How Steve McIntosh Went From Blowing Up Accounts to 70% Returns

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Feb 21, 2026

Steve McIntosh, founder of Nighthawk Capital Management and 2025 top performer, built startups before mastering swing trading. He describes his switch from day trading after big losses, the 'trading is a business' mindset, tight stops and position sizing, favored setups like breakouts and undercut reclaim, using VIX timing, and walks through many real trades including Bloom Energy, Palantir, and SanDisk.

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INSIGHT

Leaders Reveal True Market Health

His edge: combine leader selection with under-the-hood market internals rather than relying on indices.
Leaders' behavior during pullbacks reveals true market strength.

ADVICE

Exploit Time-Of-Day Patterns

Track time-of-day patterns: mornings and midday breakouts yield most productive swing entries.
Use 24-hour access for key overnight inflection points when markets gap.

ANECDOTE

Bloom Energy: A Monster Pyramiding Win

Bloom Energy (BE) was his biggest 2025 winner, bought on pullbacks and pyramided to ~12–15% size.
He trimmed into strength but regretted holding some last pieces through definitive 20-day breaks.

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📈 Sign up today at https://public.com/traderlion and earn a 1% uncapped match when you transfer your investments.📚 Order The Trader's Handbook Here: https://go.traderlion.com/uilGP📘 Get your FREE 115-page Ultimate Trading Guide: https://go.traderlion.com/uihtc🔍 Next-Generation Stock Screener: https://go.traderlion.com/uihtjSteve McIntosh is a top performer in the 2025 US Investing Championship with a return of over 70%, and the founder of Nighthawk Capital Management. His journey is one of the most compelling entrepreneur-to-trader transformations we've featured on the show.Steve started trading in the 1990s as a teenager, catching his first monster trade in EMC — a 500% gain with no clue what he was doing. But trading took a backseat when he built two software companies from the ground up — one growing to 250 employees before being acquired.When Steve returned to trading full-time in 2017, it took him two years to become profitable — and during that time, he blew up multiple accounts. Then came Volmageddon in 2018, when his XIV position "went to the center of the earth and became a flaming pile of trash." But Steve got back to work the very next day. Through discovering Qullamaggie, Minervini, and Jim Roppel, he transitioned to swing trading the market leaders — and never looked back.In this episode, Steve walks through his complete trading system, the "factory" mindset he uses to build repeatable processes, his setups and entry triggers, position sizing rules, and 10+ real trades from both 2025 and early 2026 — including Bloom Energy, Hood, Palantir, Credo, SanDisk, and his short trades in Nugget and Silver. He also shares how he uses the VIX as a timing tool and the key lessons from his 21.5% January 2026 performance.🔥 What You'll Learn:✅ How Steve's 20 years building startups shaped his "trading is a business" philosophy✅ The Volmageddon disaster — and why you need a "spoonful of delusion" to survive✅ His transition from day trading to swing trading the market leaders✅ Setups he trades: flat base breakouts, undercut & reclaims, higher lows, 6/20 crossover✅ Position sizing: 3-5% starters, pyramiding to 12-15%, targeting 0.1-0.2% risk per trade✅ 10+ real trade walkthroughs with entries, adds, trims, and exits — bar by barThis isn't just theory — this is the real process behind a 70%+ year in the US Investing Championship.Enjoy!- The TraderLion TeamPublic Sponsorship Disclosure:Paid endorsement.Brokerage services provided by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA & SIPC. Investing involves risk. Not investment advice. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool by Public Advisors. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. See disclosures at public.com/disclosures/ga. Past performance does not guarantee future results, and investment values may rise or fall. See terms of match program at https://public.com/disclosures/matchprogram. Matched funds must remain in your account for at least 5 years. Match rate and other terms are subject to change at any time.