A 1200% gain wasn't good enough for him
What happens when you show a struggling trader a winning system
The coffee shop was packed and loud. Our table was dead silent.
I had just slid my laptop across the table to a friend…a smart guy, longtime trader. On the screen was my mechanical trading system. The numbers were undeniable. It went from a starting balance of $100,000 to $1.3 million in 2025.
His eyes lit up. He leaned in the way people do when they think they’re about to see the secret… complicated, mysterious key that explains it all.
“Okay, Brian,” he said. “Show me. What the hell are you doing?”
I could see the gears turning in his head. He was bracing himself for something proprietary and impossible to understand.
He expected me to show him a complex neural network or a Bloomberg terminal full of proprietary data. He expected thousands of lines of code.
He wanted the “secret” to be difficult, because that would justify why he hadn’t found it yet.
So I pulled up a chart and walked him through it. Step by step.
He stared at it for a long time. Then I watched the excitement drain from his face, replaced by genuine annoyance. He sat back and pushed the laptop away.
“Brian, come on,” he said. “I can’t use this. It’s too simple.”
I just looked at him. “What do you mean? You just saw the system. You saw the numbers.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I’ve spent thousands on courses, indicators and software. My strategy has fourteen rules and you only have a few... you’re telling me none of that matters?”
And just like that, he was done.
He turned down a 1200% gain because it felt too easy.
That interaction is exactly why I started this newsletter.
Most traders are addicted to complexity. They think that if they aren’t suffering...if they aren’t staring at twelve monitors and solving endless riddles...they don’t deserve to win.
I am here to show you that the opposite is true.
Welcome to The Trade Review. A newsletter for traders who want less screen time, less stress, and more zeros in their account.
Let’s get to work.
So, what does “getting to work” actually look like?
It doesn’t mean adding more screens or drawing more lines on a chart. It means stripping the process down to the simple steps that actually grow an account.
Most trading newsletters are full of theory. They tell you what could happen or what should have happened. They are written by analysts, not traders.
The Trade Review is different.
You are getting a front-row seat to how I trade…documented in real time. No hindsight. No theory. Just what it actually looks like to trade a system that works.
Here’s what you can expect in every issue:
The Scorecard
Transparency is the only metric that matters. Every issue you’ll see the full scorecard—what I made, what I lost, and the thinking behind it. No hiding the losses. No cherry-picking winners. Just the full picture.
Market Intel
We cut through the noise to find what’s actually moving the markets—the setups, the sectors, and the catalysts worth watching—delivered in plain English.
What I’m Watching
Hindsight is useless. You need to know what’s coming. I share the charts and opportunities on my radar before they play out. You’ll see exactly what I’m watching so you can do your own homework and be ready.
Did You See This?
Sometimes the best education comes from what you almost missed. We’ll look at interesting trades, patterns, or lessons from the week—whether mine or from the broader market.
Closing Thoughts
Trading is 20% strategy and 80% psychology. We wrap up every issue with a final thought to carry with you—whether it’s a quote, a lesson, or a reminder that the best traders play the long game.
That’s the newsletter. Now here’s my 2026 track record so far.
The Scorecard: Jan 1 – Jan 9, 2026:
Net Profit: $39,787.56
Win Rate: 85.37%
Total Trades: 41
Strategy Breakdown
The first week of the year is often a trap. Volume is thin, liquidity is slowly coming back online, and it’s easy to get chopped up by false moves.
Mechanical Trading System: $37,202.52 / 93.75% Win Rate
Order Flow Strategy (new under testing): $1,600 / 85.71% Win Rate
Other (closing some open trades from last year): $985.04
Here is where majority of the gains came from (all futures trades):
Silver (SI / SIL): $20,633.96
S&P (ES/MES) : $12,336.40
Nasdaq (NQ/MNQ) : $4,903.78
All of these markets are in strong up trends. I applied my mechanical system method and entered Silver on January 5, 2026 at 74.23 and took gains along the runup. Similar story with NQ and ES.
Oil (MCL): -$671.62
Tried to go long oil but got stopped out in the same day. Moving on.
This result isn’t magic. It’s just discipline.
Closing Thoughts
This week proved the point I made to my friend in the coffee shop.
My “skilled,” complex trading (Order Flow) paid for a nice dinner. The “boring,” simple mechanical system paid for everything else.
That’s how you build a seven-figure account—one week at a time.
See you in the next issue.
The elegance is in the execution.
— Brian