Trader & Coach: Matt Justice
Trading is often marketed as a shortcut to freedom. But when you talk to traders who’ve survived multiple market cycles, one truth becomes unavoidable: consistency isn’t built on shortcuts. It’s built on experience, accountability, and learning how to master yourself long before you master the market.
In this episode of Market Mamas, I sat down with trading coach and market veteran Matt Justice, who has been navigating the markets since 2005. What followed was a grounded, honest conversation about what it really takes to last in this business, and why most traders struggle long before strategy is the problem.
Here are the core lessons from our conversation. But also, I definitely recommend you watch the full episode linked above too so you can really hear the best from the chat!
Experience Is the Real Edge in Trading
There is no substitute for time in the market. You can read books, watch videos, and study charts endlessly, but until you’ve lived through drawdowns, losses, overconfidence, and humility, you haven’t learned how trading actually feels.
Both Matt and I agreed: Consistency doesn’t come from finding the “right” strategy. It comes from showing up day after day, learning from losses, and slowly building trust in yourself.
Early traders often ask, “What’s the secret to consistency?” The honest answer is simple and frustrating: experience.
The Most Dangerous Early Mistake: Position Size
Matt’s first big lesson came quickly. After a couple of early wins, he did what many new traders do: he overleveraged.
Putting 60–80% of an account into a single trade might work once or twice, but it guarantees failure over time. Trading is a probability game, and when too much capital is placed in too few trades, the risk of ruin skyrockets.
A key principle Matt emphasized:
If you risk more than ~4% of your capital in leveraged trades, longevity becomes nearly impossible.
Losing streaks are inevitable. Oversized positions make them catastrophic.
When traders say “trading is gambling,” it’s often not the market that failed them. It’s poor risk management.
Trading Is About Accountability, Not Blame
The market is neutral. It isn’t out to get you, and it doesn’t owe you anything. As traders, we choose: what we trade, how much we trade, when we trade, and how we manage risk.
The sooner you accept full accountability, the sooner trading becomes empowering instead of emotional. The market will do what it does. Your job is to respond with structure, discipline, and respect.
Why the First Year Is Supposed to Be Hard
One of the most reassuring parts of this conversation was reframing early struggles as normal. None of the great traders figured it out in their first year. Or their fifth.
Matt referenced legends like Dow, Wyckoff, Livermore, Elliott, Buffett, and Richard Dennis, all of whom endured years of losses, confusion, and refinement before mastery emerged.
The goal of year one isn’t mastery. It’s survival. If you’re still trading after your first year, you’re doing something right.
Learning to Trade Without Bias
Matt’s early career unfolded during the 2007–2008 market reversal, which forced him to confront something many traders avoid: markets don’t always go up.
He learned to approach trading from a top-down perspective:
Market first
Sector second
Individual stocks last
Most new traders start with the stock and ignore the bigger picture. But 50–70% of a stock’s movement is driven by the broader market and sector.
The key skill here is fluidity. Not clinging to bullish or bearish bias, but staying open to what price is actually doing. Price tells the truth. Always.
Mastering Patterns vs. Mastering Yourself
Every trader has something that comes naturally. For Matt, it was technical patterns. But ease in one area doesn’t mean trading is easy.
The hardest part for most traders isn’t entries or setups. It’s consistency, emotional regulation, and self-awareness.
Trading exposes your relationship with: risk, money, control, and fear. Which brings us to one of the most important topics we covered…
“Catch trends, not trades. It will change your life.”
~ Matt Justice, Tackle Trading & BluSky Trading
Your Relationship With Money Shapes Your Results
Most people are raised to:
Work for money
Save money
Associate money with time and effort
That mindset clashes violently with trading. When money is emotionally tied to hours worked or personal worth, traders hesitate, overreact, or sabotage themselves. A $100 loss isn’t just a number. It represents time, stress, and identity. To trade effectively, money must become a tool, not an emotional extension of yourself.
This shift doesn’t happen quickly. It takes years of awareness, mistakes, and intentional rewiring.
Why Journaling and Mentorship Matter
One of Matt’s coaching examples stood out: A frustrated trader believed everything was broken. After reviewing 20–30 trades, the issue wasn’t strategy. It was a small flaw in profit targeting.
That’s the power of:
Journaling
Reviewing data
Removing emotion
Working with a mentor
Most traders don’t fail because their system is bad. They fail because they abandon it too quickly. Strategy hopping is often emotional avoidance disguised as productivity.
You Can’t Learn This Alone
Books, podcasts, and YouTube are incredible resources. They expand knowledge and perspective. But they don’t replace: experience, community, coaching, and accountability.
Trading alongside others who’ve been through the same struggles makes the journey survivable. Community doesn’t eliminate losses, but it shortens learning curves and prevents isolation-driven mistakes.
Think Long-Term or Don’t Trade at All
People overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in 20. Every decision you make today compounds. Every rushed shortcut steals from your future self.
Trading isn’t about forcing trades. It’s about catching trends, knowing when to step away, and respecting the season you’re in. Sometimes the best trade is no trade at all.
Final Takeaway
Trading is not about perfection. It’s about patience, presence, and persistence.
If you’re in a hard phase right now, you’re not broken. You’re becoming.
And if you’re willing to respect the process, master yourself, and stay in the game long enough, the market will eventually meet you where you are.
🔗 Connect with the Guest Matt Justice:
👉 X: https://x.com/mattjustice13
👉 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TackleTradingTeam
Whether you’re new to the game or a decade’s seasoned trader and investor, Matt’s wisdom is a reminder that success comes from dedication, patience, relentlessness and adaptability, not aggression or ego. Conversations with other traders and educators in the financial industry are so valuable for me to have, and hence are such a gift for me to be able to bring to the public in this way. I’m so grateful that you joined me on the podcast Matt!
If you find value too, please do like and subscribe to the podcast on whatever platform you caught this conversation on and let’s evolve together into the highest profitability!! And if you are considering being a guest on my podcast as well, reach out and let’s talk!! https://www.market-mamas.com/contact Take care! 💛📈