well hello everyone welcome to getting
started with options my name is Barbara
Armstrong I'm a coach with Schwab
delighted to have you all here with me
today um today we are going to talk
about one of my favorite topics the
seven things I wish I had known about
trading options and trading in general
when I got started and introduced to
this whole world of investing and
trading back in
so as many of you know I'm a
product of this education and over the
years I there are several things I
realized that I wish somebody had just
laid out for me right in the beginning
and that's what we're going to go over
today this is the th week and a we
series and our getting started with
options webcast series I debated on
making this the very first one in the
series so um whether you're brand new or
going through this series for the fifth
or sixth or seventh time um I welcome
you and um I'm hoping that you'll walk
away with either a good reminder or
something new that you perhaps hadn't
thought about um hello to Susie Q and
priia and Greg and Tom and Elizabeth and
NES and Frank and and Doug and Jeff and
Tom and the rest of the gang thank you
all for being here with me live today we
also have Mike Fairborn with us in the
chat he's a friend and a fellow coach he
understands all of these Concepts um
that we're going to talk about today so
if you have any questions please don't
hesitate to ask if you're watching this
in the archives you to have a voice you
can type your comments in down below and
uh let me know that if you learn
something new today um and if there are
other topics you'd like us to cover in
this series I do read and respond to
each and every one of those comments um
another way for Mike and I to
communicate with you and you to be able
to communicate with us is through the
land of X formerly known as Twitter Mike
has already put our handles into the
live chat it's Barb Armstrong CS for
Charles Schwab and Mike Fairbourn CS I
hope you will join us there consider
this your um a formal invitation to
follow us there if you haven't done so
already so let's get through our
important information and um then we can
really get into the nitty-gritty of
today's
topic so first know that options carry a
high level of risk and are not suitable
for all investors if you want to trade
options with Schwab you have to apply
for option trading Privileges and not
all will necessarily qualify we have to
take transaction fees into account when
we trade options and we have to
understand the risk that we're taking
when we place a trade and with some you
know the risk is that we could lose um
how we could lose % of what we paid
to get into the trade um and we use the
paper money software application in this
class um based on on The Thinker swim
desktop platform it is a brilliant place
to learn and to hone your skills and to
make sure that you understand what
you're doing before you consider trading
in a live account um it it's also a
great way to become familiar with the
the trading platform because it looks
like smells like feels like a real
account um so it's a safe place to
practice there are some nuances and
differences um and we'll go over those
as a apprpriate in in the weeks to come
we uh look at we'll look at charts which
we call technical analysis but know that
that shouldn't be your only means of
making an investment decision that
understanding what's happening around
earnings understanding what the company
does for a living understanding the
industry it participates and all of
those things help you make a more
informed decision um yeah so we don't
recommend that technical analysis is
your sole means of investment research
and know that everything that we do in
this class is for example purposes only
so Susie is asking me how much time I
spent studying trades and when I found
this education I was so excited my car
about drove itself home uh just to be
honest with you it was July of
and um I made a commitment to
investing at least one hour a day five
days a week and I I think for me that's
more impactful it's like you can't just
go to the gym once a week for hours
and think you're going to get fit you
know you're going it's going to be much
more impactful if you spend an hour a
day you know over five days and so there
were some days I absolutely spent more
time than that but my goal was to spend
at least an hour a day go through a
section of a course so I started with
the courses and then there was a bunch
of short videos I did all of those and
then I started coming to
like this and in all honesty there
wasn't a webcast like this getting
started with options series when I
joined as a coach five years after I
started this journey in the world of
trading um I created this class because
it was the class I would have wanted to
attend
yeah um I still and somebody's asking
you know how long did it take before I
knew what I was doing um
there were some things that were
intuitive to me that I got a handle on
pretty quickly there were other things
that I really didn't get to mastering uh
for years and I'm just going to be dead
nuts honest with you about that and as
we go through this you'll see why I I'm
saying years because I didn't start
mastering some of these trading
strategies that we're teaching until you
know I was a year or so in yeah and so
if you feel like you're drinking out of
a fire my friends please know that you
are not alone like I too felt ex I felt
exactly like that when I started but I
just kept drinking and it's like okay
figure out this little thing and do that
and and um create a a a trading plan so
as we go through I'll I'll walk you
through kind of my thought process as I
approach this okay so you know when you
come to this series overview um it it
goes over weeks and we discuss
different strategies and the goal is not
at the end of weeks for you to have
mastered all these strategies the goal
is you know at the end of weeks if
you understand what you're you're
aspiring to do with trading and with
trading options that it you know
depending on your goals and your account
size and how much time you want to spend
um looking at your Investments and all
that stuff you might say well you know
I'm starting out I'm years old and I
have a small account size like so to do
a BuyRight covered call that probably
won't apply to me right now because I
don't have enough money in my account to
buy a shares of something and the
same thing with short puts and covered
calls so right now these are less
appealing but I really like the idea of
these um credit spreads and these debit
spreads because even with a small
account I can take a defined amount of
risk and you know these can work in a
small account even if I want to trade a
more expensive stock these might work
better for me or these long puts and
short puts now somebody who's maybe
already built their giant Heap and
they're looking to do something that is
somewhat conservative they might say hey
this might not be appropriate for you
but I love the idea of these covered
calls and so that's going to be the
strategy that that I look to Master
first or these by right covered calls I
think that looks incredible so you know
just depends on where you are and
there's no one right or wrong or best
strategy per se to start
with okay so but the goal is at the end
of this weeks that you can say here's
the one strategy that I'd like to Master
first
okay
yeah okay
so yeah and there's a a lot of comments
in in the chat you know about it it can
feel a little o overwhelming and all I
can say is keep coming back and give
yourself Grace and start trading in
paper money because when you start um
trying to put this into practice then
you figure out fairly quickly what you
really do not
understand you know and know that I'm a
resource all the other coaches are a
resource also if you're having trouble
doing something on the platform you can
call the trade desk that's a resource um
so there are a lot of people you know
and our job is to help you develop
confidence and competence you know and
at the end of this you may say you know
what these strategies really aren't for
me you know like this options thing
isn't for me but at least then you'd be
making an informed
decision you know and I think that is
really really important to make an
informed decision and and what was
exciting to me you know because I came
to this in remember
that wasn't pretty and and so a
lot of people by the time the dust
settled their portfolios were down by
% and so what I really liked is that
there were strategies that were designed
to work well when I looked at options
you know and I knew that there were
people making money as the market fell
but there are strategies that are
designed to work well when the market is
going up and so a long call works well
if the market is going up now if you're
wrong about that stock going up and it
goes down instead you could lose %
but it's designed to work well when a
stock is going up with a put it's
designed to work well when the Market's
going down a covered call can work
really well when the market is going
sideways you know a BuyRight covered
call can work well if a stock goes
sideways or if it goes up you know a
short put that's really that can work
well if it goes up or sideways you know
and this is kind of bullish to neutral
you know and this
is so up or
sideways this is kind of more down
or
sideways and so what you can see here is
that you know these can you have
strategies that can work well when the
market is going up when the Market's
going down and when the market is going
sideways and that was really appealing
to me because I had just gone through a
big downturn and so I wanted to to know
how to take advantage of the market or a
stock moving in any direction and then
long call verticals these are are
bullish long put verticals you know
benefit when a stock Falls you know so
you know it gives us tools we can use no
matter what is happening you know and
but you just have to understand the risk
because there are going to be times that
you are wrong and so there you you have
to learn how to manage things if things
go wrong and and at some point that is
likely to happen and and if somebody
tells you they've never had had a losing
trade they're either being dishonest
with themselves or dishonest with you or
they haven't traded they haven't traded
much maybe they've placed two trades and
lucky for them they both worked out but
if you if if you place enough trades
there are going to be some that do not
work out the probability is
exceptionally High even the best traders
in the world have trades that are not
profitable so today we're going to kind
of look at some of the the pitfalls and
and you know set our expect expectations
and then look at where to go next so
what is goal number one or you know or
or you know things I wish I'd known
number one and and the the first thing
is what's your goal like why are you
even here and and you know for me it's
like one I already had a bit of a a
giant heap if you will and so I wanted
to learn how to protect my giant Heap so
I call this you know you do you want to
are you looking to protect your giant
Heap however you want to Define Giant
and I say that like a little you know
tongue-in cheep te
uh oh man I'm having trouble talking
today a little tongue and cheek yeah do
you want to protect what you already
have you know and and and that is a
valuable goal right and then or do you
want to generate income and in our
trading a smaller account class we
started with , and you know we said
you know what if you wanted to generate
a $ a week and somebody said trying
to generate income with a small account
is stupid but you know what like we have
shown over the last four years that it
is possible to do that you know and I
met somebody at a at an in-person event
and by the way I love the in-person
events and when I asked that person what
his goal was it was to generate income
it's like well how much well his number
was you know okay now if you had a
small account that wouldn't be a
realistic goal and then we broke that
into well how much is that a
month you know and then so then you know
how much is that a
week and then you know your question is
you know how might one use options to
try and Achieve that
goal and so we said well if you could do
you know , a month that's on average
, a week that would get you to it
would be pretty close close to your goal
maybe you aim for knowing some
weeks you may not make anything you may
end up losing money but you know is that
a goal and then put a dollar sign on it
and then break it down into a manageable
chunk and then say how many would I have
to do to achieve that now some people
you may be young and you know at the
time I I started my goal wasn't
necessarily to generate income but it
was to grow my account so do am I
looking for growth
you know so am I looking to grow my
account and does that mean I'm going to
trade differently not necessarily but
you know how do you define success and
why do you want to do that because this
requires discipline my friends so you
know are we looking to protect to
generate income or growth and and and
you know you may want to do a bit of all
three and that's okay but figure out
what it is that you want and then figure
out why you want to do it because like
to me money has no value until it's
spent and what I mean by that is you
know I want to take some of the money
that I am making and making from my
investing and put it aside for my future
self because I know that that gives me
choices you know money you know can give
me choices or maybe is that you want to
have extra money to be able to take your
kids or your grandkids on a trip to
Disneyland maybe you're working in a job
you don't like and if you got enough of
a buffer you could leave that job and
write the book you've always wanted to
write or I I have no idea what your
goals are but if you in your in your
head know why you're doing this then I
think it's easier to be more disciplined
about it because there nobody is going
to care whether you came to this class
or not nobody's going to know whether
you place a practice trade or not so you
have to be
self-motivated you know okay I'm going
to get off my pedestal now but these are
important things my
friends you know these are important
things okay so there's the first one
have a goal and you know you may say you
know a common goal with investing is is
to beat The Benchmark okay so you want
to do that but you know I kind of take
it a step further why what are you going
to do with this money and what's it
going to do for you um and two you want
to one of them is this is a mistake that
I made so I went through the options
course and they covered or
different strategies right and I thought
well I'm a reasonably intelligent person
at least I kind of sort of think I am so
I should be able then to trade these
strategies
and you know what happened it didn't
work out so well because I didn't really
understand what I was doing and I didn't
you know and I can remember so clearly
thinking I had bought a protective put
on something and it's like well after
earnings now what do I do like it's so
you know I'd say don't think that
because you've gone through this and
you've had an intro to different
trading strategies and you know in this
course we covered different
strategies don't try and and and Master
them all at once just pick
one or you might say I want to master
credit spread so that's two you know
that would be short putut verticals is
the bar uh bullish version of that and
short call verticals or you might say I
really like these long verticals and
then once you get through this class
there is a class dedicated just to short
verticals on Wednesday taught by Ken
Rose there's another class dedicated to
Long verticals taught by Ben Watson on
Thursdays you know so it go to those
classes for Mastery and start placing
trades you know place a different trade
in your paper money account every day if
you can find a setup and then track your
results treat it like it's real
money and then make sure that you
understand the strategy both when it
goes for you and when it goes against
you so
this is what I did I tried to master
them all at the same time yeah that
didn't work out very well and and I
implore you not to do that pick one
strategy or two master that create a
trading plan trade your plan make sure
you understand it and then you can add
another plan and add another plan I am
still by most of the coaches standards
I'm a very simplistic
Trader you know it's because if you keep
it simple you know it's um you're way
more likely to be successful the
confused mind does nothing and so you
know when you're ready to add more
complex trades you know it will be there
okay so that's that
one so that's that's
number that's number two let's go to oh
sorry I've got a yeah somebody's saying
I'm I'm starting to sound like Scott
Thompson well I was taught by Scott
Thompson who is now a manager he was a
coach and and I loved his trading
strategies I love the way he thought I
love the way he thinks to this day um
yeah so
that's that's why I sound like
Scott because uh he was one of my
mentors next thing is have a trading
plan and I'm starting to create a series
of trading plans it's going a little
slower than I thought because I could
you know and this is showing up in the
trade management Min session sections
and so we have just I've just put the
first one in there but there is a whole
team of people behind the scenes that
you don't see um that review these to
make sure that I'm not saying anything
in error and that I'm clear about both
the upside and the downside and
everything and they are slammed right
now so we have to give them a little bit
of breathing room but what you will see
and let me just bring this up I mean
this is the segue into you want to
subscribe to this channel because what
you'll want to do and here's just a you
know a clean sheet I if you haven't hit
subscribe yet but there is a bunch of
trade management mini sessions
sorry um and so if you come to
YouTube and then just type in Trader
talks once you've subscribed it's faster
to get
there and you want the trader talks
you'll see this circle the Schwab
coaching webcast and so here is you know
what we're doing live now and this is
how when I'm you know watching a webcast
this is how I find them and then when
you come to playlists if you're new to
this um you know you can come down here
and here's the it's close to the bottom
of the
list here is the getting started with
options and you can view the full
playlist so if you've missed the rest
you know it starts with one and now
we're on week and next week we'll go
back to the top of the rotation again so
you can do some binge learning but these
mini sessions are in I think the second
row so here are the mini sessions and
and we're going to sort these so that
it'll be a little more intuitive oh look
at that they've done it so here's our
trading plan and all of the trading
plans will have this kind of royal blue
these are the trade management mini
sessions but if you're also newer to
thinker swim there's a bunch of mini
sessions they're also they're all in
this kind of turquoise color on how to
customize a chart or a watch list or the
monitor Tab and they're all about you
know minutes long um but these
trading plans as they get approved
they'll all be in here and and I will
create example trading plans that you
can use to kind of get you started okay
so and that's where they will be and and
I'll make sure that this this link is
posted at at the end of the class but
you know going back to you know have a
set of rules have an ex a trading plan
and and a trading plan you know it
should include what to trade or what to
buy when to buy it how much or position
sizing and then when to
exit and you know it it it's this helps
us manage our emotions because if a
trade starts to go against us um you
know I always say before you place any
trade even if it's buying a stock that
you think you want to hold for a long
time you know when are you going to
exit and if you say well if it stops
going up well how do you define stops
going up do you have a definitive rule
because it's very easy to start letting
emotions get in the way okay so have a
have a plan you know and I say it's kind
of like a recipe if you've never baked a
cake maybe you're in a rush and you say
like well you know what like this baking
soda and baking powder it's like a
teaspoon half a teaspoon like I'm in a
bit of a hurry I've got % of the
ingredients in here good enough and then
you want why the cake doesn't rise well
if if you have a rule follow it your
rule is there for a reason if the rule
doesn't matter then you probably don't
need it in there but there's a reason
that we have these four categories and
then a number of things within it and
then know when it's okay to break your
rule and what do I mean by that well
what I mean by that is that let's say
when you um trade a long call vertical
your goal is is a % profit on on what
you're risking to place the trade well
let's say you're at % and it looks
like the stock is going to start coming
back down in in in price and that will
eat away at the profit you've already
made and so in an effort to not snatch
defeat from the jaws of Victory you may
say for this one given what is happening
with the price of the stock I'm okay
with
% and you know that that's when I say
no when it's okay to break your rules so
your your your rule or your target may
have been and you may say I I I'm
okay with okay so have a have a plan
have a plan okay so this next one um I I
am just kind of free forming this one
here but this one I think is is pretty
critical and it is and somebody's
already typed this into the chat so you
guys are you guys are on top of things
let me just change we'll change the
color here so it is be
consistent you know treat this like a
job you know and and have
routines you know like I I if a lot of
your portfolio is in stock that you want
to continue to own unless it breaks a
certain you know goes down a certain
percentage or goes below the -day
moving average by more than x% or
whatever it is whatever your trading
plan says like you may not feel that you
need to look at those every day but
maybe part of your your routine is that
the first Monday of every month you look
at all those positions or it might be a
weekly rule for you that every Monday
you look at that position um some of the
types of Trades we place in this class
it requires daily management and you may
say well I have a full-time job Barb
like I don't have time to look at this
when the Market's opened well I didn't
say you had to look at it when the
Market's opened some of these trades you
know you you don't make your decision
until after the market closes for the
day and so you know do you have a
routine because Hobbies tend to cost
money you know so if you want this to
pay you like a business you need to to
treat it like a business and you need to
be consistent and and have routines and
and I can't emphasize that enough
because if you have a routine like and
my analogy is a Starbucks franchise or a
McDonald's franchise do you think that
they go in and go you know I think today
I'm going to just put a little twist on
the Big Mac I'm going to make it a
little different I'm not going to do
that you know two all beef patty Special
Sauce lettuce cheese to pickles onions
on a sesame seed bun like how do you
think that would fly yeah it
wouldn't they have a specific routine of
how they make each item and one of the
things that has helped them be
successful is that it doesn't matter
whether you're in Toronto or La when you
order a Big Mac you get the same product
it's consistent and they they get that
consistency by you know having a recipe
and and using consistent ingredients and
all of that okay and the other thing
we're going to well we'll get to that in
in a sec okay so that's number four
okay yeah Wy is saying say that twice I
know I tend to repeat myself but you
know it it's I can't
overestimate the importance of
consistency in almost anything in life
like if you exercise consistently and
you eat well consistently you know you
may not see a huge difference tomorrow
but over time that difference is going
to be phenomenal you know so consistency
is U you know I I don't know if it's one
of the Seven Wonders of the World but
it's a pretty important component to
success in almost any
Arena
um here's another one position sizing
and planning for loss now this chart
kind of gives me the heie jeebies these
are just examples these are in no way
recommendations in fact I would
recommend that these are not uh
appropriate but position sizing is
critical and so like we have an account
you know this is say you know we have a
$, account and this is saying you
know if your max loss was
% then you'd be you're saying that
your acceptable Max loss would be a
th per trade and and obviously that
is you would not want to risk a th
per trade our trading a smaller account
account we had
, and our Max risk was % when we
started and and that was an acceptable
Max loss of
now in the account that I have
started with I have two example accounts
in paper money the other one started
with half a
million and our acceptable loss on that
one is
per trade which
is half of
% sorry
. so it's half of % so you may say why
is this one % and this one half of %
well when you have a bigger bucket you
know you can take a lot of different
trades and be risking this small amount
now yeah and and these are I'm I'm
trying to get this um this slide updated
but um you know we had in our trading a
smaller account man we were Off to the
Races in November we reset the account
in November um and by the end of
December we were up by like
% in that account we took the account
from to , and we could have
thrown our shoulders out for patting
ourselves on the back and so you know
everybody's really euphoric right and
this is when a lot of times people will
say position sizing is for mere mortals
I'm obviously brilliant and these rules
should no longer apply to me
well then the first week of January came
and we had I think we had trades we
had a lot of trades on we had at least
eight so let's say we had eight trades
on and they all plummeted because the
market pulled back that first week of
January and we were down in one week
about
$ now we had grown the account by
% but $ like that's a
wound now just imagine an our Max risk
was
% if it had been % we would have
blown up our
account and so you might say well if I'm
willing to risk
% then could I make this now
you could or what you might say is
until I I get the account grown to the
point where it's over , I'm going
to leave it at that actually we now
have it per trade so it's it's not
still % it's a little lower than that
because our account is now you know over
it's , and change but you know
you could quarterly say I'm going to
make this my Max risk per trade and then
I'm going to look at the account and if
the account is
down then I'm going to lower this to you
know
, because the account is worth less
you know or if the account has gone up
I'm going to raise it but have a
position sizing Rule and stick to it
okay yeah somebody's saying this is the
secret sauce and and and someone else is
saying yes position sizing has kept me
in the game without you know blowing up
my account yeah and and so it is um yeah
and somebody else said had I
consistently applied position sizing
risk management and trade management I
would have preserved
% uh of my preco crash gains rather
than just
yeah so sometimes we learn from the
School of Hard Knock so when I am um
telling you these things often I know
people who have broken these rules and I
know two people in particular who have
admitted that they've broken this rule
from a stage and said you know I was
just doing so well I thought these rules
didn't apply anymore the market tanks
and all of a sudden I'm laying on my bed
in the fetal position sucking my thumb
because the pain is enormous or I'm
dealing with it by just turning off my
laptop and not looking at it for four or
five days by which point my losses have
doubled that the head in the sand
approach seldom works well um I know I
have tried that also so so that's five
planning for losses and and even very
experienced Traders will have trade
trades that go against them yeah you
know I'm always optimistic I'm never
going to place a trade that I think is
going to lose but I know that in spite
of my best analysis that sometimes news
comes out in the market something
happens you know or there's some kind of
global event like think Co that you know
things just aren't going according to
plan six this is you know another
favorite um you know keep your emotions
in check and and the easiest way to do
that I think is to have a plan and to be
disciplined because then you know we
don't start trading on Hope like where
you see something that starts to fall in
value and you start hoping it will go
back up and you don't sell the stock or
get out of the option position or or
fear you you know you're afraid that if
you don't take this trade you're going
to miss out or you're afraid that if you
sell it now you're going to take a a
loss well I think a a small loss beats
the stuffing out of a large loss but it
it's it's you know if you're following
your plan you can be more disciplined
and then not let these guys rule the
roost you know and and it this this
emotion it hampers our judgment so if I
think I'm I'm treating this like a
business I know when I'm getting out
before I get in if it goes down and that
my my plan says I should get out then I
get out and then having patience and
sometimes we want to jump the gun it's
like oo this looks like it's about to go
up hasn't gone up yet you know I
remember talking to a friend who wasn't
part of this education about a stock
that I knew she own and I said you know
it's this is before I was a coach it's
like o that stock is that you're you
know it's falling it like this is how it
was going and she said yeah I'm buying
more I'm telling everybody to buy more
because it's on sale you know and that
stock went from
$ you know when I talked to her it was
maybe around $ it went down to $
a share it's like I said but there's
nothing to say that it stopped falling
it's like I know isn't this great it's
like no it wasn't great but she wasn't
part of this education so she didn't
understand and you may say well you know
if I just stick with something longer
term it'll come back up
really you know like let's just pop over
and may I introduce you
to
pelaton now pelaton in the last year has
gone from $ down to$
but let's look at it years ago cuz
when the pandemic hit it went up to $
a share and then it started to fall so
if you had a rule if you own the stock
and said like hey if it goes more than
% or % below the -day moving average
I'm going to exit you know you may have
still exited with a loss or if you had
bought it here and you know maybe you
got out here you gave you know
dollars back but you still made out like
a
bandit you know but it's you cannot
trade based on aemotion it's gone from
down to two so this is when
discipline will save you okay okay so
what number was I
on six okay only one to go and sometimes
you know patient says I'm I'm not going
to place that trade how many times have
we looked at a stock where entry isn't
there entry isn't there entry isn't
there or we'll place a conditional order
and we may never end up getting in and
that saved us from placing a trade that
would not have been profitable and the
last one and I you know I'm free forming
here again and um uh coming shortly
spoiler alert and and I had nothing to
do with this one but I'm really excited
that um it's going to be back because I
love these things and that is a an
example trade
Journal
so track your
results information is
power and you know if you don't have a
trading journal you may want to consider
keeping a trading journal and if you're
going to trade options if you decide
that that is yeah what you'd like to do
um you know you may want to organize it
by type of trade and then at the end of
the year you know you could look at it
and say wow % of my my credit spreads
or my short put verticals and short call
verticals were profitable but I ended up
barely breaking even because the ones
that went against me wiped out you know
four or five profitable trades how do I
manage the trades that are going against
Me Maybe I need to look at that you know
and I'm not saying that that could
happen but it could but if you if you
don't understand what your numbers are
then it's hard to look at how to maybe
it change how you're managing
something so this gives us information
and again like here I use like the
Starbucks example and Starbucks you know
they sell hot coffee products cold
coffee products they sell some you know
hard Goods like mugs and stuff like that
over the holidays and then they have
stuff that you know a limited amount of
food items do you not think that they
track how much money they make from
their coffee from their cold C cold cold
beverages and you know if if an area
turns out that it's not being profitable
do you not think that they would look at
that and try and fix that absolutely so
they're tracking their results and
they're I'm I can almost guarantee you
they're tracking it by product and by
store and and you know so stay tuned um
hopefully we'll we will have a journal
an example trading journal coming to you
um sometime soon but you know it's there
are other trading journals out there so
you know you can you can go and find
those so again what were our seven rules
so just to recap
and and I don't have a recap page so you
know I should
um create one of those but first you
know so number one was have a goal
number two was pick one strategy at a
time to
master uh don't do what I did which
turned out not to be such a great plan
have a trading plan or a recipe for
every type of strategy that you
trade you know and even within long
calls you know which we'll get to start
to with next week you might have three
or four different trading plans for
three or four different you know types
of long call or buying a call trades um
be
consistent treat it like a
business um plan for loss and you know
one of the things that Scott Thompson
said you know um was what's your sleep
number you know the Sleep Number beds
and and if you say well I'm willing to
risk $, on a trade it's like okay
well if you had five or six or eight
trades in a row go wrong are you still
sleeping well and if you're not um then
you know you need to make that number uh
a little smaller um you know manage your
emotions um fear hope greed these are
all kind of four-letter words and I
think the easiest way to manage your
emotions is one by having a a plan for
each strategy and and being consistent
you know being
disciplined you know it's that's
important um and then last but not least
track your
results and and whether you're investing
in stock just stocks or options or a
combination of both which many do you
know both because their goals are all
free to protect their giant Heap to grow
their account and maybe you know to
create some income as well so those are
the seven things we are out of time I
appreciate and none of these are you
know need to be tattooed anywhere on
your body but there are things that have
helped me I hope they will help you
going forward Mike thank you so much for
your help in the chat um this is where I
ask you to please hit the like button it
helps move this up in the a GM so more
people can find this content hit
subscribe and then follow um Mike
fairborne and I in the land of Twitter
or now X Barbara Armstrong Cs and Mike
Fairbourn CS thanks and have a great day
everyone we'll see you in a webcast
coming up soon up next Ben Watson with
trading flag patterns
