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Case Study: How Mike Hudson’s $20 Grew to Over $1 Million

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 4/16/2022 4 min read

When Mike “Huddie” Hudson was a college student, he knew there was more to the market than what he was learning in school. And with just $20 in his trading account, he started looking at penny stocks and tracking premarket runners. By the time he joined my Trading Challenge in 2015, he was ready to hit the ground running. See the long — and short — of his awesome journey below!

Quote

“It’s so achievable. It’s actually doable. And it doesn’t take anything but your hard work. You get what you put in.” — Mike “Huddie” Hudson

Background

With $20 in his trading account, Mike “Huddie” Hudson started looking at penny stocks. He was an entrepreneurship major at the University of San Francisco — and knew there was more to the market than what he was learning in school. So Huddie started tracking premarket runners on his own. When he joined my Trading Challenge in 2015, he was ready to hit the ground running.

Timeline

2014

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Introduced to trading through Robinhood and random Google searches

2015

Joins the Trading Challenge and starts trading and studying seriously

2017

Notices a difference in his profitability

2018

Scales up and has his first big year, breaking $100K

2019

Follows up with an even bigger year and becomes a mentor with StocksToTrade’s SteadyTrade Team

2020

Takes his hard-earned lessons into the wildest market in years — and goes exponential

2021

Breaks the $1 million mark!

Strategy

Three years into his trading career, Huddie realized he was better going short than long. That’s when he rewatched Tim Grittani’s “Trading Tickers” 10 or 20 times. He took multimillionaire trader Grittani’s strategy and tweaked it, committing to his best setups and a short bias. That’s how he went exponential, honing his risk along the way.

Stats

Borrowed $1,000 to fund his first real trading account

54% win rate — good for a short-biased trader

Over $1.3 million in lifetime profits

Average gain almost $2,000 per trade

Average percent gain of over 10% per trade

Trading Superpowers

Pinpointing risk

Flexibility between the day trade mentality and seeing the bigger picture

See Huddie’s Chart and Resouces

Wanna see the numbers for yourself? Check ’em out:

Study With Huddie!

What did you learn from Huddie’s story? What can you take to your own trading? Let me know in the comments!


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Author card Timothy Sykes picture

Timothy Sykes

Tim Sykes is a penny stock trader and teacher who became a self-made millionaire by the age of 22 by trading $12,415 of bar mitzvah money. After becoming disenchanted with the hedge fund world, he established the Tim Sykes Trading Challenge to teach aspiring traders how to follow his trading strategies. He’s been featured in a variety of media outlets including CNN, Larry King, Steve Harvey, Forbes, Men’s Journal, and more. He’s also an active philanthropist and environmental activist, a co-founder of Karmagawa, and has donated millions of dollars to charity. Read More

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* Results are not typical and will vary from person to person. Making money trading stocks takes time, dedication, and hard work. There are inherent risks involved with investing in the stock market, including the loss of your investment. Past performance in the market is not indicative of future results. Any investment is at your own risk. See Terms of Service here

The available research on day trading suggests that most active traders lose money. Fees and overtrading are major contributors to these losses.

A 2000 study called “Trading is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investors” evaluated 66,465 U.S. households that held stocks from 1991 to 1996. The households that traded most averaged an 11.4% annual return during a period where the overall market gained 17.9%. These lower returns were attributed to overconfidence.

A 2014 paper (revised 2019) titled “Learning Fast or Slow?” analyzed the complete transaction history of the Taiwan Stock Exchange between 1992 and 2006. It looked at the ongoing performance of day traders in this sample, and found that 97% of day traders can expect to lose money from trading, and more than 90% of all day trading volume can be traced to investors who predictably lose money. Additionally, it tied the behavior of gamblers and drivers who get more speeding tickets to overtrading, and cited studies showing that legalized gambling has an inverse effect on trading volume.

A 2019 research study (revised 2020) called “Day Trading for a Living?” observed 19,646 Brazilian futures contract traders who started day trading from 2013 to 2015, and recorded two years of their trading activity. The study authors found that 97% of traders with more than 300 days actively trading lost money, and only 1.1% earned more than the Brazilian minimum wage ($16 USD per day). They hypothesized that the greater returns shown in previous studies did not differentiate between frequent day traders and those who traded rarely, and that more frequent trading activity decreases the chance of profitability.

These studies show the wide variance of the available data on day trading profitability. One thing that seems clear from the research is that most day traders lose money .

Millionaire Media 66 W Flagler St. Ste. 900 Miami, FL 33130 United States (888) 878-3621 This is for information purposes only as Millionaire Media LLC nor Timothy Sykes is registered as a securities broker-dealer or an investment adviser. No information herein is intended as securities brokerage, investment, tax, accounting or legal advice, as an offer or solicitation of an offer to sell or buy, or as an endorsement, recommendation or sponsorship of any company, security or fund. Millionaire Media LLC and Timothy Sykes cannot and does not assess, verify or guarantee the adequacy, accuracy or completeness of any information, the suitability or profitability of any particular investment, or the potential value of any investment or informational source. The reader bears responsibility for his/her own investment research and decisions, should seek the advice of a qualified securities professional before making any investment, and investigate and fully understand any and all risks before investing. Millionaire Media LLC and Timothy Sykes in no way warrants the solvency, financial condition, or investment advisability of any of the securities mentioned in communications or websites. In addition, Millionaire Media LLC and Timothy Sykes accepts no liability whatsoever for any direct or consequential loss arising from any use of this information. This information is not intended to be used as the sole basis of any investment decision, nor should it be construed as advice designed to meet the investment needs of any particular investor. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future returns.

Citations for Disclaimer

Barber, Brad M. and Odean, Terrance, Trading is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investors. Available at SSRN: “Day Trading for a Living?”

Barber, Brad M. and Lee, Yi-Tsung and Liu, Yu-Jane and Odean, Terrance and Zhang, Ke, Learning Fast or Slow? (May 28, 2019). Forthcoming: Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Available at SSRN: “https://ssrn.com/abstract=2535636”

Chague, Fernando and De-Losso, Rodrigo and Giovannetti, Bruno, Day Trading for a Living? (June 11, 2020). Available at SSRN: “https://ssrn.com/abstract=3423101”