Successful speculation is not a fluke, and it’s not mysterious. All that’s required to do it – correctly and profitably – is for someone to show you the ropes.

That’s why you’ve come to Monument Traders Alliance.

In the Alliance’s live recommendation portal, The War Room, there’s a community of experts and novices alike, sharing smart, well-researched ideas that work – all in real time.

The only thing that separates the novices in The War Room from the experts is experience. And that comes with time. But if you have the right mindset, you’ll do well no matter your level of experience.

Let’s be honest. Any hack with a trading account can blindly follow whatever recycled advice they hear. They may even make a few bucks. And they might begin to think they’re some kind of trading pro.

We’d all be millionaires if that’s all it took. Instead, it’s only a matter of time before the markets chew such traders up and spit them out.

Monument Traders Alliance will change how you approach speculation – forever. You don’t need some fancy command center. All you need is an internet connection, a basic calculator and the mindset of a trading pro.

You can’t purchase a good trader’s mindset; you have to cultivate your own. And this guide will help you get there.

Restoring the Lost Art of Smart Speculation

So what is smart speculation, and why is it a lost art?

I found the answer in an amazing book. It’s called The Zurich Axioms by Max Gunther.

The book’s 121 pages offer a brilliantly crafted collection of market knowledge. It’s the blueprint for how we’ll deal with risk and speculation in Monument Traders Alliance. I highly recommend you read the book, but for your convenience, I’ve boiled down some of its essential lessons in this report.

The author, Max Gunther, was an Anglo-American journalist and writer. He managed the New York branch of the Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC). He used his ancestral home of Switzerland as an example of clever investors.

The resource-poor mountain nation has almost nothing to sell, but its people are fabulously wealthy. Why? According to Gunther, it’s because they’re a nation of savvy investors.

Of the 12 axioms Gunther outlines in his book, there are four key ones I’ll focus on in this report: risk, loss, position sizing and greed.

“Worry is not a sickness, but a sign of health. If you’re not worried, you’re not risking enough.”

From Gunther…

Worry is an integral part of life’s grandest enjoyments. Love affairs, for instance. If you are afraid to commit yourself and take personal risk, you will never fall in love. Another example: Sports. An athletic event is an episode in which athletes, and vicariously spectators, deliberately expose themselves to jeopardy – and do a powerful amount of worrying about it. Life ought to be an adventure, not a vegetation. Adventure is what makes life worth living – and the way to have adventure is to expose yourself to risk.

I’m operating under the presumption that 90% to 95% of your money is safely tucked away, that it’s earning a return that’s hopefully outperforming the S&P 500 and outpacing inflation. That’s smart. That’s safe. That’s secure. But it’s also boring.

Here at Monument Traders Alliance, we’ll help you put the remaining 5% to 10% of your wealth to work in The War Room – speculating intelligently.

Let’s be clear though, this isn’t reckless trading. Far from it. Rather, as a subscriber of Monument Traders Alliance, you’ll receive calculated, precise strategy speculations that have proved successful and enormously profitable for decades.

“Accept small losses cheerfully as a fact of life.”

From Gunther…

Welcome a loss? I never met anybody who could or did. (But) get in the habit of taking small losses. If a venture doesn’t work out, walk away and try something else. Don’t sit on a sinking ship. Don’t get trapped. If you wait for sagging ventures to improve, you are doomed to frequent disappointment – and doomed, too, to remain un-rich. The most productive attitude – admittedly not an easy one to achieve – is to expect small losses the way you expect any other less than pleasant fact of financial life. Taxes, or electric bills. Try to think of small losses that way. They are part of the cost of speculation. They buy you the right to hope for big gains.

A big part of smart speculation is being properly positioned ahead of time for a future move to occur. The “big winners” you hear about on CNBC have already happened. They aren’t helpful to you. We want to be the traders buying ahead of the fanfare that surrounds a newsworthy move or event.

If we do it right and our speculation hits, you’llbe the one cashing in. You’ll be chuckling on your way to the bank just as everyone else is hearing about the payoff for the first time. Even if your speculation doesn’t hit, no need to worry, it’ll be a small loss that we can move on from.

The key is structuring your play in such a way that you can get out for a small, manageable loss. If you do it correctly, you’ll hit grand slams when you’re right and suffer minor losses only when you’re wrong.

Follow this formula over time – hitting a larger percentage of winners than losers – and you’ll always come out ahead.

“The only way to beat the system is to play for meaningful stakes.”

From Gunther…

Only bet what you can afford to lose. You hear it in Las Vegas, on Wall Street, and wherever people risk money to get more money. As most people interpret it, it is a formula that almost assures poor results. Consider this. If you bet $100 and doubled your money, you’re still poor. The only way to beat the system is to play for meaningful stakes. This doesn’t mean you should bet amounts whose loss would bankrupt you. You’ve got to pay the rent and feed the kids, after all. But it does mean you must get over the fear of being hurt. If an amount is so small that its loss won’t make any significant difference, then it isn’t likely to bring you any significant gains either. In the normal course of speculative play, you must start out with a willingness to be hurt, if only slightly. Bet amounts that worry you, if only a little.

Everyone has a different risk tolerance. By law, I can’t field questions on position sizing. However, I will say this…

Say you want to make $2,000 per day in The War Room. If that’s your goal, then don’t buy one $300 options contract and expect success. Even if you hit a 100% winner overnight, your $300 is now $600. That’s a fantastic overnight gain… But as Gunther points out, you’re still not rich.

When it comes to your own position sizing, set yourself a daily profit goal. Then get positioned to “make it count.”

In other words, if your speculation goes your way, make sure you’ve maximized your return. Don’t be left wishing you’d bought more of that play. Go into each speculation with the proper allocations based on your preset goals. That way you’ll be perfectly ready to make it count when things do go your way.

“Amateurs everywhere do it. They stay too long and lose.”

From Gunther…

Don’t ever try to squeeze that last possible dollar from a set. It seldom works. Don’t worry about the possibility that the set still has a long way to go – the possibility of regret. Don’t fear regret. Since you can’t see the peak, you must assume it is close rather than far. Take your profit and get out.

Virtually every game comes with a defined start and a defined end. For instance…

• The board game Monopoly ends when your opponent goes bankrupt.
• A marathon ends once you cross the finish line after running 26.2 miles.
• A professional baseball game usually ends after 9 innings.

But here’s the thing…

When it comes to Wall Street, the game never ends automatically.

In fact, you’re always required to call your own endgame, which can lead to holding on too long… and eventually losing.

So here’s the proper mindset.

Never expect to bottom-tick your entry or top-tick your exit. Nobody in the modern history of the financial world has ever been able to consistently buy the exact bottom and sell the exact top.

If you ever find yourself asking whether to cash out or keep holding, always compromise by selling HALF of your position. That way you lock in some profits but still allow yourself to capitalize on future gains.

It’s the best way to have your cake and eat it too.

After all, as a wise investor once said, nobody has ever gone broke taking profits.

Trade Like You Mean It

As you begin this new journey, keep these speculative principles front and center in your mind. You’ll soon see how this new approach will dramatically impact your daily trading results in The War Room.