This Trader Made $11 Million in the Past Year — Now He’s Watching These 2 Stocks

Over the last 12 months, I’ve made about $11 million in trading profits.

I’m 27, I started out as a valet with a $10,000 account, and I’ve now crossed $24 million in verified career gains. And none of that came from guessing or buying random “hot picks” off social media.

It came from doing the same boring thing over and over:

• Focus on a tiny watchlist
• Study the price action every day
• Wait until the odds line up
• Then size in with a clear risk level

Right now, two names have earned a spot on that short list:

• Hertz Global Holdings (NASDAQ: HTZ)

• Strive (NASDAQ: ASST)

I’m not in either of them yet. I’m watching for very specific price and volume behavior before I even think about entering. Let me walk you through why they’re on my radar — and what has to happen before I trade them.

From Losing $10K to Making $11M in a Year

Before I get into the stocks, here’s some quick context.

I joined Tim Sykes’ Trading Challenge back in 2017. First 18 months? I was down around $10,000 on my account and had spent roughly the same on education. Most people would’ve quit right there.

Instead, I doubled down on the only things that actually move the needle in trading:

• Screen time
• Pattern recognition
• Risk management
• Patience

Fast-forward: I’ve now made life-changing money trading momentum and volatility stocks — swing trades and tactical day trades in names that are in play.

I’m not taking 100 trades a day. On an average month I’m somewhere in that 50–100 round-trip range, and most of my focus is on one to three stocks at a time. When you see the P&L, what you’re really seeing is years of prep for a handful of cautious trades.

HTZ and ASST are potential candidates for those kinds of moves — if they cooperate.

Why Hertz (HTZ) Is Back On My Screen

Hertz is one of those tickers that never really disappears from traders’ screens. It’s liquid, it’s controversial, and the story keeps evolving.

Fundamentally, here’s what matters to me right now:

• The company has been working through its EV missteps and leverage problems.
• It’s showing progress in EBITDA and cash flow, helped by a refreshed fleet where most cars are less than a year old.
• Jefferies sees a path toward Hertz’s $1 billion EBITDA goal by 2027 and has a $6 price target, while other firms are more cautious, pointing to thin margins and debt.
• Commentators like Jim Cramer are still on the fence — calling it a “contrary name” and basically saying, “Be careful.”

I’m not looking at HTZ as a long-term turnaround investor. I’m looking at it as a technical trade with a believable story behind it.

Here’s what has my attention:

• HTZ has been respecting a big trendline for about a month, grinding up underneath it.
• There’s a clear band of recent highs from prior days that traders are watching.
• The stock has shown it can move when news hits and the crowd cares.

But for me, it’s not a buy just because of that. I need to see three things:

1. Real morning volume — The open has to light up with volume well above recent sessions. If it’s thin and sleepy, I’m not forcing anything.
2. A break and hold over previous day’s highs — A quick wick over highs that immediately fails is often the start of a fade, not a breakout. I want to see HTZ push through and hold, building higher lows above that level.
3. A clean trendline break with conviction — That month-long trendline needs to snap on strong volume. Weak breaks into resistance almost always trap late buyers.

More Breaking News

• Battalion Oil Faces Volatility Amid Global Tensions and Trading Decisions
• United Therapeutics Surges Amid Successful Phase 3 Trials
• H.B. Fuller Surges with Strategic Moves and Earnings Beat
• Wheaton Precious Metals Stock Soars Amid UBS Upgrade and Positive Forecasts

If HTZ can do that, then I’m interested in trading it as a breakout / momentum play with clearly defined risk just below the breakout levels. If it can’t, it stays exactly where it is now: on the watchlist, not in my portfolio.

ASST: A Bitcoin-Treasury Wild Card With Room to Run

The second name I’m stalking, ASST (Strive), is a totally different type of story.

Strive is positioning itself as a Bitcoin treasury company — think of the playbook we’ve seen from MicroStrategy, where the balance sheet itself becomes part of the speculation.

Recently, Strive has:

• Completed an oversubscribed preferred stock IPO (SATA), raising roughly $149 million.
• Used that capital to buy around 1,500+ Bitcoin over a short window, bringing its holdings into the 7,000+ BTC range.
• Structured SATA as a variable-rate perpetual preferred with a big initial yield and a mechanism to keep its trading range relatively tight.
• Announced a major all-stock acquisition of Semler Scientific (SMLR), blending a real healthcare business with an aggressive BTC treasury strategy.

That combo — Bitcoin, preferred stock, big acquisition, yield — is exactly the kind of thing that can attract:

• Crypto speculators
• Yield hunters
• Traders who missed earlier BTC-treasury runs and want “the next one”

That’s how you get momentum and volatility, which is what I care about.

My read right now:

ASST has already had three strong volume days. What I want to see now is it go sideways for a bit, holding that volume.

If it can:

• Build a sideways base instead of crashing back down…
• Keep trading decent volume during that base…
• Then push toward resistance with fresh volume expansion…

…then I think it has a realistic shot at a move into the $2–$2.50 area in the short term.

I’m not just buying it because it owns Bitcoin. I’m waiting to see if the chart proves there’s real demand at these levels, and that dip-buyers and breakout traders are both willing to step in.

If ASST breaks down out of its recent range instead of tightening up and pushing higher? Easy. No trade for me.

How I Actually Trade Setups Like This

A lot of people hear “$11 million in a year” and imagine I’m glued to the screen, scalping hundreds of tickers a day.

It’s almost the opposite.

Most of my edge comes from:

• Narrow focus – I’d rather deeply understand HTZ and ASST than half-follow 30 tickers. I track the news, the daily ranges, how they react to headlines, where shorts and longs are likely trapped.
• Prep > clicks – The heavy lifting is done before I enter: mapping support and resistance, noting key levels (prior highs, trendlines, whole-dollar areas), knowing exactly where I’m wrong.
• Patience on entries – I’m not in a rush to be first. I want the market to confirm my idea: breakout and hold, volume sustain, clear trend. Then I commit.
• Tight risk, big intent – When I finally pull the trigger, I size in with the goal of making the trade matter — but always with a defined exit if I’m wrong. I’d rather be stopped out small than sit in a slow-motion disaster.
• Selling into strength – I’m rarely trying to nail the top. I scale out into spikes, key levels, and signs of exhaustion. My job is to trade the move, not to marry the stock.

That’s the same approach I used trading from Italy this past summer — making five-figure and six-figure trades from a laptop between pasta, limoncello, and Pilates with Sykes and his other millionaire students. The lifestyle looks fun on social, but it only exists because of the boring discipline behind it.

Final Word — and Where to Learn More

To be clear:

• HTZ and ASST are on my watchlist, not automatic buys.
• Both names have the ingredients I look for — story, volatility, volume — but they still need to prove themselves on the chart.
• If they don’t give me my criteria, I won’t touch them. There’s always another trade.

Most traders lose money. You shouldn’t expect my results. I’ve been doing this for years, through bull and bear markets, and I still have losing trades and drawdowns. The only reason I’m still here is because I treat trading like a serious craft, not a side hobby.

If you want a deeper look into how I build these watchlists and plan these trades:

• I break down my best setups, research, and model portfolio inside my newsletter and my Seven-Figure Cycles course.
• I also mentor inside Tim Sykes’ Trading Challenge, where I started back when I was just a valet trying to figure this game out.

Whether you ever trade HTZ or ASST or not, the lesson is the same:

Pick your spots. Study hard. Focus on a few great setups instead of a lot of random ones.

That’s how I built an $11 million year — one carefully chosen trade at a time.