You cannot scroll through Twitter or Facebook without seeing an article about a young person blowing off the risks of CoronaVirus.
The story typically involves some attractive young person’s social media post proclaiming:
‘I do what I want!’
And that…
‘I won’t get coronavirus!…YOLO(You Only Live Once) man!’
And even if they do…
‘I’ll be fine…it’s not a big deal.’
Next, the article show’s a picture of that person with a ventilator mask on with some sort of social media post full of remorse.
Typically the line is:
“Learn from me…take this seriously.’
Once a friend put things in my perspective, i.e. options and markets, it finally hit…
For starters, they are right, young people (and older people…ehhhm MOM AND DAD!!) need to take this seriously.
Personally for a short period of time I probably was not any different than the young kids. No not boozing it up at clubs, but not really thinking it was going to affect me.
What changed my approach was I was lucky enough to talk to a government contractor who gave me this sage advice:
‘Listen dude, this is a black swan. It probably won’t turn into a mess, but it totally could.’
I started taking it seriously from that point on. I started approaching this problem like I would everything else I do for a living in trading the markets…
I started planning!
Being educated and planning for the worst thing that can happen is a great lesson in proper risk management.
Bad risk management runs rampant in young people…
…and traders!
As master volatility traders and mentors to tons of students, my team and I meet with budding traders trying to be successful, however we typically meet with them at two stages in their development:
The one we prefer is the person who seeks us before they have that ‘blow up.’
This trader is trying to learn all the potential ways of blowing up and wants to do everything in his or her power to avoid that happening.
Trader two: Comes to see us AFTER his or her account has blown up.
This phrase sums it up
“Why didn’t I come see you before this happened!??”
Listen, I am not trying to say that blowing up your account is like getting sick. Yes my life revolves around the concept of money, but I do all of this for what it allows me to celebrate in life. Money is not life and death like a killer virus, even if sometimes it feels like it.
However, when this ends, I think a ‘LIFE LESSON’ that can be taken back to trading is this:
Just because you think that ‘black swan’ won’t happen, does not mean it can’t.
You can do the work to prepare for and to avoid that blow up, or you can live life thinking that ‘it will never happen to you.’
Your Only Option,
Mark Sebastian
P.S. – Over the next few days I’m going to cover the greatest signal one needs to be on the lookout for when it comes to account blowup danger, as well as the little tactic scaremongers forget when it comes to trading and risk. To protect accounts with the only asset that’s working right now, I’ve lowered the price on my Volatility Edge program. I got stir crazy and I truly want everyone in.
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