 Welcome. This is Melissa Armo with the Stock Swoosh. And I wanted to talk to you today about trading education. There are lots of places out there that teach small classes, big classes. Sometimes there's newsletters. You can even buy books on trading or watch free YouTube videos or go to free webinars online. While you can pick up tidbits of information, many people fail to really get the full understanding of that trading education unless they throw themselves into it lock, stock and barrel. What do I mean? Focus on one specific strategy until you're doing it really, really, really, really well enough so that you're making money or successful. Now you say, well, Melissa, how do I know what strategy to do? Well, that may take time. Nobody ever was born yesterday and then gets up and takes their first trading class and then all of a sudden successful. Well, that could happen. And maybe that's happened to somebody out there in the world. People take a series of classes until they realize what they really want to do and what strategy they want to really focus on. Sometimes it has to do with your schedule. Sometimes it has to do with your lifestyle, where you live as well. For example, I live in New York. The markets were open during Eastern time zones, so that's good for me because I live in an Eastern time zone. So as far as what you're doing and when you're doing it, no matter what you choose to do, I really think it's important if you're risking money in the market to learn first. Right now, we're in an environment where the market is bullish, but volatility is still here. There are days where the market seems sluggish, even though we're in uptrend. There are days that we fall that scares people. A lot of times people are trying to read the market to get trades and also people are in these free chat rooms right now and they are trying to get picks from people and get trading ideas from complete and total strangers. While some people have made money in those rooms, other people have lost money in those rooms and lost a lot. Typically, when you look at the overall market, you say, well, is it something that you could really do and be successful? Of course. And then you say, well, why are a lot of traders not successful? Well, there's many, many reasons, but the one reason I really want to talk about today is that many people do not have proper trading education. They flip around and never really throw themselves into it. What do I mean? I mean, take a class, learn something, ask questions, participate, follow through trade, trade small size, trade in a demo, work themselves up, go back and ask the teacher or the person that you learned from or your mentor questions. Continue the process. Don't give up. Don't quit. I think people tend to do a class and then quit very quickly if they don't find that they're doing well. Maybe you don't understand something. Maybe you didn't get the class right. Maybe you didn't really fully understand it or maybe the class who didn't teach you anything and the strategy doesn't work. That's true, too. Sometimes people ask me, you know, what is it really that I'm going to learn in the Golden Gap course? That is a main meat and potatoes course that I teach. While I have other subcourses that teach various different things, the main class, the big class that I teach on a monthly basis, that you're going to learn the system, the system that I do on a daily basis for options and day trades is called the Golden Gap. You are going to learn in the class the Golden Gap 26-point rating system. That is the thing, the main meat and potatoes of the class. That's the entire day, the first day of the class on the Saturday. Sunday, the second day of the class, you will learn the entries. There's six different entries that I do. Then there's targets. You will learn that as well and exits. On top of all of that, I discussed many, many things about motivation, money, wealth, and success and really trying to develop yourself into a person that has a positive and optimistic attitude that believes that you can pull money out of the market. A lot of times, going back to what I said previously, people start through this process to train. They want to be successful, consequently find themselves losing, and then they give up or have a negative attitude about the market. Everybody goes through a process. That process takes time. You may take 10 steps forward and 2 steps back and 3 steps forward and 1 step back. I found that with myself when I began trading as well. I didn't wake up and create the 26 points automatically. It was a process of over 3 years and I didn't have 26 points out of the game. I had a few that I added and it was a process of wanting to lose until I figured it all out. I did it all with real money. It took me years out of my life. At the same time, I was working full-time too. Things take time. It's like building a house. Think of it like this. You start from the ground up. You lay the foundation. Then you build it up. Then you have the framing work. Then you get the plumbing and electricity and so on and so forth. At the end, you have the beautiful decorations and the furniture and you put in and you're living there and it's happy and everything's great. All of these things take time. We're living in a world where everybody wants everything yesterday and today. Think of trading as an education. It's building the foundation for you to make sure the house is sturdy. I'm sure everyone remembers the collapse of the building that just recently happened in Miami. It did not have a firm foundation. There were defects in that building. Most importantly, the foundation as well. It's very interesting how they make those buildings and how they're building those buildings down in Florida. First of all, it's low elevation. Second of all, they're building them differently now than they did 50 years ago. They lay the concrete. They put these pylons now in the concrete so they're sturdy. But you still have these different buildings that are sinking here every year. And again, now there's a lot of people that are in this population. It's grown in Florida. People are all moving there and the elevation is low. So there's a lot of things when you think about it, when you're like, okay, there's really, really, really, really important to have a firm grasp and foundation for trading. Well, I took an educational class when I first started out and I didn't learn gaps or learn how to make money in it. I did learn a basic foundation, which really helped me build the house that I have now to trade gaps successfully. The foundation was based on technical analysis. That was a firm foundation for me. It was a good foundation for me. Everything I do is based on technical analysis. While I talk about fundamentals on television, I do not use fundamentals to trade or make trading decisions. So technicals is where it's at for me. But it's the analysis of the technicals in the gap itself, which again encompasses the 26 points, which is my golden gap grading system. That's the system that I use to make the picks to determine which stuff to trade each day and what direction. And again, if it's going to have momentum because that's how you're going to make money. We're in a weird period right now. You know, I'm telling you the market's been bullish. Is it going to last? Nobody knows, but I will tell you, you must know what you're doing in order to risk money in the market. Take it step by step. Do not be overly aggressive in your trades. Make sure to book profits and think about what I said today about having a firm foundation for education because it is very important just because you took a class in the past. And you didn't learn anything from it. And you spent money doesn't mean you can't learn anything in the future. I pride myself in really trying to mentor people to teach them things, not just in the class, not just in the paid classes, but in the live daily trading room and also doing little videos like this where I'm giving tips for people to make and understand what they need to be focused on. Focus on technical analysis. Focus on one strategy when you're doing it. If you're doing something that doesn't work, leave it be, quit it, do something else, learn something else. You still have plenty more time between now and the end of the year to make money and be successful and turn your year around if you're not having a good one. If you have more questions, you can email me and Melissa at thestockswitch.com. Have a great day, everyone.