Erik Smolinski started trading stocks as a teenager in 2007.
Over the past nearly two decades, the Marine veteran and full-time trader posted just two negative years — his first two — and, between 2018 and 2022, returned 24.6% on average. Business Insider verified his claims by looking at screenshots of his summary statements.
Smolinki’s strongest year was 2023, when he returned triple digits. In 2025, he said his portfolio has returned 79% and he’s on track to hit his third-strongest year in the market.
A key to his success lies in his organization.
He keeps a detailed trading plan and trading log — and he frequently monitors his progress through after-action reviews (AARs).
He prefers monthly AARs, plus one big annual review that can take him up to two weeks. It’s a chance for him to look at what went well within his portfolio, what didn’t, and how he can improve moving forward. Plus, not everything that’s worked in the past will necessarily work in the future, and the AAR helps him recognize when he should make adjustments.
“For a very, very long time, growth stocks outperformed large-cap stocks,” he explained. That doesn’t mean growth stocks will always do better than large-cap stocks. “If I continue just operating off of that lens, and I don’t have a methodology to check in and see if that still holds true, then all I’m going to do is underperform, especially as you start to see tech absolutely dominating just about everything in the last half-decade.”
The AAR helps him recognize key shifts in the market and decide whether to change his strategy.
“I have different strategies and profit mechanisms that are designed to do different things — some of them are fairly persistent, and some of them are not, which means some of them will make good money when they work, but then they won’t always work,” he said. “You have to know when to stop doing those things and pivot to something else.”
The way he sees it, as a full-time trader, he’s running a business: “And guess what big businesses do? They have quarterly earnings reports. What is that? That’s an AAR.”
The everyday investor can benefit from AARs. Rather than setting and forgetting your investments, check in on your portfolio frequently — once a quarter or once a year, at least.
“Set a calendar event for yourself, ideally on a weekend,” he said. That way, “you’re not bombarded with other stuff in life and you can actually carve out this little bit of time that you’re not going to punt. Set it up and respect it.”
Start your AAR by looking at your returns.
“For the regular investor, a great thing to compare your performance against is SPY, QQQ, IWM, TLT, and GLD,” he said. “Compare your performance of your holdings against those five tickers and just ask yourself, ‘Am I cool with this? Do I think that I’m set up appropriately?’ And if so, great, you don’t have to do anything.
“But, you might find that the mutual fund you’re in is actually sucking the soul out of your account, causing a higher cost, lower returns, and you might make a change.”
