Introduction
Price action trading strategies transformed my approach to the markets, and after seven years of trading, I finally achieved consistent profitability. This journey wasn’t easy – it took me three and a half years just to find a strategy that worked, and I had to quit my job three times before getting it right. Through trial and error, I discovered that focusing on process over profits was the key to developing sustainable price action trading strategies that actually work.
Trader Talks QnA
What was your background before you started trading?
Before discovering trading, I actually had a very successful career in the sales industry for physician recruitment in healthcare. I was making well over six figures, we were traveling a lot, we were living the life. But over time I started to not be happy and I wasn’t really happy with going to work every day. I was feeling quite miserable even though I was making great money. I had the Mercedes I thought was really cool at the time – I was much younger then, I think 26, 27 years old – and I was really happy that I became the first partner of this firm that I worked so hard to be at, but then I started to feel not so happy.
What initially attracted you to trading?
I discovered real estate which I flipped a home, just wholesaling it, I did that and I realized that wasn’t for me. There’s a whole story about that but that’s not what you’re here for – we want to focus on the trading. Once I did that made some money, I was like that’s not for me, let me find something else. And then I found all of these ads online – probably what you’re seeing online too – make money fast, the Lamborghini Lifestyle, the laptop lifestyle, travel and make money. That appealed to me and you can make a lot with a little bit – all of that appealed to me.
What was your first trading experience like?
I end up buying the course and from there in 2017 I decide, you know what, I got this course, I’m going to quit my job and I’m going to go at it all in because when I was trying to do it and work my job it just wasn’t working. I did it for a couple of months and I made the excuse that if I can do this for a year I can make this work and then you know be rich – that that was in my mind at the time. However, it is the mentality I had and what really made me decide that is taking losing trades which makes no sense in hindsight now, right? I’m like what an idiot I can’t believe I did that.
Can you describe one of your early losing trades?
I remember one of my first – it was a handful of trades, I can’t remember if definitely wasn’t the first one but it was probably the third or fifth trade – I didn’t know what I was doing. I bought a stock, it happened to be an OTC stock, I had no idea what that even was back then, and I was only trying to lose like $100 but I ended up losing six grand and I was livid. I was so mad and I didn’t blame myself like I should have, right, but I blamed – oh man, you know if I didn’t have a job and I could concentrate I could get this, I could make this work.
Why did you decide to quit your job for the first time?
At the same time I was like well thank God I have a job cuz I can go make this money back. But then over time I started to realize that hey, you know this is something that I really like and this is something that could be the way for me, especially seeing all the ads and then hearing success stories. I said you know what I could be like them, I can make it in six months, I can make it in a year, I can make it in two years – not two years, I could make in six months is really what I thought. Just like most of you you might be thinking I know this is going to take time but deep down you’re like I hope I can get in six and that was another issue that I had that really hurt me in my journey.
How did the first job transition go?
In 2017 I walked into my boss’s office – I was nervous and freaking out and scared because in my mind my logical side was like you’re an idiot, you’re leaving a job that you’re making well over six figures that you’re very comfortable, that’s very easy to make to pursue something that you’re making no money in that you’re losing money in, and you’re saying to yourself you’ll make it in in like a year. You know you’re young – I was young, I was naive – and I said you know what, at the end of the day though I know that if I close my eyes and envision myself on my deathbed I would regret not doing this.
What was your trading performance like in that first year?
After I quit my job in 2017, that whole year I ended up losing money. So I went from making great money to not making anything, in fact losing money. So like I’m paying someone else instead of me getting paid which was miserable. And it was a really hard moment for me because at that time I had to get rid of the Mercedes, I had to buy a PC Cruiser that was used. I thought I bought it for $3,000 and then it actually broke down, I had to put another 3,000 just to fix it so that sucked, and all while I’m losing money everyday trading.
What positive habits did you develop during those difficult early years?
The only thing I did well is track all my trades and I journaled and that’s the only thing I did well. But at the same time man, there were so many moments where I was I would cry by myself, I would be in my office which is not this office – it’s another office which you can see my old episodes you’ll see it – and I was just questioning the decision I made. I was like why did I leave my job?
What was the risk management approach you took initially?
What I did well though is I didn’t risk big. I never risked a lot because I knew that I wanted to do this and I knew it could take some time but I was hoping it wouldn’t take too much time. Every once in a while I’d make some money but then I’d give it all back. After about a week I’d make money for a week, two weeks, three weeks, and then I give it all back in one or two trades or even in one or two trades or in like one day because I’d revenge trade. I’d be like oh my God I’m on a losing streak now, I just lost after winning 12 in a row, I can’t that can’t be right, and then I just try to force it and then I pile on more cash and just lose a lot.
How did your approach to capital management change?
I did that very well too where some people use the same capital they need to live on to invest. I kept them separate and that’s something that you might want to think about before you even pursue trading – don’t co-mingle with what you need because it will take you forever to make it because you’re going to be so emotionally involved. Even though I kept them separate I still was dealing with a lot of emotions. However I know that if they weren’t separated it would have been much much worse and I probably would have blown up an account.
How did your risk sizing evolve over time?
The only good thing I never blew up an account. And what I mean by that is I never blew up my entire initial investment. So I traded very small. I was risking at first I was risking 100 bucks per trade which is way too much, it was not a good idea especially when I first started, and then I quickly – I say quickly but after a year – I started to downsize to like 50 bucks and then 25 bucks. That took me forever to do though, again it took me a whole year. So I was losing $100 per trade but I also won some, but for the most part I lost money that year.
What was the catalyst for your return to work and starting YouTube?
The only positive side is the next year when I decided to go back to work I also decided to start YouTube and start documenting my journey. And I was just going to document like how I’m doing, what I’m doing, and the pursuit of the journey of what I want to become a successful trader. And when I was thinking that way I was thinking this would be great to show my children one day cuz I knew I wanted children at some point. And I said it would be great to show this to them to show like hey, pursue what you want to do even if you fail, just go after it because you don’t want to live life with regrets.
How did your second job transition differ from the first?
In 2018 I ended up saving money from March to the end of the year I end up saving money again so that way I could quit my job. And this time I did tell my wife because I learned from the last time and I also was mentally more prepared and I knew how difficult it really was going to be because obviously it’s taken me longer than I thought – I thought it was going to be 6 months, right, but no I knew how hard it was. And because I was documenting while I was going to work, I would document while I was driving to work using Instagram live and stuff like that.
What happened during your second attempt at full-time trading?
January 2019 comes around, I end up quitting my job for a second time and pursuing trading and I was gun ho about it. I was like I’m going to get it this time, was really positive about it. I was recording the show just by myself talking to the camera giving updates and you can see all those updates – you should go watch that because you can see the ups and downs that I go through because I end up quitting my job and pursuing trading and I thought I was going to pursue it for a whole year and end up being six months. Because during that time it got really dark because I thought I had it and I didn’t make money in those 6 months – I broke even pretty much. I didn’t lose money but I saw that light.
What emotional struggles did you face during this period?
But I was I mean you know the emotions that happened to me, that those six months were affecting my family, affecting my relationship with my wife because I would you know be so down on myself that you know when you’re beating yourself up every single day you are not a good person to be around. You might be upset with other people or I have a shorter fuse or whatever it might be. And there were a lot of moments where you know no one was at the house, it was just me, and I literally just break down in the middle of the office and like yell at God and be like why, like why would you give me this passion, like why would I be so stupid to quit my job for a second time, like why would I do that when they gave me my job back or another competitor, right, at the same rate.
What did you learn from your second job transition back?
So in 2019 about 6 months in I decided to go back to my job, and thankfully the same people brought me back. And at that same time I decided to start a podcast called Healthcare Giants that I did for that job to help me meet other CEOs so I can sell the company and make things happen right because I was still trying to do well at my job when I was there. And then my goal was you know when it did well I started to get tons of interviews for that show and then I started to meet those CEOs and then I built relationships so that way I could eventually sell them my service.
When did you start to find consistent profitability?
During that whole time in 2019 I was finding consistency. I found my strategy that worked for me – it was two of them: it was an overextension exhaustion play which is something I teach in my pop trading system, and then I learned the gap and crap and that traded way differently back then compared to now. I don’t trade it too much anymore, it’s rare that I do, but those were the two that made me money and I was doing really well in just trading those two and that was what gave me confidence in 2019.
How was your third transition to full-time trading different?
In November of 2019 I quit my job for a third time, and I did tell my wife again that I was going to do it this time. And I that conversation was a little different though. You know that conversation was rough for me because I you know all I can say is when you have something you really want to do and you know you’re not going to stop until you get it or you’ll never stop, then you maybe you know you have this conversation. And I decided to have the conversation of you know I know this is what I want to do for the rest of my life and I know I want to continue it forever until I get it or not, and so I don’t want to hold you back and I don’t want to put you through this too because you didn’t sign up for that.
How did you balance trading with part-time work?
And then I’m running on my show and I am loving it. Now I’m not making a ton of money, I’m just paying my bills pretty much. And don’t get me wrong my wife kept her job – she has a great six-figure job, she does very well for herself and she helps out a ton. Like I have a great spouse who’s there to help me balance that, that was a huge difference that I had compared to some people who may not have that.
What advice do you have for traders with family responsibilities?
So just understand like if you have a kid right now, double your learning curve so you can have more patience with yourself, don’t beat yourself up. But I think it’s worth it because once you learn this skill – I tell this to everyone – it’s a skill that would never go away, it’s a skill you can keep forever and you can do for the rest of your life. So even if you have to work for your whole life, you can still grow money on the side. It’s great, like don’t doubt that. Even if you can make an extra five grand every year that can be vacation. If you can make 50 grand a year, that’s another salary. You can make 100, two, three plus seven figures, that’s great too.
How did you refine and focus your trading strategies?
In 2020 and in 2021 I was mastering my two strategies. I was doing very well, being very disciplined. There were months where I only placed three trades, sometimes just five trades. And during that time I was building up my consistency, building up my profitability. And I wasn’t making boatloads of money but I was very happy with how I was consistently profitable. That’s all that mattered to me. And that’s why I made sure the show was about process over profits because I want everyone to understand it doesn’t matter what you make, it matters how you feel and how you focus on the process, because everyone who focuses on the process ends up being more happy and they end up having a lot more success.
How did your journaling and tracking help your development?
The reason I was able to be consistent and only focus on these two strategies is because in 2018 and 19 – again remember I was tracking everything and I found what have made money and I remembered when I focused on money because I would write in my journal of how I felt every day. And even though I was doing the same mistakes, I was making things difficult for myself, I was getting emotional – because I did that very consistently, I’m very consistent about habitual formations. Like I am someone who has worked out forever, I am someone who if I have a plan I’m going to do it. Like I don’t second guess, I just do it. That’s who I am, that’s who I’ve always been.
How did your approach to swing trading develop?
During this time of 2020 and then 2021 I was swing trading as well and I was doing well in swing trading, much better than day trading. But I didn’t have anyone teach me that, I didn’t take any course, I didn’t do any lessons, I just kind of taught myself a basic strategy and just tried it. And it was profitable off the bat, and that’s why I never had a lot of confidence to share with anyone because I was like I’m just getting lucky. 2020 was an easy year for a lot of swing traders so I was like H you know I’m making money cuz you know everything panicked and you could buy and it’s easy. But I made money and then 2021 I made more money and I was like man this is weird, I’m just I make good money swing trading.
How did you develop your multiple market cap approach?
Then I start to generate questions, be like hey here’s an idea I had, do you see this too, and he’d be like yeah, I say that I could see that, I could see that. And that’s when I decided I want to focus more on mid to large caps because I thought in the long run since I want to do this forever and I was still swing trading mind you, that eventually I just want to trade the larger caps with larger capital and just swing trade and maybe not have to do anything – like I was thinking more long term, right.
What was the challenge with trading different market cap sizes?
I started to notice that the mentality you have for large caps and midcaps has to be different than small caps. And splitting my mentality depending on the size of the market cap I’m trading was very hard for me to do because there’s so many nuances when it comes to trading. There’s so many nuances in large caps and there’s so many nuances in small caps. And I was still respectfully still new in my journey, right. I mean granted I’m in 3, 4 years now but at that point that’s not a lot of time in terms of experience when it comes to real trading, right.
How did you overcome confidence issues in trading?
And that really wrecked my confidence and then I started to notice that the mentality you have for large caps and midcaps has to be different than small caps. And splitting my mentality depending on the size of the market cap I’m trading was very hard for me to do because there’s so many nuances when it comes to trading. And I started to see that. So again all of 2022 I was focusing there and I started to find consistency and I started to make profits again with just the mid and large caps and I started to size up back to what I was comfortable with and I was happy with that.
What are your current trading strategies?
And then in 2023 I reintroduced small caps into my trading because I was like you know what now it’s time to bring it back. And I brought it back into my game and then I started to see whole different side of my trading because now I had many opportunities available. And by the way in 2022 what I learned a lot about mid large caps – at first I was trying to trade everything like his style because I was trying to learn his style and figure it out and it was really hard for me to do that, you know it was very difficult.
How did you develop your POP trading system?
What I ended up finding out is I found a couple of strategies that I really could hone in on and made sense to me and I just focused on those, just like I did in small caps. So I only found like three strategies that worked for me and that was the breakout play, the breakdown play, and the uptrend line crack. That’s the only three that I played at the time. And then I brought those back to me in 2023 with my two small cat plays – the gap and crap and the overextension exhaustion play – and now I had five strategies that I could focus on and that meant in my head I could at least have one good trade a day.
What is the key to maintaining trading consistency?
And that is when things start to change. And what I mean by change is everything started to grow much faster, my confidence grew much faster, my profits grew much faster, and because of all those prior years experiences I’ve learned that the only way I can make money is focusing on the process, not focus on trying to make money. And I know that’s so weird but that’s how I started to find even more consistency, that’s how I was able to come over those humps of mental walls. Like when I got to X number I was like oh this is so hard for me, but once I focused back on the process I deleted the position tab, I didn’t never looked at my P&L until the end of the month.
What advice do you have about comparing yourself to other traders?
You’ll see me executing trades, you’ll see me take wins, you’ll see me take losses, and you’ll see me wait for trades, you’ll see how patient I am. That did not happen overnight, that took eight years to get here. So don’t compare yourself to me, don’t compare yourself to anyone I bring on the show because you don’t know how they got here, you don’t know their circumstances, you don’t know how they started, you don’t know what they’re dealing with. You don’t know if they just found out trading in school, you don’t know if they maybe had kids when they started trading, you don’t know anything, right. So stop comparing yourself.
Key Trading Insights from B The Trader
B The Trader’s journey offers valuable insights for aspiring traders. His evolution from struggling trader to consistently profitable trader demonstrates that success in price action trading strategies requires patience, discipline, and a focus on process over profits. Key takeaways include the importance of proper capital management, developing a systematic approach, and maintaining emotional control throughout the trading journey.
- Consistency comes from focusing on process, not profits
- Proper risk management and capital separation are crucial for long-term success
- Developing a systematic approach takes years of trial and error
- Emotional maturity and mental game development are as important as technical skills
- Learning from experienced traders accelerates development but requires the right mindset
B The Trader Strategy
B The Trader’s approach to trading evolved significantly over his seven-year journey. Initially struggling with emotional trading and inconsistent strategies, he eventually developed a focused approach centered on specific price action setups. His system incorporates multiple market cap strategies, allowing him to maintain consistency across different market conditions while managing risk effectively.
Overextension Exhaustion Play
One of B The Trader’s core strategies is the overextension exhaustion play, which he teaches in his pop trading system. This strategy focuses on identifying when momentum has overextended in one direction and is likely to reverse. The approach involves recognizing extreme price movements that have exhausted their potential, followed by clear reversal signals. This strategy helped him achieve consistent profitability in his early profitable period.
Gap and Crap Strategy
The gap and crap strategy represents B The Trader’s second foundational approach to trading. This strategy involves identifying stocks that gap significantly and showing signs of exhaustion or poor price action. He focuses on trading these setups in small caps initially, allowing him to make consistent returns. This strategy differs significantly from his approach to larger caps, requiring different mental frameworks.
Mid and Large Cap Strategies
As B The Trader evolved, he incorporated mid and large cap strategies, including breakout plays, breakdown plays, and uptrend line cracks. These strategies require different mental approaches compared to small cap trading, with emphasis on larger capital positions and different risk-reward dynamics. He spent all of 2022 focusing exclusively on these strategies to develop the proper mindset for trading larger market caps.
B The Trader Tools
B The Trader’s approach to tools emphasizes simplicity and consistency. Through his journey, he’s learned that complicated setups aren’t necessary for profitability. Instead, he focuses on specific chart patterns and price action signals that have proven reliable over time. His toolset has evolved from trying various systems to settling on a focused approach that works across different market conditions.
- Price Action Analysis – Core methodology focusing on pure price movement without indicators
- Chart Pattern Recognition – Systematic approach to identifying high-probability setups
- Risk Management Framework – Consistent position sizing and trade management protocols
- Trading Journal – Comprehensive tracking of trades and emotional states for continuous improvement
- YouTube Documentation – Visual recording of trading process for accountability and learning
Common Trading Mistakes to Avoid
B The Trader’s journey highlights numerous pitfalls that aspiring traders should avoid. His honest account reveals how emotional decision-making, inadequate capital management, and unrealistic expectations can derail trading careers. By examining his mistakes, other traders can accelerate their learning curve and avoid common traps that prevent consistent profitability.
- Blaming external factors instead of taking personal responsibility for trading decisions
- Mixing personal living expenses with trading capital, creating emotional pressure
- Attempting to trade too large positions before developing consistent skills
- Following chat room advice and unproven strategies without proper testing
- Focusing on short-term profits instead of developing a sustainable trading process
Conclusion
B The Trader’s journey from struggling day trader to consistently profitable trader demonstrates that success in price action trading strategies requires patience, discipline, and a methodical approach. His seven-year path involved three job transitions, significant emotional challenges, and years of refining his approach. The key takeaway is that trading success isn’t about finding quick riches but developing a sustainable process focused on consistency over time. His emphasis on process over profits, proper risk management, and emotional control offers a roadmap for traders seeking to achieve similar results. Don’t expect overnight success – instead, focus on building a robust trading foundation that can sustain you through market challenges and personal growth.