---
title: 'From $4 Million Loss to $20 Million Account: A Physician''s Trading Journey'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=LpMopMs4CJM'
video_id: 'LpMopMs4CJM'
date: 2026-07-12
duration_sec: 1727
---

# From $4 Million Loss to $20 Million Account: A Physician's Trading Journey

> Source: [From $4 Million Loss to $20 Million Account: A Physician's Trading Journey](https://youtube.com/watch?v=LpMopMs4CJM)

## Summary

A physician and serial entrepreneur shares his journey from a devastating $4 million loss to building a $20 million trading account through disciplined options strategies, including 0DTE call spreads and 45-day premium selling. He emphasizes risk management, using 50% dry powder in high-VIX environments, and generating 40% annual returns.

### Key Points

- **Account Size and Returns** [00:00] — The trader manages a $20 million account, making 40% returns in 2023 and 2024, equating to $5 million and $8 million respectively.
- **Preferred Strategy: Call Spreads** [02:07] — In choppy markets, selling premium via call spreads is safer, but careful of melt-ups. Majority of trades are 0DTE on SPX.
- **Portfolio Diversification** [03:31] — Holds 100 different underlyings with multiple positions, 60-70% equities and 20-30% futures/options, all liquid with tight markets.
- **Risk Management: Dry Powder** [04:03] — Keeps 40-50% dry powder when VIX > 25; currently 50% of buying power is about $14 million, with 60% naked positions.
- **Full-Time Job and Trading** [06:01] — Works full-time as a pain physician, manages trading around procedures, reviews trades in evening, and uses 45-day strategies for flexibility.
- **Motivation: Challenge and Skill** [08:26] — Views trading as a skill; after initial losses, wanted to prove to himself he could develop successful strategies.
- **Early Success and Major Loss** [12:11] — Started with $3 million in 2021, grew to $6 million, then lost $4 million in August 2022 during a Fed speech due to oversized position.
- **Comeback: Doubled Down** [14:58] — Deposited $10 million more, bringing account to $12 million, and made 40% in 2023 by adapting to market direction and using 45-day strategies.
- **0DTE vs 45-Day Strategies** [20:37] — 60% of profits come from 0DTE trades; sells call spreads at open, closes within two hours to capture volatility crush.
- **0DTE Execution Details** [22:29] — Uses 10-wide call spreads above resistance and expected move, trades a few thousand contracts on SPX, lags into positions, and follows dealer flow.
- **Future Plans: Hedge Fund** [26:15] — Opened a family office hedge fund; considering closing medical practice to trade full-time and manage the fund.

### Conclusion

The trader's story highlights the importance of risk management, adaptability, and continuous learning. His success with 0DTE strategies and disciplined capital allocation offers valuable lessons for traders at any level.

## Transcript

We're going to throw some numbers out there today that are going to a couple million, $5 million, $6 million. By the way, this is like the craziest story I've ever heard because like there's no reason $12 million, $14 million, the $20
million account. What What kind of strategies? The call spreads are much safer strategy I would say in this market. Yeah, the zero D2, right? That's probably majority of my trades. That's 2023 the beginning, right? you made 40%
return, which is like, you know, $5 million. Those are amazing [Music] returns. All right. Hello everybody. We
are back. It's another rising star segment today. I think you guys are going to love this one. Aar, welcome. Thank you, sir. I know you've been to going to call you Doc because Yes, sir. That's that's what you are and and
easy. So So doc welcome and to the rising star segment and your story is fascinating because you are you're kind of a you're
you're a trading junkie but you're also a serial entrepreneur, right? And so you're kind of like a little bit of man after my own heart. And um uh and I love your story and I think people are gonna um they're they're really going to think
this is amazing. And we're going to throw some numbers out there today that are going to they're going to freak you out a not scared to share everything with us. I'm not. I'm not. In the last two weeks,
the markets have been crazy. Right. When you see markets like this that have been choppy um uh pretty decent size sell off you know six
7% what kind what kind of strategies what's the first thing that employing right so it is a good time to sell premium of course uh you know uh
you know the call spreads are are like a much safer strategy I would say in this market, but of course uh also cognizant of the fact that you can get a meltup
pretty quickly like tried to happen last Friday and probably happens uh somewhat the Friday before. So you have to be careful obviously but I think selling premium obviously that's what I do and in this market especially when we have
uh the markets dropping you can sell premium on the call side but you have to be you have to be careful very careful what underlyings do you use so I do two
kinds of trades I do the so I do the S&P uh you know trades for you know for the daily trade yeah the zero DTX Right. That's probably majority of my trades on an active basis. Okay. I also follow all the liquid uh you know the top 50 that
most of the tasty trade uh you know people use which are the most liquid. They have the uh the tighter markets. Sure. The max 7 uh you crude oil some of
the futures. How many positions do you think you have on at any one time? I have uh the total different kinds would be like a 100 at 100 at one time
100 different underlyings. Yes. And multiple positions in those. Some of them have multiple positions. That sounds like me. And um multiple positions in those some 60 70% uh equity and maybe 20 30%
futures and futures options. Yes. Yes. And you're right pretty indifferent to product as long as liquid. Yes. As long as uh you know the liquid and and there's a market for it. Tight markets. How much of your capital do you use? Uh
well I'd like to uh do the effective money management now. Okay. And now that the VIX is higher than 25. Yeah. I like to leave at least 30% dry powder at all times. Okay. I like to keep it less uh you know I like to keep more than that.
I like I feel better when I have 50% open. 50% you mean you're using 50%. Right. Okay. Or I have 50% available. Yeah. Sure. But sometimes uh it is less than that. Okay. But but in the higher VIX environment I think 40 to 50% dry
powder is a is what I think we should have. Right? So let's say you kept about 50% of your buying power. Now, here's the fun part because as we're talking right here, I'm just um trying to kind of set the stage, but 50% of your buying
power is still about right now about $14 million. Yes. Okay. So, now you get a sense of the size of the positions that we're talking about because you're
using, you know, almost $14 million to for 50% of your buying power and put over a 100 different positions. So this is a this is a large account with a lot
of trades, right? A lot of capital committed and a lot of risk. How much is of these positions is n how much how how much are defined risk positions like call spreads and stuff and how much are naked? I think um uh more than 50% is
naked. Okay. I would say 60% is naked. Yeah, that's probably that's probably what I would figure. So 60% naked. So, this is a huge commitment to the market, which would all make a ton of sense given the success you've had, but I
first should preface this by saying the last two years with these kind of numbers, which the account has obviously grown a lot, you're up 40% a year in 23 and 24, and I don't have the 25 numbers yet, but we'll get into that a little
bit. Um, but there's I'm even going to go one more wilder step. You have a full-time job. Yes, sir. I'm a full-time pain physician, and I uh I still work full-time, but by the
way, to traders, that's a very difficult thing. Full-time pain physician can mean you're taking care of your own trading pain, right? Your your back pain, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's it. So, so but I have my own practice and I
can use time management which I use around the market. So we start early but uh but I can always manage my cases in a way that I have time you know uh like in
the mornings before market opens for 15 20 minutes half an hour sometimes then I have some time at lunch of course I'm watching the market even uh when I'm doing procedures after procedures I have I I do procedures which are short in
duration I don't think it's good to do procedures with the market no well I can't legally do that good good thank god Right. But I don't uh you know most of the time I don't need to watch it all the time but I do time management and I
also keep some time towards the end of the day. I also have this routine that uh that in the evening I kind of review all of my orders which I executed that day and do like a back test uh you know sort of replay in my head. Okay. Of you
know what I was thinking. Sure. why I did this trade and how it went. And then uh you you know I'm doing like the 45day strategies on my options and I know that
I have to roll some of the positions. Some of them I can queue up at night background. You went to medit school in Pakistan. Yes. You moved to the US 30
years ago. Yes. Became a US citizen. You've been an anesthesiologist and now a pain specialist. Yes. Um, you're obviously been crazy successful in your professional career and, you know, own car dealerships
it's and then all of a sudden you you kind of have this either you're a crazy workaholic or you have this appetite for risk that's a
little outsized. Which is it both? I think it's fair for both but probably is because uh uh that I like to hold myself to a higher standard meaning that I like
to see if I can accomplish something. So whether it is a skill and I think of trading as a skill. Sure. So, uh, when I first stumbled into it, I made some initial mistakes and I lost some money and the the two choices then were that I
could quit. And, you know, a lot of people do, which is fine, but I was lucky enough that I had some capital that I was able to deploy after I had the bad experience. And then I went back and I wanted to work on you developing
strategies that would be successful, not necessarily for the account size or the profit loss, but to prove to myself that I could do it in a way that it made sense. So you you're just somebody that loves challenges. I really do. Okay. Got
it. So let's give a little history to everybody. you even though you made your first trade when you were in med school you know by hand paying cash um in
Pakistan uh which I don't really know anything about the exchanges there um uh but I you're you really started to get involved in trading in the US let's say almost around like 2020ish 2021 20 21 21 which is which is a little bit later in
life you know you're almost 50 it right at the time. And and so so you're thinking, hm, what was I, you know, what was I missing out on? Or, you know, this looks interesting. I mean, you're you're obviously a a numbers geek, very
quantitative, you know, very mathematical, but but it was it was it the math challenge? Was it the probabilistic challenge? Was it the risk almost 50? Right. So almost everything else that I do, yeah, I have to depend
on other people to do their job, which which is, you know, there's nothing wrong with it. It's a team sport. All businesses are teams. But I realized that this was the only thing in which the only person who could mess up would
be me. So with that comes the responsibility, but also sense of the the accomplishment that if you're successful, you can give yourself the full credit. So you own everything. You own it. I mean, right. You own the bad
and the good. You own the good and the bad. Right. So, so that was part of it. Okay. And then uh you know with the with the tested platform you being so easy to use on your cell phone, it is it is so handy. You can go you can be on
vacation, you can be on a cruise anywhere. you still are able to check on your accounts, execute your trades, and uh you know, so you start in 2021 and
you're and you're kind of messing around with I I don't know what you originally started with moneywise, but you you're testing the you're you're putting your right? I was just doing stocks before. You survived the pandemic or you might
have started after the pandemic and you survived it all. You make a little money, you think, hey, you know what? I'm this is this is like it was back in Pakistan, you know, like like I just go buy some stocks, they go higher. It's
easy. This is a piece of cake, right? Um and then 2022 rolls around kind of important. You start with a couple million dollars. Sure. $3
million. So you're a confidence hole. That's a good like I'm getting in. You know, that's no excuses. That's a real number. Um, so you start with a couple million dollars and you trade really well and you you you whatever you were
doing was working and you get the number up to $6 million. You make $3 million. Sure. Basically doubles your money. At that point you think you're a freaking genius. I thought it was too easy. Too easy. It wasn't fair. How are these guys
How is everybody not doing this? Right. Right. And uh obviously I was not following the money management and the risk uh techniques guys teach. Why should you though? I had it figured out. Right. So then what happened in the end
of 2022? You said it was around August, right? Right. It was uh it was a Fed speech day. Mhm. And I had a a very book uh like a very big outside position on the market. Okay. And I actually went to do a procedure and half an hour later I
came out and the market had dropped I think one and a half%. Uhhuh. And I was just paralyzed. I could not believe it. And I did not uh use preemptive uh you
know defensive techniques that I would do now. And your position was too big. It was too big. It was too big. So genius failed big time. It was spectacular. Yeah. Genius failed spectacularly. Yes. Got it. So at that
point that's you lost of you you were up three million and then you lost four million. Yes. Okay. So now you're back down at you're down a million, right? and it was make a million, lose a million, down a million. And nobody
could figure that out, but it's like that's how this industry works. So you really down more than that because of course Yeah. psychologically. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Brutal. So So at that point, you you have to build your confidence
back, right? Well, I had a choice to make. Mhm. I could have walked away. Mhm. But uh I just thought about it and you know I am otherwise blessed. So even you're you're a successful physician. You own a bunch of car dealerships. You
got all this stuff going on. You know like life is good. You're you are living the American dream. I am. I am. And I'm very blessed. But I also believe uh that the biggest risk is not taking any. Sure. So, I wanted to be I wanted to be
successful at this. And it bothered you that you lost a little money. It really bothered. I think I'm I'm You're very competitive. Yeah. Yeah. So, you did what? Uh well, I had the opportunity uh like I was uh I was
liquidating some other businesses and I had some capital come in. Okay. And against all advice from family and friends, I I I just doubled down on my trading. Were you married at the time? I was. Okay. And um how'd that go over?
good. When I was really upset and she said, "No, you you know, I trust you. I believe you. I think you can do it." Love it. That's great. And then so you
deposited you you deposit about $10 million, right? And so now you're at 12 million, right? And you're like, I'm going for it. there's no reason to put that much money in, but you did. I did. And you
committed that much money to the markets, that much money because you you obviously believed in yourself. That's a lot of confidence. And that's 2023, the that. Yeah. Because you had the rest of 2022 to kind of figure things out and
Yeah. And and in 2023 being a little more cautious, being a lot smarter about things, you made 40% return, which is like, you know, $5 million, right? That's impressive. Thank you. Because 2023 was the year that we
started to bounce back a little bit, right? We did. 22 was the sell-off and 23 we started to bounce back a little bit. Um, so you must have leaned a little long delta. I did. I did. Yeah, I did because uh what I learned from uh
from the you know from the past was that I cannot expect the market to do what I think it should do. I have to I have to recognize what's in front of me, right? The market was going up. So I had to go long deltas at that time. So you long a
put spreads. Yes. Okay. And were you doing any like longer durations? They days. Okay. That you guys teach. And uh Were you managing early? Yes. Okay. I
sometimes I'm guilty of like managing too early. That's okay. Right. That's a high class problem. Right. But no, that the 45 days and even longer sometimes gives you a little bit flexibility and there's more time to be right. So that
helps a lot more wiggle room. And I'm just kind of fast forwarding here. So that's an amazing year. What's 2023? You make $5 million. Your investment obviously paid off, 40% return. And you're thinking to
yourself, now you also have a successful practice which you're which you're still full-time doing and but now you're you're fully bitten by the bug. I am. You're locked in. There's nothing else. Okay. So, so 2024 rolls around and you
So, now your account goes from 12 million to let's say 17 million. Now you add some more money to your account because you sold another business to whatever and at that point in 2024 now you know it gets harder the
more money you have in your account it is. So so when you make $5 million on a $12 million account but on a $20 million account to make you know 40% you you have to you know it's it's even more challenging. It is because you got to
put on more positions. you got to scale up your size. And then somehow you made almost, you know, $8 million or whatever the number was exactly, but it was close enough the next year in 2024, right? Those those are amazing returns. Thank
you. It's crazy. It is. It's mindboggling. I try not to think about it that way. Just Does anybody else in the world know this or even know now? Look house, right? Did you tell your kids or anything? Well, they're finding
out now. That's kind of got to be just an incredible feeling because it's not easy. I mean, like I I can't even begin to stress how hard this is. It's not, you know, you know, none of this is
easy. They don't give you anything. There's no edge. It's there's no negative edge, but there's no edge. There's not you have to earn every dollar of that 8 million or every dollar the two years whatever it is you know 12
13 14 million total whatever you have to earn every single penny of that. Yes sir. And I try to think of of like every day is a new day. Yeah. So when the market opens at 8 you know like 8:30 for me like for you guys. Yeah. It's a it's
a blank slate and you just got to prove uh your worth that day to uh to do you know what's right uh to make the right decisions and when the things go against
you you have to use your risk management strategies to to mitigate it and to get out sometimes sometimes you just have to take a loss. How's first of all how's 2025 going? 2025 is going very well. Uh that's great. Yes. Even even
this down move, you're okay. Yes. Yes. Okay. What's been your worst draw down in the last two years, you know, since the beginning of 2023? [Music] Not very significant. I because I've
I've been really lucky the last two years and it's been uh you know like I've had very positive returns. So I may have had a you know a couple of hundred thousand here and there but uh overall it's been very positive. Do you know
what percentage of your trading profits have come from like the zero DTS verse the 45 days right I think it's uh 60% zero DTE
so it's very high it is high so when you do the zero DTS why how have you been uh it may seem counterintuitive in this you know like the bull market that we
back. Yeah. But what I seen in my in my observation is that the market can drop 100 points in 5 minutes sometimes. Sure. But it normally
does not melt up 100 points in 5 minutes. So even in a in a positive day when the market is going up if I look at the
uh like the appropriate resistance levels expected move and and some of the you know J levels and like dealer flow you can do call spreads out of the money
or or like at the appropriate levels and you can and you know uh like I put my trades in in the like at the first minute when the market opens with the with the max volatility to get the most uh of the premium. Mhm. And most of the
time I I'm able to close them within two hours. So I don't stay I don't hold anything to No, I Yeah. Because it wouldn't Right. because because it gets so risky as you guys teach. So I think that if you just play the like the
volatility crush uh you can uh you know you can be profitable on on call spreads even you know uh how wide are how wide are your call spreads? I normally do 10
wide 10 wide but I try to go uh you know like above the resistance level and and like above uh the expectant move for the day. Now is this mostly S&P you're talking about? Yes. What do you do this? Mostly S&P. SPX. Yeah. And how many
contracts are you trading? I'm doing a few thousand contracts total, but I don't do all of them at the same time. Okay, got it. I I kind of lag into those. Uh yeah, le into those. But I also uh have learned to follow the you
know like the dealer flow and and the volume indicators in real time on S&P. In that way uh you know you can get a good idea of what uh you know uh at what
levels the open interest is and and and the big positions are. Okay. And then uh as you know that uh you know the big levels you know if there's a lot of
activity at like 6,000 and even if the market gets to 6,000 all of those calls are now in the money. So you know the people start selling those and then the dealer has to uh stay neutral and then they have to
sell the underlying. So, so those at those big levels with with the major open interest, uh, yeah, they they can act as the resistance. So, it's an kind of a classic old pin risk game with um, uh,
yeah, I mean, it's an age-old approach to, of course. Of course. Yeah. It's nothing new. No, but it's new to me. Yeah. But, uh, but the idea is to just sell into volatility at the start of the day. Yeah. and to try to get out for
whatever you can get out of of the market and not hold in the air. I mean, you can't argue against the success that you've had. So, um you know, the the the challenge is that as you continue to as as your stuff continues to grow, your
account continues to grow, it's just gets a little more gets harder and harder. It does. Um but but that's again a challenge for you, which is what you seem to like the best. So, that's the most fascinating part.
equities? You mentioned before that you traded, you know, you have a 100 liquid ones, is it the same approach? Like if you're trading, for example,
Nvidia or Tesla or, you know, whatever else it is, Google, right? You know, Amazon. Um, are you taking kind of the same approach? I mean, obviously not in the dailies, but is it kind of the same approach? And if you do something like
for example crude oil or or nat gas or you know or bonds right um are you same approach? Yes, same approach. I have one uh I have an account in which I have a charitable LLC. Yeah. In which it is like the trust account. Yeah. So we can
I can only do covered calls and and buy and sell stocks in that one because we has to have a certain amount. Yeah. So on those we I find the like the most uh you know uh like I'm finding the most liquid uh of the stocks. Yeah. Like the
major ones that you describe and most of them have you know they have good volatility too. So I can sell premium. Yeah. So even if they're not dividend stocks I can set cover calls. Of course that you know that does limit the upside
sometimes. Uh but uh but that's a good way to you know I can generate income in that account with those. So what now? So I opened a small hedge fund. Okay. Like a family office. Yeah. That's that's cool. Yes. So you mainly myself and my
family members money. Sure. And uh I'm doing that as a challenge that I want to be able to show that if it is formally set up as a hedge fund what kind of returns I can show because you want to do what? Because this is something you
think that you know this is the next stage of your life possibly or you know it's always just going to complement your your medical career. No sir I think I enjoy this more now. So, I'm thinking about uh possibly, you know, closing my
medical practice at some point when I'm ready. Mhm. And when I can prove to myself that I can do this full-time. Uhhuh. And then I would like to manage the hedge fund and do this full-time. You're young. You got a lot of time
left. You've got a lot of, you know, I I could appreciate the ambition and the um and the independence. Um I kind of think the same way, you know. Um, it's it's such an interesting story because a lot of times when we do rising
asks me, well, you know, how much money are they trading with or how much money do they make? Cuz, you know, when when you make 40% on a big number,
it's very it's very meaningful about, you know, what this business what what what opportunities are out there. Yes, it is the I think this is very profitable and even if uh people are trading smaller amounts uh if they can
you follow the right strategies the tasty trade way of trading I think everybody can can really you know they can really augment their income even they can definitely try and it's it's such a um it's such an inspiring story
because it's you now cuz you you're you're kind of a hardcore very independent hardcore entrepreneur and I love the story because you you
absolutely put your money where your mouth is, you know, I mean, you know, walk, and you did it. Thank you so much, Doc. That was just uh um that was a lot
of fun. It's a great story. Hope everybody enjoys it. Uh thanks, K. Yes. Thank you so much.