$16M Trader: Detachment Made Me Profitable - Professional Investor Reacts

0:00This is a $16 million trader and he said, detachment made him profitable. This is coming from the Alex Temez channel. I recently watched a podcast of him on the Words of Rhystham. He was the guest on the Words of Rhystham podcast. So this actually came from our Discord. Only Transmatter Scott, hashtag UrockScot. So let's watch this together. It's a pretty short video though. It's my six minutes. So let's watch it together. I went from working at Starbucks to generating over $16 million in profit and here's a truth that nobody tells me. I didn't get rich by grinding harder or by carrying more about every trade. In fact, the more that I obsessed, the more that I lost. The moment that I finally let go is when I stopped freaking out about every single dollar, every single win, and every single loss. Everything changed. And if you're stuck in that same emotional trap, you're probably just a few trades away from blowing up your entire account. But if you stick with

1:00me for the... I'm glad he's mentioning this. And T-Ramen, I was just mentioning before we went started the video here that we're focusing in on not just the expectancy of our trading plans, but also the tradeability. And that tradeability is the sleeping at night point. The tradeability is the survivability aspect of it, right? To go into a drawdown sucks. Nobody wants to go into a drawdown. But a lot of people, when they go into a drawdown, they kind of lose their minds. Oh, no, I got to make it back as fast as possible. That's stock stole money from me. I got to get it back, right? All these crazy thoughts run through your head that would never have existed if you hadn't taken the original losing trade. And it absolutely changes the way that you trade. Now, whenever I am thinking about a trading plan, like I have gone through all the... You can't hurt me. I mean, I have been hurt by the market so many times. I've been let down by the market so many times that I stopped having expectations, right? And maybe you had a bad relationship in your life, right? And you got to the point where you're like, oh, you know what? I just can't expect anything out

2:06of this relationship anymore. It's kind of like how I am with the stock market and kind of like how you're going to need to be with the stock market as well. Because you have to be rigid in your plan, and flexible in the outcome. Rigid in the plan, flexible in what actually comes out of the market and into your account. Because we can control that part. We can set a limit for how much we feel like, well, not how much we feel like, but we can set a limit for what we want our stops to be capped at, what our losses to be capped at. But at the same time, there's four possible outcomes on any trade. Good trade, a big win, small win, break even or small loss. That's it. Now, a lot of people are like, well, I only want the big wins. Unfortunately, you don't get to see what the outcome is when you put the trade on. If we could do that, then we would never take the bad rates, right? We would never do that. But that's not how life is. That's not how life is. You know what else I'm saying over here? This right here, that is a big red flag for me. I am the type of person who's like, I don't want to be conspicuous whatsoever. That's the kind of

3:09stuff that's super conspicuous to me. I don't like that. But let's keep going. The next few minutes, I'll show you the exact five-step psychological system that took me from broker-rester to $16 million in profit. All you have to do is just replicate this mindset. This is the law of detachment. And if you want to win a day trading, you need to master it. That's just day trading, but any trading in general, and I completely agree. You must be detached from the outcome. So why is that such a key critical important part? As we discussed, right? We can't control what that outcome is going to be. And that's where a lot of quotes smart people go wrong in the market. Is they were successful as engineers, doctors, lawyers, whatever your your high proficiency field is where you need multiple degrees and decades of experience. Yeah, of course. You need that. But when it comes to the markets, two plus two no longer equals four. And those super smart people struggle the most because two plus two equals four. What do you mean? If this setup happens, I should get paid this amount. And that's why there are a

4:13lot of them are attracted and seduced by selling options. I was one of these people. I mean, I worked in finance for, since 2009, I still work in finance. So how many years is that infinity years? And I've got a bachelor's and a master's degree in finance. And it's like, yeah, two plus two, she'd equal four. I get it. Certified management accountant as well. But I struggle with that because if the inputs are the same, how can the outputs be different? That is when you decide you can tell the market how much you're going to get paid. And the why I mentioned selling options is because, hey, 80% of the time you're going to get paid, right? And 80% of the time you're going to know exactly how much you're going to get paid. But that 20% of the time, that's where you get cooked. That's where you don't know how much you're going to lose. And unfortunately, the way that that trading works is that losses work against you geometrically more than winners do. For example, you can have a winner go up a thousand percent.

5:17You literally can watch one of your trades go up two hundred and twelve percent. What's the most that can go down against you? A hundred percent. It can't go more than a hundred percent down. So because of that, if a stock goes from a hundred to two hundred, it just went up a hundred percent. To go back from two hundred to one hundred, that's a fifty percent drop. If it goes down a hundred percent, it's a zero. So that is that is one of the key things for that's one of the key things for really smart people that they struggle with is that the inputs and outputs no longer match each other. Let me show you how. You know, when I first started trading, I thought that the secret was to care more and to be more intentional. This was my routine. I'd wake up at 4 a.m., stare at my charts, and obsess over every single tick in the market. If I won, I felt like a genius. And if I lost, I'd beat myself up for days. I'd check my PNL every five minutes, sometimes every 30. Oh, that's a good point. So one of my big pro tips.

6:23One of my humongous, giant pro tips is turn off your PNL. Now, I know that's going to be like, what do you mean? Turn off? I want to know how much I'm winning. I don't want to know much. I'm losing. But I want to know how much I'm winning. If you are looking at your PNL, it's exact. It is exactly like playing Mario. You're playing Mario. You go on that level. You're on one-one. And you're like, I'm going to go, I'm going to go rescue the princess, screw Bowser. I'm coming for him. And you're going through the level. And instead of focusing on jumping over the goombas, instead of focusing on jumping over the turtles, getting down the pipes, jumping over the caverns of despair, instead of focusing all that, your eyes are up in the corner. How many points do I have? How many coins do I have? Shoot, I died. Okay, let me try again. How many points do I have? How many coins do I have? Oh, I died again. How many coins do I have? How many coins do I have? So the process of actually beating the game goes out the window because you're focused in on how many points and coins that you have. Exactly the same thing happens when you turn on your PNL.

7:25Because instead of focusing on the process, you are my, you know it. You and I are both irrational human beings. You can claim that you're not, but you and I both know you are. You are my, I'm not going to be focused on how much of my making on this trade, how much of my losing on this trade. You can't think about anything else. You can't sleep at night, right? But at the end of the day, it's all paper profits are all paper losses and it doesn't count in my opinion. It doesn't count until the trade is closed. Then you either have more money in your account or less money in your account. But the emotional baggage of watching that go up and down is so brutal. And we'll absolutely mess up your trading plan. So this is when I huge as pro tips, it just turn off your PNL. Seconds, I'd celebrate the green days like I won the lottery and on the red days, I would spiral. I tried to make it back on the next trade, double my size, and yeah, you probably know how that ends, blown up accounts, sleepless nights, and I was living and dying by every single trade that I took. But here's the thing, the more that I cared, the more I lost. The more I tried to force the

8:29market to pay me, the more I punished me. It was like the market could smell my desperation and turn it against me. It got so bad that I had to sell the rims off my car to fund my final trading account. It was rough. And if you're off. Well, hang on, I do want to say there's there is a level of commitment that you have to make. There was a day my kids were getting ready for school, my older son Colin, he's like, Dad, how long are you going to be trading? And I said, until I stopped breathing. And the reason that I instantly knew what that answer was, because I love the game. It's not about the money of me. It's never been about the money of me. It's about the game. The money is a fantastic byproduct. But it is 100% about playing and loving the game. So to this point here, you have to make a commitment either either you're going to treat this like a hobby. Hobbies cost money. Okay. I love to 3D print. That is a hobby of mine. I love to build and collect watches. Those that's a hobby of mine. I don't ever plan to sell those

9:29things because they are mine. I plan to continue to spend money on those things. But when it comes to trading, if you treat it like a hobby, you will pay for it like you do a hobby. If you treat it like a business, if you treat trading like a business, it will pay you like a business. But not all businesses get off the ground for the first year. Not all businesses work when they take a weekend. Of course, I watched this 30 minute YouTube video and this random guy on the internet told me that if I look for this pattern, then I will always make money. So you have to have a level of commitment. And there was a day where I looked at myself in the mirror and I said, okay, one of these two things will change. One of these two things will happen. Either I will die. Because we're all going to die. Unfortunately, breaking news, spoiler alert, we're all going to die someday. Either I will die first or I'll be profitable first. There is no other outcome for me. I will obsessively work and make sure that I get to profitability or I will die.

10:38And I may die in the process of trying to become a profitable trader. But I'm not going to ever stop. And so I actually like the idea that he sold the rims off his car because he also had that that undying level of I'm going to persevere. I will make this happen no matter what period full stop. I think that's the level of commitment you need in order to be successful at any venture. Think about it this way. Do you think LeBron was like, I mean, I like basketball, but like, I don't know. Just cool, I guess. I played on the weekends with my friends. Probably not. I would imagine that LeBron thought every waking moment of how can I make better shots? How can I get around defenders better? How can I make better passes? How can I receive better passes? How can I dribble better? All the little intricacies that make him an overall amazing player. Oh, man, I guess this is kind of cool. I like it. Or I will make sure I'm one of the best that I

11:43could possibly be. And it may not be the best in the world, but I will be the best that I can be. That's what's on my kids all the time. I don't expect you to be perfect. I expect you to do your best, your best. And then being your best will compound over time. I mean, imagine where you were a year ago to where you are right now. That wasn't on accident. One of my favorite quotes, I don't know who said it, so I'll take credit for it. Success doesn't happen on accident. You have to put in the work to make it happen. Honest with yourself, you probably felt like this too. You want to win so badly that you end up making emotional decisions. You chase, you revenge trade, you size up when you shouldn't. You're not trading a system. You're trading your feelings. And look, that's the emotional trap. It's why most traders never make it out of the grind, but here's the rule that nobody tells you. The market doesn't care how much you want it. The market doesn't care how many hours you stare at the screen or how badly you need to win. It only rewards discipline, detachment and process.

12:45And I'm okay. Hang on. Reward discipline, detachment and process. I have slides for this. Chris is such a nerd. I know. You know what? I get no regrets on that. You know why I'm such a nerd? Because I love the game. All right. So, a couple of slides I want to show you. By the way, this slide deck is linked below. You can have it. Or go to all our comms.usicplan. Okay. So here, no, here. If you diversify, control your risk and go with the trend, it just has to work, which is process. Now, what does this mean? Right? What does this mean? So this is Larry Height for those who you don't know, Larry, let me introduce you. Larry was one of my direct mentors. He was the very first hedge fund manager that reached a billion dollars. He was one of the original market wizards. I know Larry. It's pretty cool. Now, why does he say this? Because when you have big wins and you have small losses and you diversify, meaning you don't put all of your eggs in one basket,

13:47you diversify not to say, I'm going to put, I'm going to, I'm going to put 60% bonds and 40% in stocks. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You position size so that not one trade can take you out. You control your risk so that not one trade can take you out. And you go with the trends when they work. You go with the trends as far as they go. And then when they stop going, you get out of the way, the math just has to work. The math just has to work. Now, look, Chris, you said you were going to draw down. Yeah. But that's also part of the math. That all traders go through draw down. It is a fact. If you don't plan on losing, you won't be around long because I control my risk. If I didn't control my risk, I'd be gone by now. And then going over to here, discipline. So this is Richard Dennis. Richard Dennis is famous for having created the turtle experiment. In the 1980s, Richard Dennis and William Eckhart, Bill Eckhart said, they basically had a bet. Richard Dennis said,

14:51hey, I can teach anybody we had a trader and Bill Eckhart's like, no, you're either born with it or not. And Richard Dennis is like, hold my beer. So what he did was he got basically random people from all over the, all over the US, maybe even all over the world. And he taught them his system. He did it within two weeks. It didn't take years, years and years. He said, this is your entry? This is your exit. You get it? Okay, cool. We're done. Now, when you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit at and D dot com slash podcast. That's indeed dot com slash podcast terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. This labor day it loves get up to 45% off select major appliances. Plus deals on select materials

15:55and tools to keep the job moving. Right now, get a free to walk 20 volt max battery two pack. Select to walk 20 volt max tool. At Loves, we have what you need to keep your job moving. Bell of your night 13 plus supplies last selection varies by location. C-Lose dot com for more details. This episode is brought to you by Palm Olive. Family time isn't just the big moments. It's weeknight dinners sitting around the table. Everyone talking all at once. So when the plates are empty and the sink is full, use Palm Olive Ultra. Palm Olive's most powerful formula removes up to 99.9% of grease leaving your dishes sparkling clean and the new convenient pump mix cleaning even easier so you can spend less time tackling dishes and more time together. Shop now at Palm Olive dot com. The difference is that not everybody was successful. There were definitely some traders that were unbelievably more successful than others. But they had the same rules. That's a real mind

17:00effort there. How could they have different results if they all had the same inputs? How could they have different results? Every single bit of it had to do with their emotions because they were they were attached to the outcomes. Some of them wouldn't take the trades because they were afraid to lose. Some of them would take the trade and then they take it off early because they were afraid of losing their winners. But if you rich your dynasties right here, I always say you could publish a rules in a newspaper. Nobody would follow them back when newspapers were around. Nobody's going to follow them. The key is consistency and discipline. And 99% of people can't have the consistency and discipline to follow the rules because the first loser they take this doesn't work. I can't believe I fell for this scam. Or this trades amazing. I just put it on. And it's up two dollars. I better take my profits right now before I have a chance to let turn around against me. Or you know what? It's fine. I believe in the company. I know this was supposed to be a short-term trade, but I believe in them. I will be a long-term investor as the stock

18:01falls 40%. I mean over and over and over. I can show you all these different reasons. How most people aren't successful. But to tell you the truth, these are three very, very, very critical components of being successful. Access. And until you learn to let go, until you master the law of detachment, you're going to keep making the same mistakes over and over again. So what is the law of detachment really? How do you actually use it to flip your results? When your money, your ego, and your future are all on the line, detachment isn't about not caring. It's about caring about the right things. So I worked with the trading psychologist for about two years. And one of the big key things that I left with was exactly this detachment mindset. I would go into his office every Wednesday night. His name was Mark. And I had a whiteboard. And I would just go to town on the whiteboard. And I'd be like, okay, this is what we're doing. And he'd be like, oh, wow, interesting. Sounds like you're trying to control the market. Well, I mean, I'm not sure. I'm, you know, I'd make excuse

19:04but it sounds like you're trying to control the market. Right. And I and, and by the end of it, it was, okay, here's what my takeaways were. I have personal agency for only a few things. Those things are where I get in, where I get out, and where I get in with. Those are the only things I can control in the market. Everything else is up to the market. And that is the level of detachment that you have to reach. Right. We don't know where things are going to go. I'd love to say I'm going to tell you exactly where this stock is going to go. But if I do that, I now am attaching myself. I'm anchoring to some certain price, be up or down at some point in the future. And because I'm anchoring, now I will behave differently because I say if the price today is 50 and my anchor point is 100, by God, you better believe the stock market's going to go to 100. And you see all these fake gurus on the internet who are like, oh, this, this silver is going to go to $150 or silver is going to go to 50.

20:04I don't really know where it's going to go. It's going to go somewhere. Well, that's the actual writing answer. So why are you trying to predict the future? Because let's go back all the way back. A lot of people have those very strong feelings of one plus one equals two, two plus two equals four. Well, I don't my trades turn out the same way because they are attached to the outcomes. This is a great trading psychology video. I like it a lot. When I obsessed with my P and L, I was trading my emotions, not my edge, but the moment that I started focusing on my process, my setup, my risk and my execution. No, no, no, no, no, before you get another, another second further. Remember what he just talked about, his edge, his risk, his execution, his everything. And going back to the turtle turtle experiment, right, you've got to find a plan that fits your personality and your portfolio. It can be the best plan in the world, but if it doesn't fit your personality, it's not going to work. It can be the greatest plan in the world and it

21:06fits your personality. But it doesn't make any money. That doesn't fit your portfolio. You've got to come up with your plan. And I can't say what that is. I'll give you all the plans you could ever want. But at the end of the day, it's up to you to execute those plans. And stop obsessing over every outcome. That's when everything changed. Think about it like this. If you're desperate in training, the market could smell it. It's like dating. If you're needy, people are going to run. But if you're a calm, confident, and you know your worth, you attract the right opportunities. The law of the attachment is simple, but it's not easy. You have to let go of the outcome and trust your process. Now I know what you're thinking. 100% right. Alex, how do I actually do that? How do I stop caring about the money when my rent, my future, and my whole identities online? The whole identity thing. That was big for me. That was huge for me. When I was down, I felt like I was in the dumps. Like I felt like I was such a loser personally. When I was up, I felt like I was untouchable. That is a real thing. That's a real thing that you have to get over.

22:09Is breaking the identity versus the fact that the market is going to do what the market is going to do. It's not. That doesn't make you a bad person. It doesn't make you a good person. The market just happened to go in the direction that you wanted it to go. That's exactly what I'm about to show you. Because I've broken it down into five simple steps and if you follow them, you'll never look at trading the same way again. Step one is a pretrained checklist. Before I enter any trade, I ask myself, what's the float of the stock? Is there SSR on the stock? Is there a catalyst on the stock? Is this my setup? What's my risk? What's my- So to this point, what he's saying is does this fit his trading plan? So the real question you have to ask yourself is, do you have a trading plan? Do you actually have a trading plan? If you don't, I'm going to give you a pro tip. Another pro tip. Okay, there we go. Go over to my YouTube channel and watch Outer University Alpha, Outer University

23:09Bravo. Because both of those are going to teach you how to make your trading plan. And then tune in next week because Charlie class starts next week. That's right. Charlie class starts next week on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. 8 a.m. Central time. We'll be having a new group of students here live on YouTube and we'll be teaching them everything I possibly have learned in the 17 years of trading. Now, honestly, I'll be very, very honest with you. It's probably not a lot different between those two and then in Charlie class. But it's a whole new group of people and maybe it'll resonate with you in a different way. And I'm structuring it in a different way. So maybe it'll be better in the first couple of times. I don't know. But we don't charge for this at all. A hundred percent for free. And it will live on YouTube 100% free forever because we want you to be successful. We absolutely want you to be successful. We want you to use outlier, of course. But at the end of the day, if you use outlier or not, this is the same thing that will help you be successful in the markets. Exactly what he's talking about. It's my target. What's my stop? If I can't answer it, I don't take the trade. That one habit alone

24:14saved me from blowing up more accounts than I could even count. Step two is the 1% rule. Never risk more than 1% of your account on a single trade. If you're risking more, you're not attached. You're gambling. Now, that's obviously subjective. You find what fits and works for you. Step three is emotional journal. I write down how I feel before, during, and after every single trade. Now, I've also seen people say, I don't want to write this down. I get it. I don't either. I am not. There's a, I mean, some people are more emotional than others. When it comes to trading, I am, I am a stoic. I don't give a blaze. All that I know is that this is my plan. I'm going to execute it. Period full stop. If you struggle with that, I think coming up with the emotional diary that you put together makes sense. So I'm not going to tell you not to do that. If you need it, I do suggest doing it. If I'm anxious, angry, or desperate, I spotted before a rexme. I work with Dr. Brett steambarger for over a year. I have met Dr. Brett steambarger. How about that?

25:19He's a top trading coach in the world. And he mentioned when you feel nervous or when you feel anxious in a trade, you're probably in a wrong trade. Let me see if I can find it real quick. So you can get a minute, you can turn on tap and steamber SD, e, e, and d, a, r, g, e, or see if it's on here. No, it's not. But either way, I didn't get a chance to work with Dr. Brett steambarger. Just once though. That is your body's natural way of telling you that something is wrong. Now I spotted before a rexme step four is wiring out profits. Don't let your trading account get too big. Wired out profits pay yourself and avoid the temptation to oversize. Just today, I wired up $25,000 from my trading account into my personal bank account and it calmed me down. Step five, she's review and celebrate process, not outcome after every trade I asked myself. Did I follow my process? If yes, it's okay. So we talked earlier, there's four types of outcomes, big wind, small wind break, wind, small loss. There's two types of trades.

26:20The two types of trades are good trades, bad trades. What makes a good trade? Refall, regardless of what the outcome was. If you followed your plan, that was a good trade. You can learn later on and be like, you know what, I'm going to refine my plan, I'm going to update my plan, I'm going to change my plan to make it better. But as long as you follow your plan, that's a good trade. What makes a bad trade, regardless of when you're losing, is not having a plan or breaking your plan or going completely off script, that is a bad trade. Absolutely periodful stop. At the end of the day, process is much more important than outcome. I know you're thinking, well, it's easy for you, Chris. Process is what leads to the outcomes. I think with this way, you want to get big and you know, you want to get huge like Arnold Schwarzenegger, right? You can't just be like, man, I want to get big like Arnold Schwarzenegger. And then the genie comes to him and he's like, your wish is my command and you're you're you're you're huge now,

27:22right? Not going to happen. You have to put in the process to get to the outcome going to the LeBron example. He put in all the work which led to the outcome. But so many people want to skip the process part. They want to go straight to the outcome part. Unless you win the lottery, there is no straight going from zero to 100. How do you go from zero to 100? You have to put in the process daily, day after day, the grind, the slog, the the not sexy part to get to zero to 100. And then stop looking on social media and comparing yourself to other people. They are on a completely different journey than you. And most of the time, lifestyle influencers are absolute frauds. I mean, the Andrew Tate brothers just got exposed. Bro's biggest thing to flex on people be like, what kind of your Bugatti turns out his Bugatti was rented just like every other lifestyle influencer.

28:32The sexy part of trading is not the landboats. I guess it is the landboats, that's the sexy part. But the reality of trading is all of the daily grind you have to put in to get to the zero to 100. And nobody wants to talk about that part. When even if I lost money, what did I do right? What did I do wrong? And how can I improve for next time? But there's one mistake that every trader makes when trying to detach. And it cost me six figures before I finally fixed it. Let's handle the biggest objections I hear about the attachment first. But Alex, if I don't care, won't I get lazy? No, you care about the right things about becoming a professional, not a gambler. But Alex, I need to make money right now. But if you chase, you're going to lose. That's a dangerous feeling. I need to make money right now. Is a really, really, really, really, really bad place to be in. If that's how you feel, I would actually say, turn off your broker, go touch grass, go make money some other way, go sell something at your house, go find another job. But if you are like, I got to make money

29:37right now and you come into the stock market, you're treating it like a casino. And that is the absolute worst mentality you could have. So focus on the process and the money will follow. But Alex, what if I lose three trades in a row? That's normal. The attachment. What have you lose eight of the last nine like I did? You're about suck. You're basically at zero. Or it's part of the game. I'm going to take 10,000 trades in my life. We're going, we're zooming all the way in with our microscope and looking at these last nine. Do you really think the 9,000 on this side and the thousand on this side are going to make a difference? Yeah. Do you think that this little anybody sliver in that midst of a 10,000 is going to make a difference? Probably not. So if you're so myapically focused on the outcome of every individual one trade, yeah, you will not survive. But if you position size in a way where you can lose eight of the last nine and you're going to be fine, it completely changes your outcome.

30:41It means you don't spiral. You stick to your plan. Here's the number one mistake. Most traders try to detach by ignoring their emotions. Wrong. You have to acknowledge them and let them go. The market doesn't care about your feelings. It rewards discipline, detachment and process. If you want to make $16 million or just your first $10,000, detach from the outcome. Focus on the process. That's the cheat code. I'm living proof of it. If a story does great. Actually, that was a very, very good video. It was 100% right. Many, many, many ways. And I want you to be a successful trader as well. So yesterday we just went into the one of the biggest options, deep dives I've ever gone into. And I love trading options. This is my favorite part of trading. So click this video to watch that options, deep dive. That way you can learn about how to use leverage in your favor and not break the golden rule. Click this video. Be sure you subscribe, and we'll talk soon.