Dhesi Trades on learning from losses and his two-loss daily rule

0:00I want to start with the almost million-dollar payout. You don't make a million dollars in 25 days by getting lucky, right? I've had a lot of runs in the past where I know I'll be back there. I have the previous data to support my thesis. I I don't care about the strategy. The most important part of trading is most traders today have a goal of hitting that one big home run trade. Today's guest thinks that mindset is exactly what keeps most traders stuck.

0:18People underestimate what they can do in two to 3 years and overestimate what they can do in 1 to two months. People love to say, "Oh, I've been trading for 5 years and I haven't figured it out." I was like, "You've been gambling for 5 years. You haven't been trading for 5 years." A person who is struggling financially, trading is probably not the best way to go get into, right?

0:36Do it when you're Today's guest is Desi, an ICT style futures trader who documented his entire journey publicly. As part of that journey, he showed a run that made him almost a million dollars in just 25 days. One sign that I'm about to overtrade is when I question my entry and what I'm looking at when I'm trading normally. I never hesitate. I always have key areas of liquidity marked out. If those areas of liquidity get ran without me going in the market, that's it.

1:02I'm done. I'm not going to overstay my welcome. I'm not going to trade after the targets have already been hit because but to me, what stood out wasn't actually the numbers. It was the mental shift that he had to make in order to achieve it. In today's episode, you're going to find out why limiting your trades and not trying to find more setups is often the key to real consistency.

1:19I already think if you need someone to help you become accountable, you're kind of already on the wrong path of trading because I'm going to jump straight into it if you don't mind. No, go for it. And I want to start with the almost million-dollar payout, right? Because I think this is something that probably most people are going to pay a lot of attention to. Exactly. The question I want to hit you with is when you're on a run like that, such large numbers, such a short space of time, what do you feel like is your biggest enemy?

1:51Do you think it's the market or yourself? It's definitely myself. And what I know through my life of trading and through the experiences that I have is I need to rely on what happened in the past guide me to going further. So, if you guys know this, some people might not know, but in August, I was 10 days away from a $400,000 payout. Within four days, that entire payout built over 45 plus trading days was gone.

2:16I blew it. And that was a big hit because I was already kind of mentally celebrating. Oh, 400k payout. This is huge. This is big. And then, right when I was about to cross the finish line, I crashed really hard. Blew the entire account. I still took my payouts from it, but it was just a pretty much a disaster going into the end of August. And I knew I would be back.

2:36I didn't know how fast I'd be back. I don't know when I'd be back. And then in November, lightning struck, right? The market conditions were good. And as a trader, it's on you to capitalize on market conditions. It's never the market's fault whether you're losing or winning. It's your fault at the end of the day. When the market tips his hand, you must be able to capitalize on it. And while I was on my run, while I got back to that 300, $400,000 mark and I was like, "Okay, I'm doing it in a faster time because the marketing conditions are good.

3:04I'm able to build up quicker. Let me not make the same mistakes I did last time. Let me not already start celebrating something I don't have." I was already counting, okay, plus 300K in my bank account. It's going to look really nice. I was already counting all that. I was already thinking about the Lamborghinis, the Ferraris, every time I was like, "Look, there's a lot more work to be done."

3:23And I is people might think it's corny, but that like Kobe, the very, you know, famous Kobe when he's like when the guys asking me, "Are you up?" He's like, "What's there to be happy about? The job's not finished." And I had a similar mindset to that. I'm like, "There's nothing that I why should I be happy about this? There's nothing that's in my bank account from these accounts yet."

3:41Yeah, I'm trading great. The market conditions are great, but at the end of the day, I still need to cross that finish line. So, anytime I have like a really hot streak and really pushing it, I rely on the previous experiences that I had to guide me forward. And that's how I always say it's always on me, not the market. Right? The market's going to do what's going to do.

4:00So, to me, to not take that trade or take that trade or maybe size down a couple days, it just, you know, there's a lot of different factors. It's all on you, though. And then you can use your previous experiences to guide you forward. Yeah, I love that, man. There's there's a couple of things that you mentioned there that I really want to focus in on a little bit. The first one is the loss before the big runup.

4:19The loss, right, which actually you've spun off and it's become this very positive thing for you. Exactly. Now, the reason I want to dive into this is I know from firstirhand experience, I'm in a very fortunate place where I get to connect and speak with hundreds of traders. Exactly. And one of the things I think a lot of people struggle with is shrugging off those moments.

4:41They can have these big blowups, but instead of learning from them and coming back and doing better like you've been able to do, they're haunted by them and they get stuck in that same place. How did you manage to find that transition? How did you take the loss into a lesson and and turn it into something better in the future? You might not believe what I'm about to say, but as soon as I took that loss, I was mad for about a couple hours.

5:01And then I told myself, look, this is meant for a bigger purpose. I truly believe everything happens for a reason in trading, right? I throughout my entire career, I've had setbacks. But every time I've had a setback, as soon as it happens, the first thing I think of, what can I learn from this? Because you're going to have setbacks in trading. You're going to have setbacks in life. You're going to have set there's never always going to be a exponential chart, right?

5:25You're going to have pullbacks in your life on in trading, whatever the case may be. So for you to not be able to learn from your past experiences is almost a disservice to yourself in my eyes because what is that loss there for? If you're just going to continue blowing up after that loss, then it's like there's no point. I just thought about it.

5:46I paid my tuition. It was a very expensive tuition, but I paid for it. What can I learn from it? Because I know I will be back there. You don't make a million dollars in 25 days by getting lucky, right? I've had a lot of runs in the past where I know I'll be back there. I have the previous data to support my thesis.

6:00Okay, I will be back. I just don't know when. It might not be for a year, two years, three years, I don't know, but I will be back. And the losses ever since early in my journey in my trading career, the the earliest setbacks I've had in like in 2022, as soon as it happened, I told myself this is all going to happen for a reason.

6:18It's going to mold me into what trader I am next year and two years and three years, right? I've been trading since early 2021, but I still feel like there's so much more I need to learn about myself. the technical side of things isn't really that big of a focus to me, right? It's more about what can I learn about myself. And those losses reveal a lot of bad habits that I have, not only in trading, but outside of trading.

6:38I tell myself, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, and I don't do it sometimes, right? That's lying to yourself is the worst thing in in the world. So, if I'm doing that on the charts, it also kind of helps me shape my life outside the chart and see, okay, this is an issue that's occurring on the charts, maybe this is an issue that's expanding and coming from an outside source, right? And that's why I use those losses, whether it's in life, whether it's in trading, to not only better my trading, but also better my life on what I'm doing outside of trading.

7:00I love that, man. There's I think there's so many people that get stuck on the idea that to improve their performance in the markets, it's it's all about the chart work. It's the strategy, it's the entry, it's the exit. They focus in on something visual, right? But I think the hardest thing that most people miss is actually looking internally. And it's I think that's hard because you can't really point the finger at somebody else. You have to take a lot of ownership responsibility.

7:30And that's the second point of actually what you demonstrated at the start which I find quite admirable right which you just you own everything. You don't blame the market for anything. You say it was my job. I took responsibility for that. I took that trade. I decided to do X Y and Zed and that led me to that decision. Was that something that you always had in you or did you again get molded to to start thinking that way?

7:52That's something that I always believe in everything happens for a reason and I always believe in the actions that are currently happening is based off of the choices you make and that's something that my parents have taught me in my life as well. So I think growing up and listening to them say that going to trading it was natural, right?

8:11And in trading especially it's a lonely game. Like at the end of the day you can have people around you to help you but it's you and the charts. you're going to be the one clicking the bunnies. You're the ones who have got to pay your bills, right? So, when people are looking at something else to blame at the end of the day, it's yourself. And the hardest thing to admit as a human is you're wrong, right?

8:27It's very, very difficult. But it's something that it you just need to do in trading because if you don't and you start pointing the fingers and you don't understand that it's your discipline issue, it's a consistency issue, it's a you not waking up on time issue, being late issue, whatever the case may be, it's it's going to be all on you because like I said, no one's going to come to save you.

8:47No one's going to get a payout for you. No one's going to press the button for you. It's just a very lonely game and it's something that is very rewarding as well because it is stressful. You wake up every single day and you have to make the decisions. To me, that's beautiful. I don't have to wait

9:04for anyone else to decide anything for me. I'm making the I'm in control and I'm rewarded in this game because the infinite amount of money I can make, right? That's how trading is. But obviously, no one's going to make an infinite amount. But it is very, very special when you start understanding yourself and understanding how you're the one dictating everything that's going on in your life. The last thing I wanted to what I hated about rule probably get into that later is like I didn't want someone else dictating anything for me.

9:32So when I got into this game and I was understanding early when I was taking my losses that this is okay just fully reliant on myself that got me excited. That got me going. I was like, "Okay, this is exactly what I've been looking for for my whole life and now I'm ready to tackle it." Yeah. I I love that. There's there's a lot of people that get stuck with that mentality because I think I I mean at least from how I observe the the industry in general.

9:57The it's never been easier to become a trader. And I think that's a blessing and a curse for a lot of people, right? Blessing in the sense that it's opened up so many opportunities and I think we as human beings should be able to do whatever it is we want to do. but curse in the sense that actually I think there's probably not a lot of people that are cut out for this industry, but they will end up caught in this cycle of gambling, right?

10:18And it's it's a very easy trap to fall into. Is that something that you feel like you've ever suffered with? I didn't suffer in terms of the gambling, but I've seen so many people because when I first started, prop firms weren't as big as they are now. Now the entry level is so low. You can go buy an account for $20, $100, $200, right? Very reliable firms. they pay out, you know, just the big popular firms, everyone can use them.

10:44The issue is the mindset going into it. Yeah. Right. A lot of these guys and new guys are coming from sports betting and I I can go a whole tangent. I think sports betting is ruining kids my age like completely and they're using the sports betting mindset and like that casino mindset and going into trading. And at the end of the day, they're like, "Oh, it's only $20, $20, $20."

11:03You got to stop thinking about as a dollar. Not only are you losing money, you're losing time. Time is priceless. you can't get that back. You simply going to go buy evaluation, bullporting it, blowing it, doing it again, you're wasting precious time, right? And my I always say the entry, like you said, it's a blessing and a curse.

11:21There's a lot of information out there, a lot of good information, a lot of bad information. A lot of good prop firms, a lot of bad prop firms, too. And overall, I think it just depends on the person's mindset going into trading. You a lot of people think it's a hobby. They think it's a part-time job. This is something that you have to dedicate your entire few years at least to, right?

11:37Well, maybe once you get the hang of it, you could go into more of a swing trading where you can just chill out, you know, manage the up positions every couple months, whatever. But starting off, it's intense. It's like learning a new language. If you're going to learn a new language and you're trying to figure it out and it has financial risk to it, you're going to put all your time into it.

11:56You're not going to go in there and just do a bunch of [ __ ] and that's it, right? So I think it's the mindset of the person going into the prop space because when I joined the prop space I was already profitable trader. Okay. So I didn't think of it as a oh I'm going to gamble these accounts. It was more of a oh I can add leverage in my arsenal and that's what I do with profits right.

12:13I I do end up leveraging a little bit more than I do on my personal life accounts because I think the riskto-reward is pretty amazing on those. Trading education is completely broken. For years, the industry has been purged and poisoned by bad actors, fake results, and strategies hidden behind pay walls. But in every industry, every once in a while becomes a catalyst, a moment in time for change. Now, imagine a world where elite trading education was entirely free.

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14:02futures, stock, options, or crypto, Chart Academy has something for you. Join the weight list now and be part of a movement that is going to change trading education forever. you touched on a really important point that I think I want to focus on a little bit more which was the aspect of time and this is the part which I think actually not a lot of people spend enough energy on um thinking about what it means for them specifically and I want to try and give something valuable to those that are watching about maybe what's the best use of their time but I want to split this into maybe two different parts the first one is actually maybe finding your edge if there's a a layout or a blueprint that you would advise for someone to help them to find their edge.

14:40But then secondly, and I think the one I'm going to be more interested in is actually the psychological edge. Right? You've talked a lot about the mentality behind what it takes to succeed. What would that look like for somebody that's coming in from a completely different industry to develop the mindset to thrive in a probabilistic environment? Okay, so the first one in terms of finding your edge, right? Once again, we're live in an era where is so very accessible. You can go in on Trading View and open up a demo account.

15:12Right? That's the first thing I would do. If if you're learning and going into props, go on a demo account. Do not go straight into, you know, a evaluation. Go into a demo account. Try out different things. I'm an ICT trader and I know a lot of ICT trader love to bash on other strategies. Every strategy works and I'm a deep believer of this. It's about the person themselves, right? If you like ICT, watch ICT management.

15:38you like EMAs, go watch, watch it and apply it. That's the most important thing. Apply it to what you're doing in terms of demo trading. Once you get comfortable demo trading, and it might take you months and I I advise people to do it for months and months and months. This is where the time comes in, right? You're going to have to put in a lot of time, right?

15:56Even if it's a couple hours a day, that's perfectly fine. Just get your edge down and do it over a repeatable amount of time over two, three months. Then you go into evaluation accounts. It's a little bit more high pressure, a little bit more at stake. You're actually putting in real money in terms of buying the prop firm account. Go explore and see if edge works. See how you manage with different sizes, different instruments, different, you know, whether you're a NQ trader, ES trader, a gold tra, whatever, whatever.

16:17Experiment. This is the experimental phase, right? And this all is within the first six months, two to three months of demo. If it takes you three months, four months to pass a valuation, guess what? That's actually really good. within the first year of passing eval and then you go into a funded stage. It's a little bit more pressure. Now you're actually can extract money from the markets and it's not going to be a smooth ride. You might blow a couple evaluations and you might fine-tune a little bit of things and that's the beauty of it, right?

16:44You go in something doesn't work and you you see a pattern and this is why in journaling is so important because you see a pattern. If you if you stack up all my losses that I ever took in my life, it's going to be a couple things that are very very obvious on what's what I'm doing wrong.

17:02As soon as I kind of pull back from those and I eliminate those, the wins start occurring. And you're not gonna be perfect all the time. Those habits might creep up. Um, you know, it happens to me too. They creep up. I take a loss or I'm not patient enough or I'm not disciplined enough. I might take an extra trade. That happens. It's part of life. You're a trader, right? And then that's how I would build the technical aspect of it.

17:20Okay. So, the second part was more on the psychological edge. That's what I always like to call it, right? It's how do you get someone that's come from maybe a completely different industry? Cuz I I certainly find that most people are not naturally wired to think in probabilities. Y um what blueprint would you help lay out for someone to help them to start thinking like they need to be for a successful trader?

17:42Gotcha. The first thing I would tell them, you are not paid by time. You are paid by your decisions. That is the most important thing in trading. Someone could sit on their desk for 10 hours, 12 hours and not make any progress. If they're over here buying and selling randomly, then there is no 10 hours. People love to say, "Oh, I've been trading for 5 years and I haven't figured it out." Right? I I this was I remember this is a YouTube viewer who showed up on my stream.

18:08I personally DM'd him on Discord after and I told him, "What have you been doing in these five years?" He told me what he's been doing. I was like, "You've been gambling for 5 years. You haven't been trading for 5 years." whether someone who might spend one hour on the time on the charts but make correct decisions use the time wisely might be more profitable and quicker in profitability right y so you're not paid by the time you're paid by your decisions that's the number one thing and the thing of probabilities right is you basically when you find an edge right I run probably like a 65% win rate right I might lose 10 trades in a row it might happen it's it's a game of probabilities right the law of averages will always kick in if I'm winning 20 trades in I understand I'm about to lose a good amount in a row too, right?

18:52Can you be disciplined enough and tell yourself, okay, I need to see where this goes in a couple years. People underestimate what they can do in two to three years and overestimate what they can do in one to two months, right? Build your build the edge and let the edge play out over years.

19:12That's how you know this is meant for you. And in trading, you can you can probably attest to this. Couple years is nothing. Yeah, it goes by quick. Quarter one through four happens and another quarter one through and you're done, right? So, if you're coming into new to trading, the thing I talked about probabilities is you need to let it play out over 1,000 or 2,000 or 3,000, four, five, six thou 7,000 trades, right?

19:34When you're playing at and and I use this analogy a lot is if you're the house in blackjack or whatever, right? Blackjack's probably close to 5050. I think it's 5149. The house might lose five hands in a row, right? But they have an edge that over a thousand, 2,000, three, 4,000, 500,000 hands, they will come out on top. And that's the same mentality you have to apply to trading. And that will allow you to not tilt off a few trades. That

20:04will allow you to not overleverage, overtrade, and things like that. If you're confident that over a,000, 2,000 trades that you will come out on top. A lot of people don't believe in compounding gains because they never done it. Yeah. I I resonate with this a lot. There's so much of what you said there that I felt like you were speaking to my younger version of myself cuz I was that guy the first six years of my trading journey lost money and I had that same realization where you said well what have you been doing all this time and I wasn't journaling I wasn't collecting data you make all those silly mistakes because I think at the start I I don't know where I was lured into this idea but I always believed that I had to find certainty and the more you try and find certainty it's just it's a rabbit hole that never stops right you constantly digging.

20:44Um, so it's ide not a lot of people have prepared for and this is why I wanted to kind of break that question up into yes there's a technical aspect and it's massively important in terms of how you approach things but having the psychology to support it and actually make sure that it plays out in the way that you hope is also massive. Right? I think one thing that you you mentioned right at the very end, which is having that trust that your data, your edge is actually going to play out over a large sample size.

21:25I think that's something that a lot of people just generally lack, right? And I I always try and take this from a very a very static point of view, right? Static meaning I'm not I think I might have just made that up. A statistical point of view is probably the better way to put it, right? I always like to remind people from a statistical perspective, if you have a 50% hit rate, there's a good chance that over the next 500 trades, you're going to take somewhere between 8 to 10 losses in a row.

21:43Yep. And that's perfect execution. That's not missing any trades. That's showing up, doing everything right, not tilting. That's absolute perfection. You're still going to take eight to 10 losses in a row. So, when I speak to someone and they say, "Well, you know, I've taken five losses in a row. My strategy must be broken." I'm like, "You just don't understand statistics. you don't have the right expectations. So you've you've touched on this as well which is you want to start building that mindset that puts a lot of emphasis on probabilities over time.

22:16Are you a big fan of doing things like back testing and collecting data or is that a big that you do? I think if you don't have an edge at all I think back testing is a great tool to kind of gain an edge. The only critique I have of back testing is the market condition itself. If you take me back to a point in time in the market three years ago and I'm back testing it, I might be way worse than I am right now because I don't understand the market conditions.

22:41So for me, when I would prefer forward testing and live testing when you're trading a demo account, apply what you're learning, you know, from that demo or from whatever video you're watching, ICT, EMAs, whatever, apply it to real time. That is the number one way to learn in my opinion because I think back testing just lacks the what's happening in the market. Okay? Right? If someone goes and from five years from now they go back and trade the Trump terrorists, I guarantee you they'll take so many losses because a lot of trades look very good.

23:12A lot of you know might their setup might be presenting itself all the time, but it's just not working out. You need a live test because in that live testing is also going to build experience. Nothing ever will beat trader discretion, right? Some days you you probably know that this is a A+ setup. It looks so good, but you don't take it because you know the day it's not high probability and it's hard to explain to someone who hasn't felt it and that comes from that experience.

23:36Yeah. So I I would back testing is okay. I'm not a huge fan of it. Live testing is the way to go because you're actually going to see how the market plays out in real time, what the market conditions are looking like and just experiencing way more than you would if you just go back to a random point in time. Fair. And so if someone was to follow that path of going down the route of live testing, forward testing something, how much do you how much data do you need to gather to ensure that you've got enough to to give yourself a good chance of making this work in real time when there's money on the line?

24:08That's a great question and I I the easy answer for me would be like it depends on the person. But let's just say we're all on the same playing field. I would say if you get 500 trades under your belt, right, within I don't know how many months it would take you, and that's including back testing plus live testing, okay? Because you're not going to take 500 trades in three months, right? Unless you're like just overtrading, whatever.

24:32So, I think if you get a 500 trade sample, see what work and you need to journal. Journaling is so key because like I said, your wins will have a common factor and your losses will have a common factor. And noticing those two are huge and very important as you grow as a trader. A sample size of 500 I think is good because then you could, like I said, this is such a good thing for new traders.

24:53You can go into a prop firm that's not that expensive and put on a little bit more pressure, right? Light that fire under your butt just a little bit. And I think you apply what you learned from those 500 trades to the evaluation and then see see where it goes. If you blow it, you might go back to it's totally fine to go back to demo trading and fixing little things, right?

25:12I think 500 is good because at some point you do want to feel that pressure in terms of okay I have something at stake because that's how trading is right people could be the greatest demo traders but they can't do it on a live account or a valuation or funded account. So get to demo trading get like 500 trades under your belt with via live trading and or live testing and also back testing and then go into a evaluation.

25:37See how you just see how you do it. Don't set any pressure on yourself in terms of I have to pass this or I have to do that. Make sure you are good financially as well too. There's a lot of outside factors that can affect your trading. Whether you need to pay bills, whether you need to pay college tuition or whatever the case may be. If you're a person who is struggling financially, trading is probably not the best way to go get into, right?

25:56Do it when you're secure. Do it when you have other things going on. Don't quit

26:05your job. Don't drop out of school. Things of that nature as well. It go a long way. Okay, let's take a quick break here and I want to tell you about a prop firm that's actually trusted and proven to pay their traders. There's only one name you need to know about. It's Traderify. You see, Traderify Futures is one of the most trusted names in the industry. They've had consistent and stable operations over the last few years, and they've paid out over $125 million to traders.

26:24The best part about doing business with them is there's no hidden rules. There's no denied payouts. As long as you hit your objectives, you get paid. It's pretty simple. Now, here's what Tradeify gives you that actually matters as a trader. They've got flexible plans in place that you can get paid out daily. You've got the ability to pass evaluations in just a single day. And if you don't even want to mess around with evaluations, they've got instant funding plans as well.

26:48Honestly speaking, their dashboard is one of the best in the game. They've got an in-built journaling process that allows you to trade, track, and improve your results over time. That's how real consistency is built. Now, before we get back to the episode, I want to share a massive update. Tradeify Crypto has officially launched. This is going to give you better pricing for cryptofunded accounts and you're also trading with institutional liquidity from exchanges like Binance, OKX, and Bybit.

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27:34Links in the description below. I'm glad we're giving sensible advice here because I I think that there's a lot of people that will take this completely the opposite way. You should go all in. You should quit your job. And again, it's not that I don't believe in taking risk. It's that I think that there's a good logical way to do things because I've I've been that guy on both sides of things.

27:53And I understand the pressure that money has on you, especially when it's on the line. You don't have any, right? It's trading is like you said at the very beginning of today, which is like it's it's a performance sport. You're paid to make good decisions and if you don't have the right mental headsp space to be able to make those good decisions, it's it's always going to come back on you at some point in time. So, 100% great advice. Um, I think the the aspect that really stands out for me in what you said there is going back to the idea of again making sure you're in the right headsp space to be able to make those decisions going forward.

28:28And the one thing you specifically mentioned was making sure financially you're in a good place. Now, I think, and I see this a lot with the prop firm space, I see that there are a lot of traders that are relying on giveaways, um, some kind of handout in order to get their start. And look, don't get me wrong, I'm not against any of those things, and I think, you know, for some people, they need that help to get off the line.

28:47But it goes back to what you said, which is kind of like if you have that pressure behind you already, it's going to infinitely work against you. What would you say to the trader that is maybe not in the best financial space about how to get started going forward? I would say if you're serious about trading and you really want to get into it, but you just don't have the capital to do so, there's nothing wrong. I think this is such a bad moment for like kids my age because they see people with jobs and like, "Oh my god, he has a job.

29:15It's so bad." get a job. Right? When I started trading, I blew I ended up blowing up my brother's bank account. Put them in negative. Everyone probably everyone who knows me knows it went really bad when I first started. I got a job. I was working at a amusement park in my local city. I worked there for eight to nine months. I saved up to buy a PC and I saved up capital to trade.

29:42And unfortunately for me, I didn't have profits back then. So, straight options. But put a little bit of money on the side like you would do for like the gym or something of that nature, right? Put some if you're really serious about it as long as you're working a job and and you can learn while working too. You don't have the thing is it doesn't cost money to start learning. And that's so important that people realize don't realize is they think they needed $10,000 to get into trade.

30:08No, YouTube is free. Trading View, you have to pay like I think it's like $10 per month, right, to actually get the back testing and all that stuff. Look, the entry barrier is really low. So, while you're doing your job and or school or whatever the case may be, you can learn. And while that's happening, over three to six months of you demo trading and things of that nature, you can now have, let's say you saved a hundred bucks a month, you have 500, $600, $700 to your disposal.

30:34And that's when you can do one evaluation, right? Take your time with it. It should take you a couple weeks, at least a month, especially if you're just starting, right? If you're not overleveraging and things of that nature, it should take you a decent amount of time. And another thing is if you're buying the evaluation, don't fullport it because you're robbing yourself of the experience of trading.

30:49And that's what a lot of people do. That's why a lot of people go years without profitability in my opinion, especially now in the profit space, is they're robbing themselves of that experience of trading because they're going in there with the mindset, I want to pass in one day. I want to get my payout quick, quick, quick, and they fall. So

31:04take your time. You can learn while you're working a job. save some money on the side and then get into it when you're comfortable because there's never going to be a perfect moment of getting into it. But there there is going to be a moment where you are relieved of some financial burden. You might have some but you can make it work, right? So just putting some money to the side for those prop firm evaluation.

31:23Look, I always say and I want to talk to the camera direct like prop firms changed my life. They allowed me to reach heights that I never thought I would with a live account. I don't think I would be able to make a million dollars in a month or whatever the case may be. But the prop firms have seriously seriously changed my life. And I want people to understand you can do it.

31:41Save some money on the side. Learn while you're working a job or going to school and then in put some invest your time wisely into it. Like I'm very passionate about it and I hate when people go in and they just do whatever they want. They blow up and they're like trading is a scam. No, it works. I'm living proof that it works. The people who else are on the podcast, they're living proof of this.

31:59This works. And just make sure you're using your time wisely and putting yourself in a position where you're getting a full experience of it. I love the way you put it in how you said you're robbing yourself of the experience of it, right? By trying to rush the process in your early days by not doing the right things and treating your journey at the start in the way that you should.

32:20You're robbing yourself of that experience. And I I think it's the best way to look at it. You have to understand that for me at least I look at trading as kind of like the climbing the mountain that has no top. It's it's just a constant journey of evolution. I think at the start of my journey I was very fooled into thinking that at some point I would get to a certain stage where the markets would become easy.

32:37I would understand every move. I would never have emotions and I could just print money on demand. And that's that's the kind of expectation. I think it's still kind of purported that way by the social media gurus, which is why I like and respect a lot of what you guys do in that you're transparent in your journey. Do you ever find that bit hard in terms of the pressure that it adds to your own ability to trade knowing that you're kind of documenting it for a lot of people?

33:09I I don't necessarily see it as pressure. Um because at the end of the day, like everyone could say what they want to say, but it's just me. I got to take care of myself, right? And I actually enjoy it because for every hundred supporters is a couple haters, whatever, right? But seeing other people and what makes this is what makes me happy and people I this past weekend at the at the trading event. Someone asked me, "How do you feel that you're so successful at your age, right?"

33:34And I was like, "What do you mean?" They're like, "Oh, you made so much money." And I always I've always said this from the start. I never documented my success in terms of money of I documented in terms of how many people I've impacted. Right? So for me, posting my wins and losses, seeing those people, you know, take that and kind of get a realistic mindset of trading and learning from me, whether it's through YouTube videos or whatever the case may be, and going on their own and applying what I know psychologically to their own trading and winning.

34:03That to me is the best. And that's why I'll continue to do social media because I love doing that. And a lot of people when they do watch my streams and things of that nature, it's never really about, oh my god, look, that technical setup was so It's more like I appreciate your patience. I appreciate your process going into your trading. I appreciate that you're not going to take this trade just because you see this.

34:21There's no FOMOing things like that because I try to show the realistic side of trading in terms it's boring. It's boring. There could be times where I sit on live for two hours and I'm not doing anything. The market might be going 500 points to help me. Today was a great example. I don't know when this video will be out, but the market rallied almost one and a half%.

34:37I didn't I didn't do anything because my setup wasn't there. And I'm not going to go FOMO in or I'm not going to go press random button just because the market's running around me. I understand there'll be a next trade going be tomorrow, the next week, next month, whatever the case may be. And to me, that's why I I love doing the social media side of things because I just try to be as transparent as possible in terms of how trading actually is.

34:55And the my I have burnouts too in trading. And I think it's important for people to see that because you as a trader, you know, you go in there every single day, it gets mentally taxing and you need breaks. And just because you're profitable or whatever the case may be, that doesn't mean you don't need the breaks. You definitely need the breaks. And I think me showcasing little things like that is a reason why I I feel no pressure when it comes to social media because I'm just showing what I'm doing on a day-to-day basis.

35:20It's not like I'm showing you guys something that, oh, I I'm making a million dollars a day every single day. I'm not like lying about it or anything like that. There's no pressure. This is natural. This is what I do on a day-to-day basis. Win or lose, I'm going to show you guys. And there's that. Do you do you ever get people that kind of watch or look over your performance? And the part that I'm actually most interested in is the part where you talked about boredom, right?

35:48Where you talked about there's often periods of time where the market might be moving and you're not doing anything. Do you ever get people that question that and say like, "Well, you know, this is moving. Why aren't you trading?" No. 100%. All the time they're like, "Oh, I caught this one minute gap down here." a fair value gap or this

36:03order block and and how do you not see how obvious it was or like when I'm bearish and the market goes it rips up everyone in the chat's like, "Oh, it was the easiest read of all time." I'm like, "Look, I always say this guys, you guys, I'm glad you guys caught the trade. I'm glad you guys are profitable or in that trade." But for me, you guys aren't going to click the button for me. You guys aren't paying my bills.

36:23I'm paying my own bills. I'm going to make my own decisions. The data that I have from trading isn't based off of you guys. It's based off of me. M and you got to kind of be selfish about that. Like it's a me me thing because at the end of the day, like I mentioned earlier, you're the one pressing the button. You're the one who's paying your own bills.

36:39You're you're no one's going to come save you. I'm going to come save myself. Yeah. And and I understand and I there's some people who give me insights in terms of, oh, maybe check this out a little bit and look, I'll take your advice. I'll look at it and if I like it, I'll apply it to my system. I haven't tweaked my system in years at this point, so I don't really look at it no more, but back in the day, that's how it was.

36:55So for me it's like look I appreciate everyone's comments and I'm glad they're everyone could look at it differently. If you take a group of because a lot of people in my chat are ICT traders. You take 20 ICT traders. ICT is a big umbrella. All 20 of those guys might trade IC they're going to be ICT traders but all trade differently. Yeah. Someone might trade a 15-minute power three. Someone might trade only 10 a.m. reversals or whatever the case may be.

37:20So just because I'm not able to catch a trade just because you did that that to me didn't never has done anything to me because we're all different in our own ways. We all have our little tweaks on trading and I don't think anyone has the same strategy. They might trade the same strategy but they might tweak a few things. I don't think anyone is going to go enter and exit at the exact same time exit.

37:39This is a A+ setter for me. This is the A+ set for me too because I have a couple friends who trade just like me, right? But we have little tweaks that make our trading unique to anyone else's. Yeah. And I think those tweaks are important though. I think the goal should never be to trade like somebody else. Yeah, you have to find the thing that works for you and I think that's something that a lot of people tend to miss and I'm I'm glad you re kind of reiterated that today.

37:57Um there is one more aspect again kind of what we were discussing here a little bit that I think needs a little bit more clarity at least from my side going back to the idea of boredom. I always refer to boredom as the silent performance killer because it's the thing that I find not a lot of people expect as part of the game. They think of it as just going to be high stakes, constantly doing something.

38:22Um, and therefore it trips them up in the easiest way because they don't have a plan of what to do for boredom. So my question for you is what's your plan for boredom and how did you get better at dealing with it? So for me it was I got bored right when I first became profitable and I was like wait this is this is like I'm making good money but like there's like no excitement to it. It's just straight monotone nothing going on. And then I try to spice it up.

38:49Let me size up. Let me get my heart going a little bit. Let me take another trade. And what that led what I learned from that is boredom is good because I'm doing what I need to do. When I'm not bored and I'm feeling it, I'm doing something incorrect. And it it was just a simple mind [ __ ] mind uh set change in terms of if I'm bored it's good. That means I'm profitable. That's I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.

39:11Anything that gets your heart racing in trading, anything gets you jittery, you're either oversized, you're taking too many trades, or you know it's not a good trading setup and you take it. And I associated that with losing. So if I'm not bored, I associated with losing. And I still that resonates with me today because if my heart rate is racing that means I'm oversized or I'm taking too many trades or because I h I have this VO on.

39:34There's not even a sponsor or anything but I had this on and I got it cuz my I like to check my heartbeat during the sessions. Right. Interesting. And it stays very consistent. It stays very consistent and I wish I had this on when I was like trading in the past. I could see how much my heart would actually, you know, start racing in terms of when I sized up and things like that.

39:54So, and and this is a good indication of just you doing what you got to do. Boredom is good and people just starting associating boredom with being good. And look, if you don't like the market for the few first few hours of the day or you don't think it's going to be a good day, just leave.

40:08Just get off the charts. You don't have to sit there for eight hours and not take a trade. You can sit there for 30 minutes and not take a trade, right? But it's the exact same thing. And that's going to come with experience and you being comfortable with the market doing things without you. And unfortunately, it's usually a painful experience getting there. Uh, it doesn't have to be, though.

40:25And if people understand early that this is going to be a boring game, this is not going to be very exciting in terms of you slam me to death like you see on Wolf of Wall Street or any of those movies, that's just not how it is. It's very calm, relaxed, you know, it's just you, the market, and it's a steady pace. I I think it's all a game of perspective though because I I've always seen it as or at least I had it beat into me from a lot of pain which is your job is not to capture every move in the market.

40:51It's to capture every move that aligns with your plan 100%. And I think that's what a lot of people again they tend to get wrong. They look at the market moving and they instantly think I should be in. introduce FOMO, introduce revenge trading, introduce over, you know, anything else that gets them into the market and before they know it, they're looking

41:08back on the day and they're like, "What have I done?" Exactly. It's it's just a mess. Yeah. And I think for that, you this is why data is so important, right? For me, a lot of my losses came from FOMOing like you mentioned and and things of that nature. So, when I I looked at my data and I'm looking at it, I'm like, I need to be my goal is always being 1% better each day, right? And for me, I don't ever associate my green or red on the day with P&L.

41:27As long as I followed my plan, I'm fine. Right? If I FOMO and I make $10,000, it's bad. It's not it's not a good trading day because I know that's not consistent. I need to find something that I can do consistently. And for people who FOMO, it's usually a lack of data. That's what it comes down to. You know, as a trader, you have the days where you know what works for you. And I don't think FOMO is part of those days, right?

41:53So if people have that data to back them up and a lot of people when they lack data they lack the confidence of being able to miss a move because they think this is it nothing it's not going to happen again. I look back okay I think a great day was um Trump's tariff he he put it back and the market went 13%. NQ went 13% in a single day and I watched the whole thing on live stream.

42:17It just kept going another 100 points. 100. And I'm like, wow. I was starting to get, well, I think I need to get in. And I was like, relax. Just just calm down and relax. Because I have a data set over thousands of trades. And I understand when I FOMO, it doesn't go well. Yeah. And like I said, it comes from experience. It comes from you having that trust in yourself because of your past experiences.

42:38You have to lean on your past experiences because those happen for a reason. You have to be able to learn from them and move forward and understand that look, I just need to capture what resonates with my system and anything else is pure noise. Yeah, I I think Tony Robbins has got a great quote, obviously not trading related, but I apply it much in the same way where he talks about this idea that when you can learn to make the worst day of your life the best day of your life, your whole world will change.

42:58And I I choose to see the same in trading, right? It's it's so easy. And we go right back to where we started our conversation today talking about you had this big blowup period before you did the million or close to a million dollars in 25 days, right? You looked at that initial thing and somebody can look at that and be completely deflated about it. But with the right mindset, the right perspective, you figure out what you learned from that and take it into the following day.

43:26Actually, it becomes data that guides you on the path of eventually where you need to be. 100%. And it's very hard to have that mind mind. It's not it's way easier said than done, right? Um but this is why when people come into trading, they just have to have different expectations and and that this is the raw reality of trading. You're going to take huge losses. No matter how perfect you think you are, no matter how much, you know, control you think you have over yourself.

43:53Look, I myself I think I'm a great disciplined trader, right? And I had a blowup, right? So, you just need to have that in the back of your mind like it's possible and if it does happen, you can't beat yourself up over it too much because we're human. We're not robots. We emotions get out of hand and it's about learning from it. There's only wins and lessons. That's it. You only truly lose when you stop learning from those experiences that put you in a bad mood, put you in a sad mood, and and things of that nature.

44:21So, as long as you're learning, you're still winning. What what were some of your biggest like bad habits that you had and what was your process of like overcoming those? Because I I get the impression from how we're conversating that you're very much into psychology. Yes. And 100% the most important part of trading is psychology.

44:42I I don't care about the strategy. I don't care what it's all about the mindset. Well, see this is music to my ears because I I mean outside of what we do here, I work as a performance coach and I work largely on psychology and I agree with you. I think the mind has a huge role in how successful we become not just in trading but I think in every aspect of life and I again that comes across in in how you speak about trading in how you speak about life the ownership that you take the accountability all of that it all comes across so do you feel like you've learned a methodology to get someone from hey I'm feeling FOMO or I can't stop revenge trading or I'm always going till after I take a loss how do you get them to come past that I feel like I'm I'm going to say it again is about data.

45:24You need the data to trust yourself because when you know something's going to happen, why would you change away from it? I know in my next thousand trades, I'm going to be profitable. If not, in my next 2,000 trades, I will be if not next my three. So, for me, I should not be able to why would I change my system when I know the outcome? Having data is such a cheat code because it's like you almost know the endgame. You can see the endgame there.

45:50You just need to be able to get there and it's day by day. Take it slow. whatever you got to do and and it's so and I wish I could just package a psych psychology you know

46:01into someone's mind and but oh there you go and unfortunately some people learn in different ways and or fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it some people learn in different ways some people need to eat a lot of [ __ ] to understand some people could learn from my mistakes and be like oh you know what let me avoid what he did and some people just can't figure it out overall right there's a lot of people out there who just don't have the self control and and selfacountability accountability is huge.

46:17Um, and that's fine. That means the trading is not for you, which is totally fine, too. They might be great, fantastic at something else where I might suck at, right? But in in this case with trading, once I started believing in my system by going and doing it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, that's when I realized I was like, "This is it." Like, all I need to do is follow this simple blueprint.

46:49Yeah. And it it's hard because it's like you're walking down the path and there's so many distractions on the side and you're like, "Oh, let's say you're going down the middle of a road, right? And it has like, oh, turn right here for like a gift or whatever." And that gift's like FOMO. You just got to keep your tunnel vision and go straight ahead without any distractions. And like I said, with that data you have, you will see the end goal before you even get there.

47:07And to me, going for that end goal, and that end goal might keep moving. As you grow as a trader, you what I would think is my end goal is when I first started trading would be right now. But now I'm here. I'm like I want this, this, and this. And it's not about greed. It's about passion. Yeah. Is two big different thing.

47:27Some people want more out of greed. Some people more out of passion and trying to push themselves to see where they can get. And like I said, it with the psychology thing, it's all about data and having something you could trust in and rely on u when things don't go right. I I want to couple this up with something else because I I really agree with what you're saying here about the importance of data.

47:46Something I often preach myself, something I'm keen on collecting over time. But the only thing I find where people will get strayed away from acting on what their data says is because they haven't managed risk correctly. So talk to me about your mindset around how you manage risk. Do you have a specific protocol in how much you risk per trade, per day, per week? What does that look like for you? So I I do have a protocol in terms of how much I risk on a daily basis and it's usually not about the money.

48:14It's about how my trades ended up. If I took one win in the morning and let's say if it's a it's a if it's a really good probability high probability day, I don't put a limit on how many trades I take. I put a limit on how many losses I can take.

48:29If I win a trade in the morning and I win and I lose a trade, I can go back in the PM session with the same risk and take one more trade regardless of the outcome. I'll be done there. especially two losses I've done. There is rare occasions where I'll take more than three trades. If it's very, very high probability, my setup's presenting itself and I know what's happening in the market.

48:47I'm in tune with it. As soon as I lose those two trades in a row, I'm done. I remember in my stream, I took two trades within the first 15 minutes of open. I took a loss, I open, I thought was a really good high probability setup. I took a loss 15 minutes later and I told the tra I'm done. And guess what? the third trade that I wanted to take and I was looking at it.

49:08Perfect A+ setup. No draw down and it went and chat's like, "Oh, look. Why don't you take that one? I have to follow my system." Even if I stray away and take a win on the third trade, what if I didn't, right? And now I'm losing more than I'm willing to lose in a single day. And in terms of let's just say prop firms of that nature, I trade them a little bit more aggressively.

49:24But you need to build that buffer. Okay? Right? in what the rule that I have with two losses it will really save you because you don't have that much draw down on those accounts depending on how much size you're doing right so saving yourself after two losses is very important to me and that's something that has been with me since I started trading that or I would say since I became profitable okay because before I was profitability I was I was all over the place but once I started becoming profitable that is a rule that I have never ever tweaked in my life and I don't think I ever will two losses and I'm done for day trading that's it and usually in terms I I have a dollar value usually in the back of my mind of how much I'm willing to risk per month.

50:02Um because look, 65% win rate that I have, like you said, losing five, six, seven trades in a row is is common. And I I tell people it's going to happen in my career. It happens multiple times per year. It just happens, right? So, I usually try to keep a cap on um my basically a monthly stop-loss on my live accounts and things of that nature.

50:23Um, luckily I don't have to really I I never hit it, but um, but I do have that mental cap there just in case because like I said, we're human and we might take more losses than we're accustomed to. Look, my my it's a lot of averages. So, in my data that I collected through these years of trading, there's been times where I took 10 to 15 losses in a row, right?

50:41And I understand that can happen, but capping that off with a is a hard stop-loss in terms of how much I'm willing to risk per month. That kind of caps it all off. Um, in terms of day trading, two losses, I'm done. If I win one and I win the second one, I could still go for the third win. If the day is high probability, um, but if I win one, lose one, and then I win the third one, then calling it a day.

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51:31By using Trade Zilla, you'll not only understand all of your trading data, but you'll get feedback on exactly what's working and what isn't. Use code PFT for 20% off the yearly subscription, or PFT10 for 10% off the monthly. try it out and watch your trading transform. I I think the scenario that you talked about there where you've taken two losses, you've hit that max loss per day, and then obviously as

52:00the market does, it's going to present that third opportunity. It's going to be the clean one, zero draw down, straight to target. It's always going to be the case. And I think that's what eats away at most people. And I I always like to frame it from two angles here. The first one, and the one that we started off talking about here, is actually your financial draw down, right?

52:18It's the draw down that you're taking in your account. Yeah. But the two trade limit, it actually protects you from mental draw down. And I think that's the part that most people miss. They don't understand that after two losing trades or again that number is going to be different for some other people, but after a few losing trades, you're on mental draw down. And even if the perfect opportunity does present, if you don't have the right mindset to capitalize on it, it becomes meaningless anyway.

52:36And it just becomes this spiral that you beat yourself up over. It was such a clean trade. Why couldn't I do all the right things? And it just leads down this rabbit hole. Exactly. Because psychology to me is so important. And to me, not making my mind tired is just as important. Y right. The I can't function. You can't function without your brain. If you're just drowsy all day and you've been on the charts all day, you've been taking so many trades.

53:03Cuz there's been days where I've took so many trades cuz like I said, we're not perfect. It happens. And at the end of the day, I'm like, "Fuck the money. How do I feel?" And I didn't want to do anything for the rest of the day. I'm completely done. like I'm I'm completely zoned out. I have no idea what just happened. I can't even remember what I just did two hours ago.

53:21And that to me is huge because your mind is your best friend. It is a superpower. And that superpower needs to be supercharged with the correct amount of sleep, what you eat, and what you use it on because and that goes with a lot of things. Whether you're doom scrolling on social media, which I struggle with still too that I'm not perfect.

53:38um whether you're t you know taking a bunch of you know trades per day because taking a lot of trades I mean I'm sure you've done it before is so mentally taxing 100% and it makes you burn out way quicker than you anticipate um and then you might miss a few days where you should have capitalized on so I I just think keeping your mind fresh is something that I prioritize in trading I prioritize myself over the money 10 out of 10en times I'm not feeling it I'm not feeling I'm not going to do it if I if I'm comfortable and confident in what I'm doing, then I'm going to keep pushing.

54:05But as soon as I start feeling my my myself kind of winding down, shutting off, I'm like, "All right, it's done. It's time to go." And is it is it purely a mental thing? So, when you're doing that kind of emotional or or thought-based check-in, is it you just asking the question in your mind or is this something that you have built into journals?

54:30Like, what's that process like? It's usually just I I tried this is like I I just do a check-in with myself like I just think about it like usually after my streams because I I do stream for two hours. So, you know, the streaming side, reading chat, and I'm like, "Okay, how do I feel? Do I do I want to continue for today or do I not want to continue for today?" And most times, you know, I I do because I I feel like I prepare well.

54:46And some of the preparation, like I said, includes like proper sleep, proper nutrition, things of that nature. Um, trying to be active. That's something I'm working on more this year as well. And I think little things like that really do help. But there's some days where I'm just like, "Dude, I don't want to do this at all." Right? And I just I completely talk to my I talk to myself. I'm like, "Do I want to do this?

55:08If I don't, I I just don't do it. And it's something that a lot of people, it comes back with FOMO because a lot of people force themselves to do something they don't want to because they feel like they don't want don't have the opportunity again, right? The opportunity is always going to be there.

55:22Yeah. Listen to yourself, listen to your body, and see how you're feeling. And I I And this I feel like you can apply this to anything in life. It's not just for trading because like you said, you're a performance coach, so you've talked about this probably to thousands of people in different uh careers, right? different types of jobs in different fields and you could all apply to the same thing and yeah trading is is all about the mind 100%.

55:41I I think for a lot of people at the beginning they they never get that part. Right? I I try and explain to most people that and again I put this in a little bit of a layman way but I say you could teach a monkey to trade, right? Drawing lines and boxes on a chart that's not difficult. Sticking with your plan when everything inside of you doesn't want to, that's where it gets hard.

56:03And the problem with trading is there's never that disconnection between you do the right things and you're going to get paid for it or you do the wrong things and you're going to get punished for it. Right? It's the days where, like you said, where you kind of stray away from your rules and you get rewarded monetarily and that starts a cycle of like all your bad behavior indefinitely going forward.

56:21Yeah. It's like almost winning at the casino, right? It's like the worst thing you could do is hit a jackpot on your first trip at the casino because now you think this is how it's going to be and it starts building bad habits. You keep coming back and coming back and you overstay your welcome. People love to overstay their welcome in the in in the market whether I'm an ICT trader, right?

56:40So I always have, you know, key areas of liquidity marked out. If those areas of liquidity get ran without me going in the market, that's it. I'm done. I'm not going to overstay my welcome. I'm not going to trade after the targets have already been hit. And that's where a lot of people mess up, too. If they just eliminate, if you take what I'm saying in this whole podcast and you take you break it up into segments, if people start cleaning that up, their trading would be 10 times better by the end of the year.

57:02And like I said, notice how I said by the end of the year, not in one day, not in one week, not end of the year, right? Yeah. Try to be one, two, three, four% better than you were before. Right. And and that's is so important to me. And like I said, you could treat you could teach a monkey how to trade. And it's it's it's really I've known people who barely got into the market and were profitable within like five months, right?

57:29They're like, "Yeah, we do a super small size. We we very comfortable with what we're doing and we're we learn and that's it." And there's some people on the complete opposite spectrum, but it just like I said, it comes down to the person and what they're doing and they're using their time wisely. Someone who's been studying the charts for five months might be ahead than someone putting in three years because of what they're actually doing when they're actually trading and looking at the market.

57:47And and there's so many different factors and nothing's black and white, right? All of us, we all have our little things that we do, our little, you know, tweaks, whether whatever before a workout, someone might, you know, do something that they need to get themselves going or whatever the case may be. But everyone has their little twist to their trading, twist to their life and apply it. Don't shy away from it.

58:16That's if I like something a certain way, I'm going to get it a certain way. Yeah. And and I think that's very important because you don't want to be doing something you don't like. 100%. And I mean, that's what trading is about, right? It's about doing something that it's either you're going to enjoy that in and of itself or it should give you the freedom to enjoy something else.

58:34Exactly. That you want to pursue. And the freedom is the biggest thing, right? Yeah. Um because you're going to burn out in trading and you need to take your breaks, but at the end it's so rewarding because it's freedom at the end of the day, right? I was able to drop out of school because of trading. And I know I told people don't drop out. I still don't drop out. I it was not a good decision looking back on it, but in terms of like where I was at that time, but now obviously I'm thankful everything happened there.

58:53There was um there's one part that we touched on a little bit earlier that I kind of want to cycle back to and I actually put a lot of emphasis on this in everything that I do and I think it's a part of our day and age that a lot of people don't take or don't make use of is maybe the right way to put it and we touched on it in terms of accountability.

59:14Now, I know you do a lot of that in how you document and and you're transparent with your process. Do you think more people would be better traders if everyone could see what was going on behind the scenes? I think they would cuz I always joke around, right, when like when I'm not trading with my with my team and things of that nature, I'm like, imagine I'm standing behind you, right?

59:40Would you would you take that trade? And everyone's like, no, I wouldn't. I I wouldn't take and why are you doing it? Yeah. And unfortunately, a lot of people aren't out in public like that. But if I promise you if they were and they had someone to keep them accountable, they would do much better. And unfortunately, I already think if you need someone to help you become accountable, you're kind of already on the wrong path of trading because it's a game where you're accountable for yourself, right?

59:58Um, but I do tell my people, imagine someone's watching you. Imagine someone's right there and see how you wouldn't do that if I was watching you. You wouldn't do that if ICT was behind you, you know, and why were you doing it then, right? And it's I think it's kind of like a scolding a little bit. It's just like don't do those silly mistakes. And some people really take that into account and they start noting, okay, like I feel like I'm overtrading. What would my mentor say?

1:00:29Or what would someone who I look up to say? And they wouldn't most likely say no if the trade's bad or whatever the case may be. Or if they're overtrading. Um, and there's opposite too. People are like, "Oh, look, I took this trade. I would have taken this if you were there." But I was like, "Did it match with your setup? that it match with everything, then that's good.

1:00:48You took the trade that I I applaud you that you took the trade. Like, you need to celebrate the trades you took that you follow your system and even though you lost, that's still a win. People need to understand that's still a win because when you get that trade under your belt, the next trade, the next trade, the data, the data is going to be like the win's coming. The win's coming, right?

1:01:05So, if if you're losing and and you're following your system, I applaud you, right? It's just those other people who need that extra accountability, which I think I think, hey, go ahead and live stream. No one's stopping anyone from live streaming. People will tune in to watch, right? And if you that's what helps you stay accountable. That's good because for me, when I live trade, it keeps me accountable, too, because I understand that people are here to watch, to learn, and I need to be the best version of myself so they can also learn as well.

1:01:33Yeah. and it keeps me more accountable and it keeps everyone else more accountable and it's I think it's a great thing to kind of put it out there uh with random people too. I always try to say keep it keep it away from the people close to you because um especially if you're not profitable people might you know mentally bring you down by saying it's not worth it or it's dangerous, it's not safe.

1:01:52Uh but yeah, the trading space in general on Twitter, Instagram, like there's a lot of good people out there and there's a lot of good people who like to collaborate in groups and they trade in front of each other and things of that nature. I think if you're doing it the right way, it's a great tool to actually become uh someone who follows their plan day in and day out. Do you do you generally recommend like most people not talk to friends and family about what they're doing in the markets?

1:02:12It depends who you're talking to because I know a lot of people who they told their parents and their parents were very no this is not going to work out. Look, I'm the first person who traded in my family. So when I told my parents, their Punjabi parents, their Indian household, you know, they're like no, I I think you should go cuz they already had the whole, you know, he's going to go to college and get a degree, he's going to work a good job, whatever, whatever.

1:02:37So when I started straying away from that, they were like, "Oh, no, this is, you know, it's not consistent. It's not this, this, not that." Um, so it depends who you tell. because I also had my brother and my cousin and they were telling me the complete opposite. They're like, "No, do it. Do it. See what happens." Right? And they were a big push in my um career to kind of go to where I am now.

1:02:57And also, it is good to talk to people who you trust and fully don't judge you.

1:03:03Like I love talking to my girlfriend after the day and and talking recapping of what happened, whether it's a bad day, whether it's a good day. You can have deeper conversations with a loved one than you would have it with someone random, right? But you got to be you just got to be mindful the person you're talking to isn't someone who's going to bring you down unintentionally. Yeah. My parents didn't do it intentionally.

1:03:20They're just afraid. Like I I totally understand. My kid who was 17 dropped out of college because he wanted to do day training. I like what the [ __ ] are you doing? Especially if you don't know what it is. It's not like they're coming from a bad site, but it could negatively affect your psychology in terms of putting applying more pressure on you. Um, so talking to someone who understands the game versus someone who is like a parent figure, I think that's that's the better route to go because if someone doesn't understand something, they tend to be afraid of it and they might put that fear on to you.

1:03:46Whether if you have people who are like, you know, go go, you should do it. I think that's a better motivation and and better inspiration for you to keep going. Yeah, I really like these conversations because again I think they they take away from hey look this is what you need to know on the charts and these are all the mental aspects that a lot of people don't consider when they're going into prop firms personal accounts whatever it is right but you know in the context of what we're talking about here succeeding in the prop game it's at least from how you've described it it's a lot more psychological than I think most people will realize yeah a lot of people really think it's the technical side of things and they might get a couple payouts and things of that nature through the technical side of things, but then go through a bunch of rough patches, right?

1:04:31And then they're like, "Why?" And I'm like, "What have you been doing differently than what you were before?" And the usual answer is, "I don't know." Because there's no documentation of it. There's nothing of that sort to kind of get you to be like, "Oh, this is what I was doing wrong this time, or this was what I was doing wrong this time." And a lot of people, some people say, "Oh, I was dealing with external issues outside of trading."

1:04:58Okay, now you notice that and it's okay if you take look I think we've all done it. We had external issues then we still came into the market we took losses and I I don't bash on those people. I don't bash anyone because I think it's all part of the learning experience itself. Yeah, right. And I think once you go through so many phases of trading and and take so many losses, as long as you're categorizing your losses and why it's happening, I think it's fine and that builds your psychology up because you know what to do next time and what to avoid.

1:05:18The issue is when you take these losses and you don't put them into a side and then don't tell yourself why what happened, how was I feeling outside the market or how was I feeling while I was trading? Was there anything external that was bothering me or disturbing me? And things of that nature. Because the most important part of this is understanding why something is happening. Why am I winning? Why am I losing?

1:05:48Why am I break even? Why did this day not go as planned as this day? And it could be market conditions. It could be the market. Um, it didn't your setup didn't present itself. It could be your arguing with your spouse. It could be um school pressure, whatever. I had exams. It could be a bunch of different things. There's no black and white things what it might be. It's just realizing and recognizing it. That's the most important part because a lot of times where people look at that and they look at themselves, they don't have an real answer on why something happened.

1:06:19It's very important to find out why. So for for me I hear that as self-awareness like self-awareness is so important as part of this game. Do you feel like you always had a high level of self-awareness or is again is that something that you had to mold into yourself in a processorientated way? I try to be a self-aware person but definitely when I started trading like 10 times right because realizing why I was losing was the biggest factor for me and people ask me how long it took me to be profitable.

1:06:48It took me eight months and that's usually people, oh my god, it's so quick, but it was a self-awareness of why I was losing. Yeah, I was so focused on why I was losing. Look, the wins are great and they all had, you know, common factors, but the loss is what I was concerned about. What is happening? Why is it happening? When is it happening? Those are the five wise and wins and what's that's what I asked myself. And to me to do that, you need to be self-aware on yourself as a person.

1:07:15Like I had to come down to some real realizations of who I was as a person and what my vices were and what were my struggles that I struggle with. And it was a lot of dopamine uh spikes. I struggle with that because I wanted that instant grat gratification. I wanted that instant win, instant rewards kind of mindset. And when I took a step back and had a self-awareness of like, okay, let me let me take a deep breath. let me breathe and understand why something's happening.

1:07:43And and that's what it was. And training even now I'm I'm kind of learning things about myself on the fly when now I'm stepping into the podcast life. I'm learning something about myself right now, right? And there's just always something that you should be always learning about yourself, right? And learning about other things as well. Not only

1:08:02self-awareness, but awareness of what's happening around you is very important. And I think that's definitely self-awareness is a huge trait that someone needs as a trader. I love it. I love it, man. It's definitely a message that I would get behind and I would advocate for everybody to start building. But again, I think it goes back and this is full cycle. This is becoming a message that I think we're hearing a lot of today, which is you need your data.

1:08:21Yeah. Right. If you journal, if you have your data, it helps raise that level of self-awareness. You spot those patterns of behavior. And these are all things that you can start be proactive then rather than reactive in the moment. And I think that's where a lot of people will find their breakthroughs. Exactly. that that data is going to get you that confidence level you need and kind of realization that I can do it right a lot of people talk negatively about themselves and the power of the mind is if you're going to keep saying negative things you're going to attract negative things and negative things are going to happen to you like I try to always think positive and even in bad situations um I positive positive how can I turn this into something that's good versus you know having a down day like I always say there's never bad days there's bad moments right if you have so much time throughout the day you can't let one hour if they ruin rest of what you're going to do, right?

1:09:06And look, there's going to be sad moments, you know, with family and things of that. People get old. And look, I'm not saying that thing. I'm talking about the little things that the inconveniences throughout the day. Um, I was complaining earlier today because I had a huge headache, right?

1:09:24I was like, "Oh my god, I got a headache. I got to talk so much." And I'm like, "Look, what's the positive behind it? I got to I got to meet you. We're going to talk now." And we tied a we have a very good conversation. And just looking at things at a positive lens, you'll start attracting positive energy and positive people around you because you're you are as good as the people around you.

1:09:41And if you're surrounded by negativity, you're going to go down the negative path. I truly believe that. But if you surround yourself with positive people who inspire you, motivate you, and have, you know, have true aspirations from themselves, I think you're going to follow that light as well. 100%. I always see it as energy is very infectious. Whether it's good or bad is irrelevant, but it's infectious.

1:09:58So, if you surround yourself with the right people, then I agree. I think you get to great places. Um, all right. I want to start to wind things down a little bit. Um, I have a couple of segments that I I want to be doing with each guest. Uh, nothing crazy. Uh, one of them few quickfire questions. Um, and then the last one I will explain when we get to it.

1:10:19All right. Sounds good. We'll start off with some very simple quick fires. Um, one rule that you'll never break. One rule that I'll never break in trading, and I I talked about this a little bit earlier. I live and die by this. I will not take a trade if I take two losses. That is one trading rule I will never ever break. Nice. Um, one sign that you're about to overtrade. One sign that I'm about to overtrade is when I question my entry and what I'm looking at a lot of times where I'm like, ah, I'm good for the day and then I go for that extra little thing.

1:10:48I'm like, I hesitate. When I'm trading normally, I never hesitate. But that might be a second hesitation, but I recognize it to myself. When I hesitate is usually not a good thing because I have a very strong I I'm never second guessing myself in anything I do. If I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it, but a second I do and I'm like, "Okay, maybe this is not a great decision." Nice. Okay. Um, if you could give yourself one piece of advice on your first day of trading, what would it have been?

1:11:18That's a great This is something I say a lot is slow down to speed up. You need to take a step back and realize your process and the progress you're going to make is going to happen over time, not within a month. I like that. It something about what you said there, it struck a chord with me. There's a fantastic quote by um Alex Horoszi and he says, "The long way is the shortcut because the shortcut never gets you there."

1:11:44Love that. It's It's beautiful. It's such a perfect like reflection of life, trading, everything. But yeah, beautiful. Um, okay. I like those. Right. Last bit that I want to cover with you today. Um, we're calling this confessions of a trader. So, what we're going to start as a a segment on this podcast is we're going to have at some point some of the audience write into us with confessions about their trading. Okay? It could be moments, it could be situations.

1:12:10right now. Um, I've come up with a few scenarios and I'm going to read them out and I want you to just give me your thought, your take, your advice, whatever your raw reality that's going through your mind in that moment. I just want to hear it, right? Okay. So, today I've got I don't get why people think trading is hard. I'm eight months in and I've made $10,000 from prop firm payouts.

1:12:38This is easy. Lol. Oh my god. First of all, payouts, right? What are the expenses you had? Also, eight months is not enough to dictate if you're profitable or not in terms of can you do it over a year and two years, right? I could resonate with him a little bit because I was profitable within eight months in terms of I was making money.

1:12:55But I knew back then I was like, if I can't do this over two years, then what is it really? So, yeah. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Well, congrats on getting 10,000 in payouts, but you got a long road ahead of you. Nice. I like it. strong message to wind down on. Um, Desessie, it's been a pleasure. Honestly, been really it's been a really good process in getting to know you today, understanding your mindset and figuring out what's got you to where you are today.

1:13:16Thank you for coming on, man. Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed the show, talking with you. It was a great time. Appreciate it, man. Right, guys and girls, over to you. What was your biggest takeaway from today? What was your biggest lesson that you took away from something that Desi had to share with us today? Drop it in the comments below. We'll be really eager to see what you guys have taken away from today's episode. As always, if you love this, make sure you like the video, subscribe to the channel, and check out some of the other episodes that are on the screen in front of you.

1:13:44I'll see you in the next one. Take care.