The origin story.
As I stated in my previous post, I’ll now be posting once a week, every Sunday. My posts will consist of either chart breakdowns or educational videos related to trading (for the most part) that I’ve watched over the years and that have really influenced the trader I am today. This one is going to be a bit lengthier than usual, but that’s just because I need to provide some context to explain why the video I’m going to discuss basically changed everything for me.
To begin,
My journey into the financial markets began a few years ago, around 2020–2021, when DOGE coin made a crazy run. I made a few lucky bucks, and that gave me a huge wake-up call. That lucky “investment” showed me that there was money to be made by clicking a few buttons and following some nonsense I saw on Twitter. Little did I know that two years later, when I started taking all of this seriously, my life would become a living hell (joking… partially).
Anyway, I made a decent amount of money, and that’s when I became interested in what this whole crypto and stock stuff was all about. Long story short, I ended up withdrawing the majority of my winnings but left some in-and inevitably lost it all
Three years later, I came back around, and this time I decided to get involved-with intention. Did everything go well over these past three years? Hell no. But I can definitely say that, despite not having achieved as much as some of the success stories you see online (yet), I’m happy to say that I’ve approached this endeavor (trading) with genuine intention-not just to make a quick buck.
To continue,
I’m going to talk about where my approach really shifted, but I needed to give some context on where my head was at before I tell you all about where it changed. In Q4 2023, I came across a guy by the name of Kristjan Qullamaggie. Up until this point, I was sort of trading actual setups, but it was a mix between impulsively buying options on either SPY or QQQ-hoping to make quick money-and actually trading support and resistance levels. When things didn’t work out, I would end up impulsively revenge trading and digging myself into a deeper hole.
But then I came across this video-and more importantly, this guy’s YouTube channel. Essentially, Kristjan went from losing $5,000 four times, but on his fourth attempt after blowing up, he became financially free in 2017 after starting in 2011 and surpassed a net worth of $100 million in 2020. Unlike most success stories, however, he documented almost his entire journey for free, with absolutely nothing in return.
The video above is the beginning of a series he calls “Swing Trading School.” The premise of the playlist and video is to teach viewers what we as traders call a “setup” or “edge.” A “setup” is a pattern of consistent price behaviors that you can spot on thousands of charts, providing an opportunity to enter with minimal risk and the potential for a high reward.
This series of videos and this guy even, changed my whole entire mindset and here’s some takeaways I have from this video and the playlist in general.
You need an “edge” or a “setup”. If you trade random shit, you get random results.
-He talks about how you if you just buy or sell at any random price point, you have better odds of going to the casino to make money. You need to trade a setup, and overtime you will learn nuances about that setup like: when it works, when you should sell if you’re in profit, when you should sell at a loss, when it doesn’t work..
You have to put in the screen time. The first barrier you have to break through is pattern recognition. Being able to spot setups, opportunity, and that comes from doing the work. Charting, looking back 5,10, 15, 20 years and seeing how price moves .
-You have to put in the screen time in order to find out the nuances of your setup. How many days does a stock typically go sideways after making a big move, to again make another big move? On average how long does a stock respect the 10 or 20 day moving average in a bull market? When is it best to trade breakouts? When is it not best to trade breakouts? Those are all questions he asks, that us as the view can find out for ourselves, if we put in the screen time. Despite his success, he was humble enough to say that his word was not the end all be all. He encouraged everybody to go in and find out for themselves if his teachings/wisdom was actually true.
Lastly, moving averages, they do NOT lie, especially in a trending market. Moving averages are your bestfriend.
-There’s a few other solid takeaways, but I’m going to put this one in here because before Kristjan, I would’ve never thought to pay attention to moving averages. But every since then, I cannot unsee how much price respects them as key points of interest through the lifespan of a stocks price history.
He essentially would stream on twitch for free, sometimes for hours, sometimes for a few minutes, depending on whether there was any opportunities in the market or anything to really talk about. Not every video he’s posted or every minute of every second of every video he’s posted has value. But within the 500 or so videos he’s posted, there’s nuggets of wisdom here and there.
To conclude,
This playlist was the beginning of a new origin for me. I had finally found a setup, one that was simple, very easy to digest and articulate. But as anyone who’s involved in the financial markets, this is almost only 20% percent of the equation to success and profitability as trader. The other 80% being your mental state while on the pursuit of preservation/growth of your own capital. But that’s a discussion for another day..