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Timing & Execution During the 2020 Market Crash. 400% gains. My story.

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

GrayCode

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Reason for thread
I feel extremely compelled to come back to this community and give back to others since @MJ DeMarco helped open my eyes to the 'Fastlane'. I first read TMF in... 2015 or so (I believe) and have since read or listened to it 3 to 5 times.

Thread Focus
I want to ...
  1. Share the process that led me here​
  2. Share insights & realizations I gathered/made along the way.​
  3. Answer any questions for others as a way to give back to the community.​
Let's get started...

How I got to this point (The Breadcrumb Trail)
I'm currently 29 years old. First read TMF in 2015 or so at 24 years of age, I was broke as a motherf*cker. Had no skills outside of sheer determination, and unbreakable confidence in myself (even though along the journey I felt completely worthless at points and was lost and had no clue wtf I was doing like many of you i'm sure).

I taught myself to code. I didn't understand a damn thing about it at first, didn't go to college and certainly didn't pick it up right away. Over time I fell in love with it. The ability to take a blank white computer screen and build anything I can think of... nothing short of amazing. I felt completely lost at points along the journey, was confused, had self-doubt, had imposter syndrome like a MF'er but eventually came through the other side.

Now I'm able to build anything across any platform and I'm still super young with plenty of ideas and entrepreneurial passions. I can build on the backend including architecting databases, server-side work (the back end makes the program do things). I can build on the front end (both web and mobile; what the user visually sees) and I can build and architect the APIs (the layer that connects the two) and I'm damn good at it too.

If you want to read more about this journey, you can read it in this GOLD thread I made sometime last year:
GOLD! How I got hired as a software engineer without a college degree

Now... to further bridge the story together I wrote another GOLD thread which talked about progress I'd been having up until that point with my financial journey which included some side hustle success and stock market success. You can read about that using the link below:
GOLD! First Fastlane Month, Feels Amazing! $65,000+ Revenue Pre-tax


-----

How I'm closing in on $1M liquid and what the heck I'm doing (WITH PROOF)
Ok, the part you're probably wanting to hear. Well this will be a slight teaser because I've been thinking for a few days on whether or not to write this thread and I decided it would be helpful, so I wanted to get a placeholder in here as a commitment to the community that'll force me to come back and finish the post.

I got here mostly on stock market gains over the past 3 months. The markets are down 20% ish or so. I'm currently up 400% +

I recognized a huge opportunity to deploy the capital I had gained from the gold post above, and I dove in. Also, my trading game has stepped up big-time as a result since I now have more capital to play with, my positions, patience and sizing allow me to soak up more gains than I was able to before.

When I go into a position, I aim for a $2,500 profit minimum before setting a stop loss on the profit side. So far it's been working out really well. As I become more successful with trading I'll probably end up increasing my 'ideal minimum' as a result of increasing my position size.

-----

Capitalizing on the crash.
About a year ago, I was firmly in the camp that we were due for a recession. It'd obviously been the longest bull market run in over 12+ years. So I was making smallish trades but also trying to stack cash on the side. Then Coronavirus happened and obviously the market took a shit.

I felt like a shark that was smelling blood in the waters, but I waited. SPY went from 340 to 300, and I waited. SPY went from 300 to 270, and I waited. It just didn't feel like the right time.

I visualize trends like I think of a coiled rubberband, it can only stretch so far before it bounces back.

At the 260 mark - I felt like the rubberband was getting coiled but not too strongly yet. So I waited. and then it happened. A sharp drop into the 220s, I honestly felt like this was it. I felt this was the bottom, or if not, it was damn near close enough.

This was the point where I could be ok going in and feel good about it, if it went down a bit more, I'd buy some more. I committed to not trip over dollars to pick up dimes.

I even called the bottom-ish publicly on StockTwits and got plenty of hate for it. But see the time and price stamps in the pic. Can't argue that. Oh and I definitely messaged the guy in the comments on taking that picture and trolled him.

32971

Now before I go on... I do not directly invest in the SPY - I used it as an overall market thermometer.

It was at this point I decided to start buying up stocks. I bought a few different names and held for about a month. The returns were huge. I basically went up 400 ish percent.

32972

This feels great, but also very very weird. I'll touch on that below in realizations section.

This is my JPM account - I typically trade shares or stock warrants from here. and I have a Robinhood account where I trade options. I use robinhood because I love their UX. Super easy and clean. (being a software engineer this means something to me).

Here's an example of a huge return I had on DKNG (Draftkings). You can clearly see the total return and ROI % in the pic.

32974

Value when sold was about $70k, on an investment of about $19k for a +277% return on this trade.

I was in this trade before they officially completed their reverse merger with a SPAC (special purpose acquisition company). Wish I bought more options at the time, but I didn't have the capital, it was tied up in other trades that were playing out.

That about sums up the huge moves, I have another trade in the works that might also return me 300%+ by mid June. It's currently up 100% and there are some catalysts coming that will run it up. Also a SPAC reverse merger.

Officially, I'm around 650k ish and closing in on my first $1m fast. I'm going to request a thread title change once I officially get there, to better reflect the story.

----

My Trading Strategy Going Forward

I'm no dummy. I'm mostly cash right now, except for that larger position I mentioned above I'm waiting to play out. The markets are far too uneasy for me to feel confident in any real long term plays.

I saw the bounce coming, but I'm not stupid enough to act like I know everything and I'm certainly not letting the success get to my head and fool me into thinking I know what will happen next.

That being said....

My current strategy is super super simple. I want to get in a position that I'm comfortable with and my minimum profit target is $2,500 before I put on a stop loss. I have my reason for this particular target, if anyone is curious, feel free to ask.

It's been working well. In the last month, I've put on around 8 trades that have returned me $2,500+. I'm actually 8 for 8 using my new strategy and I feel like it's an edge I have to be able to manage my patience.

Here's 2 examples of trades with the $2,500 return:

32975

This one was a quick BTC scalp. It hit my $2,500 goal so I sold. Even as a software engineer, I believe in BTC, but I'm unsure about it's practical long-term adoption and have my reasons.

Then there was this purchase of PINS (Pinterest) and this perfectly defines my strategy in which I'm 8 for 8.
This is the buy of 5k shares.
32976

Came out to $85k buy order. I held for 2 days and put a stop loss on as soon as it passed my $2,500 target. Here's the sell:
32977

My overall strategy boils down to - I'm looking for .25 cent to 1.00 swings in well known stocks where I can afford enough shares to return $2,500 minimum and have room to average down should I need to. This is my strategy, I'm sure people can try poking holes in it, and I'm honestly open to your criticisms of it, the debate on the strategy will help me solidify my concept.

So far being 8 for 8 it's working rather well.

That's the progress and strategy in a nutshell.

10 Realizations
  1. I can probably quit my job now... Though I haven't yet. Someone talk me into it. haha.
  2. The more capital you have to deploy in the markets the more profit you can soak up.
  3. A good trade is like fishing into a school of fish with a large net. The fish = profit, the right timing is the size of your net.
  4. At a certain capital level - you can pay your monthly bills in 1 good trade. So why would I ever risk quick tiny scalps and stare at the screen all day. Maybe I'd only need to make 1-3 trades in a given month, instead of people who put on 20 trades in a day. To each their own though.
  5. I believe the number one failure beginning trades make is not starting with enough capital and like everything else, trying to get rich quick. Screw that, focus on getting rich for sure.
  6. If you're trading options, I recommend not trading 'weeklies' or even 'monthlies' it's mostly gambling. If you believe in a position moving your way, it's much smarter to pay the extra for extra theta (time). Theta burn is a motherfcker. Multiply that with trying to get rich quick and you'll be broke in no time.
  7. There is no secret to success in the markets. It's mostly capital and patience. Most people don't have much of either, so they screw themselves.
  8. The market giveth and the market taketh, do not get cocky, just aim for consistency. Have a plan and stick to the plan. Right now I aim to make $2,500 per trade I put on. Eventually with consistency and time of building my capital I'll up that to $5,000. Then I'll stay at that level for a while, before upping the target again. Remember, it's only a net and fishing.
  9. I think paper trading is a shit way to learn to trade. Yes, it'll teach you how to use the tool/platform you're trading with, but outside of that, you need to risk real dollars to understand the weight of what you're doing. Otherwise it's all fairy dust.
  10. I currently have probably 10 years of runway to pay my bills if I stopped working now and just did my own thing. When I write these words, I question why I haven't quit my job, I think it has something to do with being broke my whole life. Working through it, open for conversing on it :) - I think it's because I have a fairly easy job. But that's also a dumb reason. Go figure....

What's Next...

Well... I love the markets and I'm a software engineer. I'm likely going to keep on trading and building a StockTwits like platform with better features and performance because their platform drives me nuts. It's lacking alot of things. I have the ability to build it for both web and mobile and can really do it on my own time and terms.

So that's what it will be. Trading and building a StockTwits competitor.

That's it, thanks for reading, I hope something I wrote helped you learn something or inspired you in some way. I'm happy to answer questions and will be around monitoring the thread as questions pop up. So ask away!

There are no stupid questions. There are only questions that are repetitive that might have already been answered by the time you get to this. Check those first :)
 
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Last edited:

amp0193

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Please allow me a day or two to gather all the images from my different platforms to share proof and the rest of the story. (JP Morgan Brokerage, Robinhood, StockTwits). I will be back shortly with the full story and the rest of the plan for this thread of things I want to touch on as posted above.

In the meantime, if you have any questions... feel free to start adding them to this thread, I'll answer them AFTER finishing the thread.

I don't think proof is important. Just share your process brother! It's not hard to tell the fakers from the action takers.

400% gains is crazy. Make sure you take some chips off the table while you're ahead.
 

GrayCode

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I updated and completed the main post of the thread!
 

GrayCode

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I don't think proof is important. Just share your process brother! It's not hard to tell the fakers from the action takers.

400% gains is crazy. Make sure you take some chips off the table while you're ahead.

I agree with you, but I feel like the proof helps people know I'm not just some fly by night guru preaching gains and other nonsense. If I see one more fake youtube trading guru - I'll lose my mind.

Definitely took some chips off the table. I'm currently mostly cash except for one position at the moment which I detailed in the completed post above.
 
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Jesse Dallenbach

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Reason for thread
I feel extremely compelled to come back to this community and give back to others since @MJ DeMarco helped open my eyes to the 'Fastlane'. I first read TMF in... 2015 or so (I believe) and have since read or listened to it 3 to 5 times.

Thread Focus
I want to ...
  1. Share the process that led me here​
  2. Share insights & realizations I gathered/made along the way.​
  3. Answer any questions for others as a way to give back to the community.​
Let's get started...

How I got to this point (The Breadcrumb Trail)
I'm currently 29 years old. First read TMF in 2015 or so at 24 years of age, I was broke as a motherf*cker. Had no skills outside of sheer determination, and unbreakable confidence in myself (even though along the journey I felt completely worthless at points and was lost and had no clue wtf I was doing like many of you i'm sure).

I taught myself to code. I didn't understand a damn thing about it at first, didn't go to college and certainly didn't pick it up right away. Over time I fell in love with it. The ability to take a blank white computer screen and build anything I can think of... nothing short of amazing. I felt completely lost at points along the journey, was confused, had self-doubt, had imposter syndrome like a MF'er but eventually came through the other side.

Now I'm able to build anything across any platform and I'm still super young with plenty of ideas and entrepreneurial passions. I can build on the backend including architecting databases, server-side work (the back end makes the program do things). I can build on the front end (both web and mobile; what the user visually sees) and I can build and architect the APIs (the layer that connects the two) and I'm damn good at it too.

If you want to read more about this journey, you can read it in this GOLD thread I made sometime last year:
GOLD! How I got hired as a software engineer without a college degree

Now... to further bridge the story together I wrote another GOLD thread which talked about progress I'd been having up until that point with my financial journey which included some side hustle success and stock market success. You can read about that using the link below:
GOLD! First Fastlane Month, Feels Amazing! $65,000+ Revenue Pre-tax


-----

How I'm closing in on $1M liquid and what the heck I'm doing (WITH PROOF)
Ok, the part you're probably wanting to hear. Well this will be a slight teaser because I've been thinking for a few days on whether or not to write this thread and I decided it would be helpful, so I wanted to get a placeholder in here as a commitment to the community that'll force me to come back and finish the post.

I got here mostly on stock market gains over the past 3 months. The markets are down 20% ish or so. I'm currently up 400% +

I recognized a huge opportunity to deploy the capital I had gained from the gold post above, and I dove in. Also, my trading game has stepped up big-time as a result since I now have more capital to play with, my positions, patience and sizing allow me to soak up more gains than I was able to before.

When I go into a position, I aim for a $2,500 profit minimum before setting a stop loss on the profit side. So far it's been working out really well. As I become more successful with trading I'll probably end up increasing my 'ideal minimum' as a result of increasing my position size.

-----

Capitalizing on the crash.
About a year ago, I was firmly in the camp that we were due for a recession. It'd obviously been the longest bull market run in over 12+ years. So I was making smallish trades but also trying to stack cash on the side. Then Coronavirus happened and obviously the market took a shit.

I felt like a shark that was smelling blood in the waters, but I waited. SPY went from 340 to 300, and I waited. SPY went from 300 to 270, and I waited. It just didn't feel like the right time.

I visualize trends like I think of a coiled rubberband, it can only stretch so far before it bounces back.

At the 260 mark - I felt like the rubberband was getting coiled but not too strongly yet. So I waited. and then it happened. A sharp drop into the 220s, I honestly felt like this was it. I felt this was the bottom, or if not, it was damn near close enough.

This was the point where I could be ok going in and feel good about it, if it went down a bit more, I'd buy some more. I committed to not trip over dollars to pick up dimes.

I even called the bottom-ish publicly on StockTwits and got plenty of hate for it. But see the time and price stamps in the pic. Can't argue that. Oh and I definitely messaged the guy in the comments on taking that picture and trolled him.

View attachment 32971

Now before I go on... I do not directly invest in the SPY - I used it as an overall market thermometer.

It was at this point I decided to start buying up stocks. I bought a few different names and held for about a month. The returns were huge. I basically went up 400 ish percent.

View attachment 32972

This feels great, but also very very weird. I'll touch on that below in realizations section.

This is my JPM account - I typically trade shares or stock warrants from here. and I have a Robinhood account where I trade options. I use robinhood because I love their UX. Super easy and clean. (being a software engineer this means something to me).

Here's an example of a huge return I had on DKNG (Draftkings). You can clearly see the total return and ROI % in the pic.

View attachment 32974

Value when sold was about $70k, on an investment of about $19k for a +277% return on this trade.

I was in this trade before they officially completed their reverse merger with a SPAC (special purpose acquisition company). Wish I bought more options at the time, but I didn't have the capital, it was tied up in other trades that were playing out.

That about sums up the huge moves, I have another trade in the works that might also return me 300%+ by mid June. It's currently up 100% and there are some catalysts coming that will run it up. Also a SPAC reverse merger.

Officially, I'm around 650k ish and closing in on my first $1m fast. I'm going to request a thread title change once I officially get there, to better reflect the story.

----

My Trading Strategy Going Forward

I'm no dummy. I'm mostly cash right now, except for that larger position I mentioned above I'm waiting to play out. The markets are far too uneasy for me to feel confident in any real long term plays.

I saw the bounce coming, but I'm not stupid enough to act like I know everything and I'm certainly not letting the success get to my head and fool me into thinking I know what will happen next.

That being said....

My current strategy is super super simple. I want to get in a position that I'm comfortable with and my minimum profit target is $2,500 before I put on a stop loss. I have my reason for this particular target, if anyone is curious, feel free to ask.

It's been working well. In the last month, I've put on around 8 trades that have returned me $2,500+. I'm actually 8 for 8 using my new strategy and I feel like it's an edge I have to be able to manage my patience.

Here's 2 examples of trades with the $2,500 return:

View attachment 32975

This one was a quick BTC scalp. It hit my $2,500 goal so I sold. Even as a software engineer, I believe in BTC, but I'm unsure about it's practical long-term adoption and have my reasons.

Then there was this purchase of PINS (Pinterest) and this perfectly defines my strategy in which I'm 8 for 8.
This is the buy of 5k shares.
View attachment 32976

Came out to $85k buy order. I held for 2 days and put a stop loss on as soon as it passed my $2,500 target. Here's the sell:
View attachment 32977

My overall strategy boils down to - I'm looking for .25 cent to 1.00 swings in well known stocks where I can afford enough shares to return $2,500 minimum and have room to average down should I need to. This is my strategy, I'm sure people can try poking holes in it, and I'm honestly open to your criticisms of it, the debate on the strategy will help me solidify my concept.

So far being 8 for 8 it's working rather well.

That's the progress and strategy in a nutshell.

10 Realizations
  1. I can probably quit my job now... Though I haven't yet. Someone talk me into it. haha.
  2. The more capital you have to deploy in the markets the more profit you can soak up.
  3. A good trade is like fishing into a school of fish with a large net. The fish = profit, the right timing is the size of your net.
  4. At a certain capital level - you can pay your monthly bills in 1 good trade. So why would I ever risk quick tiny scalps and stare at the screen all day. Maybe I'd only need to make 1-3 trades in a given month, instead of people who put on 20 trades in a day. To each their own though.
  5. I believe the number one failure beginning trades make is not starting with enough capital and like everything else, trying to get rich quick. Screw that, focus on getting rich for sure.
  6. If you're trading options, I recommend not trading 'weeklies' or even 'monthlies' it's mostly gambling. If you believe in a position moving your way, it's much smarter to pay the extra for extra theta (time). Theta burn is a motherfcker. Multiply that with trying to get rich quick and you'll be broke in no time.
  7. There is no secret to success in the markets. It's mostly capital and patience. Most people don't have much of either, so they screw themselves.
  8. The market giveth and the market taketh, do not get cocky, just aim for consistency. Have a plan and stick to the plan. Right now I aim to make $2,500 per trade I put on. Eventually with consistency and time of building my capital I'll up that to $5,000. Then I'll stay at that level for a while, before upping the target again. Remember, it's only a net and fishing.
  9. I think paper trading is a shit way to learn to trade. Yes, it'll teach you how to use the tool/platform you're trading with, but outside of that, you need to risk real dollars to understand the weight of what you're doing. Otherwise it's all fairy dust.
  10. I currently have probably 10 years of runway to pay my bills if I stopped working now and just did my own thing. When I write these words, I question why I haven't quit my job, I think it has something to do with being broke my whole life. Working through it, open for conversing on it :) - I think it's because I have a fairly easy job. But that's also a dumb reason. Go figure....

What's Next...

Well... I love the markets and I'm a software engineer. I'm likely going to keep on trading and building a StockTwits like platform with better features and performance because their platform drives me nuts. It's lacking alot of things. I have the ability to build it for both web and mobile and can really do it on my own time and terms.

So that's what it will be. Trading and building a StockTwits competitor.

That's it, thanks for reading, I hope something I wrote helped you learn something or inspired you in some way. I'm happy to answer questions and will be around monitoring the thread as questions pop up. So ask away!

There are no stupid questions. There are only questions that are repetitive that might have already been answered by the time you get to this. Check those first :)

Hello Gray code,

Congrats on your dedication, focus, and commitment to learning new skills and creating value for others.

On the Stocks & options investing did you only do long positions/calls? Did you do any short positions/puts?

Thanks!

- DB
 

GrayCode

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Hello Gray code,

Congrats on your dedication, focus, and commitment to learning new skills and creating value for others.
Thank you.

On the Stocks & options investing did you only do long positions/calls? Did you do any short positions/puts?

I've only done long positions/calls. I prefer to focus on 1 side of the trade. My entire thing is simplicity. It's something I've picked up during engineering.

"How efficient can I make this software?"
"How large can I build one software in revenue, with minimal employees, thanks to automation?"

So I bring that into my trading, "What's the simplest concept I can use to make me money whenever I spot the opportunity, without having to know 900 different concepts"

Ultimately you can make money in the markets in any direction with a number of different trading styles. Technical chart patterns, for example, there are 10s if not 100s of them.

I only need to master 1 way, then utilize capital and patience to swoop my net into the water and pull up a load of fish.

Hope that helps.
 

andrewsyc

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Congrats on your success GrayCode, make sure you don't let off the accelerator.

There's another person that used to post on here that had wild success an appreneur, regoapps, he made substantial amounts on his ‎Police Scanner +

He wrote: Amazon.com: Lifehacked: How One Family from the Slums Made Millions Selling Apps eBook: Wong, Allen: Kindle Store



You can read a lot from some of his reddit posts.

Some of the posts reek of humble-braggadocio but if you can get past that it lets you know what's possible. You read a lot of blog posts and listen to a lot of podcasts so it might be worth it to lurk on him and some of his past posts.

Here are some choice ones, posting these as it seems the direction you are heading AND DON'T STOP. Thanks for giving back to the community.

He made early investments in tech stocks and crypto, so yeah, doing pretty good...

P.S. I've also read up on him enough and know he isn't B.S.ing

https://www.reddit.com/r/GetMotivated/comments/dy6ltb/_/f7zda51 View: https://www.reddit.com/r/GetMotivated/comments/dy6ltb/image_age_is_just_a_number/f7zda51/


https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/comments/egn2gb/_/fc8rj8d View: https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/comments/egn2gb/who_here_if_any_grew_up_in_poverty_and_now_is/fc8rj8d/


https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/comments/f4akjf/_/fhp9lke View: https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/comments/f4akjf/what_are_your_guilty_splurges_on_the_way_to/fhp9lke/
 
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Last edited:

GrayCode

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Congrats on your success GrayCode, make sure you don't let off the accelerator.

There's another person that used to post on here that had wild success an appreneur, regoapps, he made substantial amounts on his ‎Police Scanner +

He wrote: Amazon.com: Lifehacked: How One Family from the Slums Made Millions Selling Apps eBook: Wong, Allen: Kindle Store



You can read a lot from some of his reddit posts.

Some of the posts reek of humble-braggadocio but if you can get past that it lets you know what's possible. You read a lot of blog posts and listen to a lot of podcasts so it might be worth it to lurk on him and some of his past posts.

Here are some choice ones, posting these as it seems the direction you are heading AND DON'T STOP. Thanks for giving back to the community.

He made early investments in tech stocks and crypto, so yeah, doing pretty good...

P.S. I've also read up on him enough and know he isn't B.S.ing

https://www.reddit.com/r/GetMotivated/comments/dy6ltb/_/f7zda51 View: https://www.reddit.com/r/GetMotivated/comments/dy6ltb/image_age_is_just_a_number/f7zda51/


https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/comments/egn2gb/_/fc8rj8d View: https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/comments/egn2gb/who_here_if_any_grew_up_in_poverty_and_now_is/fc8rj8d/


https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/comments/f4akjf/_/fhp9lke View: https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/comments/f4akjf/what_are_your_guilty_splurges_on_the_way_to/fhp9lke/
Thanks! I'm checking out the links now.
 

GrayCode

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Congrats on your success GrayCode, make sure you don't let off the accelerator.

There's another person that used to post on here that had wild success an appreneur, regoapps, he made substantial amounts on his ‎Police Scanner +

He wrote: Amazon.com: Lifehacked: How One Family from the Slums Made Millions Selling Apps eBook: Wong, Allen: Kindle Store



You can read a lot from some of his reddit posts.

Some of the posts reek of humble-braggadocio but if you can get past that it lets you know what's possible. You read a lot of blog posts and listen to a lot of podcasts so it might be worth it to lurk on him and some of his past posts.

Here are some choice ones, posting these as it seems the direction you are heading AND DON'T STOP. Thanks for giving back to the community.

He made early investments in tech stocks and crypto, so yeah, doing pretty good...

P.S. I've also read up on him enough and know he isn't B.S.ing

https://www.reddit.com/r/GetMotivated/comments/dy6ltb/_/f7zda51 View: https://www.reddit.com/r/GetMotivated/comments/dy6ltb/image_age_is_just_a_number/f7zda51/


https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/comments/egn2gb/_/fc8rj8d View: https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/comments/egn2gb/who_here_if_any_grew_up_in_poverty_and_now_is/fc8rj8d/


https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/comments/f4akjf/_/fhp9lke View: https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/comments/f4akjf/what_are_your_guilty_splurges_on_the_way_to/fhp9lke/
Update: I'll be buying his book in a couple of hours.

I read this inside one of his reddit responses. This excites me:

"But nowadays, I also think about how $10k could have paid for someone’s medical bills and helped people in a real tangible way. I think about how many fresh water wells I could help fund in villages without clean water. I think about how many trees I could help fund getting planted. Thinking about all that, I no longer feel like a good person if I kept living like a rich person."
 

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Update: I'll be buying his book in a couple of hours.

I read this inside one of his reddit responses. This excites me:

"But nowadays, I also think about how $10k could have paid for someone’s medical bills and helped people in a real tangible way. I think about how many fresh water wells I could help fund in villages without clean water. I think about how many trees I could help fund getting planted. Thinking about all that, I no longer feel like a good person if I kept living like a rich person."

I'm sure you'll enjoy his story. He eluded to what happened on his posts on here but I read some of his recent reddit posts this year and saw what really happened in his family. Fascinating nonetheless.

Stressing speed and urgency:

So start learning something now so that in four years, you'll have a skill that you can use to make money. For example, I learned how to code apps within a week by reading a 500 page book in a week. By the first month of selling apps, I made $50 a day. By the end of the year, I was making $100,000 a month. Within 4 years, some days I could pull in $100,000+ in a day. I'm not saying that you'll reach similar results, but I am saying that with enough motivation, you can achieve a lot in four years.

From earlier in the getmotivated post. I'm starting to find them a good predictor of someone being successful is how fast they start and get something out there. I know when @MTF started his legendary progress thread on the inside he got something out in a couple of days. Several other threads follow that pattern.

A good video was made about this ;)

urgency.png

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMnCscZ6pbY
 
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Thank you.



I've only done long positions/calls. I prefer to focus on 1 side of the trade. My entire thing is simplicity. It's something I've picked up during engineering.

"How efficient can I make this software?"
"How large can I build one software in revenue, with minimal employees, thanks to automation?"

So I bring that into my trading, "What's the simplest concept I can use to make me money whenever I spot the opportunity, without having to know 900 different concepts"

Ultimately you can make money in the markets in any direction with a number of different trading styles. Technical chart patterns, for example, there are 10s if not 100s of them.

I only need to master 1 way, then utilize capital and patience to swoop my net into the water and pull up a load of fish.

Hope that helps.

Hello GrayCodes,

Congrats!

How do you choose strike moneyness and expiration? What was the dkng price when you bought the options?
 

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Hello GrayCodes,

Congrats!

How do you choose strike moneyness and expiration? What was the dkng price when you bought the options?

I typically try to buy in the money by a couple of strikes for some padding and expiration I honestly prefer 3+ months.

The DKNG I purchased in... early March with an expiration of August this year. Cost per contract was around $2.94. It rose to around $14 per contract or so.
 
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Well done buddy, write a book!! You have a great inspirational story!
Maybe one day. I'd have to become slightly more successful for it to feel right. Also I have an issue with most self-help related books that all preach the same things and bloat it to 200 pages when it could really be said in 30-40.

We'll see, probably not for many years.
 

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Reason for thread
I feel extremely compelled to come back to this community and give back to others since @MJ DeMarco helped open my eyes to the 'Fastlane'. I first read TMF in... 2015 or so (I believe) and have since read or listened to it 3 to 5 times.

Thread Focus
I want to ...
  1. Share the process that led me here​
  2. Share insights & realizations I gathered/made along the way.​
  3. Answer any questions for others as a way to give back to the community.​
Let's get started...

How I got to this point (The Breadcrumb Trail)
I'm currently 29 years old. First read TMF in 2015 or so at 24 years of age, I was broke as a motherf*cker. Had no skills outside of sheer determination, and unbreakable confidence in myself (even though along the journey I felt completely worthless at points and was lost and had no clue wtf I was doing like many of you i'm sure).

I taught myself to code. I didn't understand a damn thing about it at first, didn't go to college and certainly didn't pick it up right away. Over time I fell in love with it. The ability to take a blank white computer screen and build anything I can think of... nothing short of amazing. I felt completely lost at points along the journey, was confused, had self-doubt, had imposter syndrome like a MF'er but eventually came through the other side.

Now I'm able to build anything across any platform and I'm still super young with plenty of ideas and entrepreneurial passions. I can build on the backend including architecting databases, server-side work (the back end makes the program do things). I can build on the front end (both web and mobile; what the user visually sees) and I can build and architect the APIs (the layer that connects the two) and I'm damn good at it too.

If you want to read more about this journey, you can read it in this GOLD thread I made sometime last year:
GOLD! How I got hired as a software engineer without a college degree

Now... to further bridge the story together I wrote another GOLD thread which talked about progress I'd been having up until that point with my financial journey which included some side hustle success and stock market success. You can read about that using the link below:
GOLD! First Fastlane Month, Feels Amazing! $65,000+ Revenue Pre-tax


-----

How I'm closing in on $1M liquid and what the heck I'm doing (WITH PROOF)
Ok, the part you're probably wanting to hear. Well this will be a slight teaser because I've been thinking for a few days on whether or not to write this thread and I decided it would be helpful, so I wanted to get a placeholder in here as a commitment to the community that'll force me to come back and finish the post.

I got here mostly on stock market gains over the past 3 months. The markets are down 20% ish or so. I'm currently up 400% +

I recognized a huge opportunity to deploy the capital I had gained from the gold post above, and I dove in. Also, my trading game has stepped up big-time as a result since I now have more capital to play with, my positions, patience and sizing allow me to soak up more gains than I was able to before.

When I go into a position, I aim for a $2,500 profit minimum before setting a stop loss on the profit side. So far it's been working out really well. As I become more successful with trading I'll probably end up increasing my 'ideal minimum' as a result of increasing my position size.

-----

Capitalizing on the crash.
About a year ago, I was firmly in the camp that we were due for a recession. It'd obviously been the longest bull market run in over 12+ years. So I was making smallish trades but also trying to stack cash on the side. Then Coronavirus happened and obviously the market took a shit.

I felt like a shark that was smelling blood in the waters, but I waited. SPY went from 340 to 300, and I waited. SPY went from 300 to 270, and I waited. It just didn't feel like the right time.

I visualize trends like I think of a coiled rubberband, it can only stretch so far before it bounces back.

At the 260 mark - I felt like the rubberband was getting coiled but not too strongly yet. So I waited. and then it happened. A sharp drop into the 220s, I honestly felt like this was it. I felt this was the bottom, or if not, it was damn near close enough.

This was the point where I could be ok going in and feel good about it, if it went down a bit more, I'd buy some more. I committed to not trip over dollars to pick up dimes.

I even called the bottom-ish publicly on StockTwits and got plenty of hate for it. But see the time and price stamps in the pic. Can't argue that. Oh and I definitely messaged the guy in the comments on taking that picture and trolled him.

View attachment 32971

Now before I go on... I do not directly invest in the SPY - I used it as an overall market thermometer.

It was at this point I decided to start buying up stocks. I bought a few different names and held for about a month. The returns were huge. I basically went up 400 ish percent.

View attachment 32972

This feels great, but also very very weird. I'll touch on that below in realizations section.

This is my JPM account - I typically trade shares or stock warrants from here. and I have a Robinhood account where I trade options. I use robinhood because I love their UX. Super easy and clean. (being a software engineer this means something to me).

Here's an example of a huge return I had on DKNG (Draftkings). You can clearly see the total return and ROI % in the pic.

View attachment 32974

Value when sold was about $70k, on an investment of about $19k for a +277% return on this trade.

I was in this trade before they officially completed their reverse merger with a SPAC (special purpose acquisition company). Wish I bought more options at the time, but I didn't have the capital, it was tied up in other trades that were playing out.

That about sums up the huge moves, I have another trade in the works that might also return me 300%+ by mid June. It's currently up 100% and there are some catalysts coming that will run it up. Also a SPAC reverse merger.

Officially, I'm around 650k ish and closing in on my first $1m fast. I'm going to request a thread title change once I officially get there, to better reflect the story.

----

My Trading Strategy Going Forward

I'm no dummy. I'm mostly cash right now, except for that larger position I mentioned above I'm waiting to play out. The markets are far too uneasy for me to feel confident in any real long term plays.

I saw the bounce coming, but I'm not stupid enough to act like I know everything and I'm certainly not letting the success get to my head and fool me into thinking I know what will happen next.

That being said....

My current strategy is super super simple. I want to get in a position that I'm comfortable with and my minimum profit target is $2,500 before I put on a stop loss. I have my reason for this particular target, if anyone is curious, feel free to ask.

It's been working well. In the last month, I've put on around 8 trades that have returned me $2,500+. I'm actually 8 for 8 using my new strategy and I feel like it's an edge I have to be able to manage my patience.

Here's 2 examples of trades with the $2,500 return:

View attachment 32975

This one was a quick BTC scalp. It hit my $2,500 goal so I sold. Even as a software engineer, I believe in BTC, but I'm unsure about it's practical long-term adoption and have my reasons.

Then there was this purchase of PINS (Pinterest) and this perfectly defines my strategy in which I'm 8 for 8.
This is the buy of 5k shares.
View attachment 32976

Came out to $85k buy order. I held for 2 days and put a stop loss on as soon as it passed my $2,500 target. Here's the sell:
View attachment 32977

My overall strategy boils down to - I'm looking for .25 cent to 1.00 swings in well known stocks where I can afford enough shares to return $2,500 minimum and have room to average down should I need to. This is my strategy, I'm sure people can try poking holes in it, and I'm honestly open to your criticisms of it, the debate on the strategy will help me solidify my concept.

So far being 8 for 8 it's working rather well.

That's the progress and strategy in a nutshell.

10 Realizations
  1. I can probably quit my job now... Though I haven't yet. Someone talk me into it. haha.
  2. The more capital you have to deploy in the markets the more profit you can soak up.
  3. A good trade is like fishing into a school of fish with a large net. The fish = profit, the right timing is the size of your net.
  4. At a certain capital level - you can pay your monthly bills in 1 good trade. So why would I ever risk quick tiny scalps and stare at the screen all day. Maybe I'd only need to make 1-3 trades in a given month, instead of people who put on 20 trades in a day. To each their own though.
  5. I believe the number one failure beginning trades make is not starting with enough capital and like everything else, trying to get rich quick. Screw that, focus on getting rich for sure.
  6. If you're trading options, I recommend not trading 'weeklies' or even 'monthlies' it's mostly gambling. If you believe in a position moving your way, it's much smarter to pay the extra for extra theta (time). Theta burn is a motherfcker. Multiply that with trying to get rich quick and you'll be broke in no time.
  7. There is no secret to success in the markets. It's mostly capital and patience. Most people don't have much of either, so they screw themselves.
  8. The market giveth and the market taketh, do not get cocky, just aim for consistency. Have a plan and stick to the plan. Right now I aim to make $2,500 per trade I put on. Eventually with consistency and time of building my capital I'll up that to $5,000. Then I'll stay at that level for a while, before upping the target again. Remember, it's only a net and fishing.
  9. I think paper trading is a shit way to learn to trade. Yes, it'll teach you how to use the tool/platform you're trading with, but outside of that, you need to risk real dollars to understand the weight of what you're doing. Otherwise it's all fairy dust.
  10. I currently have probably 10 years of runway to pay my bills if I stopped working now and just did my own thing. When I write these words, I question why I haven't quit my job, I think it has something to do with being broke my whole life. Working through it, open for conversing on it :) - I think it's because I have a fairly easy job. But that's also a dumb reason. Go figure....

What's Next...

Well... I love the markets and I'm a software engineer. I'm likely going to keep on trading and building a StockTwits like platform with better features and performance because their platform drives me nuts. It's lacking alot of things. I have the ability to build it for both web and mobile and can really do it on my own time and terms.

So that's what it will be. Trading and building a StockTwits competitor.

That's it, thanks for reading, I hope something I wrote helped you learn something or inspired you in some way. I'm happy to answer questions and will be around monitoring the thread as questions pop up. So ask away!

There are no stupid questions. There are only questions that are repetitive that might have already been answered by the time you get to this. Check those first :)

Ok, I'm going to be that guy.

I was initially very happy for the OP when reading the title of this post. However, once I got through it I was kind of sad.

I was hoping that this was a story of building a business from 2015 to 2020 and at 29 years old, the business has afforded him to have $1M in his bank account.

However, the more I read, the more I became disenchanted and worried for the OP.

First, you are not closing in on $1M. The proof you posted was $650k. $350k is far away from a million dollars. What scares me is that you assume that the next $350k will be as easy as your first $650k.

Second, you are trading in an unique time right now. Your account went from $50k to 650k in 2 months. However, if I look back at your graph, it was flat from October to January (maybe you weren't trading yet?) and you lost money from February to March. I don't see a steady growth or a history of trading skills here. Many people made alot of money from March 15 to May. I mean it was pretty hard not to (unless you bought airline stock options).

Third, you have to pay taxes on your gains. As ordinary income, you are looking at 37%. So if you end up with a million at the end of 2020, be prepared to send $370k to the IRS.
  • "I can probably quit my job now... Though I haven't yet. Someone talk me into it. haha."
You should not quit your job. You should treat this money as a one time lottery winnings. Don't assume that you can keep on cruising. You may be able to and get to $1M, but take some money off the table.
  • "The more capital you have to deploy in the markets the more profit you can soak up."
  • "A good trade is like fishing into a school of fish with a large net. The fish = profit, the right timing is the size of your net."
  • "At a certain capital level - you can pay your monthly bills in 1 good trade. So why would I ever risk quick tiny scalps and stare at the screen all day. Maybe I'd only need to make 1-3 trades in a given month, instead of people who put on 20 trades in a day. To each their own though."
  • "I believe the number one failure beginning trades make is not starting with enough capital and like everything else, trying to get rich quick. Screw that, focus on getting rich for sure."
The posts above are very dangerous thinking. It's good way to trade yourself to $0. Having more money isn't the path to making more money. You still have to be right in your trade and remember you lose much more when you are wrong too.
  • "There is no secret to success in the markets. It's mostly capital and patience. Most people don't have much of either, so they screw themselves."
  • "The market giveth and the market taketh, do not get cocky, just aim for consistency. Have a plan and stick to the plan. Right now I aim to make $2,500 per trade I put on. Eventually with consistency and time of building my capital I'll up that to $5,000. Then I'll stay at that level for a while, before upping the target again. Remember, it's only a net and fishing."
Exactly, see you get it, so why the first four realizations above?
  • "I currently have probably 10 years of runway to pay my bills if I stopped working now and just did my own thing. When I write these words, I question why I haven't quit my job, I think it has something to do with being broke my whole life. Working through it, open for conversing on it :) - I think it's because I have a fairly easy job. But that's also a dumb reason. Go figure...."
No you don't. You have $650k, $400k after taxes. You can live 10 years on $40k a year? Again, you are assuming that you will continue to make money consistently trading.

Congratulations on getting your account to $650k. I just fear that you will end up losing it all. Why don't you take a couple hundred thousand off the table. Get a house or something. That way, you still have a place to live if you mess up a bunch of trades.
 

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Ok, I'm going to be that guy.

I was initially very happy for the OP when reading the title of this post. However, once I got through it I was kind of sad.

I was hoping that this was a story of building a business from 2015 to 2020 and at 29 years old, the business has afforded him to have $1M in his bank account.

However, the more I read, the more I became disenchanted and worried for the OP.

First, you are not closing in on $1M. The proof you posted was $650k. $350k is far away from a million dollars. What scares me is that you assume that the next $350k will be as easy as your first $650k.
I think this is a fair assessment. I wrote 'closing in on 1m' since that's how I view the next milestone. Passed 500k so next target is 1m.

Second, you are trading in an unique time right now. Your account went from $50k to 650k in 2 months.
I'm aware of that, I said in my OP that I was waiting for the right time to dive in. Which means that I'm aware it's a unique time.

However, if I look back at your graph, it was flat from October to January (maybe you weren't trading yet?) and you lost money from February to March. I don't see a steady growth or a history of trading skills here.
Correct, I wasn't trading much yet. I was just learning, very small trades. Feb to March decrease was me moving money to Robinhood account to get ready to buy some options that I was looking at buying.

Many people made alot of money from March 15 to May. I mean it was pretty hard not to (unless you bought airline stock options).
Correct again, many people did make money in this time period. Many people also lost a lot of money in the month before it as well.

I think that you're assuming here that it was easy to make money and recognize the point of entry and that anyone would have had the same results. I'm sure many people did have similar results and made way more money than I did.

But they were also likely investing with more money too. I think this is more a story of identifying good timing and executing. Also let's be honest 'great market returns' are 20%. I returned 400%+ because of that timing and execution regardless of the amount it returned to me.

If I was using 1M instead of 100k, the win would've been much bigger. It wouldn't have changed the fact that it was well timed and executed.

Third, you have to pay taxes on your gains. As ordinary income, you are looking at 37%. So if you end up with a million at the end of 2020, be prepared to send $370k to the IRS.
I'm well aware. I also have a business I'm working on and intending on plowing money into content creation and advertising to lessen some of that burden, but I'm prepared to pay my taxes.

  • "I can probably quit my job now... Though I haven't yet. Someone talk me into it. haha."
You should not quit your job. You should treat this money as a one time lottery winnings. Don't assume that you can keep on cruising. You may be able to and get to $1M, but take some money off the table.
Hm, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I think just by reading the words in my post you assume that I'm not entrepreneurial and am a corporate cog who got lucky. You even mention 'one time lottery winnings'. That seems as an unfair way to label it. Again, timing and execution.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb was a trader who nailed the 1987 Black Monday Crash. Timing and execution, or lottery & luck?

I'll address the 'quitting the job' contemplation in response below.
  • "The more capital you have to deploy in the markets the more profit you can soak up."
  • "A good trade is like fishing into a school of fish with a large net. The fish = profit, the right timing is the size of your net."
  • "At a certain capital level - you can pay your monthly bills in 1 good trade. So why would I ever risk quick tiny scalps and stare at the screen all day. Maybe I'd only need to make 1-3 trades in a given month, instead of people who put on 20 trades in a day. To each their own though."
  • "I believe the number one failure beginning trades make is not starting with enough capital and like everything else, trying to get rich quick. Screw that, focus on getting rich for sure."
The posts above are very dangerous thinking. It's good way to trade yourself to $0. Having more money isn't the path to making more money. You still have to be right in your trade and remember you lose much more when you are wrong too.
I think your response here definitely neglects a traders psychology and edge. But again, you're correct, most people have 0 control over their emotions while trading and can't make any money and eventually blow their accounts up and run off and never trade again.

Also I disagree that it's a way to trade yourself to 0. There are many ways to make money in the markets and many ways to lose money.

When you say something like 'this is a good way to trade yourself to 0' you're default implying that my way is the way to trade to 0 and there are 'better' ways.

Come on @biophase , having more money does lead to making more money if you're smart with it. You of all people should know that. Again I think you read my post and default assumed I was just gambling the markets and got lucky.

I certainly did take money off the table. As a matter of fact, I mentioned I only have 1 active trade right now and I'm sitting on like 80% cash waiting for confirmation that the entire run up from March isn't just one large dead cat bounce.

And to address your mention of 'having to be right in your trade'. I vaguely identified my approach to picking a trade and spoke about the concept of looking specifically at making moves where I believe the rubberband is already coiled with not much more to give.

I prefer to be in 2+ trades per month of well timed and executed moves, than 50 trades per month where I know 26 might win and 24 might lose eeking out just ahead.

No you don't. You have $650k, $400k after taxes. You can live 10 years on $40k a year? Again, you are assuming that you will continue to make money consistently trading.
This comes down to basic opportunity cost. I think you definitely grouped me into the boat of a 'career employee' who got lucky and should not quit his job and switch to trading.

I'm not switching to trading full-time. I'm thinking of opportunity cost here. The 10 years are probably a slight over exaggeration. But let's call it 5 with that amount.

This means that I can pay all bills and live for 5 full years without needing to make a dime. That implies In that time frame I wouldn't make a single dollar in business, or in the markets.

Sure, most traders lose more money than they make. But since I'm only focusing on taking really high probability trades, I only need to be right a couple of times just to pay my bills.

On top of that we weigh the opportunity cost of spending mental energy working my job vs saying F*ck it, I have enough for a while - I should just go all in on the platform I'm talking about building. You'd have to be really bad at business to have 5 full years of time and not get something rolling.

Also - isn't the entire purpose of smaller businesses (jobs) to build capital so that we can deploy it on other larger things? So why in this scenario should I 'stick to my day job and chalk it up as lotto winnings'.

I feel like my thread unintentionally struck a nerve in you.

Congratulations on getting your account to $650k. I just fear that you will end up losing it all. Why don't you take a couple hundred thousand off the table. Get a house or something. That way, you still have a place to live if you mess up a bunch of trades.
Thank you. I mentioned in responses above I took 80% off the table. The house is a debatable topic, I currently live in a nice apartment complex in Florida. House = baggage I don't want right now, but that's neither here nor there.

Maybe if the housing market crashes, I'll look into buying. Timing and execution :)

p.s.
I read your post once through and felt attacked, I immediately got defensive and wanted to write defensive responses to your comments.

I read your post again, and decided that it wasn't really an attack on me and more an attack on 'lucky people'. I think you decided to 'be that guy' and implied that I was a 'lucky gambler' who bought a lotto ticket and won. I hope some of my responses clear up my thinking and didn't come across as too defensive.

I was hoping that this was a story of building a business from 2015 to 2020 and at 29 years old, the business has afforded him to have $1M in his bank account.
I'm not sure if you read either of the other threads I posted, but this very much was a story of a journey that spanned 2015 - 2020. It's also not a complete journey and I'm aware of that.
 
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biophase

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If I was using 1M instead of 100k, the win would've been much bigger. It wouldn't have changed the fact that it was well timed and executed.

I'm well aware. I also have a business I'm working on and intending on plowing money into content creation and advertising to lessen some of that burden, but I'm prepared to pay my taxes.

Hm, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I think just by reading the words in my post you assume that I'm not entrepreneurial and am a corporate cog who got lucky. You even mention 'one time lottery winnings'. That seems as an unfair way to label it. Again, timing and execution.

I think your response here definitely neglects a traders psychology and edge. But again, you're correct, most people have 0 control over their emotions while trading and can't make any money and eventually blow their accounts up and run off and never trade again.

Also I disagree that it's a way to trade yourself to 0. There are many ways to make money in the markets and many ways to lose money.

When you say something like 'this is a good way to trade yourself to 0' you're default implying that my way is the way to trade to 0 and there are 'better' ways.

I have read your other posts about your job and side business. But I'm going to assume that the trading is a large chunk of your $65k a month. So the bulk of your income is coming from a relatively unstable source. Unless I'm wrong you are making $20k at the job and $20k on your business and $25k trading?

My main point was to say that 2 months of track record in trading is nothing. You shouldn't be making decisions based on that. That would be like someone launching an ecommerce business in November and December and killing it because of Xmas and quitting in January. You should step back and look at this from a long term view. Look at your last 12 months instead of your last 3-4 months.

It is very easy to jump ship and hop onto the highest paying bandwagon in your life. I have seen this so many times which is why I replied to your post.

Come on @biophase , having more money does lead to making more money if you're smart with it. You of all people should know that. Again I think you read my post and default assumed I was just gambling the markets and got lucky.

I certainly did take money off the table. As a matter of fact, I mentioned I only have 1 active trade right now and I'm sitting on like 80% cash waiting for confirmation that the entire run up from March isn't just one large dead cat bounce.

I don't think that you got lucky. However, you shouldn't also think that you are a great trader. It's been 2-3 months. How about waiting a year to evaluate your talents yourself? In fact, you should think to yourself that you are lucky until you prove yourself otherwise. Shit, I still think that I am lucky in ecommerce most of the time.

Your 80% cash is going back onto the table when you feel the time is right. Taking money off the table doesn't mean it is in cash and waiting to be deployed. Taking money off the table means that it is going into something else, maybe a lowly 1% savings account.

I'm not switching to trading full-time. I'm thinking of opportunity cost here. The 10 years are probably a slight over exaggeration. But let's call it 5 with that amount.

Also - isn't the entire purpose of smaller businesses (jobs) to build capital so that we can deploy it on other larger things? So why in this scenario should I 'stick to my day job and chalk it up as lotto winnings'.

I feel like my thread unintentionally struck a nerve in you.

p.s. I read your post once through and felt attacked, I immediately got defensive and wanted to write defensive responses to your comments.

The reason I replied is because you made this post after 3-4 months of trading in an unusual market and you exaggerated your results by putting $1m in the title. Maybe that was click bait, but I interpreted it as a person who has achieved short term success in a non-stable manner and thinks that this is his money tree.

I'm just trying to say, whoa dude, hold up... let's think about what you are saying here. Take a step back and look at what you just wrote.

I would love to see this thread last a couple years. I hope that we can keep posting on it until 2022 and that you graph will be increasing. But what's more important is that during this time you are also making good moves outside of trading with the money made to build up your financial portfolio.
 

GrayCode

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I have read your other posts about your job and side business. But I'm going to assume that the trading is a large chunk of your $65k a month. So the bulk of your income is coming from a relatively unstable source. Unless I'm wrong you are making $20k at the job and $20k on your business and $25k trading?
In that specific month it was $5k job (take home), $30k (trading), 30k (side dev jobs). So when I look at it like this, the job although still considered 'decent pay' doesn't seem all that worth it anymore..

I don't think that you got lucky. However, you shouldn't also think that you are a great trader. It's been 2-3 months. How about waiting a year to evaluate your talents yourself? In fact, you should think to yourself that you are lucky until you prove yourself otherwise. Shit, I still think that I am lucky in ecommerce most of the time.

Your 80% cash is going back onto the table when you feel the time is right. Taking money off the table doesn't mean it is in cash and waiting to be deployed. Taking money off the table means that it is going into something else, maybe a lowly 1% savings account.
Valid points. I'm looking to use the cash as investment into my platform I've been working on.

The reason I replied is because you made this post after 3-4 months of trading in an unusual market and you exaggerated your results by putting $1m in the title. Maybe that was click bait, but I interpreted it as a person who has achieved short term success in a non-stable manner and thinks that this is his money tree.

I'm just trying to say, whoa dude, hold up... let's think about what you are saying here. Take a step back and look at what you just wrote.
Yep, certainly not my money tree. My money tree always was and will be software. This post was more of how I multiplied my capital in an odd time in the markets and you're right, maybe I should change the title to something more along those lines.

I would love to see this thread last a couple years. I hope that we can keep posting on it until 2022 and that you graph will be increasing. But what's more important is that during this time you are also making good moves outside of trading with the money made to build up your financial portfolio.
Me too, I do intend to keep posting here and sharing the results of what's going on. Maybe it'll slowly morph into a monthly recap of progress on my software platform I was talking about.

Until then, I'm going to be mostly cash, until I can figure out the best use for it. But you're right. I'll need to deploy and diversify properly to have a well rounded portfolio that first and foremost focuses on a perpetual ATM that allows me to not have to have the J.O.B.
 

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Update: I changed the title as mentioned in my previous post to:

"Timing & Execution During The 2020 Market Crash. 400% Gains. My Story."

Hopefully this better reflects what is portrayed in the post.
 
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Just to echo what Kenric said, what you accomplished simply is not sustainable. The crash (and its quick recovery) was a market anomaly, a binary event.

As someone who has actively traded the markets for over 20 years, your result is fairly common per incident, not because of something you did specifically, but because of the macroeconomics of fast crashes.

I'll just leave you with this...

In a bull market, everyone is a genius.

And despite the CV crash, the market is still signalling bull. It's also important to remember that Main Street and Wall Street are two different economic beasts.

Nonetheless, congrats on the results. It's a nice launch pad into better things.
 

GrayCode

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Just to echo what Kenric said, what you accomplished simply is not sustainable. The crash (and its quick recovery) was a market anomaly, a binary event.

As someone who has actively traded the markets for over 20 years, your result is fairly common per incident, not because of something you did specifically, but because of the macroeconomics of fast crashes.

I'll just leave you with this...

In a bull market, everyone is a genius.

And despite the CV crash, the market is still signalling bull. It's also important to remember that Main Street and Wall Street are two different economic beasts.

Nonetheless, congrats on the results. It's a nice launch pad into better things.
Agreed. Not sustainable. 400% is not sustainable unless we're going from $1 to $4 to $16 :)

Didn't intend to come across as a genius. Just trying to share what I did as far as timing the market.
Just to echo what Kenric said, what you accomplished simply is not sustainable. The crash (and its quick recovery) was a market anomaly, a binary event.

As someone who has actively traded the markets for over 20 years, your result is fairly common per incident, not because of something you did specifically, but because of the macroeconomics of fast crashes.

I'll just leave you with this...

In a bull market, everyone is a genius.

And despite the CV crash, the market is still signalling bull. It's also important to remember that Main Street and Wall Street are two different economic beasts.

Nonetheless, congrats on the results. It's a nice launch pad into better things.
100% agree. Certainly not sustainable.
 

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my options experience:
about 33 years ago I invested 100€ in dax bear options. some days later The Gulf war srarted and the 100€ went in 1600€.
I sold them and bought a car, a deep fryer, a desk and frozen fires. I sold fries and Coke and beer and so on. on flea markets for the rest of my study time.

Its a great feeling riding a options wave.
I wish you to see the next good wave, too!
 
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Agreed. Not sustainable. 400% is not sustainable unless we're going from $1 to $4 to $16 :)

Didn't intend to come across as a genius. Just trying to share what I did as far as timing the market.

100% agree. Certainly not sustainable.

Hello Gray Codes,

I agree that what you achieved is not sustainable but maybe there is some process that you apply. First of all, you waited a lot before buying the options. This is not frenetic trading. Then, you cited a couple of SPAC. Do you focus on special operation? Can you please explain how to exploit these opportunities?
 

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Hello Gray Codes,

I agree that what you achieved is not sustainable but maybe there is some process that you apply. First of all, you waited a lot before buying the options. This is not frenetic trading. Then, you cited a couple of SPAC. Do you focus on special operation? Can you please explain how to exploit these opportunities?

Yeah, I think this has been commonly missed in my OP. I was extremely patient on my entries. Certainly not frenetic/gambling in nature like most people treat trading.

As for SPACs, I don't necessarily focus on them. But it's becoming a more common way for a company to go public via reverse merger. There is typically only a play when the company merging with the SPAC has clout.

For instance:

- IPOA (SPAC) became SPCE (Virgin Galatic) - Chamatah Palihapitiya and Richard Branson
- DEAC (SPAC) became DKNG (DraftKings) - loads and loads of brand awareness. Knew from the start that this one would be worth way more than $12 per share.

Now I'm in VTIQ (SPAC) which is merging with Nikola Motors

Hydrogen fuel cell trucking and hydrogen refueling station network. Just won a lawsuit against Tesla. This is a long term hold for me. 3-5 years

**This is not investment advice
 

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Congrats on your success. Be prepared for the 200k tax bill due at the end of the year. Consider paying estimates.
 
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No Excuses

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Congrats, but I echo everything biophase and MJ have already said.

Also, not sure how you calculate you are closing in on $1M liquid? From what you've posted, it looks like you've got at least a $200,000 tax bill which puts you at only around $450k. I certainly hope nobody will try and talk you out of quitting your job. ;)
 

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Considering that you have coding experience, and have, what you think is, a simple strategy, why dont you try to code a trading bot?
I know its simpler than it sounds, but if you can define your parameters, it will just do the work for you.
 

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Congrats on your success! I was about to echo some of the thoughts written by the wise men above and realized they have already been stated. You do sound really sensible, just keep a clear head and you should be good.

I just wanted to say this does sound like a good time to quit that job. Not to go into trading full-time for sure, but since you are so entrepreneurial, why not take some time to focus on making it rain?

Might be a dangerous thought, but the worst case scenario is you could probably get back the same job if things fail terribly terribly but I think you can calculate for yourself the odds of that happening.
 
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Congrats on your success! I was about to echo some of the thoughts written by the wise men above and realized they have already been stated. You do sound really sensible, just keep a clear head and you should be good.

I just wanted to say this does sound like a good time to quit that job. Not to go into trading full-time for sure, but since you are so entrepreneurial, why not take some time to focus on making it rain?

Might be a dangerous thought, but the worst case scenario is you could probably get back the same job if things fail terribly terribly but I think you can calculate for yourself the odds of that happening.
Thanks for the response here. Yep, completely a calculation of opportunity cost. I'm not sure why others are seeing having 400k (after taxes) as a bad risk to reward ratio of quitting the job, especially when that buys 5+ years of time.

I mentioned numerous times in my posts, if I were to be quitting, my intention wasn't to trade full-time.

Anyway in the days since my last post, I have indeed decided to put a horizon on my time in corporate life. I'm leaving the job Dec 31st this year.

This will give me some more time to bank a few more months of 'safety' but after that I'm going to go all in on my software company i'm building.

Between now and then I'll be building the product out a bit more.

At that point, I'll technically have around 6 years of expenses covered. I'm more than confident I can get my product making plenty of money in that time. Also, the truth is.. Developers are ALWAYS able to fall back on a job making 100k+ per year, so is there actually any risk? (not that I intend to go back to the corporate world)
 

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Thanks for the response here. Yep, completely a calculation of opportunity cost. I'm not sure why others are seeing having 400k (after taxes) as a bad risk to reward ratio of quitting the job, especially when that buys 5+ years of time.

I mentioned numerous times in my posts, if I were to be quitting, my intention wasn't to trade full-time.

Anyway in the days since my last post, I have indeed decided to put a horizon on my time in corporate life. I'm leaving the job Dec 31st this year.

This will give me some more time to bank a few more months of 'safety' but after that I'm going to go all in on my software company i'm building.

Between now and then I'll be building the product out a bit more.

At that point, I'll technically have around 6 years of expenses covered. I'm more than confident I can get my product making plenty of money in that time. Also, the truth is.. Developers are ALWAYS able to fall back on a job making 100k+ per year, so is there actually any risk? (not that I intend to go back to the corporate world)


Can you not build the software company while you work?

Being all in doesnt mean not having a job. It means being focused on the task at hand. If the software company cannot pay you, pay for itself, and grow at a known rate on the cashflows it produces you should not quit your job.

You should quit your job when it can do all three of those things and there is such a constraint on your time that the job no longer makes sense.
 

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