**How I went from $11 to $2,000,000 by age 22 Trading FOREX — Transcript & Summary | SozAI**
Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/from-11-to-2000000-forex-trading/

Ali Trades shares how he turned $11 into $2 million by age 22 through disciplined Forex trading and overcoming personal challenges.

## Key Takeaways

- Hard work and persistence can overcome initial lack of talent or resources.
- Adapting to life changes, like injury, can open new opportunities such as trading.
- Forex trading can be a viable income source for disciplined individuals.
- Avoiding shortcuts like scams and focusing on genuine learning is crucial.
- Personal growth and mindset are as important as technical skills in trading success.

## What the video covers

- Ali Trades recounts his journey from having only $11 at age 16 to earning over $2 million trading Forex by age 22.
- He was initially a struggling high school athlete in soccer and track who improved through hard work and determination.
- A severe hamstring injury disrupted his athletic career, forcing him to reconsider his future.
- During COVID-19 lockdown, Ali discovered Forex trading through a friend and began learning despite financial hardships.
- He developed a trading strategy focused on short time frames and disciplined lot size management.
- Ali avoided selling courses or mentorships, instead focusing solely on trading profits.
- He faced setbacks including scams and account losses but persevered and refined his approach.
- Ali’s story emphasizes resilience, self-belief, and the importance of continuous learning.
- He also shares personal moments of growth, including family support and overcoming adversity.
- The video offers inspiration for young traders and those facing unexpected life challenges.

## Chapters

1. 00:00 Introduction and Trading Success Overview
2. 01:53 Early Athletic Struggles and Determination
3. 03:45 Breakthrough in Track and Soccer Achievements
4. 05:45 Hamstring Injury and Setbacks
5. 09:15 Discovery of Forex Trading During COVID
6. 11:58 Initial Trading Experiences and Strategy Development
7. 17:12 Challenges with Scams and Account Losses
8. 20:12 Personal Growth and Family Support
9. 22:57 Proving Himself in College and Beyond
10. 25:33 Life Lessons and Final Reflections

Answers

## Questions about this video

How did Ali Trades start his journey in Forex trading?

Ali was introduced to Forex trading by a friend during the COVID-19 lockdown when his athletic career was halted due to injury. Despite financial struggles, he began learning and trading with small amounts.

What challenges did Ali face before becoming successful in trading?

Ali faced athletic injuries, financial hardships, and setbacks like scams and account losses in trading. He also had to overcome self-doubt and prove himself academically and personally.

Did Ali Trades sell courses or mentorships to make his money?

No, Ali explicitly states that he made over $2 million trading Forex without selling any courses or mentorships, focusing solely on trading profits.

## Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

00:00

Speaker A

Over the last five years as a trader, I've made a little over $2 million. And over the last year alone, I've made almost 1 million of those. And in this video, I'm going to tell you guys the exact story

00:09

Speaker A

of how I went from having $11 in my bank account at 16 years old to making over $2 million in trading profits without selling a course or a mentorship by just the age of 22. Let's get into this. So,

00:18

Speaker A

my story starts in 2018. I was a track and soccer athlete at my high school, and I was a freshman. Now, this year, I remember this so well. I had barely scraped my way onto the soccer team because everybody was just way better

00:29

Speaker A

than me. I had started playing soccer at 12 years old, meaning this was my third year of playing. While everyone around me had already been playing for about eight years and I had also started running track at the age of 14. So, you

00:38

Speaker A

know, track is a little different than soccer. You don't need as much skill. But I had started these very late compared to all the people around me.

00:44

Speaker A

Now, the only reason why I had even made the team is just simply because I outworked everyone. What I lacked in talent, I made up for in work rate. But I remember very specifically once we actually got into our little teams and I

00:54

Speaker A

was on the freshman team, I started making excuses. I stopped wanting to work. I stopped wanting to do anything that would actually benefit me. I just wanted to blame the coach for me not playing. And that entire year, I end up

01:04

Speaker A

scraping the bench. And even track practice, I remember I wouldn't even pull up to practice. I just, oh, go fake an injury and go, you know, to the locker room and just go chill and then show up at the race day. And yeah, you

01:13

Speaker A

know, I won some. I took second or third in a couple of them. But overall, I didn't really take it that serious. And I remember this so well is that year towards the end of the season, I was

01:22

Speaker A

like, "Yo, I'm tired of this. I don't want to sit on the bench anymore. Let's make a change." And so that entire summer going from freshman to sophomore year, I trained with my buddy Tony every single day. I mean, rep after rep. And

01:33

Speaker A

we just worked, worked, worked, worked. And then high school rolls around, and I will never forget this. They branch us off into our teams, and now I'm on the sophomore team again. And I remember my coach very specifically telling me,

01:43

Speaker A

"You're going to ride the bench this year." And in my head, I was like, "Man, this guy doesn't even know what I've been on." I ended up finishing this season being the MVP on the soccer team. And not only that, when it came to track, I

01:53

Speaker A

remember our very first race of that year. I asked my coach, "Hey coach, what's the record?" And coach told me some time. And I was literally half of a second off. And if you guys don't know, in track, half of a second is something

02:02

Speaker A

huge. And I look at my coach and I go, "I think I could break that." And I just remember so vividly in my head, I was like, "I don't know how the heck we're going to break that, but we're going to

02:10

Speaker A

make it happen." And on my last completed race of that season, I ended up breaking the school record. So, I went from being the benchwarmer and just being a whatever guy at track to leading Southern California in track to being

02:21

Speaker A

the MVP of my soccer team to breaking my school record and having tons of college offers. I mean, I'm talking to the point where my coach and I were discussing me being in the 2026 Olympics, meaning I would literally be running the Olympics

02:32

Speaker A

next year. So, this was like my whole path. Like, we already knew, okay, Ali, he was going to be a track athlete. And it wasn't until May 2nd, 2019 when I went to the state competition for track and I ran the 200 meter race. And right

02:44

Speaker A

around the 60 m mark, I tore my hamstring. Horrible blow. So I'm talking my entire life just flashed before my eyes. Talking I went from being a nobody to being the superstar, the talk of the town and just overall feeling myself. It

02:57

Speaker A

wasn't even about how other people saw me. It's just I myself knew I was that guy. I walked around like that to not knowing who I was and I was like stuck in this bubble. And so from here I

03:05

Speaker A

started physical therapy and physical therapy helped me out a decent amount, right? But I would go in, I would complete the whole rehab, finish that whole phase, go back to track, and then re-aggravate my injury. And I was stuck in

03:15

Speaker A

this cycle, just like constantly stuck in it. And then junior season is rolling around. And I remember thinking like, okay, I'm probably going to have to miss. I started out on varsity. I was our starting striker my junior year

03:25

Speaker A

after just finishing as MVP my sophomore year. And I couldn't even finish a game.

03:29

Speaker A

Like, I'm talking I would be running and I just had no mobility. Like my hamstring was shot and I would just stay shut up because I'm trying to play through the injury. And then track season rolls around and now I'm like

03:38

Speaker A

one-tenth of the speed I was. I can't even finish a race and I end up not tearing but re-aggravating my injury really hard right before season starts.

03:45

Speaker A

And so now it looks like I'm out for the whole season. And this is where I kind of got lucky because COVID happened. So season got cancelled. So all the colleges that were looking at me still kind of had an excuse to not be able to

03:54

Speaker A

look at me, right? To not see, oh, what were my updated times? So I'm still in communication with all these schools.

03:59

Speaker A

I'm trying to hide the fact that I'm injured. Moving into that, we go into lockdown. Everything's shut down. And for the next couple months, I'm just kind of working out on my own, trying to rehab my injury. And then finally, there

04:08

Speaker A

was this private training that I used to pull up to. And so, they had reopened.

04:11

Speaker A

So, I started going there again because obviously my school track team wasn't doing anything. And I wanted to prep for my senior season. And I remember this so well. It was 20 bucks a session. And there were some sessions where I would

04:20

Speaker A

just go and just pray that the coach wouldn't ask me for the money because I simply did not have enough money at the time. And I would just kind of like try to get away with it. Like go be like,

04:29

Speaker A

"What's up, Gary?" His name was Gary the coach. And I'd be like, "What's up, Gary?" Oh, Gary, I got to run. I got to go try to just make my way out of it.

04:35

Speaker A

And honestly, I got away with it a couple times. I'd say like every one out of three trainings. So, I was cutting corners because really just money was tight at that time. And one of the trainings, there was this guy, his name

04:45

Speaker A

was Darius. And I remember him so well. One of the coolest people I had known there just pulls up in a brand new Mercedes one day. I'm like, "Yo, Darius, what do you do?" He's like, "Oh, bro, I do day trading. I

04:53

Speaker A

do Forex." And I'm like, "What the heck?" And I had remembered my buddy Arvin a couple months before this had posted like all his charts. I was like, "Bro, what is that?" He said like, "Oh, bro, I day

05:02

Speaker A

trade currencies. I trade Forex." I was like, "Can I do that?" He's like, "Oh, bro, you're not 18. You can't really do that yet." Um, I was like, "How much money do you make?" He's like, "Bro, I make about 4K

05:10

Speaker A

a month." I was like, "Dude, this is amazing." I'm a dead broke 17-year-old at the time.

05:15

Speaker A

Hearing that my buddy's making 4 grand a month. So, I'm like, "Okay." Now, when Darius tells me that he does it, I'm like, "All right, this could be something." Because I'm still injured. I don't know what's going to happen with

05:24

Speaker A

track, but I'm trying to make my own money. I want to reach new things in life. Like I was seeing all these people around me have such great successes. I had a lot of friends during the pandemic start their own little businesses and

05:34

Speaker A

had run up money or, you know, people were doing like those weird loans. I don't know. I never got around to those. And everybody just had money. I simply didn't. I mean, I remember there was times where I couldn't even go out to

05:43

Speaker A

eat with my buddies like they want to go out to a place and in my head I'm l

05:51

Speaker A

think of ways. So Darius is like yeah bro I live trade every single day with my mentor. We'll get you signed up. You know this that the third. And then later that night, I remember I just got home

06:00

Speaker A

and Darius gives me a call. I'm sitting in my car. I I haven't even gotten inside. I'm so excited. I'm like, "Oh, bro. I'm about to change my life." And he ends up telling me, he's like, "Yeah, bro. We're going to get you signed up.

06:09

Speaker A

There's a mentor. There's live training. We're going to teach you everything you need to know." I'm sold. I'm like, "Bro, this is amazing." And then he goes, "Yeah, bro. It's just 200 bucks a month, and if you refer two friends, then you

06:19

Speaker A

don't have to pay it. And if you refer more than two friends, then now you make commission on that." And all I remember hearing is 200 bucks a month. And immediately knowing I couldn't afford it. And I remember begging my dad to let

06:28

Speaker A

me sign up. Like, dad, please, please let me join. Let me join this. And he was like, "No, like that's a scam." Which is funny because you guys know like that ended up being one of the biggest pyramid schemes in the world.

06:38

Speaker A

So, I'm very glad that I didn't end up going in that direction. But what I did was I actually signed up for an online course that I found for like 10 bucks, right? And this course, I told you that

06:47

Speaker A

when you could flip 3K to 5K on a demo account that you're ready to go live.

06:50

Speaker A

And so, at this time, I had my own side business because, as I said, I was trying to make my own money. I was trying to grow in other ways. And so I would video edit for people, right? That

06:58

Speaker A

was the career path that I wanted to go in. It was like I wanted to go to school for track and then study like cinematography or like production or you know just film production. And now my brother had his own business and pretty

07:07

Speaker A

much he really helped me kickstart my video editing business because he just referred all of his customers who needed promotional videos to me and then I was spending that whole time editing for them and I could charge them anywhere

07:17

Speaker A

from 350 to 600 a video. So very quickly I was making like 1,500 to 2K on a really good month, right? And this is just a little side gig for me. So, it was really, really enticing for me. I

07:26

Speaker A

mean, I'm talking I went from having $11 to seeing like 1,500, something like that. And it lasted about 2 months. So, I had saved up about $4,000. You know, I went to a couple nice dinners with my buddies, spent about 1,000. And then at

07:36

Speaker A

this time, I'm still doing my demo trading as I'm studying. And now, finally, I finally after one random try, get my demo account from 3K to 5K. And I'm like, "Okay, that's it. I got to go live." I'm still 17 years old at the

07:47

Speaker A

time. I can't even open a live account in my name. I go wake up my mom. It's like 3:00 a.m. My dad's sleeping next to her. He's like, "What the hell do you think you're doing?" I'm like, "Oh,

07:54

Speaker A

nothing. Nothing." I'm telling my mom and I'm like, "Mom, I need your ID. I need you to take a selfie with your ID.

07:58

Speaker A

I need you." No, I'm trying to get her to KYC and do all that stuff. And she's like, "What? No, I don't feel comfortable." And then my dad yells at me and now I'm like, "Man, these guys are my ops. They don't want to help me.

08:07

Speaker A

I don't know why. Like, this is literally going to change our life." So, fast forward a little bit, not even a little bit, sitting. So, 24 hours later, I go hit up my brother Kareem, and I tell him, "Kareem, I need you to help

08:16

Speaker A

me. Like, I need an account on this website. I'm not old enough. Blah, blah, blah. I need you to do this." And I remember him doing the KYC and doing everything for me. and me texting him like, "Yo, are you cool with this?" And

08:25

Speaker A

he says, "Yeah, if you say it's good, I trust you." And I remember that meant a ton to me.

08:28

Speaker A

Like my brother just putting his faith, literally putting his whole identity. He doesn't even know what this is and he's just putting his faith in me. But yeah, so I finally did that. I sent him the 3K that I had saved and I end up putting

08:39

Speaker A

all of it into a live account. And so now I'm just like pressing little buys and sells. My whole strategy was built on the minute one time frame and being able to scout like just these little moves. I would select my lot sizes

08:50

Speaker A

strictly off of oh yeah that number sounds cool. So I was like an insane amount of lots steep on this trade and honestly it was going well. My first trade I was in a bit of draw down. I

08:59

Speaker A

remember I had this like whole dream of making 50k that year so I could buy a BMW M6. Like that was the dream. I was like all right 200 bucks a day trading is going to buy me that M6. So I was

09:09

Speaker A

like in some draw down and then I made like 300 bucks. Okay that was my very first trade. And then we come the next day and I end up floating in some very nice profits and I'm out with my buddy

09:18

Speaker A

Alex. We're at the mall and now I'm really feeling myself. I'm like, man, I'm about to become a millionaire. I'm on the right path. I'm doing everything right. And I take my credit card and I buy a pair of gray Balenciagas, $1,000

09:28

Speaker A

shoes. I would never forget this. We go home. I'm about to shower. I'm up like 900 bucks on this trade. My friends are telling me to close. I'm like, "Nah, bro. It's got room to run." You know, as

09:36

Speaker A

if I'm like some chart wizard. I was sold that I knew everything about trading already. And all I did was do the first module of this course. by the way. But I go to shower, I don't even shower. I literally just pee and I come

09:47

Speaker A

back and my screen is red and I'm like, "Yo, why are the numbers on the side going red?" And then all of a sudden, I just see my positions start closing. All of my positions are just closing, closing, closing, closing, closing. And

09:56

Speaker A

so I had literally been margin call and now I'm freaking stressed out of my mind trying to figure out, yo, how am I going to make this work? Like, what am I supposed to do? And so my mom ends up

10:04

Speaker A

helping me pay off those shoes. I kind of just take like a small break from trading and then start making my way into it, start learning, you know, through YouTube and things like that and like actually finishing these courses.

10:15

Speaker A

And then I remember my buddy Tony, the one who I used to train with, was telling me that he just got this job and it pays like 25 bucks an hour. And I'm like, "Oh, that's great. You know, I

10:23

Speaker A

could be making an extra 150 bucks a day throwing that in trading." That's all I was thinking about. So, he ends up sending me this like application and they put you on this whole Zoom and I completely sell myself. And I don't know

10:32

Speaker A

if you guys know, it was like that kitchen knives like pyramid scheme thing. This would have been the second pyramid scheme thing that I got into.

10:38

Speaker A

But yeah, it's like this like remote job where you sell kitchen knives. I can't even remember what it was called. You know, I remember very specifically after the interview, the guy personally called me to tell me like, "Oh yeah, I see your

10:48

Speaker A

future at this company." And I was sold. So I call up my cousin Kareem, who is my best friend, and I'm like, "Yo, I just got this job. Pays 25 bucks an hour.

10:56

Speaker A

It's going to be amazing." And he's like, "Cool, cool. But like, is that what you want to do?" And I'm like, uh, it's not what I want to do, but the money's good and I need some money. And

11:03

Speaker A

he tell me, he's like, nah, man. Just double down on yourself. Why would you ever do something that you don't want to do? He's like, if you need anything, I got your back. He's like, you need finances, whatever. I'll take care of

11:11

Speaker A

it. And honestly, I know he would have, but I didn't even allow him to support me financially. It was just knowing that somebody had my back like that and really believed in me that changed my mindset into like, why am I going to

11:21

Speaker A

build somebody else's empire? why not build myself and bet on myself and really just understand like if somebody else can see this much value in myself then I'm a fool to not see that in myself and my cousin would always tell

11:30

Speaker A

me he's like bro you're going to be the greatest thing out there you're going to be so amazing I believe in you so much and so you know it really just pushed me to become better especially seeing him

11:38

Speaker A

lead by example like he wasn't just talking I mean this is one of the most successful business people who I know so then I end up not even showing up to that job just literally goes to them and

11:46

Speaker A

then decided to double down on myself and that was the first month that I decided to journal all my trades I had every single entry confirmation, my exact entry point, how much I was risking, my stop loss, everything. And I

11:57

Speaker A

remember all I did that month was trade GJ and I had an 83% win rate. It was my best month yet. And I it was profitable.

12:03

Speaker A

Like I did very well. And I remember I had seen one of those like pass your you know, challenge services and I had got it and it was from this guy and he didn't even end up doing my challenge.

12:12

Speaker A

Like he used it on phase one. He had like this bot I guess and he used it on phase one and it ended up setting my account back and then I just told him, "Yo, disconnect it." I ended up trading

12:21

Speaker A

my account, passing an FTMO challenge, and then they were like, "Oh, we found, you know, this bot that you used. Uh, we can give you a free retry." So, I used the free retry and ended up blowing that

12:30

Speaker A

account. I remember I was so upset cuz I had invested in a 100K account at the time with money that I borrowed from my buddy Alex knowing that it was like around New Year's and that I was going

12:39

Speaker A

to get a gift for New Year's. And so, I kind of ended up paying him back with my New Year's money. And so, fast forward to that summer, my cousin Kareem invites me out to Egypt to go stay with. And I

12:48

Speaker A

end up flying out, staying with him. It's just me and him. We're vibing out and I remember he would go to work in the daytime. And now since I'm in Egypt, London session is during that daytime.

12:55

Speaker A

So I'm trading. I would use his iPad for me to trade and then I remember he used to have like this amazing watch collection. So I would wear his watches like while I was trading just to kind of

13:03

Speaker A

like envision myself having these great things and like he had like Rolexes, APS, PEX, and it just like always inspired me. I always wanted to do better because of him. He just was like always like my role model. So I would do

13:14

Speaker A

that, he'd come home from work, you know, and at that time I really had started to find some success in trading.

13:19

Speaker A

like I really was starting to push through. This is just around the time of me being 18 years old, finally having my own accounts and my own name. And so Kareem and I were locked in. Like we were going to the gym, we were, you

13:28

Speaker A

know, I was doing my work, he was doing his work. And so during that time, I was really able to work on myself and just become better, right? I think the key was just being around better people. But

13:35

Speaker A

then now it was time to head back to LA and start college. And so I went from having all those offers to having the injury and deciding, okay, you know what? I'm going to do one year of community college so that way I can get

13:46

Speaker A

another really like outstanding offer and transfer to USC cuz like I said that was my dream school and because of that injury lasting so long I never got to compete in another like competitive race on my own and so I I had no updated

13:57

Speaker A

time. I couldn't get like another school to reach out to me. It was just kind of like it looked like I was a wasted potential. So I had to pretty much prove myself at one year of community college.

14:05

Speaker A

And I remember I would be trading for like two days straight and I'm going to community college. I'm trying to make school work. I'm trying to go to practice and I'm trying to do all this and I'd be sneaking my phone out during

14:13

Speaker A

practice to check all my gold trades and all this stuff, not even really knowing what's going on. And two weeks into community college, I pull my hamstring again. I decide, you know what, school is not for me. And so I end up dropping

14:23

Speaker A

out of community college. And this was something that I had to hide from my parents. And all I wanted to do from this point on was trade. So I'm talking I had an iMac at the time and I would

14:32

Speaker A

just sit in my room all day long every single day studying the charts. And I told myself, I have to make this work.

14:37

Speaker A

This has to work. And I would just be sitting there studying the charts. Okay, why did it move from here to here?

14:42

Speaker A

What's going on from here to here? To the point where my face was so pale, like I had literally no sun. I would just black out my curtains and just not see anyone. And I remember one time hearing my mom on the phone with my

14:52

Speaker A

uncle saying, "Oh yeah, social media has corrupted my kids. They all think they're going to become millionaires off this and they're not even going to school. They're not doing this. They're not doing that." And my mom didn't know I heard, but I I

15:02

Speaker A

did hear. And I remember that thing just tore me down inside. Like it made me ache so hard. And then I remember another time I heard my mom talking to her friends and she's like, "Yeah, I think my son's depressed. All he does is

15:11

Speaker A

sit in his room all day." And that time like I was able to kind of brush it off cuz I understood like, "Hey, mom. I know you're not going to understand this, but everything I'm doing truly is for the

15:20

Speaker A

family. It's for us. It's because I want a better future for all of us." Obviously, I didn't say that to her, but that's just like where my head was at.

15:26

Speaker A

Even at such a young age, I just really wanted to be able to take care of everyone around me. And so, fast forward to December, right? This would be 2021.

15:33

Speaker A

One of my best friends gets in this horrible accident and ends up having to do time. And this was somebody who I really looked up to. And I remember when they got locked up, the only communication that I had with them was

15:43

Speaker A

via letters. And so I wrote them a letter and I said, "I promise you that by the time you get out, I'm going to be living a life that you couldn't even imagine." And this is what brought me

15:51

Speaker A

closer to God and made me start praying and really believing in higher power. Like right, I was born Muslim. I was born to a religious family. Like I would pray. I wouldn't eat pork. I do things like that. But like I never like

16:01

Speaker A

connected with God. And this was like my ultimate humbling experience which like made me realize like everything you have can be taken from you in a second. And only through God will you amount to anything. And so every single day I

16:11

Speaker A

would wake up 6:00 a.m. I would go trade New York session. I would journal all my trades. And I was just following all these healthy habits. I would work out.

16:17

Speaker A

I do everything in dreams of being able to be the person who my best friend had never even like met, if that makes sense. Like I wanted to be so successful to a point where when they got out they

16:28

Speaker A

were like, "Oh my god, like how did you do this?" and all I would do was write letters. I couldn't I I couldn't receive letters back. All I could do was write to him. It was something that I really

16:37

Speaker A

struggled with, especially cuz I wouldn't tell anybody about it, right? It was something very personal and close to me. Like this is the first time I've even ever spoken on it. But it really transformed me as a person and I was

16:47

Speaker A

just continuously like working on myself, working on myself. And so now in March of 2021, my sister was getting married. And right at this time, I was obviously grinding out my trading and my family was in Tmacula for her wedding.

16:59

Speaker A

And I had just gotten my first funded payout. It was $4,500 after my profit split. I remember I got sent Bitcoin to my cash app. I sold it and the very first thing I did was do something that

17:09

Speaker A

I always wanted to do and it was I took my family out to dinner. We're at some restaurant in Tmacula. We all ordered everything, you know, we ordered some dessert and then I went up to go use the

17:17

Speaker A

bathroom. I gave the server my card and then when the bill came back, the guy hands me the check and my dad looks at me goes, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, dude. What's up with that?" I'm like, "Don't worry, Dad. I got you this time." And I

17:25

Speaker A

remember like not necessarily what my dad said, but I could see that little sparkle in his eyes like that I'm a proud dad moment. And I was like, "Yeah, I have to do this for the rest of my

17:33

Speaker A

life. Like I have to be able to keep growing this." Because I remember those times, guys, where it was my mom's birthday and I couldn't even afford to buy her a birthday gift or it was my brother's birthdays and I couldn't get

17:42

Speaker A

them birthday gifts or it's Mother's Day and you know, all of them are pitching in on a gift and I'm like freaking stressed out because I can't even afford to pitch in. Like that feeling of not being able to like support your family,

17:51

Speaker A

supply for your family, get something nice for your mom killed me inside. It made me cry myself to sleep. Like that hunger ultimately just drove me to become so much better. But back to that story, when I got that dinner, it was

18:03

Speaker A

finally like it was like as if I saw an apple in front of me for so long and I finally took that first bite. I knew this was something that I had to just keep doing bigger and better. And

18:12

Speaker A

because my dad kind of saw the proof in that, he actually helped me open up my first like real live account. So later on that year, right by my 19th birthday, my dad gives me $10,000 to open a

18:21

Speaker A

trading account with. And all I was doing was risking 1 to 2% a trade on my own personal account. And I remember I was making about $3,000 a month. So now I'm 19 years old. I'm making about three

18:30

Speaker A

grand a month, right? Going. I'm going. And then the FX Summit rolls around. And I go to the very first FX Summit and they host this trading competition. I'm thinking like, okay, let me go enter it.

18:38

Speaker A

And it was like a 10K simulated account and you have to see what you could turn it into. And so I take that 10K simulated account and I turn it into 1.1 million. And so I ended up winning the

18:47

Speaker A

entire competition. And this is how I meet guys like Roy, the host of the FX Summit. And you know, I'm meeting Anony's World and Q Banks and Ryan Gilpin and all these big people. And I'm just a little kid who just got into

18:57

Speaker A

trading, right? And so it was very eye opening to me and it inspired me. I was like, man, one day I have to be on that stage. So then later on that year, I'm just compounding profits, compounding profits. And that's when I actually take

19:08

Speaker A

my capital and I hit up James Storms cuz I know that he trades fundamentals. And the one thing that I wanted to learn was how to like actually read fundamental data. I hit up James Storms. I invest in

19:16

Speaker A

a mentorship with him. I fly out to New York. We do the whole thing and I learn from him. I fly back and then like the first trade I take I make like six grand on or something. And it I was like, "Oh

19:24

Speaker A

my god, what the heck?" And I remember James text me like, "Yo, bro, you're catching on to this way quicker than the other students. Like I really see something special in you." And you know, I just kind of like I was

19:32

Speaker A

like, "All right, let's just keep this ball rolling, right? Let's keep going." And so a couple months later, James ends up opening Fortune's funding. And I ended up getting funded with that prop firm. And I remember my first day on my

19:42

Speaker A

funded account, I opened this GBP AUD cell, I believe, or buy. I I can't remember exactly what it was, but I was at dinner. It was me, my dad, my aunt, and my mom. And I hold this trade for 3

19:52

Speaker A

days straight, and I profited $30,000 on this trade. And then there's like that little video of me holding my phone where it's like, yo, this is absolutely insane. I'm up 30 grand on my trade. I withdraw those profits. I didn't trade

20:02

Speaker A

another day on that account. I ended up withdrawing those profits and just securing my capital. I was like, yo, why even risk this at this point? Right? So with that money, it opened so many doors for me. Like I went from being, yeah, I

20:14

Speaker A

was making decent money, but like 3K a month versus having a 30K payout is absolutely insane. Then I used that money. I actually lost that account like right after the payout, but I used that money to buy two more challenges and I

20:26

Speaker A

ended up hitting a $24,000 day and I had it on two different accounts, meaning I made $48,000 and I think it was like after the profit split promo that I had, I think it was like 42 or 43. And this

20:36

Speaker A

is right before my 20th birthday. And I end up flying to Spain and I always, always, always wanted to see Atletico Madrid play live. And I used that capital to go see them play live. And when I went to go see them play live,

20:46

Speaker A

there was this guy standing in front of me in a suit cuz I'm talking I was at the team store buying everybody's like jerseys, buying all everything in there, any limited piece, any old jersey, any new jersey. I bought like $3,000 worth

20:56

Speaker A

of merchandise over there. And I was telling the employee like, "Yo, you got to make me cut this line cuz it looked like an hour and a half line." He's like, "No, no, I can't." I'm like, "Bro, more than all these guys combined. Like,

21:05

Speaker A

come on, help help my brother out." And he's like, "All right, for sure." So he pulls me to the side. There's this guy standing in a suit. And him and I start talking. I start telling him about my backstory.

21:12

Speaker A

And he's like, "Wow, I love that." He goes, "Oh, I'm a manager for all the big sponsors here at the stadium." And I'm like, "No way." He's like, "Yeah." Like I manage it for the team. And I just go, "Can you get me to meet the

21:20

Speaker A

players?" And he just kind of like laughs in my face. And I'm like, "No, no, like can you get me to meet the players?" And he goes, "Give me your WhatsApp." Next day he sends me a VIP ticket to the next game. Gets me to meet

21:29

Speaker A

the whole players. And so like I'm talking bucket list completed like to a whole different level, right? Not only did I get to see them play, but I got to meet the whole team. And it's just like insane to think like going from losing

21:39

Speaker A

all of my capital on day one to just sticking through it and meeting my freaking childhood heroes is like insane to me. But but now I had that I had those two big payouts and I decided to hit up Roy for the FX Summit year 2 and

21:52

Speaker A

I wanted to get myself a booth. The second year I get a booth. Me and all my boys fly out. We get this like sick penthouse in Miami. It's lit. It's a vibe. Like I'm enjoying myself. And it's

21:59

Speaker A

just so funny cuz on Instagram at the time I didn't even post my face. I would just post like those reels where I'd hold the phone with the like caption, like a motivational caption and it would show like a trading profit

22:09

Speaker A

and a ton of people would like ask me for my Instagram at my booth and they'd be like, "Oh my god, I follow you, bro. I didn't even know this was you." I be like, "Yeah, yeah, that's me."

22:15

Speaker A

And so that's kind of when I decided like to connect my face to my brand more. But one very important thing that happened at this summit was I told Roy, "Hey Roy, I'm trying to get better at the fundamentals because

22:24

Speaker A

through that mentorship with James, I learned really how important they are and I just knew like there's always something better." And so Roy tells me about this guy, Bob Elliot. He's like, "This is the guy who you have to listen

22:33

Speaker A

to." He was speaking on day two of the summit. He was supposed to be the first speaker. And for some reason, it was delayed. So, I just see Bob Elliot sitting there. I end up going to talk to

22:39

Speaker A

him. I'm like, "Yo, uh, hey, I heard that you're like amazing at fundamentals. What do you recommend?" And he tells me, he's like, "Oh, bro, you should read this book called The Art of Currency Trading." I'm like, "Okay, amazing." I end up

22:48

Speaker A

reading this book start to finish, and I mean really start to finish, like annotated every single bit of it. Made sure I understood every single bit of this book. And then I was doing a small tour cuz I was speaking as like one of

22:57

Speaker A

the top payout guys at some Fortunes funding event that we did in Atlanta. And from Atlanta, we did Miami. And then I flew back to LA and my buddy Ethan had wanted to get into trading at the time.

23:06

Speaker A

So I tell him like, "Yo, just pull up." And so I take 5K of my own capital and I put it in a live account. And you know, I was doing YouTube live streams and stuff at the time. So and so this is

23:14

Speaker A

just another live stream for me. It's Wednesday, August 23rd, 2023. I would never forget this day. And Ethan's sitting next to me. I take a trade and some news release hits. I obviously had like a big fundamental bias behind this

23:25

Speaker A

and next thing you know I watch myself make 12 grand in seconds and I'm like oh my god what the close the trade the next day the account's sitting at $17,000. I take it from 17 to like 46K

23:36

Speaker A

like in profit. I had a $46,000 trading day. I remember sitting there taking a photo with my dog and just posting like yo I made 46K today. Like I'm talking I'm mind blown. Like okay day three August 25th happens and I believe I hit

23:51

Speaker A

a $64,000 trading day. So, I turned 5K into like 123 or it was 131,000 if I'm not mistaken in 3 days. And it was all done on live stream like extremely transparent in front of everyone. Like, you literally cannot fake that. That's

24:03

Speaker A

what I love about trading. I didn't need to sell no course to make that money. I didn't need to, you know, do anything.

24:08

Speaker A

All I did was literally just chill with my boy and accidentally ran it up. And then that's what taught me like the power of freaking account flipping and risk management and fundamentals. And then I really just became known for

24:18

Speaker A

that. Like over the next 12 months, I had done significant flips. I'm talking I was doing 3K to 145K. I did that like twice backtoback weeks um in like March of 2024. But before we get to that point, I want to get to just a little

24:31

Speaker A

bit after that September 2023. This was like really a game-changing moment for me. I remember I was in Spain. I had flown me and my brother out. I wanted to celebrate and we did this first big shopping spree. I spent like maybe 10

24:41

Speaker A

grand in a day. Plus, I had just hit a crazy trade for like $8,000 the day before this. And I'm really like just stacked on bread. Time I was driving a Toyota Camry. My dad paid for it. My dad

24:50

Speaker A

paid for my insurance. I was living with my parents. I had no overhead bills. And I'm sitting on like over, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars. And I remember my brother and I are in Spain.

24:58

Speaker A

We end up like renting some nice cars and doing all this stuff. And I get this like pit in my stomach. And I find out that like this girl who I was like in love with, like it was uh this girl who

25:07

Speaker A

I dated and just didn't work out, ends up like getting back with her ex-boyfriend and just like tore me down and it like killed me inside. And I was just thinking like how could this be? I was destroyed. And what I did was I used

25:18

Speaker A

every single bit of that pain to just drive me to become better. Like I would be in the gym and I would work out until I didn't feel that hard. I was on the charts and I would keep going until I

25:28

Speaker A

just knew like, okay, this is it. Like if I lost, I wouldn't even be emotional over the loss because I was like, I already lost the love of my life. You know, I was thinking stuff like that.

25:35

Speaker A

If I won, I was emotionless. Okay, we could walk away same way she walked away from me. You know, things like that. And but that really just allowed me to shift gears in life cuz I was like, you know

25:45

Speaker A

what? You're going to have to watch me succeed. You're going to have to watch me become everything that you would have ever wanted in a man. And that really like I started learning how to be myself and truly do the things that I enjoy and

25:56

Speaker A

be free most importantly. Be free, be free minded, and allow trading to be that vessel that took me there. I didn't choose to get completely destroyed. You know, obviously like never wanted to see her get back with her ex, but what I

26:08

Speaker A

chose to do from that moment was just become an absolute animal. And I would see her watching my stories and I'd see all this stuff and I'd be like, "Your little bum boyfriend, he ain't got nothing on me." You know,

26:17

Speaker A

cuz I knew I had the motion at that point. I knew who I was building. I knew who I was becoming. And now we fast forward to January 2024. Take a trip to Miami. And I'm like, "Yo, I got to move

26:26

Speaker A

out. I start touring apartments. Already picked out my apartment. I'm like, "Yeah, this it like I'm done with LA.

26:32

Speaker A

I'm ready to move to Miami." And at that same time, my best friend gets released.

26:36

Speaker A

And so he facetimes me and he's like, "Did you hear?" I was like, "Bro, I already got my flight booked." So, I go fly out. I go see them. Go get them all these gifts. Show them everything. Like, just truly like living

26:45

Speaker A

it up, you know? I'm like, "Finally, they get to see me be everything that I ever wanted them to see me be." And I remember this so well. It was like a full circle moment for me. It was like

26:53

Speaker A

this person had given me so much in life and inspired me so much. And seeing it's that same sparkle that I saw in my dad's eyes, seeing it in them, the way they looked at me, it was just like I knew

27:03

Speaker A

that they were proud of who I became. And I knew that that sort of change in life inspired them to want to change their life to become better. And so I end up flying back to Miami and I had a

27:11

Speaker A

layover in Switzerland at the time. And funny enough, I was on my way to Miami to buy a AP. And as I'm in Switzerland, there was a I had like a 14-hour layover. And I knew that they had a

27:21

Speaker A

Rolex store in there. So I go to the Rolex store and I see this like empty case and it says presidential day and it has a price tag 43,500. I'm like, "Do you have this watch?" Lady goes, "No, we

27:29

Speaker A

don't." And I was like, "No, no, but there's a price tag." Cuz if Rolex doesn't have it, it says for exhibitional. She goes, "You know what?

27:34

Speaker A

Let me check the back." And so she ends up having this watch right here. And I'm talking, this was my dream watch, right?

27:40

Speaker A

And I'm going from having no watch at all. I was about to buy like a $27,000 AP to buying a $45,000 Rolex. It was just like one of those moments where it was like, it's insane to me how full

27:49

Speaker A

circle trading has gone. Like I went from thinking my life was going down one complete trajectory where I was going to be this big athlete and this superstar and you know the next Usain Bolt really that's what I imagined to becoming

28:00

Speaker A

somebody who does nothing with sports and deals with numbers and evaluating financial markets and analyzing currencies just it just blows my mind honestly but it just goes to show like every loss is a blessing and every loss is a lesson like everything in this

28:13

Speaker A

world whatever God has like planned for you is going to happen. Everybody's just on their own path. Everybody has their own timing. truly like whatever God has planned for you will always find its way to you. There could be mountains in

28:23

Speaker A

front of you separating you from it and they still wouldn't hold you from it if God has that will for you. And so I had finally moved out to Miami right after this. And so to circle back, I had

28:31

Speaker A

bought the watch, finally moved out to Miami and I was fully on my own. And that year of being on my own really taught me a lot about finding myself.

28:38

Speaker A

And so in LA, I grew up with everyone who I knew there, right? Obviously, I had known these people since I was a kid and I got all my family there and everything. And the thing is like you're

28:47

Speaker A

only going to be as good as the people around you. And when I was in Miami, I was surrounded by people driving Bugattis, by people driving McLaren Sennas, by you know just supercars everywhere. Flashy Richard Mills, this that. And naturally, I was in that

29:00

Speaker A

environment of I have to become better. I there was no time to slack. There was no time to waste. I just knew that I had to become better. And over that year, I elevated my trading to a whole different

29:09

Speaker A

degree. I'm talking I had done insane account flips. So, I had really just proven like nobody in this industry can flip accounts better than me. And it's not gambling at this point cuz I've done it like significantly over 10 times, 20

29:21

Speaker A

times, you know, and like ran up stupid numbers off of them. But obviously, I'm not saying it's something that I do every day. You need the right market conditions. There's a lot that goes into it. But yeah, it's

29:29

Speaker A

just like truly that became my ball game. Like swing trading and account flipping. And over that year in Miami, like I just kept being surrounded by greatness and greatness. What I would realize is like every time I would come

29:38

Speaker A

back to LA, I would fall into like these poor habits. and you know, I'd be off of my diet and I wouldn't really trade. And I remember like that year in July, I blew like I had 2K to 67K and I ended up

29:50

Speaker A

blowing that whole account just simply because like my environment wasn't the right one that I needed to be in. And I noticed these patterns of every time I was in Miami, I'm away from, you know, what's normal, what I grew up with, I

30:01

Speaker A

would start to do better. And so I learned that as an individual, like I like being isolated. I like having my space. I like being able to think freely without all this extra noise. But circle back to like just the amazingness of

30:13

Speaker A

trading. Finally towards summer of that year, I get the phone call from Roy where Roy says, "Hey Ali, like I've seen what you've been doing and I really want you to speak on stage at the FX Summit this year."

30:22

Speaker A

And so I went from being somebody in the back of the FX Summit on year 1 to being someone who had their own booth on year 2 to being a speaker on stage in year three. And it just like once again guys

30:32

Speaker A

ties back to everything of like even just in sports like that determination of not giving up of you could be a bench warmer. You could be that guy sitting in the back. You could be that absolute nobody. But as long as you don't give up

30:42

Speaker A

and you keep showing up every single day no matter how late you started, you are going to be successful. It is inevit.

30:48

Speaker A

It's a mindset thing. When you start thinking about these things, you're like in a way manifesting them. I I know that's a word that a lot of people like to use. And I do believe that like the more you start to think of something,

30:57

Speaker A

the more likely it's bound to happen. I believe the statistic is like your brain has to block out 90% of things just so it can focus on whatever it is. That's why when you start to like a car, you

31:06

Speaker A

naturally see it more because your brain opens to actually focusing on that instead of just naturally blocking it out. Not that they started to spawn more, but you're just focused more on it. And it's the same thing with

31:15

Speaker A

opportunity, right? If you start focusing on opportunities and wanting success and really putting in these successful behaviors, your brain is going to start shift its focus and show you these opportunities. That's just how we're wired. And so after the FX summit,

31:27

Speaker A

I end up having one of my biggest account flips, which was like, I believe, 3K to 280K. And I end up sitting on that payout for a little while. And I had to move back to LA because my apartment lease was ending.

31:37

Speaker A

And I had this very big back surgery. And so you guys obviously don't know because I've never spoken about this, but this February, I moved out of Miami.

31:44

Speaker A

I moved back to Los Angeles. And the reason being is I had two herniated discs in my back. And I needed this surgery on my spine. And so I had to like relearn how to walk. I had to

31:53

Speaker A

completely like rebuild myself physically, mentally, and really just come back out of that rut. And that's why I had disappeared from social media for so long. But I went through the whole procedure. Everything went great.

32:03

Speaker A

Thank God. You know, I'm running. I'm working out and I'm doing everything arguably better than I was before. So, you know, I really appreciate that. And then, but to circle back after I moved to LA, I did the surgery and then I

32:12

Speaker A

ended up buying my dream car. I finally got a Mayback at the age of 21. I'm 22 now and I've made over $2 million in trading. And that's my story. And so in summary, guys, it's very funny how life

32:22

Speaker A

works out. I mean, just think about it. I thought I was going to be this track athlete. And that one injury, which I thought was going to end my life, actually started and birthed like a whole different trajectory of my life

32:33

Speaker A

that's only taken me higher and higher and has allowed me to change my life forever and my family's life forever.

32:38

Speaker A

It's truly a blessing the way everything played out. And for any of you guys who feel like your life has gone sideways or has really just not been going the way that it should be going, understand that it's never too late to make that change

32:49

Speaker A

and that you are the only one in control your whole destiny. If there's anything that I want you guys to understand out of this whole story, it's just that the only way to become successful is to truly believe in yourself. Had I never

33:01

Speaker A

had that injury and had to double down on myself as a person, I would have never become this. I would probably be sitting somewhere in an office working for somebody else making either a decent salary or working hourly. But that

33:13

Speaker A

wasn't the path for me. And honestly, if you're watching this video, that's probably not the path for you. And this could be your sign. So, I encourage every single one of you guys out there to really take control of your life. And

33:24

Speaker A

if you guys enjoyed this video, make sure to like, comment, and subscribe. And I'm going to leave the link to my free Telegram in the description. I send all my outlooks, technicals, fundamentals, everything so you guys can see all my trading insights and

33:34

Speaker A

everything 100% free. Like I said, we got to this point without selling courses, and we are not going to be selling courses. Nothing here is paid, and I appreciate every single one of you guys. See you in the next video.

Topics: Forex trading Ali Trades trading journey young trader success overcoming injury sports to trading financial independence trading strategy discipline in trading trading motivation

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