I believe you when you say that writing for TTRH dramatically improved your trading. Writing is mental work — if you can explain something clearly, you usually understand it on a much deeper level. That’s probably why I keep leaving comments myself :-)
One thought comes to mind: Minervini gives seminars, and people come looking for tactics, setups, and mechanics. But he says the main thing he gives them is CONFIDENCE.
If you have a setup with an edge — and, more importantly, the confidence to execute it consistently over the long run, not just in bear markers, but in bull markets — you’re already far ahead.
Another point: as you often write, most top traders actually have more losing trades than winning ones. Yet many people still believe success comes from finding the “perfect” stock.
Trading is simple, but it’s not easy. The hardest part happens between your ears. And no matter how much experience you have, you’re never completely immune to making another big mistake — even after 30 years in the game.
Thank you, Walla! The influence of a mentor often is mental: confidence, staying calm and disciplined, adapting to change, inspiring you to raise your standards!
Writing = thinking. Doing both well gives clarity. And without it, you won't achieve trading success.
Many thanks for your effort on this article. My main tactical lesson is to closely follow up the leaders, check breakouts along with volume dynamics (explosiveness is a must). The other important lesson is the uniqueness of trading methods and traders.
I must admit it was bit heavy for me which is expected as it’s a long one. Only made it halfway through but it confirms that trading is so much personal. Being a risk averse person, I can’t take such big drawdown and personally don’t put more than 20% in one name with acceptance that I won’t make big money either. This also makes me remember “outsized returns need outsized risk” from Matt’s article.
Yes, very conscious of it being a 'heavy' article by my standards. Not by length necessarily, but from the way it was written. I reckon it’s my first major piece in 2 years I did NOT optimise for scannability. I wanted to make it easy to read (i.e. clear) considering the subject matter, but discourage scanning. You just aren’t going to get much out of it that way.
So much of trading being personal is huge. You can have a fundamentally simple strategy, yet it's not going to work unless it's personal to you. Seeing how different pieces of Dan's story directly contributed to this — the most painful lessons, essentially — was fascinating to me. Heard the same thing from early reader (pre-publication) feedback.
Take your time reading the full thing! Broken up into sections for a reason ;)
Dan trades only the leading, most liquid stocks — aggressively. So why is he scanning 1,500 stocks every morning?
--
Top traders are often the worst role models for this exact reason. Take Richard Moglen — charismatic, knowledgeable, genuinely worth listening to on CANSLIM. And then you watch him trade stocks sitting so far below the 200 SMA that you have to wonder if he actually follows any of what he teaches. The gap between what they preach and what they do in the heat of the moment is the whole problem in a nutshell.
--
So, what now?
If you, KYNA, find a way to teach trading to people like Bobby Fischer teaches chess, then you are like nobody else.
The answer is in this article. He went through so many stocks every day (which he later reduced, but still went through the full 1,400–1,500 on weekends) because that’s how he gets a feel for ‘his’ basket of stocks. And that tells him *when* to get aggressive.
I come back with some additional thought and maybe an idea for the future:
--
There's genuine value in studying top traders and reverse-engineering what they do. The breakdowns on this blog are well-researched and clearly presented — no complaints there.
But here's the uncomfortable truth the trading education industry keeps ignoring: knowing what a great trader does and being able to do it yourself are two completely different things. Most content — this blog included — treats the gap between information and execution as if it doesn't exist. Read the strategy, apply the strategy, profit. If only it were that simple.
The reality is that markets are one of the most psychologically hostile environments a human being can operate in. Every cognitive bias we're wired with — loss aversion, recency bias, the need for certainty — works directly against us. A momentum strategy that looks clean on a chart becomes almost impossible to follow in real time when your own money is on the line and the position is going against you.
This isn't a criticism of the strategies themselves. Many of them are sound. The problem is that presenting a strategy without addressing how a real human mind will distort it under pressure is like handing someone a recipe without mentioning they'll be cooking in a burning kitchen.
The untapped opportunity here — and it's a significant one — is content that bridges that gap. Not just what the strategy is, but how to structure your decision-making so emotions don't override it. How to build rules you'll actually follow. How to recognize when your brain is lying to you about a trade. That's the content that could turn readers into profitable traders, rather than well-informed losing ones.
I often address this on TTRH. In fact, many like to read my stacks precisely because I focus on mindset and process, and not just on strategies.
This article specifically focused on the story behind Dan’s strategy. That is far more interesting that the strategy itself. HOW did Dan personalise his strategy to make sure he could stick to it? That’s where a trader like myself can get most value out of studying him at this stage of the journey.
You can consider me part of the “trading education industry” if you want, but fact is I write TTRH to improve my own trading, not to make money from paywalled content or upsell readers to a trading service/product. Which is what my makes my work different — see the opening paragraph of this comment!
I believe you when you say that writing for TTRH dramatically improved your trading. Writing is mental work — if you can explain something clearly, you usually understand it on a much deeper level. That’s probably why I keep leaving comments myself :-)
One thought comes to mind: Minervini gives seminars, and people come looking for tactics, setups, and mechanics. But he says the main thing he gives them is CONFIDENCE.
If you have a setup with an edge — and, more importantly, the confidence to execute it consistently over the long run, not just in bear markers, but in bull markets — you’re already far ahead.
Another point: as you often write, most top traders actually have more losing trades than winning ones. Yet many people still believe success comes from finding the “perfect” stock.
Trading is simple, but it’s not easy. The hardest part happens between your ears. And no matter how much experience you have, you’re never completely immune to making another big mistake — even after 30 years in the game.
I also want to add: I love Dan Zanger :-)
Thank you, Walla! The influence of a mentor often is mental: confidence, staying calm and disciplined, adapting to change, inspiring you to raise your standards!
Writing = thinking. Doing both well gives clarity. And without it, you won't achieve trading success.
Many thanks for your effort on this article. My main tactical lesson is to closely follow up the leaders, check breakouts along with volume dynamics (explosiveness is a must). The other important lesson is the uniqueness of trading methods and traders.
Those lessons resonate. That tactical one was huge for me when I studied Dan in 2023–2024. The uniqueness point is something I've been recognising increasingly more in 2025–2026, reflected in this write-up. Also a key focus of the TTRH reader stories as a collective: https://tradingresourcehub.substack.com/t/reader-stories. And the topic of a recent article with Matt Petrallia: https://tradingequilibrium.substack.com/p/personalization-your-greatest-edge
Very nicely written, Kyna!
And some takeaways for sure. 👍🏻
I must admit it was bit heavy for me which is expected as it’s a long one. Only made it halfway through but it confirms that trading is so much personal. Being a risk averse person, I can’t take such big drawdown and personally don’t put more than 20% in one name with acceptance that I won’t make big money either. This also makes me remember “outsized returns need outsized risk” from Matt’s article.
Yes, very conscious of it being a 'heavy' article by my standards. Not by length necessarily, but from the way it was written. I reckon it’s my first major piece in 2 years I did NOT optimise for scannability. I wanted to make it easy to read (i.e. clear) considering the subject matter, but discourage scanning. You just aren’t going to get much out of it that way.
So much of trading being personal is huge. You can have a fundamentally simple strategy, yet it's not going to work unless it's personal to you. Seeing how different pieces of Dan's story directly contributed to this — the most painful lessons, essentially — was fascinating to me. Heard the same thing from early reader (pre-publication) feedback.
Take your time reading the full thing! Broken up into sections for a reason ;)
Fantastic write up from a fantastic writer. Thanks Kyna for all you do and pour into this craft!
Glad you found it valuable! :)
Question:
Dan trades only the leading, most liquid stocks — aggressively. So why is he scanning 1,500 stocks every morning?
--
Top traders are often the worst role models for this exact reason. Take Richard Moglen — charismatic, knowledgeable, genuinely worth listening to on CANSLIM. And then you watch him trade stocks sitting so far below the 200 SMA that you have to wonder if he actually follows any of what he teaches. The gap between what they preach and what they do in the heat of the moment is the whole problem in a nutshell.
--
So, what now?
If you, KYNA, find a way to teach trading to people like Bobby Fischer teaches chess, then you are like nobody else.
The answer is in this article. He went through so many stocks every day (which he later reduced, but still went through the full 1,400–1,500 on weekends) because that’s how he gets a feel for ‘his’ basket of stocks. And that tells him *when* to get aggressive.
Many traders say something similar.
I come back with some additional thought and maybe an idea for the future:
--
There's genuine value in studying top traders and reverse-engineering what they do. The breakdowns on this blog are well-researched and clearly presented — no complaints there.
But here's the uncomfortable truth the trading education industry keeps ignoring: knowing what a great trader does and being able to do it yourself are two completely different things. Most content — this blog included — treats the gap between information and execution as if it doesn't exist. Read the strategy, apply the strategy, profit. If only it were that simple.
The reality is that markets are one of the most psychologically hostile environments a human being can operate in. Every cognitive bias we're wired with — loss aversion, recency bias, the need for certainty — works directly against us. A momentum strategy that looks clean on a chart becomes almost impossible to follow in real time when your own money is on the line and the position is going against you.
This isn't a criticism of the strategies themselves. Many of them are sound. The problem is that presenting a strategy without addressing how a real human mind will distort it under pressure is like handing someone a recipe without mentioning they'll be cooking in a burning kitchen.
The untapped opportunity here — and it's a significant one — is content that bridges that gap. Not just what the strategy is, but how to structure your decision-making so emotions don't override it. How to build rules you'll actually follow. How to recognize when your brain is lying to you about a trade. That's the content that could turn readers into profitable traders, rather than well-informed losing ones.
I often address this on TTRH. In fact, many like to read my stacks precisely because I focus on mindset and process, and not just on strategies.
This article specifically focused on the story behind Dan’s strategy. That is far more interesting that the strategy itself. HOW did Dan personalise his strategy to make sure he could stick to it? That’s where a trader like myself can get most value out of studying him at this stage of the journey.
You can consider me part of the “trading education industry” if you want, but fact is I write TTRH to improve my own trading, not to make money from paywalled content or upsell readers to a trading service/product. Which is what my makes my work different — see the opening paragraph of this comment!