I’m the founder of TradingParadigm.com, creator of the Trading Success Framework course, and a full-time intraday futures trader (mainly ES/e-mini S&P 500). I use 1 primary tool to organize and analyze the market auction process → Profiling (volume & market profile).

I started looking into “how to make money trading” toward the end of 2013 after graduating from college. I literally think that’s the search term I Googled. And I fell into a rabbit hole of all kinds of lousy/shady alert services, newsletters, and chat rooms that essentially promised “explosive profits” by simply copying/mirroring some self-proclaimed guru. Safe to say those beginning years were a complete disaster. I mean, talk about unconscious incompetence - I had absolutely no idea the toxic/ineffective path I was heading down. After 2+ years of incinerating one $500 - $2,000 account after another trading recklessly/incompetently, I finally realized that I had to ditch the copy-cat approach.

This is when I initiated a path to self-reliance and complete ownership of my process/results. So I dug deep into technical analysis and consumed all the content I could find about various indicators and setups/chart patterns. I read books and went through dozens of courses that covered candlesticks, trends, ranges, moving averages, Fibonacci levels, Bollinger bands, MACD, RSI, etc. You name it and I probably had it up on my charts at some point or another. From there, I started to express some of this newfound technical knowledge in more specific strategies. One of the main strategies that worked best for me at the time was biotech catalyst swing trading. It slowed the bleeding in my accounts, but I wasn’t getting the results I wanted fast enough. I was about 4 years into trading at this point without much to show for it. As a result, anger, stress, frustration, and impulse kept creeping into my decisions.

At this point, I sort of felt like I had the technical component of trading in place. But I had some major problems showing up on the psychological front. So just like I did with my technical analysis binge, I essentially did the same thing with mindset/psychology. I acquired a completely new perspective on the mental framework required to be a high-performing trader. I started meditating regularly and building a drastically higher level of self-awareness & control. After another year or two - with the right mindset/psychology in place - I was finally able to make the turn from a losing/breakeven trader to a winning trader and string a few respectable years together. But compared to a benchmark index like the S&P 500, my annual performances weren’t that much better. So I started questioning whether or not active trading was really worth it. Why do all this research/preparation and staring at screens when I can get close to the same results with a completely passive approach?

This is when the biggest shift in my trading took place. I came across auction market theory and profiling - and everything just clicked. It was honestly like a fog had been lifted from my market vision. The conventional technical analysis being taught in most trading courses isn’t necessarily bad, so I’m not knocking any of the indicators I mentioned a couple paragraphs ago. But AMT and profiling uncovered an entirely new level of market understanding for me. Market movement/behavior - which once seemed extremely chaotic and random (even when using indicators like Fibonacci or Bollinger bands) - actually made so much more sense now. I realized that most conventional indicators only provide surface-level information that clouds what’s really going on underneath the surface. But viewing the market through volume and market profiling tools provides a clear picture of how participants are actually behaving. I would never force a specific path/methodology on anyone. But in my opinion/experience, this is the foundation for developing legitimate market competence and meaningful edge. I have deep conviction that this is the missing piece to the puzzle for a lot of struggling traders.

To wrap things up, after about 7 years of studying markets, learning about technical analysis and mindset, and testing various indicators/strategies/systems/methodologies in live markets - I was finally able to quit my corporate job/career and pursue trading full-time at the beginning of 2021. The reason that I decided to create this community isn’t just to help others achieve the same thing I did (hopefully in a much less money-wasting, time-consuming, and emotionally painful fashion). But also as a resource for myself to make connections, continuously grow, build stronger habits and skills, and maintain/enhance my edge over time. I want to surround myself with the absolute best, most committed traders that I know - so that their knowledge, experience, and passion rub off on me. I want a highly interactive, collaborative, and helpful environment in place so that I can work toward becoming the best possible trader I can be every single day.

This has been quite a long-winded introduction. Yours doesn’t need to be anywhere near as long - just a paragraph or so will do. But I thought it important - as the creator of this community - to share the details of my trading journey and specific reasons for starting this group.

2 of my favorite things to do outside of trading are to watch/play sports - specifically baseball, basketball, and football (Go Bills!). And hang out with my dog (Meet Millie! Picture attached).

I look forward to growing with you within this community!