 Good afternoon everyone and welcome. This is Melissa Arma with a Stock Swoosh, and guess what? I'm introducing you here today to a student, a long time student. His name is Gerard. Welcome Gerard. How are you today? I'm well, Melissa. How are you? I'm doing very good. I actually met Gerard. I think it was about two months ago, face-to-face in New York. You were nice enough to come to New York, and we met up. That was very interesting. In all the years you were my student, I never met you till then. It's amazing what the internet does, yes. I would have you here on today, Gerard, because you're a trader, and you're doing well, and you started trading my system. What year was that? Let's see. I think I took the class in 2013. I think I was pretty early. Okay. And what did you do before my class? Why don't you tell people a little bit about your background? Did you know anything about charts or anything before my class, or did you trade? Yes, yes. Like many people, I had an interest in the markets for quite a few years, but I actually found a mentor in a swing trading capacity for a couple of years before I found you. I thought I knew how to swing trade pretty well, and I also had taken some classes. I basically was hoping to make trading my income, which has in effect happened, but getting there was a long road. I'm so proud of you, Gerard. When I met you face to face, I'm so proud of you, because I know that you're really doing it, and I'm proud of you. I really am. You've done well. You listened to everything I said, and I'm proud that you've done it, Gerard. Well, thanks. As I said, it was a long road. There's a lot of education out there. I took some classes before I found you, and some of it was worthwhile information. Some of it was not. And by the time I found you, I knew I had, well, I was pretty good at reading charts. I knew different kinds of trades that could happen and could be done. I had trouble focusing on particular things, and particular securities for day trading. That's one of the ways you helped me quite a bit. Before I found you, I knew I had a problem with gaps, and I knew I had a problem with trading the open. I remember coming from being a swing trader to try to make some money daily in the market. It's a slow process, but what you were offering was a class about gaps at the open, which were precisely my weaknesses in making that transition from swing to day trading. What happened with Netflix, though? Did you reach out to me after the Netflix? Remember, you told me you were in the Netflix long, and then it gaps against you. Was that right after you found me or before? I forget what happened with that. Netflix was a huge fumble I made before I found you. And then, sure enough, in your class, you used it as an example. I know! I know! They thought, oh, I did everything backwards. But essentially, coming to understand gaps and coming to your course, a number of good things happen. The gap understanding, overall, I think it just changed the way I look at charts altogether. It's not that what I learned before was without value, but looking at gaps has really helped me focus on what I really want to go long and what I really want to go short. As it happens, I take that knowledge and I use it to trade the open as you specialize in, but I will go long and I will go short. But also, since you helped me read charts a little better, I also manage longer term money for myself in the form of an IRA. So what you teach can be applied in different time frames, certainly. But it's really been great because in my case, I was able to make that transition. Training is what I do. It's how I spend my day. I enjoy it. It's not necessarily the easiest occupation if you don't enjoy it, so I think that's important. But with the right tools and good education and just stick to it in this experience, it worked for me. How did you find me? I forget what you said. I was probably just trying to find anybody online who had something to say about gaps. Just because coming from the swing trade world to the day trade world, gaps at the open were just nothing but trouble for me. But you can make a lot of money if you're in it and writing gaps in your direction in the gap. If you're in it overnight, yeah, right. But a number of things were really good. You helped me focus on just a few securities each day. That was a weakness I had. Prior to you, I was coming in with long lists of things I might day trade. And I was focused on too many things or trying to focus on too many things. It's always a good thing in trading to have multiple reasons for buying or selling a stock. Well, with your method, as you advertise, you've got this rating system with 26 potential reasons to buy or sell a stock. And that really narrows the field down quickly. So focus helps results. It also helps build confidence that what you're doing is the right thing that day. Are you confident in yourself right now? Oh, yeah. I mean, the market tests all of us every day. And sometimes we have to understand that good decisions don't always lead to good outcomes. But that aside, knowing that you're doing the right things for the right reasons with a good system, that's very helpful. So you were in the room for a while and then you went off on your own. Yes. So what's that story? Yes. I benefited a lot from being in the room afterwards. I took the retakes of the class and so forth and I was constantly going over material and trying to really just internalize it for myself. But they came along when I thought I need to just prove to myself that I know this. And I pulled the plug on the room, so to speak. And I found that I was able to go out and do this on my own. And it's a huge confidence builder. And just knowing that alone, it just helps my trading anyway. I think it's great. I think it's a good transition for people to get the conviction and right at the beginning of the information. But you definitely have to get to a point where you say you don't need me. Yeah. I mean, it's always helpful. But yeah, I need that confidence if I'm going to trade wherever, whenever. And as you know, sometimes I travel to different locations and I'll trade the open from wherever I am. And you don't know if it's going to let you get into a room or have someone have a mentor with you. You've got to be able to do some of this stuff on your own. So you take your laptop wherever you're traveling and you train wherever you are. I know we were talking and you were in Colorado this year, so you're just going for fun trips. This isn't work. You're basically, it's all fun. All right. Well, I just wanted to ask you one more thing then. I was wondering then what is the number one thing you learned from me? Was it really the focus? I think it was the focus and the focus, but the focus also helped me really distinguish one chart from another. You know, you have your rating system and it really gets detailed. You know, when I first found you, I thought 26 point rating system, this is overkill. You never told me that before. That's funny. I like to think that life should be simple, but every now and then I've proven wrong. But you know, you just kind of internalize those points and over time you come to look at a chart and say that's a good chart. But it's still good to rate things and I still try and rate things sometimes, especially if I have trouble deciding between one or two securities that I want to trade. So, you know, the rating system, just rating the process of going through the ratings strengthens conviction as well for the day. I know. That's why I still do it myself, but I do have an intuitiveness, which is what you're talking about. You just, you know it then. You don't really have to, but I still do and I still think it is good too, because you're still risking money and then it still helps you take the risk because no matter what you do, you're taking the risk. And so it helps you do it without any hesitation, especially if it sets up quickly. Right. And it also helps me stay in the trade for a longer ride, which you know, I do go a little slower turn than you do sometimes. Yeah. You know, I'll try and hang on to something all day. That's great. That's great. Yeah. If you have the time to do it, you can do it. So the simplicity though, what you were saying about the points, it's in the fact that you're only looking at the one thing. The simplicity is that you only need one thing or one trade. So the analysis may not be simple, but the simplicity is the one thing. But the analysis then, once you learn it does become simple. For me, it is simple now because I know it. So that's the difference. To look at the market and say, oh, this is just a simple easy peasy and you can make a million dollars. Well, that's lunacy. It's the idea that there is an intricacy in the market to be able to ascertain the information to predict what somebody's going to do. Learning it is the process. Once you know it, then it is simple because you know it. And because of the focus of doing one thing, that's the simplicity. But it's making the bridge and the connection. And simplicity is good. You just want to build good habits from the start. I mean, it's easier to build good habits and learn correctly than have to tear down old habits and relearn from the start. But as you internalize things, you want to make sure you want to go back and refine. And there's a lot in your class to go back and look at again and again. And then internalize that to a greater degree. Thank you, Gerard. Thanks so much for coming today. I appreciate you learning from me and finding me on the internet, however you did. And it's been great to know you. I'm glad we got to meet each other. Yeah, this is fun. Thanks. Thanks Gerard. Thanks for coming. Have a good day. You too. Bye.