In this episode of the Trading Justice Podcast, we welcome Teri Ijeoma. Teri started her professional career in education and transitioned to trading to pursue her goals to travel and stay at home to work. Listen in as Coach Tim interviews Teri about her journey’s, her trading routine and her trading mindset. Follow Teri Ijeoma on social media:

Video Transcription

Tim: and welcome back. And this is our feature presentation for today. And uh, I’ve got a very interesting guest. I’m looking forward to getting to know and her name is Terry and I, I’m not even going to try to pronounce your last name. Just tell it to me. angioma you diorama a trader from Dallas, Texas, where we have a vibrant trading community. Many of our members are down there in the Texas area as well and some in Dallas. And uh, you’re from Dallas, you’ve been trading the markets for 10 years. You’ve got an interesting background. How are you doing today Teri?

Teri: I’m great. Thank you so much for having me.

Tim: So tell me a little bit about your background. Your last job was in education, but now you’re in trading. How do you go from, and you know, teacher that style, the education side of it. Now you’re a trader, you’re a financial markets trader. So how did that transition happen?

Teri: Yes. So I first learned about the stock market back in high school. I went up to Northwestern university for a summer program and they took us to the Chicago stock exchange or the mercantile exchange. And so that was my first introduction to it back in high school. And then in college I actually went to MIT and then interned at Morgan Stanley. So I learned a lot about the market. It’s during college, but had decided, well, I don’t want to be at my desk all day analyzing stuff. I’m going to go this whole other route. So I ended up going into consulting and then one of our clients was teach for America. So went on this whole different route into education. My last job was assistant principal of an elementary school, but as, as any teacher can tell you, it gets so overwhelming. Like I just got burnt out. I was crying in the bathroom like it was Ellis. It was at a point where I was like, I need something else. I need something else to replace my income. And for me the exit strategy was stocks. I went back to that. I was like, I know, I know I can make money doing this trading thing. And it had been in the hobby for awhile. So I said, if I could just make $300 a day trading stocks, I can replace my income. That’s how the transition went.

Tim: So you focused on a short term target and you’re like, okay, I know about the product and I’ve been dabbling in it for a long time, but now I really want to focus on it and really go for it. Did you just kind of dive in completely like the deep end of the pool and you’re like, I’m all in to trading the markets? You know, how was that? Because that can be a little clunky at times. A lot of people who go for it without education, they, they struggle. Right. So, uh, what was that transition like at the early stages for you?

Teri: You’re totally right. I would say for like the first six years I thought I was smarter than everybody. So I was like, Oh, I’m going to make my own algorithm. No, that was silly. I was losing money and trying to watch CNBC and Jim Cramer and everything. So when I finally decide that I was going to make this a full time thing, then I did go and take courses. So I took several courses here in Dallas, other online courses, and they put that together with my six years of education and said, or you know, practice and said, Hey, this is my trading plan. These are the things that I do consistently that can help me make income. And when I started having a trading plan, then I started to see results and see that, okay, $100 a day, 200, 300, Hey, I can quit now.

Tim: Well, and I love that by the way, a digestible kind of number based targeting and they have to be smart targets and you know, you can’t just target a, some big number just because they have to be digestible. You have to hit the targets you need for your account size, for your financial requirements and all that kind of stuff. That’s a beautiful thing. Uh, so you’re Y I expect that you probably work from home. Is that right? Uh, is the why the freedom to be home and be able to, to do your life, uh, without having to go to that nine to five corporate job?

Teri: My wife is actually, so definitely the freedom, but it’s more so to travel. I don’t like being at home when I was like cooped up in school every day I felt like I’m not doing this. I’m like, I’m doing a disservice to myself. There’s so many beautiful places in the world that I want to see. So as soon as I quit, I actually started traveling. Like I was in Thailand for a month, Vietnam for a month, Australia, Israel. I went everywhere. So that was my why, the ability to actually just go and see the world. So I have no regrets.

Tim: You know, I’m a small town kid. First flight I ever got in on, it was a 26 years old. It was my honeymoon. I went to New York city and being a traveling a speaker for legacy education for quite some time now I’ve seen a lot of this country, many times, Canada. And a couple of years ago I had the good fortune of going to Singapore and Malaysia to teach stock market education and one thing I found really, really incredible is we teach the same stuff. It doesn’t matter where you’re at. Australia, South Africa, buying a stock, where to buy, how to buy, when to buy, how to play an option. You play the U S options market. The content is universal, isn’t a Terry. Have you found that in your travels?

Teri: It is actually the first place that I taught a class was in Thailand and then they liked it so much. When we went to Vietnam we did another one and it was amazing that this is one, one thing that you can do anywhere in the world and make money. Like that’s one of the reasons why I love it.

Tim: All right, that’s interesting. So your why is travel and freedom. I love those answers. What is your edge? You know, it’s a question I ask every trader. By the way, I have the same five questions. I was go through it. I’m a checklist guy. The way that I operate my day, I have to have checklists. It keeps me sane, it keeps me in order, all that kind of stuff. So when I say edge, I mean I expect to know exactly what I mean. But what is your edge?

Teri: I think my edge is that I’m a teacher. Like even my students say that. That’s one thing that’s really special about me because I was in education for 10 years. Like I can easily teach them. Like I can make complex things really simple. And then especially with a trading plan, it’s like, Hey, instead of going by emotion, you’re not trading on your gut. Like, no, we never do that. Like this is the steps, like where we’re including risk management or making sure that our rewards risk is as you know, like I’m a good person with this is the steps and then let me teach you. So I think my edge is that I’m a teacher.

Tim: You know, that’s a really interesting answer and I relate to a very, very much, I remember when I became a new trader, I didn’t have formal training in this. I went through a bunch of courses and all that kind of stuff and I became a coach and educator in the market and learning through other people. If you have to teach them and as you build those experience, it’s almost like I’ve lived a thousand lifetimes in the market Terry, because I’ve seen every mistake my students make. I’ve heard me give the same advice a thousand different times. They do not over position size, don’t overleverage so being able to teach somebody else, I think it does help you build an edge. And what it usually does, and you tell me if you agree with this, it brings you back to simplicity. You know the more you teach this stuff you’re like okay yes I love gamma scalping and those six legged volatility plays, but maybe just a simple buy and sell on a swing trade. You know you get a perfect entry, trigger confirmation, bring it back to simplicity. Right. I do love that. So teaching has it been a, you know, a learning curve there as well. Cause I’m sure teaching adults in stock market education, I mean it’s not an easy thing. All the time. You’ve got preconceived notions, you’ve got all kinds of biases that you have to fight a, you know, all those types of things. What have you seen from the education side being the teacher?

Teri: So I actually have seen that people are coming into this very humble and open. A lot of the people that I’ve, I’ve taught, they actually never had any education in, in stocks. They always heard about it. They always heard it was a good thing. Maybe they heard like, Oh you should only buy and hold, but they never knew how to actually make consistent income that they could use for their debt or for me like to travel. Like that’s like this whole new concept to them. So they actually have come in pretty open, but then once they come you do like as a teacher I do have to start from the very basics and then work myself up. So it’s like, okay, what is a stock all the way to, okay, what is a call option? Like you have to like really break it down at every point.

Tim: Who’s more difficult to teach? Brand new beginner who’s never done anything right off the turnip truck or somebody who’s got 10 years experience and all kinds of, you know, history in the markets.

Teri: Definitely you’re right, the 10 year experience person is a little bit more difficult because they have, they’re bringing like all these other ideas and every trader is different. Like you know, Tim, like every trader has their own style and when you’re learning a new trading plan, like you had to kind of let go of everything else. Like even when you think about buying and holding versus active trading, like yes, you may be looking at fundamentals and PNT ratios when you’re looking at a longer term trade. But I’m over here looking at a chart and I’m looking at, okay, this is where the banks are buying. This is where we get in. The stock may not be something I want to hold for the long time, but I know that I can get in and get out here and make some money. Um, so yes, it can be a little difficult to have some of the students that have been trading getting rid of some of those notions.

Tim: It’s tough. I mean, we all have those biases too. I mean, every one of us as human beings and if you’ve been in the market and you’ve kind of never had success, one of the things you probably need to do is be humble and say, Hey, listen, I admit I don’t know everything. Like all of us don’t know everything. Right. And just try to learn from an experienced coach and a trainer like Terry that I think that’s a great, a great depth perspective. You know, one thing I always, I love talking to entrepreneurs about Terry and I’m like, this morning I got up, you know, I have my routine very specific. I go through, uh, when I walk my dogs, when I get breakfast, when I start the coffee pot, pretty much on, on cue. Every morning I’m a morning person. I trade the markets in the morning for reasons. What is your daily routine? When do you trade? How do you approach it? Give me an idea of a life in the day, uh, in a day in the life of Teri here.

Teri: So I wake up about an hour before the market opens and I am, I’m, I’m just saying I’m very similar in that I look at pre-market check my charts to see where the stock prices are, see if they’re getting close to some of the levels that I’m wanting to trade. And then I usually trade for about an hour or two in the morning. Then after that I feel like the people on wall street go to lunch so the volumes are low. There’s no real reason to try. But in the afternoon I may check my phone at lunchtime, especially when I was still working, like as a principal, I’d have a meeting with myself in the morning and then at lunch I take my cell phone cause usually I can check my socks on the phone. And then that last hour of the day I make sure that I checked in as well. And then after that I can usually go about my business. And now that I’ve, I’ve become an even more sophisticated trader. Like a lot of times I can just trade those first two hours of the morning and then leave the rest of the day. You know, maybe like I said, check at the end just to make sure I’m good and, and go go about my business.

Tim: I love it. I mean, and certain days, I’m sure after that first routine, you could probably take the rest of the day off if you had to, if there’s nothing going on. Uh, but you’ve got your process dialed in about different points of the day and you know, that’s the nature of the market. I think every trader does. Whether you’re a wall street guy, whether you work on an institutional desk or whether you trade from your living room here in Utah like I do, or they’re in Texas like you do, Terry, you know, routine is important to me. Uh, what are your personal goals moving forward? I mean, what do you want to get out of 2020? Here we are. It’s always, I know, it’s cliche, right? January. What are your resolutions? Uh, financial goals are important in my opinion. What are your own personal goals? From your trading perspective. 

Teri: So I was able to work myself up from that $300 a day and to averaging about a thousand dollars a day. And so like that’s now something that like I’m teaching more people how to do, like our whole model is we’re treat teaching a thousand people to make $1,000 a day. So that’s $1 million a day of generated income. Like what could we do? Like what impact could we have with $1 million a day?

Tim: A lot of young people out there in this planet, they’re not going into small business development, working from home, things like that. They’re going more the corporate route than our generation has or even our parents’ generation has. And I think we need entrepreneurship back in this country. So having your business goals, your personal goals, your trading goals. I love this. I think every one of us need to evaluate all of those things and really make them smart. They have to be specific, measurable, action oriented, realistic and timebound. So good luck on those goals. Young lady. I have no doubt that you can reach them with your ambition. Just your, your body language and your posture tells me you, you are a coldblooded market assassin, you’ll go out and get it. That’s right. You are a confident trader. There is no doubt about it. Uh, what advice would you give a brand new trader? Somebody who’s listening to this for the first time and they’re thinking, you know, I hear Terry’s optimism. I hear her excitement about our trading. She’s talking about 300 bucks a day. That seems achievable. It seems like something that could make a difference in my life. I have no idea where to start. What do you tell brand new people that you run into?

Teri: I definitely think you need to always have a risk management plan. Like that’s where I feel like most traders fall short. They don’t trade with stop losses. You need a stop loss. Like if you’re trading, there’s a 50% chance you’re going to be right or wrong. Like in trading, you know, either make money or you lose money. So you should always have some type of protection in your trade. And then I also think like that wristbands or plants should be robust. Like even on the front end. Are you looking at your reward to tourists? Are you getting in at highs instead of like that’s a high risk if you’re getting it at the eyes. What about your position size? Like look at that. So I think every trader needs to make sure that they have a risk management plan included with their trading

Tim: it’s amazing to me how many people I’ve had this conversation with and the answer is almost 95% that same answer. Don’t over position size, don’t, don’t risk too much money. Make sure you know what you’re going to lose if you’re wrong. I think the core of the business comes down to that, right? You know you can day trade, you can trade options, futures, Forex, there’s so many different products, stocks, you can day trade stocks. You could position trade, you could swing trade no matter what your systems are. If you over leverage them, eventually the market’s going to kick you in the bud and if you don’t understand money management, it is that missing piece. Usually that a trader has to bring into their, their trading to really turn it into a business. So I’m with you 100%. Spend more time thinking about your risks, spend more time thinking about your stop loss and where and why and really get those rules designed. I think it will make a big improvement on anybody who’s listening to this, uh, in their trading, uh, process. There’s no doubt about it. Terry, I’ve enjoyed this so much. I mean, I know that you’ve got all kinds of ways people can find you a fee. In fact, you’re probably on like every social media like I am. What’s the best way for people to, to catch up with you if they can

Teri: on Instagram I’m on there all the time so you can find me on Instagram at, I’m an investor. It looks like Imani investor. IamaNinvestor, but it’s just I’m an investor on Instagram or you can find me on, on, on Facebook and invest with Terry’s dude. I’m

looking at your Instagram now. Looks like you have fun and you do get out and travel quite a bit, don’t ya? I just got home from Philly yesterday. Oh man. It was great.

Tim: You know, I was in Philly a couple of weeks ago and I thought it was going to be bitter cold and it was not. It was okay. Yeah. Philadelphia is an amazing city. I was talking to my students actually, and I’m like, man, I love this city. And they’re like, we don’t. Well, tell me about it. And there’s some complexity. They’re like, yeah, yeah, we love it, Tim. But it’s rough place too. You got to understand you don’t live here. You live in Utah, so you got to come live here before you can say you love a city. And I’m like, all right, I’ll be open minded. I’ll be open mind to try to learn. There’s no doubt. Uh, Terry, thank you for being here with this. Thank you for being a part of the podcast guys. Uh, we’re going to be right back after these words from coach Mark with our special presentation.

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