Um I Probably had close to a seven figure trading account and at this point I was like oh, let's count so I can retire Oh no, no, ten dollars that stock was going up I was losing a hundred thousand dollars Keith is a self-taught momentum Trader Who was being in this volatile business for over 14 years. He has experienced some of the biggest bull market rallies and sector Hypes And here's the secret: He has made millions and lost Millions using only indicators Recently I've had the pleasure of sitting down with Keith and talk about his trading journey I Was surprised by the very unconventional strategy he used to make seven figures in one trade. The trading Turk was one of the most volatile and shocking events that I've ever heard from a Trader before we hear from Keith's story. I Want to remind all my traders that you should always trade with proper risk management that's suitable for your account and risk tolerance.

In 2018, there was a particular sector that had a huge bullish run that year. the infamous MJ stocks. These stocks were gapping out overnight, creating momentum for Traders to buy the tips and sell to the Moon. Also guys, there's no MJ or 420 around here.

The only Greens on this channel are the green P L curves hopefully yours humble Traders Favorite: Lamborghini and the like button. Remember to smash the like button now. Could you tell us a little bit about your biggest trading wins and the biggest trading loss? Anything that stands out as the most memorable? Um, there's a couple big ones that that are memorable. obviously because of the size of them.

So um, it was probably uh, an over it was it was an old. it was an oversold bounce on canopy growth. So this is probably towards the end of um uh, the MJ heydays where everyone everything was selling off and um, you know, multiple days of you know, double digit, uh red days. um and so we I play oversold bounces and this this is probably my bread and butter is is when things are falling off a cliff and they're kind of dropping Like a Knife um trying to evaluate when this bounce is going to happen because when the balances do happen, they're often very sharp and they're in a double digit percentages.

Uh, double digit percentage gains as well. So canopy growth was selling off. um I think this is probably I would say the end of 2018 I would say October 2018 and so canopy was growing, selling off and it was setting up for a gap down day. and the way I prepare for oversold balances is I don't sleep what? I don't sleep and then the next morning uh I can't even say I wake up right? I'd be like kind of just on the couch preparing for my big trades and I knew this was going to be a really big trade because I knew the canopy growth pre-market was gapping down.

uh and um I'm at this point I started options trading So I trade a lot of options. Okay, and even to this day I trade a lot of options. Um, and so I was scouting out the different strikes that I wanted. uh and there I was going to play weekly options.

um to to uh, take advantage of this oversold bounce opportunity. And so at this point, uh, in 2018. So 2017 was when I when I seeded my account again throughout this big MJ run and then towards the end of 2018. Um, I probably had close to a seven figure trading account.

Okay, that's when you exited all your swings. that's right on the way up. That's right. Okay, yeah and then so I'm managing this this large account now and I'm sitting there and be like how am I going to grow this account so that I can retire and at this point I was like oh, I gotta grow this count so I can retire at this point I still had a job right and be like yeah, yeah and I'm like, well this is a really high probability setup I've seen this before.

It's happened a million times. Every time I've seen it. it's always balanced and you know it always is. a bad word.

We know, Yeah, you know it's almost always. almost always because you know you're gonna get punched in the phases. Yeah, one day. so you know I had so much conviction in this trade.

I knew the setup I've seen it before I Talked to everyone at this point I was also in another. Trading Group right? I talked to these other people. They confirmed. Now that that increases my bias, Yeah, um, but you know personally.

I I know and I had conviction in this trade. So 6 30 our time you know Market opens I'm I'm spanning the buy button on some of these options and these are weekly weekly options. Yeah, I'm at broker? uh uh, my broker? uh questrade you know I'll just give gives them a little bit of uh uh advertising here. Uh, they they only allowed me to buy a certain amount of uh options at a time.

Oh, and so trying to buy almost as you know, trying to buy almost a seven figure amount of options was very. It took me almost a couple minutes just hitting a buy button. Okay, um, and so I was all in on options. Oh my.

God on my account on an oversold bounce, play on a weekly option. Well, do you remember the strike price I don't remember, right? Pause right? Yeah, they were all calls. They were all calls and so like I think I had two different strikes. Uh, one for one for the the current week and one for the next week.

Okay, the whole really short term. That's right. I'm sitting there with a few hundred thousand dollars in in uh call options. It's like okay I bought it all I know what's supposed to happen I uh I I shut everything down I shut down everything oh my God I closed my computer I'm like sweating though yeah I shut down everything and I took a two hour nap.

What? Wow oh my God I was like you know what but that that was my training strategy. um and I was like this is going to work out or it's not because the probabilities are it's going to work out. So I don't want any sort of small term fluctuations in price to to shake me out of the trade because I know what's going to happen I know this chart's going to balance I don't even care if it gets any low because even if it does, this is going to bounce and um, you know I took my two hour nap and I actually fell asleep because I didn't sleep that night I woke up two hours later. uh and I I my account was up close to a seven figure number.

oh my God and I'm sitting there I'm just like. all right, let's hit some cells all right. Like So you start spamming though. started spamming the sell button right like and I only only sold like a partial amount of it I swung it I swung it into the next day.

Um, thinking that we would get some continuation on the bounce because because these balances usually get some follow-through Yeah, because they sell out for multiple days. That's right. Bounce four, one, two, three ish. That's right.

that's what I was expecting. except this one bounced into a freaking triangle. So so the next day it didn't Gap up. it didn't do anything it said.

it started consolidating again. So I actually lost some of that back to the market. But that's the price we pay for trying to figure trying to um, you know, have some risk on so that we can get continuation in in our moves. When you're right, you want to let some of it mature.

Uh, and and that's that's my trading philosophy and so you know I don't sell at all I'll I'll take some of it just to lock in some of that uh, gain. So at least I stay I stay on a winning trade. But this particular trade I gave back a decent amount because I swung a major portion of it and um, you know, lost it back on. uh, the next day lost some of it back on Wednesday Yeah, do you remember those options? What percentage were you up when you were selling some of it? So I was all in so it was only like I actually took I was all in on off I was all in on options.

Yeah and and um, I would say the the percentage probably wasn't very like. it's not like a thousand percent or anything. it was between 100 to 200. Still, yeah, that's still pretty good.

Yeah, it was pretty darn good. Um, you know if I took a strike that was slightly further out of the money I probably would have gotten like, you know, 400 500 but I took something more at the money and actually some of it that's in the money, right? Uh, just know that's good I Think well because I'm all in like I want to be ER on the side of caution. like if this just moves sideways I'm gonna lose everything right? But then again, you know at this point I still had my job. that's true I guess he had a backup plan I had my backup plan I didn't quit my job um I didn't uh and most of this was Health money like this.

this money I didn't have a few years earlier, right? Were you married at that time not married I was still uh, no, not married at the time you would have oh, taken less risk. It all depends on your life scenario, right? If you don't have a job, if you're if you're trying to make it big and and um, you're trying to trade full-time Um, and you don't have a job, It makes it a lot difficult, more difficult because you still got to sustain your lifestyle. Yeah, you still need to pay a mortgage. you have expenses to pay.

Yeah, and so all those things put pressure on your trading. If if trading is your soul in sole income Source right? So I Like because I had a job I was able to take that kind of risk now today. the old English Yes, all interests. Would you do that now today? Of course not.

Okay, yeah. I have dependents? Um, you know there's there's bills to pay, right? Yeah, and uh, you know. last thing I want to do is go by back to working because I would have failed as a Trader if I had to take up a job again. So um, so so on that trade, How long did it take for you to sell? exit all of your options.

That's probably one week. A one week. Yeah. Did you switch? Did you roll to the next strike for next week? Or you just no.

That was it. Okay, that was. uh, that was the trade and I kind of like basked in those gains for a little bit. Like you know, uh, when I'm talking about emotions like I was ecstatic at that point.

but that's a biggest win. Probably my biggest win at that time. Okay, and actually it's probably I would say it's my biggest win still ever. Okay, uh, and that was almost seven.

Seven figures. Almost. you said because you went oh in on your account. Yeah, but but you know we win some.

We lose some right? So like when when your wins become that big, your losses become just as big when you're starting to make the same types of uh, risks. Um, and so you know it's it. Everyone wants to live in the Dreamland where you're making like that kind of money every day, but like it doesn't happen. No, and this is what I talk about like it's hard to talk to a lot of people about this stuff.

It's because they look at that and say um, wow, you could really retire off that money like yeah, you can just do this every day. why don't you go and buy a boat like or buy a few more condos like yeah, no I can't like I Wanna If you want to truly retire, you have to financially plan for the rest of your life because you don't have any other income Source Yeah, so you gotta. Whatever you have in your bank account is whatever you have and you gotta live off that for the rest of your life. You know it's it's so it's it's a different psychology.

Um uh when you don't have a job. Okay, so that you took that your biggest win ever in 2018, right? 2018? Okay, so was your. Let's talk about your biggest loss Now is that on the tech stocks? Well on the also on the MJ stocks it was on Gme I was short. Oh that's that's why that's I was short.

Oh no, and you know, let's you know it wasn't 2021, right? Yeah, January 2021. wasn't okay. so that was the first run January 2021 it was the second one that got me. Oh I See I can explain I remember that day very clearly.

Oh I think I know which day you were talking about the March 15th. The item made a lot of people or broke a lot of people February end of February Uh, Gme had its second. Uh, so you know Gme went to 500 bucks or something? Yeah, yeah, yeah. um Consolidated I don't know I shouldn't even say Consolidated it's sold off.

Uh and it hit 40 bucks. Yeah, and from 40? uh. there was one day in the end of February where it rocketed back to um, like 170 bucks afterwards. Yeah.

I Remember so middle of the day here I think I forget which day in February was, but it was towards the end of February Um, and and preceding that I think it's It's good to know that you know I was having a great year so far. in 2021. Absolute breakout year. Um because everything was just running yeah in the early 2021 and so that played well with my my training style momentum momentum.

Yeah, you just literally wake up every day. uh hey, sometimes I can't even sleep because I'd be swinging again. All in all in on my account on these, Yeah, it was just it was. stocks of 10 20, 30 gains everything.

Um leading up to this Gme trade. Uh, and so Gme was breaking up from 20 40 uh middle of the day I can't remember which day it was, but your viewers you need to go take a look at it. I remember that day from 40 it went to 35 first. yeah and then it started bouncing.

Yeah and the volume started increasing. Yeah Green all green and it was just increasing. Now you know being the trader I am today and and you know I actually should have known this before when I was trading. then is we're getting increasing bull volume.

The candles are all green. all mirabosu candles, every single one that closed. 15 minute, five minute 15 minute candles. all green and it was just starting to go parabolic.

Yeah! and I was like all right, this can't possibly go from 40 to 100 and a day. Um so I started I started um opening naked naked puts okay on 100 strikes. Okay, uh and I started selling. uh I started writing contracts.

oh you were selling puts I was selling books I was writing contracts okay um, big mistake number one right? Like yeah yeah. I'm always going to learn from it and I've had a I've had a previous um big loss. uh the the last previous to that was uh, probably like a you know two or three hundred thousand dollar loss on writing writing call. You know writing puts on Facebook earnings and Facebook can't 20? Yeah, um you know a few couple years prior to that.

So that was my biggest loss loss until this loss. Again, another another loss from writing contracts. Um, and every time the price Rose I sold I sold a little more I wrote a little more until probably towards the end of the day. I think Jamie was being halted throughout that day.

Yeah, uh, everything. It was around 70. that's right. Something like that.

70 or 80. Yeah, something like that. So it was halting every. uh, it had five minute halts.

yeah, so so on and so forth. Um, and then probably towards the end of the day it was, uh, maybe it was four. Oh, actually, it was 14 minutes left to the trading day. it went through another halt I was like, okay, I gotta close this position I'm closing I'm closing in on a six-figure loss, right? Yeah, uh, on this position and um, and uh, it halted one more time.

14 minutes left and then I was like, okay, I'm gonna close it after this halt. but the Halton CL the halt didn't end until the market closed. Yeah, and now I'm stuck with these. It was a 15-minute halt.

Oh my god with 14 minutes left to the trading day. Yeah, and now I'm freaking swinging. Uh, these contracts here and you know what happened like after hours on Gme? Yeah, it went to 100. They went to 170.

yeah, that you know. like so every and I had a significant amount of contracts. So yeah, I'm sitting there and I'm just like oh my God I'm in a in a bit of trouble here and I'm like okay I gotta hedge these contracts I gotta I gotta I got a short I gotta I Gotta Buy stock Yeah yeah I Gotta Buy stock. Um, but at that point uh, questrade my brokerage had froze my account.

Oh cause you were too. uh the the the oh in on the I wasn't all in I wasn't all in I had enough to cover. Yeah but the uh, the margin requirement on the contracts went up exponentially when Gme started going up. so all of a sudden my account doesn't have enough uh, margin to to, uh, keep those contracts and so yeah, they didn't allow me to trade it actually said on my Brokers I was like okay, well I'm a bit hooped right here, right? And then meanwhile I got my chart.

I'm just watching Gme's continue to rock it I'm just like oh no every ten dollars that stock was going up I was losing a hundred thousand dollars oh my God and I was going up ten dollars every like few minutes I was sitting there I'm just like I closed it all down I'm just like I went I went to my couch and I just sat there for a little bit and I was like oh I'm just thinking like okay, what do I do how can I how can I handle this this is 2021 you are married by then I was right I was married by then Yeah, Okay, so you know a bit of a problem going on right? Uh and so I had confidence that it wasn't going to like it wasn't going to stay at this price. Well the next day it did. it did tank. but like you know, I had a problem right now at that point.

Yeah um so and I couldn't I couldn't even hedge it. Yeah and so the head honcho at uh at the brokerage firm gave me a call. oh wait question gave you a call I'm looking at my phone like questions calling me I know what this is about I pick up the call and they're like like hi, is this Keith right and I'm like yes I know what you were calling about I know what you're calling about I need some help and they're like all right we see your account I have my other Trader here says two guys on the phone with me and we're like um so how do you want to handle this I'm like I need to hedge I need you guys help to help me Um so here I am they're guy, they're the actor guy is like okay, um we're gonna open it up so that you can hedge your uh hedge your options and at this point the the options were the Delta was pretty much one to one. So you know all I had to do is do a bit of calculation to see how much, how many how many shares I need to hedge.

um and it ended up buying pretty much I hedge the entire position afterwards. Oh okay, yeah, how many shares did you end up buying? Do you remember eight thousand, eight thousand shares at 100 a hundred dollars? Okay, oh okay, yeah. so it was, uh uh, it was a lot because I wasn't expecting those contests. and you know these are big numbers.

but like I think my emotions at that time were pretty, uh, pretty wild. but like you know I handle adversity pretty well. but every time there's like a new record that gets set, you're into like new territory. Yeah, on how to manage those emotions.

um and uh, you know it's safe to say right now like there's no really big loss that phases me anymore. it's just management of management of Um numbers in your account. Um, but yeah at that time I just sat there I was like all right, the entire position hedged is hedged. okay I put down my phone I just kind of sat there and took a breath I'm like and I and then I pulled out my calculator.

I'm like okay, what's this loss looking like okay, what's his loss looking like and it wasn't quite a seven figure lost I think it was like maybe um I want to say 600 700 000 loss but what happened in an ensuing days is that I you know I did a bit of Revenge Trading ended up you know, converting that to a good seven figure loss. Okay, um, so it was. You know and you know I'm still here today I'm still kidding, right? like I've recovered I'm glad you're here I've recovered from that but like I think um I Don't think you know this is my bias towards my my own bad trade but I would not have ever swung that position I was closing in on. you know, a good six-figure loss and you know at that point this still wasn't my biggest loss ever.

I was fully intending on closing that position. it was. It would have been idiotic to say that position, but they forced you know, the because the way the halt ended up yeah, it forced me to swing it. And then I was all of a sudden big.

you know, like hot water. Yeah, uh. so I Think you know The number one lesson here to be learned is, you know, never write naked Naked options. always have some sort of hedge involved.

and yeah, if you were to, if you were to play options, always buy them. don't write them right? So did you? did you close out that trait in the Hedge the next day? Oh yeah, I was closing it. It was kind of like hand in hand. close up close close close close.

and that's how I ended up with um, like that. Good thing you hedged. it probably helped a bit right? Oh no. I hatched at the top.

Oh wait I think it didn't Gap up next day it did Gap up. I I uh I So after hours I started hedging when it started, you know, almost started peaking. Oh at that point I didn't care I'm just like oh, I'm just gonna hedge this I don't really care what it's yeah I am it's already already a Monumental loss. But if you know if I ended up uh swinging if I didn't take the Hedge I probably would be okay.

But then you know. The scary thing was yeah, you know the the guy on the phone was like okay, well you know you could. You don't have to take the Hedge but this is where we would close your account. Oh wait, really, after hours they can do that.

Yeah well, they wouldn't close my account but they were like this is where you go bankrupt They told me a number right like and then I was like okay, you know I was like there's no way it's hitting that like after hours but then you know at that time you don't know what's gonna happen to G on me like yeah, we've seen what Gme could do. Yeah so I was like okay, let's just hedge it like I'd rather trade another day than to leave it up to risk or chance that I'm going to, you know, potentially bankrupt. um so you know that was a very very scary um day. Um yeah in my trading career because you know I made a I made a pretty bad mistake.

um and it was against all my principles. It was against a lot of the things I I did and I think you know the primary reason why I took that trade was because I was having such a great year. Um, it was risk I was like it was a risk on environment I was like okay I could probably take a bit of risk here and I could you know open it up and it was at that time it was a harmless trade. it was trading at like 60 I opened up I opened up I wrote contracts for 100 calls and it was a good 60 away and I was like all right, let's just take some premium here.

And and the reason why I wrote contracts is because this strategy has worked well for me in the past until something like this happens. Yeah, it wipes out everything you've made in the in the previous, uh, however many years and then some right? and so you know I would say to to Traders like you know we're nothing like these market makers that that write contracts. Um, these people have endless Pockets We don't like they can take big losses from people who want to make big big bets. but you know if you're writing contracts like you know one day it's gonna come and burn you and and bankrupt you right? So you know I'm I would say I'm uh lucky I don't like to use that word very very often.

I would say I'm lucky that that. um you know that I had a pretty good year I was able to absorb that loss. Okay, let's get that's good. Uh, and you know I'm still I was able to able to bounce back from that from my trading experiences and really work towards um, you know, higher highs.

Um yeah. I think 2020 and 21 were the first year is that it became so common for Brokers to adjust margin maintenance requirements for individual stocks like intraday. Yeah, that's never happened to me before. like usually yeah it would be like you know from 25 to 50 but with a lot of these like 25 to 100 intraday a few hundred sometimes Yeah yeah so it's uh, it was insane.

it was crazy times so yeah I think uh yeah I'll never forget that one it was I actually haven't had told a lot of people about that either. Uh I guess until today, did you did you tell your wife about? Oh yeah I told her you know I I Immediately got out into my car and I drove and met a friend and I sat there. you know another friend that that day trades and I just sat there with him and I was like okay I took a really dumb trade today right? and he he guessed exactly what I did. oh and what's even he even guessed what strike I took he knew me, he knew how he knows he knows I was like how the heck did you know like So anyways at that point I was like okay I'm still alive here.

let's keep. let's move on I took away a break and I just kept trading and I'm okay. it never took it I never took that kind of risk ever again. yeah uh and just uh, grinding my way back up.

so again, just focusing on what I do best and uh, never doing stupid things and taking idiotic trades right? But you know it's it's hard to not do it when when you're on a roll. Yeah, when you're on a roll and you feel like you're a top of the world, your emotions are not really in check. You're not 60. 40 is something I always explain to people and that's what I was taught is when you're having good days, you know you want to be on a 60 happiness level because you're going to have bad days eventually and you don't want to feel like you're on the edge of like a bridge uh and and not feeling great.

So you know, be happy but not be that happy when you have big trades. Yeah, um, because there's going to be bad days and you don't want to be that sad when you have sad days. Yeah, bad days right? So keep emotions in check and that's how we can keep our our our trades and check and at that point in time, um, definitely my emotions were way past 60. you know, on on the upscale and then when I took that big loss? yeah it was way past 40.

a lot of lessons to be learned from I Guess both the wins and the losses? Yeah, um I would say losses matter more because they actually they develop laws in your trading lust. You don't break those laws. so after that you haven't wrote any uh, naked contracts since no or just like a smaller amount. No, and if they were naked contracts, they'd be hedged so it would be a it would be a strategy versus just uh, you know, one one directional.

Yeah, just a little. Yeah, no, it's uh, definitely. I would never do that again and I recommend. I Don't recommend anyone to do it.

And you know people have asked me before. It's like easy money, right? Like writing contracts. Yeah, it is easy money. but until you get hit in the face, until until uh, until that point one percent chance off chance that something bad happens and you know news comes out and all of a sudden you're thousands of prints your thousands of percent down.

Um, it could be thousands, right? Yeah, so for sure never write never night naked contracts. Buy them. Buy them. Don't don't write them.

I'm not gonna lie I'm like sweating after that story I Was sweating the first time when you told us about your biggest win ever when you went oh ain't I'm sweating again with a Gme uh, it was a lot of sweating. Yeah! I Hope Keith's story offers you a different perspective on the reality of trading and how stressful it could be whether you are making money or losing money. To me, the most valuable insights that he shared was his reflection on the past wins and losses and how he managed his emotions at different stages of trading. In the full podcast, we talked over an hour about his trading strategies, his secrets to using technical indicators, and how he managed to grow his account exponentially to eventually becoming a full-time Trader If you're interested in watching my full conversation with Keith do let me know by leaving a comment down below.

If you want to learn even more from a Pro Trader you should check out this video over here.