The Option Genius Podcast: Options Trading For Income and Growth

Is the U.S. Government Your New Best Stock Picker? The U.S. government is fundamentally changing how it funds corporate America—moving away from traditional "free money" bailouts and quietly securing direct equity stakes in critical industries. But what does this mean for retail investors, and can you actually profit by following taxpayer dollars? In this episode, Allen and Matty open up the scorecard on several "Trump stocks" where government money was deployed, including Intel ($INTC), Trilogy Metals ($TMQ), Lithium Americas ($LAC), USA Rare Earth, and MP Materials ($MP). We analyze these charts to see what worked, what flopped, and most importantly, how retail investors can apply conservative options selling strategies to trade these massive macroeconomic catalysts while maintaining strict risk avoidance. What You'll Discover: The Government Equity Shift: How federal policy transitioned from straightforward subsidies to taking direct ownership percentages in national security and infrastructure companies. The "Trump Stocks" Scorecard: A review of specific taxpayer investments to reveal the chart signals that separated the massive multibaggers from the underperformers. Profiting from Catalysts: A real-world breakdown of a LEAPS (Long-Term Equity Anticipation Securities) trade, highlighting the exact criteria needed when taking a directional risk. Macro Market Drivers: Why anticipated Federal Reserve actions serve as a rising tide that lifts all equities, and how to identify the underlying "cause" of a market move before it happens. Timestamped Summary: 0:01 - Introduction to the Option Genius philosophy: Financial, time, and choice freedom. 0:40 - The policy shift: From government grants to nationalistic equity stakes. 2:10 - Analyzing the mining and materials investments: Trilogy Metals ($TMQ) and Lithium Americas ($LAC). 4:07 - National security plays: Reviewing the charts for USA Rare Earth and MP Materials ($MP). 6:20 - The Intel ($INTC) case study: How taxpayers got in early, and how the trade ultimately played out. 9:32 - Managing a winning options trade: The "Exit Rule" for handling massive gains on LEAPS while adhering to conservative money management. 11:26 - Federal Reserve outlook: The impact of incoming interest rate cuts on your portfolio. 15:00 - Final verdict on the government's stock picking and how to spot the next big catalyst. If you found value in today's episode, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and share this episode with a fellow trader who wants to build wealth responsibly!

In this episode of the Option Genius Podcast, Allen Sama celebrates a special occasion: the 50th birthday of Option Genius coach, Matt. But this isn't just a celebration; it's a deep dive into the wisdom gained from a decade in the markets and five decades of navigating life's transitions. We discuss the current geopolitical climate and its impact on the S&P 500 and Oil futures before shifting gears into Matt's personal journey. From driving forklifts at Costco to managing high-pressure real estate associations in Boston, Matt shares how his past careers prepared him for the emotional discipline required for conservative options trading. Whether you are a young investor looking to shorten your learning curve or a veteran trader seeking to "find your lane," this episode offers a roadmap for aligning your trading strategy with your personal temperament. Key Takeaways Match Strategy to Temperament: Why Matt prefers the "laid-back" nature of Oil futures over the high-intensity 0DTE (Zero Days to Expiration) trades. The "Don't Be Cute" Rule: The dangers of deviating from your trading plan and trying to outsmart the market. The Power of Compounding Wins: Shifting your mindset from "beating the S&P 500" daily to winning the "12 rounds" of the year. The "If Not Now, When?" Philosophy: Breaking through the "Yeah, but..." excuses to take control of your financial future regardless of age. Timestamped Summary [00:00] Market Recap: S&P, Bitcoin at $73k, and the Iran-Israel geopolitical impact. [12:15] 50 Years of Lessons: Matt's transition from property management and Costco to full-time trading. [24:40] The Psychology of Loss: Learning from "Market Power" drawdowns and why you shouldn't be hard on yourself. [36:50] Financial Literacy Resources: Discussion on The Automatic Millionaire and The Intelligent Investor. [48:10] The "Back Nine" of Life: Advice for both young and older listeners on starting their trading journey today. Join the Community: If this episode inspired you, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts and leave a review to help other "little guys" fight back against the rigged Wall Street system!

In this episode of the Option Genius Podcast, we tackle one of the most pressing questions in today's euphoric market. We are currently witnessing an AI frenzy that looks and feels incredibly similar to the late 90s .com bubble. From companies randomly pivoting to AI just to bump their stock prices (like Allbirds and MyMuse) to the dangerous rise of deepfake AI testimonials and deceptive marketing, there are major red flags that conservative investors need to watch out for. We also discuss a massive recent shift in market regulation: FINRA's decision to drop the $25,000 Pattern Day Trader rule, essentially removing the guardrails for retail traders right at the peak of market exuberance. Finally, we break down the reality of using AI in your options trading—differentiating between utilizing AI for market research, running automated strategies through platforms like TradingView, and the dangerous illusion of a fully autonomous "AI trader." Is the AI bubble about to burst? Listen in to find out how to protect your capital and navigate these treacherous waters. Key Takeaways History Rhymes: The current AI boom mirrors the 1999 .com bubble, with massive capital expenditures, retail euphoria, and companies enjoying 600% stock surges simply by adding "AI" to their business plans. The AI Marketing Mirage: Be highly skeptical of the "one-man billion-dollar AI company." Many of these operations are being cracked down on by the FTC for utilizing fake, AI-generated User Generated Content (UGC) and deceptive ads. Guardrails Removed: The SEC and FINRA have eliminated the $25,000 requirement for pattern day trading—a rule originally established after the .com crash to protect small investors. This is a classic late-stage market warning sign. AI vs. Automated Trading: AI is a powerful tool for research and backtesting, but it is not ready to take over your trading completely. Stick to writing defined, automated strategies using tools like TradingView rather than trusting a "black box" AI. Timestamped Summary 0:00 – Introduction: Financial freedom and fighting back against Wall Street. 1:00 – The AI Bubble: Parallels to the 1999 .com craze and the "this time is different" mentality. 10:59 – The myth of the one-man AI billion-dollar company and the FTC crackdown on fake testimonials. 20:00 – Red Flags: Unprofitable companies pivoting to AI for massive stock price bumps. 27:27 – FINRA drops the Pattern Day Trader rule: What it means for retail investors and market risk. 35:44 – Wall Street euphoria and why you should never ignore geopolitical risk. 42:06 – Answering David's Question: Should AI do our trading for us? (AI research vs. automated execution). Join the Conversation: Want to protect your portfolio and learn to trade like a market maker? Make sure to hit subscribe, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, and share this episode with a fellow trader who needs to hear this warning!

In the world of options trading, these two terms are often thrown around interchangeably, leading to massive confusion for individual investors. In this episode, we cut through the wordplay to define exactly what these maneuvers mean for your portfolio. We explore how an adjustment acts as a broad category for any tweak to a current trade—whether you're adding contracts, bolting on new spreads, or changing the overall structure. You'll also learn why a roll is a specific subset of adjustments used to move a trade vertically in price or out in time. Using real-world examples like a MasterCard call spread, we debate whether you should "continue a fight you're already losing" or simply stick to your original trading plan. Tools & Concepts Discussed: Vertical rolls, time rolls, credit vs. debit rolls, and index vs. individual stock volatility. Are you clear on your "line in the sand" before you click the trade button? When a trade moves against you, do you prefer to adjust the structure to lower your risk, or do you prefer to roll it out and wait for more time? Subscribe to the Options Trading Podcast for more step-by-step guidance! Key Takeaways Adjustments are the Broad Category: An adjustment is any change made to a trade's structure, such as adding contracts or turning a spread into a condor to change the delta or theta. Rolling is a Specific Subset: A roll involves closing a current position and opening a new one with a later expiration (roll out) or a different strike price (roll up/down). Vertical vs. Time Rolls: Traders can perform vertical rolls to move strikes further from the money or time rolls to give the trade more room for theta to kick in. Credit vs. Debit Strategy: It is generally recommended to roll for a credit rather than paying a debit. Paying a debit for a roll means taking money out of your pocket for a gain you haven't yet realized, which can be wasted if the stock continues to move against you. Asset Type Dictates Strategy: Indexes are often better candidates for adjustments because they move slower and more predictably, while individual stocks (like MasterCard) can have "5-standard deviation moves" that make adjustments futile. "An adjustment really is continuing the same trade; rolling it from one month to the next is often just continuing a fight that you're already losing." Timestamped Summary 1:26 – Definitions: Why "adjustment" is the big category and "roll" is the subset. 5:04 – The Mechanics: Vertical rolls (price) vs. time rolls (expiration). 8:36 – The MasterCard Case Study: When to get out vs. when to move the trade. 11:40 – The Debit Trap: Why you should avoid paying to roll a losing position. 14:40 – Index vs. Stocks: Why standard deviation moves change your adjustment logic. Confused about your next move? Share this episode with a fellow trader! Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and tell us: do you prefer rolling for time or adjusting for price?

Choosing your very first options trade can be a paralyzing decision, but it doesn't have to be. In this episode, we break down the three fundamental strategies every beginner should consider: covered calls, naked puts, and credit spreads. We share personal stories—from landline calls to brokers to the evolution of a "24% a year" blog—to illustrate how these strategies perform in real-world bull and sideways markets. You'll learn why the covered call is often the "gateway" trade that gets nervous investors into the pool, why naked puts are like "hunting for bargains," and why credit spreads are eventually the superior choice for small accounts and diversification. We also provide an honest reality check on the risks, including the "10-year war" of holding stocks during a crash. Tools & Resources Mentioned: The Passive Trading Book, blogger platforms for journaling, and the concept of "Black Friday" stock shopping. Are you ready to move past the "options are too risky" myth? If you could only master one strategy for the rest of your life, would you choose the simplicity of a covered call or the flexibility of a credit spread? Subscribe now for more simple, step-by-step guidance! Key Takeaways The "Big Three" for Beginners: New traders really only need to master three strategies: covered calls, naked puts, and credit spreads. Each offers a different entry point depending on your capital and risk tolerance. Covered Calls as a "Gateway": This is often the best "first trade" because it is easy to conceptualize. If you already own stock, selling a call allows you to generate income (often 2% a month) while you wait for the stock to be called away or the option to expire. Naked Puts as Bargain Hunting: Selling a naked put is essentially getting paid to wait for a stock you want to buy at a lower price. It is more capital-efficient than a covered call but requires "hunting for bargains" on quality companies you actually want to own. The Evolution to Credit Spreads: While harder to conceptualize initially, credit spreads are often the "end game" because they free up capital, allow for diversification (bullish and bearish trades simultaneously), and provide more ways to adjust the trade if the market turns. The Importance of Stock Selection: High premiums are often a trap; they usually signal high volatility and a higher likelihood of the stock "burying" you. Success depends on picking stocks you wouldn't mind holding for the long term if the trade turns into a "war". "The slow and steady trader, the one managing risk, will beat the gunslinger in the long run." Timestamped Summary 0:40 – The Coaching Call Question: What is the easiest strategy to learn first? 3:15 – The "Taxi Driver" Story: How 25% monthly returns in old books set the hook for covered calls. 7:12 – Why Brokers Push Covered Calls: The psychological safety of "getting in the pool". 11:57 – The Volatility Trap: Why chasing high premiums on naked puts can lead to assignment. 13:12 – The Credit Spread Shift: Why small accounts eventually move to spreads for diversification. 19:15 – The "Long War": A warning about the .com crash and the danger of not cutting losses. Ready to stop guessing? Share this episode with a friend who's been too scared to trade options! Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and tell us: what was the very first options trade you ever made?

The market playbook of 2025 is radically different from what we need in 2026. With slowing GDP growth (projected 1-2% next year), flat inflation/prices, and massive uncertainty surrounding Fed independence, AI margins, and geopolitical dynamics (BRICS, Ukraine), a conservative buy-and-hold strategy is unlikely to generate alpha. This episode lays out a concrete, three-part options trading playbook designed to outperform the S&P 500 next year, focusing on commodities and consistent income generation: First Down: Stay in Gold. With the dollar likely weakening (especially given potential Fed leadership changes and BRICS de-dollarization efforts), gold and commodities remain a strong buy-and-hold foundation. Second Down: Sell Oil Options. The futures market is pricing in stable oil prices for the next few months, creating a great environment for income traders to consistently sell options and generate high monthly returns (3-10% per month). Third Down: Focus on Option Selling (Income). Given expected lower momentum in the Magnificent Seven and other sectors, consistent option selling (like using threshold stocks or naked puts/covered calls) is positioned to outperform buying and holding index funds. The overall market outlook is sideways, making the disciplined, focused options trader the winner. Tools & Indicators Discussed: Fed Rate Policy, GDP Growth, Gold/Commodities, Oil Futures, BRICS, Threshold Stocks. Are you prepared to switch your strategy to match the new economic reality? If you had to pick only one commodity to hold for the next three years, would it be gold or silver? Join the conversation and subscribe for more strategic market analysis! Key Takeaways (3–5 points) 2026 Market Outlook is Sideways: Driven by slowing GDP growth (1-2% projected), flat inflation, and increased corporate cutbacks, the market is likely to move sideways with higher uncertainty, making consistent double-digit index returns unlikely. Play #1: Stay in Gold/Commodities (Dollar Weakness): A continued weakening of the dollar is anticipated due to geopolitical shifts (BRICS nations moving away from the dollar) and domestic factors (potential for rate cuts under new Fed leadership). Gold is the number one play to beat the market next year. Play #2: Sell Oil Options (Income Focus): The oil futures market is currently stable (not pricing in higher prices several months out), creating a fantastic environment for income traders to consistently sell options on oil(e.g., selling futures options) to generate 3-10% monthly returns. Play #3: Shift from Momentum to Selling Income: The massive momentum seen in the Magnificent Seven (Mag 7) and AI sectors is expected to slow down significantly due to increased competition (reducing Nvidia's margins) and money exiting the space. This shift makes consistent option selling (e.g., using threshold stocks or selling options on indices) a superior strategy to buying momentum. Crypto's Role: Crypto (Bitcoin) may be targeted by Wall Street, but if prices experience a major flush-out (e.g., Bitcoin drops to $50k-$60k), it could become an attractive, long-term buy-the-dip opportunity for the risk-tolerant. "The playbook of 2025 is radically different from what we're going to have in 2026." Timestamped Summary 0:37 - The Core Question: Why the 2025 playbook must change for the 2026 market environment. 1:57 - Economic Backdrop: Slowing GDP growth (1-2% projected) and flat consumer prices. 4:18 - Overall Forecast: The market is expected to move mostly sideways due to various uncertainties. 6:58 - Play #1: Stay in Gold: Dollar weakness due to geopolitics (BRICS) and potential Fed cuts makes gold the preferred foundation. 11:56 - AI Momentum Slowdown: Increased competition (Google, Microsoft making chips) will compress margins for leaders like Nvidia, leading to lower stock appreciation. 20:23 - Play #2: Sell Oil Options: Stable oil futures prices create a great environment for income generation (3-10% monthly returns) by selling options. 22:50 - Play #3: Income Focus: Selling options on threshold stocks and indices is safer and more likely to outperform buy-and-hold in a low-momentum, sideways market. Stop chasing momentum! Share this 2026 playbook with a fellow investor who needs a defensive strategy.  Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and tell us which play—Gold or Oil—you think will be the bigger winner next year!

We all know the Oracle of Omaha is a legendary investor, but does his wisdom apply to short-term options trading? In this episode, we break down Warren Buffett's most famous quotes and analyze them through the lens of an options trader. We discuss why looking for "one-foot bars" over "seven-foot bars" is the secret to high-probability trading, and why sticking to your "circle of competence" can save your portfolio. We also debate where we disagree with Buffett—specifically regarding holding periods and diversification—and how to adapt his principles to generate cash flow today. Whether you are a value investor or selling puts for income, this conversation reveals how to simplify your strategy and get your money working for you. In this episode, we cover: Why you should look for "one-foot bars" (the KISS principle). The importance of trading what you know. Why "holding forever" might not work in the age of AI. The harsh reality of making money while you sleep. Resources Mentioned: Get your free copy of the Passive Trading book: passivetrading.com/freebook Do you agree with Buffett's rule on never losing money? Subscribe and let us know your thoughts! Key Takeaways Look for the "One-Foot Bars": Don't overcomplicate trading with complex Greeks or obscure data. Look for the "layups"—trades with high probability and less stress (like the 90% probability put). Stick to Your Circle of Competence: Your watchlist should reflect what you know. If you work in oil, trade oil. If you eat fast food, trade those companies. You have an edge in industries you interact with daily. Adapt to Reality: The market will not adapt to your risk tolerance. You must be willing to change your strategy (or sit on the sidelines) when the market environment shifts. Income vs. Holding Forever: While Buffett loves holding forever, options traders often benefit from trimming positions and compounding gains actively rather than passively waiting for decades. The Ultimate Goal: "If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you're going to work until you die." Options trading allows for theta decay (time value) to work in your favor overnight. "If you cannot explain your strategy to a 10-year-old, then it's too complicated... I don't look to jump over seven-foot bars. I look around for one-foot bars that I could step over." Timestamped Summary (01:50) The "One-Foot Bar" Rule: Why simplicity beats complexity in trading. (04:02) Circle of Competence: Why your watchlist should be unique to you. (07:23) Adapting to Reality: Why you can't force a strategy on a market that doesn't want it. (16:47) Voting vs. Weighing Machine: Short-term price action vs. long-term value. (21:29) The Debate on "Holding Forever": Does this apply to the modern options trader? (40:04) Making Money While You Sleep: The ultimate goal of passive trading. If you enjoyed this breakdown of Buffett's wisdom, please leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts. Share this episode with a friend who needs to stop overcomplicating their trades.

We've all heard of the "TACO" (Trump Always Chickens Out) trade, but there's a new, more powerful government-driven strategy in play. This episode reveals a simple yet potent playbook for what we're calling: The New Trump Trade (Not TACO). We explore the simple thesis: when the U.S. administration takes a direct ownership stake in a company, we should consider trading right alongside them. This isn't just a theory; we're seeing the results in real-time. We'll look at the government's involvement with Intel (INTC) and how that stock has nearly doubled, and then dive into a watch list of rare earth and materials companies like MP Materials (MP), Lithium Americas (LAC), and Trilogy Metals (TMQ) that have seen explosive returns since the government stepped in. This isn't about capitalism at its best; it's about playing the market that we have. Are you ready to follow the ultimate smart money? Subscribe for more unique trading playbooks. Key Takeaways The New "Trump Trade" Thesis: The core idea is simple: if the U.S. government takes an ownership stake in a public company, investors should consider "following the smart money" and buying shares or long-term options, as the company is now a strategic national asset. The Intel (INTC) Example: The playbook started with Intel, which the government partnered with to secure the U.S. chip supply. Since the government's involvement, the stock has nearly doubled, proving the thesis that these companies "are not going to fail." The Rare Earth Materials Watch List: The strategy has expanded as the government seeks to secure domestic supplies of rare earth metals. A watch list of companies the government has already bought into includes: MP Materials (MP): Up from ~$30 to ~$89. Lithium Americas (LAC): Up ~66% in two weeks. Trilogy Metals (TMQ): Up from ~$2 to ~$8 in two weeks. The Government Will Set Price Floors: The administration has announced it will buy more companies in other industries and, significantly, will set price floors for these commodities. This is great for company profits (though not capitalism at its best) and provides a strong tailwind for the stocks. How to Play It: Stocks or LEAPS: Investors can trade these companies by either buying the stock outright for a long-term hold (aiming for 3x, 5x, or 10x returns) or by buying long-dated LEAP options (6+ months out) to control the position with less capital. "The Trump trade that I'm discussing... is that the companies that the administration buys or takes a piece of are could be very excellent traits... we should be trading right alongside the government." Timestamped Summary (00:40) The Old "TACO" Trade: A quick review of the old "TACO" (Trump Always Chickens Out) trade, which was based on him bluffing about tariffs. (03:52) The Fed Playbook (Market Context): A brief look at the current market environment, with the Fed signaling rate cuts, which provides a bullish tailwind for the stock market into the end of the year. (04:48) The New Trump Trade Explained (Intel): The episode reveals the new playbook: follow the government's investments. It starts with the Intel (INTC) deal, which has seen the stock nearly double. (08:23) The Rare Earths Watch List: The host unveils the new watch list of materials and mining companies the government is investing in, including MP, LAC, and TMQ, and their explosive returns. (14:52) How to Trade These Stocks: A discussion on the best ways to play this trend, such as buying the stock for a long-term hold or using long-dated LEAP options for a cheaper entry. What do you think of this 'New Trump Trade' playbook? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. If you found this insight valuable, share this episode with a friend who is looking for new trade ideas. Enjoying our unique take on the markets? A 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify helps us grow the show.

You can't trade without a broker, but having the wrong one is like trading with one hand tied behind your back. With all the consolidation and new players in the industry, how do you choose the right one for your options strategy? This episode is a complete review of the current landscape. We're talking about: Option Trading Brokers Reviewed. We'll break down the pros and cons of the biggest names in the game, from the undisputed champion of platforms, Thinkorswim (now at Schwab), to the pro-level (but difficult) Interactive Brokers. Learn why tastytrade's value may have changed since its acquisition and discover some lesser-known, low-cost brokers like eOption and TradeStation. We also discuss the rise of Robinhood and why, for serious options sellers, a desktop platform is still king. Don't just pick the first broker you see. This is your guide to finding the right fit for your trading style. Did you know your commissions are almost always negotiable? Subscribe for more essential trading tips. Key Takeaways Best Overall Platform: Schwab (for Thinkorswim): Despite a potentially slow setup process, Schwab is rated #1 primarily because it offers the Thinkorswim (TOS) platform, which is considered the most powerful and comprehensive tool for options analysis. Best for Professionals & Low Cost: Interactive Brokers (IBKR): IBKR offers the best fill prices and is the only major broker that does not use "payment for order flow." It's also the best choice for international traders. However, its software is notoriously difficult to learn, and customer service is lacking. The "Trader-Focused" Brokers (tastytrade, TradeStation, eOption): tastytrade: Built for options sellers but has seen a decline in value since being acquired by a private equity firm and the original founders departed. eOption: A great, low-cost "no-fluff" broker with excellent customer service, ideal for traders who use separate charting software. TradeStation: A new player with an interesting monthly membership fee model for commission-free trading, but its different platforms are still being integrated. Robinhood is Built for Phones, Not Complex Trading: While Robinhood is growing fast and adding features like SPX trading, its mobile-first focus makes it difficult to analyze and execute complex options strategies like iron condors. Most serious traders prefer a robust desktop platform. Pro-Tip: Your Commissions are Negotiable: Don't accept the default commission rate. Once you have a track record or a decent account size, call your broker and ask for a better rate. They can almost always go lower. "When you're just starting out, I think people try to pick the perfect broker. It's like, No, don't worry about it... in the first, maybe even 50 trades or 100 trades, we're not even trying to make money... We're just trying to learn the skills." Timestamped Summary   (01:52) #1 Broker: Schwab / Thinkorswim: A breakdown of why the Thinkorswim (TOS) platform makes Schwab the top choice, despite its overwhelming initial appearance and the fact that most traders only use 5% of its features. (05:13) #2 Broker: Interactive Brokers (IBKR): An overview of the pros (best pricing, no payment for order flow, international access) and cons (difficult software, poor customer service) of IBKR. (09:20) The tastytrade Story: The history of tastytrade, its acquisition by a private equity firm, and why the departure of its founders has led to a decline for what was once a top broker for option sellers. (13:28) Low-Cost & Niche Brokers (eOption / TradeStation): A look at two smaller brokers: eOption, known for low costs and great service, and TradeStation, which offers a unique monthly membership for commissions. (16:53) The Robinhood Factor: A discussion on Robinhood's rise, its mobile-first limitations for serious options trading, and its focus on crypto and tokenization. Which broker do you use for options, and what's your favorite feature? Let us know in the comments. If you know someone just starting out and looking for a broker, share this episode with them. Enjoyed this broker breakdown? A 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify helps us reach and empower more traders.

The Federal Reserve has officially started a rate-cutting cycle, and Chairman Powell has telegraphed that more cuts are likely on the way. For traders, this is a time to be "licking your chops." This episode is all about: The FED Playbook. We dive into the historical data to see what has happened in the 11 previous times since 1980 that the Fed has cut rates multiple times in a row. Discover why, in the absence of a major recession, the market has historically seen double-digit gains 12 months later. We'll explore which sectors—from defensive stocks and small caps to banks and homebuilders—tend to perform best during these cycles. This isn't a guess; it's a playbook based on decades of market history. Is it time to "back up the truck" and load up? Subscribe for more deep dives into the market forces that matter.   Key Takeaways   The Fed Has Signaled a Cutting Cycle: Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has clearly telegraphed that a rate-cutting cycle has begun, with potentially one or two more cuts expected before the end of the year. This removes a significant amount of uncertainty for the market. History Shows Strong Market Performance: In the 11 times since 1980 that the Fed has initiated a multi-cut cycle without a recession, the S&P 500 has been up an average of 14.5% twelve months later. The market was also higher, on average, three and six months after the first cut. The "Goldilocks" Scenario is Here: The current environment of a stable economy, manageable inflation (around 3%), and a Fed that is actively cutting rates is what many describe as a "Goldilocks" scenario for the stock market. Expect Broad Market Leadership: Historically, Fed cutting cycles tend to broaden market leadership beyond just the tech sector. Defensive stocks (like consumer staples) tend to gain early, while cyclicals (like banks, homebuilders, and small caps) often perform better later in the cycle. The Playbook Says: Be in the Market: Based on the strong historical precedent, the playbook for this environment is to have exposure to the stock market to capitalize on the expected upward trend. While a 10% pullback is always possible and healthy, fighting the long-term trend in this environment would be a mistake. "The Fed lowering rates multiple times in succession has happened before. History repeats itself. So what is the playbook? Well, let's take a look at what has happened before." Timestamped Summary (00:52) The Fed's Clear Signal: The episode kicks off with the news that Fed Chairman Powell has clearly telegraphed a rate-cutting cycle, removing market uncertainty. (02:30) The Historical Playbook: A deep dive into the data from the last 11 multi-cut cycles since 1980, revealing that the market is up an average of 14.5% a year later when there is no recession. (09:27) The "Goldilocks" Scenario: An argument for why the current combination of a stable economy, manageable inflation, and an easing Fed creates a highly favorable "Goldilocks" environment for stocks. (12:41) Which Sectors Perform Best?: A look at the historical data on which sectors tend to benefit most during a rate-cutting cycle, including defensive stocks, banks, small caps, and homebuilders. (14:30) The Bottom Line: "Back Up the Truck": The host's concluding thought that the historical playbook for this scenario is clear: it's time to have exposure to the market and "load up the truck." Are you bullish or bearish for the rest of the year? Share your take in the comments. If this episode helped you understand the Fed's impact, share it with a friend who is new to investing. Enjoying our market analysis? A 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify helps us grow the show.

It's one of the toughest decisions any trader faces: your trade is a winner, but there's still more potential profit on the table. Do you take the money and run, or do you let it ride for a bigger gain? This episode is a candid, real-time debate about this very dilemma, exploring the topic of: When To Exit a Winning Trade. Using a live "Phoenix" trade on SPX as a case study, we break down the math and the mindset behind two different approaches. Is it better to lock in a solid 4.4% return early, freeing up your capital and mental energy? Or is it worth risking that profit for an additional 1.1% gain by holding until the end? We explore the psychology of never wanting to give back a profit, the concept of "velocity of money," and the danger of letting the word "need" creep into your trading decisions. There's no single right answer, but understanding the variables is key to developing your own consistent style. What's your thought process on taking profits? Subscribe for more real-life trading discussions.   Key Takeaways   It's a Trade-Off: Certain Profit vs. Potential More: The core dilemma is whether to lock in a guaranteed, solid profit now or risk that profit for a smaller, additional gain by holding the position longer. In the episode's example, the choice was between a certain $355 profit or holding for a potential extra $90. The Psychology of "Not Giving It Back": A powerful emotional driver for exiting early is the desire to avoid the painful feeling of a winning trade turning into a loser. For many traders, the goal of consistency means booking a win and moving on to the next opportunity without taking on unnecessary end-of-day risk. Risking Your Win: What's the Real Math?: A key question to ask is, "Am I risking my current profit to make a worthwhile additional gain?" In the example, the trader was risking a $355 profit to make an extra $90. Understanding this risk/reward ratio is crucial for making a logical, not emotional, decision. The "Velocity of Money" Concept: Exiting a trade early, even if you leave some profit on the table, frees up your capital and mental bandwidth to find and enter the next high-probability trade. This "velocity of money" can be more valuable than squeezing every last penny out of a single position. Beware the "Need" Mindset: A major red flag in your decision-making is when you start to feel you need to make a certain amount of money on a trade, perhaps to break even for the month. Trading from a place of desperation or "need" is a danger sign that you are likely to make a poor, emotionally driven decision. "I think that's one of the worst feelings in trading... you have a decent profit... and then you give it all back." Timestamped Summary (01:56) The Live Trade Scenario: An introduction to the real-life "Phoenix" trade on SPX that sparked the debate: a winning position with the choice to exit early or hold for more profit. (07:36) The Psychology of Exiting Early: A deep dive into the mindset of a trader who prefers to take a guaranteed profit to avoid the pain of giving back a win and to maintain consistency. (12:16) The Math of Letting It Ride: A crucial look at the numbers. Is it a good trade-off to risk an existing $355 profit to potentially make an additional $90? (15:15) The "I Need This" Danger Zone: A warning about the psychological trap of letting your P&L for the month influence your decision on a single trade, and why trading from a place of "need" is a red flag. (26:07) The "Velocity of Money" vs. Holding to Expiration: A discussion on when it makes sense to exit a longer-term trade early to free up capital for a new opportunity, versus letting a safe trade ride to expiration. What's your rule for taking profits on a winning trade? Share your strategy in the comments. If this episode made you think about your own exit strategy, share it with a trading buddy. Enjoying these real-life trading discussions? A 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify helps us grow the conversation!  

The meme stock phenomenon is back, so much so that a new ETF has been created to track them. But what exactly is in this new basket of high-risk, high-reward stocks? This episode is all about: Meme Stocks. We dive into the top 10 holdings of a new meme stock ETF, exploring companies in sectors from real estate and energy to the cutting-edge world of quantum computing. Discover the one thing all these stocks have in common—high short interest—and why that makes them prime candidates for explosive "short squeeze" rallies. We'll also discuss the critical difference between a company with a questionable future like GameStop and a speculative company with a genuinely compelling story, like those in the quantum computing space. Finally, we'll explain why these highly unpredictable stocks are generally unsuitable for conservative options selling strategies. Are you ready to see what's on the new meme watch list? Subscribe for more insights into the market's hottest trends.   Key Takeaways The New Wave of Meme Stocks: The meme stock trade is active again, leading to the launch of a new ETF designed to track them. This episode reviews the top 10 holdings of this new ETF. The Common Denominator is High Short Interest: The defining characteristic of a meme stock is not its business model, but its extremely high short interest. This means many institutional traders are betting against the company, making it vulnerable to a "short squeeze" if retail traders coordinate to buy the stock. A Separation of "Memes": Story vs. Obscurity: Not all meme stocks are created equal. Some, like GameStop, have a questionable long-term business model. Others, particularly in speculative tech sectors like quantum computing, have a compelling (though unproven) story that could lead to massive future value. Driven by Short Squeezes, Not Fundamentals: The rapid, thousand-percent gains seen in many of these stocks are not typically driven by fundamentals. They are the result of short squeezes, where short sellers are forced to buy back shares at higher and higher prices to cover their losing bets, creating a feedback loop. Unsuitable for Conservative Option Selling: Due to their extreme unpredictability and explosive volatility, these stocks are generally not suitable for conservative option selling strategies like credit spreads. The risk of a sudden, massive move wiping out a position is too high. "All of these things have one thing in common that makes them meme stocks is that the short interest is huge. They have a very high short interest because people are betting against it." Timestamped Summary (00:40) The Return of the Meme Stock ETF: The episode kicks off with the news that a meme stock tracking ETF is back after a previous failure, signaling renewed interest in the space. (02:27) The Top 10 Holdings Review: A walkthrough of the top 10 stocks in the new meme ETF, including Open Door (OPEN), Plug Power (PLUG), and several quantum computing companies. (09:22) The Critical Difference: Story vs. No Story: A discussion on how some meme stocks have a legitimate, albeit speculative, long-term story (like quantum computing), while others (like GameStop) have a much more questionable future. (13:48) Not For Conservative Option Sellers: The host's clear take on why these stocks, despite their high implied volatility, are generally too unpredictable and risky for premium-selling strategies. What's your favorite meme stock on this list, and why? Let us know in the comments. If you know someone who loves to follow the meme stock craze, share this episode with them. Enjoying our real-time market commentary? A 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify helps us grow the show.

They promise 2x or even 3x the market's daily returns, but financial advisors warn they are a trap for long-term investors. So what's the real story? This episode offers a personal and unfiltered take on one of the most debated topics in modern finance: Trading with Inverse and Leveraged ETFs. We break down how these complex products work and why conventional wisdom says to avoid holding them due to fees and tracking "decay." Hear a personal account of long-term success holding a 3x leveraged ETF (TQQQ), challenging the mainstream advice. We'll also share two critical cautionary tales: one about a hedging strategy gone wrong during the Great Recession, and another on why inverse ETFs are particularly dangerous in bear markets due to "rip your face off rallies." This is not your typical textbook advice. It's a real-world perspective on the potential and the pitfalls of using these powerful tools. When is the best trade no trade at all? Subscribe for more honest trading insights. Key Takeaways They Offer Magnified Returns and Risks: Leveraged ETFs (like TQQQ) use derivatives to aim for 2x or 3x the daily return of an underlying index, while inverse ETFs aim for the opposite. This magnification works on the downside as well, making them highly volatile instruments. Conventional Wisdom Says "Don't Hold Long-Term": Most financial advisors warn against holding these ETFs for more than a day due to the corrosive effect of high fees and daily rebalancing, which can cause their long-term performance to "decay" and not perfectly track the underlying index. Personal Experience Can Differ: The host shares his personal, multi-year experience holding the 3x leveraged ETF TQQQ, stating that despite the conventional warnings, it has been his single best-performing holding and has significantly outperformed the underlying NASDAQ index. Beware of Inverse ETFs and "Rip Your Face Off Rallies": The host strongly cautions against using inverse ETFs to bet against the market. The reason is that bear markets often contain the most violent, explosive single-day rallies, which can wipe out a short position very quickly. The Best Trade Can Be No Trade: A powerful cautionary tale is shared from the 2008 crisis, where trying to hedge by owning both a 2x leveraged ETF and a 2x inverse ETF still resulted in a loss. The lesson: when the market is too wild and you don't know what to do, sitting in cash is often the smartest move. "The word on the street... is not to hold, not to own a leveraged ETF for the long term... But for me, I've held TQQQ in one account or another for years... and it is the number one best performing holding that I've had." Timestamped Summary (00:44) What are Leveraged and Inverse ETFs?: A clear explanation of how 2x and 3x ETFs work and the derivatives they use to achieve magnified returns. (05:15) The Conventional Wisdom vs. Personal Experience: A breakdown of why financial advisors warn against holding these products long-term, contrasted with the host's personal story of multi-year success with TQQQ. (08:44) A Hedging Strategy Gone Wrong (Cautionary Tale): Hear the personal story from the Great Recession of buying both a 2x leveraged and 2x inverse ETF, and still losing money, highlighting the instruments' decay. (11:15) The Dangers of Inverse ETFs and "Rip Your Face Off Rallies": Learn why betting against the market with inverse ETFs is so risky, especially due to the violent short-squeezes common in bear markets. (12:47) Trading Options on Leveraged ETFs: The host's take on why he avoids trading most options strategies on these products, arguing that a covered call defeats the purpose and spreads are better suited for less volatile underlyings. Do you use leveraged ETFs in your portfolio? Share your experience—good or bad—in the comments. If this episode provided a unique perspective on a complex topic, share it with a friend who trades ETFs.  Enjoying our real-world take on trading? A 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify helps us reach more listeners.

The allure of 0DTE (Zero Days to Expiration) options is powerful, promising fast-paced action and quick results. But can this strategy realistically and safely fit into a busy work schedule? We break down the hard truth about short-term trading: the market can shift on a dime, and you must have the ability to access your platform to manage trades when things go wrong. While 95% of trades may not require much attention, the other 5% are critical. We'll discuss the absolute minimum requirements for attempting this strategy and why, for many busy professionals, a longer-term approach is a much safer and less stressful path to success. If you have very limited time to check the markets, are strategies like covered calls and cash-secured puts a better fit for your lifestyle? Subscribe for more practical and honest trading guidance. Key Takeaways 0DTE Trading Requires Active Management: Unlike long-term investing, 0DTE and 1DTE strategies are not "set it and forget it." The market can move dramatically in a single day, and you must have the ability to access your trading platform (on a phone or computer) to make adjustments. The "5% Rule" is Critical: While the host estimates that 95% of short-term trades may not need much intervention, the 5% that get into trouble require immediate attention. If you are unavailable during those critical moments, you risk significant losses that can wipe out many small wins. If You Have No Time, It's Not For You: The host is unequivocal: if your job prevents you from checking the markets or your phone at all during the day, short-term trading strategies like 0DTE are not a suitable choice and will likely lead to you losing money. A Better Alternative: Longer-Term Strategies: For investors with very limited time, longer-term and more conservative options strategies like covered calls and cash-secured puts are a much better fit. These often only need to be managed once a month around expiration. Mental Bandwidth is a Factor: Even if you can physically check your trades, being in a position that requires monitoring can be a major mental distraction from your primary job, especially during important meetings or focused work. Short-term trading is not for everyone's personality or work situation. "If you're going to be in something that is so short in time, you're going to have to be able to access the computer... otherwise you're going to end up losing money. In the short term, there's no like, set it and forget it." Timestamped Summary (01:21) The Core Problem with 0DTE and a Full-Time Job: An immediate breakdown of why short-term trading is challenging for busy professionals, as the market can "shift on a dime." (03:13) The "5% of the Time" Rule: Understand why, even if most trades are quiet, your availability during the critical 5% of trades that go wrong is what determines your success or failure. (04:47) The Recommended Alternative for Busy People: Discover why longer-term strategies like covered calls and cash-secured puts are a much safer and more suitable starting point for those who cannot actively monitor the market. (06:06) The Mental Bandwidth Consideration: A discussion on the hidden "cost" of short-term trading—the mental distraction it can cause from your primary career, even if you are able to check your phone. Do you trade while working? Share your biggest challenge or best tip in the comments below. If you know someone considering 0DTE trading, share this episode with them for a realistic perspective. Enjoying our honest, no-fluff approach? A 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify helps us reach more traders.

As investors, we move through different stages—from trying to make more money to trying to protect what we've built. But what is the biggest underlying threat to that wealth? This episode is a personal reflection on a critical, long-term issue facing all of us. This is: My Biggest Money Fear. Inspired by books like "The Fourth Turning is Here" and the work of Ray Dalio, we explore the potential decline of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency. Discover why this status has been the bedrock of American prosperity and what the consequences—like massive inflation and scarcity—could be if it erodes. We'll look at the geopolitical pressures from BRICS nations and a rising China that are challenging the dollar's dominance. This isn't about short-term market moves; it's about the fundamental stability of the financial system we all depend on. What can you do to prepare? Subscribe for more deep dives into the forces shaping our financial future.   Key Takeaways   The Biggest Money Fear: The Decline of the US Dollar: The host's primary financial concern is the potential for the US dollar to lose its status as the world's reserve currency, a shift that would have profound and negative consequences for the U.S. economy and standard of living. The Consequence: Massive Inflation and Scarcity: If the dollar is no longer the world's reserve currency, the U.S. would likely have to inflate its currency to pay its massive debts. This could lead to hyperinflation (40%, 50%, 100%+) and a scarcity of goods as production becomes uneconomical. The Geopolitical Drivers: Several global forces are challenging the dollar's dominance, including the formation of the BRICS nations alliance seeking its own currency, and the geopolitical maneuvering of a rising China against a declining U.S. empire, as described by Ray Dalio. The Bigger, Personal Fear: The Risk of War: The host notes that historically, shifts in global power from a declining empire to a rising one often lead to major military conflict. His biggest overall fear is the potential for a new world war and its impact on his draft-age children. The Recommended Preparation: Faced with this systemic risk, the books and analysis discussed in the episode recommend preparing by owning hard assets that exist outside the traditional dollar system, specifically gold and crypto. "If the dollar is no longer the reserve currency, life as we know it will change forever." Timestamped Summary   (00:45) My Biggest Money Fear: The host sets the stage by explaining his personal financial position of "protecting capital" and introduces his primary fear: the decline of the US dollar. (04:41) Why the Dollar's Reserve Status Matters: A clear explanation of what the reserve currency is, how it has fueled U.S. prosperity, and the severe consequences (hyperinflation) of losing that status. (07:54) The Geopolitical Threats (BRICS & China): A look at the global alliances and power shifts, particularly the BRICS nations and a rising China, that are actively working to usurp the dollar's dominance. (10:29) The Bigger Fear: World War III: The host shares his deepest concern, citing Ray Dalio's work, that the shift in global empires could ultimately lead to a major war. (13:48) How to Be Prepared: The episode concludes with the actionable advice suggested by the source material: preparing for this potential future by owning a diversified portfolio of hard assets like gold and crypto. What's your biggest long-term money fear? Share your thoughts in the comments below. If this episode made you think about the bigger picture, share it with a friend or family member. Enjoying our unique take on the markets? A 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify helps us grow the conversation. 

Is your trading causing you tension, fatigue, and anxiety? For most, the constant need to predict the market's next move is a recipe for burnout. This episode explores a radically different, calmer approach to the markets and answers the question: How To Trade Without Stress? Inspired by the book "The Surrender Experiment," we discuss how the root cause of trading stress is trying to force your will on an uncontrollable market. Discover the power of letting go of predictions and instead trading the market you have, not the one you want. We'll contrast the high-stress, predictive style of Jim Cramer with the calm, patient, ownership approach of Warren Buffett. Learn how to use probabilities instead of predictions and how letting go of a single frustrating trade can unlock your entire portfolio's potential. This is your guide to shifting from a posture of stressful control to one of calm, disciplined flow. Is your stress a signal that it's time to change your approach? Subscribe for more insights into the professional trading mindset.   Key Takeaways   Stress Comes From Trying to Control the Uncontrollable: The primary source of trading stress is the futile attempt to predict and control the market. Accepting that the market is bigger than you and will never be under your control is the first step to reducing anxiety. Trade the Market You Have, Not the One You Want: A less stressful approach involves reacting to current market conditions with a probabilistic edge, rather than trying to force the market to meet your predictions. This means using strategies that have room to be wrong and can be adjusted with the market's flow. The "Surrender" Mindset: Inspired by Michael Singer's "The Surrender Experiment," the goal is to let go of the need to know what happens next. By trading with probabilities and not predictions, you can remove the emotional attachment to a specific outcome, thus reducing stress. The Cramer vs. Buffett Contrast: The episode highlights two opposing trading styles. The Jim Cramer style is predictive, fast-paced, and visibly high-stress. The Warren Buffett style is research-based, patient, and visibly low-stress; he buys good companies and lets them run without trying to micro-manage the outcome. Your Stress Can Be a Signal: Frustration and stress around a specific trade can be a powerful signal from the market (or universe) that you are trying to force something that isn't working. Learning to listen to that signal and exit or adjust the trade can be a revolutionary way to manage your portfolio and your well-being. "I try to have as less stress as possible in my trading, and I try to trade the market that I have, not the way I want the market to be, and I do that by not predicting." Timestamped Summary (02:00) The "Surrender Experiment" Inspiration: An introduction to the core philosophy of the episode, based on the idea of letting go of control and surrendering to the flow of life and the market. (05:50) The Root Cause of Trading Stress: A breakdown of why trying to predict the market and force it to meet your expectations is the primary source of frustration and anxiety for traders. (07:22) The Eli Lilly Trap: A Personal Revenge Trading Story: Hear a candid, personal story about how trying to force a win on one single stock created stress and held back the entire portfolio's performance. (08:34) The Cramer vs. Buffett Contrast: A powerful comparison between the high-stress, predictive style of Jim Cramer and the calm, patient, hands-off approach of Warren Buffett. (12:38) A New Experiment: Trading Based on Stress: Discover the host's new, revolutionary idea of using his own stress level as a signal for when to adjust or exit a trade. Does your trading cause you stress? Share your biggest challenge in the comments below. If this episode offered you a new perspective on trading, share it with a friend who could use a calmer approach. Enjoying the podcast? A 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify helps us reach and empower more investors. 

Is the stock market a level playing field, or is the system rigged against the little guy? This episode dives headfirst into one of the most glaring conflicts of interest in modern finance, sparked by a recent legislative push. We're talking about: Congress Insider Trading. We break down the recent bill proposed to ban members of Congress, their spouses, and other high-ranking officials from trading individual stocks. Discover the shocking resistance this common-sense idea has faced and hear the outrageous justifications from politicians who argue that being a senator would become "unattractive" without the ability to trade. This discussion highlights the stark contrast between the self-serving attitudes of today and the civic-duty mindset of the nation's founders. Is it a step in the right direction, or will the system protect its own? Subscribe for more discussions on how Wall Street and Washington impact the individual investor. Key Takeaways A Bill to Ban Trading Faces Resistance: A bill was recently introduced to ban members of Congress, their spouses, the President, and the Vice President from trading stocks, a move widely supported by the public but facing significant political opposition. The "Unattractive Job" Excuse: In defending his vote against the bill, one senator outrageously claimed that being a senator would become "unattractive" if they couldn't trade stocks, highlighting a profound disconnect with the idea of public service. A Glaring Conflict of Interest: The ability of lawmakers, who have access to non-public information and the power to create market-moving legislation, to trade individual stocks is seen by many as a form of legalized insider trading. A Step in the Right Direction: Despite the opposition, the bill managed to pass an initial committee vote, signaling that public pressure and transparency are beginning to have an effect, even if the road ahead is difficult. A Departure From Founding Principles: The episode contrasts the self-serving arguments of modern politicians with the civic-minded ethos of figures like George Washington, who reluctantly accepted leadership roles out of a sense of duty, not for personal enrichment. "He came out and he said that I voted against it because it would make it, quote, unquote unattractive to become a senator. If I could not trade stocks".  Timestamped Summary   (00:45) The Premise: A System Rigged Against the Little Guy: The episode kicks off by discussing the public perception that the government isn't on our side, using the rampant success of congressional stock trading as a prime example. (01:58) The Bill to Ban Congressional Trading: A breakdown of the new legislation aimed at preventing lawmakers and their spouses from trading individual stocks and the political hurdles it faces. (03:30) The Outrageous "Unattractive Job" Quote: Hear the direct, shocking quote from a senator explaining why he voted against the bill, revealing a mindset focused on personal enrichment over public service. (04:55) A Stark Contrast with the Founding Fathers: The discussion compares the modern political attitude toward wealth and power with the reluctant, duty-bound approach of figures like George Washington. What are your thoughts on this issue? Should members of Congress be banned from trading stocks? Let us know in the comments. If you believe in fair markets for everyone, share this episode with your network. Enjoying our take on the markets? A 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify helps us grow and reach more listeners.

We've all heard the stories of missing out on early investments like Apple or Amazon. But as history shows, new technological waves are always emerging. This episode dives into one of the most significant digital assets today and asks the question: Why You Should Own ETH? We explore the compelling case for Ethereum, not as "digital gold" like Bitcoin, but as "digital oil"—the fuel that powers a vast ecosystem of other crypto projects and decentralized finance (DeFi). Discover the powerful catalysts on the horizon, from companies being formed just to hold ETH to major technological upgrades. We'll discuss why we may be in the "1996 of the internet" moment for digital assets and how a simple strategy like dollar-cost averaging can be a smart way to gain exposure. Is ETH the next great technological investment you can't afford to miss? Subscribe to hear our take on the opportunities shaping the future of finance. Key Takeaways ETH as "Digital Oil": Unlike Bitcoin, which is often compared to digital gold (a store of value), Ethereum's primary value comes from its utility. It acts as the foundational layer, or "digital oil," that greases the wheels for countless other crypto projects, smart contracts, and the DeFi ecosystem. Powerful Catalysts for Growth: The demand for ETH is poised to grow due to strong catalysts, including new companies being formed with the sole purpose of acquiring and holding Ethereum, as well as significant technological upgrades coming to the Ethereum network. Adoption is the Key Indicator: The increasing adoption of digital assets by individuals, institutions, and even governments signals that they are becoming a permanent part of the financial landscape. We are still in the early stages, comparable to the internet in 1996, with massive room for growth. A Parallel to Past Tech Revolutions: Missing the boat on ETH could be analogous to missing out on early investments in foundational tech companies like Apple, Amazon, or Microsoft. Each technological wave presents new opportunities for investors who get in before mass adoption. Dollar-Cost Averaging is a Smart Approach: You don't need to perfectly time the market. A disciplined strategy of dollar-cost averaging—investing a fixed amount regularly—is a prudent way to build a position over time, buying at various price points and benefiting from the long-term upward trend. "Bitcoin is digital gold, and you hold it... Ethereum is more like digital oil, because it's used to make other things. It's used to grease the wheels of other projects." Timestamped Summary (01:55) The "Digital Oil" Analogy: An explanation of why Ethereum's value is tied to its utility in powering other projects, distinguishing it from Bitcoin's "digital gold" status. (04:15) The Catalysts Driving Future Growth: A look at the key factors expected to increase demand for ETH, including institutional buying and the expansion of its ecosystem. (06:18) We're in "1996 for Digital Assets": Hear the argument for why we are still in the very early innings of crypto adoption, suggesting significant long-term growth potential. (07:40) The Forrest Gump / Apple Stock Parallel: A relatable story illustrating how getting in early on major technological shifts (like Apple then, or crypto now) can lead to massive wealth creation. What are your thoughts on the future of Ethereum? Let us know in the comments below. If this episode made you think differently about crypto, share it with a friend who is still on the fence. Enjoying the podcast? A 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify helps us reach more investors like you.

Alright, hey there, passive traders. This is Allen, coming to you with another episode of the Option Genius Podcast. Today, I wanted to talk about something that has been a pretty cool milestone for me, something I'm very excited about, but it's not something I can really share with friends or family. But I thought that if I shared it with you, you guys would appreciate it. And there's also a human relations, human nature lesson as well. And so, you know, it comes back to, like, is there ever a time, or is there something that you know to be maybe not true, right? It's like it goes against your common sense, but you still do it because you've just heard it done so many times, and so many people have said to do it, and it's just what everybody does. Yeah, you know, anything like that? And you just keep doing it. I mean, I am known as the passive trading guy, right? And I preach it all the time that, hey, look, if you can get your money to make money for you as much as you spend every month, then you can essentially retire, right? So if your expenses are, say, $10,000 a month, and from your trading, you can make $10,000 a month, then you can retire. You don't have to work anymore. You've just replaced your income. But I guess I don't follow that. I mean, I do, but I don't. And it goes back to, like, when I was very young, right after I got married, my wife was a big saver, and I, at that point, was not. And so she had savings. I had nothing. I was starting to trade. But her savings were really, really significant, and so I had to do something to show her that, look, we're going to be secure. I'm going to take care of you. And so I started putting money away in our Roth IRAs at that point, right? So I'm putting the money away, and that's the thing to do, right? You put your money away, you put it in a retirement account, and you let it grow, and you let it compound, and then eventually you get old, and then you retire, and you don't have to worry about money, right? That's what you're supposed to do. Now, my goal all the time was to retire early, but I'm still plugging all this money away into the retirement account every year. And then I started a company, and then the CPA told me, "Hey, you know, you should probably start a retirement account from the company. So the company pays money into your retirement account. For you, it's deductible. You'll save some money on your taxes." And I'm like, "Okay, that sounds good. I like saving money on taxes." So we started putting more money away. We started putting more money away, and it just kept going. And I didn't really think about it. Now, I read a book recently. It's called Die With Zero, and that got me to think. And so recently, at the end of the year, I went and I looked at, you know, all my finances, the balance sheet, and the net worth, and assets, liabilities, all that stuff. And I'm looking at it, and I'm realizing that, look, in our retirement accounts, for me and my wife, we have a substantial amount of money, especially with last year, you know, the market going up 20%, the year before that the market was up 20%, and so it's grown a lot, and we have a substantial amount of money in our retirement accounts. Maybe I don't have to put any more money in there, I don't know. So I took out my calculator, and I'm like, "Hey, this is going to be... let's see, right?" So I took the amount of money that I had, and let's call it "A," right? Just to make it simple, let's call it "A." And I said, "Okay, if I have this 'A' pile, right? I have 'A,' and that's the nest egg. Now, I'm going to retire at 65, let's just say, it's the number everybody uses, 65, want to retire, and I've got 17 years left. So if I have 'A,' and it grows at a decent rate of return, maybe 6, 7, 8, 9%, I don't know. You know, it varies. But if it grows at a decent rate of return, how much money am I going to have in my retirement account, my nest egg, in 17 years when I'm 65?" I did the numbers. We did it at different percentages, and it's going to come out to a very big number, you know, let's call it "Y." So the future nest egg is "Y," alright? The current nest egg is "A." Then I talked to my wife, and I'm saying, "Hey, babe, you know, 15 or 17 years from now, I'm going to be 65, you'll be a little younger. How much money do you think we can spend every month?" You know, we talked about it, we went over like, "Hey, you know, the kids will be grown. We're not really going to spend much money on them. Maybe the house will be paid off. And we're not big spenders as it is. So maybe we'd be spending, I don't know, on average, maybe $150,000. Now with, you know, inflation and whatnot, I'm not going to count that in. I'm not going to count taxes. I'm not going to count other expenses. And also, that's not the only, you know, this nest egg, the 'Y,' is not the only money I'm going to have. I'm going to have other investments and Social Security and Medicare, Medicaid, whatever, and all that stuff too. So I'm not going to even count any of that." So she said, "Okay, $150,000." I'm like, "Okay, that makes sense." So I took my "Y," divided it by $150,000. So if that money does not grow at all, you know, I take it out completely, out of the market. It's sitting in cash, it's sitting in my mattress, whatever, and it's not making any more money. Doesn't grow at all, and I deduct $150,000 every year from it to live off of, that money is going to last me roughly about 30 years. Now, I'll be 65, 30 years, I'll be 95. I don't know if I'm going to make it to 95, but most likely, I probably will have enough money to last for the rest of my life in retirement from just "A," if it grows the way it's been growing. And so I do the math several times, and I'm like, "Wait a minute, I don't have to put any more money away for retirement. My retirement is secure, in a sense, right? It could always go down, yes, but then, you know, there's going to be other stuff that we have as well. And worst comes to worst, I'll tell my kids they gotta, you know, take care of Dad and Mom." I've got that backup plan; I have, like, Plan C. So anyway, to me, that was really exciting. I was like, "Oh my God, this is really, really cool. This is awesome. This is..." And it's sad that I can't really talk to any friends or family about it because they're just going to get jealous, or, you know, they're going to say stuff. But I thought that you'd be interested in it. And, you know, you might be thinking, "Okay, hey, is that going to be enough money? What if you run out? Inflation, this and that?" And in that book I mentioned, Die With Zero, the author talks about this concept. He didn't bring it up, he didn't make it up. But he talks about something called the three stages of retirement. And so, in the first stage, right when you retire, those are called the Go-Go years, and then you have the Slow-Go years, and then you have the No-Go years. So in the Go-Go years, right away, you're like, "Hey, I just stopped working. I'm energized. I've got energy, my knees work. Let's go traveling. Let's go see our friends. Let's go travel the world. Let's knock off all this stuff on the bucket list, right? Let's go climb a mountain, maybe. Let's go climb a mountain, maybe. And so you're going to use more money, and you're going to go more places, and you do more things in the first few years, the Go-Go years. Then you transition into the Slow-Go years because now you're like, "Man, you know, if you've seen one museum, you've seen one cathedral, you've seen them all, right? Like, I don't need to see another museum." And so maybe you take up hobbies like gardening or trains, or whatever, right? And so you still go places, but you don't go as much, and you don't spend as much. And then, unfortunately, we have the No-Go years, which is, like, you know, when we're really old, and it hurts. Everything hurts. It hurts to get up. It hurts... you know, "Oh my God, I can tell when it's going to rain," kind of thing. And, you know, "It's a good day when Jeopardy has reruns," right? So those are the No-Go years; you're going to spend very little money. And so, I mean, that made a lot of sense to me. I was like, "Oh, okay, so yeah, I think even if we spend more money upfront, in the later years, we won't be able to spend that much. We won't be doing that much, and we're going to be fine." And if something happens to me, and if I pass away, like, you know, I've got life insurance, my wife has life insurance. So if one of us passes away, we'll have even more money, and then we'll definitely not run out of money. And plus, I probably won't be... I don't know, we'll see. I don't think about it, but without her, I don't want to do much traveling anyway. But, um, that's the thing. So, like, that's the goal, that's exciting. And it's just... it's the opposite of what I teach, but it's something that people always drum into our heads, like, "We have to do it, we have to do it, we have to do it." I have to interrupt this message because I am super excited. I haven't been this excited about something in trading since I first discovered trading options. Okay, it is that important. Now look, this is a new strategy that I've discovered recently that is just out there kicking butt and taking names. I can't give you all the details here, but if you go to marketpowermethod.com, you can get all the information. Again, that's marketpowermethod.com. Trust me, you want to know what this is. Now, back to the show. So what are you doing that has been drummed into your head that doesn't make sense, you know? It's counter to common sense, counter to what you know. But everybody else is doing it, and everybody's telling you to do it, and if you don't do it, people are like, "Man, you're stupid. You know? Why are you rocking the boat?" kind of thing. Now, in this case, it kind of worked out, right? It helped, you know, that I would have had the extra funds, but now I have the extra money. So the money that I'm not putting away... because every month, every year, I was putting a lot of money away, right? I don't have to put that money away, and now I need to spend it on us. So if I had gone back in time, I probably would not have put so much money into retirement because, I mean, I got there 17 years early, right? I mean, I could have waited a little bit, a little bit, a little bit, until I got closer to 65, and then put a lot of money in, but it grew, right? But my point is that I probably wish that I had spent more money, you know, because there's... to me, in my mind, there's, like, two types of rich. There's one kind of rich, which is when you have a lot of money, you know, you have the big nest egg, you have a lot of money in savings, you have a lot of that, but you don't feelrich because that money is sitting there. You don't use it. It's there for a rainy day. It's there for retirement. You don't really get to go and play with it, right? And so you're still living on a budget, you're still living under your means. You're still like, "Oh, no, no, no, can I afford that?" And you have to think twice. The other type of rich is the person who's making a lot of income now, whether they have money in the bank or not, it doesn't matter, because in that person's mind, right? The money's going to come every month. So, "I'm going to make money this month, I'm going to make money next month, I'm going to make money the month after that. And so what do I do with all this money? Yeah, I could put it away, or I could have fun with it." And so there are two different types of rich. One is income rich, and one is asset rich. Asset rich is great, but you can't spend it. You know, all my money for all these years has been sitting in these retirement accounts that I can't even touch until I'm 65. I'm not supposed to touch it, right? Otherwise, I pay fees and taxes and all that stuff. So it's like, I don't even have it. Is it there? Yeah, great. But it doesn't make me feel rich. But if you have the income coming in, then that's when you're like, "Oh, yeah, you know, like, I mean, I want to buy a new car. Well, I found this car I want to buy. It's going to be around $2,500 a month. That's the lease payment. Okay, that's an expensive car. If I was asset rich, I would have to take out, you know, $2,500 every month from my assets. So I'm actually getting poorer every month. I'm getting poorer by paying for this car. And I'm like, 'Oh, that's not a good feeling.'" But if I have the income, and I know it's going to replenish every month, I don't feel that bad paying $2,500 for a car payment because, I mean, I have a lot more, and I'll get more next month, right? So no big deal. And eventually, I'll pay off the car and be fine, and then I'll have the money saved over. So you really have to figure out, like, what type of rich do you want to be? You can do both. You can try. I do think that income rich is a lot better because when you're income rich, and you know how to make the money, even if something bad happens, you still know how to make the money. You can start over. When you're only asset rich, and if that money goes away, you're done because it took you years and years and years to get that money. And for most people, what they do, all they do is they know how to save it. They know how to put it in an account and just let it sit there. They don't know how to make it grow. So you guys need to decide what type of rich you want to be. You could be both, but which one is the priority? Asset rich or income rich? I think, and I preach, income rich. But, right? What is it? Like they say, "Do what I say, not what I do," right? Kind of. So I'm telling you, "Hey, go for income rich," but I went for asset rich, even though, in my mind, I'm preaching this stuff every day. So that's human nature, right there, right? And it's crazy. So hopefully, this episode was helpful, hopefully, this gave you something to think about. And I hope that you go for income rich, but you can go for both. Or maybe, depending on how old you are, it depends, you know, maybe you're just going for income, but I think income... if I would do it all over again, now that I know what I know, I would go for income rich first. I would want to focus first on generating my income to a certain level. You know, it's like, keep focusing on income, keep growing the income, keep growing the income to maybe something that's, you know, more money than I can spend every month. And then I take that extra and I put it away, and then that becomes a safety net. But in the beginning, while I'm young, while I can work hard, while I can put in the hours, I think that generating income is the best. So saving for retirement, saving in your IRA, saving in your 401(k), even if there's a match, might not be the best idea, even though that is what every personal finance book tells you out there. Yeah, you have to make the decision for yourself, and so I'm not going to give you the answer because it's different for everybody. I went one way when I should have gone the other way, but hindsight is... well, you know, I'm still going to get to my goal. I still have the income, but now I don't have to put any more money in for early retirement. So hey, that's great, too. I'm going to have an extra several thousand dollars every year, and maybe I'll use that to go buy a car. I finally hit the car. Alright, folks, well, you take it easy. Have a good day. Trade with the odds in your favor, and we'll see you next time. Bye.

This is part 2 of my interview with John S Pennington Jr.  Make sure to listen to Part 1 first. Allen   It seems like I mean, because all the stuff you're mentioning, you know, Ray Dalio in his books, he talks about it too, you know, like, how does one Empire take over from another one? And it's because of the the currency, it's because of you know, and he's been talking about it for a while that there's a collision course coming. And everybody's afraid of it. You know, I mean, I'm even afraid of it. Because if we go to war in 10 years from now, you know, I have two boys that are 13 and 11, they're probably going to be drafted because everybody in the United States is overweight, and they can't fight it. So there's got to be some, right? There's gonna be some serious problem with the Army not having enough people. So my kids are gonna be fighting in a war. I don't want them fighting in and like, everybody's freaking out about it. And like you said, you know, China, they brokered the deal. They're making friends in the Middle East. They're making friends in Africa. They're giving loans like you said, US gave loans to everybody. They gave loans in trillions of dollars, not even billions, but I think it was trillions of worth of loans to build infrastructure in Africa that is then maintained owned and run by Chinese. It's not run by the Africans, the Chinese are in charge of it, the Silk Road Project that they built those highways all the way from China all the way to the, you know, the Mediterranean. I mean, yeah, they've been doing it crazy. And so it seems like everything that you're saying it lines up. And it's like, now that we see John   last year in the last year and a half, while the last few months, India has stopped on some level, not all the way stopped buying Russian oil. They just read some reports this last month that they have, they have curbed their Russian oil purchases. Really. Okay. Now, I don't know exactly why. But I do know, there's tons of companies that have moved from China, to South Korea, Thailand, and India. And I believe India is now choosing Wait a minute, we want to be in good graces with the United States because that's where we're going to suck up all those jobs on China. They're going to come to India. Right. And I think India's Modi, President Modi over there is making a strategic move to go with you know, the US dollar and to do that he's got to appease the the United States by saying you know what, Russia, we even though your oil is cheaper, doesn't matter. We're gonna go with US dollar purchases for oil. That Allen   could be because China is also having territorial disputes now with India over certain areas. It's funny because we have a an oil Options program where we train, we do coaching on oil options, and we you could see it in the news play out when Russia was putting all their tanks on the border of Ukraine, you know, everybody knew it, they're coming in, they're going to invade and everybody was like, when is it gonna happen? When is it gonna happen? I told her, I'll tell all my traders it's like, you know, just wait. It's not going to happen until the Olympics are open. Olympics are over because the Olympics are in China is like they have the closing ceremonies, like four hours later, boom, there's an invasion. It's like, okay, now we can play it now. It's, you know, it's, yeah, he was insane. So now you said, now I'm trying to figure out like, okay, alright, how can I make money off of this? Right. So it's like you said that Russia and China are still buying gold. So is that? Is that an investment that's going to continue to ramp up because I think gold is at all time highs right now? John   Yeah, it's all time high. Silver is kind of trying to get up there. But Silver's having a tough time. So let's go to Okay, let's go to the summer of 2020. All right, summer 2020. The SEC, which is part of the team, you have the team, you know, US dollar, the SEC sues JP Morgan. What are they suing him for? They're suing him for manipulating the precious metals market for nine years. Silver gold, okay. And they lose, JPMorgan loses and they're fined almost a billion dollars a billion dollar fine for nine years and mutilation the SEC. Okay. The point is, JP Morgan figured out how to manipulate and control a market that's 30 times bigger than Bitcoin. Gold and silver and gold for nine years. And they finally SEC found out about it pseudonym wins, finds you billion dollars, but guess what, no one that I know of went to jail. Allen   I mean, it wasn't that big in the news, they get headlines, John   kind of kept quiet, right. So millions of people that buy and sell silver and gold were fleeced out of how know how many much money but no one goes to jail. But you just find they probably made 20 billion but they're only find a billion it was it was 930 million, but I rounded a billion because we talked about a billion seconds earlier. Right? Okay, so nine 30 million, but close to a billion dollars. All right. So my theory in my book that I explain is you have precious metals market that have been manipulated through using futures and all kinds of different manipulations. And a year from there, now you're in summer of 2021. Bitcoin is trading around $31,000. This is July. Okay. So August, September, October, November, four months later, Bitcoin hits all time high $69,000. My theory is that the Federal Reserve, US government viewed Bitcoin as a competitor possible to the US dollar. And so they took the playbook that they learned from JP Morgan, and I think they had JP Morgan personnel help them do it right. Clandestine to control try to control Bitcoin. And that's why it went from 31,000 to 16,000 in a four, three and a half month period of time. So November it hits $69,000. And so how are the way that you control Bitcoin? Well, one JP Morgan used a futures market. Okay, now what I'm about to tell you all these things that I'm gonna tell you happen in November 2021. Okay, one bitcoin hits all time high. Number two, the SEC approves a Bitcoin ETF not I first bought only four futures right and they denied grayscale the spot one Why would you approve one for futures and not one for spot doesn't make any sense. So that happened November also, also November and Allen   hold that for people who are listening to spot means the current price futures means prices in advance. So the actual the actual Bitcoin John   not a Hypothecation the actual non derivative, the actual Bitcoin, right? So the SEC says no you can't you can't operate, we're not gonna allow you to operate a ETF that actually buys Bitcoin, we're only going to allow this other company, an ETF that actually buys futures on contracts, right just contracts, which is the what the way JP Morgan was one of the ways they were able to manipulate the silver and gold market for nine years. Okay, that's the third thing that happened in November, the SEC extends their lawsuit against a ripple XRP coin. Why XRP from the nanosecond XRP was invented. Its one goal was what to do to circumvent the SWIFT system, which would decrease the demand for US dollars. So the SEC extends the EC the lawsuit for no apparent reason. And they just kind of lost it. They lost the SEC last last summer, and then they appealed. So they're this lawsuit still going on against XRP? Okay, a former thing that happened in this month, in November, Hillary Clinton came out and said, Bitcoin could damage the US dollars, reserve world currency. Now, again, back to probabilities and predictions, you can say she just went to a microphone and just talking. That's you can believe that, or what's the is that a probability high probability? Or is the probability that she had been privy to previous meetings months earlier, that the Federal Reserve was going to try to pinch Bitcoin control, they don't want to kill it, they just want to control it. And so she got in front of microphone, which she loves to do to tell all her memes. Hey, listen to me, I always know the truth. I always give you the truth. Guess what the Bitcoin could take over the US currency, which is our number one product and why so he's she's sending a coded message, maybe? Maybe not. But the probability, I think the probability is high that she had some information that the government was using a clandestine approach to try to control Bitcoin, Allen   because she was a congresswoman and she was sitting on committees and all that, yes, yes. John   One other way you can control a traded commodity or traded stock or whatever or bitcoin is if you can get 45 to 60 days of trading volume, meaning if if bitcoin trades 100 coins a day, you would need 4500 coins. If it trades 1000 coins a day, you would need 45,000 coins are 60,000 coins. This is what how you do it. So let's just say hypothetically, that from July 2021 to November 2021, the Federal Reserve had to obtain 45 days of trading bonds 66 days trading bond that means they have to buy bitcoin. They're buying Bitcoin buying Bitcoin buying Bitcoin buying Bitcoin buying Bitcoin, that means the price is going up, up, up, up up. Once they have 45 or six days of trading volume, they take their 45 Day Trading bond, and they stick it at six $9,000. And they put it there for sale, all this at a limit price 60,000 or so we start buying you buy I buy we're buying. And then we keep hitting 69 69,006 96 Night Out signal, there's a ceiling, there's a price ceiling, the ceiling, and we can see it and we go Wait, there's a big seller at 16,000 or so mean, you start selling. So we start selling everyone starts selling and it goes down to 68,000. Guess who's buying at 60,000 The Federal Reserve, they're replenishing their 60 day supply or 45 day supply of trading volume. So that mean you go Wait, there's a buyer at 68,000 and we start buying again. And it goes to 68,000. They don't let it go to 69 because that would be a bullish chart, right? They can have a they can have a higher high. They can have a lower high and they put their 45 day trading volume boom right there as 68,800 and they start selling and same thing happens. We sell and it goes down. That's one way you can control a market right now. So lately as we know, Bitcoin has hit a new all time high. Yeah. And so maybe maybe what happened was, this is there's another hypothesis. Maybe they realized they alone couldn't do it. Okay. So last summer, the SEC basically told 11 companies Listen, we're going to approve 11 companies all at the same time to try A Bitcoin spot and ETF spot so they approved 11 ETFs to trade Bitcoin spot. Now, what I think happened in October, Bitcoin was trading 31,000 27,000 31,000 31,000 27,000 27,000 If Gessner of the head of the SEC told them Hey, guess what we're going to do? In a few months we're going to let you guys start trading Bitcoin what you guys should do is buy a Bitcoin to control the market. So Bitcoin went from 27,000 to sweat 72,000 Something like that. Right? Yeah, today, but I'm saying I'm saying on January I think was January 11. Okay, all the Bitcoin went up 11 Bitcoin went alive, right? Okay. Now think about what just happened on January 11. There are record number of buying a Bitcoin record number. And in 11, or 12 days, it goes from, from where it's at down to $39,000. Why there's a record number of buyers, it should go up. But wait, if all the ETFs bought at 31,000, knee ETFs, bought at 32,000 35,000 42,000 If they were buying it, so that when the ETFs went live, they could sell it to you. That's why the price went down. There's no other there's no other explanation. Because if they had bought zero, when a record numbers came in to buy bitcoin, they would have to take your US dollars and go buy Bitcoin that would go up, the way it goes down. It went down like 18% in 11 days with record inflows, that means that I believe BlackRock and all the other 1011 ETFs are in on the game of manipulation of Bitcoin, right? And so this is back to my theory that no matter what it is, if it's the yuan, or if it's gold, if it's Bitcoin, and it and it has the potential of damaging the number one product of all time, the Federal Reserve, the US Navy, the president, the SEC, the IRS, even the CIA, that's their number one job. Now, a lot of times Congress forgets their number one job. Allen   I was gonna ask you about that, too. I was like Congress get the memo. Because yeah, John   they don't get it. But but but people criticize. Powell had the federal they criticized him all the time. I don't. I think he's doing a great job. Listen, if we went back in time, okay, we'll go back in time, Alan, we're going back to 30 years, okay. 30 years ago, I said, you're going to be the head of the Federal Reserve. Okay. And I'm going to be Congress, right? Your job is to protect and promote the US dollar. And all I do that Congress, I spend trillion, I spend a trillion, I spend a trillion, I spend a trillion, I spend a trillion. And I say to you, hey, figure out how to pay for it. Right? So you can criticize Powell all you want. But man, he's still we still are 58% of the world reserve currency. And the Congress doesn't stop spending. It's like a couple. You have a couple one spouse spends tons of money on credit cards, and they turn the other spouse pay for it. Right. And Powell must be just for it. If I was I'd be screwed top my lungs, would you guys stop spending? All you got to stop because I'm doing my best to keep this number one product afloat around the world. I'm doing my best. Right. And so I don't criticize Powell. I've actually under the circumstances, I think he's doing a fantastic job, even though people call him stupid. People don't like what he says. But I don't listen to what he says. I just listen when he does. And I and I realize he has a partner called the US Congress. Who is there just out of control spending? Yep. And he's done it. He's doing a great job by keeping our agreements accepted around the world. Yeah, Allen   I agree with you. I mean, you know, after COVID, and all that money that was spent on everything, you know, to maintain it to not even go into recession to have Yeah, inflation was a it could have been a lot worse than who it was. Without all that spending all that money that's just unaccounted for. So John   I think right now, the Congress is spending about $1 trillion every four or five months, six months. That's, that's, that's what's going on right now. That's just amazing. So back to your question. As you can tell, I have long answers. Gold, silver, Bitcoin real estate, okay. If you keep spending a trillion dollars every six months, additionally, items are going to go up in price. Gold, silver, Bitcoin, eventually, it's just going to bubble up you. It's kind of you almost can't stop it. Right. wheat, wheat soybeans, I mean, real estate farmland, if you just give a trillion dollars every six months, and how long can the us do this? I bet they can. You know, look, look the US Dollar might be the greatest Ponzi scheme ever invented a headline, it might it might be, but this is the thing. There is no mathematical way to taper a large Ponzi scheme, it can't be done. So therefore, the only way to play it all out is to play it all the way through. Okay, just to play it out, right? Let's don't get mad at me. I didn't create this. I was born into this system. Right? I am pro US dollar. Why? Because I'm in the Ponzi scheme, because all of our money is in US dollars. I don't want to wake up tomorrow morning and have the US dollar at zero because I will be broke. My parents will be living in my basement. My kids who live in my basement way my my house would be for sale because I'd be broke because everything I have almost is in US dollars. Right? Bait US dollar based, right? I have some bitcoin I have some gold. I have some real estate, right. But it's US dollar base. You too. We're we're in the Ponzi scheme. Okay. So therefore I think with the US think about the US Navy, think about the powers think about everything they could they could for what proliferate this for another 20 3050 years. They are very powerful. The Federal Reserve is the most powerful entity, along with the US Navy, along with the IRS along with the SEC along with the President. They are incredible team. And look, look, you know, China, only having 2.7% 2.7% of the world reserve currency, and we have 58% and the Euros 20%. And they got it they got a big mountain to climb, right, and they can climb it, but it's gonna take a long time. But the problem is this. Again, China is now printing more money than we're printing. Because they're in a they're in a 1929 depression right now. It's bad over there. Unemployment is youth unemployment, ages 18 to 30. is so bad China stopped reporting it. That's how bad it is. They don't report it anymore. Yeah, the estimates they have, if you are a college aged kid in China, college, graduated kid in China, and you're in a big city. This is 18 to 30 years old, okay? You graduate in college, and you have a job. Your average salary is $700 to $950 a month. Wow. That's the average salary right now in a big city. In China. They're in a 1929 depression. So they're not going to fix this in one to six months. It's going to be years to fix this in China. And the US is, I believe, putting pencils on them trying to even control them because they're sending a message to Saudi Arabia. Anyway, so this is people go man, John, you really got a lot of information, like you just said, you have all this information. And you put together like a puzzle, right? And it's conspiracy theory. And I go, it might be I might be totally wrong. But it just keeps fitting together. The more I put more puzzle pieces together, they keep fitting. Yeah. So Allen   I have another question. And this is about a different commodity. Now, we talked a little bit of we talked about how the Fed control the prices of Bitcoin, how the Fed is controlled, trying to try and try to trying to or and how it's handling other issues. What do you think? Do you or do you think that they're doing something similar to oil prices? Because it's not oil? Yeah. It's not directly tied to the dollar, but it is tied to the economy. And yeah, John   yeah. So I remember when President Biden took office is first thing he did was he turned off the Keystone pipeline to Canada. And I was like, why? Allen   environmental reasons, right? Why John   would you do that? And I put the US dollar in, wait a minute, we have to buy some oil from Saudi Arabia. So we, as a gesture to Saudi Arabia, to keep oil prices up, we turn off the Keystone pipeline to reduce oil here in North America, so that Saudi Arabia can have a better something like that. And they you know, there is some type of manipulation a little bit around the world, but oil is huge, right? Everyone's got a little bit oil and some kinds of we have a lot of oil for some reason. Saudi Arabia has a lot. Russia has a lot. And so but I would say to you that oil is a commodity base is every once in a while manipulated, but you know, turning off spigots reduces supply, which increases so but what's happened is for the oil trader, your old traders the next 510 years, maybe five years, everyone has gone green, and they're making solar panels and windmills in Germany, right. And they've been the last, you know, since that big huge problem that we had in that tidal wave in Japan. With that nuclear reactor over there, that nuclear power plant, everyone went away from nuclear. So we went through this last winter I believe there were power outages or power Our reductions in Germany, Canada, there are places that just had was worried about their power being right. And so what happens is, so many people have swung over to the green agenda, which is a good thing. They've left the agenda in buying Chevron and Exxon Mobil, and they've left they've left, and so at Chevron, Exxon Mobil have stopped or reduced their exploration because they don't have as much money. Right? Okay. And therefore, that's going to keep oil prices higher. So what the green initiative has done is encouraged oil prices to be higher, because they've reduced the amount of money that can explore and extract more oil. So they've reduced it, therefore there's less of it, therefore, oil will be higher in the future. And I know, Saudis have turned down their spigot lately, you know, for the oil. And so I know that's happening. But oil is a long term play, mostly for me. It's a long term play, but I just kind of try to find the trend. And it seems like, to me the trend is up in general, because of what I just explained. Makes Allen   sense. Yeah. I mean, I tell people that you know, back in the day, the rich man used to have an engine, like a car with an engine and everybody else was on horses, right? Yeah. And then it became commonplace. And then it became the rich man had the electric vehicle, because he had to be rich to have a and then now it's gonna flip and it's gonna be like, Okay, now the rich guy has the combustible engine, and everybody else is driving the electric vehicles. And the really John   rich man has a horse. He hasn't a stable. You guys once a month. You know what I mean? Exactly. Back to the horse. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Allen   Cool. All right. So I do want to wrap it up with going into the future now, because we you know, you mentioned conspiracy theory. And now this one is, I see it coming. But the US digital dollar. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So let's do I want to hear on stage. John   You've heard me on stage on stage, I show a picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was a bodybuilder. And I show when he's an actor, and I show him as a governor. Arnold Schwarzenegger reinvented himself three times. The US dollar has to reinvent itself. It was gold in 1933. It was the Bretton Woods, you know, we will back the the French franc in 1944. In 1971, it turned into the Fiat dollar of the petro dollar. And now it's going to go into the digital age. And it's coming, I just don't know how long it's going to take for them to manufacture a crisis, that we will accept the US digital dollar, they have to have a crisis versus except for right now. No one wants to accept it. Because once you accept it, everyone knows what you spent your money on. Right? Because right Allen   now, I mean, you have credit cards, and you have wire transfers. And so like, what's the point? Why do we need that right? Well, John   but I can pay cash for something, and you don't know what I bought. Right? Right. And so but but once the digital dollar hits, and it's mandatory, everything, you know, there won't be there won't be I can imagine there won't be a tax return anymore. If you buy something at Walmart, the nanosecond, you buy it, a few pennies will go to Washington DC, every single day. And if you're buying Chinese goods, there's 17 pennies that go to Washington DC. If you're buying US goods, there's four pennies go into wash DC every time you buy something. So if you if you transfer money from your phone to your kids, so they can buy lunch at school today, every time you transfer money, there's two pennies going to go. So there's no tax returns. Everyone knows or not everyone, the federal government would know everything you spend your money on, where you spend your money. And they might say Well, that would reduce drug trafficking, that will reduce illegal activities that reduce a lot of things because everything is tracked, there is no gold, there is no silver, there is no Bitcoin, we have to outlaw it. And it might be and I hypothecate In my book, let's go to May 2033. That's the 100th anniversary of the gold confiscation that people said no, that can never happen America Well, in 1933. In May, they confiscated all our gold. And in May 19 In May 2033, it might come to the point where for the good of the country, the country is in so big of debt. If we could just collect all of our taxes from our citizens, we could pay our bills, but we can't because too many people are using gold. Too many people are using Bitcoin too many people are using cash and we can't track that and and that's how people cheat on their taxes. But if we switched to the US digital dollar, no one can cheat on their taxes. When they buy a boat we know it when they pay for lunch, we know it right and we collect our taxes, therefore as to be patriotic. Everyone must have if you own a business you no longer accept cash You know, alongside Bitcoin, you know, because we have to sugar up the US economy, and it's patriotic. And this is this hypothetical, but may 9, may 2033, just 100 year anniversary, it could happen if they can create, and I'm saying create a crisis in the American mind, where we're gonna go bankrupt United States unless we switch the US digital dollar. And that's the savior now. So something like that that's a hypothetical. You might it might be, it might be a cyber attack. You know, I don't know if you remember this, this, I think 2012 Maybe you remember a little country called Cyprus. Allen   I know of a John   little country called Cyprus, right. on a Monday morning, everyone woke up went to their bank. And the rich people who had I don't know the number, but it was over 100,000 are over 500,000 in their bank, half of their money was gone. The country confiscated half of the savings accounts of our all the rich people, because the country tried to go to the EU over the weekend, because they were bankrupt. and the EU turned them down. They said, Look, we'll give us a loan. They said no. So the EU turned them down. So the only thing that country could do was over the weekend, confiscate half of the money in all the bank and this is digital, this digital dollars, your digital, you can do this. They confiscated half of the money. And they said basically to the people, aren't you glad we did that? Because we wouldn't have done that. Your your your country, you'd have been worth zero. All your money would have been the zero we confiscated half of it, to pay for the government to keep us alive and open so that you could have half your money. This happened in Cyprus. Wow. So, you know, we when you say when you use the word, US government cannot. That's the wrong word. No, there's no Federal Reserve cannot that no, you should use shouldn't, wouldn't. But couldn't isn't a right word. Because in a digital age, everything is possible. They can change laws they can it's when people are desperate. And Money makes people desperate. Or lack of money makes people desperate. Things just happen that you thought could never happen. And I'm sure those people in Cyprus thought it could never happen. But on a Monday morning, it happened. Oh, yeah. She's, Allen   I mean, like you mentioned in the book, you talked about the Commerce Clause, right? And yeah, and I remember after 911, the government passed the Patriot Act, you know, it's a great, great name for a bill or a Patriot Act. Yeah. What does it mean? It means basically, if you look at it, they can take anybody off the street, pick you up, throw you in a hole, you have no representation. No, you can't talk to anybody for as long as they want as long as you are under suspicion. And it doesn't matter if you're a citizen or not. And it's like, okay, what happened to our liberties? What happened to the Constitution? Oh, it's not there anymore. Sorry. You know, so yeah, you're right. They can do basically anything. John   The word the word cannot, should not be in your sentence with the US government shouldn't wouldn't Yes, but cannot or couldn't. Don't don't say those words together with the US government. As Allen   you remember, when Modi took over in India, they had supposedly they had problems with, you know, the mafia and illegal gambling and illegal monies and all that. So he made everybody turn in their higher dollar notes. Yes, exactly. It's like everybody to come into cash and other notes and the people that bring it in, we'll baskets and stuff. So it John   he actually it was pretty thought out because he said the poor people need a $1 $5 bill or $10. Bill, the rich people, you don't need hundreds and $500 bills, you can all you do that electronically. You want to transfer large amounts of money, it's electronic. You want to transfer for tips, or you want to pay your guy to shine your shoes or mow your lawn. You still have small bills, because look, it's really hard to transfer $1,000,000,001 bills, because it would take up a whole truckload right? So, so that was Modi's compromise to keep the poor having money in their pocket, and to hinder the rich, or the drug dealers or whoever, for moving large amounts of money. It all has to be electronically because electronically, we can track it. Allen   Yeah, so I mean, that could be something that they do here. You know, let's take away the $100. Bill. We used to have $1,000 bills, right, I think yeah, back in the day. Yeah. A John   long time ago. Yeah. Yeah. Allen   So okay, so you're saying that in nine years is 2023 or 33 2033. And you also say in your book that every 10 years, there is some kind of financial catastrophe or collapse or John   if you think about it since 1971, okay, we won the fiat currency system. Okay. Okay, and this is roughly nine or 10 years, okay? The economy goes, boom, right? And there's opportunity. So 1971 Give me a few years for the fiat currency to get going. Okay, the petro dollar. In 1988, there was a stock market crash. And soon after that, the Berlin Wall came down, the Soviet Union crushed. And I took advantage of that I started selling us Levi's, the Eastern Bloc country, okay. 1999 comes around the.com bubble, right. And I missed it. There was a huge opportunity in internet. I knew it was going on, I just couldn't figure out how to make money at it. And it went, boom, and I missed that opportunity. Okay, 99 2000. Then in 2008, nine ish, there was a great recession. And I took great advantage of I started a huge fund that eventually was managing a family of funds, the lost family funds, 2008, that eventually, in 2021, was managing $28 billion assets under management. And today manages like 47 billion. Okay. And then 2020, there was the pandemic, right. And then we launched other funds called, they were called opportunities on funds that had huge tax advantages that we launched funds in that. So about every 10 years or so, since the fiat currency of 1971, the petro dollar, every 10 years, you know, it goes, the economy just goes boom, and boom means there's opportunity. And so a lot of the funds that started in real estate funds that started 289, and 10 made a ton of money, you can still make a lot of money, real estate, but we made a ton of money, because the economy was just blanketed low and we could buy things so cheap in 2009 and 10. It was it was crazy. So Allen   I don't know. I mean, we might be close to that timeline, you know, but 10 years and 33. It's somewhere in there. Well, John   are 2029, you know, 29? Right in there, right in there. 20 930-228-2930. Right there. That's about 10 more years. That's the tenure since the last one ish, right? Yeah. Allen   Do you have anything on your antenna that you're noticing now that would go boom? John   Well, again, it might be the US digital dollar that goes into it might be an opportunity there. Because, you know, maybe this is this, this is way out there. But maybe Congress is spending and spending and spending and spending and spending for a lot of reasons. But one reason is to cause a crisis. Well, so that we could be forced to go to the digital dollar. Oh, my right. Yeah, that's just a crazy i That's i That's not my blood, because that's just a crazy theory. But because I can't think I cannot figure out why. What's the purpose of this? Like, I can't figure out why President Biden lets all these illegals coming off our southern border. Yeah, I don't I don't get I know there's a reason. But I don't really understand the reason I'm trying to figure it out. And I haven't figured that one out yet. And yet, I can't figure out why the US Congress can't just stop spending some money. It might just be there's no conspiracy, they just spin spin spin. But it might just there might be another underlying reason. They're trying to force it because they look to get us to go the US digital dollar, there has to be a cyber attack, there has to be some big crisis, something like in Cyprus, that would cause us to go, okay. I'm okay with that. Like right now, we have five and a quarter percentage rates, you know why we're okay with that, because we had 9% inflation. But if we had 1%, inflation, we would never accept a five and a quarter percentage rate. So there has to be some type of crisis to get people to do things they don't want to do. And we no one wants to go to the Digital's digital dollar. But you would in a situation, there's scenarios that you would you would switch Yeah. Allen   And at this point, there's no alternative. And the Fed, like you said, is making it that way. And that's their job to make sure there's no alternative. Oh my Well, John, I really appreciate your time we've gone over thank you so much for it. And again really fun, everybody it's dollars gold and Bitcoin available at Amazon, get your copy. And we've touched everything in here. There's more in here that that is also John   on audible.com If you'd like my voice, you can listen to me for six hours and because I recorded the whole thing and all the time so if you don't read books, you listen to books, you can continue to listen to Mike scratchy voice for six more hours. Allen   Thank you so much. I appreciate you and everything that you've shared with us. John   Thank you very much for having me.

Allen   Welcome passive traders. Welcome to another edition of the Option Genius Podcast. Today, I am here with someone that's going to blow your mind. I'll give you his name, you probably haven't heard from him. But what he says is going to make a big difference for you. So John S. Pennington Jr. in 2008, co founded a family of private investment funds that by 2021 had over $28 billion of assets under management and completed a successful IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. John then retired that same year but remains a significant stakeholder and is now partner Emeritus at the company. He has been married 38 years with three sons, five grandchildren, and he recently wrote a book which we're going to be talking about called Dollars, Gold, and Bitcoin. It's right here, I could not put it down, you can find it on Amazon and Audible. You guys need to get a copy of this book, because we are not going to be able to talk about everything in this book on this interview. John, thank you so much for being here. John   Allen, so good to be here. Thanks for having me. Allen   So now I have done. I have heard you speak in the past. And so a few podcasts, I don't should have looked at the episode, but it's one of the past episodes called billionaire lessons. I have talked a little bit and gone over some of the things that you presented on which were covered in your book as well. So it was one of our most popular episodes, really happy that you're here. I just want to get into it. So the book is titled dollars gold and Bitcoin. Now I've already you know, talked about your successful guy you're doing well. Why did you write this book?  John   When I retired, some people asked me to speak on stage. And I, you know, I didn't charge them. And I just went to these masterminds and I thought, What do I want to talk about? And, you know, I just I looked at what everyone else talks about. And I thought, well, I got to talk about something different. So I started talking about economics and the Federal Reserve and the strength of the dollar and how, you know, the dollar is just a fantastic product worldwide. And I actually, you know, followed the Federal Reserve and how they promoted the US dollar over the years, and how they nudged people to make their product more acceptable around the world. And I kind of used that formula. In my company, or me and my partner's company, as we grew, we kind of use the same type of tactics that the Federal Reserve and the US government has used over the years to promote their number one product, which is the US dollar.  And so so it's kind of a, it's kind of reflection of my business history. But it's also a reflection of how I studied and watched the the greatest product ever become the greatest product ever. How did it get there, and then I just kind of wanted to learn from the best. So I just kind of use those tactics with me and my partners to kind of push our business kind of the same way. So that's why I kind of wrote it.  Allen   Cool. Now, you know, the first time I heard you speak, I've heard you speak twice. And the first time and second time, I'm listening to you, and you are taking these what seemed to be very random events around the world. Yes. It's like, Oh, this guy said this, made this comment. And then this person visited this country, and then nothing happened. And then that happened. And then you took all of these to me, they were just random, you know, like watching the news. You story after story. But you took them and you whoa, this intricate, detailed story that linked them all together. And I'm like, Whoa, how does this guy think like this? how do you how do you come up with this? , John   I don't I don't know. I just I just I think as an entrepreneur my whole life, I started my, well, my career, but when I was a young man, I just was really slow reader. I wasn't a good, I wasn't a good student. And I knew that I could not survive in corporate America. I just knew it would eat me alive. It didn't I just wouldn't fit there. And so I knew I had to be my own boss. And that means I probably need to just start my own companies. And so I remember looking in the mirror and this is I think I was 17 or 18. And I said to myself, these words and and I I've repeated this in the mirror, every year, 10 times a year, whatever, I don't know how many for 30 something 40 years, but I said this to myself in the mirror of John, you're not afraid of being poor. And John, you're not afraid of being old, you're just afraid of being old and poor at the same time. And that is stuck with me to push myself in the areas of, I have to start my own business, I have to save money to take risk, right. And so I started 14 businesses in my lifetime ish. And three, I've made a lot of money on obviously, the one I did with the funds and still in it made a lot of money, I three I've lost money on and the rest of them in the middle, you know, I made some money on them, they were pretty good for a while. But you know, so over those periods of time, when you'd make good money on one, you have to save the money and live beneath your means. So that when the next opportunity comes up, you have a war chest to go and try again. Because if you try a business, and it doesn't work, you lose the time and money. And sometimes I might, I've had a couple of businesses in a row not work. So you spend 910 months getting a business launched, and then you wait six, seven months, it doesn't work, and you go on men 18 months later, and now you're kind of out of money if you didn't save, and then you have another idea come up, and then you try that idea. And that's going to take a year, year and a half to figure out and spend all the money. So you always I always live below my means way below my means so that I would always have a war chest to take risk until I really, really, really made it. And when I first started my first fund in 2004, and then my second fund in 2007. And my third fund in 2008. You know, I didn't really know if it was going to work, work, work work work until about 2013. And up until that time, I was driving a car with 200,000 miles on it, you know, so but once I got there, then I got a Mercedes, you know, a small number, say a used Mercedes kind of thing. And so, but I was always I always lived beneath my means because I just knew I had to be a entrepreneur. So what I'm getting at was my business antennas, my business antennas my whole life since I was 17. I had been up trying to read listen to receive things, right? And when I graduated college in 8898, with an economics degree which if you have an economics degree, there's not a lot of really, you're not trying to do much right unless you go on to get a masters or PhD trained. Well, what do you I'm saying, right? I didn't matter I had a degree in and I wanted to start my business. My first business that I started right at night, not my first business but but my first successful business right out of college is in 1989 Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, they took down the wall in Germany, there used to be a wall right down the middle of Berlin, a physical wall, and they took it down. And before that time, kids in Eastern Europe could not get American products. They can watch American TV or watch American movies, but they couldn't get made in USA products. And when that wall came down, there was a flood demand because the US was like this golden child. And everyone loved the US for about 99 About 95 They just love love, love anything made the USA was the best. And they wanted American huge Levi's. Or they want American Levi's jeans because Mr. Levi Strauss in San Francisco was the first guy to ever make denim jeans. And he did him with a button flying and the original was the button fly 501. Well, all over the all over the world. These were being sold for hundreds of dollars. They were a fashion gene but in the Western United States, we'd had them for 100 years they were worth jeans. We grew up with them in high school, right but so anyway, two of my partner's eventually moved to Southern Germany and I stayed in in Utah, and I collected us Levi fiber ones all over the United States, mainly the Western United States, cleaned them up, sewed them had seamstresses, scrubbing them, cleaning them up taking the stains off of them sewing, and it shipped to my partners in Germany, and they sell them to Prague and all over the western eastern states. So I could buy new fiber ones on sale for 1499 in Utah, and they would go for 100 $120 in profit. So I had my antennas up. And so when I found out early on in Ada or early on at nine that we had a friend over there in Europe saying that people were at you know, walking up to him on the street trying to buy his jeans on down for $100 100 US dollars. And we could buy them used at a thrift store over here for $6. What's the probability I can make a business so we I ran this business for nine years From 89 to about 1988 1998. We ran this was my first real big, huge business. And it was booming. I mean, we were doing a lot of jeans. I think our best year total sales was $8.5 million. US Levi's, I think that was 9094, maybe 95. Somewhere in there. But it was the fast business. And I had, you know, seems so what I'm trying to say is, you asked me the question, how do I think this way, right? If you have your business antenna up, always trying to receive some information, and someone tells you, hey, people in Austria are paying $100 For usually buy 501 jeans, and you live in a place where you can buy them for $10. You have to think of how do I make that into a business? What's the probability? Not the prediction? What's the probability I can make that into a business? And that was my first real run into business employees in Germany employees here. It was really a fantastic, great, like classic arbitrage. Yep. Just yeah, that's right. We were value adding we were cleaning them up, right. We were selling them. We were repairing them. But yeah, it was it was a kind of arbitrage. Take a product. That's a  in Nevada, or California or Utah. Move it to a place where it's a fashion gene and charge what the going rate is. Yeah.  Allen   Cool. Awesome. All right. So let's get into the book. Now. I think that correct me if I'm wrong, but the big topic or the big overwhelming subject matter of the book is how the Fed operates and how they boxed in Bitcoin, John   or the US dollar no sorry, or gold or US dollar or the Chinese yuan. The basic point of the book is, I use the example of trying to box Bitcoin in because it appears to be an a competitor to the US dollar. Right. Gold. One point is your was a part of the US dollar and competitive US dollar. And I go in the book, I dip into the Chinese yuan that has become trying to become a competitive US dollar and the Fed, Federal Reserve's  number, the US government's number one product, it sells better than hotcakes, people say it's selling like hotcakes. Well, they should start saying it's selling like the US dollar. So Allen, if I gave you $1 a second, right, like 123456. And I never stopped, never slept Neverland the restroom, it would take me 31.7 years to give you $1 billion. In other words, if you wanted to count to 1 billion, you would still be on the Zoom call this podcast 31 years from now. Right? So I tell them that on stage a lot because a lot of people misrepresent the word 1 billion they misinterpret it. They'll say John, I was just outside. And I saw this huge flock of birds, there must have been a billion birds. And I was gonna know there wasn't, you know how I know. I did the math. You know why I did the math. When my fund hit $1 billion. We started with managing $1 billion. It was like, holy cow, how much is a billion I started calculating it. 31.7 years of seconds. So when we talk about big numbers, I always do that on stage. So people really getting getting their head, how big $1 billion is and how erroneous that a lot of people use the term billion over time. So let me just do a little history for you. Okay. So, in 1914-ish, the Federal Reserve was created because there was a stock market crash in 1907, not not 2007 1907, the stock market crash. So they created the Federal Reserve. And then in 1929, we know there was a huge stock market crash again. So 1929, the country's really, really, really hurting. And then in 1933, two things happen. The SEC was created so that we would never have a crash again, okay. And in May 1933, now get this in May 1933, the president, FDR, he signed an executive order that made it illegal for your grandfather and my grandfather to own gold. So you had to sell all of your gold to the Federal Reserve. Or if you had a gold note, because it used to be that dollars were backed by gold, you had to sell your gold note your gold coin or your gold bars to the Federal Reserve. And they would give you a paper dollar for it. And then they would take that gold and put it in Fort Knox, and that gold would backup the US dollar and help us get out of the recession or the depression. And so if your grandfather, my grandfather was caught with five gold coins in their pocket, they could go to jail. This is United States of America. Okay, but it was patriotic, I think I think if you go back it was kind of patriotic. Like, we're all doing this together. We're all in together. We all have To support our number one product, the US dollar. Okay, so, so in that that was 1933. Okay. And so how long did that last year? 41? Obviously, so 1971 ish. Oh, wow. I'll get there in just a second. Okay. Yeah. So in 1944, we knew we were going to win the war. Why? Well, we were making 96,000 planes a year, and Germany was making 38,000 planes a year. We were making, I don't know if the numbers were making 21,000 tanks, they were making 4000 tanks. We just knew by math, we were gonna win the war. So 1944 44 countries sent 1000 people to a little place called Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. And they went there to reset the dollar. So the dollar was reset by the Federal Reserve in 2019 14. Then it was reset again in 1933, by the gold confiscation, and then in 1944, it was reset again. So what happened was at 1944, everyone agreed all the countries Listen, the French franc is no longer going to be backed by gold. The French franc is going to be backed by the US dollar. And the US dollar is going to be backed by gold. Why? Because this is a crazy Alan, this is a craziest This is in 1944, the United States had 66% of all gold bullion in the world. We had it here. And there are a couple of reasons. In the first part of World War Two, we didn't get involved. We were just selling our tanks, our steel, we're selling steel to Russia, they're paying us in gold. We're selling whatever to France, they're paying a single in a world war, one synth kind of same thing happened, you know, so, and we had a gold confiscation in 1933. It was illegal for a US citizen to own gold, but it wasn't in 1944. Say 1946. Okay, my granddad had a $100 bill. He couldn't turn that in for gold. But if you were a US, if you were a French citizen, and you had a $100 bill, you could turn it in for gold. Okay, so we have like we always do, we abused this thing called the world reserve currency. Okay, we abused it. And by 1971, President de Gaulle of France knew we had been printing too many paper dollars, okay. Too many paper dollars. So he sent two ships across the Atlantic with all of their US dollars. Okay. So he sends the two ships over, and he demands here's my US dollars, give me my goal. And on. It was a Sunday night, August 15 1971, President Nixon came on live TV and announced to the world. He said basically, this, market manipulators around the world are trying to hurt our US dollar. And so he said temporarily, we're going to stop having the dollar backed by gold right now. Right? So he just told to tape your show. You're not getting your gold, right. And that was a temporary fiat currency. And that has lasted till today. So it's 5354 years old ish, right? Our dollars 5354 years old. Okay. So, and it was Allen   supposed to be temporary? It was that it was supposed to be temporary?  John   That's what he said. He said, This is a temporary pause,  Allen   just like like income tax? John   Yes, exactly. So, but in 1990, am I gonna get my dates wrong? I was gonna do a cheat sheet because I don't want to mess my dates up. The 1960. The world reserve currency, the dollar was about 45% of all world reserve currency. Okay. In 2001, it was about 70 plus percent, maybe 78% of all world reserve currency is US dollars. And 19. In 2023. Just last year, my last statistics were 58%. Okay, so in 2023, US dollar is 58% of all the world reserve currency. The euro is 20%. Okay, the Chinese yuan is 2.7% of world reserve currency. Right? So we have a huge huge Headstart and a dominance with with our number one product across the world. And so we we mean you and everyone listening to this in the United States that use US dollars, we have an advantage where we we can go anywhere in the world and just throw our US dollars around and people will love them. Yeah, that's not true for other countries, right? You have to live in other countries. You just can't walk around and use your your fiat currency and just pay for things. And so we have a huge advantage. And so my question in my book is, how did that happen? How did we are the beneficiaries how do we become the beneficiaries of having most of the world use US dollars and In one way, in 1944, the Bretton Woods Agreement. No, it doesn't doesn't say this, okay. But this is kind of what happened. After World War One. Everyone's Navy is gone. China's Navy's gone. Japan's Navy's gone. Germany's Navy's gone, Italy's need is gone, France Navy's gone, everyone rushes Navy's got everyone's Navy is gone, the US has their navy intact, and Britain had some Navy still intact. Okay. And so basically what happened was we basically said, listen, navies are one of the most expensive things for a country to have. And if you just kind of agree to buy and sell your oil in US dollars, you don't even need anymore, we the United States will protect your shipping lanes. And so a little country anywhere in the world, if they buy and sell in oil in US dollars, then you don't need a navy anymore. And that allows us little countries sell their goods all over the world and take take their citizens from poverty levels up to you know, middle class. And so this is a phenomenon that's happened since 1944. Now, in 1971, when President Nixon did this, that's when our dollar became what's called the petro dollar. And that's when it really kind of heated up. And, you know, Saudi Arabia. So let's, let's just go to 1974. Okay, you live in Germany, and you want to buy a container of oil for Germany? You can't, you know, wire your Deutsche Marks from Germany down to Saudi Arabia. No, no, no, no, you have to wire your Deutsche Marks, using the SWIFT system, which will get back into the SWIFT system to the New York Fed, the New York Fed will then change your Deutsche Mark into US dollars, then you can wire US dollars to Saudi Arabia, then Saudi Arabia will send you oil, this creates insatiable demand for US dollars, right. And so to have a the number one product on the planet, by definition, you have to have insatiable demand, right? That's by definition, you have to have huge demand, right? So and the reason I know this, because we will make off the assembly line, we'll make a trillion dollars of our product, we'll make a trillion of them. And you and I will work 80 hours a week to get them more. The other people will lie, cheat and steal to get them right. They'll risk their lives on, you know, some crab ship in north north Pacific, you know, trying to get crabs and almost die trying to get more of these dollars. And then they'll will make another trillion and you Emil work 80 hours a week. Other people lie, cheat and steal. It's an insatiable demand for this product. And how did it get that way? And so to have insatiable demand, there's, I've outlined four ways in my book, one way is you tax your citizens in US dollars. So this year, I have to get us dollars to pay my taxes, I can't pay in cows, I can't pay in gold, I can't pay in Bitcoin. So that creates insatiable demand. Secondly, most countries around the world have to get us dollars to buy oil, because Saudi Arabia is the kingpin. Okay? That's it. That's the second way. A third way that you can attack a great is you create a worldwide Swift, bank to bank transfer system worldwide, where you transfer money back and forth. And it's a huge system, it's guaranteed, you know, bank to bank, and it's $1 based system. So if you want to transfer big large money from bank to bank worldwide, you have to have US dollars. And the fourth way to create insatiable demand is you can flood the world with low interest rate US dollar loans, that everyone has to pay you back for 30 years. So for 30 If you take one of these loans, for 30 years, you're gonna have to find us dollars to pay this loan back. Does that make sense? Now I'm going to stop there for questions. I got a few more things to say on that. But But do you want to any questions there Allen   that yeah, no, I'm totally with you. I mean, the SWIFT system is it's like basically, you know, you're forcing everybody to use your product, because you don't have a choice. I'm giving you money, and you have to use my system. And that's why, you know, when when they put all the sanctions on Russia a couple years ago, it was you know, supposedly, okay, we're gonna take you off the SWIFT system. Yeah. That was a mistake, big mistake. But it's like, oh, that was supposed to be the end of Russia as we know it.  John   But yeah, so I'm gonna get back to that in a minute. But that was definitely a mistake of the United States of America, because that hurt the glorification of their number one product, the US dollar, so let's go back to loans. Okay. Okay. All right. So the date is December 2018. Okay. The Federal Reserve says the economy is doing fantastic. Unemployment rate is low. You know, we're going to do next year in 2019. We're going to increase interest rates three times. Okay, great. Then less than 45 days later in December 2019, this is 45 days, they say, Oops, we made a mistake. We're not going to raise interest rates three times next year. We're going to lower interest rates three times next year. And I went, what just happened? I have an economics degree, right? Something huge just happened. I didn't know what it was. But I knew something big just happened. So I'm reading I got my antennas up trying to read everything I can. So March, a few months later, I read this report that says in Europe, there are $3 trillion $3 trillion of sovereign bonds, trading at negative interest rates. I have an economics degree. I've never read a book. I've never read a paragraph. I don't even know what a negative interest rate is. It's a bond that if you buy it, you're guaranteed mathematically to lose money. Why does that? Why would that even exist? Not in a couple billion, but 3 trillion? Why? That doesn't make any sense. Okay. And then a few months later in July, this is the summer 219, I read a new report. It's no, it's no, it's no longer 3 trillion, it's 14 trillion. What? There's $14 trillion. Okay, so then I think, okay, now I kind of know why the Federal Reserve lowered their interest rates almost to zero really fast. Because they're like, Listen, if you're going to borrow money around the world, you can borrow in Germany at zero. Or you can borrow US dollars at just a little above zero. So we're going to lower interest rates to compete, because we're trying to create insatiable demand for our number and product. And for the next three or four years, if you're just borrowing borrowing German and Spain dollars, right? That means you're not borrowing US dollars, right? And that's, that's not creating  in the future. So what did the Federal Reserve they lower interest rates, but that doesn't just do it, you have to actually go into the market. So think about what I'm about to say here. They lowered interest rates, plus the Federal Reserve went out, and they purchased bonds, $120 billion per month for over 30 months. Because when you buy bonds, buy bonds, buy bonds, buy bonds, buy bonds, the price of bonds goes up. And that means the yields go down. Right. So if every month I'm purchasing 100 billion $120 billion for the bonds, I'm keeping interest rates low, plus the Federal Reserve as interest rates low. So they keep it low for years and years and years, a few years. So that when you borrow money, you're least not borrowing someone else's money, you're borrowing our number one product, and that creates insatiable demand for their number one product. Does that make sense? Any questions? Yep. Yep. So my antennas again, back to your original question my antennas, how do I like this? My antennas are always looking for things that don't make sense. And then I try to read, how does it make sense? And when I keep putting the US dollar in the middle of things that don't make sense? It kind of makes sense. So I tell people, my book, I said, my book look, guys, ladies, I don't know if I'm right. I just I don't really run my life trying to predict the future because I don't think anyone can predict the future, right? I run my life on probabilities. And so I'm just saying the probability of me being right about the US dollar and being the number one product, Federal Reserve, and either US government and the Navy and whatever, I have a high probability of being correct, but I'm not I'm don't think I'm right. I might have a 20% probability I'm wrong. 80% that I'm right. If you don't agree with me that i Okay, fine. I agree. I might be 20% wrong, but just probability, right. So that's, that's where the essence of the book comes from. Allen   Right. Okay. Now, since you brought up the Fed, that was one of my other questions. It was in the book, you mentioned that, you know, the Fed is been out there talking a lot lately about oh, we want you know, our inflation rate to be 2%. We want unemployment to be a certain number, blah, blah, blah. But you're you've basically said that, that's what they're saying. But what they're doing is something opposite, and they actually wanted it to be much higher.  John   Yeah, so this is what happened a few years ago after the financial crisis. 2008 9, 10,  11 Okay. The world realize that the world is a lot more fragile than you think it is. So Germany, not in Germany, sorry, Russia and China started buying gold. And every year they bought more gold and we're going to 1013 they bought more gold 2014 They kept buying gold. And I was watching this going okay. You know it listen, if I if I ran China, I was president of China. I would not like the fact that I have to get us dollars to buy Oil, that. And so I'm not blaming China, I'm not blaming Russia, I'm just saying, I'm on this side of the negotiating table there on that side, I'm just explaining their side. So they might have got together and said, Listen, in the future, we think the US dollar is going to have some cracks in it. And if it ever has a big crack, we can introduce the Russian ruble and the Chinese yuan as alternative currencies. And therefore, then we can start buying oil in our own currency that they're planning in the future. I see US presidents are kind of like temporary employees. They're 40 years, Putin has been president for what 27-28 years, they'll probably be president for another 20 years. We don't know. Xi Jinping is usually I've said his name, right. He changed the Constitution, and allows him the option to be president for Life for life. Yeah, yeah. So these guys are long term strategist, our president has to get reelected. He's a temporary employee, so they have an advantage over us. Okay. So anyway, so then a few years back, China and Russia, say, you know, we should do let's start $1 called the BRICS dollar, we'll call it Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa. And these countries will come together and have their own dollar called the BRICS dollar that is going to be backed by commodities. So if you have a barrel of oil, you get so many bricks dollars, if you have a bushel of wheat, you get so many bricks, if you have gold, you get so many bricks dollars, and they've been trying to launch this for years. Okay, so, so obviously, the Fed seeing this, and that's a competitor to the US dollar, and it's going to be a competitor to US dollar. So the Fed is strategically trying to move around to to make sure that doesn't happen. And that might explain why, you know, Putin, one of the reasons Putin took over Ukraine, Ukraine has a lot of oil and a lot of wheat. And he's like, the BRICS dollars going to be real in a couple of years. If I have all this, we know I get more brickstone That might be one of the reasons, okay. So. So the Fed trying to in this last year and a half just or two years, raising interest rates, the Fed to protect their number one product, and this is this theory. And again, I know your some of your listeners are gonna say, John, you're just you're being way too conspiracy. But when there's a lot of money on the table, a lot of crazy things happen because people coordinate a lot of things. Anyway, I think it's coordinate because the US dollar is the waterline in the table. So a few years back, China started to try to buy oil from Saudi Arabia using the yuan, because China is a big oil importer. Okay. And so far, I think we so far, I don't think Saudi Arabia has done it yet. But and not just to convince Saudi Arabia not to do it. The Fed i Okay, let's, let's just hypothecate the Fed wants to hurt China wants to lower their acceptance of the yuan around the world, and you want only accepted by 2.7% of world currency. So it's not that big a threat yet, but it could be in the future. Okay. So China does it to themselves. They have a big huge that in the last two years, they have a big, huge real estate collapse. They have a big huge employment collapse. Hundreds of companies have moved out of China to Germany have hundreds of companies from Germany, Japan and the United States have moved out of China. They've gone to India, they've gone to Thailand, they've gone to South Korea, all countries that purchase their oil in US dollars. China has been trying to purchase oil, not using US dollars. So we got to hurt that we have to hurt that country, because Okay, so how can I hurt that country? Well, one, China has said they're going to de dollarized the world. China said we're going to start selling our US Treasuries. Okay. Okay. So what we can do so let's just say, the Federal Reserve to make sure every time China sells US Treasuries, they lose a lot of money, because they bought US Treasuries back when bond prices were low. So let's just say if the Fed wanted to get interest rates to five and a half 6%. Okay, I thought it was gonna go six and a half, but it went to five and a quarter, five and a half. Okay. They can't tell you and me, Alan, hey, you a US citizens. We're just gonna raise interest rates to 2% because inflation is 2%. And we'd go Yeah, that's okay. That's okay. But if inflation is 2%, they could never convince us that they can raise to five and a half percent. That'd be egregious, right? But wait, if inflation is 9%, then you and I would accept 5% interest rates. Right, right. We don't like it, but we realize everyone has. Okay, so how do I get it? How do I get inflation to 9% when it's been almost zero for years and years and years and years and years? You print a lot of money. You see inflation come along, and it goes from zero to 2%. And you tell everyone with your mouth, on a microphone, it's transitory. It's just transfer Everyone calm down. Then a few months later, it goes to 3% inflation. Now, we're not going to move rates, we're going to keep rates low, at a quarter percent, we're not going to raise them because transitory it goes to 4%. And they let it run, it goes to five, it goes to six. And then they say, Well, maybe it's not transitory, maybe we need to raise interest rates, then it goes to seven, they started raising interest rates, and it goes to nine, and they're able to raise interest rates to five and a quarter percent, the fastest rate in history. And they lit they stopped, they stopped them there. Why? Because if they every time, they have interest rates sitting at five and five and a quarter percent, every time China goes to sell their US Treasuries, they get killed financially, it kills them. So my conspiracy theory is, hey, if the number one job of the Federal Reserve is to protect and promote the US dollar, they have ancillary jobs, low unemployment, high GDP, I get it, but their number one job, their baseline job is to predict or promote the US dollar, then, if they have a competitor to the US dollar, China coming around, we need to crush China's dollar. And right now, China prints more money than we do. Because they're huge depression right now, because of all the things that happened to him. And so they're selling all this, you know, US Treasuries, because they have to, because they don't want to because they're losing money on it. Why? Because they're trying to keep their economy afloat. Now, the Fed is sending a message to Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, aren't you so glad? That a few years back, you didn't start selling your oil in yuan? Because you would have billions of you want in your bank right now? And the yuan is tanking. Right. So people say now, five or six years ago, if you told me, I agreed China was going to take over the world, China was going to be a superpower with us now. I don't believe that anymore. Clearly. Okay. China has had 40 years of the fastest economy growth ever, right? No society has ever grown faster than China has last 40 years. And they're only 2.7% of the world reserve currency. So are you telling me if they have the same growth for next 40 years? They would be 7%? No, I'm saying. Allen   I have to interrupt this message. Because I am super excited. I haven't been this excited about something in trading since I first discovered trading options. Okay, it is that important. Now, look, this is a new strategy that I've discovered recently, that is just out there, kicking butt and taking names. I can't give you all the details here. But if you go to market power method.com and get all the information again, that's market power. method.com. Trust me, you want to know what this is. Now back to the show. John   And so when someone says we're going to replace the US dollar, I give them this example. And I love people in Arizona. I love Arizona, but I'm just gonna give this example. Okay, it's not it's just a hypothetical. Let's just say you and me agree that all the water in Arizona is bad. Okay, we both agree. What do you want to do? Well, we want to, we want to, we want to replace it with Gatorade, okay, so we searched the whole world for all the Gatorade in the world, and we bring it back. And it's not even a drop. We can't even, we can't even begin. So if you want to replace the US dollar, you have to replace it with something, you just can't not have it anymore. You have to replace the water with something. And there's not enough of anything that none of you want in the world, none of euros. There's nothing in the world big enough to replace the US dollar for years and decades to come. So the US dollar in the dominance is going to be around for a long time. Now the BRICS dollar, they're going to chip away at it right. So China, you know, is a net importer of oil, and they're a net importer of food. The United States is a net exporter of oil and an exporter of food. We have a geographic advantage over most countries on the planet. We can have a bad precedent, bad precedent, bad precedent, bad precedent, bad precedent. And we still kind of survived because we have things that other people don't have. The Mississippi Valley is two thirds of the country. Although arbitrary rivers, you can it's a slow moving river, you can put grain on that barge and floated anywhere. A lot of countries don't have that. And we produce a lot of oil and a lot of everything. And we just have a kind of an advantage over most countries. So China has got to, you know, build pipelines as quick as possible to Russia. They have to solve their oil problem, because without solving their oil problem, supply they You can't attack Taiwan. Because our aircraft carriers, our Navy could cut off most of their oil within 120 days. It all comes mostly over the water until China gets that pipeline. Right. And they know it. They know that they are. They're not ready. They have an Achilles heel. So let me give you a crazy thing that happened in in the news just last year. I'm reading the report watching the news. China brokered a peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Why? Doesn't even make any sense. But if you put the US dollar in there, it makes sense. So China is trying to de dollarized the world. They go to Iran, they say Iran, listen, who do you hate more? United States or Saudi Arabia? Oh, we hate the United States. Okay, fine. Okay, listen, if you want to really, really hurt United States, we have to de dollarized the world. Okay, how we're gonna do that? Well, one way is you can stop attacking Saudi Arabia, because the United States has an aircraft carrier off the side of Saudi Arabia to protect Saudi Arabia against you. And Saudi Arabia needs the aircraft carrier, and the F 30. Fives on their bases and 5000 troops in Saudi Arabia, they need all that. That's why they can't sell oil from Saudi Arabia to China and the yuan, because they have to keep being in good graces with the United States. Because Saudi needs that military protection. But Iran if you stop attacking Saudi Arabia, maybe this year, next year, Saudi Arabia goes You don't want we don't need military protection anymore. So we're going to start selling our oil to shock to China in the yuan. And then the the domino effect, the US dollar comes crumbling down over years, and the United States power around the world gets demolished. So again, back to my probabilities. The Alan, I don't know if I'm wrong. It just seems when I put the US dollar in crazy situations. It makes total sense. Now, a few months later, President Biden realized he was losing the battle in the the, you know, the whatever battle you want to call it in the Middle East. What does he do? He takes his number one product, the US dollar, and he sends I think about $6 billion to Iran in humanitarian aid. That's his number. I'm proud to say I ran I ran And we're still your friends. If you're gonna trade around the world, here's some US dollars to trade in. Right, Allen   right. Yeah, that came out of nowhere. It was like, what, what's going on? John   Why, why? Why? Why do you do that? Because a few months earlier, there was a peace agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Why? Because they want to de dollarized. They want to convince Saudi Arabia. They don't need us, Doc, but but the Fed is now still sending. There's two messages, right. And so about a year ago, year and a half ago, President Biden flew to Saudi Arabia. The thing about this, President states flies to see the prince. The prince didn't come to see him. He went to see the prince. Now we don't know what he said. Allen   And everybody made fun of him. Everybody, ever they funded media was all I got. I John   gotta give President Biden kudos. Right? Because I think I know what he was doing. I think he was over there convincing the Saudi prince not to sell oil in anything but US dollars. He creates because Allen   they had made an announcement. Before that happened. They had made an announcement that we're going to we're going to switch and we're going to do both or something that I remember something's right. Yeah. John   So if you ever take a negotiation class, okay. There is there's a lot of different ways to negotiate. But one of the ways one of the tricks in negotiation is you ask a question to your opponent, and then you let them try to answer it. So we I don't know what I don't know what President Biden said. But he could have said this. Okay. Mr. Saudi prince, if you start selling your oil to China in the yuan, all right. How am I as the US President going to convince the US Congress to pay for aircraft carriers off your coast 5000 troops on your soil, sell you f 30 fives, and then also give you satellite information from our secret satellites? How are we going to pay for all that? If you start selling your oil in you want then what you do in negotiation? You zip your lip, you shut up, you say no more and you sit back. And you you allow your opponent to try to very uncomfortably answer your question. And they sit there and go. Well, you can no you could you Oh, you know what? You know what, Mr. President, you can't convince Congress to pay for all that. Exactly. So therefore don't sell your oil to China in year one. And then a few years later, guess what? The Yuan is crashing because they're spending so much money. because we got interest rates up to five, because we want to win because we got the inflation to nine. So we five and now the Chinese economy look China did to themselves, we just poured gas on. Okay, one more example. That is. So we know of two people that sold a lot of oil not using US dollars. And that was Moammar Qaddafi of Libya, and Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Both of these gentlemen, I don't know how else to say it a few years after they did this large sales of oil without using US dollars. Both of these gentlemen were killed. They left the planet. And I'm not saying the US killed them. What I am saying is the US backed away from them, and let other people get them all the way, you know, take them out, right. So the last person that we know of that is doing oil and gas, not using is Putin. Putin said less Jaffa the war, he says, you know, after we took him off the SWIFT system, which we shouldn't have done, we should have left them on SWIFT system to keep them using US dollars. We took them on SWIFT system, we weaponize the US dollar. And that allowed China and Brazil go wait a minute. If the government the United States can seize my US Dollars anytime they want, then the US dollar really isn't a store of value. It's that yeah, that woke the world up a little bit. And we shouldn't have done it. Right, because our number one product is now damaged a little bit. Okay. But anyway, so Putin says, hey, you know, we're going to do so Putin goes into Ukraine and button think about the rhetoric. Biden says, We think Putin, you're a bad guy you gotta get out of Ukraine. Then Putin says, we're no longer selling our oil and gas, we're only going to take rubles and gold. Then Biden changed his rhetoric. Biden said, we now need a regime change in Russia. That's way different than saying we need you out of Ukraine. When you say I need a regime change, I think about Moammar Qaddafi, and Saddam Hussein. Right. That's a big difference. Okay. So what happened was a few months after that, after Putin says we're not selling, we're not selling oil and gas. With us dollars anymore. There's there's a pipeline, there's two pipelines that go under this was this was hilarious, isn't it? Yeah. There are two pipelines. They go from Russia under the Baltic Sea to Germany, and they sell Germany natural gas. Well, a few months after this happened that Putin said, I'm not going to take us dollars anymore. Someone with a submarine blew up. Nord Stream one and Nord Stream to Allen   someone we don't know who know, they claim responsibility, John   no responsibility. And I'm sure I'm sure that you know, President Biden, when he talks to the Saudi prince goes, Hey, Saudi prince, we're so glad you're still you know, selling all of your oil in US dollars. No one by the way. Did you hear about Nord Stream? One Nord Stream two? Yeah, crazy, right? We live in a crazy, crazy world. It's just I'm sure he reminds everyone this right? That you don't mess with the number one product the United States, you just don't mess with it. Right? So this is all these are all chapters in my book, at least the first half of the book, you know, a lot of economics that I'm trying to about. I'm just trying to get people to think on a different level. And a different thing that kids these days like to play these video games all weekend long, they'll go on three day weekend, you know, never go to sleep. Well, this what I've explained to you is the biggest game ever invented. Yep, there is no bigger game. And when I'm explaining to it's the biggest risk game, the biggest global game. It's the biggest game ever. And I'm studying it and watching it. And it is fascinating to me. And I don't even know if I'm right. But man when I keep doing probabilities, and it just seems I'm right.  

Hey there, if you're looking to invest in 2024, you've probably already heard of the AI boom and how those stocks have already taken off and gone into the stratosphere, you've already probably looked at the weight loss drugs like Eli Lilly and how that's already exploded and gone into the stratosphere. And you've probably even looked at, you know, the mega cap tech stocks and how they've already taken off and gone. So far so high? Well, there is one sector, it's an unloved sector, but it is on fire and it is going to do amazing in 2024. That's what I want to talk about today. So what is this sector? Well, it's not really a sector, it's more of a commodity, which commodity? Well, it's not the normal ones you normally think about. It's uranium. So if you look at uranium prices, uranium prices have doubled in the last year, and they're probably going to double even more, I don't know more than double, but they're gonna go up continuously, maybe even doubled this year that those are the expectations. Why? Because uranium is used in nuclear power plants. And more and more countries are getting away from coal power plants are shutting their coal ones down. And they're building nuclear plants. Only problem is there is a shortage of uranium. So uranium only comes in a few places. It doesn't come from everywhere, you can't mine it everywhere. It's only in a few countries and only in a few mines. And creating a new uranium mine takes millions of dollars and years of planning and research and development to actually get the uranium out of the ground. So right now there is a shortage of uranium. But the demand continues to explode. Pun intended, right. And so that is why your energy prices continue to go higher and higher and higher. Now, if you were companies starting to do a uranium mine, right now to take advantage of these higher prices is going to take you years before you get your money back. And before you even start mining. So the companies that are already there, they already have mines, they are making a killing. And they're making more and more money because their costs are staying relatively the same, but they're making more money when they sell their uranium because the prices continue to go up. Now you can go ahead and check to see a chart of uranium and see how it's going from the bottom left to the top right, and how it continues to grow. Now, if you look at some of the companies themselves, they're doing great as well. There are companies that do mining, they're also ETFs that can only focus on the uranium. Now normally, if you are looking at a miner versus the commodity, you will make more money on the miner than the commodity usually, because there's more Alpha there, there's it can grow faster. But the uranium utility or ETF are also going to be doing very well as well. You might even even get into the futures I haven't even checked to see if there are futures. But that might be an option to play as well. So why is uranium prices going up? Well, one of the reasons is because of the explosion in or not the explosion, but the demand for more nuclear power plants, right? For energy, because the world continues to need more and more energy and wind and solar are not getting the job done in terms of renewables, because of battery power problems. You can't store the energy, so they need a different source. Nuclear is one of the cleanest ones out there. I don't want to get into the politics of it, but it is very clean. And it's a very powerful source of energy. So we have a imbalance in supply and demand. Right. One of the largest mines of uranium is in the country of Kazakhstan. Now Kazakhstan puts a limit on how much uranium is allowed to be mined every year. And so, the main mind there, they announced a few months ago that they were only going to be able to produce about 90% of that limit, because of their own little internal problems. Recently, about a week or two ago, they announced that they're only going to be mining 80% of their prediction, and that chant that sent prices up even higher. And if you look at the price charts of some of these companies, you'll see, there was a big gap on that day. So these are companies and stocks that are not going to go up, you know, 500% in a year, like on the video, right, but they are slow and steady, and the train has not left the station, they've already gone up a lot, they've already more than doubled. But there's a lot more room to go. And that's why I think in 2024, uranium is going to be a very hot ticket. Now there are some ticker symbols that I want to give you. So you can take a look, put them up on your charts, see which ones you like, if you'd like them, great. If you don't, no worries, the first one is CCJ. Okay, this is probably the biggest company out there. It's a Canadian company. And it has mines all over the world. So this one, if you're looking for the biggest one, the more reliable one, I think this is the one that you can look at. Now, disclaimer, okay, I do not own any stock in any of these companies or ETFs. Neither does my hedge fund, okay. But we are trading CCJ, we're trading options on a we're selling naked puts on it as it goes up. So if we own it, we might own it. But I just want to give full disclaimer that yes, we are trading CCJ. Because this is a theme that I think is going to work for all of the whole year. And I'm sharing it with you to help you make some money off of it as well. And so, I think that CCJ is a good one another one is you are n m, okay, you are n m, the next one is DNN. The next one is LEU. The next one is UROY then you have an NXE, you have UEC you have UUUU this for us. And then the last one is URG. Now, do your own research. Look at these companies, see which ones you like if any, if you want, use your own judgment, talk to your financial advisor make an investment if you want. But I think this is a sector or a commodity that is going to do very well. As long as that supply demand balance stays out of balance. It could take two years, three years, four years for more uranium supply to come online. And as long as nothing happens to the demand of uranium, the price is going to continue to go up. So that's how it is. And even if these companies don't mind more, as long as price continues to increase of uranium, the stock price will go up as well. So it's not going to go as fast as you know, Eli Lilly did, but those stocks, the weight loss, the mega cap tech, and the AI boom, right? Those have run up so far so fast. It's kind of like I don't know if I want to get in here because they've gone up so far, there has to be a pullback, eventually there will be who knows when it's going to come. This train has left the station, but it's a slower moving trade, you could still make a lot of money. And it's investable, I believe, like now. So take that with a grain of salt trade with the odds in your favor. We'll see you around. Are you ready to get started with passive trading, and be a consistent and confident and profitable trader generating cash flow consistently from the stock market? Well, I have some great news for you. For a limited time we are offering my new book passive trading for free. All you got to do is go to passive trading.com/free book. And we will send you the book in the mail for free as long as you cover the postage and handling. So if you didn't cover that, we'll send you the book for free. We've already printed it, we got it for you. We're gonna send it out to you. It's free. All you got to do is just go to passive trading.com/free book and learn the basics of passive trading. Get the behind the scenes, get some examples, learn the strategies, and put this stuff to work in your life right now. Remember, go to passive trading.com/free book and get yours now while this offer is still available.

OptionGenius is turning 15 years old in February! As part of the celebration, we are releasing the audiobook of Passive Trading for free! If you would like to get the physical copy, head to https://passivetrading.com

OptionGenius is turning 15 years old in February! As part of the celebration, we are releasing the audiobook of Passive Trading for free! If you would like to get the physical copy, head to https://passivetrading.com

OptionGenius is turning 15 years old in February! As part of the celebration, we are releasing the audiobook of Passive Trading for free! If you would like to get the physical copy, head to https://passivetrading.com

OptionGenius is turning 15 years old in February! As part of the celebration, we are releasing the audiobook of Passive Trading for free! If you would like to get the physical copy, head to https://passivetrading.com

OptionGenius is turning 15 years old in February! As part of the celebration, we are releasing the audiobook of Passive Trading for free! If you would like to get the physical copy, head to https://passivetrading.com

OptionGenius is turning 15 years old in February! As part of the celebration, we are releasing the audiobook of Passive Trading for free! If you would like to get the physical copy, head to https://passivetrading.com

OptionGenius is turning 15 years old in February! As part of the celebration, we are releasing the audiobook of Passive Trading for free! If you would like to get the physical copy, head to https://passivetrading.com

OptionGenius is turning 15 years old in February! As part of the celebration, we are releasing the audiobook of Passive Trading for free! If you would like to get the physical copy, head to https://passivetrading.com

OptionGenius is turning 15 years old in February! As part of the celebration, we are releasing the audiobook of Passive Trading for free! If you would like to get the physical copy, head to: https://passivetrading.com

OptionGenius is turning 15 years old in February! As part of the celebration, we are releasing the audiobook of Passive Trading for free! If you would like to get the physical copy, head to https://passivetrading.com

OptionGenius is turning 15 years old in February! As part of the celebration, we are releasing the audiobook of Passive Trading for free! If you would like to get the physical copy, head to https://passivetrading.com

OptionGenius is turning 15 years old in February! As part of the celebration, we are releasing the audiobook of Passive Trading for free! If you would like to get the physical copy, head to https://passivetrading.com

OptionGenius is turning 15 years old in February! As a celebration, we are releasing the audiobook of Passive Trading for all to enjoy. If you would like to get the physical copy, please visit: https://passivetrading.com  

Hey there, passive traders, I got a really special treat for you today. Recently, we did a special presentation. And the feedback was amazing. And so we decided, hey, we need to share this. So this is why we're putting it out there. Okay, the two things that we talked about in this presentation, were number one, we talked about what are the things that are coming down the pike in 2024? What are the threats that we should be aware of now there are two different types of threats, there's first order threats, and then second order threats. First Order threats are the things that we all know about. We see him in the media with him in the news, all that stuff, those we cover some of them the ones that are really important, but we also go over the second order threats. Now, second order threats are things that are not covered in the media, they are the result of other things, those are the things that are really scary, and we really need to be worried about. And these are some of the things that I am most concerned about right now for myself and my family. And that's why I went through them. So you would be aware of them as well, you will see the signs of what's coming. And you could take action, but not everybody can take action. So that's why part two of this presentation was very important, because I go over that there is a actually elite group of people that are insulated enough that they do not have to worry about these threats as much as the rest of us. Okay, they are, I don't know, lucky, hardworking, whatever you want to call them. But they don't have to worry about them as much. Now some of the things they do, but they can insulate themselves, so that these second order threads do not affect them as much. And then I go into who these people are, and how they're insulated, and then how we can insulate ourselves from these second level threats. So that's the gist of this video and presentation. I hope you enjoy it. And I hope you take notes and implement what you're going to learn.  Thing is that whenever we talk about trading, right, everybody says I want more money. That's number one, like I just want more money, I want to be free, I want to have more time that it up. But when you do, when you go deeper into it, it's more about the way you feel. And it's more about being happier, being more carefree, having less stress. Don't you agree. I mean, money is great. But you can't eat it. Right? You can buy stuff with it, you can make yourself feel better. But it's all about the emotions and the feelings and how we feel because you know, you can't take it with you. So what's the point of it, while we're here, we need to use it to make ourselves feel better. And so when it comes to these feelings when it comes to the way we want to be perceived, according to Tony Robbins, there are six basic human needs, that we all need to live a fulfilled life, right, and you can see the six there. But the first one, the very first one and the core, human need is certainty, without certainty, without being sure without being, you know, knowing what's happening, you will never feel safe, you will never feel protected, and you're never going to feel happy. It's not it just doesn't happen. Without that basic layer on the bottom. That certainty if you don't feel that, you know, if you're if you're always afraid of what's happening, or what's coming or you know, you're uncertain, it's very stressful for the body, stressful for the mind, and you never feel protected or happy. But when you think about the current state of the economy, what do you guys think? Do you think you feel certainty with the economy? Or do you feel a certain certainty about the economy? Most of us, at this point, are feeling uncertainty, and a lot of it. And 2024 is going to be dishing up a lot more than we had in 2023. A lot more than usual. Because Americans right now are living more in fear than ever in recent history. You see, like Robert says, right? He's uncertain, but not just about the economy. Right? And I don't want to dwell on this too much because the point of the workshop is going to be to help you create a plan to help you not be affected by all these, but we need to know what we're dealing with. So I want to ask you again, what is keeping you up at night? So a lot of you guys said that you are feeling uncertain. You are feeling that? You know, there's stuff there that's bothering you. What is it what is keeping you up at night? What fears are you dealing with right now? And I really would like to know the answer to these to see if we can address them. Right? What do you see coming down the horizon? Like stuff that's happening? You know, we're gonna go over some of them. But if there's something specific that you tend to be worried about, so Joel is saying lack of funds. That's a good one. I often hear people saying, you know, the health issues are a problem. Having enough money for retirement, somebody said that they wanted more money in retirement supplemental income, right, that's another one. So the first thing I want to do is show you how many of us have stuff in common. And then I'm gonna go over a few that you might not even be thinking about, I'm talking about the fears, right? So Jen saying making sure she has enough money in the future, even when the market goes down, or stalls, this is great, because those things might be happening, they might be coming, right? So here are the top fears in 2023. The top fears that Americans had this year, now, there's a bunch of stuff on there, you take something as simple as drinking water now, where I live, which is outside in the suburbs of Houston, right? We don't even think about drinking water. It's like a non thing. Like if our drinking water wasn't safe, there'd be like an uproar. Right. But the people in Flint, Michigan, you've heard that stories, they still don't have clean drinking water. Right? And I hear people asking, Well, you know, if they don't have drinking water, why did they just move on, or they just fix it? Well, I bet they would love to, but they're not able to probably because they can't afford it. And then you got other stuff on here. You know, cyber terrorism, biological warfare, government, corrupt officials, there's so much stuff out there, that these are neither just the top 10. And these are not even the ones that most of the ones that I had identified. So here's some more, you know, Social Security for those you guys who are worried about retirement or getting close to retirement, and those of us who are paying into Social Security, the administration itself this year, said that it's not going to be able to pay the full amount of benefits. After 2033, In 10 years, right? In 10 years, Social Security might be bankrupt or might not be able to resolve it. In a Gallup poll this year 57% of working adults said that they're not going to have enough money for retirement, that's more than half the people in this country are not going to have enough money for retirement. And then, you know, obviously, they're expecting Social Security to bail them out. But then we just saw Social Security might not even be there, when we're in might not be able to give all of it that it's supposed to. So we got some big issues coming. Now. They asked the AARP members, what are the things you're afraid of? And so these are them some of their answers. So number one was inflation. Right? And it's inflation is the number one reason that people are pushing back their retirement years. So they're supposed to retire this year, they're gonna retire next year, the year after two years from now. That's horrible. That's scary, right there to push back. Number two is fear of Social Security. being wildly it's not going to be there. Right. That's the the main source of income for three out of five retirees. So what is that I don't even know what the percentage is, like 60 Some percent, or 70% of the people that are retired retirees, most of their money comes from Social Security. And they've sat there, geez, look out, look out below, right. They're afraid of a volatile market, I believe Jen said the same thing, right? If you are on a fixed income, then any shock to the stock market is going to be a problem is going to be an issue. And this is whether you're younger, older, retired or not. Number four, this was a weird one that I had never thought about. But it's fear that the kids won't leave. So whatever the reason, and we're gonna get into a bunch of reasons, a lot of kids are going to be coming back home or they're already home, and they're not going to leave. That's another one. And then fear of the unknown. So we had different things happen this year, bank failures, layoffs, all that sort of thing. It's going to get worse. Right? So what else is coming? Well, the recession still hasn't come yet. According to statistics, com, there's a 56% chance that the recession will be coming next year, September, if you remember, right, all the guys on TV, all the pundits are like, Oh, the recession is here. It's actually needed and then never showed up. And then they were like, oh, yeah, and now there's no recession coming, what what happened, right, but the data definitely shows that things are slowing down, that things are not as rosy as they say on TV. And also, we're expecting massive layoffs, not just a little layoff because in 2023, the bright spot, the thing that everybody was pointing to was the tight labor market, meaning if you wanted to get a job, you could originally there were two jobs out there for every one person looking for a job. That's not the case anymore. And in 2024 92% of companies are expecting layoffs 92 It's like everyone, every single company is expecting to layoff people. That's nuts. right? So if you have a job right now, yeah, you need to be re-examining that. It's like how secure where what kind of situate If you deny it, then if you don't get laid off by the economy, there's a good chance that you might just be completely replaced by artificial intelligence. And these are just some of the jobs where people have already been replaced by AI. And you have designers, you have lawyers on this list, you have doctors, accountants, truck drivers. I mean, I don't know if you guys know this, but they have self driving semi trucks all over Florida, where there's nobody in the cab, there's nobody there. Like, and that's, that's coming across the country. All the images that you will see in this presentation, we're done by AI, I did not hire a graphic designer to go out and create these images. I went over to Bing typed in what I wanted, and it gave me the images for this. And you'll see some of them are freaking amazing. Is your job on this list? If it's not, unfortunately, it probably will be sued, if it's automated at all in any way. And so guess what else we have? And coming in 2024, we have a presidential election, and according to a lot of Republicans, the last ones to push it over? So who's gonna know who knows what's gonna happen in this one? Right? And whether you agree with that or not, I mean, in my case, I believe that we have one candidate who I have serious doubts about if he's even going to be alive at the election time, and the other one who might be in jail at election time. So it's definitely going to be a circus, something to watch. Unfortunately, it's going to impact us one way or the other, it's going to be a major impact. Now, what about interest rates? Aren't they coming down? No, not really. According to Jerome Powell, the head of the Fed, he says they still might go up again, and they're not going to come down and flail inflation is at 2%, which should happen sometime in 2026. So we still got another three years before rates come down. And if they don't come down, then again, shrinking the economy. But the rates themselves cannot go down. Because the US Treasury needs to continue selling large amounts of debt, to pay for the bills, the US is running, right? Currently, the US debt is over $33 trillion, $33 trillion, is what our debt is, and it just continues to grow. And those of you who are like Dave Ramsey fans, probably not gonna like this fact. But the government collects $5 trillion in revenue, that's how much it gets in taxes and all the other stops, but it spends six and a half trillion, so we're going negative every year, that's just didn't spend it. Forget about the debt, this is just a spinning back, we already have a lot of debt, we have to pay interest on it, this is several separate, so they won't be able to lower the rates, because they're gonna have to keep the rates high, because otherwise nobody's gonna borrow the money from the US. It's not now as you probably already know, this something that's going to hit us right in the wallet, right? We already know food prices have gone up. But not only do food prices have gone up, but companies are making the food smaller. So you see this package of Oreos, this used to be the original size. Now it's like this. I mean, you're probably getting how many left fewer cookies are you getting. And then over here, this with the ketchup packet, that's a Whopper Jr. A Whopper Jr used to be pretty big. Now it's smaller than your fist. I mean, it's incredible. And even if inflation goes down, even if inflation goes down, like the prices go back down, the size of the food and the size of the packaging will not go back to where it was. Because companies are higher are happy, right, their costs are less, but the prices will be high. So they are not going to change, we will still be ending up paying more just to get the same amount that we were getting before. And so the government will keep spending more money, it will keep borrowing more money and paying higher interest rate to borrow their money. More and more people are gonna get laid off, people are going to cut back on spending because they're getting laid off or they're afraid of getting laid off as much as they can. Which means that companies will sell less, and they will make more profit, which means stocks will go down. And everyone's gonna go crazy over the election. And that's, that's just I'm just getting started. Unfortunately, if that wasn't bad enough, I want to go into the things that I'm most scared about. I'm not even worried about these things. I'm looking at the things that I'm most scared about. And these are issues that are not so obvious. But they will definitely impact all of us out there. I mean, doesn't matter, right. And they're already are impacting us. So number one, we talked about the federal debt and the continuous spending. Well, what do you think happened? Are you What do you think is going to happen? When that continues? Where do you think the government is going to get the money to pay all of its bills? There's only one place it can get the money. And that's us. Yeah, more printing? No, no, Rob, it's coming from us. Because they already printed a lot. They can't print more. There's nobody else there's gonna be he's gonna borrow it. They're gonna get the money from us. You and me. You can bet your bottom dollar that your taxes are going up. I don't care which party is in charge. They will raise taxes, income tax, state tax, property tax, sales tax debt tax inheritance tax, they will raise tax on the companies. And the companies will then just what turn around and raise prices on everything. So we will be ending up paying that tax as well. So that is coming. Number two, war with China. I think this is pretty much a given. The question is when the why doesn't even matter could be Taiwan, it could be trade, it could be something who knows? It's going to happen. Because if you look at history, that's the way it works. Right? Now, if you know want to know the exact reason, then there's a book out by a guy named Ray Dalio, who explains it in detail. He is the founder of the world's largest hedge fund. So the guy's pretty smart. He's got a lot of assistants that did a lot of research. And they looked at all of the empires in the world going back hundreds of years, and what they have together, and what makes one go up, what goes down. And so that's it, you have the Empire of the US. And then you have the growing empire of China. And the only way for China to overcome and overtake the US and being the dominant is through war. That's the way it happens. So the war is coming. The threat is real. And so for the US to stay on top to be the top empire of the world, right? We cannot spend less money on our military, especially the Navy, and the Navy is the most expensive branch of the armed forces. So we can't spend less, especially when you add in the fact that over 50% of our youth cannot even serve in the army because they're too fat. This blows my mind. It gets really scary. Like, what happens if we go to war, and half the people can't even go to war? Because they're too fat? So does that mean there's going to be a shortage of soldiers? Yes, obviously, what do they do then? Are they going to have a draft? Possibly. And for people like me, and for many like you, if you have boys or brothers or whatnot that are going to be of draftable age, you know, anywhere from like 16 or 18, up to 30? In the next few years? It really makes me scared. It really makes you wonder I don't want my kids going to war in a situation. But if it's not, you know, for defense, I don't know. Right? To me, this is the biggest fear I have. But when you have money, there are choices. Okay, I hope that the war is avoided. But if human history is any indication, it's a matter of when not if. And then the last thing that I'm worried about is probably the largest. And that's climate change. So I don't care if you don't believe or, you know, you if you do believe in global warming, if it's man may not may, man, whatever, the world is getting warmer. And that's affecting everybody this year, on record hottest year ever, right. And there are three major changes happening right now because of warming. Number one is migration. So we already have an issue with illegal immigrants at the border, it's only going to get worse, because most of the migrants that are coming from those countries sit on the equator, right, where it's very hot, people will do whatever they have to do to survive. And that means a lot of them will move. So you can see how many people what percent of the population is already moving around the world. And it will affect us in the US as well. The coasts are already seeing flooding, and massive beach erosion, adding the wildfires adding the droughts, the water shortages, and all the major rivers like the Colorado and the Mississippi, and you have, you're gonna have massive migration, you're gonna have massive people moving from one part of the country to the other, just like all over the world. And then there's the second thing that I want to go into anybody know what this country is? Let me know in the chat. Anybody have any guess what this country is? I'll give you a hint. It's run by this guy. Okay. Kentucky, no It is Syria, Syria. This guy. Assad has been in power since the year 2000. So he's been in power a while. But then in 2011 11 years after he took over. There was a civil war erupted. And it's still going on. It's still not over. Right. So what was the tipping point? What caused 1000s and 1000s of peoples to take arms against the government to fight back and risked their lives? Do they just wake up one day and be like, oh, man, hey, it's a good day to die today. Let's go fight somebody, or was it something else? Right, probably. Here it is. There's something else was that the country suffered a massive five year drought from 2006 to 2011, which resulted in agricultural failure, mass poverty and joblessness. So, yeah, warming led to drought, which led to crop failing, which led to migration to the cities, which led to not enough food or jobs, which led to civil war. Anybody see a pattern there? What we just went through, right? I mean, the US is not there yet. But there is something to keep it If Syria might just be a few years ahead of us, and maybe not with all this stuff, who knows what's gonna happen with the war? I mean, we're getting close to, you know, people fighting. So I don't know that social upheaval. That's another thing that's coming. Now I have a pop quiz for you guys. Keep it fun, right? Keep it light. No, sorry. Which is the most deadly animal to humans? I'm sure somebody's gonna get it. But what's the most deadliest animal to use it? Do you think it's sharks? Bears? Lions? Tigers, humans? Humans? Yeah, we gotta go. No, it's not exactly humans. But was it? Greg, Greg nailed it. Greg nailed it is the mosquito. Because of all the disease that these suckers carry, right, you got Zika, Dengue fever, West Nile, I don't even know what the heck that is malaria, yellow fever. In the past, you only had to worry about these diseases. If you visited Africa or the tropics, not anymore. Many of these diseases are appearing in the US because the mosquitoes now have a much larger and longer survival season. Because in order to kill mosquitoes, you need to have a very hard freeze. These are becoming fewer and fewer as the years go on. Now, I remember back in 2004, while back almost 20 years, when I got married, we took our honeymoon in Alaska. And all the tour guides up there were complaining about mosquitoes because it was like the first year they ever saw mosquitoes up there. And that was 20 years ago. Right? So this is a map of the US and all the all the orange ones are where we've had West Nile virus impacting people. And just about almost every state has had a West Nile virus infection. And I mean, you cannot protect yourself from getting bit by a mosquito. Right? This stuff is scary. And it's getting worse. So to summarize, what are the things that we can be afraid of? Well, there's the continued inflation and inflation, there's a presidential election coming up, there's the recession, that's going to be happening. There's the massive layoffs which are already coming, they're already happening, you just gonna be more, there's going to be higher rates for longer, there's going to be higher cost of health care. That's been going up year after year. But if you get sick, if you get a disease, if you get any of these issues, right, costs of healthcare is gonna go up. And we're already running out of doctors and nurses and all that stuff. So I mean, I don't even go into that part. There's so many things that we were living out and coming soon that higher taxes, possibly world war three, Social Security failure, more climate migration, more illnesses, pathogens, pandemics. Yeah, Mark saying the possible government shutdown, there's so much. And as I read this list, you know, all the things that are coming, I'm just, I'm getting stressed out. Right now I can see some of your faces you guys are you guys are getting stressed. Right, Tony, you jumping off a bridge? No, you might feel the stress, just building my body. But there is there is a solution. Maybe not to everything, but at least the things that we can control. There is a solution to that. And I want to share that with you. But there is plenty to be afraid of. And I would like to know, maybe in the chat, you know, what are the things? are you most concerned about? What are the things that are bothering you the most that is going to have the hardest impact on you? Or the largest impact? Let me know in the chat. Because I mean, there's there's plenty of uncertainty around us all the time, and it's only going to increase next year, I think it's gonna get worse. And that's why I'm doing this presentation. Last year, I didn't do it. Right. This is the first time I'm doing this. Because I'm like, man, there's there's a lot of stuff coming. The general public is scared. But that's not what I want for you guys. That's not what I want for us. Because fear. It only makes our problems grow. Right? When we're afraid of something, it leads to more issues, once you're afraid leads to stress leads to mental issues, health issues, families, harmony, all that stuff. So mentally, we need to acknowledge these possibilities, but we can't be paralyzed by them. And the more we dwell on them, the more power they have on us. And the first step to overcome our fear is to recognize what we can control and to shift our focus. Right. So what do we do? What do we do to shift our focus? What do we shifted to? That's a great question. So you want to shift your focus to where you want to go? Not on what you fear. So we talked about all these things to be afraid about. Now, most of them we can't do anything about right. So whether we're having a recession, whether we're having laid off, whether you get laid off or not, whether you get sick or not from the mosquito biting or whatnot, there's nothing we can do about those things. So being afraid of those things doesn't really help us. So as Tony Robbins says you focus on where you want to go. You focus on the things that you're driving towards the positive the growth right and So let us not worry about we cannot control. You guys with me here. Does it make sense? Let's focus on what we can do right now. So that we don't have to be afraid anymore. And so this is the reason why I created options genius in 2009 was to help share what I learned about options trading. So people that live a better life, but I had no idea how important this stuff was going to be, until I saw it in 2024. I mean, it's more important now than ever before. And it has really reenergized me, to help me keep fighting and keep spreading the message, and maybe more committed to be helping you guys so that you don't fall victim to what's happening out there in the world, you guys do not need to be the three out of five people that are relying on Social Security, that are afraid that is going to fall and have nothing, you know, they have no back, nothing to back it up. That doesn't need to be you. So that's why we started option genius to help, right? Because out of all this stuff, we need a solution. Because lack of money as a solution, you can grab more money, but we do also need hope. And so at option genius we really want is for all of you guys to have everybody to have a true state of independence. And this is not just like, you know, Patriot independence. It's like real independence, individual on a personal level. So after teaching for 15 years, and coaching 1000s of traders to understand what they really desire, what they really want, and how to help them, I've discovered that there are three main ingredients necessary to achieving true independence. First of all, we've already mentioned this, people wanted this one is financial freedom, right, this is the first one we think about. So you have more than enough money coming in then what you need, so that you're not worried about Social Security, you're not worried about taxes going up, you're not worried about inflation, because you can have the financial wherewithal to withstand it and withhold it. And actually, people with more money actually make more money in time to have inflation, because their assets go up in inflation, so they actually enjoy it. Second, we need time freedom, so that the time that you're spending are yours, and you get to spend them on the things that you want to do. Right. So nobody's getting, there's nobody telling you what to do and where to be, you make those decisions. And then number three is choice, choice freedom, so that you're not limited by anybody else's rules. You make your own rules, like those people in Flint, Michigan, right? They are reliant on the government shipping and water, fresh water. And if they don't fish ship in the fresh water, what do they do, they have no water, if to use the junk that comes out of the pipe until they have to wait around until those pipes are fixed. If they're ever going to be fixed. They have no choice. If you have independence, you have the choice to say you know what, that's not good enough. That's not good enough for me. And for my family. We're out of here. And that's what I want for you. And coming up, we want to be looking at a plan to help you achieve all three of these. So stay tuned. So let's see how this would work for you. Now, this is where we start to leave the fear behind and to move into our potential. All right. So now, again, let me know in the chat, what are your goals? So your homework was to post your number one financial goal in the group? Those of you who did it, I'm gonna applaud you and say, hey, look, you are way more likely to achieve your goal because you took action. And the others maybe not so much. They quit dreaming, right? Maybe they're jaded. They didn't do that. But we need to end that right now. Because before you can achieve your dream, you need a destination that excites you. So let me know in the chat guys. What is your number one financial goal? Could be for 2024 It could be longer. And if you have more than one go ahead and share it like let's go ahead and let's be limited Alright, so I know Connor you had posted Yours Yours was a good one. I forgot who else posted somebody wanted a Corvette I liked it. That was amazing. You know, so anybody else want a new car? Right? It doesn't have to be like serious stuff right let's have some fun too. This is the on the right that's what did the Lexus TX I'm actually going to be test driving that one to see if we get that one. It hasn't come out yet. But they have some for test driving. Anybody here? Oh, Eric's Eric's called Eric was the Corvette. All right, cool. Anybody want a new house? And when you want a house with a pool, maybe as it's getting hotter climate change, right. You're gonna need to clean off. I would advise against the pool maybe though? Yeah, like, we use our pool and our house like maybe two maybe three times a year. Max. What about a vacation? Anybody looking for family vacations, exotic vacations, anything special. My wife took some of my gains that I've been making from our new strategy that we call market power. And she booked us a Disney cruise. We just got back on Saturday. And the thing was awesome. Like I couldn't believe how nice it was. They have people on the Disney ship. They have people standing at the bathroom in the common areas. Straight, they have come in, they haven't standing at the bathroom. You go into the bathroom, you come out as soon as you come out, they go into clean everything. It was amazing. And it wasn't just like a one person bathroom. After that I went to the bathroom at Orlando airport. And my god, I was gagging. It smelled horrible. There was like, pee all over the floor. And I was like, Well, it's a big difference, right? How about some of you could maybe this was a funny one. But some of you guys, maybe you could use some new teeth, or maybe some new hair? Or maybe even both? Right? It's, it's amazing what money can do. If you just ask Elon, right? This was before money after money, right? Big difference. So Geez. See? Well, I'm gonna read some of you guys off here. Financial Independence Remainer the Corvette for Eric uncommon traitor for Ralph. Bernard saying maintain financial independence. So that's it. Okay, that's awesome. Once Mark wants to make a million dollars, awesome. Trisha wants a new house. Financial freedom, income, financial freedom to travel with no second thoughts. Yeah, that's that's like the choice freedom, right? It's like, hey, I want to wake up. I want to get on a plane and go. That'd be awesome. Matt. 10k a month for Matt. All right, Matthew, be my own boss, make my own schedule, quit my job work from home. Job. That's that's the dream, right? That's the dream. A lot of people have that dream, not only because they want to quit their job, but because they're afraid or they don't like their job. And I was talking to somebody today. He was like, Man, I can't leave my job. It's like, I hate my job. But I can't. I got 15 years to retirement, but I'm not gonna make the most the same amount of money somewhere else. So I'm kind of stuck. It's a horrible way to live. Replace my salary, then double it. Continue with the education start a scholarship. Oh, Jen. That's an awesome one. I love that one. Or actually, I'm actually gonna be doing that this year. So that's awesome. William wants to make 50k a month. Great. It's possible. Traveling while I'm working the markets. Awesome. Great. Cool. I mean, these are great. So now that you have these goals in mind, right? You guys need to ask yourself, like, what is it going to feel like to achieve this goal? What does that mean? Like? What kind of difference would it make? It's easy to just say, oh, yeah, I just want to make 50 grand a month, but you got to feel it. Right? What's the difference to your spouse? What's the difference to your children? What's the difference to your community, once you make it, a desire strong enough, there's nothing that's going to stop. There is nothing gonna stop you if the desire is strong enough. And just want to give you like a picture, I want to give you a picture demonstration. So imagine you're driving down the road in your brand new convertible, or Corvette. That's cool with the top down your thick hair blowing in the breeze as you leave your brand new mansion and head to the airport to jump on your private plane with your closest friends on a two week trip to Europe for skiing, sightseeing, wine tasting river cruising all that stuff. Right? For me tell you a personal story. For me. It took a little less than 10 years to go from being totally broke, to being able to do whatever I wanted. Financial Independence pretty much, right. And since then, I have been lucky enough to be crossing things off my bucket list left and right. You know, two years ago, we started a private foundation to give back and Jen. Next year we're going to be we're not going to be doing a scholarship. But we're working with a particular university where you know, we're gonna give money and set aside a thing for that. This year, I launched a hedge fund, which was also a bucket list item for me in a couple years, I plan to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, with my whole family, we just need my daughter to be a little older. Before we do that, and if a college dropout, a two time college dropout, like me can do these things. There's nothing really stopping nothing at all. Now, I know that you were not born yesterday, right? This is not your first rodeo, and you're not stupid. You've set goals before you've dreamed before. I bet most of you even taken action. And you've tried to reach those goals. But for some reason, it didn't work out the way you want it. So it'd be I'd really appreciate it if you'd be open enough to share with me in the chat. What have you tried in the past? or what have you thought about trying to get to your financial goals? Let me know in the chat, please. Because I mean, I know that I've tried a lot of things before I found what worked for me. I started off the first I think the first thing I started was network marketing and if you guys know what that is like Amway you know where you selling stuff and then you get people under you I wasn't an Amway was something else that was given out catalogs, bothering my family, you sign up under me, and then eventually people just stopped returning my phone calls. At one point, I was a realtor and a mortgage broker. And I realized that I really hate selling things and I am a severe introvert. So going up to somebody in a grocery store and being like, Oh, hey, are you doing you want to buy a house today? Yeah, that's not my cup of tea. I was trading stocks in college. Not doing very well. I tried this chain letter thing once. I don't know if you guys have this. We haven't. I think those died. You know when people started using the internet, but it's a basic level. You get a letter with a list of 10 people and their addresses And you mail $1 to each of the 10 people, okay, then you take off the top name, you add yours to the bottom, and then you print out those letters, and you send them to as many people as you can. So I sent 500 letters, so that was 500 for printing, postage, the envelope all that, because I'm thinking, you know, I'm going to send 500 letters back, I'm gonna get like a lot of money. I'm gonna, you know, at least $500 back. I got one. I got $1 back. And people are surprised that he got $1 back. Oh, man, I bought rental houses before for quote, unquote, passive income. Yeah, no, that doesn't work. I've tried Airbnb ease, we had three at one time. And that turned into more than a full time job. Because you have people at like three in the morning texting you saying, Oh, hey, I need more towels. It's like, I'm asleep, you know, but you have to reply to them within an hour, because that's their rules for Airbnb. So it's not so we got rid of those. I tried. I tried Jeopardy or trading futures. When I was I forgot what it was. It was. It was I think this was the between the first and second time I dropped out of college, and we'd have any money and I wanted to get into trading and my dad didn't want me to get into trading. So he's like, You know what, I'm going to borrow this money on a credit card, and you're going to lose it and then you're never going to trade again because it's going to be so painful. So when he borrowed eight grand, he gave it to me. And I had bought this mini course on how to trade futures and I had done all the technical analysis. I done everything I waited for the perfect time. And then I bought one contract of Japanese yen. And it was supposed to go up. It was perfect. The next morning I wake up I checked the prices and whoa Yen is up. That's awesome. That's great. Then I go and I check my account and my check my account had like $6 in it and I'm like what the what happened? Jen is up when what happened? Then I looked at it and it the Yen had opened low on the day it opened down on the day below my stop so my stop had gotten hit. And it just took the whole account the whole $1,000 and then the yen went up for the next several weeks. So I would have made money but no that's I didn't know how to trade so it's crazy even had to stall at the flea market for a while you know I missed out on my family he killed my back I could go on and on. So it's not I'm going to read some of these cool what you guys did Amazon FBA Yep. Didn't have tried that one. Network marketing, affiliate marketing. Options trading took a major hit car sales. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's I definitely could not do that. I need to figure out another way to maintain or increase my money. Wholesale real estate, property network marketing lots of scams for Rob Oh, geez. crypto. My God. Rental Property Amway customers want consistency but prefer traded me futures? Okay. Oh, well, Bernard. Yeah. So I think based on all this, I think Rob, I think you had the hardest time. So no, oh, no. Was it? Actually Joel, I think we're gonna give you we're gonna give you a t shirt drill. You here for doing car sales. So that's like, I think at all that that was probably the hardest thing. At least for me. Anyway, so Joel, we're gonna get you a t shirt. Just for just for being awesome. And sharing. So thank you all for sharing. I know. It couldn't be easy. But yeah. But yeah, Joel. So judicial official message you and get your information. So now, this is why we're here tonight. Right? We're trying to overcome the fear. And we're trying to arm you with the tools and the strategies to put you on the path to achieve your goals and your dreams. Because we are moving from fear to freedom. We know what we want, right? We already we have our goals. You guys did that part. We did it together. We know what we tried. We just we just did that part. Like we what we've tried what hasn't worked, but we need to know what is holding us back. Because all of us are not stupid. Right? I need to ask you. What's stopping you? What is stopping you from achieving your goals? What is it? Let me know in the chat. Why did it not work out? Why did the Amazon FBA now work out? Why did the wholesaling real estate now work out? Well, I did the I forgot what else. I mean, there was a whole bunch of stuff on there. And, and I know like after talking to so many people, I know that what I've seen over and over and over again. But if you guys didn't tell me what it was, I love to hear it. You know what was it specifically that stopped you from having a workout? For Joel it was the mindset Yeah, I mean carsales on easy. You bust your butt when and actually I think I know what you're saying here. And so normally, right Sanjay lost motivation last persistence. Yeah. Ralph, it was time. For Rob It was lack of commitment to one thing for Jay he was attitude mindset and you got to have massive action for Maynard said he didn't have money and He didn't have the opportunity. So he didn't know he didn't have the money. And he didn't know what to do. Right? And I see a pattern here. And I actually have these on the next on the next slide. So these are the three things that I normally see. Right? These are the three answers that I normally get when I ask this question, what is holding you back? Number one, I don't have enough time. Number two, I don't have enough money. Number three, I don't know enough. So where are the opportunities? How do I do that? How do I find them? How do I how do I make money, right? And I've been there too. I've been there, right? fear, doubt, uncertainty, all of these things can keep us stuck. So what I want to do is a little thought experiment, to see if I can get you to change your perspective. If you guys are with me. And this one is going to be a little for some people is going to be a little tough, okay, just because of the way it's it's set up. But again, you know, no harm is coming to you, no harm is going to come to you. But But this is the thought experiment. So imagine that your child or if you don't have a child, your spouse, or if you don't have a spouse, a loved one, left home this morning and was kidnapped, there's no way you can find them. There's no police, there's no FBI, there's no they can't help you. All you have is a note that says that once you pay, turn over or pay $1 million to the kidnappers, you will get your loved one back. And if $1 million is too small amount like oh, you can write a check for that, then let's make it a larger number, maybe 10 million or 20 million or whatever. But it's a large amount that you don't just have lying around. Okay. That's the situation. a loved one is kidnapped, you have to pay a lot of money, and you can't get them back until you do. And that's the only way to do it. There's no other way. Are you going to tell me that you don't have enough time to get them back? No, because you're going to work night and day to get them released? Are you going to tell me that you don't have enough money? No, obviously, you don't have enough money, but you're going to do whatever it takes to get the money? Are you going to tell me that you don't know how to get them back? Obviously, you don't know how right because you don't have the money. This has never happened before. You just have to figure it out. Because they are depending on you. You are their Savior, their only Savior. You will do whatever it takes as long as it takes because they mean the world to you. They are your why your motivation your whole world. When your desire is strong enough. You can move mountains, but you got to believe it. And you believe it Do you believe? Do you believe that you have that power? Because the limitations that are holding you back? They they have power over you until you decide otherwise, if your desire is strong enough. Now while I hope that no harm ever comes to your family, right, and this was only an exercise, all the things that we talked about earlier are real. And they are happening to your family. Right? Your family is in real danger. If your situation is not good enough, everything we talked about will affect them to probably more because it give their kids they're younger? How will you protect them? How will you care for them? How will you provide for them? There's only one way or there is one way that the rich have used to insulate themselves from the problems of the world. And I want us to use that same method, right. So to get rid of uncertainty and fear. You need to be in control of your own finances, and enhance your own life. There is one thing I've learned that helped me overcome the financial fear in my life. And that was to create my own paycheck, when I'm not relying on somebody else to pay me to give me money. It's just a whole new ballgame. That's the only way I know to have certainty in this economy, in this world in your life by controlling your income, regardless of your education. Doesn't matter if you're educated or not. Regardless of your resources, if you got money or not of your time of your of your location of your health. Doesn't matter where you live, right? If you have your own paycheck, none of that matters. You can't control most things out there. You can't control the economy, the stock market, the government, your job, but you can control your paycheck if if you take action and you make some changes. But most people don't know how to do that. Right? So let's create something for you. Let's go ahead and give you this other exercise to help you create what I call the perfect paycheck generator. Okay, so this is an exercise I did in the past and I wrote down every single thing that I wanted in a job or a business or whatever, a method to generate income. Okay, now, there are millions of ways to make money, right? Most of them are very hard or they take too long or they're too difficult. So if I were to create the perfect income machine, these are all the criteria that I would write. I would want to short learning curve being my own boss, unlimited income potential, no physical labor. I'm a lazy guy, to be honest. You know, I want to be well respected for doing what I do. I want something that's not going to be a short time thing. It's going to work for decades and decades. You know, I don't want to do any selling. I'm not. I'm not, you know, Joel sold cars. That's hard for me. I tried it with houses didn't work at all. I think I sold like three total, because somebody else gave me the deal. They were referrals. I don't wanna do anything illegal. I don't want to go into debt. Right. So is there anything on here that I am missing? Right? Is there anything up here that I'm missing? Now, Jay, saying that, you know, he had his own business, which because of COVID had to close. Lots and lots of hard work. You know, restaurant restaurants are very hard work. Lots of capital investment upfront. If you start to open a restaurant, you gotta go get alone, you got to go into debt. Hopefully the people like it, and you have the right location, all that stuff. I mean, it's really hard. Am I missing anything on here that you guys would want? No. So Mark, saying he wants to build confidence, something that could? Yeah, that could build up your confidence. Ralph saying vacations. Exactly. All the holidays are off. Right? You get all the holidays off? Right? That's what I want. I want to take off days even when there are no holidays. I want to choose the days I want to work. And I think this is Bernard not being able to quit and restart. Jen saying she wants smart people to collaborate with Oh, okay. Yeah, I don't have that one. Being able to work with and collaborate not exactly work for but work with people that are smart, able to help others do the same thing to teach people Oh, that's a good one. Rob, I like that one. Something that we can allow me to attend all my kids events. That's a great one, too. I love these. These are good. So, you know, I looked at just about everything out there. There, you can generate income, I looked at starting a business real estate investing day trading a lot of the stuff that we already talked about. And from my point of view, there's nothing out there that has as many advantages as what I call passive trading. So when you look at all the advantages of passive trading, guess what? It's the same list. Right? It's that exact same list. And that is on purpose. Because I searched for years and years and years to find options, selling, it wasn't an easy thing. But eventually I found it. And then to take selling options and personalize it in a way that it fits to make it into passive trading, which is something that I came up with and that we teach. So it's basically it's a way to make money by selling options in a way that is fun. Simple, takes very little time to do. Now, all the other stuff, right? provide for my family needs, being able to attend my kids events, right? That's what we do every day. So when it comes to making money, the power of passive trading is unbelievable. And I do want to demonstrate it. But I do think it would be better with a volunteer. So if you would let me know in the chat, and there might be a t shirt in it for you if you do. But if you let me know in the chat, if you would like to volunteer, and then this will be something something interesting. Okay. And gents first. All right. So Jen, if you can go ahead and unmute yourself. That will be wonderful. Okay, how you doing? Good. How are you? Good. So do you know what passive trading is by chance? Options? Maybe? I'm just getting the book. All right, cool. All right. So what I want to do with you is run some numbers using your goals, if that's okay, to see if passive trading is worth doing for you. Are you okay with that? Yes. All right, cool. So let me ask you first, how much money do you need for financial independence? If that is even your goal? What is your goal? My goal is 10 million. 10 million. Okay. How much you need for independence? Currently? Probably about 4 million. 4 million. Okay. And that would be like retirement. Yes, you could live, okay. So you can invest the money and you can live off that. Right? Cool. So basically, what my goal is to have have my, my nest egg and then be able to just basically take money out but not really ever have to deplete it or ever really ever have to, I guess, make that number go down too much. Also, does that make sense? So basically replenish it as I go along. And as I said, I would really, really like to fund a couple college scholarships, because I've got two that are getting ready to start next year. And I feel like this is not your own kids. Well, no. I mean, no, not for me. But I'm talking to a lot of people and realizing that it seems like no matter how much money people make that that paying for school is really hard. So I want to help others. Be easier. Wow, that's awesome. That's really cool. Yeah, like that. Okay, so let's see if this would work. So this is our financial independence calculator. Can you see this on this? screen? Yes, calculator? Yeah. Okay, so it's a very simple tool does some very small calculations. So, every month, how much do you think you would need to survive? Or to be decently happy? I'm gonna say about 12,000? Is this what is this before or after text? Ah I don't know, I normally I just skip taxes, because it's like, what tax bracket are you in and all that. But if you want, you want to add, you want to add to it? So say 1515. Okay. 15. Now the other question, because there's always going to ask you like, Okay, how much money you're gonna make? Right? How much money do you make on your money. And so for that, since you are not familiar with passive trading that much, there is a range of what we try to make every month. And so on the low end, we try to do one to 2% per month, on the high end, some of the strategies are more, but I want to use for this scenario, I want to use some real numbers of what we've done the past year. Okay, so I'm going to head on over to this page right here, which is our market power performance page. Now, this is the newest strategy that we've just rolled out earlier this year. And so I have a whole year's worth of real trading data and numbers. And as you can see, we have a bunch of people here and this you can use behind the dot, but this is Connor, he's, I see him here. So he's there. He's one of our original members. So on this page, we have a lot of testimonials, success stories, videos. And then if you scroll all the way to the bottom, you have the number of trades, and the and the results. So these are actual real numbers, real trades, each trade, we try to make about 5%. Now if you add up all these trades, we've had 69 trades so far. And it's about the total result was about 360% for the year, or for 11 months so far. So if you take 360 divided by 11, that comes out to like 32% a month, which is that's just crazy. Phenomenal. But it's just crazy numbers, right? If we, if we use if we use that here, it'll tell you, you can retire like in two months, but let's be a lot more conservative. And let's just say that we are making, say 5% a month. That's one trade of ours is 5%. But let's just say we make 5% a month. Okay, so that is going to tell us that you need $300,000 in your trading account, right now, if you can make 5% a month to earn $15,000. And that's just simple math. Right? So how much capital do you have right now that you can work with that you can trade with? About 500,000? And you plan on adding anything to this? No? No? Okay. All right. So this will take us how long it will take you to retire. And I don't know if it's point one, or if it's just point oh, but it will take you this much to turn 500,000 into the 300, which you already have to make 5% a month. So technically, if you made 5% a month, you could stop working and retire and make a lot more than 15% or 15,000. Right now. I did this with an earlier person earlier today. And his goal was 10,000. And he started with I think, how much was it? I think it was 7000. And he You said he could save 1000. And for him. He was going to retire in like four years. And he was like 26 years old. So the fact that he could retire at age 30 Blew his mind. Right? It's like what? And for you? I mean, it's like, you know, you have the book, you haven't read it the power is there like I do I do this? Well, it's all in there. So this is the type now if you have if you're making 300,000 500,000 a year, and you don't need that much, right? Because you said you're only looking for 15,000 a month, you don't need the rest, you can still make it but you don't need it. That gives you the ability to set up the scholarships, not and that's a lot of scholarships as to not just one or two. But every year you could do that. You're not afraid of the of all the other stuff that we're talking about because you have choices. So I do appreciate your help. Do you have any questions about any of this? Now? Okay, cool. So Jen, thank you very much. Trisha is going to reach out to you and get you your address so we can send you a t shirt. And so now that we've covered just about everything that I wanted to cover, we talked about what's coming down the road, we talked about what we're afraid of, we talked about what we want, what's holding us back. And now, you know, I love this calculator because it kind of gives us a way to show like, hey, look, it's just numbers. It's just math. Right? If you can get these results, then the problems go away. The solution is there. And I showed you the numbers from our market power program. Are you ready to get started with passive trading, and be a consistent and confident and profitable trader generating cash flow consistently from the stock market? Well, I have some great news for you. For a limited time we are offering my new book passive trading for free. All you got to do is go to passive trading.com/free book. And we will send you the book in the mail for free as long as you cover the postage and handling. So if you didn't cover that, we'll send you the book for free. We've already printed it, we got it for you. We're gonna send it out to you. It's free. All you got to do is just go to passive trading.com/free book and learn the basics of passive trading. Get the behind the scenes, get some examples, learn the strategies, and put this stuff to work in your life right now. Remember, go to passive trading.com/free book and get yours now while this offer is still available.

This is the final part of the series that shows you a better way to read if you want to accomplish more, and make more money. All right, welcome, you made it to Part 4 - the last part of our series. Now, if you missed part one, two or three, please go watch or listen to at least part one, because that explains everything. Otherwise, you're just going to hear me talk about books, and you're not going to understand what I'm talking about. But to give you a quick recap, I changed the way I read books, because I was finding out that I was just reading and reading just to read and just accomplish, but I was not using the information, I was not learning anything. And so it wasn't worth it. I was reading a lot spending a lot of time reading, but it wasn't worth it. Because it wasn't making any difference in my life. And I realized recently, so I've been teaching my my seven-year-old how to do multiplication tables, right? And so she asked me, Dad, I want to learn this stuff. How do I do it? I say, Well, you write them down. And then you say them over and over and over again, and you memorize them. That's the, that's the way I knew how to do it. I was taught that way. And that's, you know, that's what I taught her. And so she's been working on it. And you know, she's seven, and she got hers, she got the ones, you got the twos, you got the 5s 10s 11s. So now she's working on the threes and the fours. And she's doing really great. But again, he's just reading it over and over and over again. And so that's kind of what I'm doing with these books, I picked out 12 books that make a big difference in different aspects of my life that I want to work on. And so I identified those areas that I wanted to work on first. And then I found the books that really helped me and give me stuff to do and think about, and though I chose one book per month, so that month, I will read that book, maybe I read it two times or three times, and then I will implement. And I spend the whole rest of the month implementing everything in that book, if I can, if I'm done with the book, or if I don't want to do any more than I'll go on the next month to the next book. Or I'll just keep working on that book if I'm making a lot of progress. So that's how it works. In part two, and part three, I went through four books each. So the first eight books of the year, I talked about and I think, you know, if you are a reader, if you want to get better at your life at different areas of your life, then those two parts would definitely be something that you want to go back and cover and do. And if you're not a reader, I haven't talked about this before. But all of these books are available as audiobooks, right, you can listen to these books, you don't have to just read them, you can listen to them. And there was something I read that. And I don't know if this is true or not. But it said that if you listen to the book while you are reading it, you remember it more. Now, I haven't ever tried that I'm not no big into audiobooks. I like reading. I like having the book in my hand. I don't even like the the Kindle versions or the ebooks. And so I have a bunch, but I like the physical books. So all these 12 books, I have them physically, I tried to get all of them in hardcover, so they last and I enjoy reading them over and over again. Every time I read them, I'm learning new things, and I'm implementing again, and I'm like, Oh yeah, cuz I'm in a different spot in my life every time I read them. So really helps. Let's go ahead and jump into the books here. So this is a book. The first one is if things are going wrong, like if there's an issue, if there's a problem, if you're facing some kind of setbacks, and you don't know what to do, the book is called Everything is figureoutable. That's the word everything is figure out double. And that's basically the the idea behind the book. Now the author, Marie Forleo. She's a great author. The book is well written great stories funny, she has a business that geared more towards women. So her products, her the way she talks, everything is geared towards women, I thought it would be put off by that it wasn't that big a deal. But I really liked the way she wrote the book. And I liked it. Her other products I didn't really resonate with, but I really loved the book, I really loved the idea behind it. And so I really recommend this book for people for anybody, anybody that wants to, you know, have an easier time in life. Just need some encouragement, right? Everything is figureoutable. I mean, if you have that mindset, if you have that thing that thought in your mind that no matter what problem I have, no matter what issue I have, I'll be able to figure it out. Somebody will be able to figure out and I'll be able to get help, and it'll happen and it'll be fine. Everything's gonna be fine. Right? So if you have that idea in your mind, man, failure is not anything to be afraid of. Because if it doesn't work out, guess what, we'll just have to figure it out. Right? It's figureoutable, nothing is impossible and that sort of thing. So that was that was a great book. I really liked that one. The next one is a thinker book not really a doing book, but it's a thinking book. So everything is figureoutablee it has some stuff in there that you know if you have any challenges or whatever it we're helps you work through them. This one is called the the 8020 principle. All right, so this one is really good. In terms of it'll blow your mind. If you haven't read it, if you don't know, if you don't understand how it works, this one will blow your mind. And really, it's Pareto's Principle, it's, you know, 80% of your results come from 20% of your work. So it's about working smarter, not harder, right? In anything, even in nature, this formula somehow works. So if you're in business, 80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers, 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your products, and then it goes even further. So then you have the 20%, and then the top 20% of the 20%, bring in 80% of that, so you can go down and he gets really crazy. So if you look at it in terms of results, if you turn and look at it, science, health, all these issues, you know, 20% of the food you eat gives you 80% of the nutrients, all the other stuff is just junk that we're eating, right, so you want to cut out calories, cut out the junk, and you'll still get all the nutrients that you're eating right now. But you'll eat 80% less crazy. I mean, there's so many different concepts that you can implement it in and the the guy in the book, he goes through several different ones. Very smart guy, very intelligent, you know, he gives you different examples of how it works, how it how to use it. And it really gives you a different way to think that if you have a job to do, if you have work to do, if you have a business, if you have, if you're managing people, the 80-20 principle is amazing in how you can be more effective in less time with less work. And the subtitle of the book is the secret to achieving more with less.  And that's, that's really what it does, you know it, you get to do more, you get to accomplish more, but it takes less time, less work, less energy. And that sounds pretty good to me. So that's why I read it, I get re-energized every time I read it. And then I apply it to different areas of my life, like, okay, how can I do this? Okay, how can I apply this to, you know, how much time I spend with my kids? Like, if I only have a certain amount of time with my kids every single day? Because I'm busy, they're busy, they're getting older? How do I make the most of that time? If I know that I'm with them for an hour, but only 20 minutes or 10 minutes of that is quality, then how do I improve that? Right? So that's just one example, but there's so many different ways that you can incorporate that into your life, read the book, it's really great. And it'll make things easier, faster, simpler in your life. All right, then we have this one is, I don't know how it's gonna go over. I don't know how it if it's gonna go over with you, but it's called the Untethered Soul. Okay, so this one, it's not about accomplishments. This is not about life, psychology, anything, this is about your soul. It's a spirituality book. And it's life changing. Realistically, it really, the book is about focusing on the hereafter, it's about focusing on your soul. It's about focusing on what happens to us, and how we deal with pain, how we deal with issues, how we deal with life in general. And it's a deep book. It's a very, very, very deep book. But if you have any type of trauma, grief, self esteem issues, anything of that nature, mentally, emotionally, that you are working on, that makes you unhappy, or just makes you feel like life is not all that, then this book will help you. And it really, it really makes you happier if you follow the instructions and follow the steps. So this man who wrote his book, he has a couple other books, I suggest you read those as well. The first one maybe before you read this one is called the surrender experiment. It's his life story, an amazing, amazing story. It you know, he started off as a basically a hippie that wanted to live in the woods. That's all he wanted to do. He wanted to live in the woods and he wanted to meditate. He had an experience when he was younger, when he was meditating. And that's all he wanted to do. Just have that experience over and over and over again. Right. But life had other plans. And so he surrendered to life. And he went with wherever it took him. He ended up starting a company that was became a billion dollar company. He was the CEO of a billion dollar company, when they had gone public, sell shares did all this stuff. It's still around today. And I mean, his whole story of how everything just worked out, you know, from having no money, really nothing and just wanting to meditate all day in the woods, to going building up companies multiple companies. Helping 1000s of people employing 1000s of people, building a massive company going public merging. You know, everybody in everybody in business, everybody on Wall Street knew this company. That's how big it was. Right? And it was all started by this guy who he just wanted to meditate. But life had other plans. Right? Life took him on that direction. And he didn't fight it, he. And so that's the, that's the story. He tells in that book, the surrender experiment. And then in this book, he actually explains why and one of the things he talks about, is that how we all have the voice in our head. Like, why don't we have peace? Right? When we're thinking, we're, there's always something, there's always a voice going on our brain, there's always something. There's always thinking, there's always talking, Oh, you didn't do that, right? Oh, this guy didn't like you, Oh, that guy cut me off. Oh, man, this is too hot. Oh, it's too cold. It's too this is too that. And none of that. Our brain is always going on and on and on and on. And in this book, he tells us and he explains that we are not that voice. You know. So he does talk about meditation, he does talk about how to deal with certain things like grief, and trauma, and all these things, how to look at life, how to look at the beauty of life. And so if you have any type of those type of issues, if you're looking for, this not a religious book, it has nothing to do with any kind of religion, right? Doesn't matter what religion you are, the book can help. And so that's why I bring it here. I mean, some people might have with it, but it was game changing. For a lot of people, millions of people have read this book, and many, many more billion people recommend it. So if you haven't read it, that's a really, really good one. But it is a deep book. And so I read that one in November, you know, it's towards the end of the year. You know, it's my birthday time. And so I'm thinking of, you know, just, it's a relaxing period, for me, you know, usually November and it's a celebratory period, because it November also has Thanksgiving. And Thanksgiving is my favorite, favorite holiday. Because we actually see on one day we stop, everybody stops and actually give thanks and being happy and grateful. Right. And so that and spirituality and the birthday, you know, when you're older, it's like, oh, you know, what's gonna happen with me, all that kind of stuff. It all just comes together. And so that is a perfect time for this particular book for me. And so yeah, I really, really recommend that one, a lot. Final book. Now, this is one that I was not sure if I was going to add, but this one is, for me, it's pretty cool. And I've read this book several times, it's called the future is faster than you think. Now, this book is going to be outdated, and probably already is outdated. As soon as it comes out. This book was probably outdated. And the thing behind this author, he's written a couple other books. He's written a book called Bold, is written a book called Abundance. And then this was the third book. And I think he's working on the next one. This particular guy, he is what they call a futurist. Right. So he focuses on the technologies that are coming down the pipe, he looks at all the different technologies that people have been working on. And then he sees how they work together in the Confluence and what could be possible. So in this book, here, he talks. And basically, it's how converging technologies are transforming business industries and our lives. And if you don't know what's coming down the pipe in the future, if you read this book, it will blow you away. Right? So most people, they look at what's wrong in the world. They look at all the negative. Oh, It's getting harder every year. Oh, the politics are this, oh, there's so much garbage in the world. Oh, people don't get along. Oh, there's so much. There's so much war, intention, and, and scarcity and all these different things. And this guy, he takes a different approach. He's like, you know, if you look at it, if you look at the numbers, life has never been better for people on this planet. We're living longer, we're healthier, we have more food than ever, we don't have to worry about food. We have cars and food and entertainment at our fingertips. And there's so many things that we can be grateful for so many things that are unimaginable just 10 years ago, 20 years ago, right, and the way that the future is coming, and he explains all the different technologies, you know, he talks about flying cars, when they're coming, how they're coming, how they're gonna get here, he talks about AI, he was talking this book came out years ago, way before ChatGPT and all the AI companies that are going crazy now, people have been working on AI for years, but it wasn't ready to be mainstream. Now. It's actually coming to be mainstream. So every other other predictions he made in this book are coming true right in front of our eyes. So it's incredible. So some of those predictions have come true already. The other ones are going to be coming true. So if you want to know what the future holds for humanity, this is one of the books that is really, really good. And I'd say it's already outdated, because there's a lot of thing that's already happened. And there's more things that are happening now that he hasn't covered in the book yet. So maybe in his next book to be even more things, but these guys are on the cutting edge of technology. And so one of the things is that we're going to be able to live Have a lot longer and he explains how so 120 150 years old is doable, maybe not. For you, I don't know how old you are maybe not for me, I might live to 120, my kids, they might get to 200. Because the technology is in the advancements in health and all this stuff is growing crazy fast, just all the stuff that happened during COVID-19 time, right? The technologies that they came out with the way they streamline the processes, how everything became faster, because they needed to be faster.  Health-wise, they made huge jumps, what used to take five years or 10 years before in health was able to be done in five months or less. And so it's amazing, you know, like before, I never even my doctor never even considered doing a zoom call with me. And now that's the only way I talked to her I haven't talked to I haven't seen her in years as you're on Zoom, and that's it. Because I don't want to go to our office, I don't wanna sit there for an hour in the waiting room, then sit there in the cold room with the with the nurse that doesn't smile, and then you know, see my doctor for like 10 minutes, and then she's out the door, I don't want to I got work to do, I don't have two hours to wait, waste at the doctor. So this is something that maybe I never thought about that would happen. But he predicted it in the book. And it came true. So this one, there's really nothing for you to do in this book. There's no work. And so this is why I put it at the end of the year is just it's inspirational. It makes me like, Oh, holy cow, holy cow. This is the type of book that when I read it, I tell everybody about it like, Hey, did you know about this? Oh, do you hear about this and people like, I don't care, you know, because it's like, okay, but for me, the the future stuff, the technologies that are coming, they're, they're really cool. I love this kind of stuff. So, you know, when you're trading, it's really passive trading, right? The idea is that we want to make money and have our money make more money for us so that we don't have to work. And it's called, that's what it's called passive, we're not really doing too much work. And so what do you do with all that free time? Well, in the future is going to be a lot different than it is now. So the time that we have, right is going to be way more fun. And we're gonna have a lot more of it, because you're just living longer. So the advancements in health that are coming down the pike, organs, you know, pig organs and transplants, and this and that, and it's insane, the stuff that's coming, and they already have it. I mean, everything he talks about in the book is already here, right nuclear power and how they use it and how they're cleaning the how they're cleaning the ocean, and how they're turning salt water into fresh water, and all this stuff. These technologies are here, they're not maybe all of them are not ready for primetime. But with enough investment, they could be and they could change the world. So these type of technologies, these type of companies that are doing this kind of research and stuff, they need investment. And so if we want to really make a big difference in the world, we want to leave it at a better place than when we got here, taking the money that we're making from trading, and then giving back to the world. You know, helping solve some of the world's problems would be a wonderful way to use your money. And so people ask like, oh, yeah, you know, I got this question today, like, how much money do you need? Right? Like, you keep trading? How much? How much do you actually need? Do you actually want? Do you do it for fun? You do it for for greed, what do you do it for? And I'm like, there are so many things that I want to fund, there are so many things I want to bring to the world. And I don't have to be the one doing all the research and being the scientist and the technologists and all that stuff. But if I can help them by funding the company, or by making an investment, then that's going to help my kids, my grandkids, my great grandkids, and on and on and on, because I'm scared for them. I'm scared for future generations, because I see the news do I see things, you know, might not be getting better in all aspects. But then I read a book like this, and I have hope, I hope for the future, I have hope for technologies that are coming down the pike that will make things better that we're not going to just, you know, go crazy, and everything's going to be so hot, and nobody's going to get along and everything's just going to be a big mess. I don't think, I hope that doesn't happen. You know, and I do want to live to 120 years old. That's my goal, how another 220 years old. And one of the things that this author says is that just don't do anything stupid. Don't do anything stupid to hurt yourself. Because the technology in health at least is growing so fast that yes, even somebody my age, which is at 46 years old right now, I will be able to live past 100 Based on the technologies that are coming as long as you know, I don't ride a motorcycle without a helmet and crash and hit my brain or have a heart attack because my cholesterol is too high or you know, fall off a roller coaster or something. I don't know. But as long as I don't really do something that's irrepairable you know, if I'm older, and I need a new organ, there'll be able to replace my organ, they might just be able to make an organ just for me with my own cells, if I have any kind of issues, they'll be able to fix it, they can't fix it now. But that technology is maybe 10 years coming, or 15 years coming, you know, arthritis will be gone, cancer, gone, all of these things, they have stuff that is working now that it can help. But it's not either it's not in the clinical trials, it's not finished with the trials, or it's, you know, still in research stages. And so I could go on and on about this stuff forever. But I read that, you know, it's a book that you don't have to read. But if you do, maybe just read it once. It's really cool. It's really inspirational, and it'll help you be a lot more positive. And so that's the one I read at the end of the year, it's not something that you really have to learn a lot from, I mean, you'll learn a lot by reading it, but you don't have to do anything, right. It's not an implementation book. So that's why I put it at the end of the year. And then when this author comes out with a new book, I'll probably replace this one with that one, and read that one and see, okay, what's the progress made since the last book now because books take so many years to write, edit, publish, print all that stuff. You know, by the time the book comes out, a lot of stuff is old anyway. And outdated because of technology is changing so fast, but it's still so as of right now, as I'm recording this, this book is still really readable and awesome. But if it's not for you, again, this is one of those times that you can change it out with another book of your liking that you want to read over and over again. Now you'll notice that I don't have you know, I didn't put any religious books in here, I have one spirituality book, right? And I was even considering, should I put it into essay it not say it, I said, No, you know what I want to be real, I want to be transparent. That's it, the book I read, I think you should pick it up. It's very deep, very heavy. And it doesn't talk about religion. So you'll be good with that, hopefully. But if you want to add a religious book in there, feel free to go ahead and add it, implement that sucker, because that'll be really good for you. Right, that's the whole point, these books were to implement these books are to read, to learn again, and remember again, and to implement. And that's the whole point of it. So those are the those are the 12 books that I read every year. And I read them over and over again, one book per month. And they really make a huge, enormous difference in my life. And I think if you do something similar to this, you will also benefit a great deal. I mean, an amazing deal. And it will save you a lot of time because you won't have to read every other book out there in the sun, you know, you stick to the 12 you stick this stuff that you want to work on. And then you just work on it and implement it and life gets good. Really good really fast. Now, if you need an extra book, right? If you don't have one, and one of these didn't make sense, you can always talk about passive trading. That's, that's like my own little plug here. Okay, so you can put passive trading on the list, read this one over and over again, especially if you're not trading. If you're not trading. It's like, what are you doing? Like why? Why are you not trading this way? Right, you need to read this way. You need to trade this way. You need to read the book, again, get inspiration, do all the success stories and all the stuff about retirement and how it's crazy and how to make money selling options. And then just do it and enjoy life and then you will be able to celebrate and you can read all day. Maybe just have fun, read all day. And that is the end. So you know this was part four. Again, there were three other parts 123 So go check those out as well if you started here, and trade with the odds in your favor.

This is part 3 of the 4-part series. See which books I read every year and why I chose them. Plus learn why the way most people read is totally a waste of time. Welcome back. Alright, so this is part three of our four-part series on the books you can read to change your life. Okay, so if you haven't done Part One and Part Two, you probably want to do those first, at least part one. So you know, you get the gist, you have the background of what we're doing. Now I'm going to dive into the second set of books for I broke it down into four books, four books, four books, so part two, part three, and part four, I'm going to show you four books each, so it doesn't take forever. And now these are four books in the first three months, right? January, March, April, the first four books, I started pretty heavy, I like to it's, you know, the new year, you want to get going, you're setting your goals. And it's like, let's just do this, this time, these four months, you know, you're going into the summer season, things are busy, right? Things are hotter, you don't want to be thinking as much. And so these books, a couple of them are really about how to flick change of perspective, not so much work-related or to do work, you know, not to do stuff. But so let's just get into that. Alright, so the first book we have is called "The Slight Edge". Okay, it's the slight edge, turning simple disciplines into a massive success. Now, this is a short book, a very simple concept, one that I can explain to you in five seconds, maybe not. But it's very simple. And it's still worth reading, it's still, you know because you get the examples, you get the illustrations or whatnot. And it's a quick read the idea is the one about knowing where you're going and making small incremental steps to get there, right? So for example, you got on a plane that's going from Miami to New York, right? If it's on track, it'll get to New York, if it's off by even a couple of degrees, and it doesn't correct, then guess what it ends up way off-course, right, somewhere in like Iceland or something, it'll never get to New York. So that's the kind of simple here, it's like, you know when you want to do something, there are certain steps that we have to take, we have to take them over and over and over again. Now, it's very simple to not do those things to take those steps. But in the long run, it's very difficult when you don't do them because it's a problem for you. So if you have a goal, and you say, hey, look, I want to accomplish this, I want to go back to school and get my degree, right? There are certain things you have to do daily, you have to do your homework, right? Now, is it simple to just say no, I'm tired? I don't want to do my homework. Yeah, very simple. It's like I just worked all day, I don't want to go back. You know, like, I don't want to do this, it's very simple for you to miss a day, Miss two days, right? But if you keep missing and keep missing and keep missing, eventually, you're gonna flunk out, and the whole goal is gone. So the first couple times you do it, no big deal, no harm done, you know, you might get away with it. But if you keep building and building and building, then it just doesn't work out. So same with trading, right? If you don't follow the rules in your trades, there might be a trade that it doesn't matter to trade the works out, there might be another one that just doesn't matter. There might be another one that works out. But then eventually there'll come a time when you won't even remember what the rules are. And there'll be a time where you mess up and you don't do it and the thing goes bad and it just destroys you. So if you want to do something, the book says, right, you're taking simple disciplines, just simple, small things, you just have to do small steps, right? The journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step. And that's all the book is telling you. It's like you figure out what are those steps, and you just do them slowly, slowly, and you have the discipline, you have the desire and the book is that's all it's about. And he's telling you how to do that. So I mean, it's a very simple book that is very hard to live by. And so that's why you need the constant reminder, you have to read it again. And again. And again. When you do and you get you back on track, you will accomplish things like crazy, like it's powerful, very powerful book. Alright, so the next one, and now this one is called The Four Hour Workweek. There's probably I think there's a second edition out. So this book is outdated. And so I don't even know if it's worth it for everybody to read this. So this one might not work for you. You might want to take this one out and put in another one. I'll tell you what this one is about. Now, this book came out years ago, and I met the author, I hung out with him. We went to the Berkshire Hathaway meeting together, along with a group of other people. But, you know, the book had just come out and he had come with our group he had come with us.  And so, you know, really smart guy. Tim Ferriss is the name. He's got a very popular podcast the guy is blown up. He's very famous now. But the book is The Four-Hour Workweek. And it's he came up with the idea years ago and he didn't come up with it. He wrote a book about it. The idea was already there. But he made outsourcing pretty popular in common knowledge. So outsourcing is right. It's taking a job from here and having somebody overseas do it. And so his whole thesis of the book is that you can create a business online, and you can have people in other countries doing the work for you. And basically, you don't have to do any work. kind of the gist of it. And so people are like, what, you know, I don't have to hire a secretary in my office, I could hire somebody in the Philippines that would work for like, $3 an hour and do just as good a job. Yeah, it's possible. Nowadays, you know, it's common, there's almost no company that only has all their employees in one location, right? People are virtual people all over the world, for example, our team, right, I am the only one in the office at Option Genius. We have an office, I'm the only one here. So it gets kind of lonely sometimes, you know, we have one of our traders, Matt, he lives in Alabama, right? We have my manager, who lives in North Carolina. We have another trader who lives in California, we have Harriet who does customer service, but she lives in the Philippines. Kevin, who helps me with my podcast, He also lives in the Philippines. And then we got Ray Mark, who does our video editing, He also lives in the Philippines. So most of our team either lives in us or lives in the Philippines. Right. So that's what the book is really about. It's like how to find people that will do a great job that is cheaper, because they're living somewhere that's cheaper than living overseas now, doesn't mean you have to give them cheap money, right. But that's how it works, right economics, that's how they work. So the book itself is outdated. Because nowadays, everybody knows about outsourcing, there are plenty of resources online to say, hey, I want to hire somebody overseas. And there are a million websites and companies that will help you find the perfect person to hire overseas or wherever for whatever task you want. And so there's nothing new in that book. But the reason I like to read it is because of the idea that he has in there that the business itself that you create, is for your benefit as the business owner. So his thinking is that you don't want to start a business and have the business own you, and control you right, he wants to start a business that can run on its own, by smart people who are given the authority to run the business. And then you get to go do whatever you want. You get to travel, you get to go to school, you get to do your hobbies, hang out with your family, you get to do whatever you want. And you're making money from this business, it could be a side business, it could be a bigger business. Most big businesses do require you know, if you want a full-time income or business, most likely you have to be involved. You can't just, you know, dictate and abdicate responsibility and let other people do the work. You can't do it unless you've already established and built the business. And so this is mostly for like side hustles and things like that. But people can make a pretty good living, right? Nowadays, with all the tools and the Zoom calls and everything, outsourcing and doing stuff online has become easier than ever. And so if you have kids, and they are not doing some kind of online business, or learning or marketing or whatever, I think that's a big mistake. So that's that one. I read it for myself to remind me, right of the reason why I started business, the reason why I got into trading, which is so that I don't have to I don't have to work for money, and that I could just go do what I want. Now, I enjoy making stuff like this, you know, content for you guys. And I enjoy trading so it's not a burden. But still, it gives me a reminder like, oh, yeah, you know, I wanted to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, that's one of my things. Oh, yeah, I want to do a bike race, that's 100 miles in a day, you know, I want to do that. And those two things, take a lot of training, you can't just wake up one day and do that. And so I'd have to prepare and I have to, you know, get ready and preparations, and all the equipment and somebody has to take me up to Kilimanjaro because I'm not going by myself, all kinds of crazy stuff. So you have to know in advance what you want. Right? And so that's that's why I liked that book. The third book that I want to talk about this, this part is called Millionaire Success Habits. I got this book for free, the author was giving them away for free. So you might even do a website search for this 1 million how-to get millionaire success habits for free. It might pop up and this book is it was written as a marketing piece for the author, you know, because he has a course and he's selling he's got so much other stuff that he's selling, but the book itself, he's got a lot of good content in here. He's got a lot of good exercises in here. And it's really about how you can change your thinking, change your mentality, change your psychology to become a millionaire, like, what are the habits of successful people? What are the habits of rich people? What do they do, that non-rich people don't do? And he goes through those, and he helps you figure out, you know, what are the things that you are not doing that you can do and how to change it. So this one does take a lot of work. So this one is a heavy book, and it does take a lot of time to implement. One of the examples that he talks about here is the why exercise. So whenever you create a goal, it has to be a very big goal, something challenging, something worth accomplishing. And any of those types of goals, they always have challenges, right? There's always something that will stand in your way, and you might want to quit, you might want to give up, you might say no, no, I can't do this. It's too hard. It's taking too long. And I don't know if he's worth it. You know, trading is like that. Trading is really like that. I mean, sometimes you'll do great. And then one day, the market will just slap you silly. And you're gonna be like, Man, is it worth this pain, I feel horrible. I feel so bad. I feel so stupid, I made a mistake. Bla bla bla, is it worth it? The only way you're going to continue is if you, really, really, really know your why. And I talk about this a lot to say what is your why what is the real reason that you're trading is just because you want to make some extra money, then you ain't gonna stick around very long? To be honest, you have to have something besides money, you have to have something that you desire, much more than money. So it can that desire can get you through the challenges and the pain that are going to come because trading is, you know, it's simple, I guess you could say it's easy, but it's not simple, or it's simple. But it's not easy. I'm not sure which one, you know, I can give you the rules, I can give you everything, but you got to follow it, you got to do it. And there will be losses along the way there will be hardships, there will be unknowns, a lot of unknowns in trading, right? We never know what's going to happen tomorrow and trading, nobody can predict it. We just have to go with the flow and that can be very hard and taxing on you emotionally mentally and physically. And so you have to know your why. And so in this book, he goes through the exercise of the seven why so you start off asking, and you do it with another person.  And it's basically Hey, you know, tell me, why do you want to get good at trading? And then you come up with an answer. And the person says, oh, that makes a lot of sense. Okay, cool. Why do you want that? And he goes, like the second level deeper, right? And then you have to give a reason why you want that second thing. He goes, Oh, that's wonderful. That's great. That makes no sense. Okay, so tell me why do you want that second thing? See, okay, and you give another reason? And then okay, why do you want that? Third thing? Why do you want that? Fourth thing? Why do you want that fifth thing, that by the time you get level after level, after level, deeper, deeper, deeper, the real reason comes out, the real explanation of why you want to do something comes out? And that's when you might even cry because that desire or that frustration is so strongly built up in you that you don't even know is there. But if you do this exercise, it kind of unleashes that brings it to the surface, and allows you to know the deep, deep, deep desire that you have, and you might not be even conscious of it. So this is one of the examples in there. It's a great one, I urge you to do it, get that book, read it, go through it, implement it, really, really good book. And then I'm going to end this one with a book that is a reader and a thinker. Not really too much of a doer, maybe a little bit of a doer, it's Tuesdays with Morrie. Okay, now you probably already read this one came out a long time ago. It's the story of an old man and a young man and life's greatest lesson, basically how to live your life. So the author here is a true story. The author was a journalist, and he realized that his favorite college professor was dying. And so he would go every Tuesday and hang out with him. And he recorded the lessons that he learned from the man about how to live a great life, how to enjoy yourself how to be happy, and he wrote those in a book very, very, it's a short book, but it tugs at your heartstrings and makes you realize a lot of things about life. Because I mean, think about it like I did, you know we went through the slight edge then we went The Four Hour Workweek to teach us about work then we did the millionaire success habits we need a break right from reading and so that's why I put this one in there because even though this one will make you cry, he's a does for me, it makes you think about life. It makes you appreciate life, but there's no work involved in it unless you know you have some issues with somebody you know, your brother, your sister, or your parents that you gotta resolve. That might be a good thing you know, this book might help you do that. But in a sense, it's a story that you read and you learn and you appreciate what you have. You appreciate your life and you feel good about it. So that's it for these four books. I got one more part of the series coming up, which is gonna be part four So go ahead, check that one out as well, to finish it out, those are gonna be the last four books of the year. And again, you know, like I said, with the four-hour workweek, if it doesn't work for you, you don't you can put something else instead, right? If you're not, you don't care about outsourcing, you don't care about virtual assistants, anything like that, you know if you don't want to run a business, that book is not for you, that's fine. Take it out, put something else in, you know, that's the way it works. You fit this for what you want. Now, these four books, I think the slight edge is great for everybody. You know, the millionaire success habits. I mean, this is good for everybody, even if you don't want to be a millionaire. I mean, he talks about money, most of it. But even if you don't want to be a millionaire, you just want to be successful and happier. It's a great book, and then on Tuesdays with Morrie, everybody can read that Morrie's son has come out with another book called Wisdom of Morrie, which I have, on my shelf waiting to be read. I haven't read it yet. But like I said, I don't have time for it, because I need to focus on my 12 books and read them every year. And so I'm going to work on myself first, and I'm working on not having to finish that book. So it's sitting there, it's there. I know is there I'll get to it eventually. But for now, let's go and let's head to part number four of this series.

Alright, let's get on with this. All right, so this is part two of a four part series. Okay, so part one explained the basics explained why I'm doing this series and explained that you are reading wrong. No, I'm kidding, I don't know how you read, at least for me, the way I was reading was wrong. Now, the point of reading is to learn. But the way I was reading is that I was reading to be done. And I know psychologically, there is this thing in our brains that we have to go to completion, right? So it's like, you watch a movie, but you don't want to stop in the middle because you want to finish it. And you want to feel that you completed something, even though it's a bad movie. So most of us don't get up and leave or turn it off in the middle. Same with books. For me, it's like I wanted to finish the whole book, even if it was not good or boring, or I don't really know what was talking about, I would go through and read the whole book anyway, and then go to the next one, then go the next one. But I never really learned and I never really sunk in so that it wasn't effective in my life, I never really used it because I was just reading, reading, reading. And so the books that I'm going to share with you are totally different, I read them in a different way. And you can please go to part one of the series, and it'll tell you exactly how and why and the reasoning behind it, and how it works. But in this session, I want to talk about the first four books of the year that I read. Now, these are set in a specific order, because it's the first of the year, right first four months, and I really want to get on a good start. And so these particular books, the ones I'm going to show you are the ones that I read every single year. Now some of the books depending on what I want to learn what I want to accomplish that year, I might not read every single one of them every now and again, they're interchangeable, depending on the topics that you want to excel at. That's the cool thing about this program. So these four books, I would like there for me, they're like long term, you know, and they the issues that they address are long term issues. And so sometimes these four, sometimes take me longer than one month to implement. Some of them are not and some of them do. So it's really I tried to interspeed them. So one book will be a very highly implemented book. And then the next month, it might be just a thought-provoking book that I don't have to implement, and do and work on that much. And then next month, that again, it'll be another workbook. So all of these books, there are their, you know, best sellers, you can probably still get them. I like to get them in hardcover, because I know I'm gonna be reading them and keeping them for a long time. Even if they go on print. I want the hardcover. So I can keep doing this over and over again. So with that, let me get into book number one. So this number one is called the "One Thing". Okay, that's the name of the book, the one thing and again, you can see its hard cover, this basically tells you and ask you a simple question. It's like, what's your one thing? And the idea is very simple. It's, if we focus on too many things, we don't get enough things done. So the idea is to have really close concise goals. And then you work on just one thing to accomplish those goals. And so there's one question that they asked in here, that makes things much simpler. And they call it the, they call it the defining question, or the focusing question, sorry. And the question is, what's the one thing I can do such that by doing it, everything else will become easier or unnecessary? What's the one thing I can do that by doing it, everything else becomes easier or unnecessary? And you might be thinking, well, you know, my problems are really hard. My problems are intense, right? But there's always if you break it down into small steps, those small steps are like dominoes. And the small one knocks over the bigger one, then you can knock over a bigger one, then you cannot go for a bigger one until the goal that you want is accomplished. So there's an example of losing weight, right? I want to lose weight. Okay, what do I do? Well, I gotta hit the gym. Well, what's the best time to go to the gym first thing in the morning? Okay, well, I don't do that because I don't like getting up early. Or I get lazy in the morning. So I don't go to the gym in the morning. I don't work out in the morning. So if I can just get myself up early in the morning, then I'll do that. Well, what's the best way to do that? Oh, no, set my alarm. Okay, is that the one thing that I can do? No, the one thing I can do is workout, right? That's it? No, no, no, we gotta go smaller, smaller, smaller. So if the the goal is to lose weight, then one step removed from that is I need to work out, I don't know, five days a week, okay, then one step removed from that smaller than that is I need to get to the gym, right? Five times a week. And then once that smaller than that is a I need to wake up on time so I can get to the gym. And then once that, below that, and then that and then that. So what we realized is this was an example that you know, so it's not just getting to the gym, I'm you know, I'm gonna put my snooze button on and I'm gonna go back to sleep. So how do I get to the gym on time? Well, one thing I want to do is that you can swim you can sleep in your gym clothes, and then you just get up alarm rings, you get up and you go to the gym. Okay, that's fine. But I still don't get up. Right? I'm so groggy in the morning. Why? Well, in the example it was because the person would drink alcohol at night to help them go to sleep, or to unwind, and they would sleep late. So, obviously, you got to cut out your alcohol, and then you have to go to bed on time. Okay, so is that my one thing go to bed on time? No. Because you don't know what on time it so you have to set your schedule, and you have to be in bed before it's sleep time. So when do you want to sleep? Well, okay, if I want to go to sleep, if I want to be asleep at nine, or sorry, at 10. Right? Because I can get up early, then you should probably be in bed by like, 930? Well, at 930, you know, I'm still doing stuff. So I don't, I can't just like snap my fingers and go to bed. So I gotta start getting ready. Okay, so I need like half an hour to get ready, right? Pull my stuff away, put the kids to bed, blah, blah, blah, and then be in bed. So nine o'clock is when I have to start getting ready. So is that my one thing? No, the one thing would be even smaller, it would be to set an alarm for nine o'clock. So you set an alarm for nine o'clock, that, hey, it's time for me to start getting ready, I got half an hour to be in bed, so that I can fall asleep in half an hour so that I could wake up early in the morning. And not drink, obviously. And so I can get up early in the morning so that I can go to the gym so that I could work out so that I could lose weight. So that's how it breaks down. So that one thing you could do the one small thing that you could do right now, that makes everything easy is to set your alarm for nine o'clock at night and make a goal. And the goal is to lose weight, but you break it down. So that's one example. The book has a lot more examples, the book is really good, they wouldn't have sold millions of copies otherwise. And I read it every year because it keeps bringing me back to Hey, what's the one thing? What's the one thing we just did one thing right now, I had a problem that I've been working on for months, literally months and asked the question, and the answer just came with, oh, wow, if I did this one small change, it just makes everything so much simpler. And it makes all this extra work that I was thinking of doing completely unnecessary. Like I already have to do it anymore. Because of this one small change. And it was one thing that I didn't want to do. But when he asked a question, it's like the answer is like it's pointing the answer, like this is the thing you have to do this is going to make everything easier or unnecessary. So in my case, definitely gonna be easier, it's going to be faster, and it's going to be make a lot of things unnecessary. So that's how you that's the one question. That's just one thing in that book, right? So that's, that's the one thing that's a great book, I start off every January with that book. All right, February is this book, The Power of full engagement, making energy, not time is the key to high performance and personal renewal. Okay, so the power of full engagement. Now, this is something that is really, really good about energy, about health, about stamina, about exercise. And it's not just talking about health, it's not just talking about one type exercise, it's, it's about your mind as well sleep, fitness, Health, or nutrition, all that stuff, it combines all of it. That's why I put it in in February, so that it can retrain my brain and get me on the right path. If I fallen off, which I usually do, I'm not the most active person, alright, so it helps you figure out and it reinforces all the different reasons why you need to eat better, why you need to sleep well, why you need to, you know, exercise on a daily basis, and all that. And so, this one, if you're dealing with, you know, overweight or high cholesterol or whatever problems, which almost everybody nowadays has some type of health problem, right? If you're dealing with that, you can use this one, or you can use some other one, that similar vein, you know, and that really helps you to remember and get you back on track and back on focus for your health. Now, this is not particularly a health book, it's more about energy, and how to have more energy to have a more productive and more happy life. That's the point of it's not health and nutrition is part of it. But it's just it's more than that. It's more about energy, how you think how you act, how you work, all that sort of thing. So that's why I like this one. It's not just about oh, this is your diet, you know, it's not a cookbook or whatever. So that's when I really liked that one again. And now when I put in February, so this one is a you know, the February is a smaller month, and sometimes this one can be a little bit heavy and so sometimes it overlaps in February and March. So it takes February and March because it's really, really important, right? The concepts are really important and you want to if your health is no good, that doesn't matter how much money you have, doesn't matter how much time you have, you can't do anything, you're pretty much screwed. So that's why your health and your energy are really really important concepts. Next, we have one that I have spent a lot of time working on. And it's basically happiness. It's like how do you, you know, how do you be more happy? We, a lot of us are suffering, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, all kinds of crazy stuff and mental health is, is getting worse and worse, even though, you know, we have everything we need, we have everything we want. Basically, you snap your fingers, and you know, your food comes, groceries come to your door, people take you anywhere you want, anything you want is available. It's incredible. You know, Amazon used to be like, Oh my god, next two day delivery was amazing. Now, it's one day delivery. Now it's like same day delivery, you press a button and thing shows up before you get home. It's like, what I just ordered, they gotta get here. So why are we so sad? What's the problem? I don't know, I guess a difference for it's different for everybody. So for me, I spent a lot of time, you know, I went through some depression issues. We had people in our family that passed away unexpectedly, they were murdered. And so I did go through depression, take the pills and all that. And then I was like, No, I don't want to take pills, I want to do it myself. And so this book is The Happiness Project. It's a really cool book. And the reason it's good is because there are a lot of books on happiness. I mean, there's a lot of trainings, a lot of things that happiness, most of the things, they all say the same thing, right, they all use the same studies, they all say the same things. So what this woman did was, she took a year out of her life, and he probably, you know, I'm gonna write a book about it. But she looked at all the studies, and all of the different techniques that they tell you to do. And she actually did them. And she recorded, which ones made her happier, which ones worked, which ones didn't, which ones, you know, are like a waste of time, which ones are amazing. And she records them in her own voice, which it's pretty funny, you know. And so I like that one a lot, because she has all the research, but then she also has how she applied it. And so it's a bit of a story, you know, it's not all dry and scientific, even though she explains everything very nicely. So that one is the Happiness Project. That one is really good. I love that one. I read it ever again, these these four, these first four, I do read every single year, because to me, they're they're that important. And the happiness book, you know, even if you're not suffering from depression, or whatnot, it does tell you how to it gives you ideas, and he gives you a lot of tips and a lot of tricks. You don't have to use all of them, you can use some of them, you know, you don't have to do it like she did, where you have to try every single method. And I don't, you know, I might take one, maybe two out of the book every year and be like, You know what, I'm gonna try this. You know, one of the simple idea would be like, I've started doing this with my kids, you know, so every night when I'm putting into bed, I asked them, hey, tell me three things that went well today, you know, tell me three things that weren't good today. And so you end the day thinking about positives. Most of us think about, oh, man, this happened wrong, that happened wrong. I do this tomorrow to that tomorrow. But I'm so tired, but I'm so exhausted. But we don't think about all the stuff that went right. So this was one technique that you just think about three things every day, that went right. And it could be something really simple. You know, for me making this video is going to be one of those things for me, like, hey, you know, I've finished part two of the four part series, Yay, I'm gonna celebrate that, you know, might have had a trade that went well, today. Yay, I'm gonna celebrate that because we don't celebrate enough. And this is the reason that we also have an option genius. We have all the bells, you know, we ring bells, every time. Every time we have a positive trade, we ring a bell because we went on a lot of trades. And so it becomes common common to just when it's like, Oh, hey, made money today? What do you do that? No, you got to celebrate it, you got to make it exciting, right? Otherwise, it just gets boring. So we ring the bell every time we have a positive trade, and it's a bit of a celebration. Same thing with the three things that happened today, you're celebrating every single day, because these days don't come back. There was another another technique I talked about in a different episode, where you find out how many days supposedly, or average you have left in life, you know, based on how old you are now, and when you're going to die, which is probably around around 80 years old. So how many days you have left, you write that on the mirror with a dry erase marker. So when you're brushing your teeth in the morning, you got to change the number every day. So it's like, you know, like yesterday was 12,700. Today, it's 12,006 99. You know, you got to change the number every day. And you give yourself that mental remembrance that oh my god, I got one day left. Today's god, oh, man, the days gone. So at night, you know, when I see that number of washing my teeth, I'm like, man, what did I do today? Was it worth it? You know, and then you change your patterns. So it's not immediate, but it does gradually help and gradually remind yourself and gradually you spend more and more time doing the things that you enjoy. So then you at the end of the day, you're like yeah, you know, today was a good day. Today was a good day. Yeah, maybe I'll do more of that tomorrow. All right now, this book number four is for me, it was a very deep book. It's called a million miles. No, sorry. Yeah, it's called a million miles in a thousand years by Donald Miller, how I learned to live a better story, not a better life, but a better story. A million miles in 1000 years. Now, I was lucky that I found this book. I don't know how I found it. But why picked it up? But I did. And so for me, I've been told, and so have you to find your purpose, to find your passion to find the thing that really makes you alive, you know, and then if you can find that one thing and do that for a living, then you never have to work a day in your life. That's great. And I spent years trying to find my purpose, like, what is it? Do I want to help people? Do I want to make a lot of money? Do I want to build a building? Do I want to build a big company? Do I want to travel the world? What is the purpose? What is the point of my life? And I realized that there's a lot of things I want to do. Right, but there's no just one overarching purpose. Like, was I put on this earth to trade options? Was I put on this Earth to teach people how to trade options? Not necessarily, I don't think so. I mean, I enjoy it. But I want to do that for the rest of my life. I'm sorry, but this, this show is not gonna it's gonna end one day. So I don't know, like, What is my purpose? You know, what do I really want out of life? Like I have everything I want? What is it that makes me keep going? And maybe that's, maybe it was one of the reasons I get depressed. It's like, I already have what I want. Where's the challenge? You know, what's the next steps? But in this book, he talks about, it's basically a story of his life. And he's going through and he has this crisis. And what he realizes is that maybe we don't have to have a purpose in life. Maybe everybody doesn't have a purpose, or you do, maybe you don't know what it is. But instead of looking for a purpose, how about, we look at it in a different way? Right, we look at our lives in a different context. And we say that, you know, my life is my story. And I get to tell, and I get to write the story, however I want. So what is the story that I want to write? Well, I want to be a teacher, I want to be rich, I want to be a father, and it'd be XYZ a sailor, you know, I want to be a famous type fisherman. fisherman, I don't know what whatever. You know, I'll be famous at doing this one thing, those are all things that you can put as part of your story. And so there's one story in there, he was talking to a friend of his, and they had, the guy had a daughter, teenage daughter, and he couldn't get through her. And so the daughter was actually her, she, she got a boyfriend, the boyfriend was many years older than her. And they were doing drugs, and they were in a gang and, and all this bad stuff was, you know, and the guy listened to the author, about this realization about, you know, the story that we tell with our lives. And that guy realized that the story that the daughter was telling herself about herself, was not a good story. So he said, You know what I want her to be I want her to live a good story. So that she gets out of all this bad stuff. And she feels good about herself. And so he went home, and he said, Hey, you know what, we are going to build a school in Mexico. And they didn't know anything about building schools. They didn't have any extra money, they didn't have nothing. He just went to his wife and his daughter and said, We're going to build a school in Mexico. Because for some reason, he came up with that. And that was the story he wanted to be able to tell. And so the daughter actually got really excited. At first the wife got mad, she's like, Well, you didn't tell me about this. We didn't talk about this. How do you you know, how do you just spend all this money building a school, blah, blah, blah. But the daughter got really excited. And she did research on it, she found you know, how much stuff is going to cost you found where she could put the school, how they're going to approach it. And that family actually ended up building a school in Mexico. And that was the story that the daughter was able to tell about herself. And that increased her self confidence and increase her self worth self esteem. And that was just one story that she was able to tell about herself, then you talk you know, then you go on further and you say okay, if I'm a person who builds schools, right, what else can I accomplish? I'm not gonna go being a king. Hey, I'm gonna I'm gonna do drugs. I'm I'm I'm a school builder. Right. So your your perspective changes on you And so you don't have to have a purpose, you just have to be able to tell a good story about yourself, and you get to write your own story. So it could be that I am a successful trader. That's part of my story. But that's not the only story I have in my life. Right? I'm also a good father. That's another story. How do I tell that story? And then it's up to me to come up with the reason and the way to be able to know that I'm leaving a good story. And then you have different stories, and you pile them on top of each other. So that was a really good book, you reminds me of that every year. And so nowadays, whenever I hear, you know, there's articles and videos and podcasts and everything about oh, how do you find your purpose? How do you find your purpose? I just now, nevermind, I spent so much time trying to figure out my purpose, listening to this taking courses on how do you find your purpose? And I'm like, Man, I still can't find my purpose. I don't know what to do. You know, it's like, what's the one thing it's like? There's not just one thing, there are many things and it's okay, if there are many things. So if you haven't found your purpose yet, no worries. You know, there's another way to look at it. It's like, hey, just tell a story about your life. What story do you want to tell? You know, so it's like, if it's your funeral, what do you want them to be talking about? That's your story. That's how they're going to be telling the story from their perspective. But you get to write your story now, so that when you die, and they they talk about you, they'll be telling your story the way you want it to be told, right? So these are the first four books. Alright, so this is part two, part three, I'm gonna go in for more books. And then part four, they do form our books. So we finish out the whole the whole year. These are the way these are the books that are read every year to make myself better, more successful, more appreciative, have a happier life. So these four books are really good. The next four ones are going to be amazing. They're knock your socks off in the four after that are maybe even the best ones. So that said, I'll see you in part number three.

Hey there, today I want to be talking about something that I call how I get better every year. Now, when I think about getting better, that could be in any aspect, it could be trading, it could be life, it could be in any part of your life. And what I want to talk about can be totally customized to you. So you can choose what you want to get better in. But it does take a little bit of work.  Now, whenever I talk about this with people, or I share this with anybody I mean, they get a lot of benefits out of it, the people who have tried it have really told me that they loved it, they love doing it, and is very different from anything else I've ever seen. I've never seen anybody do it quite like this before. And now I believe that we don't stand still, you're either getting better, or you're getting worse, you're getting faster, or you're getting slower. You can't just be "Oh, I'm the same as I was last year", it doesn't work that way. You're either getting smarter, or you're getting left behind. Because everything, the whole world, everything moves way too fast. There's many, too many changes, there's too many people competing, there's too much noise, there's so much out there that you have to get better, and if you don't, you get left behind. Now, in many things, that's not a bad thing. But when you're in life, and you want to get ahead, then you want to keep getting better. And it's actually fun to do as well. Right? I get better by learning by education by reading. And so I'm going to be talking about how I read and it's not the way most people read. And it's definitely not the most regular books that you've heard of. It's a completely different way. I've never heard of anybody talk about it like this. And so I think it's going to be very helpful. And like I said, totally customizable to you based on whatever you want to accomplish. So that's the cool part about it. Now, I read a lot, the voracious reader. And so whenever I read, I'm always reading to get through the book, because I want to finish it because on my stack, you know how my desk I have a stack of other books that I'm ready and excited to read. Because I just love to read, there's certain topics that I like to read a lot.  And so every new book that comes out, I'll get it and I'll read it and I like the paper books, you know, printed books, I don't like the ebooks that much. But I'll read those too. I have a bunch of those too that are still stacked up. But in my house, for example, my wife keeps getting upset because I keep getting more and more and more books and we don't have plates anymore. We don't have space to put these all these books. I got bookshelves on top of bookshelf, bookshelves and they're they're still full my nightstand on my table is like full of books. She even, my poor wife, she even got me a bookshelf for the bedroom. So that I could have that as well. But those are awful, too. And they're falling off and they're on the floor. And it's just piling up. So that's just the way I am. But what I realized is that I was reading and reading reading, but I wasn't learning. That's  the sad part though. I was just reading to read. And so I had no knowledge, but I didn't have any implementation. And so I learned this because you know, my wife and I, we sometimes were in bed or night you're talking, she has a business. She has her own business, and I have a business so we're talking and she was explaining a particular problem that she had. So I was like, Oh, wow, that's, you know, and stuff. But you know, I'm reading this book, and it said, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And she goes, oh, wow, that makes a lot of sense. Okay, I'm gonna try that. So then she goes, and she comes back like a week later. And she goes, Hey, you know, I tried that thing. And it worked really well. Thank you. You know, problem solved is wonderful. I'm like, Oh, that's great. You know, and then we move on. About six months later, we're in bed. And now I'm talking about a problem. And she goes to me, Oh, well, you know what you could do? You could do blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, Oh, wow, that's such a great idea. Oh, my god, that's amazing that you're so smart. And she goes, Really? You don't remember? I'm like, remember what she does? That's the exact same thing you told me to do six months ago. And I'm like, really? And she's like, Yeah, so you read in a book, you told me to do it. I did it. And it worked. And now I'm telling you to do it. And I was like, oh, and so I realized that I'm reading all this stuff. I'm reading all these books upon books upon books. And I'm not learning is coming in one year is coming out the other. Not only that, but I'm spending a lot of time reading. And normally I will read four or five books at a time. At a time, I'll have four or five books that I'm reading, because, you know, whatever fancies my mood at the time is what I'll read, I'll pick it up. And I'll be in the middle of four or five books at a time. And I mean, if I get to do one book, I can do it and maybe within a couple of days. But when I want to learn about a particular topic, I like to go deep in a topic, but when you buy three or four books about the topic, you will realize that they're almost all the same. There's very little new stuff in the books that come out nowadays. You know, there's maybe one or two that are like the definitive book about it that cover everything. And then everybody else, all the books that come out afterwards are just reiterations of that book. Like, for example, one time, I wanted to learn about habits, I have maybe six or seven books on habits. And guess they all say the same things. They all use the same studies, they all talk about the same problems that people have, the same examples. It's a lot of it is almost like, if you take the title off, you wouldn't be able to tell which book is which, because they're almost they're all the same. And so I realize that I'm buying book after book after book on certain topics. And I'm just reading the same thing over and over and over again. So like, Yeah, this is not working either. This is just wasting time. I mean, repetition does help. But still, I'm not getting anything closer to my goal. And so I decided to do something different. And I decided that I'm going to make a list of all the things that I want to work on, on me.  Now, I have two sets of lists, I have one for business, because I want to improve my business. And then I have another set for me personally, all the things that I want to improve on. And so what I did was made a list that added up, and I picked like maybe eight or 12 things. Okay. And then I went and I found the definitive book, on that particular topic. Now, some topics, I picked three or four books because we come at it from a different angle. And it's a very big topic, like productivity, productivity is a big one for me, discipline, getting stuff done, working on the stuff that's important, I getting sidetracked. That's important to me. And so I have three or four different books that I identified that are really good about that particular topic. And so what I've done is I call it the 12 books a year. So I have set aside and I've decided that I'm going to read one book, every month, about my personal to make me better make me as a better person be more successful in all the different areas of my life. So I'm going to read one book per month. Now, obviously, like I said before, only takes me two or three days to read one book. So I'm not going to read all of them together, I'm going to read one, it might take me two days, three days, four days to read this book, the rest of the month, I am going to implement what I learned in the book, I'm going to go back, I'm going to take notes, I'm going to apply it to different situations in my life, I'm going to make examples or exercises or take the exercises actually do them. Because a lot of books, they have exercises where the author tells you do this, this, this this, and I don't do those. Really, you know, I might think about it for like 30 seconds and then move on, because I'm rushing to finish the book. So I'm gonna go back. And I go through the entire book. And I go through all the exercises, and I actually do the work I actually do with ask you to do. And I go further and I spend time thinking about it. I spend time thinking about okay, what did this chapter say? How can I implement this in my life? How does this make any sense? Does it make sense for me, and I found that there are certain books that are just really, really good. And so I do them every year. So in January, I have one book, and then February I'll do another March is another and I'll work through the book. Now, if that particular topic or that particular issue is really, really important to me, and I'm not finished implementing the book, then I can just keep working on the book, I don't go to book number two, you know, I don't go to the next month's book, I keep working because I don't want to break my momentum. And so I will continue keep working on it. And I've seen myself, the gains are incredible. Some people tell me Oh, my God, how did you accomplish so much. I just, you know, buckled down. And I did this, some of the times my family tells me what's going on, you're different. You've changed. And I'll explain that you know how that works. But it's really extraordinary, how amazing this is. How this one simple concept.And it's cheaper, because you don't have to buy about a book, it's easier because all the information is right there, you just have to do the work. And doesn't it takes less time. Because you're only reading one book, and then you're implementing, and the success you get the results you get are mind-blowing.   And so what I want to do is I want to share all the 12 books that I read every year most years, and I will share them with you. And now I don't have I don't want to do it all in one video because they're going to be too many. I want to go through each book and tell you why I like it. And so I'm going to break this up into a series. And so we have this video, which is number one, right? And then I'll take the first four books, that'll be part two, then part three and part four, and we'll break it down. Now the cool thing about this is that the books are interchangeable. So one year, I might not need that particular topic that that book talks about, and so I can swap it out for another book, or another topic. Right?    That's the cool part. It's up To you, you can spend as much time on a topic or a little time on a topic. And if you don't want it, then you just take that book out, and you put it in something else in its place. Because of course, there's always stuff we can work on, there's always stuff we can get better at. And these books have so much content in them, that you do them. And you're probably not going to finish the whole book in a month, right? And so you might feel okay, I want to move on. But then when you come back to it, you come back to it 12 months later, and you are a completely completely different person. Now you have different problems. Now you have a different point of view, you have different understandings. And so when you read the book, again, a lot of stuff, you won't remember some of it, you will, but a lot you won't, but you did, you take deeper meaning out of it, you'll understand it from a different point of view. And so the problems that you have, you be like, oh, yeah, I'm gonna apply this, even though you've already read the book. And if you've done it several years in a row, you have probably read the book several times. Right. And so this is a, like I said, it's a great process, I want to go through it with you, it's really not that hard. But I want to in the in the following episode, versions or series, I want to talk about the different books that I use, and the different topics that are important to me. And they're really important to a lot of other people, you know, productivity, happiness, keeping the end in mind, which is like, you know, how do we approach life? How do we live life on a day to day basis, we don't get caught up in the day to day things, you know, energy, nutrition, health, that one is a big one, what else we got, we have, I don't have any money books in here, you know, like, oh, how to make more money, or how to do marketing, or those are all on my other list of business type books, right? Financial, Business, Trading, all of that stuff would be on a separate list. Now, I used to do both at the same time. So I used to have two books a month, one for my personal one for my business. But I realized that when you work on the personal, the business stuff, and the trading stuff, all that gets better automatically. And I spend a lot of time on that stuff anyway. And so that stuff gets better anyway. So I really need to focus more time on myself, because, I mean, there's only one me, right, I only get one me only get one life. So I want to make it as successful and as fulfilling as possible. And so I have books on there on happiness, books on getting things done. But really finding out what things really need to be done. There's a book on spirituality that I've read, or that have included, I'm going to share that one with you is really good. It's not about any one particular religion, but it's just basically on spirituality, that one's a good one. So I'm going to give you the list, we're gonna go through each one, I'll tell you what it does, why it's important. And these are books that I recommend to everybody. Like, as somebody who reads and has read 1000s and 1000s, and 1000s of books, literally, you know, I can tell you right off the bat if something is good or not. And there are many books that are really, really good, but they didn't make the cut, you know, so these are the ones that are, you know, hand-chosen by me to tackle certain topics, most of them are all, you know, mega mega bestsellers. So you probably have most of these already, if you like to buy books, if not, you've probably heard of most of them. Some of them you've probably never heard of, if you're not really familiar with that topic, but all of them are exceptional. And so I can't wait to get into this and share them with you. And hope you have a great year too, you know, and you can just get better, just get better and better better. Just follow the process.  Again, it's nothing, it's easy. It's, you know, pick one topic that you want to work on, per month, find one book that teaches you how to work on that topic, and then just do the work for a month. And it's only a month it's not, it's not that long, you know, do it forever, right. And then at the end of the month, then you pick another book and you go in a different direction, you do something else. And if you want to do work more on it, because you're excited, you stay on that book, and you keep going, and then you cycle back. So the next year, you'll go back to the first book, you read it again, you'll be like, Oh man, I can implement this, this, this, this, this, and you learn more and you implement more. And sometimes you end up oh man, I forgot that I used to do this. And you stop implementing and then you forget and then you read the book and you're like, Oh, I got to do that again. Yeah, that was really important. Okay, okay, I'll do it again. So you start doing again, and you just, you just continue to stair step, get better and better, better, better. And it's not about, you know, making huge major goals or muj major improvements. You can make small improvements. And that's actually one of the books that we'll be talking about eye opening really topics. So yeah, this is part one. Go ahead and queue up part two. Go ahead, go through that one. And I'll go through the the first four books, and then we'll do the rest as we go along. But yeah, this is gonna be really helpful. Thanks. All right. Bye.

For more info on what is discussed in this epsiode, head to MarketPowerMethod.com Allen: Boom, welcome to another edition of the Options Genius Podcast! Today, as promised, in the last episode, we have an interview, an interview with a fellow named Kevin. And Kevin is one of our beta testers in the Market Power Program, Kevin has done an amazing 266% ROI, since he's joined the program earlier in 2003. So that's not even a whole year worth the results. And that is after fees. So after he took out his commission's after he took out his fees, that's how much money he put in his pocket. Or basically, he left in the account. I don't know what he did with it. But yeah, that's what he kept. All right. That is amazing. I wanted to share this with you, I wanted to get this to you. Because these type of results are uncommon. I think that's an understatement. You know, when you have most people trying to make seven 8% A year from the stock market, even though you know, the market, banks, banks are paying what 4 or 5%. Right now, that's wonderful, that's great. Stock market should be paying more, but nobody out there is getting 266%. So shake cheese, but we are doing it with the market power program, I wanted to share this because I want you to be excited, I want you to be happy for Kevin, I want you to know this type of stuff is available, it's doable, if you have success with trading. So that's like the goal. I mean, the goal shouldn't be 266%. But the goal should be that you have enough money coming in to pay for all your expenses that you could do that from your trading. So you have basically your financial independence, right? And then after that you keep adding more and more money to the accounts or to your savings account or whatever, so that the financial worries that you have in your life melt away and you don't have any financial work. Because the thing is like, hey, oh, I got a speeding ticket. Okay? Well, if you can write a check, to make your problem go away, you don't have a problem. And that's what I really want. That's the type of life I want to have for you. Okay, so the type of problem where he's like, Okay, if I can just write a check and make this problem go away, I don't have a problem, I have a money issue. And the money issue, we want to make it go away through trading, market power is going to be one of those ways this program is coming. It's exciting. It's amazing. I can't speak enough about it. I mean, it's just unbelievable. I haven't I lost sleep. When we first came up with this seriously, I lost sleep for days and days and days. And I just can't believe it. And even now, it's still unbelievable. 54 trades in a row that I have made with this program. I think Kevin, the one that you're going to see in the interview, I think he had one trade that went bad, and he had to adjust it. And so it still worked out. And it's phenomenal. It's amazing. And he's not the only one, I'm not the only one, we have 35 other people that are trading this, in our beta testing program. They're all doing phenomenal. We have case studies, we have screenshots, we have interviews, we have, you know, the emails from them, thanking us and saying how amazing it is. So it's just a matter of time before we can open it up for others join. And unfortunately, you know, we can't let everybody in the whole world join. So whoever gets in to get in, that's wonderful. You only help certain limited amount of people, because we still need to protect it and keep it somewhat secret in the sense so that it doesn't get diluted and it doesn't stop working. So that's the situation here. I'm gonna go ahead and stop talking and let you watch or listen to the interview. And then when market power, makes his official debut and launches to the general list, I will let you know on the podcast. Or if you want to get to know earlier, then you can go to OptionGenius.com and email us or contact us and say hey, I want to be on the notification list. I want to know more about Market Power. I want to know when it comes out. I want to be one of the first How do I get to the top of the line, right? So let's do that. And let's go ahead and let's get into this interview. Matthew: Alright. So today we're joined by Kevin Donegen, and he's a member of our market power program. And I want to thank you today for sharing your experience. And you know how the course has been going for you and the program, and just really appreciate having you. Kevin: You're welcome. Glad to be here. Thanks, sir. Matthew: You're welcome. So, I always ask people, you know, the first question is, how did you find Option Genius? So a lot of people find it by podcast or other means. So how did you find out Option Genius? Kevin: It's been a few years now, because I joined other, you know, the training portion of Option Genius a couple years ago, I think it was late 21. So almost two years now, I guess, you know, it's a good question, how I found Option Genius. I guess. I was exploring Option Trading, you know, on my phones, or searches and option genius. And I looked at a few mean, option, genius came up and I gravitated towards it. I don't know, I think I was just searching for option learning, training and learning kind of stuff and found it and it's been good. So I think I found it just by searching. Matthew: Just by discovery. Kevin: Yeah, research Matthew: Great. So you've been a part of our original market program. Call you guys kind of like the Founding Fathers, you know, you, you went in there and tried everything? And is there anything when you decided to join the program? Were you like, hey, you know, I want to be a part of this program that stuck out to you. Kevin: Boy, when Allen, when you all had that first introductory conference call regarding the program, and shared the historical back testing data about what the program was based on? I mean, that that clinched it right there, that historical back tested data, of, you know, the premise, and the process of the program, and how it looked back tested was just the results are just remarkable. Matthew: Excellent. Did you have any personal expectations before you joined the program, you know, as far as like a percentage goal or just to kind of get consistent? Kevin: I had been trading options, covered calls and in spreads before a little bit, I dabbled in it. So I guess my initial expectation for the program was to pay back my, the cost of the program. First, that was my first goal. And I did it pretty quickly. And by starting out slow, you know, I, you know, I started out real slow just to get the feel for the program. And as I traded more, and you know, the indicator came up, and I made a trade in one and one again, and one again, my confidence, says, Yes, this is real. And then I just started slowly, my trade starts slowly ramped up, and I think I paid for it. And depending on how slow or fast you start, it can be a fast payback. If you start with larger trades, but I think I paid mine back in a few weeks, like 12 weeks or something. Matthew: Wow, that's great. That's like, yeah, it's really important, what you just said, you know, a lot of people, you know, you're excited, and you can see things working. And a lot of times, you know, the human psychology gets involved, and we go too fast, right? You know, so it's, it's really kind of really great that you kind of measure yourself and start slow. So it's really great. For sure. Is there any kind of particular part of the program that you really like? You know, is it some people can say, oh, it's adjustment, or it's, whatever. Is there anything you can pinpoint? Kevin: Yep, the two things come, pop up in my mind, that the online forum of the group and the chats and the sharing of information amongst the market power group, I really enjoy that to get other people's opinion and take on the program in the market and when to trade, not to trade. So I really like that it's an open forum. And it's, it's welcoming, and no one's afraid to say anything. So I really liked that. The second tool I like is the trading log, the market power trading log that you all put together. It's well organized. I've been using that to track all my trades. Matthew: Great. Yeah. I mean, again, you hit on a really great point. I mean, that we have a group of people, you know, some people are just new to options. And you have some people I said in another interview that are looks like they take it to quantum physics. So it's like, you get all this range of knowledge. And it's really kind of, we're all here for the right reason. So it's really kind of great. It's almost like a family, if you will. Kevin: Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. Matthew: How has the support been? I mean, you kind of mentioned a little bit from Option Genius, but more like the people around you. I mean, I think you just alluded to that, that you have a good support system that If you want. Kevin: Oh yeah, whether it be a group member or yourself or Trish or an even Allen, it's been great. The communication has been prompt and, and timely and always answered. So there's always someone to answer a question or what have you. So it's been really good. Matthew: That's great to hear. You know, we really want people to feel involved and not feel left out. I'm, you know, there's nothing worse than feeling like you're alone, you know? Yeah. Kevin: So I don't, I don't feel that way at all.  Matthew: Awesome. Has your trading changed at all? Since you joined the program? Like, as far as I mean, can you talked a little about confidence, or, you know, some people? You know, a big main reason is confidence, I say, but how was it for you? Kevin: So, last year before the program, I had some success, just doing it myself, but then I got burned, and wiped away all my profits. So what I get out of the program is the discipline of the program. And, you know, when you have an indicator day, that's the day to trade no other. So, I'm more disciplined since joining the program. And I'm only trading when there's an indicator day, by and large. So the short answer is, I've gained a lot of discipline after joining the program.  Matthew: That's great to hear. So we're all shoot for that to be consistent, you know, and there's nothing worse than trading and winning than winning, and then giving it all back. I think it's like the, you know, it's the worst thing that can happen, right? Kevin: Anybody that's probably been in options have had that experience at one time or another? Matthew: Sure. So it's almost required. Kevin: Boy, it's a tough learning, but that's okay. Matthew: All right. So, um, how have your results been so far? For you? Kevin: I'm looking at my trading log right now, because I figured you'd ask that. And I've kind of added some features to it myself. But if you're interested in those, we can talk about that. But I've made what about 47 trades? Not counting yesterday. So I work off the two platforms. So I'd make trades in both one as is a smaller account, one's a bigger account. So I may duplicate a given day on two different platforms. But anyway, you know, 47 trades, I think I lost only one. And that was because of me. It wasn't because of the program. And I only lost like 600 bucks. So no big deal. And then I adjusted and made it back. So but that was my fault. And I bought too early in the day, basically. And I put notes out there, which is good. My average number of contracts, I would say is 20. So but you know, I've been up as high as 40 and 10. And 30. Just depends how I'm feeling. You know, like, like, yesterday, I did only 20. I don't know, I I don't know why I just didn't want to do 40. You know, and so long and short. I've made over a minute, I also back out the cost of trades to get a net profit, right? So my net profit is 226%. Matthew: Yeah, that's great. You mean, you're trading at a good amount? You kind of just talked to how a little bit can made me kind of feel how I trade you know, there's some days that, you know, you don't you have like kind of a hunch, you know, you're like, I don't really feel, you know, can be personal. It could be like something like, I just don't feel like trading today. And that's perfectly fine. And what I do love, and I think you'll agree is that some days, you don't have to trade, you know, it's like, you don't have to take every signal. Right? You can, you can wait and there'll be another one coming down the pike, you know? Kevin: Absolutely. Yeah, for sure. And that's why that's where the discipline comes in. You know, because you just got to be patient because the signal will come. And when it comes, that's your time. Matthew: So yeah, yeah, you kind of take it as a case by case basis. You know, that's great, for sure. Alright, so kind of a fun question. So a lot of people, they have different goals for their profits. And it's nice to good problem to have, you know, you're in your profit, you're making money. Some people do fun things like take vacations, and some people just roll it into their account. So what are your plans? Kevin: So I guess, on articulate or unstated two goals for the program and the profits that I earned from market power. First is to build up my account so I can grow the dollars in My Account for doing this so that I could keep slowly ramping up as I get more and more comfortable. But then I also, the second one is to take some of the profits and have some fun. And like you alluded to, I think maybe before we started the call, but, you know, I went fishing in Colorado, and virtually almost paid for the whole trip, in a day, at least a good portion of VRBO expense. And then, earlier in the year, my wife and I went to Paris, and I was trading when I was over in Paris, and helps pay for that part of the trip. So, you know, Matthew: It's great. I mean, it almost makes your trip more enjoyable. You know, you're over there, you're like, hey, you know, this is cash flow in this right now, you know? Kevin: Exactly. So it's, it's a great feeling. So yeah, two things, take a little profits, have some fun with it, and then keep growing the account. Matthew: Excellent. Excellent. So what would you say to someone that you were there in the original group, and a lot of people have apprehensions about joining programs, you know, whether it's true, we're kind of at a point now, where we've had many, many winners, and if not any losers on the track record, actually no losses on the track record. So it's almost too good to be true. So people are naturally skeptical. What would you say to someone that, you know, there's going to be next group and a group after that, and people join in this program? So what would you say to someone that's kind of on the fence about joining this program? Kevin: Well, if they see any of these interviews from the current market power group, I gotta believe take it from the member, the current members and what they're saying, and their results, trust, the back tested data is real. And ever since we, we joined market power, the program to your point hasn't had a losing trade yet. So it works. I mean, the data speaks for itself, and they can if they're apprehensive, start slow, kind of like what I did and get comfortable with it. And you'll quickly, quickly get more confidence in the program. Matthew: Excellent. Well, wise words, I mean, you know, it's really important, you hit on some really important points that, you know, patients taking your time, and really kind of just trusting yourself. I mean, give it you know, giving something a try and, you know, the worst possible thing that can happen, you know, so that's great. So I really want to thank you for taking the time today. I really appreciate it and you know, sharing your experience, so really great having you on. Kevin: Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you, Matthew. All right. Thank you. Have a great day. You too.

For more info on what is discussed in this episodes, go to MarketPowerMethod.com I have some exciting news. And as you might have seen from the title of this episode, the news is that market power is coming. It's almost here. In fact, we have it here, but we haven't rolled it out to everybody. So just today, I finished or I got out of my 54th market power trade for the year. Now, market power is a new trading program that we have come out with. And so since the beginning of the year, I have done 54 trades using this market power method. And out of those 54 trades, I've had zero losers. That's right. Every single trade has been a winner-- 54 winners in a row. It's something like 300%, or close to it in ROI. I mean, it's mind-boggling. The trade has been amazingly consistent, amazingly profitable. And it is one of the most exciting things I've ever worked on. I just, can't believe it. So if you don't know what market power is, back in February of 2023, back of this year, we put on a like a live seminar-type thing. And we introduced market power. So basically, market power is a trading plan, as well an an indicator as well as a way to adjust the plan. So you have an indicator that tells you when to trade. And then you have the plan that tells you what and how to trade. And then if the trade goes bad, which sometimes they do, but not this year. So far, we have an adjustment module, which tells you how to actually fix the trade. So that potentially you might not ever have a losing trade ever again. Now, I know big work, right big promise. But so far, it's been kicking butt. So back in February, we had this event, we introduced it to about 600 people who registered for that. We then explained the whole thing and showed the back-tested results.  And it was actually something very new. We could not do this before this year. So last year, in June of 2022, the CBOE introduced options on SPX that would expire on Tuesday and Thursday. So that meant that you now have options that expire Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, all five days of the week. That is how we were able to create a way to adjust this trade. So we have this indicator, We've had it for a while we've been using it for our weekly trading system, which is also doing amazing. But there was an issue with the trading system that we couldn't share all the trades for a couple of reasons. Now, I don't want to get into everything on this episode, because that would defeat the purpose of the episode where I just want to share that this thing is coming and I want you to be aware of it. If you are looking for a way to be consistently profitable, If you like to sell options, or if you haven't sold options before and you're looking for a trade that is simple to understand and do. This might just be what you're looking for. Now, again, I already gave you the performance. We've had that event in February, we opened it up to have about 35 people in the program. We taught them exactly how it works. We showed them the indicator we showed them how to read it, how to use the trading plan, and they have been having amazing results as well. Just today I saw an interview with one of them. He's up 266%. Another one of our beta testers let me know today that he is on his way to India for his second trip of the year. The first time he went for two months. Now he's going again this year and both trips have been paid for by his market power money, which is basically the money he makes from his market power trades. So that's just 2 of the 35. And then we have testimony like case studies and we have videos and interviews of all the others. It's really phenomenal. Really exciting. So what we've been doing since then, is we've been fine tuning the program, we're getting those feedback from those guys about and girls, how to make it better, how to make it simpler how to make it more outstanding. And using their feedback, we've actually been able to improve our indicator. And the indicator is, you know, pillar number one, which is it tells you when to trade, if you don't have the indicator give you a signal you don't put the trade on. That's what gives us our edge. So we only trade when there is a signal from the indicator. And the more powerful and better the indicator, the more fine tuned it is the better human signals you get. Right? So we've been working on that. And we have improved the indicator significantly since we first introduced it. We also have the trading plan. And now thanks to the CBOE what they did last year with the new options, we also have an adjustment plan. So we know how to fix this trade. Now, we haven't had to do any adjustments this year. But we did go back and test previous years to see if we if it would work. And we found an adjustment method that basically got every single one of our losing trades back to break even. And so there aren't that many losing trades in a year. But if there are there, we have a way to make them and get back to break even. So like if, for example, if we had been trading this same program, the same method last year in 2022. And if you could adjust the whole year, we would have been perfect, we would have had to adjust on 10 trades out of 81. So there was there would have been 81 trades last year, 10 of them would have been adjusted and they would have broke even 71 would have made money, and it would have been the return would have been somewhere close to around 450%. So currently, I'm up to 300, right close to it. And I still have September, October, November, December. So I still have a quarter, four months left. So maybe I'll get up to 400 this year, who knows. It's amazing. It's just it's just mind boggling. So I just wanted to give you a heads up if you haven't heard about it, we are going to be introducing and showing and sharing more about it in the coming weeks and months. We are still in beta phase beta testing phase. So we're gonna let a few more people in, out of those 600 that registered for that live event, we're gonna let a few more of those people in, make sure everything is working great. We're still waiting for our programmers and our developers to give us the green light that we can invite more people in because right now the server load and the website and all that would not be able to handle so many people, because it's all real time data and data feeds and all this technobabble stuff that I really don't understand. But they say that the thing will crash if we have too many people. So we gotta wait until they build in redundancy servers and stuff like that. So once that is done, it'll be in a couple of months, we'll be able to let more people in. But then here's the thing, even when we are allowed to have as many people as we want, we still will not be allowing as many people as we want. Because we have to limit this and keep it basically under wraps. There's going to be a very hard stop in how many people we actually let into this program, because I am trading this for the fund my hedge fund. And I don't want to over saturate it. I don't want to have too many people doing this. Because SPX is huge, that's what we trade, but it's not unlimited. And so I would like to be able to do it for a long time. And if we have too many people doing it with too much money, it might get messed up. And so yeah, definitely we're are going to have strict limits on how many people come in. But so far the people that we've led in the stories we've hearing from them, how it's changed their lives, how it's how it's given them faith in humanity, to some degree, It's been mind blowing. So, you know, part of my mission of starting Option Genius is to help people become more financially independent and be able to live the lives that they want. And this program so far with the beta testers is definitely doing that, as we get more and more people in. I think it's going to continue to do that. So this will be I don't know, it might be like the best thing I've ever done. I have. I don't know, it's that exciting. It's that good. So I'm really excited. I just, you know, I had a 54th winning trade today and I said, You know what I need to I need to share this with our audience so that they're aware of it and if they're looking for something if you are looking for something to add to what you're doing or if you're very frustrated and upset and you know you want to make a change or you want to do something different in your trading, you might want to take a look and see how this works. The background is basically it is a SPX trade meaning we trade the SPX index. It's a one-day trade, meaning we get the trade in today, we get in today, and we're out tomorrow, it's a credit spread. It's a very simple trade to do. And we only trade on days when we have the indicator. Historically, there are about seven trades a month. So you know, you'll do seven trades, and you put the trade on when you get the signal. And then the next day, the trade is over, if the trade went bad, you can do an adjustment, then the trade might go on a little bit longer, maybe another day.  But still, you only have one trade at a time. And it doesn't take very long to do each trade. I mean, once you know how it works, you should be able to do each trade within less than five minutes or maximum 10 minutes, if you're on your phone or your tablet or something and it's really small. But really, it shouldn't take much time at all. And the way we've set up our program, I mean, the program, the software, the technology is going to give you every single thing you need to be able to do it quickly, easily, smoothly. I'm really excited. It's like, all in one complete package. And yeah, so I'm really excited, hopefully, you'll get a chance to check it out. We will if you're not on our email list, go ahead and get on the email list. We'll be letting people know more about it. First, we're going to, like I said, we're going to deal with the people on the notification list, we're going to let them come in, try it out. And then once we get the go ahead from our programmers, that we can open it up to more people, then we will be talking to everybody on our list on our email list. Again, we have 40,000 people on our email list, just our company email list. And we're not gonna let anywhere close to 40,000 people into this program. So we might just sell out just to people on our email list. And we might hopefully you don't have to do any advertising or anything like that. But we'll see how it goes. And for now, you know, we're having amazing success, amazing results. I hope you can join us.  And in the next episode of the podcast, we're actually going to have an interview with one of our beta testers. He's going to be talking about how he's doing, how the program works, you know what his experience was? So look out for that in the next episode. That's going to be really cool as well. And then if you guys like, then I can share more about the market power program on the podcast. Just let us know. And we'll do it that way. Cool. I wish you the best of luck in everything you're doing and trade with the odds in your favor.

Allen: Welcome passive traders to another edition of the Option Genius Podcast. Today I have a special guest with me, Mr. Carl Nord, We're going to be talking about something pretty interesting that goes back to a few episodes ago, something I talked about, which was back on episode 140 of the podcast, I introduced something called the 66 Trade challenge, which is something that people can do if they are having trouble with discipline, it's one of the ways that we talked about of how to overcome the deer in the headlights syndrome, or the not knowing what to do syndrome or just not doing what you're supposed to do while you're trading. Allen: And we've all been there. And it's a it's a mental thing. You know, I talk about it a lot that trading is 90%, mental 10% skills. Most of us know what to do, we just don't do it for whatever reason. And we all have our individual hang-ups. So Carl here, he's in a couple of our programs. He listened to that episode, he took it to heart. And he reached out and said, You know, I'm doing the challenge. And I've been following him. And he's been giving me updates all along the way. And I said, You know what, this is awesome. We need to get Carl on the show. We need him to share his expertise, his wisdom about going through the system and going through the challenge, and basically, his results. So, Carl, welcome so much. Carl: Thanks, Allen. So glad to be here with you. Allen: Yeah, it's so it's a wonderful for you to share your time and experience experience with us. I'm really happy to have you here. And it's part of what we like to have in the Option Genius community where we help each other. So appreciate that. So Carl, let's let's get started. What was it about the challenge that made you decide to do it? Carl: Well, actually, it was a combination of two of the podcasts. I listened to the 66. Great Challenge first. And then I listened to the one right before it number 139. When you have tried everything, and you're still not profitably trading that one, which is a long, long podcast, and over and over in there, you were saying, You got to have a plan, you got to follow the rules step by step and, and this other thing, and I was thinking, you know, if I'm gonna get this down, the 66 trade challenge will make me do the things you were telling that the other fellow in the podcast just previous to it, it was a combination of the two. That made me do it. But mostly it was because also, like you said, I had no discipline. I panicked all the time. Yeah. Allen: Hey, cool. So I mean, yeah, I remember. I remember that one that was 139. I think that one was like a it was like a coaching call. Basically, someone had written in and said, You know, I've been trying this for years and years, and I haven't had any success and what helped me, what am I doing wrong? And so I got on them. And I asked him, I was like, Hey, would you be willing to have it recorded and shared? And he was like, yes. So we got on the call. And yeah, it was about an hour and a half long.   Carl: He had either an English or Australian accent?    Allen: Yes, yeah. And he's actually in our, the free Facebook group that we have. He's in there. And he responded, it's been about a year I think, since that episode, or I don't know how long it's been. It's been a while. And he responded on Facebook. Just recently, I think it was last week that he's been he's made a lot of strides. He's listened to that interview several times. And it really helped him. And he's made a lot of changes, and he's doing much better. So I'm glad. I'm glad that was helpful. So basically, you said that you were having a problem with discipline. How bad was that problem?   Carl: Well, it was bad enough that I wasn't making money. You know, it just yeah, if the market went against me, I was just panicking all the time and either selling too soon, or, you know, exiting the trades too soon or too late or something, you know, just kind of got overwhelming for a little bit. And I was looking for an answer when that can't win when I listened to those two podcasts and put it together for me.   Allen: Sweet and so what were the things or some of the things that you had tried before the challenge to overcome that problem?   Carl: Well, I guess I just Well, I had taken the class so I was trying to apply what I learned there. But until I did the challenge, I couldn't get myself to stick with it the way I needed to. And even after the challenge I started with the challenge. There were some things that happen along the way for one thing I didn't want to do adjustments. And in that cost me I saw big time. The the last, next to the last trade that I did, I did an adjustment, I tried doing an adjustment on it. And after all was said and done, I came out with six bucks ahead. So you know, don't lose money. That's the big thing, don't lose money. And, and so now, I keep an eye out for for doing adjustments. But by that by the time I got done with the, towards the end of the second half the last 33 of the trades. I was starting to settle down pretty good. And profitability was going up. I was doing better in percentages and stuff like that. And on my returns and fewer, fewer losers. Certainly. No, no big big losers. Awesome.   Allen: Cool. Yeah. So that kind of leads me to my next question. So before the challenge, what were your results?    Carl: Well, my results were mixed mostly down. But I had a few winners here and there. But I wasn't, I wasn't applying all the rules. As I was just looking at a chart for a company, I'd pick something and look at the chart and see if it was starting to trend or if I thought it was going to and then I looked at looked for the look for the option. Look at the option list there and, and pick out something I wouldn't look at. You have a whole lot of particulars. And I don't know how much you want me to get into those. But I mean, it just things like dividends, I didn't worry about whether a stock had dividends or not. And that was important as far as the stability of the company. And then there's the some of the Greek stuff, the betas and that I hadn't been paying attention to that even though I know you had emphasized that. When when you were when I went through your course.   Allen: Okay, so that's really interesting. So you have you had the passive trading formula course you had all the rules, you had all the plan, you had everything. But it sounds like you kind of picked and chose what you wanted to follow in what you left alone. And what strategies were you using before and during the challenge? Like what? What was the naked puts covered calls, credit spreads?   Carl: No cover calls. I did call spreads on the call side and the foot side. Most of them were naked quotes actually. Okay. But as I went on, the spreads seemed to be working for me better. Puts on the spread side. And I did those four things naked calls.   Allen: You did naked calls?   Carl: Yeah. So Naked calls.   Allen: Okay.    Carl: Just a few. Not a lot. Actually. I think. No, yeah. Right. I there was not a lot and I only did two. I take that back there was a bunch of bunch of call spreads that I did. Okay. There was two naked calls that one was a loser one was a winner. Overall. That way was aware of the to the naked puts and then put spreads, put spreads, gave me a better percentage when not necessarily a better dollar and better percentage, which overtime would have been better, I think.    Allen: Okay, and how long were you? How have you been trading options before you took the challenge?   Carl: Ever since last October.   Allen: Okay, so what is that? Almost a year? It's coming up on a year. Yeah. Okay. And so how long when did you start the challenge?   Carl: I started the challenge it on January 25th.   Allen: Okay, so October, November, December?   Allen: So about four. So you were trading for about four months before you took the challenge. Okay, cool. All right. So now just to recap, you know, you've been trading for four months using different strategies. And you said that mostly your results before the challenge were that you were negative and you kind of didn't didn't really know what you were doing. So what were there   Carl: I still wonder that.   Allen: We all do so then What were the results? So what are your now that the challenge has been completed. And the whole point of the challenge was to have you and just a little bit of background for people who haven't heard that episode, the whole point of the challenge is to have everybody do 66 trades in a row of following the rules exactly as they're laid out. And the idea behind it is, if you do that, it should help if not trigger a habit-forming response. So we want to make following the rules a habit where it's just automatic, you don't have to think about it. And, you know, go back to psychology and whatever, they say that the average is about 66 times that you have to repeat something for it to be a habit. Now, it can vary depending on the emotional response in the whatever the person, but 66 is about, about average. So that was where we came up with it. And so if you've, the idea was if you take a trading plan, you do it 66 trades in a row with no deviation from the plan, then it will make it much easier to have that discipline as you continue. So now that the challenge is complete, Carl, what are your trading results after the challenge?   Carl: I use ThinkOrSwim. And so when I go to put on a trade, first I check the chart on a company if I've got one picked out. And I check the chart on it to see if I can spot a trend or whatever, if I want really want to do the company, then I go to the to the trade to get the option chain. And Thinkorswim has, you can lower it and it gives me the beta the dividends while volume and the trades and all that stuff, you know what's going on with it. My eyes just start, I just started the left and go across the top and okay, it's got this, it's got this has got this, okay, it's got all that now, I go down. And that takes care of the underlying, I go down to the option chain, and I started looking for the price on the individual options and making sure that the delta is within the range that I want, first of all, and then and then go to the price itself. And if I'm doing a spread, I want to get not less than 30 cents on the spread. If I do a naked put if I liked the company well enough on you know, it's 30 cent minimum to you know, just 30 cents is a base. So any if it's above that great, wonderful. So, so I do that.    Allen: Okay, so that's the process, but what are we how are we? How are your results now? Like? Because before you said you weren't winning on too many trades? How about now?   Carl: Oh, yeah, no, no, yeah, the second half of that set of trades, I had out of 33, I had maybe four losers five losers as all, which was good for me. I mean, it was much better for me, it's without a doubt. In the beginning, I got hurt in some of my average is in the dollar amounts. Because I started using five contracts for trade, paper trading. And it wasn't after about five trades in I heard you telling somebody somewhere along the line to do it like we would really be doing and I could only afford one contract on a trade.  So I reduced it. But in those five I had two losers that were really really big, dollar wise, that hurt me there. So, but all of that, as I went on, it became practice with following the rules and getting a little bit better at reading the charts. Just between the two it helped check the company once in a while to make to on the fundamentals to see if the company is standing in good with some of the analysts or in Wall Street or whatever.   Allen: Okay, but let's say guess I'm trying to in my mind, I'm trying to create like a progression, right? So before challenge, during challenge, after challenge now before challenge, he said things were not too good. You were still pretty new. And so you were having more losses than winners. During the challenge. As you said in the beginning the first 30 trades or so, you were you were paper trading while you were trading a little bit larger size, then you actually have the capital for so eventually you cut that down. But because of those two losses, you're saying that you were negative, and then for the last half of the challenge, you said you did about 33 or 35 trades or something. And there were only about four or five that you lost on. Is that right? Right. Okay. And then when did you finish the challenge? What date?   Carl: Do know? I didn't look at the data when it's finished. If I can get that for just a second.   Allen: Yeah, I mean, I'm just looking for ballpark, you know, because he started in January.   Carl: June 5th    Allen: Oh so it took about four No, about five, five months to do the whole challenge. Now, from June to now, because right now, as we're recording this, it's August. So we got June, July, August, or June, July. Really? How have you been doing these two months?   Carl: The trades that I've done have been winners, but I haven't done very many trades because of the oils. We're working with you. Okay. trading program. Yeah. Okay.   Allen: So you're doing fewer trades, but you're switching what you're doing?   Carl: Yeah, well, things kind of evolve over time, you know, as you do stuff, like, I can afford to put on one contract for the oils. But it gives me just enough to do one contract in equities if I picked a low enough value company. And for that, gotta follow the rules for that with Lauren companies, you got to you got to get it. It's hard to find a company that's really stable and can can give me what you need. But so I've been, I've just started doing that kind of evolving into that. And so far, I've got two trades of one. Yeah. And, and that, that side of it is going good for me the oils, I need to work on,   Allen: Right. I mean, anytime you're learning, it's something that's going to take some time. But it seems like the challenge the I guess, what it seems like the biggest benefit for the challenge was that it forced you to actually use the rules. And it forced you to actually dig deeper into the material and be like, Okay, I paid for this. I'm in this program. I gotta make sure that I'm actually following the book. Is that Is that safe? Yeah. Okay.   Carl: Yes. Okay. Cool. And it was what I needed. Because I, you know, like I said, at the beginning, I panicked a lot. If the market went against me, and I get out too soon or too late. Just the rules are there for a reason, they set you up so that you can get in and out at the right times. And if you're down, then, you know, how to adjust and, you know, what, what time do you want to pick to do the adjustment? And that kind of thing? It was important, you know?   Allen: Yeah, I think something you said is what you just said is like, really, really important. Because, you know, in the progression, I'm like, Okay, you went from new trader to having a little bit of experience and losing trades, and now you're winning on most of the trades. And that's great, you know, the, the, you know, you're making more money than before, it's, it's showing potential, but I think what you said is that before, you used to panic now, because you've done so many trades, and I think this one challenge also forced you to do a lot of trades, you don't panic as much and that in itself by itself, even if even if, you know we don't even look at the money or the wind Ross ratio or anything like that. But the fact that you have more confidence in the system in the trading plan, and in yourself as a trader, I think that's huge, because that will go you know, well into the future.   Allen: And I think for me, that was one of the one of the things that helped me switch in my mind from "Oh, hey, I'm a new beginner. I'm just messing around to Okay, now I actually know what I'm doing. Now. I'm confident now, if the market goes against me, I know how to bail myself out. And so that allowed me to sleep at night. Because you know, it's like oh my god i trades a triple what do I do? You know, in the beginning it's like oh my god, the trades are trouble. Oh, I hope I hope the stock goes up tomorrow. I hope the stock goes this tomorrow. I know you're praying and you're not sleeping at night, your chicken the name the overnight markets. But once you have that confidence that hey, you know what, even if it goes against me tomorrow, I know what I'm doing. And I know how to get out of it. I know how to if I have to take a loss I know I can take a loss or if I know if I want to adjust I know what to do and how to do it. That gives you a peace of mind. That is kind of like what puts you in the zone. You know I don't know if you play sports but you know for for basketball players or for foootball players, they just get into this mental state where they see everything, they can do everything and they don't mess up. And that's where the the greats really have a lot of that, you know. So I think what you just mentioned, is because of the because of the challenge, and because of you just doing it over and over and over again. I think that's a huge benefit that's going to carry and help you for the next, you know, years and years of your trading.   Carl: Yeah, yeah, it trained my eyes to when I bring up the screen. It's just automatic. No, clicking across the different things, this fits this fits. Nope, that doesn't. Let's go on. Another thing that that it's done is where before I did the challenge, I was watching the watching the numbers all day long. Click-Click-Click. Now. Now, I know that if it doesn't make this percentage, or, you know, whatever, to get in or out where that gets triggered, there's no point in even looking at the computer. So now I'm stuck wondering what I'm going to do with the rest of my day. It's been, it's been good, because I know I don't have to worry about it anymore. It just, I just follow the rules. So two or three times a day I check where where I'm at. And that's it. Yeah.   Allen: Yeah, we call it passive trading for a reason. So what I'm hearing is that I think, and this was a side benefit, like, I don't even think about this, but it seems like because of the challenge, you put on a lot more trades than you would have normally.   Carl: Well, yeah, when I was paper trading, I could, you know, I had a limit thought I had. I mean, I knew, even if I had the money, I probably wouldn't do more than six trades. And if I had the money, I wouldn't learn I would limit myself to probably 10 contracts. Or if I had the money, and that was going to be my overall limit someday down the road. I did do the six trades. I did do that with the paper trading. And in order to speed up the process, I didn't want to do one at a time only all the time. And, and so I just kind of went through that. But..   Allen: Yeah, so. So it seems like you by doing the challenge and doing the trades and wanting to get through the challenge, you actually sped up your your learning process. Because it's because I mean, you've been trading for less than a year and you're talking in a way that I don't hear a lot of beginners talk, you know, you're you're speaking like a option traders that's been doing it for like several years now. So I think this was like one side benefit that I didn't even think about that we wouldn't be when we have somebody new to options would be like, okay, you know, here, here's the basics is what you got to do. And then do you got to do the challenge. You just have to do the trades. This is how many trades we want you to do over and over and over again. So that you put in the reps you put in the time you put in the you get that experience and you build it up as quick as possible. So that you go from "Hey, I don't know anything. I'm not disciplined. I'm not experienced. I'm scared" to "Okay. I've been through the war. I've been through the battles. I know exactly what to do, when to pull the trigger when not to and you come out the other side and you're like, okay, hey, I got this. So yeah, this is this is awesome. Cool. So what did you learn about yourself when doing this?   Carl: Well, I learned that I needed help. that I that I shouldn't just try to figure it out to do it by myself. I learned that I had to put in a little bit of time and work on it more than a little and I learned Yeah, I learned to focus on the right things and then not get get so worried about where the other money was going up or down and stuff and the trainers sticking with watching percentages and watch how it's rising and falling to the rules. So before it was grad I can't stand to lose as much money I'm out and then I get out and the next day it is right be right back up again. And I'd have lost all that money.   Allen: Yeah, yep. Yeah, that's a big one. That's a big one that a lot of people never overcome. And that's something that I'm actually learning myself again, right now, because as we're trading for the fund, you know, the fund is much larger than I've had in any one account. You know, I mean, I have multiple accounts, overall, the, the size is big, but now that I have that whole big, big pie in the fund, we look at it and if a trade is going bad, or not going bad, but the trade is just not going the right way, the number, the last number is really, really big. Oh, my God, you know, we're losing a lot of money. But when you when you ignore that part of it, and you just look at, okay, when is I'm getting out, or when am I having to adjust, I would realize that, Oh, hey, this trade is not even in trouble. It's not even anywhere close to being adjusted or getting out. It's just that because the trade is so large, that the numbers are really big. And so when the trade goes, well, then the numbers get really big on the good side. So I'm learning this whole process again, myself about, hey, don't worry about the numbers, you know, don't worry about the amount the dollar amounts will focus on the trade, the debit, the debit, the delta, and all that other stuff. So yeah, it's something that we keep learning over and over again. So that's cool. Now, when it comes to the challenge, what was the hardest thing for you to do?   Carl: Well, the hardest thing was to I got 28 trades in and blow it, you had to restart.   Allen: So okay, so 28 trades in and then you know.   Carl: You know, all of it Allen has been trying to pick is is trying to find is trying to be right in the chart that I look at and use and and the assumptions I make about whether it's trending up or trending down or whatever like that, that is always the hardest. I mean, the rules are easy, you've made them simple. It has got to do them. But but you know, there's just no accounting for the market. Yeah, that's the part that started is true.   Allen: Right. So I mean, you know, depending on the strategy, of course, it varies. I know for the spreads themselves, we do cover that in the program, I can go through that with you, if you need to. But it's, it's really, you know, basically, the idea is very simple. It's okay, if I'm trading a credit spread, I don't want to be guessing on what the market or the stock is doing. And I don't want to be trading something that I don't It's not talking to me, pretty much. I mean, it's a weird way to say it, but like, I want to look for a stock that's trending, you know, it's either going up, it's going down, or it's going sideways, the sideways once I don't even mess with you know, if it's going up or going down. Those are the ones I will I will trade spreads on. So I think we do cover that. And there's some things maybe I can go over with, again, to see how to make sure that it's, you know, what are we looking for, to say, hey, it's trending. But in in that sense? There, it's still trading, right? And so we can we can line it up and do it and have the perfect setup. But then the thing just stops and turns around it goes the opposite way. Or like what have it.   Allen: And that's why we need to be able to follow the rules. It's not just finding the perfect trade, it's also managing the trade. And when do we get out? When do we pull the plug? When do we adjust it? Or how do we know if we should adjust or get out? So there's, there's all that stuff. And I'm really glad that you actually went through this, because the only way to know is to be in that situation over and over and over again. So kudos to you for that. Now, now that the challenge is over, and you said that I want to go back to this, you said that you did I think what was it? 28 trades. And then you had to start over again. So why did you start over?   Carl: Because I took on a trade without checking one of the one of the rules is to have a dividend. What I don't know if it's your rule, but it was one of my rules that fit your, your structure there. My I had to have a dividend or a yield over 1%. And, and I didn't look at that. And it was zero. And I had already put the trade on. And then I was going back to do the paper do to fill in my paperwork. And I saw that not Doggone it. No, no dividends. So that company was off my list. But I done it. So I had to start over again.   Allen: Yeah, because that's one of the rules of the challenge that you have to follow the rules on every trade. And if you mess up or if you don't follow the rules and you gotta go back to the beginning and start over again. And that's that's kind of what makes the habit you know, just doing it over and over and over again. So I mean, good. Again, kudos to you like most people would have been like oh, Oh, that's not a big rule, I'm gonna just budget and keep going. But it shows that you're serious about this. And that's one of the things I want to point out to everybody that, you know, when you we see you on the call on the coaching calls, you know, you ask questions, you, you post and say, Hey, this is what I'm doing. You know, this is what this is what I have, and you want to do it, you want to learn, you're putting in the time you're putting in the effort, you know, doing a 66 trade challenge is not easy.   Allen: It's definitely most people will not do it. I would say just because, you know, like, I say that the mental aspect is 90 trading is 90%. Mental, I can say also, that 90% of option traders who are learning this stuff are not going to go through and do an entire 66 trade challenge. You know what you describe that? Oh, hey, I missed up on this one rule. I messed up and I started over again. Most people would be like, yeah, no, I'm just gonna keep going. So, you know, that shows that not only do you want to do it, but you have the willpower and the discipline. And I don't know if that came from the challenge, or it just you had a naturally but that's a challenge. Well, that's awesome. Because that's what it takes to do it. Yep. And that's what it takes, you know, that's what it takes to get good at this. And, and like, you know, from what I'm seeing, I've seen a change in you yourself. Right from from the beginning, from when you start started the program to now I've seen a change in you, your demeanor, your questions, and you've come light and day. So if there's anybody listening is like, Oh, how do I learn options? The fastest way? Well, I think it's, you know, do the challenge, get a trading plan, do the challenge. Put yourself in that position, do the reps, and you'll make light years of progress. So that's, that's really, really awesome. I think I might have already answered this one. But what has changed for you now that the challenge is complete?   Carl: Well, I'm more sure of myself with doing the trades. I mean, the the part of putting on the trade, selecting the underlying and putting on the trade and that are just, you just it's just the rules. It's it's only figuring out whether it's going to go up or down or, you know, along those lines, and that's always going to be there. But, but for me, I don't have to wonder if I'm doing the right thing with putting on the trade. Because I know now with with the trade that when I look at the Options that that I'm doing everything right? I just need them the market to go in my direction as all. And like I said, Now I only check on it two, three times a day. And it's it's it's a it's been a relief, you know, to be able to go I went fishing all day yesterday and didn't have to worry about it. I could have checked on my phone, but I didn't guide. It's just let it rip.   Allen: Yeah, I mean, some people say, Oh, this is like passive income. I'm like it is. And it is it. You know, I mean, it is income and we still have to watch it. So it's not like you're not doing anything, but it has a it has a hint of excitement. But it's not overwhelming. It's not like terror most of the time. Yeah, well, I had those episodes. So yeah, but that's that's the progression of going from like a newbie to you know, an experienced trader that's been doing this for some time that you don't be you don't have as many of those. Cool. So now the final question for you. The challenge itself, did it help you form some habits? Or no?   Carl: Oh, yeah. Like I said before, it's it's like it's automatic. My eyes just go to the things I want to check. I've got a worksheet that I made up for myself and, and then I just fill in the numbers as they go on. My but even when I'm looking now to see if it's a trade that I suspect I might want to do, my eyes are still traveling from right to left the line on Thinkorswim. They're checking off the things on the underlying that, that I know I'm going to need to have in place before I even go any further with it.   Allen: Wonderful. Wonderful. Yeah, I mean, it does, in a sense, make it more boring. The trading can get more boring when you actually know what you're doing. And you have a set plan, you know, it's like, Hey, I do this then I do this and I do this and I do this and once you have that, it's like oh man, it's not so exciting anymore. But I think that's the that's the goal. You know, I mean, if you want to excite me go buy a lottery ticket or you know go   Carl: Yeah, well, I do that to   Allen: Cool Beans. All right. So is there anything that else you would like to share with our audience? Any tidbits of advice or anything like that? Well,   Carl: I guess I guess we've covered most of everything. Whether you do the challenge or not, I would say, you know, follow the rules, right? Just, you got him, and they work so well on, you'll reduce your number of losers and increase your numbers of winners.   Allen: Yep. Yeah. I think we, I've heard it over and over and over again, it's like, just follow the rules, just follow the rules. It's like it. But that's the hard part. That's the hard part of getting getting people to do that, you know, getting them to follow the rules. And that was the whole idea behind the challenge. So I thank you again, for your for your time and for your wisdom. I'm very happy that you were able to complete this and that he got the results that you have. And I can't wait to see the future and what it what it Hell's in store for you. So thank you so much.   Carl: You're welcome.  

So what is it that is stopping you? What's stopping? That's what we're going to talk about today. Now look, I have a thought experiment for you today. Now thought experiments are what Einstein you'd see use, you know, Einstein used to think about all these different things about how this would work. And that would work, especially when you're dealing with abstract concepts that you can't write down, it's a good way to get the creative juices flowing, and to come up with answers, helping your subconscious being able to help you out as well. But it's really meant to get you to see things from a different perspective. Or as Obi Wan would say it a certain point of view. Right. So since you're consuming this content, right? I know that you're interested in trading. If not, I don't know why you're here. But maybe you're trading a little bit. Maybe you're trading a lot. Maybe you haven't started trading? I don't know. But chances are, that most of you are holding back. You're not all in either you're not all bought in that this actually works. Or you're scared? Or you're trading with a little bit, not too much. Because you don't want to lose it. Whatever the reason, I'm sure you do have your reasons, right? Not enough time. Not enough money. Oh, the market is too volatile. Oh, the markets not volatile enough. On and on and on. So let me ask you this question. Okay. In 10 years, 10 years from now, if you take no action, nothing changes, you just go about your day go about your life, the way you've been going. It's the same going on the same path. You don't take any action, you don't change anything in your life. What is your life look like? Think about it. I mean, pauses and think about it. Really? What does your life look like? Now? Obviously, you're 10 years older, right? So as your family, so is your house, so it's your dog. And things are worse than they are now. If you don't change anything, because that is life, things get better. Or they get worse. Nothing stays the same. Right? Your house is 10 years older, and to be falling apart. I need a new AC my I need a new roof. I need something else. If you're older, yeah, things are falling apart, right? You get an older squeak year larger, maybe it's my case. So if you took no action, things are worse. Are you happy with that situation? Or would you be happy with that situation? Take the take where your life is now. Fast forward 10 years, and it's a little bit worse. I don't know how much worse and you know, hopefully, you did the exercise. And you thought about it, like what things would be like 10 years from now, if you don't change anything? Are you happy with that situation? Probably not. So the question is, then, what are you going to do about it? Do you have any idea? Do you have any plan? Because really, you know, nobody is coming to get you. Nobody's going to save you. All right, you got to have to save yourself. So I hope you do. I hope you have come up with something. And I hope things are better for you. And I hope you know I'm trying to get you out of the malaise. Okay, now, let's do another thought experiment jelly.  Yeah, I know we had one but you get one for free. Okay, so now look, instead of thinking about all the wonderful things that could happen if you started making money by passive trading, right, because you've heard me you've listened to the show you you've heard me all the great things that happened. You get the freedom you get the money, you can spend more you can have more time off. You don't have to work as much or work at all. All these wonderful things that can happen that have you ever been to people. Let's do it on the side. What is the worst thing that could happen? If you didn't start passive trading? What's the worst thing that could happen? If you never started, or you never grow, or you never go all in, ruminate on that a little bit, you know, think about it. Some people, they need a carrot, you know, they need a reward. It's like, oh, man, you know, if you get this passive training stuff down, man, you can make a few $1,000 extra a month, that might be enough to buy that new car you want or go on a vacation you on or buy the new house or boat or whatever. Now for some people, that's enough. Yeah, motivated, they go for it. Other people, they need the cat, right? And in this case, where the rat, the rat, you got the cheese, or the carrot, whatever, you know that you got the, you got the reward on one side. But then you got the cat. On the other side, the cat is behind you, and the cat is wanting to eat you and they wants to trick you wants to catch you and eat you. That is the worst case scenario. Right? And some of us, actually, according to statistics, I think most of us will do more to evade the cat or get away from the cat than we will to get the reward. So maybe that's what you need. Maybe you need to imagine the cat. What's the worst thing that could happen? What is the worst case scenario? So you don't trade? You don't devote the time? You don't give it the energy? What could happen? thing of it, I mean, I'm sure you've come up with something, right? And you mix this with the other one. It's like, okay, if I don't do anything, what's 10 years going to look like? Does that make your blood boil? Does that bother you? Does that freak you out? If not, then you didn't go dark enough. Okay, we want to go dark, we want you to come up with the worst, worst, worst, worst, worst case scenario. Now, hopefully that doesn't happen. Right? But if in your mind's eye, you think, Man, this could happen or this will happen unless I take action. Maybe that's enough to get you to take action. Right? They say that, hey, you know what? Somebody puts a gun to your head, you'll do whatever you have to do. Why does it take putting a gun to your head? Why can't you do it on your own? Well, some people are just not motivated that way. So they need the gun to their head. Okay, well, let's create the metaphorical gun and put it to your head. What's the worst thing that can happen? And think about it and say, Yeah, you know what this is going to happen? Maybe, I don't know, you could come up with something like, You know what, I think I'm going to have a heart attack. And my insurance is not going to cover it. And it's going to cost $200,000. That could be possible. It's happened to people. I mean, that's my father was just in the hospital for a back surgery, and it costs about $175,000. Luckily, he's insured. But if you didn't, that would have been catastrophic, right? If you didn't have the money, so what if you don't have the money that will help you move forward? It's just a different way to think about it. So these exercises, these thought experiments can be used for anything starting to trade and diet, starting exercise approaching someone of the opposite sex or the same sex, whatever it is a mate, anything, they are that powerful. So put them to good use. Alright, until next time, trade with the odds in your favor my friends.

The maximum money exercise. All right, this is gonna be fun, so chances are that you're not trading as well as you want. Chances are you're not making as much money as you want. And you might, or you might not know, the reason why. I don't know, maybe you need a better strategy. Maybe you're not disciplined enough, maybe. And then you can enter whatever excuse in the blank, right? Now, in reality, I bet that you have all the answers you need. I bet that you already know the basics of trading, you know how to do it. But something is holding you back. I mean, realistically, how hard is it to sell a covered call, right? I mean, that's the most basic trade, you can make money on it, you can be consistently profitable with that, how hard is it, right? And if you don't know what a covered call is, you buy 100 shares of stock that you like, okay, and you sell an out of the money call on out of the money call option to bring in some credit. That's it, that's all you got to do, then you wait till expiration, at expiration, If you get called away, meaning the stock is taken from you. That's great. That's wonderful. You buy more stock, you do it again. If on the other hand, the option expires, and you still have the stock, that's great. Go sell another one. Right? A fifth grader could do this. So what's stopping you? Right? Why do you trade well, for a few trades, and then give it all back? Why do you fail to follow your own trading rules? And I hear this over and over and over again, from students. Right? When you're in a trade that's going bad. You kind of know what you need to do. You kind of have an idea like, oh, man, I need to do something about this trade. I should do some this getting bad. But still you do nothing. And then you justify it, right? You rationalize, oh, yeah, you know, I needed to pay my dues. I needed to learn from that mistake. Really, you needed to learn you need you have to lose money to learn? Is there an easier way? You know, really? The answer is that it is subconscious. The reason we do well, and then we start messing up our subconscious. You've heard about it, right? It's self sabotage. we hurt ourselves. And it happens with money. And just about anything. Happens with businesses happens with relationships, it happens with trading, it happens with health, happens with all sorts of things. And we're going to work on that right now. So stay tuned. First of all, I have to give full credit to this to Mr. Allen Sultani. All right. He is one of my mentors. And actually, he teaches marketing and sales. But he spends most of his time teaching about human psychology. So this is our works, okay, and I'm going to quote him here, so that I get this right. All right, so "you'll only be able to make money close to what your subconscious mind allows you to make". And as you get closer and closer to that boundary, you'll start to notice, is a lot of resistance, shiny object syndrome, and all sorts of other thoughts that start to work against you. What was once easy now becomes difficult. What used to take a few minutes now takes days, and once and what once you thought you could do now becomes impossible. In the process, the mind will start to conjure up all sorts of stories, justifications and bullshit to keep you from hitting the boundary, which I call the maximum money boundary. And the first key to overcoming this boundary is knowing what your boundary is in the first place. And here's how you do it. So you close your eyes and you take a deep breath, say this statement in your mind. I make $5,000 a month, then you keep increasing this to make to "I make $10,000 a month", and you keep going in increments of either 5,000 or 10,000 or whatever is reasonable. Okay? If you're doing well, really well. Then you go up in increments of 25,000 to 50,000 and in some cases $100,000. Okay. As you're doing this process, pay attention to where your subconscious mind goes. Hell yeah. And it feels good. But when you say a number for example, I make $10,000 a month. Notice it starts to feel bad, and a voice will appear out of nowhere that goes something like "Yeah, right, or bullshit". And in a sense, makes you feel as if you're telling yourself a lie. This little voice, this lie itself is your outer boundary of what you can make.  And that's generally where you're stuck. Now, from my experience, when I'm about 50%, near the boundary, remember, Alan is saying this, when I'm about 50%, near the boundary, things will start to go to shit, get harder, and I have to work through them. I used to use a whole lot of force and effort to make things easier to work through this boundary. But that wasn't very effective, as you're literally fighting against yourself. And as your subconscious knows a whole lot more than you, then that's one battle, you're never going to win. So instead, what you want to do is start doing identity change work. This requires a lot of how to, but in short, just saying to yourself, that I make whatever the goal and then do it with feeling. So if it gets harder to attend, I make 10,000 a month, and you do it with feeling. After doing that for about a week or two, regularly, come back and retest your boundary. And what you'll notice is that everything magically became a whole lot easier. Money started coming in, and things are now working for you". That makes sense. It really is that simple. And it's not just about the money, it's about the actions to like for me, I had a huge mental block about trading for other people. I couldn't do it for years I didn't want to then I don't want to I don't want to own on. The reason was I had a mental block. In the back of my mind. I was like, No, you can't do it. You can't do it. Then I bit the bullet. And I created the hedge fund. And I want to side note, I want to thank you to everybody who has reached out wanting to invest with me. I mean, I can't. It's super humbling. And it's unbelievable that there are so many of you that want to turn your hard earned money over to me. So I really appreciate that. And thank you. Okay, but now back to the back to the thick gear. So ask yourself this question, right? Where are you stuck? Find out, find out what level you're stuck at. And then go further, and then find out why you're stuck there. Right? Because if I were to tell you, hey, you know what you can make $50 a month trading? You'd probably be like, "Yeah, I can do that". You can make $500 a month trading? I'll probably lose a couple a year. But most of them are you guys. But yeah, we could do that. You can make $25,000 per month trading? You can right now. In the back of your mind, some of you a lot of you are like me in No, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't think so. Yeah, I don't know. I don't use the proof. I don't I did all the stuff starts happening. Right? So you need to figure out where your limit is. So you do that simple question. You know, just go up in increments. Maybe if you don't do to increments of 5000, you do increments of 2000 or 1000? You know, where do you stop? Where does it start feeling like a lie? Where does it start feeling weird? Like, oh, no, I don't know, when you're not confident in the number anymore. Okay? And remember it's not I am making 10,000, it's I can make 10,000. You have to have that confidence. And if you think you can, then you can. So you want to figure out where the boundary is. And then you want to figure out why it's there. So to do that, I have some other questions for you. So you can ask different questions like, if I was starting all over again, what would I do differently? Right. If I was starting from scratch, I didn't know anything. What would I do differently? Different paths, different strategies, blah, blah, blah, whatever. If I had all the money in the world, how would I approach this? If I know no boundaries, no lack of resources. I had all the money in the world out approached this. Who can help me with this? Or even just do it for me? We did an episode before on who not how, you know, there's a lot of things out there. You don't have to figure out if you just find somebody else that already knows them and can do them for you. There's just simpler, faster, easier, just let somebody else do it that enjoys doing it more than you. Another question is if I was teaching somebody to do this, what would I say to them? How would I teach them? What would I tell them? Now, the truth of the matter is most of us already know enough. We already know everything we need to know most of us. Well, we limit our ourselves. So I want you to use this exercise to expand your boundaries. All right? That's all it is. It's self-imposed, self-inflicted wounds, self-sabotage. It's crazy. I don't know where like, you've come, subconsciously, we all have it, nothing to be ashamed of. But until you go through it and break it, you're gonna stay at that same level, there's nothing I can teach you, nothing I can do for you, to make you pass through that level, unless you do it yourself. And you go, you know, you convince yourself that you can do it. And then eventually, when you get to the higher level, again, you're gonna get blocked again, then you get blocked again, you get blocked again, I was having this conversation with one of our traders today. It's just, it's amazing. The limitations we put on ourselves. And part of it is because we've never seen it. We've never seen somebody making a million dollars a day trading. So for us, we're like, oh, "Man, that's not possible million dollars a day trading?". Now, I'm just coming up with this. But I'm sure there are guys on Wall Street. There are hedge fund managers that are making that much money because their accounts are big enough. Right? For us. They were like, Oh, my God, I'm just so totally out of my comfort zone. I couldn't do that. Why not? Why not? You have the skills? If not, we'll teach him to you. And I got to ask myself that same question. Like why can't I make a million dollars a year, a day? I got the skills. I know I have the skills. I just don't have whatever. It's a blockage, right? So we had to work through it, though. That's it, very simple. Until next time, my friends, trade with the odds in your favor.

Why do we trade? Sounds like a simple question, right? Maybe even a stupid question. Duh Allen, we trade because of the money. We want the money. Now I'm gonna say bull. No, it's not because of the money, money's great and all that, but it's not money. It's something deeper. So after that, what comes after money? Well, okay, if it's not the money, then yeah, maybe it's, well, it's freedom, right, Allen? Because you keep talking about that, you know, the three freedoms-- time, freedom, financial freedom, choice, freedom. It's the freedom. That's why we trade we trade for the freedom. I'm going to say no to that, too. Those are side effects, benefits of trading, but they're not the real reason. So in this episode, I'm going to tell you exactly why we trade. So look, a student reached out to me recently about investing in the hedge fund, which is great, because, you know, it shows a lot of confidence that my students are wanting to trade with me and invest with me. So we started talking, and I asked him, you know, Hey, how's it going with your trade and what's going on? He was over the moon happy. I mean, super, super happy. This guy, he's making  3-4,000 per week. Right? per week. That's pretty good. But then he said something that, you know, he said things were a little bit different. And I'm like, "What do you mean? What do you mean, they're different?" He says life's different, it is better. I'm like, Okay, give me an example. He goes, Well, you know, I used to argue with my wife, about her spending, every time I would look at the checkbook, you know, I get mad because she's spending on this or that. But I don't do that anymore. We don't argue about spending anymore, because there's more money at the end of the month, in the account, even with her spending. That's awesome. Also, he said he enjoys buying his kids things, you know, things he wasn't able to do before. Now, this is a fellow who's going to retire in six months, he's got six months of work left, he's going to be retiring. And he told me, he's not going to be worried about surviving on just, you know, 4%, that you're supposed to be taken out of your, your IRA or retirement funds, right? The 4% rule, he's like, you know, 4% is, not that much. And if that was the case, I would still be very concerned and worried about running out of money. But now he's not. He's actually looking forward to retiring compared to when it was a stressor. Right. I was talking to a another student, also last week. And he is also in the beta group of the market power program that we have. And then after about two months in that program, he joined our oil program, the blank check trading program. And I was curious, so I reached out to him. And asked, "Hey, man, you've been with us for a long time, like you've been on our email list, you've been in the you're in the passive program, you've been in that one for a long time, you've heard about blank check, many, many times, probably a dozen times you've gotten emails about it, or I've talked about it,  what made you jump into it right now, because you just joined this program, market power. And then two months later, you join into this other program. And I knew that money, you know, it was the price of the program was a bit of a concern for him in the beginning?" And this is what he said, This is a direct quote. So I'm going to read it here. He said, "Just started to figure everything out, it started to fall into place. After the market power group, I just felt more confident in my trading. And once I started seeing monthly returns, getting close to being able to stop working levels, I felt like I should go the last step and add the oil to the toolbox, and see if I can make enough to surpass my original goals. So I went for it. And I'm glad I did. It's really easy to understand, and I can't wait to start doing it live trading with it". Thank you for being so consistent with your teachings and methods. That feeling that you and your crew are there for us made it a much easier decision as well. So interesting. Right? Now, in both stories, there was no mention of a Lamborghini or a mansion or a private plane, you know, any extravagant spending. Now, there might be a couple of listeners out there that want that stuff. There's nothing wrong with having cool stuff. But I think most of us, yeah, we don't want that stuff. You know, we want other stuff stuff that's real. We want to have less stress, happier family, simple players. I think that's what life is really about, you know, and it's that's the real reason why we try not to get super rich, but to enjoy the simple things the little things. It's not because of you know, we're greedy or we want to take over the world but it's the small things that people don't even notice that make the world or life really better like going to a restaurant and ordering whatever you want on the menu without having to look at the price without worrying about the price. Oh, well how much is at stake? Go lobster only Oh, she wants lobster. Oh no, right? Choosing a vacation based on the location, the place you want to go to compared to the price, the cost. It's like, oh, we can't go to that island that's too expensive. Let's go to this small little beach over here instead. Now you don't need to do that anymore, right? Or even being able to take multiple vacations a year. So now I'm curious. Did I get it right? Is that why you trade? Let me know in the comments, or leave a review. I always love getting feedback and I would love to hear what it is why you trade. Until next time, trade with the odds in my favor my friends. JOIN OUR FREE PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP: https://optiongenius.com/alliance  Like our show? Please leave us a review here - even one sentence helps. Thank you!

Time decay, The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly. So I love Theta, right? I love that Theta is my best friend. It's also known as time decay. And since I sell options, I know that every day that goes by, the options that I've sold are closer to expiring, my trades are closer to ending. And I am closer to keeping all the money that I've already collected for selling the options. So it's a good thing, when I'm selling options when I'm trading options, theta is a great thing. Time decay is wonderful, I love it fish the weekends, right? It's a market, it's not moving, but I'm still getting my theta decay. And it's funny, because in the fund, you know, I'm starting to pay attention to the theta number. So, theta is basically how much money are you going to make every day from time decay, and it's a number. So you can see based on how many positions you have, there's a numbers like, Okay, could be 50 bucks, you know, it could be 1000 bucks could be 500,000 bucks, you know, whatever it is, it's a number that you're like, oh, man, I'm gonna get that money tomorrow. Oh, yeah, this is nice. Obviously, it's not guaranteed. But if one day passes, and no price change, or no volatility changes, then that's the amount of data that you get. But it's good to have a gauge, right? But today, I want to be talking about a different time decay. And this one is not the happy type of time decay, all right, it's not theta, but it's the time decay that we all go through in life. So we all know it. We all know that death is coming for all of us. Yes, we're all going to die. But for whatever reason, we forget about it. We put it in the back of my mind, we put out a video No, I'm not thinking about it. I'm not gonna worry about that, you know, I'm gonna live to a million, I'm not dying, you know, I don't want to do that. And so we stress out about little things, we get upset about petty little things. cut me off. You know, in the big deal, it's not right, in the in the big scheme of things. And you forget that in like, 100 years, just about everything we do is gonna be meaningless anyway. Realistically, 100 years, we're gonna be gone, okay, nobody's gonna worry about it. Nobody's gonna be thinking about us. Nobody's gonna worry about that one guy that is off, it's meaningless. So I read this tweet on Twitter. So the other day, and this guy, he mentioned the Queen of England, right? So he said that there's this woman, right, the Queen of England. She was at one point, the most powerful person in the world, most powerful. She had control and dominion over millions and millions of people. She was one of the richest people in the world. And she had her face on multiple currencies in different countries. I mean, you gotta be a big deal to have your face on a currency. Right? And she had it. Like, for some reason, I don't know why Canada had her face on their country, on their currency. Even though they were an independent country. As like, if I was an independent country, the first thing I'm going to do is get those oppressors off my currency. I'm gonna have my old people on my currency, but whatever. You Canadians, you guys figure that part out. Have you? I haven't, right? It's like I knew who she was. And Usually the big deal are in England and during her life after she died, to me, it's like big deal. Didn't bother me at all. Right? So, you know, I mean, if we think we're a big deal, are we as big a deal as the Queen? You know, that people are going to idolize us and come to our funeral like 1000s and 1000s of people are going to come to your funeral. Yeah, I don't think so. Probably not unless you're really famous. Oh, we do have some really famous people listening to the podcast, though. Maybe we do have some of you. Right? I don't know but I happen to start an exercise recently. That got me thinking about death a lot. Actually. That's where this whole episode is coming from. Okay. So I heard the speaker and he said that he does this because he had a near death experience, and ever since then he's, you know, trying to find ways to keep constant reminders that hey, look, I need to, I need to really live in the present, right, I need to make every day count. There's only so many times you can read the book Tuesdays with Morrie. I mean, yeah, you read it, you get remember, oh, yeah, life is coming. We got to live life, but then you forget about it, because life happens and you forget about it. So this guy came up with an exercise that he said to do, and I've started doing it. So this and here's how I would work. So he goes, we need to find out how many days left, we have to live average, right? So for men, the average age in the United States that we live to is about 80 years old. For women, it's around 82. So you take 80 minus your current age, whatever that is, and you multiply by 365, to find out how many days you have left. Now, if you're listening this and if you're over 80, congratulations, you got, you know, bonus time. Congratulations, that's awesome. But you probably think about death a lot more than somebody my age. Sorry. Anyway, so look, that's the rough calculation. If you want a more precise calculation, there's this thing called death clock.com, death clock.com, you can put into your, if you're a smoker, what's your weight, what's your body fat percentage, all this, it'll give you more precise number. And then once you get this number, you take a dry erase marker, you know, one of the ones that writes on the whiteboards, then you can erase it, you take one of those, and you write your number on the bathroom mirror, so that you can see it every single morning, when you wake up and brushing. And he got that number right there staring at you in the face. And every day, when you wake up, you got to go over there. And you got to erase the last number and minus it by one, right, so that you have this physical remembrance, this reminder that man, I got one day left or less, right, I got one day less to accomplish the goals that I want to set to achieve the things I want to do. To say I love you to my family and friends and whatnot and, and just enjoy my life. Right? Because I Oh, yeah, I'll do that later. I'll do that later. How will you see those numbers ticking down every single day? It can be very shocking. For one set. Now. I've been doing it for two weeks now. And it has definitely shifted the way I behave. I took the kids into bed more. Tell them more stories. You know, my my daughter is six. She's not gonna be six forever. And I.. I'll admit it, I sometimes I hate going upstairs to tuck him into bed because it's going up the stairs. It's going upstairs all the way around the house. The Big House has taken a lot of walking, toys on the floor and whatnot, you step on something in the dark. Ah, yeah. But ever since I started doing this, I look forward to it. I want it to come in. You know, she's always asking me for stories. I, she doesn't want to read story. She wants me to make up stories. So I don't know what to say. Right? I run out of things to say. But now I'm doing it again. Because the time is gonna come where she's not gonna ask anymore. And that's gonna be a sad day. But I don't know when that's coming. But now I see the clock ticking down, the numbers ticking down. So I'm like, Yeah, though, you know, I'm running out of time to tell stories. And I also spend more time cuddling with my wife, you know, I spend more time with her. Because those are the things that are most important. My wife and my kids and the time I spend with them. Those are the things that are most important. Not, you know, I mean, I love you guys. And I hope that you listen to this podcast and you listen to all the episodes and you share them with your friends. So that the numbers of the watches and the views and they're in the downloads all increase like crazy. So I hope you do that shameless plug. Right? But it's not the most important thing in my life. I hope it helps you. That's why I'm doing it. I hope it really helps. And I wish you did let me know right, your feedback. But to me, what's realistically there? For me the most important is obviously my family. And so I say no, a lot less to them. Right? Hey, Dad, can we watch a movie? Or cartoon? Come on guys. They want to do it. I get to hold them. I get to cuddle with them. I get to spend time with them. Yeah, let's do it. "Hey dad, can we go play video games?" Sure. Yeah, let's do it. Right. And a side effect of this is that my wife takes me for granted a lot less too because that number is freaking her out as well. She doesn't put her number but she looks at my number going down and it freaks her out. So she is also nicer to me. If you know what I mean. Okay. And as I get older, right, I'm noticing the days, they just go by faster, which is great for my account balance, right my trading account because of the Theta decay, the options decaying, it goes by faster. But this little number reminder keeps me thinking about the present, and helping me make the most out of every day that I have left. Right? And I urge you to try it. And even though, you know, one thing we have to remember is that 80 is the average, right? 80 is the average for the man to live in the United States. It doesn't mean we're gonna get to 80. And I had a very sad reminder of that this week. Because this episode, I want to dedicate it to a friend and a student of ours, Mr. Eddie So. I found out this week that Edie passed away recently in his sleep at age 50. So he went early. I mean, Eddie had his own tech startup, he was living in Silicon Valley living the life he had it, all right, he had money. He had success. He had a great family. But when he found options and option genius, he really found his passion. I mean, it lit him up. So much so that eventually within about a year, I think he quit his job to trade full time. And he even got a vanity license plate for his Bentley, you know, the the license plates where you can pay extra and you get letters on the back to spell something out? Well, his license plate read "Option Trader", which was really, really cool. You know, unfortunately, Eddie wasn't an option trader for too long. But it was a pleasure to know Him. So rest in peace, my friend, I'm dedicating this episode to you. And he's actually I've actually interviewed him before, and so you can listen to his interviews, or I think there's one on the podcast and on the YouTube channel. So again, right, even though we're supposed to live to 80 and beyond with the new technologies and all that stuff coming out, I'm looking forward to doing that. But you never know. So live in the present. Be careful. Spend time with your loved ones as much as he can, you know, don't sweat the small stuff and all that stuff. So until next time my friends, trade with the odds in your favor. Goodbye.

The real reason your wife doesn't want you trading, that's what we're going to talk about today. So I have actually figured it out. And I will share with you the reasons, as well as what you can do about it so that your wife not only does not fight with you about your trading but actually encourages you to do so. Now, before I start this episode, this might be one that you want to listen to alongside your spouse because it just might help, right might start some dialogue between the two of you, and if this is something that you are having issues with. And, you know, although I said wives in the intro, and in the title, this is for all spouses, it works both ways. You know, normally, in what we've come across, as we've seen men trading and wives, having an issue with the trading, or you could be the other way you could be a wife trading, and the husband has an issue, or one spouse has an issue with the other spouse trading. So that's what we're going to talk about today. Hopefully, I don't want to offend anybody. But that's what we're gonna talk about today. And like I said, if you can get your spouse to watch or listen to this with you, it might actually help you, especially if you had a problem with this now. I keep hearing this over and over again, from traders, like, Allen, how do I convince my wife to let me trade or at least to stop nagging me about my trading? Right? And I'm with you guys, right? I mean, with most things, I have no clue what my wife means. Unless she very clearly lays it out for me, because even though she expects me to I still, after even all these years, I still cannot read her mind. So I was thinking about this question, and we were on a drive, we were going on vacation to Colorado. So we had a lot of time in the car. So I turned to my wife and I asked her this. I'm like, Hey, this is a problem a lot of guys have, how do we fix it? What do I tell them what to do? And as soon as I told her this, she looked at me, like dumbfounded. She looked at me. And this is what she said, she goes, Don't you remember what it was like when you first started trading? I had to walk around eggshells around you. I would come home one day after work. And you would be all depressed and moping around and sad. And I'd ask you will happen? Well, why he's so down what happened? And you would say, "Well, the market was down today", and you lost money. Whoo hoo hoo. So the next day, because I didn't want to recap of that, right? The next day, I would check the market before I got home. And I would expect you to be happy because the market was up that day. But ah, no, I get home. And what do I find? I find you my faithful husband moping around sad again. And it was totally confusing. That's what happened? The market is up today I checked, and the market is up. Why are you still sad? And you would tell me "Well, baby, I adjusted my trade. I was going to be smart about it. And I just did like a real trader. And now I want the market to go down. But because it went up again, I lost even more money". She said she couldn't even tell me anything. Like she couldn't help me. She couldn't get mad at me. Because I was already so sad about it all the time. How do you jump on somebody who's messing up and feeling bad, and you just like you gave losing more money? She said that it consumed me that I was horrible to be around and that she never knew what she would get when she got home from work. Especially after a long day of work. She said that she needed somebody to talk to to commensurate with, right? She had a long day she wanted to talk to me. She wanted to talk to her partner. But she couldn't. Because I was upset. I was stressed out. And she says that I'd be watching those stupid stock shows with the crazy bald guy that kept screaming all the time. Yes, that is true. I used to watch that show every night when I was losing money. And I think I stopped and I started making money. I don't know if that's related or not. But that's a different story. And then after all that, then she let me in on a little secret. She goes, look, it's really simple. One of the main things that a woman wants is security. She wants to know that her man will take care of things and that he has them under control so that we won't be homeless or even have the power turned off. Right. That's what a woman wants. That's basic. Every woman wants that. And when you're losing money left and right, she says I don't feel very secure. Does that make sense? I was like, Yeah, that makes a lot. And as you get going on she's like Secondly, a woman does not want her man to be taken advantage of she goes, how many silly courses and videos did you watch thinking you're going to find the secret as if they're going to sell you a secret, right? As if there are any secrets, you kept thinking that the next course. So the next guru had all the answers. So you would get your hopes up, you'd get all excited. And then your hopes would be dashed when it didn't work out, and you just lost more money. Because you were just too emotionally involved. And lastly, every woman wants her man to feel good about himself. And when you were learning how to trade, you just took it too, personally, if you lost money, she says, I would degrade myself. He says I was putting myself down after every trade every bad day, I would call myself stupid. And she said it was just too painful to watch, and that she didn't even know how to help me, and that it broke her heart. So I guess we're looking at as traders, from our point of view, you know, this is something I'm trying to accomplish this is something that is really hard. This is something I'm learning. And with every trade, I'm learning more, even though you know, I'm paying my dues, I'm paying the tuition. But when you flip it, and you look at it from their point of view, it makes a lot of sense. My wife says, Look, I didn't care that you were trading, as long as you are happy and not breaking any laws. She says I don't care how you're earning money. In fact, I want you to do well, I want you to do amazingly well. So yes, women want their independence. But they also want to have the ability to not work if they don't want to. She said we don't want to worry about money. So we want you full to be successful in trading. It's not that we don't want you to be successful in trading. But you're just not. So it's hurtful. So there you have it, right? The problem is not that your wife, at least for most of you. Not that your wife disagrees with trading. The problem is that you are not consistent in your trading. And then once I did get consistent, once I got a better handle on my emotions, my wife started having fewer and fewer issues with my trading. And now she's my number one supporter. So there are times I go home and I'm stressed and I'm down and she'll figure it out. You know what happened, something bad happened. I'm like, Yeah, I lost money on this trade. And she will make me feel better. She'll make my favorite food, she'll do whatever. But it's not every day. And you know, so that's why she can help me when it happens once in a while. She's not shell-shocked anymore. And she's not confused about what's going on anymore. Right? So how do we get your spouse on your side? Well, I got some tips for you. All right. So number one, don't keep them in the dark. This is simple, right? You share your results with them, you'll be open and honest with them don't hide things from that you share the wins. And the losses, this is important, you got to share both. Okay. Number two, you focus less on making money. Right? This is counterintuitive. Don't focus on making money. But focus on not losing money. And I tell this to everybody in the beginning, like in the beginning, when you take any of my courses, I want you not I don't care if you don't make money, I want you to be consistent. I want you to say yeah, this is my result, result result result, I don't want you going shooting for the moon, I want you to just not to lose money. Because once you become consistent, once you have wins after win after wins and you're positive month after month after month. We can just tweak it a little bit. And then you can have the big month. Okay. What scares your spouse are the wild swings in your account, the roller coaster, right where you're doing well, well, well. What your spouse wants to see is a consistent increase in the account no matter how small why? Because that is what normal people, non-trading people. That is what they're taught to expect, right? You put your money in a mutual fund was supposed to do it's supposed to go up every month, and little by little it's supposed to go up. If your mutual fund was going up or not like this, people will not be interested in that mutual fund. Right. They're expecting things to go up. Yes, slowly, slowly, slowly, but they're expecting it to go up and that's what your spouse is expecting of your trading account. Even though that's not usually what happens in the beginning, right? So make sure that you have consistent winners, or at least don't lose money, just don't lose, right? I know that's harder, it's hard. But you don't want to be shooting for the moon, you want consistent results, and that is what's going to help your spouse. Number three, if you are considering a course, or coaching, or something of that nature, let your spouse see all the sales material as well as let her watch the webinar, let her watch the video, let whatever even makes sense to her, get their buy-in, because you're spending money on this thing they're going to spend is coming out of their pocket do, right, get their buy-in, see if it makes sense to them. Number four, if your spouse is willing, learn together, do it together, and watch the courses together. Now, understand her thinking is different from your thinking. Okay, but it is possible to work together. Now, you might not want to do it in the same account, you have your account, she has her account, you're going to do different trades, you're gonna have a different mentality. But even if it's the same strategy that you're using, right, you guys can do it together, even though the trades would be different, even if the strategy is the same, because one is more conservative. One is more resin, blah, blah, blah, right? I don't I'm not saying that you guys should be doing every single trade together in the same account where both of you have to say yes, on the trade. I mean, that's something beyond this conversation. Okay? Number five, keep your trading emotions away from the rest of your life. Now, this is hard. But don't let your trading dominate your life. Okay. And that's why I love passive trading because it doesn't take all day long. It doesn't take most of the day, you know, you learn it, you put it on their strategies that just work. And they don't take all day so that you have a life so that your spouse sees you doing other things. So you can do things that make you happy, like your hobbies, right? You can have a job, you if your job, you're not worried about it, you're not stressed at your job all the time because of your trades. Okay, that's one of the beauties of passive trading and why I keep pushing people Oh, passive trading, passive trading, right? If there was something else out there, that was better, I'd be like, go go do that, go do that. Let's all do it together, right? But there isn't, I haven't found it. This stuff works. And it works in a way for you to not only make money, when a lot of trades, be happy but have a good life. Okay, now, controlling your emotions, right, not letting the market control all of your feelings. This is hard, and it takes time. But once you have more confidence in your trading, your spouse will feel that confidence you will emanate a different energy out of your body. Once you're having more confidence, your spouse will feel that and then they will not freak out as much. Okay? Nowadays, if the markets are up markets down, my wife cannot tell from my behavior. Unless it was a really bad day, a lot of trades went bad, or a big drain that I was looking at, or something I really wanted to happen. It didn't happen. But on normal days, she cannot tell in the past. She could because I would be losing money every day. So she'd rely on the markets crazy today or might get Margaret was crazy a lot like that. That's what I keep telling her I'm Mark is crazy markets, volatile markets up markets down. It's like every day was bad. But now I have my emotions and my feelings under control. So the market is up. Great. I know what to do. the market is down. That's great. I know what to do. I know how to adjust my trades, right? I know how to fix them. I know how to balance them. I know how to do asset allocation so that it's not going to blow up my whole account. Even though I trade for a living. It's okay. Right? You'll get to that point. And now when I go home, it doesn't know what the market did unless she looks it up. Because I'm happy or sad has nothing to do with the market. Usually. Usually, right? It's still stressful. It can be but usually, okay. And then I have a bonus tip number six in the beginning as you start making money, right? Use that money to buy things that your spouse would appreciate. This is kind of like I would say a bribe, but it's not really a bribe, right? Because you're already doing it. And it's working. So you're doing the trades. It's starting to work. You're starting to get results. The account is growing. So I don't care what it is flowers, maybe something simple like that. It could be a weekend getaway could be something nice something small. I'm talking about small things, not about buying a car, right? I'm talking about, okay, you made a couple 100 bucks, great. Use it, to do something to appreciate your spouse, something that they would like, so that she can see. Right? She can see oh, wow, something's happening here, right? And share in the benefits of your trading. Just don't keep all the money in your account thinking I needed to grow. I needed to grow. No, no, no. celebrate the wins with your spouse. Okay, now, when I learned this lesson is a big lesson. Believe me, it doesn't sound like much. But this is a big lesson to celebrate your wins. So when I first learned this, I decided you know what, every time I have a positive month, I'm going to take my wife out for lunch. And that's what we used to do. Every month. If I made money that month, I would take her out to lunch. So we would go out to lunch, but a bit, right. That was assigned to her that I was doing well. So I didn't have to tell her Oh, I was up 6%. I was up 15% I was up point oh, 1%. I didn't have to tell her the percentage. I just had to say, babe, we gotta go for our celebratory lunch, had a good month, let's go, we're gonna go eat. And it would make her happy. Because I did well, I was positive, right? And it helped me to celebrate my hard work. Because I got to do something that I enjoy, which is spending time with her one on one. She enjoys it, I enjoy it. She's seeing that, hey, something is happening here. Good results are happening here. Good things are happening. She didn't like ask all 100 questions like How much money do you make and how many trades you do and what prevented blah, blah, blah. After a while she stopped. She was like, okay, you know what I trust you. I'm seeing consistency, I'm seeing results, I'm seeing that you're having a better control over your emotions and your your discipline and and you know, the way you the way you talk and the way you feel and how angry you get you don't get as angry anymore. I'm seeing this. And I'm happy that you're better. Right. Now, I don't know why we stopped. I think we stopped having the lunch when we had kids need to start that again. Because it is it's a big deal to celebrate the wins. All right. So there you have it, you got the three main reasons your wife does not support your trading. And you have six steps to help her do so. Alright, I hope this was helpful. I hope if you're watching it together, you guys can talk about it. Maybe I missed something. Or maybe there's more to it that you guys can discuss and talk about. And that's the only way to have some open communication. And to get this because trading is an amazing, amazing way in if you're the spouse, I'm telling you right now, let your files let your husband trade. Let him do passive trading, okay, not the other stuff that day trading and the crypto and all that stuff you don't know about that stuff. All right, I can't speak to that. But I can speak to passive trading. And we can show your results that it's working, we can show you results from students that are working, we have a hedge fund where it's working. So we are doing it, we back up our talk with our walk.  And if we can do it, if I can do it, your husband, your wife, your spouse can learn it too. And it's only a matter of time and effort. So if you support them in their trading, it takes one big whoosh off and our wishes but our wishes like the stress level right, it takes one more thing off of their mind where they don't have to worry about it. And that makes them better trader. Because they don't have to be afraid of you. That's one of the things I remember when I was trading is that I was always afraid of my wife finding out how I was doing. I would hide things from her. Even I don't know if I lie to her maybe I don't remember maybe once in a while, you know small little white lies about how I was doing. But I was doing it to protect her from having her be scared from having her get mad at me for losing more money. And then it hurt. Right It bothered me it. It took me longer to get better as a trader because of that. But once she became on my side once she once she decided and once she saw that I really wanted to make this happen. And I was serious. And I was committed. I was working hard at it. Then she came aboard and she got on my side and she started helping me she's like, What can I do to help you? And there's certain things that we have in our programs, where we teach people like here this is how you can use an accountability partner. This is how you can get your spouse or child or whatever, to help you become a better trader. And that's what she did with me. That's where I learned all that stuff. Right? So she started helping me every single day to become a better trader and together as a team. We did amazing and now you know it's come full circle and she's wants to trade. I taught her when we were on that trip right on the vacation I told you about we were in the car, when we got to our destination, we were there for a couple of weeks. And one of these you says, hey, you know, teach me how to do this, this trade that you're doing this new trade, I'm gonna go there cool. And we sat down, we figured out, I showed her how to do it. And she loves it. Right? So she understands it, and she's going to be doing it too. So we're actually going to be trading together we've done in the past, but didn't really, you know, she got busy and stuff. And now we're going to be doing it again. So it's exciting. It's fun, right? It's something that a family can do together, because they're I'm going to be we're gonna be teaching the kids how to do this stuff, too. Because we want their families or their futures to be secure. I don't want them to worry about it and be like, Oh, hey, I gotta go get this job that pays a lot of money. Because I got to take care of myself. No, I want you to be able to trade to take care of yourself. So that way you can go get whatever job makes you happy, even if it doesn't pay that much. So it all trickles down. Right. But again, that's a different topic. I hope this helps. I hope if you have any questions, please reach out. Happy to help you again. Until the next time, trade with the odds in your favor, my friends. Take care.

Allen: All right, everybody welcome passive traders to another edition of The Option Genius Podcast. Today I have with me Mr. Brad Janitz of Midland Trust. How you doin, Brad? Brad: I am doing great. Happy to be here. Allen: Thank you for spending some time with us. The reason I brought Brad on is because when we were starting the fund, we had investors were people that I was talking to, and they're saying, Hey, that sounds great. I want to do it. Can I do it with my IRA? And I do it with, you know, some other money I have in a retirement account? And to be honest, I didn't know the answer to. So I went back to my lawyers and other people that I've met in the hedge fund community, and I'm like, Hey, Ken, how do we do this? How do we set this up? And they're like, oh, you know what? Just talking to Brad. Okay, who's Brad, that talked to somebody? Oh, yeah. Just talk to Brad. And I'm gonna give you Brad's number. So I finally got Brad's number, I gave him a call. And he explained everything to me. So I said, Well, this is pretty cool. I think more people need to know about this. So I wanted to have Brad on the show, and have him explain how it works, basically, because what I realized is that you can use your IRA, for a lot more than just having it at your broker and buying and selling stocks and options. So that's what we want to talk about today with Brad, is that true, Brad? Brad: That is true. That is true, you know, so quick little summary of who I am, who Brad is, you know, the infamous Brad here. So, you know, I've been with Midland now for 13 years, this is my first job out of college. And really what we are, is an alternative investment custodian also called a self directed IRA company.  And really, what that means is, we allow you to put your retirement money to work and things outside of the stock market. Okay. And I will say when I went through going through college and was trying to learn about financial products, this was not something that I knew about. And then all of a sudden, I joined Midland and learn this whole new world of alternative investing and specifically alternative within IRA accounts. And so, really where this whole ideology comes from, is that there is something in the world of our IRAs called an IRA custodian. And IRA custodian is an IRS-approved company, financial services company that's allowed to hold retirement assets, basically, open an account for an individual, deposit money, and to deploy money at the discretion of the individual, do some tax reporting requirements and effectively kind of provide the landscape of investments that the individual wants to get into. Nobody really knows that this whole IRA custodian thing even exists out there. Because we've all just went to brokerages throughout time and you know, Fidelity's, and Schwab's and all those institutions out there that we're all used to, and they are great institutions that allow you to set up retirement accounts, start investing, but they are known to allow you to invest in the public markets, mutual funds, Apple stock, ETF, that kind of thing.  And, you know, and so, we all just kind of know the IRA custodian as also the brokerage because the big brokerages out there basically are allowed to play both sides of the equation, okay, leaving the IRA company and also the investment arm, which is the brokerage, okay. But then when you get into other types of investments out there, what I'll call alternative, but mainly private investments, so think real estate think, private investment funds, like a hedge fund, think startup companies like a bar restaurant or a new tech company, think precious metals, gold and silver, think cryptocurrency, all of those different avenues out there of investing, those aren't both the investment option and the IRA company. And so what happens is you have the investment side, and then if you want to invest IRA money into it, then you have to find somebody like Midland that operates as the IRA company side to allow you the opportunity to go into other investments.  Okay? And where most people probably don't realize is, you know, it takes a little bit of wherewithal, you got to know about these opportunities in order to really take advantage of them. And so and so you have to find these opportunities, and it really kind of takes a somebody that's a little bit more wanting to and willing to take control of their own retirement account to go out and find these new opportunities. No one were to you know, take advantage of them into your into your IRA account. Right? Right. Allen: Okay. So because like in the past I've had, like we teach at option genius, we teach people how to trade stock options. And in the past, we've had several people approach us and say, I want to do this in my hedge fund, what can I do? And they're like, Well, depends on your broker. Some brokers will allow you to do something some brokers will allow you to do other things. It really depends. There's no one size fits all. But even in certain situations, there are some strategies that you can do, but you can't, other people cannot do. So it's like depending on the person. And we've always, always told people like, look, this is your money, this is your IRA, right? This is your retirement, if you want to be able to do something, you should be able to do it your IRA, you know, it's not the law that is saying that you cannot invest in this stock option, or you cannot do this strategy. It is that particular broker. And so if you don't like what they're doing, you find another broker, right? In this case, you're saying that, as a custodian, you guys allow people to do a lot more things than just like you said, public stocks, bonds, options, instead, including hedge funds, real estate, loaning money, all these other kinds of things. But you guys are the custodian, not the brokerage. So if I have my money with you, then I can't trade that money, correct? It just sits in the account until I'm ready to invest it somewhere? Brad: Yeah, that's correct. So that that's a great, that's a great point in question. So with somebody like us, we are not a brokerage. Okay. So we're not nobody sets up an account with us to trade equities or options or futures contracts or anything like that. Okay, we are, we are kind of an avenue to get in to another vehicle of some sort. Okay. And so let's take a hedge fund, for example. Okay. So hedge funds can have lots of different types of strategies, options, strategies, future strategies, crypto strategies, long only long short, equity, lots, lots of different types of strategies, okay. And you're allowed to use your IRA to invest in all the, all of those different types of strategies. Okay, so then it comes down to the IRA company, allowing you to do such thing, which really just comes down to the comfort level of the IRA company that you have in place, okay. And so if you have somebody like such as Midland where we specialize in helping individuals get their money into hedge funds at the discretion of the individual, you know, and really how that works is, you know, they're going to, let's say, you have an IRA and a more traditional brokerage, like a fidelity or Schwab, you're going to set up that same type of IRA account with us here at Midland, transfer over whatever amount of money that you feel comfortable with deploying, so you know, that's completely up to you, and that you as the investor and the, you know, the investment that you're getting into, and whatever you have to agree upon, okay, and will be responsible for transferring your money over from your existing retirement account, then that money comes over to Midland, but then again, you don't do any sort of trading through us. So you have to find some sort of vehicle that you want to go into. And then there's usually a document associated with such vehicle, like, if you're going into a hedge fund, there's going to be a subscription agreement involved. And then it's our job along with the investment manager to make sure that subscription agreement is, is kind of completed the way it should to read that your IRA is making an investment to this private instrument. Okay? And so basically, you're giving us the IRA custodian direction to facilitate an investment on your behalf, then your money would then be deployed into, you know, said hedge fund for you to effectively be in, you know, whatever strategy you see fit. That hedge fund managers job is then to trade the strategy make money, and then but it's all done within an IRA account just in a more privatized paper instrument, rather than, you know, trading on a on a more tech training platform on public exchanges. Allen: Okay. Now, one of the questions I get a lot is, and people don't, they're unfamiliar with it. Is that "Can I have more than one IRA account?"  Brad: Yeah good question. So yeah, you can have as many different IRA accounts as you please. So there's just all the only thing that there is a maximum on is the amount of money that you're allowed to put into a set of retirement account, from your personal money into retirement accounts. Allen: Every year? So as the deposit? Brad: Yeah, yeah, each year, so its contribution limit, okay. So each year, you know, kind of a anywhere from 6500 bucks to 20,000 bucks, depending on your IRA type. But let's say you have a million dollars in a, you know, fidelity IRA account, you could transfer over 100,000 to an IRA and Midland 100,000 over to another IRA at Schwab, another Ira somewhere else. So you can have as many different IRA accounts as you want to deploy in a bunch of different ways, if that is what makes sense to you. So that's kind of the nifty thing of IRA accounts, it's very easy to move money in and out of them. And then you can deploy in lots of different ways, if that makes sense for you. Allen: Awesome, cool. Now, we've had recently we've had some issues with financial institutions going under. So I just wanted to ask, you know, about Midland and how secure you guys how many accounts you guys have, how long you've been doing this? And then the money that we have Have on deposit with you if it's not invested somewhere, is that secured? Brad: Yeah, no good question. I mean, that is a, that's on everybody's mind. I mean, it's honestly, what's funny is, you know, we never got this quote, I never, you know, my 13 years never got this question ever. And now over the past six months, it's, it's came to came roaring up. So, yeah, so so, you know, what's interesting about our business is that money comes in and leaves very quickly. So you know, so for example, we're never really holding on anyone's cash for an extended period of time. So, you know, when working with us, you know, again, we're going to transfer your money over from Fidelity, or wherever it's going to come over, and it's going to sit with us for usually about 24 to 48 hours before we, in turn, get that money allocated to whatever financial product that you're looking to get into. So I guess from from that perspective, you know, you get the peace of mind and knowing that really, you know, the money is really not sitting with us very long. So you don't really have to stress too much about that question. But with that said, we are regulated like any other banking institution, we are not a bank. So our money is held with third party banks, in which we mix and mingle depending on the health of those banks. It's like right now, a lot of our cash is positioned with a Capital One Bank, trying to kind of stay away from more of the community banks, given the nature of that, but we do choose FDIC insured banks, just to make sure that, you know, the protections are in place for the clients, you know, just in case anything does ever happen, that we need to be worried about. Allen: How many accounts do you guys have right now? Brad: Yeah, good question. So we have over 20,000 users. So that's 20,000 individuals that have set up IRA accounts with us to invest in something private, that's all organic clients, do we have bought, or sold any of our clientele, that's all people have chose to work with Midland to do something that makes up of about 5 billion in assets. And that makes up about 5000 different fund products that we have worked with over the course of our time. Right. So that could be hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, early stage ventures, real estate, all kinds of things. Allen: Right, cool! Okay so now the traditional brokerage, IRA custodian, they make their money on commissions and stuff like that. So how do you guys get paid? Brad: Yeah, good question. So we are, you know, we don't make money off the investment, we make money off services that we provide, which is the administrative work that goes into moving the money around and making sure that all the investments are properly documented. So really, what that is, is it's a flat 325 years, 325 bucks a year that we charge per IRA. And that's not really based on value. So $5,000, a million dollars, flat 325. So you do it's not baked in and the expense ratio, so it is a little bit more front and center, you know, so it's not hidden, a lot of other financial products. So it's front and center to you, you're gonna see it. And then we have some kind of ancillary fees. Take, we do charge $50 to establish an IRA account with us. And then anytime you buy an investment for the first time, it's a transaction fee of 1.5. Basically, what you're looking at is if you were to invest X amount of dollars into a hedge fund, now, you'd be $500 for the first year, and then 325 For each year thereafter. That's pretty much what you'd pay with anybody kind of similar to us. Right? Allen: I mean, that's not a big deal, right? You're making you're thinking about making like 100,000 or 200, or more investment, $500 is not that bad. Brad: Yeah, and stay stagnant, which is, you know, the good thing. So a lot of people, if you ever looked at your 401 K fees that you're charging, you know, a lot of people don't even know what they're charging, or what they're paying, which, you know, that's that's another kind of issue, but, but it always continues to grow. And so you start charging things, or paying things you don't really even understand you're paying and it keeps growing, and you don't even know why it's growing on you. So we'd like to be front and center with it. So everyone knows that they're paying us. And you know, and it stays flat. So it's not regardless of value. Right? Allen: Now, I'm kind of biased because I want people to invest in our hedge fund, right? So what is the process? I know we're signed up with us, anybody that comes to to invest with us is going to be working with Midland. That's who we're aligned with. So let's say I have somebody that says, hey, you know, I want to come in, I want to join, but I want to do it through my IRA. What is that process? How do I walk them through it? Brad: Yeah, so So anybody's Welcome to give us a call for staff to just like talk through their scenarios, we understand retirement accounts, or, you know, there's a lot of lingo out there that nobody really understands. And then also, you may have never removed a retirement account before. So you may just be a little squeamish on that whole process. So, first off, you're welcome to give us a call to just talk through your situation and we can walk you through the mechanics of what that looks like. But moral of the story what actually happens is that you will be establishing a Midland IRA account. So if you have a traditional IRA or Roth IRAs and other institution will be setting up that same type of IRA with us here at Midland, which is an online application process that you can go to our website to accomplish, and, you know, roughly five minutes, all right, and then when you go through that application process, you're going to initiate the movement of money from your existing retirement account. Okay, so you'll just input your existing account number and say, Hey, I have an account at Fidelity, here's my Fidelity account number of yourself, I'm transitioning, or here's how much I wish to transition from Fidelity over to Midland, okay. And then that gives us authorization to go and request those funds on your behalf. Okay, so then we'll pull those funds over, bring it over into Midland. And then at that point, your cash is sitting on with us. And that transfer process usually will run a course about three to five business days. And while that transfer process is running its course, then we will actually be trying to sort through the documentation associated with the hedge fund. And, you know, presenting that to the client for completion. You know, one thing that we've learned is that completing documents associated with private investments can be very cumbersome to somebody that's never done it before. Or even if you have done it before, it's very cumbersome. Allen: That's a lot of paper. Yeah. Brad: Yeah and so we just tried it, we tried to present it in a digital format, we actually take it upon ourselves to pre fill most of it for the client to where they just have to review the documentation in their inbox, and then just kind of click a couple buttons and say, yep, this looks good, this is what I want to do. And then once they execute that document, we push that document off to the fund manager for their review. And then once we get the money from Fidelity, we will call the client for one last verbal authorization and say, Hey, we're about to send your money off, to be invested this what you want to do, they give us the blessing. And then we send wire the money from us over to the investment of their choosing. And then they're often running from there. Allen: That's cool. I actually like that the personal touch we actually get on the phone. Yeah, I like that. Brad: Yeah. And you know, it's, you never can be too careful, especially with lots of money around here. So it's kind of another layer of like, identity protection, just to make sure we know who will work with. All right. Allen: And how long does that whole process take? Brad: Yeah, full process about seven days, kind of give or take a day or two. But that's, that's generally what to expect. And then after that, you will have online access with Midland, so you can follow the investments as they kind of run their course. And then if you ever need to get tax forms down the road, you can log into your Midland account, to facilitate. And then if you ever want to add additional funds or distribute funds for any reason, you can do that too. So anything that you would ordinarily be able to do with, again, a more traditional brokerage, you'll be able to do those same actions with the Midland account. Okay. All right. Allen: Okay. All right. Now, now, I know we've been talking about IRAs, I'm assuming that's Roth IRAs, and regular IRAs, are there any other type of accounts you guys work with? Brad: But I would just say, so the two other types would be employer plans be it SEP IRA, which self employed pension driven in a simple IRA, which is kind of similar to a 401k. It's, it's more of a more designed for, for small businesses, but again, they're more employer sponsored plans. The other types are kind of accounts, I would say, that we work with the most is just people that have old 401k is out there, that they would like to rollover into IRA accounts to do this. Okay. And so if you do have a 401k, out there, usually does need to be with the previous employer, okay, in order to be eligible to roll that money over. But if you do, you can roll up 401k directly into an IRA At Midland, again, you can do just a portion or a whole thing, it's up to you. You can roll that money over into a Midland account, and then use that Midland account, again, to facilitate into whatever investment you want to do. Allen: Okay, wait, yeah, for no, for the self employed, you know, the SEPs, and simples they allow you to put a lot more money in. So those are.. Brad: Yeah no those are, those are great accounts. So so the two more popular ones would be so the SEP IRA self employed pension, which is a little bit of a, an easier, cost effective version, okay. And then you have what's also called a solo 401 K. It's basically a 401k for somebody that's self employed but does not have employees, okay? Because once you have one employee, a 401k, just totally changes from the complexity and testing and all these other rules that you have to worry about. And so 401k is specifically for individuals that want to put away a lot of money. And good thing about 401k They have Roth components to them, so you can actually put away a lot of money up to $60,000 in Roth money. It's very powerful tool. And then also, if you ever want a loan against that, you can take a loan up to $50,000 sort of just kind of allows you some flexibility if you want to put away money but yeah, it's a SEP IRAs is very simple. There's very similar just doesn't have the doesn't have the loaning tool, and then a couple other little things. smaller nuances to it, but both of them together, if you want to, if you if you're a small business owner, and you really want to save some money on taxes, or just put a lot of money into retirement, you know, it's an easy way to get 60 grand and an order and to a retirement account. So cool. Allen: Cool. Cool. So that's all questions I had, is there anything that I did not ask? Brad: I think you nailed everything. I mean, I think just, I guess one little less kind of common is that no shoe being in the in the hedge fund space, it's, it's really growing in popularity, especially now, after you know, everyone put money into kind of the, the cheap, ETFs forever, and they just went up and then everything just kind of fell off a cliff, I feel like alternative investments, you know, are now growing and growing really fast in popularity. So good space for you to be in. And you know, if anyone has any questions or curiosities about this stuff, I'm an open book, feel free to reach out to me and we can have a chat. Allen: Awesome, sweet. Yeah, I mean, like you said, I do see that people are becoming more aware of this kind of stuff. And I think it's part of, you know, people like you doing interviews and getting the word out there. We still have people all the time telling us Oh, I don't know what to do, you know, my IRA, I can't, like, ya know, you're you're not that limited as you think you are. This just takes it to a whole nother level. So this is, you know, the self directed IRA. And I think it's something that everybody should be looking into, at least, you know, so you can do a lot more with it than just, you know, buy your ETF like, Brad: Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, yeah, people like me, that, you know, provide the IRA product, but also people like you that are coming up with new and interesting products for people to invest in. So I do think at the tag team, you know, we provide the avenue, but there needs to be solutions out there for people and if, you know, if, if individuals like you are being entrepreneurial and creative, just provides more people opportunities to access the marketplace. So, so I think it's a dual effort. And, you know, hopefully people find it interesting. Allen: So, Brad, how do people get a hold of you? Brad: Yeah, so I'm the only brand that works in Midland trust. So you can just go to Midland trust.com and kind of track me down that way by giving us a call. And I'll just kind of leave it at that. If you want to shoot me an email. It's B as in Brad, Janet's je n AI tz At Midland. trust.com. Otherwise, yeah, just go to our website, you know, track me down and the only Brad, alright? Allen: Awesome. Appreciate it. Thank you so much for being here. Brad: All right. Thanks, Allen, for sharing. Thank you.   JOIN OUR FREE PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP: https://freeoptionsgroup.com Like our show? Please leave us a review here - even one sentence helps. Thank you!

Why don't most people who try trading succeed at it? You probably heard the numbers 90, 95, somewhere around there percent of people fail at trading, then they give up and they leave and they lose their money, right? So we have at least for me, what am I methods are one of my missions in life is to help people get over that problem. And we have to make it as simple as possible. But I have noticed that there are four pillars that everybody needs. Four things that you need to be successful. All right, so let's go ahead and get into it. The thing is that it doesn't have to be just about trading, you need these four pillars and just about anything in life. And so if you have ever succeeded at something, right? You have probably already attained these four pillars, or you've used them somehow, some way, and you already know what they are. But when it comes to trading, for some reason, we think it's totally different. Things is, if it gets unique. I don't especially, I don't know what it is, but we kind of forget what the pillars are. So let's go through them and talk about how they directly relate to trading. Now, there are four pillars, right, these are the four things that you need. Two of them are completely mandatory, meaning without these you will not succeed, there's no way ever, the other two are not mandatory, but they help a lot. And they speed up the process. And they make it a lot faster, they make it a lot easier, they make it a lot more fun, and they make it a lot more profitable. Okay, so what normally takes people years, without, if you only had the first two, it could take you years and years to be successful at trading, when you have all four, it could be in a lot less time. Now look, you cannot succeed without the pillars. But even with the pillars, it does not guarantee you will succeed because it's still trading. And there are still other things that are more related to you, versus the things that everybody can have, if that makes sense. Okay, there are some limitations that every single person has, there might be something that's stopping you personally from achieving success. But these are the four things that I can say that everybody needs to have in order to succeed. Now look, when you start trading, you start on the ground, right, you're on the ground floor, you don't know anything, you don't know what you don't know, that's one thing. And you want to get on top, you want to get on top of the markets, you want to get on top of your finances, you want to get just achieve, right? And so you need support. You need the four pillars 1234 pillars, again, with two of them, you can get by, right? You might have a gap in the middle, you have one on one side or on the other side, and the gap in the middle will be sagging, kind of, but it can still survive with only one you're gonna fall off. And there's no way you're gonna stand up with three you might get there with four you definitely most likely will. So what are they? Number one, this strategy? This is pillar number one, this is the strategy. This is where most traders start. This is what they want to know first, like what do I do what to do? This is knowing what to do. And so if you are a passive trader, that means you know, covered call one strategy naked put credit spread, strangles, straddles, iron condors, diagonals, ratios, back spread, there are so many of them, right? There are so many strategies out there. Most traders, they grab the first strategy they see, and they try to make it work. But that is the wrong way to do it. The problem is not all strategies work for all people. Now you can say you know what, I'm going to learn every single strategy. And I'm going to master all of them. And I'm gonna get really good at all of them. Could be, but they're not just these few strategies. There are lots of other strategies out there as day trading. There's real estate, there's crypto, there's swing trade, there are all kinds of different strategies, and there's no way you are going to be an expert at all of them. And no way should you want to be an expert on all of them. Because that's not how success happens. Success happens when you focus. All right? So for example, buy and hold is a strategy. And it works. If you have 40 to 50 years. It's true, right? The stock market and the indexes, especially the indexes, they are created in a way that over time they are going to go up. That's just the way they work. That's the way they're created. Because they keep taking out the bad stocks that are holding the index down and they replace them with stocks that are jumping, right? So over time, it's going to continue to increase but it's going to take you 40-50 years to actually make any decent amount of money on it and be able to retire probably. If not, if that doesn't work for you right, 40 to 50 years, then this is not a strategy that will work for you. If you want to wait, that's fine, do it, it's great. You know, success is almost guaranteed. If that's not a thing, 40-50 years, then you need to find a different strategy. So step one, is you have to find a strategy that works for you. Okay, it has to match your risk appetite. What do you mean by that? Well, some people are more conservative than others. Some people like to go in 100% on one trade, some people like to put in 1% on one trade, right, they just like I'm gonna dip my toe in. So the aggressiveness or the conservative of the strategy has to be tailored to you, depending on how you feel and how you are, if you are very risk adverse, you don't like gambling, then day trading, not going to work for you, right? If you are a gambler, or like a big time gambler, and you need excitement, excitement, excitement, passive trading, where you're doing trades that are very boring, you know, they work but they're very boring, might not be for you. Right, you might have to shift over to something, even though you might agree with the passive trading philosophy, you might have to shift to something a little bit more frequent. So you have to change the strategy. Account Balance also is a big deal. You know, how much money do you have to play with as your account grows, your strategy can grow or you can add to it, to change your strategy, hedge it, etc. Discipline, how disciplined you are? This is another one. Passive trading works for me because I'm not that disciplined. Right? And so it works for me, because even if I get the trade wrong, I can still win. Okay, experience. There are some strategies that are for people that have a lot of experience. Iron condor, probably not the first strategy I would recommend for somebody, right? It's like, hey, why don't you sell some spreads first, you know, sell, sell one spread, then you can do the condor. Once you understand the basics, that kind of thing, time devoted, how much time do you want to spend on your trading, you wanna sit there all day long? Well, then yeah, more active style is for you, you want to spend a few minutes a day like we do, then a little bit more passive, definitely more passive is going to work for you. What are your goals? How much are you trying to accomplish? Do you want to triple your money every year? Well, then you have to do one strategy. I don't know if there's any strategy out there like that, that can continuously do that every single year. But if you are, if that's your goal, then you have to be a lot more aggressive and that'll dictate what strategy you choose. If you're okay with 20%, you know, 10% 5% a year strategies, definitely totally different. And the time to result? How fast do you want your result? Right? Are you willing to wait several years, then your strategy can be different. If you want it right away, strategy is going to be definitely different. So these are the different things that have to mesh your strategy has to mesh with you because if it doesn't, then it's going to cause internal problems. It's going to cause psychological issues with you, and you're going to make mistakes, you're not going to follow the plan, you're not going to do it properly, you're not going to follow the strategy properly, and it's going to lead to losses. All of this stuff has to match. Step number two, you have to verify and be sure the strategy actually works. What? Really? It has to work? Yes, it has to work. And not all strategies work. No, not all strategies work. I'm sorry to tell you that. Right? You have to do some research. Like how many people are doing it? Are they having success? How long has it been around? If it's a strategy that just popped up two months ago? I ya know, sorry? No, no way. I want a strategy. If I want to do something, I want a strategy that has at least two years worth of real money results. And people have approached me and they said, You know, I want to trade for a hedge fund, I have a great strategy is working really awesome. I'm like, Okay, how long have you been doing it? And then they go quiet. Well, I back tested it. No, that's not that's not real money. That's not real trading. You know, and then there was another guy that I had been doing for six months, and I've had all these wins. I'm like, That's great. When you get to two years, give me a call. After you've been trading for two years plus with real money, then I'll talk to you about maybe investing my money with you, or letting you trade for our fund. Not until that. Okay? Is the strategy very simple? Or is it complicated? The more complicated it is, the more room for error, the more experience you're going to need, the more time it's going to take to make sure everything is I's dotted T's crossed. Right. Where did you hear about this strategy? Did you hear it about at some random post on some crazy website? Or was it actually like a legit trader, right? Who did you hear from? Who's the source of this strategy? Somebody that you know is actually making money from it? Right? Or, again, some random stranger on a Facebook post or something? Do they have any proof of this strategy? Does it work? These are all the things you have to look into and verify and make sure. Now the strategies that we've been teaching are passive trading. The only way we teach them is if we've done them ourselves with real money for a long period of time, right? There are lots of strategies and new strategies are introduced every day. I mean, they're the same, but they're little tweaks and they come up with different names and blah, blah, blah, well, if we haven't done them for ourselves with real money and tested them in different markets, we don't teach them. That's it. It is like, Hey, I'm not going to experiment with you, I'm going to experiment with my own money. And then I'll tell you what works. That's my job, right? That's why I'm here to tell you what works, what doesn't work, there are more than a million ways to trade, you only need one, you only need one strategy as long as it works. And it has to work for you. Right, this is where most traders mess up, they choose a strategy that is too difficult for them, or does not match their personality. And then they never master it. So they might have wins, but then they give up losses, and they have a big loss. They might do well for a little bit, but then the market changes. They don't understand why, what happened. But eventually they give up and they quit. So that's it. That's number one. pillar number two, is what I call the trading plan. This is the how to implement the what the strategy, right, this is how you do the trade. So let's say you decided, hey, I'm going to do covered calls. That's great. That's a strategy. You know, it works. You know, lots of people are doing it. I mean, here, you know, Warren Buffett says he's been doing it with billions of dollars. Okay, that's pretty good. I think that's, that's proof that it works. But we don't know how he does it. Right? That's the trading plan. How does he do the covered call? Does he sell at the money options? Does he sell out of the money options? Does he sell in the money options? Does he do weeklies, does he do 30 days expiration? Do they do a 180 days expiration? Does he look for 2% a month, 5% a month? I don't know, that's all part of the trading plan. That's what you have to find or come up with and test. So a good plan will incorporate all of these steps. This is how we identify what we're going to trade the underlying security. This is how we're going to know that it's a good time to place the trade, right? Like our setup, this is the actual trade that we're going to place the strategy. If it's a covered call, then which options are we going to trade on that strategy? What timeframe? What is our return our goal, all of this stuff, these are the steps one by one by one, you have to do this, okay, first you do this, then you do this, then you do this. That's all part of the plan. Now, also, as part of the plan is the timing. When do you get into the trade? When do you get out of the trade? What are you looking for? What do you're not looking for risk management? What happens if the trade goes bad? What happens if the market changes? You have to know in advance this should and has to be part of your plan? You cannot go into a trade without knowing what you're going to do if it goes bad. And it can't be well figured out? No, you got to know in advance. Otherwise, it's not a good plan. Your asset allocation? How much money do I put into every trade? That's a very big component of it. Right? It's part of being safe. And your goals? What is your ROI? You have to know how much money can I make on this trade? Is it good enough? Is it going to help me get to my goals? Does it have to be perfect? In order for me to get to my goal, then that's not a good enough ROI, right? Or is it too much? What are you aiming for? So there are millions of trading plans out there. Most of them suck. And if they did not suck, then there would be everybody was making money, right? a trading plan must be complete. And it must be time tested with real money. It should be working in up markets down markets, sideways markets, high volatility markets, low volatility markets, bear markets, bull markets, all of the above everything and anything. I want plans that have stood the test of time. Right? Maybe they don't work in a crazy scenario, like a great recession that we had in 2008 2009 maybe doesn't work then fine, put on the sideline for a little bit. But most of the time, 90% of the time I want this thing to work otherwise I can't rely on it. Because I can't guess if it's gonna work or not. I wanted to be able to work right? Most of the strategies that we trade they just work that's it. Because they are set up to work in all the different markets. Now most strategies are tailored for bull markets. That's most of them are like that. You know the even the covered call the naked put these are bullish strategies. So when the market is going up, they make money and everybody's a genius. Anybody can make money in a bull market. All right. And most plans work in bull markets, right. But they gave back all of it back when the market shifts. So if the market changes, this bull market, you know, plan is not going to work anymore. Now I look for plans that have worked for at least 10 years. I want to I want a 10 year plan. I know I told those guys two years, but I want at least a 10 year, if I'm going to be trading it consistently, I want a 10 year plan. And I want to know it with real money, no back testing. Okay, that's what I'm looking for. Now, when the market shifts, it happens at a time that most play market traders at home traders, they don't even realize they don't know. It's like, oh, the market shifted, market changed. Okay, what do I do now? What do they do, they keep doing the same strategy. So when there was a bull market, they were doing this strategy, and they were putting on trades, and it was working, he knows where he is where he's working. So now they're like, I don't know, they're addicted. They're in habitual, whatever it is. But then the market shifts, and they don't anything to do, they don't know what to do. So they keep doing the same thing. Even though it's not working, even though they lose money, or lose money again, and again and again. And they're like, oh, man, this trading thing doesn't work. Yeah, because you're using the wrong plan in the wrong market. Okay, so they just run out of money and quit. That's it. Sorry. Remember, a good plan works in a bull market, or a bear market. That's a good plan, you know, a great plan works in all markets. And if you have a great plan, then you only need one plan, because they're gonna work in all the markets. There might be some times from time to time that you're like, hey, you know what, yeah, this thing is getting a little bit crazy for me, I'm gonna take, I'm gonna step to the sidelines. You know, that's, that's how you also save a lot of money. That's all how you stay in the game. By not taking excess risk, the market gets too crazy, you get on the sidelines, that should be part of your plan to when to be trading, when not to be trading, that has to be part of your plan. Okay, so once you have a great plan, you match that with a strategy that you enjoy. And you can be successful, right? It's not that hard. But how long will it take to choose a strategy, find a plan and then test the plan with real money. It normally takes years and years and years. And that's why pillars three and four are essential. Okay? Because remember, you got to have one, and you got to have two, you got to have a strategy, you got to have a plan that works With that alone, you can go and be a good trader. But if you have pillars, three and four, it just almost cuts that time in into a fraction of what it would normally take, which is usually. Okay, so let's go to pillar three. Pillar three is the guide, or the coach, the guide is the is essential to your journey, your trading journey. If you look at any of your favorite movies, what happened in your movies? Well, they had a hero or heroine, and they had a problem. And then they had a guide, or a teacher. Right? It was a guide character, a mentor, whose role it was to help the hero or the heroine. Make sense? Right? Think about it. You can have Luke, you can have Frodo you can have Rambo, Neo Batman, Lightning McQueen. You know, even the cartoons, they need coaches. Right? They need mentors. Okay, so think back to when you were younger on a sports team? Or if you didn't play sports when you were younger. Think about any sports team for little kids. Okay? Did they ever just like, Hey, kids come together? Here's the ball, go figure it out. No, every team has a coach. Hopefully the coach knows what they're doing. They know the rules they've played before they played currently. And the better. The more excited the coaches. The more interested the more into it the coach is, the better the team does, right? Yet when it comes to trading. We all think we can do it on our own. Ah, yeah. All right. I'm just gonna open an account. Put some money in it. Press these buttons. I'm gonna be a billionaire. Yeah, I love the idea. I will hear that. Oh, easy, but it's not. Right. Now. Look, if you go to Wall Street, and you get a job, any firm any trading firm out there, right? Are they gonna like oh, hey, welcome first day. Yeah, yeah, okay, you're gonna have a lot of fun today. Here. Here's a bunch of money. Go figure it out. No, right. I got a good look for it. Make some money. Come back to us. Let me know how you do. No, they're not gonna do that. You know, they're gonna teach you. They're gonna assign you a mentor who is then responsible for you if you screw up it is on his head. Right? He's responsible, he's gonna make sure he's watching you like a hawk, make sure you don't lose the firm's money. And he's gonna teach you what to do and what not to do. And guess what, he's got a mentor. And then they got a mentor, and they got a mentor, and he goes all the way up the line. There's nobody on Wall Street that does not have somebody on top of them, coaching them and mentoring them. So why do at home traders, retail traders? What do they think they can skip this pillar? It's perplexed me for the longest time. I mean, I was there, right in that shoes. And I think maybe it's just because it's more sexy. You know, it sounds better. That Hey, I did it on my own. I didn't need anybody. Right? We go into trading for mainly the same reason. We want to make more money. Right? That's where you go to trading. And what are you gonna do with the money? The most common thing I get is I want more freedom. I don't want anybody telling me what to do. I won't be able to do what I want when I want. And we talked about the three freedoms. Right? That's great. So that is counterintuitive to what it takes to be successful. Because yes, you don't want anybody tells you what to do. But you need somebody to tell you what to do. Because otherwise you don't know what to do. And then you lose the money. Does that make sense? So it's like, we want one thing, but we actually need the opposite. So we have to put our ego on the side, and take the sexy part out of it would be like, You know what? I'm gonna be okay. If I don't do it on my own, you know, because when you go to the bank, and you deposit money, they don't ask you like, Oh, hey, did you make this money on your own? Was it really hard to make this money? Did you blood, sweat, and tears suffering to make this money, if you do this, awesome, we'll take it, we'll deposit the money. But if you made it easy, like if you had a guide, and that guide, told you what to do, and you just did it, well, we're not gonna take your money, because your money is not good. Are they  banks are gonna do that, no banks are not gonna do that. No way, no bank will be doing that the bank don't care, right, you got to buy a car, they don't care how you got the money, they just want the money. So the easy path is to get the mentor to tell you what to do. And then when you make enough money, and you learn the skill, you don't need that mentor anymore than you don't need him. And then he can't tell you what to do anymore, you fire him, right? Or you find another mentor. That's how it works, you move to the next level, and you find somebody at the next level to give you more mentoring, the mentoring never stops, to be honest, never stops. Okay? If you want to do it yourself, you might be able to, eventually, after many, many years of trial and error, and many, many 1000s and losses. It's true. I mean, I understand, because I skipped most of this pillar when I was starting out. And I mean, it took me over 10 years, 10 years, to get to the point where I can get to my I can get my students, I can get to them in one year. So what it took me to learn in 10 years, I can get my students to that same point in one year or less. Because I've been through the potholes and the potholes. And I know the mistakes and I know what they're thinking, I know what they're doing certain things, right. And I can tell them, hey, don't do that. Or hey, watch out for that. A check this out. Right? And if they listen, then yes, they will get there much, much, much, much faster. But then when I was starting out, I thought that I didn't have the money. I can't afford a mentor, man, these coaches are expensive. I don't have the money for that. I lost a lot more mistakes, than it would have cost me to have 10 mentors. I gotta hire lots of mentors, with the money that I lost. Okay, so a, you know, I'm your mentor right here. You're listening to this, I'm coaching you, I'm coaching you on this, find somebody that knows what they're doing. Find somebody that's doing what you want to be doing, having the success you want to have, and learn from them. Alright, that is pillar number three. Time goes by too fast. Right? We think oh, man, I'm still young. I don't have to retire for another five years, or they're retired on the 10 years. Oh, I got money. I got fine. I got time. You do? You do? You probably have time. And like if you listen to any my other episodes, you can probably say that you know what? We're gonna live longer and longer longer. So you have plenty of time, maybe. But still goes by too fast. He goes, we don't know. I mean, you'd be gone in a blink of an eye. But even if you have all the time in the world, wouldn't you rather have the rewards now? Then five years from now? 10 years from now? Right? Wouldn't you want to have the life you desire now? And if you have to listen to somebody, heaven forbid, the guy knows what he's talking about. You listen, and you get the results now and you don't make all the mistakes. It makes sense. I hope so. So save your time, save yourself the agony, get yourself a mentor, there is no glory in figuring out on your own. All right, let's go to pillar number four, the community. So I recently attended a fund managers conference, where Jim Rogers was one of the speakers. Now, Jim Rogers is a co founder of a quantum fund. That's what it's called. And he's made several billions of dollars over the years. So he made billions and then he quit. And he went and traveled around the world did all these things, investing on his own money. And while he was speaking, he was telling us, you know, I think this is going to happen. The mark indicates I'm investing here, I'm missing here. But he made like a off the cuff remark, like a really, you know, just like a throwaway thing. He said that when he started, and he was talking about how old he is. But he said, when we when he started the quantum fund with George Soros, there were only four or five hedge funds at the time in New York. Right? I mean, the hedge fund was still a new concept, and there were only a few of them, and that they would all be able to go out to dinner. He's like, Oh, yeah, all those fit in one dining room. And he just started, how about some news? Did you catch what he just said, all the hedge fund managers, the guys that will be competing with each other, the guys that are trying to get better returns than each other up each other, get the, you know, they want to get the all the investor money for themselves. They would hang out at night, and go to dinner, and talk shop, they would share their ideas, and they will share their trait. If you read some of the books that these guys have written other hedge fund managers or mutual mutual fund managers, you can see that they actually do this. In New York, they get together, they share ideas, they talk to each other. Right. And if you think about it, go back to any book on Wall Street. Any book that you might have or read in the past, if it's about Wall Street and how it works. You'll see a similar vein. So there's the book, The Big Short, anything from that that's a more recent one, right? All the way to go back in time. One of my favorites is reminiscence of a stock operator by Jesse Livermore. He was one of the greatest traders day traders. plungers is what he called it of all time. And they all do the same thing. They would get together, they would talk to each other, they would share ideas. And whenever they need information, they just call up their friend at another firm. Right? They all work together. Because these guys they go from company to company to company anyway, so they make friends with each other, or they've gone to school with each other. So they know each other. Right? Oh, hey, hey, did you see the stocks going up? What's going on? Oh, I heard this and this and this crazy. Oh, man. Okay. Hey, if you hear anything else, let me know. Okay, cool. So then they gotta tell somebody, Hey, I just heard this news. Oh, yeah. No, no, that's not happening. This is happening. Oh, really? Okay, cool. I'll call you back. And he goes, Hey, this isn't happening. That's how they make money. They share the information. Now, is this legal? I don't know. As long as it's not insider information. It's perfectly legal, right?  They also hire people, and computers and whatever, to see what each other are doing. So if there are some firms that are like totally quiet, quiet, they want to other other firms want to know what they're doing. So they hire like, a way to spy on each other. And then they get their information, and then they do it that way. So at a at a hedge fund, and I learned this when I started my hedge fund, the broker that you use is a it's called a prime broker. Okay. One of the benefits of having a top prime broker is that the broker is connected. And they know everything that's going on. And they can tell you this, they can tell you what's going on. You just call them up, say, Hey, what is unique about this, you're gonna think about this. I want to get into this, who do I talk to? The broker will tell you if you give them enough business, right? So if you want to learn more about this, you can watch. There's a there's a show called billions, actually called billions. The first couple of seasons were about the hedge fund, and it got into all different kinds of crazy drama and stuff. But I was watching it for that, like how do they run the hedge fund? What's going on? How do they deal with each other? I don't know how realistic it is. But it was cool to learn and see. Right? So then, let me ask you, if these hedge fund guys, these big traders, billionaires are talking to each other, like they go to Davos every year, you know, and that's just one conference that these big investors go to. And what do they do? They talk to each other. They share their biggest ideas. They're like, look, this is what I'm investing in. This is what I think is gonna happen. This is what I think is gonna happen. They share their ideas with each other. Now you and I, we're not going to get invited to Davos anytime soon. Right? So we have to wait for like CNBC or Fox News to go there and cover it. And we might get like a little tidbit on this. And now we're not gonna get the real juicy stuff, because we're not big enough to be in the room. So if these big mega whales share and talk to each other, and don't worry about the competition so much, why are you trying to do it yourself? I don't know, why, why you shouldn't do it yourself. That's what you got to answer. Who is out there that you can bounce your ideas off of, right? Who do you know that is better at trading than you are, will take your calls and work with you, or give you advice. Or even if they're not better than you they're least as good as you are, they know what you're doing. And you guys have a understanding that you know what each other is doing. And you can help each other? Do you have a community of like minded traders that have similar goals, trading in a similar way? Because that is pillar number four, this is a shortcut. Not only that, but it makes it a lot more fun. Because without a community trading is very, very, very, very, very lonely. And you're going to miss stuff, you're going to miss a lot of things. You cannot watch all the news, you cannot watch all the attention, you cannot pay attention to everything. So if you have a team, you succeed, right. But it can't be just any community, it can't just be any team of people, they have to know what they are doing. So you can't just go to some random group on Facebook, or Reddit, or discord, or whatever. Right. That is why the best communities of traders are very hard to find. And they're very hard to join. Because they want to keep out people. Right? They have enough people that want to join, they have to keep out people. That's the main goal. Now, thanks to the communities in our coaching programs that we have. So our coaching programs, we create a community for each one. My students keep me on my toes. Seriously, I am constantly learning new things from them. Even though I've been doing this for close to 20 years, they still point out new things. And they go hey, did you check this out? There's a new update on the software. And you can do this and this. Oh, wow. That's really cool. Oh, hey, did you know this was introduced? Oh, that's really cool. Because, you know, I've been doing stuff my way. And I've been, I'm gonna keep doing it my way until I find a better way. And so when they see something, they're like, Oh, hey, we could do this. We could do this. I was like, Oh, wow, let's take a look. Right. For the longest time, we've been trading oil options. And just recently, they introduced micro options on oil. Now a couple of years ago, they came out with weekly options on oil. I was like, yeah, no, I don't know, you know, and my students were the ones that introduced that, like, "Hey, can we take a look at it?", there wasn't enough volume, and the weekly eventually went away. But now there are micros. And so we are learning how to do those, and how to use those and how different they are. And we find out that yeah, you know what, we can use these, we can definitely use these. Right, our communities, our trading communities, and the ones that we set up for our coaching programs. They give us a safe space, to ask questions without getting ridiculed. And to give feedback to other people without people think oh, he's a know it all, you know, the things you notice everything Oh, he's a dork. No, we help each other. That's the point. And we root for one another, right? Because we want all of us to succeed. One person posts a trade, other people might do the same. We all want to succeed, right? We all rowing in the same direction. And that's what makes a good community. So then here are again, the four pillars, just to recap, that you should have to learn trading as soon as possible. Number one, you got to have a strategy that works and fits your individual style of trading. What works for you might not work for the next you. So you might be in the same community or neighborhood or meet up. But he might be doing something totally different from you. So you really cannot learn that much from him. Right? Number two, a battle tested trading plan that you will follow is not gonna do any good. If you don't follow it. If it doesn't match you, right doesn't match your goals doesn't match your time doesn't match your aggressiveness. All the things that we talked about earlier. If he doesn't match you, you ain't gonna do it. And you might be Oh, I don't have discipline. No. I mean, that might be true. But most likely, it's because it doesn't match. Right? It's a lot easier to follow something if you enjoy it. And it makes sense to you. And it doesn't make you all freaked out. Number three, a mentor or a coach that can help you avoid mistakes and shortcut the learning curve. What could take years can be done within months.  And that's what I've seen happen over and over and over again with different students. And we've built our programs our way it's like hey, If you just you know, I know what strategy works, I'll give you my trading plan, I will be your coach and your mentor. And I will give you a community. And that's how we set up our coaching programs, we give them all four pillars, you get this, you get this, you get this, you get this, we do it all together. And so in a matter of months, bam, you know exactly what to do, how to do it. And you know how to do it and handle in different situations, and you become consistent very quickly. That's what these four pillars do. And lastly, the fourth pillar is a community of like-minded, caring, similarly trained traders. Right? So if you have a community of four people, one guy's a day trader, one guy is trading, crypto, one guy is trading Forex, and the other guy's trading options. There are some things you guys can talk about. But when it comes down to your strategy, you're not really gonna be able to up to there. That's just the way it is. So you need like-minded, caring, because you have to care about you, and you have to care about them. Similarly trained. So you guys know the same strategy, you know, that if you make a mistake, they'll be able to point it out to you and say, Hey, you didn't do that part. You didn't do that step. Oh, that's what I've been messing up on. Yep. could be as simple as that. So those are the four pillars. I hope this was been helpful. If you need help with any of them, you can reach out to us and trade with the odds in your favor. Take care.