Hello Everyone I have the privilege of speaking with Mr Michael Edwards who happens to be the co-founder of TTG and is also the head Trader at TTG True Trading Group for everyone who hasn't heard about it if you're curious, links are in the description below. but before we get into what he's doing now I Want to talk with Mike because he's a successful Trader with a very interesting story that I think a lot of us will be able to resonate with. That's the entire plan. So sit back.

Enjoy! I Really, really think you're going to have a good time listening to Mike's story process and what he's actively interested in the market these days. Mike How are you doing? I'm good man, great to great to be here. Thanks for having me! I Think what we're about to get into will be very enlightening to many people because as you and I have talked before this many, many times, I think your story is a story that a lot of people are going to be like hey, I see myself in that because you go through a lot of stuff articles that a lot of Traders do myself included and I think with that, especially with your presidents on social media with true Trading Group I think a lot of people see it now. they almost see it kind of like after the after transformation photo of like oh okay, like I see that all the time with like I guess like gym pictures and videos of like you see the people who are ripped and looking good and that's years and years of experience and practice and just honing the craft, doing it over and over again.

but that's kind of tough to relate to I think really my interest in speaking with you right now is to understand that actual whole journey. So that's what I want to get into and I guess the best way to get going is how do you even first become interested in trading? Like was it a parent? a grandparent? Was it in high school? Where was your trading career like? What was the birth of it For me? it was. it really kind of started in college I when I when I was in college I originally was an accounting major and I hated it like I would debits and credits and all that and I'm just like man this is so boring it's like I never wanted to do the homework and I wasn't I wasn't getting the best of grades. but then part of my the general um like the general business courses that I had to take.

um I ended up taking a portfolio management course and the portfolio management course was my very first real experience with the markets and understanding. Like you know asset allocation and risk management and all these different types of of processes that you go through and to manage a portfolio. And I just right away, I found myself actually wanting to do the homework assignments because I was interested in the material versus the other accounting stuff where it was just like whatever it is what it is when the test comes if I bomb I don't really care and and that was kind of the sign for me and then I I switched then the very next semester I switched to Um, a finance major and then I went and started taking a lot of finance courses and a lot of Um Econ courses to kind of get myself more familiar with overall markets. That's really where the my interest kind of started I want to get into that bit more because uh I I didn't study Finance myself but a lot of my friends were active Traders now but studied Finance It was a lot more of that investing long-term portfolios and as we'll get into later, you're more of I would consider an active Trader day trader swing Trader now which really isn't taught so that particular skill set obviously.

So in college you learned about the markets trading. this that the other thing So what led you actually to Wall Street like when did you start actively trading? So I once I graduated college and you're right, they don't teach you anything about day trading swing trading like the active trading side. There is no course for at least from where I went to school I Don't know anybody else that's ever gone through a course like that in in college. For me in college, it was more the of the economics and understanding how markets work together, market dynamics and what the relationship between treasury yields and oil prices and technology stocks and P E ratios and like understanding all of those components, it was more like broader Market understandings.

and then I knew that. Okay in the world of Finance when you think about, well, okay, what's the career path that I want to to go down If you think Finance the best Avenues are hedge fund Investment Bank private Equity like that's that's the area that everybody wants to get into. It's where the most amount of money could be made and I went the hedge fund route and I applied to like 25 different hedge funds at a college I only heard back from a handful of them I can count on one hand how many actually responded to me and then I ended up getting hired at P3 Alpha Fund in New York City my first job right out of college as an equities Trader for them and that that is really where I learned the active side of trading because you really don't you really not taught in before? They actually let me even touch a dollar of their money I Had to go through their training program and they set up a class. It's like a classroom style setting and different Traders and analysts from The Firm would come in and they would teach you and they would teach you all of these different processes and and that's where I really learned how to become a Trader I was taught.

fortunately in the very beginning early on before I created any bad habits I was taught by other professions I'm so curious. So if they had to basically give you a whole second round of schooling but obviously with your Finance background, what were the interviews like because they know they're already having to re-teach you a whole new skill set so the interview more of a social one of like do we think you are teachable do we like hanging out with you? do we want to Mentor you or they ask actually asking you about like the FED p E ratios and that type of fundamental stuff. they didn't ask me anything about fundamentals, nothing like the the the interview was really more geared towards how does this person think because they want a certain type of thing like like they want the type of person that has a particular thought process and um a lot of it. Like they asked me a question they want to know like if I played poker and if I was like good at poker because a lot of when you're when you're when you're dealing with poker in order to be a good poker player, you have to have good risk management right? You got it.

You gotta have good risk management and you have to have an understanding of of probability right? Like That's what makes a good poker player a good poker player. And trading is a lot like that. Like trading is not predicting the future, right? Trading is about understanding probability of setup in the market and just putting yourself on the side of probability over and over again with good risk management and that's exactly what poker is. So they they talk to me a little bit about that um but then they asked me a lot of like brain teaser questions like there was.

there was one question I actually put it up on my Twitter um I I have to go go back and find the exact questions they're asked but it was. It was three different Three Men and they all have different color hats on or two guys have on a white hat, one guy has on a black hat and person number three can see person two and one and person number two can only see person one and person number one is staring at a brick wall right and they say they ask everybody call out the color of your hat, who answers the question and who gets it correct. Okay and so because I had to Yeah right. It's like a brain teaser type of question and I'm sitting there and I'm like thinking about the question I'm thinking I'm thinking inside to myself and I'm like oh man I don't want to get this answer wrong and the guy stops me right away and goes, think out loud he goes.

What means more to me is not whether or not you get this answer correct. What means more to me is how your brain tries to come to the conclusion and I I was able I went through it and I was actually able to get the answer correct right? I was able to get the answer correct and and the answer is the person in the middle and the reason why it's person number two in the middle because if someone says okay, everybody call out the color of your hat. if person number three does not answer, then that means he sees a black and a white hat. Yeah, that makes sense.

So and to connect that to Poker it's all about what information do you have in front of you and what can you extrapolate out reasonably and in that one obviously that person's deducing it. Poker. It makes sense that they have all these puzzles. So there you are.

They set you up to realize that your brain works in a certain way that I'm assuming they want to mold and then how long was their process like were you coming in a normal nine to five and it was just all day lecturing and teaching and live examples. Is that what your mouth was for about three months? Um, okay. so basically what they did was they hired like 20 or 25 people and then depending on how you did during the training, they would keep you or let you go. Oh, so it's kind of competitive.

Almost. Yes, Yes, it absolutely was. It was absolutely competitive. And then and just like I always tell Traders when you're first getting started.

they actually put me on a simulator like towards the end of the training program. I actually was trading Sim fake money. Real real-time data. but but fake money just to get go through flows and everything.

And it was. It was one hell of an experience and I fell in love instantly. That's awesome. So yeah, when you successfully passed that, so you did all the teaching, you did some accounts I'm sure.

Um, they made you get to a certain tranche with fake money to show that you were there. But obviously the emotions and real money is a little different. so it sounds like they're progressively, uh, like almost Stone stepping you closer to where they want you to be. So you get on the other side of all that.

What is the account size that they even start you with? Were you starting with like 25k? Were you starting with 2.5 million? Oh, you start with Millions Yeah, that the fun. The fun. The fun. had liquid assets of just under 500 million.

Okay, and then obviously there's margin on top of that, so you know, depending on you know. Yeah. So I'm just picturing like in your young 20s, you're now managing millions of dollars. So like I'm sure you had some amazing days where dopamine was flooding your brain because you're up huge percentages.

And obviously folks, if you're listening to this even Mike here Literally a professional Trader I'm sure you had some serious drawdowns too. Where you're like what's and that's the math of it. See, that's the tough thing and what. I don't like necessarily in the social media aspect of retail trading is people act as if there is a almost like a Holy Grail secret code to winning all the time.

and there isn't like I've read various books, listen to various podcasts this that the other thing some of the best. Traders they bounce between 40 and 60. like it's not only the percentage, but it's the size of your witness and the size of your losers. and I'm personally going through this and it sounds like something that you're a little closer to an ambassador.

Just keep your losers small and late. Your winners, ride and ride and ride. and that sounds so easy. everyone's like dude, why, of course we're doing that, Why we not But it's a completely different thing when you're in the game and you actually need to pull that off because no one wants to admit that they're wrong.

So on that note, tell us about the your journey of trading that big money and like now you're starting to sling like your winners, your losers. How'd that go? Were you crushing it right out of the gate? Are you a modern day Warren Buffett or was it a little bit different I I did have success pretty early. however, my risk management was horrendous. I was actually always the guy that so the senior Traders the senior PMS would actually have uh, one of their computer monitors would be their um like the risk parameters of all the Traders underneath them and they were responsible for making sure that nobody went outside their risk thresholds I was always pushing the envelope um and I never had a problem having big Winners like I was I was able to have big Winners but my losses were also very big and and my I was not like I was a much better Trader than what my actual P L performance was showing because my losses were so large and I would I would refuse to admit when I was wrong I kind of had this sense of the Market's wrong I'm right.

it's just you know the Market's going to realize this, you know in a couple of minutes or hours or days and and I got myself into into positions that I could not get out of without taking a massive hit. and um, it was one quote that my boss who was actually one of the partners of the fund A quote that he said that has stuck with me forever and it's something that really changed my entire trading career which is successful. Traders are more concerned with how much they're going to lose if they're wrong struggling Traders are more concerned with how much they're going to make if they're right and if all you think about is how much I'm going to make if I'm right, then those losing trades become very difficult for you to control and keep small. You can't control how much money that you're going to make on a trade right? If if if we go ahead and we get long, Tesla we don't know is Tesla gonna go up 10 bucks 20 bucks 50 bucks.

Like we don't really necessarily know how far the stock is going to go so we can't control how much we're going to make. But if we buy Tesla and it drops five bucks and we get out of the position, we know exactly how much we're going to lose. So focus on what you can control and being a good Trader Being a consistent profitable Trader is more about losing the right way than it is winning the right way. A lot of people don't really understand that everybody gets so you know fixated with these like huge wins and these huge trades people post on social media.

I've been there I've had the huge trades but I also have huge losses and if you want to really become successful the only way for you to make more money, don't worry about making more money when you're right, the easiest way to make money is lose less when you're wrong. And and that change in my trading is what really helped me turn the book. Man, it's interesting you bring that up. uh, a similar realization, but for me it came a completely different way.

At the end of the year I got my tax form and I noticed that yeah I said total net gains losses roughly Break Even But it gave me the gross profits and the gross losses and I think so many times it's pushed to make those gains bigger and bigger bigger and I thought to myself I was like if I just cut 10 of my losses, it's you're going to be a very profitable Trader All of a sudden, like change nothing of my winning trades. Let's just focus on keeping a little bit more control on the losses and then boom. Very profitable. So folks, if you're listening to this, the next time you're doing your tax forms, don't look at just the net difference, look at your gross profit, gross losses and think about it exactly what Mike's saying here of like well whoa if the if 90 of your focus is on just risk control I Honestly think your winners might just take care of themselves, but that's just my thoughts.

So with this awesome quote that I fully agree with, where did this all happen? Where you're kind of a gunslinger, we'll say big wins Big losses at one day What? you're getting a cup of coffee with your manager. He's like he said this to you and like the heavens opened above and it was like just that almost like church music of oh or like what happened I wish it was that that happy of a story. it's not. Um so one day I am I'm in a position and I news came out this is actually I'm Their situation was when uh Bishop was with Steve Jobs this is when Steve Jobs was still around and and there was a rumor that someone said that um that like I forgot the rumor he like he like fainted jogging and and in uh Central Park and this one like he was first getting sick and and it was like everyone the Market's panicked when when this news came out and apple just tanked, absolutely tanked.

um and I'm just like stuck in my position not knowing really what's happening right? because it happened so quickly I'm like what the hell is going on and then you hear this and you think oh my god did this guy just die like what's what's going on. Turns out it was a complete false report. If somebody just made it up, it was a complete lie. The markets reacted and then eventually the markets were covered.

but I got caught in that and I got so angry that I stood up from my tradestation and the way that the trading floor works. the fun you have like you know it's a like long long ways tables and you have all the Traders have all their stations set up and for me my my boss was really kind of mentoring me and taking me under his wing. so him and I sat face to face but we can't see each other so our screens are in the way. but our screens are back to back so we can communicate and you know I can communicate all with all the Traders around me.

So I stand up from my desk I grab my keyboard and I just snap it in half I I just I snapped it in half like space bar goes fly in letter Q semicolon. but so I snapped this position but now I'm still in the position and now I don't have a keyboard to execute my trade. So so now I'm sitting there I'm like oh joke's on me now I can't do anything so I scream to our Tech guy and this guy's name is Reuben like six foot five, three hundred pound dude, big teddy bear, nicest guy you'll ever be just a massive human being an ice cream I go Reuben I need a keyboard So then Reuben grabs a keyboard and there's 300 pound guy just running running down the trading floor. It's like hook up my keyboard for me and I get myself out of my position and and my boss just throughout this whole process doesn't say a word.

As soon as I'm finished and he sees that the position has been exited, he stands up over the over the computer monitors. He goes Mike Get off the floor um take me off the floor I Went I Sat in the Traders Lounge We had a little Traders lounge with like you know PlayStation and massage chair and like you know, ping pong and all that stuff. So I went I Sat in there for the remainder of the open remainder of the market hours. then he came in after the close and he didn't have to do this and this is why I Really do owe a lot to this guy and he came in, he sat down, he talked to me for about an hour hour and a half and really just made me realize that telling me that he's like you have so much potential but you are standing in the way of your success.

He's like if you do not get your emotions and your risk under control, you're going to fail So you have to decide how much does being successful mean to you? Is it mean enough? Does it mean enough to you for you to change? Does it mean enough to you for you to focus on the things that I am telling you you need to do in order to be successful? And and I mean I'm summarizing, but like that, that conversation and that's when he told me that quote of the successful Traders versus struggling Traders and that is really what got me moving in the right direction. it was. It was a gut check. It was a reality.

I was embarrassed in front of everybody, kicked off the floor, you know, and that's what it took though for me to make that switch. That's a awesome story. So I guess from there uh, it sounds like that was the start of you I guess being more consistent in the classic piano so being wildly up and down just more like those consistent games I'm sure even that's not like the next day I'm assuming you came in and all of a sudden it was great. So a grind, but it's more of a new framework for your own mindset.

so truly appreciate that. But from there, like were you at this hedge fund now for a couple more years, did you go to another hedge fund? What's the difference between that conversation and then you starting? TTG So after the 0809 situation, you had a lot of fun. About 50 of funds closed up shop and actually they became just like a prop trading firm after the 2008 and 2009 crash. Um, and I went around and thinking that okay, well I can maybe just find another job working at a fund like at a hedge fund And it was not as simple as I thought.

you know considering that 50 of all funds had kind of closed up shop or they or they restructured and reorganized kind of the way that they do business and the way that they operate and I went on I just started trading for myself like just trading on my own while I was like oh I'll just go and I'll apply for you know now I have experience like before I was just coming out of college I received one of the one of their uh, one of the firms Trader of the Year Awards so like I was like I have some stuff on my resume. my resume looks a lot better so I could go out and get on. the job was not the case you know I'm going for a job at a different hedge fund where somebody else that has seven eight ten years more experience than I did that was going for the same position, it just wasn't working out. Um so I just continued to just kind of trade on my own and then I ended up getting linked up with a couple of buddies of mine and we were, you know, starting some other businesses.

Um, but while I was still maintaining and trading on my own right, um I kind of came to the realization like after about a year and a half ish year and a half to two years following the Great Recession and the financial crisis that I was like man. I I Gotta just I have to start pushing in a different direction because it's just not. You know it's it's been a lot longer than I Thought it was going to be for me to just get a different job and it wasn't. It was not as easy as I'd anticipated.

A buddy of mine used to be an investment banker at a boutique firm in New York City and he lost his job going 0809 and same thing with him he was trying to find another job. couldn't do it. couldn't do it. Two years went by.

still nothing it was. It was pretty brutal back then for Wall Street Unless you knew somebody or you had you know, a stellar resume and experience and you were willing to take a pay cut just to get a job. Um, so it was pretty. It was a pretty crappy time during that that era.

I Don't know, You know if people were around in the markets back then it was I mean you had people committing suicide? It was bad. like once like bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers going under. it was a brutal brutal time period. Um, but then I you know, just kind of got into the entrepreneur realm and then I got Linked UP And partnered up with my partner.

Now in true, Trading Group Adam and we just saw a massive hole in this industry. Like you said before, like is really nowhere that teaches people any of these any of these skills or any of this knowledge and I said well you know I I have that experience I have that education and why don't we then create a product and a platform that actually gives retail a chance? Because you have a lot of these these programs out there that they don't actually teach people anything. They don't give them access to any like tools or anything that they actually need to help them become successful. So we just saw that there was a big hole there and that's how we created your training group.

We put all these tools for Traders like on one platform. myself and nine other professional. Traders we all you know trade together. people see our screens.

They can follow our trades if they want um, but while actually getting educated from a professional angle which is the same level of Education that I received when I was working at the fund in New York I like that essentially like Innovation out of necessity. So from the hedge fund to obviously like the lull like when the markets were bad to now with TTG is your trading roughly the same like between what you personally do now and then what we saw at the hedge fund like were both options or is it both equities? like? is your training wildly different or is it very similar and you just like exactly what you do or as the markets and the market regime change have you adapted your own? Trading I mean I've Definitely. So it's similar in the sense that I still am predominantly an equity Trader and I was an equities Trader when I was at the fund. Um I do not predominantly do options I'll do options here and there if I'm trading like the Spy or one of the indexes.

but I mostly trade equities. So in that sense, it's similar. But when you're looking at like the trading strategies and styles there, there are differences. Right when you're trading, you know completely different types of position sizes like that um I'm not getting into millions of dollars of of one position.

Um, you know for myself. In you know with retail and there's different. You know there are little tweaks and little adjustments that you make um in trading strategies and trading Styles and like time frames of holds and you know different like Hedges that you would put on with larger positions. So there are little differences when it comes to the strategies.

but um I trade equities like I used to. So with that, whether it once again, whether it's the hedge fund or TTG Uh, obviously you've been Trading long enough that you've seen crazy moves, crazy stories I Guess with that in your own trading, have do you have something that really sticks with you as like an amazing win. And there's something just insane about it or maybe uh, unfortunately a large loss that just taught you a big lesson I Know we talked about about what was going on with Apple, but more so of maybe it's a recent one or a lesson that a bit more recent whether positive or negative released to me in my trading. My biggest loss definitely.

Obviously that stands out to me. I'll never forget it. It was many, many years I don't even. Honestly I don't remember what year it was.

it was probably maybe 10 years ago maybe at this point and a position I was short a stock. They halted the stock news pending and I'm like oh no, this this is this good. Is this bad? Like what? What is the what's the situation here? The company was due out for earnings and it was. It was.

Baidu by the way and they were due out with earnings. Yeah! I'm pretty sure it's by you and they halted the stock. I'm stuck in my short position and apparently there was a leak on their earnings and they halted the stock, came out to release the earnings. Well, they were blowout, monster earnings and the stock reopened for trade with a huge gap up and I'm like beer and headlights, deer and headlights I Totally froze I Had no idea what to do I'm so far past what my intended stop loss in this position was going to be I was not anticipating this at all, never mind the halt.

but I wasn't expecting that type of a reaction to the earnings anyway. and I just got absolutely obliterated. Um, and the lesson that that taught me was and still to this day: I Do Not Trade earnings So I I do not get myself into positions going into earnings releases because the way that I look at it is I have no advantage over another. Trader If anything, I'm at a disadvantage because I'm not an analyst like I Don't sit there and dive into a company's Financial reports I Don't sit there and dive into.

you know, like the the statistics and details of their business and compare that to their competitors and the industry as a whole. like I'm not an analyst I'm not going to sit there and try to make a call. Yeah, do I have my opinions of course, but that does not give me an edge. That's more of a 50 50 coin flip because you can be right on the earnings, but maybe the company lowers their guidance and the stock goes down anyway.

even though they beat earnings, you know? So it's it's too much of a coin flip for me. If I wanted 50 50 odds, I'd go to Vegas And what I said in the beginning of this is trading is about probability. Finding the highest probability setups that you could put yourself in. 50 50 is not high probability, you know I want setups where I have 70 75 probability on something and those are trades that I attack.

So my lesson there was don't trade earnings I don't have an edge, let the earnings come out, digest the information, then place your trade and and that has done me far better over the course of the years than trying to guess. Oh let me go ahead and get long or buy calls or puts or whatever going into an earnings release and like swing for the fences with a YOLO trade. Um I've done far better, you know, waiting it out and and that's kind of my lesson there I'd say my biggest trades I said to to really stand out to me and they were. They were actually both a couple of years ago.

um you remember when tilray ipo'd and squeezed to like 300 or whatever it was. Yeah, I caught the damn near top of that thing short. Oh so it was. It was like 2008 2018 and it was.

The stock was squeezing like every day. the thing was just on a Monster Squeeze and finally there was one day it just it got like 300. it dropped and halted and it halted around like 285 or something like that. if I remember the price and I sat there and I said that's the crack, the momentum has cracked, it shifted.

it's the first downward halt. the Stock's been squeezing for weeks I'm like that's it all. The short position is squeezed out of this thing. There is now nobody left to cover their short position and there's nobody left that's gonna buy the stock here.

Everyone's going to be taking profit. This thing is toast. I shorted it immediately out of the Halt and the stock just dropped like 150 bucks over the next two to three days. Wow, that's awesome.

Yeah and that that was. that was one of my biggest trades. um that I've made. and then also there was another.

There was a small Cap Biotech that was one of my biggest wins, but it was. It wasn't like one trade I actually got in and outed it like three different times and it was like a huge short squeeze I think it was BPTH and then that was a couple years ago as well, but it went from like four or five bucks to like 25 or 26 bucks. but I like I caught it like three times so it was like I wrote it up, pulled back, reloaded, squeezed, pulled back, reloaded and squeezed again and I was actually in Vegas trading. Whatever.

I was actually in Vegas trading that stock I don't know if I was in my hotel room and it was, you know, early. it was early because it's three hours behind in Vegas and I actually I I Once I closed out that position, I went right to the casino and had some fun. That's awesome. So obviously in those two examples, you have no hesitation.

You'll be a bull or a bear like you. You're not necessarily like just playing. One Direction you're looking for either I guess over extensions or whatever. Um, so with that, when you're trading, obviously there's not going to be a general statement of this is how you always trade.

but most of the time are you in and out that day or you're holding for a couple days a couple weeks? Like is there a time frame where you're like okay, this is my sweet spot I'd say I'd say I'm predominantly a day trader right now where I'll be in a position for a few hours but I also swing trade I mean I I've been in trades where I I'm in for a couple of days or I'll end I'll be in for like one or two weeks. um when it comes to my active trading, but I would say that the majority of the like individual trades I'll make the majority of them are day trades. but I also do some trade now with that. Uh, a lot of the times I've been taught like there's two major methodologies.

You're either Trend following like something turning up and you think it'll continue or in your Tillery example, it seems like an extreme over extension and you're looking for the move to end. Now with that, do you like one more than the other? Is there like a thing that you're You're like oh, I'm always looking for something to be blown out on what Macd RSI Keltner Channel or is there like your go-to thing where you feel the most comfortable I Honestly think I'm a pretty neutral Trader Okay, because and and I think that that just stems from because the fun that I worked at we were a neutral long short Equity Fund So there's some hedge funds that have to only be long. like like you cannot get into short positions like based on like the Mandate of the fund like you have to be long. we were neutral long short.

so we can be long, we can be short. and I think that just learning through that has kind of kept me more balanced. and and that's why I I have a I have a better time being more consistent because you'll you'll have some traders that like killed it in 2021, right? Because it was just by the day. Yeah, But then they got killed in 2022 because they couldn't they couldn't make that shift to.

Well now you got to start shorting the rip like sell the rip now instead of buy the dip and a lot of Traders will really struggle when the market shifts like that. So they'll do really well during a bull market or really bad during the bear Market or vice versa. You have some people that are just bearish to the short side and they get run over in in Bull markets. Um, but I I think I My experience early has helped me keep like a a neutral like unbiased kind of stance and I really wouldn't say you know I would have to go back and look at like my trades but it doesn't stand out to me whether or not I predominantly Trend follow or Trend reverse.

Um, you know I've I've I definitely do both. So I really wouldn't say that it's one or the other. Appreciate you sharing that. uh, whether it's now with TTG recent experiences or maybe when you were in New York trading with the hedge fund, obviously you've had some success.

You brought up the fact that you got the award for Trader of the year one at one point. On top of that though, I'm sure you've had to meet a handful of multi-millionaire if not billionaire Traders when you compare those to maybe students or people in your like just average everyday life. Are they truly that different? or are like, are they like the David Goggins discipline carrying the logs, carrying the ships or is it? are they just super good at one thing? And other than that, they're normal people. Would you say they're narcissistic? Are they super nice and generous with their money? How would you characterize some of these people that in a trading perspective like really impressed you? Their normal pee pic I I haven't Yeah.

I mean I haven't really I haven't met like any of the like idiot savant like you know, super like Quant like all about the data, the numbers like they have no social skills but they're just all about they're just like a human computer I haven't really met anyone like that um yeah I really haven't met any. haven't met anyone like that I mean we had one guy I mean I guess he wasn't really a Trader but he was our our programmer um that was building out our black box or he was building on our trading algorithm. we call it a black box and uh Goldman Sachs actually stolen from us. um but I mean he was really kind of like a like a brain like not a lot of social skills but the other traders that that I've that I've met that have been that I would consider some of the like the best Traders I've ever met in my life.

normal dudes you know like let's go get a beer and watch the game like just normal you wouldn't you wouldn't know it. you know it's like you wouldn't know that I'm standing next to this guy and he's worth like 200 mil like you wouldn't you know he just got on like a polo shirt and you know some some jeans and his Rolex watch and we're watching the Yankee game like you know I really I think that what I will say the common trait amongst all successful traders that I've ever met is two things. no matter what their strategy is, no matter what their stuff because there's so many different styles, there's so many that don't don't ever let someone tell you that this is the only way for you to trade because there are so many different styles. and when I teach our members it's not.

Hey, it's my way or the highway it's like I'm gonna teach you the proper way to to do this and you can put your own little twist and spin on it based on your personality traits. and I I One of the things we do is we try to help people find their Trader identity which is like what strategy is going to be best for you because people have different personality traits and your personality traits will actually have a pretty big impact on what on on whether or not a trading strategy is going to be good for you or not. Like if you're someone that just really struggles with making quick decisions like if you're a very indecisive person, then you're probably not going to want to be that more active you know, day trading scalping type of person. You might want to look more towards a swing trading style because it takes you a much longer period of time to make a decision.

That's just a very basic example, but you kind of get where I'm going with that. But some of the trades that I see from successful Traders is they are confident and they are disciplined. and if you don't have either one of those traits, you're not going to be successful. You can't be You.

You can't lack confidence in your ability because when when you see something, when you see an opportunity in the market, you have to be able to pull the trigger and attack it. If you hesitate, you're going to struggle. You have to be confident in what you are doing. So that's one thing that I see is a common trade amongst all the successful Traders and then discipline.

like you can't let yourself just go until and you know do the stuff that I used to do right because that that's how your your performance will will Gravely suffer and that discipline and confidence is what I think is the reoccurring theme that I see from successful Traders Those are definitely some awesome words of wisdom I appreciate you sharing that and in fact, I think that's the perfect place to wrap this up folks if you enjoyed this. Obviously all the information from Mike where you can find them is Twitter his website. All that is in the description below. If you want to fire them off some questions I Personally know that they're very reachable, so if you want to follow up, learn a little bit more on this description of this video.

But Mike for you. thanks for all sharing your story, for your insights! I'm sure a lot of people listening to this got a lot of just taking this to obviously progress their trading to the next level. So for me and everyone listening, thanks for your time and hopefully we could do it again soon. Yeah man, my pleasure.

Thanks a lot for having me. Really enjoyed it. Look forward to talking again soon. All right, have a good one Bye Thanks man!.