Takashi Kotegawa (aka BNF and called the “J‑Com man”) is one of Japan’s popular day traders. He was born on March 5, 1978, in Ichikawa, Chiba and created a trading empire, growing from a nominal $13,600 initial account to approximately $153 million in eight years.
He first gained international notoriety through a single massive trade in 2005. A trader at Mizuho Securities made a big fat-finger error, selling 610,000 J‑Com shares for ¥1 instead of selling one share for ¥610,000. BNF took this chance and bought about 7,100 discounted shares. He sold some part of them for quick profit and kept the rest overnight, apparently profiting over $17 million from that trade alone.
BNF is known for his disciplined and humble approach; despite having made millions, he stayed with the same shopping habits, reportedly spending extravagantly only on a new high-floor apartment that cost about ¥400 million (~$2.7 million). Overall, he lived a simple life of day trading.
Kotegawa’s approach is primarily scalping and swing trading, capitalising on short-term price reversals in volatile markets. He primarily used technical indicators such as Bollinger Bands, RSI, and the 25-day moving average to look for stocks around 20% below the 25-day MA and then simply rode the bounce.
After he received his J‑Com payout, Kotegawa’s wealth began to increase steadily, from $13,600 after 2 years to $17,000,000, then increased to around $153,000,000 by 2008.
Kotegawa seems to have maintained his grounded demeanour and shares little with the media, including his trading approach. He indicates that he has never been in a long position, typically only holding trades for days as short-term trades.
Takeaways:
📈 Radical Wealth: Grew $13.6 K to $153 M in about 8 years
💡 Legendary Trade: Took advantage of Mizuho’s blindness of a J‑Com pricing error for about $17 M.
🔍 Targeted Strategy: He uses technical setups and executes with discipline, while also focusing towards short-term price reversals.
🌱 Simple Lifestyle: Simple lifestyle, no lavish spending.
🧠 In the Dark: Shares very little publicly on methods – his success owes to nothing more than discipline, market knowledge, and temperamental control.
Kotegawa’s story is a compelling example of how a disciplined, strategic method of day trading can produce great results, albeit with considerable risk as well as time.
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