US trader Captain Condor is moving markets with Australians

Meet the five-minute options trader who built an online community – including Australians – that can now move markets in the US.

David Chau, aka Captain Condor, the founder of an online trading group that is now moving markets in the US.

The world isn’t crazy enough to pay undeserving people, says Captain Condor, the US trader whose online community has grown so powerful it can now move markets.

Markets are a battleground, he adds, likening his efforts at making money on the stockmarket to how the Roman empire conquered different cities.

“To grow larger, it’s not free. There’s going to be casualties, there’s going to be risk in order to grow. The market’s the same way,“ he tells The Australian from Sparks in Nevada.

Captain Condor’s real name is David Chau. He is a 31-year-old university dropout who has “never had a real job”.

But to some he’s a trading genius, with over 1000 people – including Australians – who pay to join his group, InsideOptions, where each day at 4pm (New York time) he shares his market bets, which many choose to follow.

It’s here he shares trading tips and his “proven strategy” – which he claims outperforms even the top hedge funds – to those who have at least $US26,000 ($40,700) to invest. Chau also has his own fund.

While celebrities have long tried to influence the market, it is people such as Chau, and the online communities they grow, that are beginning to have a material impact.

Cue the GameStop short squeeze some four years ago, when rookie traders turned the company’s stock into the hottest on the market.

Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty. Picture: Youtube

Roaring Kitty – whose real name is Keith Gill – was central to the “Reddit rally” that saw GameStop’s share rise 1600 per cent. Today he has one million subscribers on YouTube.

That wild rally ultimately crashed but led to a greater phenomenon wherein online traders who loiter on forums including Reddit or sometimes their own private groups wield enormous influence and, in Chau’s case, enough to move markets.

Chau has been likened to Gill but he doesn’t see InsideOptions in the same light. He also has a different strategy.

“I’m happy people made money then but I don’t like the pump-and-dump strategy,” he said.

Chau only trades the SPX 500, using call options and put options. It’s a strategy he picked up two years ago.

Every day he shares his tips. But his group isn’t active every day.

“We only trade maybe five to eight times a month,” he said.

“We trade after close and it takes, like, five to 10 minutes. I’m not really doing any hard work during the day, mostly just kind of managing my chat.

“My community is more of a social life for me just because I’m in Sparks and there’s really nothing out there to do.”

Chau hadn’t planned to build an online group but did so during Covid in 2020 after a jetski company he had backed was acquired.

“I didn’t really even want to do it … the only reason … was because my girlfriend kind of pushed me to do it,” he said.

As retail trading boomed during Covid, many were looking for advice and were being referred to Chau.

“It happened more than enough to a point where I had to kind of create a group and add a free group, which was pretty cool … had fun and it filled my social life a bit,” he said.

The group continued to grow and he built a paid model that at the time charged $US125.

In 2022, when market operator Cboe US Equities released daily options expirations, Chau changed his strategy.

Today he has zero interest in other types of trading.

“I don’t mess with bonds. I don’t mess with equities. If you’re buying equities, the returns are just not there,” he said.

“We have a proven system that we trade, so we don’t trade based on tariffs … we don’t trade based on news.

“I’m not focused on what other people are doing. I’m focused on what works for me and how I see the numbers on paper.”

Asked about older strategies, including buy-and-hold, he said: “With buy-and-hold, you’re just going to get an average result and you’re just going to be average along with everybody else,” he said.

“I’m not trying to wait five or 10 years for a 10 per cent-a-year gain or whatever … we’re doing that in, like, a month.

“I’m confident in myself and that I can actually keep this going for quite a long time.”

And so are his group, which includes the likes of ex-Wall Street traders and bankers.

When he shares his trades with his group, many follow. Some reports indicate their trades have exceeded 30,000 contracts.

“What we’re doing right now exceeds anything anybody else is doing,” Chau claimed. “What we’re doing right now exceeds even the top hedge fund in the world.

“The world isn’t a crazy enough place to reward undeserving people.

“You have to work to get paid. The market is not going to give away free money. You have to fight for it.”

Originally published as US trader Captain Condor is moving markets with Australians