Why Investors Underground?

So I've been getting some interesting DMs the past day or two, in reference to me joining the Investors Underground team. These individuals largely know me as an "independent" since my inception - I've never attached my name to anyone, so why am I doing so now with IU? Lets clear a few things up.

For starters, I will NEVER stop producing free content for the trading community. Ever. You can hold me to that, it's a promise. My IU Watchlists and Blogs will always be free content available to everyone.

If you've been following me for a while and keeping up with my journey via the blog, then you know I am many things. However one thing I am not, is a bullshitter. I don't sugarcoat anything, I don't tell you anything I don't actually believe, and I don't tell you trading is easy, is a matter of fact I go as far as saying it's downright one of the most difficult things you could possibly try to do for a career. Point being everything I say is with honestly, none of it is meant to be duplicitous or misleading in any way. So continue reading with that in mind.

Yes, there is a small amount of money incentive involved with making this move. Doing webinars, writing blog posts, creating watch lists etc...this is WORK. My job is trading. So creating trading related content is therefore my work. Capisce? Do you ever go to your job and say "You know what boss...I'm in a charitable mood, I'm not going to clock in today. I'll just work for free." Of course not! Also if I told you the amount of time that I put into my blog, it would make you sick. I should be making a 6 figure salary somewhere for that amount of time & effort, but I do it for free. I hope you can appreciate that. So if you attack me for making this move, you're just an idiot, and are completely misunderstanding of the way the world works. Also, money is NOT my motivating driver here at all, and I truly mean that. I do just fine making my money trading. 

So...why WOULD I do this? Well for obvious reasons, I'm doing it because I believe in the organization, IU is where I got my start, and I owe my entire base knowledge of how to trade momentum names to them and the educational information they put out.  Nate reached out to me a few weeks ago and asked if I'd come on board and help out, give webinars, do watch-lists etc, and I agreed without hesitation. I consider it an honor and a privilege to give back to the community that gave me so much early on in my journey. And on top of that, by making the move over here, it will allow me to expand my reach significantly and get my blog content out to a much larger audience, which I think is great and will help many more than I could have ever reached on my own. 

There's a Kevin Spacey quote I love, and he says this. "If you're lucky enough to do well, it's your responsibility to send the elevator back down." That's how I operate, that's the inspiration behind why I write my blog, and that's why I'm making this move to IU as well. I very much subscribe to the Pay It Forward mentality, and will continue to try and reach as many as possible with my trading knowledge - and IU is just a larger platform for me to do this in a more effective way. It helps me and my mission to reach a larger audience, and it helps Nate and his mission to grow this community into the best it can be, it's a mutually beneficial relationship.  

I started out trading about 6 years ago, completely alone, I had no mentors or trading friends, just me myself and I. I made so many mistakes and did so many things the wrong way early on, I got a great market education by doing that don't get me wrong, pain & loss is the most powerful teacher out there no doubt about it. But it was a rather expensive education lol. Like another year or two at College expensive. That's why so much of my blog material up until recently was directed at the beginner trader - I always said to myself that if I was ever lucky enough to figure this game out, I'd do everything in my power to give some of the information I had gathered back to struggling traders. And that was the inspiration for my blog, which has been received extremely well by the trading community thus far, and something I plan on only growing larger. The blog will not die with this move. And it will remain free for all. 

Ok. All that being said, lets quickly talk about IU, about what it is, and what it is not. 

What it IS:  It's a community of some of the best momentum day traders and swing traders that you'll find anywhere. Bar none. Some of the guys in there have excelled so high and are doing such incredible things, if I mentioned numbers to you, you'd probably call me a liar. But it's all very real. I trade with Nate, Eric and Alex personally & speak to them daily, just phenomenal traders. Phenomenal. And all DIFFERENT is the best part. In the main momentum room, Nate lays everything out in detail for you of exactly what his plans are for the morning and why, and there is a ton you can learn from it if you're in the room for the right reasons. Even if you don't want trading calls at all, IU is an amazing scanner. There are guys posting momo alerts and news in there fast as lightening, there are many, many times where I hear about alerts in chat before I hear or see it anywhere else. And again, one of my favorite things about IU is that there are so many different trading styles in there. You can pick and choose which ones you gravitate towards. And if you actually digest the "Why" of what these guys are doing, instead of just looking for trading calls, you can learn so much.

What it is NOT: It's not a magical solution to all your trading problems. If you're an undisciplined jerk, you're going to have a terrible experience at every single trading community you go to. If you join a room just looking for someone to give you profitable trade ideas and to piggyback off others, you won't do well either. That's not what you should aim to get out of these places. What you should be thinking is "Wow...these guys do very well in the market. What are they doing that I'm not doing? What can I learn from their thought process and ideology? How can I take what they do, and use it to improve my own methodology?" If you approach the experience with those type of questions, you will get a TON out of this community. A ton. 

Speaking of questions..lets touch on that. Asking questions via PM within the Investors Underground chat room. Nate is always there and available to help you. Most of the other mods will help you too. I am there to help as well, feel free to reach out to me anytime. So that being said, there are good questions and bad questions.

Example of a bad question: "Hey what do you think about $XYZ, it a short here?" 

......cmon man. That question just tells me you are lazy. You offered absolutely nothing to show me otherwise, and that you just want a trading tip. You put very little effort into that question, so expect whomever you PM to put very little effort into their response. Put some effort in, give more info than that in your Q, and the individual you contact will be much more inclined to more actively engage with you. 

Example of a good question: "Hey I've been watching $XYZ, I saw it on scan last night, and it's starting to curl around here off the weak open like you mentioned, it's now above the 20sma, and I'm considering a long position with a LOD risk if these higher lows keep holding, what do you think?

......see the difference. This question tells me A) you did your homework and read the scans and anticipated this trade, which is great. And B) you gave me some more info about your plan so I have a better idea of what you're trying to do, and now I'm MUCH more inclined to engage with you here. Hopefully that makes sense.

So that's really all I wanted to say. You will get out of this experience as much as you put into it. If you are a dedicated, persistent, hard working individual, I think you'll do well. I can't promise you'll make it because you know the odds of being a successful trader, they aren't high, and that would be dishonest for me to tell you anything otherwise. But I can honestly say with my hand on my heart, the information I learned here is the reason my trading career is where it is today. I've since taken that base foundation and built on it and added my own personal spin to it, which every successful trader must do at one point or another, but it all started here at IU for me. I'm happy it's all come full circle and I can be on the other side helping others now, I'm really looking forward to the experience. 

If you are not an Investors Underground member, or are on the fence, or have any additional questions, feel free to shoot me a DM at any time, I'm more than happy to clarify anything for you. 

If you want to give it a shot, you can get involved here - I hope to see you in there. My IU handle is the same as my twitter handle, DGTrading101, so go find me in chat and I'm more than happy to speak with you during the day and help you out if I can. 

Also keep a look out for nightly scans and webinars, I'll be getting involved there as well. 

See you out there! 

- D