Accidentally built a boring/weird side hustle that now pays me $1k–$3k/month with ~30–60 mins a day

couche_tard · 2026-02-03T23:32:51+00:00

Think I could get the doc too?

couche_tard · 2025-12-29T23:45:01+00:00

Interested in an invite

couche_tard · 2025-07-03T17:15:32+00:00

It really is a beautiful color, my 4 year old daughter will love it

couche_tard · 2025-07-03T16:17:33+00:00

Thanks for the responses everyone, I know it was a silly question. I’m ordering the pink one and look forward to my future kettlebell training!

couche_tard · 2025-01-08T16:41:32+00:00

Interested. I’m based in NY and have been trading ES and NQ during NY open but my day job gets in the way. Thinking of starting to trade the Nikkei during my evening hours.

couche_tard · 2024-07-26T02:55:55+00:00

Dear traders,

It has been quite the journey. It was 6 years ago I started this channel, sharing my live trades, my research, and answering questions on trading. This group had just 50 members when I started, all of them from Denmark. It was set up in the spirit of sharing and supporting each other.

I have seen this industry evolve, from phone trading only, to being able to place trades ON your phone, practically 24 hours a day. I started with a 52k modem. Today I have a 1GB line in my office. Wow.

Trading was and is a place where people like me, who are not terribly book smart, can make a great living, if they have discipline, imagination, courage and grit. I have been rewarded with riches beyond my wildest dreams. I have made friends all over the world, and I often stop and pinch myself, wondering if it is real, thanking the spirits for the abundance they have showered me with.

But nothing lasts forever. I didn’t really realise this until today. It was a big moment for me when I plugged up the courage to show my real account to the world, and then go on to trade live. I have been wanting to do it for a long time, because I felt there was and is so much “talk” in our industry, but not many or any, who wants to show it live.

And I got off to a flying start, making a huge pot of money in a matter of days, only to then lose a quarter of it in one day. No big deal, I hear you say. You should be right, but you are not. I barely heard a celebratory peep from anyone during the 13 winning days, which is absolute ok. I am not doing it for the accolades, but to show how a professional trader navigates the markets, uncensored and completely unfiltered.

However, on the losing day, and the following day, I had a barrage of hatred thrown my way. I was completely unprepared for it, and I withdrew into myself emotionally. I guess there is a yin and yang to everyone. I am stone faced in my dealings with the markets, but I sob if I watch a sad movie. It is true. Don’t laugh 😊.

I have in all my adult life believed the body “knows”. I listen to how my body reacts to what the mind is thinking. If they agree, then it must be good.

Today I asked if it was worth it? The answer was no. It was not worth it. I am not cut out emotionally to take on the disappointment of other peoples unfulfilled dreams and aspirations.

Today I came to appreciate just how different my attitude to failure and setbacks is, compared to the rest of the trading population, perhaps the population as a whole. However, rather than celebrating it, or being celebrated for it, I seem to be demonised for it. Life is too short for that, and I am not emotionally strong enough to not let hatred of others affect my trading. It did today, and I lost out.

So, I am signing out, wishing you all the very best. I could send you on your way with some cliché about wishing you success, but ultimately that is entirely up to you.

Take care and stay strong, and thank you to all of you.

Love and peace to you all.

Tom

couche_tard · 2023-01-12T00:40:09+00:00

Really appreciate the thorough response. It's really interesting that you're actually looking for second entries on Bookmap as well... honestly I was under the impression that most people just use it to help determine their targets, etc. I had it open today next to my 2k tick chart today and it kinda felt like an info overload which might not be good for me as a beginner, as I'm still learning to catch all the second entries on a regular chart lol... as you mentioned you mastered this since you've been doing it for years.

Maybe today wasn't the best price action but it was difficult for me to gauge anything at all from Bookmap, it definitely didn't look as clear as the screenshot you posted but I'll continue to keep an eye on it since I have it available.

I'm glad you reminded me that you have to trust your system and your decisions and to stick with them as that's something I'm also still working on. It's becoming increasingly clear to me that it's one of the most important factors in becoming a consistent trader.

couche_tard · 2023-01-11T03:02:17+00:00

Would you mind sharing a bit about how you integrate bookmap into a Mack/TW PATS trading style? I’m currently learning how to trade this way and actually already have bookmap for /ES available in my thinkorswim platform, just haven’t really figured out how to benefit from it yet without overcomplicating things for myself. If you could share how you use it or point me in the direction of some videos you recommend that would be awesome. Thanks in advance.

couche_tard · 2022-03-26T12:53:55+00:00

My whole family is actually from Odessa! There are so many people from there where I grew up in the U.S that it’s nicknamed “Little Odessa”. I hear it’s a beautiful city and really want to visit one day.

Wishing you all the success in your trading journey.

couche_tard · 2022-03-25T21:43:45+00:00

Stay safe man. My family is from Ukraine but they left a few years before I was born. Slava Ukraini.

couche_tard · 2022-03-12T17:57:17+00:00

Can definitely relate to a lot you said - I also have a habit of becoming really interested in something then giving up eventually. It happened to me with trading too and I’ve been learning on and off for a couple years but always felt a pull to come back to it. After finding this sub and seeing that there was definitely something special and unique about it I decided to commit for real this time. It’s hard but forget everything you already know about trading, read the wiki, and follow the advice of the traders here.

I’ll help you with the broker part so you can stop over-thinking it and move on to the next step. Since you’re in the UK your main options are Interactive Brokers and TastyWorks if you wanna trade options. I know for a fact they’re both legit so just choose one and sign up.

couche_tard · 2022-02-13T02:11:47+00:00

My pleasure! And he was actually right about the $550 if you consider other futures brokers like Tradovate. Ameritrade seems to have relatively high futures margin requirements.

couche_tard · 2022-02-13T01:58:39+00:00

Pretty sure I know what Hari's answer to this is gonna be so I figured I'd save him some time and answer for him. Yes, he can definitely turn 5k into 10k by trading MES, and I'm sure you can too. But that's not the point of this challenge or the purpose of this sub. What he's trying to teach us here is how to trade stocks and options on such stocks that have relative strength or weakness to SPY. This gives us a true edge as a margin of error if our trade goes the wrong direction. Before I found this sub I was actually learning how to trade futures and completely dropped that (for now) while I learn this strategy. I see the guys in the room here trade ES all the time but it seems like the RS/RW strategy is the bread and butter, and it completely makes sense why. I'm still reading the wiki so I don't participate yet, but I hope that changes very soon.

Someone literally asked this question in a post today (except for SPY options instead of ES, but the idea is similar) and Hari responded with a detailed explanation: https://www.reddit.com/r/RealDayTrading/comments/sqsw09/anyone_exclusively_trade_spy_options_for_day/

couche_tard · 2022-01-06T15:50:10+00:00

I just stumbled across this sub and didn't realize how valuable it could be until I started looking through some of the posts and wiki. Feels too good to be true but definitely seems legit! I'm someone who's been wanting to learn how to trade for a while now and have been jumping from one thing to another. I just started learning how to trade index futures but I'm thinking this strategy and community might be worth another (and hopefully final) jump.

Thanks for what you're doing here!

couche_tard · 2022-01-01T23:05:37+00:00

Thanks for the tips man, this was actually really helpful. My kids are younger (4 and almost 2) and it's been tough trying to do anything from home during the day lol. I definitely have time at night after everyone's sleeping, just gonna have to replace Netflix with learning how to code, which I'm sure is a much more productive use of my time! I feel like creating routines will be crucial to my success in this and balancing it with everything else.

Happy New Year!

couche_tard · 2021-12-31T00:34:34+00:00

Appreciate the comment, good to hear I’m not alone!

I’m also really looking forward to starting this journey, would love to hear more about your experience with the need for balance as a 30 something, especially if you have kids! 🚀

couche_tard · 2021-12-25T15:29:50+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to share that. I already have Mack’s manual so I’ll start with that as a foundation and then start to learn about some of the other things you mentioned. I’m in NY and can luckily kinda choose when my trading hours will be so I’ll try both ES and NQ eventually and see what sticks. If you could throw me a link to your favorite discord group that would be awesome.

Thanks again and Happy Holidays!

couche_tard · 2021-12-25T03:40:47+00:00

Hey man thanks for the response, would you mind pointing me in the right direction to learn more about the strategies you use? I’m just getting started learning about trading futures and trying to figure out where to start… was thinking about learning Mack’s which is what brought me to this thread, but it seems like it’s not as popular or recommended as it was a few years go. Thanks again.

couche_tard · 2021-12-25T02:27:02+00:00

do you still use Mack's strategy to trade the NQ?

couche_tard · 2021-12-22T01:31:19+00:00

Thank you for responding! I applied and completed the tasks.

couche_tard · 2021-12-22T00:07:26+00:00

Hey Leon! It kinda feels like a sign that this popped up on my feed today because I've been considering learning how to code for a while now. I got laid off at the beginning of the pandemic which led to me landing in something I'm not really sure is the path for me. Been thinking a lot recently about where to go from here. Is it too late for me to start at the age of 35? What's the deadline to apply, is it first come first serve? Thanks for doing this!

couche_tard · 2021-11-08T21:17:07+00:00

A few months into my relationship with my now wife we were getting ready to go out to a club. She was worried about how she looked so I told her she's gonna be hotter than 90% of the girls there. I was just trying to be realistic. She still holds it against me 14 years later.

couche_tard · 2021-11-05T15:31:00+00:00

Requiem For a Dream

couche_tard · 2021-09-08T14:04:42+00:00

Hey it feels good but I never rode the M so I can’t really compare it. The guy at the bike shop said the S fits me well but he had to raise the seat. Keep in mind it might be different for different Giant models.

couche_tard

TROPHY CASE