Brandon Interview

Cam: Hey, it’s Cam from Investors Underground. Welcome to another trader interview. Today, we’ve got a long-time member of the Investors Underground chat room who more recently became a moderator in the room. Nate’s been dropping me a PM with the URL to this gentleman’s Profit.ly every couple of weeks, and Nates gets really pumped up when this guy makes big gains. We’ve been meaning to do an interview with him for a long time. It’s great to be able to speak to him about trading for around 20 minutes today. Brandon, aka Crawfish Po’boy. How are you doing, Brandon?

Brandon: Doing good, Cam. How are you?

Cam: I’m doing great. Thanks for asking. Tell me how you got interested in stocks and how you started trading.

Brandon: My grandfather, I’d go over and visit. He would always be looking financial reports of companies and doing the old adage of buy and hold. He did pretty well with it. From a young age, I had an interest in the market and went from there. About five years ago, I actually started to trade a little bit and didn’t do very well. Just kind of casually on the side, not really expecting to do very much with it. Came across, like a lot of people start out with OTC pump and dump types. Google stocks or whatever, and those are typically the first sites that pop up. That was my first taste of the market, which wasn’t very successful.

Cam: It sounds like a really familiar story. I think a lot of people find the trading world through OTC markets and penny stocks and shorting pump and dumps, aka the Tim Sykes method. That makes a lot of sense, because he’s got a big marketing reach and he’s also got a unique story and he makes good money. I know I personally thought I was going to be a millionaire shorting pump and dumps. I opened up a brokerage excited to get trading, and I found myself not really trading as actively as I imagined I would and wasn’t getting the same kind of borrows of the same kind of fills trading that kind of market. I think that people realize it’s a big stock market out there, and trading’s a very personal thing. People develop their own styles and look for different ways to make money in the market. That’s when I think I found that Nate’s style would gel more with my personality and I joined Investors Underground. Tell us a little bit more about the charts or the kind of plays that you were interested in when you were starting and how your personal unique trading style evolved.

Brandon: I started I guess whenever I joined Investors Underground. I was focusing mainly on OTCs. Beach Bum and BB Stock do a real good job in that room of bringing some good ideas. I didn’t have a lot of money to start with. I had some experience with them and had a feel, but working with those two guys and getting their insight into the way that that market works really helped boost my trading account. I focused on those probably for about the first six months that I was a part of Investors Underground, and recently in January of 2013, I moved over and started to experiment with NASDAQ. Now, I’m probably 70/30 NASDAQ to OTC, I would say. More recently with the marijuana stocks going crazy, I’ve been trading a lot of those just because they’ve been insane. I have grown to actually like NASDAQ just as much if not more than the OTCs.

Cam: It sounds like on the OTC side of things, you’ve learned a lot from Beach Bum and BB Stock. They’re the two moderators in the OTC chat room at Investors Underground. How would you say you transitioned to NASDAQ? Where would you say you learnt a lot of the information about the way that those stocks trade and how to be profitable in that kind of market?

Brandon: Absolutely, Nate has been just fantastic. I don’t always trade the same stuff that he’s trading, but reading his comments about a trade that he is in has really helped me take that and maybe move it to something that I’m currently working with. His comments and insight are just tremendous, without a doubt. He is my number one influence, by far on the NASDAQ side for me.

Cam: I’m looking at your Profit.ly chart right now. I noticed in October, November, you started to go parabolic. Coincidentally, that was around about the time that we launched Nate’s DVD, Textbook Trading. Did the DVD have anything to do with this kind of success? I’m sure everyone at home’s wondering, what does it take their P&L chart look like yours?

Brandon: I thought the DVD was worth every penny, really. Actually, if you look at the chart in October, I was kind of in a slump. The DVD came out and I bought it I think the first day that it came out. I watched it right away. Since then, it really drove, I guess, all the of things that we talk about in chat each day. The setups that we look for. It tied all of that together. Even watching the webinars and being a part of chat each day, you take it in, but to have it all in one place for some reason it just clicked for me. Since then, I’ve been way more careful in my trade selection, and it’s given me a guide to work from as far as knowing when a trade is good or being able to identify when a trade is going against you and you need to consider protecting yourself and getting out. I think probably just talking about the chart in general and how you get it to go into a parabolic mode like that is focusing on being able to be consistent each day. I see guys like Modern Rock and Catsu, who had an amazing run a few months back. Put up good numbers each day and kind of aspired to be able to do that. Having that focus each day to leave the market with more money than you came from, I think, has been a huge part. You have a daily goal. You don’t necessarily want to make X number of dollars per day, but you want to stay in that positive mindset of, I went to the market today and I left with more than I came with. That’s, for me, is the key of being able to get into a streak or to get hot and take some of those big trades that ordinarily maybe you don’t have the confidence to take.

Cam: I’m sure some of the guys and girls listening are going to wonder, right from the beginning, how did you get started? With what kind of capital did you invest? Were there any speed bumps on the journey and all that kind of stuff?

Brandon: It started with my OTC account. I had about $1,000 in that one. Like I mentioned earlier, most of the stuff that I was trading was out the OTC room. Beach Bum’s alerts, BB’s alerts. I was doing some swing stuff with that. When I don’t have a lot, you take $50, $100, whatever, and over time they add up. Then, you end up with a little bit more. Then, you may get lucky and have one that goes 50% or 100%, and that helps get the account going. I did do a lot of overnight gap plays because obviously, when you’re under the $25,000 pattern day trader rule, then you only get three round trips per week. So, had to be creative, find some stocks with momentum and take a position and just sell it in the morning if it happened to gap up. Then, just work from there and look for other opportunities. Also, I had a sure trader account as well, and I started with $2,000 in that account. I actually kept it going for about a month or two before I finally blew it up.

I added a little bit more. I added another $2,000 to it, blew that up again. Like we were talking about earlier, getting involved with shorts that are running away on you. It kind of erased a few weeks or a few months of hard work. So, I actually added, I think the last $800 into sure trader. Everything that I’ve done since that time was based off of that $800. Both accounts actually, the OTC account and the sure trader account both crossed the $50,000 mark this month, which looking back on it, is kind of incredible. I never in a million years thought that it was possible to do something like that. It is a testament, also, to the guys that you work with each day. So much insight, so much brain power, and good guys to work with that really help you understand the market and not fall into that trap of buying and hoping that I think so many new investors get caught up in whenever they’re first starting.

Cam: It looks like you’ve now crossed $100,000 in gains in your Profit.ly chart. Tell us about the day that that happened.

Brandon: Yeah. It happened a little sooner than I thought. Like we mentioned earlier, those marijuana stocks put me over the edge. When they’re running like that, that’s something that I really enjoy to trade. When the volume and the liquidity is there, the returns can just be staggering. That was the push I needed. I’m glad it happened because it had been on my mind, and I’m glad to just run through it and get it over with. You’d be surprised. I think I was at $99,000. I knew going into the day that it was possible, but it’s so much more difficult when you’re actually thinking about it. It was nice to just do it and move on.

Cam: You mentioned that in the beginning of your trading career, you blew up a couple of accounts. What would you say gave you the perseverance or the fortitude to stick with it and make it in this game?

Brandon: So many guys around me were doing well. You see Nate put up a good day. You see Modern Rock put up a good day. You see Catsu put up a good day. And on and on. So many guys showing that it’s possible. I think that’s what it took for me to understand that there is a learning curve, and you are going to have to tread water, so to speak, until you understand enough about the trades, understand how to manage your risk properly, and stick with it until you learn enough to become profitable. I think that’s one of the things that a lot of new guys struggle with. They come in, like you mentioned earlier about becoming a millionaire overnight type of thing. They’re swinging big sides and they really don’t know what they’re doing, and that for me was never really something that I was interested in. I wanted to start small. I wanted to scale up from a point of being able to win more trades than lose.

Cam: That’s really interesting, and I heard a quote. I can’t remember where I heard it, but it went something along the lines of, in this market, amateurs lose their money. Good traders break even or maybe big commissions, but it’s only really the experts who get paid. How do you believe you went from a newbie or an amateur to an expert in such a short amount of time?

Brandon: Yeah. One of the biggest things, the biggest helps for me personally has been to network with traders. I’ve tried a few different chat sites, if you will, and bounced around and eventually came across Investors Underground. For me, for whatever reason, it just immediately felt like home. There’s so many good guys in there that are willing to help you and teach you their approach and also just reach out. If you’re having a good or a bad day, that sometimes it’s not the congratulations that helps. There are a few guys I chat with daily. Sometimes, you’re having a crummy day. Having one of those guys reach out and try and get you back on track is what it’s all about. Also, just the amount of knowledge. For somebody that’s just beginning, you can cut the learning curve in half or even more by being a part of a group of successful people. To be successful, you want to hang out with successful people. I believe that’s totally true with trading. You see what’s possible. You see the trades that these guys are making, and you learn from them.

Cam: You had a great year in 2013 and it looks like you’re really putting in some big, solid gains. What can we look forward to in the future from Crawfish Po’Boy?

Brandon: That’s a good question. I’m actually kind of wondering the same time. One of the things that I always try and do, and I think I probably get this from Nate is trying to evolve and adapt to the market. To push myself to become better and also to not necessarily fall into a particular style. I want to be nimble and be able to change strategies quickly if needed. One of the things that I would like to do is, I’ve always traded rather small positions. Lately, I’ve been trying to increase the position size and getting a little bit more comfortable playing a little bit larger. That’s still a work in progress. That is one focus that I would like to do is, try and push the envelope a little bit more as I continue to develop as a trader.

Cam: Your story is really inspiration. It sounds like you’ve got a lot of good advice to give to aspiring traders or new members to the Investors Underground chat room. Are you available during the trading day if people have questions or want to hit you up for advice on stuff?

Brandon: Yeah, absolutely. I try and make myself available at any time for members. If they want to reach out, I’m more than happy to help if I can.

Cam: Brandon, thanks for your time today. I really appreciate some of the insights that you’ve been able to give to some of our YouTube watchers or Investors Underground members. You’ve got a great story, and I wish you all the success for the future. I’m looking forward to seeing your P&L chart explode exponentially in 2014. So, thanks again for your time, and I’m sure we’ll be catching up again soon.

Brandon: Thanks, Cam. I appreciate it.