This content features an interview with a highly successful young trader, Steven "Ducks," who shares his journey, strategies, and insights into achieving remarkable profitability, particularly in the volatile small-cap stock market.
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First Trade was very lucky I think I
made 10,000 in one trade really yeah I
think I with
$25,000 yeah and and the next few weeks
instantly 50% down and this is all your
first year of trading or how long dides
it take for you to eventually become
profitable 6 months 6 months yeah 6
months uh I think the fastest approach
to trading is to look at other people's
mistakes because what whatever mistakes
they made I might run into it later
um everybody know that I made 6 million
on the on the first day I made three M
3.5 million on the following day and I
made a 9 or 3 million on the following
day after the 3.5 million so that week
total I made 17 million I think oh my
God I don't ever focus on how much money
that was generated by trading I want to
perfect the system okay make sure it
hits the maximum performance of all the
patterns that I track once I reach 85%
I'm creating trading hi have you ever
wondered how much money a retail Trader
can make in a single trading day in this
episode we have a very special guest The
Man of Mystery Stephen ducks ducks is a
verified Trader and he holds a record
for the highest p&l in a single trading
day in 2022 making over $6 million
trading dwac in one day I personally
have a lot of respect for ducks he's
very young but he has matured as a
Trader and master the Arts of trading
penny stocks using psychology and
statistics and extreme discipline in
this video you're going to learn
Steven's approach to trading smoke cap
stocks using Trader psychology Steven's
various methods of tracking statistics
how to recognize patterns and capture
High profitability trades and how to
avoid over trading make sure to hit the
like button and join me today for a very
insightful conversation with Steven ducks
welcome to the humble Traders podcast
Stephen hello you are a really famous
Trader on Twitter and YouTube and you
are really famously known for that I
think was the dwac where you make six
was it $6 million in one day yeah right
so I think a lot of people know you for
that and of course a lot of other
profits you've had over the years if we
could tell audience how this year
treating you so far and how are you
adjusting to the market this year is not
as good as 2021
2022 the beginning of the year was okay
uh since ever
since uh May and June I mean the later
this year is not very active yeah and uh
this year's Market has
been uh has been okay uh profitable and
not making as aggressive as money as uh
compared to
2021 uh still up in the seven figures
um and the lower seven figures okay not
crazy high approaching eight figures um
but volume has gone down about 90% 80%
compared to 2021 and 2022 the market is
become much more competitive compared to
the last two years especially on the
short side um as we know that shorting
has 90% or or has much higher winning
percentage compared to buying so
majority of the money are H or held by
shorts Setters and so if Shorts Setters
are trying to Pile in into a ticker and
there's not many Longs in there so there
uh first short Setter cover and second
short Setter cover above that so it will
cause a massive parabolic uh as we saw
in like top mhm so from my understanding
is you're predominantly a short seller
right okay I do want to ask you a little
bit later on about like specific short
strategies you're doing and how you're
using your statistics to track those
High odds as you call it um but that's
take a step back how did you get into
trading in the first place and how many
years have you been trading now I got
into trading when I was 19 so the the
freshman year of college how did I get
into trading you in school yes uh I
don't have a very good family history
but uh okay uh so at that time my mom
and dad are going through divorce um so
I was just trying to solve some of the
financial pressure from my from my mom's
side and uh I used my uh tuitions as my
base money to trade which is about which
is 25,000 yeah
so um first of all I I think at the very
beginning I lost half of it and then
then I borrow some money from my friends
started again you have rich friends not
rich friends but I had to pay interest
on that money so so okay so um but uh
and they started again uh that's where I
went from I think 27,000 to 900,000
first year then uh second year was 2.7
million third was I mean goes up from
there so so you were trading with your
tuition money and then eventually once
you start making money is that how you
paid for your school for the rest of the
college or did you drop out of college I
mean still in school and pay for the
tuition of whatever the money I made
from Trading okay and what was your
major uh engineering oh I was going to
guess either like mathematics or
engineering uh chemical engineering
chemical okay yeah so what what did you
aspire to be at the time when you were
still going through school
uh I mean I like engineering I like very
statistic based so a major and I chose
engineering and the reason why I went to
engineering I want to more Focus down into
into
nanotechnology nanot technology yeah
okay uh at that time we're focused on
nanot tubes I think but uh then um I
shift my focus more into trading
afterwards so okay so how did you I
understand you were trying to make some
money to help out with a family so why
Trad in stocks and how did you discover
stock trading in the first place okay so
yeah so um well first of all 25,000 is
not a lot of money first of all as an
international students we don't I mean
our commun communication skills are not
very good compared to the the natives
people in here oh like in terms of
English in ter yeah in terms of English
so trying to do the the talk businesses
or like real estate you have to
communicate with other people so that's
you know a big I say shortage for for
some people like us and we also came in
as a F1 student so you can't really have a
a
job but only in campus you only can have
a job in campus okay yeah I remember and
you're making about like $6 an hour or
$7 an hour so that's not efficient um
and with 20 5,000 I look through pretty
much all of the uh industry and the only
one you can make money is trading to
um uh using small amount of capital to
get over 1,000% or 10,000% return that's
where I looked into it and I see a lot
of potential into it but I also see a
lot of risk so just let need to take a
bit I I I was also international student
in the state I went to school school in
Florida uhhuh so at the time I was I
discovered trading around the last year
so senior year but I didn't actually
trade because I didn't have the money
but I was like trying to save up from
like my
$7 an hour like on campus job but that
helped me save us so that brought back
some good memories yeah yeah I mean yeah
similar similar to boat so you found out
about trading stocks mhm did you start
with like with day trading right away or
did you invest or you know people do
like a dividend investing or swing
trading or did you just dive into the
wild wild west of day trading not oh
pretty much straightforward into day
trading the first ticket I traded was
ETF I think it was okay uvxy I mean it's
ETF but uh that's the first trade made
$20 but uh good
job and uh I mean there's bunch of
trading histories that have I think ad
that straight pretty pretty much
straightforward into day trading and uh
the first trade was very lucky I think I
made 10,000 in one trade really yeah I
think I with
$25,000 yeah oh okay I think I had a uh
I think a $3,000 position okay so tiger
went like 300% then I made 10,000 I
think the trading could be that easy so
oh okay and and the next few weeks
instantly 50% down I mean TR on some
stupid tickers and over trading were you
following alerts at first or did you
actually like try to learn strategies
and trade I don't follow alerts and I I
uh I I want to learn strategies because
I look in this industry a little bit
differently because I see well in
trading industry if you if you make
money somebody else is losing money
right so zero some game yeah very simple
concept yeah so um that means if you're
following alerts a lot of people going
into one directions that means the if
90% people in the trading industry are
losing money yeah 10 10% are making
money that
means uh majority of the you know you
have to go opposite of the what the
majority go so I start going the
opposite Sid of shorting alerts oh so
you start out a contrarian from like
very early on when people are like
pumping what those alerts you were
shorting them I'm shorting them yeah oh
you fig that I was super early yeah I
mean very beginning of my career I
started making like 20% 30% again I mean
then you start not that start not work
doesn't well you start to not work as
well because okay um my size is getting
bigger and there's not many people
chasing alerts anymore and the stock
becomes very liquid so it's hard to get
out uh but uh that's where my first I
would say 50,000 40,000 oh
so you started trading pretty big size
almost right away then right cuz you
mentioned you were taking $3,000 3,000
shares $3,000 worth of positions yeah
okay I guess you were trading with a 25
$27,000 account to avoid PDT yeah and
how often were you trading since you
didn't have the Restriction of PDT were
you still trading every day not trading
every day okay um but when there's a
play I'm in there so it's still overtrading
overtrading
but uh I think I was making about four
to five trades a week and did you dive
into full-time trading or were you still
I guess you were you managing the
classwork and trading on the site yes
yes pretty much TR how did you find the
schedule then I mean not I mean look at
the phone during class I mean other
other than the exam but you know just
look at the phone during the class uh
using TDM trade and not anything oh okay
and how did that work out trading on the
phone does not work very very well okay
slow and uh first of all it's slow
second it's I mean take a while to put
in limit orders and limit orders yeah
yeah so it's not quick at all it was
sometimes you miss I miss couple
thousand dollars just just trying to get
out at one point and 10 second later you
know we're 10% down and this is all your
first year of trading or how long did it
take for you to eventually become
profitable 6 months 6 months yeah 6
months mhm that's really really
fast uh yes because uh I look at so I
think the fastest approach to trading is
to look at other people's mistakes
because what whatever mistakes they made
I might run into it later defitely so I
look through Gran's entire trading
record yeah and I think was uh on the
Tim side of the student they have their
record on U on profit I think was a very early
early
stage of trading and I was also looking
at uh investor underground and other
people you know people on Twitter they
talk about their trading and poster
profits I I don't typically look at
their wins I only look at losses and I
want to be able to even though they
don't post the entry and exit chart but
I want to be able to guess where where
they short it is I see where where they
got uh where they exited or uh maybe
they made a huge M mistake they
continued to add and eventually got BL
out the position so all those mistakes
are very valuable experience for me so
that's when I become very uh profitable
because I actively avoiding those
mistakes yeah you you you're really
young but you're also really wise a lot
of people who start out trading they
want to see like the flashy pnls a big
profit but you were looking the opposite
you're looking at people's losses and
looking at learning from their mistakes
yeah um and also I know that there's
three base factors first of all is human
mistakes that's number one you have to
fix okay number two is um patterns come
from psychology because if you're making
money that means other people are making
mistakes and you know how stock it
really is it's really emotional driven
yeah so psychology is very plays very
big part of uh in trading so
understanding the people that's going
the opposite directions or um I mean
they're behind the computer clicking the
Button making mistakes so you have to
understand their psychology first and
third you have to use your statistics
Theory to back up the psychology side um
then with those three combined then it's
instantly profitable so but it take it
take a while take a while to get those
three thing lined up together how long
do that take you 6 months really you you
everything clicked just like that in six
months yeah oh wow so what kind of
Statistics I know you mentioned that
earlier in the beginning how what what
were you tracking to realize okay I need
to focus on this one strategy or these
two strategy what kind of specific
criterias were you looking at first of
all I mean when I went went in there
it's it's a
there's a lot of stuff to track you
can't you most people go in with okay
well there's a lot of stuff I have no
idea what to track right so you start
narrow stuff down let's say we have a
ticker that's 20 million market cap 3 million
million
float uh very similar action put them
together how much they traded uh to see
there's any similar actions or similar
Behavior or if it's going parabolic or
start going M midday or Gap up in the
pre market uh so pretty much you want to
categorize very similar Market very
similar Mark uh uh
float um and the gap of
percentages uh categorize them into one
section try to find the conclusion of if
volume changed what happened if flow
changed what happened so you you kind of
put a fixed criteria on All U pretty
much everything and uh there's only one
factor that's different I see so you
will be able to kind of tell okay next
time similar flow similar market cap if
the volume is different I'm supposed to
do this I see so you need a massive
amount of Statistics to
find uh I know I have I think at
beginning I 25 sections okay with market
cap between 0 to 10 million FL between 0
to one uh Gap up over 50% or market cap
between 0 to to 20 or float between 1 to
three see this time is different but
with gap up percentage with 50% so you
only have the flow difference I see and
once you only have the flow difference
uh with very similar volume throughout
the day so you can kind of see what how
much did the spiking percentage changed
oh so that's one method of how to figure
out what to track okay let me sum up
that really quick cuz you just mentioned
a lot of things I want to make sure
audience understand your method ex the
first method you mentioned really
clearly so essentially you're trying to
find the first method that say you
narrow down let's say 10 stocks that you
know are low flows they have similar
volume and then you look at different
categories like the volume pre-market
volume you know percentage Spike after
open and you look at what they have in
common yeah and what's the outlier
criteria whether it be super low float
or super high volume that cost
potentially have caused that one stock
to Stand Out Among the most yes oh okay
got it okay uh first criteria and second
is you second way to be able to track uh
statistics is you want to focus on
volume specifically because people are
behind computers trading the tickers
right so every shares they trade means
one shares and well of course there's
alos and H found involved in there but
you have to think there's one thing that
the Hedge found that won't do is they
take the entire the flow so basically
they buy the entire flow okay and first
of all they have they have to file to
the SEC that's very that's you know not
very convenient that's what they what
they don't want to do and second you
want to if you want to pump the stock
you don't want to own the entire flow
because eventually once you sell you're
basically uh playing with yourself yeah
there's no one else to sell to there's
nobody else to sell you need the
liquidity so you do not want to occupy
the entire floor you want to retail to
go in there yeah and pump the stock up
and they sell into the retails and
retails loses money so once you track
enough multi- rers there's actually a
very uh similar number that how much
money can retail put into a ticker okay
based on float or market cap based on
market cap okay yeah so uh that's
another way to track statistics based on
how to really short into multi owners so
in that case that say hypothetically
speaking your second method just
mentioned let's say based um I don't
know 50 mil market cap retail can only
let's say from that tracking retail can
only get up to you know 10% of that
market cap and then that's the ideal
time to short uh yes yes but more more
accurately uh do you want to be more
accurate is you want to use the volume
uh times the average traded price on
that day if it meets the threshold of
how much money that retail can pour into
stock that means stock will go down next
day uh because basically the stock has
reached the maximum threshold that
retail can push up to the maximum
maximum percentage yeah yes oh
interesting I never thought of that way
or dollar amount there there's a lot of
uh I can go uh so I I'll do three um
there's another way to track statistics
mean uh which I personally use which
will be volume
comparison is that you want to um so
there's three different uh uh categories
you want to do you want to track first
of all
is uh to be able to correctly track in
resistance okay and lot of people see
okay well there's a resistance that
traded 50 million volume on a price of
three and uh next time I want to short
against with that $3 resistance right
okay and so let's see for example let's
say uh 50 million Vol that means five
people let's say five people bought
stock at three two mon later stock
instantly dumped 90% everybody wants to
get out because well if I get out I'll
be down % what's the point of me selling
right now since I'm already down 90% so
the first reaction that when stock
pushes back two three right everybody
wants to wants to sell okay that's their
instant reaction that's human psychology
right there so
and but here comes a problem because
we're dealing with low floats so if the
stock only have 3 million float and has
50 million volume in there and that
doesn't mean that there's 5050 million
resistance in there cuz there's only 3
milon volume 3 million flow sorry okay
from previous let's say uh chart the
resistance from like weeks ago yes
doesn't have that much volume is what
you're saying no doesn't it doesn't have
the flow in there doesn't have 1550
million flow okay so if you want to
let's say one one um every share is a
back holder 15 million shares means 15
million back holder but if there's a 15
million shares only 3 million flow
there's only 3 million back coders okay
does that make sense that makes sense
yeah so uh next time when you try to
short into
resistance that's the statistics you
want to track
because you are shorting a 50 million
resistance but there's only 3 million
backers in there okay so there's a very
possible chance that stock can push
through that resistance because there's
only 3 million flow oh I see so a lot of
people trying to just short based on how
much volume uh that that's against the
15 million that's a very interesting
statistics to track
and um it you can once you track that
statistics you can help you avoid a lot
of traps traps see so I think the first
two method you mentioned helps you find
a potential short entry the third one
helps you avoid getting squeezed yes
okay yeah oh thank you for sharing that
there's uh there's many many many uh uh
stuff that I
I mean I came up in the last couple
years what about you are you tracking
any kinds of stats yourself make sure to
share with other Traders down
below is that do you think that's the
reason why you pretty much stick with
small caps cuz when it comes to large
cap stocks there's a lot a lot less of
these in inefficiencies right and a lot
of the patterns the stats you track do
they apply to other kinds of stocks no
they don't uh the limitation
is uh well except 2021 but the
limitation is you cannot go beyond
market cap that's above 300 million
initial initial market cap so if the
stock starts to spike starting with 300
million market cap then doesn't work
okay but start less than 300 million
let's say started around 100 million
then goes all the way to couple billion
it works oh so you're talking about
let's say the first day of the run where
the stock already started from yes oh so
anything about 300 mil that doesn't
count that still categorize a small cap
right yes still categorize but you just
won't trade it I just won't trade it oh
so how you pick your stocks to trade is
by volume and the market cap has to be
below 300 mil yes oh okay and what kind
of volume are you looking for when you
are scanning for stocks to trade each
morning uh really depends I mean volume
highest the higher the higher the better
okay uh I mean I do avoid first Green
Day very crowded volume okay avoid that
type of tickers uh but once they exhaust
their volume then uh higher the volume
the better yeah okay what about
percentage gapper percentage um is there
a point of like too high or like too low
if it gaps above 200 I would say oh well
it's probably more ridiculous when it's
gaps above like 500% then it looks a
little bit fishy to me um but the ideal
range should be
between 100 to
150 100 to 170 yeah percent
percent oh okay like it has to have
gapped up that much for you to be
interested in trading them not
interested but more comfortable trading
okay I Gap up 500% I'm still interested
in trading them I'm just want to be a
little bit cautious on how to size in
okay yeah so I I get that you know 100%
gainers are very normal in 2020 and 21
but how what about in 2022 and 23 how
are you selecting stocks then do you
change your criteria there's still
gappers that's above um 20 100% okay
very few yeah very very uh we have let's
see mmv that's one mhm when kep 200% then
then
um yeah not many we had VC IG and all
those biotechs that only gapped up like
80% so yeah above 100% is my highest
winning percentage okay less than
70% if it doesn't have a resistance and
on first screen day and it's a biotech
yeah that's that's a noo for oh so you
also don't want to trade try to avoid
biotechs yeah yeah okay is there a
reason why oh every time when I trade
biotch I lose I mean it's and ATT track
statistics on I still lose so I've been
fighting biotch for many years now and
uh it's sometimes you win sometimes you
lose but by the end of the day you lose
money right and and uh doesn't really
matter we are going short we going along
yeah biotches are very hard to predict
they do not follow small cap stati
statistics at all oh interesting so not
only do you track those individual
stocks or sectors or like the individual
stock criteria you also track your own
performance trading these stocks yeah I
track everything yes okay how much the
stock will drop to at what percentage to
what scent I can get to that sometimes
yeah that's how i' be able to bottom
tick and top tick a ticket oh so what's
like the a general formula you use to
find the the top tick and the bottom
tick and there's no general formula it's
based on different patterns okay yeah
every pattern has its own top tick and
bottom tick tick uh point oh okay let's
talk about your f favorite pattern do
you have one right now uh favorite
pattern probably this year it's first
red day okay um highest they can drop
other than IP other than IPO IPO will be
a little bit different uh but not IPO
multi owners the percentage that can
drop market cap that's initially below
100 million flow below 5 million under
10 million that work too uh the ne the
average fading percentage for first red
day is negative 26% average okay second day
day
15% and the
time typically drops to is 10:30 so once
you once reaches okay 10:30 a.m. that's
typically the lowest point oh after the
first red day so typically you want to
hold it overnight with a gap down next
day hold on until 10:30 then you cover
it yeah okay so these are ways that's
like for this particular pattern the
first red day that's how you find your
exit yeah how do you find your entry now
entry is the method that I talked about
uh maximum volume on retail or maximum
dollar being traded on the retails oh I
see do is that your favorite pattern
this year has that how how is that one
pattern been performing for you this
year it's still perform great it just
the statistics keeps changing there's the
the
that's flowing in the retail Market
keeps changing yeah uh in
2021 was 1 billion Inay mhm in I think
like htz was something like that Herz
yeah yeah I mean not Herz is a billion
dollar cap so it's doesn't count that
doesn't count but for lower cap the it's
1 billion okay and for 2023 it's only
200 million so we can see that how much
you dropped w a huge drop so we just
talk about your favorite pattern what's
your your biggest win ever on that
specific pattern and your biggest loss
we can cover
that the first red day or I guess what
the most memorable winner and the most
memorable loser that You' ever
had winner it's dwac dwac
m um everybody know that I made 6
million on the on the first day I made
three 3.5 million on the following day
and that 9 3 million on the following
day after the 3.5 million so that week
total I made 17 million I think oh my
God uh or from shorting that stock right
or from shorting DW and there's another
ticket I followed with it I forgot
what's the name it was a sympathy play
okay I went from I think went
from uh 40 no it was around 52 I showed
it around 48 covered at 28 so it's it
was a sympathy play of dwac okay uh uh
the most memorable loss yes I do
remember one it was a biotech uh oh okay
1 minut Flo 13 million
flow uh I think it didm the uh maximum
retail number okay and uh you squeezed
above it typically I size in pretty big
once it once uh it meets the retail
number I see because that's high winning
percentage Yeah that's when the com
losses and the liquidity was not very
great so so so and it took a long time
to exit that's why okay I think the
highest was a million dollar loss yeah 1
million okay now that's why you kind of
crossed out biotech from your trading
list forever Blacklist now yeah yeah
Black List oh okay I mean up to dat has
still I don't know because biotechs like
they have they they do Gap very often
they Gap 100% 200% sometimes and when
when there is no play going on like you
know in the last couple months and
everybody has attempt to trade that and
everybody tempting yeah everybody's
getting squeezed so um um to be a very
consistent profitable Trader yeah to be
to stay alive in this industry you have
to be super disciplined so yeah yeah I
noticed that you don't trade every day
like most Traders do how how often do
you actually Place trades in a given
month uh 3 to five or 3 to a week oh no
not three to five in in the recent
months three three trades to four trades
a month okay yeah typically one trade a
week oh wow sometimes not even a trade
yeah do you believe in well do you
practice what um is also a term that we
recently learned from uh lens Bret Brin
sorry keep on uh mispronouncing his name
he's mentioned this term called
exponential bet sizing
basically do you size the same across
all your different patterns or do you
have certain ones like your favorite one
that you would use more risk on oh yeah
that's compound compound growth is um so
uh I have all the patterns winning
percentage down mhm some patterns has
70% some some some patterns has 80% 90%
the higher the winning percentage is
that means bigger size for me okay and
how do you allocate that let's say
the basic average is that's just use for
a simple simple number a thousand so
then that's say that's the average right
let's say anything with 60% win rate you
use an average of $1,000 risk and how
would you use that for your um 90% win
rate or your 80% win rate um patterns
like what what number would it be 10x
10x oh okay yeah so if so average I'm
using 100K 200k positions then and yeah
the best it would be 2 million highest
that size was 17 million was crazy 17
million shares traded not a$ 17 million
position oh okay and how do you scale in
because I understand once you're
starting take taking these like massive
sizes how do you scale into your
position uh how do you scale in Parts by
parts and has to be under 1% of the
volume yeah yeah okay so let's say for
example for a stock your max size will
be let's say in this example 100,000
shares and you just divide it up into
10,000 share Lots or maybe 20,000 share
Lots 50 50 yeah the bigger the positions
maybe you have to break down a little
bit more but yeah under $1 million it
should be two okay two entries oh okay
maybe three yeah do you think new
Traders should learn about scaling as
well or they should do one entry one
exit one entry one exit oh it's the most
efficient is one one enter and one exit
one go oh okay so you never started with
like you know let's say divide it into
two halves and then just add and add and
then two
exits uh sometimes you will turn into
add and add and add and blow
up oh okay yeah but it happens a lot to
a lot to Traders oh yeah well basically
in that case they're not adding to
Winners they're adding aaging down to a
loser yeah a lot of people think
that uh add into
winners carut losses into
losers I disagree with that you have to
know exactly where you enter exactly
where you want to exit and before you
enter the trade you should know that how
much you will will lose if you fail so
we mentioned that about your most
memorable loss so when you take these
big losses is it usually from slippage
or or was everything calculated
beforehand everything calculated really
okay I already know that million loss
was coming oh okay because it's a
biotech and you were sizing in that is
your A+ setup yeah so you willing to
risk a bit more yeah okay I see you just
shared some really good tips for a lot
of the new be Traders basically you
recommend one entry in one exit out yeah
yeah don't over complicate this uh maybe
two maximum two but I recommend one in
and one exit oh okay and we also talked
about statistics and tracking do you
think beginners should be tracking like
you are or they should simplify things
or how how would you recommend them to
approach tracking well first of all for
people that come to trading you love
trading I love trading I love to win
yeah people some people come in for
trading that they want to make money so
either way you want uh you want to win
so you whatever do whatever that makes
you want to win I can guarantee you that
tracking statistics will make you win
more so okay uh I recommend track as
much as you can uh do the method that I
recommend the first method which finding
out the outliers okay um and to see
what's the uh Factor that actually
affect the stock push uh fading
percentages or pushing
percentages um then you will start
finding your entry from there so I think
a lot of beginners also suffer from
struggle with overtrading
and how do you think they should is
there any way in which they can utilize
tracking statistics and help them avoid
you know overtrading these like random
setups yes there there's one way I found
out I was very helpful and they should
be the golden tips uh for
not making stupid mistakes on over
trading okay well I to be honest I over
trade uh I see I even over trade I
sometimes you know hate myself over
trades because you know nobody wants to
make stupid mistakes and wasting money
on on you know something that you
shouldn't do everybody does I don't
think there's as long as you're not an
algo everybody make overtrading mistakes
so uh first method which will be the
most important one is you want to track
well first of all find your pattern find
out the statistics find out the average
winning percentage act find out
uh the average um profitable percentages
so let's say this pattern average profit
you can profit around 15% 20% okay find
out the frequency how many times happens
a year generate a sheet that using a
fixed size so let's say every time when
this pattern appears I'm going to size in
in
$5,000 I'm going to make $1,000 on the
trade uh this pattern happens 50 50
times a year 60 times a year you can
generate a number MH uh how much you can
make a year that's your expected return
that's true expected return okay so
every time when you sit in front of the
computer in the morning every day look
at that number first okay look at it
first right this is how much I'm gonna
make a year so I'm not gonna make a
stupid mistakes here today I see and it
works very well oh okay okay let me
repeat that one more time so you
basically find out for each individuals
they should find their own strategy and
find the average winning percentage and
their average return like you know 20%
return whatever and they put in the
account size and use that the account
exposure and you have to calculate how
much potentially they can make in a year
after learning about how frequent that
pattern happens yes and use that number
be it 100,000 or 50,000 use that number
as an inspiration to stay disciplined
and stick with that strategy
yeah that's amazing I never heard of
this this method I mean I came up with
myself because I was over trading yeah
oh and that did help you focus on like
your A+ strategy yeah always focus on
long-term once you look at a number it
make automatically trans transition your
mind from shortterm to longterm I think
what a lot of people do is like they
scalp around when there's no like
perfect strategy they scalp around to
make a $50 here and there and they
forget about the big picture here I I'll
share a story um so overtrading
uh in the first two years I was making
900,000 a year and I think the second
year was 2.7
million and every time every year I'll
go into my uh account statement and look
at what I traded what what I'm supposed
to trade what I'm not supposed to trade
okay now there's some losses that I'm
supposed to lose that's okay yeah but
you you have to recognize what you are
supposed to lose what you are not
supposed to lose so once I filtered what
I'm not supposed to do is I can make 4X
of the money that I made oh wow that year
year
so basically that's where I started to
do the method that I yeah wow and like
especially and it's 4X it's not even
something equivalent like one to one
it's one to four yeah and also I see it
as a challenge because um so basically I
the method I use for all the patterns
they will generate a number let's say
are you supposed to make 20 million this
year yeah every time I can only hit
30% High highest I hit was 37 okay not
even close to 80% to 90% to the
full maximum performance that supposed
to do as the perfect robot so yeah so is
that what you're trying to aim for
you're trying to reach a closer to
closer to that 100% potential yes and
every time I see 30% 30 37% I I keep I
have a really close friend I talk about
trading but I keep calling myself
garbage Trader because I can only hit 30
30 37% yeah in a way you kind of treat
trading as a game as well oh yeah yeah
yeah it's a game now that you made so
much money does the meaning of do you
think money loses its
meaning doesn't lose lose its
meaning it uh I don't ever focus on how
much money that was generated by trading
okay now it is I'll say not the priority
it is the first first will be the the
thing that I told you is I want
to perfect the system yeah um I want to
be able to ttic bot and tick okay make
sure it hits the maximum performance of
all the patterns that I track and if I
reach that goal I had I had myself a
goal for for myself once I reach 85% I'm
quitting trading really yeah so so so
but it was never
85% but I think you might eventually get
there I don't think so really I don't
think so last year you did 30% this year
you say you're doing 37 no the highest
highest was 37 in 2021
oh okay so in a way if if you never get
to 80% you never quit trading as well no
no okay I don't think I'll ever ever get
there I mean last year was
uh that this year was only 20% even
worse last year was last year was sick
it doesn't count yeah 2022 was like 29
so it's is that kind of what keeps you
going as well waking up in the morning
each day cuz you're you're here on the
West Coast
right what time do you wake up 5:30 okay
5 to 5:30 uhhuh and then you like scam
for stocks and what what's your routine
like after you wake up 5:30 what's your
routine uh look at that stocks if
there's nothing play some video games
okay it's I don't want to look stay
there and stare at the stocks and you
know thinking about some overtrading
strategy so yeah um yeah if it fits the
criteria fits the criteria if it doesn't
you know have some fun play some video
games do you ever revisit and look at
the scanner midday and see if there's
opportunities or like if you don't see
anything by 6:30 that's it for the day
uh no trade after 1200 that's okay no
trade after 11: suppose and that's 11:00
a.m. uh West Coast time or 11:00 a.m.
Market time Market time Market time okay
1130 a.m. oh okay what do you do for fun
Sten do you look at spreadsheets and
math and numbers for fun on your
downtime oh I play a lot of video games
oh okay yeah um I played Starcraft 2 uh
for many years okay and before I I was
mainly focused in trading I got into a
uh World Series
Championship oh you tra trading uh not
trading Pro playing pro not playing pro
but but uh my skill is approaching to
Pro oh okay yeah I got to highest I got
to was round of 64 World Series
Championship yeah but how come you
didn't pursue it I didn't cuz trading
makes more money that that's true well a
lot of pro players they G Pro Gamers
they make a lot of money too but you
know like they get paid at like 50 mil
like the ones who win yes well I mean
most of it U it's not the price they uh
they promote either they they Market
they're the marketer of their game so oh
they get paid that way oh okay I mean
that that game gives me a lot of
benefits uh first of all is psychology
second is hand speed oh clicking buttons
clicking buttons I will be able to
borrow like shares within point for 30
seconds you can have hot Keys set for
that too I know but like you back in the
days manually yes I can do very quickly
okay yeah so Starcraft got you to think
about to to train I guess your mouse
click speed yeah and and you mentioned
something about trader psychology with
is buyers or seller how how does that
game help you start thinking about it
that way the game itself is very
competitive it's one one versus one so I
have an opponent that's on the opposite
on the opposite of my side yeah and
first of all you have to scout have to
guess his strategy and according to his
plan you have to make defense defense
plan if his plan changes and you got it
around then you lose so it's basically a
counter psychology game back and forth
back and forth until you win yeah so and
and also uh it cor it what you are
thinking with your hand you don't
misclick you don't do anything uh you
know if you make a mistake mistake on
misclicking you lose the game too yeah
so um and it's always high focus during
the high focus moment you have you have
to also think about the counter strategy
for from for other people and um I think
it's very simil to trading very intense
moments and also be able to think
clearly be calm figure out you know you
don't first of all you don't misclick so
can figure out what they're thinking to
to be able to build a counter strategy
against them so so you kind of have to
think about their potential couple steps
after and think about if he does that
then what are you going to do yes the
the I forgot who told me this but
trading is basically a bunch of if and
then statements like if stock ABC does
this then this should happen yeah is
that kind of how you kind of start
thinking about trading uh yes yeah I
know you used to live in Ohio is there a
reason you decide to move to California
to pay more taxes not pay more taxes but
uh there's better food here that's for
sure yeah um a love food uh I don't like
waking up earlier but um better weather
I I don't like cold weather I think I
told you I hate cold weathers um and uh
yeah that's pretty much it that's pretty
much it and we have a different life
experience I don't I'm not planning to
live in California forever okay so oh
were were some of your family out here
as well no no just you I have a brother
uh when when it's currently going to
school in uh used to go to school in
Florida now in Connecticut oh okay older
or younger brother younger 10 years
younger oh okay yeah so you're the
eldest of the family do do you think he
look up to you as an example oh yes he
does yeah yeah would you want him to get
into trading no I asked people that a
lot a lot of people uh I
mean I believe I to I taught a lot of
students I believe you also taught a lot
of students trading is not for any
everyone I believe that too yeah you
have to have that very very good
personalities that's number one number
two be able
to uh handle trading in a different
perspective a lot of people go into
trading with the gambling mindset yeah
yeah I mean every time you gamble every
time you lose it's that's the rule yeah
speaking of
gambling you're Chinese were both
Asian stocks like trading stocks or
investing in stocks or even research
searching stocks in Asia there's like a negative
negative
stigma was was your family ever
concerned about what you're doing back
then and you my dad was my mom wasn't
okay um because whatever they
experienced early in their age they
don't want their child to go through the
same thing they also suine stocks uh do
they yeah stocks is something that they
don't want their child to go through
because they took a lot massive loss in
their earlier age
so um that's how parents teach their
student oh teach their child to you know
go through their life I mean not just
stocks if they uh you know made some
mistakes in any other industry they
wouldn't want their child to go through
that yeah same again do you think
accomplished uh
yes yes and no no it's
I did not beat my own
game yes is uh um of uh I mean have made
some histories trading as a retail
Traders MH uh highest profitable oh
highest p in one day I guess yeah uh
probably throughout the year too uh but
uh yeah do you think
if I know you're doing this for the game
now if if I say I I tell you today or
starting tomorrow you trade you can
trade you see all those number but those
numbers are not real money meaning you
will make zero dollars whether you're up
a million or down a million from Trading
would you still be trading I I wouldn't
payer trade okay to be honest because
first of
all uh I hate people calling me paper
Traders at the very begin beginning of
my trading career I was posting pinl on
on twitters and everybody calling oh
paper trading paper trading oh I hated
that and uh then I started posting my
account statement here's my account
statement you can go ask D or you can
ask the owner of The Brokerage and uh
and I mean they can verify if it's real
or not so then that's I mean I I I don't
like people calling me like oh you're
trading fake money so it's yeah but I I
was asking cuz you treat trading as a
game and you're just trying to get
become a better Trader if you cannot
make actual money from Trading would you
still wake up every day at 5:30 to scam
for stocks to go through that routine of
tracking executing your A+ strategies
would you still be doing this game I
mean I will probably do a very similar
game that makes
money okay so making money is still
important I mean it's important double
win yeah um where do you what do you buy
with your money what do you place your
all the profits what do you do to
diversify diversify uh most recently uh
you can buy t- bills I mean very very
save 5% yeah um and I trade stocks and I
don't I don't I mean I don't like
long-term stocks I don't know why you
don't oh because um I mean the most
recent statistics on overall economy
doesn't seem very good okay looks like
there's a massive recession coming yeah
and uh we have all kinds of bubbles um
so everything's a bubble now yep and
there's going to be a large pullback so
cash is Keen right now and okay wait
until the market drops and potentially
buy some diff okay you so you don't
believe in real estate like watches like
any alternative
Investments uh real estate goes as same
as stocks long term oh okay I'm
surprised cuz Chinese people usually
like to buy real I mean yes yes I do
like real estate but they don't perform
as aggressive as okay as uh
trading so whatever you have available
typically for for a method of trading is
when I see a good play I wire money in
and I trade and wire it out okay so this
way you make sure that if you make a
stupid mistake you don't blow up your
account that's very smart actually and
uh as long as you trust your trading
skills I would prefer cash oh okay yeah
your approach is very similar we we just
talked to Tim Sykes the other day he has
all his cash according to him in like a
money market he doesn't do any
Investments no cars no nothing yeah do
you invest in cars H yeah I have a few
cars but okay they're not investing
thing oh okay they literally just buy
them because for fun what are your
current life goals cuz you're so young
you're like 28 27 28 and you achieve so
much what's next for you for Steven
Ducks next
is probably hedge fund yeah okay um and
I saw a number that I could potentially
make and in
2021 and I think I can get there once
the market is back of course um it's 200
million so my goal is 200 million a year
as a retail Trader or as a hedge fund
Trader retail okay hedge fund maybe a
little bit different yeah I think hedge
fund or the depends on how much money
you have under assets under management
but uh yes okay yeah but do you think
once you start a hedge fund or if you do
do you have to trade
differently maybe I don't know never
never start the hedge funds so we'll see
okay that'll be very interesting yeah
yeah uh probably start small I don't
know hedge fund is a little bit
different because you don't take you
don't take away all all the money that
you make mhm it's Investor's money it's
Investor's money so you are charging
little bit of commissions and very small
percentage of how much money that was
made maybe it was not very maybe it's
not worth it but it could be a good life
experience so you try that out you're
doing the this just for the game now by
by by when you do that I can I can tell
other people I was a hedge fund manager
you can say that yeah but yeah good life
experience could try it out thank you so
much sharing with us all your tips and
strategies where can people find you uh
they can find me at Steven duxi du.com
okay so where does ducks come from
that's not your real last name right it
was my first three letters of my name du D
D
do do she
show x i u x oh oh they're missing the
you yeah oh show
do show do she do
x i a n do X yeah it's the first three
letter of my name oh okay do you like
ducks interesting name I mean I think it
kind of stuck I mean it doesn't doesn't
bother me yeah yeah did somebody
mispronounce and got stuck is what I
mean oh no no no oh okay okay yeah and
then ever since everybody called me dgs
yeah yeah well thank you Dougs for being
here today and sharing so much with our
audience I no problem
if you enjoyed our conversation today
and learned a lot from Steven Ducks make
sure to hit the like button down below
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