Greg Todd [00:00:00]:
Why? Because of your track record. Right. Instead of 80%, you cannot get 85%. Why? Because of your track record. But if your track record ain't good, then you don't deserve it.
Luke Holstrom [00:00:10]:
Yep.
Greg Todd [00:00:10]:
It's the same thing. Same thing. Investors, entrepreneurs. It's the same path. You got to get good.
Luke Holstrom [00:00:18]:
Yep. You got to get good.
Greg Todd [00:00:19]:
Yeah.
Luke Holstrom [00:00:19]:
And then, yeah. They incentivize you if you keep getting better.
Greg Todd [00:00:22]:
Right.
Luke Holstrom [00:00:22]:
They'll increase the profit share. They'll increase the amount of capital you have. Like, I have some students with even seven figures in capital, and some of them have, like, I had a student just recently, within eight weeks of joining our program, got $4.1 million in capital. And he was never even a trader before that.
Greg Todd [00:00:37]:
Wow. But there's so much money out there that investors as an investor. Now that I have some investments, I just want to know that I'm putting money, I will give you money towards something. I want to mitigate my risk. So I just want to work with people that know what they're doing. If I'm going to give you money in this area, that's it. And so investors, people will give you the money. It's out there, but you have to show it first.
Greg Todd [00:01:11]:
This is Secrets for success. Welcome to the Secrets for Success podcast. I'm your host, Greg Todd. Thank you, as always, always, for joining me. Okay, today I have a very, very special guest. I think after hearing this guy, and he's been here for about 20 or 30 minutes, we've been talking prior to the podcast. I think you guys gonna be really inspired, and I think you're. You're going to realize that.
Greg Todd [00:01:37]:
Wait a minute. This success thing, this. Maybe it's not a secret, but there are certain things that you have to do that is going to get you to where you want to get to. So, Luke Holstrom, welcome to the podcast.
Luke Holstrom [00:01:52]:
Thanks, Greg, for having me.
Greg Todd [00:01:53]:
So, why don't you tell the people a little bit about what you do and kind of your story, because you are not a healthcare professional. But I feel like there are so many things that you have experienced and things that you've gone through that can help healthcare entrepreneurs. So the floor is yours.
Luke Holstrom [00:02:07]:
Amen. Well, what I do is I actually. I help traders. I help traders and everyday people learn how to trade. So I'm just. I'm a coach, like a lot of your audience probably is in the healthcare world, but what I do really is I specialize in just helping people learn how to trade, but then really just providing them with the necessary tools and skill sets they need to actually turn it into a full time income. So we do that through a couple different ways. You know, teach them the strategies they need, helping them get access to other people's money, which is a unique way.
Luke Holstrom [00:02:38]:
A lot of people do that in business, real estate. I'm sure people investing in their healthcare, you know, use other people's money in some extent. So we bring traders to other people's money so they can leverage it and really make it a full time income.
Greg Todd [00:02:50]:
Okay. All right, we. Cause here's what I feel like, just us talking prior to hitting the record button. I feel like there are so many things that you do as a trader in the market that is especially even your journey, that's so similar for just the traditional entrepreneur. And so I think the first thing I would like, so I'm going to interject you every once in a while, because, like, I'm just, my brain is already racing so much on what you've already, you know, told me. Can you tell people how old you are?
Luke Holstrom [00:03:23]:
I'm 22.
Greg Todd [00:03:24]:
You're 22 years old? How long you been doing this?
Luke Holstrom [00:03:26]:
Been training for eight years. So I started in, yeah, 14 years old. So I was back in 2016. It was a pretty interesting period just because, you know, I was getting into trading, but also it was before, you know, the big crypto bull run that really took crypto into the mainstream. So I was kind of on both sides, but, yeah, that's about the time that I started.
Greg Todd [00:03:44]:
You were 14 years old. How the hell did you get into this at 14? At 14, I was playing Madden. How did you get into trading at 14?
Luke Holstrom [00:03:53]:
Yeah, I know a lot of people ask me that, and I think what it really comes down to is there's a lot of series of events that kind of bring you to a period in your life before you start doing what you do. You had a couple series of events, probably, that happened that were totally unrelated. And for me, it was working out, and that's what really gave me the belief in myself to actually go for trading, go for business, go for all these other things. I remember when I was 13, I started to work out because I was chubbier. I got picked on and all that. That was like a big journey in my life where I kind of took something. I went for it, I was consistent for it. I didn't have one off day for, I mean, after like a year, I was like, oh, I just did all of this.
Luke Holstrom [00:04:31]:
Within a year, I just lost. I remember, like, the first three months I worked out, I lost 40 pounds, and I was, like, 13 years old. So that was, like, the first thing that really got me to believe in myself, believe that, you know, if you just put in consistent effort, you can get to your goal eventually. It's not going to happen overnight. You know, when you work out, you're working out, you're eating good, you look in the mirror. So I got the chub on you, right? And you do that over and over again for months, and soon enough, you'll start to see, like, the results, but, you know, it's not gonna happen overnight. And I think I took, that was, like, a huge part of my entrepreneurial trading journey that kind of, like, taught me delayed gratification and really helped, you know, a lot of other things within my life. I'd say that was probably the start of my whole entire journey of even getting into this.
Greg Todd [00:05:09]:
So at the age of 13, you looking at yourself, you're like, I wanna change my body. You start to work out. You start to develop these habits and this discipline, and over the course of months, you losing this weight, and you're like, wow, if. I guess the lesson you learn is if you stick with something long enough, especially if you're doing it the right way, like, you will yield some really good results. Right? Yeah. And so, okay, so, so that gave you the belief. But how did, like, like, where did trading come? It's like, how did you find out about it?
Luke Holstrom [00:05:43]:
So, actually, I found out about it on a webinar first, which is funny from where, the position I am in now, but I got into it from a webinar. I got invited onto it. I came to it, listened to it. Everything was really interesting to me. It was pretty fresh, and that was all right. But the thing about it is, it was a company at the time, I had a side hustle where I was reselling clothes, reselling so many different things.
Greg Todd [00:06:04]:
You've always been a hustler. You've always been an entrepreneur. Always.
Luke Holstrom [00:06:07]:
But what I noticed is I. I was selling designer clothes, reselling them, and I noticed the guy on the webinar was wearing two pieces of fake clothes, and it just threw me off. I was like, nope, if you can't buy $1,000 of real clothes, what's this guy going to teach me? What is his company going to teach me? Because truthfully, it was a company. It was like a big MLM inside of this space. So kind of cut me away. I was like, okay, I'll walk away from this. Still interested in trading? But that's not really the place that I'd want to learn from. And so I did a lot of research, read a lot of books.
Luke Holstrom [00:06:36]:
I use YouTube university as like a huge cornerstone of my life. First, starting out, there's a lot of great resources, like investopedia, baby pips was a good one when I first started. So I was reading a lot, researching, studying, but one of the biggest things that actually helped me get into trading was like, the charts are free for everyone. You can get a free charting software everywhere. And at the end of the day, the only way you're going to make money in the markets is if you're in a trend. It has to be in a trend, free to make money. Right? Okay, so I mean, just look at the charts. That was like where I really started to dig in and get really good at trading was perfecting technical analysis.
Greg Todd [00:07:13]:
Okay.
Luke Holstrom [00:07:13]:
That was kind of like the starting point. And then kind of where I ended off and really started to like, you know, propel in trading was just focusing on the technical analysis, finding the things that happen every single day on a regular basis that most people don't see because they're not observant, they're not paying attention. And like you can back test, you can go back on the charts ten, 2100 years and see what the market's done. There's no way you can predict the market, tell it what's going to happen. There's no way you can do that. You can look back on previous data. That's all we got. It's the best tool you have.
Luke Holstrom [00:07:45]:
So that's kind of where I focused on, was looking back at the previous data and I got really heavy into it, even like within high school, the first couple years of me getting into trading.
Greg Todd [00:07:55]:
So if you had to say as a trader, if there were two to three characteristics or skill sets that you need to develop in order to be a great trader, like, what would they be? One of them you just said, and you said you have to be observant.
Luke Holstrom [00:08:12]:
Yep.
Greg Todd [00:08:12]:
Right. Is there one or two other ones that you would say?
Luke Holstrom [00:08:15]:
Yeah, you have to be observant. The other one I would say is you have to have delayed gratification. A lot of people don't have delayed gratification, but like, it's just like I was saying, with working out with really any business, like you need put in the work, you gotta eat crap for a little bit and then you're gonna get to the results. That's huge. And I would also say, just trying to think if there's another one. So you have to, like, have that go getter attitude. Like, you have to always be searching for more.
Greg Todd [00:08:45]:
Right.
Luke Holstrom [00:08:45]:
You know, you, like, just because it's working, it can always work better.
Greg Todd [00:08:49]:
Right?
Luke Holstrom [00:08:50]:
I could, yeah, I could have quit after, like, the first version of my strategy, but I went in, what else is going on? What else am I missing? And I kept going in. And every time you optimize it, you can boost that in trading a win rate or your risk to award, and you can keep boosting those metrics and make it more profitable. And you bring that into business even. It's the same thing. You look at your data and you have to be able to make optimizations and make data driven decisions.
Greg Todd [00:09:18]:
Can I tell you this? It's the same thing. Those are the same top three things for an entrepreneur.
Luke Holstrom [00:09:25]:
Yeah.
Greg Todd [00:09:26]:
And an entrepreneur that's going to make money is the only way you're making money is if you're truly serving people with problems that they want solved. Right? Yeah. So you have to be extremely observant.
Luke Holstrom [00:09:40]:
Yeah.
Greg Todd [00:09:40]:
Like you. And sometimes when you're so good at what you do or you've spent so much money and time, especially people that go through traditional schooling, they're so focused on what they do that's so great. And they want everybody to just love what it is that they do because they loved it enough to spend all this money doing it.
Luke Holstrom [00:09:57]:
Right.
Greg Todd [00:09:57]:
But you have to be extremely observant in order to be able to win in the marketplace. I don't care if you're a trader like you, or you're a physical therapist or you're a registered dietitian or you're a real estate agent. You have to be so observant, not just what's going on in a market, but you got to be observant with people. Like, what is keeping you up at night. Okay, so that's number one. You have to be, you have to be really good at delayed, you know, gratification. You have to be able to, like, eat poop for a while, knowing that the process is solid. Eventually I will receive results.
Greg Todd [00:10:33]:
Like, I know when I'm working out and I start working out again, I know that usually, that first week, even though I'm working hard and I feel terrible because I'm sore this, I usually gain weight before I lose weight. I usually don't see any muscle mass increase before I start to see the trend. So you have to have the delayed gratification and then you have to optimize. You have to constantly optimize. And I think most people, they really don't have a desire to be great.
Luke Holstrom [00:11:02]:
They just want to be fun.
Greg Todd [00:11:04]:
Yeah. When I hear people say, hey, so what does the average trader make, huh? Like, what does the average physical therapist make? Like, I agree. Like, I don't want yet, by the way, they're all doing pretty terrible. I want to be the best. So the best are constantly optimized. I kid you not. Right before you came here, we just finished two three day events, right. With our clients.
Greg Todd [00:11:29]:
Totally different, like, style of events, not like just teaching a bunch of stuff and then you go home, like teaching you. And then I took my, had my staff and my team actually, like, helped them do everything so that their business would grow in three days what it would take to probably three to six months to do, right. So it's awesome. And they're like, oh, my gosh, this is incredible. We've never been to an event like this. Da da da da. And we just spent an hour and ten minutes in that room talking about all the ways we can optimize it and all the things we did wrong. And I think that's what makes the one percenters the one percenters.
Greg Todd [00:12:05]:
So I think what's so interesting is that whether you're an entrepreneur or your investors to sing crap.
Luke Holstrom [00:12:10]:
Yeah. And I tell people a lot of times, if you want to be like, you have to treat trading like a business and it's going to pay you like a business, but if you treat like a hobby, it's going to pay you like a hobby.
Greg Todd [00:12:18]:
Right, exactly.
Luke Holstrom [00:12:19]:
Yeah. And a lot of the characteristics, I mean, trading, it's a one man sport.
Greg Todd [00:12:23]:
Right?
Luke Holstrom [00:12:23]:
Like, you can have a team where you lean on people's shoulders, but, like, your results are your results. At the end of the day, it's coming back to you. So. Yeah, yeah, it's a lot of the same stuff.
Greg Todd [00:12:32]:
Yeah, it's, it's, it's like being a golfer or.
Luke Holstrom [00:12:36]:
Hello. Yeah, right. I'm always like a one man sport.
Greg Todd [00:12:39]:
Yeah.
Luke Holstrom [00:12:39]:
Working out. Golf, golf, trading. Yeah, I like, just like that one man sport.
Greg Todd [00:12:43]:
Yeah.
Luke Holstrom [00:12:44]:
Because, like, at the end of the day, I rely myself on anybody.
Greg Todd [00:12:47]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. Like that. Here, let me ask you something. Do you believe this statement? Because I do. But I would love to hear your thoughts on it because you're now a trader, you're an investor, but you're also an entrepreneur. I believe this. I believe that the better investor I become, the better entrepreneur I become, and the better of an entrepreneur I become, the better of an investor I become.
Luke Holstrom [00:13:13]:
Yep.
Greg Todd [00:13:14]:
You believe that.
Luke Holstrom [00:13:14]:
I believe that.
Greg Todd [00:13:15]:
Yeah.
Luke Holstrom [00:13:16]:
Yeah. It all comes in together.
Greg Todd [00:13:18]:
Yeah, it does. And let me tell you why I, I believe that because at least for me, and I want this to kind of lead into the method of showing investment. What, you were telling me that. But I believe that when I'm investing, if I'm going to invest in another business, right. I'm not really investing in the opportunity because opportunities come and go most of the time when I'm investing at this point, I'm investing in a person like, and I messed up a lot of deals in the past because I was looking at the wrong thing. I was looking at just the trend and not looking at, is this someone that because we understand in business, some bad things are going to happen? Is this someone that's going to fold the minute something bad happens? Is this a problem solver? Is this person excited? Are they going to sell people on a vision? So I'm typically looking at that and I don't think I could. And my investments, now that I'm doing with other entities and businesses, I'm not messing up as much because, and I only think I could have understood that by me being an entrepreneur. Right.
Greg Todd [00:14:30]:
And then as an entrepreneur, you know, I feel like as I become more risk averse. I'm sorry, more risk, you know, tolerant. I'm tolerant of the risk and willing to invest not just in myself, but invest in others and invest in, whether it's software or people or whatnot, I believe I achieve more as an entrepreneur. So, yeah, I just feel like, I feel like for those of you listening, you must understand the characteristics of being a good investor, and you must become a good investor if you're going to succeed as an entrepreneur, even if you're doing the one man, you know, trading shows. Does that make sense?
Luke Holstrom [00:15:17]:
Yeah, it makes sense to me. Yeah, yeah, I know. Like, even if you're a one man show, I mean, you got a lot of other, like, software, other things that you're investing in.
Greg Todd [00:15:25]:
Right, right.
Luke Holstrom [00:15:25]:
Yeah. There's, it's not just a one man show. There's a lot that goes into it still.
Greg Todd [00:15:28]:
Right. You're a golfer, right. When it comes down to it, the performance is you, but you've got coaches, you've got people that help you, you've got your, you know, your strength training, this, that. So many different things. But when it comes down to it, when the big day happens, when the tournament happens, it's all on you, baby. Right.
Luke Holstrom [00:15:48]:
Yeah. Take all the credit.
Greg Todd [00:15:50]:
Yeah, exactly, exactly, exactly. All right, so can you explain to us, your method of how you basically get funded for trading so under it. This is a healthcare audience that's listening to this, but this is really fascinating what is out there. And, and look, here's one thing. There's more than healthcare that listens to this podcast. Pretty much everybody that listens to this podcast doesn't want to exclusively trade time for money, okay? They're used to treating patients all day, all night, and they're trying to find other ways, right? Whether it's going online, this, that, da da da da da, and just to have the time flexibility, the time freedom, the financial freedom, etcetera, etcetera. Okay, so with that said, can you explain how you get people started in trading? Explain the whole system that you just explained to me before we started?
Luke Holstrom [00:16:44]:
Yes. I mean, first of all, you have to learn how to be a good trader. You have to master the skillset. So that's really the first thing that we do before we look at helping people get other people's money to really trade with. We have to, you know, prove the results out first. Make sure that you, you know, you're hitting your KPI's, you're profitable, you're optimized before where we go into that stage. So really what we do is like in trading, you know, there's a few different skill sets that you're going to have to learn. You have to learn how to read the charts, you have to learn about, you know, what news is important, how to read the news, how it's going to affect the market and the overall sentiment.
Luke Holstrom [00:17:14]:
You know, you have to go into risk management trading plan. So there's a lot of different aspects of trading and my job is to make it as simple as possible. So anyone that you know, even if you work a full time job, you have a business, you have something else going on, you can do this for like one to 2 hours a day. And it's a super simplified approach. And, you know, I believe that with trading, you can learn about trading for the rest of your life and you'll never be done right. So there's only really like you want to focus like on the Pareto principle, like the 20%, that's going to leave you to 80% of the results. So I really have like a simplified, narrowed in approach. And what we really do is like, first of all, you have to learn everything.
Luke Holstrom [00:17:50]:
So I coach people, teach them all the skill sets that they need, but once they're showing, proving that they are profitable, we'll do some practicing, some practice accounts, practice tests to make sure that they are ready. But once they hit that point of profitability, then we'll go in and work with funding partners. And really how this all started is back in the eighties there was a thing called proprietary firms that started. And I don't know if you ever heard of the Salomon brothers. They're a huge hedge fund back in the eighties, and they're making so much money through their clients. They're like, if we're making so much money for our clients so consistently, why don't we just use our own money so we can have a majority of the profits instead of a couple percent of the profits and we'll be able to pay our traders way more. It's a win win situation, right, but we'll have to take the risk on. But like, you know, they said we're comfortable with it, we see all the data.
Luke Holstrom [00:18:35]:
So they actually started out by hiring their internal traders to trade their own personal firm, capital.
Greg Todd [00:18:40]:
Okay.
Luke Holstrom [00:18:41]:
That's kind of how like the whole concept started. But obviously back then you used to have to go into a desk work, you know, you didn't have that freedom like you do now, so you have to go in. It was like another job, basically. A lot of people had MBAs licenses, so. And even like, you know, usually had to pay for a chunk of that trading account. Like if you had a, they'll give you like a stop loss, let's say of like you can only lose this much on the account. Let's say it was 20 grand, you'd have to put that 20 grand up. So really you were just getting more leverage, but you still had risk component to it where now everything's all digital, you know, digitized, digitalized back probably about twelve years ago, the first online company came in and started doing these prop firms online.
Luke Holstrom [00:19:22]:
So they just, you know, online, you sign up for an account, they give you an account to a practice account which is like a demo, fake paper trading, you know, account. And they just want you to prove that you're a profitable trader. So, you know, you have to learn all the skill sets, you have to learn the strategies beforehand, but they just want you to just want to see like, hey, can you make this amount of profit while managing this amount of risk?
Greg Todd [00:19:44]:
Right?
Luke Holstrom [00:19:45]:
And you know, once you pass that, you hit the profit target while managing your risk, they'll give you access to credentials, you'll log into it, and you have a funded account of, you know, you can get 100,000 to a couple hundred thousand dollars at a time and then over time, you can scale up into the millions of dollars per firm. But that's usually where they start you out. And then, you know, I started when I had a 70% profit share. Now it's 80, 90% profit share minimum for most people. Key part about this, too, is there's no loss liability. So it's not like going and getting a loan or, you know, asking a friend or a family member for money. Like, there's no loss liability. Worst case scenario, if you break the rules on that funded account, you can go back through and take the test again, prove to them that you're profitable again.
Luke Holstrom [00:20:25]:
They'll give you another funded account. So, you know, it's really a way to. I think of it as like, you're minimizing your risk. You have way more potential. Like, you know, you're trading with a six to seven figure account. You get 80% to 90% of the profit share on it, and then there's no loss liability. So, like, the risk to award ratio on this opportunity is like, you have very small amount of risk and make a lot of money with it.
Greg Todd [00:20:48]:
So let's break this down. Let's break this down for people. So, basically, step number one is this. You become good at a skill set in this situation. It's getting good at the trading skillset. I want everybody right now, like, everybody, I don't care what you're doing. If you're on the toilet, go get a piece of paper. Okay? All right? If you're in the car, stop the car, and I want you to listen to what I'm telling you, because this is exactly how it works for your business right now, or for those of you that are aspiring for business, okay? The first thing you must do is you have to get good at the skillset.
Greg Todd [00:21:25]:
When you get good at the skill set, people will notice, okay, what Luke just explained to you is that this is a trading skill set. Become good at the trading skillset. Learn it first. Learn about it. Learn how to do it. Try to figure out what the system or the process is, and then start doing it. Okay? So learn about it, which is what you're doing right now. Learn how to do it.
Greg Todd [00:21:47]:
Okay. And then actually start doing it. And the goal is, as you're doing it, you will never achieve mastery. But the goal is, is if you want to be a part of the 1%, you are going to work your way up to at least being at a subconscious level of doing something, meaning that I can do it and not even think about it consciously. Okay? That's the goal. Now, once you get there, then what happens is people start to see that you are better than most when people see that you are better than most. When people are like, oh, my gosh, I have no access to money. There's plenty of money to access out there, but you actually have to be good at something for people to want to risk their money to give it to you.
Greg Todd [00:22:29]:
So, in what Luke just said, let's talk about trading. So, if you can prove that you have done this for someone and you have done this for, like, even though it's fake money or paper money.
Luke Holstrom [00:22:42]:
Proof of concept.
Greg Todd [00:22:43]:
Yeah, it's just proof of concept. That's it. And by the way, guys, it's the same thing your business. Like, why would somebody go and invest in you? Meaning that they're going to become your patient, okay. Or they're going to become your client if you haven't shown that you've done it for anybody else. Why would we do that? Just because you went and you spent $200,000 on your degree? That should make. That's not how it works. So go and prove it first, okay? Prove that you can do it.
Greg Todd [00:23:10]:
And then people invest in you. In this case, with Luke, we're talking about investing money, right? And saying, hey, I'm gonna give you $100,000. You're gonna get 70% of it. If you make profits, we'll take the other 30%. Okay. All right, that's fine. But for those of you that are doing business, that's. That's people investing you as well.
Greg Todd [00:23:29]:
People will pay you money if you actually, like, have gotten those results. Not just saying, I think I can do this for you, but you actually got it for people. Okay, so then. Now. Now people have invested with us. They're investing with us because of the skillset that we have developed in order to get to the point where people are actually going to say, hey, you know what? I'm going to stop here and listen. Okay? So now they're investing in you. Guess what happens if you actually prove results in real time, in the real world with real life situations? In this case, we're talking money, people.
Greg Todd [00:24:09]:
You now have more leverage.
Luke Holstrom [00:24:10]:
Yeah.
Greg Todd [00:24:11]:
So now, instead of getting 70% of the profits, you can now command 80% on the market, right?
Luke Holstrom [00:24:17]:
Yep.
Greg Todd [00:24:17]:
Okay. Why? Because of your track record, right. Instead of 80%, you cannot get 85%. Why? Because of your track record. But if your track record ain't good, then you don't deserve it.
Luke Holstrom [00:24:28]:
Yep.
Greg Todd [00:24:29]:
It's the same thing. Same thing. Investors entrepreneurs. It's the same path. You got to get good.
Luke Holstrom [00:24:36]:
Yep. Gotta get good.
Greg Todd [00:24:37]:
Yeah.
Luke Holstrom [00:24:37]:
And then. Yeah. They incentivize you if you keep getting better.
Greg Todd [00:24:40]:
Right.
Luke Holstrom [00:24:40]:
They'll increase the profit share. They'll increase the amount of capital you have. Like, I have some students with even seven figures in capital.
Greg Todd [00:24:47]:
Wow.
Luke Holstrom [00:24:47]:
And some of them have, like, I had a student just recently, within eight weeks of joining our program, got $4.1 million in capital, and he was never even a trader before that.
Greg Todd [00:24:55]:
Wow. But there's so much money out there.
Luke Holstrom [00:24:59]:
Yeah.
Greg Todd [00:24:59]:
That investors as an investor. Now that I have some investments, I just want to know that I'm putting money. I will give you money towards something. I want to mitigate my risk. So I just want to work with people that know what they're doing. If I'm going to give you money in this area, that's it. And so investors, people will give you the money. It's out there, but you have to show it first.
Greg Todd [00:25:25]:
It's nothing. Give me the money, and then I'll show you. No, show me, and then I'll give you the money. Correct?
Luke Holstrom [00:25:31]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some people think it's the other way around, but, yeah, it's how it works. You got to prove it, and then you'll be incentivized later on down the road. And I like what you said about the unconscious confidence, too, because you do need to get to that point. And I found that even with trading, like, I can give everyone my specific trading edge. I really just use, like, two strategies every single day. It's within the first hour and a half of the day before we hopped on today. Like, I just traded for an hour and a half today, and I was done.
Greg Todd [00:25:56]:
Right.
Luke Holstrom [00:25:57]:
It's pretty simple. But, like, I had to get it to that systematic approach because, I mean, I had subconscious confidence. But you can't coach people subconscious confidence.
Greg Todd [00:26:06]:
Right, right, right.
Luke Holstrom [00:26:07]:
You have to pull it all out.
Greg Todd [00:26:08]:
Right.
Luke Holstrom [00:26:08]:
And then systematize it so it has a structured plan and everyone can use it. But that's one of the things that we try to do, is, like, just simplify everything. So. And it almost, like, make it as simple, simple, mechanical as possible so everyone can have as close to that subconscious confidence without actually, like, you know, earning it yet.
Greg Todd [00:26:26]:
Well, let's talk about how you've been able to develop that. That subconscious, you know, confidence. Before we started, you were telling me a little bit about kind of your highest moment and your lowest moment. So you went to college for a little bit, right?
Luke Holstrom [00:26:41]:
Yeah, I actually graduated.
Greg Todd [00:26:42]:
Okay. You did, you did, you did. Okay. All right. I. So why don't you tell us about your highest moment and lowest moments as an investor? I think this will be good. And it keeps it real with people.
Luke Holstrom [00:26:54]:
Yeah, probably my highest and lowest moment happened within just a couple of weeks. And sometimes that's just how it goes, right? So, actually, I was working at a job, and I had a scholarship for school, and I was like, my first year in school, so I was, you know, trying to pay it down. I was like, obviously, it's super important to me that I have the scholarship to pay for it, because I didn't come from a background where, you know, you're gonna have hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to college, and it's all paid for, like, nope, gotta do your part. So I was working there, and it was all right, but I got fired. And the reason why is. Cause I was late to work. And I was late to work because I was trading all the other hours of the day. I was trading New York session, London session, Tokyo session, all the different hours of the day.
Luke Holstrom [00:27:38]:
And I, yeah, didn't make it to work on time. And from there, I lost my scholarship. But I went all into trading from that point on because I was already trading, and I even used to have a ceramic coding business as well. It did pretty well. So I had money to go full into trading, and within the first, it was like a week to ten days, I made a $34,000 trade, and I was like, okay, great. I just paid for that whole entire scholarship. I was making way more, obviously, doing that than working at my job. So I thought I had it all figured out, got super high confidence, and I went in, and within a couple of days, I lost all of it.
Luke Holstrom [00:28:14]:
And it was just from thinking I was smart. So I started to leverage way more than I really should have been, and I just over leveraged myself. And that's a big thing where you have to kind of go incrementally, you have to work your way up, you know, know your place, you know, but keep growing. But, yeah, if you over leverage yourself too much too fast, you can. You can burn up everything that you built. So that was like a moment where, you know, I had great success, and then, you know, I just kind of lost it all. But then it was good, though, because it was a learning moment and pivotal moment in my life, where I was trading with my own money at the time, like around 20, $50,000 account, but it wasn't really. I wasn't making enough money to actually, like, I wouldn't have been able to sustain my living or like, all my expenses and really keep growing as a trader if I kept on that path.
Luke Holstrom [00:29:02]:
So it pushed me to look for, okay, how can I get access to more money? And I heard about the things called prop firms at the time before and I heard about them, though I wasn't old enough to actually trade with them, but I was like, okay, I'm 18, I can trade with the prop firm. So I'm going to give this a shot. So I went in and they weren't as popular as they are now. Today. Most people were using their own capital. It wasn't really a well known thing. There was maybe one or two prop firms that were online at the time. So I went in to trade with them and that's kind of one of the pivotal points that I had that really shaped my life because if I didn't have that, you know, big win and that big loss, I probably wouldn't have found prop firms and went all in on them.
Greg Todd [00:29:39]:
Right.
Luke Holstrom [00:29:39]:
And that's what, you know, led me to getting six figures in capital, being able to then just have more leverage. And it's the same amount of work in trading, like whether you make 5% on 100K account or a million dollar account, it's the same amount of work.
Greg Todd [00:29:51]:
Right, right. So there's, so there's so many different lessons here. I think. I think one of the first things that I kind of took from it is the fact that it took something that seemed like it was unfortunate and you losing your job slash scholarship that allowed you to then just put a little bit more focus on the other thing that you're working with. And that little bit more focus yielded you your biggest ever trade of $34,000. And I think the next lesson I took from that is that, you know, you still have to, you have to stick with your game plan and stick with the game plan that you know is going to work and you got to play small ball.
Luke Holstrom [00:30:41]:
Yeah.
Greg Todd [00:30:42]:
And I think what you did is you started to feel yourself a little bit and you started to go for the home run all the time and then you lost it. Right.
Luke Holstrom [00:30:51]:
Yeah.
Greg Todd [00:30:52]:
And so in entrepreneurship, at least, at least my way. Right. I can, I'm not claiming to be the best one, but I've obviously done pretty decent.
Luke Holstrom [00:31:00]:
Right. Yeah.
Greg Todd [00:31:01]:
Is that I play small ball all the time. Right. I'm a small ball guy, and it seems like the small, like you losing all that money turned me into that. It turned you into small ball and small ball, you start to realize, wait a minute, if everybody plays small ball, could they win? And you're like, damn.
Luke Holstrom [00:31:17]:
And they'd be a lot more consistent. Right.
Greg Todd [00:31:19]:
You know, and so, and so that's what I teach people, too. Like, how do you play small ball in business? You can, you can win, right?
Luke Holstrom [00:31:25]:
Yeah.
Greg Todd [00:31:26]:
And so, and then the last thing that I think I would take from it is, is that, you know, you said it's no harder to trade on 100k as it is. Trade on a million, you know? And so, you know, most people, unfortunately, they go out of business just because, like, they just run out of funding and they don't give themselves enough time to allow the business to win, you know? And, and, like, even you working with these prop firms now, you, you've given people truly a fighting chance to win. You know, it's like, you know, we're not, like, trying to save up five grand and trade off. Like, you're never gonna be able to, like, turn that into something. You know, you got to have some leverage.
Luke Holstrom [00:32:10]:
Yeah.
Greg Todd [00:32:11]:
And so, yeah, I really love what you're doing, man. I really love. Because it just makes sense.
Luke Holstrom [00:32:16]:
Yeah. So, I mean, yeah, if you're like, I have a, I have a student who just got. He did his first payout and like, he was, he was kind of a new trader. He was traded like a little bit, just dabbled into it. But I know, like, he just did 26,000 this month off of a 200K account. But before that, he had a $4,000 account. So he would have made, what, $400 for bucks and he would have had a $4,000 risk. Right now he just has a 200K funded account that, because you have to pay to pass these evaluations.
Luke Holstrom [00:32:42]:
Like, the evaluations cost a little bit of money, the test cost money, but, like, it's only a couple hundred dollars, right?
Greg Todd [00:32:47]:
Yeah.
Luke Holstrom [00:32:48]:
Like, the risk just to make that much, too, it's just, it's crazy.
Greg Todd [00:32:50]:
So the same work, the same work just in on the two k account, which would have yielded him $400. It's the same work on a $200,000 account. Yeah, I mean, when it comes to the trade, right?
Luke Holstrom [00:33:06]:
Yeah. And the only thing, only thing that changes, I think, when you're trading from like $100,000 account to a million dollar account, 100 million dollar account, whatever it is, like, the only thing that's really going to change is psychology.
Greg Todd [00:33:15]:
It's just psychology.
Luke Holstrom [00:33:16]:
So you're going to have, like, psychology is a huge part of trading, but it's also a huge part of life. It's a huge part of business working out, but it's a huge part of everything.
Greg Todd [00:33:23]:
Yeah.
Luke Holstrom [00:33:23]:
You need to have good psychology, good. Like mental strength and, yeah. Like, you need to be developed, I think you have to, like, develop yourself. You know, they have to develop, like, your own psychology. You have to go through stuff.
Greg Todd [00:33:35]:
Yeah. And there, there's a story in the Bible. It's a parable of the talents. I don't know if you know it, but basically, you know, there was one servant that was given one talent, one that was given two, one that was given five. Right. And, you know, the servant that was given five ended up, you know, doubling it. Right. And the one that was given two ended up, you know, doubling it.
Greg Todd [00:33:57]:
And then the master gave them, said, you know, well done, good and faithful, you know, servant. And the one that was only given one didn't have the right psychology and did nothing with it, like, didn't even try. Right.
Luke Holstrom [00:34:10]:
Really? Okay.
Greg Todd [00:34:11]:
Yeah. And so, and so, so basically, that servant either a, either a, that servant didn't have the skillset, okay? Didn't take your course, they didn't have the skill set or they had the skill set, but they didn't have the psychology to be able to invest the one talent, but the one that had five had not only the skillset to multiply the money, but had the psychology to say, yes, we're dealing with a bigger situation here, but at this, it's still the same skills that I need to use.
Luke Holstrom [00:34:48]:
Right.
Greg Todd [00:34:48]:
You know, and so, and so, yeah, it's psychology with, like, it comes out to stewardship. You know, I'm very biblically based on how I try to just operate with people and operate in entrepreneur world, it just comes down to too much is given, much is required. And if you can't, if you can't do much, then just don't ask for much.
Luke Holstrom [00:35:09]:
Yeah.
Greg Todd [00:35:09]:
You know, that's really it. Just be okay with not having much and be okay with that life. But if you are going to ask for more, be willing to do more, to do more than you have. Yeah. You got to sacrifice and you got to be able to manage what it is that you're given. So if you're making a couple million a year, you got to be able to manage what comes with that. You know, the people that this, that the staff and all this other stuff, you're given hundreds of millions. You gotta be able to manage that, you know?
Luke Holstrom [00:35:34]:
Yeah.
Greg Todd [00:35:34]:
And so, yeah, you just gotta, you gotta be okay with being a good steward. And so it sounds like that's important in your line of work. All right, this has been great. I really enjoyed this conversation, man. And I hope those of you that are listening have gotten a lot out of this, because I just see so many parallels and. Yeah, man, I'm pretty impressed. You're 22. Damn it.
Greg Todd [00:35:56]:
Make you mentor my kids. Anyways, how can people find out about you and tell them where to go?
Luke Holstrom [00:36:04]:
Yeah, so you can find me on Instagram is where I'm probably most active. Just Luke Homestrom. And then also you can find us funded profits trading on YouTube. And really, like, if you want to get in contact with me, that's probably the best place just to go to our website funded profitstradingacademy.com, and, you know, just check us out. You'll find everything on there. But, yeah, we'll help you, you know, get access to six, seven figures in capital and, you know, also teach you the skill set so you can use it the right way.
Greg Todd [00:36:33]:
Awesome, man. I'm really impressed. Really proud of you, and thanks for coming on. So y'all go check them out. All right, till next time.
