283% Gain in 1 Year - The Story of the 22-Year-Old Swing Trader

I entered a trade around this breakout on this breakout, I believe. And then the stock just went straight up 100% in two weeks. This trade, I would say, it would be my turning point of my trading career, trading journey, because I really shifted my focus from climbing back the trough and making back all the losses to really focusing on making the right decisions and being disciplined.

Speaking of the actual performance last year, I actually entered the USIC on February, so my January performance was not included. So the actual return in 2024 was 340%.

As long as I can find a way to manage my risk in a breakout, that is a good setup. But also, I can't predict the return of my trade, but I can limit my risk. I can limit, I can set my stop. I can limit my risk.

There's a parabolic relationship between the stop and risk multiple. The higher the return, the larger the absolute increase in the risk multiple.

I'm focused on finding a good base or a large base on weekly. But that's not a must. Sometimes the stocks could still have a really huge move without getting a huge base or a decent base in the weekly to grab all the opportunities. Oh, I missed this one. I missed that one. Don't feel frustrated about it. You know, missing opportunities is very, very common in trading, and sometimes you just have to let it go and find another one. There will always be another opportunity in the markets. When you are confusing about whether to take this trade or not, normally just don't take it. Like, normally it would be a loss. Like, if you're hesitating or confusing whether you should take this trade or not.

From studying charts in the past, I have noticed normally when a stock makes a big move, it tends not to revisit the low of the breakout days. Normally, when a stock has a big move, it will not go up 10% a day and then go down 15% a day and then go up 30% another day. Normally, it's just grinding higher with the rising moving averages. It won't be that volatile and choppy. So sometimes studying charts does not mean that you have to take the shorts, but it can help you to exit your longs in a good position, in a good rise, within a strong upside move.

The equity curve feedbacks is really very helpful for you to identify whether the markets are favorable for your own trading strategies or for the style. If the indices are weak, but your trades are working well, keep going and don't let the indices affect you that much. You could be a little bit conservative, but as long as your trades are working, I don't think there's a big reason for you to liquidate all your longs and then be so cautious, and vice versa.

Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode. As always, we bring top traders, US investing champions, and market wizards here onto the show to share their journeys, their strategies, the mistakes they made throughout their careers, and key learnings that they want to pass on to you guys to save you time, save you money, and improve your performance. We've been lucky enough to hear back from many viewers over the past few years about how much of a positive impact this podcast has had on their trading journeys, and we're incredibly grateful for all the support. If you're looking for a free, quick, and easy way to give back to us and show us some goodwill, please double-check that you're subscribed down below. And if you aren't, go ahead and click that button. This helps us out in two ways. First, it lets YouTube know that this is a valuable resource and it'll push it to a wider audience of traders. And two, it allows us to reach out to bigger and better guests in the future. So, thank you so much for your support in advance. Also, go ahead and click the like button if you haven't already. And if you have any suggestions for traders you'd like us to bring on the show, also let us know down below in the comment section. And with that said, thanks again for your support. And sit back, relax, and enjoy.

All right, welcome back everybody to the Trailine podcast. I'm your host Richard Mglin. This is brought to you by the ultimate trading guide. You can pick up that excellent free resource down below in the comment section. Joining me today is Martin Luke, top performer in the US Investing Championship of 2024 with a return of 283%. Fantastic result. Today, we're going to dive deep into his background, trading style, the most impactful trades from last year, get really into the details about his entries, his exits, his stop-loss management, all of that, and dive a little bit into current markets and some short setups that he's been working on personally. So Martin, first of all, thank you so much for your time. Congratulations on your performance last year. I forgot to mention as well, you're very young, 22 years old. So it's great to see an up-and-coming trader just like you. So, thank you so much for your time and for being here.

Thank you, Richard. And great for having me here.

Yeah, of course. To start with, I always like to bring it back to kind of the very beginning. I'd love to hear how you first got interested in trading and the markets, and I know you prepared some slides to go along with us. So, maybe this would be a perfect time to share that. And I'd love to hear kind of some of your key influences because I understand Christian Qualamagi was someone who you learned an immense amount from. So yeah, I'd love to hear about where it all started.

Yep. Perfect. And first, I would like to talk about my journey. I started trading in October 2020. It was a bit the last bit of the free money market. And during that time, the Hong Kong government had a cash payout scheme of $10,000 Hong Kong dollars, which is around $1,300, which just met the minimum requirement for opening a brokerage account in Hong Kong. So I decided to deposit that money and to open an account, and that's how I started my trading journey. And definitely, it was on lockdown, so I had a lot of free time for spending in my room. So I think trading will be one of the best ways to kill time.

So back then, there were many YouTubers, and you can see one of them in the middle is Jay Law, which is the champion of the US Investing Championship last year. And during 2020, there were so many YouTubers in Hong Kong talking about the VCP pattern. Like, I think most of the people trading in 2020 would come up with some of those videos, and I'm one of them. So the VCP pattern just really intrigued me and attracted me to study more about the setup. So this is how I found Mark Minervini and the breakout setups and how to set the risk, the risk management. And those are the, yeah, those YouTube videos are the early exposure of systematic trading to me.

And just to jump in, were your parents involved at all in the markets? How did you first get interested in trading in the first place and sought out kind of these videos?

Actually, it's about, I think part of it is really related to my major, to the field of studies in university. I'm studying finance and economics. So most of the lectures or the study will talk about the stock markets, and some friends in the university are also talking about the stock markets. And especially in 2020, the US markets, after the March crash, it just did a fast recovery. Compared to the Hong Kong stock market, I think the US market just outperformed most of the markets in the world in 2020, and many people are sharing about how much money they have made in the US markets. And during that time in Hong Kong, trading or investing in the US market was a kind of hot topic in 2020. So that's, I think, the major reason that I started trading.

Great. Yep. And then, yeah, I've mentioned that I entered the market a bit late at October 2020, and there was near the end of the free money market. So in the, I think after I opened the account from October to January 2021, the three to four months, I was just randomly buying the specs and the growth stocks and the growth names that kept going up. And I triple my account in three and a half months, I believe.

And then that's how my things went south because after January 2021, the market started, the breadth started declining. There were not that much opportunities in the market, like the stocks are not going straight up. And I'm getting death by a thousand cuts. And from the screenshots are the GME entry in late January. So everyone is talking about GME, and I also was also looking at GME during that time, especially from online forums like Reddit or some online stock trading forums in Hong Kong. There were so many hypes, and everyone is FOMOing on GME that it went up 2,000% in two weeks, and everyone is saying "diamond hands" or "yolo," something like that. And I was being the one who got involved in the hypes and entered on the exact high of a parabolic move. I entered at 501, and I think the all-time high would be 513. And after I entered, I entered it pre-market. So you can see how much I was euphoric. So I was, and after I bought it, it went down, I think 40%, 50%, or 60% in just two hours. It halted four to five times and just went down, straight down to around 100 or something. And then I suffered from a loss of, I think, 50%.

So, yeah, I keep that screenshot and I always remind myself that this is not the situation that I wanted to see again, or I'm not buying it at 500 at the exact high of a parabolic move. And I would really treat it as a very painful lesson. But from hindsight, I would say luckily I have become a good performer, a decent performer in USIC last year. So if I could do it, then you could also do it. And from your study, like from your, if you're determined and you study enough, you could transform yourself from buying at the exact high of a parabolic move to achieving a triple-digit return in USIC.

Perfect. Yeah, it's a great reminder to manage risk, enter at the right time, and all that. I think that's a great lesson. And then in 2021, after January 2021, I suffered from a really, really long and huge drawdown, I think around 40%, 50%. So I failed to shift the focus from the growth stocks to the large caps, which the large caps were more favorable back then. So my performance was not that good. I wasn't getting any meaningful progress. So, but during the drawdowns, I tried to improve and try to learn from seeking more resources from the internet to improve my trading. So actually, I really enjoyed the interviews that you have done since then, since I think three years ago, and I really, there's a comment and you have replied me, so I'm really glad that I could be here to share my experience with all of you. And then I made some notes about the interviews, the podcasts, and I also read a lot of trading books. They, I really enjoyed this one from Nicholas Darvas, "How I Made $2 Million in the Stock Market." And then, yeah, and it's Christian, and I really, I think I learned a lot from Christian Kagi's streams and his wisdom. So, these are my, I did a lot of studies in 2021 and also 2022. So I, and it laid my foundation of myself today.

So yeah, that's 2021. And let me see. Okay. Yeah. And 2022. So coming in 20, oh, I could explain more a little bit more about my 2022 because 2022 was a bear market, right? I did quite well, I would say. In 2022, it's only a single-digit return in the year, but it's still a green year in a bear market. So I caught some of the energy trades. The long trades, the biggest one is BOIL, the natural gas ETF. That one just is one of the best trades that I've made. And then I think luckily I didn't bottom fish and try to change my strategies during the bear market. I'm still, I understand the importance of not being, not catching the falling knives and not, like really sitting out in the bear market because there's nothing really attractive in doing longs. And back then, I'm not good at shorting, and I tried several shorts, and all of them were stopped out, resulting in losses. So, in 2022, I just, I just sat out and basically did nothing. But I'm glad that I was able to still make a small progress, a small single-digit return in 2022.

Yeah, I think that shows a big step up in discipline, risk management, and overall system to do well in 2022. And a specific question about Christian Kalamagi. What were some of the big lessons that you learned from him from watching his streams? What were some of the big takeaways and most impactful concepts that you took away from his style and how he trades?

I really learned a lot. I watched a lot of his live streams, the live stream recordings from his past. So, the biggest takeaway or the biggest lesson that I've learned from him is how he manages his risk. Because back then, I was following the normal breakout strategy, like breaking from the high of the base or the high of the trend lines, and then I'm setting a wider stop for maybe mostly three to seven or even 8%, mostly more than 5%. So, but after I came across Kagi, Kagi has a more aggressive entry style, entry tactics. He set tighter stops and he entered it at, not normally the traditional breakout entry level. Maybe he's focusing on the tight ranges, like, yeah, the tight ranges. We always emphasize about the tight ranges, and when the stock breaks out from the ranges, that's the best timing to buy a stock. And the way he drew the trend line is a bit different from what I've learned previously, like in the earlier stages of my trading journey. Like he, I don't know how to explain that, but he, we'll probably see it on some examples. I'd say probably on some of the examples you'll show how you draw the trend line. So I think that's great.

And then I would say the risk management. He always talks about risk management and really respect your stops. And those are the really key lessons that I've learned from him.

Excellent. So, in 2023, I went to Germany for an in-semester exchange, and I spent lots of time traveling across different countries and cities in Europe. And I really enjoyed the time spent there. And then there's also during my time in Europe in June, I took a trade in Kafana, and then I entered a trade around this breakout. On this breakout, I believe. So, and then this stock just went straight up 100% in two weeks. And this trade makes my P&L an all-time high from the February 2021 drawdown. So I've been suffering from a two-year drawdown since February 2021. So I made back all the losses, not in the exact dollar term, but in percentage terms. So I'm, until the end of June 2023, I'm finally climbed back from the trough. So I was, this trade, I would say it would be my turning point of my trading career, trading journey. Because I really shifted my focus from climbing back the trough and making back all the losses to really focusing on making the right decisions and being disciplined. Like when you're in a drawdown, it's so hard for you to just focus on your rules, making the correct trades, because your mind will just constantly reminding you, you're in a drawdown, you have to make back all your losses quick. And after you've made back all your losses, your mind will tell you, okay, you're now really making the real progress since the time that you are climbing out of the trough. So I would say the Kafana trade will be the turning point of my trading journey.

Yeah. So this was a big boost in confidence for you about the system you developed and believing that you could really perform quite well, correct?

Yeah. And then, yeah, it will be last year. Last year I entered the USIC. There are several reasons that I've joined the USIC. The first one would be, it will be my last year, the final year of my university studies. So I really wanted to give it a shot to make the most out of it. I'm trying to grab the last bit of the school time because I know that after I get a 9-to-5 job, I will not be able to put that much time and energy to study or to really trade. And I think in school, there's a really good opportunity for you to explore different hobbies, like for me, it's trading. So I think USIC will be a very good place for me to challenge myself. And speaking of challenging myself, this is the second reason. I was telling myself that if I really wanted to be successful in trading, really be a consistently profitable trader in the future, I need to combat with the stress and the high tension of trading full-time. And I think USIC is a really good platform to provide to make myself accountable for all the actions, for all the trades that I've made. And I think it really helps me to improve my trading a lot. So I'm very lucky and very fortunate to get such a great return last year.

Well, again, congratulations. I mean, that's a great, great performance in 2024. Fantastic.

Yep. Thank you. So, that's my, I'm going to introduce my trading style. And speaking of the actual performance last year, I actually entered the USIC on February. So my January performance was not included. So the actual return in 2024 was 340%. So, but that's not the main point I wanted to bring out. The main point is during the May to August to September last year, from this equity peak, the equity highs right here, and to the September or the August low, the swing lows of my equity curve, it's about a 30% drawdown in three to four months. So during the drawdown, I really struggled during the drawdown. And partly it was because I'm doing an internship in the bank in summer. So it really drains my energy and time. And this is partly the reason, but most of the, I think the majority part was I'm not following my rules and not being disciplined enough, and taking so many random trades. And this is the most important lessons that I wanted to learn, to improve the weaknesses that I wanted to improve. I will talk more about it later. So, yeah, let's focus on my trading style. And I would consider myself as a swing trader. I normally hold my stocks for around weeks, one to three weeks, if the stock is working well. And I'm a trend follower. I'm trying to catch a big trend and trying to get the most out of the trend.

And there are several setups that I take, and most of them, the first three are from Kagi, and the pullback one is the one that I recently trying to learn, trying to study more about the pullbacks. I'm risking 5% of my portfolio per trade. So, but it varies. Like sometimes when I'm not making progress, I'm trying to test the waters, I will use a smaller risk. And if I have enough profit cushion and the market's working well, I will risk more. And the maximum portfolio sizing will be 35%. And for the small and micro caps, I would, this sizing will be like 25% or 30% because they have more gap down risk for small and the small caps. And I use a tight, I adopt a tight stop and low win rate strategy, and trying to limit my stop at less than 50% of the stock's ADR, the average daily range. So, the maximum stop I would take is around 5%. So if a stock has, say, a 15% ADR, I would still try to limit my stop below 5%. And I try to focus on my on the fast-moving stocks in the sector, which is larger than 5% ADR.

Speaking about my statistics in 2024, I have 104 winners and 319 losers. My average win is around 15%, and my average loss was around 3%. And my win rate is 23%. I would say it's relatively low, but that's my strategy and how it works. Because I hold my winners for longer, my average holding period was 5 days, and the losers, normally I would just cut it when it was not working well on the day when I entered it.

So I use three indicators: the EMAs, the 9, 21, and 50, and the dollar volume, and also the anchor Fibonacci. Speaking about setups, I really wanted to quote this tweet from Nick. I really love this tweet. And I would say myself is finding the entries with the highest potential risk multiples. So talking about the breakouts, the EPS, the parabolics, and pullbacks, I think one thing in common for all of them is trying to figure out a lowest risk entry point that I can manage risk from my entry, right? So, like the market would change. Maybe the traditional breakouts are working less effectively in the current market, but as long as I can find a way to manage my risk in a breakout, that is a good setup. And because also I can't predict the return of my trade, but I can limit my risk. I can limit, I can set my stop. I can limit my risk. So as long as I can get a tight stop and I can, in a tight when it just breaks out from a tight range, that is my setup, that's the great entry point. And like Nick has said, the question is just, can I manage risk here? And if yes, that's a good setup.

Yeah, I love what you just said there about, I can't predict the return of any single trade, but what I can define is how much I'm risking, where I'm setting my stop loss, all of that. I think that's a huge lesson and something everybody watching right now should write down as they're taking notes. I think that's a great, great thing what you just said there.

Thank you, Richard. Yep. So talking about high stop and low win rate, there's a parabolic relationship between the stop and risk multiple. The higher the return, the larger the absolute increase in the risk multiple. From the graph on the right, you can see for a trade with a 25% return, if I limit my stop from 3% to 1.5%, I gain an additional eight R, eight risk multiples. And for a trade with a return of 50%, I gain 17 risk multiples, an additional 17 risk multiples. And for a trade with a 75% return, I gain 25 risk multiples. And so when I'm setting a tight stop and I've getting a higher return trade, the risk multiples that I've gained from setting a tight stop, it is gradually increasing. It's not about, yeah, it's in a parabolic relationship. It's not about the eight risk multiples for a 25% trade and the eight risk multiples for a 50% trade. No, it's increasing and increasing, right? So I think that's the mathematical way for explaining how I'm how the tight stop and a low win rate would be favorable in trading.

And do you find tightening your stops decreases your win rate, or even if it does slightly, it kind of this exponential relationship and getting more R's makes up for that fact over time and leads to more performance? Do you know what I'm asking, or does that make sense?

Uh, um, I don't have a specific answer to it, but because I adopted, I adapt to the tight stop and low win rate quite early, like in late 2021. So before late 2021, most of my trades were not working. I'm not, I'm trading randomly, I'm overtrading, revenge trading, forcing trades. So I don't think the stats during that time is worth it. Yeah. Yeah. Super relevant. So, but I'm sure that the tight stop would definitely decrease my win rate, because it's just easier to get taken out of your stops. And yeah, but maybe because also because of the drawdowns that I experienced from 2021 and 2022, I suffered from death by a thousand cuts. So I've already developed a mindset for accepting the losses and taking the losses. I'm not hesitating or I really feel painful at taking losses. So maybe it just comes to me naturally.

So, from studying charts in the past, I have noticed normally when a stock makes a big move, it tends not to revisit the low of the breakout days. For example, this one is from Amazon back in, I think, the 1990s. So when it starts to make a huge move, it won't revisit the lows. Normally, when a stock has a big move, it will not go up 10% a day and then go down 15% a day and then go up 30% another day. Normally, it's just grinding higher smoothly, like with the rising moving averages. It won't be that volatile and choppy. So there are always some great entries that I can set the stop at, maybe the day low that it will never revisit again. And this is how I build my conviction for setting a tight stop and trying to trail it most in the most of the move. So there are much more examples. This one is from Adobe. So after it breaks out from this time base, or you can call it a bull flag, and it never revisits the lows again. And even like here, you also have a very clean breakout that never revisits this low. When a stock takes you out from your stop, that means I think that's not the optimal buy point. That means your entry is not right, in my opinion. So that's my approach for setting the stops. And also, this is the first solar, I think this should be an EP, and it's back in 2007. So after, I think this should be an earnings, and after the earnings, it keeps going up without revisiting the lows of the earnings day. And this is also one of the great examples. And PLUG also in 2013. So when it breaks out from this bit of cup and handle, the handle on the right side, it goes straight up and never visits here again.

There's a great quote from Dan Zanger, "Winning horses don't back up in the starting block." Or whatever you call the start of a race. But yeah, that's exactly what you're showing here is the winners just take off from the entry point and momentum, there's immediate momentum, and they just go.

For my entry, I normally enter it on a stock breaking the prior day highs or yeah, on the prior day. So let's take PLUG for example. I didn't trade in 2013, of course. But I would, but for me, if I'm trading in 2013, the best entry that I think the possible entry that I would take would be when it breaks out from the prior day high, like this area. And also, the day before it broke out is an inside day. It's an inside day. It just really, I really love inside days because of the tightness. Normally, after an inside day, the direction that the stock would go would normally be a strong trend that it would keep going in that direction. So this is probably my possible entry is breaking out from the prior day highs.

And also, another one that I oftenly use is the opening range highs, and I will talk about it later. And I will also use intraday range highs and the prior week highs. And I'll also mention them in the later part of this interview.

For setting the stops, mostly I would set it at the low of day, just like I've mentioned just now, like in most cases when a stock is really making a big move, it will not revisit the low of the breakout day. But sometimes the price range between my entry and the low of day may be too wide. So if it's more than 5% between my entry and the low of day, I would use the 5-minute entry candle low. And I would also show some examples later.

So, let me introduce the opening range high very quickly. So opening range highs is talking about the highs that formed after the market opens. And normally I will use one minute or five minute time frame for getting an opening range highs. So when a stock forms the one-minute candle after the market opens, that's the opening range. The high of the candle will be the opening range highs, and the low of the candle would be the low of day. So when I try to enter on the opening range highs, it will be when a stock takes out from the first minute candle high, and this is the entry. And the stop will be the low of day. And for the intraday range high, sometimes when the stock takes out the opening range high, the high of day, and then it will fail. It definitely not working 100% of the time. But if the stock is really bullish or you really think the setup is still intact after it fails the opening range high breakout, I would try to seek a re-entry by entering at the intraday range high. Normally, I also use one minute or five minutes. I really love the five-minute one because there's less noise and there's a higher success rate. And yeah, I would try to enter at breaking out from the intraday range, such as the tight ranges over here, and serving the 9 EMA. So it will be the entry point, and the stop will be the new low of day.

And can I ask you a question, Martin? Regarding the opening range high, when would you use the one minute versus the five minute, or does it just kind of depend on the situation?

I would use one minute very shortly after the open, pretty much. Before the first five-minute candle is formed. Yeah. Yeah. And after the five-minute candle is formed, I would use the five minute.

Yep. Makes perfect sense. And for sale rules, there, I think most people would use two of these selling strategies, like selling into strength and selling into weakness. So I use both of them. And for selling into strength, I would, each sell or the trim of the position is around 10 to 15%. I found it the most comfortable sizing for my selling into strengths. And there are some situations when the profits is larger than three risk multiples, that I will consider selling part of it into strength. And when the stock goes up too quickly and its position sizing is getting larger than 35%, is getting bigger and bigger, and I would try to trim it down and not giving and not get impacted by the gap down risk. So also when the stock is extended from the 9 EMA, I didn't have a indicator like I'm not using an indicator for the distance between this price and the 9 EMA. I'm just using my own observation like when I'm feeling this stock is so extended, and I'm just trim some off. And the last one will be feeling euphoric. Like most of the cases when I'm so happy with how the stock's movement, how fast it goes up, and that's mostly the top of a move. So I'm using it as my reference.

And for selling into weakness, I use trailing stops, and I mostly I'm using the 9 EMA as my trailing moving averages. So, but sometimes when I'm in a strong uptrend and I'm entering the position early in the early stage of a move, I will use the 21 or even the 50 EMA for trailing the stocks in the position. Sometimes I may also use the swing low or the bar low. Like for example, if I'm getting a breakout from Qs on this date, on this gap up right here, I'm just setting my stop in the low of this breakout day. So sometimes I will use the swing low or bar low for the failing trailing stop. And I've also mentioned like the stage of markets and the stage of your equity curve. For example, if I'm at the start of a move, I'll try to trade my position with a slower moving averages to so as to increase the probabilities of not getting shakeouts and grab a longer trend and larger potential profits from the trend. But also, if I'm, if the stock or the market is near the previous highs, maybe for example, the breakout from here, when I've entered some stocks at the base here, at a range here, and it went up, and the market went up to the previous swing highs, I may consider to sell some to be more aggressive in selling my position because there's a higher chance of getting rejected or getting consolidation near these levels.

And also the stage of.

Richard. No, no, I was just going to say, so it seems like in general, you more lean into selling to strength versus holding a little bit more for the trend. Is that right? Or is it about the same, selling to strength versus selling to weakness?

I think I lean more on selling weakness.

Okay. Because, yeah. I think it really depends on where is the current situation, like the current how my trades are working or how the market is behaving. And normally, when I, during the start of a move, I will be more aggressive in selling into strength because I'm not sure about whether the market can keep going higher or just reversing from the breakouts. And also, in when the market is a bit extended, for example, in the late November last year, I think it's around here. Yeah. So it has been going up for three months. And during, and if I'm buying a breakout here, I'll be more aggressive in selling my position because, on probability side, there's a higher chance for getting reversing after the market has been going all the way up for months, right? So, but for a middle, like for the middle of a trend, if I'm buying a breakout in the middle of an uptrend, I'll be more lean towards selling to weakness. I try to hold a larger part of my position for catching a bigger move.

So, also talk about the equity curve. So if I'm in a drawdown, I would try to sell into strength more, because I really wanted to reduce the drawdowns, reduce the risk of being stopped out, and make lower highs of my equity. So I'll be more conservative if I'm in a drawdown. But if I'm really making progress, if my equity curve is at all-time highs or it's breaking out, it's getting into the highs, I will be more prefer, I would prefer to trail my position, a larger part of my position to catch a bigger move because I have a much larger profit cushion to protect myself from being in a drawdown. So these are some of the best trades that I've made last year. So this is SMCI. I really wanted to emphasize the exit, this exit point for my exit on SMCI. I exited all of my position on this day right here. From my recall from my memories, I thought I exited the position because of switching brokers. So I have to exit the position and transfer the funds to another broker. But it turns out it's not the case. And I'm just randomly thinking the market has been extended, and I think it will reverse, and I just panicked or like being overthink, and I just exited all my position randomly right here. So it does not violate any of the sale rules that I've mentioned, like it's really serving the 9 EMA, it's not pulling back very sharply, and it's just a normal day of an upside move. But I'm just not following my rules and exited randomly right at the middle, at the early part of a big move. So this mistake, I think it cost me more than maybe 40 R, 40 risk multiples, because when I'm following rules, I should be closing my trade right here, or maybe better at the higher part of the move. But yeah, it is a painful lesson that I've learned in the early part of last year.

So, apart from the poor execution of my exit, I want to also talk about a little bit more about my entry. So I'm buying it at this day. I don't think the entry on this day is good enough. But but I still manage my risk pretty tight. So I would say it's okay, but I prefer to buy the stock at this day, at this day, at this day here, like right when it breaks out from yesterday's prior day high. And this should be the best entry point. But somehow, I think I'm very lucky, so it never violates the low of that day, and it just keeps going up directly. And another point is talking about the weekly chart of SMCI. So SMCI has been on my watch list since, I think, December 2023. So it's been building a base since August, around a six-month base, and it never violates the weekly 21 EMA and keeps building higher lows and higher highs during the base. And then coming into January 2024, it forms tight candles, two tight candles after failing from the breakouts attempting the breakouts in December. And during the close of this week, I'm telling myself that, oh, it looks really great. I cannot miss this breakout. I cannot let this opportunity slip away. So I'm really telling myself I have to get an entry in SMCI. So maybe that's part of the reason why my entry was not that optimal. But, but luckily it still worked. So I think the weekly chart, I use the weekly chart quite often, and I really feel the weekly chart is much cleaner and it helps you to get a bigger picture of the stock's trend. So, yeah, I'm a, I really love using the weekly chart for supporting my entry on the daily.

And are you always trying to focus on stocks that on a weekly, it's coming out of a big base or a long neglected period? Is that something that you're really focused on?

When, when you're, you know, choosing the stocks you're going to be looking for entries on daily? Um, I'm focused on, uh, finding a, uh, a good base or a long, a large base on weekly, but that's not a must. Sometimes the stock could still, uh, could still have, uh, have a really huge move without getting a, um, huge base or, or a decent base in the weekly. So, uh, but, but the, but a good weekly chart really adds, uh, as my confection and it will be a really, uh, it really gives me an edge and, uh, for, for trading the breakouts if the weekly chart also looks great. Yep.

And could you go back to the daily for a second? Uh, because you mentioned how, um, you know, the next day would have been kind of the better buy point. And I know the day you entered, um, wasn't actually an inside day, but it's kind of, it's very similar to an inside day. The tightness, all that. Um, and that's why I think you're right that the next day is kind of a, the better buy point in that area. Uh, but also, um, I think the, the gap up that you didn't enter on the gap up, but I think that was also a really good buy point. Um, where I know a lot of people could have played the opening range high. I think it is a really good, uh, buy point there. I, I interviewed Marius Sematudus and and he entered on, on, on that day. So that would be another entry point.

Um, one other question I want to ask you here was, you know, given, given your knowledge now and your, your experience and looking back here, um, and just, just kind of talking about your trading system. Do you ever add to positions after your initial position, or it's more like your first buy at, that's where you set your risk, your position size, all of that? Um, because looking actually where you exited here, you know, it forms another really tight range and almost a secondary buy point right after. So I don't know if that's something that you do, or, or just, you know, obviously that's good price and volume action that you want to see, but you won't add on, on that extra buy point.

Um, I rarely, uh, I rarely add on a position after I, I made the, the first entry. Um, I think, um, most of them, most of the reason is because I, the adds that I try to take, uh, fails. Um, I'm not sure about the reason why, but, um, but because, uh, I, I think part of the reason would be also as I'm setting my stop very tight, so I, I could really get a decent position sizing in my first, if, in my initial entry, right? So I do not need a, uh, a ad for, for building a, uh, bigger position size or a better position size because after, if I'm adding to my SMC position here, I, my position will be too large, I believe, and, right, even that it has, it has been already up maybe 10 or 15% from my entry. So, um, I think it's partly, it would be my experience that my, the past experience and partly would be my, uh, stop-loss setting. Gotcha.

So this is the, uh, my cont trade for, uh, taking the entry. So this is not a normal breakout. I, I, you can easily observe that, um, I'm buying it at, uh, at the lows of the, of the day, near the lows of the day, after it tries to reclaim the lows of the day. And why I'm buying it there is mainly about the Bitcoin, um, the entry of coin that, uh, that I've take is at this day, uh, right there. Yeah, right there, when the, when Bitcoin forms an inside day and trying to break out from the prior highs of the day. And I'm, I'm just, uh, thinking if Bitcoin is trying to make a big move and I think coin would also follows. So, um, I didn't wait until, uh, the coin give me a proper breakout setup or like to take out the, uh, high of the previous day. I think the stop would be too wide and I'm, I can't manage my risk there. So I'm just using the low of day when it's trying to reclaim back from the low of day and I'm just entering, uh, I think maybe u break out from the anchor free, uh, during the day. So this is my entry on corn and I'm also not following my sale rules again. I'm just exiting, uh, I think I'm just panic selling right here. Uh, I'm not, uh, it definitely file is the, the nine day, the nine day and I didn't, uh, revisit it. I didn't get another entry at this breakout day here and I'm, um, a bit, uh, frustrated on myself. But, uh, it's still a good, a decent trade that I've, uh, booked a good profits into, uh, in the early, uh, 2024. But yeah, I'm still made a lot of mistakes. But, uh, but, but, but given that I've made so much mistakes and I'm still able to, uh, make a triple digit return. So it's really, um, some, I would be a good examples for, um, for, uh, showing that trading does not need to be very perfect. That there definitely be some mistakes that, that you've made, uh, throughout the year, but you can still manage to, uh, get a good performance, get a good, good year, uh, if you, uh, to focus on yourself and trying to, uh, improve on your, on your, on your, on your mistakes and the weaknesses.

Yeah, I, I think, uh, this is, this is a great trade example and, and like you just said, I think it's proof to you that there's still room for improvement, right? Which is awesome. Definitely. Um, definitely. And, uh, yeah, I think this is great and this, this entry that you have here kind of ties back to what Nick was saying in his tweet where it's all about, can you manage your risk? And you're managing risk at the low of the day. It works. It follows through back up of the moving averages, starts trending. And, uh, I know, I know you say, uh, that that sell doesn't, uh, violate any of your rules, but I know you know those two days don't look like much on the chart, but that's probably like a 10% 15% pullback from the highs. So that's going to cause emotions. That's going to cause all that. And it's t, it's tough to follow your rules when you've got this great profit and you're giving it back. Um, and then I think right, right as you, as you pointed out, it sets up another range on the 90 EMA and, um, you know, has a, has a fresh breakout opportunity. So, I think this is a great trade to review and, and, um, yeah, it seems like you caught, you had a really strong, uh, first half of the year that that set you up nicely for, for the rest of the year. So, yeah, this is a great trade example. I loved how you tied it back to the Bitcoin entry, uh, as Bitcoin was catching momentum. That's going to fuel this, um, which obviously was a very, very strong theme, um, during this period. Yep. Yep. Correct.

And, uh, I also, I also wanted to, um, to point out like, um, you could, you could be missing a lot of the best opportunities, uh, for having a good year. So you don't need to, uh, grab all the opportunities. Oh, I, I missed this one. I missed that one. And, or it, um, don't feel frustrated about it. You, like missing the opportunities is very, very common in trading and sometime you, you just have to let it go and find another one. That there, there will al always be another opportunity in the market. So, um, don't, don't get stuck with the, um, the missing opportunities and, and, um, and letting you missing the another one. So, yeah, is it's, you, you don't need, uh, you don't need one opportunity, the exact opportunity for you to have a good year. So, um, yeah, that's what I wanted to share.

Yeah. And, and one last thing, so sorry, uh, Martin, uh, just like you talked about how the inside days can be really good to set up good entries. I really, I really like, um, the upside reversal against the 90 MA that, uh, then led to the breakout the next day. It's kind of the same idea. Clear pivot point through the high, you know, clear potential change of momentum, right? And that's, that's what we're looking for in a stock that's already shown, shown something special. So that, that's worth pointing out here on the chart, I think.

Yeah, exactly. And also like the, the opening, the opening price, the opening of the, of this day is really good. Like it's open at the high, at the upper part of the pirate day, of the pirate trading day, right? So it's kind of, uh, it's a, it's, it's kind of the wick play from, from Oliver Cap, like when you're opening at the upper wake from the pirate trading there and break out from the pirate highs. Uh, it was really, uh, you can really manage your risk there and the tight is the stop is so, so stop, so tight. Um, and the position sizing you can build would be very, um, very, very constructive and very, very decent. So, um, yeah, this is a great entry, um, from coin. Yeah. Mhm.

And then, oh, this is the, uh, the GME trade that I, uh, made in, in May. Uh, it pro, it should be my, my biggest win, my biggest winning trade, but, but not the best trade. I need to emphasize, not the best, but the biggest winning trade, I've made last year, I've took last year. And you can see my stop is not sitting at the low of day. I'm setting a stop at 2547 and my entry was, uh, 263. Is around 3%. And from the, uh, from the one minute chart, uh, below, you can see my entry was, um, would be this candle. I, I believe it was this candle when it breaks out from the pirate, uh, the pirate candle high. Mhm. I just entered at this candle and set my stop, um, on the low of the pirate, the pirate bar, the pyro minute bar. Yep. And it has a, I, I know it, this stop setting is not, uh, low of day, but I think if I set the stop at low of will be too wide. I believe it's more than six or 7% that I do not wanted to to take. And it, it had, it definitely has a higher chance of failing, uh, if I set the stop, uh, on, on the low of this candle here, but, and not the low of day. But, um, from my, uh, study, uh, if you're the optimal entry, uh, would not, would not the stock would not visit your stock if you're buying it at the, the optimal point. And I, I think it also works in the lower time frames. And if it fails, I'm happy to take the losses. And, and that's how my, uh, the entry and the stop setting for this GME trade here. And then, Um, um, I, I exited half at the, uh, highs of the day because it has went up around maybe 30, 30 or 40% at the day when I entered it. So I really trying to, uh, trim that down. And I believe it's partly also because it's near the weekly, I think it's weekly 50 or weekly, um, 150 EMA. It would be a, it is declining. So I think it could be a possible, uh, resistance level. So I decided to take half of the position out at, uh, at 12 risk multiples, 36.88, 88. And then I let my, uh, rest, uh, to trying to trade it for a bigger move. And, and eventually it does. Um, so in, for it is the 1 hour chart, includes the pre-market and, uh, the, the after hours. So after my entry of GMU, yeah, after my entry here, it went out, it, it, there's I think another parabolic move, which is very similar to my entry on, uh, 2021, January 2021. And when I saw that in, in the chart, I think I have to take some off. I, I, I think that would be the buy point, uh, in 2021 for that would be my buy in 2021. And I'm, I think I talked to myself, I'm not allow myself to, to make the same mistakes again. So, it's kind of like the, the experience who told me to, to sell it at the, uh, near the highs of a parabolic move. I'm not sure, I'm not sure whether it will be that the exact highs, but it's really up a lot. It's up more than I think around 150% in just two trading days. Um, if, uh, actually not before the market opens. So, it's really a really a big move as I think it will be very great for me to book the profits here and, and maybe find the parabolic short opportunities if it keeps going up. But I, I didn't find a short, but, uh, I exited at near the, the exact highs there. So, uh, that's the, uh, my GME trade on, uh, in May. Yeah. Yeah. Great trade.

Oh, yeah. But that's also another reason that I've exited all my position at, um, uh, 70, 76ish. Is, uh, climbing back to the, uh, previous weekly, weekly highs. Yeah, there's so many, uh, resistance, the ws are, um, forming at, in back then, back in 2021. So, um, I'm just thinking that there's too much resistance and everyone, everyone are watching those levels and I think the, the risk reward of holding my trades there is not, is not good and I decided to take it all out.

Yeah. And another one will be the AMC also. I'm really fortunate that I, that both my GME trade and AMC trade are working so, so good. Like it's, it's really quick and it's a huge move, just two days and it's really a huge move. And the highest, the, yeah, I earn, I, my gain will be 54 risk multiples. This not the trade that you will see very often, maybe just one or two within a year or even there will be no opportunities in a bad year, no such opportunity in a bad year. So I'm really fortunate I, I, I get, uh, catch the two, these two trades. And yep, the entries of the AMC intraday, I believe I've bought the opening range highs, uh, on the five minute, uh, candle breakout right here. And then I put my stop at the five minute candle low of that, uh, breakout candle. And eventually it took it, it stops me out. Um, but I'm, but I'm still, um, feeling pretty, um, convicted in into the, uh, in the long side of the AMC. So I, I keep, keep watching it until it forms a nice range near the 20, 21 EMA, um, on the 5m minute, uh, on the 5 minutes and forms an inside day. I think it's an inside day right here. So I bought the inside day breakout and put the low and I think at first the low would be put at the previous candle low, but as long as, uh, but as the stock moves higher and break out, break out from the, uh, high of day here, and I raised my stop to this, this, uh, breakout candle low. And it was around, it was around 3% stop or, yeah, 3.22% 22% stop. And it went up 200, around 170% uh, since from my entry. And I, I close it when it really refers, uh, kind of, kind of hard, uh, from the highs. And that's, I believe this, the, oh, yeah, that's the one hour chart. I set, I, I trimmed, I, I exited half the of the position at the, uh, at the pre-market because it was up so much. It was up 100%. Also part of the reason it was, it was near the declining nine, uh, monthly EMA and also near the, uh, low, the swing lows in 2020 and 2021. And I think it will be a, uh, I don't think it will clear the resistance like the a ship, uh, rec rebound to the, to the 50 or like to the 50, uh, to the 50 EMA level. So I would, I think it, it would be, uh, strong resistance on the, on the, uh, 9 EMA on the monthly and also the swing lows in back then, uh, in 2020 and 2021. So I just, uh, reduce all of my position at around 10 or 950ish area. Yeah.

Um, so yeah, another one would be, uh, the Sofi. And this is a more like a, um, traditional breakout or, uh, a much cleaner breakout in my opinion. The Sofi has has a move, have a, have a move from seven to around 11 or 12. And it, and it forms a, uh, one, two, three, three days, um, the, the pullbacks, uh, and the consolidation, uh, near the 9 EMA. And then it also is really similar to the SMCI entry and also the coin entry we're talking about, uh, just now. So, it's opening, uh, at the upper part of the previous candle and then tosses out the high of the previous, uh, previous day. And that's the entry. I set my stop at the day low. That's the, um, most of my trades are, uh, using this kind of, uh, approach. So, and then I, uh, trimmed 12, uh, a bit on the six, six risk multiples. And I finally closed my trade when it really, uh, post below the 9 EMA. I was trying to trail it on the 23 EMA, but, uh, coming to 20, into the December, I, I noticed there are so many breakdowns, um, in the growth name. So, I just lack the conviction, uh, for the general markets to continue going up, um, in a, in a longer ter, in a longer, in a longer term. So I just, uh, decided to, uh, take it off when I really, uh, looks weak under the nine day. And I exited the, the rest of the position, uh, right here.

For, for exits like that, obviously it closed weak on that day as well, um, below the 90 MA. Do you try to wait until the close to decide if you're going to take something off, or, uh, I assume on a really bad bar, you'll manage risk intraday as well whenever it starts breaking down. But in general, are you trying to wait until the close?

Um, I, because I'm trading in, in Hong Kong, like the time zone in Hong Kong is, uh, where is around, uh, 5 a.m. uh, when the market, uh, close, like, yeah, in Hong Kong, there will be 5:00 a.m. when the market when the US market close. So I, I can't stay until the 5:00 a.m. And I think I exited the position when it starts with, I think it's, it starts reversing, reversing. Yep. In the, in the earlier, in the earlier part of the day. So, yeah, I didn't wait, I won't wait, uh, won't wait until the, the, the, the end of the day. So, yeah, what, what time does the US market open Hong Kong time? Just curious.

Um, 9:30 for summertime and 10:30 for, uh, the, the standard time, yet. Gotcha. So you have a lot of time for your pre-market routine, but not so much the, the postmarket routine yet. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the, oh, another entry from Coin. And this is an EP. Um, I forgot what's the, what's the, uh, catalyst of this day here. And it's not, it's not earnings. I, so I, I really forgot about that. And, and speaking of speaking of EP, I, I won't look at the fundamentals of, um, of the, of the EP. Like I'm not looking at the numbers, uh, the, the earnings growth rate, the PE ratio, the revenue growth rate, um, um, the financial metrics. I, I, I'm, I'm won't look at those, um, numbers. I'm just going to, uh, glance through the news and see what's the, maybe only the title, like the, the news, uh, headlines. Um, just get a brief idea of what, what's the stock doing, why it's going up, why it's gapping up. And then I'm just focusing on the charts. So, um, yeah, coin.

That's it. This was the US election when when Trump got elected. So, it was considered bullish for for crypto and and Bitcoin. So, makes sense. Yeah. I see. I see. Yeah. And it gaps up more than 10% I think. Yeah. More than 10% uh, pre-market and near the, the power swing highs. And then I thought I think it will be a really good, uh, entry if it talks out the, the highs, the swing highs, uh, the, the, the previous swing highs. There will be no resistance, uh, from the previous base. So, this gap up will be a very good, uh, entry for, uh, for the range expansion move. And I just open it, I just enter at the, I think it will be the opening range high. Maybe I enter a bit, a bit, uh, slow. I'm, but, but I still can manage my risk at, uh, under 3%. So it is fine. And I took some off at seven risk multiples and then I finally to take it all out to, uh, when it really close with on the, on the 9 EMA. Yeah.

Um, I want to explain more about the, the trailing stop. Um, before the close of the 9 year made, this huge reversal candle here, my original stop was putting at this swing low, that this, this day low. And then when, when I, when this day formed and I, I really think it's not looking good, um, and also coming into December, I, the, some individual stocks are really crapping down, the breakouts are not working that, um, that good. So I, um, I, I think the market condition is a bit unfavorable for holding the, this coin for a longer move. And I decided to, uh, take it early instead of following the, the stop, uh, I've planned to, uh, to set right here. Yeah. Mhm.

And this is another one for lemonade. It is a, uh, it's a quick trade. So it's, I think it's a kind of high tight flag, uh, move, like it's went up around 80 or 90% in just two weeks and formed a, a tight range here. And then inside day again and again, and inside day. So when it took out from the previous day high and I entered it a bit slow, uh, this time, I should, uh, if, if I'm enter it more, enter it earlier, I, I think my stop will be around 2.5%. Yeah, it could be, it could be a tighter stop, but 3% is still acceptable. So, uh, I take the, I take the entry and it went up straight and it went straight up. Uh, I close some at eight rigs multiple and I, and I really, uh, and I closed the rest of my trade at the, at this time, not at the weaknesses, and just selling all into the strengths. Uh, the most re, I think the, yeah, the mo, the biggest reason that I've decided to sell the most into the strength would be the, uh, the volume. Like from my study, uh, the, from a study from the past, uh, the past charts, uh, it's kind of like a parabolic move. And in most of the, uh, cases of a parabolic move, the, the dollar volume would would peak at the top, like the, like the institutions or, um, the big money is selling, uh, to the liquidity. So, I think during the half of the day, it already exceeds 50% of the previous trading day dollar volume. And actually the previous day tra, tra dollar volume is already very high. I think it's the, the highest in, in the past 52 weeks. So I, I could anticipate that the volume, uh, in that day would be very high, like it would be the, uh, exit the one, exit that of the prior trading day. So I, I'm not feeling comfortable for holding a stock that has already moved up a lot and then go accelerated to the upside and with a high volume. So I decided to take all out, uh, at this day right here. And part also part of the reason it, it also because it's near the, the weekly, uh, 50 or like the week, weekly, uh, resistance levels. So I'm just, Yeah, I think that's also part of the reason. A great trade. Yep.

Um, another one is is sound as. Yeah, it's sound. I, for the entry, I didn't wait until the, um, the breakdown of the prior day highs. I think I entered at the opening range highs and I use a 4% stop, which is a bit, a bit wide for, for me, but I'm, really, I'm, I really have the conviction of of this, uh, of taking this setup, I, of, of sell. And I didn't wait until the breakout of the, um, prior day high, uh, because the stop would be a bit too wide. And, um, yeah, I just didn't follow the, the prior day high breakout. And just use the opening range breakouts for this time. And another one, I, the lesson that I wanted to, the takeaway I wanted to point out is the, the poor selling right here. Another one. So I didn't follow the nine day and just selling, uh, when it bros out from this, from this day low, uh, here. I, I think, um, it looks a bit bearish, like the reversal, uh, the bearish reversal pattern, but it turns out to be finding support from the nines and then another breakouts, another, um, maybe 80, 90% move to the upside. Um, yeah, that sometimes is, yeah, uh, I'm, it's just so hard to follow the rules and, and, and be disciplined. Yeah.

And again, like a pseudo inside day, uh, on your first buy from that, that tight day. And then, uh, even after your sell, actually, there's the inside day and then it, it has like one more leg up. So those inside days, I think are, are really critical. Yeah. Exactly. And, um, the, I believe the reason why I didn't buy it, uh, by report this sound, uh, at this breakout here is the general market condition makes me a bit skeptical. Um, and then, and I'm not feeling that comfortable in taking, uh, too much exposure to, to up, to to longs. So I just skip this breakout, but it turns out working perfectly fine. Um, but yeah, that's part of trading. Exactly. That's later in the move too. Oh, yeah.

So I think the last one will be, um, the QBT. Uh, one of the, uh, biggest winning trade also. Um, it just, uh, is on the late, in the mid December. And this trade, this trade alone, I think it, um, it contributes 80% of my, uh, profits in, in December. So I, um, I really love this, um, this tightness, this, this flag, uh, built, uh, since the late November. It tries to push up and fail and builds a tight range near the 23 and the nines. And it opens strongly. It opens strong and I, I, I think I bought the opening range highs, but get stopped out, uh, after immediate reverse, uh, after I think two or three minutes after the open. But I still managed to find a re-entry point, uh, after it holds and trying to break out again. So, um, I've received a question from, uh, from, from another from another trader in, in, I think in, in Kulamaki's discord, saying that, uh, he, he's drawing his trend line like, he's drawing his trend line like that, and he's asking me why I'm not entering right here and entering, uh, uh, at this level. So it really, it looks not that, uh, not that much, but like, um, it just, um, it less than half of the, of the, of the bar, but actually it's around eight or 9%. So it's really, uh, it's really crucial for setting a hype stop and getting the correct entry point. Um, like if you're following the traditional breakouts, you may bite it even at breaking the private swing highs, like right here, and it just so hard to manage the risk if you are following the traditional breakouts, the breakout rules. So, I think if I, I'm sitting a tight stop and I have to get my entry very precisely, sometimes it might have to be a little bit anticipating the breakout. But mostly I would trying to buy it when it breakout from the prior day highs. That, that's the range expansion. Like every start of the move, every start of a move involves the breakout of prior day highs. So that's my, that's my approach. And then I, uh, I sell most of it into strength also because of the volume. You can see the volume and also the, the accelerate, the acceleration to the upside. And I, I just feel like it will be another parabolic short opportunities, but no, I did, but at least I entered all my longs there. So it's great. So sometimes studying per workshops does not mean that you have to take the, the shorts, but it can helps you to exit your longs in a, uh, good position, in a good, in a good, uh, play it. Yeah. In a, in a good rise, uh, within a strong upside move. Yeah.

And this would be my, uh, five minute entry. I, I think it will be a breakout of the anchor VWAP, uh, from the open. Or, or from the high of the day. And then I just put myself at the five minute candle low and it never violates it. And it actually never found this, in 9 EMA since, uh, at 145 that day. Is it's just insane. So, um, yeah, what a trend, that's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah.

And then, uh, this is the best trade I've made in 2024. Like really the best trade. I, I, I entered the SMTC at, uh, 46. Yeah, I'm not shorting. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm taking a longs. So, I entered at the, uh, near, nearly the high of the day. And I didn't follow my sales rules. I didn't follow my stops. I didn't set my, I, I think it, it's because it refers, it's reversing too fast after my entry. Like I think after my entry, it just, uh, breaks down from the opening range high, one minute or two minute after the, after my entry. So I failed to set my hard stop. And then I'm telling myself, um, um, it's, it's look, it's looking bullish. Uh, it might find support from the previous highs, from the pre-market highs, or the, uh, maybe the five minute, uh, five minutes rising EMAs. But it turns out it just keep crashing down. And then I decided to, uh, to, to take my loss at 41. And it's near, it's, it's around 10, 10% or 12% losses only from this trade, just because I'm not following, following my sales, not following, not getting, not following my stops, uh, that I've planned, uh, before my entry. And this is a really, really, um, hot lesson that always reminding me for, uh, for, uh, following my stops. And I also remind myself like, if it's really going, uh, going to the upside after it fell, it fell the opening range lows, if it's really reversing, there will be, there will always be another entry. Like there, there's, yeah, um, I could get another entry. And you, you just don't need to, to get stuck with the losing position and increase and letting your loss, uh, growing bigger and bigger. And I, I would say this is the best trade that I've made because the lessons I've learned is the most valuable from all the trades. And the winning trades, um, that there, there definitely could be some lesson that, that could be learned, but the losses are the most, um, the memorable one. Like, yeah, the pain. Well said. And, and actually, actually luckily, uh, I, after I took it off that day, and another day, another thing, I gap down for 20%, more than 20%. So, yeah, I'm very lucky that I didn't, didn't get, didn't hold on my losses, hold on to my losers and, and getting another huge destruction, uh, the day after I, I take it off. Yeah.

And another one that, uh, huge mistakes I'm making is the also from CSK. Um, I, I don't like, I'm not, I don't know what I'm doing because it, it's, it's on the June, like, June last year. I'm having a draw down and I'm doing my summer internship and I, I've, I'm not, uh, trading at my A game or even B game. I'm, I'm, I think I'm, I'm in D game or something. I'm, I don't know what I'm doing. When I look back, there's no tightness right here and it's near the previous highs. I don't know what I'm doing. And then, uh, after my entry, it starts reversing. I'm not, I don't know why I'm, I believe I'm just forgetting to set this, the hard stops or, or just not following the stops, not, uh, not, um, not allow, not not allowing myself to, to take the loss. So, um, I hold on to it and another day there's a gap down and then there's another 10% uh, losses, uh, from, from the CRSK trade here. And it's, it could be easily prevented. Like from the entry, I could have, I could have prevented it. It is not a good entry. And even I took the entry, if I, I'm setting my stop and following my stop, I'm not having to suffer from a 10% uh, 10% losing trade. So, yeah, uh, it's when I'm look back for, to, to some of the trades I've made, is I sometimes really don't know what I'm doing during that time. Yeah.

Oh, so this is the, uh, scans and watch list that maybe I can, uh, open the, my trading field for. Yeah, that'd be great. Yeah. And just, just talking about what you were just discussing, you know, your entry is often your best defense because, like you said, if you've got a good entry, you know exactly where you're getting out is a clear and logical spot where you place your stop. And, you know, if, if you're not entering at a proper spot, then everything becomes nebulous and you, you have all these questions that you're asking yourself and, and all there's all this confusion with yourself. A proper setup at a proper entry point. Everything is clear-cut about where it fails and that's where you place your stop. Uh, and, and, and that's kind of what was missing in that, in that last trade. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.

But when I'm, when a trade really works, like the, the stop is really clear and I, I really, I, I'm really, I, I really know where to cut the losses and, um, why I'm taking this entry. So exactly, uh, when you are confusing about your, your whether to take this trade or not, normally just don't take it. Like normally it would, it would be a loss. Like if you're hesitating or, um, confusing whether you should take this trade or not. Yeah.

So, uh, I have, uh, three free, uh, scanners, uh, major scanners. Uh, is it, am I following the, uh, sharing the training? Okay. So, uh, the one is the one, this one is pre-market. I will just, uh, open the, the, uh, scanner and will import all the, all these stocks on the premarket scanners to the screening, the screening, uh, the screen screening watch list. Yeah. And then I'll just, uh, open the, yeah, the screening and then go through one by one. And this, it, it is, uh, the pre-market scanner is trying to, um, filter the pre-market gappers, the one that's gapping higher on big volume. Yeah. Yeah. With big volume. And this is what I, uh, I would mostly spend around 10 to 15 minutes to go through most of the stocks in, uh, in this scanners, uh, before the market opens. And then another one is potent scanner. Is, uh, it's trying to scan the stocks that is, uh, uh, that's the high, the best performance from the prior trading day. So normally it would, it would be, uh, before, uh, doing the pre-market, uh, scanner, I would, I would try to do the potent scanner first. So trying to, um, get a brief idea of, uh, what's, what's the stocks that are working well in the prior trading day and are they in the same sector or in the same theme? And those are the, the key, the key things that I would like to, uh, look at and dig deep on. So sometimes people asking me, how do you get, how, how do you catch a hot theme or a key sector, uh, for a, for a big move? Normally it just comes from these, from the scanners. If there are several stocks, uh, in within the same theme, within the same sector, is, uh, showing up in my scans. It, it tells, it tells you something about the sector, like the money is flowing into the sector, and then you should be, um, having a, having more attention to, to those stocks. Yeah. Like the quantum stocks, I remember they're all gapping up in pre-market on a day that they're that they're going to go. So identifying that theme is, is super critical. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes they're just yelling at you at the scans. Yeah.

And then the last one will be the, the leader one. Uh, normally I would just, uh, do the scan at the, uh, weekends of each week. So I'm just, um, uh, I'm just putting all these stocks in a, uh, in a descending order for the performance, uh, from the past month. So I can know, uh, from the past month or which stocks are performing best, have the high, have the best performance, uh, during the last month. So maybe there are some stocks that have missed, missed out, uh, from the scanners or, or from my, from my watch list, that they are actually performing great and have maybe the relative strengths or they're leading, uh, the market. And this is the leader scan. Yep.

How long does your routine usually take you to go through these in a, in a strong uptrending market? Maybe I would take around 30 minutes for, uh, for sc, for all the scanners and also, uh, manually scrolling, scrolling, uh, on my, on my watch list. Mhm. So it around 30 minutes. But for a bare market, uh, or maybe a correction, uh, like now, uh, that there's not much, not much to watch. There's, there's just not, not that much stocks popping up in the scans. So maybe just, um, 15 to 20 minutes, um, for a normal, uh, for a correction or a normal, normal market. And sometimes you, sometimes you can use those, uh, the number of stocks that shown in your watch list as, uh, as the, as the, as a factor to analyze the market condition. Right?

And then I have several watch list. Uh, this one is the, uh, main watch list. Uh, I'm putting the key, the key stocks that I would like to track, uh, into that watch list. And I'm, uh, the holdings, the ideas that, that the trade that I wanted to take for, uh, for the next or the, the coming trading day, that I will put it at this, at this, uh, section. And that's the bullish one, the bearish ones, uh, the key, the key stocks that, that to watch. And, uh, I also added cues and the spy as a benchmark of the day. Yeah.

And then there is the, uh, leading one. Uh, the leading watch list is, uh, just, just as I said, the only includes the leading stocks. Normally the stocks in the leading watch list would, uh, would be in a strong uptrend, like the nine is above the 21 and the 21 is above the 50. And I would consider is a, uh, leading stock. So in a correction like this, you can see there's only five stocks in my leading watch list. So the number of stocks in your watch list is also a very key factor for you to analyze whether the market is favorable for taking longs or taking breakouts, is, is whether it's healthy or not. So, um, I remember in early 20, uh, early December last year, there's, the number of stocks in, in the leading ones or in the, uh, the mediocre ones are getting, uh, getting smaller and smaller, like that, there are more stocks in the, the lagging, the lagging, uh, watch list. So I, I don't feel quite, I don't feel quite well about, uh, the changes in, in, in those numbers of stocks and the patterns. So, uh, this is why I'm a bit skeptical about it on the market conditions, uh, in, in December last year.

And then the mediocre one would be, um, there's not a significant clear trend. There's not a strong trend for the stock. Maybe the stock is basing near the, uh, EMAs. So I'll put it as the mediocre ones. And maybe sometimes you can see, for example, I could, uh, the EMAs are trending down and the nice is under the 21 and under the 50, but I would still put it as in the mediocre one. Partly it was because the weekly chart is still looking a clear uptrend, is still looking okay, is still looking good. And it, uh, it also shows some relative strengths compared to really the, really lagging, lagging stocks, such as maybe First Solar or EMP, they really have a strong downtrend. And the hood, uh, comparatively is stronger than them. So I would want to put it in a, uh, stronger, stronger watch list to identify the relative strength between the stocks. And the lagging one is just, just, just lag in the, in the downtrend that just keeps going down. And, uh, yep. And that is also the, the pillar, the pillar, uh, watch list is mostly about the mega and the really large caps, because the large caps are really affecting the index, really affecting the index. Like Apple is really affecting the Dows, and Nvidia is really, uh, contribute, like a, uh, a huge, huge part of the, the cues and the, in the spy. So I really wanted to, uh, look at the, the, the, um, the move of it, of the big or the mega caps. So, like if the Microsoft is bouncing towards the, uh, declining 9 and 23, um, it is not a good sign for taking longs, uh, for being too, uh, aggressive in longs, if I'm trying to, uh, to buy, to buy the, uh, rebound from, from another stocks. So actually in early, in early February, when, um, Microsoft gaps down and failed to reclaim all the moving averages before the cues really having a crash to the downside, like in the early no February, the Q is still holding up quite well. But if you're looking at the individual stocks, like for example, Microsoft, it, it just, it looks so weak and made a lower low, even made a lower, and failed to reca reclaim back to the key moving averages. That's a bit of the, the warning sign from, from the market that that's telling you the market is not acting right, that that you should not be that, uh, aggressive in, in taking the loans, uh, in, in the early [Music] February.

And this is the tier two watch list, and mostly the growth stocks and the micro caps. And, uh, the premier section, it would be the, this, the ones that with, uh, average dollar volume with 100 million plus. So I'll put it as the premier section. And the rest will be the, uh, the illquid ones, the relatively liquid ones. So I just, I'm always preferring trading the liquid ones. So I'm just, uh, putting two different section here to let me better identify the liquid ones and the illquid ones. Yeah. So I think, uh, those are my watch lists. And do you have any question which, yeah, on a, on a particular day, how many stocks are you typically focused on to enter at the open? How many are you kind of focused on for that day for, for potential entries?

Normally, the, the highest number in, in a strong bull market would be around five, or sometimes even more. But, I didn't have a, a limit at a maximum or a minimum limit for the, for the stocks that I would really wanted to, to watch closely or really wanted to take a trade. It really depends and sometimes it, it just no none, like no stocks would are is interested, right, is setting up for my, for my trade. So, yeah, and, yeah, and I think it's a common question for folks, you know, how do you get to that last actionable list for that day? What are some of the criteria that you consider to say, "Hey, you know, I really want to focus on TEM today, RGTI, you know, those are those are my focus." What sets those names apart from any of the other other stocks that you're that you're tracking?

Well, this is a really good question because there's so many factors to, to, to consider. And for now, like, uh, I'm, I'm setting, uh, Kafana and Michael strategy as my, uh, key focuses, uh, the next trading day. Um, it, it was because I wanted to, uh, to take the shots from the, the rebound, like, um, I, maybe will elaborate more, I will elaborate more later, or maybe I can elaborate now. Yeah, that'd be great. Yeah. Yeah. The, from this correction, like I've taken some, um, many shorts near the, uh, converging EMAs, uh, on the declining, on the declining EMAs when they're converging. So, uh, for example, for, uh, for Kafana and on this day, on this, uh, this.

area right here where, yeah, on this area right here. And it has a gap down on the and continues on the downside and then rebound to the 9 EMA or uh near the 50 EMA. And those EMAs are declining and really close to each other, really trying, really compact. And then they start uh Kfana rejected to the nines and the 50 and started to decline and start to re-refining and rejecting and reversing to the downside. And those areas I found would be, um, the best, the best spot to to take a short and have the highest risk-reward because I can easily, uh, uh, manage my risk there as I just set my stop near the high of the day.

So, it's really similar to the longs, but uh for the stop setting. But for the entry point, I'm not going to wait for breaking out for the low of the previous trading day. I'm be more aggressive in, um, taking the shorts. Uh, I would just enter it near the resistance and, and if it's going to be rejected, normally it just continues to the downside. It would not, uh, we're visiting the highs again. So it's really similar to the loans that I've, uh, the the approach, the methodology that that I've mentioned just now, and but just the entry point is a little different.

So for Kafana here, it's really, it's also a bit similar for, uh, for for the situation, uh, in the earlier in in the early March. It's, uh, is a strong rebound and, uh, pulls back to the nine and finding support on the nines. But the EMAs are really clustering together. And normally when the EMAs try to, uh, trying to converge and the direction for the next, uh, uh, for the for the breakouts, for the range expansion is normally, uh, the correct direction to go, like the the maybe the short term or medial, mediocre, mediocre trend.

So, uh, it could took out. Yeah, actually, it could be a long, uh, entry. Like it's setting up an inside day and, um, if it's opening strong tomorrow, it could be a long. But, uh, but I personally, I don't, I I think I would skip the long side of, uh, of this trade. It's just because, uh, I think the kills that, like the major indexes is really near the resistance. It's near, near, uh, the spy is near the 9 EMA and it kills and weaker is even weaker. And I'm not that, uh, I'm not feeling that comfortable for taking the longs when the markets is on a strong downtrend, really strong downtrend. And comparatively, I think spy has a higher tendency or probability to re, to be getting rejected from the resist, from the resistance such as the nines or the maybe the highs of this, uh, of is a, um, bearish candle, bearish candle. Yeah.

And, um, in the probability side, I'm just leaning towards the shorts. So, I'm trying to, uh, to see whether Kfana may could show some weaknesses near the, uh, 50 EMA or even the highs, uh, of the previous swing highs or maybe the anchor FE is below it. So, um, uh, it's not the main wash, uh, this time. So sometimes I would use the anchor from the swing, swing low to, uh, to this, to, um, to to use as a potential resistance. Yep. Yeah.

No, it's funny because I've been, I've been studying and trying out basically this exact same setup. If you bring up Reddit, this is an example I was taking a look at. Um, let me see if I can annotate. There we go. Uh, basically you had the leg down shelf that forms here and then gets rejected from the moving averages here. And then this day, I think would have been the ideal entry into the 90 MA. Um, either either entering, you know, let me, uh, sorry, let me clear my, uh, my drawing. It's getting a little bit messy. We had a slight gap down rally into the 90 MA and then as it reverses down, that's probably the spot where you can manage risk right at that high of the day and get a good, good risk-reward. And, and this one really, uh, fell apart nicely. Yep. Um, as a lot of them. So, yeah, no, I think this is definitely a short setup worth, worth studying. But, uh, you know, we don't often get to use the short setups because usually the market's, uh, in uptrend. So I think I also also Andrew Red did exactly the same, the also near the highs right here. Yeah, exactly the same with you.

And but I I'm taking the shorts, uh, yeah, from the exit of the shorts, I'm taking the exit more aggressively than the long. I'm not trailing this, this the shorts, um, like the longs, like the close above the 9 EMA. I'm just, I think most of the shorts are selling into the strength. I closed all of my shorts, I think near the lows right here because near the 150 EMA. I I thought it would be a potential support, but, but no, it just continues to the downside. And, but no, but I'm still happy to take the trade and take book some profits on Reddit. And yeah, I'm not feeling regret or or, um, feeling bad about about it because my plan was to only to catch the downside to around the 150 EMA. And yeah, u I'm not catching home runs in the short. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm, I'm same way. Faster sell rules for for shorts. And, and one more reason where why this Reddit one was set up nicely for a short is this horizontal resistance means that it really was breaking down below this base low where a lot of, a lot of stop losses probably are. A lot of people have, uh, have positions from. So that's one other thing I was watching with, uh, with this setup here. Yeah, totally agree. And I think one more, one more point is, uh, want to point out would be the 50 EMA, like it's never, uh, being the 50 MA since the uptrend since the breakout of this day here. And then it starts to be a flag under the 50 EMA. And that's not the the thing that we would like to see if we're trying to, uh, uh, if there's a move to the upside. So, uh, it, it just looks bearish to me. And that's another, uh, key reasons that I wanted to, uh, short direct it here. Yeah. Yeah.

Were there any other good examples of of this type of trade that you've taken recently? Um, the one would be, uh, SMCI. Um, I've exited SMCI, uh, yesterday, uh, just because I wanted to, uh, reduce the exposure of shorts, uh, as the market is trying to bounce. And I really wanted to focus on, um, the, uh, the micro strategy or the finder shorts so that, uh, I'm not being too, too crowded on the short side. And, yeah, as I've said, this really, it's, it's great to book some profits for the short. And I'm not trying to, um, uh, to to trail the shorts for a long period of time. And the, what the one, the entry point for SMCI was the day right here. And it's not, it's not, uh, it's, it's close to a, a breakdown. Is, yeah, it's similar. It's not that, uh, by selling in the resistance, it's just I'm just selling it at the previous day low. This, this time the, and for for the SMCI, uh, I've, one of the main reason that I would really want to focus on FMCR is the weekly chart. As, uh, the weekly chart is really on a downtrend and the key moving averages are really close to each other. Um, this, this, I think that would be an inverse, inverse version of of a long, like, it's trending down and there's clustering together. So also in the daily, also in daily, the key moving averages are really close to each other. And it actually looks very clean for, for, uh, to build for, uh, drawing an uptrend line, like the the trend line right here. And when I, when it's violating the lows of the day, uh, of the previous trading day, and I just took the shot at the opening range to lows, I believe so. And I close it at the, at, at yesterday. But that's one of the trades. And, yeah, do you have any question?

No, I just want to point out just like the longs that you pointed out, it opens nicely basically in the in the lower wick of of the previous day. And if you think about it, there's a probably a lot of people who have stop losses at that low, the prior day's low, and then the low before there. And then even that, like short bit of tightness, um, a few days before, there's probably a lot of lows there. So it took all of those out in one bar as it broke lower. So that kind of added fuel to the fire here. And then like completely agree with you, you know, sell rules got to be faster here, especially as the market gets stretched to the downside too. You don't want to get caught too much in a in a counter trend rally which can be pretty vicious. So, um, and similar to SMCI, MSTR, the weekly chart, you know, it already had that parabolic move. You know, it's more in a downtrend, although this has been a little bit stronger as of late for sure. Um, you know, it's still got kind of that that downward trend, downward trending that's probably is that the 90 EMA on the weekly of the purple line. Yeah. So, u it's kind of got that, uh, that look to it as well. So we'll see what happens. Uh, yeah, and so you also pointed out the declining 9A on the weekly is also one of the main reasons that I wanted to focus on the shorts for MSTR. If, if MSDR micro strategy, uh, is going to make another downside move, it, it, it should be rejected from the declining nines from the weekly. And so here will be a very good, uh, risk-reward or entry level if we're trying to play a short side. So, of course, if, if it's holding up and is, uh, keep building higher lows, uh, is great, then we maybe, uh, we could consider, uh, the long entries with the, if the indexes, if the market is, uh, improving, right? But for now, I'm looking for the shorts more, uh, I'm leaning towards on the shorts. And it's really near the declining 50 and also all the EMAs are really, uh, packed each other, packed and they're converging. So, yeah, that, that's the, uh, that's a key level that I would like to watch. Yeah. Yeah.

What stands out to me as well is the the high from that recent downside expansion move from two days ago. That that high might be a level too, uh, to consider for potential resistance, uh, for, for a spot. So we, we'll see what happens with MSTR. Uh, because it's been interesting since since like this, um, since this move lower, it refused to go lower and bounce really strongly. It was like one of the strongest stocks in this period, but it's still got this longer, longer term pattern with the parabolic, you know, short type entry and, and, you know, Bitcoin, you know, isn't as strong as it was. So, it'll be interesting to see what happens with this name. It could, it could go either way, but I agree. Right now, it's more set up structurally for for more of a short side entry than than a long, but it's, it's worth watching and will be fun to watch whatever happens. Yeah, I'll always be open-minded for for both directions. Yep. Yep.

Perfect. And, um, I really, uh, receive a lot of question about the market conditions. And this is also one of the major, uh, the major areas that would, uh, that sometimes would be a bit confused and, don't know how to, don't know how to do, uh, to evaluate whether this market condition is good or not, is favorable or not. And I really, um, I really like the, uh, this tweet from from Sila and just recently. And I really agree with that because, um, I think the one thing he mentioned that one thing, um, let me point one thing, all traders have in common is the feedback from their own, uh, P&L. And it's the, it's a universal rule for all traders, no matter their style. And this is very, very true because, um, in in Twitter or or online, there are so many traders are giving out their opinions or or showing their their performance or telling you their, uh, what should you do, um, in in the current market. But actually, most of them are trading differently. They, they have different setups. They have different entry and stop, uh, uh, settings. So, it, it could be completely different, uh, from you. And I think the, when I'm in a earlier, earlier part of my journey, I'm sometimes we get distracted, um, from the from others' opinions or others, um, ideas, like, oh, you, there sometimes taking, um, sometime sometimes they will be aggressive in certain market environment, while I'm having death by dousing cost. So, um, sometime it may not be the favorable for for your setups, but for others. So, um, I think the equity curve feedbacks is really, very, uh, is really, really helpful for you to identify whether the markets is favorable for your own, uh, trading strategies or the, uh, for the style. And if your, if the indices are weak, but your trades are working well and keep going, and don't, don't let the indices to, uh, affect you that much. And you could be a little bit conservative. But as long as your trades are working, I don't, I don't think there's a big a reason for you to like, uh, uh, liquidate all your longs and, and then be, uh, be be so cautious. And, and vice versa. So, I think the equity curve feedback is really, uh, a key, a key metrics for for a trader to identify whether the market condition is favorable or not.

And then I've also mentioned the scans and watch list. And if there are, uh, down, there are so much stocks downgrading from your watch list from the stronger, stronger one to the weaker one, and that's the, that's the, uh, market that you should not be that aggressive in, uh, taking the longs. So, um, the last part will be the indices. Like, for example, the, if the indices is, uh, trending down, the 9 EMA is under the 21, favorable time for doing a long, maybe it's the favorable time for doing a short. And sometimes when I, before I enter a trade, I would trying to look at whether the indices are at a potential resistance, whether they are bouncing into the declining, maybe 21 or 50. And if they're, if they're very close to the resistance level, I sometimes may, uh, may, uh, skip, may skip some some good setups, uh, because the in, normally, uh, there, those are the times that the fakeouts occurs, but the, the individual stocks are looking great, but the indices are at a resistance and they're reversing, and the, the break, the breakouts are also starts reversing from the individual stocks. So, indices, the key levels would also be one of the, um, a, a great, a great metrics to look at, uh, before I enter a trade. Yeah.

So, um, I think I'm a boom and bust trader. Uh, even I, I'm, I'm not even for now, I'm not that confident. I, I'll be very consistently profitable. And, uh, I do, uh, uh, experience huge drawdowns and many losing streaks, especially during the, uh, the the late May to the early September last year. It's more than 30% the draw down, uh, uh, from those, from those months. And from, from the draw down, I really learned the, I really learned about the importance of journaling your trades. Like, by by journaling your trades, that you could very easily to look back and reflect on the mistakes that you have made. Because if you do not journal trade, it just so hard to, uh, look to to find your where's your entry for, for the, for the trade, one year ago, and the exit, and the exit, uh, maybe two years ago. You just can't, it's just so hard. So, um, and also by journaling the trade, you can easily, uh, calculate the metrics, for example, the, uh, the maximum draw down, the, the number of winning trades and losing trades, etc. And it's very crucial for you to improve and find out your mistakes, which is, uh, and everyone has their own mistakes. And how to find your own mistakes is by journaling your trades and analyzing, uh, from your, uh, previous, uh, performance.

So, um, and, yeah, and do not blindly follow other traders. Like, for me, like I'm, I really, um, uh, adapt, adapt different rules, like the, the 9 EMAs, uh, the trailing, trailing stop for the nine EMAs from Christians. But sometimes I, I would also tweak or to to optimize a bit, uh, for the rules to suit me. Then I'm not blindly following what other traders are telling me or other traders are using, because everyone has their own, uh, unique approach, or has their own, uh, preference or personality. So you have to, uh, find your own rules. You have to, um, uh, do a deep dive and, and, and, and trying to find a sweet spot for you. And then I have three major, major, um, weaknesses or the, or the, um, the problems that I've often the mistakes I've often made, uh, in trading. The refresh trading and increase risk per trade, uh, in a losing streak, trying to, uh, make back my losses as as quick as possible. And normally, it just go, go the, go the another way. It just increase my, uh, increase my draw down and, and, and induce more losses. And also not obeying stop. But, um, I would say the, the second and the third point, I, I have improved it quite, quite well. I'm not, I'm setting hard stop at every trade. I will size down when I'm in a losing streak. But in revenge trading, sometimes I'm still making the same mistakes, um, by trading in a unfavorable, uh, market environment. Um, I still have a long way to go to, um, this with this mistakes and weaknesses. Yeah. But I'm, I'm glad I'm, I'm glad that I'm aware of it. So I hope it could minimize the, the impact, uh, or the draw downs that they have made, uh, by the revenge trading. Yeah.

And just like, um, Christian, I think something that he's focusing and he identifies as well as a boom and buster. He's focusing a lot on limiting that monthly draw down and, and trying to keep that cap that as much as possible. Is that, is that something you're looking into considering as well to try to smooth out that equity curve a little bit?

That's exactly what's the perfect. The next slide I'm prepared. And, uh, in the early, in the early this year, I've just said that reducing maximum draw down is the numbering goal for me this year. But unfortunately, in January, I was, uh, get suffer from a, uh, 18% draw down. I personally feel think it was quite huge. I don't, I hopefully, hopefully I could, uh, limit my draw below 15%, uh, preferably. But, uh, I think I, it may be, uh, some improvement compared to the 30, 30 or 35% draw down last year. But, uh, I think there's still a lot of room for improvement for that. Uh, mostly because the, in January, um, I, I was, uh, getting getting clapped from from both the long and the, and the short side. I'm, I'm bearish, but at the same time, the short is not working. I'm trying to switch the taking some longs, but the longs is also not working. And then I just get clapped on the both sides. And, and also it is, uh, I've just shared it is the, um, the surf, the, the surf robotics, the gap down, the 30 or 40% gap down in in surf. And also caught me, uh, I think it's just this, this day right here, from a eight or 9% single draw down in a day. So, it's really frustrating. But, um, I still managed to, I did not allow myself to make a lower low of my equity curve. So, um, this, there's still a long way to go. And I really wanted to limit my draw downs and the overtrading, um, weaknesses. So, I'm, I, I'll keep improving that. Oh, yeah. Okay.

So, um, I thought it was, it was, I, I have already shared it, but no. Uh, it's, it's here. So I've entered the serve at this breakout day here, very similar to to different the longs that I've taken 2024. And but luckily, very luckily, the, uh, the Nvidia news pops up and there's a 30% of 40% gap down into this day here. And I exited at the exact, nearly ex, the exact low of the day. I think it, um, I'm, I'm really, really, um, dissatisfied about this entry, like the exit, the exit, um, when it was in, uh, when the market opens and it tries to reclaim back, uh, to the declining moving averages. And I'm, I think the partly, I think the major reason that I, uh, refused to to exit the trade at the higher part of of the candle here is because, uh, you can see from from the, uh, from the, uh, equity curve, uh, before I suffered from the eight or 9% loss, uh, I've gr, I'm finally grinding back from the 18 or 19% draw down from January. Yeah, it's getting to the break even and I'm finally, I'm making some progress. But the, the gap down, I, it's just I can't control the gap down and it really strikes me when I'm, um, when I'm feeling optimistic, a bit, a bit more optimistic about my my performance. But no, uh, the reality struggles. And, um, I think this partly the reason that I, I refuse to take the trade at the upper part. And I, I think the exact lows would be 1267 and I exited at 74. So near the exact lows, um, it's not as, um, it's not acceptable, I would say. Yeah, I should have taken it at least it break down to the low of, uh, the low of the, the opening range lows area. Um, so it could, it could prevent me from another 10 or 15% losses from, from this trade here. And this trade also reminding me the gap down risk of a small micro caps. And, um, luckily I'm not scaling very big, uh, in this candle, uh, in this entry. So my, um, it's not, it's not that devastating to my, uh, equity curve, but still, still a hot struck. So, um, yeah, this is, I, I would say the, the best trade I've made because I've learned so much lesson, um, from this trade. I'm, I would not allow myself from that to happen again. And, yeah, uh, that's the, that's the surf trade that the loss that I've made that that take. Yeah.

Well, excellent. Thank you for sharing that because I think I think like you said, that that's that's something that you can learn the most from and the viewers can learn the most from. So, I think that's that's perfect. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.

So, um, treat trading as a lifelong business. And, um, I remember this one day, I was daydreaming and trying to imagine, um, how how my trading would look like for maybe 10 years from now. And actually, I'm not, I really feel very, um, very l, I'm feel very lucky or fortunate that really achieved such a good performance last year. And ne, I never expected, I never expected that. So I'm really treated, um, trading as a marathon. Like, if I could be consistently profitable, uh, after 10 years, I, I'm still happy with it. So, and, um, and I'm trying to imagine if I'm being successfully profitable, being a professional, a full-time trader, am I making the same, uh, mistakes again? Am I still overtrade and getting the random entries that I've shown, like the, the COSK entry? Am I, um, still, uh, refusing to take the stop, like the, um, C, the, the SMTC? Um, and I don't think, I don't think any successful or profitable trader that you have interviewed in the past would share with with us like, oh, I'm, I, I'm overtrading and I'm still being profitable, and I'm making the random trades, and I'm, I'm still beating the market. I think, I think none, none of them will make those mistakes. And, and I just realized that, uh, I have to be more focused, more on the longer term growth, like the personal, personal growth of a longer term, instead of the instant impact of my P&L. Whether I'm, uh, the more important thing would be whether I'm following my rules, whether, whether I'm, uh, disciplined or not, rather than getting, hey, winning trade, like by by just randomly, uh, getting an entry and, and, and just I don't somehow get a winning trade from that. And I just suddenly realized that's, that's not the, that's not the situation or the position that I wanted myself to be in. And, yeah, um, if you're trying to be successful in trading, you have to get rid of your mistakes and focus more on the pro process, the progress, uh, itself, instead of the, the, um, the, the return. Yeah.

Yeah. I think to to add to this, um, and it's kind of exactly what you said, you know, um, you know, Jared Tendler, I don't know if you're familiar with him, but he's got a concept about the inchworm. And you, you've talked about your A game, B game, C game, D game today. I think, you know, whatever your experience level, people have been trading for decades, there, there's always going to be mistakes and periods where they overtrade, but it's about, it's about at large improving your A game, improving your B game, improving your C game, and getting those closer and closer together. So, even if you overtrade a little bit, it's not going to set you back and have as big a draw down as it would, um, during your first few years of trading where you're still developing your system, figuring things out, all of that. So, I think this is a worthy goal for sure. Um, and thinking long term and just focusing on making progress, improving that A game, B game, C game, and getting those tighter and tighter and closer together and, and just trying to improve, you know, slowly over time. I think that's that's exactly the way to go. Definitely. Yeah. Can't, can't agree more.

And so I've, uh, I mean, in this call, I've sent a message to myself in in 2050. And, yeah, I really, I really didn't expect that I would be, um, I, I having such a good return last year. I really, because in, you know, uh, in 2021, I was suffering from a 40 or 50% draw down. And I'm just feeling, I, it's a long way to go. Um, I'm not, I will not be profitable, maybe in, in the coming five years or so. But, and so, uh, so I, I have really, it's a really a big project. It's really a metaphor. If I'm making it in 2050, I'm, I'm still a successful trader, right? So, um, um, I hope, uh, all of you could also, uh, um, learn from my stories and try to take most of it and, and also be successful. Uh, uh, and, and getting in, and getting, uh, in getting your, your own trading, uh, methodology or your, your own trading style. And, and it's, it's hard, but, uh, as long as you're sticking in the right way and improving your mistakes, uh, over and over, and you will be gradually, you, you must, you must be, uh, you, you must, uh, your result would will follow. Yeah, your result will follow. Yeah.

And I really love the quote from Mark Minfini. Uh, I, I saved the, I saved this tweet from, uh, in 2022. But, uh, I would say, uh, I'm not, I didn't realize how important it is. Yeah, I know it's important, but I really didn't realize how important it is for following to lose the least amount possible and to make every decision a good reward play, and the result would take care of itself. I know it's, I know it's important, but I, after I went through all the, all the ups and downs, and I, I think this, this tweet, this quote from Mark is, um, I really, I really enjoyed it, and, and it's, it's really true. It's really true. Just focus on every decision, not the results, not the, uh, P&L from that particular trait. Not, um, not from, uh, whether I can make, uh, make back all the losses, whether how much I, uh, how much I I need to make, uh, to climb back the trough. And it's, it's not about, it's not about, u, the P&L, it's about the decision, the progress, the process. So, um, I think the last part that I wanted to share is, uh, is this quote. One day in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful. And it really synchronized with me as, uh, like I've said, I've, uh, suffered from a huge draw down, uh, in June to August last year. And after, in the late August, and the early September, I suddenly realized, this is very similar to what I've experienced in 2021. Like, after late, no, February 2021, I was in a huge and prolonged draw downs for more than two years. And I was telling myself that if I'm still trading, uh, not, not following the rules, uh, in disciplinedly, and I would make, I will be tripped over the same stone again. And because of the previous, the struggle, the struggle, the struggles, and I learned a lesson and, uh, do a, do a full of review, uh, of my past trades, of all the mistakes that I've made. And luckily, the, the result was far better than I expected. And I really believe the, the, uh, obstacles or, yeah, those struggles that you have experienced would really, really, uh, benefit you, and pave the way for your success.

Excellent. Well, Martin, thank you so much for sharing all of this, going through everything in in a lot of detail. And, uh, I have no doubt you're going to be trading in 2050. And I think maybe even 2030 and 2040, you'll, you'll already have achieved those goals that you want. So, um, and I think you really are, you really are a testament to putting in the work, like you said, going through your trades, analyzing your weaknesses, identifying them, because that's the first step to improving them, right? And, uh, you, you've identified where you are as a trader, uh, you know, what stage you're in, boom and buster, and you know the things that you need to work on to improve. And, and like we talked about earlier in this interview, you managed a 283% return even with the mistakes that you recognize you make. So just think of there's so much to improve on. There's always going to be something to improve on. And I think you're well on your way. And, and, uh, and again, just thank you for for taking the time to share this. I think this will be really, really helpful for for everybody watching. And, and, uh, make sure you guys thank Martin in the chat or, or down below in the comment section for for sharing all that. Leave a like as well. Um, Martin, is there anything else you'd like to say to people watching? Um, you've already, you've already shared immense amount. Um, or is there something you want to say to your future self, maybe watching this back to kind of see, you know, what you were thinking, uh, back back during this period? And, and actually, one last thing I want to say, just think about how much you've improved now compared to 2021 and 2022, and just project that into the future. And, and you'll see, you'll, you'll always be improving. And I think, I think you'll have a tremendous, uh, amount of, um, uh, success in the future. So, thanks again for for taking the time to be here. But yeah, is there any last bits of, uh, you know, any last messages that you'd like to share with everybody?

Oh, thank you, Richard. And, um, just keep going. If you're really, uh, passionate, uh, about trading, you, you're really devoting, uh, you really want to devote your, your the your time, your life in trading, just, just keep going and keep improving. Um, it's, it's trading is hard, but it's not that hard. And you, you could, if I can do it, you could, you can also do it.

Great. Well, thank you again, Martin, for for sharing everything. Uh, thanks everybody for watching. If you enjoyed, uh, like I said, please go ahead and leave a like down below. Thank Martin in the chat. Um, I'll drop his Twitter down there as well, so you can, you can follow him there. Um, and we'll see you guys in future videos. Take care. [Music]