Elliott Wave of My Life: A Self Reflection of A Newly Minted 20-Year Old
Introduction
As of writing this exact sentence it is exactly 88 days before I turn 20. This article is scheduled to publish on my 20th birthday as a gift to myself to look back upon, reflect, and hopefully be proud of.
Let me start off by saying that this article is not the typical content I post if you are familiar with who I am. I usually post analyses of Bitcoin and other financial markets over on my Twitter. I felt the need to write this to help myself explain and organize the life-changing events in my life, explain how I feel they affected me, and show what I ultimately learned from all of them by using a form of trend analysis typically used in financial markets called Elliott Wave Theory.
What is Elliott Wave Theory?
To put it simply, Elliott Wave Theory is a form of technical analysis in financial markets to map-out recurring patterns in investor sentiment and psychology. These said patterns are fractal in nature meaning that pattern structures can be found in varying degrees in varying time frames, large or small.
As you can see above, the basics of Elliott Wave contain what is called a 5-wave impulse move with a 3-wave corrective move. Each wave has its own characteristics. I will not go too in depth into this but 2 examples that relate to my life event chart is that wave 4’s are typically drawn out and wave 2’s are deep and sharp.
In financial markets, the purpose of Elliott Wave Theory is to accurately identify where you are/could be within a trend to identify potential turning points in a market. There are a lot more details involved in how Elliott Wave Theory works such as wave classification rules and different structures that can be further explained, but it is not necessary for my use case of applying the theory to life events rather than financial charts. If you are interested in learning more on Elliott Wave Theory, here is a great informational resource to learn all about it:
Applying Elliott Wave Theory to My Life Events
Using this theory of mapping out fractal patterns, I tried my best to correspond the big events in my life to Elliott Waves based on the duration of the life event, the happiness or unhappiness it has brought me, and intensity of said happiness/unhappiness.
I am going to be going over all these life events and most importantly: share what I learned from all of them and share what skills I picked up along the way which allow me to create and do the things that I do today.
Wave 1 & 2 of (1)
Looking at my mapped-out timeline, I started with labeling the 1st and 2nd waves of wave (1) as “New Life/Born” and “Growing Pains”. I did not have much to label both since these are about the first 7–8 years of my life. There was not one large, memorable event during that time that I feel shaped me into the man I am today. So instead I will go over those years generally.
“Growing Pains” can best be explained by saying that I got into my fair share of trouble as a kid. I know most kids cause havoc as well but when people look at me and see the things I have done and created now (Bitcoin Podcast, programming stock trading algorithms in Python, etc.), everyone seems to assume that I was the “perfect kid” who never got into trouble when in reality, I got into my fair share of trouble. No biggie.
The main thing that I learned from these early years of my life is that I knew I had “something”. My interests were not “normal”, and I saw this. I tried forcing myself to like “normal” things but could never truly like football, soccer, etc.
Wave 3 of (1)
Moving on to the 3rd of (1)st wave, the big event for me that brought me so much happiness was joining the diving team. I remember what made me join so vividly. I was 9 years old and frequently went to our local pool to go on the diving boards. I was scared to jump off the 1-meter boards and watched other kids do it “better” than me. I was made fun of for being scared and barely jumping off the diving board. One day, I saw the diving team practice doing dives 100 times better than those pesky bullies were. I went up to my mom and told her “I want to do that and be just as good as them. Can I join?”. A few weeks later I was doing basic dives and was proud of myself for doing so. I continued to dive 2.5 hours a day, 5 days a week for the next 6 years. Joining the diving team was one of the happiest choices I made and do not regret doing so. Fast forward to my freshman year of high school, and I placed 8th in the state of Florida for High School diving. I guess I showed them.
After diving my freshman year, I decided that it was not what I wanted to do and wanted to explore my other interests. Despite leaving, one trait I picked up from my time on the diving team that is very prevalent in my actions today is discipline.
Discipline translates into other traits such as organizational skills. Combining these two traits allows me to set goals for myself with an actionable plan and act on it. With that being said, I am glad I picked up disciplinary skills very early in my life because I believe that it is a key skill to accomplish my life goals.
Wave 4 of (1)
In the 4th of (1)st wave, I pin-pointed this small downturn as my middle school years. Middle school is when I started to become self-conscious of everything I did. Just like 100% of kids during this time, I was bullied. No surprise there. Middle school for me was full of rejection, disappointment, and betrayal. Despite this, I had my happy moments. During middle school, I was involved in school activities like the morning announcements and explored my interest in video making and video editing. Fast forward 8 years and I have my own podcast to share my financial analyses on Bitcoin.
During my years in middle school, I learned that friendships are supposed to work both ways. Friends will come and go in your life and you must decide who you want to let into your life.
During middle school, I also learned that there is a “sweet spot” for the timing of confronting a problem between you and your friends that everyone needs to learn. If you confront the problem too quick, you are insensitive and do not give people enough time to digest the problem and decide how they should act. Take too long to confront, you are careless and afraid to confront a problem which could destroy a relationship.
Wave 5 of (1)
In the 5th of (1)st wave, I labeled this as the intense happiness I felt when I was accepted into the high school I wanted to go to: Suncoast High School. If you are not from South Florida, Suncoast High School is a STEM magnet school that offers a lot more rigorous classes than the normal high school through its offering of diverse course programs. These course programs include: Computer Science (CS), Innovative Interactive Technology (IIT), Math, Science, and Engineering (MSE), and International Baccalaureate (IB). In my area, it was every parent’s dream to get their kid into such a school that would look impressive for colleges. Lucky for me, I was one of those kids.
I remember feeling so happy when I got accepted into the Computer Science program because I saw this as an opportunity to start over and make new friends in a new high school. I was hoping it was full of kids like me who had different interests. The one thing that I disliked about it was that I was leaving behind some of my friends who did not get into Suncoast.
From this experience of getting into the high school of my dreams, I learned that if you work hard and stand out, you will be noticed, and your hard work will pay off.
Wave A of (2)
Moving into the first part of the largest downturn of my life (so far), wave A of wave (2) is representative of my entire high school experience. By looking at this chart, it seems like I was more excited to get into my high school rather than go there. Part of the reason behind this was the crazy expectations of the school that I had stuck in my head. When those expectations were not met, I felt let down about my decision to go there.
Besides that, it is no surprise that I did not have fun in high school because everyone does not have fun in high school. High school is a place where you are meant to grow up and be exposed to what life tries to throw at you; and life sure did throw a lot at me at that time.
One great example of something I struggled with at Suncoast was comparing myself to others. Going from a public school to a magnet school that accepts kids through a grade filter made me realize that I was not the smartest in the room anymore. This really shook my world but looking back, I am glad I experienced it. This helped me learn that not being the best in the room is completely okay. There will always be someone smarter, more likable, and better looking than you. What truly matters is what you do differently to stand out.
During my time in high school, I got interested in Bitcoin and Finance. I am lucky to have a Dad that fed my interest in Finance by teaching me all about technical analysis and other Finance topics. I was so passionate about learning Bitcoin and Finance that I started The Cryptocurrency Club during my senior year of high school. Nobody showed up to any of the club meetings, but I did not mind. It was something to put on a college application. Fast forward 2 years and I am still passionate about Bitcoin and Finance except now I am turning heads with my content I am putting out. If I did not get interested in Finance back in my high school days, I do not know what I would be doing now.
In addition to the skills I picked up during my time in high school, I continued to get involved in the production behind the school’s morning announcements. From this I learned advanced video editing and got certified in Adobe Premiere Pro. 3 years later I now use this skill to edit my podcast episodes to make them look as professional as possible.
Wave B of (2)
Moving into the B wave of wave (2), I labeled this: Starting College. I applied to several colleges with the intent of pursuing Computer Science because that is what I thought I wanted to do for so long. I applied to 6 colleges and got into 3. I decided to go to the University of Maryland in College Park as my final choice and I have not looked back. I have made a lot of friends here and have had a lot of fun living on my own and acting as an “adult”.
Living and doing everything on my own is fun. I was hanging with friends and doing schoolwork all semester long but felt like something was missing. Growing up, I looked up to creating something on my own. Whether it was starting a company or something else, I had the urge to create something on the side. During the first semester, I had the crazy idea to start a podcast showcasing my thoughts on Bitcoin. My friends (who I only knew for a few months) talked to me like I was crazy and that this was something that I would do a couple times then get bored and walk away from.
No hate to them, they were just pulling my leg. But this drove me to commit to it more. I designed the first logo for Better Than Bitcoin Podcast using the Photoshop skills I learned in middle school and bought a cheap USB microphone to record from. Afterwards, I edited the video and audio clips using my knowledge of video editing from middle and high school. Before I knew it, the first few episodes of my podcast were up on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and other large streaming platforms. It blew my mind how easy it was to publish onto big streaming platforms that most people have access to.
I started the podcast uploading news bits on Bitcoin because I was afraid to share my beginner technical analysis opinions and publicly show how wrong I could be. As I gained more knowledge and confidence around my unique skill, I then moved to overcome that fear and started to share more financial analyses on Bitcoin to share what I know.
I am very aware that I am not a professional when sharing my analyses and I do not advertise myself as one. This is because I am always learning and will never stop learning.
Being willing to put myself out there to share my passions for Bitcoin and Finance has and is continually paying off. During my Freshman year of college, I found myself in places where I would have never thought to be by being willing to step outside my comfort zone.
One example is when I was invited to the U.S. Capitol by Erik Finman to witness the introduction of the Cryptocurrency Act of 2020. By stepping out of my comfort zone and into a room of people in the Bitcoin and Financial Technology industry, I met a lot of interesting people and experienced first-hand where hard work and passion can take me. Everyone in that room was passionate about computers, Finance, Bitcoin, and everything else I was passionate about.
Interestingly enough, during my first year of college, I learned that having something you are passionate and knowledgeable about is one step to success but it is useless if you are not willing to step outside your comfort zone and act on it.
Wave C of (2)
I labeled the C wave of wave (2) as the mess of events that was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This pandemic forced my friends and I out of college for 2 months of the semester and I was sent back home to Florida with a swift transition to online learning. I was not adjusting as easily with extreme amounts of time management and work being thrown on my shoulders.
Despite this, I continued to create podcast episodes and learn about financial markets. The uncertainties of COVID had me questioning why I was pursuing a degree in Computer Science if I was now spending a large majority of my time on learning everything I can on the topic of Finance. With all of the leniencies my college allowed with changing and dropping classes during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I decided that then was the perfect time to drop my Computer Science class that was giving me a hard time and apply into the Business School to pursue my passions for Finance.
Of course, making the decision to drop Computer Science was not so simple. The decision to drop it was a hard one for me. I based my whole life around it by showing off what technical skills I can learn next. Friends and family praised me for how smart I was and how successful I will be if I kept going the path of Computer Science. Dropping it made me feel that I had failed everyone who had looked up to me in that way. Feeling like a failure is awful in the moment but you must learn how to pick yourself up and keep going. Otherwise you will be stuck in that feeling forever.
After finishing my online courses for the summer, I received an email saying that I did not get into the Business School. I was devastated. I appealed the decision and was denied again. I was more confused than disappointed about not getting in but was nonetheless sad about the denial. With the COVID leniencies, I have 1 more try to apply. But despite knowing this in the back of my head, rejection hurts harder especially when you give it your 110% effort. I know if I did not do something about it, I will get denied again and not be able to pursue my passion.
To solve this and make myself more marketable for the 2nd time around, I decided to not get a job over the summer and give my passion 100% of my attention. I started posting technical analysis charts daily, analyzing and learning different techniques, and sharing my progress all through my Twitter. Through this strategy, I more than doubled my Twitter following over the short span of a few months and was surprised that I could “do it”.
Posting chart analyses on Twitter only got me so far so I started exploring automated trading strategies. I started with programming my own technical indicator on TradingView based on a need that I wanted to be filled. From here I realized that my background in programming could be useful, so I explored creating some strategies in TradingView. When I was annoyed by the limitations of TradingView’s programming language, I decided to teach myself Python to build these strategies from scratch on my own. By then I realized that what I was doing was interesting and I came upon the idea to share my learning progress through a blog. I created the blog and updated it weekly until the end of the summer.
I had a blast learning about quantitative finance and creating my own trading strategies during the summer. I am getting a lot more attention than ever before by going down this path and I love what I am doing in the process.
From this summer I learned that if you have the passion and drive to pursue something you love to do; it should not matter what other people think. This reminds me of this recent quote from Jeff Bezos:
“When we think our critics are right, we change. When we make mistakes, we apologize. But when you look in the mirror, asses the criticism, and still believe you’re doing the right thing, no force in the world should be able to move you.”
Where Am I Now?
Now what about beyond what I have mapped out? The answer to this is not quite that simple. There is one large caveat to Elliott Wave Theory: It is hard to tell where you are in the pattern. This fact makes it common to look at multiple “counts” or different scenarios to stack the odds in your favor for predicting future movements. One general rule of thumb for Elliott Wave Theory is the bottom of a down-trend is not confirmed unless the previous high is broken above. Thus, having the need for multiple scenarios to accurately determine what the count could be if it does not go your way.
But in the context of life events rather than price data, having multiple “counts” is difficult to do since I have only experienced so many life-changing events. With that being said: above is the only count I have and truly believe in.
This uncertainty of “where I am” in this massive 5 wave structure can best be described by a quote by Steve Jobs when he made his commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005:
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
When I am mapping out my life in this way it feels like I am scrambling to plan out my life as much as I can while in reality: I am driving blind through life and being told to hope everything turns out okay. That is the scariest thing to any 20-year-old.
So, if I cannot say where I am in the pattern, where do I believe I currently am? I have strong reason to believe that I am starting or in the progress of my 1st of (3)rd wave.
The reason I believe this is because I am happy to see some of my hard work towards all my creative work (my podcast, my Twitter, my progress in trading, etc.) start to pay off, literally and figuratively. I know I am up to something when people personally reach out to me to tell me that what I am doing is cool. Let me tell you, there is no better feeling than that. It drives me to do more.
What I Have Learned in the Past 20 Years
In the spirit of self-reflection, here is a running list of every life lesson I have learned along the way and other values I live by. Keep in mind that some of these might seem obvious and/or repetitive to some people.
- Be curiously and creatively skeptical of everyone including yourself. You should be asking other people “why?” as often as you ask yourself the same. Being more skeptical of others more than you are of yourself comes off as arrogant while leaning the other way comes off as insecure.
- Friends come and go. Stick with the ones who act and care about you during your “downs”. Do not get caught up trying to revive a friendship that only worked one way.
- Turn pain into a motivator to keep going and “show them”. But once you get “there”, be humble.
- Care about people’s constructive criticism and ignore their unconstructive criticism. But learn the difference between the two.
- Being 100% risk-averse is worse than being 100% risk-on.
- Only act on the information you are given. Do not act on what-ifs. Otherwise, you can make decisions that could backfire.
- Create habits of organization yet also be willing to abandon it and “go with the flow”
- Try your best to balance work and play yet realize that there is work within play and play within work.
- Not confronting a problem is like leaving a Band-Aid on. Taking it off too early will not give the wound time to heal. Yet leaving it on for too long suffocates the wound.
- There are always good times within bad times and bad times within good times.
- Everybody has a unique skill/interest that they are better at than anybody. Do not compare your weaknesses to other’s strengths.
- Focusing on yourself brings you more attention later than actively seeking out attention.
- It is okay to accept you are wrong and move on. This is part of learning.
What Is Next?
So now what? After writing this, I have effectively mapped out my big life events, shared what I learned from all of them, and shared a running list of values I live by that I also learned along the way. But what do I have planned for myself beyond college? As of writing this, in no specific order, I plan to dive deep into the financial world, start my own company to make a big impact on the world (hint: not associated with finance), start a family and raise children of my own to guide them to do something great for the world.
I realize that small changes could drastically alter this plan of mine because:
“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth” -Mike Tyson
Some people will read that and think that is a very “young” view of the world and having goals to “change the world” is what they thought of doing when they were my age; like when Jim from The Office told Michael that he was not going to work at the paper company his whole life and Michael’s response was: “That’s what I said too”. My only response to that is: watch me.
