 Hi, everyone. Welcome. This is Melissa Arma with the Stock Swoosh, and today I'm going to talk to you about taking risk. If you want to trade the stock market, the only way to make money is if you take risk. If you are not someone that is a risk-oriented person, in other words, you don't enjoy taking risk, you don't like to take risk, then you absolutely should not trade the market. Trading the market involves risk. It doesn't mean that you have to take a large risk. You can take a small risk, but it's risk nonetheless. You find a lot of people who always want to trade, and then they really are adverse to risk. You have to take risk if you're looking to trade. There is no other way. And be honest with yourself about your personality. My personality is I am someone that is willing to take risk, number one. And I actually enjoy taking risk because I know that taking risk is going to put me ahead. That is how I'm going to get ahead. That is how I have gotten ahead in life. So you have to be honest with yourself. And you've got to embrace the joy of taking risk, the excitement of taking risk, instead of wallowing and saying, oh, I don't really want to take risk, then you shouldn't trade. I mean, that's the reality. I've had many conversations with people that I talked to that are trading and are losing money. And after having a conversation with them, I realized they really should not be trading. They really don't like taking risk. Okay. Now, when I decide that I want to take a trade, before I even put more money on the trade, whether it's a day trade, whether it's an option, anything I'm doing. I look at what I'm taking risk in, and then I evaluate it. And it's called calculator risk. So when I say taking risk, it's still about the calculator risk. What are the pros? What are the cons? Make a list. Write it on a notepad. Make a list for yourself. So that's how I came up with the whole idea of doing my 26-point rating system. I rate gaps. I rate the stocks. I rate the market. I determine if this is worth taking risk in or not taking risk in and not doing it. That is called calculator risk. And you can do that with decisions in your own life. You make a list of all the pros, then you make a list of all the cons. And if the pros are bigger than the cons, then you say, okay, I'm making a calculator risk decision that I want to move forward with this, and you do it, whatever that happens to be. But I find a lot of people are just adverse to risk, and they're trading, and they're losing, and no wonder. And they're going to lose forever, quite frankly, because they really are not in a position to be trading. They shouldn't be trading the market. They do not like taking risk. They don't even understand what trading is about. Trading is about taking risk. You have to be willing to do it. One thing, though, and again, going back to the calculator risk concept is that you shouldn't be taking risk for risk sake. Now, a lot of people in these new Reddit chat rooms that started out, what should I say new? It's basically a year now, since people have been in these Reddit chat rooms. People are taking risk for the sake of taking risk. It's not calculated. It's not based on a formula or a strategy, and some of the calls that people are making in those rooms. So it's just for the sake of taking risk, which is sort of like gambling. If you want to gamble, you can go to the casino, you can look at the odds of whatever you want to do, whatever you want to play, and you could do it. That's not what trading is. That's not what investing is or any of these things. So it's not about taking risk for risk sake. It's about taking a calculated risk for this reason, and this reason, and this reason, and that the pros outweigh the cons. Do you see what I'm saying? So someone wants to come and they say, I want to take your class list. I say, okay, what is the cost of your class? My class is $6,999. And you say, okay, so these are the pros, these are the cons. If I take this class, what am I going to get out of it? What am I going to learn? So you make a list, and that is how you make a calculated decision of what you want to do, weighing the pros and cons. There's risk in everything you do in life, and you will never get ahead if you're not willing to take risk, specifically with trading and specifically with the market. And what I find is really interesting, since I've had the business now for 10 years, is that many people are engaged, trading, risking their own money in the market, and they don't like taking risk. They don't like it. They don't enjoy it. They don't even want to take any risk at all. That's not reality. So again, get firm with yourself. Get grounded. Understand what trading is. Understand what you're getting into. Make a list of pros and cons, choose and decide if you want to take risk and even acknowledge with yourself if you are someone whose personality is a risk-taker or not. See, mine is. And I've known that forever. Before I even started trading, I knew that. So I embrace my own personality in that aspect when I do the things I do. You have to do that for yourself. And you have to know yourself, and you have to know your own personality, and you have to know that about yourself. And if you're a person that likes to take risk, go for it. But again, not for risk sake. Calculated risk. Have a good day, everyone.