Mohamed Gad, an ordinary stock trader, shared his experience of becoming a part-time swing trader with Business Insider, highlighting key lessons from his journey.

He emphasizes targeting high-quality, high-growth stocks, focusing on earnings and sales data. Additionally, he reveals his minimum requirements for daily trading volume and stock prices.

When Gad began trading in 2019, he approached it with cautious optimism, following a failed attempt five years earlier. His first venture in 2014 involved a $1,000 investment in penny stocks, which wiped him out within a week. This brief experience led him to conclude that trading “wasn’t for him.” However, boredom in 2019 prompted a reconsideration.

He started scouring resources on consistent trading methods, asking, “Is there a better way?”

“I read almost every trading book,” Gad said. “I took courses—some taught me a lot, others felt like sales pitches.”

Everything changed when he discovered William O’Neil’s How to Make Money in Stocks. The methodology, centered on high-quality, high-growth stocks with robust earnings and sales, shifted his focus to fundamentally strong companies rather than speculative gambles. This allowed him to maintain his day job, sleep soundly, and avoid overnight portfolio wipeouts.

His newfound approach coincided with the 2020 pandemic lockdowns, giving him time to study charts and test trades. That year, the S&P 500 delivered a 16.3% return, but Gad claims he achieved 175% gains, with Tesla as a major contributor.

“I thought I was a genius. I believed I’d cracked it—easy enough to quit my job,” he admitted.

Like many retail investors in 2020, Gad initially rode the hype wave. But the 2021-2022 market correction delivered a harsh reality check. The S&P 500 slumped for a year, and Gad suffered heavy losses, particularly on Tesla, which he held due to emotional attachment. By October 2022, he’d lost roughly 75% of prior profits.

This forced him to refine his strategy: tightening entry/exit rules, improving stock screening, and adopting Oliver Kell’s advice from Victory in Stock Trading to view positions as emotionless “ticker symbols.” By 2024, he felt confident enough to join the U.S. Investing Championship—an annual contest for retail traders—achieving a 308% return from May to December.

Strategy Breakdown

1. Stock Selection:

• Minimum daily volume: 300,000 shares
• Price above $20
• Momentum: 20%+ price gain over 1-3 months
• Fundamentals: Companies with >10% earnings/sales growth (preferably >30% consensus estimates).

2. Position Management:

• Holds stocks for weeks to months, avoiding premature stop-loss triggers.
• Uses a 21-day moving average trailing stop-loss.
• Adjusts stops to weekly charts as gains accumulate.

3. Risk & Psychology:

• 30% win rate, relying on large winners to offset frequent small losses.
• No position sizing rules, but avoids overconcentration (e.g., Tesla once represented 87% of his portfolio).
• Detaches from emotional biases (e.g., sold Tesla when data turned negative).

Performance Nuances

• His 2024 returns included gains from Bitcoin-linked bets (MicroStrategy, iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF).
• Even “blue chips” like Tesla require flexibility—he exited when earnings forecasts reversed.

Final Insight

Gad’s story underscores that success isn’t about perfect predictions, but adapting to failures, enforcing discipline, and aligning strategies with one’s lifestyle (e.g., swing trading suited his offshore engineering career). As he proved, a 30/70 win ratio can thrive—if losses stay small and winners run.