OV-TALKs-002-This Is Exactly How I Became A Profitable

Trader.mp4

Oliver, what do you think was the specific detail, that exact turning point
with which you went from being a losing trader or being in breakeven to
becoming a winning trader? What was the moment? Interesting question.

I believe that traders fall into one of two categories when it comes to the
transition from loser to winner. And I consider breakeven a winning trader,
by the way. All right. So I'm including breakeven trading in the winning
camp because if you can go into the most competitive market in the world
and pit yourself against some of the brightest minds, some of which are
sloshing around billions of dollars, if you can go into that shark infested
pool with your money and And come out with your money, with your limbs
intact, your arms, your legs. You've got your pants still on your underwear,
your shirt. They didn't rob you. They didn't take anything from you. Oh, my
God. Congratulations. That's a win. All right.

Because it's shark infested. So you have won. You're a winning trader. If
you're a breakeven trader, congratulate yourself. OK, now. I believe that
traders fall into two general categories when it comes to making that
transition.
One is the way what happened, one is where you start to see glimpses of
who you're going to be in the future. So you're really bad, you're really bad,
you're hemorrhaging money, you're really bad, but you start to see moments
of goodness. And you're like, whoa, I did really well these last two days.
And then boom, it'll disappear. And you go back to being bad, bad, bad,
bad.
But then again, there'll be, wow, on this day, I did almost every single thing
perfectly. And boom, it'll disappear. Now, that type of trader will gradually,
if they apply themselves, the gap between the good periods starts to get
smaller and the duration of the good period starts to get longer.
So maybe in the past, the good periods, maybe they had, you know, the
good periods lasted on average two days. So I can't get past two good days.
All right. And that happens once a month. So they've got the duration of
good periods, two days, and the frequency is once a month. Now, They get
duration of two days, but it's happening now three times a month. Better.
Now they're stretching their good periods. They get three, four days
sometimes. And that's happening four times a month. And now they get a
week. They can put a solid week of good trading in.

So this is the gradual turn there. that tends to happen with some traders.
They're bright, those bright days get longer and the dark periods get shorter
until there's more light than darkness, okay?

Then there's the category that I was in. And to be honest with you, I don't
wish this category on you, but you might be in that category. And that is the
category where there is no light. You almost never see light. There are no
two days. There's just losing day after losing day after losing day to the
point where you think, like, how can someone be this bad at something?
How can I break mathematical law? I mean, if you flip a freaking coin long
enough, you get practically 50% heads and 50% tails. I can't even do that. I
can't even flip a coin and win sometimes.

How can someone lose 100% of the time? How can I be this bad? That
category is the category that I was in. It was so sad that sometimes I would
crack up just Because I was in disbelief. You know how like the Joker
cracker? Like I would just start hysterically laughing because all I could do
is cry. And there are some traitors that fall into that group where you don't
see any light whatsoever until one magical day. I am telling you, traders, it
happened in one day.
I remember it like it was yesterday. I mean, for some reason, this day just
seemed different from the moment I woke up. There was a different feeling.
Colors were brighter. I don't know. It was just the air seemed different. And
from that day, everything changed. Everything. Now, I'm not saying I went
from chronically losing every day to being a multimillion-dollar trader. No,
but markedly better in one day.

Now, from the outside and looking at my record, it would appear as though
it was almost like a magical event, that Oliver went from zero to 100 in an
instant. But no, there was growth happening all the while, but underneath. It
wasn't visible. You can actually be getting better, but your record can show
that you're actually worse. And a lot of people don't understand this in
trading and they it's when they quit and even maybe even start to call the
whole activity a scam because how can they ask themselves, how can I be
getting better? How can I be getting more educated? How can I be getting
more trained? How can I be getting more disciplined? And my record
shows that I'm actually dumber than I was when I knew nothing.
How can I make more money when I knew nothing and lose more money
when I know everything? And this is a normal occurrence, guys. That
strange dichotomy, that strange, weird period where you know you're
smarter, you know you're more skilled, but your account is in a straight
downtrend. You're in an uptrend and your account's in a downtrend.

How can that be? And that's what I experienced. And what I realized
looking back is that I was so deep that I couldn't see the turn back to the
upside. So the turn back to the upside was happening, but it was coming
from so deeply below break, even below the light, as it were, that you can't
see the movement back up until it breaks. And that break into the light is
really appears like it's one day, like, how did that happen? But you were
rising in the darkness underneath, but it just wasn't perceptible to the eye
for a long period of time.

And so when I tell my traders that you're going to fall either in one of these
groups, they get they they they instantly want to know, well, Oliver, what's
the best group?
What's the best way? I believe the best way is not that way. Not the way
that happened to me. I believe the best way is to see glimpses of yourself.
There's more hope in that approach. When you see breakthroughs, they
might disappear and come and go. That's normal. But at least you see
glimpses of what is to come and it keeps you in the game longer. And I
believe that those who fall in my category, that happens. That category has
the greatest degree, that cemetery in that category is much larger. There's
greater deaths in the darkness category versus the periodic light category.
So if I can wish one on you, I'd wish the periodic light category. But you
might just be in the darkness category.

i don't know this for sure, but i don't think you can choose. I don't think you
can choose which one you, which one you are because a part of trading
guys, your, your path is largely determined by what you bring to the
market. This is why the journey is so personal. Um, what baggage do you
bring? Because your baggage, is gonna be different from another trader's
baggage. This baggage you have to deal with and get rid of, but you don't
wanna get rid of the baggage. It's your baggage. It's part of your identity.
But the market is gonna demand that you get rid of this baggage. But some
of you are gonna feel like it's Louis Vuitton luggage. I invested a lot into
this luggage, this baggage.
And the market's gonna say, get rid of that. That's nonsense. And you're
gonna struggle to... You know, and then another trader brings a little duffel
bag to the market and they're going to have to get rid of that. But getting rid
of a duffel bag versus a 14 piece Louis Vuitton luggage set and two
different things. And so your path is largely determined by who you are,
what you bring to the market, you know, whether you have a propensity to
be disciplined. You know, whether you are someone who really, you
struggle to win every argument. You know, that's a trait that's gonna spill
over into your trading, good or bad. Whether you have won, whether you're
used to winning in your life, all right?
Which is usually, when it comes to trading, a negative, believe it or not.
The person who's used to winning in life is gonna be broken down by the
market because this is not a game of winning. It's a game of how to lose
properly. And a lot of traders fail to realize that. You lose your way to
success in this game. You don't win your way to winning. You lose your
way to winning, all right? It's through the process of negation that you
become successful. It's through the process of learning what not to do So
that whatever's left is what you should be doing. You can't go directly to
doing what you should do without removing what you shouldn't do first. So
everything is backwards. You learn to lose properly. And by learning to
lose properly, all of a sudden you look, oh my God, I'm profitable.

Look at that. I wasn't even trying to be profitable. I was just trying to lose
properly. And all of a sudden, the profit started appearing. That's how you
become successful as a trader. You don't try to win. You'll never get this
if you're trying to win. You've got to try to do the right thing from the
loss side. The winning side takes care of itself, traders. What do you do if
you buy a stock and it goes up $2? What did you do except pray? You didn't
call up your billionaire friends and say, guys, I just bought, can you throw a
couple billion dollars now into the stock to push it up $2? You didn't do
that. You didn't physically push the stock up $2. You did nothing but pray.
So the market didn't need you to do a $2 move. But if you have a maximum
loss of 100 and you buy your stock, and you eliminate that stock at a $90
loss, and now it's down $2, which would have been a $200 loss, what did
you do?
Because if you did nothing, you would have a $200 loss. You did something
to make it a $90 loss, you see? So your job is not on the winning side
because you don't do anything. Your job is to make sure the losing side is
handled correctly. And the market's job is to handle the winning side.
It's a partnership.
But there are far too many of you trying to do the market's job. And you're
leaving your post. You're leaving your job untouched, unfocused. You lose
your way to winning. You must lose your livelihood. to gain your life first,
you always deal with the lost side.
You must squat before you leap. You must pull a bow back before it springs
forward. You focus on losses before you can become a winner. Everything
in life is that way But no no no no you know what you guys want to do?
You want to not deal with the losses. You just want to focus on trying to be
a good winner. That is not. your job. And this is what extends the journey
for so many traders. They don't need to be that long on the path of trying to
become consistent, but they extend their journey by focusing on the wrong
thing.

And this is where a mentor or someone who's gone down the path that
knows all the dead ends, that can prevent you from, that's the value of
where that comes from. All right?

Anyway, I know I've gone off on a tangent for that, but this is a great topic
that, you know, a lot more people need to become aware of.