Discipline

I considered myself extremely disciplined. I come from a competitive sports background in ice hockey, American football, and triathlon. I've competed in two Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. I tell you this just to give you an idea of the kind of mindset I possess. Focus and persistence weren't lacking; my dedication to my craft was there; my study and chart time was endless.

Why couldn't I succeed in trading?

I tried everything. End-of-day trading, short-term trading, swing trading. It didn't matter what I did. Some winners, some losers, but I never seemed to be going anywhere. And only with small lot sizes.

After years of study and the best education I could get, I still wasn't advancing. WHY NOT?

You don't know what you don't know

I thought I knew a lot about the market. How to buy low and sell high. The only problem was that I wasn't making money trading.

I was trying to trade the movements

I would get ground up chasing moves, and then miss the big move the next day or two days later. I would lose all my profits, get emotionally and psychologically destroyed, and miss the "easy trade" because I was too afraid to take it.

How was I ever going to become not just a full-time trader, but a multi-millionaire trader?

My BIGGEST quantum leap came when I realized there were big, explosive days that were huge moves (which I usually missed!).

I thought to myself: why didn't I see that trade? What if I only took trades that looked like that? It seems like common sense — yet I kept trying to "trade the market."

I had no concrete trading plan. Based on trading at a specific time and very specific trading setups. Not just "doing trading." Very high probability, specific trading setups.