Some traders find MIC and go all in on day one. Daniel did the opposite. He paid for a lifetime Platinum membership back in August 2021, then barely touched it for almost four years. He was busy running HVAC jobs with his dad in California, buying a little $SPY or $GOOGL when he remembered to, and telling himself he would get to the trading thing eventually.
It took a -$12,000 loss to change that. This is the story of how he got there, and what finally made the process stick.
A long way from a college homework assignment
Daniel grew up in Mexico and moved to the States about nine years ago. He studied accounting and earned his CPA back home, though here it counts as a bachelor’s degree. When the work visa he wanted never came through, he moved to California five years ago to help his dad run an HVAC business.
The market first caught his eye in a college classroom. A teacher had the class open an eToro account for a homework assignment, and while everyone else saw a chore, Daniel saw something moving on the charts that he could not stop watching. He went home, watched Billions, understood almost none of it, and went looking for more. “It was really interesting how everything was moving in those charts,” he told us. That curiosity never really went away.
Paying for the room but not using it
When Daniel first found MIC, it was through a friend who recommended it and was clearly making good money. He trusted the friend and joined. There was no big fear holding him back. He wasn’t scared to risk some money on something that might not pan out.
The problem wasn’t doubt. It was follow-through. He didn’t have enough capital to get his account over the pattern day trader rule, and his day job ate up his attention. So for years his MIC membership sat there while he occasionally parked money in a long-term name. He had the resources. He just wasn’t using them.
That changed in May 2025, when he finally got his account over the threshold. He was proud of it. It had taken him a long time. And then he did exactly the wrong thing with it.
The $12,000 wake-up call
Instead of opening the MIC playbook he had already paid for, Daniel decided to keep doing his own thing on the long side. The trouble was he had no strategy telling him which stock was actually worth buying. He was guessing.
The guessing end up costing him about -$12,000 of money he had worked hard for.
That is the moment most people quit. Daniel did the opposite. “There’s when I decided to start following MIC process,” he said. The loss didn’t just cost him money. It threatened something bigger: his belief that this could actually work, and his goal of one day going back to Mexico and living off his trading. Losing the money stung. Losing the belief would have been worse.
The question that reframed everything
Daniel’s turnaround started with a number he overheard.
Steven mentioned that the traders who graduate from the Discipline Workshop tend to become profitable. Daniel’s reaction wasn’t “that sounds nice.” It was a question: what do I need to do to graduate from that workshop?
That is the shift. He stopped looking for a magic setup and started asking what process he needed to build. From there the changes were specific. He waited for his setup instead of forcing one, and he started to manage his risk like it was the job rather than an afterthought. He also stopped freelancing on direction and began following Alex’s watchlist.
The livestream surprised him most. Watching the trades happen live made the whole thing feel easier and a lot more relaxed than staring at charts alone.
What the routine looks like now
Daniel’s day is built to protect him from himself. He is up at 5 a.m. Pacific, makes a coffee, and takes a short walk before he ever looks at a screen. By 5:40 he is at his computer with DAS open, pulling up the previous day’s watchlist to see which names still have room to move.
His favorite setup is the Low Hanging Fruit, so that is what he hunts for. He doesn’t trade premarket, which keeps him out of a lot of trouble.
Then he waits for the livestream, marks his lines, and waits again for the stocks to come to his price before placing orders. Here is the rule that holds it all together: if it is 7 a.m. PST (10 a.m. EST) and he hasn’t placed an order, it is a no-trade day. He needs to walk away at 7:30 a.m. PST (10:30 a.m. EST), and he has made peace with closing the laptop on a quiet morning.
His relationship with risk got simpler, too. Less size, bigger account, the way the mods preach it. A small stop out is fine. Being stubborn and refusing to follow your own plan is the part that actually hurts you.
Earning the money back, and a Michael Bublé concert
Daniel made his $12,000 back. More than the dollars, he is proud that he can stop out of any stock now and be okay with it. The dream of living off trading stopped being a someday fantasy and turned into a goal he is actively hitting.
He is also pulling profits out instead of letting his ego ride. He keeps the account small on purpose so he doesn’t get over his head, moves some into longer-term investments, and this month put extra toward paying off his car.
The withdrawal that meant the most: he flew to Vallarta to see Michael Bublé and brought his mom along, checking a bucket-list artist off her list with money he made trading. The car is getting paid down faster than he expected, and a house is on the table for next year.
His targets from here are clear. He wants to make $1,000 a day, or $250,000 a year, consistently. Anyone who has looked into how long it takes to become consistently profitable knows that last word is the whole game.
What Daniel would tell you
If you are the trader staring at a losing account right now, Daniel has been where you are, and his advice is blunt.
Stop focusing on making money and start focusing on following your process.
“The biggest turning point in my trading wasn’t finding a new strategy,” he said. “It was learning to be patient, wait for my lines, respect my risk, and accept that some days the best trade is no trade at all.”
Consistency comes from discipline, not from chasing profits. If you can survive long enough to master your emotions, the results follow. Daniel paid $12,000 to learn that. You get to learn it from him for free.
