2024 Year-End Recap

Every year I do a full audit of my trading — not just the P&L, but the process. What setups produced the most consistent results. Where I drifted from my rules. What market conditions cost me the most. And what I'm changing going into the next year. This is that audit for 2024.

I'm sharing it publicly because I think transparency matters in this industry. Too many educators only show the wins. I'm showing everything.

The Numbers

2024 was a strong year overall, but it wasn't linear. Here's the top-level summary:

• Total trades taken: 312
• Win rate: 81.66%
• Average win: $487
• Average loss: $312
• Largest single-day gain: $4,200
• Largest single-day loss: $1,850
• Total return on starting capital: 138.85%
• Months profitable: 10 of 12

The two losing months — February and September — were both tied to the same issue: I expanded my setup criteria during slow market conditions and took trades that didn't meet my normal standards. That's a pattern I've seen in my trading before, and it's one I'm specifically addressing in 2025.

What Worked

The gap-and-go setup on high-volume catalysts was my bread and butter in 2024. When a stock gaps up 15%+ on genuine news — FDA approval, earnings beat, major contract — with volume 5x the 30-day average, and holds VWAP in the first 15 minutes, the follow-through rate was exceptional. This setup alone accounted for roughly 60% of my total profits.

The second-best performer was the VWAP reclaim on pullbacks. After an initial morning spike, stocks that pull back to VWAP and reclaim it on volume — particularly in the 10:00–11:00 ET window — gave clean entries with tight stops and solid risk-to-reward.

Both setups share a common trait: they require patience. You're waiting for a specific condition to be met rather than forcing entries. That patience is what separates these setups from the impulsive trades that cost me money.

What Didn't Work

Afternoon trading. Full stop. My win rate in the 1:00–3:30 PM ET window was 54% — barely above random. My average loss in that window was also larger than my average win, producing negative expectancy. I was essentially giving back morning profits in the afternoon.

Starting in Q3, I implemented a hard cutoff: no new positions after 12:00 PM ET unless a major catalyst breaks after the open. That single rule change improved my monthly consistency significantly in Q4.

The other underperformer was short selling. I took 47 short trades in 2024 with a 48% win rate and negative expectancy. The small-cap short side requires a different skill set and different risk management than the long side. I'm not there yet, and I stopped pretending I was in August.

The Lessons

Three things I'm carrying into 2025:

• Boredom is expensive. My worst trades in 2024 happened when the market was slow and I was looking for action. The discipline to sit on your hands when conditions aren't right is worth more than any setup. I'm building a formal "no-trade" checklist for slow days.
• Size discipline compounds both ways. My best months came when I sized correctly and let winners run. My worst came when I oversized on "high conviction" trades that didn't work. Conviction is not a position-sizing input. Risk percentage is.
• The review process is the edge. The traders in the Discord who improved the most in 2024 were the ones who reviewed their trades consistently — not the ones who traded the most or had the most sophisticated setups. Logging, reviewing, and adjusting is the actual work. Everything else is execution.

What's Changing in 2025

The $30K Challenge is the centerpiece of 2025. It's a live, public, documented attempt to compound a $30,000 account to $120,000 using the same setups and risk management framework I've refined over the past nine years. Every trade is logged on Kinfo. Every decision is explained in the Discord.

I'm also expanding the educational content — more detailed breakdowns of individual trades, more focus on the psychological side of execution, and a structured curriculum for newer traders who want to build their process from the ground up.

2024 proved the system works. 2025 is about proving it scales.