More than a hundred traders descended on the Miami Riverwalk this week for our trading conference.
Each day was packed with some of the best traders in the world, delivering real-world insights and practical advice.
There’s one speaker I want to highlight in particular…
Mr. Bryce Touhey. You can check out his story here.
Bryce is just shy of hitting that $1 million in career trading profits.
But that’s not what’s interesting.
All 6 ft 7in of him stood in front of dozens of traders and told them that he was basically flat year-to-date.
It takes a lot of courage to come up after a handful of millionaire traders and say,
“Hey folks, I haven’t made money trading this year. But you should listen to me.”
And listen, they did…
Because for a guy who had a bag of caffeine products (literally) to just hand out, he is a remarkably patient trader.
One of his slides, in particular, stood out from the rest.
And the lesson that attendees took away from less than 500 words could be the very thing that helps them turn a profit.
Play Small Ball
In Bryce’s biography, there is one post that I think stands out from the rest.
It’s titled Sizing Up Slowly – Seriously.
Like most folks who joined the Millionaire Challenge, Bryce struggled to generate consistent profits.
It’s very common, even for traders who’ve been in the game for years.
They either:
- Win consistently but take a few huge losses, or….
- Consistently lose with a few magical winners here and there
Addressing your problem isn’t something that happens overnight.
I tell my students to cut losses quickly and keep them small.
For some folks early on, that leaves them with a lot of small losses that keep piling up without enough wins to offset them.
However, that’s right where you want to be and how Bryce made his breakthrough.
In May 2020, Bryce risked $2 per trade for a month and a half.
Some days he’d make $10. Some days he’d lose $10.
His goal wasn’t to hit home runs which you can’t really do with $2.
Instead, Bryce worked to generate a profit overall, slowly and consistently.
That outlook changed everything for him.
Big Picture Thinking, Small Picture Trading
I suck at trading large accounts.
Every year I reset my account to a nominal size.
When you start small, you stop thinking about making huge profits.
You replace it with a new goal – to just make ANY profits.
In the one and a half months Bryce spent trading $2 per trade, he made a whopping $89.
For about 90 days, Bryce focused on executing each individual trade correctly, ignoring how much money it made him.
The next month, he increased his size to $5 per trade and made $1,000.
Bryce trades actively. Yet, he hasn’t turned a profit this year. But he hasn’t lost either.
Every day, he patiently waits for and trades only the setups he wants.
Given his style and experience, that meant not making money this year.
However, when markets become more favorable for his style of trading, there’s no doubt in my mind he’ll break that $1 million mark.
Spend Less to Make More
Consistent trading results stem from patience, practice, and precision.
Every trader I know, myself included, as well as Bryce, constantly works to improve their skills.
That’s so much easier when you don’t have to worry about losing thousands of dollars.
If you can’t turn a profit with a $500, you won’t do any better with a $50,000 account.
Do yourself a favor. Prove you can turn a profit over a month with a small account. Then do it for two months.
Slowly size up only when your trading becomes mechanical and second nature.
Even then, always trade scared. Be on the lookout for mistakes you make and curveballs from the market.
I don’t try to make students who take my Challenge millionaires overnight.
I want them to become millionaires in their lifetime.
And I want you to be next.
—Tim
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