In this episode of Money Mondays with Cam Bassani, we talk about how he got his start in trading and what it takes to become a high-level trader. We talk about what it took him to get to where he is now and how he is able to make a lot of money in the crypto space.
00:14:27.000So, Cam, like I said before the show, we find guests that money Mondays that are unique, special, have a lot of value to add, and you, my friend, have a lot of value.
00:14:36.000So, we know who you are, but they may not tell who you are.
00:14:41.000So, originally from the Silicon Valley home of tech innovation, had a long career in corporate tech and kind of realized that I was doing two things that didn't fit with my future or what I wanted to be my future.
00:15:26.000But ever since I learned how to trade from ex-Goldman Sachs traders, some other Wall Street guys that are now part of my team, I was able to move.
00:16:49.000You know what's scary about trading as well?
00:16:51.000So many gurus or so many like, you know, core sellers where I don't call them names, but you know, they have a lot of marketing out there, but they're not the real deal.
00:16:58.000They sell you some, you know, put together course and say, hey, here you go.
00:17:03.000Be like me with these cars, all this stuff.
00:18:17.000There's your 401k, which is when you go work for a company, you're going to give your money to your company's 401k plan.
00:18:22.000And what they're going to do is take riskier, more strategic moves with it and then kick you back 4% a year, right?
00:18:28.000So they're basically ripping you off with arbitrage because they know you're stupid or you're not going to work with anybody or you just want to work your job and get a paycheck.
00:18:56.000The reason why rich people do that is because they're trying to preserve their money and just like fight against inflation until they have something better to do.
00:19:29.000So instead of saying, hey, I'm buying NVIDIA stock and it's going to go up and making $1,300 by putting $10,000 up, why not put $10,000 into a swing trade, which basically means, hey, I'm predicting NVIDIA is going to go to $300 a share by this date, whatever date.
00:19:47.000We've done a trade like that and we made 200%, which means we did a very good job.
00:19:53.000Okay, so I'm trying to dumb this down and make it simple.
00:19:56.000The next level, and this is not necessarily better, but it's just more strategic traders are doing this once they get comfortable with swing trading is leverage trading.
00:20:07.000Now, there's two ways you can trade with leverage.
00:20:11.000Margin, which is what I showed you in the Robinhood, I don't have any margin.
00:20:14.000Margin means Robinhood will give you money to trade with, but you have to have money in your account as collateral.
00:20:21.000And if you lose, you can blow the whole thing.
00:22:45.000So buying and holding means you're actually buying shares, which means I go on Robinhood and say, I want to put $10,000 into NVIDIA, a stock.
00:22:54.000Swing trading means I'm doing a specific prediction, meaning NVIDIA $300 call, expiration June 18th, 2026.
00:23:05.000That means to beginners, NVIDIA is going to go to $300 a share by latest June 18th of next year.
00:26:40.000So the guy at Target, if he has good credit and doesn't have a lot of cash, he should consider using it because working that job, it's only going to get worse for him because you're not going to make much progress.
00:26:50.000Unless your dream is to be a target manager, cool.
00:26:53.000But let's say you're at the next level.
00:26:56.000Let's say you have some cash, like five to 10K.
00:26:59.000Most of our clients have five to 10K to play with.
00:27:02.000And they're like, I'm like, cool, we can get you in every trade and we're going to get you in a decent amount of trades.
00:27:07.000So we'll win eight, we'll lose two, and it's fucking worth it.
00:29:30.000Just so that because the thing is, a lot of people kind of like get into this and they don't actually have a financial background whatsoever.
00:29:35.000And you know, sure, you can figure it out.
00:33:21.000All these different things come into play when it comes to real estate because the way the market is now, you do have to be a bit more intelligent with purchasing homes and make sure that you underwrite it where you're going to actually get a good cash on cash return.
00:33:34.000But it really depends on the market that you're in, bro.
00:35:07.000Once again, depends on the algo, right?
00:35:09.000Because like, it's like there's good software companies out there where the software works and there's software companies out there where it doesn't work.
00:35:15.000Like, I think you should get to a certain level of trading before you think of automating.
00:37:13.000They're, you know, some type of, they have some entry-level career making 60, 70K per year right now, watching.
00:37:20.000And they have, let's say, 3,000 saved somewhere tucked away.
00:37:25.000How should they go about getting into this?
00:37:29.000I think a full-time job, 60, 70K per year, 3K cash.
00:37:33.000My risk tolerance is going to be higher than most people that you describe, which is why I'm where I'm at.
00:37:39.000And that's because of what I've been through in life.
00:37:41.000The reason I preface that with that statement is because if you have 3K saved and you're making 60K entry-level job, give or take, okay, well, you should start with other people's money.
00:37:52.000And I don't mean prop firm money in this context because you probably don't have the time because you have an entry-level job.
00:37:57.000So you don't have time to day trade with leverage.
00:37:59.000I would get a 0% interest credit card with, you know, right now they're giving out, Chase and Amex are giving out 12 to 24 months, 0%.
00:44:24.000whatever i i do this stuff more for for for like this gets me in like certain rooms or like people approach me because of it and want to talk business or something yeah uh I'm not really a flat, bro.
00:46:53.000They're either selling powder or getting robbed, one of the two.
00:46:56.000So you need to decide like what skill do you want to learn?
00:46:59.000Because like I've paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to either be in the right rooms or learn from some expert.
00:47:09.000And now I built a team around myself of experts to where I can build a personal brand and people come in and we get satisfied clients, right?
00:47:17.000So like there's nothing wrong with paying to play when it comes to education.
00:47:20.000You paid for college, a lot of you guys here.
00:47:30.000If you want it bad enough, you'll find a way.
00:47:33.000People just, from my experience, if you don't understand what someone's doing and you can't wrap your hand around it or don't want to try it, that's fair.
00:47:41.000But just because it doesn't work for you doesn't mean it doesn't work at all.
00:49:11.000So swing trading, like I said earlier, bro, like it's the best strategy to learn.
00:49:16.000So you can go on YouTube and learn it on your own.
00:49:18.000Like I'm not here to like force you to come work with me, but we do have a 14-day trial.
00:49:22.000So I can teach you like hands-on, like very quickly, and you can cut out the noise and you'll learn from guys that actually traded on Wall Street.
00:49:28.000So the reason why swing trading is good is because it's easier to win swing trading than it is day trading because day trading, you have to watch the shit like a hawk.
00:51:24.000And I'm considering when it comes to future trading, what are some of the things that you have to look out for in regards to getting into it?
00:51:33.000Because I know you can lose a lot of money, especially if you're on margin.
00:51:37.000Like, what are some beginner mistakes that you normally see?
00:51:40.000Yeah, you should only be trading futures with prop firm capital, bro.
00:53:33.000There's basically two beginner-level ways to learn swing trading and two strategies.
00:53:39.000There's technical, which is technical analysis, which basically means what's happening in the company and like patterns and like things that traders can recognize.
00:53:49.000All those candlesticks that you see that confuse people, that's technical analysis.
00:53:52.000Then there's social arbitrage, which is Chris Camillo.
00:53:56.000If you want to watch him, he's made much more than me.
00:54:09.000But I personally trade off of social arbitrage, which basically means I'm looking for trends before Wall Street recognizes them and taking risks on those.
00:54:19.000So laughing at Wall Street, I would just, I wouldn't, I don't want to information to overload you.
00:57:27.000It's like saying, if I put 10 grand into the NVIDIA swing trade that I mentioned earlier versus 10 grand into just NVIDIA stock, the return on the swing trade is going to be bigger than 10 grand just in the stock.
00:59:01.000If you guys got a disagreement or a grievance, go ahead and call in and tell us your grievance, whether you have an issue with any of us here on the panel.
00:59:07.000This person has a disagreement with a hater on the line.
00:59:42.000I believe the better asset class for that would be gold.
00:59:45.000However, the SP 500 has statistically proven to be the best asset class when it comes to even corporate bonds, gold, U.S. 10-year treasury bonds, and even real estate.
00:59:56.000If you ever look at the statistics of putting a growth of $100 in the asset class, the SP 500 pretty much destroys everything else.
01:00:03.000I've been investing in the SP 500, especially in VOO since I was 21 years old.
01:00:07.000I'm currently 40, and I have over $3 million, and I would have never gone there unless it was the SP 500.
01:00:14.000However, compound interest is the best interest when you could get, especially for a if you're someone that you're making six figures and you just want to put money away and be lazy about it.
01:00:24.000But saying that's the p 500 will make you rich is completely ludicrous.
01:00:28.000Okay, so when you were 21, you started investing in the SP and now you have 3 million.
01:01:12.000Is that most people aren't saving 15 grand a month that they can put away till they're 40?
01:01:18.000That's not necessarily true because even people that have given this advice to them that said they're putting a thousand a month away or putting $2,000 a month away, they have easily accumulated a wealth.
01:01:28.000Obviously, am I saying that SP 500 will make you rich overnight?
01:02:25.000But I'm just saying that saying that SP 500 will not make you rich is a ludicrous statement.
01:02:29.000I would say gold is a better access asset class to keep you rich, but that's a 500 will definitely make people rich, especially if you're a normal person just putting money away, you want to invest.
01:04:00.000But I'm just saying it's a better deal when it comes to low risk.
01:04:04.000I understand you did great at your type of investing, which is fantastic for you, but not everyone is going to have that same level of success rate.
01:05:55.000So back to income because I don't think time is going to pass.
01:05:57.000And the people that don't invest in some sort of asset class, you're better off doing this than doing something else for the next 20 years, leaving it in the bank.
01:06:33.000If you invest in certain stocks, it's pretty passive.
01:06:37.000You just do it and then you just let it go.
01:06:38.000But if you make certain predictions, the market will reward you for making those predictions, which is why hedge funds trade the way they do.
01:07:14.000So I think if you're, if anyone that's 21 years old, you work multiple jobs, you should be able to have at least $2,000 of disposable income.
01:08:43.000I just wanted to ask because the dude, he said he's from, he worked in FinTech, like finance, and you said that you moved 400K to like crypto.
01:12:44.000Out of the hundred, maybe you have thousand, thousand clients, a hundred clients, how many of them actually make money?
01:12:52.000You know, understand the day trading, majority of the day traders, they actually lose money.
01:12:56.000And then you're claiming that by using your platform, somehow using this magical magical day trading thing that you found with the guy, you're able to make money.
01:13:12.000And then you're telling people to max out their credit cards, use your platform, which probably has a fee, and then you make money.
01:13:19.000And if you don't make them any profit, then bye-bye.
01:14:12.000That you should take out a credit card and use your 20 grand of your credit card and use that as a leverage.
01:14:19.000And then someone in your platform will match it.
01:14:22.000Now you have 40 grand, and credit cards are usually what 22% of APR per year.
01:14:27.000And if you use all of your 20 grand plus the 40 grand plus the 20 grand that you said someone's matching, then you're down.
01:14:34.000And if you lose all of your money, maybe not all, but let's say you lose 50% of your money, then you're down 10,000 in your credit card at 22%.
01:14:42.000That's a huge financial burden on whoever or college grad who's listening to your platform.
01:18:12.000Like, I know for a fact we've had four refunds because I know that, because I track the refunds and I've reached out and figured out why they refunded.
01:18:18.000And typically, it's because of two reasons.
01:18:20.000I'm going to answer your question if you wait long enough.
01:19:12.000I don't even know why you're trying to sell your platform.
01:19:17.000If you're a real hedge fund guy, why don't you open up your own hedge fund company and make money off of other people's and make money off of other people's funds instead of selling a product here?
01:21:33.000I didn't listen to guys like you and falling into a trap of buying a course or getting providers or services because I know go through that and then they get massive and they lose a lot of money.
01:22:03.000I think everyone to a point has experienced some sort of a scam, right?
01:22:10.000Whether if it's a product, whether it's a service, whether it's buying something online that turned out to be an actual thing that you're buying.
01:23:34.000So how can you automatically for sure know that I'm a scam?
01:23:41.000Especially if I'm offering free service.
01:23:44.000Like, if I was a scammer, I wouldn't offer a free service because you would come in, be disappointed, and then I didn't get anything from it.
01:23:52.000Because if you're a scammer, you wouldn't be trying to sell a course or use your platform.
01:24:04.000I just say it one more time in English.
01:24:08.000If you weren't a scammer, you wouldn't be trying to sell a brand, which is you, or a platform that you're using to make these state trades.
01:26:29.000There's a lot of legit online services.
01:26:31.000I don't care if there's online services.
01:26:34.000I just have a hoping people to be very careful with online services that are hosted by a charming young man like yourself for a consulting for finances.
01:26:54.000If you're teaching someone about finances, that's okay.
01:26:56.000But, you know, if you're trying to sell a platform like yourself, what's the difference between what you just said?
01:27:02.000If you're teaching somebody about finances and selling a platform, like what do you think I do exactly?
01:27:26.000It's very obvious to me as I've been listening to this is that you just have a grievance with anyone that's online selling a service, teaching people how to make money, rather than caring more about them getting you.
01:27:36.000I think you just have an issue with anyone that gets online service.
01:27:40.000If you are a legit financial service provider, you would be opening up your own hedge fund rather than telling people to go on online and telling them to use my service.
01:29:43.000You just have a problem with the entire industry.
01:29:44.000And that's why I'm calling you out for being low IQ.
01:29:46.000If you're going to go ahead and criticize and call into the show, do your research and figure out who you're criticizing versus just going at the entire ecosystem.
01:29:53.000If you have a problem with people that sell stuff online, fine.
01:29:56.000But don't come in here and try to make a very bland argument from a totality perspective when you're not even under when you don't even know who you're criticizing.
01:30:08.000And you didn't put things in proper context saying he's telling people to run around and liquidate 20K when that was a response to an extremely specific question and scenario.
01:30:16.000So you're a dumb fuck and someone needs to tell you that.
01:31:39.000If you can find something wrong with that logically, let me know.
01:31:44.000If I was in commercial real estate and killing it off commercial real estate, what if I wanted to charge to teach people commercial real estate?
01:32:04.000He's just one of these guys that like he assumes automatically if you have an online service and help people make money, you're automatically scamming.
01:32:10.000That's the premise that he came on because he couldn't even properly contextualize the 20K scenario that we gave and what prompted that.
01:32:18.000And that's all very important because I was saying, how does someone get around funding if they don't have the money?