Introduction
My name is Munire (goost Hawk), and I’m here to share my real trading journey using the lazy trading system that took me from $3,000 to $100,000. This isn’t about get-rich-quick schemes but about developing a systematic approach that removed emotional decision-making from my trading. I struggled for my first year trying to be a discretionary trader until I discovered the power of data-driven decisions. In this case study, I’ll show you exactly how I transformed my trading by embracing a structured, testable methodology that works specifically for small-cap stocks.
Trader Talks QnA
What really got you into the whole world of investing in trading?
Sure so ever since I was young I was really into Finance uh originally I really wanted a job in like the finance industry whether that be in accountant Investment Banking hedge funds really anything like that um not any really specific reason for that I think I’ve always been motivated by money and that was kind of the main way you get money in the UK at least um so that started me down a road of trying to get into the markets so I think around 17 is when I started doing like a dividend uh trade strategy uh this wasn’t very effective cuz I had a very small amount of money but uh it was something I I made a couple pounds here and there every week or so um so that’s how I originally started and then I kind of gave up on it for a while um I went down a whole different route uh started playing semi-professionally for a couple games um I didn’t make any yeah I didn’t make any crazy money like Brian Lee but I I made enough where I had some starting Capital um and that’s really where once I had that capital I was like might as well trade might as well go back to that route you know maybe I can 100x my money or something like that um so I got into really there and then I started exploring YouTube going through different rooms and that was that was pretty much it.
What kind of games did you play?
I um I was a DPS in OverWatch so I played in contenders um and a couple other Arenas around that area um also played a bit of CSO um yeah that was kind of how I made my money for a time.
You start to dive into learning with YouTube, what happens next?
The first main introduction I can really remember um was humble Trader I think I stumbled across her kind of videos I did a deep dive I I was watching all her really old ones when she was in her old little room and like she was just on like a single webcam and stuff those were great videos oh wow yeah yeah yeah that’s that’s where I learned I think she did do a a video on like the Gap and crap setup and that was that the main place I learned it so after watching all her kind of videos I was like hey I I’ll join her room I think it was like a $100 or something like that back in back in the day uh so I joined that and then I realized mainly she was a large cap Trader so I didn’t like large caps really at all they were too slow uh I wasn’t it wasn’t patient enough didn’t have enough capital for really large caps I could only do like you know a couple shares something like that um so I met a guy in the room which was called Louis I think if I remember correctly and he did small caps so I was I really going into small caps you know lower um price per share so you could get a ton of shares tons of volatility you know shorting all the all the things that gets everyone attracted to small caps kind of got me attracted as well um and then I just started doing small caps for I haven’t really ever changed this is the weird thing is I’ve never changed my strategy so much I’ve just um had more conviction and and got better at execution.
Were you trading everything in anything or were you narrowly focused right away?
I I I’m quite an obsessive uh uh person i i f like to focus on and go very on that one thing so once I identified that caps was kind of more My Fit I liked shorting it made more sense to me just logically as well um I went into kind of everyone else’s not necessarily room or but just education about small caps so you know you got the classics like Steven Ducks timani um and then I started going on Twitter as well which was a huge kind of like key pivotal moment to introduce me to uh not so much like all the classic names some really useful people as well on Twitter that I kind of gained info from um and that was that was me main the main way I started learning more about it and got better at it uh was just by learning from others I I’ve I’ve always thought that most Traders aren’t very unique you’ve probably taken like a hundred things from all these different people they’ve been introduced to and that kind of makes you your unique Trader um so probably anyone could find remnants of Steven dugs and Tim Rani and day trading Zoo all in my trading because I’ve probably just stolen things from from them of what have they put online.
How did you learn from these traders instead of just watching passively?
I think overall what I did was I was a heavy Note Taker so a lot of videos um especially with now ai it makes it even easier if you’re taking notes on on videos and things like that uh but back then I was I was mainly just going through videos normally like 1.2x speed taking some notes of whatever I think is like most uh useful at the time I was kind of I I think quite simplistic I was mainly just looking for like entry parameters or whatever they say to how to like enter I didn’t really focus on the whole psychology side or you know stock selection those kind of things I was I was looking for the the golden nuggets of you know whatever would make me profitable uh which definitely didn’t make me profitable straight away uh but th those helped over time while adding everything else in um but yeah mainly just note taking was the big one I use notion ever note is also a great resource um and I I’ve been a very aid person of creating a huge playlist on YouTube of just all my favorite videos and then just going back and rewatching so if I’m ever feeling bored I just rewatch the old videos and that kind of reminds me maybe sometimes I’ll I’ll notice something new and something that’s like I want to introduce into my trading or something like that um that’s that’s been the key part.
How long did it take you to find something consistent that generated profits?
It wasn’t 2017 it was when I was 17 so I officially started trading nor is uh I started trading in 2019 uh around the start or so uh and then we started seeing some consistency about a year and a half in into my trading also that was when just before that like six months before that I had become more systematic and I started going down the route of like using data and really implementing things like that and 6 months after introducing absorbing a lot of that knowledge I started to see a bit more consistency um that wasn’t necessarily like being profitable in the year or anything like that it was more a more consistent like uptrend on My Equity he pretty much um so at the end of that year I ended just above kind of break even so I was I was profitable uh but it wasn’t anything crazy and then two years after I’ve been profitable like for two years pretty much.
What made you switch to a more systematic approach after your first year?
It was coming to the end of kind of year one of me trading and I hadn’t made any progress hadn’t made any money lost a lot of money um spent a lot of time and I came to kind of a pivotal moment where I I taken a big loss on a on a trade it was completely stupid I’d made some mistake of my own um and I realized I just wasn’t very good at discretionary trading and I was I I spent a lot of time breaking it down into okay like what could potentially I’m missing is it just experience is it just time do I need to apply more time and those kind of things um and just before that kind of time I’d been introduced into someone that was doing like an open to close system uh his name I think if it’s still correct it was is short baggy on Twitter and I saw him and at the time when I saw him I was crazy I was like how are you just shorting the open and then exiting a Clos is ridiculous like there’s no strategy it’s just you’re just shorting Gaffers like this must be really terrible um so I I started to dive in more into that kind of approach and understand okay why is he doing this he seems profitable on Twitter like is there anything to it um and that started me getting down the rabbit hole of going into systematic trading so the main reason I switched was because I was so bad at discy trading and I realized okay discretionary training is going to be built over time and experience so if I don’t want to burn out TR trading cuz I’m so annoyed at myself after a whole year let me try a different approach.
How did you teach yourself the systematic approach?
Teach is probably an overstatement it was kind of just um copying people’s executions really um so like the guy I mentioned he was doing open to close so I was like okay um if there’s a gap on the day let me short it at open I’ll use some crazy wide stop cuz I’d seen he’s been using like 20 or 30% um and that would be kind of the way I’d go about it so I was like okay this is pretty simple as long as I stick to the execution as long as I disciplined it should be fine um and that allowed me to see some consistency the main reason was was at the time uh if I remember correctly small cats was in kind of a week cycle so everything was just fading so when I did it I think after the first week I thought I was a genius I was like oh this is cracked I have I’ve got it now I’m just shorting open this is all I need to do and I’ll I’ll be fine.
What are the typical mistakes people make when going the systematic route?
The easiest one to fall into is when you’re becoming more systematic you think comple FX is better um I I can’t remember who said it but I remember hearing from a video someone was like if it was a simple Edge everyone would be doing it um there is like hidden truth in that and there definitely is some truth in it but for me the through all my testing and from speaking to all of these kind of other people simpler normally does equal better results the main reason being is the more and more you add different variables so let’s say you have like a small cap strategy you’re adding like 50 variables you’re taking legit everything under the sun and you’re applying it to find that profitable Edge there’s a way higher likelihood you’ve just overtrained your data on uh overtrained your strategy on historical data because if you think about it if you have historical data there will be a profitable strategy in there that there will be and there will be the most profitable strategy and if you try and overfit it to find that singular most profitable strategy you’ve only fitted it on historical data but when you applied it to a live market where all this new data is coming in it’s a random distribution you’ve only fitted it onto historical data and it will no longer work on a general data.
Munire Trade Statistics
Through my journey with the lazy trading system, I’ve tracked every aspect of my performance. Here are the key statistics that show how systematic trading transformed my results:
- Starting capital: $3,000 from gaming earnings
- Current account value: $100,000
- Time to first consistent profits: 1.5 years
- Consistently profitable period: 2 years straight
| Time Period | Account Value | Performance |
|---|---|---|
| Start (2019) | $3,000 | Initial capital |
| 1 Year | ~$3,000 | Break-even after losses |
| 1.5 Years | ~$3,500 | First signs of consistency |
| 3.5 Years | $100,000 | Current account value |
Key Trading Insights from Munire
My lazy trading system isn’t about being lazy—it’s about creating structure so you don’t have to make emotional decisions under pressure. Here are the most valuable lessons I’ve learned:
- Systematic trading builds confidence through verified data rather than gut feelings—once you trust your numbers, execution becomes automatic
- Simplicity beats complexity in strategy development—my most successful systems have only 4-5 parameters, not 50 as I initially tried
- Backtesting isn’t optional—I spend more time analyzing data than collecting it, which is where most beginners waste effort
- Position sizing is a psychological battle—after years of undersizing winners, I now incrementally increase risk ($300 → $450 per trade) rather than percentage-based scaling
Munire Trading Strategy
My approach combines systematic rules with minimal discretion—80% systematic, 20% discretionary. Here’s how it actually works in the markets:
Open-to-Close Shorting System
My core strategy targets gap-and-crash setups in small caps. I short at the open when a stock gaps up (typically 5%+), using a wide stop of 20-30% since small caps are volatile. Previously, I’d hold until close, but data showed many stocks reclaim VWAP late in the day, so I now exit positions by 2-3pm if they haven’t moved in my favor. This simple rule—based on analyzing thousands of trades—eliminated my worst losing streaks. For systematic validation, I ran Monte Carlo simulations on 5 years of data to confirm this wasn’t curve-fitting.
Risk Management Evolution
Early on, I constantly violated my max loss limits—I’d change TradeZero’s settings mid-day thinking “just one more $100 won’t hurt.” This destroyed my account multiple times. Now I incrementally increase position size: after two months at $300/risk, I moved to $450. I track every deviation in my journal using Trader Dante’s method—was my discretion helpful or harmful? This showed I mainly undersized winners due to fear, not oversized losers.
Munire Tools
My lazy trading system relies on tools that automate analysis while keeping me in control. I’ve moved from manual tracking to streamlined processes that save hours:
- Excel for simple backtesting—you don’t need coding to test basics (IF formulas for open-to-close stats)
- Python for advanced analysis—pulling 5-10 years of data in hours vs. manual tracking
- Notion for trade journaling—tracking deviations from systematic rules
- Cobra Trading—my broker of choice for small-cap shorting with best locates
Common Trading Mistakes to Avoid
Based on my painful early experiences with the lazy trading system, here are critical errors you must avoid:
- Overcomplicating strategies—adding too many variables creates false confidence from historical backtests that fail live
- Ignoring drawdown reality—know your strategy’s max historical drawdown period (mine was 7 weeks) so you don’t abandon it prematurely during inevitable slumps
- Changing risk parameters mid-day—TradeZero letting you adjust max loss is dangerous; set and forget your limits
- Mixing discretion without tracking impact—if you add 20% discretion, journal whether it helps or hurts like I did
Conclusion
My journey from $3k to $100k using this lazy trading system proves that systematic, data-driven approaches beat emotional discretionary trading every time. It took me 1.5 years to find consistency, but once I embraced simplicity and trusted the numbers over my impulses, everything changed. Start small—backtest one simple rule, journal your deviations, and scale slowly. I’m giving away my complete backtesting guide (Excel included) at the link below. Download it, test one setup, and message me @goostHawk on Twitter with your results—I read every DM. Remember, the “lazy” in lazy trading system means working smarter, not less. Now go test one edge and prove it to yourself.