My wife and I bought a house overlooking a lake a few years ago.

And there were a lot of big trees on the lot that were within striking distance of the house, should they choose to fall the wrong way.

And they LOOKED like they were about to fall if so much as a stiff breeze came along.

So we had to cut them down.

And once they were on the ground and cut up, it left a lot of wood to chop.

But growing up, I used to have to chop wood every Saturday, because our family used a wood stove to heat the house.

So I've spent a fair amount of time using an axe.

We had a pile of wood about 12 feet long by 6 feet wide by 5 feet tall that needed splitting.

So one Saturday morning, I had at it.

I started around 8:30 am and finished chopping around 12:30.

So all said and done, it took me about 4 hours.

I thought that was a pretty manly achievement, but at the end of it all, I was absolutely done.

I was so worn out, I couldn't do anything the rest of the day.

And two days after, boy was I sore.

I'm definitely not it "wood chopping shape" like I used to be :)

That said, for what it was worth - and all manly achievements aside - I would've saved myself an incredible amount of time and effort, if I would've just borrowed or rented an electric wood splitter.

I would've had the same end result (a huge pile of split wood) in less time, and I wouldn't have been worn out and sore.

It's just like trading.

Some people insist on taking the hard route by trying to do everything on their own. They spend years banging their head against the wall, trying to figure out everything from trading strategies, to entry prices.

And in the process, they make a lot of the common beginner mistakes, and end up losing money.

But there is an easier way.

When it came to cutting wood, Abraham Lincoln said, "If I had 6 hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend 4 hours sharpening the axe."

And when it comes to the "working smarter, not harder" part of learning to make money trading, the quickest way to get going is to follow the trades of a more experienced trader.

Sure, if you go at it along, you might get it done eventually.

But it's going to take a lot more blood, sweat and tears than is needed to get to the end result.

It's the equivalent of chopping wood with a dull axe.

Or chopping wood by hand compared to using a machine.

Just like I experienced in my wood cutting episode.

So I missed the process when it came to cutting wood, but I was smart enough to latch onto that principal when counted - back when I got serious about trading.

So if you'd like to get all the results with way less effort, you can start getting our exclusive trade alerts by joining us inside The Empirical Collective at the link below
https://theempiricalcollective.com/?trk=CutWood&optionstrading=83jasdfa8ejdjfg

Here's to working smarter, not harder!

Your Minister of Capitalism,
Brett Davison