I stopped gambling and started trading systematically. My results are insane.
I changed my process and reported larger gains
Austin Starks5 min readI almost stopped trading forever before I became profitable.
This isn’t 1–2% over months. My portfolio exploded — up 87% in just one year.
My investing account is doing extraordinary as well, up over 26% in the past year.
My profitability didn’t come from a secret indicator or from some TikTok guru’s $5,000 course. It came from a realization.
“Instead of trading based on my gut-feel, intuition, and the prevailing “wisdom” why don’t I figure what actually works?”
My portfolio hasn’t been the same.
I used OpenAI’s o1 model to develop a trading strategy. It is DESTROYING the market
It literally took one try. I was shocked.
medium.datadriveninvestor.com
Ignoring the Noise
I slowly learned that one reason that trading was so hard was that you had to ignore the noise in the space.
Most people have no idea what they’re doing. They parrot what other people are saying because it makes sense logically, even if there’s no evidence that it’s actually true.
I remember when “the crowd” was screeching that “Tesla’s P/E ratio is too high!” “It’s a bubble waiting to burst”.
And not knowing any better, I stood on the sidelines as Tesla stock soared to over $1,000/share.
I learned my lesson. Ignore everything I see on social media. Dig for the truth myself.
Finding Real Patterns
Since doing this, my gains transformed dramatically. Using AI, I was able to identify some real patterns in the market. While these patterns may not persist over time, they helped me gain an understanding of what types of things really move the market.
Some of these patterns include:
- Having a higher free cash flow tends to lead to higher than average prices the next year
- Stocks with a low P/E ratio don’t have higher gains the following year
- Buying based on online emerging trends like computing, Bitcoin, and electric vehicles tended to be a good strategy
- The linked portfolio is another comparison to inspect. This article cuts off the selection metric after “market,” so it does not define a reproducible filter. Read the complete saved rule, historical universe, selection dates and benchmark before treating it as a pattern.
Notice that these patterns aren’t based on gut feel – they’re based on what actually happened in the past.
By noticing these patterns, we can construct our own strategies. In fact, I’ve created half a dozen, with many of them significantly outperforming the market.
Testing my Intuition
Knowing what types of stocks tend to do well, I’ve created numerous trading strategies to take advantage of these. You can access them for free on NexusTrade.
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Some of the most profitable portfolios include:
- The Neckbeard Index 2.0: Up over 48% in the past year
- NVIDIA and Google: Up 26% in the past 3 months
- Breakout For Stocks Near Their Lows (renamed from Medium_0328): Up 17% in the past 3 months
Let me be clear that these are not backtesting results. These are portfolios that I’ve deployed since last year, distinct from the screenshots that I showed in the beginning.
They are running right now, being paper-traded, so that the future of the world sees how my portfolios actually perform with maximum transparency.
And I’m not the only one that can contribute. You can deploy your strategies and get paid for it too.
Here's how to earn completely passive income if you're already a half-decent investor
Only 0.1% of people fit all of these criteria. If you're reading this, you don't fit either: You have (or know how to…
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My goal is to create a marketplace of free and paid trading strategies. This marketplace will empower investors to make data-driven decisions rather than emotional ones, helping them achieve the kind of results that come from systematic analysis rather than gut feelings.
Concluding Thoughts
Shifting from gambling to systematic trading transformed my portfolio.
I ignored noise. I focused on data-backed patterns, not gut feel. And I tested what works and what doesn’t.
My Robinhood screenshot records an 87% one-year gain, or $26,298; the separate Public screenshot records 26%, or $17,404. I changed my process toward explicit hypotheses, historical tests and ongoing paper observation. These account screenshots do not show which rules or trades produced those gains, so they cannot isolate the cause. The linked paper portfolios are separate observations, with their own stated windows.
For a first experiment, choose one hypothesis from the linked examples. Write the selection rule and test window, inspect the saved result against its benchmark, then retain the rule for paper observation. A promising historical result is a candidate to investigate.
If you want to learn to trade systematically, check out the NexusTrade Tutorials. Accessible algorithmic trading isn’t out of reach – it’s available to you right now if you sit down and claim it.
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The question is… will you?
Disclaimer: All investing involves risk, and the past performance of any trading strategy is not a guarantee of future results. This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice.
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