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 Break Even to being becoming a winning Trader what was the moment um 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 break even a winning Trader by the way all right so I'm including Break Even 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 slashing around billions of dollars if you can go into that shark infested pool with your money and come out 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 break even Trader congratulate yourself okay now there are I believe that Traders fall into
two general categories when it comes to making that transition one is the way what happen 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 oh I did really well this 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 Traitor 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 2 days and the frequency is once a month now it's 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 they can put a solid week of good trading in so this is the gradual turn 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 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 I it was so sad that sometimes I would crack up just because it 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 traitors 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 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 multi-million dollar Trader no but marketly better 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 of 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 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 down down Trend you're in an uptrend and your Count's in a downtrend how can that be and that's what I experienced and what I realized looking back is that I 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 uh 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 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 they instantly want to know well Oliver what's the best group what
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 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 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 and 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 going to be different from another
Trader's baggage some this baggage you have to deal with and get rid of but you don't want to get rid of the baggage it's your baggage it's part of your identity but the market is going to demand that you get rid of this baggage but some of you are going to feel like it's Louis Vuitton lugg AG I I I invested a lot into this luggage this baggage and the Market's going to say get rid of that that's nonsense and you're going to 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 um disciplined you know whether you are someone who really [Music] um you struggle to win every argument you know that's a that's a trait that's going to spill over into your trading good or bad uh 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 going to 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 it's you can't go directly to doing 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 winner 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 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 two you didn't do that you didn't physically pushed 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 if you and now it's down $2 which would have been uh 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 life to gain your life first you always deal with the loss 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 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 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