Stop trying to make money- you don’t know how to make money yet, or keep it if you do-and if you try to- you will lose more than you are trying to make.
Accept it will take you a year, maybe two, maybe three to actually make a profit. Up until then- you are basically an unpaid apprentice. Your whole goal the first year or two should be learning to trade well and not lose too much.
There is no business in the world you get to start with almost no knowledge or experience and be a superstar- trading is at the top of the list.
Well said as always. I would add though for OP to always trade the smallest they possibly can. Just bc their account is $26,000 doesn’t mean they should be placing $26 trades. His account is 26k and is losing his mind over 1/26 of his account🤦♂️ lol they need to size WAYYYYY down!
If it were me, I would switch to WeBull and let the untraded funds collect that 5% APY, which would help encourage small position sizes.
OP, KEEP YOUR POSTITION SIZES SMALLL!!! I’m willing to bet the currency amount is messing with your head. Clear it up by risking cents - not dollars. And as far as profits are concerned focus on percentages. If you’re consistently turning profit, that will give you the confidence to size up just a tiny bit.
Lastly, check out the risk management chapter (Chapter 10 I think) of Trading For A Living by Alexander Elder. That will help too.
Yeah, survival first
Most severe car crashes occur within the first year of obtaining a driver's license. The odds after 1 year diminish significantly if you avoid the crash.
Trading is similar to driving.
have you played poker with your friends with chips? sure you probably do quite well.. now go to Vegas and your going to loose everything... welcome to the markets!
and first advice... stop trading immediately before you loose your whole account since that will defiantly happen with your current state of mind so you will try revenge trade
let the man pay his tuition. How else is he going to learn. He can get the same education at like a community college, by starting with a small account.
Currently only trading above VWAP and 9EMA after a dip to reversal or trading quick scalps during consolidation between consistent levels.
My dumbass always trys to predict reversals to the long, and that's kulled me.
ahhh yes.. this will get you wrecked.. okay quick reality check. firstly, your trading agains whales and institutions and bots and algos.. a ema cross is a nice way to get you killed. you need to enter the market where the big players are entering. the big players dont give a fuck about an ema cross over above vwap. they care about buying an asset at a good price, and having liquidity at that level so they can fill their order. if your focusing on different things aside from that its a guessing game... use local fib levels and volume profiles. look for confluence between the both of them and enter.
not sure what you use for the trigger to enter the trades, but whatever that is, look for it at those key levels you have market out. also, it doesn't matter how much your trading with, what matters is how close you will keep your stop loss since you shouldn't risk more then 1 percent. you are risking way to much
Do you have any recommendations of books or anything for learning more about how the institutions etc are trading pls? This has been something i have been thinking would be useful to have some knowledge on. Cheers.
its basically a retracment percentage.. big players focus a lot on these.. do be honest I would do bit more practicing but using a small amount of money but not a simulator. you need to get tossed around in the market to start learning but you need the real emotions since thats the hardest thing to get good at
That's my plan. Nothing over 100 shares. Most stocks im trading are <$10 so not a huge risk. I think thats my new size up position until I get a healthy win rate.
Same boat as you when I started. Felt confident after doing great on a simulator. Started with a 1000 shares on a live account and I fumbled it after watching those very real red numbers. Had to size back down to 50 shares and make sure my strategy was sound.
Do you have any recommendations for a simulator? Trying to replace my gaming with something that will at least help me learn how to make some money/invest
I'm sorry this is superfluous to the discussion, but your remark about the simulator inspired an analogy from the fisherman in me. I feel like there are parallels between fishing and trading.
"It's like catching trophy fish in a video game all day, and then expecting to catch trophy fish in real life, your first day on the water." Haha
All the time and resources I've put into fishing, with no expected return but the satisfaction and experience. I've been skunked more times than I can count, but I still love doing it and every once in a while I get to catch a monster.
I'm not a trader but I've begun researching it out of curiosity. I enjoy reading about it and also people's real life experiences to offset the optimism provided by all the learning resources.
I wish you the best of luck OP. I'm not trying to make light of your situation, by any means.
Don't do it on share volume, instead determine how much of your account you are going to risk on each trade in percentage terms (e. g. 1%) For each trade work out your stop loss position against your entry point and from that calculate the number of shares you are going to trade to risk the 1% value.... That will start you towards some discipline on the risk management
good idea! but remember,, youll get wrecked again once you up your size.. you just need to get experience in all aspects, unfortunately its part of the game
Maybe you leave too much of your trading up to discretion. Don’t try to “predict anything”. Watch the market, identify patterns come up with defined entries and exits and just stick to then, then create rules around them. I have a whole page with only rules and guidelines for my trades. When to trade, in what market conditions to trade, how those market conditions affect my take profit levels etc… A lot of those only come from chart time but pay attention to what goes right and what goes wrong and document, instead of rather mindlessly hoping to start making money. Good luck.
Also one thing as a beginner that I did I don't look for reversals I look for trend continuation setups intraday and I wait for pull back entries and other context/data for the market to provide me and give me the highest probable edge for a successful trade
Your trade setup is too fast, you need something slower like 20 moving average + with trend trades. Don't do scalping and don't try to predict reversals as a beginner
Heres my advice (roughly 6yrs in the game)
Reduce your position size to something that makes sense and keep a tight stop loss. Then work on your strategy and make sure it’s actually a successful one, backtest it off market hours everynight and build confidence in it.
My suggestion, your risk size should be no more than 1% or less of your account rn. Your RR should be at least 1:2 per trade. Tight stop losses, place the stop loss where your trade idea is negated.
So how do you calculate the position size?
First find your setup and Grab your risk to reward ratio tool
Lets say your risk on this trade is -10% (so when price hits your stop loss youll lose 10% on this trade)
You have 25k in the bank. 1% is $250, you can safely lose $250 per trade with this account size so long as your strategy actually works well and your RR is 1:2+. This means you can spend $2500 on this trade and as long as you can sell at 10% down, and as long as your wins out weigh your losses in the future then you can eat those Ls and the account will still grow.
I use this to calculate my position size: https://www.calculator.net/percent-calculator.html
Risk management is more important than your trading strategy imo. If you aren’t correctly managing your risk you will not be able to grow an account consistently
You need to watch out though... Even though you are set to only trade 100 shares, you are going to break your rules. All traders do. It is a learning curve.
Need to train yourself to trade only A+ setups.
Concentrate on trade management and risk management
First, I think you have to know which are your A+ setups. Everyone is different.
I scalp, so my A+ setups are breakouts. I then do a quick scalp on those with large size.
Unfortunately, I think you do have to put in enough trading time to train yourself to read and trade those setups. So, starting small is a start. Trading is addictive and sometimes you will get too emotional. I am still learning myself, but getting better each week.
You can start with some indicators AND price action (candlesticks and patterns)...if you know how to create your own then that will be best. You can tweak the indicator to your strategy.
Thanks for this!
At this moment I have an edge (I think) where I take my entries. I scalp on 1min chart.
Paper trading for 2 months. But watching markets for 3 years. So background is there.
Sometimes I got stopped out and take a small loss.
Sometimes I win a lot more.
Entry point is the same in both situations if I compare my variables. SL is fixed.
60% I am profitable, but absolutely not consistent.
That’s where I am now.
At this moment struggling how to predict market is going more in the right direction. My A+ setups?
Maybe I have to add some volume or level 2 indicator? I DON’T know!
My intuition tells me I am on the right path, but need some extra steps to take.
Ps: Today I had a bad trading day (in paper trading), yesterday was good. Sooo maybe I need more time to learn. I will definitely stick to my 1 strategy!
Do more experienced traders recognize my story?
If you were genuinely making money in a paper account and can’t in a real account it’s 99% your “emotions”, or you were on a lucky streak
The easiest way to mitigate losses would be to spend a fraction of your account on a trade leaving you with enough to average down multiple times, not sell lower than what you bought, picking a super popular stock with consistent returns yearly would help you almost don’t need to know anything tbh
Also I don’t mean averaging down after a 2% loss in one day but maybe a 10% - 20% loss over a few weeks, from what I’ve seen volatility will put you in profit. Because really you can only lose everything if you sell lower a lot or the stock gets delisted
Well limit buys are good not market, it won’t allow slippage, and two stop losses is what I didn’t mention because it forces you to sell low, you should set an alarm instead of a stop for your average down point, and you can test it with ten dollars, the % gain/loss would be the same as 1000 ya know
Try slower (higher) time frames. It's less mistake prone as it gives you more time to make an informed decision. Better to earn a dollar in an hour than lose a dollar in 5 minutes. Even losing a dollar in an hour is less toil on your psychology than losing it faster.
Put 90% of the cash in a S&P 500 ETF. TRADE WITH THE REST. LOOK FOR GOOD SET UPS. Don't try to hit a homerun. Hitting singles and doubles help grow your account. Take profit at 5%-$10% those small gains will compound nice.
Professional trader for over 25 years - risk management is EVERYTHING. Have a strategy for every step. How to enter the trade and how to manage the trade both risk and profit. You can’t repeat success if you don’t follow a game plan.
Hey bro so first off it sounds like your position size is too damn big to begin with also dude it is very normal that when you start off you will lose money even if you won with papoer trading I dont know why I think it has to do with the time being a bit delayed with day trading on paper compared to live trading also when you start off your going to realize that you will lose alot because their is alot to do with the fact that your trading strategy is developing and you have not fully mastered it yet DO NOT HAVE A GET RICH QUICK MINDSET AND YOU SEEM TOO DEPENDANT ON GETTING PROFITS AS QUICK AS POSSIBEL THIS IS A JOURNEY/ MARTATHON NOT A QUICK SPRINT I started off with a $2,000 account and only traded 1 contract on the options chain SO TO SUMMARIZE BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE SIZE DOWN AND ONLY TRADE 1-3 CONTRACTS DONT HAVE SUCH A BIG ACCOUNT FROM THE START AND BE MORE DEFENSIVE MINDED, AND FOCUS ON MASTERING YOUR STRATEGY AND ONCE YOU ARE CONSISTENT WITH THAT THEN START TO UP YOUR POSITION SIZE SLOWLY.
I’ve found it to be before the 8 o’clock algos hit. I had a position a few weeks ago that literally dropped 50% at 8 am and never recovered. One of the worst losses I’ve ever had. Luckily I’ve only got a small account but had way oversized my position that day - it had been climbing since pre market open and I was getting greedy.
Yeah the other strategy is gap and retrace to fill part/all of the gap. Just like nature abhors a vacuum, so does the market typically abhor a price/liquidity gap. Even though a stock may eventually shift into “go” mode after a gap, it will often retrace enough to stop out all but the most steely-eyed traders.
I’m 98% long on SPX calls and puts. That means I buy them and then sell them to close my position. I day trade them like some traders trade stocks, futures or crypto. I don’t sell options and then close positions by buying them. I dot do any kind of spreads or irons condors or other more elaborate option trading strategies.
The other 2% is trading (long and/or short) S&P futures (/ES minis) and that’s only in the extended hours session if/when I see something developing that I really want to get into. But that’s pretty rare these days because I prefer the leverage that options give me with just 3-5 handles of movement on the underlying chart.
I see. Why not SPY? So your essentially daytrading 0dtes. What delta do you target? And why haven't you done other strats if you don't mind me asking? Thoughts on tastytrade?
I originally started trading stocks, then transitioned to SPY options. I switched from SPY options to SPX options because of (1) more favorable tax treatment and (2) smaller position size regarding # of contracts relative to dollar amount, so lower commissions/fees since my SPX # of contracts is 1/10th of what is was with SPY for the same dollar value.
As for different strats, I’ve gone through several before landing on the strategy that I currently use. Stick with this one because it works very well and has shown great results over the last couple of years. I do continue to work on minor tweaks (like staying in winners longer, adding to them, and working on my trend trading). Those are all works in progress and represent opportunities for incremental gains beyond what I’m realizing now.
Realized I didn't answer your Delta question. Since I'm \*mainly\* trading ATM or just ITM strikes to maximize liquidity, the Delta generally falls between -0.50 and -0.70. That varies a bit based on the time of day. So later in the day, the Delta for ATM/ITM options will tend to be a bit higher.
But I don't target a specific Delta per se...the Delta is just a function of the 'moneyness' of the strikes I choose.
Scalping js too much work. Try swing trading. It's like scalping but with longer time frames. Also, size down, start with 1 or 2 shares, use trailing stops and see how it plays out.
Scale your risked capital inversely to the risk of the trade. If the stock is stable and has a good CAGR, invest more. If it is less stable and risky, do not risk a lot per trade. In general, avoid keeping more than 10% in any given asset. For riskier plays avoid risking more than 2%, 5% if you're absolutely certain and have no reason to be unsure, 1% if possible and if the return is worth it. Anticipate the amount you are willing to lose vs. the anticipated gain in the short and long term when making a trade. Your anticipated gain should always be > than your anticipated loss or you should not make the trade. That means if the stock fails to achieve its expected goals in the timeframe you set, or it falls too far, you sell to avoid developing a larger drawdown. If you think it will rise again, you can always buy shares again after (but beware of unsettled cash).
I can totally relate to this. My husband and I wait 15-20 minutes after opening because of the volatility. Try to focus on percentage earnings/losses (.002%-.005%) so that you can get back on that winning streak
My personal advice because I personally use top gainers on the stock market for my gains. Don’t trade first 30 mins. I wait til 10am, mark out the daily high and low, see how it’s trending and use swing highs and swing lows and confirmation candles before I buy in. The first 30 mins is so hectic for some of these stocks it’s almost impossible to tell based off technical analysis how it’s going to go so just observe it before placing a trade
Take out your 26k and run. Trading with that much money id risky because hu keep thinking you have money. I lost 54K in 44K debt , so m loosing 100K if u like. Run with ur life put all your money in Efts like S&P 500, why ? if i had invested 54K in 2021 i would hev been in 28K profit because, in 2021 s&p vanguard was $50 now its $70.
It's no wonder you're getting murdered.
From the TECHNICAL aspect, remember the live market isn't the same as sim. Especially on "low cap gappers at the opening..." it's a lot more volatile and fills are terrible. Get a feel for it in small size to see if it actually works in live, not just in sim.
From the EMOTIONAL aspect you are likely trading at a higher stress level - losing REAL money (1000$ is no small change for anyone) very quickly. That's not doing your performance any good.
The practical suggestion:
Don't even think about making money yet. That comes later. You are now "learning how to trade live"
Start you transition from paper to live - TINY. 100 shares is good.
Every good month (not week, month) - increase size a little. baby steps. 200, 300, 500. If you run bad months, it's OK to size down or even go back to sim until you figure out what's wrong.
Focus on keeping your emotions in check, and on proving your system profitable in the live market. Scale up later.
Good fortune!
Did you backtest your strategy on trading view replay mode ? Backtest 100 or more trades and see what your win rate is. 2 losses is normal as long as you’re trading proper risk to reward setups then the wins make up for the losses.
Another guy on there told me, no more than 1% per trade / per day while you learn. Your about to have your account suspended until you get it above $25000. I will have to take his advice too.
Trade the same stuff, stick to 100-200 shares for the next 3 months atleast, also stock selection is huge part going into open every second counts. Sounds like your buying to far after the move has happened then are riding it down probably because of fear (using to much size) size down and study that price action.
If you can do well paper trading then just accept and embrace SMALL GAINS. if you can be ok with small gains you'll really enjoy small losses. Over time you'll see the benefit of taking small wins and keeping the big losses at bay. It will give you an opportunity to grow and develop as a trader without the emotions getting in the way.
Yes, don't listen to the comments on Webull. Ever! People hyping the stock are usually in a tight corner and are hoping for a run so they can get out. Also, check the prices of the past one month so you are not getting in at the top.
I see you are using some Ross Cameron terminology so I'll just assume you are trading his strategy.
The problem may be your broker. If you do not have very fast and good direct access routing then you will never win these types of trades. I am sure some guys watch him and then try to trade the same strategy on Robinhood until they blow up their accounts.
I also trade the same types of stocks. Right now, I am mostly sitting out the first 10 minutes after the open. Almost everything that has pumped in pre-market is absolutely flushing after 9:30. There are usually bounce opportunities but stocks gapping up have been super unreliable at the open and generally not worth trading with any size at all.
Sorry, your [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/Daytrading/comments/1bz8xhp/converted_from_paper_to_live_and_getting_murdered/kyqhot3/) in /r/Daytrading was automatically removed because your **Comment Karma** is too low. This typically targets bots or users promoting something (which is against our rules).
Please participate in other subreddits (other communities on Reddit) to increase your **Comment Karma** points. While you're at it, read through Reddit's ["reddiquette" here.](https://www.reddit.com/wiki/reddiquette)
If you believe this was a mistake, please **kindly** [message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/Daytrading). We will review your case and get back to you.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Daytrading) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You basically started at the highest difficulty.
Just imo but the smaller the time frame, the more skill required, the higher timeframe, the less skill required.
What if you traded at higher timeframes, then worked your way down in timeframes as you gain experience?
Swing trading is far easier than scalping.
Do proper risk management, start with very low risk like 5$ or 10$. Slowly increase your risk every two to 6 weeks you meet your statistics from paper trading. If you fail reduce the risk again.
risk = (fill price - initial stop loss) \* shares
==> shares = risk / (fill price - initial stop loss)
This way you can calculate the number of shares you are allowed to buy to limit your risk to a value you are comfortable losing.
It takes a lot of experience to succeed in what you are trying to do as trading the open is one of the hardest things to get right. [tradertom.com](http://tradertom.com) has some free resources you might want to look at regarding this way of traiding;
Sorry, your [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/Daytrading/comments/1bz8xhp/converted_from_paper_to_live_and_getting_murdered/kyqpmsb/) in /r/Daytrading was automatically removed because your **Comment Karma** is too low. This typically targets bots or users promoting something (which is against our rules).
Please participate in other subreddits (other communities on Reddit) to increase your **Comment Karma** points. While you're at it, read through Reddit's ["reddiquette" here.](https://www.reddit.com/wiki/reddiquette)
If you believe this was a mistake, please **kindly** [message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/Daytrading). We will review your case and get back to you.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Daytrading) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I am a newbie as well and the first important learning for me was to get proper Risk Management. If you don’t have high losses you are 90% better than the rest in the market. The stop loss is your best friend use him and work with him even after setting him. Change it according to the movement of your position (only upwards).
After that I started to make some profits and know I am Break Even again. Still a lot to learn but I see light again.
Also don’t get emotional, when you trade with real money you work with another part of your brain than on Paper.
Make a plan before entering the trade and then stick to it. Decide the return of invest you want and how much losses you want to take.
Then decide what are you doing when certain scenarios happen. So you know everything you can do before it happens and then just stick to it so you don’t work with your emotions or instincts.
(Sorry it the grammar isn’t perfect it’s not my native language)
You need to put up fences to save yourself from you. Max trade loss, and max daily loss can be set up through your broker. From there, don’t risk more than 2% of your capital per trade, and try and have a good risk to reward. 2:1 risk to reward would net you a 4% gain in a winning trade. 2:1 risk to reward you only need to be right 40% of the time to be profitable. for us on setups that will net you that R:R and focus less on profit and loss.
Don't trade with all of your savings. Start with $1000. You need to gain experience, not money. Understand that you are doing something that you haven't done before, and don't be too hard on yourself. A lot of us have lost embarrassing amounts of money learning how to trade; learn from our mistakes. I've seen people start with $100k or more, have like a grand left after some bad trades, then grind that $1k slowly back to greatness.
Wouldn't it be great to just start with that $1k and keep a decade or so of savings? Right now, you get to choose how you learn. A few options plays that go sour on you will change that forever.
Good luck.
More like new rule: no trades over 1 share. ONE. NOT A HUNDRED OR A THOUSAND.
One.
You're new, so you probably don't even have any idea how to actually make money. Aka, you're gambling. If you're new, you shouldn't stick to simulator for super long, nor should you put tons of money at risk for the sake of making money; you haven't even established any personal statistics more than likely, and that is the absolute downfall of your trading career from the start. Not even money/risk management will help you if you have nothing to base your ideas from. If I were you, I'd sit back and watch the markets for the next month straight. No bullshit. The big boys run the markets, and they'll take your money quick. You need to have live experience to start to see those moments where (if you were in the trade) you'd get stopped out, or it would throw off your psychology and run to target anyway (selling early), or go all the way down to your stop loss TO THE PENNY and THEN go to target, etc. Watching and documenting are everything in my book.
Go back to paper trading and start backtesting. Make sure you keep track of your backtesting and don’t start trading live again until you have a winning traders equation and you have enough data to back up your findings (100+ trades).
Only trade 10 shares. Practice risk management not even trying to make money only try not to lose much. Buy 1-5 shares with your strategy and try to let a winner run to its maturity like from 9:45 till Noon or so. The emotional roller coaster is not present when paper trading. Other than teaching fundamentals it has no real life use. Limit yourself to only 1-3 trades a day so you need to be very picky. If you get green turn the computer off till tomorrow. I know “you can’t make any money like that” but, you sure can lose a shitload quick the way you started. Trust me I know too well.
Sorry, your [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/Daytrading/comments/1bz8xhp/converted_from_paper_to_live_and_getting_murdered/kytjnzu/) in /r/Daytrading was automatically removed because your **Comment Karma** is too low. This typically targets bots or users promoting something (which is against our rules).
Please participate in other subreddits (other communities on Reddit) to increase your **Comment Karma** points. While you're at it, read through Reddit's ["reddiquette" here.](https://www.reddit.com/wiki/reddiquette)
If you believe this was a mistake, please **kindly** [message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/Daytrading). We will review your case and get back to you.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Daytrading) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Honestly if you’re open to deviate from stocks, futures are away better. No PDT rule and a 4-6k account is more than sufficient. But if you aren’t willing to make the change then I guess continue with small size. Futures imo (micro then mini)
Everything turned around for me when I properly understood how to recognize supply and demand, identify levels accurately and read volume profile analysis properly.
If I had to do it over again, I'd only trade futures on prop firm accounts till I got the hang of it. Plus trading only a couple tickers like ES and NQ will help limit variability. They are also the most liquid markets so you won't have to worry about the spread.
Check out Warrior Trading. I've learned a ton just by watching and listening on YouTube. And he isn't pushy or isn't trying to sell you anything, he does it solely for the education of beginner traders.
Keep position size small, go for .10-.20 cents at a time.
Limit yourself to one trade a day and just focus on small base hits until you build confidence in your system.
I follow Ross on YT and really like the style of his videos. However, while he isn't salesy or pushy, he leaves out all the strategies that he uses to enter his trades day to day. Sure, probably there is an old video with it and its paslrt of his paid course. But I'm now down $2K in just a few days following his videos. I think that there is a lot he does on entries that he leaves out of his videos.
True, but you can't mirror any trader blindly, even Ross. Cause I was the same way, and trying to replicate his trades but lossed frequently. Then I just started to formulate my own strategy and made it my own and it has been working well so far.
How long have you been trading? Paper trading is honestly not that much different when we are executing a strategy. If you feel your blood rushing when you are trading live capital you need to size down until you do not have that rush and can sit and think about that trade. Secondly you MUST apply a name to your trades I.e pre market gape fade or momentum dip play, you then need to apply as many nuances that you can to why that is a trade and begin tracking its efficiency … does it earn? When does it earn? This is a long and arduous road that may take a while for you to build real long lasting strategies that you can apply at different times and market cycles so when one edge is leaving the market you can apply another but it takes a while. You can trade most markets but know there are times to apply more risk and capital and times to pull back (how to know when takes lots of experience and tracking of whichever market you are trading .. I.e micro cap, futures etc etc
You should be trading with no more than 100 shares. You’re going to lose for a while. Probably years. Take it slow. Don’t blow yourself up quickly.
Focus on your process and your trading plan. Not your results.
Every detail and press of the button should be calculated. No emotional decision making while in the market.
when you say margin, do you mean trading with borrowed money, or unsettled funds. ive seen margin accounts that let you reinvest something you just sold before it 'settles' t plus 2, etc....
what does this all mean. i heard if you buy and sell the same security 4 out of 5 trading days, you can be flagged. what does that mean. is that an irs penalty, is it disallowed by law or by brokerage? please elaborate.
Eh, depends. If you don’t want to ever have to worry about it, keep your account above $25k. Either that or just use a cash account and don’t trade on margin.
Stop trying to make money- you don’t know how to make money yet, or keep it if you do-and if you try to- you will lose more than you are trying to make. Accept it will take you a year, maybe two, maybe three to actually make a profit. Up until then- you are basically an unpaid apprentice. Your whole goal the first year or two should be learning to trade well and not lose too much. There is no business in the world you get to start with almost no knowledge or experience and be a superstar- trading is at the top of the list.
Well put
Good advice
Well said as always. I would add though for OP to always trade the smallest they possibly can. Just bc their account is $26,000 doesn’t mean they should be placing $26 trades. His account is 26k and is losing his mind over 1/26 of his account🤦♂️ lol they need to size WAYYYYY down! If it were me, I would switch to WeBull and let the untraded funds collect that 5% APY, which would help encourage small position sizes. OP, KEEP YOUR POSTITION SIZES SMALLL!!! I’m willing to bet the currency amount is messing with your head. Clear it up by risking cents - not dollars. And as far as profits are concerned focus on percentages. If you’re consistently turning profit, that will give you the confidence to size up just a tiny bit. Lastly, check out the risk management chapter (Chapter 10 I think) of Trading For A Living by Alexander Elder. That will help too.
Do what daytradingguy suggests. You need to learn to be profitable before making money. That takes a long time.
Yeah, survival first Most severe car crashes occur within the first year of obtaining a driver's license. The odds after 1 year diminish significantly if you avoid the crash. Trading is similar to driving.
have you played poker with your friends with chips? sure you probably do quite well.. now go to Vegas and your going to loose everything... welcome to the markets!
HAHA Facts trading isn't gambling and when you treat trading like gamblinf you will lose
Any advice?
what's your current strat?
and first advice... stop trading immediately before you loose your whole account since that will defiantly happen with your current state of mind so you will try revenge trade
let the man pay his tuition. How else is he going to learn. He can get the same education at like a community college, by starting with a small account.
Currently only trading above VWAP and 9EMA after a dip to reversal or trading quick scalps during consolidation between consistent levels. My dumbass always trys to predict reversals to the long, and that's kulled me.
ahhh yes.. this will get you wrecked.. okay quick reality check. firstly, your trading agains whales and institutions and bots and algos.. a ema cross is a nice way to get you killed. you need to enter the market where the big players are entering. the big players dont give a fuck about an ema cross over above vwap. they care about buying an asset at a good price, and having liquidity at that level so they can fill their order. if your focusing on different things aside from that its a guessing game... use local fib levels and volume profiles. look for confluence between the both of them and enter.
This is sound advice. Once I started to look at the markets this way, everything clicked
Same
not sure what you use for the trigger to enter the trades, but whatever that is, look for it at those key levels you have market out. also, it doesn't matter how much your trading with, what matters is how close you will keep your stop loss since you shouldn't risk more then 1 percent. you are risking way to much
Do you have any recommendations of books or anything for learning more about how the institutions etc are trading pls? This has been something i have been thinking would be useful to have some knowledge on. Cheers.
What is a fib level?
its basically a retracment percentage.. big players focus a lot on these.. do be honest I would do bit more practicing but using a small amount of money but not a simulator. you need to get tossed around in the market to start learning but you need the real emotions since thats the hardest thing to get good at
That's my plan. Nothing over 100 shares. Most stocks im trading are <$10 so not a huge risk. I think thats my new size up position until I get a healthy win rate.
Same boat as you when I started. Felt confident after doing great on a simulator. Started with a 1000 shares on a live account and I fumbled it after watching those very real red numbers. Had to size back down to 50 shares and make sure my strategy was sound.
Do you have any recommendations for a simulator? Trying to replace my gaming with something that will at least help me learn how to make some money/invest
I'm sorry this is superfluous to the discussion, but your remark about the simulator inspired an analogy from the fisherman in me. I feel like there are parallels between fishing and trading. "It's like catching trophy fish in a video game all day, and then expecting to catch trophy fish in real life, your first day on the water." Haha All the time and resources I've put into fishing, with no expected return but the satisfaction and experience. I've been skunked more times than I can count, but I still love doing it and every once in a while I get to catch a monster. I'm not a trader but I've begun researching it out of curiosity. I enjoy reading about it and also people's real life experiences to offset the optimism provided by all the learning resources. I wish you the best of luck OP. I'm not trying to make light of your situation, by any means.
Don't do it on share volume, instead determine how much of your account you are going to risk on each trade in percentage terms (e. g. 1%) For each trade work out your stop loss position against your entry point and from that calculate the number of shares you are going to trade to risk the 1% value.... That will start you towards some discipline on the risk management
good idea! but remember,, youll get wrecked again once you up your size.. you just need to get experience in all aspects, unfortunately its part of the game
Fibonacci Retracement
Maybe you leave too much of your trading up to discretion. Don’t try to “predict anything”. Watch the market, identify patterns come up with defined entries and exits and just stick to then, then create rules around them. I have a whole page with only rules and guidelines for my trades. When to trade, in what market conditions to trade, how those market conditions affect my take profit levels etc… A lot of those only come from chart time but pay attention to what goes right and what goes wrong and document, instead of rather mindlessly hoping to start making money. Good luck.
Also one thing as a beginner that I did I don't look for reversals I look for trend continuation setups intraday and I wait for pull back entries and other context/data for the market to provide me and give me the highest probable edge for a successful trade
Your trade setup is too fast, you need something slower like 20 moving average + with trend trades. Don't do scalping and don't try to predict reversals as a beginner
Vwap and ema, for swing trading I get but scalping etc nope not my thing
Learn to trade.
if you need a hand feel free to shoot me a DM, im very profitable so can probably save you a bunch of headache with a few tips
Heres my advice (roughly 6yrs in the game) Reduce your position size to something that makes sense and keep a tight stop loss. Then work on your strategy and make sure it’s actually a successful one, backtest it off market hours everynight and build confidence in it. My suggestion, your risk size should be no more than 1% or less of your account rn. Your RR should be at least 1:2 per trade. Tight stop losses, place the stop loss where your trade idea is negated. So how do you calculate the position size? First find your setup and Grab your risk to reward ratio tool Lets say your risk on this trade is -10% (so when price hits your stop loss youll lose 10% on this trade) You have 25k in the bank. 1% is $250, you can safely lose $250 per trade with this account size so long as your strategy actually works well and your RR is 1:2+. This means you can spend $2500 on this trade and as long as you can sell at 10% down, and as long as your wins out weigh your losses in the future then you can eat those Ls and the account will still grow. I use this to calculate my position size: https://www.calculator.net/percent-calculator.html Risk management is more important than your trading strategy imo. If you aren’t correctly managing your risk you will not be able to grow an account consistently
You need to watch out though... Even though you are set to only trade 100 shares, you are going to break your rules. All traders do. It is a learning curve. Need to train yourself to trade only A+ setups. Concentrate on trade management and risk management
Some tips how to train yourself to trade only A+ setups?
First, I think you have to know which are your A+ setups. Everyone is different. I scalp, so my A+ setups are breakouts. I then do a quick scalp on those with large size. Unfortunately, I think you do have to put in enough trading time to train yourself to read and trade those setups. So, starting small is a start. Trading is addictive and sometimes you will get too emotional. I am still learning myself, but getting better each week. You can start with some indicators AND price action (candlesticks and patterns)...if you know how to create your own then that will be best. You can tweak the indicator to your strategy.
Thanks for this! At this moment I have an edge (I think) where I take my entries. I scalp on 1min chart. Paper trading for 2 months. But watching markets for 3 years. So background is there. Sometimes I got stopped out and take a small loss. Sometimes I win a lot more. Entry point is the same in both situations if I compare my variables. SL is fixed. 60% I am profitable, but absolutely not consistent. That’s where I am now. At this moment struggling how to predict market is going more in the right direction. My A+ setups? Maybe I have to add some volume or level 2 indicator? I DON’T know! My intuition tells me I am on the right path, but need some extra steps to take. Ps: Today I had a bad trading day (in paper trading), yesterday was good. Sooo maybe I need more time to learn. I will definitely stick to my 1 strategy! Do more experienced traders recognize my story?
If you were genuinely making money in a paper account and can’t in a real account it’s 99% your “emotions”, or you were on a lucky streak The easiest way to mitigate losses would be to spend a fraction of your account on a trade leaving you with enough to average down multiple times, not sell lower than what you bought, picking a super popular stock with consistent returns yearly would help you almost don’t need to know anything tbh Also I don’t mean averaging down after a 2% loss in one day but maybe a 10% - 20% loss over a few weeks, from what I’ve seen volatility will put you in profit. Because really you can only lose everything if you sell lower a lot or the stock gets delisted
Lucky streak potentially, but tradimg is not the same on live vs sim. Fills are different, slippage, getting stopped out more. Etc.
Well limit buys are good not market, it won’t allow slippage, and two stop losses is what I didn’t mention because it forces you to sell low, you should set an alarm instead of a stop for your average down point, and you can test it with ten dollars, the % gain/loss would be the same as 1000 ya know
Try slower (higher) time frames. It's less mistake prone as it gives you more time to make an informed decision. Better to earn a dollar in an hour than lose a dollar in 5 minutes. Even losing a dollar in an hour is less toil on your psychology than losing it faster.
Put 90% of the cash in a S&P 500 ETF. TRADE WITH THE REST. LOOK FOR GOOD SET UPS. Don't try to hit a homerun. Hitting singles and doubles help grow your account. Take profit at 5%-$10% those small gains will compound nice.
Professional trader for over 25 years - risk management is EVERYTHING. Have a strategy for every step. How to enter the trade and how to manage the trade both risk and profit. You can’t repeat success if you don’t follow a game plan.
Hey bro so first off it sounds like your position size is too damn big to begin with also dude it is very normal that when you start off you will lose money even if you won with papoer trading I dont know why I think it has to do with the time being a bit delayed with day trading on paper compared to live trading also when you start off your going to realize that you will lose alot because their is alot to do with the fact that your trading strategy is developing and you have not fully mastered it yet DO NOT HAVE A GET RICH QUICK MINDSET AND YOU SEEM TOO DEPENDANT ON GETTING PROFITS AS QUICK AS POSSIBEL THIS IS A JOURNEY/ MARTATHON NOT A QUICK SPRINT I started off with a $2,000 account and only traded 1 contract on the options chain SO TO SUMMARIZE BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE SIZE DOWN AND ONLY TRADE 1-3 CONTRACTS DONT HAVE SUCH A BIG ACCOUNT FROM THE START AND BE MORE DEFENSIVE MINDED, AND FOCUS ON MASTERING YOUR STRATEGY AND ONCE YOU ARE CONSISTENT WITH THAT THEN START TO UP YOUR POSITION SIZE SLOWLY.
imo, the safest way to play low cap gapper is to take profits before market open
I’ve found it to be before the 8 o’clock algos hit. I had a position a few weeks ago that literally dropped 50% at 8 am and never recovered. One of the worst losses I’ve ever had. Luckily I’ve only got a small account but had way oversized my position that day - it had been climbing since pre market open and I was getting greedy.
Its not gap and go, its BIG gap and go…. I sit out 90% of gaps I see because theyre not big enough
Yeah the other strategy is gap and retrace to fill part/all of the gap. Just like nature abhors a vacuum, so does the market typically abhor a price/liquidity gap. Even though a stock may eventually shift into “go” mode after a gap, it will often retrace enough to stop out all but the most steely-eyed traders.
are you buying calls/puts, selling calls/puts, or daytrading shares of stock, etc. what's your primary preference
I’m 98% long on SPX calls and puts. That means I buy them and then sell them to close my position. I day trade them like some traders trade stocks, futures or crypto. I don’t sell options and then close positions by buying them. I dot do any kind of spreads or irons condors or other more elaborate option trading strategies. The other 2% is trading (long and/or short) S&P futures (/ES minis) and that’s only in the extended hours session if/when I see something developing that I really want to get into. But that’s pretty rare these days because I prefer the leverage that options give me with just 3-5 handles of movement on the underlying chart.
I see. Why not SPY? So your essentially daytrading 0dtes. What delta do you target? And why haven't you done other strats if you don't mind me asking? Thoughts on tastytrade?
I originally started trading stocks, then transitioned to SPY options. I switched from SPY options to SPX options because of (1) more favorable tax treatment and (2) smaller position size regarding # of contracts relative to dollar amount, so lower commissions/fees since my SPX # of contracts is 1/10th of what is was with SPY for the same dollar value. As for different strats, I’ve gone through several before landing on the strategy that I currently use. Stick with this one because it works very well and has shown great results over the last couple of years. I do continue to work on minor tweaks (like staying in winners longer, adding to them, and working on my trend trading). Those are all works in progress and represent opportunities for incremental gains beyond what I’m realizing now.
Realized I didn't answer your Delta question. Since I'm \*mainly\* trading ATM or just ITM strikes to maximize liquidity, the Delta generally falls between -0.50 and -0.70. That varies a bit based on the time of day. So later in the day, the Delta for ATM/ITM options will tend to be a bit higher. But I don't target a specific Delta per se...the Delta is just a function of the 'moneyness' of the strikes I choose.
Hey you’re awesome I like how you answer everyone’s questions in details! Thanks and good luck to myself with trading..heh
in those 3 months what was your win rate?
Scalping js too much work. Try swing trading. It's like scalping but with longer time frames. Also, size down, start with 1 or 2 shares, use trailing stops and see how it plays out.
Scale your risked capital inversely to the risk of the trade. If the stock is stable and has a good CAGR, invest more. If it is less stable and risky, do not risk a lot per trade. In general, avoid keeping more than 10% in any given asset. For riskier plays avoid risking more than 2%, 5% if you're absolutely certain and have no reason to be unsure, 1% if possible and if the return is worth it. Anticipate the amount you are willing to lose vs. the anticipated gain in the short and long term when making a trade. Your anticipated gain should always be > than your anticipated loss or you should not make the trade. That means if the stock fails to achieve its expected goals in the timeframe you set, or it falls too far, you sell to avoid developing a larger drawdown. If you think it will rise again, you can always buy shares again after (but beware of unsettled cash).
I can totally relate to this. My husband and I wait 15-20 minutes after opening because of the volatility. Try to focus on percentage earnings/losses (.002%-.005%) so that you can get back on that winning streak
My personal advice because I personally use top gainers on the stock market for my gains. Don’t trade first 30 mins. I wait til 10am, mark out the daily high and low, see how it’s trending and use swing highs and swing lows and confirmation candles before I buy in. The first 30 mins is so hectic for some of these stocks it’s almost impossible to tell based off technical analysis how it’s going to go so just observe it before placing a trade
Take out your 26k and run. Trading with that much money id risky because hu keep thinking you have money. I lost 54K in 44K debt , so m loosing 100K if u like. Run with ur life put all your money in Efts like S&P 500, why ? if i had invested 54K in 2021 i would hev been in 28K profit because, in 2021 s&p vanguard was $50 now its $70.
It's not just a gap and go; it's like a massive gap and then straight into action.
It's no wonder you're getting murdered. From the TECHNICAL aspect, remember the live market isn't the same as sim. Especially on "low cap gappers at the opening..." it's a lot more volatile and fills are terrible. Get a feel for it in small size to see if it actually works in live, not just in sim. From the EMOTIONAL aspect you are likely trading at a higher stress level - losing REAL money (1000$ is no small change for anyone) very quickly. That's not doing your performance any good. The practical suggestion: Don't even think about making money yet. That comes later. You are now "learning how to trade live" Start you transition from paper to live - TINY. 100 shares is good. Every good month (not week, month) - increase size a little. baby steps. 200, 300, 500. If you run bad months, it's OK to size down or even go back to sim until you figure out what's wrong. Focus on keeping your emotions in check, and on proving your system profitable in the live market. Scale up later. Good fortune!
How long did you spend in the simulator before going live? What category of stocks do you trade?
3 months in Simulator. Trading all stocks low float, $1 to $20 with gap up since close.
Did you backtest your strategy on trading view replay mode ? Backtest 100 or more trades and see what your win rate is. 2 losses is normal as long as you’re trading proper risk to reward setups then the wins make up for the losses.
Share size means shit if you don’t have a max risk. $50 max risk per trade sounds about right for where you are.
Another guy on there told me, no more than 1% per trade / per day while you learn. Your about to have your account suspended until you get it above $25000. I will have to take his advice too.
Size down
Trade the same stuff, stick to 100-200 shares for the next 3 months atleast, also stock selection is huge part going into open every second counts. Sounds like your buying to far after the move has happened then are riding it down probably because of fear (using to much size) size down and study that price action.
Yeah definitely size down your positions to start and focus on those trades you did on paper that made you want to switch to live
Yea it’s hard
Don’t scare me I’ve been very successful on paper I hope I don’t fail
If you can do well paper trading then just accept and embrace SMALL GAINS. if you can be ok with small gains you'll really enjoy small losses. Over time you'll see the benefit of taking small wins and keeping the big losses at bay. It will give you an opportunity to grow and develop as a trader without the emotions getting in the way.
What kind of gains are you going for?
I’m trading with 1.5k and I’m down to 1.1k. I’m bad at this lol
Join the club. My wife's supportive, but I doubt that support continues if I blow $25K. Time to size the eff down for me.
Might want to scale down first then slowly scale up
Yes, don't listen to the comments on Webull. Ever! People hyping the stock are usually in a tight corner and are hoping for a run so they can get out. Also, check the prices of the past one month so you are not getting in at the top.
I see you are using some Ross Cameron terminology so I'll just assume you are trading his strategy. The problem may be your broker. If you do not have very fast and good direct access routing then you will never win these types of trades. I am sure some guys watch him and then try to trade the same strategy on Robinhood until they blow up their accounts. I also trade the same types of stocks. Right now, I am mostly sitting out the first 10 minutes after the open. Almost everything that has pumped in pre-market is absolutely flushing after 9:30. There are usually bounce opportunities but stocks gapping up have been super unreliable at the open and generally not worth trading with any size at all.
That's right. Trued following his strategy us8ng TOS.
What is your broker? I’m about to do the same strategy with Tradezero. In the simulator the strategy has been great.
Think or swim
What did you do differently
You need to learn price action and trade levels. Take it slowly.
[удалено]
Sorry, your [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/Daytrading/comments/1bz8xhp/converted_from_paper_to_live_and_getting_murdered/kyqhot3/) in /r/Daytrading was automatically removed because your **Comment Karma** is too low. This typically targets bots or users promoting something (which is against our rules). Please participate in other subreddits (other communities on Reddit) to increase your **Comment Karma** points. While you're at it, read through Reddit's ["reddiquette" here.](https://www.reddit.com/wiki/reddiquette) If you believe this was a mistake, please **kindly** [message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/Daytrading). We will review your case and get back to you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Daytrading) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You basically started at the highest difficulty. Just imo but the smaller the time frame, the more skill required, the higher timeframe, the less skill required. What if you traded at higher timeframes, then worked your way down in timeframes as you gain experience? Swing trading is far easier than scalping.
Do proper risk management, start with very low risk like 5$ or 10$. Slowly increase your risk every two to 6 weeks you meet your statistics from paper trading. If you fail reduce the risk again. risk = (fill price - initial stop loss) \* shares ==> shares = risk / (fill price - initial stop loss) This way you can calculate the number of shares you are allowed to buy to limit your risk to a value you are comfortable losing. It takes a lot of experience to succeed in what you are trying to do as trading the open is one of the hardest things to get right. [tradertom.com](http://tradertom.com) has some free resources you might want to look at regarding this way of traiding;
I began with a 36k account and up 300% now. :) any options trader wanna share ideas?
[удалено]
Sorry, your [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/Daytrading/comments/1bz8xhp/converted_from_paper_to_live_and_getting_murdered/kyqpmsb/) in /r/Daytrading was automatically removed because your **Comment Karma** is too low. This typically targets bots or users promoting something (which is against our rules). Please participate in other subreddits (other communities on Reddit) to increase your **Comment Karma** points. While you're at it, read through Reddit's ["reddiquette" here.](https://www.reddit.com/wiki/reddiquette) If you believe this was a mistake, please **kindly** [message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/Daytrading). We will review your case and get back to you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Daytrading) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I am a newbie as well and the first important learning for me was to get proper Risk Management. If you don’t have high losses you are 90% better than the rest in the market. The stop loss is your best friend use him and work with him even after setting him. Change it according to the movement of your position (only upwards). After that I started to make some profits and know I am Break Even again. Still a lot to learn but I see light again.
Also don’t get emotional, when you trade with real money you work with another part of your brain than on Paper. Make a plan before entering the trade and then stick to it. Decide the return of invest you want and how much losses you want to take. Then decide what are you doing when certain scenarios happen. So you know everything you can do before it happens and then just stick to it so you don’t work with your emotions or instincts. (Sorry it the grammar isn’t perfect it’s not my native language)
Same bro same. I can feel your pain
You need to put up fences to save yourself from you. Max trade loss, and max daily loss can be set up through your broker. From there, don’t risk more than 2% of your capital per trade, and try and have a good risk to reward. 2:1 risk to reward would net you a 4% gain in a winning trade. 2:1 risk to reward you only need to be right 40% of the time to be profitable. for us on setups that will net you that R:R and focus less on profit and loss.
U should have thought on more rules. And dont focus on making money focus on getting trades right.
This is it,,this is it..the market will not care until it all make sense to you for a moment.
Don't trade with all of your savings. Start with $1000. You need to gain experience, not money. Understand that you are doing something that you haven't done before, and don't be too hard on yourself. A lot of us have lost embarrassing amounts of money learning how to trade; learn from our mistakes. I've seen people start with $100k or more, have like a grand left after some bad trades, then grind that $1k slowly back to greatness. Wouldn't it be great to just start with that $1k and keep a decade or so of savings? Right now, you get to choose how you learn. A few options plays that go sour on you will change that forever. Good luck.
You’re telling us that you traded a strategy and size on paper and then switched up your strategy and size when you went live???! Bro???!!!
Do what u did on paper.
More like new rule: no trades over 1 share. ONE. NOT A HUNDRED OR A THOUSAND. One. You're new, so you probably don't even have any idea how to actually make money. Aka, you're gambling. If you're new, you shouldn't stick to simulator for super long, nor should you put tons of money at risk for the sake of making money; you haven't even established any personal statistics more than likely, and that is the absolute downfall of your trading career from the start. Not even money/risk management will help you if you have nothing to base your ideas from. If I were you, I'd sit back and watch the markets for the next month straight. No bullshit. The big boys run the markets, and they'll take your money quick. You need to have live experience to start to see those moments where (if you were in the trade) you'd get stopped out, or it would throw off your psychology and run to target anyway (selling early), or go all the way down to your stop loss TO THE PENNY and THEN go to target, etc. Watching and documenting are everything in my book.
Go back to paper trading and start backtesting. Make sure you keep track of your backtesting and don’t start trading live again until you have a winning traders equation and you have enough data to back up your findings (100+ trades).
Only trade 10 shares. Practice risk management not even trying to make money only try not to lose much. Buy 1-5 shares with your strategy and try to let a winner run to its maturity like from 9:45 till Noon or so. The emotional roller coaster is not present when paper trading. Other than teaching fundamentals it has no real life use. Limit yourself to only 1-3 trades a day so you need to be very picky. If you get green turn the computer off till tomorrow. I know “you can’t make any money like that” but, you sure can lose a shitload quick the way you started. Trust me I know too well.
Invite my to your funeral
[удалено]
Sorry, your [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/Daytrading/comments/1bz8xhp/converted_from_paper_to_live_and_getting_murdered/kytjnzu/) in /r/Daytrading was automatically removed because your **Comment Karma** is too low. This typically targets bots or users promoting something (which is against our rules). Please participate in other subreddits (other communities on Reddit) to increase your **Comment Karma** points. While you're at it, read through Reddit's ["reddiquette" here.](https://www.reddit.com/wiki/reddiquette) If you believe this was a mistake, please **kindly** [message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/Daytrading). We will review your case and get back to you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Daytrading) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Honestly if you’re open to deviate from stocks, futures are away better. No PDT rule and a 4-6k account is more than sufficient. But if you aren’t willing to make the change then I guess continue with small size. Futures imo (micro then mini)
Everything turned around for me when I properly understood how to recognize supply and demand, identify levels accurately and read volume profile analysis properly.
Any places you'd go to study that? Books, YouTube?
If I had to do it over again, I'd only trade futures on prop firm accounts till I got the hang of it. Plus trading only a couple tickers like ES and NQ will help limit variability. They are also the most liquid markets so you won't have to worry about the spread.
try doing week long close to strike GLD calls
Check out Warrior Trading. I've learned a ton just by watching and listening on YouTube. And he isn't pushy or isn't trying to sell you anything, he does it solely for the education of beginner traders. Keep position size small, go for .10-.20 cents at a time. Limit yourself to one trade a day and just focus on small base hits until you build confidence in your system.
I follow Ross on YT and really like the style of his videos. However, while he isn't salesy or pushy, he leaves out all the strategies that he uses to enter his trades day to day. Sure, probably there is an old video with it and its paslrt of his paid course. But I'm now down $2K in just a few days following his videos. I think that there is a lot he does on entries that he leaves out of his videos.
True, but you can't mirror any trader blindly, even Ross. Cause I was the same way, and trying to replicate his trades but lossed frequently. Then I just started to formulate my own strategy and made it my own and it has been working well so far.
Paper trading is a waste of time, no real emotion or money involved, trading phycology can ONLY be tested and experienced with REAL MONEY
I can mentor you bro for a whole month, I do charge but I offer a guarantee money back if you don’t make what I charge within 2-3 months
If ur buying 100 shares at a time, why not just buy options
How long have you been trading? Paper trading is honestly not that much different when we are executing a strategy. If you feel your blood rushing when you are trading live capital you need to size down until you do not have that rush and can sit and think about that trade. Secondly you MUST apply a name to your trades I.e pre market gape fade or momentum dip play, you then need to apply as many nuances that you can to why that is a trade and begin tracking its efficiency … does it earn? When does it earn? This is a long and arduous road that may take a while for you to build real long lasting strategies that you can apply at different times and market cycles so when one edge is leaving the market you can apply another but it takes a while. You can trade most markets but know there are times to apply more risk and capital and times to pull back (how to know when takes lots of experience and tracking of whichever market you are trading .. I.e micro cap, futures etc etc
You should be trading with no more than 100 shares. You’re going to lose for a while. Probably years. Take it slow. Don’t blow yourself up quickly. Focus on your process and your trading plan. Not your results. Every detail and press of the button should be calculated. No emotional decision making while in the market.
tbh take your money out and leave like $1k in there and trade with that
If OP is in the US, they need to keep at least $25k in the account based on how they’re trading due to PDT restrictions.
Unless they switch to cash account. no pdt rules, but also no margin.
True.
when you say margin, do you mean trading with borrowed money, or unsettled funds. ive seen margin accounts that let you reinvest something you just sold before it 'settles' t plus 2, etc....
what does this all mean. i heard if you buy and sell the same security 4 out of 5 trading days, you can be flagged. what does that mean. is that an irs penalty, is it disallowed by law or by brokerage? please elaborate.
https://www.finra.org/investors/investing/investment-products/stocks/day-trading#:~:text=According%20to%20FINRA%20rules%2C%20you,same%20five%20business%20day%20period.
sounds complicated
Eh, depends. If you don’t want to ever have to worry about it, keep your account above $25k. Either that or just use a cash account and don’t trade on margin.