@TrailerParkTed Didn't feel much different. Only difference was it took more time calculating how many shares I could short rather than doing 1,2 contracts. I actually missed my initial short order because I filled the amount of shares wrong and it dropped 2% right afterwards so that's a 2% I missed. What's new was I could guess how much I'm making/losing based on the point movements for futures, but for stocks I had no idea because I'm not used to looking at it by percentages anymore. So for example I made $500 from the MRNA trade and that surprised me because I didn't expect such a gain. I just saw a short opportunity and took it, hoping to make some profit.
Good trade on MRNA, I played the $450-$500 calls yesterday. Today MRNA was a short like BNTX but I felt bad shorting it after it treated me so good. Been helping a lady friend fix her account, she thought day trading was easy. You know the rest
8/11 -$979 Man I shoulda concentrated on MRNA yesterday and ride it until today. Woke up late and missed the big drop.. waited for the bounce and scalped. Started with a profit. Than noticed I could buy more and decided to buy until I couldn't buy anymore so I can see where my limits are at. Went from doing 50 positions to 225. I still have half of that position in.. I think it's due for a bounce this week. If it goes down tomorrow I'll try to limit my loss.. hopefully it wont start too deep in the red. Hoping for a higher start tomorrow for MRNA. Stocks is definitely my thing compared to futures. I love stocks. I am definitely trading too big right now. After tomorrow I'll limit my buying power in stocks as well.
8/12 +$5068 Thankfully MRNA started higher. I called itttttttt saw the drop so i sold right way. it drops. called its bounce so i bought and it bounced. Just played around with MRNA all day. Didn't even go all in. At one point I had 150 contracts I think but most of the day it was 50, 100, 82 contracts at a time. Stocks is definitely my thing. Screw futures. NG moved exactly the way I predicted but the probability is not high enough that I can bank it. It plays around the resistance points too much to fake people out. I just can't bank on NG's big movement days but I take all the losses when it moves big the other way. Stocks on the other hand, because commission is zero I go in and out like back in the days in 2010 when I practiced with virtual trading. I trade like it's a game and I have no pressure to deter me from going in and out since commission is zero. The way I traded stocks today, when I do the same thing with NG futures, my commission easily goes up to $300-400/day. Often higher. So I was feeling like I was earning $300-400 today just by not trading futures. Feels just fantastic. Because I was earning small bits at a time and not trying to ride it out, my money went up little by little to what I earned today, and I wasn't even paying attention. I was just having fun, going in when I saw an opportunity and going out when I felt a movement other way was about to come out. There are time I would earn like 0.2% and just go out because I'm like "nevermind" and I'm okay with just exiting with a tiny gain because there's zero commissions. And everything just added up. I don't think I had any losing trades today. Traded total of ~950 buys and same number of sells today and commission was $2.06. Not sure why there's that commission since commission should be free, but hey I'm not complaining. You can charge me $2 any day compared to what I used to pay to IB.
8/13 +$784 For the week: +$6722 Stocks on my watchlist didn't move much today. Played around with MRNA little by little throughout the day. Made $40, $50, $60 per trades and it just added up. Also shorted AMD because it was going up so high from the start. Waited until it looked like it was running out of gas and shorted it with a small position. Overall, a bunch of small trades. Also had zero losing trades today. All the small gains added up to make up today's profits. Going to end the day early and end it on a positive note. Can't wait till Monday!!!!! This week has been good. Solid trading. Realized again my love for stocks and I don't think I'm going to go back to futures. The mental relief of having zero commission per trade is really something.
Now you just need to figure your tax burden, as you get back fully into the stock trading. IIRC, your stock trades will all be taxed at the short-term capital gains rate. Since this is your first year of profits in 11 years, it is time to speak with a CPA who knows trading.
I don't want to think that far ahead. There were plenty of years where I was making money and would end up losing all and more by year-end. The amounts were never this big but the patterns were the same. I'm based in Alaska right now so I think that's some positive for the tax situation. Not sure how I'll be able to find a good CPA who knows trading or how much that will cost me, so any input on that would be appreciated. I'll worry more about this come January of next year.
8/16 +$247 All the stocks in my watchlist moved weird today. No clear sense of direction. MRNA started a lot lower and I believe it would bounce to $440 so I thought this would be a big payday. Saw the initial drop, the rise, and I thought it would drop once more before working its way up to becoming positive. So I was waiting for the second drop but it never came; it just slowly creeped up and I missed the 5% rise altogether. Made my money in the second half of the day shorting AMC and MRNA. For some reason, I can only short a smaller amount in AMC compared to MRNA. I can short 300 shares in AMC but can short 225 in MRNA, which in dollar terms is a big difference. I wonder why this is so.