Trade Ideas CEO Reveals His Unconventional Trading Edge

By: Katie Gomez 

Trade Ideas CEO Dan Mirkin doesn’t apologize for being a conspiracy theorist. In fact, he credits his unconventional thinking for spotting opportunities that mainstream traders miss – like his current 1,200% gain on HYMC, which started with a hunch about gold, GameStop-era naked shorting, and connections most Wall Street analysts would dismiss as crazy.

“If it’s on mainstream media, I don’t believe it,” Mirkin stated bluntly during a recent company webinar where he showed his face for the first time. “Everything that can be rigged is rigged. And that’s not pessimism – it’s opportunity.”

The BNAI Signal Nobody Saw Coming

While Mirkin’s personal philosophy leans contrarian, Trade Ideas’ artificial intelligence doesn’t care about conspiracies – it just spots patterns that precede massive moves. The most recent example: Brand Engagement AI (BNAI), which the Trade Ideas AI flagged at $2.25 on December 29th. The stock has since exploded by over 2,500%.

“You never heard about BNAI on CNBC, MSNBC, or the Wall Street Journal,” Mirkin pointed out. “But our AI spotted it because we don’t look at what everyone else is looking at. We study what gigantic moves actually look like.”

Trade Ideas’ approach differs fundamentally from traditional backtesting. Instead of analyzing decades of historical data, the system functions like an “FBI profiler” – categorizing big moves every single night and identifying the specific patterns that preceded them. When similar setups appear, the AI alerts traders before the mainstream catches on.

“If you had bought just $500 worth of BNAI at our signal, you’d be up over $20,000 in a month,” Mirkin explained, acknowledging he personally missed this particular trade despite building the technology that spotted it. “I’m doing so much testing of other things. But that’s exactly why we built this – so you don’t have to catch every single move yourself.”

The Money Machine 2.0: Tesla’s Waymo for Trading

The company’s newest innovation, Money Machine 2.0, represents what Mirkin calls “the Tesla Waymo of momentum trading” – a self-driving system for managing positions automatically.

Key upgrades include:

• Manual position integration: Add your own trades and Money Machine takes over risk management
• Custom alert triggers: Use any strategy or alert system as entry signals
• Scheduled auto-trading: Set specific start times (like 6:45 AM) and stop-adding thresholds
• Smart re-entry controls: Automatic timeouts prevent jumping back into failed positions too quickly
• Simulated mode testing: Practice strategies with fake money before risking real capital

“This is how you dip your toes in the water,” Mirkin emphasized, showing his own simulated account catching moves in real-time. “You’re at the range, not on the golf course yet. Are you slicing? Are you hooking? Are you connecting? That’s what you should be thinking about.”

The system includes sophisticated risk parameters like minimum stop distances based on volatility (15 cents for low-priced stocks to prevent getting “jigged out”), key evaluation times for position reviews, and automatic profit-taking rules when targets are hit.

Eyes Are Your Best Indicator

Despite building one of the most sophisticated AI trading platforms, Mirkin’s core philosophy remains decidedly human: “Your eyes are the best indicator for momentum trading.”

He demonstrated this principle by analyzing Xerox, a stock he bought at around $2.20 that mainstream investors dismiss as a dying printer company. His unconventional thesis: Xerox has massive R&D labs getting into AI that everyone’s missing, combined with 25% short interest from hedge funds betting on bankruptcy, $6.6 billion in revenues, positive earnings, but only a $297 million market cap.

“Do you see this basic math?” he asked, walking through how the stock could easily hit $10 based on simple valuation metrics. “That’s the play I’m playing. I like betting on the underdog. It’s fun.”

This approach – combining visual pattern recognition, contrarian research, and mathematical inefficiency spotting – led to his HYMC position. He bought the mining stock at $4.13 based on obscure internet theories about gold standards and naked shorting patterns he noticed during the 2021 AMC/GameStop saga. It’s now at $53.75.

“Conspiracy theory and thinking outside the box can lead to exponential gains,” Mirkin stated. “I’m not telling you to be one. I’m just saying this happens to be part of who I am and what I enjoy.”

Platform Upgrades: News, Trade Wave, and More

Beyond philosophy, Trade Ideas is rolling out significant technical improvements:

Enhanced news feed: Completely rebuilt from scratch with better quality, real-time analysis, and pop-out windows for deeper dives into market-moving stories.

Trade Wave alerts: Coming soon after server infrastructure migration away from AWS. The team acknowledged this is a highly requested feature that’s “100% on the menu.”

Market Explorer updates: Real-time Trade Wave signals updating every five minutes, with multiple timeframes and live chart integration planned.

The Unconventional Edge

Mirkin’s closing message challenged conventional trading wisdom: “Unconventional thinking is how you exceed the norm. When you give your money to somebody else to manage in your 401k, you’re on the communist route. You’re on the bus, stopping at the same stops as everyone else. You cannot make special returns by betting on the S&P.”

His track record backs up the philosophy: up 280% over two years, 43% year-to-date, with positions in turnaround plays like Xerox, precious metals stocks, and contrarian bets that mainstream analysts ignore.The lesson for traders? Sometimes the path to exponential gains isn’t complex technical analysis or following CNBC – it’s having the courage to think differently, trust your eyes, and use tools that spot opportunities before the crowd even knows they exist. Visit Trade Ideas for more information on how you can start trading like contrarian investor & analyst Dan Mirkin.