Ep 555: When Trading Doesn’t Work Out the Way You Wanted

Welcome back to The Traders Podcast, and welcome back to your host, Rob Booker, and The Producer, Jason Pyles! After a very long hiatus, we are back again here in Episode 555, where we address a trader regarding what to do when trading doesn’t work out the way you might have hoped.

Remember to leave a comment below in the show notes and you could win a $25 Amazon gift card! The Traders Podcast will now release new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday, so please make sure you’re subscribed and join us!

Links for this episode:

Subscribe to Rob’s YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/robbooker

Rob on Twitter: @RobBooker

The Traders Podcast on Twitter: @TradersPodcast

TFL365.com

Trader Interviews.com

Jason’s movie podcasts:
Movie Podcast Weekly where we review new movies in theaters.

Horror Movie Podcast where we’re Dead Serious About Horror Movies.

Full transcript of this episode:

Rob Booker: Mr. Pyles.

Jason Pyles: Rob Booker. It’s been a long time.

Rob Booker: Welcome back.

Jason Pyles: Thank you. It’s good to be back.

Rob Booker: Do you ever have anything that doesn’t quite work the way that you expected?

Jason Pyles: Oh yeah all the time. Like my kids for example.

Rob Booker: Give us an update on how you’re doing.

Jason Pyles: Doing great, thank you. Another one of those things would be my heart. That’s a good example. Earlier this year I had open heart surgery and I’m much better now. Thanks to Cleveland Clinic.

Rob Booker: You sound like it. You sound better than ever.

Jason Pyles: Thank you. Yeah I feel a lot better.

Rob Booker: I did a poll on Twitter on how badly our listeners wanted to hear your voice again. Someone said that you have a mix … Did you see this poll?

Jason Pyles: No but I’m nervous about the results.

Rob Booker: No need to be nervous. There were two choices. One choice was really bad. The second choice was really, really bad. And really, really bad won 78 to 28%. That adds up to more than 100% so more than 100% of our listeners want to hear you back on the show and most of those people want to hear you back really, really bad. One guy replied and said you sound like a mix between Casey Kasem and the Marlboro man.

Jason Pyles: I’ll take it. I love that.

Rob Booker: Sounds like a compliment to me.

Jason Pyles: That’s how I’m looking at it Rob.

Rob Booker: That’s great. That’s awesome. The movie related podcasts are doing great?

Jason Pyles: Yeah absolutely. I still have movie podcasts weekly where we review the new stuff that’s in theaters. I’m still doing that crazy horror movie podcast as well. We’re getting thumbs up for It this weekend.

Rob Booker: Alright. Are you going to go see that in the theater?

Jason Pyles: Yeah. Tonight, in fact.

Rob Booker: Oh my gosh. I can’t even get through the preview. He gets to the … The preview for the movie It, he gets up to the drain on the street and I just turn off the preview. I can’t even get past that part.

Jason Pyles: Yeah. Rob’s like, I’m not doing storm drains. Forget it.

Rob Booker: Storm drains, that’s right, exactly. Oh my gosh. Just one question about movies and then we can move on. At the end of Dunkirk, does somebody wake up from a dream?

Jason Pyles: I know right. You’d wonder right. With Christopher Nolan.

Rob Booker: I’m ready for a Christopher Nolan movie with a twist. I’m ready for that.

Jason Pyles: Me too. Me too. I’ve been waiting for years.

Rob Booker: Did you see his first movie?

Jason Pyles: Yes, I did. [crosstalk 00:02:32] The student film he made?

Rob Booker: Yeah.

Jason Pyles: Hmm?

Rob Booker: The Following or something like that?

Jason Pyles: Yes it is. It’s still quite decent actually.

Rob Booker: Maybe I’ll check that out today.

Jason Pyles: Awesome. Let me know.

Rob Booker: I really ought to start a podcast on your podcast movie podcast network about television ’cause I don’t really see movies anymore.

Jason Pyles: Yeah, you should Rob. You’d be great at that.

Rob Booker: That’s not a bad idea. Maybe one of our listeners would like to join me. I don’t know if you’d have us on the movie podcast network.

Jason Pyles: Yeah. You’re pretty amazing. Even though it’s TV. We would just say, Well it’s the small screen. There’s the silver screen and then there’s the small screen.

Rob Booker: Okay, that’s a good idea.

Jason Pyles: Right, that’s what I think.

Rob Booker: God, that’s awesome. We still haven’t talked about trading, which is the best part about this whole thing coming back together and doing a podcast. Officially, welcome back to both of us on the Trader’s podcast. It’s nice to be here. The subject for today’s episode Jason, is to welcome us back together, remind everyone that new episodes drop on Tuesdays and Thursdays, including full transcripts and show notes. Once again, very happy about that. Also, to talk about the subject Jason, when things don’t work out the way that you might have hoped.

I got a message. Now usually, I would send this to you beforehand but it just came in and one of our listeners wrote in and was pretty heartbroken about the way that his trading has gone. I thought I would read that comment and then over the course of this episode and maybe the next, we could talk about this dear listener of ours and perhaps answer his concerns or whatever.

Jason Pyles: Yeah. I hope we can help.

Rob Booker: Let me pull this up. Essentially this fine gentleman writes in and has just had a really, really tough time. I’m going to read it if I can find it. Maybe one of our support team has already, yeah they’ve already tackled this one. They had originally moved it over to me. Yeah, but it’s gone now. What a bummer.

Alright, well our friend had started in trading years ago, Jason. And had no success. Then started back up and had a lot of temporary success. Just recently went back to some old behaviors and dropped the ball, made some big mistakes and lost 50% of his account.

I just felt heartbroken about it. The reason is, I want everyone to be successful. The question that our friend wrote in was, ‘When do I just quit? This didn’t work out the way that I wanted. This trading thing didn’t work out the way that I wanted. When do I just quit? Do you have any thoughts on this before I just go down this road and start yacking my pie hole?

Jason Pyles: Wow. I can appreciate that because it’s like … I’ll say one thing really quick and turn it over to you ’cause you have way more experience and training. But I think it’s interesting, any time that someone has the courage to be reflective like that and have that be honest with yourself kind of moment where you’re trying to figure out what you should do next. I think that’s a good sign when somebody gets to that point.

In my understanding, in the years that I was on the Trader’s podcast in the past. I think sometimes it’s difficult for traders to be honest with themselves. I think being at this moment where they’re reassessing, I think is an important place to be. I just wanted to acknowledge that and then turn it over to you, Rob.

Rob Booker: I love that. I have a warning for this individual and anyone listening in, and to myself, just a reminder and a warning. The act of quitting because you lack discipline doesn’t reflect upon the endeavor, it reflects upon you, or me.

If I quit my marriage because … Okay, there are reasons to quit a marriage. Having done that, I’m going to justify that. But of course, I’m happily remarried and I love my wife and she’s the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Let’s just say that we have a difficult day and things don’t go the way that I might have hoped or wished they had gone. But it’s just in the ordinary course of a relationship.

If I quit, it doesn’t reflect on my wife, or the institution of marriage. It reflects on me. Let’s say that I lose my temper in the relationship, now it even reflects even more upon me and I have some work to do. That’s not a criticism. I don’t mean that to strike out at this individual.

But I do mean to say, if what you’re telling me is that you’re struggling with discipline or making the right decisions at the right time, or avoiding the wrong decisions. If that’s what you’re saying, then it’s time to get some help. That help can come in the form of therapy or mentorship that you get through books. Or it can come through prayer and meditation. There are a lot of avenues for that.

But the answer isn’t necessarily to close down your trading account and quit because trading doesn’t work. There are times when trading doesn’t work. There are times when that’s the case. And those instances might be when you’re trading a product that no longer is available. Or you’re trading a product like binary options outside of the United States where binary options outside of the United States are a complete scam and your broker’s going to walk away with all of your money and then you have no money left, then yes. There are times when there are external circumstances that prevent anyone from trading.

But if it’s merely and I say merely in quotation marks, ’cause it’s a big deal. A lack of discipline, then I don’t really see what the point of quitting would be. Because the next endeavor that you take upon yourself, or the next really important thing that you try to tackle, you’re going to run up against the same lack of discipline or the same propensity to make a mistake or get yourself into trouble or do the thing that you said you weren’t ever going to do all over again. It doesn’t make any sense.

You might as well draw a line in the sand, now, here. Change the way that you handle things. Get some help. Read some books. Do some meditation, whatever it takes. What are some ways that you have, Jason you’re an incredibly disciplined person. You got up again today at, what time in the morning did you get up again?

Jason Pyles: It was about quarter till six.

Rob Booker: Quarter till six. Our friend of the show Shawn Campbell probably got up at 4 o’clock in the morning.

Jason Pyles: Oh yeah, Shawn yes.

Rob Booker: What is this Jason? Is this cosmic energy flowing through you? What is this? You have an incredible amount of discipline. You once finished a podcast while you were sick. You said, Could you please hold for a moment podcasting crew. You went and threw up and then you went back and finished your podcast.

Jason Pyles: That’s true, yeah.

Rob Booker: That’s the discipline that we’re talking about. That is, you are an example of what we’re trying to achieve. What is it Jason? Were you born with this?

Jason Pyles: I don’t know.

Rob Booker: How did you come back from a surgery that left you feeling really … You were really bad off right after the surgery and then you just came roaring back.

Jason Pyles: Yeah, honestly that surgery was worst thing that ever happened to me this year, this March. I’ll tell you. For me Rob, it seems like with both the surgery and the other thing it’s just a desire to move forward and to progress. Progression is really important to me.

Yes, I plateau like everybody else. I’m not perfect at this. I get stuck in a rut. But when I really want to move forward with something in life that’s important to me like my own life or the Trader’s podcast. I was excited to get up this morning. It’s like, yes, I’m tired right now. Yes, this is difficult to get out of bed. But I want to progress and move forward and keep going. I think discipline can be born out of a desire to succeed.

Rob Booker: Yeah, that’s a really … I like that. That’s the motivation to change for the better comes out of that desire to succeed. There’s a possibility that when I have been … Let’s just use me as an example. It’s not fair to use our friend as an example. But when I have unsuccessful due to a lack of discipline, it is possible that my goal in these instances has been to make money. Or my goal has been to save face or prove a point. Something along those line, as opposed to maybe a goal Jason, ought to be the goal itself should be doing the right thing. Or the goal itself should be to follow a process.

We talked on our other marketing podcast weekly, shameless plug, we talked just on our last episode about the fact, oftentimes success isn’t the result of setting a big lofty goal that is accomplished all in one fell swoop. But instead, success is about setting a goal to do the right things every day and identity what those right things are. And then only do those things. Maybe we could come back in on our next episode on Thursday we could come back and talk about what those right things are.

Jason Pyles: I like it.

Rob Booker: How can, I don’t really remember anymore. How can someone reach the show?

Jason Pyles: You know. I was going to ask you the same thing, Rob. I wasn’t sure what means we were using. I remember back in the day when-

Rob Booker: I think they should send me a text message.

Jason Pyles: Okay, ’cause I was going to say, I remember when you have everybody texting your own personal cell phone.

Rob Booker: Let’s do it. Okay, my cell phone number is 304-281-8332. 304-281-8332. Or leave a comment under the show notes of today’s episode of the Trader’s podcast and we’ll give one commenter who welcomes Jason back, we’ll give someone an Amazon gift certificate. Jump on traderspodcast.com, click on today’s episode. Scroll down though the transcript and leave a comment for Jason. We’ll give one lucky winner, what do we say, $25 Amazon gift card.

Jason Pyles: Yeah. That’s nice.

Rob Booker: Jason, do you want to plug anything before we go today? Let’s do that.

Jason Pyles: Oh, thank you, yes. I hope people could check out moviepodcastweekly.com if you want to hear about new movies that are in theaters. If you’re a horror fan, ’cause Halloween’s coming up soon, horrormoviepodcast.com

Rob Booker: That sounds like a brilliant idea. We’ll see you next time everybody.