HOW To Build Your TRADING Account From $6K To $100K (The TRUTH)

Though you’ve made multiple eight figures in your trading career so far, you’ve broken one golden trading rule: you don’t use stops.

Yeah, and why is that so? When trading options, especially weeklys or monthlies, there’s going to be high volatility. So in a given week, your option position can move 50, 60, 70% both ways. So I size for zero. I, every position that I have, I’m ready for it to go completely in the red. And over time, for me, that’s produced the best gains because you’re mentally prepared for every scenario. So even when I started with $6,000, I knew that me trying to set a 10% stop loss, 20%, would never work because you have to either be right right when you click buy, or you’re going to get stopped out within the next day or two days, especially as it approaches expiration. So me sizing for zero was the best way for me to see the full potential of a trade. And when I started scaling up to $100,000, $200,000 trades, this worked in my benefit to the most extent. Because by the time you get there, your confidence in your ability is so high that the probability of you being right is much higher. So that’s what’s going to set you apart from the average trader to the good trader to the great traders: being able to take your max risk and be okay with it.

So when you say that, though, you’re not—are you risking essentially the whole account, or is it a portion, like your trade allocation, or for the ideal allocation?

Yeah, so it’s just—um, let’s just say it’s like a million-dollar account. So max risk you should be taking for just an average trader is like maybe 3%, 4%, maybe. So it’s just per trade. So if it’s like an A+ setup or a prime setup where the stock’s about to break out, then you’ll put in 40 grand, right? And you have to be okay with the outcome of that, meaning if you’re not okay with it going to zero and you’re okay with losing 10 grand, then just buy 10 grand, right? And over time, you’ll hit those 500%, 1,000% gainers. And the money you make from that is much more than if you held the $40,000 position; you’re going to sell before you hit 80 grand every time.

And um, how important has that been, though, for you to be able to achieve the results you have? Do you think?

I think that if you want to get to a certain level, you have to understand how to risk manage your risk first. And setting my stops at—at no stop has—it’s been everything. It’s what’s really set me to get to eight figures, cuz I was stuck at seven figures for a little while. But to get to the eight-figure mark and making millions of dollars sometimes in a—in a month or two months, that’s what you need to do. Because the outcome—you can’t control the outcome, but you can control how much you want to lose. And if you’re okay with winning and losing, then it—the results will come.

Was it something that you struggled to implement to begin with? Was it—was that having a stop one of those rules that you had heard of as well, coming up open?

Yeah, yeah, like uh—because that’s what you’re taught. You’re taught to, okay, make sure you set a stop for every trade, you know, stocks or options or whatever you’re trading. And it works for some people; there’s nothing wrong with setting a stop. But if you’re trading options and there’s, of course, higher volatility compared—compared to trading, you know, stocks or maybe even futures, um, you have to size for zero. I—I think that, you know, I’ve been trading for 14 years and I’ve tried everything. I’ve tried all types of strategies; I’ve tried everything to try to be profitable. And this is what set me into a different tier of trader. So I think if you want to learn options and you want to be successful and you want to actually grow your account effectively, efficiently, you have to size for zero.

Yeah. And would you say that that advice, though, is it less so for the beginners coming in, more so maybe—maybe edging towards intermediate, more experienced trade?

Yeah, so I would say if you’re just starting out, you can’t trade every day, right? If you have a $1,000, $5,000, $10,000—not every day is a day for you to trade. So what I did was I started with 6,000, and there were times where I’m waiting days to weeks at a time to take one trade, really, right? So there’s obviously momentum, right? There’s people that only trade momentum, and that’s mainly what I do. And when I see momentum, I will go pretty aggressive during that—that pocket of time when the market’s ready to rep higher. So you can apply it when you’re first starting out if—if you’re competent and you understand that even if you grow the account from $5,000 to 20,000, you’re still broke—like you can’t really—your situation doesn’t change. So if you focus on learning the right fundamentals, right, sizing for zero, you know, understanding when to actually trade—when this momentum—those fundamentals will carry on to when you have a much larger account versus trying, you know, the stop loss in the beginning and then having to relearn it later on. There’s—you’re already in your habits, right? And it takes more time to convert from using the stop loss to getting that mentality of allowing everything to go to zero.

Would you say you’re someone who’s always had a high tolerance for risk?

Yeah, I—I have a high-risk appetite. Um, personally, like when I didn’t have money, I didn’t necessarily care about money. I don’t really have an attachment to it, like in terms of like my identity or emotionally. So yeah, money and—I just see it as a way to make more money and to use for different things, like take care of your family, you know, take care of, you know, your friends and whoever needs your help. But yeah, I—I have a very big risk appetite.

Do you think that is almost necessary to be able to go with that sort of rule set as well?

I would say uh—to a certain extent, right? And every person is different in the sense that success in trading means different things to different people. And not everyone can get to six figures, seven figures, eight figures, even nine figures. And there’s nothing wrong with that, right? Because I have such a high-risk appetite, I—I was able to get to where I’m at. But if you’re not that type of person, that you don’t have that personality trait, there’s nothing wrong with making six figures or five figures a year. But you have to understand that about yourself because there’s people that want to be my position; they say, I want to be like Brando, I want to make a lot of money. But can you handle losing 100,000 a day, 200,000 a day, right? Like my friend uh—visiting asked me uh—on Friday, he said, oh, how much did you lose today? I said, I lost 120,000. He’s like, wow, like if you didn’t say that, I would—could never tell you lost any money. So you have to be okay with losing if you want to get to the top.

Would you say that you were always that way, even when you were, say, first starting out and taking some losses then, or would they impact you a little bit more at that stage?

Yeah, there was definitely a little bit more pressure when I first started because uh—you don’t have a lot of capital to work with, and you have to kind of handpick really carefully what you want to trade. And yeah, taking a loss in the beginning—going from I would say four figures to the six-figure mark is the hardest part, really.

Yeah, why is that?

Because—because you don’t have your margin—forever is so small. And typically when you only have that amount, your total net worth is probably very low, and it’s probably the last amount of dollars that you actually have. So when you get to that uh—six-figure mark from four figures, you’re bu—you probably have built some type of system that actually works. So now it’s scalable, meaning going from 100 grand to a million is a lot easier. So that’s the way I did it; this way I—I try to teach people is once you can get to that six-figure mark, that’s when you can build momentum in the way that you trade and build like a system that can—and that is—you can scale to seven, maybe—maybe eight figures if—if you’re—if you have the competence.

Was there anything in particular that you had to—to go through besides just the numbers we mentioned, for example, like the scaling and having that system, um, that helped you with the risk appetite and handling those—the losses and the wins that were coming along as you were growing? You know what—like was there ever a barrier that you had hit where it was a bit of a struggle to overcome?

Yeah, I—I would say seeing—seeing myself go like from the—like the 50 grand to 100 grand, it’s a lot of one step forward, two steps back. So it—it’s hard to kind of deal with that—the frustration of not seeing any progress like at face value, meaning you’re not making any money, and it seems like you’re just, you know, starting at—at zero every single week. But you’re actually learning a lot more about yourself, learning more about your trading style. And if you have the competence to fail and pivot and adjust, I think that um—breaking through those obstacles will be a lot easier. So that’s I think what separates like a good trader from a great trader: there’s nothing wrong with failing, but as long as you can see what you actually did wrong and you pivot, right? The ability to pivot, I think, is what is great in business; it’s great in trading. So they’re, you know, they’re very synonymous. But the benefit of trading is you find out very quickly if you’re wrong versus when you’re doing business—whether to retail, you’re—you’re in clo—fashion, you know, you open a restaurant, you know, if you’re in fashion, you have—you’re buying inventory eight months out, right? And then you have to sell it; you have to market it; you don’t know if it fails until a year later. But if you’re trading options, I mean, you can find out within a couple hours.

Yeah, right. So that’s what I like about options is you learn quickly, and you—you—you should adjust based on like your failures quick.

So as part of that—that learning curve, though, and being able to learn from it, I’m guessing there’s a review process of your reviewing your data. Is that a big element of—of that progress?

Yeah, so the first thing that I always try to tell people is there’s a time of day where you perform best, right? It’s either—it could be the first two hours of market open, or it could be maybe the last hour. And that’s where you first want to start. There’s this pocket where most people, like, okay, this is where I’m comfortable trading; this is the most volatility in the first hour, and that’s where I make my money. So I would say try to stay within that window. And yeah, so that—that’s—that’s the number one thing. So in terms of uh—reviewing data, though, what would—is there anything specifically you would look at?

Yeah, so uh—so another thing, too, is there’s certain trade setups that you perform best in, right? So if you look at like a year’s worth of trades, uh—there’s one type of setup where you’re winning like 80% of the time.

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So would you say that’s your, you know, your key process is looking for those levels?

Yeah, that’s—that’s really all my strategy is. It’s just support and resistance.

Yeah. Do people get surprised by that?

Yeah, yeah, they’re—they’re like, okay, Brando, like—so what indicators—like what—how do you like find that trade? And then I’ll just say like, okay, SPX, you know, 6100, wait for that level. When it comes, that’s one like big level; it’s like all-time high. So when I tell that to—to people, they’re like, well, what else do we—like what else should we know like about that? I’m just—and it’s—it’s very simple; just wait. Like the patience part is the hardest part; it’s just waiting for a level. That I talk about—like Tesla, when it broke the recent all-time high, 414. And I keep telling people, like, wait for that level and just see how the market reacts. And it went from 418 to 488 within a couple weeks. So if you’re trading options, you’re going to—you can make a lot of money.

What reaction would you be looking for, say, at these levels?

Yeah, so basically, like, let’s say Tesla is approaching 414, and SPX is at—let’s say it’s approaching 6,000—like around psychological level—that you either see a selloff or you see more momentum. And for this example, you know, Trump got elected, right? Market kind of did a big gap up, and everything started to really break out. So if you see SPX line up with a really important level and then you see like a sector-leading stock line up as well, those produce the best gains, right? So that correlation—that correlation between the index and the stock—like that’s like my bread and butter is just lining those two up and making sure they’re kind of moving kind of in sync.

Mhm. Yeah. What would invalidate sort of that level for you?

Yeah, so like, let’s say SPX 6,000, right? And it drops 50 points, um—and then Tesla also gets rejected, then that’s a clear—the inverse of that. Yeah. But—but I would say, though, if—let’s say Tesla got to 414, the all-time high, and then SPX rejected at 6,000, drops 50 points, but Tesla only drops like five points, then there’s like some relative strength in the stock. So two things can happen: either the stock bounces or Tesla will break lower. So in—in that case, um—I would say there’s a higher probability that SPX will come back up. Yeah, but it’s—but with trading, you know, it’s—it’s case by case, of course. So you got to really analyze like what other stocks are doing as well, like the—the mega-cap tech stocks that, you know, they move the market a lot, too. So you kind of have to try to line those up, too. But it’s—we talked about uh—your strategy now being quite simplistic, as we said, the levels and the correlation there. But was there in your process and in the development as a trader, did you have like—did you try out other more complex strategies, indicators, and all sorts?

Yeah, yeah, like in the beginning, like my charts were like filled with like moving averages and using like Fibonacci and RSI, like MACD—like it was just a whole cluster of uh—of all these lines, trend lines, like, you know, try to—confirmation bias of like, you know, the trade will work, the trade will work. But um—I found out like over the years, I would say probably four years in, that the best traders don’t really use any of these things. It’s really a simple strategy of like support and resistance, right? And within support and resistance, there’s more to it, like there’s the, you know, horizontal lines obviously, and then you have uh—trend lines, like a bullish trend or bearish trend, drawing these lines, and you have—you have Fibonacci retracements, and then um—the psychological levels, like the round numbers, like 50, 100, 200,000. So when I say support and resistance, it’s—there’s like subcategories within it, but it’s very simple. You’re really just waiting for important levels, and you don’t need to be a genius to be profitable or to figure out like how to find the right trades. I—I think it just comes down to just being patient and—and waiting for just the right levels to trade off of.

So what allowed you to—to make that realization to keep it more simplified versus, you know, having a more complex strategy? Cuz a lot of people who come into trading, I think everyone almost—yeah, for the most part, unless they have like really good education early on, which isn’t usually the case, um—they come in with that same mindset: it has to be complicated, or, you know, this shiny object over here. And a lot of the time they’re jumping between strategies, um—so what was it for you that allowed you to go and have that realization of—of simplifying and—and, you know, making it cleaner on the charts for you?

Yeah, so like in the beginning, like these things can work if—if you know how to use the indicators, like the MACD, the RSI—like I don’t deny that it can’t work; it—it can, and it does. But when you’re in the wrong trade, right, you’re going to find 10 different reasons for it to work, right? And trying to find 10 reasons for one trade to work is usually a recipe for failure. Like—and I found that every time I was in a bigger trade, I would like read up news and find upgrades and find anything to like see the market in a way where maybe the trade will actually pen out and I make a profit. But over time, I realize you should only have maybe one or two reasons to be in the trade, right? Number one is the level, and number two is like just kind of overall sentiment—like is there bullish news being produced in the stock? Is there an event that—that’s coming up that could move the stock? And if it’s above a certain level and there’s a catalyst coming, then that’s really all you need to be in a trade. And you know, I’m not the smartest guy; like I don’t—like I don’t read all the fun—fundamentals; I don’t read financial reports. It’s just simply just waiting for certain levels and then having the conviction to just take the trade.

So one question I get asked a lot in terms of me asking a—a guest I have on the podcast is like, what did you have an aha moment—like a moment that things clicked in a different way and you saw a lot of progress from—I think when I realized that, you know, kind of coming back to what I said in the beginning is when I started sizing for—is when I started to actually be in the right trades because at that point I’m objectively just taking what I want to take as a trade and not trying to chase my loss on another trade or trying to make back something from two days ago, um—so

That was when I really started to make a lot of money; it's when I started sizing for zero in terms of the difference. Is there any key differences that you've seen from yourself, or even other, you know, traders that you know, for example, that between the six-figure traders versus the seven-eight figure traders?

So, number one, as we said, is the risk appetite. Right? Like, if you're not ready to lose like six or even seven figures, which has happened to me in a day, then you can't get to that level. As a younger person, maybe when you get older, when you really develop the risk appetite over time, but to get there in your twenties and your thirties, you have to have a big risk appetite, and that's the number one thing that separates people to make like real money. So that is really the main thing I think, because there's a lot of smart people that understand the charts, they understand what trades to be in, but they just don't have that ability to size up. And not everyone is supposed to be on that level either; not everyone can get there. It's just a matter of, it's kind of like in your blood, right, having a big risk appetite.

Can you talk to about a large loss that you faced?

Yeah, so April 2023, I'm trading SPX, and that month I think I was down at 1.1.5 million, really in April, yeah. So, yeah, and listen, every great trader breaks their rules, right? And I was averaging down to the point where I thought, like, okay, I have a large bankroll, this will come back, and it never came back. So I took that L and moved on from there.

But what was your process going through your mind at the time, though?

Well, the thing is, like, you kind of have like an ego, like, you know, when it comes to money, and you think like, oh, like I've made so much, I'm successful, I've my track record's amazing, like I there's no way I can be this wrong, right? And, you know, a $200,000 loss turns into $400,000, and then you know you're down $800,000, but then it comes back down to $500,000, and you're like, oh, okay, no, we're on the right track now, and then you, you know, you wake up the next day, you're down a million, and, uh, yeah, it just, it just, and then you hit max pain at 1.5, and then I was that.

Yeah. What did you do after that? What was like the process you took after that, the steps you took after that?

Um, well, you kind of have to just reassess like what what you did wrong, which is very clear: the averaging down. And did I take any time off? No, I didn't. I didn't take any days off, but I just sized down like dramatically to kind of build up confidence again. So I'm probably trading like 1/12th size just to see if I'm on the right side of the trades now, and yeah, after that, you know, spent probably three, four weeks kind of just getting back in the right mindset to bounce back. So yeah.

Here's interesting because I can imagine I've seen people who take even smaller losses than that, you know, probably maybe not as consistent traders, that would be fair to say, you know, not as consistent yet. So they probably haven't built that experience, so they haven't built the experience and knowledge of, like you say, like you will make mistakes. Those mistakes will vary depending where you're at in your journey; some will be very large, some will be smaller, etc., but they happen versus I think the early-on traders don't. They assume that, you know, traders are perfect. When you're when you're consistent and profitable, that's it; you won't make a mistake, and if if if you do, it's very, very minuscule, to the point where you wouldn't even class it as a mistake. Um, so when they then do it, they feel crippled. You know, have you ever faced that in your career at all where you really felt you had to take a break and you and you would question if, you know, trading was real or question if trading was for you and if it was going to be possible?

Yeah, yeah. No, I I think that, like like you said, like with new traders, they think like a trader like me or someone that's very experienced is that the money just flows in; it's we've got it figured out, and we wake up and you click a couple buttons and you make a lot of money every day. But I think that even for me, I'm still very much on my toes every day because one wrong decision and I could be right back in a situation where you could lose seven figures, like very quickly. So, um, I think there's always a lot to learn; there's always more to learn about yourself and about the markets, how they move, because the market's extremely dynamic; it's it's always changing. So, um, I try to stay in that mindset because complacency, you know, it exists; it's real, and especially when you get comfortable financially, it's easy to kind of fall into a space where, um, you think you're you know, you think you know it all.

I remember you mentioning in terms of that period between the five to six-figure mark being the hardest part, especially because financially, you know, it's not going to crazily change your life, and, uh, no doubt you probably can't pay yourself from trading as much as you probably like to because you need to scale, but, you know, what does that look like for you in terms of financially wise? Is trading your only source of income, or have you now been able to diversify so that you don't actually need trading income to live essentially?

Yeah, yeah. So, so I've been trading since I was about 19, and I never had a day job other than that, but, um, about six years ago, I started a trading service. So I was starting an account on X, had about 50 followers, and when I reached 100 followers, I said I think I'm on to something; I kind of was like happy about that win. So I started a trading service, scaled it, you know, making multi-millions a year. So I would say if you are looking to be a trader, I think having a second income is not a bad idea because it takes a lot of pressure off of you to make money and to pay the bills. So having that extra income really is extremely, I'd say extremely helpful because it forces you not to not have to trade every day. And trading, you're not making the same amount every week or every month, right? It's when the market presents an opportunity, you either take it or you don't, and you may not make any money for three weeks, two months, three months. But I I know a lot of traders in November and December that made, you know, more money those two months than they did like all of 2023. So like if you are competent, you can find those pockets where there's momentum, um, yeah, you can make you can make a lot of money, but uh, it's not consistent.

I say, well, that is the hardship of trading. I think again it goes back to that misconception about that a lot of traders have is that once you're profitable, you make money every single month, and uh, you will never make mistakes, that same that same premise, that same mindset, and I think it's a dangerous one because then you're setting yourself up for not failure necessarily, but you're setting yourself up for a rude awakening at some point, right? Or you're always going to be chasing, and that I think does lead to that strategy hopping. I think that's the mindset that really leads to the strategy hopping because they might have a good strategy; I've seen people with they got a good edge, and it's performed well month on month, but it's not winning all the time, 100%. Some days are slow, some days aren't, and because of that, literally because of that, it's like, ah, let me try this next thing because that might be the thing that gives me 100% strike rate and gives me really strong, strong confidence and clarity on the markets. And then that misconception just like it never goes away for some traders. I think I think for some traders, they they will stay in that hole versus the ones who can start to very quickly realize and listen to traders such as yourself and others out there who have actually gone through that journey and have the verified receipts to say, okay, well, every every single verified receipt trader is saying the same message, maybe I should take that on board.

But, uh, in terms of the process of paying yourself in trading, how have you gone about that? Is that something you do on a, maybe less so now, but generally speaking for your journey, is that something you do on like a monthly basis, quarterly basis?

Yeah, so I would say a monthly. So at the end of the month, you kind of like, I would say in the beginning, I'm just kind of taking out to pay like bills, but um, I would say weekly is too often because like I said, like every week is different. So if you have a really good week, you make, you know, a thousand bucks, you withdraw the thousand; the second week you lose two grand, so now your account's much lower than it should be. So I would take it out less frequently just to see if like the strategy that you're doing is actually working, right? Because you have you could have a really good week, but that week probably everyone might have made money because it's an easy week, but once a month I would say is a good benchmark to start at, and you know, as you grow your account, you don't necessarily need to take it out as often.

Would you say that throughout your journey you've experienced and noticed, as we talked about, like, you know, one or two months, those sort of periods being very common in terms of the highest P&L, like the large portion of P&L coming from a small selection of tickers or options and contracts and a small number of, uh, you know, a time period versus every month, like a cumulative of every month being the huge P&L?

Yeah, like I would say in a given year, there's 12 to 14 weeks where the market's hot, right? And if you can wait for those weeks to trade, which is hard, it's really hard, um, then that's where you make most of your money; most of your money I would say in in a year it's off a handful of trades.

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If you're chasing rotation, like you're chasing, you know, finance stocks, tech stocks, and then you're jumping over to industrials and banking and everything, it it's hard to be a great trader; it's hard to be to make a substantial amount of money. I think focusing on a handful of stocks that you can master is how you make a lot of money, and uh, that's what I did, right? Like people that know me, like I trade mega-cap tech, I trade Tesla, Nvidia, SPX, the NASDAQ, and I've mastered these stocks to a certain extent to where what I've learned from them I can apply it to another stock if I happen to need to do that in terms of what strategy worked of trading, you know, support or a breakout level.

So do you feel like that rotation you mentioned, is that not something, does it sometimes like draw you in when it's outside of what you're focused on, or at this point is it just doesn't bother you?

It depends, right? Like if if a stock is hot and like like a meme stock or something, like I've traded it and and and I've made a lot of money, um, like 2021, remember GME?

Mhm.

Yeah, so I I bought 50,000 shares of GME at like 40-something bucks, right? I was on I was in Maui with my wife; we were for Valentine's Day, and the whole week was super, super slow, and the market opens at like 4:30 in the morning, so it's super early mornings; it's Thursday by that time, so that's that's four days of like grinding it out, and the market's not moving. And so I bought 50,000 shares at like 40-something bucks, and uh, within like two hours, three hours, the stock had a short squeeze. So that was my biggest trade; I I ripped 2.7 million in 24 hours on that stock.

Really?

Yeah. So what goes for your mind when you you go for something like that?

So so it was interesting; so I I I bought the shares and then uh jumped in the shower, and then I got out; I'm up like $700,000, $800,000, and I was like, and I told my wife, like, let's go grab lunch. So we go, you know, down where downtown whatever Maui, and we order fish and chips, and we're sitting at a bench; I look back at my phone; I'm up like 1.4, 1.5 million, and emotionally I'm like, I need to sell; like, you know, this is your biggest trade ever, and it it was a weird moment where I was like, you shouldn't sell based on emotion, so I was like, let me just hold overnight; you know, this is a ballsy move. Woke up the next morning, uh, scaled out out of all of it, and yeah, I ripped 2.7 on that.

What goes through your mind after that? How do you control yourself not to get overconfident or greedy or start to, you know, start sizing up, you know, quite aggressively?

Yeah, well, in that situation, I didn't. Do you remember when they kept halting the stock on the way down? So I I got caught pretty badly on that, so I I I was buying shares, and I and I just kept buying more as it got halted, but it kept going lower, and at one point I was down like 1.3 million when when they kept halting it, and you can't get out, but I kept buying more to where it actually, and I got out like, didn't I mean, made a decent amount, but like 100 and something thousand, but after being down that much relative to the risk, you so like it was a moment of like you have a lapse of judgment where you... Was that after the the the big win? That was after it. So you feel that like euphoria, and you're like, oh my gosh, like I'm I'm up huge, so you kind of have a lapse of judgment where you get greedy, and that happened to me, but I thank God I got lucky, and I kept buying more, which is, you know, breaking another rule, but, um, yeah, I I couldn't control myself. So go back to your question. Yeah, I kind of just wanted more after that big win. So have you found that happens, you know, on other areas as well, or is that something that happened and then you you learned from it and kind of avoid try and avoid it in the future?

Yeah, yeah. No, I I definitely learned from that; that was a moment where like you could have turned a good situation into a terrible one, so it's kind of traumatizing, I would say, for sure.

I can only imagine.

Yeah. But you know, earlier we talked about, you know, how you can't you sometimes you won't win for a month, maybe three months, like what can you talk to us about like a losing streak, a period of time, maybe maybe one of the longer ones, yeah, that you experienced, and then one, the thoughts that were going through your mind, and two, you know, how did you come out of that? What did you do? Did you have to make any changes?

Yeah, I would say um, 2022, when the market like really sold off, when a lot of stocks were down like 70, 80, 90%, there was probably like a seven-eight week stretch where it was very difficult to make any money; like, everything just kept going lower every week. So for me, the way that I trade is, let's say week one, you take 20 trades and you win 17 out of 20, which is a great week, and then week two, um, the market starts to shift a little, not much, and you win 14 out of 20; still made money, you know, no reason to change up the strategy, but then week three comes and things start to really get volatile, and you're you won 10 out of 20 trades. So on that week when I only won half my trades, that's when you start scaling down, and I'll scale down by at least 50, 60% for that fourth week, right? And then you notice on week four you're taking number one, half the amount of trades, and then you're still losing; let's say you you win five out of 10. And from that point forward, you have to scale down even more, and I think that's what helps um keep you in the game, being able to recognize when your strategy isn't working in the right environment.

Was there ever any moment in your trading career where you you doubted yourself?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I would say all the time, really, all the time. Yeah, even today, right? Um, like Friday, lost I think it was more than 120; I think I say a video, you might have seen in the screenshot.

Yeah, did you see it?

I like maybe 150 or something, I forgot. Um, so I mean, you're going to doubt yourself all the time because, like I said, the market is always changing, and you have to have the ability to adapt. And me being 14 years in, you think people think, oh, he's got it down; he figured it out, but you also have to think on the sense that like how many good years do I have left of like focusing every single day? You get what I mean? So you're always going to doubt yourself, especially like I'm 34; there's kids coming up, 20, 21 years old that are just crushing it, so I feel like I have to work even harder so I don't doubt myself. You get what I mean?

No, I get it. It's an interesting mindset, and uh, you know, it's an interesting topic you brought up there in terms of the mindset of how long will I do this, you know, focused every single day. Like, what are your thoughts with that? Do you have like an idea of when you would not maybe more, do you think you would step away entirely?

It's hard. Yeah, it's hard, um, cuz I I I love the idea of trading, um, just the competition, you know, facing against other, you know, retail traders and institutional, and just trying to be right. I think the idea of winning and the feeling of winning is it's unmatched, and if you can do it and make a lot of money, um, in some sense, it's it's addicting. So, um, I love what I do; I I think that it's a blessing to be able to actually just even trade for a living. So do I see myself stopping anytime soon? I don't think so.

Yeah, it was never something I thought about in terms of uh traders sort of just stopping very early in terms of lifespan, like they could continue for, you know, 10, 20, 30 years because I have met traders who have done that, like in their seventies and still trading, for example, which is insane, uh, but shows, as you said, I think it is that that competition; I think it is that unrivaled feeling of, you know, participating in the markets, win or lose, to be fair, but especially obviously when you win.

Yeah. But then I met a trader recently who, you know, has done phenomenal, you know, phenomenal multi-eight figures, closing in on nine figures, and uh, that's what they're was their choice was to essentially step away and retire very early from the trading game and focus on other things that they're passionate about. Their reasoning was one, obviously they they love the markets, and you can tell as well, and even this year they got they were meant to like kind of step away but got drawn in by the volatility and the, well, say 2024, sorry, um, but drawn in by the volatility and the opportunity still and performed very well. But yeah, like they want to step away because they said the lifestyle of trading for them in particular, and I'm sure it might be similar to for yourself as well, is like when those opportunities are there and you have to be active and you have to be quick, your your day-to-day lifestyle is terrible; like, you'll probably sleep way less; the amount of mental energy and fatigue of of really focusing while still handling all the other things that you have to handle in day-to-day life. I think he doesn't enjoy that aspect of it anymore, you know, and uh, he prioritizes or has a stronger emphasis on those things now in terms of his priority list, so therefore, yeah, made more than enough from the markets, so therefore was going a step away. Is that a thought process you think you you would uh have, or what do you think to that?

Yeah, you know, I I think maybe when I have kids, I I think that, um, my mindset could change; maybe I want to spend more time with them, which I should probably don't say that to me; I've left my kids for a month to do these podcasts, so, um, yeah, I I would say it's hard because I have only known trading, yeah, right? I've been doing it since late, very late teenager, so, uh, I don't know what else I would do, right? But yeah, as of I say, as of this moment, still love it; still it kind of wakes me up in the morning, like, and I'm ready to go every day, so definitely.

Yeah, that's great. And in terms of early on, like you started very early, as you said, 19 years old, like what was it about the markets that got you intrigued in the first place?

Yeah, so so I was in undergrad, and I had a friend, his name was Edwin, and we were both on track to go to med school, really; we were kind of like pre-med, and uh, we're in class, and he's always on his phone, and one day I just asked him like, what are you doing on your phone? He's like, I trade options; I just made...

300 bucks a day. And you know, I was the kid in college where I'm buying Domino's Pizza, $5.99 for two mediums, and I'm trying to stretch that out as long as it can last. So, like me hearing, you know, this kid just made 300 bucks, um, I asked him to teach me. You know, he kind of showed me the ropes, and I start just looking at charts. Right there was a stock called American Apparel back in the day, and I, it was I think it was a penny stock, but I saw it go from like a dollar to $2. And I'm like, wow, if I put 100 grand in, if I had it, I could make 100 grand in like a year. And then to me, I was like, why am I in school? If I can figure, if I can figure this out, then I don't need to be here anymore.

So he graduated, went to med school, became a doctor, um, and then I graduated. I took the MCAT, graduated, but I did not pursue, uh, med school, really. Yeah, so. And when I decided not to go to med school, I didn't even have any money. I had a few thousand dollars. So I'm working, I, I worked as a painter, I worked as a dishwasher, and uh, saved up money while trading and just kind of slowly built it up and built it up. And I, I hit some, uh, there was this stock called Inovio Pharmaceuticals that was one of my big hits. It was like a biotech stock, it like heati, uh, vaccines or something. And then Bank of America was another one where I, I hit a big trade on that, and that kind of, kind of pushed me to like not towards six figures yet, but much bigger than six grand. Yeah, definitely.

And what was that, uh, like, obviously, you know, not having sort of capital, what was your period of time before you could go full-time, fully trading? I would say by my third year, I made a million dollars. Really? Yeah. So, no one actually, this is no one that knows me personally has, has that knows that, but yeah, I made my first million. And I was 20, about 22, 23. So that's new to anyone listening. But um, so I would say by 22 and a half, 23, I was like pretty confident to be full-time. And back then that was a lot of money, you know, a million dollars at 23, like before the inflation, it was a lot of money. So, but it, it's, it's scary when that happened because you think you are on top of the world. You think that, um, you're invincible, right? And I was spending the money so fast. Really? Oh yeah, like going out, clothes, jewelry, watches, this that, you name it. I was in that lifestyle, kind of like, you know, like Instagram kids nowadays. Yeah, yeah. I was like doing that. But um, but yeah, so about two and a half years, three years where I, I was, uh, like full-time. But what on during that journey all the way up to until 2021, I was pretty secretive about my life of, of trading because my family thought I was going to go to med school. They thought like I was going to be this like, you know, book, you know, I was very book smart, and they thought I was going to be a doctor. And uh, for a long time, I was just the black sheep. Like no one really, like my parents were always like, what are you doing at home all day? Why do you stay at home all day? Like what are you doing? And I'm like, oh, you know, I'm trading, I'm learning how to trade, I'm, you know, trying to make money, this and that. And they couldn't understand it. You know, they're from Vietnam, they were born in Vietnam, so they, there's a big like culture difference between here in America, um, they in America, so, um, 2021 is when I kind of reveal to my parents like, okay, you know, I, I flew him out to Vegas, and I'm like, okay, here's, here's the life I live, and you know, paid off everything for my Mom. They're retired now. But uh, yeah, I, I kept it secret for a long time.

What was their response when they, I mean, they, they couldn't believe it. Yeah, like I, I at the time I had a Lamborghini, you know, different cars, like watches, like, you know, multiple homes. So, uh, they, they, they, their jaw dropped essentially because like I was so secretive about it, like because no one in the beginning, no one wants to hear about it, of course, you know what I'm saying? That's good. Yeah, everyone's against you. Everyone's like, what the, like you think you're going to make money doing that? And uh, I, I think the feeling of success after everyone says that to you, uh, it's, there's nothing like it. It's unmatched.

Why didn't you, uh, drop out? Yeah, of med school, or you didn't go to med school, sorry, but did the, yeah, what did you, what was undergrad? The undergrad? Yeah. So why didn't you drop out when you first heard about trading? Because I was still learning. Yeah, I, I was like halfway through, so I only got two years left, and like I think it would have been like even more crazy to for my parents to hear that, you know, that I think they would be like so stressed. But the reason I asked you that though is simply because I've come across traders, uh, independent traders and, and people into trading, and they're in that position, they're at university, uh, they're, I think it's the equivalent of college here, and uh, they're a year in, year and a half in, sometimes two years in, you sometimes only got, you know, a year left, and they say to me, uh, you know, whether it's on DMs or I've met them in person or, or other people you speak to, other people, etc. And they, they say to me, I'm going to drop out because I want to give more time to trading, yet no results or anything, but I want to drop out, you know, it's not for me. Yeah, and uh, I've always, not I understand the, the, the passion, drive, you want to, you want to succeed at something, but equally it's like if you're already there and you've only got x amount of time left, like why not just complete that because you can learn trading, you know, on the side as well as that, especially if there's no results, there's no really any reason to drop. Um, so that's why I asked you. Yeah, that's why I asked you with that, uh, how, how what was the mindset of not continuing to med school then? Because at that point you hadn't made money from trading just yet, right?

Yeah, so the learning process, it was tough cuz like, so I was like dating a girl like at the time too, and like she came from, from a relatively like good family, like, you know, well off, and they were expecting me to go to school, um, med school and stuff, and ended up like breaking things off with her because like they, you know, they can't see the vision. Yeah, well, I guess it was a vision at the time, but they couldn't see like the dream, like what, what I wanted to really do. So yeah, it was, it was tough. It's, it's tough when, um, when only you see it, right. And, um, what got you through that period? Then I think just believing in myself. I, I, I, I always daydream, it's like, I nowadays they call it like visual visualization and manifestation, but I was always a daydreamer. I always kind of saw myself in a life where, um, a life where I had everything I wanted, right? And I always was like that ever since I was a kid. I always daydream. And, um, am I surprised to have everything I have now? Yes and no, because I, I always thought I'd be here. I, I didn't know how, but I always thought I'd get what I wanted. I, I was always kind of naive growing up in terms of, uh, even to the state to be fair, but I always think that everyone kind of has a similar mindset, you know, and everyone sort of believes in themselves, wants the best for themselves and the best for others and so on and so forth. And as we get older, you know, we come into more contact with more different people, and you know, you realize that's not the case, unfortunately. But, um, yeah, it's quite rare, you know, to have that sort of mindset of self-belief by the sounds of it, because of all the people I've interacted with, it's quite a unique trait, uh, but one that I believe is definitely necessary because as you said, it's not about how you do it, it's just knowing that that's what you want to create and, and, and achieve eventually. And then what's a big component of that though? So like when you started to go through your learning process, how meticulous, how strong was your work ethic? How much work were you putting in in those early days to actually then get to a point where three years in you're making a million dollars?

Yeah, so, so trading hours is about 6 and a half hours a day. So that's standard, that's what you need to do. But after hours, you're kind of spending, at least for myself, about 4 hours, 5 hours, sometimes a day reading news and studying charts and reviewing your trades. And this is still something I do to this day, not the same amount of hours, but I wanted to be the best when I was younger. I, I said to myself, if people can click these buttons and you know, you see these stocks like Apple go from 10x over the past 10 years, like why can't I be rich like that? Like if, if people are doing it. So my work ethic is, I think it's unbeatable. I think, especially as I get older, there's a lot of competition, and I want to remain sharp. And when I was 19, 20 years old, I'm the same exact person, I'm just a little older, but everything, the way I operate, I either try my best or I don't do it. How important is it to be able to achieve success in trading to have that, that meticulous process and you be putting in that time and effort? Yeah, um, you, you need it, right? If, if you want to be the best and you want to be on top of the game and you want to have long-term sustainable success, you have to put in the work. There's no, there's no such thing as easy money. There's a big, there's a term easy money, it doesn't exist, right? People like when they look at me or anyone that's successful, they think, sometimes they say he got lucky, or they got lucky, or it was great timing to enter this industry or enter this trade or whatever it is. And I think when people say that, they're kind of downplaying what it actually takes to become successful. So if you want to get to a certain level, you have to put in the work. There's, there's no easy, there's no way around that.

Say if there's someone right now who's a year in, let's say on average, and uh, they're not quite seeing as much progress as they want to be, what would you recommend to them in terms of like how they should be running their day, um, and the things that they should be doing to really start to scale that, that progress and, and their knowledge base? Yeah, well, the first thing I would say is like, even being a year in, you have to be patient with yourself enough to see yourself develop. Most people will quit after like 6 months. So even being a year in, that's still something worth like talking about to other people because most people give up well before a year, like 3 months in, 6 months in, it could be a week, but they blow up an account and they're done. They say day trading is a scam. So being a year in, you have a year's worth of data, right? You have all these trades that you took, probably more losing trades than winning. So if you can look at your losing trades and see what actually went wrong, meaning you should have a list of trading rules, right? You should have rules that you never break, right? And it can be a stop loss, right? It can be certain environments, it could be trade size, right? If, if you're breaking these rules, like averaging down, all the all types of rules, if you're breaking most of these rules on, let's say 50% of trades, then you have a lot of information in front of you to where you know you need to correct this. And the thing with most traders is they don't like to look at their losing trades because it's painful, right? No one wants to think they're a loser, and no one wants to look them in the mirror and, and have to face, you know, all these like pages and pages of losing trades. It's, it's difficult, um, and that's to me why most people can't get better is because they don't do that. They look at the winning trades and say, okay, I'll stick to these, but you have all these bad habits that you need to actually work on first and correct before you can get to that next level. And yeah, like averaging down is like, I would say one of the biggest, uh, things that people do that really hurts you, and you know, even for me, it's hurt me a lot. Yeah, definitely.

In terms of reviewing trades, is there any specific metrics you think that are important for a trader to be, to be identifying it and looking over? Um, I would say kind of like what we talked about before is like, like there's certain times a day where you do best in, and for me, I would say mine, for me, the first two hours of the day is like my bread and butter. That's where usually I enter, I might exit after that 2-hour window, but knowing when to enter, I think is extremely important. You can always work on your exit, like in terms of are you going to scale out or exit completely in one, in one lot, but knowing when to enter and, and when you do best is everything because there's people that shouldn't be trading at lunchtime, right? For West Coast is 9:00 a.m. Pacific, so between like 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m., typically the market's a little slower, and I, I know people that try to just trade all day long, and that window time is when they typically either break even or they lose a little. But if you look at that over a year period, you calculate how much you've lost, you know, whatever the number is, you could have made like 80 grand, 100 grand more that year, or 200 grand, whatever it is. So knowing when you should be trading is, is everything, cuz people can't handle the volatility sometimes. Routine 6:30 a.m. and 8:30, so don't trade that window, wait until it settles down a little, and then, and then jump in your trade.

Do you still journal your trades even now? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I journal my trades. Why, why is that important even now? You, you want to see what you're doing, right? And what you're doing wrong all the time because what worked one week may not work the next week, and you want to see, um, the data behind that too. Like I have been logging my trades for, not since all the way in the beginning, probably have 10 years worth on an Excel sheet with like the entries, the exits, um, the reason for the trade, the, the ticker, the stock, everything. So it's all on my computer, and I, I'll even review it like sometime when I'm on the weekends, I'll just look back and see what type of trades I was taking, just, you know, just a, sometimes they make you laugh, what you were looking at, what sort of things you, you're doing. Yeah, you, you kind of like reminisce and like some weeks are terrible, like it's just all red sometimes. But yeah, yeah. So it kind of brings back memories. Definitely. I can imagine. How often are you reviewing generally, like more recent stuff, like do you do it on a, the weekly basis, quarterly basis, monthly basis? Um, I, I'll review every day, like after the market closes, I'll just kind of look at what I took that day and see like, am I following my rules? Did I go outside of that window? And, um, make sure that I'm not going down like a route of just new bad habits because it's easy to fall off the wagon and just start trading because you're up and just trading to see action. And I, I try to make sure I'm not falling into that, that common pitfall of just being in a trade just to see action. Yeah, yeah. In terms of your rules, I know you said obviously time, um, and I'm sure obviously the, the stocks that you're, you're selecting, but is there any other rules that you must follow each day when you are trading? One big one that I, I have done lately is not oversizing because as your account gets bigger, you want to see more profit, you want to, like sometimes you want that rush of being in a big trade and hitting a big one. So I have a rule where I don't go above a certain amount, and it's a hard rule to follow because it's tempting to size up. So that's a big one that's going to save you, especially as your account grows.

Do you grade your setups at all? Do you have like a high hierarchy of setups, like something that's an A+ setup or, or or not? That's a good question. So I only take A+ setups, like I won't enter a trade unless I think it's a good trade, um, I know people do that grading, but I don't see a point of taking like a C setup, like why, why be in a trade in the first place? So I try my best to think, like to think, I only wait for A+. So how, how often would you say on average you're trading, like how many trades would you say you're taking like a month or, yeah, yeah. So on average in a month, I'm probably taking about 75 to 80 trades. Yeah, it's about, so they would all be A+, I, I, I, I like to think so. Yeah, so, um, I've been doing the trading service for about six, over six years, and I've, as of today, I've probably logged over 6,500 trades, and my win percent is like 74% or something, 73, 74%. So I like to think that I wait for the best trades, and people that know me, people that been with me, they can kind of, you know, attest to, like that too. Is that a regular amount of trades? It sounds like a lot, but then is that something that is quite common in options trading? Yeah, yeah. I, I, it just depends on the trader, right? Like I trade a lot of weekly options, so you buy, like you buy a Monday SPY on Friday, so it, it just depends on the trader, right? Like if, if you, for example, like when Tesla broke 414, that all-time high, it went to 488 shortly after, and it gives you the ability to trade multiple strikes in the same week. Okay, so like Tesla breaks 44, you take the 425 call, mhm, right? Gets to 425, you sell it, you roll to a new strike, 435 call. So that trade alone could be worth like seven or eight trades. Okay, does that make sense? Versus like, um, people thinking like, oh, he's 80 trades, it's 80 different stocks, or 80, it could be like five or six of the same stock for one, for, for one, uh, five, six different trades for one stock. Yeah, no, definitely. And, uh, how many stocks would you say you would have in play at one time? Would you have multiple that you'll be trading with the same week? Yeah, so like in terms of open positions, probably like three or four at a time, max. Yeah, and then if the trade works, you, I'll roll it, and then you keep rolling until it doesn't work anymore. Yeah, and then that's, that's how it adds up. Yeah, no, that makes sense. That makes sense, um, because there is one trader, for example, who I'll be doing a podcast with later in, in the, in the tour, and they have like hundreds, I don't think they're in options, uh, maybe I think they're in multiple markets actually, but they'll have hundreds of position, positions open across the board, which is, you know, something that's quite unique. I can't imagine their day-to-day then, they're just managing positions. That's crazy, um, but I think they probably have like a very long-term, uh, sort of more view on the markets, um, so be interested to see that, be interested to have a talk about that. But that's the one thing I found of trading is like there is no right way, like a right definition way, like, if there was, then everyone would just do that, right?

How important was it for you to sort of create your unique style and focus on what worked for you versus, you know, maybe something that had worked for someone else and you're trying to copy it? Yeah, so it, I would say in the beginning, you're going to, you're going to try like 10, 20 different strategies, learn from different people, but finding your edge that matches your risk appetite and your trading personality is, is everything because if you don't have a big risk appetite, then maybe you shouldn't trade weekly options, and you have to understand that about yourself because there's people that I know, people that signed up to trade with me that don't have a high-risk appetite, and they're trying their best to trade like zero DTE and same week expiration, and just doesn't work versus if, if you don't have a large risk appetite, you should trade monthlies or trade two months out or just buy shares, and you have to recognize that about yourself before you, um, pick one strategy for you because you can't be exactly the way I trade, like you can't just emulate my style and expect to, to get rich. You have to really objectively analyze who you are and what your, what your actual potential is.

Is there anything that you could, you maybe point towards or, or advise for people to be able to do that, do that sort of process to, to work out where they're at? Yeah, um, I would say you have to ask yourself what's your pain, pain threshold in terms of when you lose money, like if you have a $25,000 account, you lose, let's say you lose 10 grand, how does that make you feel, right? And if, if it's, if it's a terrible feeling and it would ruin you, and you, you know, you get sick to your stomach, then you know that you have a long road ahead of you versus when I had 25 grand, I, I've lost 10 grand, you know, it's substantial, a part of my net worth. I always thought I'll make it back, you know, like this is a learning lesson, and I'll make it back. I always try to find like a silver lining in every situation, you know, even when I lost 1.5 at one point, and when I was at 1.5, I'm like, okay, well, we'll figure it out. If it, if it's a realized loss, right? Or April 2023, I was down 1.5, um, I always tell myself I'll make it back, right? But if you can't be in that mentality and you don't have a risk appetite, then you, you, it's, it's difficult, right? It's difficult to just be like the type of trader.

Have you always been that way? I've always been that way. Always been though? Yeah. And it, it's just not like we're trading, like anything that happens externally, I would try to find like a silver lining and just try to think positive. Is there anything you feel like that, that comes from somewhere or is it just something you naturally feel like you have? Um, I just think that it's, you know, when I first started, um, it was so difficult to kind of live my life like openly where I had to just always kind of think for myself and just kind of like, kind of like survival mode in some sense, and you kind of have to develop a positive mentality if, if you want to, you know, go down this journey of pursuing like your dream essentially, um, so I think it's important to do that because you're going to lose a lot in trading, and you have to always be positive. I think it's really important. Is there anything that you feel like traders should know about when they're, if they're starting to perform well? So right now we've spoken a lot more on the beginning section, right? But let's say you're in that intermediate section, you're hitting, you're, you're starting to hit towards the seven figures mark or multiple, you know, maybe higher six figures, um, and you know, the goal is to hit the eights, uh, and hopefully maybe even beyond. What would you, was there anything that, what happened in your journey, maybe some sort of challenge?

Something that you had to overcome? Something that really helped you to make that transition? Yeah. That traders out there should, you think they should know?

I, I think that once you get to close to seven figures, you, you should realize that at this point it's just a numbers game. It's the scalability; you don't need to change really what you're doing. You just need to make sure you stay in the same type of trades. Because if you're scaling from whatever 10 grand or 100 grand to, and you're getting close to a million, nothing should change in what you're doing except taking just a little bit larger size trades. Like for me, my when I started scaling up, it was very gradual, right? It wasn't like, okay, I'm at a million now, I'm going to go 3x of my normal size. It should be very, very gradual to where you almost don't notice your scaling up. Um, so like the past like two, three years of my trading, like I made more the past year and a half, two years than I did the first 12 years of trading, really. But the, the process was so gradual, like you don't even notice it. It's weird; it's a weird thing is that like that compounding effect of all your time, experience, as well as being able to, to scale, you know, through your account.

In terms of risk though, like what do you, how do you uh, define your risk? Is it a percentage base? Is it just a dollar amount?

It's um, I, I would say it, it's a dollar amount. Um, for example, like I would say my max size on a trade would probably be like 250, 250,000. Um, but it ranges; it just depends on the day of the week and like the setup I guess. But like the trade size could range from like 25 only to 250. But really, yeah, it just depends on the what would define that. Um, like for example, if, if it's a Friday and I'm taking like, like we call like a lotto trade, cuz it's going to expire soon, you're putting in like 25, probably less, like 15 to 25,000 and see if the trade works. But if it's like a prime setup where stock's about to break out, I mean you have to take a shot, right? And I'll do 250 is max risk.

Yeah. So would you say in, in essence, maybe you don't grade them by the traditional sense or what a lot of people say in terms of A+ and C, but you do have a form of scaling risk depending on the setup?

So it's, it's almost in a way similar thing.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, I guess it's a different way of looking at it. So because as you mentioned like the, when, when the market's hot and in play, that's very short amount of period, you know, in the year, and and it happens a few times a year. I think the premise of having the scaling, um, sorry, the, the different grades for your trades is so that as you mentioned earlier, like why would you take a C setup? I think the mindset, if I'm not mistaken, is that you take the C setup and the B setup and the, and the A, so that when the A+ does finally come along, the few times that it does, you actually have made money off those setups that allows you then to size up and, and really maximize that A+ when it comes along. Does that make sense?

That that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. That, that, that definitely can work. Like in different markets, like it could be like a B or C like market condition, and you kind of have to recognize that and just take what you can from the market, whatever the market's offering to you. And then, like you said, when there's momentum and it's A+ environment, yeah, you take all those profits and you, you, you flip it, essentially.

Yeah. Yeah. And in terms, like you've been trading for 14 years now, and, and in that time the markets have changed, different rotations. Um, yeah, how important is it as you, you did mention earlier, obviously being able to pivot is very important, but what are the key things you've had to do when the markets have shifted, you know, going from a bull market to, to a bear market, going from uh, really strong consolidation for long periods of time? Like what things do you have to adapt and change, if any?

Um, you, you, when, when experiencing those moments when COVID happened, right? SPX was at, at the, right before COVID, February, it was at 3400. It dipped to 2200. And to me, I've never seen, no one's ever seen anything quite like that, where on the way down they're, you know, circuit breaker, circuit breaker, they keep stopping everything. So that to me was brand new. Um, but I think recognizing uh, when the markets are super volatile, there's a lot of fear, um, that is a moment where you, it's two situations where on the way down you have to recognize that, that the market is in a situation where you need to take risk off because every day is gapping lower and lower. And I think if you can see that in, in that moment, it'll help avoid, help you avoid taking big, big uh, loss on your account. But at the same time, uh, recognizing when everyone has the same sentiment as well is when uh, you should go the opposite way. So at the bottom, when it hit, SPX hit 2200, I know a lot of people that sold everything; they sold, they got out their retirement accounts, like they completely got out of the market. And then when it hit that bottom, you know, a month later, 2200, you know, SPX ripped from 2200 to 4800, right? Within I think two years, right? So that was like a market bottom. But yes, seeing, seeing downside and, and being having to pivot and adjust, it's, it's difficult in the beginning, recognizing that the trend is truly changing. And at the end of 2021, when the market did peak, SPX hit 4800, um, the first two months that was hard because I didn't believe that the market was going to, I, I didn't think we were entering a bear market, even though it was, it was clear, right? The Fed wasn't cutting rates anymore; they were talking about, you know, um, raising rates. Um, so yeah, that, that was the market top. And I think after two months is when I realize, okay, uh, it's time to size down and just appreciate the profits that you made and just wait for the market to kind of settle down, and it eventually did. At the end, I'd say the end of 2022, uh, SPX went from 4800 to 3500, and that marked the bottom.

What do you do when you're in those periods? So as you said, you're taking the risk down, uh, risk off, um, is there anything in terms of uh, strategy of like the type of trades you're taking? Do they start to change, or do you just, you don't, I'm imagining you don't take, you know, completely set out the market, yeah, but do the, the types of trades you're looking at differ depending on the market conditions?

So I would say we're definitely trading puts more, betting on the downside, and I'm also selling premium more. So basically, um, most people will buy calls and buy puts, so it's like a directional trade. Um, there's the other side of the market where you can sell a call and sell a put to where you collect the premium. So essentially, you want the premium to go to zero, so it, it's a slower way to make money, but it's, um, it's a type of, I guess, strategy where you should be right about 80 to 90% of the time. You, all the options just go to zero, you, you take all the premium. So during that time in 2022, I was selling a lot of calls and just collecting the premium as the market went lower. So you're not making a huge amount, but you're at least making money.

Yeah. And you're purely focused on options, right? Have you dabbled into other areas?

I mean, I buy shares of stock. Um, I do own Bitcoin, but um, yeah, I'm pretty, pretty much primarily options trader.

In terms of the markets now, coming in with President Trump, right? He's going to get inaugurated soon. Um, you know, does that change anything for you? And obviously the 20, you know, the last four-year period that he had, the, the markets were hot; there, there's a lot of movement, a lot of volatility. Does that, uh, is there anything that you do in preparation for that, or you just, you know, wait to see what happens and react accordingly?

I would say it, it doesn't really matter who's President. Um, the stock market will make its move regardless, um, whether it's a Democrat or Republican. Um, the market has always performed; it always goes up. So, um, even when, when Democrats are President, um, the markets have, have ripped, right? Especially when Biden was in office, 2020 to 2024, the market has trended higher. So I'm more of just waiting to see what happens at the inauguration, and then you react to the price action. So right now the markets looking a little toppy in the short term, so we'll see if they break it low over the next week and a half, and then maybe when Trump's inaugurated, it'll pop back up. So.

And uh, just before we have a little segment at the end, I collected loads of questions from the audience. This is a good one. So this person is asking how to enjoy the process. I'm, they said they're too focused on the goal and therefore not enjoying the process versus how do they actually enjoy the journey as they're going along.

Yeah. So I think that the first thing about enjoying the process is you actually have to like the stock market; you have to like finance and, and, and being in an environment where there's risk. So most people want the goal of money because they want just the money. So to truly enjoy the process, you have to, you have to like this world of volatility and stocks and the unknown. So that's where I would start; like you have to ask yourself that question first. And then if the answer is yes, yes, yes to all those, then that's where you start to really begin to enjoy the process. Because when I first started, I, I looked at that chart, American Apparel, and I'm like, wow, this $1 to $2, and I could make that much. I was like, okay, well, let me study more charts, and if I study the right charts, then I can make a lot of money. And that's what the proc, how the process starts of you diving deep into all these different elements of trading in the stock market. So ask yourself those questions first, and if there's more yeses than nos, then I think you can enjoy what you're doing.

At this point, this is a question for me, but at this point, would you say you're more motivated by the money or more motivated by your performance as a trader within the markets?

I think I'm more motivated by uh, the process of just winning, like having an idea, having a, a thesis on what you think the market's going to do and being right. Right. And the thing that I like about trading is most people will think a certain way, meaning right now everyone's very bearish; everyone thinks, okay, oh, it's a double top, head and shoulders; we're going to go much lower; SPX is going to go to the 200-day moving average. And me, I like to think contrarian to a lot of people, and when I'm right in those situations, it makes me feel good because I think that having that type of mentality and that thought process um, can in turn make you a lot of money. And with money, you can help a lot of people. This is very true. And plus, I always see it as it's a double, it's, it's like twofold, cuz when you focus on the process, you end up getting the money anyway as a byproduct of that versus when you focus on the money, no, nothing wrong with that. I'm sure there's people who are motivated by money who make good money, right? And perform very well as well. But I think when you focus on the money, there's two sides; there's those people, but then there's a lot of the other side where I think you become more emotional because when you're focused on money in trading, inevitably you're going to lose money, so it's the opposite of what you're focused on and what your goal is.

So how does your mindset go then when you're like, imagine being that 1.5 million down, yeah, but your, your focus and goal is purely money? What's going to happen to your mindset, cuz you've just completely gone backwards, right? Yeah. Um, so I always find that interesting. I really do. I think we've talked about this, but I'll ask it anyway, just in case, but he said what was the specific change that you made to become profitable? Then they put in detail. Okay. So I, I'll kind of tell you how I went from like 6,000 to 100K. So kind of talked about a little bug; I'll go into more depth. Is when you start with a small amount of money, you can't take a trade every day, and you can't have these daily monetary goals where like I'm going to make $100 a day. And I saw that people around me, um, people that I knew that tried to do that, and every day presents different levels of risk and reward; you can't make the same every day. It may work for a week or two weeks, but in the long run, it's not possible. So I, I quickly realized that waiting for momentum, right? Those 12 to 14 weeks in a year, if you can just wait during those weeks, you can go from 5 grand to 100 grand very quickly, like when the market breaks certain levels, right? Like when SPX was at 3500 pre-COVID, it dipped to 2200. If you just waited for it to get back to 3500, traded that all-time high breakout level, it went from 3500 to 4800 within a short period of time. You, if you bought a long-dated option, you could make 1000%, right? So you go from 5 grand to 50 grand or maybe 100 grand if you trade it shorter dated. So waiting for momentum, waiting for that 12 to 14 weeks when you have a small account, it's, it's everything. If you want to grow an account, that's how I did it, to focus on like quality over the quantity.

Yeah. And one thing I was going to ask there as well, in terms of breakouts at being your bread and butter and being like sort of the, the trade that you're more mainly focused on, what would you, what happens when you have a false breakout? So price breaks out, then comes right back into the range again or even ends up you selling off, like what happens in that scenario?

In that situation, um, that's when number one, you take, I take the L on the trade, but then you have to be more defensive because if, if one stock, let's say Nvidia is trying to break out above 153, the all-time high, projected very quickly and pulled back, I, I was in that trade, and when I saw how quickly it sold off, um, I didn't try to enter again because it sold off after the, after an event where the CEO had to talk here in Vegas. Um, that's when you have to just not be stubborn and not try to just jump back in again and again to try to make your money back. I think that's really important on false breakouts is when it fails at a very important level, you need to let it drop. And it went from 153 to like 134 within a couple days. So if you kept trying over and over, you're going to get your account blown up.

Definitely. Was that something you had to learn the hard way?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Is it a case though, like if that happens, does that essentially make the next time around when you get back to that level maybe a stronger case for it to take place, cuz the more times it get, you do the shakeout?

It was someone gave me a good analogy on, on gold, I believe it was, um, where you had an all-time high, and the all-time high was hit three times; every single time sold off; every single, the fourth time is when it actually blew up because the psychology of the average trader now is it's going to sell off again. So now they're positioning themselves for that, that sell, yeah, providing liquidity for them to buys to take place. And, and then not only do the buys take place, it has such a strong surge because it's just clearing all that liquidity. Yeah. So I would say, like, let's say Nvidia is at 153 again, the second time, if SPX is still under 6000, like the all-time high is near 6100. So if SPX is still 100 points under where it should be, and then Nvidia is retesting 153, and other chip stocks are not quite where they should be either, meaning well below all-time highs, then the pro, I would say the probability of that second breakout attempt is, is less likely. Interesting. Versus SPX is at 6100; AMD's finally moving back higher, you know, Broadcom's, you know, near all-time highs; all these stocks that led the market in the last run are all lining up together, then the probability of that breakout becomes much higher. So I would still try the 153, but if, if it's the first scenario where stocks are lower and the next lower, I'll just take a smaller size.

Yeah. So that, that, that correlation is what then dictates as well the condition.

Yeah. In its essence, the grading and therefore the size.

Yeah. That's everything. Yeah. Having the index lined up with the stock that's in the index, it's everything. I love that. I love BR. I'm sure we can do this uh, for even longer. I'm sure hopefully we'll, we'll see you again in the future and maybe even get you on one of our roundtable podcasts as well.

For sure. But it's been an absolute pleasure. Links for BR will be in the description below, so make sure you check those out. Drop a comment with your biggest takeaway from this episode. I know there was so much to take away. Uh, hit subscribe; other episodes are on screen. And until next time, everyone, take care.