[00:00:00] Hala Taha: Yeah, fam, welcome back to the show. Happy Black History Month. And in honor of this amazing month, we're going to be playing episodes from our favorite Black entrepreneurs on every single Friday of the month. And our guest today is Terry Ijeoma. Terry empowers thousands of people from around the world by teaching them how to supplement their income through trading, investing in the stock market so they can design and enjoy their dream lifestyle.

In 2018, Terry was named entrepreneur of the year by the National Black MBA Association, and she also hosts the most popular course on Teachable called Trade and Travel. In today's episode, we discuss Terry's career journey and how she went from being an assistant principal for an elementary school to earning over seven figures as a self employed entrepreneur.

We get a crash course from Terry on how to start trading in the stock market. We talk about the personal and emotional side of investing, and also the importance of investing in ourselves. I loved this episode. It was so actionable and easy to understand. And even for the people who have no experience in investing, I got so many comments from listeners who said they loved this episode.

It went viral on YouTube. So I'm sure you guys are going to love it. So let's jump right into my interview with the amazing black entrepreneur, Terry Ijeoma.

 We always talk about something called skill stacking on the podcast.

And I feel like your story is a perfect example of this because you were in education and then you leveraged those skills once you started to learn how to invest. vest. And then you started your course that kind of merged everything. So walk us through your career path. How did you gain all these experiences and skills to then finally come out with this course that was a huge success?

[00:01:57] Teri Ijeoma: Ooh, I like this topic of skill stacking. I have so many cool skills. Okay. So I actually first learned about investing in high school. Many people don't know that, but I went to this program in Chicago called LEAD, and they introduced us to the Chicago Stock Exchange. So I remember in high school, Google, my senior year, Google IPO'd or had their initial public offering, and it was 83 a share.

And I remember going to my grandmother like, granny, we gotta buy this stock. And she's like, what are you talking about, baby? We didn't have any money. We didn't know what to do. So we missed out on this great opportunity to get in to Google at 83. Now it's over 2, 000. But ended up going to college because I was still like, you know what, I'm going to figure this thing out.

So went to MIT and interned on Wall Street and said, okay. Now I'm gonna get it. I'm finally gonna learn. Girl, you know they don't teach you nothing in your internship. We were, uh, We were looking at spreadsheets and all this stuff and I still didn't know how to actually invest and even after college. But went on this whole different trajectory.

I went into management consulting. In consulting, we, um, I say we, but it's really just me. In consulting, one of our clients was Teach for America. And that's when I got into education, went on a completely different path. So for a little while, I was like, okay, that finance stuff, it's cool over there, but I'm all about, you know, education equality, and I want to have all the kids have equal opportunities.

So went down this whole path, which led me to be an assistant principal of an elementary school. So I'm thinking, okay, I'm going to be in this school forever. Girl, then I ran into the boss from hell and was like, oh no, no, no, no, I cannot do this I don't and honestly like Working in schools is hard and so I'm not gonna say like anything bad about her But I do think that she just was like the most nitpicky boss ever I would cry every day in the bathroom I would cry on the way to work and it wasn't just me like the other assistant principal too would be in the bathroom crying We'd be like taking turns and then at the end of the day like have to go over our misery stories What happened to you today girl?

Oh, did that happen girl? You know this happened to me today So it was just a really toxic work environment. And I ended up deciding, you know what? I need to leave. I got to quit this because I can't die here. I can't be this unhappy. And I was I was gaining weight. I was just I was stressed out to the max.

And that's when the investing came back around. I had been doing it. I didn't tell you this, but like around 2010 when the stock market fell, I had started trading as a side hustle. And so like while I was in education, it's still been like a hobby. So when I decided to leave the school, it came up as like, well, let me just see if I could use that to be my main thing.

All I need is 300 to replace my income. Let me just see if I could make 300 a day. Yes, ma'am. 300 a day. All I needed was that to replace my income. So I started trading, I'm still at the school, still hating it, but I'm trading on the side, like I'm gonna be out of here one day, y'all, y'all playing with me, don't, don't ask me no questions.

And I started actually getting to my goal, I started hitting 200 a day, then it was 300 a day. Finally got to a place where I felt comfortable quitting my job as assistant principal, and I just started traveling all over the world and trading stocks. And that's literally how I got into trade and travel.

It's 

[00:05:29] Hala Taha: so cool that it was so organic and you just leveraged everything that you knew. The fact that you were trading and traveling, that you were in education and you knew how to teach students and you had experience. experience there and you knew all this investing information and you put it all together and you put out a course and it's a massive hit.

I always talk to people that like, there's no such thing as an overnight success. This reminds me so much of our stories are totally different, but they're so similar in the same way because it's like I picked up pieces and then. came out with a marketing and podcast agency and it blew up because when you have all the right skills and you've done it before yourself, it's just so much easier to start a business.

So kudos to you. That's awesome. Okay. So let's just give people some foundation in terms of like how much money we're talking about when it comes to the type of money that you're making from trading. So what was your best day ever? 

[00:06:22] Teri Ijeoma: Ooh. I actually had my best day ever recently, like a few weeks ago, and this is actually like the beginning of when I was about to premiere the docuseries.

I have a docuseries that you're actually coming to speak at part of the panel, but I made a million, a million dollars, 83,000. It's 1,000,080 $3,000 in one day trading stocks. Wow. I made it on Amazon. 

[00:06:50] Hala Taha: Oh my gosh. That's crazy. That's amazing. Using Amazon stock. So guys, she's not playing. Like she knows what she's doing.

We're going to pick her brain. Okay. So one more like intro question. I heard that you spent 30, 000 on a course. And you paid it on your credit card when you were in this job that you hated because you wanted to educate yourself enough to be able to do this for real. And you, and you knew that education was the path.

So talk to us about the importance of investing in ourselves because a lot of people would say 30, 000, no way. But what's the benefit of, of investing in yourself in that way? 

[00:07:28] Teri Ijeoma: Yes, girl, at that time, I didn't have 30, 000 to spend. I was only making 60, 000 as assistant principal. So this 30, 000 per class to learn how to invest was half my salary.

some people are like, 30, 000, Terri, what are you talking about? But just think about it. I invested 30, 000 back then. And yeah, I put it on a credit card because I didn't have that kind of money. But I said, I'm going to learn this skill and I'm going to pay myself back. But now I just made 1, 000, 000 in a day.

So that 30, 000 investment has led to me having the skill set to make a million dollars in a day. And not only can I make that one time, I still have the skill set. So I can do that over and over and over again. And it might not be a million dollars in a day. For some of the people on here, they're like, Oh my god, this doesn't even sound real, but just imagine if you make 200 a day.

That's 1, 000 a week, 4, 000 a month, and then you times that by the year. Now this 200 a day is now 48, 000 extra a year. Because you have this skill set and it keeps on giving back. So I think that was the best 30, 000 that I ever could have spent. And of course, now I'm teaching the course and I wanted a little bit more accessible.

So I'm not charging that much for it. But I think that even it's worth more, it's worth more than the 30, 000 I spent because you can always keep using it and keep getting that return. 

[00:08:51] Hala Taha: Yeah, I feel like people don't realize that the ROI of learning a new skill literally lasts forever and you can keep using it, building on it.

And I think sometimes you don't need to pay for a course. You could just intern for free somewhere. And it's very similar to taking a course that you get that information and you put your time investment. So if you don't have the money, you could put in the time too, which people don't really think about.

[00:09:14] Teri Ijeoma: It's about learning that skill set. Like once you've learned the knowledge, nobody can take that away from you. Like, it's not going anywhere. It's locked in your mind, and you can use that in so many assets. Like, even now, when we talk about the skill building, or what did you call it? Skill? Skill stacking.

Skill stacking. Those skills didn't go anywhere. From educating, and from education world, I learned how to teach. Then from, I worked in operations, I learned how to make things work well, and make things seamless, and low, like very efficient, low effort, low energy, right? Now I'm in this course where I'm teaching people how to trade and guess what I'm using?

My education and my operations, right? So those skills last forever. 

[00:09:54] Hala Taha: Yeah, 100%. So let's first start off with the basics.

A lot of people think about stocks, and I have a lot of folks coming on the show, and they talk about long term investments with stocks. And they always say, you don't want to trade, you're never going to win, you just want to play it safe, put your money in S& P index funds. or buy and hold, but trading is totally different.

So explain to us what the difference is between trading and long term stock investing, and then what you think the benefits are of trading as opposed to buying and holding. 

[00:10:29] Teri Ijeoma: Sure, so Let me use the analogy of real estate because many people understand real estate more than stocks. So it'd really be the difference between someone who buys a house and keeps it long term versus a flipper.

So you get the house, you fix it up, and then you sell it real quick to make a return. Or the person with a longer term house, they may have renters and just wait for the value to appreciate. But both of them are still investors and neither one of them is wrong. They're just doing it for different goals.

That's the same thing with short term investing versus long term investing. Honestly, as an investor, I'm still investing in high quality, really great companies. The same ones that a long term investor would invest in. I'm just getting in and out of them because I have a goal. Whether that's, I paid off my, my student loan debt with trading, I had a goal.

I need to make certain amount of money each week so that I can put it towards my debt. Or I bought a house with trading. Hey, I have a goal, right? And even for when I was first leaving the school, I needed 300 in a day. So that was my goal. Anytime you have a shorter term goal, you can use trading for that, and it's not, like we said, it's not bad or any worse than long term investing.

It's just different. Hmm. 

[00:11:42] Hala Taha: Okay. And then what's the difference between a regular trader and a swing trader? 

[00:11:48] Teri Ijeoma: Great. So there's different time frames of how long you hold a stock. If you hold it for one day, so say for example I get into Amazon today and I sell it today, that's a day trade. Some people are day traders and that's all they do.

Then if I get into Amazon today but I hold it even just overnight one day, that's a swing trade. You can swing trade or hold a stock up to a year and still be considered a swing trader. So if I get out of it in two weeks, two months, three months, I'm a swing trader. Oftentimes, swing traders do super well because you can still take advantage of the quicker movement for your goals, but you hold on to it a little longer so you can actually make some good returns.

Okay, 

[00:12:31] Hala Taha: and would you recommend a beginner start off day trading or swing trading or long term investing? 

[00:12:37] Teri Ijeoma: Honestly, you can do all three. I don't think you have to choose That'd be like going into a candy store and be like the only thing you can eat are Butterfingers. Girl, eat whatever you want to eat. But I'm a technical analysis trader and I look at charts and that's what I use to dictate how long I keep a trade.

If I get into a trade at a certain point on the chart and it says, wait until this target, if it takes a day to get there, then I keep it a day. If it takes two weeks to get to my target, I keep it two weeks. So it's not like an arbitrary time that I'm picking. I'm actually more so going by the data of a stock chart that tells you the pricing.

 I know that your big thing and what you're known for is people trading stocks as a side hustle, basically, or to help them get out of their, like, eventually make it a main hustle. But a lot of people start as a side hustle. So let's talk about the time commitment. How long does it take to learn how to trade?

[00:13:39] Hala Taha: And then how long do you have to do work every day to, like, let's say, make 300 a day? 

Great question. So it doesn't take long to learn. I have a course called trade and travel and it's eight week program. So it takes you eight weeks to learn and then you can start trading, right? And we actually start trading in like the second week.

So you're trading right away and practicing and becoming better. But I do say it takes about a year to become consistent. I don't want anyone to think this is a get rich quick type of thing. No, this is the same thing as if you were going to any school and learning a new skill. If you're learning a new language, if you're trying to become a doctor, like anything where it takes a skillset, you got to learn for a while and practice.

That's the same with training. Eight weeks to learn, but then give yourself about a year to become consistent. And then when we think about like how much time each day, I think my students would do well if they did maybe like an hour per day of studying, at least at night time. What I would do is when I got into the bed each night, I would pull up my watch list of companies that I'm checking out and I would look at their charts at night.

And then I would see if there was anything that I would want to do the next day. And then when I was assistant principal, I would check in the morning time. I'd make a meeting with myself. Don't tell nobody. and then at lunchtime I would check my cell phone and then right before the market closed around the time that the kids were getting picked up, I would check one more time.

So it doesn't take a lot of time to like actually check and monitor the trades. It's just give yourself some time to do homework at night. That's 

super interesting because a lot of people I think might get intimidated by this, but when you break it down that way, it doesn't seem so difficult. I'm actually really, I want to take your course.

I'm like super hyped about it. Come on! I used to do long term investing. I pulled all my money out and I was doing really good, but I was more of like a buy and hold or maybe like, I guess I was a swing trader. I would just change things around every few months. Um, so maybe that's technically a swing trader.

really interested in your course. So tell us about your course. Where can people find it? 

[00:15:39] Teri Ijeoma: Sure. And I just want to make a point of that. Oftentimes people do say that you should be a buy and hold investor, but then you have things like March of 2020 when COVID happened and the whole market falls. And a lot of long term investors saw their accounts go down like 65%.

And yes, they can say, well, if you just held onto it, it came back up to where it was. But as an active investor, we are a little bit more flexible so we can actually take our money out, get back in when it's at the lows and then ride that higher and make some additional gains. We wouldn't just have to wait until our money came back.

Right. So I think that like, you're a great example of someone who, you know, you were in it for the long. Hall and then you saw something happen to your account in March. So I think that's a great example. And then you asked me about the course, right ? 

[00:16:27] Hala Taha: Yes. Tell us about where people can find the course because I feel like it's super valuable and if there's any like discount, my listeners can have let 

[00:16:34] Teri Ijeoma: us know.

Yes. So find the [email protected] and I'll actually say that's a free webinar. I'm gonna give your listeners a free webinar to first learn how I teach people to make a thousand dollars in a day. Cause there's like four set things that you have to be good at. Like one, you have to be good at picking the right companies.

Cause that's a downfall girl. When I first started, I picked all the wrong companies and. You can't be good if you're picking the wrong company. So we start there. Then we go into risk management. I know one of the biggest fears that people have is losing their money. So I actually teach you how to protect yourself from losing.

So we talk about things like there's an order type called a stop loss. How do you put that in? It like takes you out of the trade if your money starts going down. Or what about checking your reward to risk ratio in advance? We talk about that in risk management. Then we go into charting, which I told you before is like, how do you find the right price to get in and the right price to get out?

Because there's been several great companies where it just wasn't the right time. Even Apple, Apple's a great company, but there's been times where it was like it fell right after you got into it. So you can figure that out by reading charts. And then we go into a trading plan to take all the emotions away.

Like so that you're not. Staring at your phone all day or nervous, like if you have a checklist, which I give all my students, it's a trading plan, then you can take their nerves away. So I have a free webinar talking about all those [email protected]. Amazing Trade travel.com. 

[00:18:04] Hala Taha: Yes. Thank you for sharing that with us.

Well, we still have you for about 20 minutes, so I am definitely gonna ask you about a lot of those things that you just mentioned. Let's start about how we can get. So first thing we got to do is open up a brokerage account. Is there a platform that you recommend in particular? 

[00:18:21] Teri Ijeoma: Yes, there's one that I use and a lot of my students use.

It's called trade station, but I actually am going to recommend a couple new things to your audience. Cause I think like you guys deserve the best. So there's a platform called trading view. It's free, and you can also do it, use it as a simulator. So you can do practice trades on it, and it's called tradingview.

com. So check that out, and then you can connect it to your brokerage. So even if you're using a different broker, you can practice in TradingView, and then press go, and it'll execute in your brokerage account. So I really like that tool. There's another tool I like that's a simulator as well. It's called Rapunzel.

R. A. P. U. N. Z. L. They don't spell it all the way right. So that's why I spelled it out. But they let you practice with 10, 000 of fake money. But you can actually practice trading in there as well. Um, so I think actually referring you to brokers is great. But I also think you letting you know about Simulators where you can trade with fake money is even more important because I want you guys to practice before you just jump in and start trading.

[00:19:28] Hala Taha: I think that's amazing advice. I didn't even know that they had simulators. That's really cool. So something else that you taught me is about margin accounts. I was listening to you and I heard that you recommend opening a margin account. So can you explain what that is? 

[00:19:44] Teri Ijeoma: Yes. So this is Risky. I'm putting that out there from the jump.

Yep. This is a little risky. However, it is so essential. This is one of those things where nobody tells you it's even a possibility until like you find out like in the whispers in the hallway, right? But this is so important. So what it is is certain brokers will let you trade with two to four times your cash amount.

I know I'm going to repeat that certain brokers. will let you trade with two to four times your cash amount. That means if you have a account with Merrill Lynch, that's, that's connected to bank of America. They let you trade with two times your cash amount. If you have 2, 000, they let you trade with 4, 000.

What? Uh, or with TradeStation, the one I was telling you guys about before, they do four times your cash amount. So if you have 2, 000 in your account, you can actually trade with 8, 000. Now, why is this important? It's important for a few reasons, and I know somebody is just cringing that I even mentioned it.

Terry, why did you say a margin account? That is so risky. Yes, but that's why we do a whole class on risk management. That's why we teach you on the front end how to protect yourself. However, it allows you to do bigger trades, which makes you able to also trade with higher value stocks. So, for example, say I only have two thousand dollars in my account, but I really want to buy one share of Amazon.

Well, one share of Amazon is $3,500. I can't afford that, but Amazon moves like a hundred dollars a day. Well, what if that was my goal for the week? All I need is $100 a week. All I needed to trade was one. Share that margin account would allow you to trade a higher value stock. Another reason that margin accounts are good.

Margin accounts let you trade quicker. So in a regular brokerage account without margin, you have to wait for three days, three business days for your money to come back. So say I sell, I'm still talking about Amazon, so we'll keep going with that analogy. Say I sell my Amazon stock. It would take three business days for that money to get back into my account, and then me to be able to trade again.

If you have a margin account, you actually can start trading with that money the next day. Because they use that margin to refill your account. Right. And then the last thing that I love about margin accounts is you can make money on the way down. So many people think the only way you can make money is by waiting for the market to go up.

I buy low and I sell high. But there's something called short selling where you can make money as the market falls. I see you nodding like you, you know this. So like you can actually make a lot of money when the market falls, but you can only do that in a margin account. So you just it's a, it's a easy check mark on your application.

Select that you want this type of account. And it's like a line of credit. You don't have to use the extra money, but it's just there if you need it. But those are some bonuses of a margin account. 

[00:22:38] Hala Taha: That's really great. So what's the risk involved? Is it that if you lose money, you have to pay that money 

[00:22:42] Teri Ijeoma: back?

It is. So if you lose that money, then you have to put more money into the account to replace it. And another thing too, is there is a small interest. That you'll pay on it. So if you, have you ever had a, a line of credit on a house, like a home equity line of credit, or heard of that? Not 

[00:23:00] Hala Taha: on a house, but I've heard of it.

[00:23:01] Teri Ijeoma: Okay. So on a on a house, if you do a home equity line of credit, they just kind of use the equity to give you an account of money. And if you use that, you pay like a small interest. That's the same with this kind of account for trading. If you use the money you pay, like. Depending on the broker, it's very different, but it's usually like 3 for every 10, 000 that you use.

It's usually really small, but they'll just charge you interest for using that money until you sell your 

[00:23:26] Hala Taha: stock. Yeah, so basically, if you feel, have a really good feeling, you did your homework, you feel like this is a very safe investment, you just wish you had a little bit more money to get more stocks or whatever, this is a good option for you.

So I love that. Another like, whisper that I heard you mentioned on another podcast that I was like, wow, I've never heard of that is opening up your account as a joint bank account. Talk to us about that. Why is that important? 

[00:23:51] Teri Ijeoma: So many people ask me about taxes and. If you are a trader, an active trader, you actually shouldn't worry so much about taxes because you literally are going to be charged like regular income.

Any money that you get, it'll be the same as if you had like a Uber job or some side hustle job. You just report the income at the end of the year and you pay the gross tax bracket of whatever your full amount of money is for the year. This is actually perfect for when you lose your job, your regular income is low.

And then you make a little money from trading, but you're still only taxed at the tax bracket. Your normal tax bracket, right? Um, so some people are really scared, but they shouldn't be. In that same vein, if you do a joint account, then someone else can access the money in your account without paying taxes.

So for example, I did a joint account with me and my mom. If I had a different type of account and say something happened to me and the money was transferred to her, she'd have to pay taxes on it. But since her name is already on the account, if something happens to me, she just has access to the money.

So that is something else I, I encourage for people that do have family members that they want to have access to the money. 

[00:25:00] Hala Taha: Really interesting. Awesome advice. Okay, so next step, we need to choose a stock or an ETF, correct? Is there anything else that we could choose? 

[00:25:11] Teri Ijeoma: So you open your brokerage account.

You choose. There's several asset classes, but the ones that I teach are stocks and options. So stocks are a regular company options are a hundred shares of that stock. And it's like a little bit, it's a contract that says I agree to buy a hundred shares or sell a hundred shares at this date in the future.

So those are the two that I teach ETFs, which you mentioned are just exchange traded funds, but they have. several stocks in them that you can trade at one time. I like them because one, you could pick like a sector. Say that you wanted to follow all of healthcare. There's one, uh, ETF that I like called XLV.

Now you're trading all of healthcare instead of like picking, I want to be in this vaccine stock and this Johnson and Johnson and this such and such. And And disclaimer, I'm just educational purposes only. I'm not telling anybody to invest in anything now. But you can actually invest in a sector instead of just one company.

That also goes for like technology. Say you like all the technology, you can pick like XLK. That does all technology stocks. But ETFs are safe ways to invest in a group of companies instead of just 

[00:26:24] Hala Taha: one. Okay, so let me just like replay this. So stock is like one company options is a hundred. Shares of one company and you have a contract you have to sell it at a certain time.

Is that correct? Mm hmm, and then ETFs is a bunch of companies and it's one share of a bunch of companies 

[00:26:44] Teri Ijeoma: Yes, you're gonna be my number one student. I already see it like go girl. Yes That's so 

[00:26:49] Hala Taha: cool. I feel like the it's so much simpler like when you you're such a good teacher because I feel like usually you hear that and you get all like nervous.

So where do you find funds? Like how do you know what funds exist? Like what's a good resource to figure that out? Because I feel like that's not obvious. 

[00:27:04] Teri Ijeoma: Yeah, I've been trading now for 11 years, and I have about 30 companies on my watch list. which I've still been trading for most of the time that I've been trading.

So, um, when you join the course, I actually will give you that list of stocks and they work really well. So I'll just say that. And then, uh, for the ETF, there is a website that's called etf. com, etf. com. Check that out. And you can kind of Google in there a sector. So say healthcare and it'll tell you all the ETFs that fall in that sector.

So that's another way to check things out. But honestly, I'd go with the tried and true way in the course, joint trade and travel, and I will give you all the stuff that works. 

[00:27:46] Hala Taha: Awesome. Okay. So let's get into how to pick a stock, a single stock. So I had this guy, Robert Leonard Millennial Investing, and he talked about qualitative versus quantitative factors.

And he believes that qualitative factors are more important. So he likes to look at things like, you know, how long have they been in business? Are they trending? Like what, you know, what's their future like? Are they innovating? What's in the, you know, 10 K that's not so obvious. And he's like kind of looking through for qualitative information.

As opposed to just looking at the financials. So what's your perspective on that? How do you pick 

[00:28:24] Teri Ijeoma: a stock? It sounds like he might be a fundamental investor. So there's fundamental investors that look at just like you said, they're looking at the The earnings reports they're looking at the forecast and really diving into the research of the company And then there's people like me that are technical analysis traders.

So we're looking at the stock chart We're looking at price movement and we're usually not In a company for the long haul. So we're not as interested in it. 10 year outlook, we really are looking at where is it going to move in the next month to week? Right. Um, so for me, technical analysis is more of my thing.

I look at candlestick charts, but I will say when I'm looking at a company, I want it to be a company on an uptrend. And I usually look over the last year. So I'm not looking at companies that have been going down. Over a long period of time, I'm still looking at high value companies, so I don't like penny stocks.

Anything less than $10 is usually not my thing, actually never my thing. And I'm still looking at companies that move at least a dollar a day because I'm trying to reach for a goal. I need the stock to move. So there's some like blue collar, blue chip companies that really only move a couple cents a day.

That wouldn't be one that I would trade. 'cause I want. You know, to actually make money each, each day or week, That's really interesting. So you mentioned something called a candlestick chart. Could you explain to us what that is and how we can read candlestick charts and what the premise of that 

is?

Sure. And definitely check out trade and travel on YouTube too. Cause we have like a video all about candlestick charts, but it literally tells you like each candlestick tells you where the stock price opened, where it closed, and then where the stock price moved throughout the day. And we, it looks like a little candle, like a little rectangle with lines coming out, but the thing is, when you put those candlesticks together, it tells you the story of that stock.

So it tells you where there's a lot of people buying and where there's a lot of people selling. And when I say people, these are big banks like Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, big banks with like millions of orders at a time. But when you look at the direction of those, you can. See, like, dang, all of a sudden this stock just stopped right here.

Like the, the candles kind of do a little formation and then, you know, Oh, there must be a lot of orders to buy at this stock price. And you can do the same, even on the, as they go up and you're like, whoa, this. All of a sudden, the candles just stopped and changed direction right here. There must be a lot of orders to sell.

That's what we're following to dictate when we want to get in and buy and sell. Awesome. 

[00:31:13] Hala Taha: So what are the ways that we would like hedge our risk when it comes to day trading? What are the mechanisms to make sure that, you know, things don't go really south? 

[00:31:22] Teri Ijeoma: Yes. Let me tell you, okay, first I'm going to just tell you about the worst trade I ever had ever.

Um, it was Pandora stock. One, I chose the wrong company from the jump. I like to choose companies that are also the best in their sector. And I thought, oh, everybody's listening to the radio on Pandora. I did not think about Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music, so many other competitors that were better. So one, I picked the wrong company from the jump.

Second, and all these things I'm telling you are also things that I teach to mitigate your risk. One, picking the right companies. Then, I was so bold and so, like, greedy that I bought 8, 000 shares. Girl, 8, 000 shares, if it went down a dollar, I was down 8, 000. Right? So, Also, monitoring your quantity size is a way to protect your risk.

And I actually have formulas to help you pick all of these things. Like, how do you pick how many shares, right? Another thing I did wrong was that I was trading during earnings. Earnings is when a company reports how they're doing. But it's so risky because the company may say they did wonderful and the stock price drop, or they may say that they did horrible and it just all of a sudden jumps up.

It's like playing Russian roulette, right? Don't trade, like timing is also important. Not trading during earnings, looking at their calendar, right? Then reward to risk ratio. Oftentimes we start hearing about a stock and we're like, Oh my God, everybody's in it. I'm late to the game. So many people are making money.

And by the time we get into it, the stock is at highs. So as soon as we get in, it starts falling. I call that FOMO, fear of missing out. That's a big mistake in trading. And then the final one, after you think about your reward to risk ratio, the final one is just knowing when to exit a stock. Oftentimes we get in, but we have no exit strategy.

And actually there's one other one. Part of this exit strategy is using a stop loss. A stop loss is you thinking about, if this trade goes wrong, where am I going to get out of this trade? And you can put an order type in that sits in the computer and it takes you out. But also in this same exit strategy planning, you need to have a target in mind.

A lot of people will get into a trade and they'll say, you know what, I'm just going to let it run. No girl, you are not just going to let it run. I need you to get out or, or, or guy. I need you to have a target in mind before you even get into the stock so that when it hits that, you know you can get out and take your profit.

So those are some of the mistakes and the solutions for some of those mistakes that I often see to protect yourself 

[00:34:03] Hala Taha: as a trader. Oh my gosh, that was so good. So talk to us about like the emotion involved, because what you just mentioned was really an emotional thing, the fact if you see it going up, you're like, well, I don't want to take it out.

I don't just want to let it ride. I like you get greedy, right? So what are the emotions that we need to watch out for when it comes to this 

[00:34:22] Teri Ijeoma: stuff? Trading is so emotional. I'm so glad that you brought that up because even on that one trade, the one I told you was my most horrible trade ever. Girl, I was boo hoo crying.

I almost quit trading altogether. That day I called my mom and I was like, I'm quitting! I don't know what to do! And, and she, she was so calm. But she is not a calm person. You're gonna meet her. And she's usually like the super bubbly. But she told me in that moment, she said, Well, Terri, how are you gonna get your money back?

If you don't keep going, and so all of a sudden I'm still crying. I can like barely see through the tears, but I'm like, okay, fine, let me try to figure it out. It is emotional. Um, some of the emotions, like you're going to get greedy sometimes when you see it go green, you're going to want just one more dollar.

And I, and girl, there have been some million dollar days where I did not take my profit because I just wanted a couple more cents. And I risked my whole million dollar gain for just a couple more cents, right? And that's stupid. It sounds so simple, but in your mind when you're in it, you're like, Oh, it's going to go up just, you have hopium.

It's going to go up just a little bit more. And then when it falls, there's also this despair. And I think sometimes people start questioning themselves as a person. And I don't want to scare anybody from trading. A trading plan will help you with this. When you have a set of like, this is what I do every time, then it takes some of the emotion out.

But we're just, we're talking real talk right now. When your trade is going down, you feel a little hopeless sometimes. And then another thing is, sometimes I caught myself doing this. I would question myself like, man, Terry, that was so stupid. You know better than that. Dang, you do this every time. But I think that's a discipline.

That learning how to become a better trader has also learned, taught me how to become a better person. Because anytime you have a struggle or a hard time in life, like, you have to learn how to not directly push it back to yourself and feel like, well, I'm just bad. No, the situation is bad. This is a hard time right now.

This happened to me, but it doesn't mean that I'm a bad person. So these are all things that you learn as you become a better 

[00:36:41] Hala Taha: trader. The other thing I imagine is you probably have like a set of rules or values that no matter what the environment is, you've. Got to stick to your values. And I feel like that also can help in real life too, that like just learning that skill and not just being reactive to everything.

[00:36:58] Teri Ijeoma: It does. It definitely does. 

[00:37:00] Hala Taha: Okay. So last, uh, stock related question, and then we'll, we'll start to close this out. Uh, what is a risk? to reward ratio. How does that work? I'd love to learn more about that. 

[00:37:11] Teri Ijeoma: Yeah. So as I'm looking at the stock chart and I'm determining, okay, this is the price where I want to get in.

I can also look at that same chart and say, okay, this is where I want to get out. As I'm looking at that, that's my risk from where I get into the trade to where I'm planning to like get out on the bottom side. Like if it goes wrong, that's the amount of risk that I'm taking. Now I have to determine. Is this trade going to give me three times the risk that I'm taking on for this trade?

And you can actually figure that out as well by looking at a stock chart. That's why I say I'm a technical analysis trader. I'm very heavy on looking at stock charts. If I can calculate that the reward is three times the amount of risk that I found on the chart, then I'll take the trade. But if the reward is not three times the risk, then that trade is not worth it.

I'll go on to another stock or I'll just wait. And sometimes traders have to learn how to do that too. Just be patient and wait for the right opportunity. 

[00:38:11] Hala Taha: Amazing. Terry, this has been such an incredible interview. The last question I ask all my guests is, what is your secret to profiting in 

[00:38:20] Teri Ijeoma: life? I'm a very spiritual person, so I do say that, like, believing in a higher power, believing in God, and believing that, like, There is a reason why I'm helping all these people because the world will be a better place.

I think that's, that's been really a big blessing for me. And then just persistence. Keep going. Even when it gets tough, just keep going. Oh, I love 

[00:38:42] Hala Taha: that. That's beautiful. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and everything that you do? 

[00:38:47] Teri Ijeoma: Definitely check out that free [email protected], trade and travel.com, and you can find us everywhere at Trade and Travel YouTube.

Instagram everywhere. Cool. We're going 

[00:38:57] Hala Taha: to stick those links in the show notes. Terry, such a great interview. So jam packed with information. I think my listeners are going to love it. I can't wait to collaborate again. I can't wait to meet you in person tonight. And thank you so much. 

[00:39:09] Teri Ijeoma: Same here. Thanks for having me.