You know that trader everyone talks about but no one really knows who they are? Well, Takashi Kotegawa is exactly like that. A guy almost disappeared from the internet, but with a track record that's practically impossible to ignore.

I was looking into the stories of some legendary traders and found this Japanese guy’s journey absolutely insane. He started with $13,600 — he wasn’t rich, it was a pretty modest amount actually — and in 8 years turned it into $153 million. Yes, you read that right. That’s the difference between most traders and someone like Kotegawa.

What makes this even more interesting is that he did all of this from his own room. No fancy office, no team, just him, his monitors, and a well-thought-out strategy. He started trading around 2001, right when the Japanese stock market was in free fall. And here’s the key — while everyone was scared, Kotegawa saw opportunity.

His strategy was actually pretty simple. He used Bollinger Bands and RSI to identify stocks that were far below their 25-day moving average. When a stock dropped at least 20% below that average, he entered a position expecting a quick recovery. He closed everything on the same day or kept a small part overnight. Pure intraday trading, no fuss.

But there’s a trade that’s practically legendary in Takashi Kotegawa’s story. It was 2005, J-Com Holdings had just gone public, and something happened that seemed straight out of a movie. A trader at Mizuho Securities made a monumental mistake — placed an order to sell 610,000 shares at 1 yen each. It was supposed to be 1 share at 610,000 yen. Can you imagine the difference? The market panicked, shares plummeted, and Kotegawa bought 7,100 shares. When the market recovered, he made $17 million that very day. Just from that one trade.

What impresses me most about Kotegawa isn’t just the money he made, but how he behaves afterward. The guy became a millionaire, could do anything he wanted, but continued living simply. No show-offs, no interviews, hardly any photos of him online. The only big investment he made was in a new apartment because his room got too small. It’s rare to find someone who makes so much money and stays so discreet.

Honestly, Kotegawa’s success is a mix of skill, discipline, and luck — that Mizuho mistake wouldn’t happen today with automated systems. But the lesson here is that he proved it’s possible to make serious money in intraday trading if you really know what you’re doing. It’s not easy, but it’s possible.