Becoming a Better Trader

The Boring Part of Trading That Actually Changes Results

“The reason people either lose money or achieve mediocre results in the stock market is they simply make too many mistakes.”

— William O’Neil

So what is the easiest way to find out what your weaknesses are?

You track your trades.

Not just the ticker.

Not just the entry and exit.

Not just whether you made or lost money.

You track the decisions.

• Did you follow your rules?

• Did you size the position correctly?

• Did you honor your stop?

• Did you buy in the direction of the market?

• Did you chase?

• Did you sell too early?

• Did you repeat the same mistake again?

This is the boring, less exciting part of trading that almost nobody wants to talk about.

But it may be one of the most important parts of getting better.

Because you cannot reduce mistakes you are not tracking.

You cannot fix weaknesses you have not identified.

And you cannot improve your process if every trade just becomes a vague memory.

That is exactly why we built the trade journal and performance tracker inside the Momentum Trading Strategy Web App software.

It does not just record trades.

It helps you review them, grade them, track performance, identify recurring mistakes, and see where your biggest leaks are coming from.

The goal is simple:

• Find the mistakes.

• Measure the mistakes.

• Reduce the mistakes.

Because better trading is not just about finding better stocks.

It is about becoming the kind of trader who makes fewer unforced errors.

This Started With Morning Coffee and a Few Trading Notes

A few thoughts on momentum, growth stocks, market conditions, relative strength, risk management, position sizing, and the lessons I’ve picked up from studying some of the greatest traders over the last 100 years.

A few months later, Momentum Trading Strategy has grown to more than 6,600 subscribers and is currently ranked #45 New Bestseller on Substack.

I’m incredibly grateful for everyone who has read, shared, commented, subscribed, and helped build this community.

What started as simple writing has slowly evolved into something much bigger:

A full educational platform built around articles, market notes, a trading course, software, market dashboards, relative strength stock screener, position sizing tools, trade review analytics, and a community of traders trying to build a real process.

The goal has never been to create an alert service or tell people what to buy.

The goal is to build the resource I wish I had when I was first learning how to trade growth stocks.

A place where traders can learn how to:

• Find leading stocks.

• Understand market conditions.

• Track relative strength.

• Manage risk.

• Size positions correctly.

• Review trades honestly.

• Build discipline.

And develop a repeatable process that can survive both good markets and bad ones.

There is still a lot more coming, but it has already grown far beyond what I expected in just a few months.

Thank you to everyone who has been here early.

We are just getting started.

The Hidden Reason Your Trading Edge Isn’t Showing Up

Most traders do not actually know if their strategy works.

They think they do.

But they are not really measuring the strategy.

They are measuring the strategy mixed with fear, hesitation, boredom trades, oversized positions, early exits, skipped stops, revenge trades, and emotional decision-making.

That is a completely different system.

Van Tharp’s 95% discipline standard changed the way I think about reviewing trades.

• A good trade is not automatically a winning trade.

• A good trade is a trade where you followed your plan.

• A bad trade is not automatically a losing trade.

• A bad trade is a trade where you broke your rules.

That is exactly why I built the Performance Tracker inside the Momentum Trading Strategy App.

Because your brain can trick you in real time.

Your journal cannot.

Full post here: https://tradingmomentum.substack.com/p/your-trading-strategy-isnt-broken

Not All Swing Traders Are on the Same Time Frame

Two traders can both call themselves swing traders and still be playing completely different games.

Two traders can both call themselves position traders and still be managing completely different time frames.

That is one concept I forget many beginner and even intermediate traders have not fully learned yet.

Most people understand the basic labels.

• Day trading usually means you are in and out the same day.

• Swing trading usually means holding for a few days to a few weeks.

• Position trading usually means holding for weeks to months.

Simple enough.

But the real world is not that clean.

There is a huge gray area between swing trading and position trading.

Some swing traders use intraday charts for execution. Some do not. Some swing traders focus mostly on the daily chart, while others use the daily and weekly structure together.

Position traders can be just as different. Some use the daily and weekly charts. Some care mostly about the weekly chart. Others use the weekly and monthly charts to manage the bigger trend.

And some position traders still look at intraday charts, daily charts, and weekly charts at the same time. They may use the lower time frames for entry and the higher time frames to manage the trade.

This is why one trader can be short a stock and make money while another trader is long the same stock and also make money.

That sounds impossible until you understand time frame.

One trader might be shorting a short-term overextension.

Another trader might be long from a much lower base, holding through normal volatility.

One trader might be managing a 2-day trade.

Another might be managing a 6-month position.

Both can be right.

Both can be profitable.

And the reverse is also true.

Two traders can be on opposite sides of the same stock and both lose money if their timing, sizing, risk management, or execution is poor.

This is why blindly copying someone else’s trade is dangerous.

When you hear that a famous investor is short a stock, you usually do not know their entry, size, hedge, time horizon, partial exits, risk plan, or real objective.

You do not know if they are managing a trade, a hedge, a portfolio position, or a thesis that may take years to play out.

So when people jump online and say, “Aha, he was wrong,” just because the stock went up, they are often revealing more about their own lack of trading knowledge than the investor they are criticizing.

The market does not grade opinions.

It grades time frame, entry, exit, size, risk, and execution.

That is why multiple time frame analysis matters.

Yes, when multiple time frames are aligned, the probability of a trade working usually improves.

And yes, when traders review their losing trades, they often find the same mistake:

They executed on a lower-time-frame signal while the higher time frame was moving against them.

But this note is about something even more basic.

When you are reading Substack, scrolling Twitter, watching YouTube, or listening to someone discuss a stock, you need to understand that everyone may be speaking from a completely different time frame.

Even if they use the same label.

A stock can be bullish on the weekly chart, extended on the daily chart, and breaking down on the 15-minute chart, all at the same time.

That does not mean the chart is confused.

It means you need to know what game you are playing.

Before you ask, “Is this stock bullish or bearish?”

Ask a better question:

“On what time frame?”

The Most Dangerous Trader Is the One Who Can’t Change His Mind

The most dangerous trader is not the skeptic.

It is the person who refuses to test anything new.

But the second most dangerous trader is the person who tests everything new.

Both get stuck.

One is so resistant to change that they never discover a better way.

The other is so easily convinced that they jump from system to system, strategy to strategy, indicator to indicator, always looking for the next thing.

The answer is somewhere in the middle.

Be skeptical.

Question everything.

Scrutinize the process.

But then actually test it.

That is exactly what happened to me.

When I first started studying the type of momentum trading strategy I now teach, I was skeptical. I did not immediately believe it. In fact, part of me wanted to prove it wrong.

So I studied it.

I tested it.

I looked at the biggest winning stocks in history.

I looked at relative strength.

I looked at earnings and sales growth.

I looked at volume, leadership, breakouts, risk management, position sizing, and repeatable patterns.

And somewhere along the way, while trying to prove the system wrong, I realized the evidence was proving me wrong.

That is when everything changed.

I have done the same thing with diet, training, and other parts of life. Instead of endlessly debating, I tested it for 30, 60, or 90 days. Sometimes I expected it not to work.

Then I felt better.

Looked better.

Performed better.

And it became part of my life.

Trading is no different.

Sometimes the best way to find out whether a strategy is for you is not to argue with it.

It is to test it.

And if you are stubborn like me, use that stubbornness correctly.

Tell yourself:

“I’m going to follow this exactly, just to prove them wrong.”

But here is the key.

If you are going to test a system, actually test the system.

• Do not say the strategy does not work if you did not cut your losses.

• Do not say the strategy does not work if you sold every winner too early.

• Do not say the strategy does not work if you ignored the stock screening criteria.

• Do not say the strategy does not work if you bought weak stocks, in weak groups, during a weak market.

That is not testing the system.

That is testing your ability to break rules.

You do not need a lot of capital to test a strategy.

You need discipline.

You need rules.

You need enough open-mindedness to try it, and enough skepticism to make sure it actually works.

That balance is where real growth happens.

Stop Looking for a Revolutionary Trading System

“Right now, I consider myself to be an expert modeler. By that, I mean that if someone can do something well, then I can figure out how they do it and teach those skills to anyone else.” — Dr. Van K. Tharp

This is exactly how I found success in trading.

I did not invent the concepts I teach. I do not take credit for them. I studied what worked, modeled the best traders I could find, and built a process around those principles.

That is also the foundation of the Momentum Trading Strategy Course.

Too many people in trading try to sell ideas as if they invented some revolutionary new strategy. In most cases, they are either full of ego or selling something that will not last.

As David Ryan has said, “there is nothing new under the sun.”

Markets change on the surface, but human behavior does not. Fear, greed, supply, demand, leadership, relative strength, accumulation, distribution, risk management, and position sizing still matter.

It is the same in business.

The tools change. The platforms change. The principles do not.

So instead of wasting years searching for a revolutionary system, find something proven, study it deeply, and work to execute it better than most people are willing to.

That is where the edge is.

And do not feel bad if you spent time looking for something “revolutionary.”

I did too.

Your Trading System Might Not Be the Problem. Your Position Size Might Be.

Most traders think the problem is their entries.

Sometimes it is.

But sometimes the real problem is position size.

You can have the right stock, the right setup, and the right general idea, but if the position is too large, a normal pullback feels like a crisis.

And if the position is too small, even a good edge barely moves the account.

That is why position sizing matters so much.

Years ago, I remember reading about Dr. Van Tharp’s Marble Game.

It was one of the simplest but most impactful exercises I ever did for understanding position sizing.

The lesson was obvious once you saw it play out:

The same system.

The same edge.

The same win rate.

The same distribution of outcomes.

But completely different results depending on how much each player risked per draw.

That is when position sizing really started to click for me.

I’m wrapping up Module 6 of the Momentum Trading Strategy Course, which is focused on risk management and position sizing, and it should be released in the next few days.

While building this module, I realized something:

Most people are probably not going to go buy a bag of 100 marbles and physically play the game.

And most people are probably not going to build an Excel or Google Sheets version either.

So I built the marble game directly into the Momentum Trading Strategy Web App.

Inside the app, you can run the marble game digitally, test different win rates, different R-multiple distributions, different bet sizes, and compare players side by side.

I also added features that were not part of the original version.

One of the biggest is progressive exposure.

Instead of risking the same percentage on every draw, you can simulate a more realistic approach where bet size increases slightly after the account builds a profit cushion, and then scales back down if drawdown starts to grow.

This is similar to the idea George Soros talked about:

Risking profits is very different from risking principal.

When you are starting with only your original capital, you may want to be more conservative and keep drawdowns smaller.

But after you have built a cushion, especially in a strong market environment, you may be willing to press a little more in order to maximize the opportunity.

Then, while building the marble game, I realized another issue:

A lot of newer traders may not even know what position size makes sense for their strategy.

So I also built an Optimal Size tool.

It can pull your actual trading statistics from the performance tracker inside the app, or you can enter your numbers manually.

You input things like win rate, average gain, average loss, and trades per year.

Then it runs Monte Carlo simulations to estimate different position sizes, projected returns, average max drawdowns, 95th percentile max drawdowns, and bust risk.

The goal is not to predict the future.

The goal is to understand the range of possible outcomes based on your trading statistics.

A good system still needs the right size.

Risk too little, and the edge may not move the needle.

Risk too much, and even a positive expectancy system can become untradable.

Position sizing is not just about survival.

It is also about maximizing your system’s profitability while keeping drawdowns within a range you can actually follow.

Stop Studying the Outliers

You will always find outliers who are successful doing things differently.

That does not just apply to trading.

It applies to almost everything in life.

But the key is to study what the majority of successful winners have in common.

That is what I have focused on.

That is what I am teaching you.

Once you have years of experience and consistent profitability, you can venture into the world of outliers if you want.

But until then, learn the principles followed by the majority of successful traders.

Focus on the things most of them actually do.

And the funny thing is, many of the people who ventured away from the tried and true eventually came right back to it.

When you read Market Wizards, listen for the common principles they share, not just the differences.

People spend too much time arguing about what is better, or why their way is better.

And they miss the golden nuggets.

They focus on the differences instead of the commonalities.

They obsess over strategies, tactics, stock screens, setups, indicators, and all the other noise.

But they miss the part almost every great trader agrees on:

Risk management and position sizing are what matter most.

If You Can’t Answer These Questions, You’re Not Trading, You’re Gambling.

Every serious trader and investor eventually learns the same lesson:

Risk management is not optional.

It does not matter if you are a macro trader, growth stock investor, momentum trader, trend follower, or systematic trader.

It does not matter what your timeframe is, whether you are a day trader, swing trader, position trader, or multi-year long-term investor.

The strategies may look different.

The timeframes may be different.

The entries may be different.

The exits may be different.

The data that shows positive expectancy may be different.

But the people who survive long enough to compound capital over months, years, and decades all have one thing in common:

They know how they are managing risk.

The tactics are different.

The principle is the same.

Every legitimate strategy has some way of answering the same questions:

• How much can I lose?

• Where am I wrong?

• How will I know I am wrong?

• How much of my total equity is at risk?

• What happens if this trade or investment goes completely against me?

• If the trade goes in my favor, where am I a seller?

• Am I managing risk based on emotion, or based on a defined process?

Because profitable trading is not just about finding good ideas.

It is about having a positive expectancy system and managing risk so you can stay in the game long enough for that edge to play out.

That means you should know your numbers:

• What is my average gain?

• What is my average loss?

• What is my win rate?

• What is my gain/loss ratio?

• What is my adjusted gain/loss ratio?

• What is my profit factor?

• What is my expectancy?

• What is my max drawdown?

• What is my average MAE, or maximum adverse excursion?

• What is my average MFE, or maximum favorable excursion?

There are more, but these are a few key metrics.

These are not just trading analytics.

They are survival metrics.

Your average gain, average loss, and win rate tell you whether your system has positive expectancy.

Your profit factor tells you how much you are making for every dollar lost.

Your max drawdown tells you whether you can financially and psychologically survive the difficult periods.

Your MAE tells you how much pain you are allowing trades to go through before they work or fail.

Your MFE tells you how much opportunity you are capturing versus how much you are giving back.

A trader can look profitable on paper but still be carrying hidden risk.

If someone is constantly sitting through massive unrealized losses before a trade finally works, that may show up as a winning trade in the final results.

But the process underneath may be dangerous or may not be sustainable over time.

A system can have positive expectancy and still be nearly impossible to execute if the drawdowns are too large, the volatility is too extreme, the position sizing is too aggressive, or the trader is regularly allowing small mistakes to become big account-threatening losses.

That is why risk management is not just about stop losses.

It is about position sizing.

It is about exposure.

It is about knowing your numbers.

It is about understanding whether your strategy is actually repeatable, or whether you simply got lucky during a favorable stretch.

Different types of investors and traders may manage risk differently, but the successful ones all do it.

And if someone claims they want to be a serious trader or investor but cannot answer these questions, they are probably not operating with a process.

They are gambling.

The market will forgive bad trades.

It will not forgive bad risk management forever.

Stop chasing stock tips. Start building a real trading process.

I just put together a full “Start Here” roadmap for Momentum Trading Strategy.

If you are a new paid subscriber, this is where I would begin.

If you are a free subscriber and have been wondering what is actually included, this gives you the full lay of the land.

Inside, I walk through the complete process:

• MTS Course

• Market Overview Dashboard

• Big Picture

• Relative Strength Dashboard & Stock Screener

• Watchlists Tool

• Risk Management & Position Sizing Tools

• Trade Planning

• Trade Journaling

• Performance Review and Analytics

• Paid Subscriber Chat (purpose)

The goal is not to memorize a few patterns or chase random tickers.

The goal is to build a repeatable process for finding leaders, managing risk, and improving over time.

https://tradingmomentum.substack.com/p/start-here-the-complete-roadmap-for

Stop Trying to Invent a Trading System

Reminder:

There is no right or wrong way to trade.

There is only the way that works for you.

With that being said, a lot of traders do not actually have a system that can produce profitable results over the long run.

They may have short-term success.

They may catch a few good trades.

They may even think they have figured it out.

But lucky results and repeatable results are not the same thing.

If you do not have a system with positive expectancy, the easiest path is not to invent one from scratch.

The easiest path is to study someone who already has one.

That is not weakness.

That is wisdom.

Most great businesses are built this way. They study what has already worked, copy proven models, make them profitable, and then slowly add their own flavor over time.

Trading is no different.

You do not need to create some revolutionary new strategy.

You need to learn a strategy that already works, practice it, apply it, and manage risk long enough to let the math play out.

And here is the little secret nobody wants to admit:

Almost every successful trader you follow copied someone before them.

Maybe they package it like it is brand new.

Maybe they renamed it.

Maybe they added a tweak, a filter, or a different acronym.

But the core ideas usually existed long before them.

Breakouts existed before them.

Trend following existed before them.

Relative strength existed before them.

Earnings and sales growth existed before them.

Price and volume existed before them.

Risk management existed before them.

The best traders are not usually the ones inventing something completely new.

They are the ones who take proven principles, study them deeply, apply them consistently, and make them their own over time.

You would probably experience a lot less pain if you did the same.

I know I did.

Learn the markets.

Study what has already worked.

Copy proven principles.

Make some money.

Build consistency.

Then, once you are profitable, start experimenting with your own style.

This is a marathon, not a sprint.

The goal is not to look original.

The goal is to survive long enough to get good.

Trade the Market You’re In, Not the One You Want

Something Mark Minervini said in the Master Trader Program really stood out to me.

It was about understanding the market environment… and how that should impact your trading.

A lot of traders label themselves.

“I’m a swing trader.” “I’m a position trader.”

And for years, you hear the same advice.

Pick one. Master it.

But that is not how the best traders actually operate.

Minervini does both.

And the reason is simple.

The market changes.

There are environments where shorter-term trading makes more sense.

You take quicker profits. You manage risk tighter. You stay nimble.

This often shows up in more extended markets. Middle to later stages of a bull cycle.

You are not trying to hit home runs.

You are taking what the market is giving you.

Then the environment shifts.

After a major correction. After a bear market. Early stages of a new bull cycle.

That is when the opportunity changes.

That is when the best stocks can make outsized moves.

That is when it makes sense to press. To hold longer. To think more like a position trader.

This lines up with how traders like William O’Neil and David Ryan approached the market.

And it aligns directly with what Van K. Tharp taught.

Understand the environment. Adjust accordingly.

This is what separates professionals from everyone else.

Most traders stay rigid.

They try to force one style onto every market.

But the reality is simple.

Different environments require different tactics.

You do not need to pick a label.

You need to read the market.

And when you do that, everything starts to make more sense.

MBAs Won’t Make You Money

Everyone thinks an MBA is a cheat code.

A shortcut to success. A faster path to money. A way to get ahead.

That might be true… in the corporate world.

But in trading and entrepreneurship?

It’s almost useless.

And I’m not saying that from the outside.

I have an MBA.

I’ve also built a business from zero to well into seven figures.

So I’ve seen both sides.

The MBA helped in exactly one area, getting a foot in the door for traditional careers.

That’s it.

When it comes to trading?

It did nothing.

Everything I know about trading came from doing the work. Studying the greats. Reading, watching the market, making mistakes, and refining a process

No classroom teaches that.

No professor can simulate real risk.

No textbook can replicate the psychological pressure of having money on the line.

Trading is earned through experience, not credentials.

Entrepreneurship is no different.

You don’t learn how to build a real business in a lecture hall.

You learn by:

• Launching products

• Working with manufacturers

• Figuring out pricing and margins

• Testing ads on Google, Instagram, and Facebook

• Spending money

• Adjusting

• Trying again

I’ve learned more about finance running my own company than I ever did in business school.

More about marketing from spending real dollars than any case study.

More about product development from actually building something people will pay for.

And the truth is, most of what’s taught is already outdated.

By the time it hits a curriculum, the people actually doing it have already moved on.

And here’s the part no one talks about…

This is why I love trading and entrepreneurship.

There’s no politics.

No ladder to climb. No one to impress. No office games.

You don’t get paid for connections. You don’t get rewarded for talking. You don’t get promoted for being liked.

You get paid for results.

That’s it.

You can’t hide behind a title. You can’t fake performance. You can’t blame a boss.

It is one of the purest merit-based systems that exist.

It doesn’t care where you came from. It doesn’t care who you know. It doesn’t care what degree you have.

The market doesn’t care about your résumé.

Your customers don’t care about your credentials.

They only care about one thing, do you deliver or not?

So if you’re thinking:

“I need an MBA to become a better trader…”

You don’t.

You’d be better off saving that money.

Use it to fund your learning.

Your mistakes.

Your reps.

Because in trading and entrepreneurship, the only education that matters…

Is the one you earn.

Most “Smart” Content Is a Complete Waste of Your Time

Most content you’re consuming isn’t making you better.

It’s just making you feel like you’re learning.

I saw a post recently about taxes. Tons of likes. Tons of comments. Catchy title. Even got me to click and read.

It went deep into the history of taxes… why the system is broken… why it’s unfair.

And at the end?

Nothing.

No actual strategies. No actionable takeaways. No way to pay less in taxes.

Just… entertainment disguised as intelligence.

Most people hear things like:

“The rich don’t pay taxes.”

And their reaction is to complain.

Mine was different.

I thought: “How are they doing that?”

So I went and figured it out.

I started treating taxes like a game… How can I legally structure my life and businesses to pay as little as possible?

Same system. Different mindset.

And trading is no different.

Most people say:

“The market is rigged.”

“Algos are hunting stops.”

“Insiders have the advantage.”

Maybe that’s true.

But again… my reaction was different.

Instead of complaining, I picked up Market Wizards and asked:

“What are the people who actually win doing?”

Then I went to work trying to do exactly that.

You have two choices:

1. Become an expert at complaining

2. Become an expert at operating within reality

You’re probably not changing the tax code.

You’re probably not changing how markets operate.

But you can change how you play the game.

The people who win:

• Learn the rules

• Study what works

• Apply it consistently

Same with taxes. Same with trading. Same with life.

You can fight the system…

Or you can learn how to benefit from it.

Most people choose to complain, which doesn’t do anything.

That’s why most people stay stuck.

Why Great Setups Stop Working… And Then Start Again

The hidden cycle most traders never understand

Someone once asked Mark Minervini:

“If these setups work so well, what happens when everyone starts using them?”

It is a great question.

Because on the surface, it feels logical…

If everyone knows the setup, shouldn’t the edge disappear?

His answer was simple.

Sometimes they do stop working.

But then something interesting happens.

Traders move on.

They abandon the setup. They look for something new. They chase what is working now.

And once that happens…

The original setup starts working again.

Just like no single strategy works all the time, no single pattern works all the time.

And if you are relying on just one…

You either need to be patient and wait for conditions to come back, or you will eventually hit a wall.

That is why I built a toolkit of setups over the years.

Not one setup.

A playbook.

There are bull cycles where certain setups dominate.

And others where they barely work at all.

The edge comes from knowing:

what is currently working and adapting accordingly

The goal is not to find a perfect setup.

The goal is to stay aligned with what is working right now, while still grounding yourself in what has worked for decades.

The Question Nobody Asks Before Buying a Stock

Most people just want the hot stock idea.

They’re willing to pay for a newsletter that gives them tips, analysis, and reasons why a stock is the next big winner.

And there’s nothing wrong with that.

But here’s why it doesn’t work for 99 percent of people.

They can’t answer these simple questions:

How are you managing your risk on that idea?

What is your position size?

When do you sell?

When do you add?

If you go in large, when do you take some off along the way?

How do you prevent it from round tripping?

And the biggest one:

Is this actually a low risk, high reward opportunity?

Meaning if you’re wrong, do you lose a little…

But if you’re right, do you make multiples of that risk?

Here’s the reality.

A lot of these stock ideas are presented in a way that makes them feel almost certain.

Like they can’t fail.

But what if they do?

And there’s another problem most people don’t realize.

Everyone is reading and acting on that same idea at different times.

One moment may offer a low risk, high reward opportunity.

The very next moment, that same stock may not.

Without understanding timing, entries, and risk, you could be buying the exact same name with a completely different outcome.

Most people aren’t factoring that in.

Most people aren’t factoring in anything that leads to long-term, consistent profitability.

They take the idea and just buy a random number of shares or allocate some percentage of their portfolio with no real plan behind it.

No structure.

No risk control.

No exit plan.

That’s the problem.

It’s not the idea.

It’s what you do after you buy it.

And that’s why the majority of investors and traders lose money.

That’s how we’re different.

Here at Momentum Trading Strategy, we’re teaching you how to fish, not just handing you fish.

When we share a name, we’re talking about potential entry points, logical stop locations, and where to sell some into strength.

And if we’re simply sharing a name, that framework has already been taught through our in-depth articles and, more importantly, the full course available to paid subscribers.

So when you enter a trade, whether it becomes a winner or a loser, you know exactly what to do.

Those questions aren’t guesses.

They have answers.

What We Actually Do As Momentum Traders

For those of you that are new, here’s what we actually do.

Momentum Trading Strategy primarily focuses on swing and position trading, mainly in growth stocks, while following the trend.

Our strategy is rooted in principles that have worked for over 100 years.

The foundation comes from traders such as Jesse Livermore, Gerald Loeb, Bernard Baruch, Richard Wyckoff, Nicolas Darvas, William O'Neil, and more modern traders like Mark Minervini, David Ryan, Dan Zanger, Kristjan Kullamägi, along with many U.S. Investing Champions.

Different eras.

Same principles.

So what are we primarily looking for?

When the market is bad, we are preserving capital.

We are mostly in cash.

We are preparing for the next Stage 2 uptrend.

When the market is healthy, we are looking to participate in the strongest industry groups.

This changes cycle to cycle.

More recently, we’ve seen strength in areas like computer data storage with names like SNDK.

Telecom with LITE.

And semiconductors with AAOI.

Within these hot industry groups, we are looking to trade the biggest names and the best leaders.

These tend to have high relative strength (RS), meaning they are outperforming the index and most other stocks in the market.

They also have fuel driving that strength.

That fuel usually comes from:

• Strong earnings

• Strong sales

• Or acceleration in earnings and sales

Also, something that might catch the market off guard.

These stocks are typically making new highs repeatedly.

If you look at the chart, they are consistently forming higher highs and higher lows.

So what we are doing is aligning:

• The overall bull market theme

• The hottest industry groups

• The strongest stocks within those groups

All while looking to enter at points that offer low-risk, high-reward opportunities.

If we are wrong, we lose a small amount.

If we are right, we make multiples of that risk.

3x. 5x. 10x. 15x. 20x.

That’s the entire game.

My goal is to provide you with all the tools necessary to actually do this.

Paid subscribers get access to:

• A web app with a Relative Strength Stock Screener to find these types of stocks

• A weekly market newsletter to help you stay aligned with the market

• A Relative Strength dashboard

• A watchlist feature and additional risk management tools

• Shared stock ideas and scans

• And a full course that breaks all of this down in depth.

All for $120 per year.

That’s only $10 per month.

If that’s too expensive, then frankly, you probably shouldn’t be trading.

Same Principles. Different Voices.

“My favorite book is How to Make Money in Stocks by William O’Neil. For me, it’s the stock market Bible.” — Dan Zanger

He didn’t stop there.

• How to Trade in Stocks

• Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

Different books. Same core principles.

The edge isn’t finding new information.

It’s mastering the same concepts over and over again.

You Don’t Need More Information. You Need Repetition

One of the best traders I’ve studied said his favorite book was How to Make Money in Stocks by William O’Neil.

Not because he read it once.

Because he read it over and over again.

Front to back 6 or 7 times early on. Then certain sections 20… 30 times over the years.

That’s the difference.

Most people read a book once. Read an article once. Watch a video once.

And then move on.

That’s not how this works.

You don’t need new information.

You need to master the same information.

We are all studying the same core concepts with slight variations:

• Price

• Volume

• Trends

• Risk management

• Leadership

The edge comes from how deeply you understand it and how well you can execute it in real time.

I personally paid thousands of dollars for a course that covered many of the same concepts found in a $20 book.

Most people would say that’s a bad deal.

It wasn’t.

Because it reinforced the material.

It helped engrain it through repetition, visuals, and application.

It gave me more clarity. More confidence. More “ah-ha” moments.

That’s one of the main reasons I built the Momentum Trading Strategy Course.

Not because the information is secret.

It’s not.

You can learn the same concepts from the books I’ve read.

But the course is designed to help you absorb it faster, see it on real charts, and internalize it through repetition.

This is true for almost all courses.

Mark Minervini’s course is around $5,000.

And yet, most of the concepts are in his book for $20.

Ask anyone who has taken it… they’ll still tell you it was worth it.

Because mastery doesn’t come from exposure.

It comes from repetition.

And eventually, execution.

The material is out there. The real question is… are you willing to master it?

https://tradingmomentum.substack.com/p/momentum-trading-strategy-the-100-026

Trading Isn’t Easy… But It’s Worth It

Stop wasting time chasing get-rich-quick schemes or thinking you’ll find some magical indicator that makes you rich overnight.

Most people want trading to be simple.

Quick wins. Easy money. A few indicators and they’re set.

That’s not how this works.

Dan Zanger said it best:

“I love it… I wouldn’t trade it in for the world. Every day is new. It’s exciting… but it takes years and years of learning, hard work, long hours… a lot of ups and downs before you can put it all together.”

That’s the reality.

Not weeks. Not months.

Years.

Long days. Mistakes. Losses. Frustration.

And this is where most people go wrong.

They waste time and money chasing shortcuts that don’t exist.

Every legendary trader says the same thing…

But you still think you’re going to be the one who finds the easy way.

The indicator. The system. The hack.

Something that prints money without the work.

It doesn’t exist.

And most people learn that the hard way.

Here’s the truth:

It’s not about adding more.

It’s about stripping everything down.

Zanger again:

“Get rid of all the stupid indicators out there… all this MACD stuff and volume accumulation and money flow. I don’t use any of it. It’s totally worthless. It’s price action, it’s volume, it’s chart patterns, it’s spectacular earnings… and that’s all.”

No shortcuts.

No magic formula.

Just:

• Price

• Volume

• Chart patterns

• Earnings & Sales

And years of experience applying it.

If you’re struggling right now…

Good.

That means you’re in the part most people quit in.

The difference is simple:

Stay long enough to figure it out.