My Why: Trading My Way to Financial Freedom

What's up, everyone? To start, I'd like to thank you all for checking out my very first post in what will eventually become a blog series of my journey as a trader; starting off with Stocks and ETFs, and then eventually, graduating into trading Forex!

Although this blog will mostly be about trading and finance, I do feel like this belongs in the Self Improvement Community because it will be layered with both my failures and successes, my family's (as well as my own) happiness and well-being; not to mention I'm attempting to learn a new and unfamiliar skill! Hopefully, at some point, I will also be able to include achieving our personal and financial goals, as well as building our wealth!

_{A screenshot of the AUDUSD chart on the TradingView App, with custom indicators.}

While the purpose of this blog is to track my journey into , since this is going to be the first post of the series, I feel like it's only fitting that start at the beginning and dive into the details of why this blog exists in the first place! I'll try to keep it brief, and then we'll get into what this blog is all about!

I won't go into all of the boring details about my life story, but there are a few details that I feel are extremely pertinent to this post!

My (Financial) Background

To start with, I never really had very good savings habits as a kid/teenager, or very good money management skills throughout my life altogether. My mother was a contributing factor to that and ended up overdrawing the first bank account I had, as well as wracked up a few house bills in my name without ever paying them off, which definitely didn't start me in the right financial direction either.

So, being the "man" that I was at 18, I quickly joined the US Navy to get away from home and start my life doing whatever I wanted to do since I finally had the freedom to do so! Well, life had other plans when my high school sweetheart and I got pregnant with our oldest daughter. We got married after I returned home from my first deployment early 2011 (the last Naval deployment of Operation Iraqi Freedom), a total of 6 months after my daughter was born. They stayed in Illinois for the time being while I went back to my Station on Coronado Island, California to embark on my second deployment in mid-2011.

I managed to save up a decent amount of money while I was on my first deployment, and while I spent way too much money on beer and alcohol while I was in port, my wife and daughter had whatever they wanted and needed, and that was enough for me. My first deployment lasted around 8-10 months, and I only had a month or so before leaving on another "work-up" followed by another 10-month-long deployment, during which also marked the first Naval deployment of Operation Enduring Freedom.

During that time, I saved up over $15,000 on more than one occasion during my second deployment, only to find it almost empty a few months later. Upon asking my wife, she couldn't remember what she spent it on other than our daughter. It wasn't too long after that that I started a downward spiral with alcohol, then moved on to synthetic marijuana (aka K2, or more generally "Spice") since it couldn't be tested for during a urinalysis test.

Unfortunately, that led me down an even worse path and I started to explore with Methamphetamines. From there on, my life went downhill pretty fast; my wife and I declared bankruptcy, moved across the country, and then divorced a few years later. I wish that I could say that was the kick in the pants I needed, but it wasn't, and I continued further downhill. I was in and out of jail, in and out of flophouses (or hot houses as we called them because they were constantly watched by the cops), and I couldn't hold a job to save my life.

Then, in 2018, I met the woman who is now my fiance. I hate to say it, but our relationship started out with partying together, and while we knew we were infatuated with each other, the drugs were more important. We ended up getting clean for a few months while I was in between jobs, and we ended up getting pregnant with our son in mid-2019 which changed both of our lives forever.

That led us towards our path of getting clean and trying to better ourselves for this perfect and innocent life that we had created! While it was difficult, we made it through and I am proud to say it has been almost 3 years now since we have gotten sober from drugs, and I am personally 10 months sober from alcohol! We've had a lot of ups and downs along the way, but we are doing better now in our personal development than ever before. I still have issues holding onto a job, and I personally feel like it's mainly because of the monotony of it all, day in and day out the same thing. At some point in time, I was hoping this would change, and that I would be able to take my family on vacations, random trips to nowhere in particular, or just out for dinner on a random Tuesday night; I'm not simply trying to give them the life that I never had, but one that I have always desperately wanted to be able to live.

The only problem I am still faced with from my past drug and alcohol use is my addictive personality, and while I used to think of it as a curse, I've now come to find it as my strength and passion for what drives me to be a better person, and what inspires me to become more financially stable. I have become addicted to life, to my family, and to become successful in order to give them the life they need, want, and deserve. It may be a little selfish on my end, but it is my job and responsibility to take care of my family in any way that I can, and I would love nothing more than to be able to make a living while staying home and spending every moment I can with my family.

So, with that out of the way, now we can start to get into the details of why I'm starting this blog, and what my plans are for the future, both in trading and for the blog itself!

The First Steps Towards Trading

I started looking into the stock markets a few years ago, not too long after our son was born, purely for the purpose of having something to leave for him when his mother and I are gone, with the hopes that he would never have to struggle that way that we have. It all kind of started when I saw a few ads for the Public, RobinHood, and Webull platforms, that had promotions going on for a few free stocks once you opened and funded an account with any amount.

I jumped at the opportunity and started on Public with $15, and got $30 worth of free fractional shares split between Amazon (AMZN) and Disney (DIS). I ended up splitting my $15 and investing it into Crocs (CROX), Exela Technologies (XELA), and Hallador Energy (HNRG).

Then, I opened up the Webull account with $5, and got 4 free stocks for joining during the promotion, which were: 1 share of ADT (ADT), 1 share of COTY Cosmetics (COTY), 1 Share of Genworth Financial (GNW), and 1 share of Antero Midstream Corp (AM). With my $5, I decided to join the ranks of the crypto communities, and bought a little over 170 thousand shares of Shiba Inu (SHIB).

After that, I opened an account with RobinHood with a total of $5, and received 1 free share of Unity Biotechnologies (UBX). From there, I took my $5 and split it between Dogecoin (DOGE) and Toughbuilt Industries (TBLT).

This is when I realized how much I was in over my head and had no idea how the stock markets worked. I had dreams to take those stocks and eventually turn them into a future for my son but quickly realized that only owning one share of a company doesn't get you very far in the business world.

My RobinHood account took the heaviest toll; my one share of UBX tanked immediately from $4.98 per share down to $2.25 per share within a week. The $3 worth of DOGE I was holding was rapidly decreasing, and at this point, I wasn't fully aware of how crypto worked. So, I ended up selling $2.51 worth of DOGE (holding my position with only 2.11 DOGE) and purchased 8 shares of TBLT after depositing that extra dollar, and after selling UBX for $2.25, I bought an additional 5 shares of TBLT.

Although I didn't really know what I was doing, I was fairly confident in my investments, and I started to focus on doing more research. Then I got caught up with some other side projects on a freelancing platform called Upwork, and I decided that since I couldn't feasibly make a living trading $26 dollars worth of stocks, I just put trading on the back burner and left those stocks to sit for the rest of the year.

I never did much with my accounts on Public or Webull, and I only lost about $5 on both accounts due to stock prices dropping, but everything I had on Robinhood tanked; TBLT went through a reverse split, and I lost out on all 12 or 13 stocks that I was holding and ended up completely losing that investment. So my portfolio went from $10 to $0.26 cents thanks to that DOGE I'm still holding onto for dear life.

After that, I really gave up on trading, and never even really looked at my accounts after that, figuring they'd all end up tanking anyways. I continued to freelance on Upwork for a while, even after I went back to work after the Covid Shutdowns, which took away most of the personal time I had to spend with my family. I made a decent amount of money freelancing, but it wasn't nearly enough for the amount of time I was investing into this new "career", and my addictive personality took over once again. Ultimately, it caused a lot of problems between my fiance and I, so I ended up putting that on the shelf for a little while too.

Then, about 6 months ago or so, I was introduced to Hive by my coworker @nicksmitley, and again, not really understanding how the crypto aspect of it worked, I just loved the idea of a decentralized social media, for people to tell their stories and share their content with others. I was never a fan of social media, and still don't use many centralized platforms, but being on Hive has inspired me to open up, share my thoughts and opinions, and be encouraged to continue to better my life instead of falling into the same patterns that have held me captive for so long.

I haven't been as active on Hive the past few months, and that is largely due to my addictive personality and allowing my writing to consume me, causing more issues at home. However, I have been able to start finding a balance between writing, my freelance work, and spending time with my family, all while learning about trading, the stock markets and ETFs, and still searching for a job. It's been a little hectic, to say the least, but nothing works unless you do, and if I want any of this to work, I have to work hard for it!

Quick edit before posting - I got a call back for a job, and have an in-person interview tomorrow! If all goes well, I'll be starting on Tuesday! Wish me luck!! 😊

Taking the Road Less Travelled

About 3 weeks ago, I lost my job at the local garage door factory, so I started freelancing on Upwork again trying to make a little bit of cash to keep us afloat, for the time being, while waiting for callbacks on a few applications that I've put in, which actually happened yesterday! While I have been focused on obtaining another job to support my family, I have recently turned part of my focus back to trading and have decided to fund a small brokerage account in the very near future using some of the rewards I've earned here on Hive!

This all came about around a week after I lost my job, and a close friend came by to visit and share some information on some of the stuff he's started doing recently. Among them, was learning how to day trade. He had found, and introduced me to, "The Moving Average", a YouTube channel created by a man named Arty who, after losing a lot of money trying to learn how to trade, finally became consistently profitable, and now wants to help other traders become successful as well!

Honestly, the way he teaches just grabs my attention and makes it a lot easier to understand than just reading about it. I started out with a few random videos on how he started trading and why, and the journey he's had along the way. I definitely related to his story, and I started connecting more and more with him on a more personal level, so decided to go ahead and check out his beginner trading videos. Let me tell you, there was a lot of information, and to be honest, I had no idea what he was talking about in a lot of them!

But, I kept at it, and if I didn't understand something he was talking about in one video, I found and watched one where he went into more detail about that subject, then went ahead from there. He talked a lot about brokers, who he uses and why, and how to determine which broker would be good for your personal goals! I decided that, if I was really going to follow his advice, and learn the way he trades, then I might as well dive right in and follow his suggestions for brokers.

So, I signed up for a Demo Account on OspreyFX and downloaded the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 apps for my phone so I could get a feel for the system and process! I've also started looking into the FTMO and HankoTrade brokerage platforms as well, just to compare them all and see which one would be best for me.

Question for The Curators!

Does anyone else like to trade, outside of the Hive platform? If so, which brokerage did you choose, and why?

Since then, I have started to look into Coinbase and Binance.us to use for the crypto I do plan on investing in and holding on to for a long-term basis, as well as trying to figure out how to link all these wallets together for transferring funds between them to be able to get both my brokerage account funded, as well as starting to save for the future!

Personal Opinion Question!

I know that the "best" wallets and brokers are those that work for your personal goals and trading styles, but I am curious if anyone out there uses either Coinbase or Binance.us, and if not, what alternative have you found compared to these platforms, and why do you prefer it?

Personally, I like the idea of having multiple secure wallets and trading platforms; one for long-term portfolio growth, and one strictly to trade with, as well as my fiat bank account for living expenses. Although, now that I'm getting into this as much as I am, I feel like I will need to make a decision soon on which of those accounts will be used for!

Moving Forward

Now, I'm not exactly sure how I want to structure these blog posts moving forward, but the goal behind them is for me to personally track my journey as a trader, starting with these beginning stages of demoing on a funded account, and attempting to trade the very few stocks I do own for a profit, solely for the purpose of building my account balance and creating a long term portfolio. Again, I do have 3 separate trading platforms active, so as of right now, I'm unsure which account I will end up keeping as a long-term portfolio, but I will be providing updates through this blog along the way!

I will be keeping my Hive account for long-term use, and plan on saving as much into my Hive account as possible! I'm sure some of you may have noticed that I started to power down, and the only reason for this is so that I can start a small trading account since I don't have the spare funds available elsewhere. And, while I do want to grow my Hive account, this seems to be the only feasible way to obtain this goal in such a short period of time.

While we are on the subject of hive accounts and savings goals, have you heard of the Saturday Savers Club!? I hadn't heard about them until recently, but if you want to find out more about it, head on over to the @eddie-earner account! If you are interested in receiving tips from like-minded, savings-oriented Hiveans, as well as the ability to earn interest on your Hive with the EDS token, I wouldn't hesitate to check them out! I know I didn't!

Personal Opinion Question #2!

How many of you out there have used either the Public, RobinHood, or Webull trading platforms, and what was your experience like? If you have used a different platform, which one did you use, and how do you like it in terms of user functionality?

As of right now, I have a very generalized goal of being successful in trading and growing my trading and Hive account, both quickly and efficiently. So, with that being said, the true purpose of this blog is to act as a trading journal so to speak; I will be able to discuss what I have learned so far, and how I've applied that knowledge to my trading. Then, I will be able to discuss the trades I've made on both my Demo Accounts as well as my Live Accounts, in order to keep track of why I took those trades in the first place. By doing this, I will be able to see what I did correctly during a winning trade, as well as what I did incorrectly on a losing trade in order to prevent myself from making the same mistakes in the future, which will ultimately help me to become a better trader and be the stepping stones for becoming financially stable for the first time in my life.

But, I think that will wrap it up for this intro post! As I've said, I'm unsure exactly how I'll officially be structuring this blog, so please bear with me as I explore writing about this new subject! Don't forget to tune in next time, where I'll dive deeper into the details on both my Hive and personal savings goals, as well as the goals I have for my Live Trading Account!

Thank you for all stopping by and giving this a read! I really hope you enjoyed, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week!
Stay Trippy, My Little Hippies! ✌️💚

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• Signature created and provided by @doze! Check out his blog to see his newest creations, and how you can get your own custom signature!
• Screenshot of AUDUSD chart was taken on my ever-faithful Moto G Stylus