I grew up in a smallish town on the southern border of Tennessee, Chattanooga. I lived a privileged childhood growing up in a family that did things by the book. Expectations of my sisters and me were high. We attended private schools, were required to participate in extra cirriculars, and were overall very social. I was constantly pushed to do better and be better but supported every step of the way, something I took for granted at the time but can appreciate everything my parents did for me now.

in 2015, my journey led me to attend college in Fort Worth TX. I was a horned frog at Texas Christian University majoring in supply chain management and information systems. I was your stereotypical college try hard that just so happened to be in a fraternity. I had it stuck in my mind that I would work my ass off to get the best job in corporate America possible. I wanted to be a cubicle worker for the remainder of my life because I didnt know any better and it was instilled upon me thats just what you do.

During college I started to gain an interest in the financial markets. My first major discovery like many traders was the popular trading app called Robinhood, a gamified trading app designed to keep you active, much like a casino would. I started buying shares periodically based on what little information I knew about the companies and eventually sold for a small profit or loss. Stocks werent that exciting to me which evtually led me to the next thrill, stock options, a fast paced derivative of the financial markets that made $100 seem like $10,000.

My collegiate career was filled with exciting accomplishments socially, academically, and professionally. I excelled in most things that I was doing mostly due to my over obsessive nature. The one thing however that I continued to struggle with was trading. I never seemed to be consistent enough to make profits in the long run. I was unbeknownst to me at the time, a typical retail trader.

I continued learning options and the financial markets throughout my collegiate career trading in classrooms, getting my friends involved, and scraping whatever cash I had together to put in my trusty Robinhood account. College did eventually come to and end and it was time to join the real wold of corporate America. I was eager to earn my stripes in the consulting world and I couldnt wait to be the low man on the totem pole in a company with 600,000 employees.

Early 2019 was the lowest point in my life as a trader, I was starting my life as an adult living alone in a new city trying to meet new people, but at the same time my addiction to trading options had just hit rock bottom. Like many fellow traders, discovering a new asset class was both exciting, but also detrimental to my financial well being. I couldnt stop. Every dollar I had, every paycheck I earned, and soon after money I had borrowed from my parents all went towards my options day trading addiction. I was at rock bottom and had basically lost everything, but I knew this wasnt the end for me. I realized I needed to re-evaluate what I was doing and actually learn.

I spent the next several months re programming my brain with thousands of hours of youtube videos, cheap paid courses, and advice from some other traders in the industry that I knew. I lived below my means to save up enough money for a small trading account where I knew I had to think like a computer with my trading. For the next 2 years I was able to figure out a profitable enough system to earn $500,000 across 25 months. My failures had eventually reaped the rewards I initially sought after to obtain.

During that time in late 2020, I also discovered the world of forex and quickly added it to my portfolio of tradeable asset classes. Although initially a frightening experience, I very much enjoyed the straight forward aspects of metatrader as opposed to the classic stock brokerages. During this time I was still working a full time consulting job traveling 5 days a week trying to climb the ranks of corporate america which at the time was something I would never do again no matter how bad it got.

Like many traders I have had numerous ups and downs during my trading career. I have hit all time highs and all time lows in both my accounts and my mental well being but ultimately it came down to long term growth and improvement.

The end of this blog post marks a new time in my life where I became a driven business man and entrepreneurial focused person, but another trialing aspect of my life where I discovered something internally.

Blog #2 will continue my story.