My Day Trading Routine that made $100,000,000

0:09 You're the man. You are the man. It turns out my daily routine to make a hundred million dollars in verified trading profits is boring. This is the exact routine that I practiced for 15 years, but it made me one of the best traders in the world. I start at 7:00 a.m. and I always try to wake up without an alarm clock. By definition, if you are waking up using an alarm clock, it means your body could have used more sleep and you should be going to bed earlier. Next, I got to go to my balcony where I have one of those brick tools. My phone pretty much becomes useless at 9:00 p.m. at night and I can't use it again until I come over here to unlock it and this forces me to get my morning sunlight. Thank you, Andrew Huberman. Remember, smartphones are the death of all bedtime and morning routines. One of my most

0:55 important morning rules is this. Unless I have market exposure that I'm really worried about, I do my best not to check markets at this point. If anything really crazy is going on, I'll be alerted and be alerted by my trading pod. While I get my sunlight, you should know that this is the morning routine I used to keep me sane on Wall Street for over a decade. This isn't some fake day in the life with cold plunges and motivational quotes. Although I do recommend, you know, live, laugh, love or something. For those that don't know me, I'm Lance Breitstein, one of Wall Street's top traders with over a hundred million dollars in verified trading profits and for over a decade, I worked at Trillium and achieved their all-time highest annual P&L ever. This is the real structure I followed for years to survive, perform, and compound results in one of the most mentally demanding professions on Earth. I want this video

1:41 to be your guide to make your mornings the most impactful. So, next up, I shower. Pro tip here, you're going to want to use soap and deodorant. For all you traders still living in your parents' basement, I then go on to brush my teeth with toothpaste and mindlessly throw on some activewear to make it easier to hit the gym later in the day. Around 7:30 a.m., I eat just about the same breakfast each day, usually an omelet with a couple eggs. Yes, even in this economy, I know we are banking here at the One Lands B, so we can afford the eggs. You're now watching the One Chef Ramsey B, and I'll tell you, these eggs, they are raw. But, back in the Trillium days, after breakfast, I'd walk to work around 8:00 a.m., but nowadays I have it easy. I mean, look at this view. Sometimes it still doesn't feel real. I did love my

2:28 morning walk, though, through downtown Chicago by the Riverwalk to get a little exercise, blast some pump-up music, and start browsing through the day's headlines. While I go for this little walk, I'm explain at a high level what all effective daily trader routines should seek to accomplish. Optimal daily routines for traders should put you in the best mental state to execute well during market hours. They should reserve 60 to 120 minutes for deep work on your single biggest trading constraint, and make should include a daily review process, such as filling out a daily report card. That's going to help compound your skill over time, and you should also minimize friction so that the routine is repeatable under stress and fatigue. No daily routine is going to help you if it is so complex or miserable that you don't follow it. Let's dive into that really quick. A

3:13 good daily routine includes stuff like getting proper sleep, hitting the gym so you stay healthy, and eating light clean meals so that you stay focused for the full day. And want to know what I would even do to operate at an elite level? I tried to minimize as many decisions outside of trading as possible. Research shows that decision fatigue is real, and that our mind fatigues over the course of the day from making hard decisions, and as a result, it gets harder and harder to follow our rules and systems. That is why my routine also sought to automate unimportant decisions like clothing, meals, and schedules as much as possible. Many experts in performance domains deliberately standardize routines for exactly this reason. Meanwhile, my reasoning for including the review process in my routine is that allows us to course correct and learn from our mistakes each day. While the period for deep work is what fuels our

3:59 growth as much as possible. And of course, no routine can lead to change if it isn't followed. I made sure my routine was not one that was so complicated or demanding that I couldn't follow it. With that big picture theory out of the way, now on to around 8:30 a.m. I'm in my seat checking the markets and news. I'm typing up tickers from the prior day, becoming aware of what I need to prepare for. I'll be looking at earnings, IPOs, macro events, upgrades, downgrades, anything that could be moving stocks. And here's the key. I am not trying to predict anything. I never am committed to trading any specific ticker or sector. I am just asking, what is in play today that I should keep a close eye on should it set up according to my playbooks. From there, I build my watch list. Stocks with news catalyst, stocks making crazy moves, and stocks

4:45 with volume. I mark key technical levels, prior highs and prior day lows. I place trend lines, I set alerts for everything. There's no excuse to miss something important when there are so many easy ways to set price alerts. By 9:00 a.m., I do what I call my temp check and start my daily report card. This is one of the most important habits of my career. I ask myself a series of brutally honest questions. How do I feel today? Did I sleep well? Am I tired or I distracted? Am I sick or hung over? Emotionally off center? Is anything bothering me outside of trading? Based on that, I grade myself from an F to an A. And that grade directly determines my risk for the day. If I am a C or worse, my sizing comes way down or I don't trade at all. If I am an A and the market is opportunistic, I can press hard. This is how professionals survive

5:32 and thrive. You do not trade the same size every day. You trade based on opportunity and your ability to execute. To see more how I structure my daily report card, check out this video. This one habit is so critical and came up a ton while I was mentoring a trading firm in Dubai. Around 9:20 a.m., it's finally time to really lock in. No distractions, no chatter. This is focused time, and my cell phone's away. As part of that daily report card I mentioned, I choose one single goal for the day. Just one, not 10. Whatever goal is going to have the biggest impact to my trading performance. Something like don't fight the trend or intentionally increase risk 5% versus normal. I will then literally tell myself, "Today is a success as long as I don't fight the trend." I visualize it. I repeat it. I want it burned into

6:18 my consciousness, so that when emotions show up, the rule is already there. When the markets open, I am locked in, fully engaged. I'm typing up my filters and my watchlist. I'll take any trades that appear. Then by around 10:00 a.m., things are usually slowing down. That's when I shift into a more passive mode. I'm updating alerts, adjusting my scanners, and monitoring for breaking news. I'm not forcing trades. Throughout the day, I take intentional focus breaks. Stretching, I'll grab some water, and I do quick check-ins with my daily report card. These little pauses give your mind a rest, and they help increase your awareness. If I'm starting to rush entries, overtrade, or feel frustrated, I catch it early. I don't wait until the end of the day to realize I went off the rails. I make the corrections in real time. Around noon, I try to leave the desk and go outside for

7:03 a quick lunch. Fresh air, food, a nice mental reset. Yes, you might sometimes miss something. Yes, there's FOMO, but my performance in the back half of the day was consistently better when I end up taking that break. Trading really is a cognitive sport. You do not get extra points for grinding yourself into dust. Often times, many people will ask, "What if the market was slow?" This is where most people watch Netflix, chill on their phone, or horse around. I always tried my best not to do that, especially when I was a rookie, and that habit served me real well. During slow markets, you always want to use that time to write up trade reviews, study charts, or brainstorm new projects. I always ask, "How do I get 1% better today?" While others were killing time, I always try to be compounding progress. That gap adds up fast over the years.

7:49 Around 3:40 p.m., I lock back in for the close. I'll be watching the closing imbalances and preparing for any after-hours earnings. After the close, I stay seated briefly, then I take a short mental break. Around 4:30 p.m., I'll start my daily review work from the day and complete my daily report card. This is where that feedback mechanism I mentioned is so critical. I want to learn as much as I can from each trading day. What were my mistakes, my misses? What did I do well? What key trading moments do I need to rewatch and restudy? All of this helps me course correct or take action to best capitalize the next day. Around 5:00 p.m., I go to the gym. For those of you who don't know, one of my oldest passions is weightlifting. I love seeing steady, quantitative progress and pushing my physical performance. I used to take powerlifting pretty seriously and still enjoy the sport. And I love

8:34 seeing people like my buddy Tanner, aka the strong trader, compete at his powerlifting competitions. From 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., it is guilt-free downtime. No charts, no email, no markets. I'm just hanging with friends, eating dinner, or unwinding. Then finally, with my mind fresh from the gym and a nice long dinner break, I try to do maybe 1 final hour of focused work. This is where you want to be focused without interruptions and work on your number one trading constraint as I discuss in this video. Then I shut it all down. My phone is bricked up and put away. I'm watching a show or reading, and I'm in bed and asleep by 11:00. Common questions I get are how might this change on big days or on bad days? The truth is, this routine becomes even more important on the big days or following a bad day. If there is a big trade coming, most traders give themselves the yips. They ruminate so

9:20 much and give themselves so much anxiety. Following my same routine and my same habits is what allows me to stay cool, calm, and collected when others are unable to do so. That is a huge part of the importance of routines on the good days and the bad ones. Your body knows exactly what to do, and it finds its groove, making your day easier and easier to execute on over time. Remember how hard it is to get your ass to the gym that first day back after a big break? All routines are like that. The more you do them, the more set on autopilot they become. Now, keep in mind, you always want to give yourself breaks when you need them. Life should not be lived without vacations or days off. This routine isn't necessarily about working the most hours. It is about creating a structure that allows me to perform at my best for years without burning out. That's how real trading careers are built. Thank you for

10:05 watching. Hit that subscribe button and I'll see you in the next one.