 Welcome to the After Hours podcast posted by Harry Haas and James Friedlender presented by My Investing Club. What's going on guys? Back with another episode of the After Hours podcast. Today's just going to be Harry and I. We're just going to be chatting about the current market cycle and then answering some questions from a few of the members at MIC. So we can hop right into it. And you know kind of right before we started, Harry and I already kind of caught into it. We were just catching up and talking and we figured we'd just start recording now. But you know we're just talking about how the market right now is tough. It's I know a lot of guys over the last couple of years who made a lot, I mean millions of dollars who now during this market are struggling long and short because there's just it's just a weird one, right? And it's like the range isn't great. The opportunities are like I wouldn't say we had an A plus set up on either side and in almost like a month, yeah months and it's and it's tough. So you know and and Harry for you like kind of how are you adjusting as a long to this current market because I know you're still doing well but it's yeah we're just saying it's just slow. It's just slower it's different. Yeah I think for me it's really always been about market cycle, right? So it's been a lot for me has been like if you look at something today on like we're recording on June 3rd 2022 do you want to go back and look but like something today like SOPA right they kind of push it pre-market they kind of form this range and I feel like you know like the kind of like popular thing on Twitter right now has always been this like kind of what I've been seeing has been like this high day clear out pattern right where the stock goes to high day, longs are chasing, shorts are stopping out because that's where you're supposed to be stopping out and it just stops right and now we're kind of in this weird I guess like situation where there's like not as many shorts stuck at the lows because they're all waiting for this like magical high day clear out so like I found that there hasn't been that many shorts that are stuck at the lows and you know it's been really difficult to push back up to high day like the past like kind of cycle that we've been in is that things haven't really been moving to high day they've been moving just underneath high day or they've been getting like this kind of secondary bounce but things really haven't been moving to high day so I've kind of found it interesting for me like I've had to readjust my targets this week to underneath high day to a little bit under right and I think for me it's been all about adapting just to the current cycle right this is why you keep a journal just to kind of you know scribble down what the market's doing while you're kind of in the moment right so like for me I always like keep a like a little journal a little piece of paper for kind of a week by week type of basis where all right down okay stocks are having a hard time getting to the highs right now or you know if I'm long at the lows I'm going to be I guess I'm going to be kind of forming lower lower targets instead of always looking or depending on that high day push right you know if you're long at 240 the high is 263 you have to be you know selling underneath 263 for sure right now in these type of you know conditions maybe next week we'll get a bunch of like high day rippers right things can change you know on a dime and but for right now for me it's been like things can't get to high day so I'm selling below high day I'm really kind of bearish on my targets I'm not looking for home runs I'm not looking for these stocks to rip over high day you know I'm just being very conservative with my targets and I think that's just kind of how I dress yeah it's weird it's like it's like right now like we came from market in 2020 and 2021 and even part of 19 where I just I kind of like caught like the believer's market like there are so many stocks that would just they would take high of day and continue and I feel like we've been in this kind of downtrend in the past like year of there's no continuation it's very rare and generally the ones that do continue are like grinders so they're not even like stocks that you want to be in like I I feel like recently it's like I'm I'm someone like I in my opinion I have a good like read on on stock I like price action and you know we've both have seen it a long time and you can get a good feel and lately I find myself like contradicting everything I'm saying like I'm like oh wow this stock feels like it's kind of ripped but at the same time I feel like you could just stop and be over and it's like how can you take advantage of that like AMLX today I mean it was like there was a there was a moment there I'm like yeah this was 2020 this would probably be a 20 this would have ripped over high of day and despite the seller at 14 and we would have we would have at least seen tested highs and tried to test 1450 or whatever and now it's like how the hell do you even do that you know and as a as a short right now it's tough because there's no range on these plays and and people think like the weaker stocks it's great to short yeah it's true but if there's no range for you to hit like I I need a stock basically like 30% and above at least just at the minimum and that's even like that I feel like I'm scraping the bottom because realistically what are your targets I mean if a $2 stock is up 30% your targets probably like 30 or 40 cents away like is that even really worth it you know it's it's tough so so right now on the short side it's basically just like taking the singles taking the scouts and they come and and you know it's it's tough so it's it's definitely been an adjustment period for everybody yeah and I think also for me it's always been on like a week-to-week basis like how I kind of evaluate and something that Austin and I both do is we have a list of like old runners and like the this is easy to get you can just ask in the after hours someone will have this right and I put it all in kind of a watch list and when I wake up in the morning I check it and I say okay like how optimistic are we today right what's the overall market doing what's the overall sentiment like you'd be so surprised like if we are in a very like bullish time period like bitcoins running cryptos running everything's going crazy people are crazy optimistic people don't mind buying at the highest right people don't mind buying those types of breakouts because they're less guarded right the overall market like the economy you know everything kind of trickles down and so when I wake up in the morning and I see every single former runner red or deep red I'm like okay you know today is like a less optimistic you know market environment right it's like some people have the you know the spy and they rely on that for large caps but for us our spy is really that list of stocks and that old list of runners you know because like if you have like three previous runners like kind of like you know running that have ran like four or five days ago that are now trying to start to push up that's pretty bullish but if you have everything that has ran in the past like 10 days red or deep red that is not as bullish right no it's it's funny like it's funny you mentioned this because I in my life like part of the reason I got into small caps initially um well not one of the only but one of the reasons I liked it because I didn't really have to pay attention to the market right like I didn't have to like think about what spy's doing if spy was up down it really didn't affect the the trash that we were trading and it's I'm realizing that as time goes on and I think a lot of people like even veterans are learning this from the first time that the the overall world affects small caps because usually the people investing in trading small caps are like I don't want to say gamblers but they're the people that have the extra money to throw into these small caps they're like they're the guys that we're you know we're shorting into or they're creating the momentum you know and it's like I'm realizing that every little thing in in the world going on right now whether it be inflation you know cost of living all of that it's not allowing people like I like friends of mine to like throw money into the market because they because they don't have they just don't have that extra capital and I'm and you see it on these charts I mean it's it's like we're just missing that piece of everything of like the the the believers we're missing those guys that throw money into these stocks and then have them run from six to 12 yeah I mean and then I'm and then on the other side there's just less participants so even if you're shorting like for me it's like I rely on guys selling like I rely on long selling and there's just less participants so now the range is so much tighter so it's it's very tough right now yeah no I definitely agree with the with the buying power piece because you know if everyone's optimistic everyone's making money low cost of living you know people are you know taking out like crazy mortgages people are going insane they're spending left right and center that does trickle down into small caps you know yeah yeah and it's I mean love them or hate them right this is not a political like podcast at all but like Trump was good for the market for the fact that he just always talked about it going up he always was talking about it ripping going new highs be this and that gave people that kind of confidence that like even if they lost on one there was there were always right back like oh I can make it on another and another and yeah and so that you know for him like that that was good for us for the longest time and I think that was a huge everyone always thinks of the shutdown of COVID and all that I think that was a lot of it too though yeah no because people were taking those stimulus checks they were going they were going great and it trickles down again to when people have that kind of extra money they go in and they had those stimulus checks they had whatever even if it's only $3,500 or a thousand dollars or $2,000 a person you do see how much it affects our little ecosystem right even if they're not even putting it into small cap stocks even if they're putting it into you know growth names or whatever it still trickles down it's still you know lights the market up it still makes people optimistic I find like a lot of people aren't really that optimistic right now like I mean not on anything like you go outside and you know all talk to my neighbors who are like generally a lot of elderly people that live in my building there's not many like young couples at all and so I kind of you know go downstairs we're talking and they're they're they're pretty bearish on everything you know like my grandparents like I just you know had a visit with them a couple days ago my grandparents are pretty bearish right my grandparents are in cash right now like they've been in cash for a little bit and they're like you know what you know I don't even I don't I don't trust what's going on right now and it's that lack of trust like people I find right now like aren't trusting the government they're not trusting the news they're not trusting really anything and they're not optimistic they're not spending money people are tight for cash and it really does kind of trickle down into our market yeah and it's just it's weird because we never would have thought that because I guess in our lifetime I mean I'm a little bit older than Harry but in our lifetime like we really haven't experienced this we haven't experienced a market in a time where you know things just overall are negative and and it's it's tough to see and you know I I have like in my head I use the uh I call it like the Instagram indicator and it's like usually when things are great I have people messaging me all the time being like hey like you know I want to learn how to trade or what stocks are there and all that stuff and and you know all that stuff and and lately it's like none of that there's nothing like I don't get any of that anymore no one's like hey I want to learn to trade I just feel I feel like there was almost like that because of all the the stimulus and everyone that got involved well the second the music stopped and like things started kind of dying down it just it almost sucked everything out like even crypto right now like how can you invest in crypto right now it's the least exciting thing in the world nothing's exciting so it's it's tough and I just think as as traders right now it's like we basically just have to tread water until until things change I mean again I know guys made big big money last year and they're like they're just break even right now or they're just like small green yeah it's like it's tough it's like there's we can't get momentum on either side of the tree yeah it's difficult for both sides just due to the the lack of range right I mean something goes up from two dollars to 260 right how much range do you do you really have there you know not not really that much and now if people were short they're going to be like oh well we have 60 cents this can fade back to zero but nothing ever fades the whole or very rarely fades the whole thing right so you gotta take like 50 50 percent of that move right from 260 to to 230 and then you're kind of saying to yourself okay just like you said earlier is it worth it to trade this for for 30 cents right and I find the price action like has been very very wiki we we've had stocks that are doing 100 200 ml and we're in a 30 cent controlled range so I mean to me it's just like now is a time to really kind of study and who knows how long this is going to last right I mean you can also use kind of the profitable trading indicator as well like who's like up and coming like you hear about guys all the time that have been that have built accounts during COVID you hear about guys all the time that have built accounts during the regular market now I find like you know there hasn't been any superstars lately it's just a lot of guys who are just treading water right I mean Jack Kellogg like one of my friends killed it in the OTC market and a lot of those guys have been you know just break even or or plus a little bit or or minus a little bit or you know anything right so it's been kind of like a tough market you know I think to me like when I talk to a lot of people like for me a lot of things have been pretty pretty straightforward I guess I could say like you can generally rely on like if you're if you're if you're along you know getting up there around high of day you know you can generally rely on us you know creating a high going lower and then trying to kind of get into that high a day zone you can generally rely on types of setups like that but I mean a lot of people were like oh harry like you were kind of bearish on tnxp that ran but I was just because the market sentiment isn't good give me like five more tnxp's and I'll get a lot more bullish right and that's the thing we need a couple of them too we can't just hit like one stock going over high a day is nothing and and dude when was the last time we got a stock that gapped up or that ran and then didn't just like give back the moves the next day like it's been a long time like there's a lot of things we have to see for me to have any sort of like no confidence in shorting right now like we need you know it's but again like like we said on both sides it's just it's just not there so I think right now it's like the best lesson that I've learned uh you know from from bow now especially and stuff is you just have to live a life where financially you aren't stressed because that that's what I'm seeing is all these guys like I have a few friends that I have that brought into trading and stuff like they're looking for plays like so hard and it's like dude if I don't trade today I don't trade today like that's basically it and it's like I just feel like you need to build a life where financially you are comfortable enough that you don't have to stress about making money Monday to Friday if you don't have to obviously everyone wants to that it's a hard thing to swallow but the reality is like as long as you can pay your bills and like you know stay alive and like the tougher times that's what matters because how much I'm I guarantee you however long this last this is like a stock market winter you know as crypto winner this is like this is like small cap winter whoever can survive these times will probably be around forever because they've seen now create the craziest of highs with COVID market and the craziest of lows with whatever you want to call this five but you know it's just that that's it it's it's just staying alive you know so everyone who's like stressing and like people are beating themselves up every day I get messages like dude I'm not making money now what's going on like any help with this it's like well no one really is there's a lot of people that aren't you know it's and it's just tough so you know I yeah it's it's hard I mean I've been pretty green like each day not like as greens I want to be but like pretty green each day like but it's just about adjusting to targets and and really really really just you know not being greedy and if one does rip above high day or if one does kind of death candle below high a day you know it's important that you're not chasing those moves right we saw a ton of people who we you know we get this like burst of volume we get this ton of buying and we get over high day you know it's important that you're you're taking some time and and you know waiting like I think it's like chasing those types of candles in this market is death right you know you're better off in this market to you know let's say we we go over high day you know you're better off not too long up there you're better off just to chill right and you're better off like if we if we get this massive slam candle you know underneath high day and everyone's super bearish on it you know you're honestly better off not to short that either right like I mean I mean your risk reward is like pretty bad and like in this market like things are so range bound that like it's just because of the conditions like that is not going to work as well for you right and even if you are shorting that but even if you're you're you're shorting that type of candle how much range are you really getting like you have to be like are you holding this for like an all day fader like are you shorting it to support you know all those things that you have to kind of worry about dude it's awful but the faders right now is like it's so funny everyone like they think it's like great and stuff but the reality is oh they fucking suck right now yeah I mean they that what happens is the stocks run up you get a nice entry and then you're holding it and then it just goes into this like range bound glide like it looks good it looks good and then all of a sudden you're like wait a second why is this grinding back up towards the highs but it won't it won't stop you out but it won't it won't go anywhere you know and and something that I've done recently like I posted my my equity curve in after hours a little while ago and for me and the only thing that I think is keeping me going because like right now I'm just very steady I'm very steady up and I have a couple of like big days that that bring a parabolic move kind of look in the chart but right now it's just dude my losses are small like it's very controlled losses and it's just I'm keeping them the same I'm not like I don't have like one loss that's a thousand and another loss that's like three thousand like all my losses are are small controlled and my width right now they're like small controlled and then you have that one occasional bigger day but that's all it is just staying alive keep keeping the account kind of growing like just like a paycheck like like I almost feel like I'm coming to trade just to get like my average salary and like my average pay and then that's it because there's no opportunity to work harder and make more money yet but again it's like you're gonna grind yourself down so hard and then by the time the market changes your account she's gone or you're just mentally fried because if you're trying to long everything in this market you're probably it's probably fucking brutal for you and then the same thing if you're trying to short everything pain in the ass so it's just you know it's nothing gives me more comfort too like you know obviously it's not great for him but like I when I see Alex even like have days where it's not easy it's not easy he like has a good winning day and then you have a losing day it's like that just should show like dude even pros veterans like guys who are at the top of this I mean that's it's not easy so but soon enough we'll get something that'll catch everyone off guard and and I think we'll we'll spark things up but like we said how long we've been saying that you know Jesus dude I was literally just saying I'm like thinking my head like I feel like we had a podcast I'm not even kidding I want to say close to a year ago where it's just it's just like we don't have it you know it's wild and you know I guess the only comfort the comfort thing though is like that you can still make money in any market there is still opportunity it's just not it's not shiny and grander and maybe we just all got a little blinded by COVID maybe we got blinded by the opportunity because it was so much so every day that we just think that that's that's what it has to go back to and the reality is like I don't think it ever goes back to that I mean that was that was special you know yeah well I find we get periods of bullish action like yeah for instance the oil sector oil was running brought a lot of scented leaves INDO you know all those types of stocks yeah and everyone was super pumped you know everyone was like all markets back markets back oil started to go lower everything got a little bit quiet and people were like people were like wow it's that slow you know I really think for me like like my only edge right now is just relying like on like liquidity at the lows liquidity at the highs and I mean that's really it right I mean yep if I didn't like have that kind of edge in knowledge I don't know where I would I where I would be you know because like first bounce for instance right how many stocks do we see spike up and then fade all the way back down again yeah right yep that's the type of market conditions that were in for someone like you though like like because like obviously for me I don't want to see a weak market like I don't want to see would you rather like a super super bullish market or like what would you what would be like at the top of your wish list right now for like like you're your fader guy you're lying on those kind of all-day fader weak you know pop up fade for the rest of the day what would be like at the top of your wish list would it be super strong market or medium or super super weak market as long as you can get fills yeah so I for me dude I want that super strong market because you know like for for like what for like what we do it's you know I'm fine with taking cuts because that means you know your the stocks giving you more range like nowadays it's like there's we're not taking many cuts like but there's just no again there's no range it's like I'm just I'm at this point where it's like I have trouble wrapping my head around trading anything when there is not a great risk reward like at least like right like three to one is like the concept and the idea you want but it's hard to get that sometimes and when the market is strong and like really aggressive yeah it's tough it's tough in the short term because like you're getting cuts on the way up but obviously what do we know about small caps once once the air comes out of the balloon it it'll come down so it's really just like we need I need those guys I need those believers and those people that just want to run a stock from three to six you know because right now it's because you get a stock that runs from three to six and you have a chance that it'll probably fade back maybe towards 450 maybe four like maybe maybe it gives back most of the move right now if a stock runs from three to 360 what's the best case scenario three that's it's probably not gonna happen it's not gonna go fucking red on the day it's probably gonna just fade back to 325 and it's like okay no how how tight of an entry and how close you have to be to actually make it worth it so yeah you know we all want the same thing that's what's funny it's just it's just getting it there you know and when socks are this weak you can't even force an entry it's like you know today I was looking at like sopa whatever and it's like we're like seven cents from the highs and I'm like there's just no real entry for me I feel like the best case scenario I make 35 cents and I'm risking yeah like the math is there I'm risking like less than 10 cents but it's just it's not good it's not what I want so I'd rather see that thing that's why I kept saying in chat I want it over high and I want it to rip over high a day give us a reason for it to come down rather than just stay in this range of balance shit so he's been stuck in yeah I think that also like I have to say to myself with my targets right because I'm usually in like at the low like yep I'm like for instance like today I'm like MLX like I'm in at like around 13 bucks like I'm in at the low like I mean knock on wood obviously like yeah not trying to like brag or anything but like I'm usually in like at the low like if you if you like kind of when I go back and like back test myself because I'll always do it you know month to month or week to week type of basis like how good are my entries and what can I get better on yep but nine times under 10 like I'm never chasing the high so like I'm going to be in near the low if I have not stopped out and so you know I'm saying for me it's not a matter of where do I want to get long for me it's a matter of where do I want to sell right yep and it's like okay we have two lines we have the top line and we have like the second kind of that secondary high right yeah how often and again it's been very very popular the strategy of high day clear out right how many times have I heard that pattern on calls talking to people right everyone is after that quote high day clear out because you're top thick you feel like a hero you feel amazing right it's it's an adrenaline rush it makes you feel like you you kind of like I guess like for a lot of amateur people like it makes you feel like you know you have some type of edge and it makes you feel like you know you've you know quote unquote made it right just by short high day it makes you feel like you know you're like I'm gonna just wait for this every time then but I think the problem is is that now we don't have enough people who are short at the lows right everyone's trying to short the highs so when you have everyone trying to short the highs it's never going to get to your entry right so I have to go back and say what is the current market like for cells right now right now it's not high day right and that is where keeping a journal can literally help you so so much like saying to yourself okay like today on sofa did we break the high day once we open no we know we didn't know right today on AMLX did we break the high day no we could only get to 14 highs 14 5 how come we're not breaking that because everyone short 14 20 everyone short 270 right because that was what worked for a long while right I I I feel like too right now like just why you're talking about that like that like I feel like dude I feel like algorithms right now I'm not a I'm not a tin foil hat kind of guy I'm never bitching about algos and all that I feel like they know I feel like yeah well they're it's obviously a real thing but I I never like to blame it on anything but I know the algorithms right now are probably having a field day because they know they can just dump liquidity into this and then bring it down and then grind it back up and continues to do it all it's like a churning system all fucking day you see it you see it on the tape it's just like it's easier like and like they you know the game is really not rigged in your favor at all no they know where everyone's long they know where everyone's short they can see where your orders are if there's a bunch of orders up at 265 270 280 they're not going to bring it to that you know yeah of course and so imagine imagine you're on sofa and your your only strategy is like okay I'm going to short high day you know and it doesn't bring you to that and then you have to watch that entire fade eventually you're going to start going back to that secondary line right because you're like oh this is what's working on this market and then we start ripping back to highs again and you start getting stopped out and you're getting very very frustrated where you can just pay attention to the market cycle and you know journal everything down and and you know and and just yeah it'd be very very detailed in your trading and what's working and what's not you know for me it's going to be what type of lines are working right if I go back and watch my old tape recordings which nobody in mind used to record every day for me basically put it on a hard drive and gave it to me um and so if I go back and watch that just for fun or just whatever you know I mean you're still obviously like grinding and working daily and uh if I go back and watch that it's funny because I'm like wow that used to work back then but that doesn't work now and it's just the market is constantly changing you have to adapt and for me I'm never looking for that that comfort you know I don't really want to be always living in that comfort of oh I've made it oh I've done this oh yeah you know I don't want to be comfortable I'd rather always be you know taking my little book out and saying to myself and jotting down you know um what what's going on right now what what's working right now what's kind of happening right now our stocks breaking the highs our stocks unable to break the highs you know what type of market pattern are we in you know we bend in a market sentiment where the highs have not really been able to break right so yeah dude I I feel like as a trader as a trader now like I this is like the mindset I've always kind of tried to have and I keep it this way is that I'm confident in my execution I'm confident in knowing what I know about the market but I'm always kind of like humbled to the idea that anything can happen I mean we could do how many guys do we know now that crushed 2020 2021 and probably gave it all back well like at least a substantial point right it's like anything can happen so it's just you know finding ways finding systems that allow you to grow and keep risk and check through market cycles is really important which is why Bao realistically does well and has done well for almost 20 or over 20 years because his style of trading that he found pretty much works in it works in pop markets slow markets dead markets you know everything yeah you know and and that's it right you know that's the key just finding what works for you in the constantly growing like we were just talking a month ago about how we're we're expanding our playbooks and you know you were doing more like multi-day stuff and I was trying to get into more swings and like of course I get into swing trading at the dead top of the market but you know it's like you know that's it it's just constantly growing constantly adjusting and and you'll make it long term it's the guys that just think like oh this setup will work every time like you know it's like I love the deaf line set up right it's a great setup when it works but the reality is we haven't seen it a long time so all these guys that are just like a one-trick pony I mean they're gone they don't exist anymore you know so we also we've been rambling for any realism just kind of got into it but you want to attack some of these questions before we wrap it up yeah sure I mean we can talk about this stuff all day I know I know people are listening um any tips on keeping stress in personal life from affecting the mental side of trading would be greatly appreciated going ahead of first level uh yeah I think for me like I've done a pretty good job separating things because like um it's very very easy to uh it's it's I mean just for me like it's easy to take a loss of blame it on something right so for me my approach has been like obviously if I'm really really heated I'm not going to trade that day right if I'm mad I'm not going to trade that day but like again how how like for me it's really like my edge now is like very good where like I'm not really even going into the market like thinking about the personal side of trading or whatever right and you know you can also use that kind of three strike rule right or and that's why keeping a max loss is is very important but for me like that I don't really let that affect me just obviously if you've gotten a very heated fight that morning or obviously you've gotten a very you know you know an argument or a situation that is that is like going to like negatively affect your overall mindset negatively going to affect your overall day obviously that's bad but there are always going to be day to day stresses right and it's not necessarily going to come from you right someone could hit your car right you could be walking down the road and someone tries to rob you you could be there's all these outside factors that kind of venture in and how I kind of deal with that is just you have to kind of develop trading rules and a trading system around that so you can't let anything you know affect you and that's why the let's say you're a big revenge trader and on days you get in a fight you're always revenge well you gotta have a three strike rule and if you can't follow that then you're gonna you're gonna get in some trouble right yep or you gotta be stopping out it's really everything comes down to risk management and knowing your edge right if your edge is you know this is just an easy one to pick out but if your edge is high they clear out and you are shorting inner lines like you're already not following your edge right you're already you're already setting yourself up for failure and it's easy to be like to to blame it on things right it's easy to blame it on algos china a fight that happened two weeks ago it's easy to blame things but you need to take your own accountability in your own trading and say okay i'm not following my edge and i'm not following my system regardless of what is happening in your personal life you need to follow your plan your edge in your system and if you can't do that you're gonna lose on the best of days as well yeah that's for sure i see it james is yeah yeah i mean like for me like i know i'm actually like it took me a long time to realize this but i am emotional as a trader i don't i don't jump into shit like i don't like you know freak out if i'm down or like you know i'm not like an over trader any of that but i do like if i have a bad morning it is something that has affected me in the past because i just i come to the market and i might be a little bit more aggressive even if it's like five percent more aggressive if i've done things like that so basically like why i changed to like a different style it's rating for myself was because i wanted a system in place that like my entry my exit all of it my criteria is pretty much done out for me like i you know at this point i know i know where i'm gonna enter where i'm gonna add and all that stuff so it kind of takes out that like my brain doesn't feel clogged anymore there's no there's no conflicting like oh you know my fucking you know my girlfriend was bitching at me this morning i'm pissed and now i'm gonna double down size here make all this money and fuck her you know that's just those are the thoughts that not that i had them but like there's multiple things in my head at the same time so it's like now it's like there's nothing to it and it's just a loss is a loss i know where i'm gonna stop out i know where i'm gonna do everything and it just for me that's how i handle it because the reality is there's stress every day we live in a high like functioning like crazy environment in the world and it's just every day you're gonna see the news you're gonna see there's a war going on you're gonna see covid's this covid's that you're gonna be stressed every fucking day and you're you might not even know it so it's just it's best to have like you said a system in place with rules and if you can't follow those rules then you're not gonna be trading a long time anyway so yeah that's it you know yeah i mean also like if you are let's say you run a business and you sell canoes at a lake right regardless of whether you get in a fight with your girlfriend or not you're still gonna have customers coming in yep right you're you're still gonna have people who want to go kayaking or canoeing on a sunny day right and you can you can't if it rains you can't be like oh just because i got in a fight with my girlfriend means people aren't coming into my business anymore it's like no bro it's raining right it's like you know everyone's very very good at finding excuses and i understand like you get in a heated fight you know your girlfriend maybe maybe you don't want to sell canoes today right maybe you want to do something else that's fine right you own your own business you're independent that's fine but you know you really really really and i know trading is different and i know it's an emotional game but just for that example like you really really it's just like james says like james has his entry his exit everything written down so it's robotic it's really how concrete your plan is you know the less concrete your plan the more you're going to get taken advantage of in the market right the market is an emotional game it's going to prey on your emotions these stocks prey on emotional traders right so if you don't have a concrete plan plus you're all screwed up like emotionally you are in for a recipe for disaster right yeah you know your your canoe shop is going to burn the fuck down like you're going to be getting that unemployment. Yeah i tell my guys this because like obviously the same thing right it's very different but we're barbers and it's like dude trust me sometimes the last thing i want to do is fucking talk to a client like sometimes i have a bad day the other day i yesterday i got called state board was there doing an inspection usually that means big fines are coming or some bullshit you know that we're going to deal with luckily knock on wood nothing happened but like i walked in already in a bad mood but you know what like i've told my guys we have system in place like we have basic it sounds stupid but i have a basic list of questions that like if i'm not in the mood to talk i'll ask my client questions and that will allow them to kind of do fill the dead air and i don't really have to focus on it and because guess what if i went in there and the first guy was like hey has your day i'm like shut the fuck up what's gonna happen to my tip right i'm gonna i'm not gonna get a tip and he's probably never coming back so it's it's the same thing in trading systems in place have have it all written down and you can kind of overcome that i think another guy said like how do you narrow down plays i often get distracted watching too many james if you want to hit that one first or how to not get how to not get distracted so and how to narrow down plays not get distracted he finds himself watching too many plays trades long and short but he misses his entries because he's distracted yeah so so for me like i think 99 percent of the time when you're like a small cap trader you're looking at stocks that are moving yes but if you really pull it back and austin says it's all the time actually he's like if it was a different scenario would you really be trading this stock like this this is why you can't just be i can you can't call yourself i feel like a momentum based like scalper or something because you could do that on every stock but you need a setup like if you don't have a setup like for me that's why the same thing is why i changed to something that i know i there's certain criteria that has to get met if the criteria gets met i'm allowed to trade if not fuck it i turn i take it off i don't even touch it i don't think about it and it's like how setups in place like here that'd be like harry like how many stocks pop up from the scanner right this morning i think like i got like 10 things that stocks popped up and that'd be like harry longing every single fucking one of them doesn't make sense even though yeah that's that's what he does he long stocks that are that are going popping and making a setup but harry has a setup that's going to he waits for he lets you get to his entry and that's it i mean if you if you can identify like i like to pretend i'm interviewing at a hedge fund and the hedge fund manager is going to ask me hey what are your setups what do you trade if i just say i short small caps he's going to slap me in the face you know what the fuck are you talking about dude like no you need to identify your setup be able to articulate it to someone and then i think you're allowed to trade it yep i agree and i think for me it's like okay uh we have 10 stocks pop up in the morning which one am i going to trade well for the first like 15 20 minutes i'm not going to trade any of them right i'm going to wait and i'm going to look at the price action and i'm i'm going to see what i want right then it comes down to a little checklist in your head right what's the flow right what is the what's the institutional ownership i don't really check dilution anymore just because i i go in with the the mentality that every stock has an atm and i go in you know fat atm they can dilute it's an all-day fader 100% and that keeps me from longing random bullshit you know but also it's like okay what is the daily charlotte right if we have a stock that has been active for let's say between a dollar and two dollars it's really active everyone's talking about it and then we gap us to three the next day right yep um you know again what are our shorts going to be trapped our lungs going to be trapped whose bag holding you have to differentiate that and you have to really paint the picture right you know is this stock on ssr is this stock doing this is this stock doing that right this whole kind of like checklist that goes in your head you know is this stock broken like is the high three dollars and we're opening up into where is vwap on this ticker right you know and also a big thing for shorts is just not shorting the lows and not shorting it to support you know there's a ton of guys who see a red candle and they're like this is it this is done this is it again that is the market taking advantage of you you need to have a concrete plan a concrete entry a concrete exit a concrete stop and and that's it right if you you know can't even follow those basic rules of trading then you're going to get in trouble it's the old saying you know we have a stock at two and we're waiting for 250 and then you see 220 kind of saw a little bit you're like oh I can take 220 and you see 230 and you're like oh man I'm adding then you see 240 and you're like oh man this is it like this is it 240 there's a line here we get to 250 and you're like shit bro I gotta stop out I'm in too big too early you stop out and then it goes lower and you're like oh well what did I do wrong you know but you're not following your original plan and that's a problem like I get so many people who are long stock spikes at the open they just jump in they don't even know why they're in they just jump right in and I'm like bro like are you even following any type of process or any type of plan they're like well they ended up following my original plan I'm like well yeah no shit like I feel like everyone has the same types of plans generally right everyone has the same types of plans the problem is is just like if you can't follow it and you get in too quick or you're not waiting for your lines and you're not waiting for your plan you're just going to get taken advantage of and that's it you're just going to get another one is I know even the most seasoned traders struggle with emotions can you share any tech techniques you've learned to take emotions out of your trading for me it's just following a plan right planning following a plan if you don't have a plan you are going to be emotional you're going to get taken advantage of that's it can you guys talk more about readjusting plans um I mean yes you can readjust but I think if you're newer that's a bad habit you know to be honest like for someone who's like a pro like Alex Alex is like okay I'm waiting for outer lines and then he sees like maybe like a massive stuff or a tank at the web and then he readjust like for someone like Alex that's like experience based right and if Alex writes that he's readjusting his plan in the chat then maybe you can take a look at readjusting or still but for a long like could you imagine readjusting your plan every 10 cents like you're like oh man like I'm gonna I'm gonna buy a 250 and then 255 you're chasing and I'm gonna add it I'm readjusting bro I'm readjusting you know that doesn't really work right so to me it's like if your line is the only way you can readjust a plan in my opinion is if you're not in the stock but like you see a signal to top it up like if your line let's say is let's say today on someone right highest 263 let's say we get to 260 and we stuff then you can say okay I'm gonna short the pause right but that's like one of the only little ways because if you had him said oh I'm going to uh short into I'm gonna short a view app when it gets there right before we even got well we did get to 260 but like before we even kind of had that stuff move or had that topping action you would have been stopped out again right so as long as you're not chasing and like your plan is like okay I'm gonna wait for resistance I'm gonna wait for a pop like that's okay but again that's risky business readjusting your plan after the open right no dude I think in my opinion and this is gonna sound super harsh but I think 99% of people are not including myself are not talented enough in trading to adjust plans on the fly and I mean and there's some multiple reasons because one price action is tricky like you can get fake I mean everything we say is kind of just no it's an educated guess if I'm like oh I feel like the stock's gonna like Terry says stuff I feel like the stock's gonna rip it's an educated guess because we've seen it before but you don't know for a fact that's gonna happen next so if you're just in the moment you're like oh quick stuff like sometimes your brain tricks you I mean I happen to me all the time a stock stuffs and I'm like oh it's dead and the next thing you know we're back up to where we were I mean same on AMTX whatever that's what it did it's stuff back they get the dollar and then bounce back up to the highs almost and it's like you you can't adjust like if you're truly a profitable trader I think you know that like adjusting plans mid-trade like doesn't really work you get emotional you know it's like that's why you have a plan that'd be like me writing down my plan my entry exit add all that and then saying fuck this this stock had a seller here I'm getting announced that just to I'm not good enough for that so I think you know you know just as newer traders if it doesn't work to your original plan then fuck it dude people need to be okay with losing or miss it's okay yeah um how did you transition from scaling to one bullet slash wine um that's more for James I think okay um I just sucked at scaling I realized that my losses were too big um and I just wasn't good at it I I found that I would get emotional because again it's like you're scaling and and I found it hard to make a plan to scale because if I had a plan to scale that 500 shares four bullets you know and I only hit two of them I wouldn't know how to then adjust my plan to all right how am I going to get the rest on but what am I going to do so I just had to I looked at charts for a long time and figured out you know hey I need to have more of a system base where it's one entry with a set risk and and go from there and then I've made videos on it too kind of moving my wrist down as I trade you know I don't just keep my wrist the same always and I add and my wrist gets a little bit bigger so yeah it's about it when when do you cut versus attack higher like this is all related to scaling when to cut when to attack higher versus scaling I think like when you're scaling like you have to have a plan you have to know what your average is right it's one thing to say I'm going to take 100 shares at each line but you need to know that your average is going to be somewhere in the middle right and that's the problem for a lot of people is that they don't understand where their average is at before it's too late they look at their P&L and they're like wow like in order to scale you have to be taking you have to be willing to size up more on each line right yeah and so because that's what is going to bring your average higher so you have to really go from you know if you're using max 100 shares you have to go from 25 to 50 to like you know a hundred kind of yeah you have to bring that average up as you go that's the tip to scaling and if if you're just trying to say oh well I'm only going to use 100 shares you better believe that you know 80 or 50 or you know more than half are near your best line right yeah and that's why it does take a lot of size to scale and you need to understand the mathematics of this right where is your average going to be in your plan right I think a lot of people it's easy to just say oh I'm going to scale 100 here 100 here 100 here 100 here right here you know right but it's like instead of that you should be saying I'm going to use like less than I'm going to use like 30% here I'm going to use like another like you know a little bit more here and I'm going to be thinking about the mathematics and I'm going to be really you know I'm going to be you know straightforward and like because like you need to know where your average is at and that's the problem is like if you're not doing that extra step in knowing where your average is at like you're going to get in trouble yeah also people need to realize like and this is an easy way to say it is you're either Val or your Alex Alex scales 30% and keeps his stop to where he knows he's wrong and he stays small and then when it confirms to him he adds right whereas Val Val will keep a lot of his bullets like either the same size like a little bit bigger as it gets higher but he's a robot in the fact that he'll cover out so if he protects his average if he has a bad average he covers out on dips because he knows he's going to bring his average up higher and make back even that tiny loss or even so I've seen him scale 500 shares like a bunch and then he'll just cover out like a thousand shares on a small dip so then he's up like 100 bucks but then he does it over and over and over so it's like you can't scale like Val but then want to add like Alex in my opinion it's you got to pick one of the other because it gets too hard pick one and they they both work equally as well you just you can't you can't overdo it but 100% we can talk like literally forever I know we should we should cut this off but yeah thanks everyone for uh for watching yeah we'll be back and uh yeah we'll be back with uh another one shortly so thanks