Not too long ago, nobody involved in the stock market or options trading knew who I was.
After a devastating flood wiped out our family gift shop business, I let Jack (my husband) contend with the repairs and renovations, and I decided to pursue a new career as an options trader. I honestly had no clue how to begin.
So, day after day and night after night, after five brief (2-hour) introductory option classes, I taught myself how to read charts, how to use an online broker, how to read candlesticks and patterns, how to interpret an option chain, how to select the correct expiration – and how to pay the overflowing bills that came whether our business was opened or closed.
Facebook and YouTube were just a few years old, and “online trading” was in its infancy at the time.
Little by little, the pieces began to fall into place. Every stumbling block or foreign aspect was met by the determination to solve the mystery, conquer the concept, and make it work for me.
“If I could learn to trade without having a financial education, so could other women.”
After five years, I learned the elements that were important and what was intended to keep me – along with other traders – confused and on unsure footing. If we could trade for ourselves, we didn’t need brokers and financial specialists’ advice, and we didn’t need them to handle our trades for us and charge high management fees.
Eventually, I started winning more trades than I lost and made more money than Jack and I ever earned working long hours seven days a week at our gift shop.
In 2009, I started writing my first book on a fold-out table upstairs in the gift shop during the day and at home at night. My approach was to teach my friend Virginia McCullough to trade options. I would write down the important nuggets that were needed to trade successfully and cut out all the nonsense designed to confuse. I knew, if I could teach Virginia, I could teach others.
If Virginia didn’t understand something or needed clarification, I rewrote or added to that section or topic until the subject was clear, and she understood and was able to apply the concepts.
I wanted more than anything to write and inspire other women to improve their financial circumstances through options trading. If I could learn to trade without having a financial education, so could other women. Women working as teachers could trade during summer vacation, retirees could trade and add to their social security income, stay-at-home moms could trade during kids’ nap times, working women could choose trade candidates in the evening and place trades online.
I learned during this trading and writing process that many of us are averse to change, and we sabotage ourselves with negative self-talk. We have our core “belief system” (which I now call “BS”) that can limit or attack our efforts to advance and improve our life circumstances. These beliefs can be our own, or they can be imposed upon us by others. Either way, these beliefs encourage us to wallow in the status quo and do whatever is necessary to avoid change, even if it means remaining in deprived life.
When I faced the walls of the corner that Jack and I had painted ourselves into back during the time of the flood, I wasn’t happy with the alternatives that our life had to offer. We had everything tied up in the gift shop… our income, 25 years of life-effort-equity, non-existent savings, and retirement … and it had all been wiped out. We stood on the edge of bankruptcy and homelessness.
So I decided to learn how to improve my life and our family’s financial future.
“I gave my whole heart to learning every aspect of trading, and I began teaching other people who wanted positivity, progress, and financial independence in their life.”
Honestly, when I began this dream of trading it wasn’t all sunshine and roses. I quickly failed, realizing after my first option trading classes that I had learned just enough to be dangerous.
Yet, I was convinced that options trading held the key to improving our life. I had a great deal of my own “BS” to dispose of, and, believe me, my beliefs and fears used every method available to suggest I was insane to jump into a new career, something I had no education to support – and, besides, at the age of 56, maybe I was too old to learn something new.
I had no money to invest. Geez, I was in debt up to my ears. It got so bad I used the money we’d set aside for the electric bill at the shop to pay for those first trading classes, but then the electricity was off due to the flood, so why not?
I was thankful that Jack was able to work on drying out the shop, making repairs, and painting. We had a place to live, but our cottage was so small that I used the dining room table as my extended desk, where I stacked all our bills and my trading notebooks, laced with fears that needled me with new concepts.
One night, Jack and I held each other and cried under the weight of our bills. It broke my heart.
But it also made me face the reality.
I decided that I MUST change the situation and pursue my dreams with more intention and purpose.
I decided to think bigger, to stop letting our small business experience make me small-minded.
I decided not to worry about critics, including myself, who said I was crazy. I wanted to share what I had learned, but I couldn’t help but think, “Just because I taught myself to trade options and had made some money doing it didn’t mean I could write a book about it. After all, I wasn’t a writer.”
“Today, everything has changed. It’s because of a lot of work and a go-for-it attitude.”
However, instead of worrying about how to write a book and how to get it published, I just proceeded and wrote it, teaching my friend how to trade. I formed a local women’s trading group, and we learned together. I gave my whole heart to learning every aspect of trading, and I began teaching other people who wanted positivity, progress, and financial independence in their life.
I studied successful traders, practiced teaching the techniques I’d learned, and I worked each and every day at becoming the person, trader, and contributor or mentor I knew I could be.
Today, everything has changed. It’s because of a lot of work and a go-for-it attitude.
- Our gift shop was restored, conducted business until 2012 when it was sold and Jack retired.
- Our retirement account has been fully funded.
- Option Trading in Your Spare Time, my first book, was published in 2010.
- 14 Options Trading Strategy books have been published by TradeWins Publishing
- We’ve paid off our cottage in town and the cabin 30 miles north in the mountains. We also purchased the 100 acres and lodge (guest residence) surrounding our cabin, which is located on top of a mountain.
- My YouTube videos help new traders, and my webinars are well attended by both new and seasoned traders.
- I publish a chart list viewed every day by hundreds of traders.
- I offer five subscription services for people who need more direct support in their trading.
- Every day, I moderate a real-time trading chatroom with traders around the world.
Other things have changed as well.
That tiny fold-out table where I wrote my first book is gone with the sale of the shop.
Now I trade and write in my dream library on a fancy desk, overlooking a valley of farmland and far-reaching mountain ranges stretching 30 miles as the crow flies. Even rainy days bring vivid rainbows.
I’m blessed to share author space, speaking platforms, and webinars with the great option traders who I studied and share my trade techniques with traders around the globe.
And, finally, I don’t have to eat cheap noodle dinners or watch my family struggle anymore.
“You are more powerful, capable, and stronger than you imagine.”
I guess you could say that, as Facebook and YouTube matured and defined themselves, so did I.
This became a bigger calling and business that I decided to really become vested in because I saw its impact on my readers and subscribers. It changes lives.
There’s no doubt that you guys made these results happen because you let a feisty old woman like me follow my dreams, cheer you on, and you absorbed my ideas and incorporated them with your own, and shared my work.
And that’s why, in my books, I break it all down for you and tell you how I did it. I’m always reminding you that you can do it, too, and I continually try to create innovative strategies to help us both reach new levels.
In the beginning, there were just a few of you, five or ten. And then there were fifty. Then a hundred, then a thousand, and then, as I stayed with it for five years, every single day with full belief in the possibilities and gratitude for my early success that put me on this path and a dedication to excellence and serving others… well, here we are.
And so I say this to you, my friend:
Never limit the vision you have for your life based on your current circumstances or competencies.
You are more powerful, capable, and stronger than you imagine.
I had no reason to believe that I could one day live my dream as an options trader and writer; no reason to believe, I suppose, except that my heart told me it was my path, except that my mind invented dreams that felt so real, that my belief said all the struggle and the hardship, and the hard work would be worth it.
Please, my friends, believe in your heart and your conviction, and your goal even when it’s difficult.
“Options trading can change lives through the possibility of financial independence.”
The journey to success begins the moment we set aside our preference for what is easy and let our drive for challenge and change overpower our fears and negative belief system (“BS”). From there, deeper understanding comes when you share your gifts with others.
Don’t forget that growth often comes from events that may seem negative (like a life-changing flood) and many seemingly endless, fruitless days and nights of faith and discipline.
Options trading can change lives through the possibility of financial independence. Keep working, keep at it, do the part that you can do, and believe the rest will happen.
No matter how small you start, start. Start something that will change your future.
I was broke, and my livelihood was nearly destroyed, so how did I achieve financial independence? How did I get here…?
Not too long ago, nobody involved in the stock market or options trading knew who I was.
After a devastating flood wiped out our family gift shop business, I let Jack (my husband) contend with the repairs and renovations, and I decided to pursue a new career as an options trader. I honestly had no clue how to begin.
So, day after day and night after night, after five brief (2-hour) introductory option classes, I taught myself how to read charts, how to use an online broker, how to read candlesticks and patterns, how to interpret an option chain, how to select the correct expiration – and how to pay the overflowing bills that came whether our business was opened or closed.
Facebook and YouTube were just a few years old, and “online trading” was in its infancy at the time.
Little by little, the pieces began to fall into place. Every stumbling block or foreign aspect was met by the determination to solve the mystery, conquer the concept, and make it work for me.
After five years, I learned the elements that were important and what was intended to keep me – along with other traders – confused and on unsure footing. If we could trade for ourselves, we didn’t need brokers and financial specialists’ advice, and we didn’t need them to handle our trades for us and charge high management fees.
Eventually, I started winning more trades than I lost and made more money than Jack and I ever earned working long hours seven days a week at our gift shop.
In 2009, I started writing my first book on a fold-out table upstairs in the gift shop during the day and at home at night. My approach was to teach my friend Virginia McCullough to trade options. I would write down the important nuggets that were needed to trade successfully and cut out all the nonsense designed to confuse. I knew, if I could teach Virginia, I could teach others.
If Virginia didn’t understand something or needed clarification, I rewrote or added to that section or topic until the subject was clear, and she understood and was able to apply the concepts.
I wanted more than anything to write and inspire other women to improve their financial circumstances through options trading. If I could learn to trade without having a financial education, so could other women. Women working as teachers could trade during summer vacation, retirees could trade and add to their social security income, stay-at-home moms could trade during kids’ nap times, working women could choose trade candidates in the evening and place trades online.
I learned during this trading and writing process that many of us are averse to change, and we sabotage ourselves with negative self-talk. We have our core “belief system” (which I now call “BS”) that can limit or attack our efforts to advance and improve our life circumstances. These beliefs can be our own, or they can be imposed upon us by others. Either way, these beliefs encourage us to wallow in the status quo and do whatever is necessary to avoid change, even if it means remaining in deprived life.
When I faced the walls of the corner that Jack and I had painted ourselves into back during the time of the flood, I wasn’t happy with the alternatives that our life had to offer. We had everything tied up in the gift shop… our income, 25 years of life-effort-equity, non-existent savings, and retirement … and it had all been wiped out. We stood on the edge of bankruptcy and homelessness.
So I decided to learn how to improve my life and our family’s financial future.
Honestly, when I began this dream of trading it wasn’t all sunshine and roses. I quickly failed, realizing after my first option trading classes that I had learned just enough to be dangerous.
Yet, I was convinced that options trading held the key to improving our life. I had a great deal of my own “BS” to dispose of, and, believe me, my beliefs and fears used every method available to suggest I was insane to jump into a new career, something I had no education to support – and, besides, at the age of 56, maybe I was too old to learn something new.
I had no money to invest. Geez, I was in debt up to my ears. It got so bad I used the money we’d set aside for the electric bill at the shop to pay for those first trading classes, but then the electricity was off due to the flood, so why not?
I was thankful that Jack was able to work on drying out the shop, making repairs, and painting. We had a place to live, but our cottage was so small that I used the dining room table as my extended desk, where I stacked all our bills and my trading notebooks, laced with fears that needled me with new concepts.
One night, Jack and I held each other and cried under the weight of our bills. It broke my heart.
But it also made me face the reality.
I decided that I MUST change the situation and pursue my dreams with more intention and purpose.
I decided to think bigger, to stop letting our small business experience make me small-minded.
I decided not to worry about critics, including myself, who said I was crazy. I wanted to share what I had learned, but I couldn’t help but think, “Just because I taught myself to trade options and had made some money doing it didn’t mean I could write a book about it. After all, I wasn’t a writer.”
However, instead of worrying about how to write a book and how to get it published, I just proceeded and wrote it, teaching my friend how to trade. I formed a local women’s trading group, and we learned together. I gave my whole heart to learning every aspect of trading, and I began teaching other people who wanted positivity, progress, and financial independence in their life.
I studied successful traders, practiced teaching the techniques I’d learned, and I worked each and every day at becoming the person, trader, and contributor or mentor I knew I could be.
Today, everything has changed. It’s because of a lot of work and a go-for-it attitude.
Other things have changed as well.
That tiny fold-out table where I wrote my first book is gone with the sale of the shop.
Now I trade and write in my dream library on a fancy desk, overlooking a valley of farmland and far-reaching mountain ranges stretching 30 miles as the crow flies. Even rainy days bring vivid rainbows.
I’m blessed to share author space, speaking platforms, and webinars with the great option traders who I studied and share my trade techniques with traders around the globe.
And, finally, I don’t have to eat cheap noodle dinners or watch my family struggle anymore.
I guess you could say that, as Facebook and YouTube matured and defined themselves, so did I.
This became a bigger calling and business that I decided to really become vested in because I saw its impact on my readers and subscribers. It changes lives.
There’s no doubt that you guys made these results happen because you let a feisty old woman like me follow my dreams, cheer you on, and you absorbed my ideas and incorporated them with your own, and shared my work.
And that’s why, in my books, I break it all down for you and tell you how I did it. I’m always reminding you that you can do it, too, and I continually try to create innovative strategies to help us both reach new levels.
In the beginning, there were just a few of you, five or ten. And then there were fifty. Then a hundred, then a thousand, and then, as I stayed with it for five years, every single day with full belief in the possibilities and gratitude for my early success that put me on this path and a dedication to excellence and serving others… well, here we are.
And so I say this to you, my friend:
Never limit the vision you have for your life based on your current circumstances or competencies.
You are more powerful, capable, and stronger than you imagine.
I had no reason to believe that I could one day live my dream as an options trader and writer; no reason to believe, I suppose, except that my heart told me it was my path, except that my mind invented dreams that felt so real, that my belief said all the struggle and the hardship, and the hard work would be worth it.
Please, my friends, believe in your heart and your conviction, and your goal even when it’s difficult.
The journey to success begins the moment we set aside our preference for what is easy and let our drive for challenge and change overpower our fears and negative belief system (“BS”). From there, deeper understanding comes when you share your gifts with others.
Don’t forget that growth often comes from events that may seem negative (like a life-changing flood) and many seemingly endless, fruitless days and nights of faith and discipline.
Options trading can change lives through the possibility of financial independence. Keep working, keep at it, do the part that you can do, and believe the rest will happen.
No matter how small you start, start. Start something that will change your future.
Categories: Commentary, Financial Independence
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