Scott Redler: 4 Life Lessons to Get You Through the Bad Times
One year ago today, I was laying on my belly, staring at the floor… and wondering if I’d ever walk again. But let’s rewind the story a bit. I’ve been a competitive racer since I was 30, finishing over 50 triathlons and marathons, including two Ironman events. I’ve also coached runners and raised money for the Steven M. Perez foundation, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the American Cancer Society, and the R. Baby Foundation. I keep all the mementos in my man cave: Steven Perez was my best friend since we were roommates at SUNY Albany. In 2007, he was diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia. Steven’s doctors did all they could to treat him, and our circle of family and friends pitched in to help. But after 6 weeks fighting the toughest battle on Earth, Steven passed away. I was horribly depressed, and only one thing seemed to help: exercise. So to raise money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the newly-formed Steven M. Perez Foundation, I completed my first Ironman triathlon. That’s when I really became a serious endurance athlete. I’d been racing for years, but finishing an Ironman was a whole new level for me. Unfortunately, my success came with a price. Years of serious training and racing took a big toll on my body. I had a lot of wear & tear, and I never really recovered from it. And throughout 2015, it was obvious that something was very wrong with me. My left leg was atrophying, and it would go numb if I stood for too long. My back was killing me. I had a hard time getting out of my chair, and I was barely sleeping. And I looked horrible. I was pale and losing weight, and I was shorter because of my shrinking leg. At Thanksgiving, a doctor friend was pumping me with injections just so I could stand up to cook! I spent 3 months in physical therapy, but deep down, I knew it was nothing more than a band-aid. I was wasting my time because I was afraid to face the music. But I couldn’t take any more of those scared looks from my wife and son. Even our dog Cadence knew something was wrong! So I finally came to my senses and just gave up. I visited Dr. Mitchell Reiter, a New Jersey-based orthopedic surgeon and spine specialist. Dr. Reiter diagnosed me with a sequestered spinal disc, which was putting tremendous pressure on my spinal canal. I was quickly scheduled for a Laminectomy operation to fix the problem. And that’s how I found myself laying on my belly, staring at the floor… and wondering if I’d ever walk again. Now, I’ll admit I was being a little melodramatic. Laminectomies have a pretty high success rate. And I trusted my doctor. But when times are tough, it’s hard to stop thinking about every little thing that can go wrong. The surgery was a success, and I began my recovery. It wasn’t easy. I could barely get up for days. My wife was carrying me around the house! And my friends moved the Christmas tree up to my bedroom so I could see it without going on a never-ending journey to the living room. I took 2 weeks off work. I never had that much time off before, and being away from my trading screens made me stir crazy. By the time I returned to work, I was 20 pounds lighter and my face was the color of skim milk. My own videographer didn’t recognize me, even though we’d been working together every day for over a year! But as much as my body changed, my mind changed even more. I began appreciating the little things. Forget the Ironman — suddenly, just getting through a stretching session was a big deal! Being pain free felt better than any medal I ever won! And I may never do another triathlon again. But you know what? I just ran alongside my son Chace as he finished his first 5K! He took home the gold, and I’ll never forget crossing the finish line with him. There are 4 simple, but valuable lessons to be learned here: 1) The Darkest Hour Is Just Before the Dawn Those last few moments before my surgery were some of the darkest I’ve ever been through. And you know what? That was the bottom. Things only got better. 2) Your Goals Should Change When Life Throws You Curveballs I used to think I’d be a high-level competitive racer forever. That may no longer be realistic, and I’m okay with that. I love coaching, and I’m more than happy to run smaller races until I get a better idea of my long-term prognosis. I don’t have to be “elite,” whatever that means. I just want to be the best I can be. 3) You Probably Have More Support Than You Think My family stepped up for me in ways you can’t imagine: That’s Celena, Chace, and our dog Cadence. I would not have made it back without all three of them! My parents were great too, always checking up on me to make sure I was doing okay. Aren’t they cool? And it feels silly now, but I was really worried subscribers would be ticked off while I was gone! But you were awesome — I received hundreds of supportive Tweets and emails, many of which included your personal stories of dealing with your own health problems. And not a single Redler All-Access subscriber cancelled due to my absence! That showed me that we are all part of a powerful global community. Here are some of our friends from Ukraine: (I’m in the front with the pink socks!) So just reach out when you need a hand. Odds are, people will there to help, and they’ll be happy to do so. 4) It’s Okay to Want to Give Up… Just Don’t We all go through rough times. Some have it worse than others, but we all have our own
Continue Reading -->Scott Redler’s Morning Call Express
In today’s Morning Call Express video, T3 Live’s Scott Redler breaks down the broader market action on the 3rd day up since the Italian referendum.
Continue Reading -->Scott Redler’s Morning Call Express Video: Digesting Gains
In today’s Morning Call Express Video, T3 Live Chief Strategic Officer Scott Redler breaks down SPX , EWG, and USO, as well as individual names like AMZN and AAPL.
Continue Reading -->Scott Redler’s Morning Call Express: Italy Just Says No
In today’s Morning Call Express video, T3 Live Chief Strategic Officer Scott Redler breaks down the action in the aftermath of Italy’s “No” vote.
Continue Reading -->Daily Recap: Lots of Divergences
In today’s daily recap, Scott Redler talks about the action in markets over this past week and how things are looking ahead of tomorrow’s Jobs report. He also discusses the various divergences that have been playing out over the recent week. In addition, Scott recaps the action in names like JP Morgan (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS), Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), and others.
Continue Reading -->Morning Call Express: December to Remember?
In today’s Morning Call Express, Scott Redler welcomes us to a new month and updates the action in the SPX. He also looks at the recent move in oil and some of the levels to be watching heading into today’s action.
Continue Reading -->Morning Call Express: Oil Grease The Bears
In today’s Morning Call Express, Scott Redler talks about oil as it seems OPEC will reach a deal. He also reviews the chart of the SPX and how it looks as we move into the final month of the year. Scott also looks at the Energy ETF (XLE) and the clues that it was giving ahead of the OPEC meeting. He also looks at high beta tech names ans how they are looking.
Continue Reading -->Meet the Traders: 11 Questions with Mark Harila
To help you get to know T3 Live’s growing bench of trading talent, we’ve launched a new series called “Meet the Traders” so you can get a direct introduction to our team. Today, we’d like you to meet Mark Harila, who is a moderator for the T3 Live Black Room on our Virtual Trading Floor®. Thank you for joining us Mark! 1) Tell Us a Little About Yourself Mark. The hardest question I have to answer these days is “so what do you do?” My wife and I own 9 small businesses. Yes, 9. But I identify as a trader because that’s what first comes to mind when people ask what I do. Before I entered the trading world, I worked on over 30 installations across all branches of the US military. I enjoy traveling, and I love spending time with anyone who can handle a few quips and a little sarcasm. 2) How did you first get involved with the markets? I have been interested in the market for as long as I can remember. When I was in high school, my economics teacher held an investing contest and the winner was guaranteed an A for the semester. This piqued my interest doubly: a chance to get an easy A and learn how to make money? It turns out that even then I was a trader, not an investor. Every day I ran to the paper to see how my stock picks did and figure out what to buy or sell next. Between my competitive nature, a ton of reading, and lots of trial and error (so much for an “easy A”), I got an A in the class. But more importantly, I stoked a lifelong love affair with the markets 3) How would you describe your trading methodology? I am a technical analyst and trader. Many people believe technical analysis is about learning patterns. The truth isn’t that simple. Technical analysis is about understanding the psychology and emotions of market participants. If you can understand others traders’ emotions, expectations, hopes, and fears, then you will have a greater understanding of price movement. I tend to look for multiple elements converging in an area, with a compelling reason or impetus (such as a gap, void, pattern matching the market bias. etc) to find high quality patterns that are most likely to move in my direction. 4) You’ve said that when you started trading, you focused on learning on only one pattern at a time. Is this something you recommend to all new traders? YES! In T3 Technical Strategies, we teach a number of patterns but not every pattern is for every trader. When I started with our system, I spent weeks trading only one pattern until I knew it inside and out. I thought I was learning which setups worked beest, what time frames I should trade, which amplifiers were more likely to help, etc. But what I was really learning was my own psychology, preferences, and most importantly, my weaknesses. And believe me, there were more than I expected. The bottom line is, in order to be successful, you need to know yourself first. And by focusing on mastering each concept in isolation, you’ll essentially create a customized methodology that works best for your personality. 5) What is your day-to-day focus these days? My focus is on everything and nothing. It changes based on the time of day and the opportunities that present themselves. In the morning I focus on gaps, especially those that create huge emotional reactions in traders, like euphoria or pain. Later in the day I focus on my universe of about 900 stocks that meet my daily volume, ATR (average true range), and price requirements. I keep all 900 on 15-minute thumbnail charts sorted by sector. At lunch, I scan the entire universe in search of my afternoon trades. 6) What is the 1 thing you wish you knew when you started as a trade? I can’t say this enough: Novice traders look for ALL the reasons TO take a trade. Professional traders look for ALL the reasons NOT TO take a trade. My job as a trader is to find everything wrong with a trade and all the reasons it might fail. Then and only then can I take a trade in accordance with my plan. 7) Do you have a certain risk management strategy for cutting losses? Every trade I take has a clearly defined Stop Loss, Entry Price, and Target. I wrote Stop Loss first because it’s the most important, and because adhering to stops is non-negotiable. The stop is predicated on a chart area that if violated, represents a significant change in the trade. At that point, I no longer want to be in that trade. I risk the same amount of money on each trade, and the number of shares I take is predicated on the entry and the stop. In other words, my entire trading plan is a risk management strategy to cut losses, and Losses are an inevitable part of trading. They are even acceptable when viewed as a cost of business — I consider losses to be an education expense. 8) Are you concerned about high-frequency and algorithmic grading? There is no question in my mind that HFT’s and Algos can affect trading. But, I am not concerned about them. In fact if you know what to look for, they can give you a number of opportunities. 9) What is 1 thing traders can do today to start getting better results? I’m going to give you 3. First and foremost create a written plan. Trading without a plan is like cooking without a recipe. It can be done but you can expect mixed results. Plus, it’s nearly impossible to replicate your successes you don’t know how you got them. Second, track your trading activity, and don’t limit yourself to your P&L. You should be noting which setups you use, trade management tactics, what happened after you got out, and whether the trade met your plan. If you are not tracking
Continue Reading -->Morning Call Express: Digestion or Indigestion
In today’s Morning Call Express, Scott Redler discusses the weakness we saw yesterday and what we can expect this week. He also maps out how the recent “Trump Rally” had similar action to the Brexit move. Scott also looks at the chart of Apple (AAPL), Netflix (NFLX), Amazon (AMZN), and Gold (GLD).
Continue Reading -->Morning Call Express: Cyber Monday
In today’s Morning Call Express, Scott Redler looks at the SPX and talks about where the markets are at this morning, and the move up we have seen the last month. He also looks at oil (USO), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL) and others.
Continue Reading -->