How Clement Went from 0% to 247% & Took 3rd as a US Investing Champion Using A Repeatable Process
Clement shares his journey from losing money in his first trading years to achieving 247% returns in 2025 and winning 3rd place in the US Investment Championship. He emphasizes the importance of perseverance, risk management, journaling, and understanding that success comes from asymmetric risk-reward opportunities rather than prediction ability or high win rates.
Summary
Clement, a trader from Hong Kong and Singapore, recounts his path to becoming a successful trader and portfolio manager. He began trading in late 2019 after his mother suggested buying stocks, starting with HSBC. Like many traders, he benefited from the 2020-2021 bull market and felt like a genius, only to face severe losses in 2022 as growth stocks crashed 70-80%. He initially tried shorting stocks based on the work of Gil Morales and William O'Neal but blew up his account by Q1 2023, losing 60-70% of his capital while working a corporate job and facing personal responsibilities (marriage, child on the way).
Rather than quitting, Clement chose to take a systematic approach inspired by traders like Christian Kulamagi. He spent 2023 studying how stocks move, how they base, and the importance of market environment. This led to 80% returns in 2024, though with a volatile equity curve due to inconsistent risk management. In 2025, he focused on executing a repeatable process with strict risk discipline, achieving 247% returns and placing 3rd in the US Investment Championship. This success led to a recruitment opportunity at a family office as a portfolio manager.
Clement and Jason discuss the psychological aspects of trading, including the typical pattern of starting in a bull market, feeling invincible, then experiencing losses that either crush ambition or inspire deeper learning. They emphasize that youth is an advantage in trading because there's time to recover from losses. Both stress the critical importance of journaling, recognizing one's mistakes, and building confidence through surviving adversity. A key theme is that trading success doesn't come from predicting the market—it comes from taking asymmetric risk-reward opportunities with discipline, accepting a low win rate (Clement cites 30% wins on 10 trades), and having the conviction to stick with winners while cutting losses quickly. They criticize traders who advertise high win rates as misleading, since true edge comes from risk-reward ratios, not prediction accuracy.
About this episode
💡 Have questions about the CMR Process? Schedule a free call with our help desk: https://tinyurl.com/schedulecmrmtg 📈 Join our exclusive community and get insider access directly from Jason Shapiro: https://www.crowdedmarketreport.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clement Ang shares his trading story with Jason Shapiro where he made the most common mistakes new traders make, but unlike most traders, he was able to make a come back and is now living his dream as a money manager. You can follow Clement on X: https://x.com/Clement_Ang17 Watch now as Jason Shapiro provides powerful insights into his unique price action trading strategies and contrarian approach to reading trader positioning charts across the stock market, futures, and currencies. We’ll explore the exact methods Jason uses—as a successful trader and featured Market Wizard—to fade crowded positioning, navigate extreme volatility, and identify high-reward/low-risk opportunities by watching the tape. Learn how to ignore the "fake narratives" and focus on the news failures and positioning data that actually move the needle in today’s markets. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE. FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY Disclaimer: CMR Publishing LLC dba Crowded Market Report (CMR) is a content provider and publisher and is not a registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as a commodity trading advisor (CTA) or in any other capacity. CMR is exempt from registration as a CTA under CFTC Regulation 4.14(a)(9) because CMR does not direct client accounts and does not provide commodity trading advice based on, or tailored to, the commodity interest or cash market positions or other circumstances or characteristics of any particular client. Jason Shapiro, one of the principals of CMR, was formerly listed as a principal and formerly registered as an associated person of JS Trading LLC. JS Trading was formerly registered as a CTA and continues to operate as an exempt CTA under Section 4m(1) but it is not accepting, and will not accept, any new clients under any circumstances. Any materials and information presented through CMR is solely the responsibility of CMR. JS Trading LLC disclaims all responsibility for such materials and information. By accessing CMR websites and/or using CMR products and services, including without limitation any and all content available on or through any platform where CMR posts content, you understand and agree that the material provided in CMR products, services and content is for informational and educational purposes only, and that no mention of a particular commodity futures or other financial instrument in any CMR product, service or service contents a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold that or any other commodity future or other financial instrument, or that any particular commodity future or financial instrument, portfolio of commodity futures or financial instruments, any specific transaction or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. Remember, the risk of loss in trading commodity futures contracts can be substantial. You should, therefore, carefully consider whether such trading is appropriate for you in light of your circumstances and financial resources. PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURES RESULTS
Key Insights
- Clement followed the typical beginner pattern of making money in a bull market (2020-2021), feeling like a genius, then losing it all when the market environment changed in 2022, requiring him to completely reassess his approach
- After blowing up 60-70% of his account in Q1 2023, Clement made a conscious decision to continue trading rather than return to corporate work, driven by inherited entrepreneurial instincts from his parents' business background
- Clement achieved 247% returns in 2025 specifically by implementing strict risk management discipline and a repeatable process, which was his main improvement from the volatile 80% return year in 2024
- Clement emphasizes that low win rates (70% losses, 30% wins out of 10 trades) are not indicative of failure if the reward-to-risk ratio on the winning trades is exponentially higher, covering all the small losses
- Jason argues that traders advertising high win rates are misleading because high win rates typically come from strategies that lose money over time by winning small and losing big
- Both Clement and Jason stress that trading success requires psychological resilience to survive losing streaks without abandoning the strategy, which is why many traders quit despite having viable systems
- Clement credits journaling with enabling him to see concrete evidence of his growth and elimination of mistakes over two-year periods, making the difficult process more motivating
- Jason identifies that young traders have a significant advantage because they have time to recover from losses and compound wealth, making early blow-ups valuable learning experiences rather than career-ending events
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] We now have a CMR help desk where you can meet directly with someone from our team. Click the link in the video description to schedule your free call today. Okay. Hello everybody. Today is Wednesday the 16th of September, which is FOMC day, but we have a few hours till FOMC comes out. So, we like to have conversations. And today we're going to have a conversation with Clement, who um is not somebody that I have ever spoken with before. Looking forward to that. Uh he is someone who was uh suggested to us by some of our [0:33] CMR members and uh I always like to speak to the people that our CMR members uh suggest…
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