Shadowing Practice: How I Became A Profitable Day Trader | My Trading Journey - Learn English Speaking with Video

I know a lot of you have been asking for this, so here's my story of how I got into day trading.

If you don't know who I am, I'm James, and I've been a full-time day trader since 2019, and I was able to find success in less than six months.

Skeptical?

I bet you are, but it's the truth, and I'm going to share with you how I did it.

Now, when I say success, it means I haven't had a losing month since that time.

And before we start, as a disclaimer, this is not financial advice.

I'm not here to sell you anything.

This is just me sharing my story.

Enjoy.

So before I got into day trading, I was in the apparel industry.

Me and my wife started a wholesale business together back in 2010.

And to quickly explain what the business is, just how you would go to your retail store to buy your clothes,

well, some of those retail stores come to our shop to buy the clothes in bulk to resell to you.

So we're the wholesalers, right?

Which means we're responsible for getting the clothes made from the fabric, the design, cutting, sewing, all of that.

and it being a very competitive fast-paced

and extremely stressful industry I'm proud to say

that my wife has been killing it actually the place we're

in right now is what she's grown the company into now

that most of my my attention is focused more on day trading

so shout outs to her I'm very proud of her

so how did I end up day trading

so it all started back in 2017

and at the time we were still at our first location and I was doing the apparel thing full-time

and we were doing okay for ourselves

but I wanted something more more like a secondary income passive income whatever you want to call it

but just the way to grow the money we were making

but the problem was I didn't know how to do

that I was completely illiterate when it came to investing

so I started researching and going down the rabbit hole of financial education

and I spent the next two years spending $40,000 on courses,

seminars, webinars, all kinds of ours trying to learn this shit.

So most of what I came across was real estate investing and I've taken a course on swing trading with options.

I've looked into dropshipping and a few other things that caught my interest, but none of them actually got me anywhere.

And I think some of that had to do with me buying into bullshit

and some of that had to do with me not having the right resources.

and now looking back I think a lot of

that had to do with me just not putting in the work that was required.

I think the problem was I was trying to look for something

that was quick and easy way to make money

and once I found out it was going to take a lot of work

or I just didn't see immediate results then it kind of killed the honeymoon phase for me

so I would look for the next new and exciting thing that could possibly make me money.

So I was always stuck in this stupid cycle of always starting something new but never finishing it.

So now it's 2019 and it's been two years since going through all

that and I came across one last webinar and it was about day trading.

Didn't know a thing about it, never done it before but what this person was selling was completely different from everything I've seen so far.

Now before I continue I want to note that this person does not offer this service anymore.

I know I'm going to get a bunch of questions on it

but he does not do anymore unfortunately just wanted to get

that out of the way

so it was an in-person mentorship program where he was going to teach us everything he knows

and trade live in front of us with his real money for an entire week

and he was very open and honest about everything he was showing his pnl statements

and just seemed like the real deal now at this point i'm still pretty skeptical just

because of everything i've been through but I couldn't find a reason not to give this a shot.

So I decided to let the decision up to my wife

because at the time she was six months pregnant with Tyson which meant

that I would have to leave her alone at the store for an entire week since the mentorship was in Chicago.

And when I asked her I expected her to say no you know it's another one of your damn seminars

or you know it's It's not the right time, I'm pregnant, what are you talking about?

But instead, she was super supportive and actually encouraged me to go.

So June of 2019, I flew out to Chicago for the mentorship and this was my first time day trading.

And to give you a picture of what every day was like, I woke up at 4am central time, walked to the closest gym because you know I have to get my training in no matter what,

go back to the hotel to get ready, get to the mentorship by 7am, and from 7am to 5,

5.30pm, it was all live trading and a crash course on everything he knew.

All his strategies, management, trading psychology.

He even had his personal setup shift to the place to show us exactly how he trades, how he scans, analyzes charts, use hotkeys.

I mean it felt like I was Neo learning Kung Fu in the Matrix, just straight injecting like 20 years of experience into one freaking week.

And credit goes to him because some people can do, some people can teach, but a very few can do both.

You can have all the information, but if you don't know how to convey that information, then it gets lost.

And I was so fascinated by everything he was saying, it all just clicked with me and I was immediately hooked.

And after class was over, around 5, 5.30, I would rush back to the hotel

and I would pick up whatever was on the way for dinner

and review the material I learned that week in the room till I went to bed at like 11 p.m.

And I repeated that for an entire week.

And after the mentorship was over, on the plane ride back home, I realized I just didn't find my secondary income, but my passion.

And I told myself, this is what I want to do.

And I'm going to do everything I can to make it work.

So starting that following Monday, I showed up to his trading room every day trying to apply what I learned.

I started by risking 50 bucks a trade.

And of course, I wasn't profitable right at the start.

Just because you know the rules of the game doesn't mean you're great at it.

For example, I can watch all the videos and tutorials about golf, but I'm not going to make any progress until I actually go out there and golf.

I have to find my own swing, right?

Because we're all going to vary in different height, weight, and limb length.

And by actually doing, that's going to expose my strengths and weaknesses.

And then I'll know what to work on from there.

So what I did with day trading is I started to track and review all my trades along with the management.

I trade gaps.

So I would study the gaps list every day.

I would analyze them in the pre-market to anticipate what they would do.

And then post-market, I checked to see what the gaps actually did and compare it with my pre-market analysis.

Then I reviewed them and tried to figure out why I was right or wrong.

I did a lot of scanning and started posting ideas in the room for feedback.

I asked a lot of questions, continued my studies, and really observed and paid attention to everything this trader was doing and trying to mimic his routine.

And the goal was to be able to do it on my own and not rely on his trades.

So I was spending about 12 hours a day to do all this and I did it every single day.

Then about 4 or 5 months later, I knew I was improving because that's when I started to break even

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and go positive in my P&L at the end of the week, end of the month, which by the way, I've never had a losing month ever since then.

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And someone else noticed too, because that professional trader reached out to me asking if I can help him moderate the room.

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And what that means is I'll be doing exactly what he's doing for parts of the day.

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So I'll have to get on the mic and trade live for the members, answer any of their questions, scan the market, and call plays to make the room money.

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Now remember, just five months ago, I didn't know a thing about day trading, nor have I done any type of public speaking,

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and what, now I'm supposed to trade live in front of hundreds of people and try to make them money?

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It just doesn't make sense, right?

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So initially, I turned down the offer, and I told them I just didn't feel comfortable taking on that kind of pressure, and I remember that same night, it hit me.

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I remember asking myself, when is success ever supposed to feel comfortable?

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This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and either I'm gonna win from it or learn from it, so there's really nothing to lose.

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So the next morning I told them, just kidding, I'll do it.

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And that's when my life completely changed because just before that, our son Tyson was born.

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We also bought our first house around that time.

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And now I'll be making the full transition to becoming a day trader as my career.

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And I remember being so nervous, getting on the mic for the first time, thinking this is crazy, but this really put my back up against the wall

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and forced me to bring my A game every day.

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And it helped to have him mentor me

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and steer me in the right direction and there was no way I was going to let him down, the room down, and especially myself down.

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So I amplified everything I was already doing to improve myself.

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Like instead of listening to music when I'm working out, now I'm listening to courses.

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I took a lot of notes, not just on trading, but how he was moderating, presenting himself.

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I started a daily trading journal to track all my mistakes, mostly psychological, like if I mismanaged to play,

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forced to trade, or got FOMO, things like that.

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And what really helped was teaching.

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If you really want to learn something, try teaching it to someone else.

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One of the responsibilities as a moderator is to answer questions and educate.

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So when I teach it, it reaffirms my knowledge

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and trying to make it simple to the person in front of me helps me as much as it helps them.

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Then when Christmas came around, we got to take a week off for the holidays, but the room was going to be left open to the members who still wanted to trade

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and chat for for that week.

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So for me, instead of taking that time off, I decided to use that opportunity to get more comfortable being on the mic.

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So I decided to moderate on my own, open to close every day for that entire week.

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And by the end of it, I pretty much lost my voice, but I learned a lot and I had a lot of fun doing it.

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So it was during the week of Christmas, so it wasn't too busy.

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I remember everybody was in the holiday spirit.

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We were sharing stories, eating and drinking, all while doing some trading.

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And most importantly, we made money that week.

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So we were able to catch a few plays.

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But I still remember this one play we caught.

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It was the RAD short as a novice gap.

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And by the end of that week, I was so happy that I did what I did, just because it was a real confidence booster I needed for myself as a trader and as a moderator.

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Then in the beginning of 2020 is when the world gets hit with the pandemic, lockdown happens, we run out of toilet paper for some odd reason, and the market tanks.

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And this is when I first started scalping because I saw that's what my mentor shifted his focus to.

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So one of the biggest lessons I've learned about trading the market is to be adaptable.

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The market environment is always changing.

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There's absolutely no control we have over it.

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All we can do is adapt to it.

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So I'm a big, big believer in having multiple strategies, multiple weapons in your arsenal, and being wise enough to know which ones to use at any given environment.

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Because what's working today may not be working tomorrow.

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And what happened was I ended up having my biggest month by far making about $40,000 in March of 2020, risking only 100 to 200 bucks a trade.

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Now looking back, it feels like it was meant to be

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because I spent $40,000 searching for an answer and this was like a way of telling me, boom, you did it, you found it, here's your money back as a reward.

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Because ever since I incorporated scalping into my strategies is

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when everything clicked and I started to make some real money day trading.

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And from then on, it just kind of snowballed for me.

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Of course, there was still some bumps along the way and much more lessons to be learned.

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A lot of that was psychological, Which I believe determines if you're gonna succeed in this business

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or not because anybody can learn strategies and know how to read charts

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But it's you who's clicking those buttons and it's your money that's fluctuating on

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that screen Which is why we can all get into the exact same trade, but I bet you in the end We'll all have different results and for me.

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I found out I'm not the go big or go home type of guy.

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I'm pretty risk averse I hate giving back profit, which means I may be getting shaken out of place here and there, which is fine I just like to make what I can and move on.

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And when I do that enough times, at the end of the day, it builds up a nice amount of profit.

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So the key for me is knowing when to give those trades more room.

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And I think management is an aspect in trading I'll forever be working on.

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So that's how I got into day trading.

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As you can see, my story is a bit unique.

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Some might call it luck that my mentor brought me in, which I'm very fortunate to have found such a great mentor, who's now a good friend, by the way.

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But I believe it's probability.

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Because if you're consistently putting in the work and putting yourself out there, it's more probable for you to come across more opportunities than the person who's just sitting on the couch.

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And one day, your work is going to align with the right opportunity

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and you'll be at the right place at the right time.

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So I'm still here, still learning and growing.

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Those are two things I'll never stop doing.

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And I've also grown to love teaching.

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It's given me a new sense of purpose.

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It's actually one of the reasons why I started this YouTube channel.

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So if you're liking the content, make sure to subscribe.

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And before I close off the video, I'll show you what I'm up so far this year of 2022.

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I know a lot of you guys are always curious.

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So we're in the end of April now

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and I wish it was a different time in the market because it's one of the slowest times I've traded by far.

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My mentor who's been trading for 15 plus years told me it's one of his slowest times he's traded

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so it sucks but also it's a bit encouraging because I'm still up over 100k in my TOS account.

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I think almost 20 in my E-Trade account which I only use for shorting stocks that are hard to borrow on TOS.

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And this is with me risking 500 bucks for trade

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so I'll take it

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but I think last year I think I made this same amount in just like the first two months

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so it's pretty slow but slow times don't last so hopefully it'll pick up soon.

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So hope you enjoyed my story.

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I hope there's some nuggets in there you can take away and apply to your trading.

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If you found this to be helpful make sure to hit that like button.

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If you have any questions at all leave them in the comments below.

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As always, I appreciate you being here and I hope to see you on the next one.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing Practice: How I Became A Profitable Day Trader | My Trading Journey - Learn English Speaking with Video

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What is the Shadowing Technique?