All right. So the topic of this episode is going to school full time while day trading. Now this is, uh, this is a little crazy, but you know what? I've got three Traders here Who are all going to school while learning how to trade? So uh, let's hear how you did it. Who should we get started with? um, well who who just graduated I Graduated? You just graduated I Just graduated I Mean we just graduated together.

You graduate together. Well, so you jumped on it. So it sounds like you're pretty excited. So tell me.

So what year in college were you when you got into trading? Um, I was a sophomore? okay, uh in the spring semester? Okay, and I uh, got into trading. That was like during, uh, the kobit operation in in the U.S So Spring of 2020? Yeah, so like spring of 2020 around? Uh I got into trading around uh March and then joined the warrior in April Okay, yeah. all right. so how did you juggle your school responsibilities with learning to trade? Did you what was your schedule like for school? So uh, for me, back when I was like starting to learn how to trade? Yeah, it was pretty much oh, online courses because of the cobit, right? Like there's no in-person classes right? So I was uh, so.

so um, even though my professor required attendance over to zoom I'll be like opening this camera and then while learning watching Ross doing the live trading? Yeah, right. So I guess that was a little flexible on my you know on my school schedule back then during the Colbert time because there's just not a lot of like restrictions around. Hey, you have to show your face on camera stuff like that, right? right? So yeah. Okay, all right and so were you able to study the market during the day like in the morning? I mean even when you're sort of in class, you still had the market up.

Yeah, yeah. so I had a couple screens so uh, on one screen I'll have my camera like pointing at me right? I'll be like but I'll like basically just turn down the voice of my of my class so like I don't hear anything okay I just but I'm just there per like, like over the zoom right? Yeah, well I'll be like looking at the charts. like looking at the market and look at what Ross doing right? Okay, and uh, probably practicing my simulator. So and then because other classes were recorded back then I saw this after the market closes out.

just go back to the recordings and just re-watch the classes. Okay, okay, that's a that's a good way to do it and you didn't drop out of college. you finished of course. Yeah.

I was like top students. Come on, good for you, good for you. No, that's good and that you know I mean that speaks to the discipline required. of course, the discipline to be a successful Trader The discipline in life that helps you, you know get through your classes, meet your obligations, graduate.

Okay, so so I wanna I have more a couple more questions for you. but so Timmy you also just graduated. Yeah, just graduated in May of this year. Okay and I've actually been trading through my senior year of high school and through all of my college.

I mean not you know, actively trading in high school, just still watching the market every day and being in the chat room. and yeah you know if I had the money I would have been but that that wouldn't have been the best idea. Yes but throughout school um all my classes because it was before covid so I would just make sure that it was like because I'm uh in Alabama so it's Central Standard Time Yep So for me I would make sure my classes weren't starting till like 9 30 and I was three minutes away from campus so I could just like shoot over there and go to my class. Yeah and I tried to have more online classes uh just so that I could always be there in the morning, do my classes, whatever homework and then at night just study and uh over time just created The Edge that I have now and just really with my schoolwork.

It kind of also forced me to like just have that like I don't have that much time every day really okay to to learn this So the time that I have I have to really like I can't just be like half paying attention to it, you know I gotta put my full attention towards it. Well that you know that kind of um for those hours? Yeah, that's like it's like high intensity, really short periods of focus which I feel like can almost be more productive than like long periods of like semi-focus where you're sort of trailing off and getting confused. So that sounds like it worked pretty well for you. absolutely.

and you still maintain sort of this schedule where you've got your window that you focus on trading and then for those tuning in who don't know, he's got his pressure washing business. Yeah, so a lot of mildew and mold. I Guess you gotta watch? Yeah, oh yeah, I mean most of those jobs are also in the morning around We that's why I schedule those around 10 a.m on okay on days that I wouldn't have classes. so I'll basically schedule all my classes like Tuesday Thursday and yep, um, you know, just good for you long days.

but then the rest of the time we can schedule all of our jobs. and yeah, whenever I can study stuff like that. So how much time would you say you devoted to trading related stuff versus School related stuff? More trading for sure I mean I'm gifted or I guess I'm lucky in the fact that like I mean I was a finance major so there's definitely harder Majors for sure. and uh I kind of you know I mean I was still able to graduate you know with like a three nine which is that's great.

Cool, you know, whenever. but I didn't have to put in like a crazy amount of hours. So yeah, focus on trading. Yeah, probably twice as much as I was really doing my schoolwork.

you didn't have to do any labs. No, no, there were certain periods where I group work and certain things that definitely made it tougher and I was not happy during those situations because school for me is just like almost like prison. it's almost like having a job nine to five. Yeah, Thankfully, now that I'm out of that, it's like that that relief on my just mental is so nice.

So something that I think about um and I want to hear from you too is that every now and then I'll have a I'd say it's almost a nightmare that I'm back in school and um, you know I I I'm never like a month away from graduation I'm like a sophomore and I'm sitting there I have to go to class and like the Market's about to open and I'm thinking why should I even bother going to class You know at this point I'm a Trader I'm making a lot of money trading but you know in my dream I'm like I but I I have to finish school I Don't know where that really comes from but it makes me think about you know someone like you who's become so successful. You've got your million dollar badge and you're working on your master's degree now. What motivates you in a way to keep going through your schoolwork after having found so much success early on? Trading Um, that's really a good question. So a lot of people has asked me similar questions like hey, where'd you find your motivation I would say it's truly because I have the passion for the industry uh, trading as part of them.

It's pretty much my top priority. but I wouldn't say like that's everything in the Uh in the financial services industry yeah like there's more after that. So pursuing it like a degree or pursuing like an education just gives me more options to kind of open up my my Alternatives in the future. Yeah and uh potentially I just have more Tools in my you know in my at my disposal yeah to utilize in the future so make sense I Love education because um I can I Always have a lot of opportunities to talk to.

you know, a lot of the alumni, a lot of the professors who are really professional what they're doing. Yeah, before they became a professor right? Sure. So it's just like really interesting and you get to meet a lot of friends. That's part of the aspect that I like to go to school.

Yeah, Um, so I don't feel like I never feel like a pressure going to school. but if you I do feel like the pressure if you're studying a subject that you hate, right? and you have to be there like every day. Yeah, it makes no sense. Yeah, and so you're studying finance and mathematical Finance right? Yeah, Like right now? Yes, yeah.

so you know that that's hand in hand with what you're doing trading so that makes a lot of sense that you'd be pretty passionate about that you're studying. Finance I mean that's that's still in the ballpark because but of course there's a day trader. we're not spending a lot of time reading. um, you know, or day trading.

we're not. We're not going through all the fundamentals the way an investor would. Yeah, I mean definitely there were a lot of classes that I mean I just sat through that I knew it was like okay, you know, more of like long-term certain things with dividends and bonds and like for me, it's just as like a Trader with a trading mindset like those were hard to sit through. Yeah, sure.

so Marcel what did you go to school for? So funny enough. I Also went to school for a finance degree but I graduated on 2021. um, it is funny every time I hear people complaining about school about how hard universities and all that. But for me I always understood that being a student was that period in life that I had the most freedom and the most time to actually put towards something else you know I I've grown up seeing my parents taking multiple jobs and stuff and and working multiple hours.

you know over nine to five on a regular day on a regular basis that when I was a student living in a dorm just going for just going to two to three classes every day I thought this is this is as much Freedom as I'm gonna get in life before I get into the rat race so I better take advantage of this freedom and this free time to get it. you know to start doing something else. So then you know when I was a student I was always looking for my side hustle. what could I do to make some money? Whether it was whether if it was reselling stuff on Craigslist or um, you know, having a part-time job or you know, whatever it is.

Yeah, eventually I stumbled upon a day trading and at first you know I always I am very competitive and I always want to be the best at whatever I do so in school. My first two years I was like an a student but when I found trading that really quickly changed because all my entire focus and you know energy was going towards mastering this new game that I found right? So in school I was doing the bare minimum just about classes. yeah then 80 if not 90 of the time. All that I was thinking was day trading.

How can I master this strategy? How can I you know buy reduction on the tape like Ross and stuff like that it would just always be in my head constantly. even like sitting through classes, sitting through group meetings while doing homework. The only thing I could think of was trading I was absolutely obsessed. Why did why did I finish my degree? Um after turning profitable, it's because that sense of safety of having a plan B in case of things in case in case of things go wrong.

Yep, because at the end of the day for you to be a profitable Trader you have to have a very clear State of Mind You have to be confident you have to you know, probably have some other source of income so that you can yet ease whenever you are in a slow market like this and not not snowball emotionally. So for me, finishing school was a plan B and on top of that, it's not that hard. A lot of people complain about it. it's not that hard, you just gotta.

You just gotta put like 50 effort and you're gonna go through it easily. Um, anyway so I finished that but then I only went into the workforce for like three months because I quickly got to the point that my data in profit was bigger than my profits. That's bigger than my income. Yeah! so then I you know Honestly, I'm very fortunate because I only went to the workforce for three months.

Amazing! and I feel like I'm retired already I mean yeah I did turn every day which is I guess I Guess you know it's active work. it's not. It's not passive income. but yeah.

but now I'm so blessed that I'm like you know I mean you know the the future is bright? Sure that's awesome. I Love it. Yeah. I Think one of the things that um I'm seeing as a Common Thread Between what we're talking about here and what we talked about in another episode, we were where we were discussing the topic of uh day trading while you're working a full-time job.

One of the things that some of the Traders said is that they like having that full-time job because it gives them that stability. It's like they still have their well in some ways, the full-time job is like plan A and trading is like the up and coming. Maybe Plan B Maybe it works for them and even for those who have achieved profitability because you're I mean you're working full-time right now and you're going to school full-time still. But yeah, but you know you guys both still have things going on full time when you finish school.

Do you think you'll look for like a job? or just have a period where you're just trading? So that's a really good question. I Discussed that with uh when? I've actually discussed that with a lot with my parents and then with my Uh with my finance professors. right? who uh, would provide me with life's career advise and in-house Sure. I'll structure my life my career goal based on what I'm currently doing.

Uh so my my kind of idea right now is once I graduate, I'll just be working uh for free Goldman I'll be trading profession as like a professional Trader on your trading floor for like two years and I'll go back to MBA and then start my hash spot. Wow, that's kind of like the plan for now. Good for you. It's just because uh uh.

he my professor got some resources like that he would recommend to me. sure and then he says at Goldman there's a lot of like really big clients. so if you're gonna start your Fund in the future You Better Built This connections with yeah see, that's the thing and I think that's really important with you know, planning your career path. Yeah, in that industry of thinking I want to open my own hedge fund? you know? and I I I Don't know.

Maybe I'm too late in life to do that. But but for you here you, you're young and you've got the opportunity being in school. All the connections that you're building among your the students, your your colleagues. I suppose at school, uh your classmates and then the connections from professors I mean that that gives you such a a leg up that you can go from school right into industry for a lot of people especially when you you know graduate and you do well.

If you don't take that opportunity then and you take a few years off it could be really hard then to to regain that step up. So I feel like I mean that makes a lot of sense to me and you know that's definitely a different path than what I was on. I think one of the challenges certainly with forming any type of fund is is the networking. That that is as big in a way as the trading, you could be a fantastic Trader and I suppose I could say I'm a pretty good Trader but you know people, if they don't know about it and they don't know that you've got to find then it's not going to grow.

One thing I want to add to that is actually uh so it was well I was back in college right? So one of my uh Finance Professor that I always talked to like he's a pretty big guy in in venture capital and Venture Capital world Yeah right. he's like big investors and he said a lot of a lot. A couple alumni's like you know from our College actually started his own fun like hedge fund. It was really successful and he could put me in contact with them.

Yeah, so it's like I Feel like School is such a beautiful place if you know to learn it the right way, right? Yeah, I think I see that as it's I've been talking about this quite a bit. uh with different different people, but I I Feel like College hat serves a really a huge purpose for certain people who have certain career paths. I'm not sure that college is particularly helpful if you don't have any idea what you want to do. It's a lot of money to spend, but if you have a path, there are certain paths where going to college makes a lot of sense and a big part of that is the network.

the connections that you build um, you know for for other for other businesses or for other professions. Let's say I don't know I don't know art or being a painter or Ceramics or something I I don't I don't know that going to you know getting your MFA or something like that really is a prerequisite for being a successful artist. It almost feels like a little I mean I don't know I'm not. It's not my I'm I don't know.

but I think that you've got a really good path there. So for you? um Marcelo what was your thought? Did? were you when you started your Finance degree? were you thinking about what was your career path before trading came along? well? Um, so a long story short, I've always been interested. you know, in investing in stocks and all that passive income of you know, having money and making money work for you instead of working for money I've always had that kind of mindset that I wanted I wanted to reach Financial Freedom and all that and all that. So coming to school I didn't really have any passions super strong like that like oh I want to be a doctor I want to do this I want to do that I just knew that I want to I wanted to be financially free.

so hence I thought Okay, Finance is probably the closest thing to that and then in my finance program Um, at first I wanted to be uh, you know the end end goal would have been to be an investment investment banker. but now the and the goal is to be a giant Trader But anyways, first the path would be to start a career in a bank. But get to the point that I work with people. But because I do like working with people is the one thing I miss because day trading can be kind of lonely.

Yeah, unless we do events like this that you can interact with all the Traders and stuff like that. but usually you're training by yourself in your room every day. It gets kind of lonely and I would say I'm a little bit of a social person, but anyway, the goal was to get into a point that I was managing portfolios for people and teaching people about long-term investment investing, how to profit off of the market using dividend stocks and stuff like that. That was like the main goal.

but now obviously the goal is to you know, pursue my careers that they sure and yeah and see how I can go with it. Yeah, no, that's phenomenal. I mean I I Don't know what. the income the like.

the minimum uh, income is to be in the top 10 of earners. but right, it's probably like 200 000 or something so you know it's I Think different people have different levels of drive. You know, do you want to be in the bottom of the top one percent? or or top 10 or whatever it is? or you know, do you want to actually strive to become one of these extremely like successful people? But there's obviously a sacrifice in that in that I'm sure. I Can't imagine a hedge fund owner who's not stressed.

it's got to be a very high stress career. It's got to be extremely time consuming all day night weekend studying thinking about clients. I Mean you've got so much going on, so that's a sacrifice. The reward of course is the Monk and uh and then you know feeling of gratification that you know you're helping other people and grow their wealth.

And yeah, I mean there's other things, just the money. but um, you know I think there might be like a a window where you could like perform at that very very high level, very intense level. but then at a certain point, um, you know, burnout and things like that, you have to think about yourself and with Trading saying if you got to a level and maybe you were able to, it was after a career in financial markets in a different capacity where you felt like you know what I can make enough money that I'm going to be at in the top 10 percent of income earners and I could do that in only a couple hours a day, right? And maybe I've also from five or ten years in the workforce built up a little bit of a 401k or a IRA and I can count a little bit on some dividends coming in Diversified my income. You know that that's where trading starts to sound like a really nice supplement, but also if you're able to do that at 22 or 23, that's pretty cool too.

But you're you're probably too young to have been able to benefit from. you know, compounding growth of like early earnings. So you're at the hustling stage of you know, having to do your trading. and you know, just build the sources of income right.

and um, you know, for anybody out there, that's the student right now. I would say take advantage of this state it safeties your life to. Actually you know, take the leap of faith and try this day trading thing because after you get into the nine to five and and after you get into the rat race, you're going to be very complicated for you to take this type of risk. Or if you have the time to invest into studying or you have the time to, you know trade in the mornings.

So definitely being a student is I would say probably the best situation for you to try something as risky as becoming profitable in a day trading in the day trading scene because you probably don't have kids. probably you're young, you have a lot of time to recoup. Let's say, if you invest two to three years into day trading and it doesn't work out, it doesn't matter, those are probably three to two to three years you would have wasted anyway partying doing dumb stuff truck. so why not? you know? So why not? I I Felt like it was a good good trade to take I Feel like if I would not become profitable after I don't know.

five years of trading I don't know for how long I would have tried without quitting. Yeah, but in my my mind was I have nothing to risk I'm not supporting anyone if everything if anything goes wrong. I have my plan B which is my finance degree. Worst case scenario: I'm still 25 with my full life ahead and absolutely you know it's lower risk.

Yeah something like this at that age. Yeah it's true. Absolutely agree with that. Like you're being a student, you have like absolute freedom to do whatever you want given that your age uh you have parent spot you have like your family behind you.

you have nothing to lose right? It's like a it's like an H22 experience stuff around sorry I didn't know I wanted to get into Finance until my fresh until my freshman year of college actually before I uh before I came to college right? I I was thinking about doing like uh, chemical engineering stuff which has nothing to do with financing right? Yeah and then my dad was like why would you just go with law and I was like let me apply to be a pre-law Well yeah so I actually applied to be a pre-law student so in my freshman year and then transfer into the business school Yeah top of the Nations and from there it just took off. That's awesome. So it's just like you have to put yourself out there and just you know, experience different stuff and to see which one you really like right? Yeah yeah yeah. I Love that.

I Were you gonna add something to me? Yeah I Was just gonna say I agree with what both both of them said but especially what Marcelo said in the fact that like he's always kind of had the mindset of like finding different ways to make money and like anything he can do that's like to create that Financial Freedom and like not have that boss over your head and like I don't know I guess it might just be like a certain people just have that I guess like intuition like when they're young and that's like the best time for sure to take those risks. It's like that's when I started my pressure washing company and yeah, that's when I found trading too and it was like both of those I could see myself being able to leverage my time for a lot more money than I would at you know I used to work at a like an after-school daycare and I would like see my check and be like oh my goodness like yeah I know I can do like one job and make this so why am I here for like three hours every day or something? Sure yeah it just you know and then which? My parents are entrepreneurs. so I guess that kind of helps yeah in real estate but nothing really to do with stocks but it's still you know. helps to see them you know and how they've grown their business.

So yeah, yeah, well, my parents were not entrepreneurs at all. Were your parents entrepreneurs or no, not at all. not at all. In fact, they were not a big fan of the day trading thing.

No, mine weren't either. because it's you Know they they're like it's risky, It's risky and and it comes from a good place. When they're saying oh, be careful, be careful because they want to see you find success. They don't want to see you, you know.

But they would have said the same thing if I told them I was going to go to Hollywood and try to become an actor. Oh God Anything but that. It's most people fail. You know what I mean like it's so it's just one of those things when there's uncertainty I Think people that care about you and love you, they they're thinking oh gosh, I hope it works for them.

but they they know that it doesn't for a lot, but at the same time the best, the best time in your life to do that is I Suppose either when you're young or when maybe you're fortunate enough to be at some point in your 30s or 40s and you're in between careers and you've got a little cushion for whatever reason or your retirement age. But retirement age can be tough for getting into some totally new careers. But but not necessarily trading I mean that's not impossible, right? Yeah, well. I I Really like hearing the stories and I think for everyone tuning in, you have to be inspired and you have to think maybe you know as a student this could be a great time for me to start picking up a little side hustle and maybe that's trading.

So give it a shot, check out more of these episodes. I Hope you're subscribed to the channel and we'll keep putting out some really great content on what it's like to be a day trader. All right, thanks for tuning in! Hey I Want to thank you for watching this episode? I Hope you really enjoyed it. This channel has crossed over 1 million subscribers as thanks to viewers like you.

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