Us Trading Champion How To Catch 100x Trades While Trading Less

TITLE: US Trading Champion: How To Catch 100x Trades (While Trading Less) CHANNEL: Words of Rizdom DATE: 2026-03-05 ---TRANSCRIPT--- Trust me, you can make millions from day trading. You can make millions from sculping. You can make millions from swing trading or position trading. One out player can make me back 50, 60, 80 times. But the future of trading isn’t algorithm. It’s not even AI. The future is the hybrid between AI and discretionary trading.

I think what most people think before transitioning is, man, I’ve spent so much time trying to master stuff or everything is going to go to waste. [music] No, it’s the opposite. A lot of people search for this holy grail, this new stuff, this new strategy. But the the true holy grail is meet the man who wants to be the first worldclass hybrid trader. Mario Stamatudas. Mario achieved an over 290% return in the US investing championship. Mediocracy gets healed in trading. So either you’re going to be a fel trader or, you know, you’re really going to go down the hard path. The best trader out there is going to be the merge of a discretionary mindset with the help of AI. That’s I think the new meta in regards to your outlier trade. How often would you say are you seeing them per year? I [music] put all my focus still on studying and having a team and spending money on research to increase that outlier chance because and today he breaks down the stepby-step process of his journey and his goal to become the first worldclass hybrid trader utilizing AI within his trading. What would you say is the hardest thing about trading? Understanding the ins and outs of my system. You don’t need to operate into one style. You can create an MMA kind of style [music] in your trading. You can eliminate 90% of all your struggles if you do three things. Marios, it’s great to have you with us today. I want to start things off straight away. I want to know why is day trading the wrong path for traders to take. All right, so it’s a pleasure being here. Um, you know, I’m approaching my 10th year in trading. Uh, and the first four years I was a day trader, right? And um you know I was one of the most obsessed guys about day trading probably and why shouldn’t I be right like uh I had my first emotions around trading through day trading right uh the trial and error uh I made my first money out of day trading um you know but at some point um you know you need to listen to yourself and see you know where things going because um you know I started trading back when I 18 years old, right? So the person who you you know you end up being, right? You grow as a trader, you grow as a person. So at some point uh there may there might be some conflict inside there. Um and really these two things need to be in sync. So I got to a point that um you know I I really enjoyed day trading. All right, there are so many good elements there, but uh you know um I noticed that there are a few things that weren’t clicking. All right. I couldn’t visualize myself five or 10 years doing day trading. It was so emotionally draining, right? Staying all day like the ups and downs of it. The one thing that I couldn’t stomach. Um, and probably it was because I wasn’t the best day trader out there and that’s the truth. Okay. And we can go a bit deeper into that. Um, but I couldn’t stomach the draw down the volatility. And the thing in day trading is um, every drawdown that you have, right? um is a draw down of your principal capital, right? Because you close your positions at the end of the day. So everything is principal, everything is back in cash. So whatever loss you have, it’s money you actually own. In contrast with something longer term like a swing trading where you have a portfolio, right? You might have a five six% uh down day or a down week, but that doesn’t register right away because it’s not actually the money you have. You have, you know, the money you have is the cast plus the money allocated into positions the date of the entry. So five days can pass and this money can be way more than it went before. But in day trading, every draw down that was registered, right? Um so that was the conflict for me and um probably because I wasn’t the best day trader out there. I need to find the change, right? And and one of the things that made me start converting and as I say, I was really obsessed. I didn’t want to hear anything about swing trading, anything about position trading. I’m telling you like you know I remember back in 2020 when I was seeing things explode and it was a great market uh you know uh for for all sorts of trading right mean reversion going long like things exploded right um and I was remember seeing that you know you know having a a day trading entry in some stocks right like if I just went on that stock bought right and put my stop break even the next day and just went on vacation for for one month completely off the charts right? With that entry and the stock exploding 200%, 300% stuff like that happened so massively back in in the days, right? I would have made more money than battling with a tape each and every single day. So, here’s the thing, Reys, like um the beautiful thing about the market is you don’t need to change who you are. You need to find the style that really elevates the strength of you. All right? and head is against your weaknesses, right? So trust me, you can make millions from day trading, you can make millions from scalping, you can make millions from swing trading or position trading, but what you do should fit your personality. So why probably I wouldn’t be the best day trader out there and I wasn’t, right? What are the strengths of day trading? Right? So or what were my weaknesses? Right? So I noticed as a person and that’s how everyone should think of it right go to the first principles of who you are as a person. So for myself right uh outside of trading I was making many mistakes. If I started you know a mistake just of an ego thing I made more and more in life. Mhm. Right. I wasn’t that precise in my life. I wasn’t that accurate in my life. Right. Uh I had a big ego in my life as well. Probably I wasn’t that smart. I’m not that smart of a guy. Fast to react guy. I’m not that kind of a guy. Right. uh that really adjusts quickly in life. But these were my weaknesses. What were my strengths though? I’m really good at understanding complex problems. All right. Really uh deep doing deep dives. Uh finding the string, you know, and unfolding it. Uh understanding how to eliminate noise. Uh see a vast amount of data and understanding, you know, uh the underlying meanings from it. That’s equality needed, you know, for longerterm trading. Um, and my weaknesses, right, my constant mistakes, the way I’m operating now, you know, I can do five, 10, 20 consecutive losing mistakes and I can lose 20 hours, right? But since my system is based on a symmetry as a swing trader, momentum swing trader, right? One outlier can make me back 50, 60, 80 times, 10, 100 times, you know, back my in the extreme outlers back. So all my mistakes are for you know uh I can name back all my mistakes. I can make a ton of mistakes and still be rewarded. So you see it’s not about what you do is finding the style that really suits you. Understanding what are your strengths, your true strengths and your weaknesses and don’t try to change you that just try to to to adjust this with a system. That’s how you become an elite. So would I ever become an elite day trader? No. Oh, my results were great. That’s where I reached my first profitability. All right. But as I adjusted and I I learned to accept myself and what we were was the true strengths and elevate them through the system and heads against my weaknesses. That’s where things started. Crazy things started happening. So yes, you can do everything. You can skin the gut as much as you want. All right. Just try to listen to yourself. That’s the answer. What was the reflection for you though? What made you do that reflection? Because as you said at one point you would never have assumed or looked at swing trading or position trading. Exactly. So what was there a catalyst? Yeah. Um that’s a really nice question. So as I said like I couldn’t stomach the drawings, right? Like the volatility was getting uh you know and I said this was a derivative of me not being the greatest day trader out there, right? Um but uh I couldn’t see myself having a family and kids and you know having a massive down there because I was remembering back in those days a bad outcome would have a spiral effect on the day. Okay. So like um I couldn’t imagine myself uh you know and it just that’s just me right having a family and uh you know having a bad day or having that kind of volatility uh that kind of risk that kind of pressure that kind of you know precision uh and also as I said when I saw what happened in 2020 really I said you know it doesn’t need so much uh you know time you don’t need to overdo it you can do less things but still profit bit more and then it came to oh man like what are my strengths as as Marios what are my weaknesses and then you know it was a process a step-by-step process of transitioning all right and that’s really important right uh really because I think a lot of just go to podcast people you know we have made hundreds of thousands of millions or they have made and they they say I’ve made millions do that right no this is dogma and I had dogma try as I said to listen to who you are. All right? And find the system that suits you. Um, you know, but the catalyst, these two catalysts were the drawons. I couldn’t stomach it. I couldn’t vision myself 5 10 years doing that. And also, you know, seeing that I could make the same amount of money with doing less. Um, these were the main catalyst. Hey guys, before we get into this incredible episode, I want to say a massive thank you for all of your support so far on both Words of Wisdom and Chart Fanatics. We have grown immensely and are still the fastest growing channels in the trading industry. Now, a way to get back to every single one of you. If you want profitable strategies completely for free, go to chartfanatics.com. The links in the description, put your email in, and every single week, we will send you a free PDF with a profitable strategy of the guests that we host as well as on the website. You can go straight there and you can go through the library of strategies completely for free. Just input your email. On top of that, we launched a Chart fanatics free Discord community that has already over 10,000 members of traders across the world. We have our live traders from Chart Fanatics Live in there. I’m documenting every single one of my trades in there. And we have exclusive discounts, massive giveaways, and so much more just to give back to every single one of you. Let’s not forget updates on every episode and things that we are bringing to this industry that’s going to change it forever. But for now, the links for that are in the description. Let’s get into this episode. One thing you mentioned as well is that you go for more asymmetric in your trading. So you’re able to risk 1 hour to get 10, 1 hour to get 20, 1 hour to get 30. So having such higher reward to risk ratios. Was that quite an adjustment to get used to compared to day trading? because as someone who used to scalp and then transition to swing trading myself and I’m by no means a active trader um or as active as I probably should be if I was looking to really scale my trading but I remember there being that to get used to essentially scalping and day trading I was in and out very quickly but then when it came to swing trading I had to start trusting the analysis and start trusting my uh sort of thesis to play out long term and be able to get used to holding these trades even when they would pull back and have that continuation. What was that like for you that that transition? Yeah, so again it was a step-by-step process but um I still use my day trading tactics, right? Having um I I’m still doing the buys and the width of my stops and the risks are the same level that I was doing back in day trading, right? So the the way to do that is actually you know protect yourself early. So when you are in a position right and um you buy a breakout let’s say uh with a tight stop all right and let’s say one day later or two days later um it’s already five or six hours all right you can move your stop to break even then it’s a risk-free trade of course yes gap downs can happen right but in the macro in the long term right uh in the law of large numbers you can have gap downs like that’s the biggest risk that people day trading say you can have this gap downs that’s a big risk like you will have gap down you will have gap up gap as well. So all this you know kind of heads out at the end of the day. So if you’re risk- free and that’s a nice element there you can stomach a lot of volatility and as I said it’s not since you’re most of your money it’s a mix between your money and market’s money. Um you don’t treat them as yours. So you can trust markets randomly in order in order for that outlier to hit. But of course there are more nuances around why I focus on a symmetry and why I use really really tight stops. So I went back and studied actually you know the reason that I wanted to use tight stops first right is because I had this memory I had the skills as a day trader to do them. Uh but also when we talk about long-term trading uh what matters most is to have nice positions right like you have to be diversified enough in order to avoid company specific risk. So you can have a 60% position on a stock, right? Because you you let just one outlier event, you know, take you out months of your journey. So you need to be diversified enough to avoid this kind of risk, but concentrated enough for the outlier to have an impact. Okay. So uh what I wanted in order for that break even to make sense and be risk- free, you know, mentally, I needed to have really big positions right on. Whenever I buy a breakout, I don’t need to pyramid in, right? I want to have a big position right now so I can put my stop at break even and not out the yen. Right? So the only way to do that was with extremely tight stops. And I also went and back test back tested the because I was curious right like you you hunt for a symmetry you hunt for extreme reward to risk but that comes comes at the expense of win rate right so a question that I always had you know back in the days was you know how much tight can I get and uh is the relationship of the width of stops with the win rate kind of linear. So meaning if I keep pressing down my width of stop the win rate is going to drop massively as well. So I went back and studied that and that’s something that you know a lot of people don’t realize but there is a mathemat a mathematical ledge a brute force adjustment that everyone can do you know that boosts your expectancy without you know doing anything a brute force adjustment right you know from the next day. So imagine someone you know use doesn’t use a tight stop and it has let’s say on average on his positions a 28 ATR true average day true range you know stop as a width on his stocks right to hedge for the volatility as well now and imagine that trader has has a 40% win rate okay so whenever he enters on a stock 280R is his average stop his win rate it’s a you know it goes into ranges but let’s say it’s 40% win rate now if we take can experiment and we say let’s slice that width in half. Mhm. Right. Instead of using two ATRs, you use one ATR. Uh will your win rate from 40% drop to 20%. Because in reality, that’s what you think it will happen, right? The more you [clears throat] slice your width of stop, the more you slice your win rate. So there’s not an, you know, an impact. Um so let’s take a scenario that you use a 2 ATR stop. And the stock moves in in 5 days, 10 ATRs, right? You make five ATRs. So five hours. Mhm. Right. But let’s now say that you dropped your width universally to 180R. The same trade results to 10 Rs. Right now, when I went back and studied breakouts for long-term, and this is really key, and I studied the relationship of the width of stops with a win rate, I saw that it’s not linear. You can slice the width of stop in half from 280R, let’s say, to 180R, but your win rate is not going to drop from 40% to 20%. It might go to 30%. So you double your expectancy with your win rate dropping one/ird instead of half. Then instead of one ATR, let’s say you use 0.5 ATR. So you quadruple what was the original, but maybe your win rate from 30% drops to 23%. So now from the original, you are around half your win rate, but four times your expectancy. So synthetically, you created an edge from a brute force adjustment without doing anything. And that’s the beautiful thing that exists in the market, right? Uh and that’s what made me stick to asymmetry and the tight stops universally because I knew there was a mathematical ledge and institutions can’t exploit it. They can’t get extremely tight. They can’t have really tight stops. Right? So that was it. That was the journey that you know as as you know there are a lot of things that um in your foundation you need to understand the why right and eliminate the doubts for every part inside your foundation. every single part. That’s how you have trust on what you do. That’s one of the parts that I never secondested, the tight stops and shooting for a symmetry. Right. One question I have to ask off the back of that and it was fascinating to go through that. So, thank you for sharing that and I’m sure no doubt there’ll be a lot of people wondering and trying to formulate those calculations as well. And it goes back to your point of having that why and understanding your data. But the question I have to ask is is there a reality for a system that can be high expectancy so high reward to risk and a high win rate. Um and if it exists, please tell me. All right. Uh no this these two you know work uh against each other in any given system. Uh no matter the assets no matter you know whatever system if it’s stocks if it’s futures if it’s options selling options whatever like I’ve studied it’s not that I’ve studied only stock related systems I went into other systems. So no it doesn’t exist. uh but uh what’s important re is since this you know work against each other it’s really important to understand the normalities that emerge out of that system. So meaning if I was a day trader right and I had a 70% win rate or an 80% win rate and I slightly and I tried to transition into a swing right or vice versa it doesn’t matter right but let’s take this scenario um if I was used that you know four five consecutive losing trades um was abnormal back then but then I adjusted my system and I have now a 30% win rate and a 30% win rate can you know make let’s say every single month based on the frequency let’s say 10 12 13 consecutive losing trades bound to happen every month that’s a new normality that you have to accept. So you know uh whatever system you use right so since these two work against each other it’s really important to understand what [clears throat] are the normalities that emerge out of that to be cool with it and do don’t do anything crazy right so yeah to answer your questions no I haven’t found or I haven’t seen something like this did you have any struggles or any was there a hurdle in place when you started to adjust to this new normality and this new reality when it came to the reward to risk ratio here. So, having to handle on average these sort of losing streaks and this number of losses, was there was that something you adjusted to quite easily or not? No. Um, and my girlfriend is here, you know, and since I live through this um this I was about to, you know, to to quit trading even if I had profitability, even if I had made money because as I said like something didn’t click right. Um so for sure there are many challenges but in terms of you know adjusting slightly of course there are many struggles in what level though when you start to adjust into a new system right um it’s not that you’re going to you know create ideas out of your mind probably you’re going to inherit systems or method from others and the problem with that uh and you can’t avoid it and that’s the way to do it you don’t need to reinvent the wheel right at first you can innovate further after you master stuff but when you inherit stuff from others uh you don’t trust them you don’t know why they work so my biggest struggle as I was transitioning is you know I was seeing people using some entry tactics right why are you using that entry tactic or some selling tactics or buying stocks at a certain level or using these filters to find stocks and you know a foundation has many parts it’s the setups the entry tactics selling tactics the tactics of outperformance the philosophy about the market how you see it as a whole, the structure, the style you’re operating with. And there are so many doubts inside every single part. So the process of trying to eliminate its doubt and solidify its part and make it bond together really good because it’s only when you trust your system that you can create rules. You can’t create rules. If you don’t trust, you’re going to style drift. You’re going to, you know, do stupid things. So yes, that process took time, but that’s the beautiful thing. That’s the process through mastery. Okay. So yeah, in terms of struggles, that was my biggest struggle, trying to answer every single point that was creating me to feel uneasy, making me feel uneasy inside my framework and foundation. And last, understanding the normalities at all layers of what should I expect operating in that system, right? So yeah, it takes time, but uh it’s it’s a beautiful journey for sure. Just to go back to that comment you made in terms of quitting, what what got you to that point and why did you keep trading? What got me to the point probably was a streak of losses um that I didn’t adjust quickly because that’s the thing with you know um if your system is has a biggest priority on your win rate, right? And you’re slow to adjust and the market is not you know static. It’s a dynamic environment. So you know it can stress test your prior your primary metrics. So maybe even if you have a win rate as a day trader as I was you know 70 80%. There can be periods that this drops in half and if you have an elevated the risk per trade as I was this results in really big draw downs. Okay yes you can make your money back but it’s a you know it’s really irritating. So I think it was as I said this happened in 2020 right? I was seeing so many people making a ton of money and I was having large rodons and uh um again I couldn’t just because I grew you know as a person as I told you and you know I was operating in that style I just couldn’t see myself five or 10 years and forget about trading like imagine you you work you know an outside job once that thought of I can’t see myself five years in five years doing this it’s dead Right. So what kept me going? I took my time off. I read a few books. Uh I was lucky to go into the books of around momentum trading like Markinis, Willa Mon’s books like everything made sense. But I said the style depends on who we are as a person. So I think some time off clearing my head pushing step by step every single day and understanding. I knew from you know from the start that even even if I was obsessed with day trading that there are so many ways to skin the card. I love this game. I have spent so many hours in this game. I’m gonna make it work. Uh, you know, I I have made it work. I’m being I I’m going to hit for longevity. I’m going to find a way. So, that’s, you know, how I kept I love the game. That’s the answer. I love the game. I took my time off. I was really mad, you know, and that’s I think what most people think before transitioning is, man, I’ve spent so much time trying to master stuff or everything is going to go to waste. No, it’s the opposite because as I said like you don’t need to operate into one style. You can create an MMA kind of style in your trading. You can incorporate so many stuff that you learned along the way, right? In the right way after you understand everything inside the foundation and make wonders happen. Imagine like being a chef, right? I can have 10 ingredients. And that’s people don’t get you can h I can have the same knowledge as you. All right? Or someone else. It’s how I understand that knowledge and mix that knowledge to make make wonders right a lot of people search for this holy grail this new stuff this new strategy but the the true holy grail is understanding you your system really deeply and nuances that emerge and you know innovate in that space it’s a few adjustments away so imagine I have 10 ingredients a chef has 10 ingredients who’s going to make a better food right it’s not the ingredients that change it’s how you apply and mix them together. So yeah, it’s it was a love for the game and a deep obsession. And thankfully, you know, I had a really nice partner that uh really understood that this profession has a lot of ups and downs and you know, emotional pressure and u she was there to uplift me. She knew what I have done and what I could achieve, right? U you know and uh you know that’s why I kept watching. Sometimes a partner is needed and I was liking that part, right? Because I don’t remember who said it like your friends really want you to achieve but not so much someone said it maybe better than them right yeah but your true partner really wants you to succeed all right and someone who understands your boundaries how much effort needs to be put in this game it’s important now now imagine she break up breaks up with me after this it would be epic right [laughter] no I don’t think so but um you know you you need stability in this in this kind of profession and um you you know, imagine instead of on top of trying to master charts and uh qualities of of stocks to try to master the art of seduction, right? [laughter] I think it wouldn’t work so well. So, yeah, like um a passion for the game and stability kind of in your life really helped to to keep pushing through, right? Um yeah, so that what’s happening for me. 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Would you say having even though it may not be correlated to trading itself directly, having that partner who can facilitate those down moments more than anything, I think everyone always kind of focuses on the highs, right? when you when you’re winning and you finally found your momentum and that consistency, but in reality, it can really make a huge difference who that person is or even even if it’s not a partner, even if it’s a close friend or a sibling, but someone who’s close by in that circle to push you or lift you up when you are down. How how much of an impact has that been? maybe not even just for your trading but maybe other elements in life that has allowed you and facilitated that growth and for you to keep on the path that you wanted to focus on and actually achieve. Yeah, I think I think you know it was probably I wouldn’t be where I am without her to be honest. So um you know it’s uh people see people you know uh people going on soluccessful traders and I want to be him. Um would you you know do you want to really know what a day of his life looks like if he’s that happy as he seems to be right we still have down day we still have you know emotional pressure but uh you know it’s um you need to really see you know long term all right and I think a great partner helps you see you know um that you um and the most important thing as I told you is is uh understanding that what it takes for this profession right so This profession needs a lot of time to be spent on isolation deep into your mind. Um you know you really uh the emotions are amplified. The ups and downs are amplified. Uh it it might make the you know whole days just because you had you know missed a trade that you really wanted or you know you you made something stupid ruin your entire day until it rides off. Uh so someone who understands the boundaries now it’s time to have fun. Now it’s time to concentrate uh is really important. So as I said like I I wouldn’t be here without her. I’m honest about this. So yes, you need that stability in your life. I’m I’m I’m you know uh but it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a partner you know you can have a close friend that you work together as a team in that right support each other like motivation is is important. See the longerterm goal is important. All right. And uh uh true friends and partners can help you eliminate that noise and see through. Right. take us back to early trading days, right? So 18, 19 years old, Marius, coming into trading, coming into the game, was your level of dedication and a level of work rate high then? Not at all. You know, I was always kind of a good student. Um, but as I told you, I was making a lot of mistakes. I wasn’t that u, you know, accurate. Um, so why did I start trading? Well, I stumbled on some beautiful ads on social media about people day trading, right? Um, that’s how I got hooked thankfully, you know? Um, but it wasn’t something that I knew right away this is it. Like that’s what I’m going to do, right? It slowly grew into me, right? And the passion really, you know, slowly emerged in me as I was deep diving and deep diving. What I told you what I’m good at really going deep. So you know by going really deep at round you know and the first two years was more about research like what should I do you know I like this day trading but investing sounds cool but you know I have more info about this day trading thing uh you know more courses out there stuff like that right so it was easier and it sounds for my age it seemed classy I’d wanted that adrenaline back then I wanted that uh you know kind of action um but yeah like it’s it’s not that I really you know knew that that was for me And uh you know I think I realized that it was for me still five years in the game like around 2021 that I really you know as I told you went through an entire I transitioned I found who I am with the system that suits me and understood everything inside there. Uh and it’s you know it’s you just feel it like it’s not some someday you you wake up right like you can be a mess before weeks and one day you wake up and say man I get it now it it comes out of nowhere like I can’t explain it some some magical but at some point it’s like everything connects inside your brain slowly and just you wake up one week and you say okay I get it like it clicks now right but yeah it’s u is off the back of building momentum over time, getting the reps in day after day over time. Yeah. And you need to do a lot of things, right? And studying being one of them, right? What is studying to you? How would you class study? studying probably is the priority if you want to build a system when you start trading like uh uh probably have spent three four five times more uh I may say you know even a few like at least five times more studying than trading wow right it’s your training um because you really want to find depending on what you want to do so for my system right if you’re go good to go in that right uh related to studying Right? So for my foundation, if I have a broad universe of stocks, right? Let’s say I’m tracking I think that let’s say 300 stocks are really good. Okay? Now I have a portfolio limitation. I can buy all of them because again as we go back you need to be concentrated otherwise you know if you have a 3% position in the stock and the stock goes up 100% you make 3%. Right? You so you need to be concentrated you need to have 15%. It goes up 100% yes you make 15%. Since you have this portfolio constraint, you can buy all of that stock in your universe you’re tracking. So, you need to find a way to really um minimize your universe in an effective way, okay, that increases the chances of more teachers inside that universe becoming outliers and doing something massive. And how are you going to find stocks that are going to print massive returns year-over-year? studying is the answer. So you go back decades of all the stocks that make amazing performances and you start finding out commonalities about these stocks, right? What was the price structure looking like? What was the volume looking like? What were the fundamentals looking like? What was the story narrative of that stock? Were there forces amplifying the move thematics? Right? back in you know 2020 probably there were forces that amplified a lot of things without materially changing something in the company right right now you know as we speak AI data centers right like stocks belonging to that theatic are elevated without something materially being different that company there are news what were the news back then what was the company specific news so you start finding commonalities and it takes time okay that’s why I say I spent more time studying than trading uh you start finding patterns both technically and both behaviorally and both fundamentally. And what do you do after that? You turn these commonalities that you find into filters for the stocks. And that’s how you end up with a universe that has a bigger chance of outliers as a derivative or portfolio that has a bigger outlier chance. So studying is the most priority. Now, do I continue study studying? Yeah. like it’s the same because I keep want to push that outlier chance to increase in my that’s my my cornerstone right the more uh stocks I can find that can turn into outliers you know the better I I can I can get my performance right and this year you know I was really blessed you know with a team to go really deep and um you know go really deep into the DNA of stocks because when you filter down your universe you can really do it in a way that overfeits. As I say, the markets can never be fit into a bot box, right? Things look the same, but not exactly the same. They’re synchronized. So, like if you put a filter on fundamentals, let’s say, you saw that fundamentals are great. Like, let’s say companies that make long-term moves have great fundamentals growth. But let’s say you say, I want companies that have a 30% growth in revenues, and you put that 30% there, right? Um, is every company going to have that? Is every outlier going to have that? Because there are many companies that had no fundamentals but great stories, right? There are other companies that that just belong to themes that were amplified. There are companies that uh instead of revenues had accelerating or growth in earnings. So what we are doing uh is a massive research and we finished it up and I’m really glad uh to find the true DNA and the composition of it stock to weight all these things not in an overfeit way but try trying to find okay this stock has this composition so how do we weight everything inside of that and you know the results are you know massive like I really believe and it’s a working process right now but uh really you know I think we did a good uh thing of mapping the true DNA of stocks and elevating that out to large chance. Uh so you know this is for internal purposes. Uh but uh you know if if the results are great I will be happy to reveal it to the world at someday. Uh but yeah it takes a lot of you know work and uh how do you define an outlier trade? Well, it depends on the system, right? For me, an outlier trade is something that goes um let’s say if if the non-skeeweed um reward to risk is around, you know, five to one, let’s say, an outlier for sure is something that uh meaning non-skeewed excluding the outliers, right? Uh a trade that goes more than 20 to 30 hours, right? My risk unit is an outlier for me. And of course, you classify outliers as outliers and extreme outliers. some I’ve had trades that I had 100 hours right back of course with partials and all that stuff but that’s an outlier right so you my average risk is around 0.2 to 0.3% so you imagine like 30 a 30 trade is 30 time 0.3 right so from a single trade I can make 8 9%. That’s an outlier, you know. So, in regards to your outlier trades, how how often would you say on average are you seeing them per year? That’s a really nice question. So, every year I make around 400 to 500 trades. The outliers were around 15. Okay, let’s say the great outliers were around 15. And that’s, you know, even in back in 2023 in my in the competition, right, it was similar like 10 outliers right there. and 10 outliers were uh responsible for 80% of the games that I had back then. So you really understand the powerful of the you know the power of outliers when you really do the math like imagine doing your you have your stats in front of you. Let’s say you have your win rate you have your risk-to-reward on average and then project a year that let’s say five trades go five times more reward to risk and just find five trades that go five times your performance can explode then make them six 8 10 15 and you will will see how things explode from just a few outliers. So how is this like 10 outliers for 400 trades? It’s a really small percentage out of the whole spectrum, right? But it’s that these 10 trades that result for 80% of the gains. That’s why I put all my focus still on studying and you know having a team and spending money on research uh to increase that outlier chance because I know how impactful it is. And you can test like that’s what AI has enabled us. You can stress test everything in your system. Mhm. Right. Go and see your stats, put some outliers there. See how much your uh Monte Carlo, you know, simulations uh performance would look like from a few outliers. Then maybe you say, “Oh, yes. So why I was selling in strength heavily and I didn’t let something for a weakness maybe to have this outlier because if you sell massively on strength, you don’t have this outlier impact. This is how judgments are made, right? from questions and then deep diving into answers. You know, you and certain questions come out of nowhere, right? You’re sitting drinking coffee. Oh, let’s write it down. Maybe I can start it at a different point of time. That’s that’s what it what happens. And when it comes to outliers, is that adjustment of risk because it’s been a conversation we’ve had many times on the podcast in terms of dynamic versus fixed risk. Oh, that’s a great question. Yeah. So, what does that look like for you when it comes to outliers? As you mentioned, these outliers can make up 70 80% of the portfolio gains for the year. Yeah. So, is that the case because you’ve amplified risk or what is your uh thesis and mindset around that? Yeah, that’s a great question, R. So, again, it’s about doma. So, listen to that. I’m a swing trader, right? I’m a momentum swing trader. So, as you expand your horizon, there are way more forces that come into play. It’s not only price. Price is a nice filter, but there are way more forces, right? So, in order, it’s not the setup, the breakout, whatever setup you use that is going to make a stock go up uh for 5 months after the the breakout. It’s not the setup itself. It’s what is brewing inside the stock, right? What are the comp all the composition elements? We talk fundamentals, narrative, themes, you know, quality of news, everything. So, the setup there is more irrelevant. Do you understand what I mean? Because I may need to try it two, three times around the setup to get it right. Yeah. So, the dynamic risk there doesn’t make sense. Right. So, and there’s a Yeah, it’s a nice question. I will deep dive into it, right? It’s it’s a really nice one. So, first is that I can’t trust the setups because the setups it’s not the reason stocks move. Okay? It’s not a an environment long-term that price dominates. It’s a filter to get me interested, but it doesn’t dominate. All right. Mhm. Uh there are more forces coming to make stocks go up. So I can’t use a dynamic risk there. In contrast though, when you’re day trading, right, or you are having a short-term horizon, then the dynamic risks makes sense because there you operate, you know, in an environment that price action structure really dominates and you can be agnostic of all the other forces. They don’t play so much sense, right? So you have A+ setups A, B, C, D. So that’s how you make money by understanding the rarity and the true quality. You can put dynamic risk there but listen to the biggest factor. As I told you when I’m swing trading right and I have a 20 to 25% win rate every single month based on my frequency every single month though and that’s just probabilities you can put them down. I can expect at least 14 to 15 consecutive losing trades every single month. Right? So every every single certain if it will happen every single month to experience this series of losing trades consecutively. So I can use dynamic risk based on that as well because imagine in the law of large numbers and I have back tested that as well that I use a dynamic risk on the setup that it’s less elevated because other there are other forces in play as well right and it happens just of an alert streak that I risk a lot during this all streak I can’t control my draw downs right so I’m using a fixed risk and I also back tested fixed risk versus dynamic risk uh and the fixed risk for my foundation creates more smooth returns because I can control how much my capital can go down and that’s you need that control right I know that my capital no matter what happens can’t go down more than four five% let’s let’s say six or some week any given month of my principle with dynamic risk you can predict that so it’s a question again that’s why I don’t like dogma in trading right because there are certain things that are right for something specific and can be wrong for something else. You find the truth for your own, right? Dynamic risk great for short-term tra trading. For longer term, not so much. For all these reasons, right? Don’t know where the market’s going next? Stop worrying about your trading. Just get informed on exactly what’s happening in the markets and what to expect. From Forex to futures to stocks to crypto, be on top of it all. That’s why tens of thousands of traders are subscribed to Market Journal, a free newsletter that allows traders to keep up to date with the markets every single week. Remember, an informed trader is a profitable trader. It doesn’t matter if Trump tweets, AI stocks are pumping, or if Bitcoin drops out of the sky. Market Journal has you covered. Join for free today using the link in the description below. Let’s take a break for a minute there, guys, cuz I want to tell you about our sponsor, Tradezeller. Tradzella is the number one trading tool for all traders. 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Would you boil that down to as you mentioned you can take from others, learn from others, but do you believe that in order to make it your own and to learn your own system and have the confidence to then be disciplined and to execute correctly, you have to do as you mentioned those back tests. You have to do that research. You have to put in that time and effort necessary in order to yes you’ve taken it from elsewhere and you’ve learned from elsewhere but really to apply it in the way that’s going to be profitable for you that’s how you make it your own or is there another method or idea around that I think that’s you you you nailed it right like that’s a method as I told you like first you imitate others and then you innovate right so um we’re introduced into systems that we inherit. Okay, most people stop there and that’s what takes time and it’s the most important part throughout this mastery journey. You take all the system all right you take it down into its parts okay the the structure of the system the style how the entries the setups everything inside the system right and you try to see uh because probably you will do already have a foundation which parts out of this you know new system can I fit into my existing world will they align well will they bond well right that’s the the first key question and how do you answer those questions through back testing things for studying right and it’s only as I said through before through eliminating your doubts and answering your wise about every single part of your system I told you why use tight stops right I told you why I want these outliers why I base my system around outliers for every single part I will probably have an answer right so you need that in order to create rules as I said if you can’t explain the why behind you do you know behind the things you do you will child drift the moment the market starts being more hostile, which it will. It stress tests everyone, you’re going to do crazy things. You’re you’re going to chase stocks. You’re going to have FOMO, all the mistakes. Like that’s an important thing to talk with. You a lot of people talk about emotions maybe. All right? And psychology. You can eliminate 90% of all your struggles if you do three things like have all the parts in the system, right? have how you see the markets, the structure, the philosophy, setups, entry tactics, selling tactics, studying, preparation and tactics for outperformance, adding and pyramiding and all that stuff. Right? Let’s say this is a nice framework. If you miss any part of that, it’s not going to work. Right? That’s the first step. Second step, eliminate your doubts and answer your wise. That’s how you build trust, confidence, and clarity. And the third part, understand, as I said, the normalities of your system. And this extends to many layers. I can have these consecutive losing trades. So I know that I can experience 15 consecutive losing trades. Right? Imagine tomorrow you come and I say do exactly what I do is and you have six consecutive losing trades. Maybe you can you will freak out. Right? So it’s the element of surprise. you do these things right you it’s about for example something else for expectancy of outcomes right um market awareness right so I can monitor the market real time and be in sync and understand when things start to get you know worse and adjust for it or you know I can not monitor anything and be surprised well it’s the element of surprise that creates the problems and forget about trading okay think about your outside life um when are we feeling more uneasy right when we don’t know our environment and when we get surprised right now you do podcast right you know many scenarios that can unfold here right you don’t have you know the element of surprise that I have in this environment right you fly with a plane every time you try to land you are stressed out the pilot is like what are you doing people back you know uh on the plane so If you try to minimize the element of surprise by understanding the normalities of your system, you will operate under the perfect clarity all the time and you won’t have you won’t do the mistakes or all the struggles like think of all the struggles as a trader. Everything you have it will be probably one of these three reasons. All right, emotions emotions are there. Um they never change and why should they change? We’re humans, right? It’s the emotional spirals and amplified emotional spirals that create problems and makes us feel uneasy and ticking our primal instincts. If you channel your emotions and you operate with an a foundation that you don’t get surprised often because you know the ins and outs, that’s where clarity emerges. So that’s the process there, right? Uh so for every question that you have is about studying and you know trying to answer everything until you nail every single part of your foundation and that’s where clear confidence and clarity emerges. You’re unbreakable at this point. Of course you’re going to be surprised at but not at the rate from somewhere else right but that’s the process you inherit. You stretch these ideas from other people. You challenge them. Not everyone is right. I learned from a lot of people that admire respect but I tweaked some of their ideas because I found uh that you know they weren’t entirely true when I back tested stuff I just slightly refined them right so don’t take anything for granted anything we speak here in this podcast go and stress test me challenge me that’s where breakthroughs emerge because through the process of challenging me you will find the truth for yourself right that’s what I did I tried to reverse engineer and challenge everyone out there do you feel like, and maybe this was something you did early on as well, uh, but do you feel like a lot of people take people at their word and they don’t go beyond, they don’t stress test, they don’t challenge, they just try and copy and paste and then therefore they’re always kind of surface level and they’re always then trying to implement things that they assume work rather than, as you said, have that actual confidence in knowing it works. Is that something that you see when you look at the trading community and maybe your own experience as well? I was in that club as well. No one escapes from that club, right? Um but do you want to be the one? Do you really want want to master that game or are you here just to make a quick buck? Do you really have a deep passion for it? Okay, we all start from the money. At some point passion has to kick in. All right. So yes, I was in that club as well and uh I took people because you know it has to do with human psychology in some terms like it’s easier to blame others for your failures than are yourself. So when you just take and copy paste a system and it doesn’t work you say oh no you it’s your fault. I bought your course uh and it doesn’t work. No like if you have to be honest you know you have to put in the work and it’s painful. Okay. Uh I’m telling you like um you know mastering trading even if it’s the best profession in the world it’s the best profession in the world but you know it teach you as a whole it chops you it digests you and spits you back out that’s the process of trading all right it’s a beautiful journey but it’s uh if you want to really master it and be the one and really make you know uh things good for your kids and your grandchilds that’s what success in this field is right uh you need to to have that passion and obsession, right? Um, and you know, mediocre mediocracy gets killed in trading. So, either you’re going to be a fail trader or you know, you’re really going to go down the hard path. A beautiful path, but a hard path. Do you think a lot of people when they find themselves on that hard path, that’s where they come to the end of the road. That’s why we see the statistics of majority of people losing and quitting in trading. Exactly. I was about to quit as I told you in my third third.5 year in trading right and I think that’s the threshold for most people uh and I have seen other people mentioned this three to five years is the threshold of uh continue quit um I think keep pushing but as I said go back to your first principles and understand who am I forget about trading what are my qualities as a person how am I performing good outside of trading Is there a system in trading that can elevate these qualities and hedge against my mistakes? That’s, you know, I think you have high chances of, you know, achieving success and be really passionate about what you do when there is a sync there. Like if people get something out of this, this is it. You can make money counting stars and trading. Like there are people that look at astrology and make money out of trading. If that’s your passion, do it. All right? find the sync between you, all right, and and the trader, a trading style that elevates you. Okay? Uh that’s how you really can push through this uh mental breakdown and the you know uh the 3 to 5 year threshold of quitting. What would the reality be as you mentioned you know going back to 2019 2020 you know we saw the markets have a lot more increased volatility since then we’ve seen different cycles different themes come about you know what does that look like for you in terms of when these take places these market cycles change the themes change what does that look like in terms of your trading how does thing how do things change if they change how do you adapt to change. What does it look like from maybe your activity on trading? Does it look like you have to learn new skills? Like what is the reality of being a long-term career trader with these elements that change quite consistently? You know, things dynamics certainly change from time to time and we have seen that right like um one thing for sure is um you know the markets are uh you know trending better nowadays. they have uh more let’s say short-term stocks but they trend better overall from what they were doing decades back right so that’s a good thing for my kind of framework but uh overall dynamics change all right but the real structural tendencies of the market never do uh math never lies and never changes so when it comes around to risk management all these statistical edges that I mentioned about the tightness of stop and all that stuff they will never change there is a you know it’s probabilities is math. It can’t change, right? And institutions can step in to you know make this you know uh edge uh you know evaporate. So uh if you base your setups on structural tendence of the market and you have you know a reason that these emerge like breakouts happen for hundreds of years right catalyst gaps that I do happen for hundreds of years there’s a behavioral and structural reason why they happen right u parabolic shorts that I also do right they happen for hundreds of years climax stops will never stop due to you you know behavioral reasons of the human psychology that keeps repeating itself so for all the parts of your foundation If you base you know the things in uh um things that have happened in the past as I said the commonalities of the past right um you’re good to go probably your reds won’t be vanished but uh in terms of simple parts and small parts yes um I’ve noticed for example the footprints of you know the price action and the structure of it or the volume to be more elevated in great names that it was before and that’s a good thing for me because I can spot them easier right and and you know uh start doing my research on them. Probably AI is probably going to change things but uh you know you learn to adjust from new input. Uh for sure I had to adjust for example recently from this project that we do the the research like uh I was you know assigning weights to stocks um you know similarly okay I want to see growth in fundamentals themes like everything had the kind of the same let’s say weight but I’ve learned that you know uh different compositions create different dynamics. So if you elevate some elements then you find more names that you wouldn’t have found before and you increase that outlier chances. simple dynamic change and you adjust to them and you will find them naturally and they don’t happen overnight, right? Uh but even if you don’t and you base your system around the, you know, things that happen over and over and the commonalities and the structural things, you’re not going to lose your edge. Uh and that’s an important thing that everyone should pursue. Does what you do has an longevity and a reason that it exists, right? Can it go away? Um so for example I was studying um you know some selling uh you know options and collecting the volatility risk premium strategies and uh as you went through the b the bes were great like you can make 300% with max 8% draw and crazy stuff right because you know dailies on S&P started on 2022 and you could do that stuff but um I found that you know of course you can make money but a lot of strateies that you know I I I saw the performance was deteriorating. M you know from time to time. So when you go deep on why this works all right I couldn’t find a reason of why this works now and it uh you know it can work 10 years later you know so but in my personal trading in the swing trading like all the stuff that I do you know uh I have a reason to believe that they will continue working small stuff will change we’re going to adjust for them but the true principles that we base all the system are never going to change right so that’s uh that’s it and do you think a lot more traders should focus on trading around that having that as their foundation. Yeah, for sure. So, I’ll I’ll tell you one example to understand, right? So, I’m basing my whole system around outliers, right? Will outliers never ever stop happening in the markets. Will stocks uh stop exploding at some point? No. Right? So we know that as a fact then um my system is saying selling some into strength move stops to break even trail the weakness right so um will trailing the weakness ever stop to find outliers because if I sell massively into strength I won’t have that outlier impact the stock will go without me right so will if stocks continue to go explosive which they will will you know uh should I stop selling most of my shares into weakness. No, but what can change the small dynamics of you know maybe the information is more quicker with AI. So a lot of people reinforce the action on the first days. So maybe I need to sell on the first day instead of on the second or third day for my first partial. But the main principle which is selling the most of my into weakness is a dynamic that will never change because that’s I trust randomness. I trust the outlier impact. This will never stop. But the small adjustments of how much should I sell into strength or where two days 2.3 to two ATRs, three ATRs, half an ATR. Should I move my stop to break even uh quicker? No. These small dynamics, yes, they adjust and you find them through time. But your principles, if they’re based on historical facts and they have a logical reason to exist, you know, you don’t have a problem. That’s how you should evaluate your trading. And I’m glad you brought up AI because that was a question I wanted to ask you in regards to how has AI and its implementation and growth impacted your trading in your day-to-day uh interaction with the markets. Yeah, a lot uh to be honest and this project that we’re doing is all around AI, right? Like the big breakthrough was as I said like um you know the fundamentals in a stock are you know easy stuff to to put an algorithm there and digest and understand if there’s growth and acceleration any surprise right but when it comes down and you study historical winners you see some stuff just went off because of a story and narrative right how can you chart the uncharted with algorithms well AI really helps if you do it in the correct way because the have spent so much time really minimizing the hallucinations and stuff like that, right? So, um, but AI can really nail the behavioral aspect of of trading and putting that element in there really elevates more outliers into the spectrum, right? Because you can find better themes, the purity into themes, you can find, you know, uh, the quality of news if it’s something truly gamechanging of the company compared to its past, right? You don’t need to analyze 20 articles yourself or the history of the company. You can write some really sophisticated prompts. I have like some prompts are five pages long, right? Really? Yeah. And we have 50 ps like that. But really structural problems to avoid hallucinations and give structured orders to you know go through really the underlying things and find some qualities and then of course you you can trust fully. Yeah, we we perform, you know, manual checks, but it really nails I I found out that it really nails that behavioral aspect and it’s really important for for uh swing trading, right? And finding uh great trades. For the audience listening, what are the key things you would recommend them to use when implementing AI or trying to use AI to better their process or their trading? Yeah, I say um I would say try to understand uh as you do for yourself the strengths and the weaknesses of AI. All right, so AI will always try to please you. Okay, and we know it’s good at understanding the sentiment and behavioral things, but it’s really bad in maths for example. Okay, in math we know that it’s a fact. So try to use AI in a way that uh incorporates more of that elements, okay? and you really you know don’t brute don’t put a lot of forers inside the prompts let’s say to to do extremely complex stuff okay so uh if you want to analyze the news of a company okay and that’s an important thing how can you find something um you know gamechanging news and what do great news do in companies okay really gamechanging news what do they do they overnight change the valuations right as we we talked about it right so um understanding these elements is really important. So having prons about analyzing the series of news and if there’s something that is happening in a company that really changes you know its uh business model uh and if that business model is amplified by the phenomen by the regime right now right what are stocks that are being amplified right now AI data centers all this money being spent even by the government all these partnerships right this is let’s say you have a a stock that didn’t have anything and then it has some news around AI data center for example or space economy you know, that’s how you elevate, you know, your your your let’s say your your game. Um, but don’t overdo it. All right? And it needs a lot of work. It’s not I hopefully in two years AI is going to be better at everything. Uh, and that’s why I want to be, you know, early on the game around that. But, uh, you can really, you know, on ter in terms of behavioral, sentiment, analyzing Reddit, whatever kind of social arbiters think about the stories, narratives, and some thematics, it really does a good job. But um if you ask it about price action, it does not do a good job. If you ask it about math and fundamentals, it’s not going to do good job. So use it uh you know where it’s needed. Do you think research purposes and streamlining that is where PE is, you know, traders should be focusing on because no doubt there’s probably a lot of traders out there maybe from misinformation or maybe even from just assuming they can get their analysis and their technical analysis from uh AI. So they should really be streamlining the research side of Well, yeah, it depends like um you can write a model that you feed your own data. Mhm. Right. And maybe something that we can do in the future. You feed your own data what is considered a nice setup and maybe the answers are more better, right? Compared to asking such and then it changes the entire internet to tell you the answer, right? Of course, you can make your own model. So, I think you know the the sky is the limit there. There’s not a you know a bad action or or what, but the sure that like uh these things exist and we need to be on top of them. I think the the best trader out there is going to be the merge of a discretionary mindset with the help of AI. Uh that’s I think the new meta. That’s interesting. That’s very interesting and we’re going to hopefully redo another podcast in the future to to find out the answer to that question. Yeah. Um one thing that really comes to mind and I find it interesting because themes are so important. themes can really, you know, being able to identify a theme and hopefully identify it early can make or break your trading can completely change what that P&L looks like for that quarter, year, month or whatever it may be, the time period. But what is your process to identifying a theme? How do you identify? How do you define a theme from your perspective? Yeah, that’s a nice question. So when we talk about themes, generally we talk about subindustry mechanics, right? Like the you know, you have stuff, let’s say technology, that’s a sector, right? And then you let’s say you have uh let’s say hardware let’s say that’s an industry right if you go lower than that there’s not a language there right it’s what analysts use or certain people on Twitter post or you know the the general language out there that is poant so themes is let’s imagine it’s a space right uh that stocks belong to you know a certain group as an group but it’s not yet defined by the market right okay So uh but why is important having themes because at each regime there are things that are being as I said amplified by external forces okay without anything changing materially about the companies right so I’ll tell you an example of something that you know I bought uh last year uh no in 2024 for example that you know it’s evident so you know uh when IQ you know started showing some really nice price formations, you know, nice price structure, acceleration in price, escaping a range, long-term range from the past, elevated volume. It had a catalyst, right, that I evaluated back then. Um, and it started making a really nice momentum move. Well, I asked myself, what does this company do? And I said, you know, as you do your research, you say you see the title quantum computing. Quantum computing. Well, that was a thing back in 2021, you know, as a team. But then you know after inq IQ made a move one month later you see a cluster of stuff cubit rajeti qbts dwa and all that stuff showing in footprints elevated footprints extreme price structures and then you ask what are these things doing quantum computing quantum computing quantum computing oh now I have four that’s an emerging theme so all the stuff exploded right QBT S Rajetti made crazy moves. Was it that they were great companies, right? No, it was they belong to a theme that gained a lot of attention and you already had a leader as well. Let’s say and Q that started the move and act as a amplifying force into other stuff as well. Right? So for the themes let’s say manually. All right. Uh you start about what the companies are doing and what is the revenue streams and what’s the purity of what they do and everything. Right? And then you start to to after you let’s say you have 220 stocks that you track you put down some keywords right for based on the business operations and where they’re aligned the customers clients uh where they help you know many things uh you put some keywords for each company and then you go over these keywords and you see oh this keyword is similar to another stock another token and then you clash them together right and that’s how you find AI data centers for example iron cipher and all that stuff where crypto transitioning into AI data centers. Okay, that’s a new theme that happened and great moves that I you know I captured there. Uh so uh you know or space you know industry right with Roget Lab and uh you know way more stocks that were amplified by the presence of SpaceX right and the news of SpaceX and other companies right so you just put down notes you compare your keywords you cluster things together all right and then you try to monitor the dominance let’s say and and the themes quality like is that theme um materially going to change the world right can may drive a lot of uh hate and also a lot of love. Mhm. Uh is it innovative? Right. You can have stuff like um I don’t know uh teenage clothes, right? And you compare that with nuclear energy. What’s more innovative? Right? So you understand all these qualities and uh you understand the dominance of stuff and how things move the keywords and you cluster things together and then you track them you know as themes uh as groups synthetically right instead of stocks. But uh it’s an easy process. It just needs a lot of work on understanding what the each company is doing, putting your notes, but it’s not so hard to understand the themes. The themes uh getting the themes right is one of the most important superpowers in trading because themes work together in clusters, right? Uh and as time goes by more I see myself that more and more themes emerge, right? like we had less you know uh back when we go through the years but uh as technology evolves and big breakthroughs are happening more and more themes are getting there right now for example 2025 had a ton of themes a ton of things probably 2026 will have more robotics let’s say or things we haven’t even uh you know uh even imagine yet right uh it’s one of the most important superpowers I think and it’s not so hard to do so I want to go into some quickfire questions to finish off. So, I’m not good at that though. I told you I’m not fast to react. Well, I’m going to have to find out now. This is a tester. Um, but what would you say is the hardest thing about trading? You’ve been trading coming into your 10th year this year. What’s the hardest element of trading for traders? Understanding the ins and outs of my system. And what would you say is the easiest element of trading? Finding an edge. So why is that the easiest you know because it’s not so hard honestly to find an edge right like uh put your stats out put different irritations of win rate and you know loss rates and reward risks uh there are certain strate strategies and setups ready there for you to take advantage of them they have it can you really stick to them do you understand them fully can you go through all the surprises as we talked in them so finding an edge is not hard you can find an edge right away okay even that what I told compressing the width of stops and it increases your edge and your profitability. That’s an edge, right? Uh you know that already from this talk. You can use it. It’s an edge. Equality of an edge. So finding edge is not hard. Maintaining that edge and you know and longevity is hard. How do you get over missing a trade? So missing say you missed an outlier trade. Does that impact you if it has? How do you overcome that? Yeah, like um if I was monitoring that that trade, right? And uh it depends on when when it happened, right? Like if there are a lot of things firing and I know that uh maybe I’m already exposure big and uh you know I can’t get a ton of positions in and I miss a few trades, it doesn’t matter. But uh you know if there are not a lot of things happening in the market and I have done my research and uh you know I understand that this stock has a lot of qualities along with price to make something big and I miss it just off stupidity well I’m going to be mad and it’s going to ruin my day uh for sure. uh but it depends on the context right like when a lot not a lot of things are being done in the markets and selectivity needs to be there and I’ve done my great work in selectivity and I know things like this environment in the past 3 months at the day of we’re recording this wasn’t the easiest environment and it’s still selectivity needs to be you know in play so missing outliers here is is more painful you know than when everything is the market is great everything works out you are fully exposure we are into margin you don’t care you’re already exposed you’re already if something hits you’re going to have the outlier impact. So it depends on the context but yeah for sure they ruin my day still. So what’s your process though? So when you have that uh you know ruined day what’s your process thereafter? How do you get back to balance? How what do you do in those moments? Well uh you know I’m saying ruin my day you know in a funny way right it’s not that I’m you know wearing black and uh you know [laughter] you know cry all day on on my house but you just understand that uh you need a few outrage per year. As I said, I need, you know, I make 15. All right? Uh or 10, like, you know, it’s not so many trades that you’re going to hit and everything. You know, you you even if you miss some trades, another one is going to pop up at some point. Okay? Uh so you you trust your system and you know that uh a few outriers can make it big. You’re going to have them in a year if you’re really paying attention, understanding all these dynamics, the themes, the rotations, and all that stuff. So, it’s okay, one lost, whatever. All right, we’re going to find the next one. So you write it off in a couple of hours. Uh you know but it depends on the context but if you have spent a lot of time on research yeah it’s more painful but again it’s not in the level that you know really distracts you. Just a quick one that came to mind then the classic is probably one you’ve seen before but a classic question is if there’s 10 to 15 you know trades that are going to make up the bulk of your P&L why not only trade those 10 to 15 trades? That’s a great question because no one predicts the markets. No one has that predictive power. Okay? You never know which stocks are going to turn out flyers. Never. Uh I’ve been in stocks that I thought that they can make a 300% move uh you know and they made the a,000% move. I’ve been sorry a 50% move and they make a th00and% move. That’s what I mean. or I’ve been in stores that I thought they would make a 500% move and they you know they stopped me out and the you know died after you know the move uh my entry so no one knows that all you have to do is increase that outl you never know which stocks are going to turn out large you can’t predict the market so you don’t even put it on your system you embrace that I don’t need to predict all I have to do is increase the probabilities of more outliers happening on average in my system compared to someone else. Okay. And that’s why we bring all those qualities and commonalities of the past. How much discretion would you say comes into trading or how much should it come into trading? Should you say there are a lot of things that are systematic like your entry tactics, your selling tactics are systematic, right? You can write a code and be fully automated. But when it comes understanding the small inner, you know, lines and thematic and rotations and, you know, purities and uh stories and sentiments. Yeah, all that stuff, you know, uh, you know, needs a lot of of discretion and hopefully I can take away some of that pain, all right, from us. But, uh, yeah, uh, tra trading up until now has been, uh, you know, uh, fully, you know, discretionary if we exclude some parts of it. Uh and I think that’s a good thing because we prove that um you know uh you know that’s something I’m not sure if I’m verified like um I think uh George Hall who writes the market wizard new book right he said I’m was looking for a quant that has an outlier performance and I couldn’t find that please correct me if I’m wrong there we can check yeah but um you know and really it struck me like really is it only us discretionary traders that really you know can have outlier performances. uh so as as I say like if that’s true okay and can be verified of course we know that quants renaissance technologies do create like many we know but extreme performances meaning you know 300% 400% a year like stuff like that right um if that’s really true then as I said the new meta is merging that discretion with the AI and its qualities and making a a hybrid of of you know a supercharged version of you and that’s what you’re focused on that’s what I’m focused on Very interesting indeed. What would you say is the go-to resource for trading education? like where when it comes to let me rephrase that because it’s going to be us hopefully at one point but um like when it comes to resources to learn for trading what would you uh say is the best resources uh when when it comes to your journey whether it be past or present there are a lot of books out there that are timeless right like William O’Neil’s books and Mark Winter’s books are really solid they get you you know from A to Z into this framework of course you need to put a lot of work to understand as as we said all this framework and adjust a few things Right? I adjusted to I merged a ton of things from everywhere. Right? Uh they’re great books. Also, for example, one uh really important factor for my development uh more about the clarity part. All right. And uh was Christian Kulami streams like there are people that stream their daily you know process. Uh so this can be helpful because you know trading is a lonely profession. You don’t necessarily have friends in space. So having someone that shares his view in the market from time to time you know um and verifies his your findings challenge you to church a bit more. So it was that about Christian like uh it was a shadow let’s say uh mentor because I’ve never you know met him that you know challenged me to go even deeper right so yeah streams from people that uh have good uh results uh and books that are timeless and many people mention are great resources but trust me the best resources are going to be the ones you make for yourself go and study the past that’s all you need all right and um yeah if you want to keep a lot of you know years and are really you know uh timesensitive while finding someone who can give you a full inherited system um can help through through some courses or joining a community I’m not you know against that uh even if I don’t run something like that right meaning a recorded course or something rather or a community right but um you know you need to put your work into as we said trusting that and everything yeah but yeah great books and a lot of people put out content out there for free. Uh this these podcasts are great resource, right? Uh for sure you learn the mindsets of different people that you didn’t have access 10 years ago. When I started this wasn’t available. You had to pay everything was besides a ped wall, right? Mhm. So yeah, like uh this can be bad due to the overload of information. It can. Yeah. So as I said again and I will repeat it. If you want to take one thing from this is listen to who you are. If you have some struggles, you don’t feel that there’s a conflict of what you do with who you are. Try to listen what are your qualities. All right? And don’t be afraid of change. Okay? You can make money no matter what the style is. Okay? Just make it, you know, sync with you. I love that. I was literally about to say that was one of the the final two was uh what was your message to the the audience, but you kind of just did that right now. So final question and this is one that I’ve been doing uh more recently on podcast is in trading we talk about money a lot we talk about returns but just generally speaking for you as an individual what does success mean to you? Well the first success is being financially free. Once you achieve that then things are you know um um I think success is is an ego thing after that right? What do you want to achieve? Do you want to leave an impact on this world? Do you want to create a massive following and influence a ton of people? Um, but you know, I think success can be defined differently by a lot of people. That’s what I was saying. What is it to you? Yeah. So, for me, um, you know, I started for the money. I found the passion. So, success for me is not, you know, to print out, uh, 400% years anymore. Success for me is to live a good life. my girlfriends out there, you know, to spend a good time together. Uh, I’ve done the work. So, it’s time for me to start, you know, you know, living life as well. That’s something that I would define success as well in this part, you know, this journey that I have. Um, and for sure, as I said, like when you create some wealth, then you know, your priorities uh change. But, uh, you know, success for other people can be clarity. All right? And maybe success when you’re break even, success can be 30%. Right? So you know the way I defined success was you know this changed from time to time like my goals were different from time to time. So I can give you a right answer because my success now I think that’s a great answer in terms of uh you know a lot of the time we don’t think of that. We think of success as this one goal, this one thing that we’re trying to strive towards. But that’s a it’s an amazing point of yeah it can success can be I want to make it but it’s the milestones the many success milestones inside there that you know change from time to time right and everything changes but uh yeah Mario I’m sure we could sit here for hours and hours and hours and I would love to I know we already have technically because we did a chart fanatics before this uh so that’s what five six hours worth of recording today. I appreciate you so much and I hope that we can have you back in future. Hopefully do some roundts and some other things and you know all the success to you and I hope you do get to enjoy more life and and uh get to do more things outside of the charts but I know that passion for the markets is so evident for all to see and I appreciate you being here today as well. Thank you man. It was a pleasure and uh you know it was great meeting you in person. My honor and hopefully we get to do it again for sure. Everyone at home drop a comment of your biggest takeaway from this episode. I know we went into so much depth and different different topics. So comment maybe what your favorite topic from today’s discussion was. But links for Mario will be in the description below. So make sure you check that out as well. Other episodes are on screen. So check those out. Hit like, hit subscribe. And this has been Words of Wisdom. Until next time, take care.