Pulled back the curtain

My 2025 trading results

Alright. Time to do the thing that basically no one does in this industry: show the real year. Not a cherry-picked screenshot. Not a “straight line up” fantasy. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Here’s the headline: my brokerage account finished 2025 up 155%. That’s a massive year. It’s also not something I’m going to pretend happens every year. 2025 had volatility, headline shocks, and plenty of whipsaw. The equity curve wasn’t pretty the whole way through.

In fact, if you zoom in, you can spot the pain: the tariff tantrum drawdown. The systems got hit, I got hit, and this is the part where people usually disappear, cancel, or rage-quit right before the recovery. Then came a long stretch of chop… and then the year ended strong.

That’s trading. You don’t get paid on your schedule. You get paid when the edge shows up.

What actually drove results
I run multiple systems across timeframes because no single strategy prints forever.

Day trading systems
These launched around May to June after we noticed a lot of cash sitting idle during the drawdown. The combined backtest was up 94% for the year, but the distribution matters: one system was down about 3%, two systems were up mid-teens, and one month did the heavy lifting. September was dominated by the QMMM spike trade. The system did its job: stop losses exist, profit targets do not, positions close end-of-day. I’ll be honest: I exited early. Great win, not the max win.

Swing trading systems
Three strategies, holding about a week. These were a big driver for me because they allow more discretion and better capital efficiency. Backtests landed around 30% for the year, with red months included. April and May were rough. October was strong. November was flat. December helped.

Investment systems
Monthly rotation, low volatility by design. These are more “retirement account” than “pay the bills.” They only did about 6% in 2025, which I’m not thrilled about, but the tradeoff showed up where it matters: much smaller drawdowns during corrections and bear-market conditions.

The takeaway
If you want to make money every day, get a job. Trading is lumpy. The edge is real, but it arrives on its own calendar. The goal is to follow systems through the ugly, keep researching, keep building, and stack strategies so one rough period doesn’t sink the whole ship.

If you want the free newsletter, free courses, and the systems behind this process, go to www.statsedgetrading.com.