Options Day Trader: Brian
We’re so excited to bring you all another great interview discussion! Meet Brian, a trader since 2021 when he started trading the crypto market and was rapidly humbled by trading hype without true skill yet. Unfortunately, this is not too uncommon for a trader origin story. Thankfully for Brian, a good friend and more experienced trader gave him some solid advice and pointed him in a better direction after his crypto losses. This sent Brian headfirst into options trading and started his journey with learning from other traders. Brian’s education in trading came largely from various groups he found via social media pages, YouTube channels, and discord groups. As we all likely know, that can lead to huge variability in style and systems. But it will teach you!
Brian does a great job in this conversation detailing his experiences with following various groups and schools of advice and the mixed results that he began to see. But once he got hooked on day trading as a potential business opportunity, he dug in his heels and put in the work. Brian expresses there's no substitute for the required time and dedication to learning your instrument stating, "You have to show up every day." And Kendra and Becky whole-heartedly agree that time and experience on the charts and in trades is the truest teacher of all, with our market tuition being the required fees to learning this craft!
As a US Armed Forces Veteran, Brian does a great job describing the importance of whole life discipline and purposeful ego management in creating a sustainable trading practice. We are all humans and trading is incredibly difficult, but it is possible to succeed if we can create a trading system built around a real edge and then follow our prepared risk management. Brian’s experience is that when he can consistently stick to his trading intentions, his outcomes can then be statistically profitable and have the space to meet his goals.
Mentioned in this full podcast episode and linked on this page, Brian shares his trading journey on his Instagram account (@b.g.trades) and goodness does that require some confidence and dedication to be so public with trading executions and outcomes. We discuss this aspect of Brian’s journey and how he came to be so transparent with his trading in this way. We just love how he explains that going public with his trades on Instagram actually improved his accountability and trading performance.
Who else has heard the expression regarding trading: “Are you willing to pay to see?” This is essentially what stop loss placement addresses. How much risk will you accept when you place your stop loss limit order that protects your trade? It depends on each setup and your system’s established risk management, and is curated over many months of trading experience. Brian articulates this so well when he discusses his risk management for his trades.
We sure loved when Brian brought up being a ‘strategy hopper’ early in his trading career, stating “that trial and error era of your trading career is inevitable.” Becky and Kendra have been there as well and certainly agree because lasting improvement comes when you settle into a trade system. His military background really drilled in the phrase KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid. This is strong advice with trading, as generally a complicated system is not ideal and will often just lend to more confusion. But a core set up with a few pre-defined tools and that you fine tune with repeated experience and that works with your personality and preferences - that is optimal!
“Discipline comes from everything you do, not just when you’re in the market." You have to be a disciplined person.” Well said Brian! Now we don’t mean to beat a dead horse on this discipline topic. But we have not met a consistently profitable trader yet who is not also a major proponent of becoming a disciplined person as a part of your evolution as a serious trader. And Brian reportedly does his best to operate his life this way. Case in point, his premarket routine is consistent, simple, and powerful, including such habits as reading his bible, exercise, preparing his charts, and reading his trading rules & intentions out loud. You guys, this was such a great discussion!
You don’t want to miss the last 10 minutes of this episode as well. Here we cover our best tips for new traders, including market tuition, initial ideal account size, the reminder that comparison is a thief and gratitude for this opportunity is the best, and the importance of trading with some skin in the game. You have to check out this full interview for all the gems. It was really such a personable and open discussion that we so enjoyed having and we know you will find great value with as well!
“You can use your ego to help you and not hurt you. I believe ego is necessary, but controlled ego is what we need in this industry. It’s been my biggest hurdle - making my ego work for me, not against me.”
Find Brian on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/b.g.trades/