 another everyone and welcome. My name is Melissa Armell. I own my own company called the Stock Swoosh. Today we're gonna talk a little bit about what kind of trader are you, if you're not sure. This is me. If you'd like more information, you can email me at Melissa at thestockswoosh.com or feel free to call me at 929-3200 Gap. You can also follow me on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or Skype. So what kind of trader are you? There's so many different people out there in the world that are interested in trading the market. You don't really have to box yourself into this one type of trader where you have to go full on hog wild right out of the game. I talked to a lot of different people and they're so new to trading or so new to trading gaps, which is what I teach. I just don't think it's a good idea for anyone that isn't experienced in my method to go full on right out of the game. Give yourself a chance. Give yourself a chance to succeed by going through the proper steps and just be honest with yourself. So let's talk about the different types of traders and the different levels. There are many different types of traders. We are focusing today on day trading, all right? So what type of trader are you? And not only that, what can you afford to risk per trade? What size account can you open? Cause that's gonna determine your risk as well. It is important for you to know which category you fit into first and also to set the proper expectations for yourself. I see so many different things and talk to people. People make crazy claims. You could open up an account with $500 and make a hundred grand in a month. Those things are not realistic, okay? Even if you were the best trader in the world, it would be nearly impossible for you to do that. And I don't know why people believe those types of claims. You really have to set the proper expectations for yourself. You can make money in the market. You have to have a good system. It is preferred if you follow a mentor, someone that's good like me. But if you have a good system, you know how to do it, you can trade alone. I think it's easier when you follow someone that's extremely good like me though at choosing the trades and the direction. But before you even begin to risk money, at all in the market, you should have a strategy that you follow. And like I said, it's not necessary of a mentor, but it's helpful. I think it's helpful on any level. And you've got to be able to sit down and say, this is what I can afford. And even if you could only afford to risk $100 a trade, if you can make $100 and take that $100 and turn it into another $100, that means you're up. That means you have more money after you trade, after you take the trade, after you close it out, than you did before. So it's still worthwhile trading. So many people hold themselves back because they're not ready to trade on an advanced level. And I just think that is silly, quite frankly, because people are missing opportunities for themselves to make money along the way and build up an account. And not only that, learn, learn as you're doing it, which is important. So first is the practice phase, practice level. A practice trader usually has a demo account and the goal is to take practice trades. Okay, you're in and out, in and out of the platform. You're getting used to it. If you're at this level, you're new to trading, you're new to the platform, you need to practice pressing buttons long and short before you really risk any real money for trade. This is a good idea. And many places will give you a practice demo trial for a week, two weeks a month, just ask. Don't worry, this phase doesn't have to take long, but it's very important especially if you're new to the platform. You don't want to fat finger trade just because you're brand new. In other words, you don't want to lose money taking along if you're really we're supposed to go short to trade. So you practice, learn it. Once you're comfortable with the platform and the process of trading, come over to the next phase, trading with live money. Take your time with this phase. You could do this for a couple of days, you could do this for a couple of weeks. You will know. You will know when you know how to do it. So there's no set period of time you have to stay in any of these phases by the way or any of these categories. You have to know yourself. Next phase is beginner. So a beginner trader usually has a starter account and the goal is to learn to make money as you go. If you're at this level, you're new to trading or you cannot risk a large amount per trade, which is fine, you can still be profitable. But don't worry, you can build your account as you go and learn along the way. Again, learning is important. The first month though, after the golden gap course, if you're a beginner, all beginner traders should be risking right out of the gate after the demo phase, about $50 to $100 per trade, at least to ease yourself into it. Once again, if you have a small account. And once you're comfortable with the platform and the process of trading, you can move into the next phase. A beginner trader risk though, after that first month should be about $200 to $400 per trade. So make sure you use stops and then book profits early in this phase because obviously your account is small and your goal is to grow it while you learn. So you want to get out when you're up. Important when you have a small account, all right? Now, what about an intermediate trader? An intermediate trader has at least six to 12 months experience and more trading. My system specifically, okay? If you're at this level, you have a large enough trading account that you feel comfortable with risk and you're familiar with the fast moves and day trading, particularly in gaps, which is what we do. You are still learning, okay? Which is fine, which is good. However, you're getting more experience every day and you're building your own confidence. You might also be doing options or swing trades as an intermediate trader. You're building on your account and you're taking profits out. An intermediate trader risk is $500 to $700 per trade. That's a decent risk and you can make good money with that. Make sure you still use stops, okay? And still continue to focus on learning to reach the next level. You could be at this level for years. This is, you know, $500 to $700 risk per trade is a decent risk. So you might be at an intermediate trading level for several years before you feel like you're ready to go to an advanced level. This is, you could stay at this level forever. There's, you know, you can really make decent money risking $500 a trade. And then advanced, advanced traders. An advanced trader has at least one year more experience trading and preferably really five. I'm just gonna say five, but you know, some people learn faster than others. So it really depends on you how much time and effort you put into learning. If you're reading your charts, reviewing your trades after you're out of the trades on the weekends. So I say one year, but some people need a couple of years to get to this point. And I think five is a good average, but honestly some people really just row themselves into trading in a full year's time and can get there. But if you're at this level, you have a large enough trading account that you feel comfortable with an advanced risk. You have a high level of confidence in yourself and your strategy and that's a must to be risking this amount per trade. You enjoy taking profits and you enjoy trading. And you don't find it stressful every day to risk this amount of money, which means you're comfortable with the risk. You're comfortable with the moves to the market. You're comfortable with volatility. You're comfortable with momentum. An advanced trader risk is $1,000 to $1,500 per trade. Make sure you stop, still gotta use stops and evaluate your risk and goals quarterly. So you may wanna get to the point where you start risking more even than this. So going over all of these, this is all the trades from going back January 22nd for the last nine weeks was off this past week. Again, advanced risk, okay? From January, February into March here, total of $87,480. Now this was an advanced risk if you weren't an advanced trader. Some trades, some days, some trades in here were losses. But for the most part, most of these were wins. Again, I called all these trades in the room and if you were following me and you had been on one of these levels, not the practice level, but if you had been trading in the beginner intermediate level or advanced level, what could you have made? Again, a beginner trader would have made an average in nine weeks of 2,430 per week or 21,970 in nine weeks. And this is really nice. This is good money, okay? Taking my calls in the room. Those were all my calls in the live trading room. They were in the room with me. Intermediate trader, 43,929 weeks. Again, really good money. This is a nice risk too. Like I said, you could just stay on this risk. Average 48,80 per week. This is really good money people. Advanced, again, an average of 9,720 per week and it takes time to get to this point. I definitely think having me mentor you helps you get to this point. You gotta have a decent size account to be here. But this is really very doable for many people to be in the room following me. You get the support of me and my calls and you don't have to risk over $1,000. So I think a lot of people should be striving for this, this, okay? This is something that it takes time and you're not gonna know when you get to that point until you're there. And that's the best advice I can give to people. But if you have a small account and you wanna start trading, you can go for it. You don't have to wait until you have some huge account. Because like I said, even if you could turn your money over one to one on a daily basis, you can move forward and build a small account into a medium to large size account within a few weeks, within a few months. It will happen faster than you think and you will learn along the way. Everyone has a learning curve. I mean, even people that kinda mean say, I know this, I know that, I've been training for 40 years, Melissa. No one knows my method better than me. And if you really wanna trade gaps, well, if you wanna read institutional moves well in the market, which is something that I do well, I read price very well in the market, then you're gonna have an open mind and come and learn from me and your trading will just take off to a next level. And I think it's important for people to know where they're at, to know which level they're on and to be excited about it. To be excited about it, to be excited about 2018 in the year ahead. So let's talk a little bit about trading with a margin account because I get a lot of questions on this too. Are all of those trades where the cash positions? No, day trading is not done with cash. I mean, I guess you could, but it doesn't really make any sense because brokers give margin. And when you're in and out of the trade in seconds or minutes, or at least every day before a four, it doesn't make sense to trade with cash. So day training is done with a margin account. If you want to know how much margin you'll receive when you're funds, you contact your broker or any broker where you wanna set up the account and ask them because broker margins vary, two to one, four to one, or even 10 to one. You're flat before the close though for a PM and all day trades. All of those trades were day trades. Day training is only done between 9.30 and 4 PM, which is the time the market is open, the US market. You are not outright buying the stock and holding overnight. So you can trade on margin and you don't need the full cost of the position in cash to buy or short the stock on in cash. So in other words, let's just say, for example, you trade a stock that costs $100 per share. You don't need $100 for one cash, for one share of it. All right? So it's different than what people think and that's why I encourage you to contact a broker to find out. The goal to get system can be traded with any size, day trading account. All you have to do is be able to actively get it in and out of positions on the live day. The most important thing is to learn the system first. I can't stress this enough for people. I say this all the time. I don't know if people hear me, but it is the most important thing. People want to open up in accounts and start trading before they even know what they're doing. You're not going to have a high chance of probability of success if you do that. You're going to have a better chance of success and being profitable if you learn first. Trust me, it'll make more money in the end. All right? You can open up an account after the class. You could open up in a trading account in 24 to 48 hours in most places. And if you already have an account, that's fine. Find out if you can day trade. Find out if you can short stocks. Make sure you have a level two in charts. I want to note this. There are no penny stocks trading with the system or ever called in the live trading room. I do not believe in trading penny stocks. I think they're very risky. I just think they are crap. So that's my personal opinion and preference. And I don't think it's something that anyone should ever be trading as an individual or I don't think anyone should trade penny stocks. I mean, it's just my personal opinion. I don't think you can consistently make money trading penny stocks. I think they're way too risky and there's no consistent way to read the charts because no institutions are trading them. So my philosophy, my system is based on positions that institutions are taking in stocks and hedge funds are not buying penny stocks. So therefore there's no play in any penny stocks in anything you'd ever learned from me. All stocks you've been in the system have volume and they're actively traded by big traders, by funds, by big institutions, by banks. They have volume, they move and the price range varies. Some are expensive, some are medium, some are cheap. You never know. Most stocks though are in the mid price range. It's about financial freedom if you're interested in learning how to trade for a living if you're interested in just making more money if you're retired and just want some extra money coming in each month. If you work part-time, if you're a mom or dad at home, it's important if you know what to do for your own finances for your future. I always say to people, you're the best person to make decisions about your own money and your own investments, nobody else. You can trade from home. That's a nice thing about day trading as well. If you're interested, my class is called the Golden Gap course. It's a two-day class and I do focus mostly on the shorts. The class is April 14th and 15th from nine to five Eastern time. The class of the class is 54.99. Class is online. You can be anywhere in the world to take it. Sign up really to secure your spot. I take a limited amount of people each class because of the fact that I wanna be able to get through everybody's questions at the end of the day and the class is live. You can be anywhere in the world and take it. Class April 7th and 8th is the bullish class. I only do this once a year. Cost of this class is the same as well. Points are not the same in this class. It's different to go long versus short. I do think it's important to know how to go long in a bullish market and particularly if you're doing options or trading overnight. If you wanna sign up for both, you're welcome to do that and you will save 20%. So class tuition for both 87, 98, 40, you can do both classes in April. You'll get it all, you'll learn it all. Very exciting and right before earning season. If you wanna do the trends class and the Golden Gap course, you will save $100. You will learn about swing trades and long-term trends and stock charts. It's 59.99. Again, class is online. Email me if you wanna sign up. Listen, it was great talking to everybody today and have a great weekend everyone.