How it began
Trading123 has been on the internet since 2004. I got involved in investing in mutual funds through the ’80s and ’90s, then started trading stocks in 2000 during the dot-com craze. Like a lot of people, I read a few books and jumped in — and ran straight into the struggles every new trader faces.
Realizing I needed real guidance, I sought out a local trading firm and learned alongside seasoned professionals. Watching their strategies and attending monthly seminars taught me more than any book could. One trader, only about twenty-five, was consistently pulling three to five thousand dollars a day during the dot-com run. Under his mentorship I studied his daily routine, and over time I built my own approach — technical analysis, chart patterns, support and resistance, breakouts and breakdowns.
In January 2004 I launched my own website, starting with a daily stock-picker alert newsletter plus mentoring and education. The goal was simple: keep it approachable and help the average trader succeed by focusing on chart analysis, timing, and understanding basic patterns — not drowning them in information.
A community of traders
From April 2005 to 2016 the site ran a live chat room where members traded stocks and futures together in real time. We also held seminars several times a year, drawing traders from Texas, California, New York and beyond. Those live sessions were educational and genuinely fun — some of the best connections I’ve made came out of that room.
From indicators to automation
I’ve been programming since 1990, teaching myself along the way, and moved into web programming in 2002. By 2004 I was building our own trading indicators — custom-designed by me and our team of programmers — to identify trade setups and standardize how we traded.
As those indicators proved themselves, traders started asking for a hands-free way to run them. Building the autotrader was a major undertaking: two years of programming, testing, and countless weekends hunched over the keyboard. It was released in 2014 and has been updated about twice a year ever since to sharpen the algorithm and performance.
Across the years I’ve traded through the dot-com boom and its crash, the Flash Crash, and the housing and banking crises. Living through those markets taught me how to adapt — which is the only edge that lasts.
Before trading
Before all of this, I spent 30 years as a licensed private investigator with the State of Michigan. I worked every side of it — fraud, missing persons, undercover work, criminal cases — and specialized in surveillance. It was an exciting, rewarding career, but after three decades I was ready for a new challenge, and trading pulled me in. The same patience and attention to detail that made me a good investigator turned out to matter just as much at the charts.
What I’ve learned
The move from making $100 to $500 a day comes down to mastering the fundamentals. Trading is a discipline — it demands skill, education, dedication, and a commitment to never stop learning. The deeper your understanding of technical analysis and market behavior, the greater your potential.
It’s just as important to be honest about the risk: trading comes with no guarantees. The market shifts every day, bringing fresh challenges and opportunities. Staying adaptable and learning from both wins and losses are what carry you through an unpredictable business.
— Patrick, Founder of Trading123
Ready to see what we’ve built?