Faisal Yusof

Semi-retired. Accredited investor with a 7-figure portfolio. Documenting my journey to grow a trading account from RM10k to RM1 million. 08/09/2026 ~ RM184k

[Faisal Yusof @Faisal_Invest]

10K → 1M Journey | Jun 2025 → Dec 2029

Woke up to a nice sight. Portfolio is up significantly and green overall.

Moomoo: RM116.9k
Webull: RM42.9k
MMF: RM30.6k

Total: RM190.4k

We’ve officially touched the RM190k mark for the first time in this journey. 🎉

No plans for the week yet. I’ll start by scanning the market, reading the news and checking all my positions.

For every position, I look at the latest news, sentiment and the charts. I want to understand what’s moving, why it’s moving, and how much movement I might reasonably expect.

From there, I adjust accordingly.

That’s pretty much how I go about it. I don’t start the week looking for a trade. I let the market show me what’s happening first, then make my decisions from there.

May everyone who reads this have a great week ahead!

[Faisal Yusof @Faisal_Invest]

The trading account is my “play money”.

And I think it’s one of the main reasons I’ve been able to scale it quickly.

I started with 10k. It was money I could completely afford to lose. Money I didn’t need for the family, house, retirement or bills.

It was simply:

“Let’s see if I can do this. Let’s have some fun with it.”

That mindset never changed.

Today, 200k still feels like numbers on a screen.

I’m quite emotionally detached from the account. Win or lose, I honestly don’t feel much.

I don’t think about what it could buy. I don’t feel more protective just because the number is bigger.

It’s still the same pot of play money.

A big part of investing is mental. When emotions get involved, you can panic sell, force a trade, take profits too early, or hesitate on a good opportunity.

I understand why.

But I don’t feel attached to the number. And that allows me to trade with a clear mind.

RM10k. RM100k. RM1M.

The money is real.

But in my head, it’s still just play money.

[Faisal Yusof @Faisal_Invest]

@Tegadesigns B. Just easier on the eye. Comfortable spacing. Everything has their own space.

[Faisal Yusof @Faisal_Invest]

SOXL: Betting Against the AI Frontier Slowdown Narrative

I’ve built a tactical position in SOXL.

Here’s why.

Semiconductors were already under pressure before the latest AI frontier slowdown narrative hit. That story then compounded the selloff. I think the market may be overreacting.
SOXX fell around 5.6% on Monday, dragging Nvidia, Micron, and Marvell with it.

Frontier slowdown ≠ infrastructure slowdown

The slowdown calls are about the pace of frontier model development. That’s not the same as saying AI adoption is slowing, capex is collapsing, or chip demand is disappearing.

Slower frontier progress does not automatically mean fewer GPUs, less memory, less networking, fewer data centers, or less power.

Hyperscaler capex is still tracking toward roughly $795B in 2026 and $1.08T in 2027, with no concrete evidence yet of broad infrastructure cancellations.

Security concerns are legitimate. But they can be addressed with stronger testing, independent evaluations, and deployment controls without stopping infrastructure buildout.

Jensen Huang has pushed back on slowing development while still backing safety evaluations, and the race with China adds pressure to keep building.

My view: security may change how AI is developed. It does not necessarily change how much compute the world needs.

Why SOXL

I want sector exposure, not a single-name bet. SOXL covers compute (Nvidia, AMD), memory/HBM (Micron), networking and custom silicon (Broadcom, Marvell), foundry (TSMC), and equipment (AMAT, LRCX, KLAC).

This is not an Nvidia trade. It’s a bet the sector is being repriced too aggressively versus the demand picture.

SOXL is 3x leveraged. That cuts both ways, and daily-reset leverage can bleed in a choppy market even if the thesis is later right. This is a tactical trade, not a core long term holding.

How I’m building it

I’m scaling in with tranches. I won’t add just because price is cheaper. I want confirmation first.

What would confirm it

•The slowdown narrative loses momentum
•Hyperscalers keep spending on AI infrastructure
•Semi leaders recover together
•Memory/HBM demand stays strong
•Earnings and guidance keep confirming demand
•Semiconductor breadth improves

The most interesting signal: headlines stay negative while semis stop falling and start basing.

What would break it

The thesis weakens if several of these show up together:
1Hyperscalers materially cut AI capex
2GPU/semi orders get pushed out or cancelled
3Memory/HBM demand deteriorates
4Companies cut forward guidance
5The frontier slowdown becomes an infrastructure slowdown
That last one matters most.

The thesis can survive “frontier progress slows, infrastructure keeps expanding.” It cannot survive “frontier progress slows, capex gets cut, demand deteriorates.”

Price weakness alone doesn’t kill it. Fundamentals do.

Levels

Watching $130, then $150, and if momentum carries, $180–200. I’ll trim into strength and may leave a runner. If capex data confirms the bear case, I’ll cut off the invalidation list above.

Bottom line

Semis were already beaten down. The frontier slowdown story added fear on top.

I think that created a dislocation between price and infrastructure demand.

The fear is real. I think the conclusion being drawn from it is wrong. We’ll see.

Not financial advice. SOXL is leveraged and this is a high-risk trade. Sharing my thinking, not telling anyone what to do. Do your own research.

[Faisal Yusof @Faisal_Invest]

The Fed Hiked Rates. What Does It Actually Mean for Stocks?

The Fed just raised interest rates by 25 basis points, bringing the federal funds rate to 3.75%–4.00%.

So, is this bad for stocks?

It can be, but it’s not that simple.

Higher rates generally pressure stocks, especially growth stocks. Borrowing becomes more expensive, bonds become more attractive, and investors may assign lower valuations to future earnings.

But there’s an important distinction:

Higher rates can hurt a company’s valuation without necessarily hurting the business itself.

Not all growth stocks are the same

You often hear:

Higher rates = bad for growth stocks.

But what kind of growth?

A profitable semiconductor company benefiting from strong AI infrastructure demand is very different from a company with little revenue or profit whose potential is years away.

Both may be called “growth stocks”, but their situations are very different.

If earnings continue growing strongly, higher rates may simply mean investors are willing to pay a lower multiple.

So instead of asking:

“Are rates going up?”

I’d rather ask:

“Has the reason I own this stock changed?”

Why is the Fed hiking?

The Fed isn’t raising rates because it wants to hurt stocks. It is trying to manage inflation while keeping the economy on a sustainable path.

If the economy was collapsing, a rate hike would tell us something very different.

Instead, the economy is still showing strength and significant investment, while inflation remains elevated.

That means the economy is strong enough for monetary policy to remain tight.

The bigger trends still matter

AI is a good example.

Companies are spending heavily on data centers, chips, networking and computing infrastructure.

Higher rates can affect valuations and financing costs, but they don’t automatically make AI infrastructure demand disappear.

The same applies to electricity demand. If data centers continue consuming more power, that creates opportunities across power generation and infrastructure regardless of whether rates are 3%, 4% or 5%.

The underlying trend and the interest-rate environment can both be true at the same time.

Don’t trade the headline. Understand the reason.

“Fed hikes rates. Sell tech.”

It sounds simple.

Markets usually aren’t.

The better questions are:

Did the hike change the company’s earnings outlook?
Did it change demand for its products?
Did the valuation become too expensive?
Or did the market simply react to the headline?

What I’m watching

Inflation. Does it continue coming down?

Bond yields. Do longer-term rates keep rising?

Economic growth. Does the economy remain resilient?

Corporate earnings. Are companies delivering the growth investors expect?

And most importantly:

Are the underlying investment themes still intact?

My takeaway

I don’t think the lesson is simply “sell growth stocks.”

I also don’t think it’s “ignore interest rates.”

Rates matter. A lot.

But they are only one part of the market.

The Fed controls the price of money. It doesn’t control AI adoption, semiconductor demand, electricity consumption, corporate earnings or technological innovation.

For me, the key is understanding the difference between a change in the market environment and a change in the investment thesis.

Sometimes a rate hike means you need to rethink the thesis.

Sometimes it simply means you need to rethink the price.

And those are two very different things.

[Faisal Yusof @Faisal_Invest]

10K → 1M Journey | Weekly Summary

Been having a headache all day, so I’m calling it a night early. But before I do, here’s the weekly summary.

Current portfolio:

Moomoo: RM115.7k
Webull: RM43.3k
MMF & others: RM30.6k

Total: RM189.6k

Only RM10.4k away from the RM200k target for this year.

+6.7% for September so far.

Quite a bit happened this week.

One of my latest major trades is the semiconductor trade. The trade is doing well. Last I checked, it was up almost 20%.

Also added to copper and nuclear/modular power, while some of my Bursa property/construction and aviation orders were filled.

Had two IPOs this week. Unfortunately, both were disappointing.

EIPOWER hit my RM0.92 target price today and I realised a gain of RM5.3k. Looking back, I underestimated the psychological resistance and push towards RM1. It reached RM0.96 today. Good mental note for the future.

Also took some profit from BE.

The big macro event was the US rate hike. The Fed raised rates by 25bps, the first hike since 2023. The hike itself wasn’t much of a surprise, but the possibility of further hikes made the market reaction more interesting.

The CLARITY Act also failed to advance this week, although it didn’t really cause much movement in the market.

Overall, another pretty active week.

RM200k is getting closer.

For now, I’m going to sleep. Headache has been with me all day.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

[Faisal Yusof @Faisal_Invest]

An appreciation post for the honest financial educators and trading gurus.

I’ve been getting more and more messages lately asking me to teach people how I trade and invest.

In all honesty, I don’t think I can.

I don’t really know how to teach.

What I can do is share my experience, my opinions, my approach, and how I think through certain situations. But I’m not sure how much that actually helps someone who is starting from zero.

Learning needs structure.

You need a syllabus, a clear path, a methodology, exercises, repetition, feedback and probably a framework that can be applied to different people and different situations.

My own approach is extremely personal.

It comes from years of investing, watching markets, understanding macro and microeconomics, seeing the same patterns play out over and over again, making mistakes, learning from them, and gradually developing my own way of looking at opportunities and risk.

A lot of it has become instinctive.

And that’s probably one of the hardest things to teach.

Which brings me to something I think we should appreciate more.

The honest financial educators and trading educators out there.

Teaching this stuff properly is not easy.

You have to break down something that may have taken you 10 or 20 years to understand into something another person can actually absorb.

You have to explain concepts without oversimplifying them.

You have to deal with students with completely different levels of knowledge, risk tolerance, personalities and financial situations.

You have to constantly update your material because markets change.

And perhaps most importantly, you have to manage expectations in an industry where people naturally want shortcuts.

There is also an important distinction:

Being a good trader doesn’t necessarily make you a good teacher.

And being a good teacher doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a great trader.

They are two different skills.

A great trader may have incredible instincts but struggle to explain exactly how they arrived at a decision.

A great educator may be exceptionally good at breaking down complex concepts, building a curriculum and helping someone understand the markets, even if trading isn’t their own primary strength.

Both skills have value.

So this is an appreciation post for the people who genuinely put in the work to educate others and do it honestly.

Not the ones selling dreams.

Not the ones promising guaranteed returns.

Not the ones manufacturing screenshots, pretending every trade is a winner, or selling a lifestyle instead of knowledge.

Not the ones with the literal intention to scam and deceive.

Those guys are not invited.

But the honest ones?

Respect!

It takes time, patience, knowledge and a genuine willingness to help people understand something that is inherently difficult.

So if you’re looking to learn, don’t be afraid to reach out to the honest ones. There’s plenty of good ones around.

As for me, I’ll probably continue doing what I’ve been doing.

Sharing my journey.

Sharing what I see.

Sharing how I’m thinking about things.

You can learn from it if you find it useful.

But I’m not here to teach you how to trade.

I’m still learning myself.

[Priya Ninanve @_priya9]

Hello @grok, be honest which technology is better, the American or the German!!!?

[Faisal Yusof @Faisal_Invest]

@kevinxu Agreed! It’s actually kinda easy.

[Faisal Yusof @Faisal_Invest]

A small lesson from EIPOWER today.

I sold at RM0.92 and realised a RM5.3k gain.

The stock went on to hit RM0.96 so far today. I underestimated the psychological resistance around the RM1 level and the momentum that can come with getting closer to a big round number.

Not complaining about the exit. A gain is a gain.

But I’m taking a mental note from this one.

Perhaps when a stock is approaching a major psychological level, it can make sense to leave a small portion behind for the possibility of that final push.

Always something to learn from every trade.

[Faisal Yusof @Faisal_Invest]

10K → 1M Journey | Jun 2025 → Dec 2029

Bursa opened with a pleasant surprise today.

EIPOWER surged and hit my target price limit order. Sold at RM0.90, realising a gain of RM5.3k.

I underestimated the psychological resistance and the push towards the RM1 level. It peaked at RM0.94 so far today.

Taking a mental note from this one. Perhaps when a stock is approaching a big round number, it makes sense to leave a small portion on the table for the final push.

Bursa positions are generally green today.

US market pulled back a little from last night’s gains.

Total portfolio: ~RM187k

Only RM13k away from the RM200k target.

[Faisal Yusof @Faisal_Invest]

RM10K → RM1M Journey | Jun 2025 → Dec 2029

Portfolio Update

Broad market rally today, a day after the rate hike. Portfolio up about RM2.5k today.

Not reading too much into it yet. The real moves will come after the initial noise settles. Let the market digest everything first.

Moomoo: RM114.8k
Webull: RM42.0k
MMF & others: RM30.8k

Total: RM187.6k

That puts us just RM12.4k away from the RM200k target for this year.

We’re in an interesting situation. Interest rate went up, but the market rallies.

In simple terms, you could say the rate hike was already priced in.

But in reality, it’s a lot more complex than that.

I’ll write an article on this later.

[Faisal Yusof @Faisal_Invest]

10K → 1M Journey | Jun 2025 → Dec 2029

Here’s the 2026 YTD stats from my Moomoo account, the main account where the majority of the action happens.

Beginning balance: RM21.8K
Current portfolio value: RM113.2K
Gain: +RM92K (+427%)

The part I like most about these numbers is the consistency.

One red month out of nine.

Jan +0.82%
Feb -4.36%
Mar +10.73%
Apr +76.40% 🚀
May +27.12% 🚀
Jun +4.95%
Jul +6.00%
Aug +10.40%
Sep +4.52% MTD

Most months have been incremental gains, with a few big wins, particularly April and May, doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

It hasn’t been one massive trade. It’s been a combination of incremental gains, a few big opportunities, taking profits, redeploying capital and staying consistent.

Current portfolio:

Moomoo: RM113.2K
Webull: RM41.8K
MMF & Others: RM30.5K

Total: ~RM185.5K

The 2026 year-end target is RM200K. We’re quite close now. A few trades are still in play. Let’s see where they take us.

3 months left in 2026. RM200K now seems quite realistic.

RM1M by the end of 2029?

Let’s see.

Join the journey and find out if we can make it. 🚀

[Faisal Yusof @Faisal_Invest]

@kevinxu Considering to join… 🤔

[Faisal Yusof @Faisal_Invest]

10K → 1M Journey | Jun 2025 → Dec 2029

Interest rates went up, but as I expected, it was already priced in, so there wasn’t much of a surprise for the market.

My portfolio opened green this morning. Overall value is still roughly the same, around RM185K.

US went up, but Bursa went down, largely because of AirAsia.

The situation has become more serious, so I need to do a deeper dive into the company, look at the financials and understand the possible roadmap to recovery.

But as of now, my gut feeling says that AirAsia is too big to go under. There are too many jobs and too much of the Malaysian aviation ecosystem tied to the company. I don’t know what the solution looks like yet, but I think there’s potential for a recovery. I need to do the work and understand the numbers first.

I recently opened a new position in semiconductors. This is one of my current major trades.

The sector was already beaten down significantly, and then the AI frontier slowdown narrative came along and pushed it down even further.

I think the market may be overreacting. A slowdown at the frontier doesn’t necessarily mean everything else in the semiconductor ecosystem slows down.

Even Jensen Huang and Trump have pushed back against the slowdown narrative.

To me, the dislocation between the narrative and the underlying fundamentals has become too wide. That’s what I’m positioning for.

Now we wait and see how the thesis plays out.

[Faisal Yusof @Faisal_Invest]

Had the pleasure of trying on this Royal Oak Offshore in full ceramic recently. It’s been stuck in my head ever since.

Maybe it’s because I don’t have anything like this in my collection yet. Bright, colourful, fun. The kind of watch you wear on vacation, sitting by the beach and sipping a coconut haha.

I know the Offshore collection doesn’t have a lot of fans, but I absolutely love this piece.

And honestly, 43mm on a 17cm wrist isn’t too bad, right?

[Faisal Yusof @Faisal_Invest]

Told ya, the rate hike is already priced in. My portfolio is green.

[Faisal Yusof @Faisal_Invest]

10K → 1M Journey | Jun 2025 → Dec 2029

A quick summary of my current major trades and themes:

Short term
• Anthropic IPO
• Semiconductors

I also still have a software trade ongoing, running on house money.

Longer horizon
• Modular / Nuclear Power
• Quantum Computing

Planning & researching
• Humanoid Robotics

Different time horizons, different theses.

The framework stays the same: understand the thesis, know what would invalidate it, and execute accordingly.

[Kevin Xu @kevinxu]

Calling it now: everything will be green tomorrow.

Everything.

Thesis:

[Faisal Yusof @Faisal_Invest]

10K → 1M Journey | Jun 2025 → Dec 2029

US market opened green today.

A positive start after the Clarity Act disappointment. But I wouldn’t read too much into it just yet.

The bigger event is happening tonight: FOMC and the interest rate decision.

The market can easily flip either way once the decision and guidance come out.

A 25bps hike is already largely priced in, so for me, the more interesting part will be what the Fed says about the path ahead.

For now, I’m just chillin.