2025 recap / Net P&L +$5,101,605 / +1,632%
Started the year with a 400k account and set two goals:
1) +1000% growth (TWR)
2) $2-5M net profits
Result: Goals achieved 🥳
Overall I'm happy with how the year went. Looking back a bit further it was only during the second half of 2023 that I became profitable. And in 2024 I reached 736k/+1,204% growth. 2025 continued nicely on this growth trajectory. The last screenshot clearly demonstrates the scaling up and growth between the years with weekly and daily stats.
My approach ended up being pretty much what I laid out in my 2025 trading goals post https://t.co/0ocVLof2T7 in regards to a "trading factory". System setups, first executed manually and later on automated with algorithms was the backbone of my trading. On top of that I added to the compounding with discretionary short trades in small caps + bigger picture swings.
Automating my system strategies was perhaps the biggest milestones in 2025. I went full size on my algo at the start of July and made in Q3 over 3M profits with the algo. Q4 proved to be more challenging with almost -1M algo losses. Still, making over $2M profits from automated trades in 6 months is something I'm quite happy about. Especially as my one of my goals has been to systematically work towards minimizing my screentime.
On discretionary side I made my first 7 figure trade with $UNH in early September netting +$1,365,000 from that trade alone. Later in the year I made records on the other side losing in November a bit over -$2,200,000. Big part of those losses would've been preventable - I was not in the right mindset there. To quote Druckenmiller on his 3 billion loss "I didn't learn anything. I already knew I wasn't supposed to do that". Overall made a decent amount on the discretionary side also so will continue to do that on the side when there are some A+ opportunities.
Maybe a bit of a side track but few words on compounding and wiring out profits:
On compounding: I'd very much like to see where I could take my account if I didn't wire out anything. Bigger account is tougher to grow with the same % but at the same time it would intrigue me to see what the $ could be. That said my main goal in trading is not to make maximal $ but rather firstly provide for my family and make enough to live the highest quality life possible and only secondly quench my thirst for competition and pushing for maximal growth. Therefore I've continued to wire out quite a lot in 2025 and heading into 2026 I'm wiring out some more so that I'll start 2026 with $2.5M account.
Just to give a rough idea why I ended up wiring out total of roughly $3M in 2025:
- Around 760k for 2025 personal capital gain taxes (LLC taxes to be paid later)
- 300k for down payment of our dream Lakehouse (rest 1.1M loaned)
- 330k to Lakehouse renovation (expect to pay another 300k in 2026)
- 210k investment to an start-up company
- 100k for holidays
- many other "small" expenses like 30k for Porsche Taycan down payment
- last but definitely not least: Cash buffer that is enough for my whole family to live off for the next 4-5 years if needed
- Side note: I'll clarify in 2026 goals post on how I plan to utilize some of the wired out equity for further wealth generation instead of letting it sit in my bank account
I'd definitely be compounding at higher $$$ without such high expenses. But I'm not a young guy anymore. At 37 years with a wife and two young kids I plan to live life to the fullest. It would be a bit different if I was still in my 20's with no kids.
I was going back and forth on if I should make such a big wire out at the end of the year as it severely slows down compounding. But as said my highest priority is the financial security of my family. And with that handled I should be able to execute better as there is pretty much zero pressure to make money. I still think that in 2025 out of everything I posted the post that most described the underlying reason for my increased success was "The less I care the easier it becomes.".
Back to the yearly recap -> Despite the disappointing Q4 performance I am more than happy with the results of 2025. Not only the P&L but also automation of my system setups that freed up time for both things outside of trading as well as for managing discretionary trade opportunities better. I'll soon post more on 2026 plan & goals. For now just wishing Happy and Prosperous New Year to all my fellow traders!
This is what building through higher drawdowns truly means, and this is what most people tend to ignore. They remain stuck in simplistic math that says if you lose 10 percent, you need 11 percent to recover, and if you lose 50 percent, you need a 100 percent gain to get back to breakeven.
Qullamaggie was down nearly 50 percent at one point, and drawdowns in the range of -15 to -25 percent were normal even during periods like 2019. That tolerance for drawdowns is exactly what enabled him to reach a hundred million by 2021.
One thing I cannot emphasize enough is this: plan your journey in a way that, if it succeeds, it creates a real and meaningful impact on your life. Don’t settle for collecting peanuts. Instead, commit everything you have, your heart, soul, blood, sweat, and tears, to making it work. Go deeper than others are willing to. Own your decisions fully and be prepared to face the consequences that come with them.
Defeating competition in this world isn’t hard, because most people are trapped by mental barriers. They’re afraid to go deep into something, to truly own their decisions, and when they do take responsibility, it often shows up as self-blame. They think small, obsessing over the math of minor drawdowns and marginal recoveries. That is precisely why they will never be able to create a tectonic shift in their lives.
There is no better way to start 2026 than by making a promise to yourself to pursue things that, in @sama’s words, if they succeed, will make the rest of your career look like a footnote. Aim for heights so ambitious that people think you’re crazy for even considering them.
Happy New Year to everyone! I do not wish you fortune, because real men don’t wait for destiny, they build it. They don’t sit around hoping that randomness, or what we like to call luck, will give them a chance. They take control of their lives.
I only wish that when you look back on this year on 31 December 2026, you feel proud of the choices you made. And when you look back at this year decades from now, you remember it as the year that brought a true inflection point in your life.
For Traders who don't have a short attention span
I wrote a short article on my Momentum Trading Strategy
It covers:
• Entry/Stoploss Placement
• Best/Worst conditions for trading Breakouts
• couple of Live Examples
Enjoy
https://t.co/tauRkJ89kK
This makes manifestation so much easier to understand. Simply feed your subconscious with your beliefs of choice, then quite literally sit back and relax
"I am the luckiest person in the world, wealth comes to me effortlessly, [insert whatever other beliefs you want]." Structure it in the present tense to tell your subconscious, "This is already the truth"
Because your subconscious is designed to never question the information it receives and always take everything you tell it at face value, it now has to ensure that your physical reality actually aligns with the truth
One way it does that is by what's described below. Those random "lightbulb moments" that pop into your head or "omg, this is it" ideas you get in the shower. You didn't actively think them, but they also didn't just come out of nowhere
It was simply the result of the command you gave to your subconscious. "This is the truth of who I am. Take the information, and use it to make me see situations, approach challenges, and synthesize experiences in new ways that align with the truth of who I am"
Actually life changing stuff. As long as you carry the right beliefs and are genuinely convicted in those beliefs, you just have to trust that your subconscious will take care of and guide you accordingly. All you have to do is keep moving forward, putting yourself out there, exposing yourself to new opportunities, and be ready to act when the inspiration strikes
Unironically my wife gets very angsty whenever I haven't checked in on her personal progress. Usually she starts overthinking whether what she's doing is the right direction or not. Or she starts to feel disconnected in our long-term vision.
I've learned that all she really wants is clarity. Nothing else. As such, I've been understanding my role as a husband over the years better.
@megha_lilly Sometimes I show my husband a life map of everything I am worrying about and tending to and ask him to help me prioritize—group things into categories by level of importance. I find that hard to do when I’m in the thick of things.
@megha_lilly Husbands shouldnt have to create a schedule for their wife.
Mothers used to teach their daughters a schedule on completing household tasks, or the schools via home ec would teach it.
Something women need to help each other on.
One of the reasons women like going to work is that there is a boss there who makes their schedules for them and tells them what to do and gives them validation for doing it well. This is what husbands need to be doing at home.
Like I always say. Being husband means being PM of the family. Make your wife’s schedule and force her to take breaks. Some women need regiment or their neuroticism will cause them overheat even when they don’t have work, like an engine in neutral.
@GreeneMan6 But Dave, if this is true, most of the time, you shouldn’t let a woman vent and get emotional validation! It’s revving her engine in neutral!
You should be doing something and encouraging her to tag along!
What women call “mental load” and “emotional labor”is just self-created anxiety that they place on themselves by taking on more and more responsibility without being asked.
Then that same woman turns around and presents this self-imposed stress as a form of sacrifice, using it to make their partner feel guilty as if they are doing everything alone in the relationship.
A lot of the pressure comes from impulsive, non-essential tasks that don’t actually need to be done immediately or at all.
But once the stress passes a personal threshold, it gets projected onto their husbands as if it is now their duty to absorb and fix it. What makes it more frustrating is the inconsistency.
When they truly do not want to do something, they can clearly and forcefully say no. But when it is their own mind pushing them to overextend themselves, suddenly it becomes “mental load” and emotional labor that someone else is expected to manage.
At that point, it is no longer responsibility, it becomes self-created pressure that is now affecting their mental health, and then their partner is blamed for not fixing it. Men are basically being blamed for an imaginary problem.
Once you start reading more deeply into child development, you realize you have an unimaginable amount of power in shaping them to win
>the name you give them (+power it brings)
>environment you let them grow in
>treating them from day one as the person you hope they will become