You know what my least productive days are? It’s usually the day after I publish a post. I’m gleeful, knowing all my hard work gets to be read by the massses. Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, Reddit, BlueSky, I just go crazy. Man I should have 10,000 followers.
No, why stop there? 100,000 followers! I’m writing good shit, I deserve it.
So I spend way too much time being Mr. Social Media Manager on the day after I post stuff, in the vain effort to spread the word and create more engagement. I can see all the angles–I just need one post to go viral with 100k likes and then I’m golden, baby.
I’m super online all day, thinking this is the critical inflection point before my account goes supersonic. Then the day ends and I haven’t worked on my next post at all. I added maybe 6 followers. My newest post on pre-IPO that took two weeks to finish and cost $120 in hand drawn art manages to accumulate 47 likes.
I once read a book called Show Your Work. I told a fellow content creator that I had serious emotional resistance to shamelessly promoting my stuff, and he pushed me to read it. So I did—and while I was writing the Prop Trader Series, I went a little overboard sharing it everywhere. I ended up doing a lot of things that were well outside my comfort zone.
Engagement is lifeblood for content creators. Without eyeballs, you’re dead. Nobody sees your work. You’re just all alone in your house, painting your masterpiece and it might as well not even exist in reality because nobody knows about it. Gotta get that engagement or die.
11 ANNOYING THINGS I COULD DO TO GET MORE CLICKS
1. I could bait everyone on Twitter
When you look at the most widely followed anonymous or semi-anonymous accounts on Twitter1(this is so we can sort out some of the real life “celebrity money managers” who will always get a big following), you can see certain patterns. It seems innocuous at first–but then you see it too many times and you know it’s a formula for engagement bait.
Hearing some very interesting things about a major AI company. Not public yet. Stay tuned. Vague-posting. The insinuation of knowing something you don’t.
SENTIMENT CHECK: “Is NVDA going to $1T more from here? Polls are easy. They always outperform regular tweets. Presumably there’s a purpose to this–not actually about sentiment, it’s about engagement.
“Everyone is bullish. That’s exactly why I’m bearish.” Oh, good for you, Mr. Contrarian–just hovering above all of us, arms crossed, offering your brave little ‘I see what no one else sees’ takes. Groundbreaking stuff.2fuck you
“Unpopular opinion: Most VCs have no idea what they’re doing.” Actually a very popular opinion that’s surely going to cause some rabble rousing among the blue checks.
“We are in the biggest bubble since 2008″. Doom porn–it draws all the scaredy cats and contrarian smoothbrains to the table to agree with each other. How many followers did you say Michael Burry has now?
“Spoke with a top-tier HF manager yesterday. The tone has completely shifted.” Oh okay, you’re one of those well-connected insider accounts. Good for you.3please STFU
“Ran into 5 HF managers eating at the steakhouse yesterday. They were all talking about…” Don’t make up shit okay? Nobody runs into anyone anywhere and even if you do, it’s too hard to hear over all the noise.
What an unbelievable day in this incredible trader’s market. Are you up 500% YTD like me? No? Reach out if you need help. The benevolent guru, making sure he’s not forgetting the little guy.4what a little cockroach
These aren’t accidents. They’re designed for you to click. Even if you don’t click like or follow, clicking at all is boosting that engagement master-baiter’s visibility on the almighty algorithm. I don’t want to do this, let’s move on.
2. I could try to be funny
Being funny is basically just engagement bait but in good faith. At least you’re making me laugh and that’s probably the original purpose most people flocked to this hellhole of a site in the early 2010’s. We just wanted to tweet about the best brands of instant noodles and laugh over sporting events.
I’m not that funny though. I did an April Fool’s tweet today. It wasn’t that funny.
3. I could pay money for LinkedIn Premium and Twitter blue check
I’m cheap. And I don’t want to support Twitter even though I’m now technically an owner of them via a SpaceX SPV. Don’t get me started on how much Twitter sucks. Not wanting to be too online on that hellscape is a massive reason why I’ll never amass a big following.
4. I could ask people in my orbit to promote my work
After reading Share My Work, I was doing this relentlessly. I e-mailed my most popular posts to great trading authors like Jack Schwager and Dr. Brett Steenbarger. They liked it. They didn’t share it, though. Maybe they were just being nice to me. Oh well.
Then I started to find highly-engaged tweets from highly followed accounts and reply with relevant post links. It felt weird, like I’m begging these people with a tin cup for any morsel of a reply… so I stopped.
It’s always nice when a trader with a big following organically decides to support me though. It feels more earned.
5. I could post my daily PnL
There’s not a chance I will do this. I just don’t believe in it. I think once you go down that road, you start to create a para-social relationship with your audience. They’re gawking at your every action and your every move. I’d feel like I’m being monitored. My godawful trading is not your performance art okay?5(some of you may read the blog and think “Oh Pete, but you post some PnL on your posts what’s the difference?” I post PnL it keeps these posts authentic. You can’t really write about a trading loss or gain without disclosing a number, the omission would be too glaring in a supposed “trading stories” blog. I don’t view this as the same as posting PnL every single day)
Don’t give me that bullshit about transparency and accountability or inspiring other small retail traders. If it’s even real, it’s almost always for ego stroking or to generate more engagement.
BTW, young 20’s Pete once toyed around with posting PnL for a couple months in 2015. Some creeps ending up saving my posts and claimed they were sending them to the IRS. Not sure what the agenda is there but don’t want to find out. Why even bother with that?
6. I could go on a podcast
Already did it… guess I could do more but there are too many finance podcasts now. I can’t keep up with all of them. Trader podcasts were cooler to me when ChatWithTraders was the only one out there.
Trading blogs used to be very popular back in the late 2000’s, early 2010’s–now they’re on the verge of going extinct outside of the substack model, which is more technical and research driven. I like going all the grain–everyone zigs, I’m gonna zag. I take pride in having all of my content be written. I put everything out there. There’s pretty much nothing left to say out loud on a microphone. The only reason to appear on a podcast is basically to promote this blog. I don’t know, someone could convince me otherwise.
7. I could spam Reddit
There was one time I did an AmA on the r/Daytrading subreddit and it gave me a huge spike in views and followers. That sub is clearly the best suited for the audience I’m trying to attract. I’m still chasing that high.
I’d keep posting there and I’d assume most people would enjoy my content… the only issue is the iron-fisted mods there will always delete promoted content. They just lump me in with the rest of the shills out there hawking paid garbage. I try to contextualize things. I tell them I have a 10+ year internet footprint without having sold any trading education products. It doesn’t matter. Rules are rules, post gets deleted every single time. Lame.
8. I could pivot to video
I thought about it. My heart wasn’t into it.
Even if I were to do it, I think a lot of the content I imagined doing–people are filling up that avenue. I already see the Youtube algo recommending me stick figure animation short videos like “day in the life of a hedge fund analyst” that are light in tone… I thought of that. Turns out it already existed, but I arrived at it independently.
I will promote a thing I do like though… I’m a big fan of Jon Bois and his sports content. He made a series called Pretty Good many years ago, then ventured onto a lot of other stuff. He basically created his own distinct style of short-form video essays that would inspire many others6a few of them: SummoningSalt, EmpLemon, and Bobby Broccoli. My friend Pat is doing Jon Bois type essays, but for finance and gambling related content–check him out.
9. I could go to the substack model
I’m not an analyst. I’m not a technical expert. Those are the most useful Substack finance guys–high depth, high expertise, high signal type guys you otherwise can’t find for free. I’m just a run-of-the-mill denegerate day trader, or at least I used to be. Now I’m a run-of-the-mill degenerate venture capitalist.
10. I could write an actual book and then be able to say I’m a published author
I explored this avenue when someone referred me to a big publisher. I didn’t like it. They gave me these guidelines–basically told me to write a “how-to” strategy guide type of book on trading. I felt boxed into something I didn’t want to do. Maybe one day I’ll shape this blog up and self-publish it.
11. I could troll/debate/argue with highly followed accounts
You know, I was extremely online before social media was a thing. I didn’t have any friends, but I had this huge urge to express myself, so I made up an online persona and lived on wrestling forums, Pokémon forums, gamer forums, sports forums—anywhere I could post anonymously without limits. I’d argue with anyone about anything, convincing myself it was some kind of verbal sparring, like winning an internet argument meant I had an intellectual edge.
Then I turned 16 and actually got good at something. And just like that, it was like my life had a different direction. I realized how hollow the way I’d been spending my time felt. I’d already burned through that need to argue with strangers online—it was out of my system. There’s no need to revisit what 13-year old Pete spent most of his days on.
Ikigai and Why I Keep Writing
I’ve given up on the idea I can monetize this blog. It’s too narrow an audience–it’s just for daytraders, and mostly geared towards the in-the-know daytraders too.
I’ve given up on the possibility of turning myself into a brand. Imagine coffee mugs or t-shirts with some churningandburning logo’s on it? Nah. 7Or maybe I should, you tell me?
I’ve given up on the idea of having 100k followers and a huge audience of people hanging onto my every word. Who even wants that kind of attention? It’s more of a headache than it’s worth.
I write for the love of the game.
I learned about this concept called Ikigai. This is going to sound corny but here goes: Ikigai (生き甲斐) is a Japanese concept that roughly translates to “a reason for being”—the thing that makes life feel worthwhile. It’s four concepts: 1) what you love, 2) what you’re good at, 3) what the world needs, and 4) what you can be paid for
Nothing in my wheelhouse really hits that intersection except writing. 4 can be basically tossed in the garbage at this point–good thing I already got paid from trading. Writing is what I love and what I’m good at—and while it’s not exactly what the world at large needs, there’s a very specific corner of it—people who like to push buttons and lose money online—that absolutely does. So I’ve made my peace with my purpose as a writer. I refuse to worry about social media engagement anymore.
A sincere thanks to everyone who supports this blog, which shall remain free of ads and free from me asking you buy any trading education products. If you enjoy my work, you can always support my BuyMeACoffee page. 8my goal is to just break even of domain costs and art costs, which is about $1000 a year.
