I know it’s been a long time since my last post, but I have a good reason. The fall of 2017 was one of the most profitable periods of my trading career as the Cryptocurrency market ignited into a full-blown bubble. This spilled over into small cap penny stocks, which resulted in some of the greatest trades I have ever experienced in stocks like LFIN and RIOT. Not only was I nailing huge trades during regular stock market hours, but I also was trading cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTCUSD), Ethereum (ETHUSD), and https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/litecoin/”> Litecoin (LTCUSD) with my trading system, where the market is open for trading 24/7. Although I made a ton of money, this resulted in a lot of sleepless nights, so in early March 2018, I decided to take a much-needed break and travel around Asia for 3 months.  I had wanted to do this for a long time, but up until this point, I just couldn’t find the time. Fortunately, after several months of massive profits, I finally decided it was time to make it happen.

I decided to travel to Hong Kong, Macau, Tapei, Taiwan, Cebu, Philippines, Bangkok, and Chiang Mai, Thailand, and Bali, Indonesia.  I spent several weeks in each of these countries and I had the most amazing time of my life. I a number of fellow travelers, entrepreneurs, and traders along the way and I enjoyed every minute of my extended vacation. Although I followed the daily ebbs and flows of the market, I didn’t trade any penny stocks during this time. I just felt it was time to unplug from the penny stock market and really enjoy my time relaxing at the beach and partying at the bars.

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Some people would probably get homesick or bored while traveling for 3 months, but this wasn’t the case for me. Living out of a small suitcase is easy for me because I choose not to spend my money on material things, but rather on experiences. I spent between 2-4 weeks in each country and it was simply superb!

It was June 20, 2018, and after 3 months in Asia, I really couldn’t see myself going back to live in the U.S. anymore. It’s not that I disliked it there but I just felt that my life in Asia would be more enjoyable. For this reason, I decided to return home to the U.S. for 2 months, sell all my belongings, and relocate to Bangkok, Thailand in mid-August 2018. Unfortunately, on July 20, 2018, I woke up with some severe pain in my legs, a cough, and a bad headache. At first, I didn’t think much of it so I just took some Tylenol and tried to stretch a bit. On the 4^th day, my body started to retain urine, and all of a sudden I no longer could go to the bathroom. Later that night I started to get an odd tingling sensation in my hands and feet, which felt a lot like pins and needles that would not go away. It was at this point that I decided I needed to go to the hospital.

The next few days turned out to be the worst of my life as 80% of my body became numb. I was quickly admitted to the neurology unit at the hospital and after literally hundreds of tests, the doctors determined that I had gotten Transverse Myelitis (TM), which has similar symptoms as Multiple Sclerosis. Although auto-immune diseases like MS are fairly well known, unfortunately, I was diagnosed with an extremely rare and newly discovered disease called Myelin Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein (MOG). This is an auto-immune disease where the body attacks the central nervous system resulting in inflammation of the spinal cord, optic nerve, and brain. In my case, this caused paralysis from my chest down to my toes and resulted in a shut-down of many of my bodily functions.

On July 28, 2018, the paralysis started to spread to other parts of my body such as my arms and shoulders, and at this point, I really thought I was going to die. I asked my doctor if I was going to survive and they said they honestly didn’t know. I also began to get very dizzy and started to experience double vision due to several brain lesions. Thankfully, extremely high doses of intervenous steroids saved my life and they reduced some of the inflation.

I spent the next four weeks in a hospital bed unable to move. It gave me a lot of time to think about the fact that you really need to spend your life doing something you enjoy because it really can slip away from you in the blink of an eye… I was completely healthy my entire life, and then suddenly got an incurable disease overnight. Most people sit in a cubicle all day working for their ungrateful boss for a minuscule amount of money. They have a family, get themselves into debt, and then become stuck for the rest of their lives.

My passion in life is trading and after the first month in the hospital, all I wanted to do was start trading again. Unfortunately, the wifi in the hospital was non-existent in my room and I simply couldn’t risk having the connection drop while using a mobile hotspot and getting stuck in a trade.  Thankfully on September 1, 2018, I was discharged from the hospital and have been recovering from this terrible disease. At first, I was wheel-chair bound, but over the past 2.5 years, I have regained my mobility in my legs. Although I have neurological pain and many of my bodily functions no longer work properly, I am finding comfort in being with my family.

Although at this point I will remain disabled for the rest of my life, it won’t stop me from traveling and trading. In fact, I will trade even more now because frankly, I can’t really do much else, so I expect to make millions of dollars in the coming years trading penny stocks. If you want to join me then make sure you read this free guide here.

The post How I almost Died: A Trader’s Tale first appeared on How To Trade Penny Stocks.