As many of you may know, I was an Elementary school teacher. I even coached high school basketball and cross country before I became the trader you see before you today.

(For about a decade I coached varsity girls basketball and cross country.)

Sadly, I was forced to leave those jobs due to my financial situation — I knew there was no way I was going to pay down all the debt my wife and I took on when we went to college and grad school.

With that being said, I’m still equipped with the ability to teach… and more importantly, break down trading strategies into bite-sized chunks so everyone can understand.

In these trying times, I want to show people that they don’t have to be stuck in a rut, and they could potentially develop as a trader by tapping into a “psychological” principle known as the “growth mindset”.

The Growth Mindset vs. The Fixed Mindset

Typically, when it comes to mindsets, I think they can be broken down into two categories: the growth mindset and the fixed mindset.

A fixed mindset is the mentality when you believe your skills and abilities are innate, and this ultimately leads you to become stuck in the mud.  In other words, those with the fixed mindset believe they’re born with whatever skills they “have” and can’t change them.

On the other hand, there’s the growth mindset — this is a driven mentality, where one believes hard work, dedication, and critiques will better their skills.

Now, let me ask you this… who do you think will perform better at trading, someone with the growth mindset or the fixed mindset?

Well, my answer is the growth mindset.

You see, when you have a growth mindset, you focus all your energy into learning and perfecting a process… until you potentially get to a point when taking names and cashing checks becomes effortless.

Basically, when you have a growth mindset, you understand that your skills and brain are malleable — and you can have the potential to develop and evolve into a complete trader.

It’s also known as “grit”, you probably heard this term before.

So how do you actually develop this mindset, or improve your “grit,” in trading terms?

Find a strategy that’s interesting to you

If you want to develop your skills as a trader, I think it’s important to find something that piques your interest (at least that’s how I approached it). For example, I wanted to develop a strategy that is simple for me to use, allows me to uncover trading opportunities in different types of stocks, and with scalable patterns.

Of course, that’s how I came up with my Jason Bond Picks momentum trading strategy, as well as my Weekly Windfalls options trading strategy.

You see, I was always interested in hunting down momentum stocks and options trading — and I could never get them off my mind… that allowed me to push forward and develop strategies that have consistently worked for me.

Develop Grit With More Wins

The strategies I developed and want to bring to everyday people so they can get started in the markets on the right foot, actually allowed me to build grit as I used it

You see, when you want to develop the growth mindset, or “grit,” we tend to think of what our brains and bodies can do in extreme circumstances.

But in the trading world, the only thing that really matters is winning, whether it be on the day, week, or month… that’s what allows me to live to trade another day and build experience over time.

So when I think about it, when I first started trading, I wish I knew I should’ve been looking for a strategy that not only interested me, but provided me with an edge in the market.

Now, grit and your mindset are like a muscle.

Think about when you go to the gym… if you want guns… you curl and try to get reps in over time. 

Your brain works the same way… it needs to be worked on and developed over time, and every win in trading lets you pad your account… and proves to you that you can start scaling up (once you’ve got enough wins notched on your belt and are comfortable, as well as understand the risks).

Building Strong Habits

Lastly, I want to leave you with a few habits that will help you evolve and maintain a growth-oriented mindset.

• Journal all your trades. Write down all your wins and losses, and review them. Ultimately, you will find a pattern to what’s working and what’s not. 

• Create a watchlist of your favorite stocks. I’ve found that there are some stocks I do well trading and know the trends. Write down which stocks you tend to do well on and put them on a weekly watchlist with key levels.
  • I also look for momentum stocks that have major moves on any given day, so I always have an idea of what I’ll be trading.

• Trade on a schedule. For the most part, I swing trade momentum stocks and options (with my Weekly Windfalls strategy). I know the exact times I want to be trading and the times I don’t want to be.

The key to evolving as a trader is to have the right mindset. You can choose to have a growth mindset or a fixed mindset… and if you want to be successful as a trader, I believe it’s important to  implement what I’ve shared with you to develop grit and potentially become a complete trader.