STR 024: Detoxing from a Crackhead Trading Style

Published: Aug. 31, 2015, 4 p.m.

We heard it all the time as kids: “Stay away from drugs”. As we discuss in our interview with chatroom member Jeff (“Doc”), if you are not careful, the stock market can act as the ultimate drug. While I understand this may sound dramatic, it is a dynamic that I can certainly relate to during the time when I was first getting into the markets. When you allow the markets to corrupt you like a drug, the decisions you make as a trader are not good for your trading health… sit back and enjoy yourself through a journey of some major ups and downs. Notes:

  • Doc’s first introduction to the market was when he was 16 years old. He purchased 25 shares of PNC with money he earned from being a paperboy.
  • He took substantial losses during the various market sell offs. While he was utilizing option strategies that had 66% probability to profit, that 66% started working against him.
  • While he did invest in education, his old methodologies did not work in application. He became a CTU member, rewired his entire outlook on actively trading and is now bringing in consistent gains with his new found knowledge.
Quotes:
  • “I had no clue. I was jumping into stocks from the high dive. Little did I know that I was diving into cement instead of water.”
  • “If I have a good paper trade I missed an opportunity to make money. So lets just go balls to the wall and make money.”
  • “I was educated but I was educated wrong. And I needed somebody to reprogram my wires.”
  • “I was driving down a road at 100 mph throwing handfuls of cash out the window. That was my trading life.”