Erik Smolinski credit detailed buying and selling critiques for his robust inventory market returns.
He makes use of month-to-month and annual after-action critiques to regulate methods and observe efficiency.
Smolinski advises on a regular basis buyers to check their returns to main market benchmarks.
Erik Smolinski began buying and selling shares as a teen in 2007.
Over the previous practically twenty years, the Marine veteran and full-time dealer posted simply two detrimental years — his first two — and, between 2018 and 2022, returned 24.6% on common. Enterprise Insider verified his claims by taking a look at screenshots of his abstract statements.
Smolinki’s strongest 12 months was 2023, when he returned triple digits. In 2025, he mentioned his portfolio has returned 79% and he is on observe to hit his third-strongest 12 months out there.
A key to his success lies in his group.
He retains an in depth buying and selling plan and buying and selling log — and he incessantly screens his progress by way of after-action critiques (AARs).
He prefers month-to-month AARs, plus one large annual overview that may take him as much as two weeks. It is an opportunity for him to have a look at what went nicely inside his portfolio, what did not, and the way he can enhance transferring ahead. Plus, not all the pieces that is labored prior to now will essentially work sooner or later, and the AAR helps him acknowledge when he ought to make changes.
“For a really, very very long time, progress shares outperformed large-cap shares,” he defined. That does not imply progress shares will all the time do higher than large-cap shares. “If I proceed simply working off of that lens, and I haven’t got a technique to examine in and see if that also holds true, then all I will do is underperform, particularly as you begin to see tech completely dominating nearly all the pieces within the final half-decade.”
The AAR helps him acknowledge key shifts out there and determine whether or not to vary his technique.
“I’ve completely different methods and revenue mechanisms which might be designed to do various things — a few of them are pretty persistent, and a few of them will not be, which implies a few of them will make good cash once they work, however then they will not all the time work,” he mentioned. “You need to know when to cease doing these issues and pivot to one thing else.”
The way in which he sees it, as a full-time dealer, he is operating a enterprise: “And guess what large companies do? They’ve quarterly earnings studies. What’s that? That is an AAR.”
The on a regular basis investor can profit from AARs. Somewhat than setting and forgetting your investments, examine in in your portfolio incessantly — as soon as 1 / 4 or every year, at the very least.
