BIO: Aaron Velky is an entrepreneur, author, high-performance coach, and speaker from Phoenix, Arizona.
STORY: Aaron felt stuck as an entrepreneur and decided to find a quick-fix investment. He landed on forex trading, which seemed like exactly what he wanted. Aaron never took the time to learn about the trade and lost $56,465 in this venture.
LEARNING: Think through an investment before you commit. Detach yourself from your emotions when investing. Don’t get involved with forex.
“Speed doesn’t come from transaction rate. Speed comes from capital magnitude.”
Aaron Velky
Guest profile
Aaron Velky is an entrepreneur, author, high-performance coach, and speaker from Phoenix, Arizona.
He’s the CEO of Money Club, a movement-in-a-business believing that while money matters, financial intelligence matters more. Money Club offers employers a meaningful way to retain their talent, deliver amazing company culture, and empower their people, taking their team through a series of workshops on personal finance and wealth building. One part motivating and high engagement workshops and one part financial tools, courses, app recommendations and action steps to better their financial future. Money Club also has an online community, courses and content to help those ready to invest and grow wealth.
He’s a principle and a personal performance coach with The Quitter’s Club, an organization that helps men and women quit the life they thought would make them happy to build the one that will. They host online mastermind programs and retreats focused on personal development, providing a structure and formula for quitting what no longer serves you so you can build a life by design.
He’s coached several hundred athletes and released his first book called Let Her Play that guides parents and coaches through a framework that creates better communication, more psychological safety, and increased physical performance on the field and in the classroom.
Worst investment ever
Aaron was researching various investment platforms looking for something new to do. He felt like he’d hit a plateau and was struggling with this identity under the success of the Money Club. He felt stuck, so he found himself in this inquisition mode, looking around for ways to go quickly.
Aaron wanted something that would give him immediate success. He found forex trading, liked it, and started with a play account. He found a broker overseas, conversed with them, and immediately started working with them.
Aaron sent a couple of dollars to his forex account. He’d have these moments where this couple of dollars turned into a couple more quickly. There would be days when Aaron would put $100, and then it would suddenly be $300. So he put in more money. At some point, he started playing with serious swings and making a couple of thousand dollars daily. Aaron was having a field day. At one point, he’d be up five grand. The next day, Aaron would be down four grand, then up six, down three, and so on. This up-and-down rollercoaster saw his emotional turbulence hit the roof, and he was very unstable during this period. The more money he made, the more he kept investing in the forex account.
Then one day, Aaron’s winning was like 100 grand. He decided to stop here and pull out his winnings. Now he had a sizable account and was feeling good. The excitement made Aaron try one more trade. He did, and it tanked. Aaron was left with negative $12,000. Now he owed the trading company $12,000. On top of that, he’d already lost $56,465 in forex trading.
Aaron decided to research the trading company and finally realized that the company had put him on a fake trading account because the entire company was a hoax. Luckily, he didn’t have to pay the $12,000.
Lessons learned
- Don’t be so hard on yourself when you lose. Learn from the experience.
- Research people better.
- Calculate your risks before you invest.
- Go slow and think through an investment before you commit.
Andrew’s takeaways
- Don’t get involved with forex.
- If you are obsessed with forex, get a job as a forex trader in a bank and gain experience, then trade on your own.
- Detach yourself from your emotions when investing.
- If you feel you’re on an emotional roller coaster of highs and lows, that’s gambling. It’s not investing, so get out of it.
Actionable advice
Gain financial literacy. Get educated, then invest. You’ll do way better if you follow that sequence.
Aaron’s recommended resources
No.1 goal for the next 12 months
Aaron’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to get incredibly good at pushing people past their comfort zones. He wants to help at least 150,000 people (over his lifetime) get to a point where they feel safe and stable.
Parting words
“Do as I say, not as I do.”
Aaron Velky
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