From $50K to $1 Million Trading Shares (No Options)

I started this account with less than $50K a year ago.

Today it’s over $1 million.

And I did it without buying a single option.

It was not easy. There were times I bought stocks and instantly went red. There were periods where my account went nowhere for months. The biggest thing I learned is that conviction and patience matter more than people think.

58 days ago I posted when my account hit $523K.

191 days ago I posted when it hit $391K.

My first huge trade was SBET when Ethereum treasury companies were just becoming a thing. I went all in around $8 and watched it run to $40 (I sold at $26) That trade changed everything for me because it gave me enough capital to start making larger moves.

After that I traded names like AMZN, NVDA, COIN, SHOP, CRWD, and NET.

I shorted Rigetti near the highs.

I bought Coinbase aggressively in the $130s when Bitcoin sentiment was awful.

I bought CrowdStrike and Cloudflare after the Anthropic panic selloff.

One thing that genuinely helped me was creating trading plans with AI tools like ChatGPT, Grok, and Perplexity. Not for blind buy/sell signals, but to remove emotion.

I’ll ask questions like
“What’s the optimal profit taking strategy for this position?”
“What levels make sense to trim?”
“What are the biggest risks to my thesis?”

It helps stop panic selling and impulsive decisions.

I also spend a lot of time studying fundamentals. Finviz is great for this (and free). Learn why one company trades at a premium to another. Look at:
Revenue growth
Margins
PE ratios
Price to sales
Competitive advantages
Market narratives

Another thing I force myself to do before entering a large position is write a bull and bear case for the stock.

No impulse buying.

That process alone has saved me a massive amount of money because by the time I finish the research, the stock is often at a better entry anyway.

Patience is underrated.

If a stock is at $600 and you want it at $550, wait. There will always be another trade.

I prefer margin over options because there’s no time decay. If I’m up huge on shares, I’ll sometimes sell covered calls and collect premium, but I don’t buy options outright.

Also
You do not need to marry a stock.

Scale out when you’re up big. Take profits. Don’t round trip massive gains unless your conviction is extremely high.

Most importantly, challenge your own opinions.

Don’t just look for confirmation bias. Read Reddit. Read X. Watch YouTube videos. Find smart people who disagree with you.

That’s how you improve.

I’m proud to have gone from $50K to over $1 million trading mostly shares. If you’re obsessed with markets and willing to put in the work, crazy things are possible.

Either I’m a genius or the margin call is coming soon.

Current positions

FIG: 50,185 shares @ $16.82

NVDA: 4,453 shares @ $196.31

SHOP: 152 shares @ $105.52