Despite three total losses on the stock market, Dustin Helwig has built up a six-figure portfolio. Find out how he adapted his strategy and which four trading strategies he now combines to invest successfully. Read all the details with BI+
- Dustin Helwig, a clerk, has built up a portfolio of around 100,000 euros after failing three times.
- The 32-year-old relies on four trading strategies to achieve returns regardless of the market phase. He also has a portfolio in which he invests for the long term.
- Helwig recommends focusing on having fun and being passionate about investing to get better every day.
Dustin Helwig is a clerk and has built up a six-figure portfolio. However, the path to this was anything but easy, as the 32-year-old tells Business Insider. Helwig has already suffered a total loss on the stock market three times.
After school, Helwig started training as an office communications clerk. While working, he realized that he still had the energy and desire to do something else on the side. His first idea: renting out space for advertising signs.
A plan that, however, could not be put into practice: “In Berlin and Brandenburg there are framework agreements everywhere, which is why I had no chance to get involved there,” says Helwig. Then he had the idea that if he could advertise a company's product on a poster, he could also buy part of the company in the form of shares.
“I immediately lost three portfolios,” the clerk recalls. The portfolios each had 500 euros, which was a lot of money for Helwig as a trainee. After the third portfolio destruction, he knew that he needed an investment strategy. “I then acquired knowledge and realized that I had done everything wrong that one could do wrong.”
These were Helwig’s biggest mistakes
His biggest mistake at the beginning was emotions: “Emotions are a hindrance to active trading. Investors are emotionally thrown back and forth by price movements and if they listen to them, they act cyclically,” he explains. However, one should try to trade countercyclically.
“Emotions such as greed or the attempt to recoup losses out of a competitive spirit lead investors to use more capital to offset losses. If an investor makes a 50 percent loss, he must make a 100 percent profit to get back to zero.” In addition, Helwig relied on derivatives right from the start – these are financial products that generally require prior knowledge.
How Helwig invests today
Helwig now knows: “To learn trading strategies, you have to be diligent.” Books and videos can help with this. Over time, Helwig developed his own strategy and managed to achieve a gain of over 60 percent in around four years with his Etoro portfolio “Financial Cycles”. His portfolio assets currently amount to around 100,000 euros and are distributed across several portfolios. (Business Insider gained access to the depots).
He has adjusted his savings rate over the years. Helwig started with savings rates of between 20 and 50 euros a month when he was in training. After that, he set the rule of investing at least 50 percent of his salary increases. Since he became an investor at Etoro – i.e. in 2020 – he has invested between 200 and 1000 euros per month in his strategies.