Tending to a garden is like…

managing a trading account

Trading is an inherently complex activity that requires a specific skill set, and, as I’ve recently discovered, is just like tending to a garden. And it’s helped me realize, something I already knew…

That education and mastery of a specific setup is critical to your success.

So think about this… 

Why does one plant a garden?

Well, they may want fresh herbs, home grown tomatoes, or to just gaze at its beauty. Now, that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Nothing worth doing ever is. 

Just like in gardening, while the potential benefits give traders a reason to go on, it can be rough getting through the learning curve. 

I’m now at the end of my second season attempting to grow a garden. So far, I’ve wasted a lot of money — and time, not to mention sweat equity. AND I’ve only gotten about three strawberries, two cucumbers, four jalapenos, and learned about a lot more bugs than I ever knew existed. 

It reminds me exactly how I felt, two years into trading. I was losing money left and right, not sure where to go or what to do, and just hoping it’d get better. I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I knew I had to continue trying. This of course, required even more time and financial investment. It’s difficult to “do” when you’re already down, but the only other choice was to give up. And, if you know me, you’ll know that’s not something I do. 

Spring of 2018

The first year I tried to plant a garden, Leo and I spent all weekend clearing the area. We went and found a bunch of plants that looked pretty, but we didn’t know their names or how to take care of them. After several hours of planting (more like playing in the dirt, in Leo’s case), we produced a small garden we were so proud of. We took pictures, shared on social media (you know, the whole shebang). 

It reminds me of me placing trades without being able to properly read the chart. Not only that, but I compounded it by placing options trades like spreads and butterflies without understanding how they worked, why to put them in a certain spot, and how to actually execute the trade properly. 

Of course, my main focus was how beautiful the garden looked. And, we were so proud! Well, imagine our terror when the next morning, we go to check on it… and it’s completely destroyed. Our two new puppies had a field day in the newly dug up dirt. Since we never planted anything before, we had no idea our dogs would love un-planting it all. They ripped out everything except one daisy bush. $300 of plants, and a lot of sweat equity, wasted. 

Frustrated and heartbroken, I didn’t have it in me to try again last year. But, I did buy a dog proof barrier for when I’d attempt again.

It’s like one of those trading weeks where every single trade you have on completely eats it all at the same time… it’s only happened to me about three separate times, but each time, I remember so distinctly. 

Spring 2019

This year, I was so determined to make solid use of our large backyard. Leo reminded me many times how, “I killed the entire garden last year the first day,” and he wasn’t sure if I could take care of the plants this year. He worked so hard the first time around, and this is something he wouldn’t forget. 

“It’s okay, Leo.” I told him. “We learned an important lesson… we just have to put the fence around the garden this time, right when we plant.” 

After you’re done beating yourself up about your trades that hit the fan, the most important thing to do is circle back and ask yourself, “What did I learn from this? How can I avoid that, next time?”

This year, my goal was to go all out. I started with an herb garden. Surely, I’d cook more, if I just had fresh herbs, right? (Imagine my husband, Darrell laughing in the background.)

Every time I headed back to Lowe’s there was another plant just asking for me to buy it.

Like when you have so many setups, and you just want to trade them all… and, since you can’t decide, you decide to do just that… trade them all! (Spoiler alert: this isn’t a good choice!)

And so brings me back to the reminder of WHY education and mastery of a specific setup is critical to your success (both in gardening and trading). So I wanted to bring up something really awesome that I’m doing — and I wanted the Five Star Community to be one of the first I shared it with.

To help you, in whatever way I can, I’ve decided to launch my very own Mastery program (this is similar to what John did with his Small Account Secrets class turned Mastery).

To help you fully reach the best trader YOU can be, I want to help you master my favorite setups! You can grab all the details of the new program here!

I’m going to be writing a several part series of my analogy between gardening and trading, but this is all the time I have for today… So be on the lookout for my next edition. My hope is to continue to show why this Mastery could be exactly what you need…

So you don’t continue to be like me — struggling to really get a grip on the whole ‘gardening’ thing. But wait and see… I’ve made a lot of progress!