How Kevin Xu Makes $120,000/MONTH Posting On X

Have you fully retired from your job? >> Oh, no. I'm as busy as ever. >> So, you're still working your career? >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I'm the founder CEO of this company called Alpha AI. Uh we build a proactive agentic trading companion. So, it's like a mobile app that you can talk to and it will trade for you. Uh and I guess you could call me an ex-influencer now. >> [gasps] >> You know, my ex-journey's kind of crazy. Like I I started posting just to kind of market the startup, right? And I grew from like a couple thousand followers to over 160,000 followers now. >> How much do you make on X? >> Uh it's kind of funny. So, on revshare, I make like a thousand dollars a week I think is the kind of average rate. Um but uh I've kind of kind of blown up my X subscriptions uh quite a lot. And so, the story behind it is another happy accident. I turned on X subscriptions because I thought it might help me with the algo. Mm. Like that's it. Um and I set at the highest price cuz I I didn't want anyone actually buy. >> How much is the price? >> Uh I set it at $200. >> A month? >> Yeah. Yeah. And I didn't have any content. I was like, "I'm not I don't want to post like subscriber-only content. I don't want I don't want this like, you know, extra, you know, thing to do, right?" And then like, you know, one person subscribed, you know, two person subscribed accidentally. I asked him like, "What do you want?" They're like, "Oh, I'm just happy to support." I'm like, "Okay, cool. Thanks." Um and then 20 people subscribed, and then 100 people subscribed, and a couple hundred people subscribed. >> How many people do you now have subscribed to you? >> Uh I think people are going to go crazy about it. >> Hey, this is the most transparent financial influencer on X, right? >> Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. that. Okay, I'm the most transparent financial influencer on X. So, I need to I need to show you this now. Okay, okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay, I can show you my uh creator studio uh subscription is panel. >> Oh, wow. Oh my gosh. Okay, so you have about 600 active subscribers paying you $200 a month. >> Wow. >> Yeah. >> I feel like we we got to be uh And this is Michael, take note of that. is only started in the last 2 months. >> Wait a second. >> [laughter] >> I can't do math. >> Yeah. >> 120 grand a month. >> Yeah, I mean that's gross revenue. You got to take out the Apple fees and Stripe fees and all that kind of stuff, right? So >> I don't see these Jack. >> Yeah, 25% off and then >> And taxes. State tax. >> So so you're making, I don't know, like 80 grand a month post all the T fees, everything on on Twitter. >> It's kind of crazy. I think there's a strong desire for, you know, transparent and authentic financial media. Like I mean I love to love to flip the interview back to you a little bit and just think get your thoughts on like where do you think the future of like financial influencers is going to go? Like no one's watching CNBC anymore. >> It's true. I think I think there's such a fine line cuz I noticed with any sort of stock trading person, subscriptions are like the number one way to make money. But in a way you're almost selling money because there's this idea that oh I'll pay $200 I get some proprietary information that'll make me more than that. And so it's a very easy push of like hey, if I pay 200 I could see an ROI of even $100. Yeah, I make $100 a month paying 200 is an example. It just it sells itself in such a way so I see a lot of success with that. >> Yeah. >> Uh the the gray area becomes what's the success rate of the stocks and do you have an influence on the price going up? >> Oh yeah. >> If you buy something, does that cause the price to go up and then all of a sudden now is this the self-fulfilling prophecy of like I buy a stock and it goes up because I buy it. >> Yeah, and you know, I take this very seriously, right? Like it affects like the stocks I pick and like when I post about it, I mean I think the number one thing is I'm I'm very transparent, right? I post my buys and my sells. Like people know exactly what comes out of my mouth. I don't have any other accounts. I only have those two accounts, the 401k and my Robinhood account, right? Uh I post my exact thoughts. Um you know, recently I only post my trades after market closed down. To me, this is no different than someone going on TV and saying like I own this stock right? >> Like Jim Cramer. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or like Michael Berry, right? Like he has a Substack, he's making, you know, multi-millions. Yeah, yeah. And like he you know, he's definitely aware of it. He was in a movie, right? Uh and so like I think that's freedom of speech is very important. Uh I but I think where people get um you know, just just the bad >> Bad people are doing very bad things. >> Uh I've been in these Discords. I have read the SEC filings, uh the lawsuits against these people, right? Where they're just lying. They're just straight-up lying. They're saying like my price target is $1,000, I'm holding this forever, and they just sold. >> [laughter] >> Like you just you just just blatant lies. >> So, what should they do to prevent that from happening? Or what disclosures do you think should be required to crack down on that? >> The SEC can only go after the big people, right? Like they recently went after Andrew Left, right? Citron short-seller guy, because he was doing this exact same thing, right? He was telling people I'm still holding, here's my price target, and then he would just be selling into that movement that he created, right? And I think that's just that's that is wrong, and that's that is deceitful. That's what the SEC defines as manipulation and deceitful. I think transparency is is is really important, right? Like how much are you playing with, when you buy, when you sell. And that's why I post all my trade receipts. Uh it's it's like a video, too. Like it's like, you know, completely real. Um and I think uh to directly to your question, I you have to teach everyone how to do independent thinking, right? You have to teach people how to recognize these scams and these like deceitful people. Like that's really how you protect the masses, cuz no matter what, the SEC can't go after everyone. >> So, how much money are you making on X? >> I mean, uh currently I guess you could say I'm making a million dollars a year. >> That is absurd. A million dollars a year, and that's from $200 a month subscription fee that people pay into your membership. >> Yeah, uh this is from the X subscription I started only uh about 2 months ago. >> And so I'm going to go up, man. Especially with the amount you're tweeting. >> I mean, I'm not even doing much. I I post like a, you know, a a few posts a day. I post my early thoughts, my watch list, you know, my trades, right? I think there's just so much um there's a there's a there's a lane opportunity, right? And there's a small window to become I think, you know, when I you know, I I I I think X is going to be the most important platform uh for all the tastemakers in in the world. Like I mean, the vision for uh X or SpaceX AI, right? Is for to be the operating system on Mars, right? The social platform, the chat platform, the money platform, etc. Uh but even here on Earth, I mean, Zuckerberg tweeted the latest model release on X. It got 12 million views, right? Like the use chief AI officer Alexander Wang I met a uh posts like 400 times on X and like a few times on Threads, their own product, right? So, that just shows you how important X is to kind of the the general kind of talking points and population. It's all downstream from there. Uh and so, I think it's really important to be an influencer there. >> So, I skim Twitter or X daily. Like I'm constantly looking at X. And you started showing up in my feed and I would see your tweets and I liked them and I would kind of like keep tabs on you cuz I thought the transparency was really interesting. I'm like, okay, like I wonder if he's making money, losing money, what is he buying, what is he selling, when is he doing all of this trading activity? And I enjoyed it, but I would also found myself like a little annoyed by your account, too. And I think obviously that's kind of like you do it on purpose. You post like rage bait. And I wanted you to correct any of my observations because I could be wrong about some of these things, but these are the main contending points that I have to the stuff that you say on Twitter. Now, most people think forming an LLC is just about filling out one form and calling it a day, but there's a lot more to it than that. And if you skip the rest, your LLC isn't really set up the way it needs to be. That is why we have partnered with Northwest Registered Agent. For $39 plus state fees, Northwest handles the state filing and make sure you have everything you actually need. Your operating agreement, membership certificates, and banking resolutions. 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Obviously, you publicly shared that your net worth was like $10 million, $11 million-ish, $12 million close to now. >> bio. >> It's in your bio, so you like you showed your net worth, but then for some time you created this challenge account. And in the challenge account, you said, "I'm going all in. Like I'm full porting." But I think for a while you didn't really stipulate that that was your challenge account. And so, some could be led astray thinking you're putting $11 million into some company when in actuality it was, you know, less than point whatever 0.03% of your net worth. Was this Was this true or was this >> I assumed that people were following me aware of the entire story, right? Like people have seen me post about my my journey. People have seen me post about my 401k $11 million screenshots. And they'll see that this is a different screenshot completely different, right? And this is an all-in challenge account, which I also do mention in various kind of replies and comments, right? Yes, not everyone follows every single tweet. Sometimes they just see one tweet and that's your first time exploring for you. So, I do, you know, make sure I add an asterisk. I make sure >> that you started doing that recently, which I which I appreciated because you said, "I'm going all in." Added an asterisk. And then you said down in the bottom of the of the tweet you clarified, "This is all in on a challenge account." So, it's not actually like my public $11 million net worth. It's just like the 35 or so thousand. But, then another thing that I saw that you do that I was like a little >> [gasps] >> about was you started the new challenge account with $35,000. You ran it up to What was the peak? >> Oh, yes. I did run up to about 100k. >> So, you ran it up to 100k how quickly? >> Um I mean, like a month or two, yeah. >> A month or two, but then you ran it back down to like 35k. Basically, like exactly what you were in the beginning. And then you recently tweeted, "I turned 35k into 50k in a matter of like a couple months." Yes, you did do that cuz now you're at 50k. And so, you did that, but it was from the second time of being at 35k. Which I also thought was like, "Okay, this seems like it's lacking a little bit of transparency." Because technically, you're still down, you know, 50k from your all-time high. Granted, the returns are still solid. >> Yes, yes, yes. It's It's It's It's very hard to, you know, explain all that nuance and disclaimers on on Twitter, right? Well, especially, you know, you're you're trying to balance, you know, engagement and and go viral and content, whatever. Like people say that in the comments, right? And I like them and I retweet them, too, right? But, like, you know, kind of tongue-in-cheek, right? Like, right? Like dude. >> [laughter] >> Like, I don't try to hide that, right? Like, other people, you know, expose that. I'm like, "You're right." Right? Like, I really kind of lean into the fact that like uh you know, I round tripped already, right? Uh to me, it's it's, you know, it's marketing, right? Like, Twitter I mean, it's similar to I think how Apple always says, "Every iPhone is the best iPhone they've ever made." Right? Like, when the common person hears that, they're like, "Oh my god, it's the best phone ever made." Right? But, only a kind of people tech insiders are like, "Okay, that's a very specific sentence they said." And you know, similar to me, when I say I went from 35k to 52k in 2 weeks, that is technically accurate, right? And so, you know, in terms of disclaimers and is there other information, you know, people are not getting? This is why again I I endorse, you know, uh independent thinking and and doing our research. Like, you have to kind of click on their profile, see their other tweets, and kind of catching up on the story, right? Like, there's just so much Like, I can't be explaining the whole story to you every single time. Uh otherwise, none none none of the posts will go viral. >> So, when's the last time you were wrong? >> Uh the worst trade I made in this uh this new account is uh has been uh ARKK uh Red Cat drones. Uh because I thought that, you know, the Pentagon they approved like a billion-dollar spending and the whole, you know, Ukraine war kind of changed how the the war uh story works and there's going to be a lot of investment in drones. Like, that is actually true. That did not reflect in the stock price at all, you know? And so, I kind of held this uh down and uh all the way That's That's what kind of help uh made me round trip all the way down to back to 35K. >> What I was curious about is I know you bought ARKK and then it went down a lot, but then you doubled down by buying ARKKX, which is the 2x leveraged ARKK stock. And I'm curious, did your thesis change or did your conviction level change in order for you to go from, you know, just the the base share of ARKK to the 2x leverage? >> I had never done any leverage ETF ever before, right? I try to stay away from those. And uh that was a rule I set, but well, you know, rules are meant to be changed, right? Different market conditions, different styles, whatever is meant to be, you know, played with. You got to experiment with yourself, too. And so, I did get successful with PALU, which was a 2x version of Palo Alto Networks, right? Uh and that went well cuz of earnings and whatever like that. Uh so, I was like, "Oh, you know, maybe 2x leverage things are worth playing with, right? If you have an extremely high conviction." Uh and with the Red Cat play, you know, I thought like I could catch the bounce uh and with a 2x leveraged play, you only have to bounce halfway there in order to make it all the way back. Uh but again, the bounce never came and I think my main takeaway there is, yeah, you don't That was almost essentially going off full tilt. >> And so, the mental kind of stop loss was 35K cuz you didn't want to go probably below 35K. >> That is fair. Yeah, I don't do real stop losses like systematically, right? But I do have mental stop losses, right? If something's, you know, down 20% 30% and the chart just looks absolutely ugly, you know, then yeah, there's like a god. >> I'm curious how your membership fees changed from, you know, taking it 35K to 100K. Like how many members did you have paying you $200 a month? And then how did that change after you were incorrect about the ARKK and ARKW thesis? >> The analytics behind extra subscriptions are actually very light. There's not that much information about churn rate and who's canceled and when they canceled whatever, right? >> But the gross number. >> Yeah, yeah. I mean I've seen it dip down. I mean it's I mean like like, you know, I'm not sure if it's related to ARKK play or just like, you know, they subscribe for 1 month, they want to see what's behind the content, they liked it or didn't like it, and then they churn. Like I think like, you know, similar to me, like a lot of times you sign up for subscription, right? And the first thing you do is just go cancel, right? So I'm not sure if that's not if it's related to the play itself or they just want to try for a month. >> What's funny to me is like uh technically speaking, you did bring it back up to to 50 or 55 is where you're at right now. Who's to say where you'll be in a week or 2 weeks or a month? Who's to say? But the funny thing is you bring it up and then everyone starts subscribing. And I imagine like like the gross amount of subscribers that you had went down, right? After >> Yeah, yeah. >> ARKK and ARKW, like once you were incorrect about that thesis, then people unsubscribed and and stopped paying you. But then probably as you're going back up again, then people people are like resubscribing. It's But they don't have the foresight to look over a long period of time. And this is not my endorsement into you as an investor. I'm just saying like technically speaking, if you do look at the data over a long period of time, you have been correct more than you've been wrong. >> Yeah. >> And it's funny how it just kind of like there is a clear correlation between how you're doing and how you're not doing. Like in a in a small window of >> Well, that's investors across >> Yeah, exactly. It's it's just it's just fun. >> And I share my buying in the hype and selling the fear, always. >> I share this message with every user subscriber. I highly endorse independent thinking, right? I share my thesis. It's up to you to decide whether you like it or not, right? And for the arc capital one, a lot of people disagree with me, you know? And I noticed that. A lot of people did not enter to play with me because it was a fairly weak thesis, like looking back on it, right? And so I'm I'm happy that you know, a lot of people >> Do you think that you felt pressured to go big to like prove yourself again in that trade? >> Yes, there was another lesson I posted about recently, which was don't force a trade. Right? I think because of whatever was happening at that time, right? I was like, "Ah, let me find another trade." And like the thesis just wasn't strong enough. And so it's actually funny cuz even like last week, when the market was down a little bit, I was like, "Ah, should I like swing again?" I'm like, "No, no, no. Like just cool down." Right? If you're like trying to force it, if your thesis is not strong enough, just like cool down. It's fine. You can even stay in cash for a little bit until you feel like you understand the market. And so, a lot of lessons yeah.