- Jason Brown rebuilt his wealth using principle-based investing after his portfolio got wiped out.
- Brown’s early trading mistakes taught him the importance of emotional control and strategy.
- He now shares his insights through his book, a YouTube channel, and speaking engagements.
Jason Brown hit rock bottom in his mid-20s.
He’d dropped out of college a few years earlier so he could trade options full-time, blew up his account, and found himself living off Panera Bread samples and mooching off the café’s WiFi.
“I had cut my internet off because I couldn’t even pay for that,” he told Business Insider.
Every morning, he’d put on a suit, pack his laptop, and set up shop at Panera.
“You would think I was in there handling business, but I was actually looking for a job,” he said. “They used to come around with these free samples every day, and you could get as many as you wanted, so those free samples were my meal for the day. It was one of the most humbling experiences of my life.”
Brown knew what it was like to live without money.
Raised by a single mother in Detroit, and it wasn't until he went to a friend's house that he realized it wasn't the norm to sleep without a bed.
"I thought beds were for grown-ups because you need a good night's rest to go to work the next day."
"I just became very curious about money at a super young age," he added.
Building a six-figure portfolio in college, and then losing it all
After reading books like "Think and Grow Rich," Brown figured that investing was his ticket to wealth, so he took the $2,000 he received as high school graduation money to the bank to invest.
The teller asked him two questions: "'Why do you want to invest?' I'm like, 'To be rich.' I thought it was a silly question. And then she said, 'So you want aggressive funds, right?'"
Two years later, he returned to the bank eager to check in on his investments.
"It was down to $700," he said. "My heart just dropped."
Brown withdrew the remaining funds, figuring he'd rather lose the money himself so he could at least understand how he lost it than leave it up to the bank. He spent $200 on a pair of Jordans — "I didn't want to see the whole money just disappear and I had nothing to show for it," he said — and began his investing career as a college freshman with $500.
Buying Sprint stock was a natural place for him to start. He worked for the company on the weekends, earning $8 an hour selling cellphones. If he could make $50 in the stock market, he could afford to take one Saturday off.
His plan was simple: "Our stock was $5 at Sprint, and I had $500. I could buy 100 shares, and all I needed it to do was move $0.50."
He bought 100 shares at $5, watched in dismay as the stock gradually fell to $4, and then regained optimism as it climbed back to $5. As the price fluctuated, he formulated a new plan: Get out at $5 to break even, wait for the stock to fall to $4, and then get back in.
"I got in at four, it went back up to five, and I made my first hundred dollars," he said. "That's what really changed my life. I was like, 'Woah. It worked.' And not only did I make $50, I made $100, so that's two Saturdays I can take off."
He later learned that he'd stumbled into a strategy known as channeling. From there, he spent all his free time reading stock charts and patterns. He grew his account to six figures, dropped out of college, moved to the suburbs, and bought a Lexus GS300.
Brown had his eyes on a $500,000 condo he wanted to buy in cash, and he was confident he could make the money in one trade.
"I was up $100,000 in my trade, but because I was not up $500,000, I was like, that's not enough. That trade ended up reversing on me," he said. "It just became this whole scenario of gambling, hoping, praying it goes back up. I had no emotional control."
Ultimately, "I just blew up the account. I'm flat broke. I move back home. I have to sell my car."
Using principle-based investing to build a seven-figure portfolio from scratch
Brown was determined to get back into the stock market, but knew he'd have to do things differently.
He took a job selling cellphones again, this time at Verizon. He lived off his hourly pay and used his commissions to trade. He also started hosting local seminars from coffee shops and libraries, teaching community members what he'd learned from losing so much money, and he started a YouTube channel to document his experience trading options.
He started following a few key principles to ensure he would never have to rely on Panera samples again.
1. You never go broke taking a profit. Brown could have profited $100,000 from the trade that ultimately wiped out his account, but "I thought I had to make it all in one trade. I needed one trade to make me half a million," he said. The experience taught him that, rather than succumb to greed, "take the money and find another trade."
2. Know your 'I'm wrong level.' In his early 20s, Brown never considered his "I'm wrong level," he explained. "I only thought, 'What would happen if this goes right? I'm getting a condo.' I never stopped to think, 'If I'm wrong, I'll lose it all and I have to move back home.'"
Now, he knows exactly when he needs to cut his losses and shut down a trade.
3. Follow the 1:3 risk-reward ratio. "Any trade I take has to have a one-to-three risk-reward ratio, where I risk one dollar to make three," he said. "Because I've found that you could be wrong two times and be right on the third time, and you would be back at break even."
For example, say he has $3 to work with. If he risks $1 to make $3, if he loses one, he's down to $2; if he loses again, he's down to $1; if he's right the third time and it makes him $3, he's back up to $4.
"So, I can still be profitable and be wrong two out of three times, as long as I've got that discipline to only risk one dollar trying to make three," he said.
4. The stock market doesn't care that rent is due next week. Trading has never worked well for Brown when he's had to put pressure on his investments to make a certain amount within a specific timeframe to cover rent or a car payment, for example. That pressure "will have you doing things you wouldn't normally do because you fear missing a payment," he said.
He started seeing a lot of success once he had zero debt, at least six months' worth of living expenses set aside, and was living well within his means. The lack of pressure allowed him to keep his emotions out of his trades.
Following these four principles helped Brown grow his account back to six figures in about a year and a half. And, about five years after starting from scratch, one big trade sent him into the seven-figure club. He used a chunk of those earnings to pay off his mortgage completely.
"That lowered my expenses, so I don't need as much from the stock market, which allows me to keep my emotions in control and not force the stock market to do something," said Brown.
BI confirmed his current seven-figure net worth by reviewing an account summary that shows his 2024 investment activity.
Brown, who published "Five Year Millionaire" in 2025, continues to grow his YouTube channel, hosts a podcast, and does speaking engagements in addition to trading.
At 43, his big takeaway is that he always understood the tactics and strategies that make a good options trader, "but it was emotion that was taking me out of the game every single time."