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Why I Finally Took the Plunge Into This Course

Let me paint you a picture I’m sure many traders will recognize. It’s 11:37 PM on a Wednesday. I’m sitting in my boxers, eating cold pizza, staring at my brokerage app for the fifth time that day. I’ve just revenge-traded away my gains from the past week because I couldn’t accept being wrong about some “sure thing” biotech stock that my brother-in-law (who works in healthcare, so you know, he’s practically an insider 🙄) tipped me off about.

That was me last October. Despite reading dozens of trading books and watching countless YouTube “gurus” spew the same recycled advice, I kept making the same dumb mistakes. My technical analysis was decent enough—I could spot patterns and had a solid grasp of indicators. Hell, I could draw a mean Fibonacci retracement. But something was seriously wrong with my execution. It was like I had trading split-personality disorder.

I knew I needed something different—not just more technical setups or fancy indicators with confusing names, but something addressing the psychological barriers preventing me from following my own damn trading plans. That’s when a friend in my trading group (shoutout to Mike from Cincinnati) mentioned Trader Stewie’s approach and how it had helped him overcome similar issues.

The $299 price tag gave me pause (especially after dropping nearly $2K on courses that now collect digital dust in my downloads folder), but the emphasis on psychology alongside technicals resonated with my recent realizations. So I took the leap, determined to make this the last trading course I’d need to buy. My credit card is still thanking me.

What Makes “The Art of Trading” Different?

Unlike other trading courses I’ve taken that throw 50 different setups at you and expect something to stick (looking at you, “Master the Markets in 7 Days” program I bought in 2021), Stewie’s approach is refreshingly focused. The course is structured as a book with about 60 minutes of complementary video content, and it centers around three core principles:

1. Trading is 80% Psychological, 20% Technical

This isn’t just lip service like in other courses that mention psychology for five minutes before diving into endless chart patterns. Stewie dedicates nearly half the content to specific psychological techniques that address common trading pitfalls. And lemme tell ya, I needed this badly.

For example, his “pre-trade checklist” has completely changed how I enter positions. Before taking any trade, I now run through a series of questions that force me to articulate exactly why I’m entering, where my stops are, and—this was big for me—what emotions might be driving the decision. Is it FOMO? Revenge? Boredom? (Turns out a lot of my worst trades happened when I was just plain bored at work. Go figure.)

2. Less Is More: Mastering a Few Reliable Setups

Instead of overwhelming you with dozens of patterns with fancy names like “three black crows” or “abandoned baby” (still sounds like a horror movie to me), the course focuses on mastering a handful of high-probability setups that work across different market conditions. His bull/bear flag pattern identification technique alone has improved my entry timing dramatically.

What separates his technical approach is the emphasis on context. It’s not just “here’s a flag pattern, go trade it”—it’s understanding what the pattern means about institutional money movement and how it fits into the broader market environment. Are we in a bull trend? Bear trend? Choppy nonsense? Is volume confirming the move? All that jazz.

3. Systematic Risk Management as Non-Negotiable

Stewie’s approach to position sizing and risk management is methodical and non-emotional. His 1% risk rule and setup quality assessment framework have brought a level of consistency to my trading I’ve never experienced before. Before this, my position sizing strategy was basically “how sure do I feel about this trade?” — which, unsurprisingly, led to disaster more than once. (Still having nightmares about that 15% position in COIN options last year… yikes.)

What resonated most was his insistence that proper risk management isn’t about avoiding losses—it’s about making losses manageable so they don’t affect your decision-making on the next trade. This mindset shift has been transformative for my trading psychology. I used to treat every loss like a personal failure; now I view them as just part of the business expense. My blood pressure thanks me.

My Real Results After 4 Months (With the Actual Numbers)

Let’s get into the numbers, because that’s ultimately what matters. In the four months since implementing Stewie’s methodology:

• Win rate increased from 41% to 62% (tracked obsessively through my trading journal – I use Notion for this)
• Average winner increased by 31% thanks to his scaling out techniques (from avg. 8.7% to 11.4% per winning trade)
• Trading frequency decreased by about 40% as I became more selective with setups (from ~22 trades/month down to ~13)
• Maximum drawdown reduced from 8.2% to 3.7% of account value (my worst week used to wipe out a month of gains)
• Account growth of 18.4% in 4 months vs. 5.3% in the PRIOR 4 months (and that was during a bull market!)

Beyond the numbers, the emotional difference has been night and day. I no longer feel the compulsive need to check charts constantly. I actually went on a weekend trip with my wife and didn’t look at my positions ONCE. She was shocked. My anxiety during trades has decreased significantly—no more waking up at 3 AM to check futures. And perhaps most importantly, I’ve stopped beating myself up after losses, treating them instead as the cost of doing business.

Was the transformation immediate? Absolutely not. The first month was rough as hell as I had to consciously fight against years of bad habits. I actually did WORSE my first two weeks because I was overthinking everything. By month two, I started seeing improvements in my win rate, but it wasn’t until month three that the psychological benefits really kicked in. Trading is a marathon, not a sprint.

The Pros and Cons: Brutally Honest Assessment

Is This Course Right for You? (Spoiler: Probably Not If…)

After working through the material and applying it for four months, I have a pretty clear idea of who would benefit from this course and who should save their three hundred bucks.

This course is perfect if you:

• Already understand basic charting and technical analysis (know your candlesticks from your bar charts)
• Struggle with emotional trading and psychological barriers (hello, fellow revenge traders!)
• Find yourself making the same trading mistakes repeatedly (my specialty before this course)
• Want a complete methodology rather than just technical setups (the “why” behind the “what”)
• Prefer learning from text with supporting visuals (the book format worked great for me)
• Value sustainable long-term results over quick profits (get-rich-quick folks, look elsewhere)
• Have at least a $5k account to work with (position sizing gets tricky with less)
• Are willing to do the uncomfortable psychological work (this isn’t just chart patterns)

Skip this if you:

• Are a complete beginner with no understanding of charts or candlesticks (go learn the basics first)
• Want a fully automated system that eliminates decision-making (this isn’t a trading bot)
• Prefer extensive video content over reading (this is 80% written material)
• Need hand-holding with constant community support (it’s a solo journey)
• Are looking for advanced day trading techniques specifically (this is more swing/position focused)
• Want a quick-fix solution without addressing psychological aspects (sorry, your mental hang-ups WILL be addressed)
• Don’t actually want to put in the work (be honest with yourself here)
• Think you already know everything (your ego will fight this material)

Final Thoughts: Worth the Investment? (Oh Hell Yes)

Four months after purchasing The Art of Trading, I can confidently say it’s been one of the most impactful investments in my trading journey. Not because it taught me secret technical patterns no one else knows (spoiler: those don’t exist), but because it helped me identify and address the psychological barriers that were sabotaging my trading success. It was like holding up a mirror to my worst trading habits and finally having the tools to fix them.

The course isn’t perfect—I wish there was more video content and some form of community support (I ended up creating a small Discord group with a few friends who also took the course). But the core methodology is sound, practical, and most importantly, effective when applied consistently. And let’s be real: for $299, it’s a steal compared to what some “gurus” charge for rehashed garbage.

What I appreciate most is the emphasis on process over outcomes. By focusing on proper setup identification, risk management, and psychological discipline, Stewie creates a foundation for long-term success rather than quick wins. The technical patterns he teaches work well (especially the flag breakouts—those are money), but it’s the integration with psychological principles that makes the methodology truly powerful.

If you’re looking for a trading approach that addresses both the technical and mental aspects of trading in a practical, applicable way, The Art of Trading deserves a spot on your shortlist. Just remember that like any worthwhile skill, implementing these principles takes time, patience, and consistent practice. You won’t be a trading psychology master in a week, and that’s OK.

The real value isn’t in finding the perfect indicator—it’s in becoming the kind of trader who can execute their strategy consistently regardless of market conditions. And that’s exactly what this course helps you develop. As Stewie says in one of the modules, “The market doesn’t care about your emotions, but your emotions certainly care about the market.” Learning to manage that relationship is the real secret sauce.