I think it's absolutely incredible that we have Ralph Diemahn as a, as our presenter today, especially after this rousing discussion by Elliott. Ralph, it probably has had what I would consider the ideal career, because he's combined history with landscape or state parks or national parks. His last gig, his last gig was at the National Historic Park, which is fabulous. I'm sure you've all been there, which is the Mars Billings Rockefeller Historic Park, which is outside Woodstock. It's an incredible place, which combines everything you want to know about the forested landscape with agriculture. I mean, it is just in, it is Vermont in a place, everything together. He's also been able to, and I have to say this as a personal aside. When I go to a historic site, often the park rangers are more informed and better spoken about the site than almost anyone else I've met. The first time I went to Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the park ranger blew me away. Just period. His knowledge of what happened in that spot was spectacular. And so you've had the great jobs and they're now focusing more on history and he's going to tell us about the Vermonters and the blockade board backdoor war during the Civil War. And this is something we don't really hear much about. I first came across Ralph when he gave a presentation, which his book is on. He gave his presentation last year at the Shelburne Farms. He's written a book with Ethan Carr called Olmsted in Yosemite, Civil War abolition and the National Park idea. And it really put some great sensibility into the concept of how actually the National Parks were developed. And not something that Teddy Roosevelt bullied through with a whip. So, Ralph, please. Well, thank you, Carolyn. First of all, thank you for the invitation and I'm happy to, I wish I could have joined you today, but I'm happy to see everyone. And I'm happy to learn here about Elliott's work on the monitor barn as an adjunct associate professor in the historic preservation program at UVM. I'm terribly proud of people like Elliott who go through the program and are able to not only apply various skills, but do it here in Vermont and improve the built landscape for all of us to enjoy. That program is so vital and to see people like Elliott coming out of it just is heartening. Thank you, Carolyn.  And I also want to thank Angie, Angie Grove back there, who is a can do person. By definition, she can seems to be able to apply her energy and solve any problem that comes her way. It's really remarkable. We could have used a few more angies in the National Park Service, I can tell you that. And I also want to just do a quick shout out to my friend Sarah Dop only because Sarah has done so much for just about everyone you know in Vermont. She's a compassionate and hard worker, and the state owes her huge debt of gratitude for all the boards and groups she's worked on. So what am I going to talk about this afternoon well. I'm going to tell you a little background I started on the subject. When I was researching my book on homestead in Yosemite and you may scratch your head and wonder what Vermont has to do with that and certainly what the Civil War might have to do with that. But in fact, you know, my research took me to the coast of South Carolina actually Port Royal. And the social revolution that was sparked there by the arrival of federal troops very early on in the Civil War, that really accelerated emancipation. The whole process in fact a process of self emancipation that made the, in some respects made the formal emancipation proclamation inevitable. And this was the movement of formerly enslaved people to freedom on their own on their own volition into the sanctuary of federal lines. But this got me looking at well where did where did these US soldiers arrive from and and what were they doing on the edge of the continent in South Carolina and in fact they were not only there they were in Georgia and lo and behold they were in Louisiana. And where did who were they, where do they come from and in fact, this story is about the fact that some number of them actually came from here. We're recruited in Vermont and sent.  All the way around by ship, down the coast of the United States around hooked around the Florida keys and found themselves in the Gulf of New Mexico. And if, if they underwent a journey to the far to the to the moon, and that's what it was really like for many of them, I would say really that they went to the far side of them. Because this was unlike anything that ever experienced before. So I got interested in this story because there's a social component to this it's not just military history. This backdoor war which was fought along the coastline of the deep south. But it was far from those main battlefields of the Civil War that we are so familiar with. This is 1000 miles from Gettysburg from Cedar Creek. And yet Vermonter is paid a consequential but really little understood role in the social revolution that was sparked by this backdoor war first by arming and training freedmen freed freed formerly enslaved. Then by actually accepting commissions to command and to lead the first black soldiers. And finally in the service of the freedman's bureau during the era of reconstruction. So Vermonters had a part of the part of the story of each of these events which really is tied to the story of probably the greatest transformation in the history of this country which was the ending of slavery. The attempt to provide civil rights to a population that had been brought over in bondage. So bear with me, and I'm going to switch to my slides here. Take me a moment. I just got to show you two, two, two images that you should be familiar with one is a mid century 19th century map of Vermont. With a recruitment poster sandwiched it between a map of Louisiana and this is really how this story played out. Now just a little bit of background. I want to talk about a US government agency far older than the National Park Service and that is the US Coastal Survey, and you may ask, what the heck does Vermont have to do with the US Coastal Survey and it's a legitimate question. This was an organization that was created in 19 and 1807 by Thomas Jefferson. Their job was surveying the coastline of the United States. This was very important to the country to be able to know its coast. It was a lot of its revenue came from import duties and they wanted to know where ships were coming through. And so this was the organization and also they wanted safe navigation so they needed to put markers down and lighthouses and needed nautical charts. This organization became known as the nation's chart maker. And the gentleman on the right is the first director and he was a director from 1844 right through the Civil War and we'll get to him in a minute. But if you're wondering what happened to the US Coastal Survey, if you're familiar with NOAA, that's the successor agency today. And so this is what they produce. This is a map of the coastline, southern coastline, from the Panhandle of Florida to the head of the passes, which is the entrance to the Great Mississippi River. The mouth of the Mississippi on the lower left, the Panhandle of Florida on the far right, and the coastline of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. These charts became invaluable when the Civil War broke out. But there was one other thing that the US Coastal Survey produced and this is a remarkable map. This map is still, I have to say, I've done as much reading as I can on it and it's still a bit of a mystery. In terms of its timing, its creation, it was a product of the Coastal Survey who had lots of map makers, very talented map makers. And then they had access to the 1860 census. And this is a very early statistical map that's shaded to show the density of enslaved people, county by county, throughout the south. And this map was to become absolutely essential in the conduct of the Civil War and I'll explain that later. But this map was created, released in early in 1861 Lincoln administration, hadn't been a month or two in office. And I have no idea how long they've been working on this. It's a there's backstory here would be fascinating but this became an absolutely essential document for the prosecution of the Civil War. Now, as soon as the war broke out that there was a real challenge because let me jump a slide forward. The only way to really win this war that they need two things needed to happen one they had to shut down the export of cotton from the Confederacy, because that was its cash crop, and it was the largest cash crop in the whole United States. And to do that they had to blockade 3500 miles of coastline. It's a phenomenal undertaking the United States maybe was small. That was almost 200 different inlets harbors and rivers, where commerce were trade pass through. And ports and ports like Pensacola, Florida, Norfolk, Virginia, Mobile, Alabama, Wilmington, Delaware, Wilmington, North Carolina, Charleston, course in South Carolina and Galveston and Texas and the two big ones, Savannah, and the biggest of all New Orleans. And to do this, they essentially resorted to kind of a skunkworks effort very early in the war they assigned four guys to sit in an office in the Smithsonian Castle. The only Smithsonian Institute was a quiet corner space. Bach was on the board and was it was maybe I think he may have been running it at that point, one of his many assignments so that was not a problem to get space there and for four months, they poured over these charts, figuring out how the heck are they going to be able to affect a blockade of 3500 miles of coastline. In four months, they came up with a plan, and they drew on the inspiration of an earlier idea that was of old Winfield Scott was it was a general the army up until about time the Civil War broke out but he had a concept which he called the anaconda plant. And if you can, you can see this from this cartoon, the anaconda of course the great snake, and his idea was to strangle the Confederacy. And essentially, this blockade would be like a giant snake, and they would squeeze the economic life out of the south and it would the war would be over with hardly a shot being fired. Well, it didn't quite work out that way, but the plan had some merit. And so the blockade board came up with this idea that they would establish these blockading squadrons along the southeastern coastline and also in the Gulf, that would prevent blockade runners and merchant ships from supplying the south, one with cotton and two bringing in munitions that were absolutely essential for the continuation of the war. But to do that, they had to land troops and establish bases along certain points on the coast. They couldn't send their blockading ships back up to Brooklyn Navy Yard or Washington Navy Yard to get resupplied recalled refueled and send them all the way back there they had to stay on station. So they needed bases that were in the south. And so the plan was to seize a little bits of land along the coast, and these blue arrows are the points in which the blockade board recommended incursions. One is on the coast of North Carolina one was around Point Royal which I referred to.  But one was also in the mouth of the Mississippi River to essentially plug it up by seizing New Orleans and New Orleans was the great prize. New Orleans was the largest commercial port in the Confederacy gateway to the Mississippi Valley. It was, it was the most strategic prize objective of the war at that point. Now, so where does Vermont come into this story well. They needed troops along with ships. And so they went to Vermont and asked for about 2000 Vermont soldiers to regiments, 7th and 8th Vermont to be part of an expeditionary army that would be sent to capture New Orleans very early on in the war in the spring of 1862. Now, it took a while to get there they first had to leave their camp in Brattleboro they had to board a train they had to go down New Haven Connecticut, get on a ferry steam up Long Island sound march to the Brooklyn Navy yard and board ships in New York Harbor and put the sea. And they did this, and it was hellacious. It took 26 days. And there's a small map in the lower right hand corner just to show you this, a small piece of the coastline there, but they had to go all the way down the southeast coastline hook around the keys. And then they landed in a speck of land they landed in this tiny island off the coast of Mississippi called ship island a deserted uninhabited place inhabited only by mosquitoes and sand flies. And it was miserable. And of course you're talking about these guys who who left Vermont, while there was still snow on the ground in April, and we're just bombarded by heat in May in this Gulf environment this was a staggering shift in their environment and of course, you know these were primarily farm boys who had never been off the farm they hadn't been out of the county, let alone out of state and certainly hadn't been on a ship. And certainly never never been in the tropics. They had also very little resistance to disease as a consequence there were far more casualties inflicted by yellow fever and malaria and dysentery than there were by Confederate bullets. And it was, it was truly unworld an unworldly experience. Now, I'm going to just just say that the battle was fought to open up the Mississippi River and New Orleans was captured. And Vermonters found themselves part of a federal army that was a United States Army that was stationed in Louisiana. This was, you know, a difficult assignment and in fact, this is a some photographs I took years ago and shall met Louisiana along the Mississippi River. And a lot of those boys, you know, their bodies are still they're still interred in Louisiana, including this, this soldier who's buried right along the Mississippi River on the seventh Vermont Joseph Bordeaux. The commander of the seventh eighth Vermont. A guy named John, John Wolcott Phillips, who he was a regular soldier or West pointer, but he was also an abolitionist and when he landed on ship island he had a copy of his own emancipation proclamation in his pocket. The Republican administration hadn't issued any of anything and from Washington and Congress hadn't done anything. So the war department was very unhappy with Phelps and Lincoln in particular didn't want to be usurped by a field officer. But, you know, as soon as those troops got got into the Delta region. Took their own course. And within a year or so 150,000 enslaved people and liberated themselves and self emancipated themselves without waiting for Washington to to codify any any proclamation or any law. And this massive movement, this social revolution that occurred, which the Vermonters found themselves right in the middle of was a remarkable event that in fact put great pressure on the Lincoln administration to move its agenda to accelerate its own plans for emancipation. This is just a graphic from actually that's for Pulaski on the Savannah coastline but this is what went on all along the coast where these incursions occurred. They were, you know, I showed you that map of the density of slaves it just so happened and this is the world of maybe intended maybe unintended consequences. The incursions were in places with some of the densest populations of enslaved labor and labor farms in in the United States. And the gentleman in the middle is this fellow Phelps. And when enslaved people got to seek sanctuary in his in his camps. He was given orders to put them to work that's what they were good for they were laborers. He had his own plants, he started drilling them as soldiers and he formally requested rifles and arms and ammunition for the new formations of black soldiers that he was in the process of raising.  He was two months ahead of Abraham Lincoln. He waited for another two months, he would have been, you know, a hero. But he was impatient. And he insisted that the time was now. And the War Department didn't agree. And he got it he was really angry that when the arms he requested were withheld, and he resigned his commission and went back to Vermont. And a flash forward a few months later the Emancipation Proclamation is law is now going to be announced. The militia act passes Congress which authorizes African Americans to fight as soldiers in the United States Army. And Lincoln actually approaches Phelps and offers him it offers him command of all black regiments that are now to be raised. And Phelps says fine, but I want to apology first. And Lincoln doesn't didn't do apologies. And Phelps stayed in Vermont. And things moved on. So, there was a rapid mobilization of black soldiers now that that story is complicated. At first they were paid only half or a third of what white soldiers would be paid they were not armed as well. And just a quick note. You can tell how important this map became that I've been talking about. When you look more carefully at Francis Bicknell carpenters painting of Abraham Lincoln presenting the draft pro emancipation proclamation to his cabinet in September of 1862. And Bicknell actually includes a reproduction of the map in the lower corner and you look at the green arrow. That's the coastal survey map. No question. You could see that I've blown up a piece of quadrant of it right next to it. And this was used now it at first it was the block a board was had its own objectives but clearly once the decision was made that the it was absolutely essential to raise black soldiers to help the United States win the war. And then it became a very useful document for figuring out where to go to recruit soldiers. And by the war is closed by about 181865. There were about 180,000 black soldiers in the United States Army. It was a substantial part 20% of frontline troops and essential to the war. Two sidebar real quickly to two quick observations, one by a Confederate general, who was very worried about the recruitment of formerly enslaved soldiers and he recommended that the labor farms or plantations move their enslaved people away from advancing federal troops.  He, Kirby, Kirby Smith understood that this was a game changer that enslaved people were going to return. But this time they were going to be wearing the uniform of the United States Army, and they're going to have a rifle in their hands. And no one understood the political implications of this better than Frederick Douglass, who wrote once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters us. Let him get an eagle on his button and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket and there's no power on earth, but to that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship in the United States. Now there were 150. I need to mention they were 150 black room honors, who fought in the United States color troops, which is the US ST UC ST, which is the abbreviation for all the black regiments that were raised, but they include 12 veterans who are very just down the street from me at the River Street Cemetery. At first the very first black regiments had colored officers had black officers. But you know the sad story is that in fact you know you're aware that the army was segregated from the very beginning. And they would not accept these black officers and after a while they were purged essentially replaced. And they needed new officers they need white officers. And they saw these officers in the ranks of federal troops by offering them promotions and they saw the vast majority of them were going to be either non commission officers, or enlisted men, and they were going to get a commission as an officer of the United States Army and it was this a big step up but for a lot of Ramoners it meant a boost in pay. And so there were some who are radio officers like Hiram Perkins, who was in the eighth Vermont who later joined this 73rd was commander of the 73rd US color troops, and someone like Rufus Kingsley who was a corporal. And he accepted a commission in the 74th USCT as a first lieutenant. Now this was not an easy choice to make for any of these Vermonters. And this Vermont, which was in Louisiana had between four to 500 active officers and men present for duty at any given time. And in 1862 day 63, no fewer than 42 actually offered their services and receive commissions in colored regiments. And that were enlisted men or NCOs. That was about 10% of the regiment that's, that's extraordinary that's about four times the average of any other regiment in the federal army and why was this true of the eighth Vermont I don't know exactly. They faced some daunting issues, and the commander of these troops the guy who essentially took over where Phelps declined Daniel Oman General Oman, wrote after the war they were selected by me as men who will be competent against the vehement and bitter opposition of friends and foes of our government to accept an appointment in a colored regiment was in fact facing a whirlwind of prejudice to invite the desertion of friends and the implacable hatred of enemies. The former they met with sorrow, the latter with derision. Now, given the amount of race prejudice across not only in the south but across the north service as a officer in a black regiment was, you know, it was a whirlwind of prejudice that had to be overcome. And in addition, when they the implacable hatred of enemies was not just rhetorical. If they had been captured and that some were captured on the battlefield they knew that they would not be treated as prisoners of war according to the rules of law. President Davis had and the Confederate Congress had enacted a law that said any white person, commanding Negroes or mulattoes in arms should be deemed as inciting servile insurrection and should if captured be put to death. So this was, you know, this, this was a substantial risk as well. It was a great risk. And some Vermonters in fact were captured at the Battle of Fort Hudson in Louisiana. Abraham Lincoln had to do something.  Free free citizens. If they had been captured, they would have been re enslaved.  And what the Lincoln administration did. And this, this is the words of Abraham Lincoln it is the duty of every government to give protection to its citizens of whatever class, color, or condition. And the duty to those who are duly organized as soldiers in the public service. So these were not just hollow words Lincoln backed it up and said that for every soldier who was killed in retaliation Confederate soldier prisoner of war would be executed. Every person enslaved by the enemy and so or sold in the slavery, a rebel soldier should be placed at hard labor on the public works. This was general order 233. And this was critical this, you know, the, the he had to act. And this was to some degree, a break on the threats that were being made against these these both black and white soldiers. Now I'm going to wrap up by making a few observations about reconstruction following the conclusion of the war. And this continued involvement of Vermonters, even in this period of reconstruction, when all the troops essentially had been sent home from the battlefield. And we're finally if they had survived the terrible war, they were finally at home, except those who chose to join something called the Freemans Bureau and stay in the cell and fight for civil rights. The Freemans Bureau, which was founded in 1865 and lasted about seven years was probably arguably the first social welfare agency in the in the history of the United States. It was there to facilitate the transition of people from slavery to freedom. And they were, they did everything they assisted formerly enslaved people by issuing marriage licenses, helping them find loved ones who had been sold it down the river and in bondage. So they could find family members who had been split up by slave masters. They supply necessities such as food and clothing. They set up schools, the first public schools attended by black children in the southern states. They insisted and they codified labor contracts so no one would work in bondage they, everybody who had a job who worked would at least have a contract, which guarantees some wage. And they tried at least for a time to settle Friedman on abandoned or confiscated lands. Now all of these activities were hamstrung, a large part by President Andrew Johnson and but there were this Freemans Bureau was certainly a concerted effort by the United States government to try to do the right thing. And there are five Vermonters I'm going to just quickly call out who were involved in this. There's a guy named William Stickney, who was in the eighth Vermont regiment went to Louisiana later was an officer in the 99th USCT. He was the first superintendent of public colored schools in the city of New Orleans. And he became a general superintendent of the Freemans Bureau for all of Northwestern Louisiana. There was Frederick M. Kimball another Vermont are you from the sixth Vermont regiment, who was seconded as an officer. You know they they needed staff people for for the Freemans Bureau so they, they actually borrow active duty officers who were willing to continue their duty in the United States Army and work for the Freemans Bureau and he was superintendent of the Bureau's offices and in a number of counties in Virginia he supervised voter registration and elections and the establishment of colored schools. Now, multiple times he was threatened and shot out by the Klu Klux Klan. But he stuck with it. And when the Freemans Bureau was finally disbanded by Congress. He received an honorable discharge after seven uninterrupted years of military service. It's a remarkable record. The probably the best known person in this group is a guy named Marshall Twitchell. He was discovered by PBS in their documentary on some of you might have seen on reconstruction. He had an ill fated political career in Louisiana. But he worked for time for the Freemans Bureau, and later when involved in Republican politics in Louisiana he was very nearly killed. Lost both his arms and assassination attempt by the Klan.  Loudon Langley who served with the 33rd USCT. And he was very active. He became a lawyer during reconstruction. He moved to South Carolina. He was a participant in the 1868 effort to rewrite the South Carolina Constitution State Constitution. At that time endorsing black citizenship and the amendments to the Constitution guaranteeing black male suffrage and equal access under the law. And lastly, there's a guy named John Dick Dickinson. He fought with the seventh Vermont he ran the Freemans Bureau's offices in Jackson County, Florida. He never came back. He was assassinated by the Ku Klux Klan in 1871. Before he was killed he wrote, I have no ambition to fill a more honorable grave than that of a man who falls for the sake of opinion or conduct that he knows is right, even though everyone else thinks is wrong. And why should we pay more attention to this story today and so this is my punchline and my conclusion. Well, we need to broaden the existing focus that we've had so long and justifiably on heroic Vermont stories associated with the Civil War and its seminal engagements, such as the slide on the left is the great canvas of the battle of Cedar Creek and at the Vermont State House. And, you know, the stories of standards counterattack of Gettysburg or the Cedar Creek, the Vermonters heroic work at Cedar Creek to also to look at the wider context of Vermont's involvement with self emancipation emancipation and reconstruction, because there's a story, there's a story there that needs to also be acknowledged not just the heroism, but also the commitment to social progress. And I included a slide on the right that it was a congressional delegation from the south. In the construction era, where, where there were seven senators and congressman from black senators and congressman from reconstructed states at the high point of reconstruction. That's the story we need to tell as well. I bring this up in the context that there are, you should be aware that there are group of teachers right now I mean right this at this very moment, who are actively working to improve the teaching of reconstruction, and in these hidden stories in Vermont, and they held a teaching reconstruction workshop in Brattleboro back in last March, March 23. And they're trying to get the state of Vermont to pay more attention to this story. One of the organizations who sponsored this the Zen educational project points out that too often the story of this grand experiment and interracial democracy is skipped over or rushed through or in fact in many places across the United States just taught accurately. And one teacher was quoted in the Brattleboro reformer and they wrote a long article on this meeting of teachers workshop that without state expectations to include reconstruction era information as a requirement of the curriculum. Teachers are more likely to choose the context for which they're most comfortable and knowledgeable. So put up to the teachers if they don't have access to current scholarship, they, if they're not encouraged, they will default to what's, they've been doing up to now. And it's not take anything away from our wonderful teachers in the state of Vermont, but they need tools, and they need support and you need encouraging. So that's my presentation for this this afternoon you've been a very patient it's, it there's a complex legacy to this backdoor war. It's not just a military story it's very much the story of the beginning of a major change in this country a transition from slavery to freedom, which is perhaps the most important and inspiring story of this country. I can't couldn't say it any better than at least go, go yet, who wrote in Vermont history back in 2014 that the southern narrative of the war and reconstruction still has a currency in Vermont unfortunately, and we are still struggling to dig ourselves out. We need to continue this struggle by telling real stories of real people from the Civil War to the present. And this history matters to us today. So everyone has been very patient. And if you still have a little energy. I'm going to stop sharing my slides. And if there's time I'll answer a question or two. But thank you for your, your, your polite patients. Anyone have any questions. Caroline and might logistically it might work best if you stand near the laptop. And then when someone has a question if you've been kind of repeated into there in case we can't hear from where the speaker is Kathleen. I would like to know who the last person mentioned was the man who I didn't write was the last person mentioned of the Vermonters on that slide. The one who was killed by the clue flex plan. Yeah. He was up to look at the slide. I think of it in a second. It wasn't stick me wasn't. Dickinson. He was in Florida. He was killed while on duty working for the Freedman's Bureau. Sarah. Yeah, just have to hear something about general. Sarah would like to hear something about general. You know, I ran across is a photograph of his burial. He's buried here in Vermont and I didn't know that until I started preparing for this talk. Howard was the, you know, the Freedman's Bureau was a quasi political military organization. As I explained it, not only did have a lot of staff who were seconded directly from the army, but it's, it's director was appointed from the army. And that's general Howard, who was a very distinguished commander during the Civil War and he was against. It was a really an uphill battle for him, particularly with Andrew Johnson as president. And Sarah, maybe you can fill me in because I don't know a lot about him other than he was director of the Freedman's Bureau and he, he must have live been living in his in retirement in Vermont. Right up on, right across on summit street across from friends about, and it was his son I believe who was responsible for the construction of 48th and Allen. His granddaughter was my mother's sorority sister so. Howard would never have a conversation without reminding you that her grandfather. The university is named Howard University for most black school. Yeah, I almost included the slide because there was a picture of actually of his, the parade that accompanied his burial. Yes. And in, in, I think it was right here and it was not only Chittin County but I think it might have been Burlington. Is he not buried in Lake. Which green one. No, that's where it is. Lakeview cemetery I'm pretty sure. Yeah, I think you're correct. I'm a, I'm a volunteer friend of Lakeview cemetery, and we do it for used to do it annually but coven kind of interrupted that. And we stopped at all of our bonus howards burial site and spend a lot of time telling what he did and how much he contributed. And it was just chance that he ended up in Burlington because his son was the architect of 40 than Alan. I was wondering how he ended up here because he wasn't born. And, you know, and he certainly didn't do any real duty here. Sometimes military officers will retire close to where they, where they serve their last posting. But no, it was his son. Alright, now that certainly explains it. Yeah, no, I could give somebody should be invited to give you a talk just on Howard because it was a remarkable life. And what about Charles Google, the famous general. Well, I was about him. I really don't know very much about him. He's related to Marge sharp. Marge was cool. And he's probably related to me. He's depicted. He went down with his troops, black troops and he's depicted on the bar relief in Boston. Yeah, you know, I'll just reiterate that somebody I'm not going to do it because I have other projects that are. I'm focused on right now but boy, somebody ought to take a look at the large number of reminders who accepted commissions. In those US CT regiments. That, you know, 42 out of 400 is just, you know, there we somebody should look into what was going on there and you know, did it was the service in Louisiana did that happen and must have had an impact. When they were upfront, sort of up up close to the impact of enslavement. And they saw what had been done and the impact and the people who came to their lines. They saw stories of fugitives who made it to the camp of the eighth Vermont and the one of the lower ranking officers wanted to return them to their owner and soldiers would have none of it. You know, there was plenty of prejudice but there was also I think a great unhappiness with the institution of slavery. I was not universal but it took something to step forward and accept a commission and one of these regiments because you're putting your life.  Should you ever be taken prisoner. Somebody should do tell that story, or at least dig into that a little bit more. Any more questions. Sarah, just to comment on one of the best events we ever had for my historical society in my time involved there was when the twitch old family had a family reunion at VHS and trotted out all the memorabilia much which is now held at VHS. And you know we heard the story in depth. It was fascinating. You know for, I think you know the twitchal story is well known. It's the story of these other people. That I think we ought to pay some attention to because it clearly twitchal was not a one off. And there were other people who somehow found it within themselves to and in some cases really were educators, soldiers and educators. It was an interesting mix who were very keen on helping to set up schools. And as well as you know enforce all the other trying to do all the other things that the Freemans Bureau attempted to do at least. It's just such a rich story and you know when these teachers want to do more with reconstruction in Vermont schools. I hope if you ever have the opportunity to lend a voice of support. It's to tell these stories that are really been forgotten. And they shouldn't. So thank you very very much I'll let you get back to your meeting. Somebody else one more question. If there are a number of Massachusetts 54th, a man buried in Lakeview cemetery right here in Burlington, and we stopped there on a school tour, just this spring, when a teacher just to your point of teaching more broadly about all that era, offered an end of the season experiential kind of thing called creamies and cemeteries. So I have to go on one of those. I thought it might have been cremation. Maybe met both. And we stopped at a couple of those barrier, they're together four or five of them. But it, I thought that was a great way to bring students in and also to not only speak about the generals and World War one and World War two people, but also some people that we don't recognize as remanters from that era, who are right here in our midst.  So the nearest essentially they enlisted in the nearest regiment which was the 54th Massachusetts. And they were from towns and cities in Vermont. And they're, you know, all over about 150 or so now not enlisted in one one unit or another. And that's a great story to find their, their, their buried in River Street cemetery I showed a slide of is another place where they're 12 buried side by side, not side by side but within, you know, a small area. They were marked with the star of the Grand Army the Republic to jr. They were members of the veterans organization was integrated. So thank you again. It was wish you well and pleasure, and I'll turn this over to Carolyn. So thank you very much and we're all praying that your house is okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Take care.


And now we're going to move to unmuted beautiful charming next presenter, Melissa Armo. Hello, Melissa. Good day or good evening. Yeah, perfect. Great. How, how this year started for you? It's been a very good year so far this year. And it's only two weeks into the year, so it's hard to believe. But as everyone knows, the market's been very, very bullish. But so far, Tesla has pretty much made everybody that's a sockswish member has been made our year. So Tesla was a big trade in the last week. Yes, keep talking about Tesla, right? Yeah, I think everyone's talking about Tesla. Can't wait to see your presentation. I made you an organizer that you would be able to see all the questions from the attendees and share your screen with us. Looks good to me. Please attendees, tell me, Lisa, that you're here, that you can see everything properly. I'm going to get back to you around 11 a.m. PST. Bullish market, making brand new all-time eyes here, right as we're speaking. Spy is up and I'm waiting momentarily for the market to break out. Could happen today into the close, could happen and continue tomorrow. So again, as I was stating, 2020 has been a very bullish year in the market. Now, it's interesting though, because I tend to like to look at shorts for the day trade side and I also do options and I may do calls or puts in the options. Today, we're going to talk about my system, the system that I personally created 12 years ago, which does have great results. So I would say out of every 10 trades that I call, you figure two we're going to lose and eight are going to work. There's no system that's 100 percent. So that's why when I take a trade, I put in a stop. I put in a limit order shot for the day trade. And for options, basically the stop is the amount that you risk depending on how many contracts you take. If you have any questions, you can type them in the room and I will see them as we go along. OK. And if you have questions afterwards, you can always email me at Melissa at the stockswish.com or call me at 929-3200 GATT. And you can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or Skype. I appear on Fox News and Fox Business Network. So sometimes you will catch me on television. So 2020 is here. OK. And again, two weeks into the year, we are full on into January. Hopefully everyone so far to date is adhering to their New Year's resolutions, whatever they are. And if one of your goals for 2020 is to actually be successful and actually make money in the market and maybe even do this for a career, then it's time to get on board. OK. So whatever you did last year, if you lost money in the market, you need to turn it around. I call it have amnesia. Do whatever you need to do so that you forget about the mistakes that you made in the past. But it is imperative that you do not carry bad habits or bad systems into this calendar year. OK. The only way that you're going to do something different this year is if you actually change the trading strategy or system that you're using. A lot of times people blame themselves and say, well, I have terrible money management, while it's true that you do need good money management to train, that's kind of like trading one on one. OK, you don't need to take a class to understand that you need to have good money management. That's just like the basics. OK. But what I find a lot of people lack is they lack a consistent winning strategy or system to follow on any given day. And I follow and do the same thing pretty much like clock clockwork every day. OK. And what do I do? I focus on stocks that are gapping. It is something that has big enough momentum and big enough moves that you could trade as your full time job if, in fact, that's what you want to do. But ultimately, no matter what you choose to do, if you want to trade part time or full time, you have to make money. Although trading is fun and I personally love reading charts. I love making money more. OK. So making money has to be the goal and the reason why you trade. If you're losing as fun as it is, it just doesn't make any sense if you're losing money year over year in the market. And any questions again, you can type them in the room and I'll see them. So training really is a skill like juggling, playing a musical instrument, playing a sport. A lot of people even to this day want to want to buy like a system and just plug it in and just have it beat one to take a trade and beat one to get out. What I do, I use my mind and I use my brain, which, by the way, is the best asset that any of you have as well. But you need to cultivate it and you need to learn what to see and analyze correctly using your brain. It is a skill. It is a skill set to see price action and predict price action, which is actually called forecasting. So that is what I do. I forecast the direction of a stock by looking at the gap and analyzing it and saying that this is the next direction that it's going to go or the market. Just like I told you right before we started, just like I said two minutes ago, I said the market is at new highs right now. We're going to break out between today and tomorrow and the next 24 hours. OK, so I just predicted market direction for you. It is a skill. It's a skill set that I've cultivated over the last 12 years and it's based on my analysis of gaps. So the market today in the spy gapped up and I'm reading that as bullish and that we are going to rally and that we are higher. OK, and any questions I'll see them in the room. So it's always a good time to think about this. What are you going to do differently this year than you did last year? If you did not get the results that you wanted in the market last year, trading, what are you going to do differently this year? For me personally, I find the amount of time that I prepare in the morning to get ready to trade is the most important time of the day for me. So I prepare, choose what stocks and picks I want to trade and I look at the market and analyze it in the pre market in the morning, way before I'm even in anything and way before the market opens. Or if I happen to be in something that I'm preparing and deciding what I'm going to do with that trade on the day, am I going? If I'm in an option, am I going to sell it that day or sell it into the open or sell it before the close? OK, or am I going to leave it on? Again, these are all the things that I look at in my preparation before the market opens, because in that moment that the markets live in the hours of the market between nine and 30 and four, you're usually very focused on trades that you're in. I make the decisions what I want to do in the pre market when I'm all relaxed and I have, you know, time to prepare and time to do the analyzing. And that's what I'm putting, taking the knowledge that I have and putting my skills to work. So it's just a good time of the year, still very early in the year to take good new information, knowledge and a positive outlook ahead to get the results that you want for this year.  It's one of my best assets. OK. If you're not used to using your brain, then get used to using it.  You work in and you work in and work it like when you go to the gym. Sometimes you might want to think so hard that you get a headache. But guess what? You get smarter and smarter as time goes on. And that's how you grow. That's how you think more. And you can think through things and solve problems and do them in a low stress environment, which is where you're not under the gun, where your brain is under stress and then you make a mistake. When you train, the only way you're going to make money is by taking risk. OK. So that's just, again, trading one to one. You're not going to make any money at all. You're not going to make any profit unless you take risk. And the more risk you take, again, more share size, more contract size, more quantity, the more money that you can make. If you take 5,000 shares of a stock and you go along it and it rallies a dollar, your profit is what? $5,000, which is a lot more than if you took 500 shares. You may have more stress if you take 5,000 shares because your risk is more. But if you understand why you took the trade, if you have 100 percent conviction in the trade, if you have the knowledge and the right system, you won't feel stressed about taking the trade. You'll have the conviction. You'll have the full on understanding, which is one of the reasons why I think it's important for people to understand what they're doing before they take any trades with me. People must take my class in order to join my live trading room. Now, I do offer trials. If you're interested in a trial to the room, you can email me for a trial. OK. But everyone that's in my live room where I'm calling the train stalling, like I called the market today, has done my class. So they have the knowledge. All right. So training day trading or options trading, whichever you want to do is something you can do from home. And you can also do it from anywhere in the world. Now, why do people find trading so hard? Personally, I think it's because, to be honest with you, there is just an overwhelming amount of information out there. And then people don't know what to follow. They don't know what is right. They don't know what is wrong. They don't know what to be focused on.  So market also can be very volatile. I don't think it is right now. And I don't think it was for the last couple of months. But sometimes we have volatility in the market and that scares people too. But I think it's really the lack of focus and the lack of clarity is the main reason I think why people find trading difficult. For me, I get up in the morning, I rate my gaps. I choose my stock picks or I don't like anything at all. In which case, I don't train. So I'm not looking at 10,000 different things and then, you know, flipping back and forth. I also never go long and short a same stock on the same day. That would be zero conviction to me. So I'm very, very focused on what I'm doing. Usually one or two or three ticker symbols per day. And again, only in one direction. Whatever that happens to me. So I have conviction in what I'm doing. Or if I don't, I don't do it at all. But people lack focus when they trade. They don't focus on one system.  But without the lack of clarity and focus, you're not going to be successful and you're never going to make a lot of money. If, in fact, that is your goal. And I mean, if it's not your goal, that's fine. But if it is, you're never going to get there. If you don't have the proper focus, okay? For me, I focus on gaps. So let's just look, do a basic review here of what a gap is. So this was last year, 2019, October. This was McDonald's. This was earnings. The stock had an earnings move. Stock closed here the night before. Earnings, boom. Gap down. Stock closed at one price up here around 210. And gap down here around 205 and change. This is a gap down. It's a bearish gap. So the stock closed here at four and opened at 930. That's what a gap is. Stocks can gap down. Stocks can gap up. Here was a gap up in McDonald's rally. Stock closed here, opened at a higher price. So the U.S. market has a close at four and an open at 930. Close here at four, open at 930. So there are bullish gaps and there are bearish gaps. I look at both, okay? Although I prefer to short. If you had to ask me, I prefer to short. And the reason is because selling action happens faster and quicker and more panicky than bullish action. It's rare to find something called panic buying. Although I will tell you that is what happened in Tesla in the last week. We had something that was very, very rare. It was an anomaly. It was called panic buying. I talked about that Monday on Ameritrade. But most of the time, 99.99% of the time, panic comes in and selling action. And that's what happened here at McDonald's. This was a good short or you could have done it put. But what I do is I look at the gap, see the gap in the morning to determine if this is a long or short. And in this case here, McDonald's was short. It's obvious now the day was done, but we were in here early, early, early in the morning. And I can see it usually in the pre-market. And again, any questions, you can write them in the room. So for me, I like to day trade in the first half an hour in and out quickly, preferably five, 10, 15 minutes in and out. And when you're day trading, there's really no overnight risk because you're flat and out of all your trades before four. Now, if you do options, you have the risk of the contract of the position, which could go in your favor or against you overnight. But you have the protection. It's like the insurance where you're not going to lose an endless amount of money. If you take 10 contracts of something and across a thousand bucks or a dollar, that's all that you would lose a thousand bucks. You wouldn't lose any more, even if it goes way against you. That's the maximum amount. OK, so the way that I look at it is I'm trying to be always in control of my money, setting the risk, putting in the stuff. OK, and I'm in and I'm out just like that. You're chunking it out. That's what trading is. Trading is an investing. You're not buying a stock today and holding it until June of 2020. OK, that would be way different. Now, again, you could look at a chart, look at the gaps, predict the directional bias of something by June using my system. But I'm not really taking trades that way because if you want to make money, you have to book it. The money is in yours, even if you're up, until you're out of the trade and it's booked and it's in your recount. So this is not passive investing. It's active, active trading where you're in and you're out. And I think that's that's different for some people. Sometimes people, I think, want to hold, they want to take something to buy it and hold it, hold it. That's investing. This is active trading. You can make more money trading than actually a long-term active investing because you can take many, many trades, get in and get out, get in and get out. You can turn your money over faster. OK, but people find long-term investing easier because they don't have to watch it every day. I think it's fun to watch stocks in the market every day. OK, but you do have to have an interest in it and you do have to have an interest in looking at charts because as I said earlier, what I do is based on technical analysis, which is looking at charts. All right. Anyways, if in fact you want to do this for something for a career, again, break it down. Make it more realistic for yourself, whatever your goal is. If it's $250,000 a year, break it down per month, per week and per day. It doesn't mean that you're going to make exactly $1,000 per day. Some days you may make $500. Some days you may lose. Some days you may make $5,000. On average, though, you should have an average per week or an average per month. This will help keep you on track and then you back it out to determine your risk. I say usually every day trade, you're looking to turn it over one. So if you risk $2,000 per day trade, your goal is what? Around $2,000 per trade. And again, I try to focus on one trade a day or maybe two. There are different kinds of traders, though. There are options traders and there are day traders. I'm not sure what you prefer. You only need $2,000 to open up an options trading account and options are not based on margin. You need a minimum of $25,000 to trade on a margin account at a retail account unless you go to a proprietary day trading account where you can actively day trade on margin. They'll usually give you 10 to one margin and you can open up an account with as little as $2,500. There are different types of brokers. If you've never heard of those and you don't know, you can Google it, read about it or email me if you have any questions. But in today's environment, in today's world, pretty much almost everybody out there has a possibility or the chance to trade. Again, you have to have money to open up an account to train but it's very accessible to many people now. It's not just for rich people to actively trade the market which it was really years and years and years ago. So again, this is active trading is different than in long-term investing where you have to have the cash or you have the cash and very little margin. But when you're doing options, you are in and you could hold it or you're out. You can day trade margins. When we're doing the day trading, it is in a margin account. Again, usually four to one or 10 to one, all right? But my system can be traded with any size day trading account. You could risk $100 per trade. You could risk $1,000 per trade. You could risk $5,000 per trade. Your amount of your risk should be in accordance with the size of your account for the cash or regardless of margin or where you're trading, okay? The most important thing that was learning the knowledge first, which allows you to take the risk so you make sense out of it and can be profitable and do well. You have all the time in the world to make a lot of money in the market. Again, it's just the beginning of the year. There's no reason to be heavy handed if you don't know what to do or you're new. I also don't trade penny stocks. I think they're junk and we don't do any low-flow crappy stocks that are worthless, okay? Most of the stocks we do are companies that you know, Facebook, Google, Amazon, BBYBY, things that you would have heard of, okay? Here's a company you would have heard of, Six, okay? So this was a trade last week. This was a day trade. So let's go over the gap. Stock closed here the night before around 43.50, boom. Opened in the morning around what, $37. So the stock was gapping down. In the pre-market, I looked at the gap to determine if Six would continue lower, in which case it would be a short, or if it was gonna rally, in which case either I wouldn't have done it or theoretically you could have gone long it. Anyways, I looked at the gap and I said, this is lower and it did drop. So it opened here around 37. Low down here was around 35. 35.10 I think was the low. 35 was really the target on the day, went to 35.10. This was a short. I don't know what this is doing today. But anyways, here's the one minute chart which really shows you the gap down. Stock closed here, gap down, boom. You could have shorted it out of the gate, got the drop. We ended up doing it a little later in here, right in the spacey base, we shorted it, got the drop. And again, I squished these and made these bars really small. This is a one minute chart. This is a daily. So on the daily chart, I used my system in the pre-market to determine one, what stock I wanna do, which in this case was Six, or watch, and two, what direction to do it, which in this case here was a short. So this was, I was predicting it was lower. I was right. Then on the live day, I'm never in it in the pre-market in the morning and I'm not in it in the post-market at night. I'm waiting to determine to see if this is going to set up, which in case this did, this had a couple setups. And anyways, long story short, this was lower. So we shorted this on the setup after the live day. Here's the open. Okay. Here was the trade. Entry was 35.58 on 4,000 shares, which is an advanced trader risk. Let's say that's an advanced risk, okay? Stop was 36.15. Remember, I always put the stop. Risk is 22.80. Exit at 36.15. This was a loss. So the first trade we did in Six stopped. I'm gonna go back and show you this here in a minute. We were in it down in here. Snuggles a bug in a rug. First trade in this was here. I didn't get this initial one here. I saw it late. We missed it. Anyways, I did it here, put the stop. I got stopped out. It ended up going to work. I'm gonna show you the second trade of the money in it. But this trade stopped. But it was still good to use a stop here. Why? What if this would have failed? What if it would have ran all the way up here a dollar? Then I would have lost four grand. So it's okay that it got stopped. I thought it would immediately continue lower. I was wrong. It took about an hour or so to continue dropping. But I'm just showing you still the importance of putting the stop. Because if this had flipped, gone over the high, it went and went all the way up over 37. And it would have been a massive loss, okay? So again, you have to have parameters. So this trade stopped. Then we did something called a retake. Now, what is a retake? I stay on top of it. I still like six lower. I still really, really liked it. It was lower. Anyways, entry on the second trade, second set up still in the morning was 35.99. Shares was 5,000. Stop was 36.50. This is still a really good stop for this price point. Okay, about 50 cents or there about 51 cents. Risk was 25.50. Then it hit again, same point, 5,000. Hit it again. I'll go back to the chart and show you this a minute. Total shares 10,000. Again, price the same with the entry, with the retake. Exit 35.18. This was a big trade for two reasons. One, beautiful entry, good stop, and the size. So more than made up the difference for the initial stop and then still a profitable day. Now, what happened here? And again, I squished this because I wanted you to see. Here's where we did it right away. It took the stop, then it based out, then we shorted it, then we added a little bit more before the breakdown got the drop. So this is a day trade short in six from January 10th. Okay, does everyone see that? So the first trade was stopped. The second trade was a win and it was still a very, very profitable day. Any questions on that? Let's look at another one here. This was on Monday. So that was the 10th. This was Monday the 13th. Again, this is a gap down. Stack closed here, gap down, open dropped. This was EXAS. Stack closed here around 104 and change, boom. Opened in the morning around 95. So I got up in the morning and I rated the gap to determine one if I wanted to do EXAS at all and then two to determine if it was a long or a short. So I determined it was a good gap and it was a short. So I was predicting this was lower and this ended up having a huge day. So what did it do? Stack closed here, this is a one minute, gap down, open fell, boom. This hit almost immediately. Here's the first five minutes of the day in EXAS. High up here is around 95 and change. Low in here was around 90. Actually basically went down to where the low of the day was in the first five minutes of the day. This went to the dream target at 90. We captured this here. This moves so quick, so fast. Some people got it here in the second bar. Then some people got it here in the third bar. Either way, this is a beautiful move. And you could have redone it. You could have taken it again and redone it. Anyways, here was the first rate. 92.69 entry, 1500 shares. Stop was 94.65. Risk was 29.40, boom. Exit on the bounce, 90.16 profit, $3,795. And this was in less than five minutes. So it was a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful sell-off that happened right out of the gate. My bias on this based on reading the gap was gonna sell off. And then as soon as it, I saw it and it set up, boom, reacted. And this was even a late reaction, to be honest with you. But it was good enough. It was a big, fast $2 plus move immediately right out of the gate. And that is literally all you need. All you need on any given day. Okay, now again, this is an equity trade. This is a day trade. This is not an option. Although you could have done an option theoretically in this, you could have bought a put. If you wanted to, I think this was a better day trade. I did not call a put in this, okay? Any questions on that? So the point I was trying to make about reviewing some of the last few trades is that not every trade works. And not every trade has to work and you can still make good money. It is about odds. When I get up in the morning of a 26 point rating system that I use in the pre-market to choose the stocks I'm going to trade. And I look at the odds. If it's high odds, then we do it. If it's low odds, then we don't do it, okay? But even if I look at something and even if I like it, like the six, the setup and that failed in the first trade. First trade stopped. So again, you will have some trades that lose but if you keep your risk amount similar or close to similar in every trade, you're going to be fine because you're going to be profitable because some trades will end up being very big trades. Number one, which was the second six was and then number two, some trades will work immediately and go right away and be big trades like EXAS was. That did not stop at all. It was a huge move out of the gate and we got it and you would have really had to be watching that stock and had Dev see it in the pre-market to get that move right out of the gate. And if you did, you could have made $3,700 and been down for the day by way before 10 o'clock. So I'm typically trying to look for that every day. And one of the reasons that I'm saying that I prefer shorts is because short moves happen so quickly, like today with the market, you have to wait sometimes for things to rally. You gotta wait for rallies. Any questions here? But for the most part, you can move forward and whether it's grow your account or make more money over time to pay yourself and increase your risk to step it up, you have to chunk it out because like if you have an account with say $5,000 in a prop account, you can't risk $2,000 in a trade. That would be ridiculous. You'd be risking almost half your account in a trade. That would be insane. And I know sometimes people do that, that's crazy. Now if you did it in Tesla, you made out like a Banshee but that still would have been done and you can't do things like that. So you chunk it out, you chunk it. So if you have a $5,000 account and you start out, you risk $200. You build the account up to $6,000. Then you can risk bump it up to $300 a trade. Then you bump it up to $7,000 you got in your account. Then you can bump it up to $400. Then you get $10,000 in the account. I mean to use to trade.  And I'm talking about a prop account and that is how you do it. And it doesn't have to take that long. It really doesn't have to take that long but you have to have the patience to go up the ladder and take the necessary steps to get there. I know everybody wants to jump up and down and make a million dollars, not today. People, everybody wants to make a million dollars yesterday and they want to do it with no money and no risk. I always think that Solaris, in fact, somebody emailed me a ridiculous question the other day and I said I'm never surprised by the people, the questions that people ask. People really, I've never shocked me anymore about their expectations and what they expect. People literally expect to make a lot of money risking nothing and really doing nothing. Like not using their brain whatsoever at all. You do have to use your brain. So what? What's wrong with that? Nothing, okay? Some of the most successful people in the world are people that have amazing brains and I'm not saying that your goal in life is to go out there and be Jeff Bezos but let me tell you something. That man has a good brain, okay? So when you think about it, if your goals are very lofty, whatever they happen to be, okay? And lofty means could be different for things for different people, okay? Whether it's time, whether it's where you're starting capital, whatever, okay? It's not impossible, you can do it but you have to think. You have to think and you have to have the right knowledge, okay? The knowledge helps you. If you have a million dollars and you don't have the right knowledge, you can lose it all. If you have the right knowledge and you have a thousand dollars, you can turn that thousand into a million. I don't know how long it will take you but you could. It's unrealistic to think you could do that in a month and that is part of the problem. I think a lot of people have completely unrealistic expectations within the timeframe that they think they can achieve certain results and then they make poor choices in order to try to push the results along faster when it's not meeting the required time specifications, okay? Any questions here so far? Anyways, let's talk about share size to make a living. If you risk a buck or a thousand shares, you're trying to get a move of a buck, two bucks. You know, every time I go in, I'm like, okay, well I'm trying to get a move. I'm trying to get a dollar. I'm trying to get two dollars. And again, I'm talking in general. This isn't stocks like Amazon or Google which we're not day trading even though we do options and those things in general, 50 cents a buck, okay? I'm trying to get things that move. But this is a nice job if you wanna do it for a living because you can work from home, you could be anywhere in the world and if you wanna do options like I said, you don't need a margin account, you can do it with a cash account. So what does that mean? Say for example, you have a margin account. It costs $39 a share for the stock times a thousand shares. Really the cost of the position is $39,000 to take it. That doesn't mean cash, it means cost. It doesn't mean you need $39,000 cash. It means you need an account with that buying power of the 39 grand. So for example, if you have a four to one margin account you need 9,750. If you have a 10 to one margin account which you can get a proprietary day trading firms you need 3,900. I'm just using this as an example to show you. Now, what if you wanted to buy the stock, this same stock, but you didn't have any of these things and you said, well, I'm gonna do it as an option. Say you wanted to do AXAX as an option which I didn't call but you could have done it, all right? Say it cost a buck, okay? That would be a lot different. You can get 10 contracts which is basically like a thousand shares if it costs a dollar you would need $1,000 cash and you don't really necessarily worry about margin. So these are the pros and cons of doing options versus equity trading. I find the benefits of both. You have to look into it. If you have questions call a broker or you can email me later, okay? Let's talk very quickly here about the trade of the month. I don't think anything is gonna top this. In fact, I'm certain that nothing will top this. This is gonna be the trade of the month for the stocks which right here. I have a very good eye. I have a very good intuition. I've built that intuition and my eye and my instinct based on 12 years of doing the same thing but it started out with the right knowledge on gaps and over time now I've just gained a sixth sense to do this. Is that something you can come and get from me? Yes, once you learn my system and start to do it and trade with me in the room Monday through Friday over time. How long will it take you? I don't know. Until then, you take the trades as I call them and you learn the class and you start to do it and you don't deviate from the system which I don't do. Luckily, I ignore everything everyone says but myself. So the reality is that Tesla was higher way, way, way back here. I did do an option in this back here I called in October and then I just kind of let it be. Didn't really look at it, didn't do much with it, didn't call anything here in December, the stock was on the move. Then on this day here, just was, again, I saw I was gonna gap up. This was on a Monday, it was January 6th so I called the 450 and the 455 calls in Tesla expiring that week on the 10th. This was last Monday or whatever, it was more than a week ago now. And it worked. So I called it very late in the day because I saw the stock was getting bought and I saw it was gonna gap up and I was right. So this was the day I called the first two trades and then it gapped up over the straight. A lot of times, I'll call these options trades whether they're calls or puts and they'll gap into the direction through the strike of the day that I call them. So theoretically, you could have gotten in the morning with profit here. Now, if you held it, it had a move on the day here and a move of the day here and I called more trades here and more trades here and they all worked. So this was the big breakout day. Right in here, it was the eighth, I think. Anyway, stock almost made it to the dream target which was 500 last week. It did eventually get to 500 this week. I'm not gonna go over any of those but if you did an advanced risk, a total risk of all the trades I called was $87,880. You could have made $336,720. And actually, some of you could have held even longer into the following week with the lift that it had. But anyways, average return on investment, 383%, which is fantastic. It was the timing of the trades that I called. It was two-fold. One, the momentum in the stock and the timing that I called these trades. I had perfect timing on these trades. I'd absolutely perfect entries. I couldn't have done this any better if I tried unless I did it out in December but the reality is the cost of these trades would have been more if we had bought them in December than they were in January if I did them for January explorations.  Could be the week of, could be two days away, it could be two weeks. I typically do not wanna take stuff far out. I don't think there's any benefit necessarily to doing that. Again, as an active trader, you're in and you're out and you're in and you're out. I only have about 10 more minutes so I'm gonna try to go through this stuff really, really quickly. But again, I know this is being recorded and if you have any questions, you can email me as well. Anyways, here was, here was some Monday. So I called the 450s and the 455s sent the trade out at three o'clock. The options newsletter, you get the trades emailed to you, okay? And again, cost on the Monday was six. It was, ran up, beautiful trade. Sold at 42, 600% return investment. I showed you the chart. It ran straight up like a rocket. Then the 450s were very good as well, okay? Again, straight up trade, ran right up that week. Gapped up the next day after I called it. Then in the morning on the 7th, 942 a.m., I called the 460s. This was a good trade too, okay? That one ran up as well. I also called right away the 470s. So typically what I do if I see something running and I know, I'm like, I can see the momentum.  So then I'm calling it. I called the 460s, called the 470s. This was a really good move from the cost. Cost of this was only $3.60. It was a 705% return investment. That was the 470s. Then I called the 475s, that was huge too. Again, I called them at noon, or close to noon on Tuesday, okay? That was, this is the second day. This is before the day it took off like a rocket, which was the 8th, okay? So I had perfect entries on these. Then again on, I called around 1230, the 480s. And then I called in the afternoon at two o'clock. I called the 500s, which was insane. But it actually got there too, okay? And I called then the next day. I called as many as we could do. 480s, I called the 490s, and I called the 490s. This was Wednesday morning at 730 in the morning. I knew this stock would continue higher that day. And I'm just gonna go back and show you this chart really quickly. So that was the morning of here. In the pre-market at 730, I knew this was gonna go, and it did. So again, I have a very, very, very, very, very good eye for this, and it went. So people were short this, they shouldn't have been. People were shorted last week, it broke out. Again, I called more trades. I don't think I have those in here. There just wasn't time. I'll do a video eventually on my YouTube with those other trades, but I called more trades on Monday in this Tesla. So Tesla just, everybody made a lot of money in it. One girl told me today she's up $77,000 to start the year.  But again, I had perfect entries on those. It was a perfect read of the chart. And again, when you see momentum, when you see institutional selling, or you see institutional buying, when the knowledge tells you the trade is good, you set your risk accordingly, which would be based on the size of your account, and you take the trade and you let it play out.  Some trades I call are down before they go. It is what it is. I use the same system no matter what, whether I'm doing longs or shorts, or day trades or options, it's the same exact system. Everybody that did the Tesla trades I called made money. Went last week into this Monday, and now we're watching it here to see where it goes as well. But the point I'm trying to make is you may have big goals, but you can achieve them, but you gotta have the right knowledge. Like the woman that's happy that she made over 70 grand, she's astounded. She's been working on getting to that point, and now she's there. You don't know. You don't know when you're gonna get to that point. It's like, but you know that you need to take the right steps to move forward to get to that point. And too many people, like I said at the beginning, jump around from thing to thing to thing to thing. What I do works. The question is whether or not you wanna come and be committed to learn from me, because the cost of my class is not cheap. My class is $69.99, $7,000 if you wanna learn what I know. And if you just wanna get the options trades, it's $6,000, it's $59.99 for all the trades for a year.  You're gonna pay a good amount of money to get those trades. And if you wanna learn it, it's the best case scenario because what are you gonna do if 10 years from now, I'm not teaching people this anymore. And I'm off running a hedge fund, which I've seriously considered doing, especially in the last two weeks, the way I've been calling the market and stocks like Tesla. Because you add about five more zeros onto those numbers is what people make that are running funds. The fact is that the market is moved by institutional money, whether it's selling or buying. And when traders try to do tricky, tricky, tricky things, they tend to lose. You may take 10 trades and make a lot of money in one and lose on the other nine, trying to duplicate what you did because what you did really wasn't a good trade. The worst thing you can do is make money in a bad trade. People don't understand that. But I'm telling you, and BYND, I don't really have time to talk about that today. That's another tricky one. That's another one that people are gonna get hurt in or have gotten hurt in. But anyways, I use one strategy to trade. I focus on gaps. We get gaps all the time of the year, but right now, earnings season is upon us so there's lots and lots of gaps. And I say to people, focus on right now what you can achieve. Live in the moment. If you wanna make thousands of dollars, you can do it. But right now, is that possible? It is if you have the cash to risk and take my class and learn. So you have to look at where you're at right now. You will get there. Think positive about what you wanna do, but pushing the envelope or believing in fairytales, like taking $500 and making 20 grand in a month is ridiculous. Once you get with reality and are focused on really, truly achieving your goals with reality, which doesn't mean you can't make a lot of money. You absolutely can. That can be your reality. Even if you have a small amount to start, but you have to have the right knowledge without it, you're lost no matter what anyways. You're lost, like I said, even if you don't have a million dollars, you're lost without the right knowledge and the right guidance, okay? The knowledge gives you the conviction to take the risk and put on the trades, all right? So think about what I said today. Think about if you have time to do this. Think about if you wanna trade full-time or do it part-time. Think about the things you did last year and the changes you're gonna make for this year, but you absolutely can make money in the market if you want to. So I teach a class, it's called the Golden Gap course. It's a rating system. It measures gaps by rating them in the daily chart to find stocks to trade that have, number one, a high probability of directional bias to follow through for the entire day. Two, big move on the day, preferably, early confirmation of the bias and the move between 9th or 8th, 10 a.m., okay? Precise entries with follow-through and a good risk to reward target potential, which is exactly what I did with Tesla. So you can do this if you want, if you're interested. When you get in good trades, the money comes quick and easy. When you're in bad trades, it doesn't. So you see the difference. And again, a lot of people just aren't focused on the right stuff. The Golden Gap system is a 26 point professional bearish gap rating system. And the purpose of my system is to help you evaluate which gap to trade each morning using a checklist. You do this in the pre-market. Excuse me. You do it in the pre-market. But I'm not taking any trades in the pre-market. You can't take options in the pre-market. And two, I'm not doing equity trades in the pre-market because they wouldn't be on 4 to 1 margin, okay? They would be like, it would be like an entry like where you would just be taking the position either on 2 to 1 margin or on no margin, okay? I'm not doing that. This checklist though that I figure out in the morning tells me what to trade and in what direction. And it predicts the direction of bias in the stock. So really quickly, I'm gonna go through the next class. If you wanna learn is January 25th and 26th. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time, class of the class is 69.99. If you're interested, email me. I'm doing a special, starts today through Monday for Martin Luther King. This is the trading room and the options letter free until the end of March, which is basically the whole earnings season you're gonna get all the options trades, all the day trades be in the live room. This offer ends on Martin Luther King day. It's a special because normally you'd have to pay for the options letter and the room. This is a good deal and it's a good time of the year because of earnings season. Someone's asking me, which broker? No, I'm saying you can't trade options before the pre-market. That's exactly what I said, you cannot. You cannot.  I call the trades in the pre-market. Everybody's ready to go and set up to take them into the open. Now you can do the QQQs and the SPI as options actually, I think it's 10 minutes before the open and 10 minutes after the open. But no, I said you cannot take options trades in the pre-market. I'm saying I'm not doing any trades in the pre-market equity or otherwise. And actually I don't get in the options in the Qs or the SPI in the pre-market, but you can actually enter those I think 10 minutes before the open and 10 minutes after the close. Is that clear? Any questions from anyone at all? And if you're interested in sitting in a trial to the room email me today, I'll send it to you for tomorrow morning. We'll see what we get. We'll be watching Tesla. We'll be watching the market. I'll look at it right now. Info at the stockswush.com or Melissa at the stockswush.com. Any questions anyone? Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Melissa. It was a great presentation. Members said good stuff, Melissa. I can, I agree to that 100%. Thank you. Thanks, Anna. Thanks for having a good... It was great having you back. I hope you have a great the rest of your day and happy trading. You too.


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point A, B, C, D, E. Tell me what is A to B? A to B is constant velocity. So, shift to acceleration. Have you experienced this in class? Start accelerating. It's a very common thing, right? And then after observation we made in the last class was this. Let's solve a numerical based on this. 3 seconds. Tell me the displacement after 11 seconds. So, now everybody will guess the height, right? Right. Okay. When the velocity should increase an area shows should be subtracted from 34. 34 is the answer. It could be like this, like that. You may need to, you have two triangles, one and two and then probably this one could be the rectangle, right? So, like this. Last class and last to last class. Okay? So, just a quick revision. Now we can start solving some numericals. Okay? Okay, the chemistry in math will be a little bit more thicker. Yeah, bio. Okay, guys pay attention. Right now. Okay? So, we have to write in terms of, in terms of what is given to us. 0 to 5 seconds, 5 to 7, 7 to 9. What is the velocity between these? I mean, what is the velocity for these 3? 0 velocity. 5 to 7 it is? 0. Displacement is 0 and 8. So, this is 4 by itself. Minus g and displacement, so minus h. Now I have to. So, we will be using minus h, u is 0, equation is minus g. So, from here you can see that the velocity is equal to under root of 2h 5g. Fourth second. In fourth second, how much distance it has travelled? Four seconds how much it has travelled? I am asking you, on that fourth second, four meters. In the third second, I will be travelling four meters. In the fourth second, I may be travelling six meters in four distance. Can I get? As you tell me one second. Quickly. Don't do it verbally. I know it is a tense, straight forward. Tense. It will be travelling three, I have taken four. So, it is 12 or 16, 28 meters. It has travelled. Can I use this one normally? In three seconds how much it has travelled? How much it has to travel? 21. 21. 21. 21. 80. Yes, 80. Yes, 80. Don't be casual, you know. You have to write it down and solve it. 3 into 3 square. So 9 plus 9, 18 meters. Now, can you tell me how much distance it has traveled in the fourth second? 21. This, my understanding? Getting it? So like this, you can get particular distance traveled in the nth time. Getting it? Yes. And then you subtract it. That is the time. That is the distance traveled by the opposite. So there was a balloon. Do you feel in control or do you remember this much? It's from here. Okay? 2 seconds. See, all of them are going below. You have to find the velocity of that of its dropping. It is not dropping. After 2 seconds of it dropping, whatever is velocity. One thing is taken for that, you start feeling in control. Okay, fine, I know something. Of course, ordering. All right, delicious. Here. Keep on reminding. This is your card. Okay? The movie made at extremely high speed. Okay, you drop it. You have thrown. Okay. And then drop it. The ball will move. The ball will drop. Okay.  And then when you come to the front, the ball is going to land or move to the front. You will be carrying the ball. Because it will drop to the front. Correct. A simple example which is more day-to-day life. Keep quiet. When the ball is not on the smartphone, right? Okay, when the ball... So that we can so that he can throw the ball with whatever strength he has. Plus, what he will be carrying with his feet. So that is what the ball is. Okay. Now solve it. Now what is the answer? Minus 7. Minus 7. Now is it 10 or 12? 12. 12. 12. So you is 2 Minus 9.8 into 2. Yes or no? 2 minus 2 minus 19.6 which is minus of 17.6 meter per second. Fine. If I ask you... 17.7 Spirit cannot be negative. Because it does not have 9. Any doubts? Just a few seconds. That's what you are taking time. Yes. After 2 seconds, what is happening? That is what we have found. Any doubts? This guy doesn't want to play. So...