Most Traders Miss This, Here's My $100K Strategy

Finance-focused summary

• Presenter/goal: Mari, a day trader since ~2018, explains how she reached her first $100,000 after being very unprepared and nearly quitting.
• High-level thesis: Success came less from “finding a flashy strategy” and more from:
  • journaling every trade
  • narrowing to the 1–2 setups that actually worked
  • repeating the same setups until sizing up became justified
  • keeping losses small while allowing winners to run / scale

Timeline (approx.)

• 2018–2019: Learning phase; starts trading seriously after returning to the US.
• Sep 2019: Opens a trading account with $15,000 (PDT rule context below).
• ~6 months later (~early 2020): Near-death experience in performance (+$300 tracked vs actual -$3,000).
• May 2020: Strategy refinement leads into first big month.
• June 2020: First $10,000 month.
• By 2021: Trade example OZSC later generates $16,000.
• By end of early period: She reports aggregate stats for the first $100,000 campaign.

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Instruments / tickers mentioned

Day-trading examples

• KBLB: Early mistake—held the position and didn’t know how to exit.
• OZSC: “Panic-dip / panic device–style” setup; key example.
• TSNP: December example; consistent daily trading.
• CLRO: Example—made $3,300 “yesterday.”

Trading universe (described, not exhaustive)

• OTC
• Small-cap longs
• Breakouts
• Gappers
• Mostly longs (she notes she took only a few shorts)

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Macro / market regime notes

Mari says the market changed over time:

• OTCs stopped working (in her view), so strategies may perform less consistently than before.
• She believes the process still applies even if the specific setups’ hit rates shift:
  • journal → narrow → repeat → size carefully

She also notes setup droughts, including two-week periods when preferred long setups didn’t appear.

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Step-by-step / methodology framework

1) Start with broad experimentation—but record everything

• Trade many setups early (e.g., OTC breakouts, OTC panic-dips / “panic did buys,” early green days, small-cap breakouts, etc.).
• Screenshot and journal every trade (date, strategy, notes).

2) Audit results against broker/platform reality

• She realized her recorded performance didn’t match reality due to:
  • commissions
  • losses
  • unintended holds
• She includes commissions when reviewing performance.

3) Organize for statistical review

• Transfer results into an Excel sheet with complete performance details.

4) Narrow to what works (reduce to 1–2 setups)

• Her best performers for a period were:
  • OTC panic-dip buys
  • OTC breakouts
• Later she narrows further to the two categories that work (e.g., breakouts + gappers).

5) Repeat the same setup until you earn the right to size up

• She emphasizes sizing up should come from repetitions, not a single good day.

6) Risk management emphasis

• Cut losers short
• Avoid situations where losers are bigger than winners
• Let winners run and/or add to winners only after the process proves itself

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Key numbers & performance metrics (as stated)

Early account sizing / drawdown

• Starting size: $15,000 (Sep 2019)
• After ~6 months: down to $12,000
  • reported loss: $3,000 (including commissions)

Trade count / path to first $100k

• 1,060 trades to make her first $100,000

Winning/losing averages and win rate

• Average winning trade: about $183–$200
  • “average winning trade was $183”
  • “average winning trade … was $200”
• Average losing trade: about $50
• Outcome counts:
  • 700 winning trades
  • 300 losing trades
• Win rate / percent profitable: 70%
  • she later says it “maybe 60” now/back then it was 70
• Core concept: win rate alone doesn’t matter if losing trades outweigh winners.

Profit factor

• Profit factor: 7.9
  • interpreted as: for every $1 lost, she makes about $8

Aggregate totals (first phase)

• $120,000 gained
• $17,000 lost
• Net implied: ~$103,000
• She frames this as “made my first 100,000.”

Examples

• OZSC:
  • early gain: $38 (2019 / initial phase)
  • later: $16,000 (2021)
• TSNP: profitable in December (no specific amount stated in that section)
• CLRO: $3,300 “yesterday”
• June 2020: first $10,000 month
• December: mentions $4,400 profit after sufficient repetitions (context tied to OZSC sizing progression)

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Explicit recommendations / cautions

• Don’t chase constantly changing strategies. She argues beginners switch when a setup stops showing (as she did), leading to too many strategies and confusion.

• Journal and verify against broker/platform reality (commissions, unintended holds, execution effects).

• Keep losers small and ensure winners are larger than losers (risk/reward logic).

• Size up only after repeated execution of the same setup.
• Expect setup droughts, including periods with no qualifying longs (she cites ~two weeks).

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Disclosures / disclaimers

• No explicit “not financial advice” disclaimer is included in the provided excerpts.

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Presenters / sources

• Presenter: Mari (day trader)
• She references connections to other traders (including Tim Sykes and Michael Goode), but they do not present in the provided transcript excerpt.