Trading $6,000 to OVER $10+ Million Using This Strategy

Interview with Brandon ("Elite Options Trader") on Chart Fanatics about trading using support/resistance on daily/weekly timeframes, paired with macro news/data and a disciplined mindset. Key themes: (1) trader mindset (grounded emotions, risk/reward awareness, learning focus), (2) zooming out to daily/weekly levels to capture high-probability trades around macro catalysts (examples: 2018, 2020, 2022, 2025 SPX sell-offs), and (3) options-specific risk sizing ("size for zero") to survive volatility and capture large multi-week/month moves.
Chapters
I can show you every support and resistance level. I can show you the exact strategy I use. But if your mind isn't in the right place, you can't succeed long term. A successful trader understands that not every day is a good day for trading. There may be certain levels that are more probable to go well beyond that level. And there are certain days where you're just going to get stuck in a range. So you need to start with these three before you start learning all the technicals and all the strategies. Because you're going to give all the money back if these three aren't the first things that you actually work on.
We have a very, very special guest. We did a podcast episode not long ago and it did absolutely insane numbers. He is a verified eight figure trader. A phenomenal trader in the options market is the one and only Brando AKA elite options trader.
Most new traders they're so focused on like I want to make money today, I want to make money this week and I want to make the same amount every week. The way that I did it, the way that I think everyone should do it if you're new is you have to align the level, which is extremely important because you need to know where to enter to get the full picture. You have to understand that news and data is what moves the market. Zooming out is how you get the most important levels, like doing intraday levels like on a 5 minute or 10 minute chart. It's good for that day. But you're not going to get the prime prime trade setups unless most of your money is made on these big moments. Yes, of course, like as you get better, you can make money like every week. But it's nothing compared to waiting for these big levels. For the most of the big traders I know, like most of their profit, it's from these moments where you get reacting is everything for day trading you don't need to predict every move. You need to understand that when you're drinking, having a strong bias when day trading it can blow up your account because you'll end.
Welcome everyone back to Chart Fanatics, the go to channel for all the very best trading strategies and concepts in the world with the very best traders in the world as well. Talking of which, today we have a very, very special guest. We did a podcast episode not long ago and it did absolutely insane numbers. He is a verified eight figure trader. A phenomenal trader in the options market is the one and only Brando AKA elite options trader.
Thanks for having me.
My absolute pleasure, man. Thank you for making the trip out here to sunny Miami and very interesting enough. I've always been doing like elite options trader, AKA Brando. And I did an episode the other day and someone was like, well, my actual name is. So that makes sense. It should be your real name and then our online name. Absolute pleasure to have you with us. I'm very excited to get into this. And what concept are we going to be getting into today?
So, so the main concept is very simple support and resistance levels. I'm also going to touch up a little bit on the mindset of a successful trader and sizing for zero. I want to add a little bit more on that and why it's so important with options trading.
Love that, love that. So where should we begin?
Okay, so the first thing I want to talk about is the mindset because I can show you every support and resistance level. I can show you the exact strategy I use. But if your mind isn't in the right place, you can't succeed long term. So I'm just going to draw two people really quickly here. Right. So this is the successful trader and. And this is the unsuccessful trader. So there's three key traits of a successful trader that I think everyone needs to embody and to think about when you are pursuing this path. So the number one thing is the emotions. Right. A successful trader, whether they're in a winning trade or losing trade, they are always grounded.
Yeah.
Right. There's never a feeling of euphoria and there's never a feeling of frustration and sadness for more than maybe a few minutes. Right. They come back to neutral and then they assess and they make the next best trade. So the, the number two thing is ability to see risk versus reward. Right. So most traders, when they start trading, they think that every day is the same. Right. You show up, you look at a chart and you can make the same amount every day. Yeah. A successful trader understands that not every day is a good day for trading. And there may be certain levels that are more probable to go well beyond that level. And there are certain days where you're just going to get stuck in a range.
Yeah.
So you need to be able to see this. Right. Otherwise you're going to go two steps forward, one step back every week.
All right.
And then the third thing is.
The focus on learning.
Right.
So learning is everything in the beginning. Most traders are just focused on making money. Yeah, Right. But successful traders, they understand that building the right fundamentals is the absolute key to long term success. So that to me, like, you need to start with these Three before you start learning all the technicals and all the strategies, because you're going to give all the money back if these three aren't the first things that you actually work on. And then, you know, for unsuccessful, right. It's the absolute opposite. The same thing with emotions, right? You, you have, you know, you feel frustrated, you, you know, especially this, you feel a lot of anxiety, right?
When you lose a trade, you want to make it back as quickly as you can. So like the second thing is just follow, right? That's probably the single biggest account killer, you know, saying so that, yeah, this alone, like as a new trader, you're going to end up chasing trades you shouldn't be in, right? You're going to be, you see one guy making money, you enter the trade, you don't even know why you're in the trade, right? You don't know what the stock even is. And that's a big problem with new traders is they just blindly buy. And then the third biggest thing is money, right? The, the new trader is so fixated on the end goal that they don't, they don't realize that if you build a bad foundation, it's going to crumble within a month, two months, three months at the absolute max. So for anyone that's watching this, like, you need to work on this at the absolute beginning.
Hey guys, just a very, very quick one. If you're enjoying this playbook and you want to get it sent directly to you, make sure to go on fanatics.com put your email in and every episode we drop, we will send you a direct PDF breaking down this exact playbook. Or alternatively also the playbooks will be put all together with the rules over on Trade Zella, that is an incredible collaboration. So if you want to actually add the playbook to your tradezella, make sure you go check that out as well. But let's get back into this episode.
Definitely. And the interesting thing with this is most people and most of the traders are focusing on this. And I understand why, like, why do most people become traders? They want to make money, of course, and they want that freedom, et cetera. But by focusing on it, that is what ends up making them in this bracket, while the focus on process and learning puts them into that bracket and as a byproduct leads to the money. So the money really comes from doing these things. But unfortunately, for whatever reason, a lot of it comes down to, as you say, these two things. The FOMO usually leads to the focus on money, the desperate situation. They might be in and the lack of focus on, okay, let me build my savings or let me work on my learning and my, my systems or my emotions, and focusing on the right things will allow them to get the results they want and I guess the time horizon as well.
Right.
You know, understanding that, giving yourself enough time to get the reps in and to get consistent or show consistency, because I think that comes down to it as well, where a trader doesn't have that consistency, they don't more than likely know a trader personally. They might know people online, but personally, to really have that case study, you know, proof of concept.
Exactly.
So if they never give themselves an opportunity to actually build that, you know, using these principles, as you mentioned, actually focusing on the learning, the risk reward side, balancing their emotions, having the right processes, instead focusing on this side where they focus on the money, kind of leads to fomo. Right. And then obviously that FOMO creates that anxiety. So the kind of knock on effect.
Right, Exactly. Yeah.
So where should we go from here?
Yeah. So now I'm going to show you guys why support and resistance levels are so important and why trading and looking at levels on a daily and weekly time frame are key. Yeah.
So support resistance, right?
Yep. All right, so I'm going to show you guys the past four big sell offs in the market. I'm just going to first like just write which years they happened. Right, so 2018, 2020, 2022 and most recently 2025.
Yes.
All right, so these are roughly estimated numbers. Some are exact, but I'm just going to write them out. Yeah, of course. So 2018, the top was around, let's say 2940. Right. And the bottom, so the top we'll just put T. And then the bottom was around 23:46. Right. And this was due, this sell off was due to the tariffs in 2018 with Trump. Right. 2020, the top is this S and P. This is that. Oh yeah, this is S&P 500.
Gotcha.
We'll do SPX. So in 2020, right. We had the top, I think around 30393 and it dipped to 21.91. Right. So this is covet and then 2022, top. Right. When this was at 48, 18 at the top and dipped at 34.91. Right. And this is when QE stopped. Right. The Fed said, we're done.
Right.
They start QT. Right. And then 2025 was tariffs again.
Right.
So we got top of 6147. And at the lows we have to 4835.
Let's just hope that we don't get a repeat of another one again.
Yeah, exactly. Right.
But just to confirm, QE is quantitative easing. Qt. Quantitative tightening, yep.
So basically the Fed was saying they're going to shrink their balance, balance sheet and rates were going to start going back up interest rates. So if you look at these numbers, right, and you look at these major sell offs, each time they provided a huge, huge opportunity to buy the dip. Yeah. Right. And did you need to buy the dip here at 2346 to make money? You didn't, Right. Over time, eventually we got back above this 2900 level. Right. And if you bought here at this 29.40, you can ride this level all the way up to the new high in 2020, 33, 93. Right. And then when Covid happened, right, it was pretty much a black swan event where the market had a huge sell off within a couple weeks. Right. So the first time it dripped, we got I think 27 sell off, sell off and then we had 35% here and then.
I think this one was 21% and this is around, I think this one might have been 21 and this is 27. Math might be up, but just they're all, they're all above 20, right? Yeah. So, yeah. So going back to covet, right, we had that black swan event and I mean we had a 35 sell off. Did you need to buy here? No. But if you wait, waited for the reclamation of this level, the low from 2018, that was your buy point, right? So buying there, like trading options, like you could make a thousand percent on an option like three months out, six months out, like, you don't need to trade weekly options like I do to make money on these type of trades. But waiting for these major levels is this is how you want to start trading. Meaning like most new traders, they're so focused on like, I want to make money today, I want to make money this week and I want to make the same amount every week. But the way that I did it, the way that I think everyone should do it if you're new, is you want to start off on the right foot, right? These trades, it may take three months, six months, a year for it to actually come. But if you can 10x your account on the first really good setup, then you'll have much more capital to play around with, right? And you, you, you'll build the confidence to actually trade the right way. Because with trading, especially options, if you don't see success within the first three months, about 50% of traders will quit. Yeah. And then within six months, if they don't see any success, you're about at like 80% will, will stop. And by the year mark, if they don't see anything, 90% are done.
Yep.
So these time frames, these daily and weekly type of levels, these are the ones where you make the most money. Right. So like you see here, like even here, right, in 2022, we bottom that 3491, we got within, within 100 points of that 2020 high. And if you bought near that level, right, it's not perfect, it's not exact, but it's, it's a relative range. You could have made huge money. I mean you went from 34.91 to 61.47 recently. Right. And if, even if you buy options six months out, I mean you can 10x 15x your position.
Yeah, right.
And yeah, so this is kind of just like a start to what I want to focus on is like showing you guys why trading the most, the biggest levels is how you make money.
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It's really actually great because you can visually see even just within seven years.
Yeah, right.
Just at the load like the, the comparable between the bottom seven years ago and then the top we've seen so far. And where are we going to go next?
Yeah, it's incredible. Yeah. So, so the next, like the way that I kind of set up my, my trades and the way I view the market is the market, it moves on news. Right. Of course, like technicals are very important. But the way that I set up each week is like, okay, what news or data is coming out this week? Right. Yeah. So I'll do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. And you know, let's just say this week there's a Fed meeting. Yeah.
Right.
So I'll put okay, FOMCS this day and.
I'll trade around that, meaning before fomc. Like if there are any opportunities, I'll treat it as a quicker trade, but I know the big move will happen after. So typically after FOMC you'll see about a 1.7% move in S. In, in the S P. Right. And volatility is typically like 25. Higher, higher volume. Right. So if, if you know that then when you're day trading, you need to be patient and you need to wait until the, until Powell's done talking and, and then trade. Right?
Yeah.
Versus like most traders will treat every day the same that, okay, I'm going to trade like this and I have a bias here and this and that. But you need to learn to just understand what data is coming, who's speaking, you know, and then react to it. That that's the way to, to do it.
So rather than just coming in and kind of get essentially caught off guard.
Yeah.
And you may have a plan for a particular move, but then not knowing. I think a lot of traders may know this, a lot of traders won't as well. But a lot of Traders may know, okay, we have something today, but this is very important.
Yeah, right.
Understanding, okay, average moves, understanding average volatility, especially in options.
Yeah.
That is the difference between, you know, how being more informed, understanding your actual plan for the day. And it's a very, it's very simple, right? It's very simple to sort of kind of understand this. But I think it's a very important highlighted feature that you just put there because again, most traders would say, okay, what news do we have today? Oh, great, okay, 7:00pm or EST time, maybe like afternoon time. Oh great, we have a, we have Kapow speaking. Okay, I'll keep an eye on that. Yeah, versus understanding that. Okay, this is a sort of average move we're looking at here and the volume as well and any other factors as well that might come into play. And I think that's where the difference. And it's really good visual element of like the difference between the surface level by just looking at the surface versus the deeper understanding.
For sure.
Yep.
So like once you have that set up of just a general structure of what's going on during the week, then next is when you look at the technicals. So I'll just give you guys a quick example here. So this is from I think about July of last year to September 2024. Okay. And let me just draw a chart here. So.
All right, so this right here will mark.
September 2024. So and then this level.
Right, so this will be July.
August.
And September. So there's, there was a Fed meeting here.
So.
Okay, so this is last year when the market kind of topped here in July and then it dipped for about a month, came back here. Yeah. So most people will, will when they trade this, right? They'll say, okay, well you know, we topped on July 56, 56.70. Right. And then we got a retest here at, at in August. So most traders will be like, okay, I'm going to trade the breakout here. And this is probably going to work because you know, I love charts and I love to be very technical. But like I said, the market moves on news. And if you notice in August there was no Fed meeting. Right.
Doesn't happen every month. So it didn't have a catalyst to actually break out from that July top. So most like new traders would be like, okay, well I'm gonna go full size and I'm gonna trade this, trade this, trade this breakout level. But like a more well rounded trade will be like, okay, well what's the catalyst to actually get it through and in August, there was none. Right. And in terms of seasonality, August is not necessarily the best month for trading. So traders that really caught the move was in September. Right. We had the Fed meeting. Right. The catalyst. Another example there is you wait for the Fed meeting and when they announced that rate cut, I mean, we got the move. I think it was like 1.8% and beyond. And SPX moved 200 points.
Within, I think like two weeks, which at the time it's huge. Like in this current market, it doesn't seem like a lot. Right, Because. But I mean, at that time you made a lot of money when it finally got through 5,670. Right. Like I said, it got to like 5,870 within a couple weeks. And then obviously, you know, we had more and more and eventually topped out 6,147. So you have to align the level, which is extremely important because you need to know where to enter. But to get the full picture, you have to understand that news and data is what moves the market.
Definitely that's where you're going to get your volume and that's where you're going to get really your catalyst for the moves. So understanding and pairing where you're technically at and understanding really good highlight in terms of, okay, we had a top and yeah, you might be expecting a breakout level, but we don't have the catalyst. So for the traders sizing up and preparing for potentially this move, again, it's that context is missing. And yes, the market could do something, but what is the probability of it happening if we have no catalysts and no volatility to really give it its drive? So versus if anything, builds more liquidity, builds more of an area and a chance of it taking place and actually builds the probability by leaving it to then when we have the catalyst in place and then the right timing essentially to then be able to take advantage of this move.
Yep. And then like, so for options training, right, you have. You need to look at the news and data, understand the levels and then like, like we talked about on the last podcast, is like size for zero. Yes, it's for. This is for options trading, right? This is not for, for trading shares.
But yeah, people, size for zero, for sure.
So the point of doing this size for zero is you're looking at your max risk first. So when you enter, you're never caught off guard by a red P and L. Yeah. And for me, I trade weekly options so they have the highest volatility and sometimes it's zero dt so sizing for zero, it's going to put you in a position where you're ready for max gain and max loss. And when you have that mindset with trading, it's going to put you in a position where you're always going to be in control. So yeah, everyone I think that's watching, think about this. You don't have to do it, but you need to consider as an example.
Are we able to maybe visualize what that looks like on the charts? So for example, if an entry took place at this level, I don't know here, for example, and you're sizing for zero, if you were to place a stop, you might put it, let's say I don't know here, but if you're sizing for zero, what would that look like in terms of, of area? Okay, how does that look in terms of, you know, on the charts if you were to actually hit zero.
Oh, okay, okay.
How does that look?
I mean it depends on the strike. But like I'll give you an example of like what it looks like like for the actual like so like say it's a five thousand dollar position, right. So most traders will be like okay, I'm gonna do a 20 stop loss. So when it gets down to $4,000.
They'Ll be like okay, stop out, stop loss.
Okay.
But for me I'll just buy a thousand dollars worth. This will be my position. And yeah, so, so instead of like having such a like a 20 stop.
Right, you're saying you position as that same amount.
Yeah, so, so like because 20% is also very tight for options.
Doing it this way, you know, a thousand as your max risk, you can hold Those for like 5x to 10x and like it won't bother you, like meaning like you won't get anxious or.
Like so essentially you're doing, you're risking the same.
Yeah.
You're just allowing it rather than choking it. You're giving it the room to breathe.
Exactly, yeah. And it's really important for options because you can see option go down like 60% one day and the next day comes back and it runs like 3, 400%.
Yeah, right.
So, and there's nothing more frustrating than seeing that.
I can imagine it.
Yeah, yeah.
So is so interesting though because even though you know we're referring to options here, but it's the same principle within say like Futures and Forex where you're, you're just choking the trade with trying to almost not give it enough room and trying to almost have this picture perfect trademark you know what, a lot of traders try and capture the wick. Right. Get the sniper entry, as they say. Well, a lot of the time though, even though they're trying to do that and they might get one good screenshot out of it, in reality, over a basket of trades, they're losing out big time. And a lot of the time when, if you were to review and reflect on that, if you had given it the necessary room, they would all be, not all, but a majority, be more profitable. But a lot of the time, one, traders aren't reviewing. Two, they're just too focused on that being the perfect trade or looking like a perfect trader versus actually being a profitable trader, which is always interesting mindset. But yeah, no, I love that because again, as you said on the last part, that was an interesting topic, which I think majority of those just didn't understand the differences between options and other styles of trading. But this makes complete sense and I'm glad we were able to make that visual as well.
Cool. All right, so I'm going to do another, like, setup here. So news and data. Right. And then we'll do the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then we'll do the chart again.
All right, so let me do this.
So this is the top from. Was it February? Yeah.
Right. This is a 6000 level.
We'll say this is around 6100. Right. So what caused the sell off here?
Right.
It was the tariffs. So.
Right. So in February, Trump tariffs with Canada.
Mexico and China. Right. So so early February he started, you know, talking about it and then started implementing it. And the market was still holding up. But the straw that broke the camel's back was in late February we had consumer sentiment data. I don't remember what day it was. I think it might have been on Friday. Right. And early February we started to see signs of like, okay, the market could start to pull back because Trump is starting to really focus on these tariffs.
Yeah.
And yep, for spx, but it wasn't until we saw this data right here that caused the, the complete sell off of the market. So this came out, I think on a Friday, I think it was February 21st. Right. And SPX dropped from 6,147 to almost 6,000. Right. It dropped like 140 points in this the same day. Right. So the question is like people will say, well, how do you catch a move like that so fast and you don't need to catch it the same day to make money. Right. And with trading support and resistance levels, round numbers are big. Right. People love to trade upside and downside on these levels. And looking at the news and the data, it's very bearish.
Right.
People don't like tariffs. In, in 2018, we saw that the market had over a 20 sell off before it bottomed. And then that was the news. Right. But then we had the data behind it coupled with this to trigger the, the eventually the big sell off all the way down to 4, 800.
Right.
So did you have to trade that 140 point move that day to make money? No, you didn't. You could have taken the 6,000 break, which is a level that is such a round number. It's like, it's like 100, 500, a thousand, 2,000 and beyond. So I took puts on the 6,000 break when this happened. And eventually within five days, right.
SPX dropped 200 points.
Right. And then within two weeks.
All right, SPX down 500 points.
Wow.
All right. And then within five weeks, I think about five to seven weeks, we'll say six, six weeks SPX dropped down there.
Right? Yeah. So, I mean, you had a 1300 point drop from the top. Did you need to catch there now? You could do it there. You still get almost 1200 points. So looking at the news, you have to interpret it properly, understanding that. Okay, well, history is repeating itself in 2018, and we could see another 20% sell off, which we did. Right. I mean, at the bottom we're 20%, 21%. Right. And then you look at the data coming out. Well, consumers seem to be scared of what's happening. And you couple those two things, those two big pieces of information with the level.
Yeah.
And that's how you, that's how you make money.
How do you identify your levels? Obviously, as you mentioned already, round numbers are powerful, but is there anything else in terms of, you know, prices, interaction at certain levels or certain areas? How are you identifying these levels?
So looking at like daily and weekly charts, when you zoom out, you'll be able to see where a level has resisted and how much it's sold off. Right. Like for example, like on the previous one, like we had like, you know, Covid. Right. It dropped from.
Where they dropped from 3393 down to 2191. Right. So like, we know this is like a major top. Right. So this is. I'll just write Covid. So this is a major top. Right. And then, you know, seeing a 35% sell off.
Was also. I mean, that's unheard of. Like you. We haven't seen that in probably 25 years.
Yeah.
Or beyond seeing a 35 sell off. So understanding on the weekly time frame, like major tops. Right. And then if you zoom back like 2191, you know, on a weekly chart as well, it was a major support for a long time. So zooming out is, is how you get the most important levels, like doing intraday levels like on a 5 minute or 10 minute chart. It's good for that day. But you're not going to get the prime, prime trade setups unless you zoom out to daily, weekly and even monthly if you need to. Yeah, but the bread and butter is daily and weekly.
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Now let's get back to the episode. Yeah, daily and weekly time frames then as you mentioned. So for example, if we, if we say this is our.
Top, for example, is it the interaction there as well? So say for example, on a weekly, we're seeing like some larger sort of wicks and sort of tops failing to Break this high, we then come back down and then let's say.
Down here is our low and you see actually.
Something like this was down here. So when price is coming back down and again we struggle at this level. Is this what we're identifying in terms of the interaction?
Exactly. Yeah, yeah. So you want to see it pretty much defend. It doesn't need to be that long either. Yeah, like, like if it hits a major level, it should bounce fairly quickly.
So that's ideally what you want as well in terms of like being able to identify a good probable trade is that strong reaction. And as you say really focusing on those higher time frames provides more weight versus on your much lower time frames you're more intraday.
Yeah. And I'll just show you something. I'm going to keep like most of this chart something really quickly here. Okay. So you know we recently bottomed right around April. April 9th. April 7th was this low. Right. And then in the 9th we had that big bounce. So like this 4835 level. If you go back to like 2022. Right. The high was 4818. Right. So three years later, I mean it pretty much back tested a major top. And that was, we took calls that day and the next day and then April 9th. Right.
On April 9th we had a 90 day delay in tariffs.
Right. And SPX bounce 600 points.
Yeah.
Within two days. So like even if like you don't understand this sometimes and you don't, you know, it's a little too complicated in the beginning. Like if you understand the major levels and where to trade off, you have to take the shot. And I mean 600 points in two days. I mean if you're trading SPX premiums were inflated, but I mean you can make 500,000% like within a couple days trading these levels. But my risk appetite's higher. I'll, I'll do it. But you don't, you can go three months out, six months out and still make good money. But it's a good example of like, okay, if you know the level and you study them, like you have to take that trade.
Definitely. And that's a big part of it is that studying. And that's why I love like where you started in terms of the mindset and the characteristics and processes of the profitable versus unprofitable. Because at the end of the day to be able to execute on this, and I wouldn't even say this is necessarily complicated.
In terms of a system. I think it's very understandable. Simple and especially I love the focus on where is that volatility and that catalyst going to come from understanding your levels, focusing obviously on the higher probable levels with the higher time frame and then being able to execute accordingly. And I think what you just mentioned there in terms of risk appetite is very important because from risk appetite to also experience level, you want to match those up. Because I can imagine a lot of traders who are quite new still probably finding their feet jump into trying to take that higher risk appetite simply to make the higher reward, when in reality that's probably burning them because they're not ready for that risk appetite, they're not ready to handle that volatility or the speed or be able to make the necessary decisions, especially when it comes to the trade management side and therefore hurting themselves and almost making themselves question what they're doing versus if they just were able to match, okay, the system arts are finding their feet to the correct risk appetite, they'd probably want to actually have better results which would build their confidence, which would actually speed up. I do that in quotations just to say we're not trying to say this is a fast route, but it would speed up the, the actual process to getting to having a higher risk appetite versus what they're doing where they actually end up delaying it because they're causing harm to themselves. And they're probably second guessing themselves and end up probably having breaks or boom and bust cycle. And again, going back to your original point, the FOMO and the anxiety that comes with that.
Yeah.
So I think this is an incredible system, nice and simple and this is exactly what you're, you're looking at within the markets.
Yeah, yeah, this is exactly how I trade. No, it's a lot of waiting. Like people think a day trading is like this, like flashy. Like you know, you're making a huge money every day, but you're just waiting a lot. Like most of your money is made on these big moments. Yeah, right, yes, of course, like as you get better, you can make money like every week. But it's nothing compared to waiting for these big levels for the most of the big traders I know, like most of their profits, it's like, it's from these moments where you get, you know, huge tariff news and the market drops 20% in two months.
And how often would you say this is taking place, like this sort of opportunity? Is it very much a handful of times a year?
More than that for the one in 2025? I would say it happens every three to four years.
Right.
But.
After You, I would say after you get good at waiting for these type of trades and you make money from these trades, you'll get, you'll build the right foundation to the point where you, you've mastered the Y time frame and now you have the right foundation and you can start trading smaller time frames, meaning a resistance level that's been there for a month or two months. And you know how to do it because you, you did it the right way the first time, right?
Definitely. So like frequency here is obviously much higher, but as you build your confidence and bring it lower, what would you say that frequency looks like Non solve a month to month or week to week basis?
Yeah.
So is it dependent obviously as well of what you're looking at? So this is just SPX that we've been covering, but you could be looking at other instruments as well which would increase the frequency based on the wider range that you're looking at.
Yeah. So basically like, yeah, like these come every three or four years. Right. And there's obviously many more support and resistance levels and there's some that are important within a six month time frame, a three month time frame, a one month time frame, even on a weekly time frame. And like I said, once you build the right foundation of mastering these, you use that data and you use that skill and you apply it to the smaller time frames. And that's like with me, like I trade much more frequently now, but it's only because I mastered this first.
I mean that's a problem that a lot of traders do is they rush too quickly to those lower time frames to increase the frequency, but then don't have the reps and the confidence necessary really to execute efficiently and therefore again go into that boom and bust.
Exactly.
Is that where you, you know, the third point on the original point being the learning. This is essentially that learning being able to be patient enough to learn and develop your skill set and your put your reps in versus the opposite where you focused on money. So what's the easiest and fastest way to make money? Oh, let's start trading lower time frames and get in there and get active versus let's actually develop ourselves into an actual trader. Because the other method like the anxiety, the FOMO and the, the money side, that's really, if we label it, that's like gambling versus trading and there's a clear difference and there's a fine line and that that was the line in the divide is like when we focus on this side, that is where we're essentially gambling. But on this Side that is the trading element. And that focus on process and learning consistently as well, I think is so important. And you can tell the level of detail and learning that you've done yourself because obviously you have. I don't know how you remembered half of these numbers because I wouldn't definitely not been able to do that, which is incredible. And especially when it came to the breakdown of our highs and lows, that was really eye opening in terms of even just from an investing standpoint of understanding that within a seven year period we literally almost tripled or if not, we did triple pretty much alone just 20, 18, seven years ago. Yeah. Which is incredible.
Yeah.
Where do we go from here?
Okay, so we can do the pros and cons. Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's do that. All right. So the pros of.
Support and resistance. All right. The strategy.
And just as always, cons wise, we don't mean it's bad. It's. It's normally just things to be aware of. Things that may be a hurdle or something that you should know when looking to implement this.
Yep. So the biggest pro of doing this strategy. Right. Especially trading the levels I mentioned on these big sell offs is they're high probability. Yeah. Right. So the chances of it working is I would say over 80%. Right. Plus. So you have to ask yourself the question, you know, when you first start out trading, do you want to just trade every day and for the sake of just trying to make money or do you actually want to wait for something that has the best chance of you winning? Yeah. And.
That is that alone should, you know, open the eyes of anyone viewing this is like you need to wait for these type of trades if you want to make money. Yeah. And the second part is so, yeah, high probability. The second part is growing an account. Right. So.
I'm not saying everyone can 5 or 10x the account, but if you wait for these big levels that you have the highest probability of doing it with trading options. Yeah. So that's the beauty. Also behind trading options, you don't need a lot of capital to start with. But I mean I've seen people turn five grand into 100 grand, 200 grand. Like even recently, the past week. Yeah, yeah. The market moved a lot last week. But yeah, that the second part is, you know, obviously everyone wants to grow their account, but you need to wait for these in order to do that.
Of course.
Right. The third part is you're going to learn. Learn the learning part. Right. You're going to learn the fundamentals and the right foundation Right.
Just to go to this point here, growing an account, the patience high, probable trades, even if someone with lower capital, say they have 5k example as a starting capital, if they're 5 to 10x in their account, that's where they're getting that jump of that 25 to 50K.
Yeah.
In one jump without gambling, without taking necessarily unnecessary risks with a good system. And that can literally be what jump starts their career as a trader.
Really. Yeah.
And I think a lot of people don't understand the power of being able to do something like that versus trying to do it by taking 100 different trades within 50 days. And that rushing almost, that lack of that time horizon versus this can be a singular. Yeah. Very minute opportunity. But if executed properly can literally be the thing that really starts off your career which allows you then to be able to increase the frequency and start to build. Most of all obviously a confidence builder as well.
Like the way like I would think about it, like anyone watching this is like it would be me saying to you, okay, Rez, you're a brand new trader. You start with 10 grand. I want you to come to this room every day, right. I'm going to give you a computer screen, you know, you can have access to your cash. And if you just sit here every day, I'll give you 100 grand by the end of the year. Right. But you got this set, you can't take any trades. Right. But the problem is most people can't do that. Yeah, right. They can't wait that long to see that type of reward. They want to trade every single day. So being able to just sit there, right, for most days and just wait, it's the hardest part. But that's what's going to make you money.
I think it's the assumption that hey, if I actually do trade more, I'll make more than 100 grand. Is the assumption.
Yeah.
The idea, the fantasy.
Yep. So some people can't do it, don't get me wrong, but most people that are new, you gotta.
Exactly. The new element is very important. Like there are people who do it a lot of the time they're not new there, you know.
Yeah.
And again, I feel like the problem that happens is there are people who do it very early, but it's always like the, the minute number. Like it's not even 1 or 5% for example. It's literally like a 0.01. And I get it in terms of everyone, it's a nice idea that everyone would think that they're that person. It's actually a good thing in terms of a self belief element like you believe in yourself that much that you're that person. That is great. However, the reality unfortunately is if you're not really showing that quite quickly, you're not that person. Which is not a problem because you will still hopefully by doing this be a 1% trader overall because majority of people fail and the majority of people don't make it. So you'd still be in the top percentile of traders. And that's actually phenomenal because I found that where you know, a lot of traders have the goal of may being a seven figure trader, eight figure trader, even nine figure trader. They say it, they have and it's great to have those goals but they never really look into what it takes to be that level of trade. And the problem with that is that then they never actually. Because they don't understand, they're not implementing the right processes, they're not really bringing the right mindset, they're not really doing the right practices because they don't understand what it's going to take. And therefore they have this, I wouldn't say unrealistic goal, but they have this goal. But it's only unrealistic because they're doing all the wrong things. That is not leading them that way versus this as we say is a strong foundation and it's an interesting one. It would be a great. We should try and contact Mr. Beast and say look, a trade is offered a million dollars. If they don't take a trade for a whole year, see what happens.
Maybe that's an idea for me to start. Yeah, that's great.
Cool.
Any more pros?
You know what, these are the main three. I would say let's go over some of the.
Yes.
And then. So there's not a lot of cons but we'll just talk about a couple. So the number one is there's a lot of just waiting. Yeah, right. Like it's not glamorous, like the trading this style. Right. It's not flashy. You're not going to be making huge, huge gains every single week. But if you, if you do this part then eventually it will be. Yeah. You'll get to a level where you know, you are that seven figure trader, maybe even eight figure trader. Yeah, right. But this is the biggest con and most people don't have patience. Right. Like even in your daily life. Like how many people do you know that can actually sit down for an hour and not do anything? Yeah, right. Not many people. Someone's you're going to be on your phone or watching TV or doing something. So this is the biggest con is, and this is the hardest part of trading. So it's not just exclusive to my strategy, but. Yeah, but it's especially important for my strategy though. So that's one of it. The second part is. So number two is the execution part. So.
Once you can sort of deal with the waiting, the execution part is the next hardest part. So understanding the level, right. Studying, doing your homework is also a difficult part for a lot of traders, right. They want to just show up and they want to just, you know, click a couple buttons and hopefully make money. But you need to understand the right levels, right. And it's all in the preparation, right. In order to execute properly, most of the work is done before the market even opens.
Very true.
Right. So these two are pretty much the main cons, which isn't really much. Right. There's, there's so many more pros to actually doing this, but these two can be easily fixed. Right. You just need to sit down and objectively analyze yourself. Definitely. And put in the work, essentially.
I think the one thing that people need to be aware of is that with the waiting and the patience, don't allow yourself to get complacent because then that's where you'll miss the execution. Because obviously we're looking at this high probable trade idea that will only come not as frequent. And because of that you need to make sure you're ready to execute. And that's why, as you say, the challenge of turning up still, but not executing until the time is right, it's hard enough, but then making sure you are turning up because then when the time to execute is there, you are actually ready and you don't miss the opportunity because if you miss that opportunity, it's going to be a very long time before you get your next one right. And that's considering the high probable play. Especially in terms of, because at the end of the day, a trader like yourself and other traders who have built their reps in have gotten the consistency, you're still going to take this trade. But the beauty is you've built your reps, you have the capital, you have the risk appetite, you have the confidence to be able to execute other trades while you're waiting for this big trip. Well, obviously the new beginner trader, they could try getting a bit more active, but they have to be very, very, very, very careful if they are going to do that. Because a lot of the time it's coming from a Place of rushing. So it might be a case where maybe the big, big trade like this that we've discussed isn't the only trade they're taking, but they're taking sort of a medium level trade, right, which is still on a higher time frame perspective like maybe weeks versus years or even months versus years but not I think the real guilty thing for traders not only in options but futures, forex, crypto or any typ trading, is that a law and that sort of dopamine hit of just almost high frequency trading but not obviously on that level, but scalping day trading when they haven't built the reps. Some people are suited to it and as we talked about like this is sort of 0.1% etc who are suited and can pick it up very, very quickly. But that's a very minute number. So it's understanding your personality as well sometimes because some people might not be so suited to be potentially the patient side. But again it's all down to, you know, this, this whole concept of what we're looking at is trying to help a trader start really well, build capital without having to. Because a lot of the time people talk about flipping account like taking 5, you know, or 10K to 50 to 100. They talk about risking it all almost, right? While in this case we're not talking about that, we're talking about still good risk but in a way where the probability of the trade is much higher and the trade itself allows for that, which is a different story, which is a much better story. So that's great. And then we're going to go look at some chart examples now.
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So we got the charts out now and we're going to look over some chart examples of the concept that we've just gone over and so very interested in that. So we got SPX of course.
Yep. So this is just a weekly chart here on spx. This is from. We're going to focus on last year around May. Right. So just looking at this area here we had like a multi week consolidation about three or four weeks. SPX back tested a key support level of 5,000. Right. And like I said Earlier. Do you have to take the trade at, at the level to make money? Not necessarily. You can wait for more confirmation at the bottom is actually forming. So it took about two weeks, right, two weekly candles before we actually saw that bottom. And I jumped in around, I would say 51.50 5160 after we got two weekly candles of the, of the market actually moving higher with higher lows. Right. So you can kind of see that there, right. We got, that's initial sell off. Higher low, higher low. And then this is where I entered, right. So.
After I entered, right, I mean we, we rode the market higher for about, about 200 points within two weeks. And I ended up making about a little over a million bucks in the month of May. You can kind of see that there. Yeah, but yeah, like trading off these levels are important. Right. But like I said, the market moves on news in data. So during the month of May we got Nvidia earnings, we had tech earnings and Nvidia, I think it jumped like 25% after earnings. And that was really bullish for the market because that's a sector leading stock and it's, you know, the leader of AI. Right. And on top of that we had data that the labor market was looking better and inflation was starting to cool. Yeah.
Right.
So having the earnings, right. Looking at the chip sector, which is one of the biggest sectors in the market, and then you had actual economic data coupled together SPX back testing a very key support level and holding those three combined allowed you to trade the upside. And I, you know, I recognize that as many other traders did and we were able to capitalize on that for, you know, eventually like a two, three week move to the upside before we topped out.
So in terms of identifying this as a support level, if we're looking at the, this candle here, we actually saw price try to push down, failed to do so. And this is on a weekly time frame similar the next week where we tried to push slightly down, failed to do so and actually rebounded to the upside. When we then return, we're just expecting this level. And again, it's essentially just. Is that 5,000?
5,000, exactly.
Yeah. So again, back to your point earlier, extremely solid round number. We then, you know, again, you're waiting for reaction as well. So not, not just the level itself, but then as you say, you actually wait not only a week, but two weeks and again comes back to that patience we talked about.
Yeah.
And that necessary patience and not seeking the picture perfect peak bottom or trying to predict that a Lot of the time I'm sure traders will probably be trying to get in on the actual red candle that's then touching the level of which then if it closed like that, a lot of traders probably would second guess themselves, get out or just mismanage or probably not have real good trade management and probably get stopped out only for them to probably the next week try and chase. Probably end up getting in at the very, very top, probably suffocate the trade again. That next wick on the second this week here probably takes them out again. Before you know it, we're in that segment on the right at the very beginning of the episode where we're in the anxiety, the FOMO and the focus on money versus that patience here, as you say, paying off. And then obviously a phenomenal trade. Seven figure trade.
Yeah, yeah, you can see to the.
Right here, the level being respected once again.
Exactly. Yeah. So yeah, it's really important like understand that reacting is everything with day trading. Like you don't need to predict every move and you need to understand that when you're drinking, having a strong bias when day trading, it can blow up your account. Yeah. Because you'll end up averaging down and then making up many other reasons as to why you should keep holding it. Yeah. Right. So like me making, you know, a million bucks in a month like 10 years ago, you couldn't even, I wouldn't even imagine something like that. You know, it's. But doing things the right way, like we, like I showed you earlier, right. Building on the right fundamentals, it puts you in a position to be able to do this. And it's. This isn't necessarily uncommon. You know, I'm grateful for it obviously because the market's been really hard lately, but anyone can do this. You just have to do it the right way in the beginning and get the right type of knowledge in order to apply. And once your account gets large enough, you'll be able to do the same thing. Yeah.
It's allowing that development as a trader to develop and build those reps. And as you say, over the long period of time, the money side, the monetary side will always sort itself out when you're focused on.
And so I'll do. I'll show you guys two more examples of some trades. So the next one will be the election around the election time. Right. So leading into the election, the market was very choppy. Right. Kind of moved here near 5700, tipped, you know, a few hundred points and eventually came back. And that was a hard time to Trade from like I would say September, all of September, leading into November 6th. Right.
But like I said, the market moves on news.
Right.
You need a catalyst in order to trigger buyers to step in. And after November, after Trump got elected, we had a huge gap up and the market ran for a month straight.
Yeah, right.
I didn't make as much on this account, but still very good month, of course.
So basically 5,700. I put 5,708 because that's the precise level. But you can. These levels are a general range too. It doesn't need to be the exact number to the decimal point, but you could have entered at 5,700. Right. It doesn't need to be 5,708. And you can still make a lot of money trading. Right. So eventually, you know, when we got that gap up candle, the market eventually topped out 6147. But within a month we got 400 point move. Right. And waiting for the catalyst, which was the winner of the election. And then trading off the level.
Right.
You're starting to see a common theme. The way I trade is, is you have to line those two up if you want to catch the big move. If, if it's just one of them, then you have to kind of trade smaller size and just take what you can from the market. But when those two stars align, that's how you make like the big bucks.
Definitely. And just to your point, would you say that really we talked about the three to four years on the examples we covered here.
Yeah.
But when we have a Trump market, would you say actually if you're keeping track and, and being alert and being, you know, in, tapped in almost to what's going on, you will get up, maybe not massive, and you have the huge moves that we did mark out. But quite consistently moves like this will take place for sure due to just the nature of the volatility we see when Trump's in office and the things he's doing across the world. And a tweet post can really shake things up. So would you say that just it's actually more important, you have actually more opportunity potentially over this next, what, three and a half years? Ish. Already four years to take advantage of. As long as you're really tapped in and focused.
Definitely.
It might not be as big as the, you know, moves that we really covered, those really, really large scale moves, but still we, we could be talking half of that, quarter of that at a time, you know, through quarterly periods basically, that are possible using the exact same simple system but following that, where the momentum is coming from. So as you say, identifying, okay, we have the election, here's our levels and then reacting accordingly.
For sure. Yeah. I mean especially in the Trump like market, he could tweet at any time and trigger like 100, 200 point move in SPX within like a couple days. So yeah, I mean understanding the levels and just focusing on reacting to news and data is the, pretty much the bread and butter of I, I would say how most traders make money. Yeah. So everyone has a different style, some use a lot of indicators, absolutely nothing wrong with that. But keeping it simple like this and just being able to react the right way to, to news and data is the way to make money.
Well, sometimes like when you have a lot of things on your charts, even if they might be helpful for you, you can lose the price.
Right.
You can lose the actual essence of prices, which is the, I would say the foundation, almost the most important aspect of, of trading and the chart when it comes to technical trading. And I've seen it myself, I felt it myself. So many EMAs and drawing and lines and so many to the point where you, you can't see the bigger picture. You can't really see the, the buyers and sellers anymore. Instead you're just seeing all these things you put on and there's nothing against them. But I think it's really important to have an essence of the sort of good hygiene. Good chart hygiene. Yeah, because it will allow you to keep focused on exactly what's actually happening within the price. For sure. I say that the way I described it is like the charts and the candlesticks are like the language of the market, you know.
I agree. Yeah, that's very true. Okay, so last chart is, I'll give one more example here. So this is the most recent one of the three. So we started to see some signs of weakness after that initial move from the last chart. Right. The market moved for a month straight and then we got roughly a couple weeks of consolidation, about four, about six weeks of consolidation. And eventually on this chart, SPX ended up filling the gap from the initial gap up from when Trump won the election. So trading off that level, like a gap fill level too, sometimes is a high probability trade for a bounce. But the market was so kind of, I guess, tricky in the month of January leading into that eventual bottom that I kind of scaled down a bit. Okay, right. Because it looked like a major top might have been forming. Because even before Trump started talking about tariffs or like implementing them in February, we all knew he was going to do it soon. Right. So you have to kind of take it a little bit easier. And that's part of the reason why the P L is smaller. But every month is different. Right. Like if you look at all these charts, like there's no one month where you're making the same amount. Yeah, right there, there. That doesn't exist unless you're, you know, that good. But, but I'm not there yet. But yeah, trading a gap fill and then buying there is another potential opportunity to trade for a bounce play to the upside, assuming you're in an uptrend. So I, I took calls.
On that gap fill and the market ended up moving higher for about two weeks. So it, you know, we had about three more weeks of choppy price action before the major top happened. But watching important gap fillers is also another way to consider trading too. Trading at certain levels.
I love that. I love that. Well, Brandon has been an absolute pleasure and you know, really thank you for breaking this down and really showcasing what it takes to have a high probable setup and again keeping it simple and most of all obviously the catalyst that will bring the volatility. Especially with these opportunities you're going to be seeing over the next four years. This is something you should really be dialing into now. Links for Brando will be in the description below, so make sure you check those out. Drop a comment though, with your biggest takeaway from this episode. Any questions you may have, drop them in the comments. Brando myself will be taking a look and obviously make sure you like, make sure you subscribe. Other episodes are on screen. Until next time, we've been chart fanatics. Take care.










