Cameron Newell says he earned $5 million day-trading stocks in 2020. He breaks down how he decides which companies to buy and shares his top 4 trading strategies. (2024)

He got off to a tough start. He told Insider he lost half his net worth, or about $9,500, which was a combination of money given to him by his parents and profits from side jobs he'd worked when he was young.

After educating himself for endless hours about the market and historical trends, he began to trade again in September 2019, he told Insider.He deposited about $1,000 in an account with TD Ameritrade just before a retail-trading boom, according to a copy of his monthly account statement which he shared with Insider.

Since then, the S&P 500 has endured a historically volatile period and its fastest-ever crash and recovery. A buy-and-hold investor who put $1,000 into an S&P 500 index fund would have gained 38%, or $380, since then.

Newell appears to have done much better.

Newell shared with Insider PDFs of his monthly brokerage-account statements from November 2019 through the end of last year with Insider, and full 2020 tax documents, known as form 1099-Bs, prepared by his brokers.

• His TD Ameritrade statement for November 2019 shows an initial deposit of $1,171, and the annual tax document reflects a gain of nearly $994,000 in that account through May. The 1099-B is only used to determine annual net gains, while the brokerage monthly statements show deposits.
• He continued trading on E-Trade, where his May 2020 statement shows a transfer of $100,000 and his 1099-B shows a gain of about $3.7 million by December.
• Finally, a 1099-B prepared by TradeZero shows he traded in the account from December 18 through the 31st, and saw a net gain of $506,000 from an initial deposit of $300,000 shown in his monthly statement.

Over the same period, Newell livestreamed multiple trades that netted $50,000 gains or more and featured his daily profit-and-loss positions, where Insider was able to verify the price moves seen in the stream did indeed happen.

Together, the documents and livestreams suggest that within a year, he had realized gains totaling up to $5 million across three accounts.

"After reviewing Cameron's trading statements and hearing his explanation of his trading strategy I believe his trading results for that period are legitimate," said David Sacco, a practitioner in residence at the University of New Haven in the finance and economics departments, and the former co-head of global rates at UBS. Sacco reviewed Newell's documents at Insider's request.

He added, "The circ*mstances of last year brought on a very specific set of market conditions that Cameron was able to capitalize on."

Newell's trading last year most likely involved a "sizable time commitment," said Kaysian Gordon, a wealth manager at Clarus Group and a certified financial planner who also reviewed Newell's monthly TD statements at Insider's request. She noted that one particular statement, from April 2020, had more than 1,200 pages that mainly contained trades.

Newell told Insider his primary strategy was momentum day trading, which involves chasing price trends by buying stocks on the rise and selling those in decline.

"I didn't even graduate college, you know," Newell told Insider. "I had a 2.3 GPA in high school, pretty much the same in college, 2.5 or something like that. So I'm not anything. I'm not a genius. I just found what I love."

When Insider asked him whether he believed others could replicate his success, Newell responded that he did. He now runs a business teaching others how to trade online, including on YouTube.

But his approach may not be for everyone: Newell used various high-risk strategies that can be extremely costly but potentially rewarding. These includetrading penny stocks, in-and-out trading, and short-selling.

And his returns are out of the ordinary, even for traders who do this professionally. For example, only 49% of actively managed funds covered by Morningstar beat their passive peers last year.

Newell told us how these tactics helped him hit his goal, and he shared three broader strategies he used.

He buys the dip

When he momentum-trades, which he refers to as his short-term strategy, Newell focuses more on the psychology around trading, or how other traders may react to volatility, rather than company data. He looks for volatile stocks and buys on the dip because he anticipates a bounce back. He holds these positions for short periods, usually between three hours to three days.

"I'm looking for patterns. I don't get bias on companies. Now, in my long term, much different, but in this account I don't care what I'm trading," he said. "I'm looking for high volume, high volatility, and a lot of people who are getting emotional."

He also focuses on hot markets that people are talking about, such as electric vehicles, and certain sectors that might be popular among retail investors trading in high volumes. If he reads positive news about a company, which may signal success, he will also long a position, he said.

One example of Newell's successfully executed trades was done on December 9 after news came out that a newly public biotech company known as Greenwich LifeSciences (GLSI) had positive clinical results for breast-cancer treatment. When the market opened, he bought in and took profits as the price was still climbing. The share price spiked by nearly 998% that day, and Newell made $65,000 trading it. He streamed the trade live on YouTube. Insider verified that the stock moves seen in the YouTube livestream did indeed take place that day.

He looks for sympathy plays

If a company's stock price spikes in a short period, usually 300% or more in an hour or two, Newell will look for sympathy plays, which are other stocks that may be related to it. Usually, these are companies that manufacture the same products or provide a similar service.

He refers to those companies as "runners," which are usually smaller-cap companies with cheaper shares. For instance, if a company that manufactures electric vehicles experiences a rapid increase in its share price, he will look for other electric-vehicle companies, or those that manufacture parts for that company, and buy their shares, he said. He bases this on past observations.

"Tesla ran up massive, but then there was a lot of runners behind it, like BLNK, FSR, CCIV," Newell said.

To find these sympathy plays, he said he used a website called Finviz. He navigates to the page of the company in question, then clicks a link below its chart that lists similar companies.

He then filters the table to display companies from lowest to highest share prices and takes a close look at the companies with cheaper shares.

"Generally, when I'm looking at stocks, the cheaper ones are the ones that can go the most percentage-wise. So, you know, if the stock is, like, at $60, it's a lot harder to double than if a stock is at three, or 4, or 5, or 6, or 7, or 8 bucks," Newell said.

One example of a sympathy play he pulled off took place on November 6, when he bought shares from Oncternal Therapeutics (ONCT) to take advantage of Aptevo Therapeutics (APVO). The latter's shares had started rising on November 2 after the company announced positive news of a successful clinical trial. Newell said he didn't know about Aptevo's news, but he observed the stock climbing for a few days. He began buying Oncternal shares at $4.70 and sold at about $8.30, making around $214,000 in unrealized gains. (He livestreamed that trade too.) Insider verified that the stock moves seen in the YouTube livestream did indeed take place that day.

Newell said that when he initially got started with $1,000, he was picking sympathy plays that had share prices mostly below $1, essentially penny stocks. He would hold them overnight to bypass the pattern-day-trader rule, which limits you to three day trades within five business days if you have less than $25,000 in your account.

Some of those stocks increased by 200% to 600% in one day. As his profits scaled, and he reached $25,000, he began to day-trade and pick stocks that were trading at higher prices, he said. But he sticks mainly to small- and mid-cap companies.

He does take risks

Newell definitely doesn't have a conservative approach when it comes to investing. He makes quick trades and takes big risks that can amplify his gains.

More recently, Newell also began shorting stocks he thought would go down, he said. He uses the same strategy when he shorts a stock as when he longs it, he said. This allows him to catch opportunities that are both increasing and decreasing.

Toward the end of his challenge, he said he also traded with funds borrowed from the broker TradeZero, amplifying his gains in a risky but potentially rewarding practice known as margin trading.

He maintains a long-term portfolio

Newell said he keeps his long-term investments in a separate account from his short-term trades because he plans to hold them for 10 to 30 years, he said. He transfers funds from his momentum account into his long-term account as a way to take profits while continuing to allow his money to grow. Here, he focuses more on the company, especially its CEO.

A key indicator for him is how a CEO handles themselves. Newell said he liked CEOs who are consistent with their statements — meaning if they say something, they don't contradict it, or their opinion doesn't change unexpectedly.

Other things he looks for in his long-term portfolio are consistent growth in a company's quarterly earnings and sectors that have growth potential, such as electric vehicles and renewable energy.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story said that Newell had turned $1,000 into $5 million. Insider worked to further verify this claim after publication and updated this story with details from tax and brokerage records Newell provided, as well as commentary from experts who reviewed his documents. However, Insider was not able to verify a direct line from $1,000 to $5 million, and so this claim has been removed.