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Nana's Notes
by SherylTrades
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I knit, I fish, I Nana. Retired microbiologist turned day trader, going on three decades with the markets.
This newsletter does not constitute financial advice, and reflects only the personal views of the author. Making money with day trading is notoriously difficult; please see MFT's earnings disclaimer here.
Every profitable trader was once a novice
Dear Market Flow Trader Family,
You may not know Clifton Herring’s name, but he was Michael Jordan’s basketball coach. “Pop” Herring was the guy who kept Jordan off the varsity squad until his junior year. He was also the guy who, on his own time, picked up the young Jordan at home and took him to the gym for one-on-one coaching. He saw great promise in Jordan but knew the young man needed more work on his fundamentals. Somehow, I can’t picture the great #23 as a fourteen-year-old running hours and hours of layup drills. But he did.
“Leaders aren’t born; they are made. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal which is worthwhile.” ~ Vince Lombardi
Many of our Market Flow Trader members join us as they transition from other careers, or as they intend to. Among them are decorated veterans (THANK YOU!), professional athletes, touring musicians, medical professionals, teachers, lawyers, and numerous others who worked to become exceptional in their fields. They often express frustration, sharing they were not expecting trading to be so hard. I generally reply that trading is not any harder than anything they’ve done in the past; they have simply forgotten what it feels like to be a novice. They were not born successful. At some point in their careers, they were rookies. They invested in education, apprenticed, worked with a coach, endured Basic Training, and ran hours and hours of layup drills. They put in the work. (For more, you can listen to Patrick chat with one of our member about this very topic.)
Do I think “putting in the work” is enough to make you a consistently profitable trader? No, I do not. If you go to the driving range and shank a thousand balls to the right, that effort did not make you a better golfer. You just gave yourself muscle memory, reinforcing improper mechanics. STOP!
If you ended your last trading session red, and don’t know why, please stop trading.
If you ended your last session green, and cannot define your edge, please stop trading.
That's not trading, it's gambling.
“If there’s ONE thing to learn here in this community, it’s that there IS a pathway to becoming consistently profitable. It’s our primary mission here at MFT - to help traders reach consistency in their trading. I want every trader here to BELIEVE that you can do this. You can, and we’re here to help.” ~Taylor S, MFT Consistency Accelerator Coach
I love this quote from Taylor because you will hear that very same message from everyone in the Market Flow Trader Community, from Patrick (our founder) to Reven and Taylor (our coaches), the support and admin staff, and from our membership at large. Forget that you’ve heard 90% of traders fail. Having that thought in your head gives your subconscious permission to fail. You must embrace that you are capable of being among the 10% who succeed.
“Oh boy oh boy. I’m so excited. Did 4400 yesterday and 4100 today …to pass (The Topestep Combine). What a relief. Thank you all for all the lessons!!” ~KS
“Made 1037.00 on three trades. Man, when I don’t overtrade and stick to my edge and Patrick’s system… So stoked. Over 3k this week! ~RV
If you joined Reven this week at the Live Trading Desk, you heard him refer to “Old Rev.” Old Rev was the novice version of the skilled, seasoned trader who leads the MFT livestreams. Old Rev lacked the Edge, Process, and Mindset necessary to succeed. Like many novices, Old Rev was a quality mentor and a few thousand layups drills short of profitability. Coach Reven, on the other hand, is very well-equipped to help you identify the hurdles between where you are and where you want to go. You cannot make a mistake that he has not overcome at some point in his thirty-year career.
Every profitable trader was once a novice. We know that each loss, especially with real, hard-earned capital, feels a bit like drowning. We remember the frustration, fear, anger, and self-doubt. Most of us gave serious thought to giving up. If this sounds familiar, please consider taking your trading back into simulation for a while, and seek a community where the path is not yours to blaze, but to follow. The Market Flow Trader Community focuses on the fundamentals, and I hope you join us for layup drills, tomorrow morning, pre-market.
To your Success,
SherylTrades
