Do you need a finance degree to day trade successfully? Can you answer that for us? Definitely not. Oh okay, it did it help at all. So for earnings I Like the options cuz the returns can be very very high especially if you find something with a high Delta So that check play they cost around 100 bucks an option so that means for every dollar check moved down I was basically making 100% trusting the levels is the biggest thing. You got to plan it like I always say in chat all the time.

Plan it, stock it, execute it. What could possibly be cooler than banking? Five figures trading profit As a high school student in this episode of The Humble Traders podcast, you are going to learn from a 25-year-old Trader who has been trading parttime since he was only 18. True story I Met this Trader online and formed a Trading Group with him almost 7 years ago and I found out much later that he was only in high school at the time when his peers were still climbing the ranks on League of Legends This high school student Adam had already been making money to pay for his college tuition. Welcome Adam to the Humble Traders Podcast Hey, thank you for having me! Yeah, we've been talking for a few years online and VI are Discord but this is my first time meeting you in person, so very honored to have you.

You're definitely one of the youngest but also a baller Trader that I know. So I'm really honored to have you here I Appreciate that I was going to say it's a pleasure you have me on the show. Um very excited to meet you. You know we've talked so much over the years and you know it's awesome to see the face in person and uh I'm excited.

So Adam tell audience what kind of Trader are you and how do you make a living out of it? um I' say I'm more of an opportunity Trader so I like to look on the outside world kind of just generate ideas whether you know know, going for a walk um traveling I always like to look around and be observing of kind of Trends I'm seeing in the real world and then I go to the markets and use financial instruments to try to you know, capitalize on those. Okay and what kind of instruments do you kind of lean towards stocks? options or so I started with stocks. Um, but once I found options and realized the power they had with leverage, I really started focusing on that although they're a lot more difficult than regular stocks if you can find your Edge in them. I realized that you can kind of create much bigger returns as opposed to regular just general stocks as well as being able to kind of hedge positions.

So if I had the capital that would cost for one stock trade, I could put on two or three option trades with the same amount of capital so mainly options and then a little bit of Futures Trading as well. More recently oh I see you st started with stocks. Okay I think that's most people, especially uh from the community we were both in. Everyone started with stocks and I think it's very interesting to see where everyone went.

Yeah, yeah. so moving on to present day I Know you mention nowadays you're more of an opportunities Trader Um, can you talk a little bit with us about what that means and how do you spot opportunities in the market in a general sense? Yeah, so um I like to just see in my General Life say you know when I first got into oil I was traveling to Canada actually oh and I saw a bunch of these oil shippers I never saw them around where I'm from on the railroad but a bunch of oil So I was like oh what's this company so I started looking into it and that was when I started getting like my first oil trade I ended up going XOM after reading more about I'm like why is there so much oil moving back and forth okay another way I'd like to describe it is like clothing. so I'm into fashion a little bit this past year. um like old money has been a new trend.

Yeah, so it's kind of like something like this. this share for example, something simple, no logo, no logos. Simple. uh you know, light color where they're just very plain blacks Tans Everything to that extent Yeah I was like all right, who's making this So I go in the mall.

Okay and sure enough you walk down Amber and Fr uh abami Fitch is actually changed all their stuff to it. so you go into abomi and fit. you can see basically clothing like this, um all over the place that you know kind of had me thinking like oh you know, is there an opportunity here ABI and Fr just traded on the stock market. Yeah if you look what their earnings they've done the past two, it's they've exploded.

Yeah, absolutely exploded. and that was just me noticing being on. Instagram Seeing everyone posting wearing this type of clothes seeing that you know the trend this year for back to school looks like this kind of just seeing opportunities like that and it also gives me some conviction as well as I'm I see it literally with my own eyes. yeah um if I sometimes when I'm trading gas and oil, I'll go to the pump and I'll see it's $5 and a month ago it was $440 you know I'm like oh wow these companies they have their oil reserves from months ago they're not paying more for oil.

now they already have all this oil. so now they're just paying selling at market price which is way higher. That's like another way where I'll start to see it around me and try to put some Capital into it as well. I See so you see these opportunities in real life and how do you actually execute on those opportunities? So from seeing them in real life, you have to kind of see.

all right Am I just seeing something here or is there actually opportunity? Where are these? Is there any vehicle I can get in to maximize on this? Um so from there I'll kind of look if there is a stock. Now look at the stock, see where it's trading at. Is it trading at highs? Is it trading at lows? when are earnings coming up? Is there any news that's out there? cuz sometimes companies will put out a news report and talk about something that's happening in six months or you going into SEC filings which I used to love doing. you can really find some dirt on some companies see something over there MH So I'll do my due diligence like that and then I just usually wait sometimes.

um recently chat GTB this was probably my very recent trade Che is a company I used to use all the time for school so after I do my homework I like to check it to make sure I did good. So CH is basically like a tutor for you online tutor. Okay, when chat g chat GTV came out. CH everyone's just using chat GTB as chat GTB was free and Che is a paid for service.

Oh I see so you know CH You'd pay 15 bucks a month. if you need help with your homework. you could ask an online tutor and they'd help you everything. now.

Chat GTV came out and people are just going to use that CU It's free. Who wants to pay 15 bucks a month when we can do it for free? Oh yeah, makes sense. Okay so I you know was doing the earnings calendar like I like to do during ear earnings season I saw CH was coming up. Sure enough, the earnings was coming and I kind of had the deal I'm like oh you know, chat chtb they've been dominating it.

It's everything I see online everyone I talk to. They're talking about trying to make a million dollars using Chad GTB So I realized you know, wait, this is going to take out Che Completely. They're going to be ruined. This is a free service, doing a better job answering students' questions than the paid for one.

Okay, earnings came out. they dropped nearly 50% had some options on that. 1,000% overnight. Okay, so that's like kind of that trade though.

I Saw it on earnings calendar and earnings was in 2 days. so I really had to just get right on it. Oh, so how did you decide at that point to either take options, the put options, or take the actual short on Equity Like how do you decide which instrument to play? So since I came across options especially for earnings um, at the end of the day I'm only risking what I put up there. So a short position God forbid I was wrong and that thing squeezed up against me.

The risk is, you know, unlimited. Basically when you go short to stop there Grant you how earnings could be Mhm fairly unlimited risk with an option I know what my risk is. You know if I want to put $10,000 into it I'm not going to lose 11 or 20 ever I'm only going to lose whatever's there I See so for earnings I like the options cuz the returns can be very very high. Yeah, especially if you find something with a high Delta So that check play they cost around 100 bucks an option they had 098.

Delta Okay so that means for every dollar check moved down. I was basically making 100% Yeah, you know they gap down over $10 so I was able to make out pretty nice on that one. I See when you day trade, you don't risk all that 100% Yeah! so when you swing trade, how much do you risk is s trade. so if I'm swinging.

So that was an earnings play. Yeah so when it comes to earnings, it's the probabilities. You can be right in every aspect and still be wrong. Yeah, you know they can be every line and then your trade still wrong.

So I stop getting So convicted into these trades just because the fact I can be right on every aspect. fundamentals, the technicals. you know, um, future Pro Projections All these aspects can be right. The report comes out I look at it I nailed it and then I look at the stock price and it's down 20% and that got to me a few times having that big conviction.

So now with options I usually risk a little more if I'm going to do ears and that was a opportunity with that trade idea to you know that was willing to put on that extra risk cuz I knew what could possibly happen to check I knew that it could be extremely detrimental and it's more of a almost like a fundamental play. Yeah definitely. I Used Spend Zinga Pro as my pre-market research tool. Let me give you a quick walkthrough of my daily trade planning process in order to find large cap stocks with volatility to trade.

I've set out a large cap Gap scanner that only showed me the stocks that fit my criteria. so this is how I set them up right here. If you go to the scanner section, you can go to filters. you can see I set up my price to be from $5 to above Market Capab minimum of 1 billion because again this is a large cap scanner.

volume minimum $20,000 and percentage gapper I Sort with up and you can see once that's set up, you are scanning for the highest percentage gapper that's large cap stocks overnight. The second step is to research a news. Catalyst Behind These Gappers so on Benzinga Pro I can easily go to the news feed after clicking the stock I'm interested in and determine whether the news is a positive or negative Catalyst You can see that for this ticker M Macy's it gapped out overnight because of really positive earnings report. Then you can really quickly see the EPS revenue and guidance results are supposed to estimates.

One of my favorite ways to analyze earnings is go to calendar tab over here and you can see earnings on this particular month, the actual earnings versus the comparison you can see that's a huge beat. 950 per surprise Factor Step three is going to be the most important step. technical analysis and I'll PL out the key levels and determine whether I should be long buyas or short buyas on the stock. So this is how I make use of Benzinga Pro to plan my trades.

from scanning stocks to news research and finally planning key levels. If you're serious about becoming a profitable Trader this is one of the very Advanced trading tools I recommend and I personally use. They're offering a huge 50% off discount for Humble Trader Viewers on all monthly quarterly and annual plans. use my link in the description below to get a Christmas deal.

So on a day-to-day basis, when you're day trading intraday, do you utilize more fundamentals or technicals? So both? Um, definitely always both. In macroeconomics? A lot. So that's how I would consider fundamentals. Yeah, every week, you know, some weeks there's more than others.

There's always events coming out and key data points that Jerome Pal's looking at. Yeah, either hike rates or keep them the same or lower them. So once I kind of started seeing. Okay, why at 10:00 are we breaking out a candle That's so massive? Well, it's because PPI just came out yeah.

Or you know, new home sales or retail sales. or CPI or why we Gap up yesterday? Well, there's CPI 8:30 a.m. which you know brought the market all the way up. So I always like to look at the economic calendar when I'm trading.

Really be aware of what catalysts are going to happen this week and what times are going to be at cuz it's not random. Okay, they happen at the same time every week. Essentially, you're taking advantage of the volatility from the economic data release. I See so can you walk us through through Like let's say, an example of that trade And how would you execute? And what's a strategy like yeah? So um, so for day trading, say I wake up in the morning I know we have CPI 8:30 Yeah! So I'm going to look at these numbers I'll make my own projections based off what I seeing and in the real world you know what? I'm noticing Are people complaining? Um about like what they're paying for fruit? Are they complaining about the grocery store prices? Are they complain about gas prices? when I you know, go out and I hear everyone's complaining about? yeah I'll have a pretty hard assumption that you know CPI is pretty high up there and it's not going to be a good number.

Bad number is going to bring down the market. so from there I go to the charts I look for my key pivots. Okay, see a key level. Um wait for that key level if say if it's before the news event so it could be at 8:00 I'm at a key pivot point I know at 8:30 this news is going to come out.

so if there's an opportunity there, I'll get in. I'll still risk a very low amount cuz we're playing news Catalyst here. Really? Go? You know Hammer candle against you or Spike to the moon sometimes? Yeah, so you know knowing what to risk, You know doing this trade with no stop loss would be super risking but getting in a key pivot tight. Stop loss.

Knowing that in 20 minutes we're going to have this Catalyst that should project for CPI to be higher and which should result in the selloff in the market? Yeah! I'm able to be confident that All right I can get in 20 minutes early. Be ready. I know that my Stop's here. so I'm you know, take a break, even trade, lose a little bit or it's going to work out and I'm going to look like a wizard almost because at 8:30 that dat is coming out and every hedge fund is looking at this data to make it, you know, an pretty educated investment.

So are they either going to be selling off or they going to hold it through it? And from there you know sometimes I don't always like getting in before a news article or a macro event. This is the fact that it is really risky. Um so other times like to say at 10:00 if I know something's coming out, that usually won't be as big of a mover as an 8:30 event. so at 10:00 it's coming out I might wait for the news to come out, see what the numbers are cuz usually we can see a big candle down and then it recovers right away.

Okay, other times you see a big candle down, it keeps going or a big candle up and it just keeps going. So depending on where my risk is for the week, if I had good week the week prior I like to push it a little bit more I see smaller week you know I won't take those as risky trades cuz getting in and trying to predict the market can be very profitable but it also risky risk. Yeah, okay on the topic of risk, what's the? Do you mind sharing? what's your biggest loss ever and then your biggest win ever? Yeah yeah. so my biggest loss was through a position with JP Morgan Okay, believe it or not, Um so yeah yeah.

so this position I had an options trade on. it. ended up getting exercise while I was in college. So oh I was part-time trading.

yeah but not really part-time trading. I was just buying things big size and then hoping it' work out. Okay um so this position you know I thought it was a great trade. you know 3 days into it I'm down substantial amount.

week later down even more substantial amount. Oh no, so it's a swing trade. Yeah, oh so biggest loss is from a swing. Oh okay.

um as the trade went on, it ended up going down even worse. So I get to the point where I was in college and it was a lot of money. People around me were working all year to have this amount of money and I just lost it in the matter of two weeks. Yeah, so it really kind of got to me.

So I was like you know I'm not trading the rest of this month. close my computer come back to my computer turned out they went in the money and now I had shares. Oh okay so and the shares were down a lot. Oh no.

so you lost money on the options and then the shares. Okay yeah and the shares were down a lot. Uhhuh so this is probably one of my most memorable trades too because I logged on my computer and saw my account value was extremely high number. except in the opposite yeah, because it was all on margin.

Oh no, was near $300,000 a margin that my broker didn't. you know, come call me and say hey ad um you sure you want to do this? No, they just decided yep, you're taking these. uh you bought the contract. So here are the shares you wanted.

Oh no and that was probably one of like the biggest like eye opening moments for me cuz I realized that if I really want to make this happen I can't let doing stuff like this take back months of work I work so hard to make this money and then just you know, walking away shutting my computer off for 2 weeks results in such a massive loss. Yeah, um um I was very fortunate because I didn't just freak out and close a position. Unfortunate my broker didn't close the position on me due to you know how much size was on there. Yeah and I ended up holding it for a little bit and you know it was pretty big loss.

Um, it wasn't anything crazy like six figures. um okay but you know it did end up turning into a five fig loss Still, which hurt a lot. yeah, except it could have been triple the size. Um, I was able to hold it for a week and thankfully JP Morgan was to slowly make its way back up.

Yeah, by the time I sold it, you know I recovered probably 60% 80% of the additional after losing all the premium on the options which already yeah already. And yeah, so that that loss really got to me. not only the money aspect, just it showed me how how wrong you could. really.

you know you can think you're only risking a certain amount and that's what I thought with options too I didn't even know about exercising back then. Oh, trying to do that and that experience was just turned into a big loss which turned into an even bigger loss which turned into a massive loss which I was luckily able to hold on for a little bit and recoup it. I See, what about your biggest win ever? So my biggest win? I've had a few winners that have all been kind of like around the same size. um, was during the Ukraine war was probably like my most recent really big win.

Uh, which was last year. So XOM and wheat were the two tickers. so I was trading I didn't know about wheat Futures at the time, but I Wheat? yeah we oh okay. like the commodity? yeah.

so uh. on the actual exchange they have an ETF for wheat I didn't know how to trade the commod then and uh during the war they basically cut off with Russia they control a big portion of the oil supply okay as well as uh Ukraine exported I think 40% of wheat for the entire world h So now they went from exporting 40% of the world's wheat source to being having missiles coming at them. Yeah, just complete, you know. Insanity So I knew this was going to mess up a lot of things with this as Russia started taking you know going more into it and the war started to progress even more quickly.

the oil line started getting shut off, the wheat exports got shut down. Yeah so now all these millions of pounds of wheat that are getting exported you know one day not there, next day, not there next day, not there and I noticed um wheat wasn't moving yet and either was X Okay so I started looking at the options and they had great Deltas they were super low premiums so I started getting into this and quickly they started moving 100% day 200% the next day 300% the next day and as I started you know talking about it more and more people around me started talking about it too started putting their money into it. So that trade I'd like to think of it as one of my biggest not because of how much just I made personally, but people around me made a lot of money too. which was a really amazing feeling to not only know each morning when I saw it up 100% you know 10 of people I really care about.

around me were also seeing the same number on their screen so that was a really uh amazing trade as went like two weeks almost every single day. 100% return 100% return 100% return mhm um till you know it hit the top a little bit. we saw a red day, saw the second red Day and we just called it there and uh by that point we already swung it for nearly two weeks I swung it and a lot of my buddies swung it as well and you know that time I was able to leverage two vehicles off one trade idea cuz it was oil and wheat. so I was able to double capitalize on this.

oh will you Lo the Futures contracts so just options. so XOM uh and then wheat. the ETF for wheat. oh oh okay, even know there's ETF wheat? yeah so are you guys interested in learning Adams Gap Fill option strategy Hit the like button down below if you want to see a video Lesson in the future are there tools that you use tools for trading I use for like research or what are some of your Mus have tools So some of my must have tools is I Really like to use my broker's resources.

So I started with Tdmr trade E Trade To begin as of when I started years, those are kind of the two main Brokers you'd see and as the years have gone on, they've been acquired by more prestigious Banks Yeah and their research is actually if you're a client of them on the platform, you get all the research so you can go right into the portal and go see every research report that Barkley puts out that JP Morgan puts out that Morgan Stanley put out Um, just by using your broker's resources. Oh so that's something I Don't think a lot of people realize they can do? yeah, something I definitely use a lot Bloomberg is definitely my number one source I Just love it. It's entertainment a little bit I somehow find comedy in it, but it's yeah. spoken like a true traitor.

Okay yeah I find myself laughing at Bloomberg sometimes oh my. God it's funny. Normal people don't even want to watch Bloomberg they watch it and fall asleep. You watch it and you I'm commentating it.

Okay, yeah people see me watching like why are you watching the news I was like this is my TV show this so funny. so Bloomberg is awesome and not only is it enjoyable to watch, they have really great sources there. You can see a bunch of CEOs talking about their companies. Um, bunch of hedge fund managers talking about what they see in the market, their opinions, and just hearing everyone's opinion in the market.

You mean you can watch if I watch it all day. Um, but if you really just sit there and watch for 30 minutes, you'd be surprised what you can kind of pull out of it and even the ideas you can generate just listening to it. Okay for a screener I Really like Finviz, it's free so I've always been someone you know I started you know as a high schooler so I didn't have you know exactly a bunch of money to just be throwing in at all these you know, lessons and stuff like that and softwares. So I looked for a lot of the free things and it's funny that even now I still am able to use all these free softwares you know.

E Trade they offer Bloomberg for free so I use the Bloomberg subscription through them. Okay I have a training account with them so I'm not sure how it works if you don't have an account, but for them I you know I get to get that for free Finis Investing.com I Love that website! I have everything from Commodities Macroeconomics, um everything is on Investing.com It's awesome. That's a really big resource. I would recommend as well.

Yeah, it's interesting because you don't really need to go that fancy with the tools. I I do use some premium tools but I think for for Traders who are new new to experience like as long as you find whatever you need like you don't need like to pay for like fancy tools exactly. Yeah, the fancy tool is like the Bloomberg subscription is over 20,000 a year. Yeah.

the the terminal? Yeah yeah yeah, of course. So if you have a terminal you're going to get an edge there for sure. Yeah, but if you can't afford the terminal and you want to use their free stuff, start there. Make it a little bit easier for yourself.

And yeah, you know try to cut some of the overhead cost do end in the day. If you can cut overhead cost, you know you can kind of allow yourself more of a chance to succeed if you're managing your Capital right. And when you do see the opportunity to fully put in, you know, towards a software or a paid service then you can hop in it. Um, you'll save that money in the meantime before you really know what you're doing as opposed to getting something and being overwhelmed and not understanding all the features.

It's yeah, can be a little difficult. Yeah, that's what happened to me when I first started. I had all these different scanners, especially like different subscriptions, scanners, website research I didn't know how to use any of them so it was useless for me at the time. Anyways, what's your favorite strategy that you are trading in the current environment right now was it? and what kind of instruments? So I like the indexes a lot right now? Yeah, um due to how I can size into them and not be worried at all about getting stuck in a position.

so I really love the indexes. My favorite strategy for them has to be with gaps I Love gaps. They always say a gap always gets filled and I might be one to say it does. Yeah, cuz uh, if you look at the probabilities I love numbers and like looking at numbers in the long run, gaps almost always fill.

Are you talking about Gap up or gap down both? So um, the gaps ups and down? I mean depending on the company I usually trade the Spy so it's the 500 best companies. It's not going to gap down and never come back. Hopefully at least true. Yeah.

Uh so I look forward and rord will come companies that gap down. That's a big thing is companies that had something happen and that causes the Gap whether it's up or down and then I look for them to kind of change it so you know have a big gap down. but now they're starting to come back out with good earnings all right now we're re approaching that Gap that could be a great opportunity or if we Gap up and now the company ends up messing up on something down the road, that would be a really good time to look to get that Gap to come back down after they gapped up. Um, those two strategies I Really enjoy.

So Gap fi long Gap fill short I see as well as big trends in the market with uh, options or yeah, so options as well. Um, they work really good, especially on the gaps cuz imply volatility really starts moving once you get into these Gap locations cuz we don't really know how far down it's going to go. so if you can get a spike on the way down, the IV goes up and premiums just start jumping higher than you'd ever imagin. uh sometimes I'll have a trade I'm like oh, I'm aiming for 100% but these gaps fill so viciously and so fast.

Yeah, you'll blow through that profit. Target If you're looking for it, options, trading options versus stocks. Do you think it's riskier to trade options? Yeah. I'd say options are more risky because there's more things you have to worry about.

Yeah, you can buy a stock and be relatively safe over the course of a week, a month a year. generally speaking Yeah not o STS Okay, um, depending on what you're buying. Yeah, yeah, but with an option, they're designed to go to zero. And yeah, one of the best strategies out there is selling options.

so it's collecting the premium exactly. You know it takes a lot more Capital to do that's you know they're really around for that reason if you have some extra cash in your account, you want to generate some income. These big accounts. you know they're selling options all day.

every day selling options, generating collecting that premium. Yeah, just it's how they're designed to work. But if you can find those outliers that actually go at at the money, go in the money. it can really start.

Um, exponential returns. Yeah, like exponential returns as compared to you know, just a stock position. where I'm GL is more linear exactly? Makes sense exactly. Um okay so we earlier we just talked about your go-to setup.

Uh, your favorite setup which is Gap trading. Do you use any indicators to help you with that? Not really, um more. just the key levels. Any price action reading at all.

Exactly. So price action. You know where the gaps are formed. Okay, that's the main level I'm looking at to enter because you know you can predict a gap fill, but reacting to one you're going to find a lot more profitability and a lot more accuracing.

You know predicting is a two-way street. you can you know make out really good, but you can take a lot of Trades that if you would have just waited 30 minutes you would been like why would I even do this Um if I would have just waited I would have never took this position this would have been a dip byy. So I've kind of especially with that strategy became a bit more reactive. So if sometimes I do get a little an you know want to get in this position I see a great opportunity for a gap to fill I'll get in and then you know goes back up.

stops me out All right. that's fine cuz then an hour later when it actually comes back to that price it usually flies right through it and I'll get that 1 to 10 risk reward 1 to five risk reward. especially with the options how they're designed they can. You know if you time the delt is right and get the right contract right strike price.

those things are going to fly up in value. So keeping that idea of losing small and winning big has really helped me with the Gap strategy. How do you plan out with options trading? Because I understand you're taking a spy, puts or or calls depending on the Gap Um, how do you plan your entries with options? uh and taking into consideration the key level and levels you talked about and also the Delta Yeah so with the key levels those come very important as you know when you buy an option you need a strike price. So if I know the key levels say 445 mhm and I see that.

Okay, there's a gap at 445 that's the top of the Gap and the Bottom's at 444. you know I look at the 445 calls cuz I want something in the money I won't go too far or puts rather I don't want to be too far out the money I see I want to be able to I'd rather pay a little extra to get at the money in the money. you know I could exercise those to get shares at the end of the day. the re worth something.

We're just buying a contract, so if it's not at the money in the money, it's worth nothing when it expires. So that's kind of how I look at is all right. I'm buying something that has value right now. All right, if it's you know, trading at 44550 I know that 445 is the key level.

so I could look at the 445 calls, say maybe Vwob at 435 and I say all right. might be able to pull in a little extra here. Get a Vwap entry, see it start coming towards the Gap level and also once it gets to that Gap level, my options go in the money. So now I see my Delta goes up even higher and I'm going to get paid even better.

So that's kind of how I'll look at the key level. I'll usually use that as my strike price. okay and then as it approaches it. yeah, either add into it.

Sometimes I'll do pilot trading so I'll take on, you know, a small position. just a contracts, you know, very fractional size. Yeah, so use the pilot trade and then once I have the confirmation so the pilot would be at Vwap Pilot Oh interesting I never like almost like a like a start like a start in with a small position. Okay yeah so especially when it's a really big setup that I really like I like to do this cuz it allows me to get a lot more size too.

Oh so I'll start with you know it's supposed to be smaller size when you first start in right? so I'll start. you know smaller size? yeah and then once I have the as the Confluence is going my direction as I see vop get rejected as I see 445 or 44550 get liquidity swept now I'm like all right a bunch of people just get stopped out I see as more of these confluences come, it allows me to say okay when we get to 445 how heavy we're going to hit this and once it gets there it just comes to all right. Is this setup an A++ Is it a B+ to a cuz I usually will trade like B+ setups to A++ that's kind of how I look at. yeah so A++ it fits every Confluence it's You know if I'm going for a short, it's a righted on the dang, it's below Vwob.

It broke the key level. uhhuh uh. the macro event was bad. Yeah when it has all those catalysts and matches all the trend is downtrend.

That's when I really will size into a gap fi Shore and I see that and can really get into it I know my contracts are at the money about to go in the money. Yeah um and then I'll look to sell on a red candle if I'm going short green candle if I'm going long that'se to IV so you get be able to squeeze a little bit more money out if you catch it on that momentum going down the market make is price in that you know this could keep going lower. They don't know exactly how low it's going to go so there can be a little mispricing. Yeah okay and those are.

That's kind of how I go about. it is using the pilot sizing into it once it starts working and then exiting once we get to that key level. all on the same contract. the same strike price yeah, same strike price so you add you don't like roll out, know when I diversify too much I've taken had worse red days when I over diversify I see so if I'm focused on you know one two stocks sometimes on trading three but I really like to be able to like fully commit to this fully feel how it's trading.

okay um have that full conviction onto it. Oh do you ever use level two to help with the price action reading when there options. Okay yeah so um I'll use a level two just to kind of see. you know, where are things coming down? So yeah.

so I'll look at you know for example, uh I'll look for my key levels I'll see what level how level two reacts around that. yeah, none on the options chain side on. just kind of a time of sales for options. so I'll watch the actual tickers level too.

so I'll see how it reacts to the strike price or uh, the key level cuz usually the key levels I trade off I'll trade the same strike price. so I'll look to see. all right. is the bid getting hit and coming back down? Is it holding it? Yeah, how like big are the buyers here and then on the time in sales? I'll kind of see all right, how much are people paying for this right now and how many people are buying this contract and from there.

I Don't think a lot of platforms allow you to kind of see the exact prices. um at least not default. You kind of got to know how to set it up. So setting up to have that time of sales on your options chain and a chart on your options chain allow you to, you know I'm a visual learner.

so when I see prices down or high? yeah, I kind of know. All right. This is is a good opportunity here to get in for pretty cheap or people are just throwing crazy money at this. and yeah uh at the on the level two.

I'm seeing all of a sudden 100 Lots going through so that can be another or a thousand Lots once I see those coming through. It's kind of like how I like to use level two in time of sales to see almost like the dark pool data seeing these bigger orders that are abnormal. so I see what's normal for it and I look for abnormalties which may be a little sign that something big might happen soon. and do you utilize the same method when you're planning your exit and your risk? Also key levels or yeah, okay, so same thing I use my key levels um I like to get out when they approach them I usually have pretty big ranges so for selling to Target Okay yeah so my charts have a lot of lines across them.

Yeah, I'll REO them every so often as you know I start to see Okay, maybe this level is losing its accuracy or it's it's power, but sometimes I can leave my charts and not have to do any work for a little bit. I can go a whole month without having to do any analysis I've already done it all last month and we're in the same range. so yeah. I love when the Spy pulls back when it was breaking out to all-time highs or going towards them I Starting to get a little worried because I was like oh, is my strategy going to work I know how to train in between the ranges you know, but when it breaks out there no no top range Yeah oh I So that's back to the original strategy though.

the all time highs and the 52 we High strategy. So in that case, do you still back then you were trading stocks so in this case do you wait for pullback and getting on options now? Yeah so I I like to I'm not really that big of a breakout Trader as much I like the pullbacks I Just like precisions what like really gets me in this game being able to say okay I think the Top's going to be at 445 60 and it's insane. If you do the right analysis, you really can be precise. People say you can't call the top bottom I Beg to differ because I've done it time and time again.

I Didn't know for a fact that this was going to be the top or this was going to be the Bottom by any means, but I did know that that price level is very important and historically for the past you know sometimes I use levels that were 20 years old I look back so far depending on where the Market's trading. Yeah, so you can get that level of precision because a lot of the things repeat themselves in the market. Um, so I I Trust my levels and I know now that they do have power. It's interesting because you you do look at both the macroeconomics basically fundamentals as well as the technicals.

It's almost like they're well, they probably are equally as important to you. ah, when trading and swing trading. Okay, yeah for both of them, Yeah, just I Like especially, you know, start being really confident in your trades. Yeah the more confluences there are, you know the more things that overlap just allows you to be like.

All right, you know why why would I Why should I not take this trade? It's like almost. It's easier to convin. You know it's hard to even fathom why would I not take this trade when there's so many things in this strategy that's been tested that you've been working on for so long. just line up.

And for me, when those work out the most is when I look at the macros I know the economic calendar I know all the fundamentals for the company or the economy. you know for spy the world what's going on in the world. and then I use my technical analysis that most people you know aren't as good at like when I was in college. I Never saw anyone use technical analysis.

Oh okay, you know you looking for these certain levels. It was just oh it's pulling back. You know maybe we should buy it. not it's pulling back to X Price This is a good buy I see and that level of precision just kind of.

It drives you to always improve myself every day. You know, looking for this precision and trusting the levels is the biggest thing. You got to plan it. What? I Like always say in chat all the time.

Plan it, stock it, execute it. Yeah so we make the game plan. In the morning we post all of our levels. We say all right we're looking at.

you know this week was 4500 on spy. When it gets to 45, you know when it's above 4500 I don't tell people straight up I'm not interested in trading at all today, but when we're at 4500, that's where I'm looking to either go long or short I don't know what opportunity we're going to have today. I'm going to have to watch price action. Yeah, but I can tell you that 8:30 a.m.

when my game plan is. So then at 10: or one or three when I make that train you can go back and say all right and I know all day I'm waiting for this level so when it gets there I've already took my shower and have the chart in my head. Okay yeah, that's something I like to do I like to like almost Envision it before it even happens. you know I watch the markets 24/7 so I know exactly what the chart looks like I can draw down on a piece of paper most days Adam just shared a lot of secrets about how he was able to balance his fulltime educ ation while trading part-time and I respect that a lot.

Being disciplined and being strict with your routines is very important when it comes to trading. What are some other qualities that successful Traders should have? and do you have any of them? Let me know in the comment section down below. so how many trades on average do you take per day? It seems like you're very selective. Yeah, so usually around four.

Um, that's if. depending if I get liquidity swept which you know can happen sometimes and I'm early on a trade idea not perfect unfortunately. I wish I could Master it forever. but I feel like I'm going to be learning forever in this industry of course.

Yeah, which is nice. You know, learning something new every day has kind of been my motto ever since I was young. You know, try to learn something new every day. Yeah, and uh, with trading, it's very much like that.

Has your risk tolerance changed over the years from obviously from when you were trading in high school, then in college and not all of college. How has that transitioned? Yeah, so as the years of gone on, Um, I've take on more risk now, but I took on kind of silly risk in the past. you know not, you know I wasn't really worried to go to zero now I have responsibilities and you know I don't want to risk ever doing that. so it kind of gets to the point where it's like you know you made out good.

Do you just take it and run? Or do you continue to keep compounding this and compounding it? You know like Warren Buffett does. Yeah, you know. Um, so look you know I try to look at the big picture now and see that this money. you know if I can continue to compound it and just do what works.

it's going to continue to grow past my wildest imagination because that's usually what it does when I have a good trading day. I never wake up that day and say today is the day that you know I'm going to kill it in the market. It's usually the opposite when I do that. yeah it's you know I come back from lunch and there's an opportunity there that like oh wow this is a really good opportunity.

and there was macros events today like everything's lining up. this is right with my game plan and then it just plays out. So you know having more responsibilities and as you get older there's you know more things you want to do and yeah you know you don't want to risk going into. you know any issues.

Once you already make it, you don't want to risk going back to it. So we talked about earlier that we both have a mutual. Mentor Oren how did you find him and what was your experience working with him like yeah, so um right after college? I mean right after high school? yeah? I uh was on Twitter so that kind of uh Twitter you know it still is really popular for finance. you know my Twitter at least has nothing but Finance on there I know some people's is probably a little bit different but mine is only finance.

Yeah um so I was on there and AR hosted uh a live or Google chats or something. Oh so I saw him post it and there was like 10 people could join. So I see it as a young high school graduate I'm like oh my God God that's my opportunity. So I join and no one's saying anything the whole chat.

So Arain goes and talks about his training. Yeah, it's like they don't have questions, it's just silent for like two minutes. uhhuh so you know I was like all right, here's your opportunity. So I started talking a little bit and um started asking questions and he started asking me questions after I asked him a question.

yeah, you know that's kind of his way of teaching is all right. Are you asking me something you can find out on your own? So uh quickly I started asking questions to another question and it turned into you know, maybe talk for 20 minutes on that phone call. no one else asked a single question that whole call so after that happened I ended up dming him and I was like you know, thank you so much I really appreciate all the help you know I'd love to talk to you again never never really heard anything and then uh a week or two later he reached out to me and he was like hey um you know I see a little bit of myself in you so okay he's like you know I want to help you out so he's said, here's uh my Skype you know know, couple weeks I'm going to contact you so I was like all right I added him and I was like you know maybe he'll message me maybe you will and I'm almost positive the first call I get from him was a video call so you know I was expecting maybe just message me and now it's a video call yeah so you know I picked it up and we started chatting and you know how it is sometimes with people, some people it's a little awkward and other people it's just like you've known each other your whole life and you know. Quickly we started chatting and um talking about stocks he was.

you know, so much more advanced. for me, it was hard for me to offer value to him cuz I knew the only way he would help me is if I could offer some type of value for him. you he's You know it's good to give back, but it's always good to give back to people that are also looking to you know, contribute. I wasn't just looking to ask questions and not try to help him at all if I could.

Um so we started. you know, looking at stock research and at this time was really into stocks too. this before I went to college so I was just all day 24/7 It's only only thing I cared about researching, sending him ideas and the bond just slowly grew to talking about personal life issues and him. you know, mentoring me through stuff in my personal life and you know as the years went on we just kind of went less and less about just stocks and stuff and more about actually building a relationship and talking.

You know, talk about the market for a little bit and then we talk about our own lives for an hour. Um, so that all started with you know, joining a A Google Hangout Wow, that's very different from how I found Oren but I think eventually we ended up in the same Discord I I Remember as a couple years after I met him he started putting everyone he's talking to or chatting with and he just treats us as friends. Yeah right. So it was really cool even though they help he helped us so much like he never expected much from as a return.

but I think naturally. obviously when you do give back um you know the the bond tends to become stronger. Yeah! so we all eventually ended up in a little. Discord I remember I was trying to hide the fact that I was female for a long time.

nobody knew and then or one day found out and he's like what I never knew you were a girl I'm like yeah well I was trying to blend in but yeah it was a nice little community so how did you find that? Community uh well. I Also I was in a penny star guru's program for and there's a forum and or was big on there because yeah because he shared so much yeah So eventually he left and I was like well where you going I'm going with you so that's when I joined and followed up and see whereever he. he went to a couple different places after but it ended up being. We all ended up on the same Discord many years later.

Yeah, that's funny, that's how I that's how I found his Twitter was through that. oh okay, he took his Twitter and his propit Le down yeah I know they're all gone Yeah, but good memories from that little server I Met so many of them, well a lot of them I lost. We don't keep in touch anymore, but we met I met a lot of people like I just chat with every single day. That was fun.

Yeah I'd love to reconnect with some of them cuz you know we're all so close in there. Everyone was really you know, on their grind I guess you could say and really passionate about it and you know, willing to show up every day you know, every morning. looking forward to it and like oh you know we're so and so today they doing. How do you think having a little being part of a you know, like a trading pod or a community helped you when you are trading? I don't think you can succeed without it.

Honestly if you don't have like-minded or similar-minded people around you, yeah I mean everyone has their own dream. Yeah, um you know you want to live your dream, not dream your life. It's one of my favorite quotes. um so you know having explaining your dream to someone else you know they might not mean to make you sound you know, a little out of it cuz it's just not the dream that they have in their head.

So surrounding yourself with people that were given that same dream you know is so important because you realize like oh you know, like yeah, like this is you know I'm not like, maybe crazy as some people may think of it. You know to do these extraordinary things. Yeah, there's people out there with the same goals as you. You're not the only one trying to.

You know better yourself. You know you don't have to stay in this little pod your whole life. You can actually expand and take risks. and yeah, be you, you don't have to hide it.

And that aspect is really cool because you know in the community I Always talk to people and it's like all right. We love trading but we also love eating food and like. We also enjoy going out and seeing this and it always it's It's really nice cuz surround yourself with like my own people. Just it motivates you.

It keeps you more on point. um keeps you more consistent. Especially if you surround yourself with consistent people you're going to. You know you turn into whoever you surround yourself with.

So if you're in community with people who are doing good and they're you know, following a trade plan every day it's you're going to feel like if you're not following your trade plan, you're going to be like all right, Well, you know what? What Am I smarter than everyone else? Like? No, like we're a team here. We should all be working together And that's probably the biggest thing that I think retail Traders struggle with. Yeah, if you go work at a bank, um, trading, you're going to have a boss over your shoulder and if you mess up you know you start losing money. You don't want to follow your rules, you're just going to lose your job.

Yeah, when you're at home, it's like, yeah, not no accountability. You're going trade it on your own. You know you really? you're going to fire yourself. You know some people will, but some people won't right? So I think having that community of people around you is so pivotal? Yeah, it will help you so much.

You know you don't want to. you know, tie into anyone else's ideas too much. But having that support system is so big for you. Know when you're up to remind yourself right, you know you got to not be.

You know, get your ego too big here. You're on a good streak right now now. But markets. We never know what the markets are going to do.

They're going to stay irrational longer than we stay liquid every time for sure. And that's it's easy to forget things sometimes. Even if you write in your notebook every day, it's easy to forget what you wrote three days ago. Yeah.

But if you have your buddy so you know to help you out, they say, hey, We just talked about this yesterday like we're done trading for today. You know you shouldn't be looking at any more setups. Yeah, we already took three tradings. There's already been an A+ setup twice today.

Maybe it's better, just wait till the end of the week when there's a catalyst that we know is going to move the market better. And sometimes we forget that. But when you're in a community in a good community, at least you're able to be remind of that all the time. That's why.

I Love our community. Yeah, how long have you been trading now? So 7 years now? Okay I think we met about 3 four years ago in the Discord Community I think it was four years ago. Okay about and is it true that you were still in college or what? What's the timeline cuz you look really young. so when did did you how what got you into stock trading in the first place? So 2016 I Graduated high school and during that time, uh, over the summer I was working a summer job at a campground and I was just a desk attendant so had a lot of downtime.

Yeah during that time I came across a video of someone trading stocks. They were very young. they were probably like 21. okay um, they were buying their whole family MacBooks which you know who doesn't want to do that for their family and it turns out he was trading stocks.

Uh, penny stocks is where I first started getting into things a lot of the cheap stocks and not remember Dries which was a big runner back in the day. Um once I saw a move like dries I mean I was just hooked cuz I I saw the potential it had I saw young people, old people making fortunes off this so I knew if I really put in the time I've always been entrepreneurial, started a lot of little businesses you know growing up I used to sell gum and mod Xbox controllers so I knew all right. You know if I can treat this like a business yeah you know, maybe I can really make something out of it and have some Freedom you know, you know, maybe buy my family some MacBooks down the road. you know be able to just be free and not really stressed out as to you know what's the future is going to hold and kind of have control on my own which is something I always wanted.

Ever since I was young, was having control over my own future and not relying on anyone else. uh for that power. So with trading I saw that you can almost do it anywhere and you know the returns or whatever you put your mind to you can really accomplish with it. Uh so during that time I continued to just you know, uh, dig deeper into it I had more people around me asking me and you know they always on top of it.

They'd hear about the stock market I'd be the first person they text or call. oh you became that guy in college. Okay yeah and um when I got to University and I actually started living there, it was during the time a Kronos group. so when all the Marijana stocks went public okay and that was, you know, kind of my first stock.

that was. it was cheap too. You know, I' consider a penny stock I think it was around $7 a share when I first started buying into it and you know everyone in college. they knew about it and you know next thing you know, after Kronos starts doubling up 100% everyone's posting about, you know, Kronos to the moon and so was it more of a swing trade for you or were you day trading at the time? So yeah, during college day trading wasn't really there for me opportunity wise.

Okay, um I was waking up a little bit later in the day, a little more tired in the morning. kind of, you know, doing it half effort and you can't go go half effort I see if you're trading, you got to be 100% into it. Yeah, um so I started doing swing trading cuz that's where I saw some better opportunity. You know I could go to classes I wouldn't be, you know, stuck behind the computer all day I can go out and socialize with people and have friends and still, you know, make some money, right? Okay, so you were trading part-time as a student? Definitely.

So what's the process? like? how do you manage school work and then trading part-time What you trading on your phone or laptop? How did you organize your schedule? So when you do want to trade, you are able to capitalize on opportunities? Yeah, so a lot of mobile trading for sure. Okay, a lot of my laptop fans going crazy in class where they're so loud it sounds, you know, like an Airpl class. Oh yeah, oh my. God Okay until my computer sounded like it's going to explode.

uhhuh then I would have to turn it off. you have it like snuck under the desk and I trading well in college they you know you're pay to be there. So my teachers saw it and they were like you know you can either pay attention or just throw thousands of dollars down the drain and you know I still learned. Yeah! I probably could have learned more if I didn't have my laptop out so much.

Oh okay. um so when did you actually start to find like profitability in trading? Was it during college or it was actually before? College Oh okay. so so before college and I was just living at home with my parents, my routine was very strict. You know, waking up at 7:00 doing my pre-market scan, going for a walk.

I also didn't have a dog at the time so I was you know, very locked in and I didn't really care too much about other people which you know wasn't I learned, you know, years later that shouldn't have focused so much. Uh, you know it's worth it. But people are also very important too. and I kind of just pushed everyone out and you know on my computer with a rain from you know, 7 a.m.

of course to 11:00 p.m. Um, you know I'd see my friends once a week here and there and talk to him. but I was really just on a really strict schedule and that drive of just every single day showing up, making mistakes, coming back at it the next day, coming back at it the next day the next week really just allowed me to learn so quickly. and I was very fortunate to have a mentor too who was very successful.

So every day where I'd you know end up losing when I was learning wasn't consistent. I saw someone who had very similar ideas as me actually making it. So I see it really made me say all right, you know how are you faing here and once I started journaling I mean I have so many books upon notebooks upon notebooks by notebooks of all my thoughts from you know what? I'm feeling what I ate that day if I exercised or not and I you know I quickly started to realize after maybe 6 months to a year is when things really started turning pivotal. with all the journaling and someone to see my trades talk to about you What? I was thinking emotionally how I felt really just helped so much.

And I was fortunate to start with a decent amount of trading Capital that's good. Um, and I also had little side businesses before which helped generate a little bit of money as well and always working on the summer. So I wasn't in a place where if I lost the money I had to pay rent and you know I had to take care of my dog I was in a place where I was willing to go all in 100% And I think that's made. Maybe one of the reasons why I was able to succeed is yeah, failure just wasn't an option for me.

Okay, if you don't mind sharing with the audience when you were starting trading, how much Capital were you trading with? So I started with 5,000 okay and then quickly grew it to over the day trading. PDT Rule Oh and that's when I started kind at first when I go over the PDD rule, it was a little tricky cuz now I'm like oh I made it yeah, you got to be careful when you're just like a couple thousand over that threshold. Yeah, oh so and then that's when I finally get like the first taste of kind of being a little nervous. Um once I get over the PDT rule.

I See, and then you know after about a month or two I realize you know you can't. You got to treat it just like you were treating it. before. you know, stop looking at the numbers, stop looking at your P&l just trade the chart, trade the setup, and then at the end of the week, won't look when you were growing your account from 5,000 cuz from 5,000 to 25,000 That's that's no small feat, right? This is the What? 500% return? Yeah, yeah, Am I doing the math right? Yes, y I? Am So what was the strategy or which strategies did you lean towards that you think gave you that kind of risk of word to scale up your account.

So at that time I was looking for mainly breakouts on the daily chart. Okay, around all-time highs. Yeah. so very simple strategy.

just would go on. Finviz. it's like a stock scanner I'm not sure if you're familiar with it. Go on there.

look at all the stocks near their alltime highs. Um, and I would just run through it. you know, Usually some days I get 20 of them. Some days I get three of them and you know I'd watch for them to look at that level, see if there's any news.

Catalyst because I started realizing okay, if there's news, it seems like these stocks are breaking out more often and they're actually holding the previous alltime high. So if I can just buy at the previous alltime High then I'll be decently good, especially if they have a good new source. So that was the first strategy I had. Yeah, was just buying these daily chart breakouts looking for alltime highs around there or 52 we highs as well.

um and from there just dip buying them once they would break it or break out buying them once they approached it. it's it's funny because I since we learned from the same person originally that sounds so familiar I remember we used to post charts in Discord like you will share it he will share it. he would do videos on it. it just sounds so familiar I'm like Rel living those times I'm just at home and like talking and laughing to myself on Discord just looking for all these alltime high2 week high.

Oh and that strategy still works as long as you are very like specific with your criteria and how you work for it. so no just brings back really really good memories actually. yeah I know this not about me but I was trading I trading part-time mhm so I I was or I still am on the west coast so I always used to be so Envy of you envious of you and or like you guys can stay on and trade when I have to leave. um at 8:00 my time that would be 11:00 Eastern yeah I remember those days yeah it was the EAS Coast was nice and yeah AR was in Jamaica for a while too so he even had even earlier time.

Oh yeah that's true I think he had like an he get to sleep an extra hour. Oh lucky guy yeah what degree were you studying in college? so I have a bachelor's in finance so I I heard um well I I didn't go to college of Finance but I've heard that it's a very very stressful um degree and what program to be in? What challenges did you face when you were studying col knowledge and how did that affect your trading? So the timelines was something that was a little bit new to me. as you know, trading kind of setting my own timelines on things and you had more flexibility. Yeah, I was super flexible.

So then when I started going to college having to be in the routine of being at class and if I miss class now I'm going to fail in my c