A seasoned investor’s honest reflection: from losing tens of thousands to eventually making over 100,000 — and the one thing I finally did right.
A few years ago, I couldn’t imagine my brokerage account showing six-figure assets. This isn’t a story of sudden wealth. No insider tips or “limit-up secrets.” It’s a story of losses, confusion, learning, and slow redemption.
If you’ve ever doubted yourself after painful losses, maybe my experience will feel familiar.
1. Entering the “casino”
In 2016 I bought my first stock simply because it “had been rising.” A tiny gain quickly turned into losses. Panic → adding positions → cutting losses. I thought I just “lacked skills,” so I learned every indicator: MACD, RSI, candlesticks… The more I learned, the more confused I became. My trading still looked like gambling.
2. Discovering value investing
Right before quitting the market entirely, I stumbled upon “value investing.” That moment changed everything.
I read the classics:
The Intelligent Investor — stocks = businesses
Security Analysis — intrinsic value matters
Buffett’s letters — buy understandable companies with moats
One Up On Wall Street — growth also matters
The Most Important Thing — risk and second-level thinking
These books rewired my thinking: I wasn’t investing; I was betting on noise.
3. Building a real system
I studied macroeconomics, business models, and financial statements. I shifted from watching daily candles to examining revenue, margins, cash flow, competitive advantages. Short-term prices are unpredictable; long-term fundamentals aren’t.
4. The real test: U.S. market volatility
When I applied value principles to U.S. stocks starting in 2019, my portfolio grew — until the real psychological test arrived.
The pandemic crash, rate hikes, inflation spikes, tech sell-offs, rotation from growth to value… volatility in U.S. markets came in waves. Friends told me to “sell before it’s too late.” I was anxious too — but I had done deep research. I knew the businesses I held: their fundamentals hadn’t changed.
So when fear peaked, I added to my positions instead of running. Markets eventually stabilized, and the recovery validated the analysis. My account went from deep red → break-even → steady profit → eventually passing +100k.
This wasn’t luck. It was discipline meeting patience.
5. A decade of learning distilled into a tool
Value investing works — but it requires time: reading filings, analyzing statements, building valuation models. Most people simply can’t spend dozens of hours per company.
After writing thousands of pages of notes, I wondered:
Can I turn my entire investment workflow into a tool?
A tool that:
screens for quality companies
auto-analyzes financial statements
evaluates fundamentals & valuation
removes 90% of repetitive work
I’m a zero-code beginner, but with AI’s help, I spent half a year building it.
It’s not a trading cheat code. It doesn’t predict next week.
It simply generates one-click stock analysis reports based on the value-investing methods I’ve refined for nearly a decade.
Enter a ticker → get fundamentals, profitability, growth, valuation, risks — all structured and readable.
I built it for myself first.
Now I’m sharing it in case it helps others shortcut years of trial and error.
If this tool becomes even a small accelerator on your investing journey, then the work was worth it.
rule2025•2mo ago
A few years ago, I couldn’t imagine my brokerage account showing six-figure assets. This isn’t a story of sudden wealth. No insider tips or “limit-up secrets.” It’s a story of losses, confusion, learning, and slow redemption.
If you’ve ever doubted yourself after painful losses, maybe my experience will feel familiar.
1. Entering the “casino”
In 2016 I bought my first stock simply because it “had been rising.” A tiny gain quickly turned into losses. Panic → adding positions → cutting losses. I thought I just “lacked skills,” so I learned every indicator: MACD, RSI, candlesticks… The more I learned, the more confused I became. My trading still looked like gambling.
2. Discovering value investing
Right before quitting the market entirely, I stumbled upon “value investing.” That moment changed everything.
I read the classics:
The Intelligent Investor — stocks = businesses
Security Analysis — intrinsic value matters
Buffett’s letters — buy understandable companies with moats
One Up On Wall Street — growth also matters
The Most Important Thing — risk and second-level thinking
These books rewired my thinking: I wasn’t investing; I was betting on noise.
3. Building a real system
I studied macroeconomics, business models, and financial statements. I shifted from watching daily candles to examining revenue, margins, cash flow, competitive advantages. Short-term prices are unpredictable; long-term fundamentals aren’t.
4. The real test: U.S. market volatility
When I applied value principles to U.S. stocks starting in 2019, my portfolio grew — until the real psychological test arrived.
The pandemic crash, rate hikes, inflation spikes, tech sell-offs, rotation from growth to value… volatility in U.S. markets came in waves. Friends told me to “sell before it’s too late.” I was anxious too — but I had done deep research. I knew the businesses I held: their fundamentals hadn’t changed.
So when fear peaked, I added to my positions instead of running. Markets eventually stabilized, and the recovery validated the analysis. My account went from deep red → break-even → steady profit → eventually passing +100k.
This wasn’t luck. It was discipline meeting patience.
5. A decade of learning distilled into a tool
Value investing works — but it requires time: reading filings, analyzing statements, building valuation models. Most people simply can’t spend dozens of hours per company.
After writing thousands of pages of notes, I wondered:
Can I turn my entire investment workflow into a tool?
A tool that:
screens for quality companies
auto-analyzes financial statements
evaluates fundamentals & valuation
removes 90% of repetitive work
I’m a zero-code beginner, but with AI’s help, I spent half a year building it.
The result: https://aistock.tools
It’s not a trading cheat code. It doesn’t predict next week. It simply generates one-click stock analysis reports based on the value-investing methods I’ve refined for nearly a decade.
Enter a ticker → get fundamentals, profitability, growth, valuation, risks — all structured and readable.
I built it for myself first. Now I’m sharing it in case it helps others shortcut years of trial and error.
If this tool becomes even a small accelerator on your investing journey, then the work was worth it.