This ONE Rule Separates Profitable Traders From the 90% Who Lose.

Summary

Podcast Episode Summary

Podcast: Earn Your Leisure
Episode: This ONE Rule Separates Profitable Traders From the 90% Who Lose.
Air Date: May 3, 2026
Hosts: Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings
Guest Analysts: Ian, Shady

Overview

This episode of Earn Your Leisure dives deep into the mindset, strategies, and decision-making skills that distinguish profitable traders from the 90% who consistently lose in the markets. Centered around a real-world trading example in SanDisk options, the hosts and guests discuss risk management, taking profits, the psychological aspects of trading, and—most crucially—the "ONE Rule": Knowing your exit plan before entering any trade. The conversation blends practical trade breakdowns with principles that apply across multiple investment scenarios.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The SanDisk Options Trade Breakdown

• Troy and Ian recap a recent SanDisk options call they placed, noting its risky nature due to short-term (weekly) exposure and potential for sudden, uncontrollable market shifts (02:00).
• The option becomes highly profitable—up about 91% in just two days—and prompts a discussion on best practices for exiting winners.

Notable Quote:

“We did that. We did the Sandisk… I don't really like weekly calls because I feel like it's very risky and anything can happen… That can make a stock go down, that's out of your control.” — Troy (02:00)

2. The Power of Debate and Due Diligence

• Ian shares how his process of debating and defending his trades with Troy sharpens his analysis (02:37).
• Shady notes the importance of being able to explain both risks and rewards to others to build conviction in any investing thesis (03:02).

Notable Quote:

“You should go in believing nothing about an asset, and then you should have to make your case.” — Shady (03:02)

3. Trade Management: The Three Core Options

• Troy lays out three main exit strategies:
  • Sell before earnings (take the 90-100% gain)
  • Hold through earnings to capture potential further upside
  • Split the position: take partial profits and let the rest ride (04:41)

Notable Moment:
Interactive Segment—Troy asks listeners to consider: What would you do? (05:16)

4. The ONE Golden Rule: Predetermined Exits

• Shady emphasizes never to enter a trade without knowing your exit strategy in advance:
  • With multiple contracts: Sell half at a set profit point, let the rest run.
  • With a single contract: Take full profits at a strong gain (06:05).

Notable Quotes:

“You have to know the exit before you start.” — Shady (05:25)
“If I had eight contracts, I would take out four at 100%, and then I will let the rest run...” — Shady (05:25)

5. Leverage, Hedging, and Scaling In

• Ian discusses leveraging longer-dated contracts as a safety net, reducing the risk of the short-term trade (06:14–08:00).
• He reveals his own SanDisk call positions, spaced out in both price and time—an illustration of scale and conviction.

Notable Quotes:

“This is not our only SanDisk call... We have calls out to 2028... So think about that. That's going to probably be my next thousand percenter.” — Ian (06:14)

6. Psychology of Taking Profits

• The team emphasizes the importance of sticking to profit targets, fighting greed, and avoiding regret if the market reverses (09:21).
• Shady stresses the necessity of knowing specific profit marks before trading—e.g., 100%, 200%—and not wavering between them (09:21).

Notable Quotes:

“You have to know before you get into the trade, what profit marks are you going to take off? So please write that down now.” — Shady (09:21)

7. The Joy (and Rarity) of Quick Wins

• The group reflects on the satisfaction and rarity of winning trades, and the discipline required to capitalize instead of chasing further gains out of emotion (10:03–10:24).

Notable Quote:

“Those are the best phone calls… When you watch something go up 90 and I'm like, hey, what you gonna do?... Where else could you make 90 of your money and not have to talk to nobody?” — Ian (10:03, 10:22)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• SanDisk trade background & weekly call risks: 02:00–03:02
• Argument as a learning tool, defending trades: 02:37–03:21
• Exit scenarios & interactive Q&A: 04:41–05:22
• Predetermined exits ("the ONE rule") and trade splits: 05:25–06:05
• Leverage, hedging strategies, and multi-year calls: 06:14–08:00
• Importance of setting profit targets in advance: 09:21–10:03
• Psychological angle of taking profits: 10:03–10:24

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Memorable Quotes

• “You should go in believing nothing about an asset, and then you should have to make your case.” — Shady (03:02)
• “You have to know the exit before you start.” — Shady (05:25)
• “If I had eight contracts, I would take out four at 100%, and then I will let the rest run...” — Shady (05:25)
• “Those are the best phone calls… When you watch something go up 90 and I'm like, hey, what you gonna do?” — Ian (10:03)

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Episode Takeaways

• The #1 Rule: Always set your exit strategy—know when and how you'll take profits or cut losses before ever entering a trade.
• Defense Matters: If you can’t justify a trade under scrutiny, you shouldn’t make it.
• Partial Profits are Powerful: Selling part of your position locks in gains and lets you ride potential upside with less stress.
• Leverage Long-Term Over Short-Term: Using longer-dated positions hedges risk and compounds gains.
• Discipline Over Greed: Preset targets keep emotion out of trading and prevent costly reversals.

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For anyone looking to move from losing to consistently profitable trading, this episode is a masterclass in mindset and process, lived out through real trades and candid debate.

Transcript

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[Troy]

Podcast Network so last week, myself Troy, we went into a SanDisk call and it's a weak call. I don't really like weak calls because I feel like it's very risky and anything can happen. Geopolitical risk, variety of different things that can happen and like that's out of your control. That can make a stock go down. That's not necessarily a great indicator of like the stock being a weak stock, but it's like you know, it could just happen. But you know we did that. We did the Sandesk.

[Ian]

No, tell them what happened. I had to call you and you

[Shady]

told me no, like listen to me, listen.

[Ian]

I think no, I said it's important because no no, no, no, no. I'm saying it in this sense. What it does is it sharpens my. The iron. Right. Because I know when I call him and I tell him I know he's thinking no, but then I'm gonna tell him why, and then he's still going to say no. And then I'm say, look, here's what I'm really seeing as well. And then I'm like, what do you think? It makes sense. It makes. I don't know what that means, but

[Shady]

he just says it'll make even that, though. That's what a great investor should. You should go in believing nothing about an asset, and then you should have to make your case. So when you're talking to your friends or your family, if they're giving you pushback on the idea, it means you have not explained it well enough what the risk could be and what the reward could be.

[Troy]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. So the option expires next month. I think that's May 1st. Is that next Monday on May 1st?

[Ian]

Is this Friday? May 8th is the Friday after.

[Troy]

No, no. So it expires may.

[Ian]

I think that you're in the May 8th.

[Troy]

No, I'm in the May 4th.

[Ian]

No, no, I can't be. It has to be a Friday.

[Troy]

I mean. No, I think it's the first. I want to say it's the first. No, it's the first. May 1st.

[Ian]

Okay, so Friday, Friday. Yeah.

[Troy]

All right, so the expires on Friday. The earnings. The earnings is on Thursday. So we did it Thursday. Sandisk went up Friday and then it went up today. So, all right, so I want to make this an interactive part of the show. So now that option call is up 91%. Roughly around 90% in two days. Yeah. So the first thing is for you guys watching, I want to. Like I said, I want to make this interactive. We're up 90%, but then they report their earnings on Friday. So how I. In my brain, there's two ways how this can go is going up because the anticipation is that it's going to blow out his earnings. And you ride this all the way to that moment right before earnings. Thursday, after close, maybe 100 turns to 150, 200%, who knows? Well, before close Thursday, you sell on Thursday.

[Ian]

That's what they report after closing.

[Troy]

That's one thing. Another thing that you could do is, hey, look, I already doubled my money. Tomorrow, Tuesday, you sell. You can't get greedy. 100, 103 days ain't never been a bad deal. No matter how you look at it. Another thing is you could take it all the way to the. To the breaking point, all the way to Friday, and say, look, earnings. They report earnings. If they. If they go up on earnings, then we're just gonna ride it out to the end. We're gonna get maximum. We're not gonna leave nothing on the table. Out of those three options, what would you guys do?

[Ian]

You know, we should. Out of those, what do they think that you would do and what they think that Ian would do? What they think I would do.

[Troy]

What would you do? What would you do, Ian?

[Shady]

If you. Let's say you got eight contracts, I would probably take. And it's a great lesson. You have to know the exit before you start. As Clay did. You have to know the exit before you start. So if I had eight contracts, I would take out four at 100%, and then I will let the rest run, because you never want to be in. Even with earnest. A company can do incredibly well, and all the gains have been already taken to the upside. The stock slides down, so you can be in trouble. But in this case, I would probably split, get out at 100 and then let the other four run.

[Troy]

What if you. What if you have one contract?

[Shady]

Oh, I'm taking 100 tomorrow. Yeah. I'm locking in profit.

[Troy]

Walk away.

[Ian]

Yeah.

[Troy]

Okay. What are you going to do?

[Ian]

I think everybody probably knows what I'm going to do. And this is. This is part of the conversation that we had. I said, I called him like, yo, Shady, we got to start looking at how we can hedge this, how we can leverage it. And the reason I said that is because this is not our only sandisk call. Right. Like, we have calls out to 2028. Like, I'm in a 230 call, the 2020 28. So think about that.

[Shady]

Right?

[Ian]

That's going to probably be my next thousand percenter.

[Shady]

Yeah.

[Ian]

And so, I mean, we're so far up on that that, yes, we can keep that money growing over the long term, or we can say, hey, is this worth an opportunity here on the short term? And for me, I'm thinking. And I've told to him this personally, this story is not going anywhere. In fact, I saw it at 1100 by the summer. And the fact that it's, like, teetering at that number here now, I had it at 1500 by the end of the year. It's teetering, like, toward that. Now here comes the run up, right? And so we got a few contracts here. I said, look, my. Usually I Would exactly what you said, Ian. If I got eight contracts, I'm selling four, I'm letting the profits run. In this case, I'm saying, okay, once I get my 100, I take the initial out and I'll let it run past earnings because couple things that will, will determine that if it gets to 1100 by Thursday, then we're out. Right. But if it doesn't. Right, because where can we go? If I said 1200, then you know, that's, that's a hundred dollar move. It's probably like another 8%. It's not worth the risk. Yeah, it's not worth the risk. But the, the, the key was leverage. And so I know he's in some strong micron calls that go out to like December of 28, 27. And I'm thinking to myself, well, you've been in those calls. That's a thousand percent. What if you can get a hundred percent in the next three weeks?

[Shady]

Right.

[Ian]

Now if the stock turns on to the downside, let's say the one contract was $6,000 and you bought two, and now you're down to 4,000 because the stock just pulled back $30 or something like that. Right. The fact that you still have the leverage of having that late December call, you're going to, you can get that back, right? You can get that back over and over. And you can also say, all right, it pulled back. Here's another opportunity for me to get some more long term call dated options to actually get back the loss that you potentially could have had on the short term. And so it's all leverage. It's not, hey, we don't have sandisk. We have to get in the sandisk. Let's do this earnings play. It's all right. We're leveraged here. We have stacked our SanDisk calls. I'm in the 230, I'm in the 300, I'm in the 500, I'm in a 620, I'm in a 700, I got this 900 and I think I'm in a 940 out to somewhere. So, I mean, you can see that this is a company that I've been investing in for a while now and most of y' all have been here since last. I'm not, I shouldn't even say a while. This has happened really since November.

[Shady]

Yeah.

[Ian]

And the gains have been astronomical. And so can we make some short term here? We have, right. 90. So if you figure you put, if the contract was 6,000, you bought two of them. As 12,000, you've made nearly 12,000 in two days by making one decision. One decision.

[Shady]

And the most important thing is to have your predetermined target. Like, for my futures traders as well, you have to know if you're going to get out at 100%. Like, so for me, my NASDAQ target that I gave away at the mastermind, that's 260%. Return my big target at 11 to 1, that's 1100. So you have to know before you get into the trade, what profit marks are you going to take off? So please write that down. Now, is it a hundred? It's a 200%. Because you don't want to be in between and be like, well, I'm up 250, but you should have exited already. And then earnest comes, it reverses your fate and then you're upset. Have those predetermined numbers and then you can know if I hit these numbers four or five times in a year, I can be done.

[Ian]

So and those are the best phone calls. Those are the best phone calls. When you watch something go up 90 and I'm like, hey, what you gonna do? Yeah, right, you're, you're making money now what do you do? Like, I gotta call, hey, I'm up 90, what should I do? Like, you're up 90, like, and that's why the market is so great. Where else could you make 90 of

[Shady]

your money and not have to talk to nobody?

[Ian]

Unless you want to quietly just do it, Move on with your day and go on to the next opportunity.

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