an inconsistent trader. Yeah, okay, And that's a really
hard label to break because ninety percent of our over
actions are are directed and guided by our subconscious. And
(05:40):
that was something that I didn't really understand. I didn't
want to understand when I was a new trader. I'm
like that that has nothing to do with trading charts,
you know, or anything, until I realized in her and
I had done quite extensive study under you know, a
high performance psychologist. When the concept was was approached to
(06:00):
me that hey, your subconscious is getting in your way.
But it's something that can be reprogrammed and what's stuck
out with me out of that whole sentence was reprogrammed
because of my computer science backing, and like, oh okay,
I need to understand the syntax, tell me the language.
What can we do? Are there? And there are specific
tools to work on, you know, how you get in
(06:21):
your own way as a trader, you know, without getting
And I'm not a psychologist, but but I understand the
tools and know how they apply in the trading and
investing world.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Right. Interesting, So someone starting out that's watching this, you know,
let's say that new Ish trader. The difference that we
would see as people who help and we've been through
this ourselves, you know, the difference between a demo account
and a live account. And people struggle with that transition,
don't they They go, ah, a demo account of making
(06:55):
money and I go live and I'm not making money?
Why is that?
Speaker 2 (07:01):
What?
Speaker 1 (07:01):
What what's going on in their mind that creates that change?
Because in theory, if you're profitable on a demo, don't
do anything different, and you should be profitable in a life.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, well that's the theory. And the demo account, the
demo account can be a trap for many people because
demo trading doesn't really prepare traders. And what I mean
by that is without emotional consequences, execution habits never fully form. Okay,
so there's no there's no real risk of a consequence.
(07:34):
In this case, when you trade, you lose money. That's
a consequence, and there's no real risk of that consequence.
So therefore we don't develop habits to overcome that potential.
And and people will tend to do things in a
demo account that they wouldn't do with their with their
live account. Yes, yeah, you and I see that all
the time.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
And when I first started up, yeah done, you know,
years ago, yeah, right right, And I so different when
I first started, especially when I first started trading futures,
that I felt so different with demo. It didn't I
didn't think it was helping me, and so I really
didn't trade demo very much. To the point was that, Okay,
even you know, and this is you know, before micro contracts,
(08:14):
but even with one micro contract, people's palms will get
sweaty and you can you can feel your heart and
you can hear your heartbeat and think with one micro
contract in a in a uh, you know, on the
Nasdaq or or the Futures or or if you're you're
doing you know, the smallest of contract size in the
four x market. It's just different in a live account
(08:34):
than it is demo. And so I don't don't I
don't advocate that people don't. Demo is a great place
to learn the software platform that you're treating on, you know,
so whatever your platform happens to be, because you know,
in many cases, I've even recently, I make procedural errors
on the software, and you know, sometimes in the heat
(08:55):
of the moment when you know you meant to close
part of the position and you added to it or
vice versa. But demo is a great place to get acclimated,
you know, to the software, especially if you're making a
recent change or you're new to it. Demo's a great
place to practice the software.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Yeah, and to work out your you know, you you
buy limit as opposed to by stop or using a
script or an expert advisor, whatever it is, use it
for that reason. Now, leading on from that, you know,
everybody's now talking about going to AI, and you know,
I've been trying to trade bots for years on Meti
(09:34):
Trader and things like that. However, to me, there's still
whether you want to go that route or not. There's
so much human emotion and common sense and understanding of
what that automation is about that comes into it. You
can't just simply go, I've spent one thousand dollars, I've
bought a bot, I've plugged it in, I let it go.
(09:55):
You just can't do that, can you. So there's still
even if you go automate or to some degree, there's
still the emotions come into it. How does that bot work?
Why does it stop working? How do I change the parameters?
All those things?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Right? Yeah, And to me, AI is just another tool
like a like an indicator for a strategy or a
study or something like that. That's how I characterize it.
And I know people will use the bots and stuff.
I personally do not, although I do believe AI has
a significant place in trading and investing, but it's more
(10:31):
on the preparation than it is on the execution. I
still believe it's best left to a human to execute,
because you know, I don't and I use AI quite
a bit, but I don't know that AI can adapt
my risk management tolerance and things like that. Now, sure,
I can program it to do whatever, But I like,
(10:52):
you know, I like the human element more than I
like the AI component for that, So I do believe
AI has a place in trading and investing, but it's
more in the preparation I believe.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Yeah, I agree. And also I think from a mental aspect,
if you're a good trader, there's nothing more rewarding than
knowing that up here you have that information and that
skill to do this, to pass it on to other people,
whatever it might be. And if your trading is purely
to free up time in your life or to create
(11:22):
a financial future, then that I suppose that emotion of
knowing I can do this is something you're never ever
going to get from relying completely on automation.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Oh no, absolutely, And there's nothing better than, you know,
self made success, especially when it comes to trading, because
it does build confidence, but traders and investors have to
be careful that that confidence doesn't change parameters like Okay,
well i'm having a good day, I'm having a good week,
(11:57):
I'm having a good month. I'm going to size up.
And it's okay to size up, but you really have
to have a mechanical process to do this, and you know,
some of the things that we advocate inside of our
mental performance programs is to keep a trader scorecard, you know,
where I'm actually documenting and I have to have metrics
of success, meaning before I scale up, I have to
(12:19):
have three out of four green weeks before I can
move contract sides. And that's that's just a simple example
of outsourcing a decision to the process rather than think, hey,
I'm having a great day, let me double down, or
I'm having a bad day, let me double down. Like, no,
the process has to be consistent because you know, over
the long run, that's that's what keeps the math and
(12:39):
the probability in the edge in your favor.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yeah. Do you find that when you're helping people and
that you start to see them successful? They have very
low control risk over like all trades at that time,
you know, and regardless of the pattern or maybe the
time frame or in the forest, you know, whether it's
t trading the U O US dollar or whatever it is,
(13:02):
they're trading the same risk per trade. And also they
generally have a high reward to risk outcome on most
of their trades.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Do you find that, well, that's what breeds success, That's
what's required consistent. But then, you know we talked about
trading isn't always perfect, yes, you know, and so people
will break their rules from time to time where they
will size up. Even though they have a written rule,
they don't follow it. And that's because you have that
(13:30):
little voice inside of you saying, oh, just do it,
just do it. Yeah, you can do it at one time,
be perfect, right because right this one, this one will
be perfect. Or they will have an identity of they
start to assume the identity of their last trade. And
this is another another thing that can sabotage somebody is
you know, I just I have had a really good
(13:52):
trade and it's gone, well, okay, so I'm going to
go trade something else because I'm really smart. I'm going
to apply what I've learned in the euro dollar over
here to some market I've never traded before. But they're
getting out of their process. You know, they don't. And
it's okay to do that, but you have to have
a structured approach in an environment to work yourself into that.
(14:15):
It's almost like, you know, you have to be able
to reward yourself by accomplishing things that get you to
that milestone that you'd like to do.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yeah. Interesting. So there's another idea that I've just suddenly
thought of, and again I used to do these years
ago before I understood the importance of risk per trade.
Is that a lot of people will not trade with
the stop loss, let's say, or they may not put
a profit target in. And why is it, in your
opinion that people find it easy to let a trade
(14:45):
go negative and a bigger negative in the hope that
it's turning around. But they won't take the profit on
a trade even though it hasn't got to where it
probably should get to, because they always want to close
a profitable trade early and bank them money. Is that
like that fee, you're going to lose out, but when
the trade's going to gainst you, they're happy to let
(15:06):
it get bigger and bigger loss because it might just
turn around and be smaller. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Well, the reason they do that is because they have
an outsourced their decision making. They're making decisions on the
fly in the trade. Yeah, and you had a set
of rules that define your risk management before trade ever started.
Some of these things are easy to say and hard
to do, but once you put them into practice, you know,
for the people that don't trade with a stop loss,
(15:31):
or they'll add to to a loser, or they'll just
let it go. What they're unknowingly doing is they're putting
the mathematical odds against them. So instead of happen a
one to one are to R or a pop two
to one, three to one, four to one, they now
have a negative are to R. And they don't realize
that over time that math isn't going to work in
(15:52):
their favor. And I see that that's a quite common
thing with newer traders, is they're like, they're there, They're
they're risking ten to make three. I'm like, well, that's
not going to work long term mathematically. You know. I
wasn't a math major, but I understand statistics. And once,
but once they once you can reveal to them that hey,
(16:14):
the odds are stacked against you. But then share a
process of okay, you know, And this goes back to
like some of the teachings from Mark Douglas. You know,
anytime you introduce something new, you have to give it
at least twenty trades in a series. You don't you
don't statistically know whether or not it's going to work.
And so I will strongly advocate for that. You know, Okay,
(16:35):
let's let's work on your order r. But we're gonna
let it run twenty trades then in value it, let
the numbers tell us what to do. Don't let us,
you know, don't don't make a decision based on what
we think or feel. Let's let the data tell it.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yeah, is that a risk that a lot of people
today when we're getting shorter and shorter attention span and
everybody wants to go on Instagram and TikTok and all that,
and they see these results because I've looked at a
few and they go, I've made one thousand dollars on
this trade. And then you look close, like, and that
looks really attractive, doesn't it. And then as an experienced trader,
(17:10):
you look into that further and you go, wow, you've
just risked fifty percent of your account to get that. Right.
People don't see that aspect of.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
It, No, they don't. And the reality is that those people,
you know, as you and I would probably consider, they're
not traders. They're gamblers. Yeah. Yeah, they're out there with
a gambling mentality. And you know, even in the casinos,
people are going to win sometimes but even the winners
usually stick around long enough to lose their money too.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
You know. That's why there was the biggest buildings in America.
I was there last year and saw.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Some huge realness. Oh yeah, uh huh yeaheah. And they're
building more and more all the time.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
There's only one reason for that.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
So, in terms of a mindset of someone, why is
it that we see and I'm assuming you see the same,
I'd certainly see this. Someone's gone and let's say paid
for a course and they go, I know it works
because I've seen it work and it's been proven to work,
and they have. They start with like a bit of
(18:18):
a hiss and a all hope. You know, if you
understand that phrase, that's a phrase that we use. You know,
they start and they're all enthusiastic, and then they might
have a few losing trades and then you don't see
them showing up and they go, oh, look out, some
losing trades and they're onto that next shiny object. And
I find that really frustrating because it's from a coaching
(18:40):
perspective because so many times I've had that happen and
people then come back and go, oh, I know I
joined you a year ago, and I've been through all
these other courses since, and I've come back and I
realized that yours was the best strategy, and now I'm
on it, and now I'm loving it. And it's like
you've just wasted a year of your time losing money. Yeah.
(19:01):
People just chase the next shiny object if things don't
go perfect in the first week of months.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Yeah, And I have seen that quite a bit myself,
Like just was identical to the way you described it.
And really it comes down to education verse conditioning, because education,
education is very important. We have we have to have
an edge if we have to, we have to have
a strategy, strategy. But that knowledge or strategy alone does
(19:29):
not translate into behavior under stress, right, And that's the
that's the part that traders and investors don't understand and
don't realize, or if they do, they ignore it, you know,
just like I did when I was younger. Is you know,
we we as humans behave differently under stress.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Yes, that's interesting. I suppose I'm not sure if you were.
But I fly a helicopter privately, and you know, you
do those auto rotations and you have those tests and
they deliberately put you under so much stress because especially
when intro with dual controls in because I almost want
to see that person go oh, I can't do it, it's
too hard, stop annoying me. You do it. Whereas, of
(20:07):
course you can't do that when you're in charge. If
things go wrong, you've got to use your mental clarity
and go straight and instant to that process. And I
think that trading is kind of similar. I've done a
lot of martial arts. I wish I still did it.
I'm not fitting up now, but you know, years ago
I did a lot of martial arts. Same thing, that
(20:29):
mental aspect of martial arts, it's all up here. And again,
I think if people have these kind of other skills
and or they relate to another skill that they have,
it would help them to become a better trader, quicker.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Right, right, And that there's a lot of things. When
I was younger, I was a single engine aircraft pilot,
right And as you know, someone that's never flown a
plane or a helicopter may not know this, but everything
you do, and everything I did as a pilot revolves
around a little checklist, yes, a pre flight checklist, you know,
(21:08):
in flight, emergency fuel, you have a checklist to park
the darn thing. And I sit right here. I keep
my trading checklist right here at my death because I
go through it every that's my that I call it
my pre flight trade checklist, even though I'm not flying.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
That's why it's on my wall. I'm looking at it
right the same thing, yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
And so and so that's that's part of the mental
performance environment that we create is is you have to have,
you know, not only a pre trade checklist, but I
do checklists for everything, you know, and just giving my
technical background, everything for me needs to be logical, has
to be and it doesn't have to be sequential, but
(21:46):
there has to be parameters around it. And then you know,
my works as a pilot, you know, just translates beautifully
into trading because you really need you need to have
a system. You know, you need to have these parameters.
So you need to have checklist and whether it's I
even have a post you know, post trade you know,
checklist to what I do at the end of the day,
(22:08):
you know, and I have you know, it's more of
a schedule than it is a checklist. That's that's governed
by rules that during an intra day, you know time
period and you know the US it's the New York
Stock Exchange open nine thirty am to four pm. But
that doesn't mean I'm sitting in front of my computer
that entire time. And so I'll use analogies that a
(22:29):
lot of people are probably more familiar with if they
haven't flown a helicopter or a plane, and I'll ask
them to say, you know, have you ever do you
now go to the gym to work out? You know
you mentioned martial arts and they're like, oh, yeah, I
work out three times a week. And well, I'm like,
what did you do? You go to the gym at
nine thirty and then leave at four? Oh no, no,
I go there, I do my routine and I'm done
(22:50):
in an hour. I'm like, well, you can do the
same thing with trading.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
That's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
You can show up to the markets and get your
work done in an hour or two and then be done. Yeah,
even though just because the market's open twenty three hours
a day, you know, five days a week, doesn't mean
you have to be in a trade just because price
is moving regardless of what you're trading.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
That's interesting because you know as we're talking. As we're
recording this, it's four thirty pm New York time, and
in half an hour we'll be looking at daily charts,
because obviously they in the forest market they change over
at five pm. I've already been through the daily charts
before talking to you, so I know already there's only
one trade that I'm looking at taking right now, because
(23:32):
of there were gapses today at the beginning, but I
already know up here mentally and everything else, I'm prepared
for that one trade, providing in half an hour it
closes correctly. I already know what I'm doing. Place to
the trade, Let the trade do its thing. I've got
the risk set. I know it's x percent of my
account if it goes against me, I know the profit target,
(23:52):
and it becomes in this case, I think it's about
two point eight to one reward to risk, and I
will lead the trade to do its think. And I
find that so many people want to fiddle with trades.
They want to interfere, or they don't understand when to trade,
and they'll go, oh, simply because I'm on the charts
(24:14):
like right now, or you know, I put the kids
to bed, or the program on TV's Finish whatever it is.
They go to their computer and they go, I'm finding
a trade right now, rather than the other way round.
It's like the market's presenting me with the trade. Now
I take the.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Trade right right. Well, I think you know a lot
of traders they realize that discipline matters, But what they
don't realize is discipline fails when they're forced to make
too many decisions in real time.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Yeah. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
You've already got all your decisions made. It it's done
with that, I know. Yeah, but the majority of people
that you and I probably both see don't do that right,
And that's one of the biggest downfalls is you know,
they don't have an environment that sets them up for success.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Yeah. So, in summary, then, Tom, what can someone who's
watching or listening to this do in terms of checklists
showing up at the right time each day or the
same time depending on their strategy? What kind of like
sort of tips can you give someone what they should
be looking at?
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Yeah? So, so, really they you know, in addition to
having a strategy, is they need to immerse themselves into
a performance execution environment, you know, regardless of whose it
is or where it is, but without you know, a
performance environment to immerse themselves in, which is going to
have things like you know, trading rules, to pre trade
(25:40):
checklists like we talked about, you know, and just some
general awareness around human behavior, and we talked about the
identity gap or how you resonate you're only as good
as your last trade, you know that types of things,
and just how the human mind can really sabotage and
show up in the markets because you know, you know,
you and I have seen those traders that you know,
(26:03):
they they bought and all of a sudden the market
drops significantly. You know that they're just doing and they
can't they think that the market's out to get them.
And that's the first sign of not being prepared and
not being immersed in a you know, in an environment
that's set in force. That's from a performance standpoint.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Interesting. I've just written a word, Dan as you were
talking then, and I wrote down support. And the reason
I wrote that down is at the end of last year,
at the end of twenty twenty five, I sent out
a survey to non clients. A lot of people, a
lot of people filled it. In What surprised me is
that one of the biggest things that most people said
they were missing was support and community and help. And
(26:46):
I think back to when I started back in the
days of dial up internet, you know, and probably you
might have been the same. Nobody was there to help you.
If you said you were a trader, people kind of
looked at you like what EGO, get a real job
or you know, and and so there was no one
to talk to, no one to consult. Forums are generally
(27:09):
dominated by the right wrong type of people and who
don't really know about trading, but they're very good at
typing afilation. And so again I think that's an important
aspect of a community of or to be able to
contact someone. Do you find that as well? People are
(27:29):
lacking that and when they have it, it's a crucial
aspect of their their learning.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Kive, Oh, I mean absolutely. When when you look at
at a trader, that's an isolation versus in a performance environment.
You know, a performance environment is can include these things
like you know, routines, feedback capability, stuff like that. But
isolation is one of the most expensive hidden costs for traders. Yeah,
(27:56):
when it boils right down to it, and so your
your survey is spot on and and I'm sure that
you know, the the research and responses that you you
got would support those statements that, Yeah, you know, performance
environment can amplify your success whereas trading and isolation can
mute your success.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah. Interesting, Yeah, and that's what we're finding. So Tom,
how can someone contact you? How can someone find you
if they would like to make contact with you?
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Yeah, So so we're on the web. We're at stock
chartpros dot com. You know, it can be a mouthful,
but you know, if you find us, it is stock
chartpros dot com. And you know, in addition to you know,
price action courses that we have that the biggest thing
that you know, my push has been around, you know,
(28:45):
the whole patent pending neurotrading method is to build a
performance environment because most traders have an execution gap and
most people they don't realize they have that gap where
if they realize, hey, I've got a performance execution and gap,
they don't know how to fix it. And so that's
that's what we provide, is a system and environment in
a place, you know, in an environment where traders can
(29:08):
succeed and we see all different walks of life. You know,
they're not just US based traders. You know, we have
traders from all over the world that trade all kinds
of different things. Many of them come to us with
their strategy and edge and they know that it works,
but what they can't do is perform it consistently.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Interesting. Yeah, yeah, that's fascinating. Well, Tom, thank you so
much for being here. It's really interesting speaking with another
experienced trader and someone puts such a high, you know,
influence on the mental aspect of it and low risk
and understanding what you're doing and showing up consistently. Like
you said, we've both been through the ups and downs
(29:47):
of trading, we've both made any mistakes over the years,
and we're both here to be able to suppose pass
on that knowledge and help people who want to help
themselves to become better traders. So thank you so much
for being here. I really enjoyed the chat with you.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
It's been my pleasure. Thank you so much. Great talking
with you.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Thanks so all right, go by
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