Watch
Listen
James 0:01
Hey, what’s up everyone? Obviously, you know, this is James, Harry and I have been talking now for a couple of weeks about more ways that we could give back to the community. And something that we’ve really wanted to do for a while now is to restart the MIC after hours podcast. We both kind of were like each other’s tabs a lot of the times, you know, but I think we talked to each other about more the emotional side of trading rather than an actual, like, technical fundamental side of it, and actually what we’re doing. So that’s something we kind of wanted to bring into the podcast. Everyone knows all the big traders out there, we know Alex, and Bao and Tosh, and we know all the moderators as well. But, you know, we know their journeys, but we wanted to kind of dig deeper into the emotional side of their trading journey from start to where they are now. And we think that’s a little bit more personal, like more personal into each other’s lives. And we want to get to know everyone a little bit better, as well. I know Harry’s really been wanting to do this for a long time. So you can you can take it.
Harry 1:06
Yeah, so I guess we’re just kind of do like more of a more emotional timeline of your, your journey. And I guess, probably the best way to start off would be like, you know, how are you feeling after you sold the rims off your car? And did it positively or negatively affect your trading? Like, what was that, like, for your mindset? And how did that affect your kind of mentality going forward?
Selling Everything to Make More Money
Alex 1:32
That’s a good question, man. So number one, before I answer that question, I want to like, I want to, like make this podcast like fun, too. You know what I’m saying? Like, we don’t always have to talk about trading, we always have talked about the stock market. Yeah. And James, like, we had like a house party a couple of months ago. So like, I’m probably going to bring up some stories about that. But to answer your question, to be to be just like 100% Honest, man, that was my last shot, right? Like it was either make it or break it there. Right? I needed something concrete to tell me that shit. If I was not able to do this right now, I was probably never able to do it. And bow has a similar story that he took a mortgage out on his house to fund one of his trading accounts, he took a bet that big on himself. So that was kind of my way of taking a bet on myself because through to make two grand I would have to work fuckin what does that for? What that’s really for five years to Starbucks, you know what I’m saying? Like, yeah, I can either work for five months, or I can sell the rims on my car. And if I fail, I would have to go back to work for four or five months to make that back and go back to do what I was doing. You know?
James 2:37
So did you feel like after that last two grand were you going to try trading again? If you blew up? Or did you kind of in the back of your head feel like shit? This is it. This is the last chance for me. If I can’t do it now, I don’t know if I’m going to try this again.
Alex 2:50
Honestly, bro, that’s what I said to myself back then I said, This is it. If I don’t get it, I’m never gonna do it again. But if I had failed there, I would have found another way to make some money to get back to it. I have to be honest, I would have just fucking found that I would have sold my Xbox dude, I would have sold my fuckin shoes I would have sold nothing left. You know what I’m saying? Just because yeah, I believed in myself that much as I already was kind of. I was passionate and like, I wouldn’t be excited to watch videos. I would be excited to like go on YouTube and research. I was excited to do this shit. And people always told me that like you would you never be successful. Unless you did what you love. And I was like five fucking everything bro. Like everything for me sucks. I’m not gonna I’m not that good looking. Like I suck at everything right? So I said to myself, here I am. I found something that I like. I don’t love it yet, but I like it. So I might as well try to take advantage of that at least you know.
James 3:53
So that makes it so at this point, you were what 19 years old?
Alex 3:58
19 man 19 or 19 I think I’m 26 now
James 4:04
So you come from like a pretty hard working family like we know the story about your father and I was actually just listening to the old after hours podcast today. And we know how hard working guy he is and how hard working you are. But did they see day trading like the same way you do? Like did they see that there was like some sort of light at the end of the tunnel that actually could be like, it could
Alex 4:25
it was the opposite. It was the opposite because my dad lost a metric fuck ton of money in 2008 like a shitload of money he had a bunch of investments in the stock market and he was the guy that fucking panic down at the bottom obviously because he has no fucking clue what he’s doing.
James 4:39
So no investment like like
The First Time My Dad and Bao Met
Alex 4:42
buying like like Sirius XM SanDisk I think he told me he had like Netflix that like 80 bucks or some shit and he sold that like 76 or I don’t know I don’t really know but He’s clueless we clues clues clues has no fucking clue about stock market doesn’t even know anything anymore. If you try As to put his money into the stock market. He like loses every time. It’s like, if you do the opposite of what my dad does, you will fucking make money. My parents hated it too. They said I was an idiot. They said I was a gambler. They said I will lose all my money. They said I will shouldn’t be wasting my time with it. In college in college, I was making a couple 100 bucks a week trading. I would pay off the kids in my class to help me with my tests on my homework. And I’d be like, Look, I’m making $2,000 a week trading, right? I’m making two grand a week trading. I want to drop out of school school is taking too much of my time, but I’m done with it. And they’re like, No, you’re eventually going to lose all of your money stay in school. Meanwhile, my brother Allen dropped out of school two years later, like he dropped out of school as a sophomore. So like, after they realised that like school really wasn’t the secret. Yeah, then they start to be more comfortable. And after a certain point when I started making, I think the turning point was when I made $60,000 on CLTX. And that trade afforded me to be able to go to the trading conference in Las Vegas with my dad. And that conference is where my dad and bow met for the first time ever. Oh shit. Bao was presenting. And I was just in the audience. I was just fucking watching this me and my dad. And my dad’s like, this guy’s fucking smart. This guy. I liked this guy. Right? So ever since he saw Bao presenting and seeing that he was a normal guy. And not like a Wall Street snobby asshole. Then he’s a car salesman. Yeah. And you realise maybe there’s potential here, right? Maybe there’s, this is before me and Bauer ever. Fred’s? You just That’s funny. All around us do that made $1.4 million on Fannie Mae. You know, that’s funny.
James 6:52
It’s funny that you dad kind of sense that about Bao too, because I think everyone gets that same emotion when they’re talking about like, we know he’s an animal. He drinks a lot. He’s a savage, but, but he’s a genius. He’s like a savant when it comes to this.
Alex 7:08
My dad is a person that he grew up in a village where his entire house was the size of my office. He had three brothers and four sisters. His dad was a poor blacksmith, right? Blacks, literally, like you know that. Yeah. My dad was a Christian. So when he lived in the Middle East, if you were not Muslim, they threw like rocks at you. You know what I’m saying? So, my dad’s dad, who was a blacksmith, built them fucking metal rods to beat the shit out of anyone that threw rocks at them. So he came from very humble beginnings. So he thought that most of these Wall Street guys were assholes. They were scumbags. They are fucking bags. But going to that conference in Vegas is what made trading and stock markets seem at least not scam at that.
James 8:00
And at this point in your career, you were like, pretty I mean, obviously very consistent, I’m assuming right?
Alex 8:06
early in my career, I would say maybe year two of my journey when I was just really starting to get really the hang of it. Like that’s CLTX trade I cant remember the other fucking ticker? That was the trade that I didn’t even realise what the hell happened. I just traded. And then I looked and I was like, What the fuck that I just do? You don’t even know in the moment what the hell was happening, you know?
James 8:37
So you, I’m guessing you told like your family like what you did and like how much you made? So how did they kind of like how did things change from there on out? Or were they now more into the idea of saying with friends that were people kind of like, oh, shit, like, now this dude is like this through the baller, like he’s now making
Alex 8:55
After that trade, or after I went to Vegas. They still thought that I was going to lose all that money, right? They still thought that I was because it was beginner’s luck. They thought, right? Because my parents, Remember, they come from a family background where education is the only way to escape poverty. You have to become like a doctor, you got to become a fucking lawyer. If you don’t go to school, you’re gonna be broke forever. And here I am gambling making all this money. It’s like they’re embarrassed by you know what I’m saying? Because yeah, traditional, right? It’s not traditional. So the point that got me to, for my parents to really believe in me or to really start thinking that this was real, was after my first six figure day after that, that is when they start to say, okay, maybe there’s something here. Yeah.
James 9:50
Oh, shit. That’s pretty cool. Harry, your parents were the same way. Right? Your parents are kind of, kind of not against it, but they weren’t really necessarily believing in what you were doing.
How Did You Get Started in Investing?
Harry 9:59
So, yeah, I started like super young, like, I mean, I was in like, basically I got like a really bad concussion and like grade 10, grade 11. And I was like, I’m at my grandparents right now because like, my house right now is just too hectic downstairs in my dad’s office. My dad’s just on a bunch of conference calls at the moment. So I just came here and brought my laptop. And yeah, it was like, you know, grade like, I guess like this summer grade 10 grade 11 I just saw these like gurus on YouTube, like, oh, yeah, you can make a million dollars doing this make a million dollars doing that. And I guess I have a different kind of family story because my grandfather has been like, pretty successful in the stock market. Like with investing and just like kind of going long term because he’d been just kind of investing like, since he was like, younger. And so they were like, they wanted to see me, they were like, Oh, so you’re gonna invest this like money that we’re giving you because like, basically, my grandparents were like, okay, like, we’ll help you get set up, like, we’ll give you kind of whatever. Like, you need to get started and like, I had a job as well. So I was just like, putting money into like, these OTC stocks. And it was just kind of like that OTC. I was just buying random OTC stocks, like that’s, I mean, that’s like pretty much it. So I eventually lost all that money. And then I guess, like, in like, you know, grade 12. I started like, kind of short selling, because I saw so many so many people just short selling. And that was the only way to make money. So like, I basically asked my dad to, like, create me an account, like because I was still accepted on. Yeah. And so my dad just created me an account was like, Yeah, you can just use this just like don’t go into debt, basically. Yeah.
How Alex’s Life Has Changed Since Trading
James 11:44
And so you guys are fun. You guys are funny, because I didn’t even tell my parents that I even gave this a shot. I was like, Fuck no, my dad is going to slap me across the face and told me I’m what I’m doing is stupid. Oh, yeah
Alex 11:55
I kept the secret for a while man. But after a certain point, they walk into my room and I got towards moving up or down and they started.
James 12:03
The first though I remember the first day I remember the first day I made $1,000 by dad. I was like, I call my dad this is, you know, two years ago. I’m like that, like, I just wanted to show you like, this is what I’m doing. And like, this is legit. And he’s like, but how much could you have lost? And I’m like, he doesn’t understand. Like, I don’t know, the parents thing was weird. And I think that remember,
Alex 12:22
bro, that like parents, all they care about is like their children’s well being like, Yeah, cuz my kid told me that he wants to be a fucking professional gambler. One day, I’d be like, Are you fucking stupid bro.
James 12:34
He wants to be a trader
Alex 12:35
small percentage of people that actually who work hard and who have the talent for it that find extreme amounts of success. Yeah, yeah, that’s true.
James 12:46
And so I guess I kind of can, like, put us into our next conversation, which means something Harry and I talked about almost every time we talk, but dating and friends. How, like, for you, Alex at least Yeah. How? How has your life changed since like before? Like, just like simple dating to now? Like, do you? Is it tough dating, like with this? Like, because trading is people think it’s like, yeah, you only trade an hour a day. But like you’re here 24/7 And, you know, then you talk about the whole like, idea of money and everything like that, like how was friendship and that side of your life changed since since trading to now and all that.
Alex 13:25
So I never told my friends about my trading life for like the longest time I think I told them maybe year three or year four of my journey, right? And that is because I didn’t want them to look at me in a different way. Or to think differently of me. I just kept my head down and kept grinding away. And I think one day I got drunk and I think I was like up a lot on our trade and I think I like showed one of my friends and we asked what I do like this that 300 grand this year XYZ like you know, like just kind of explaining that whole process and they really just in shock and now it’s like, now everyone knows me the stock market guy right like anytime anyone has a question about the stock market or when Coronavirus happened I got 100 phone calls a day. I got girls that I’ve never that haven’t talked to me in months hitting me up about stock tips. I got people that never traded a day in their life opening up e trade accounts and doubling them because of Coronavirus. So like it’s kind of changed a lot and it’s been dramatic in terms of friends but I mean the way that I like to say it is I like I surround myself with people that don’t really care about money. Right? So like my friends are business owners, they are hardworking people, they grind they understand the hustle. So if anything, if anything my friends keep me humble, right my friends keep me humble. But there’s definitely certain times that I go out with my brother and go party ain’t gonna do this and that. So I think having a balance of splurging and having a balance of being humble is the key. But to be honest, when it comes to dating and women, it’s a fucking clusterfuck, bro, all someone has to do with me, right? If someone was bugging me, they’ll find all this information on me. Right? So I mean, it actually happened a while back that I was talking to a girl from Texas. And long story short, she Googled me, and she saw some shit about trolls. And she was like, Yo, what’s your deal? Like? I’m seeing this should you believe like all this shit online. But you know what I’m saying that that’s, that’s kind of what’s been happening to but what I used to do, which I learned my lesson was anytime I had a date with a girl, I would always pick them up in the nice car. That’s definitely the wrong thing to do. I always pick them up in the beater car, because I want to see how they react with my jeep. Rather than the sports car.
James 16:00
That makes a lot of sense.
James 16:09
That is like me, but even you like you make a fuck tonne more money than both of us. And like, even when I go out on date, like the first thing I think of is like, is this girl just into me because she knows I do okay for myself. Like, does that girl actually want to like show? Like, you know, yeah.
Alex 16:28
I’m the type of person that when I go on a date, like I’m fucking doing the whole thing. I’m going to a nice restaurant. I’m doing a nice is nice bar. Nice that because I prefer to do the nice thing. I work hard. I feel like I should go get a nice thing. I feel like I should go to a rooftop bar. I feel like I should do that. To do this. They get exposed to that lifestyle. And then that kind of fucks up everything as well, because I’m not just gonna go to Outback Steakhouse just because I’m on a date. I want to go to Peter Lugers because that’s what I enjoy. Right? Yeah,
James 16:59
yeah. Now, you’re at a weird age because you’re younger, right? So like you when you bring people out? Is it weird? Because you’re bringing them to places they probably wouldn’t go like otherwise? Or is it like where you’re from? Like are girls used to this? Is that like kind of the usual?
Alex 17:14
Oh, depends man It depends like some people like the bar Some people like the club some people like this some people like that for me, dude, my if any girls watch what my ideal night is to go out, get some food, get some drinks, get a little bit pumped up, watch some Netflix hangout go outside, you know, just like I like the more chill environments where as bow as the girls drinks, shots, champagne showers like, that’s that’s how bow is. And that’s fun. Don’t get me wrong. For me. I prefer the more applied stuff because outside of trading and outside of all these videos, I am extremely introverted extreme.
James 17:52
So yeah, that’s funny. Yeah. What about you, bro? You’ve been? I’ve heard stories about you before?
How Did You Get Into the Trading World?
Harry 17:58
yeah. I just want to I just want to Well, first I kind of want to address like, I think that you did it, right. Because, for me growing up, I always had like, my friends, like, super, super close to me. And like, you know, like, I have, like, one of my, you know, I have a good friend who lives across the street. And you know, he would come over and I’d be like training and he’d be like, holy shit, man. Like, you’re up like five grand right now. And mind you this is in like, I’m so young, right? Even to be like, when I think about that. Now. I’m like, That’s mind boggling. How I just like somehow, I don’t even I don’t even know how but somehow I’m up five grand, I sell it. And everyone because I’m from a small town in Canada. Everyone knows. So instantly, I go to a party and like grade 12 It’s like, oh, you’re this big baller now. And it’s like, you know, I only made, you know, like, five grand a day and people who are only five grand a day and I’m like, no, like, you know, that’s like, you know, and so basically, like, I just kind of got labelled as that, like, kind of reputation. And, like, obviously, I still trade now. So it’s all like, I just like quit trading, but like, it has been hard for me with like, you know, going out with my friends because people are like, Oh, well, you know, you made so much money like, but like, and like I’ve even had to like stop talking to some friends because it’s always been about money and whatever. And, you know, just doing stuff like that. So it has been kind of hard for me as for girls, obviously that’s been kind of easier because like, you know, when I was in Halifax I could kind of get away from that a little bit and like kind of talk to people like without like, people actually kind of knowing who I was because like people couldn’t google me like, you know, they could Google like, you know, see my
Alex 19:49
shit or see. See YouTubers? Yeah,
Harry 19:53
yeah, so people can like find me as as like, you know, as crazy like that. So I wouldn’t even bro To get up at all, I would not talk about like, yeah, we go to like a nice restaurant with a girl. Or you know,
Alex 20:07
do you tell women what you do Harry or James or what do you let’s say, let’s say you’re out on a date with a girl. And she says, like, he says, What do you do for a living? James? That’s such a nice watch, right? It’s like, yeah, no, I don’t know how they would. I
James 20:21
I, the few times I’ve tried to get into it, it’s like, um, first of all, I ended up just talking way too much and blabbing about how much I love what I do. And you can see the glaze go over their eyes, and I think they’re just wondering, like, is this motherfucker gonna buy me drinks? Or are we just gonna, like talk about this? Because I just blogged about it. But no, now like, I don’t even like to tell people that’s what I do. Even Even my best, like, my best friends are the only people that really know.
Harry 20:47
I started telling girls that I was in dental school because No, Dentist dentistry school, were where I was like living so I was like, Yeah, I’m just, you know, in dentistry, and they’re like, Oh, that’s cool. Yeah, no one wants to talk about a root canal or a filling, or some teeth whitening. So it just moves on to them. And that’s kind of how it how it just kind of goes
Alex 21:15
I was gonna say for me, what happened was when I was first explaining what I was doing to girls first I would say I’m a stock trader number one thing Oh, you’re a national you’re by yourself. Yeah. People that I was stock trading. I started telling people I was a professional gambler. I explained that then like, what the fuck you talking about? So I forgot. Now I just know people that like I work from home I’m a teacher part time and that’s like I just ended right there. Right?
The Negative Image of the Stock Market
James 21:46
It’s not a lie. Yeah,
Alex 21:48
I don’t want to get into details I don’t want to talk too much because anytime you mentioned the stock market or stock trading there’s a negative image associated with stock traders are all greedy scumbag. Bad bad now talking like disrespectful people say yeah
James 22:08
It goes one or the other way because there it has that image but then like, like I tell my girlfriend when we meet her friends and their boyfriends. I’m like, do not tell them that I trade because usually the other way it goes is they start asking me questions about fucking apple and where I think Amazon’s gonna go and what
Alex 22:24
What do you think of Hertz? Hertz gonna go 10 is Amazon gonna buy Hertz? Yeah,
James 22:29
I’ll never forget I met my girlfriend’s best friend’s boyfriend or whatever. And he’s, I forget the name of it what ticker it was, but it was a recent company that just put out the shittiest news. It was like such a turd. Everything. He’s like, dude, they just said that they’re gonna cure fucking Coronavirus. And I’m like
Harry 22:44
IBIO Oh, wasn’t it or
James 22:47
something like that? He’s like, I’m gonna put 10k into IBIO or whatever it was. And I’m like, Yeah, man. I mean, I don’t know, man. I don’t I don’t give investment advice. Yeah, I have no idea you know, it goes one or the other.
Alex 22:58
I dude, I get a man now dude. It’s like, bro, I get people call me all the time. The old my friend hit me up today about Give me a sec. He texted me about S N E S Stock, which is a 40 cent stock. Yeah. My reply was this said 99% of penny stocks are scams and will go down long term is probably not a good investment.
James 23:24
Which is true. See, that’s honest. That’s pretty. That’s pretty nice. I mean, like, imagine if someone hits you up about tops. And they’re like, thinking about putting their grandmother’s IRA in it and dries. I know. But so before before we get stuck on one topic forever, because I think we can talk about fucking women and in everything,
Alex 23:43
women alcohol party.
James 23:46
But speaking of that, actually, this kind of goes into the next big question. But we all know like at MIC how much of an influence Bao had on your life? Sure. But how like, what did he do for you? Like positively mentoring, like, we all know, like he helped you learn how to trade, right? Like, he helped you like, you know, form your process, I’m guessing and all that, but how did he help you kind of outside of trading? Like, like mentoring and like, you know, what did he do?
Alex 24:13
Great question. So Bo is literally like, you can’t really make this up. He is the most kind hearted, generous, loving, passionate, selfless person ever. Right? So now, whenever there was something like, I’ll give you a story, right? So we went to the club, I don’t know. So many times went to the club theatre but there was one time that we went to the club and we had a great table tables, maybe like $10,000 Like it’s amazing time front row, this that. And we went to the bathroom. And when we’re in the bathroom, there’s this guy there, you know, like a bathroom attendant and he’s like getting, like putting soap on your hand. hands like gives you a cigarette if you want to, because you’ve gone whatever it is that bout to get $100 Bill and tip the bathroom attendant. And he’s like the bottle waitresses and the cocktail girls get all the money and they’re always ungrateful and they’re spoiled. No one ever looks after the bodyguards and the bathroom attendants. So anytime we go to a club Bao always Tips The Bodyguard and Bao always tips and bathroom attendant like 100 bucks, because he knows that those people are under appreciated that those people don’t get money, the cocktail, waitresses get all the money. And Bao was always looking out for the little guy. So ever since that happened, I’ve kind of seen a side of Bao that has shown me that if you are a good person, and you do good things, and you try to make the world a better place, the world has a funny way of rewarding you with good karma, right? So yesterday Bao was at Home Depot maybe or he was at Costco or some shit. And he took his Ferrari to buy a tape measure. So we took a $200,000 Ferrari to buy a 15 hour tape measure, goes to the store loses his keys, right? So he lost his keys and he was like, oh my god, like when the manager asked me what car he was, I was too embarrassed to say the car because they will think I’m some entitled spoiled idiot. So instead I said it was a red key. So this that turns out that the guy that found Bao keys bow actually bought a computer from him a couple months ago. So he I buying a computer from him. And the world had a funny way of making sure that he was the guy that found Bao key and Bao bought him dinner. And that was really funny.
James 26:36
That’s so bad. So Bao kind of influenced your life and kind of just your overall
Alex 26:42
Bao teaches me how to become a better person. Because honestly, like, I have bad tendencies. I have temptations, I’m still young, I’m still I think based on emotions and not logic. Whereas bow kind of keeps me more grounded. He reminds me about the little guy he always because if you think about a man, like there was there was a guy today that wants to join MIC.
How Bao Has Taught Me How to Become More Caring
Alex 27:08
And he DM us and he said, I’ve been scammed in the past. Can you get on the phone with me to prove that this is real? And anyone else would just be like, fuck that. Like we don’t, that doesn’t matter for us. One one new member isn’t going to change anything. But Bao just was gonna get on the phone with him, right? So Bao had these had the idea that said, You know what, fuck it, I’ll just get on the phone with him. And I’ll try talking to him. I don’t think the guy picked up. But he went out of his way a guy like Bao has no reason to call any of these guys or talk to any of these guys. But Bao has taught me that if you do the right thing, and you are good to people, you will be rewarded. So we or I or anything, anytime we do anything, we always try to do the right thing. So that’s it makes the world a better place you pay afford and Bao has taught me how to become more caring. He’s taught me to become less greedy. He’s taught me to become he saw me to like seafood a little bit more too. But realistically, man, he’s just teaching me how to become a better person because he has such a massive heart and he is filled with love and a lot of people take advantage of him for his kindness. And just seeing how good of a human he is. Makes me want to be a good human as well man and like you guys can see it as well. Bao is 24/7 He’s fucking grinding. He’s trying to help he has he has all the money in the world. He has all the toys in the world he has all the women in the world yet he chooses to come here and help the little guy every day because he knows that that is going to make an impact on the world that is going to change people’s lives. And you know selfishly it brings us happiness when we hear that you know someone joined and is making money because they put in the work and to me am I see is the best system because it rewards the hard working people. The lazy people that don’t put in the work don’t make any money. The hard working people have the potential to make unlimited income. And it’s just it’s just a blast, man. That is awesome.
Harry 29:14
That they they removed the 40 minute time limit they just sent me a notification.
James 29:19
Oh cool. probably heard what we’re talking about like these motherfuckers got got it going on. Yeah. Yeah, but I guess that’s cool, right? Because here we always talk about show frequently how like, the way Alex like the way you are and the way bow is like, am I see it’s created this like level of like, unlimited loyalty from like, especially the mods like people who have been a part of micb this since day one or whatever, because you can generally like see and if a person is a good person and like you know, like both like you and Bao have like, put your time and like emotional energy into MIC. You can do it
Alex 29:58
like it’s 18 hours a day they don’t they don’t see the behind the scenes and they don’t see all the stuff that we have to do behind the scenes. And the truth of the matter is man like to be realistic and to be honest, bow could spend his time doing anything else, anything else and make more money. The thing is that trading is his passion. Well, you guys see, I have to rip this motherfucker away from this guy’s the guy literally do literally will trade 24/7 If the market is open 24/7
James 30:30
And that’s 359
Alex 30:33
closes his orders at 359 59. You know what I’m saying? Bao loves trading do so loves trading and the fact that we have an ability to do what we love, and help the hard working people achieve their goals brings us a level of fulfilment that we would not be able to find otherwise. Because having all this money is great dude. And it’s and I’m blessed. I’m thankful. I’m lucky. I’m great. It’s good. But it would be boring. If there was no purpose behind it. You know,
James 31:06
ya know is is that what like? Is that why you started MIC? Like, is that why? Because no
Alex 31:11
me and Bao had all this money. We were making fucking Shitload metric fuck loads of money, yet there was this emptiness. We felt like we were on an island. We felt like, we felt like it just is something wasn’t there. Right? We felt like a void. Right? We felt like a black hole. And, you know, we noticed that there was so much scammers out there, we noticed that there was so much misinformation out there. So we said, You know what, let’s just start something and see if helping people and if this is going to work is going to bring us some joy and happiness. Because, again, we had all this money yet. What was the point? Right? What was the point? Now I feel like my life has a purpose. I wake up, I try to help members and I try to educate I get literally literally 100 PMS a day, right from new people every single day. Just ask me questions. And what I’ve learned is that, that 1015 20 minutes of answering a question. And then a week later, a member saying that lesson, was able to afford me a $1,000 trade, which allowed me to take my wife on a road trip, that feeling of hearing that brings me more happiness than making six figures in a day. And no one is going to believe that until you make that money and feel empty inside. Yeah, so yeah.
James 32:35
Harry you felt this before? Right? Because we’ve talked about this a lot like you, because you obviously do well for yourself. And like we’ve had this conversation that like, you know, just because you’re making money and making good money or more money than wherever you’re around doesn’t mean you’re necessarily happy in your life or like feel that fulfilment. Yeah, everyone kind of looks for, I guess there’s
Harry 32:53
like this kind of like promised land that is kind of like, oh, once you become a consistent trader, like, you’re gonna have no more emotional issues, you’re never going to have to worry, it’s going to be sunshine beaches, you’re never going to have any problems in your life. There’s never going to be issues anywhere. There’s no you know, and it’s just like, so untrue. How it’s kind of I don’t even know how it’s been shaped like this, but I talked to so many people and they’re like, man, like, the minute I become consistent, like, all my problems are gonna go away. And, you know, I think yeah, money does resolve a hell of a lot of problems. And but it’s like, you know, it does not bring happiness like you you’d like you would think it does, you know, and I guess that was one of the more things that I kind of struggled with, when I started making money. I’m like, oh, yeah, you know, I don’t need to like get up in the morning and go to a real job but it’s like, you know, if you have friends that are trying to like use you for your money or you’re not in a good state with like, your family or you’re not in a you know, if you’re just in an unhealthy state, like, you know, you’re going to not feel like I don’t know, you’re not going to feel great, you know, even even with all that money, I mean, you know, so I think there’s a huge balance between spending time with your family, spending time with your friends, working and I found like kinda like last summer I said it in one of my old podcast as well, where I just kind of took some time off for myself and like started like, reconnecting with like friends I hadn’t seen for a while because I was working for so long. And like I just feel so much more mentally healthy now than I did let’s say I don’t know a year ago.
Alex 34:43
What do you guys do for fun outside the market like what is your like turn off switch or you’re relaxed time
James 34:49
Drink fireball ya know I mean for you know, for me, man. It’s like, I never like I was about to say like my like, most zen like the most happy Even like comfortable I am is when I’m just like friends and just hanging out man like I just love I’ve had yeah, I’ve had the same group of friends since like, we’re in like middle school. So it’s like when we’re together it’s like this like comfort thing and like, we just feel good. Like I just feel like I can kind of just be myself like I can feel like like do you know like, when you’re friends with your like when you’re in high school and you have your group of friends? It’s like you don’t have jobs nothing fucking matters. You’re just like you’re just friends with each other for for you guys. Yeah, as weird as that sounds and that’s what this is like. I can just be myself with them doesn’t matter who makes what what you do for work. It’s just like, fun. We just go out drink we play golf. We hang out smoke cigars.
Alex 35:36
That’s how after hours isn’t MIC bro you see a bunch of different shit every single day. Cooking you see people gardening, some guys making a table like, like, that’s our Virtual Family right there to you know, no,
James 35:50
dude, it’s funny. Like, I found myself telling my friends stories from after hours after hours gets fucking going. It’s hilarious, like, dying laughing and I’m like telling people people are looking at me like I’m crazy. Because I’m like, Dude, this guy.
Alex 36:03
We’re just sitting there. Scrolling
James 36:06
The amount of fights I’ve got into like my girlfriend because of this on after hours. Dying. Laughing interesting. Who is on the phone with you right now? I’m like, oh god, there’s five nine fish. There’s another meme of Joe Yeah. Oh my god. And that’s why I love having MIC honest to God like to ask what we do for fun, but like, Dude, I feel like half of my life is this. It’s like, this is what I love to do. So it’s like, that also brings me that level of like, happiness and just being with people that are like minded. Yeah, yeah. Being surrounded by people who don’t understand your goals is like draining. I think that’s the draining thing of like, the life outside of trading. And you know, when we have I don’t know, how many members are there now. 1500 or something when you have 1500 people that are kind of on the same page as you it’s like, there’s
Harry 36:59
somewhere along that journey, you know, wherever they are, they’re somewhere along that journey and they understand you know, yeah, so
James 37:06
And how cool is it that we have someone from like day one we have someone who joins today who knows nothing about trading and then we have bow and we have everything in between right i mean that’s that’s insane and that’s what makes this family I think so so fucking cool.
Alex 37:19
It’s It’s true we’re and also thing is man it’s hard to find ambitious people is hard to find people that want to shoot for the fucking stars. You know, you might have some friends that just want a nine to five they want an easy life No problem. Good for you. I got nothing. For me, man. For me, I want more. I want the Peter lugares I want the nice car. I want the nice vacation. I want all that stuff. And having people that don’t want that bringing you down, ends up making you kind of forget your goals or forget your dreams because you get lazy but if you have people in MI see like if I see someone like James that is in here at 5am and says he starts his morning off with two videos. Well I’m gonna say fuck you Rama start my morning with three videos now motherfucker. You know, just seeing that having that friendly competition to push each other further is what is going to take us to that next level of the promised land that we want. Yeah, like you said we have 1500 people that want those same goals 1500 ambitious people people that love or business owners or James’s barber shop owner he owns a bunch of high end barber shops, he trades because he fucking loves it and now I have a friend that is also a business owner that understand what it’s like to be a business owner and to trade and do this and do that. And now maybe in the future James and I could work on a business together we could do this you know it’s like it’s it’s the potential is unlimited when you are surrounded by smart hardworking people. And the best thing that I’ve learned is always surround yourself with people smarter than you and most of the time if you’re joining mi see people are gonna be on different levels so you’re gonna be surrounded by the very best
Harry 39:02
Yeah, yeah,
James 39:04
I love that. I love that. Does that does that now make you like in your like most like recent like if you think about your emotional level now like in and outside of the market like being surrounded by these people? Do you feel now like the strongest you ever have? Like is this like the best you’ve ever felt in your life because of how much good you’re doing and how well you can trade? Like is it what is this? Like? Where are you at? Right now this
Alex 39:27
It has been honestly like knock on wood. This has been like the happiest I’ve ever been like in my entire life. 2020 has been my best year ever in terms of happiness is not correlate to the money. It’s correlated to the fact that I am hanging out my friends more I’m hanging out with my family more. Members are improving faster. We have a member like Fe that joins and is kicking ass in a couple months. My trading is doing really good. We’re six months into the year I’m up 600 grand. Again, working one hour a day. I’m gonna buy and Property soon when the whole world collapses, I want to reward myself with a new car like so there’s a lot of things that I’m doing in the pipeline this year, that is bringing me happiness. And this is again knock on wood the first year that I’ve actually felt genuinely happy in a long time, because the foundation that I’ve built for myself is kind of finally coming into pieces. I have something that brings me joy, which is helping people. I have something that brings me adrenaline and fun, which is trading. I have something that brings me a life outside of trading, which is my friends. I have my family that keeps me grounded. I got my best buds bow and Tasha I want to hang out with like, I feel very lucky. And I feel really grateful. And I hope that I’m not top ticking my life right now, bro
James 40:51
Do you do you find that like the money you make is directly correlated with your emotions, like by making like, yeah, like because you seem happier, like even talking to you, you seem less stressed.
Alex 41:01
And it’s just a matter of not even the money, dude, it’s a matter of like, I don’t care if I lose 100 bucks or 1000 bucks. The pain feels the same. It’s just the pain of being a loser, which I never want to be right. Yeah. And in trading, you have to be used to getting shit on. You have to be used to losing, you have to be used to not being right all the time. So I’m Middle Eastern, I’m stubborn, my fucking family is stubborn. Like, they’re all like headstrong. So I grew up with that mentality. So being able now to be a trader and being seeing both sides of the equation. I never take any one side, I rather always like to hear both sides of the story first, or a problem that I’ve been having is I’m too emotionless these days. So I was talking to a girl a while back and she said, You’re completely detached from everything, all you care about is this fucking stupid stock market thing. And the truth of the matter is you have to be emotionless to be able to become a good trader. So I personally have been struggling with finding a balance between being passionate about something that’s outside of trading, if that makes sense.
James 42:10
Yeah, it does. Yeah, I agree. Here. You’ve had this issue too, right?
The Importance of Having a Balance Between Work and Life
Harry 42:13
Yeah, big time, where I’m just like, you know, I, you know, like, you know, like that you need it. Like, for me anyway, like, I know that I need a balance. I know, it’s always in the back of my mind. Everyone’s telling me you need a some type of bounce, you need to find something else. You know, I bought a $1,500 pair of golf clubs. And I went out with my friends and I was like, You know what, I’m gonna do golf now, but I never have any time to golf. Because like, at the end of the day, I didn’t want to golf you know?
James 42:46
And just tried to find like an outlet. Yeah, so like,
Harry 42:49
you know, I bought a nice pair of clubs. I’m like, Yeah, my reward. I’m gonna go golfing. You know, my little brother came some of my friends came like you know, we all had a good time golfing, but you know, I’m not really there when I’m golfing. I’m thinking about oh, what did this do day or how could I have traded this better?
Alex 43:07
I’m always checking quotes bro. Yeah. I’m always checking quotes.
Harry 43:11
Yeah, even on the weekend like I’m just like yeah, we get
Alex 43:15
I’m looking at futures bro, I’m throwing up a commodities trader
James 43:24
for that, for me, that’s always been like my biggest struggle and like, especially with relationships and like friendships, everything families that my mental state is always focused on like, the future and like how I’m gonna make more it’s not even just about the money like to me, the more money you make is like keeping score. It’s like it might even be the wrong way to say it, but say it but it’s like, it’s the high score of a video game. The success you get you know, financial freedom and money comes from it. So detaching that like need from like, like just trying wants to go to a dinner and not be on your phone thinking about trading or thinking about your business or whatever you’re doing. And, you know, it’s hard, man.
Alex 44:02
it’s like when we Talk about trading our eyes twinkle, bro. Yeah. Star in our eyes. So like, being able to be emotionless in the market. But be emotional with a partner is two conflicting ideas. The more emotional you become, the more you suck in the market. The less the more emotional you become in the market, the more money you make, but your relationships suffer. So it’s very hard to find the balance between these things and like how,
James 44:30
you know, its okay
Harry 44:33
but I was just gonna say like, you know, there’s two people that kind of, like, live around me that like live like, you know, you know, kind of near me so sometimes there’ll be like, oh hairs actually joined MIC for a couple months, and then they just didn’t have enough money to just keep going. So they’re like, Yeah, well, you know, we’ll rejoin later like, and they just like, you know, came in and I’m sure they’d like dem outs or bow or you know, whatever. But you know, sometimes I’ll meet up with them. And I have one friend named Justin who will record the tape. And so he has a separate laptop that records the tape. And then he like kind of uploads it to like a YouTube, whatever. And in my Sunday mornings, I always watch it. And my Saturday mornings as well like with a coffee, you know, it’s like a ritual, and he’ll see the views and he’ll be like, Man, there’s 100 views on this one recording like how have you watched this so much? And because he’s like, you know, I’ve only I’ve only watched it he’s like, I’ve only watched it like three or four times and he’s like, this is at like 100 but it’s like, I mean, you know, what else am I going to do on a Saturday morning? Like you know, as you
Alex 45:45
you know that the time that you put in is directly correlated with your success exactly in that extra time and extra work? Go figure you’re gonna probably make some more money so we feel because we are overachievers we are hustlers. We are hard working people. So we feel like any moment that we’re away from the market or any moment that we’re not thinking about it, someone else is thinking about it as someone else is gonna get an edge on us.
James 46:10
Now and it’s true, but it’s crazy. Like how do you think you can like actually have like a successful like, marriage relationship anything like when you know, the work you put in, like, the truth of the matter is, I would much rather watch MIT videos, then like hang with my friends sometimes because I know the more I watch them that the better off my life can be in the long run. So it’s finding that balance is
Alex 46:32
I haven’t had a successful relationship in the years bro, so I’ll let you know when
James 46:37
preaching to the damn choir bro. Harry, I know. I’ve seen your relationships, man. That is, I don’t know. It’s a struggle. It’s not
Alex 46:46
Harry’s just smiled. doesnt want to say a word doesn’t want to incriminate himself. I know. Well, I know.
What Are Your Goals for the Future?
James 46:53
No girl I ever date will watch this entire thing some psycho might so I guess I should
Alex 46:57
Well, I gotta watch out, bro. You gotta watch my ex who got me into trading is now Tiktok famous.
James 47:05
That’s probably gonna make more money than you do.
Alex 47:10
I’m shaking my ass and make money. I’m gonna go to fucking jail. There.
James 47:15
We gotta get Tosh Tosh because as we’ll probably have members tomorrow,
Alex 47:20
We were at a club one time in San Jose. It was me Bao and Tosh. And Tosh. Tosh doesn’t really drink. Right? He doesn’t really drink that much. So yeah, we went to the club. We’re drunk. We’re hanging out me and bow are dancing. We’re having a good time. Tosh sitting down at the table with a water. This cute blonde girl walks to him at the club and is starting to talk to Tosh. Meanwhile, no girls for me and bow so Tosh sitting there sober sitting there like a statue right sitting there like the statue and the girls come to him do so I have no clue what that feels like. But it must be fucking nice.
James 48:00
Bro, I could go I could spend however much money I want. Doesn’t matter. Girls will walk right by me. And then they’ll just go to the next guy and the next guy and if I have Tosh next to me, it’s it’s not going
Alex 48:10
Game Over bro. If you do, bro, you might as well your Tosh was the hot chick and you’re the side chick, bro.
James 48:18
Dude, you got ao and Tosh to fight with. I’m done. I’m toast. It’s not going to work. That’s funny. But I guess that can bring us to our last we have one more question for you. And that was that was what are your future goals? Kind of now, like 2020. Forward? Where are you looking to go? And what is it you want to achieve in the next? I don’t know. 1015 20 years?
Alex 48:43
Sure. So number one is I want to be able to spend more time with my brother. So as my brother gets older, he’s getting smarter and he’s wiser. He’s incredible. How old is it? Alan? You just turned 24 So I’m turning 26 in a couple months and he’s 24
Harry 49:06
you people are so old. Yeah, how
Alex 49:08
old are you harry?
Harry 49:09
I literally turned 21 in June.
Alex 49:12
Oh my god guys first sip of alcohol bro.
Harry 49:15
19 in Canada, so.
Alex 49:18
Oh my god, it’s even better.
James 49:20
Four years from 30 fuck
Alex 49:23
We fucking were almost the same age bro.
James 49:26
Jesus, but sorry. Go ahead.
Alex 49:29
Bao is 45 and he could party the way that he does right? I think we’re gonna be just fine.
James 49:33
dude I don’t think bao is 45. But I think that was like 150 just never ages. He just is a unicorn.
Alex 49:39
And this guy will out drink a 21 year old bro and and he’ll fuckin blackout
James 49:47
who has a shot drawer who has a shot.
Alex 49:51
Brother Guy opens his drawer and whips out shots.
James 49:55
But anyway to go ahead.
Alex 49:57
Spending more time with my brother. I want to get close to my My brother in terms of trading, man, I like what I’m doing. If anything, I just want to trade even fucking less, bro, I want to treat us I want us because I’ve realised that the less that I trade the more money I make because I don’t get stupid, right? I don’t gamble it away, I don’t be stupid with it. What else is there? I want to be able to take advantage of this Coronavirus opportunity and buy a bunch of properties for cheap and start to build a real estate portfolio while I’m young. I want to start to be able to use all this money that I have in the bank that I’ve been growing for six years to kind of get me to the next level, right? Because I’ve just been saving and saving and saving and saving. And now. Yeah, now that we have this opportunity where there’s 40 million people out of work, people can’t afford their mortgages. I want to be able to start to diversify my income outside of trading
James 50:56
So do you think you’re gonna be trading your whole life? Like, is that positive?
Alex 51:03
I’m gonna be trading until my hands stop working.
James 51:06
And then you’ll learn to trade with your feet
Alex 51:09
with my feet and then when that doesn’t work, I will hire a kid to trade for me.
Harry 51:13
I have one last question. So have you ever thought about like trading like the spy or like stuff like that?
Alex 51:22
Um, honestly, I’ve messed around here and there. But what I’ve learned is all these large cap big cap stocks are algorithmic Hell’s there algos everywhere. They’re designed to fuck you over whereas the small caps are all scams. So I know that I have an edge with scam. So if I find some sort of edge in large caps, then I will take it but you know, we got people like Joe making money. You got people like Brian, you got eBay making money on large caps for me. It’s not worth my time to invest and learn large caps when small caps are working so well. Rather than being the jack of all trades, I’d rather be the fucking expert of one. Yeah.
James 52:01
I love it. Oh, yeah. You know, it’s funny, too. It’s like I’ve noticed in like your trading and like I’ve just noticed, even in mind, the best trades literally come like almost a half hour before zombie hour starts like by 10am We’re pretty much done and wrapped up for the day. And that is good. Like, I like seeing that. Like I always feel like I was looking like I know you have your tabs and like we all have our jobs like, but I feel like if we’re still around even close to zombie hours, there’s a problem. If we’re not if we’re still trading and doing something it’s like, so I like that trade less idea. I really like that
Alex 52:34
going forward because again, it’s very simple brought to me it’s like I’ve realised that usually I make most of my money by 9:50am or 10am. If I’m staying past 10am That means I’m still wiggling around the position. And if I’m past 1030 It means that I’m just fighting right? So recognising that and taking the steps to improve that. It’s funny, bro, whenever I finish my training early, I am in a good mood for the entire day. Anytime I am at the desk all fucking day, bro. I feel drained. I feel shot. I’m tired. I’m complaining like I’m just not myself right. So I’ve learned that trading us not only makes me more money, it also brings me more happiness, which is the end goal everything
Harry 53:20
every time. Yeah,
James 53:21
I love that. Dude, I love this conversation. I actually I love this podcast,
Alex 53:25
bro. I think you guys are those that don’t know Harry and James are taken over the podcast, I’m going to be their first guest. If you guys liked it, or if you guys have any feedback or you want to see someone on or anything like that. Let us know that Harry and James No. And this is going to be their show from now on and I’m excited to see what you guys do with it. All right, well, thank you