I AM

HIM

My story

I wasn't always this way. When I first started out, I was just like everyone else. I was shy, timid, lazy. My life's accomplishments at the time were that I dropped out of college without telling my parents, and my stocking of shelves.

In preschool, they asked us "what do you want to be when you grow up?" My answer, "A Fisherman."

I wanted a simple life with simple things. However, the universe had different ideas. It happened like it was always meant to be. I discovered the stock market. I was still just a kid going to college with a dead-end major in physics while working full-time. I had heard about investing, and I wanted to make a little bit of extra money. I was simply hoping to net an extra $1,000 per month. As a college student, this extra cash would have been a game-changer. It would have meant I could afford to take my girlfriend out, I could eat better food, I could live a little bit. But that wasn't what happened.

It wasn't enough

My Eureka moment

I don't remember exactly what triggered me to have the realization. At some point I was just tired of not giving it my all. I realized that I was being lazy. I kept finding reasons to not put in the work. I refused to track data. I refused to save charts. I refused to face my mistakes.

Looking back on it now, I realize that it was just my way of giving myself an out.

A way to say "I failed, but it's ok because I didn't try my hardest."

A way to cope with my incompetency.

Once I decided to actually give it my all. I started saving screenshots of a pattern that I was seeing. I gathered the necessary data points to test it. Hours upon hours, tests upon tests. And then it happened. I found a strategy. A strategy that made sense. A strategy that I could replicate. A strategy that worked not only on paper, but in my actual account as well.

My first taste of success.

The Breakup

Some people learn things the hard way. I however only learn the hardest way possible. There I was. A 21 year old kid. I had made some money. I started going to the gym. I was becoming confident. I even landed myself a girlfriend.

I was on the biggest hot streak I think I will ever have. Everything was going fantastic. I was making money hand over fist. I had moved out of my small little town and had gotten engaged. My life was perfect. I was winning Every. Single. Trade. My risk management hadn't gotten checked. If I placed a trade, it would immidiately work in my favor. I had created a god complex.

I finally lost.

Slowly, things started falling apart. I was losing more. I stopped working out. I developed anxiety. Eventually, My fiance left me.

I had my first taste of success, and now I was having a taste of defeat. I needed to rebuild myself. Over the next 6 months. I got in the best shape of my life, and I found myself again.