# "YOU CAN’T TRADE STOCKS IF YOU’RE SCARED — GROW SOME BALLS!"

An episode of [Earn Your Leisure](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1450211392), 5 Dec 2025, 7:40.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/8dbc4f54-a337-4481-9ef2-b355012b0a3d/304c2f2b-a496-4f95-9b47-b3aa00cfc81f/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=eac4c628-29cb-469a-b5c8-b355012b0a48

In this insightful clip from Market Mondays, Rashad Bilal and Ian Dunlap dive deep into the psychological side of trading and investing. Ian Dunlap shares his trading tip of the week, advising futures traders to manage fear, embrace bigger risks, and strategically increase the size of their trades for bigger rewards. He recommends going for 33 contracts on the S&P 500 and targeting 42 ticks, which can potentially result in significant gains—if you have the courage to size up at the right moments! Rashad Bilal highlights the importance of emotional intelligence in investing. He stresses that understanding your emotions is crucial for navigating market volatility, avoiding panic selling, and sticking to your plan. Emotional discipline, Rashad says, is what separates successful investors from those derailed by fear during downturns. The clip covers strategies for managing risk, the benefits of having conviction in your research, and the wisdom in sticking to long-term investing—even through market drawdowns. Ian Dunlap breaks down the importance of knowing when to short the market, but he cautions against making shorting a primary strategy on assets that generally appreciate over time. Whether you’re a futures or options trader, or just looking to strengthen your investing mindset, this discussion is packed with honest advice, practical trading tips, and encouragement to build both your financial skills and your emotional resilience. *Key Points Covered:* • Why futures traders should consider increasing their contract size to maximize returns. • How emotional intelligence helps you handle market volatility and drawdowns. • The discipline needed for long-term investing and the importance of trusting your research. • When it makes sense to short the market versus holding long positions. • Strategies for both novice and experienced traders to improve their trading game. *Watch this clip to learn how mastering your mind is just as important as mastering the markets!* *#MarketMondays #TradingMindset #InvestingTips #EmotionalIntelligence #FuturesTrading #OptionsTrading #StockMarket #FinancialFreedom #RiskManagement #RashadBilal #IanDunlap* See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: This episode is brought to you by P and C Bank.
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[0:43] Speaker 2: What about the trading tip of the week?
[0:46] Speaker 1: What's the trading tip of the week for.
[0:48] Speaker 2: My futures traders? I want to be very honest and
[0:50] Speaker 2: say I want you guys to have less fear and
[0:53] Speaker 2: more kahunas. The thing I do love about the options
[0:56] Speaker 2: market is that people who just started options trading there
[1:01] Speaker 2: like eight contracts and they're gonna hold. Meanwhile, futures traders
[1:05] Speaker 2: play it too small. So a target that I love
[1:08] Speaker 2: is thirty two three contracts go for forty two tips
[1:11] Speaker 2: on the S and P five hundred. That's a little
[1:13] Speaker 2: bit over ten points. That should put your like over
[1:16] Speaker 2: seventeen grand per trade, and if you get two or
[1:18] Speaker 2: three of those in a month, you'll be a okay.
[1:21] Speaker 2: But in lesson for this week, you have to learn
[1:24] Speaker 2: when to put on size. You can't play the one
[1:27] Speaker 2: to four contract game forever because you're going to miss
[1:31] Speaker 2: your window of actually making real money that can change
[1:35] Speaker 2: your life that you can then put into the market
[1:36] Speaker 2: or buy an amazing property like Rasha did on a discount.
[1:41] Speaker 2: You have to have enough cash flow to be able
[1:43] Speaker 2: to do so. So thirty three contracts is a target.
[1:45] Speaker 1: I love.
[1:46] Speaker 2: Go for forty two tips. You'll be a seventeen and
[1:48] Speaker 2: some change per trade. Do that three times a month
[1:50] Speaker 2: and you'll be okay. But have some balls to trade.
[1:53] Speaker 1: Have some clueunds. I'm with you, you do uh, I'm all
[1:55] Speaker 1: about the mitigative risks. But yeah, having two contracts go
[1:59] Speaker 1: to a thousand sucks when you get ahead like five, right,
[2:02] Speaker 1: it's just about yeah, you got to have to cap on.
[2:05] Speaker 1: I just want to add to this because I've been
[2:07] Speaker 1: I've been having a conversation with people. Especially since the
[2:10] Speaker 1: last options class about emotional intelligence, I feel like that
[2:13] Speaker 1: that's overall the theme that has just been coming back
[2:16] Speaker 1: into my conversations is the emotional intelligence in life that's necessary, right,
[2:21] Speaker 1: to navigate through the world, to navigate through relationships, to
[2:24] Speaker 1: navigate through business, you need to have it. Investing it
[2:27] Speaker 1: it's also needed, right, So, like when we see when
[2:31] Speaker 1: we have volatility like we did two weeks ago, like,
[2:33] Speaker 1: how are you reacting to that? Like? What? How how
[2:36] Speaker 1: do you feel when you see your account go down?
[2:39] Speaker 1: It draws down because the entire stock market went down?
[2:41] Speaker 1: Are you moving right? Are you budgeting? Are you selling?
[2:44] Speaker 1: Like a lot of people that some people I shouldn't
[2:46] Speaker 1: say a lot. Some people will sell. Some people will say, oh,
[2:48] Speaker 1: we've been here before. Some people this is their first
[2:50] Speaker 1: time and they're like, hey, there's no way to start
[2:52] Speaker 1: my investing journey. Right. But this is why we always
[2:55] Speaker 1: talk about long term. This is always why we talk
[2:57] Speaker 1: about by time, because when you buy time, you're buying
[3:00] Speaker 1: into it. The volatility of the market you can't control that.
[3:03] Speaker 1: We had this conversation the other day. I'm like, yo,
[3:05] Speaker 1: we made an investment. I'm like, look, we got time.
[3:07] Speaker 1: We got we got some time. When I hear the
[3:09] Speaker 1: market now it's a strong company. We got to really
[3:12] Speaker 1: believe in the company. Believe in the research. It's like
[3:15] Speaker 1: have emotional discipline. But when you do your research, have
[3:19] Speaker 1: conviction in it. Trust what you what you did, trust
[3:22] Speaker 1: what you did, and even if right it there's a
[3:26] Speaker 1: draw down or it hits that threshold, remember you had
[3:29] Speaker 1: your plan. Right, if it was some people fifty percent,
[3:33] Speaker 1: all right, well yeah, get back and there'll be another opportunity.
[3:38] Speaker 1: If you believe in that, if you trust the research
[3:40] Speaker 1: that you've done, have conviction, but have the emotional talents
[3:43] Speaker 1: to say, you know what, I understand what this feels like.
[3:45] Speaker 1: Because the day that you run up sixty percent, you
[3:48] Speaker 1: should feel the same exact way. Right, it should be
[3:53] Speaker 1: even killed, have your seat bolt on, trust the research,
[3:56] Speaker 1: trust what you're doing, and just be patient.
[4:00] Speaker 2: The feature side, like thirty three contracts for Nazek, it's
[4:02] Speaker 2: thirty three thousand es the sixteen thousand, five hundred. I'm
[4:06] Speaker 2: not saying it's a small chuck to change, but I
[4:08] Speaker 2: know some people who are doing one hundred thousand dollars
[4:11] Speaker 2: elsewhere and getting nine percent, and it's like if you're
[4:14] Speaker 2: able to get you to four hundred percent inside of
[4:16] Speaker 2: a trade or two at some point. No, when to
[4:19] Speaker 2: put on risk if you have your long you have
[4:22] Speaker 2: to have your long term porfolio set up first. And
[4:24] Speaker 2: even with this drop has happened, if you've bought in March,
[4:28] Speaker 2: in April and last year, you should still be up
[4:31] Speaker 2: a tremendous amount. Now you can put on some risk
[4:35] Speaker 2: and if the market's falling to the downside and you're short,
[4:38] Speaker 2: and you should be up even more. Six to your
[4:41] Speaker 2: game plan. You like to the market, Hell yeah when
[4:46] Speaker 2: it's falling, and it's a great lesson. Only short when
[4:49] Speaker 2: the market is falling and go long when it's going up.
[4:51] Speaker 2: That's why I say you have to obey direction. Look
[4:53] Speaker 2: at that month, week, then day. Obey it always. But
[4:57] Speaker 2: when the market is falling, the market is going to
[4:59] Speaker 2: fall fast. In the caras got to take advantage of it.
[5:02] Speaker 1: I'm just not only in futures's for sure. I've just
[5:06] Speaker 1: never I've never been a big put guy. It's probably
[5:11] Speaker 1: not worth the risk.
[5:12] Speaker 2: But the futures market is evenly weighted because they only
[5:16] Speaker 2: care about the transaction and liquidity inside of it, So
[5:19] Speaker 2: you're getting in and out inside of a day anyway,
[5:22] Speaker 2: So you're just playing the true direction.
[5:23] Speaker 1: Yes, I say in the market makes a lot of sense.
[5:25] Speaker 1: Is I just don't have the around so much. And
[5:30] Speaker 1: like I said, volatility happens puts And if people do that,
[5:33] Speaker 1: great you can make money both ways. Right when the
[5:35] Speaker 1: market goes up, you can make it on calls. You
[5:37] Speaker 1: can make it on puts on the way down.
[5:38] Speaker 2: Great.
[5:39] Speaker 1: If you're skilled at that, great, If that's your strategy, great.
[5:41] Speaker 1: I just never have been big on it.
[5:44] Speaker 2: There's no reason to go short an asset that normally
[5:47] Speaker 2: goes long. Michael Burry, I love you dealing, but there's
[5:52] Speaker 2: no reason to continually short an asset that goes Yeah.
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