I didn’t make money my first year of trading.
I didn’t make money my second year either…
My third year? Nope…
But in the first month of this year, I made just shy of $100,000.
In February? I made $91,000. And by my peak in May? I had made another $196,000.
It’s a crazy story…
You see, I didn’t just not make any money my first three years of trading. I lost money. In fact, I had moments where my entire account was down 50%, even as much as 67%.
That’s right. Two-thirds of my money lost to stupid decisions, arrogance, and thoughtless choices.
But something happened this year. Call it fate… An act of God… Or simply years of experience and pent-up aggression…
But right now, I’m at over $300,000 in profit this year.
Most of those gains were made in the first four months of the year. In fact, I’m down over $100,000 from my peak in May.
You might call me a failure… but I’m still up over three times more than I lost.
So why am I talking about this?
Fed Up
Believe it or not, it’s not to brag about my gains. It’s not to show myself off as a “guru.” And it’s not to proclaim myself as some sort of self-defined “expert.”
Instead, it’s to respond to an email we received just the other day from a rightfully disgruntled reader who is tired of us and everything we stand for.
I want to print the email here in full:
You want feedback, well I will give you some:
1. Mike Carr’s One Trade did so poorly from December 2020 to June 2021, that I lost a bundle. I then switched to Clint Lee’s Flashpoint Fortunes.
His recommendations are now sucking more cash out of my portfolio — just look at his current model.
2. In the meantime, what I invested in Chad Shoop’s Quick Hit Profits from June through August 2021 has pretty well vanished as well!
I am at a loss to keep hearing all about new services every week that are going to make me rich overnight. The accolades quoted are naturally extremely positive.
I know you are going to have some losses with investments, but this is ridiculous.
Why don’t you include some of the negative feedback in True Options Masters?
Man, I am getting fed up with the whole situation.
Tell me I am wrong.
— Roy
Roy has a right to be angry. He has participated in one of the worst losing streaks I’ve witnessed in nearly a decade.
The strategy he started trading had a phenomenal track record in 2020 — all the way up until the point where he reports the losing streak that started last October.
Worse, he tried two additional strategies and hasn’t seen luck there, either…
And to rub salt in the wound, he keeps seeing our company tout more and more new strategies that seem very rosy in their presentations, just like the ones he signed up for.
And you know what? I get it. I can’t blame you one bit for being mad, Roy.
Losing money is emotional, no two ways about it. It feels even worse when you lose money because of guidance you paid good money for.
The only words of encouragement I can offer is my story above. I’ve only been trading for four years actively and my gains have only come from a few short months in that period. They came all at once.
And almost everything I know about trading comes from Mike Carr and Chad Shoop, the two gentlemen who write in these pages. They’ve have had some ups and downs and rough patches this year, as you’ve seen.
But what you must understand about these two is their commitment to systems trading.
How to Make Money With Systems Trading
A system is, by nature, not always going to spit out gains. It’s going to have some cold streaks. But they outperform over time.
That’s why you should allocate capital to these systems conservatively and take every trade opportunity they create. If you pick and choose which trades to take, or over-allocate on positions you favor, that could potentially accelerate any bad results.
The unfortunate reality is, this is how most strategies work. Your best gains will come during a finite period of time. And they may only come after you’ve been down 67%.
But as I showed you, those gains can come seemingly out of nowhere… And they can be so good, they’ll erase the pain of any previous losses from your memory.
I’m a young man, and I was able to take my losses in stride and look at them as investments toward an expedited trading education. One of my favorite traders, Ian Dyer, says the only way you can get good at trading is by trading a bunch and stomaching your way through the losses.
I realize not everyone can be this way. Some of us are approaching the financial markets later than others. Others have been in the markets a long time but are still new to taking an active role in them. And others still are veterans who probably feel like they’re still figuring it out. You’re always learning, now matter how long you’ve been at it.
So, here’s my advice to you…
If you ever feel like you’re investing more than you can stomach to lose, dial back. Allocate less capital. Try other strategies.
Don’t give into emotional decision-making. Make deliberate choices. Figure out what kind of investor you are. And stay vigilant.
But above all, understand that working with trading systems is all about consistency and patience.
This line of thinking led me to great success in the market, and I know it can for anyone else willing to sit tight through choppy waters.
Ciao,
Chris Cimorelli
Chief Editor, True Options Masters
P.S. We don’t always receive bad feedback. Sometimes our feedback is very good. But we like to stay fair and balanced.
Here’s one from Mike C. (not our Mike C.), who said:
I’m a subscriber to Chad’s Quick Hit Profits and recently Pure Income and Paul ’s Rapid Profit Trader. I’ll be a Banyan Hill subscriber for life.
I love what all the great investors offer with their education, teaching, research, and investing strategies. It’s been an up and down year for me, a small-time investor using options for 1 1/2 years. My trading account was up to $54k and over 4 months I’m down to $14k.
A good many of your recommended trades have been really [good], some not so good. I’ve made a couple of good trades on my own and some really bad trades. I’m gonna stay in the market but I have to be really careful with the money I have left to regain what I lose. I appreciate everything you guys give and do.
Mike, thank you so much for the email. Your positivity and encouragement mean the world to us.
Hopefully the rest of my email above can serve as some kind of a response to you. Don’t give up. I’m down too, man. Year-to-date, I’m up, but I’m down from my peak, and I’m never satisfied until I break new highs!
And don’t worry — I’m going to personally ask Chad to cover the stock you asked for in next week’s Bank It or Tank It.
Chart of the Day:
Tech Is Still in an Uptrend,
but a Tight One
(Click here to view larger image.)
The constant refrains of “buy the dip” probably come off as bitingly arrogant to many people.
It feels like this bullheaded mantra that flagrantly suggests nothing could ever go wrong in the markets. Of course they can, and we’ve seen it happen plenty of times before.
Here’s the thing, though… People say “buy the dip” for good reason.
Markets DO tend to go up over time, and the times they don’t tend to be extreme, but brief. Trying to call the top of a market isn’t a strategy that works often, or for very many people.
The fact is, despite the volatility of late, stocks are still in a strong uptrend. And the chart above, of the SPDR Select Sector Technology ETF (XLK) on a weekly basis, provides strong evidence for this.
Take a look at the uptrend channel tech stocks have been in since last year. Just a year ago, XLK was closing in on $129 per share, and traders were euphoric. Then the index fell all the way back down to $110 per share, nearly a 15% correction.
With COVID still very much a threat, it looked like another doomsday scenario. But stocks found their bottom and have kept working higher since. If XLK fell to that previous euphoric high of $129 now, it would feel devastating.
The point I’m trying to make is, tech stocks are still in a major uptrend channel. The current price action has been tightening, and I personally feel that it’s building energy for another leg higher.
So until this channel breaks, you have to be a bull in this market. And yes, you should “buy the dip” whenever the opportunity arises. Mike Carr isn’t predicting S&P 11,000 by 2024 on a whim.
Take a deep breath, zoom out, and don’t lose the forest for the trees.
Best,
Mike Merson
Managing Editor, True Options Masters
