 Welcome to the After Hours Podcast, your source for all things investments and finance. In this episode, we'll be diving into the market trends and strategies you need to know about. From the rise of chat, GPT and its impacts on the industry, to the overall performance of large cap and small cap markets we've got you covered. But we don't just talk numbers. We bring you real life stories from everyday traders, sharing their experiences and the lessons they've learned. From the volatility of Bitcoin, to the risks and rewards of various assets, we'll cover it all. Tune in and join the conversation. Let's navigate the exciting and ever-changing world of investing together on the After Hours Podcast. What's going on guys? We're back with another episode of the After Hours Podcast. Today we have a few new topics. The first of which that we want to cover is AI. It has been the hot commodity going around. Everyone's talking about this chat GPT. And I know maybe a lot of you don't know what it is. So Alex, I don't know if you want to explain a little bit and we can dive in from there. Yeah. So from what I understand about this whole thing is that the way that the AI works is it's read, I think like 1% of the internet, like something insane, right? It's read all of the internet with 1% or 10% of the internet, something crazy like that. And it takes that information and it understands how to process that information. So by being able to have that ability, it's able to process that information faster than any human can. Because for us, it will take us a lifetime to read the internet and then process it. It does in like five seconds. So with this new tool of AI, it makes a lot of things obsolete. You could tell the AI to write you an email. You could tell the AI to write you an email in the tone of Shakespeare. You could tell the AI to pretty much do anything. Like what I did is I've been playing around with it. So I was asking like, what are the best space movies or what are the best science fiction movies? And it gave me a list. It's like based on the ratings or based on the critically claimed XYZ. These are the top 10 space movies. And I'm like, wait, these are all pretty fucking good space movies that I've seen. So it takes all that raw data from the internet. It kind of compiles it into one sentence phrase or whatever. So you could pretty much ask it anything. So like for me, like I could ask it, how to get better sleep at night? How do I get better sleep at night? Well, based on the information that we found, you know, you shouldn't be drinking at night. You shouldn't be watching TV past 8 p.m. You shouldn't be doing this. You shouldn't be doing that. Yeah. You know, it'll probably take me 20 minutes to scour blog posts to look around. But this tool now compiles all that information into one place. Now, the crazy thing is that this tool can also write algos for you. So if you have a trading algorithm that you've been wanting to create or you've been having or you're not really a developer or you don't know anything about code, the robot will write the code for you, which is the most absolutely insane thing ever. And the scary part is it's just getting smarter and smarter and smarter and smarter. And Microsoft just announced that they're buying a 50% stake in it for $10 billion, which in my opinion is pretty freaking low because this has the opportunity to be probably, probably broke in and of itself like a trillion dollar fucking company. If they do it right, because now you have to think to yourself with all the information that it gathers, what's going to happen when it starts to come into businesses? So for example, let's say someone is curious about joining MIC, someone is curious about trading and they want to kind of get more information on trading and MIC. Well, eventually the robot is going to get so smart that it knows everything about MIC. It knows everything about me. It knows everything about our industry and the robot will communicate with the potential customer that wants to join MIC. Now the crazy part is a human could only talk to one person at a time. The robot could probably talk to 250, 300 people an hour. So then you think to yourself, how much is this robot really worth if I could pay an employee $1,000 a month to talk to someone or I could pay a million dollars for a robot that talks to hundreds of people a day. So I think it's going to get to the point where instead of putting a mortgage on your house for a million dollars, you're going to put a mortgage on an AI that could help improve your business. That's what I think is going to happen. I think it's going to get so advanced that that's what's going to happen. Right now, how long does it take to get from like A to Z? You type in a question, how long until you get an answer? Less than 10 seconds. Yeah, 10 seconds or less, bro. That's ridiculous. Now, does it cost you any money to use? It's free. It's free. I wonder how long that's going to last for. So James, I want to play with it right now. I'm going to have it on a separate street and I'm going to have it. I'm going to say write a five star review on a barber shop that I went to today. So let me read it to you. Yeah. I recently visited XYZ Barber Shop and had an outstanding experience from the moment I walked in. The staff greeted me with warm hospitality and made me feel welcome. The barber who tended to me was professional, skilled and listened to my every request. He delivered a precise and expert haircut that exceeded my expectations. The shop itself was clean, well-maintained and had a comfortable atmosphere. I also appreciated the attention to safety protocols with regard to COVID-19. Overall, I highly recommend XYZ Barber Shop for anyone in need of a great haircut and excellent customer service, five stars. To get the fuck, I'm going to start it. You fucking tell me, bro. You fucking tell me. I'm going to go to Yopacount and I'm going to start writing five star reviews. That's the fucking thing, bro. This is just right now. So ChatGPT is part of a company called OpenAI. And OpenAI also has a company called Dahli, which makes images for you. So what you could do is you could have the ChatGPT write like a story and have Dahli create the images for that story and compile it together and all of a sudden you have a best-selling book. Yeah. So how long do you guys think until we have novels, we have books, we have movies completely generated by AI and it makes authors almost obsolete? It's going to make a lot of things obsolete, bro, because what you have to think as well is like, I want to get to the point where I know if this book was written by AI or if it was written by a human. So it might get to the point where when there's books, there's like a little sticker on the book that says human or AI. So maybe I don't know, bro, like for example, let's say I'm talking to Citibank, which has like the worst customer service in the world. And they're all like foreign people. They barely speak English. Well, what if it gets to the point where I call Citibank and I say, you know what? I don't want to talk to a human that doesn't understand English. Just give me an AI. Give me the AI. Let me talk to the AI. Let it handle my shit. It's going to get to that point, bro. And then when that happens, all those cold people are going to be obsolete as well because I want to talk to some of the speaks my language. I understand my concerns that is not shot to hell. So now it's going to happen in terms of sales. It's going to happen in a way that, you know, phone sales are going to be obsolete. Customer service is going to be obsolete. Everything is going to be obsolete. Now, what's going to happen when it gets so smart that they then put this AI into Elon's Tesla bot? So now you have your Tesla bot that says, yo, bot optimist, go to Zara and pick out some clothes that you know that I'll like. Because it knows exactly what I wear. It knows my personality. After scanning all my wardrobe, it knows exactly what I'm going to like. Go pick out a wardrobe for me. Go clean the dishes for me. Go make this steak the same way I like. Eventually it's going to get to the point where AI is so complex and so advanced that it's going to take over. I don't want to be one of those guys that's like, yo, like the world is coming to an end, but it's at that point where it's so advanced. Or like, so I just asked chat GPT right a five star review. What if I asked chat GPT to create me a trading strategy that has, you know, consistent profitability based on XYZ data sets. You know, it's probably not going to be perfect, but it could probably be a really good starting point to get a process going. Or what if I tell it, you know what? I own a barbershop and the barbershop down the street is doing more business because of XYZ. What can I do to beat them at their own game? Eventually the AI is going to get so smart. It's going to give you recommendations to how to improve your business, you know? Harry, how long do you think until it starts taking jobs from people? Like, cause right now like it's not there yet. Although I think like two years or less. Really? Two years or less, probably, you know, some people are going to say five, but like they're going to work on this thing like heavily. They've invested a lot of technology advances, bro. It's going to be fucking scary, bro. I think we're still time away from it, kind of being into the optimist's brain. Like that's definitely a little ways away, but like it's in our lifetime, bro. It's going to be in our lifetime. Oh, go ahead, Harry. I was just going to say like there's the, also the other side of the coin here, which like I haven't heard like a lot of people talk about. And that's like what if they rig it to basically just like try and program you to like basically tell you how to think, you know? Like Google, for example, is like, you could say pretty left wing, you know, pretty liberal site. Like if I Googled right now, like is Joe Biden a good president? It would come up and say he's the best president in the world. And if I Googled, yeah, you can maybe test it out right there. Like is Trump a good president? It's probably going to come up with a bunch of negative reviews. So they rig chat GPT to do the same type of thing and like tell people how to think or do something like that, bro. Are you worried about that? Like for example, like let's say I'm using the same prompt of how do I get better sleep? What if it tells me that, I don't know, having more salt before bed is going to be good for my sleep? Yeah, exactly. Like I'm going to be, how am I supposed to know? Because at that point you're supposed to trust the machine, right? Exactly. Giving you all the information. You might get to the point where it says, hey, like maybe just drink some whiskey before bed and like that's what's going to do it, but drink Jack Daniel's whiskey. Yeah, that's what I mean. Now, like they could break this thing however way they want. That's why I'm super cautious. Very scary, bro. Very scary. Because everyone is going to listen to that. Like, and I was thinking about this like in the shower this morning, like when we were like, I was just thinking about like, you know, like just kind of like reflecting on the whole like Google versus AI type of thing. And like even on the podcast here, like sometimes like James and I will say something and I'll just be like, fuck, like I was looking up, you know? And now you could potentially be using, you know, chat GPT for that same exact lookup because you can get an answer a lot quicker. You don't have to scan blogs. You don't have to do this or that. And, you know, it's crazy to me to just think that like it could be just rigged in a certain way or, you know, like you could just ask anything like type in about climate change, like see what the chat GPT tells you, you know? It's crazy to think that like for me, the best thing that they could do with this is keep it neutral, you know? Like obviously, like there are a lot of people upset at Google right now and Facebook and Twitter for censorship. I think the best thing that they do is just keep it neutral and let the AI scan the odds of them doing that probably fucking very slim. But I think that would be the best way to build like kind of trust like Elon's doing right now with Twitter where he's releasing all the files. He's open sourcing the code. He's like, he's really trying to get that trust and showing how kind of the machines built. And I think if they do that with AI, like a lot of people will definitely trust it. But if, you know, it starts doing shit like you say where, you know, Jack Daniels Whiskey can pay the AI to get good suggestions. So what it says is day trading gambler or can I make money day trading? And I pay chat GPT or whatever, Microsoft $10,000 a day to say, if you want to learn day trading, my investing glove is the best place to learn nature. So I kind of have this belief that there is a big overwhelming push for like honest media and honest reporting. I think that's why Twitter, you're seeing usage at all times. I think that's why you're seeing people kind of lean politically more moderate again and trying to get away from the extreme assemble sides. But I kind of, I'm choosing to believe and I'm really hoping that a lot of these new AI companies kind of lean that way. I think it's a huge challenge. I know I had an argument with Joe Kelly, one of the moderators and he we were talking about it. And he's like, oh, it's not really a challenge to Google or any of that. And I disagree because I feel when I go to Google and I search something, I get ads. And then I have to decipher whether I believe what I'm reading is true and real. And most of the time it's like, I have to go to eight different sources and just to find out or even Twitter or anything. You know, you have to source it yourself and make sure you believe it. But with this, it's like, I'm hoping that these companies see the value in actually reporting and giving real information based off statistics and data, because arguments politically and with everything has gone to the point where it's just opinion. So if they're using it and coding it the way it should be absolutely with data and everything, I think it has potential to just be. I think the problem also too, bro, is eventually it's gonna get so smart that like every normal Joe is gonna have access to like a mega brain. And I think that what they're gonna do, bro, is they're gonna make it the barrier to entry so financially tough that only rich people could afford to use the AI. Like I really think, bro, it's gonna cost like a million dollars for like a subscription to use this stuff. And people are literally gonna get a loan to use the AI because the AI will eventually make them more money. I think that's how it's gonna be because this is too much power it feels like for the average Joe to have because like, I'm telling you, bro, eventually it's gonna get so advanced. We're like, bro, people could start businesses using this AI and they'll just keep asking the AI a bunch of shit, right? I don't know. I mean, like, look, this is definitely something new. It's definitely as revolutionary as the internet is possibly. And we just kind of have to wait and see what's gonna happen. Cause right now, bro, I'm scared shitless right now. Well, what happens when Elon Musk, Neuralink is equipped with this chat GPT and it's in your brain. That's eventually what's gonna happen, bro. So what's gonna happen is right now we're a human and this is the robot. Eventually we're gonna merge and we're gonna have the super intelligence. I don't like that, you know? I really can't get behind that. Like I really just, like, would you put a chip in your brain, Alex? I would. I don't know, bro. I'm a crazy guy, bro. I'm a crazy guy. I'm a curious guy. I might let him chip me. Alex would do it together. I'll go with you. I'm curious, bro. I'm just gonna sit back and watch you guys. There was no health risk. Like if Elon messaged me and was like, hey, would you put this Neuralink in your head? And I would be like, absolutely dude, please, and then send me to Mars. Cause I'm either gonna short circuit or become a trillionaire. Yeah. I just ventured, like, Alex, like some steam coming out of his brain. I was like, all right, we gotta get this fucking off. All this, I'm gonna start going long stocks is what I'm gonna start doing. I think what's gonna happen to those, I think the market's gonna get, like we've seen this like massive, like tons of money from like private equity and people with like large amounts of money trying to invest now in these companies. So I think it's gonna be like any sort of new company where we're gonna find out if it's like a boom or if it's a bus kind of asset. I'm surprised, bro. I'm surprised we're not having like AI sector plays. I mean, so when chat, GPT first. That's what I tweeted that, yeah. Yeah, I figured we were gonna get like news, like, you know, every small cap for anyone doesn't know, they live off hype. So they use whatever's in the media and they usually their shit company will use whatever is the new pumpable news and they'll throw out a news article about it and try to pump up their own company. So I'm shocked too, but maybe it's just not big enough yet because like when I bring it up to my parents, for example, like they still don't really know what chat GPT is. Most people who aren't really actively online searching news and all that don't really know too much yet. So it could just be too new and too early. It makes sense though, bro. It makes sense though, because every year there's like some sort of theme, right? Whether it be meme stocks, whether it be oil stocks because of the war, whether it be security, whatever it is, bro. I think and like, bro, like, I wish I was like a guy that had a crystal ball, but I really think that the next sector that's going to have a lot of legs, bro, is going to be this AI shit. That's what I think too. I agree. It seems to kind of be the consensus on Twitter too. Like a lot of people agree. But I think what's crazy is like the difference in news in the US and Canada, for example, because here there are some people who don't know who Elon Musk is. Like I'm straight up being completely serious. Like if you come here and watch the news, like at least the local news, which a lot of people watch, but even the national news on here, it's so bare bones, like liberal, not a lot going on, not really showing anything. Like it's utterly insane when you read the Canadian news where like if I didn't have Twitter or like talk to you guys or pay attention with my own kind of like news sources, I would have no fucking idea what's going on in the world. Not a clue. Like all you hear about is yeah, we're helping out Ukraine and COVID-19 is bad. And that's literally the news here. Yeah, I did. I mean, what I found is the news, bro. Come to Canada. It sounds like home, bro. I don't like home. Like 90% of people, and this is going to sound extremely mean, but I think 90% of people are better off that way. Kind of just like going with the flow of their own life because then most people, it sounds awful, shouldn't have these crazy opinions and they get too much into like the news. And I think that's what's happening in America in particular is that people are getting so over over obsessed with news. Like, I mean, I go home, I see my parents watching the same news station 24-7 and I'm like, Is it CNN? I'm not going to describe it. It's CNN, bro. The Clinton News Network. Yeah, exactly. Absolutely not. Not go home. But no, it's just, that's the thing. And it's, but it's on both sides. You can go to, you can go CNN, you can go Fox, you can go Newsmax and you can even go to Twitter and you can say, oh my God, these people are obsessed. And that's why I love this idea of AI, hopefully taking the right path and being like the overall end all be all of news sources. So we will say it's going to be really interesting. And I think that people are starting to really understand the power of technology. And I also think it's awesome because, dude, there's some lazy, lazy freaking people going around right now, not going to work, or they're capable of work and they just choose not to because they feel like, oh, like they'll always be jobs available. Nothing more would excite me for some of this technology to take people's jobs who are being lazy about it than who won't accept it. So I think that's what's going to happen next. Makes sense. Yeah, but in right now, I mean, I don't know, things in the country are changing, like markets definitely heating up a little bit. Markets way better. Markets are way better now than previous podcasts we've talked about. I don't know, what do you guys think is going on with the large cap market? We've bounced pretty big from the lows. How do you guys see things shaping up going forward? You go for it, Harry. Well, to me, it's like kind of a coin flip. We have earnings season coming up and how are those earnings going to play out? I've heard a lot of reports that people went out and spent a lot of money this Christmas. Me personally, I didn't see that where I live. It was pretty bare where I was like, I went to, you know, I got my parents some nice gifts and shit like that. Like I got my dad like a shirt from LL Bean which they just opened one up here where I live. So I went in there and that's like kind of an overpriced store. Like I paid I think like $139 for one shirt. And there was no one in line. I just walked right through, I couldn't believe it. All my Christmas shopping, no one was in line. There were no line ups this year where I live. So to me, that tells me that a lot of people were either spending a lot of money online or they didn't really have a lot of money to kind of work with or spend because it is, you know, it costs a lot to live right now. It costs a lot to drive a car right now. Like everything I feel is just like overpriced. Like once last time you went to the grocery store and you were like, wow, I got a deal on this. Like never, I've never felt that way. And like since before COVID where something's on sale and I'm like, fuck, that was regular price like a year and a half ago, you know? Like every time I go out, I just feel like I'm getting like ripped off, you know? I don't know why, but it's just, you know, like for here for a block of cheese, it's like 12 bucks. And it's just, it's like insane, you know? So every time I like get cheese, I'm like, fuck, I'm getting ripped off. Every time I buy any produce, I'm like, fuck, I'm getting ripped off. Any time I buy any bread, fuck, you know, like you go over to the meat section, okay. The chicken here is $35 for two chicken breasts. So it is insane, you know? Like it's actually insane. And there was one lady who like, I had already like checked out and I was walking away and like she got there and half her cart was like full and she was like, yeah, I can't afford the rest. And it was just crazy, you know? That's like what I see like every day going to the store, you know? Just like a lot of people really struggling here. So yeah, I didn't see many people shopping here. Maybe it's different in the States, but that's kind of my perspective. The problem is the rich people are still doing just fine. I mean, their 401Ks might be a little lower than they have been in the past, but like at least where I am, the wealthy in the top, you know, 10% of people are doing just fine. The people, the middle class are the ones who are struggling. Like I don't hear wealthy people complaining about the price of eggs right now. That's just kind of how it is. Like they talk about it, but like no one, it's not going to change someone's view. But when the market's rebounding, you know, people seem to be in higher spirits. And I see it, I mean, especially at like the shops and stuff, you know, when the market's doing better, people definitely are spending more, they're tipping more, they're happier than when things are in the shitter. You know, I think though that I still am a higher believer that all of these like market rallies that we're experiencing right now are just going to be the kind of up and down cycle for a while until we have like a direct news, something headline that's going to change the direction, you know, more permanently. I also think for me, like I don't care how much money I have. If I have to pay $20 for a fucking block of cheese, I'm going to say I'm getting ripped off, you know, like no matter how much money I have, if I have to pay $20 for a block of cheese, like it may not change. Like I'm still eating cheese, obviously. I'm still eating eggs and driving a car and shit, but I'm still going to be like, wow, like I'm getting ripped off here. You know, I hate getting like ripped off like that. Like to me, it's just like a lot of people here are definitely getting taken advantage of. And what they did is they raised all the prices and then they were like the first winter month is going to be a price lock. We're not going to raise any prices. We're here for you guys, you know, because there's where I live, there's two main grocery stores, that's it. And both of them did this kind of like price lock thing. So they just jacked up the prices two times in December, said, oh, we're not going to raise the prices, price lock, blow out deals, and then you go there and it's just like, bro, like, you know, like a lot of my girlfriends friends are struggling really hard. A lot of my friends are struggling really hard because like you get a paycheck, it's spent on food, that's it. Yeah, I mean, Alps, do you think, do you think that this like prolonged inflation and now like with the Fed coming out saying, obviously they're not going to lower rates in 23? If anything, they're going to continue to raise. What kind of effect do you think it's going to have on like the overall market, even though we are rebounding right now, what's going to your like outlook long term? So here's the thing, brother, there's a couple of things. Number one is earning season is going to be very important to see what happens. It's not really the numbers, it's going to be the reaction. So for example, like let's say a company like Tesla is now 70% this year, chances are, bro, as long as their earnings aren't dog shit, probably going to go up because the price, like it's a lot of bad news already priced in is what I feel like to me. I think it's the most bearish people have been, I think people don't have any hope. I think I read somewhere that all like retail investors like dumped all their stocks and stuff like that. So like for me, I think that at least in the short term, we've probably have a bottom. I think it's going to depend on earnings, what happened after the fact, do stocks go up on bad earnings? That's a signal that things are starting to get better. But overall, bro, I think we have probably about one more year, 2023 of just being dog shit. And then I think next year is when it's probably going to start to really take a course and rebound because the reality is this bro, like eventually the Federal Reserve is going to drop rates, eventually they're going to print money again and eventually inflation is going to be an issue in the next 10 years. It's the same cycle that always repeats because Americans are stupid, we waste all of our money. Americans don't have any money, we spend it all and then the government bails us out and gives us more money, which creates more inflation. So they're going to stop inflation and then they're going to print money and then inflation is going to start again. That's all that's going to happen. It's just a matter of when is it going to happen? Yeah. I think too, like we're kind of at this point, like I actually ran through a checklist, like this was a couple of weeks ago or when the Amazon was at like 80 bucks a share, dude. And I was like thinking to myself, like why the hell am I not buying Amazon to share it's Amazon? And I kind of ran through a checklist on my own head. I'm like, when you look at the news right now, we know everything that's coming up. The Fed has told us what they're going to do for the next year. Companies have told us the outlook of a bear market and that they're doing layoffs. There has yet to be news and I can't predict any news that's actually going to come and be like, holy shit, the market's going to zero. I mean, unless a nuclear war breaks out, other than that, nothing's going to change. So I kind of feel like we're on the path of just we're going to bounce for a while or just bounce around. We'll have these up and down days, just how the market usually is until we kind of come out of this. Like I know from everyone I listen to, people say, be kind of cash flow positive and be really ready until 2025. Like it, which sounds like really. Yeah. And what you got to remember, bro, is even a company like Amazon, when the 2000 crash happened, the stock went to like $8 or some shit, right? Eight dollars split adjust like split adjusted. Eight dollars is like literally like $1, right? Cause Amazon did like a 25 split. So it went to like one fucking dollar. Bank of America went to like $2. You know what I'm saying? So like when these things happen, like in the short term, even I think Warren Buffett said he's like, Berkshire Hathaway stock went minus 50% three times, three times is when he said that happened. So like, look, these stocks are going to go down 50%. But probably when the rebound happens, they're going to rebound 500%. So it's just about being positioned in properly. And for me, I think that, you know, I'm not investment advice, but like to be honest, like you got to park some money on the side somewhere, park some money in investments, park some money in cash. But this year is going to, I think last year was the year that everything crashed. This year is the year that things are going to get fixed. And then next year is the year where things are going to improve. Yeah. I mean, you're seeing it actually with like risk assets, right? Like we were talking about, like you're seeing Bitcoin now bounce. Like why do you think that's happening now all of a sudden? Yeah, Bitcoin is bouncing 30% guys. So as we're recording this Bitcoin went from 16,000 to 23,000. And I think that that signals, cause usually what happens is the market goes down because people pull out money and put it into safer things whether it be bonds or whatever it is cause they're paying such a high interest rate. So speculative assets like stocks and Bitcoin go down when there's like a safer asset. Like let's say if the bank is paying you a high interest rate or treasury bills are paying you, right? Well, what that's telling me with the stock market bouncing and with Bitcoin bouncing is that people are now speculating that risk assets are the best place to park your money, which is now going to restart that cycle of kind of bidding things higher. Yeah. And I also think like after Christmas, like, you know like people may have some extra cash on the side or whatever. And don't forget bro, by the end of the year everyone had to sell their stocks for losses for tax loss harvesting. So the last December was all tax loss harvesting where people dumped their stocks to save on taxes. So like I'm sure that has like an effect on it as well. No, 100%. And I guess some of the interesting things now that we're seeing is like with all these risk assets going back up, like we're seeing the small cap market absolutely like heat up. I mean, we haven't, I'm gonna knock on wood like eight times but we've had almost a runner every day since January 1st. So, you know, and I've seen you guys been doing really well. And Alex, I didn't know if you wanted to, you know kind of before we wrap up, touch on your trading a little bit because you've been crushing it. Honestly bro, I wanted to actually ask you about your ring bro. I want to ask you about that sleep ring that you have dude because I haven't been really getting too much sleep lately. So I want to see if that should actually work. So I want to ask you about that. Yeah, sure. So I'm the biggest skeptic of things, right? Like, I mean, I'm like one of those idiots that will buy like my girlfriend says I fall into gimmicks because I always buy shit, but then I just need to test it. That's how I am bro. I just buy shit all the time, you know? And, you know, I saw this and I saw a bunch of guys like really high level like traders and like smart people that I really respect like trying this thing out. And I'm like, like, all right, I gotta do this because I'm one of those people. I'm anxious, I struggle with sleep. I'm very stressed all the time. So I'm like, you know, I need to start starting a 2023 focusing on my health. So I bought this thing, man. And I can't believe how accurate and efficient the reporting of it is. I'll show you guys kind of what it looks like. It's just like this little ring and it has the sensors. Like if you can see that in there and you wear it 24 seven. I mean, you know, you can wear it in the shower like I don't, but dude, it is insane. Like the first night I wore it, like this is a good quick story. First night I wore it, I slept incredible. I got like a great sleep score and it said like, you're ready for the day and like, you know, you're energetic. And it was weird. I felt amazing all day. The next night I went out with a friend for dinner that I hadn't seen in a while. I had a drink, just like one alcoholic drink, but I was out late. And then when I got home, I did an exercise and like I slept like shit. And I woke up and it was like awful sleep score. You know, you need to like watch out for this today, try drinking water, take a net, blah, blah, blah. The trait, when I started trading that morning, I actually made two mistakes, which I never, like I never do. And like when you think about it, it's like those days where you're just kind of out of it and not good, it kind of gives you that. And it's like a tool for you to be, hey, I slept like shit last night, before I get to the desk, maybe I need to do something to wake myself up. So from here on out, if I get shitty sleep, I do like a quick exercise in the morning to kind of get my brain flow and clear the brain fog. I try to drink more water and stuff like that. So it's actually amazing. And I know Alex, you were talking about it. And we've talked about this since I met you just sleeping. I highly recommend giving it a shot. And there's also a Gucci version if you're really interested in that. So it's, but it's cool, man. It's definitely cool. So highly recommended. It's called Aura Ring, you know. So you have to wear 24 seven? You don't have to. I choose to because I like to know throughout the day. Like I always, again, I'm an anxious person. So sometimes if I'm getting anxious, I check my like heart rate. And it just says your heart rate is actually really low and like there's nothing, there's nothing going on. So it's like, it gives me that kind of clarity. And also it's like something interesting. I use it as a tool in trading. Like if I'm in a trade, like sometimes I just look at it and say, if I'm like getting anxious for whatever reason, like it kind of helps center me back down and just to like reset. And same thing throughout the day. So it's nice. And it's nice to see that if you have a health goal, you're heading towards that path. Like I attracts calories. The only thing is like, I know people are gonna say an Apple watch does a lot of the similar things. I have both. One, I can't wear an Apple watch when I sleep. I don't know why I'm a sleep zombie. I rip it off. It's just a weird thing. And I also hate working out with an Apple watch because I feel like I'm banging on weights and shit. So I've come to really enjoy it. And you can only wear it if you want when you sleep for like that actual, like data, but I don't know. I found it's very interesting. And I really care about health and fitness this year. And it's like a big focus. So yeah, highly recommended. They should sponsor me and I can, you know, maybe get some free MIC. Yeah, get your referral code, bro. Yeah, I wanna look at it. Yeah, seriously. But yeah, man, it's helped. Like I said, it's helped my trading a lot. Like I knock on what always, but trading has been awesome in January. Things have been going really well. Great start to the year. So it's, I kind of been trying to assimilate body, mind and health with performance. So I think. Love it, bro. Love it. Great job. I'm good. But yeah, I mean, you guys have been crushing it too. So I'm really proud of you guys. Seriously. Let's keep it up, bro. Let's keep it up. Like I was telling you, bro, before we started this podcast is we've been in a drought for a really long time. And this month may be a month to just clean up and make five months salary in one month. Yeah. So we gotta stay focused. We gotta be prepared. Yeah. And with the opportunities there, we gotta capitalize. Yeah, 100%. I think I had one question before we wrap up here because we're coming up on that 45 minute mark. But Alex, as a trader who has made so much money in your career and then going to 2022 where you still made a lot of money, but not as much money as like previous years like any trader in the world. The fact that you're green is even insane to me and awesome. How did you come to this year with a clear and ready mindset to perform and like not think I need to make more than I did in 21 to make up for having maybe a lower year in 22 or not as much action in 22. You know what it is, bro? For me, I just want to be able to show up and if there's an opportunity, I wanna be able to capitalize on it. My brain works based on opportunity. It's if I see an opportunity and I take advantage of it, that makes me happy. If I see an opportunity and I don't take advantage of it, that makes me really upset. So seeing the lack of opportunity last year was definitely a mind game. It really definitely played with my mind a lot. But what I try to remind myself, bro, is just try to stay patient. I'm trying to remind myself that trading is cyclical. There's certain areas where there's certain time periods where you can make a lot of money and there's certain time periods where it's very slow. What I also tell people is let's say you made $10,000 in 2020 but you made $0 in 2021. You could just say that, in 2020 you made 5,000, in 2021 you made 5,000. You know what I'm saying? That way you can kind of trick your brain into saying you made two-year salary in one year. Trading is not very linear. It doesn't follow like a clear path. So coming into this year, as you guys know, I reset my account. I did that kind of as like a test myself to see how much more disciplined that could be because we were coming into the year with like not really much opportunity. We were coming into the year with like nothing moving. So I said, this is the perfect chance to improve on my discipline and improve on my process by trading with a smaller account and you can't make this shit up, bro. Everything just went crazy. Everything, you can't make it up. So I came in expecting to have a slow start to the year, expecting for everything to be shitty, expecting to be everything horrible. And all of a sudden, bro, we had a first red day setup within the first two weeks. We've had markets going crazy. The last time we had a first red day setup was Bed Bath and Beyond on, so this is being recorded on January 21st. The last time we had a first red day setup was recorded on August 17th. August, September, October, November, December, five months ago. Five months ago was the last time we had an opportunity like that. Yeah. That's wild. And it's good to see that. And it's actually amazing because I feel like lowering your account made you better. And you've kind of been like that for as long as it's not, like you almost perform better with this like, and you get- I think I do, bro. I really do think I perform with less. And like, bro, it's, it also comes down to like, yeah, I perform really good with less, but like, bro, like the bias comes in and it says, if I just had like a little bit more money to trade with, that could have gone a little bigger. I made a lot more money. So like, it's good, bro. It's good to just kind of trade with that small account, take the money and run because like, bro, like even with a small account, bro, I'm putting up four, five, $6,000 days. It's million, $2 million a year. If I do that, which is great, bro. It's great fucking money. But then there's like that competitive view that says, motherfucker, you bitch-ass, pussy-ass, fucking loser, you could do so much better. So like that's the battle that I fight with every single day is the battle of, do I take the easy predictable money and go enjoy my life? Or do I, you know, push and get more? And I've decided that this year is a year for me just to like focus on that consistency, focus on making that easy predictable money. And, you know, I'm not the type of trader where like, bro, it's, do I like the money more or do I like the stress free more? And I realized that being more stressed and making more money doesn't make me happier. So I have to make less money, be less stressed to be happier. That's the scale that I'm focusing on right now. So I want to be able to make less money with less stress that leads to more happiness rather than adding an extra zero, being more stressed and being more unhappy for something that I don't really fucking need, bro. I don't really need that extra financial money if it means that's going to make me unhappy. So I know a lot of people, bro, that make a metric shitload of money, 10, 20, 30 million but their entire life, 18 hours a day is the market, bro. I'm like, for me, that's just, I'm not willing to sacrifice that for money. So I'm just trying to focus on making less, being happier and enjoying my life because towards the end of last year, I felt really frustrated that like, you know, business was slow, that trading was slow, like everything was dead, it made me very upset. So like, because I was upset towards the end of last year, I want to focus on this year more on like happiness. And that's what I'm about. I love that, I'm really proud of you both. I think you guys are crushing it and... Thanks bro, you too? Yeah, bro, you're killing it, bro. You're fucking crushing it. Yeah, James too. So all of us keep up the good work and yeah, probably good time to end it. So thanks everyone for watching. Thanks Alex for coming on. Thanks James and we'll see everyone for the next one.