Just wondering. On this site one can read a lot about daytrading but I would like to know if there are full-time position traders who enter positions with a time frame of weeks to months and do this for a living?
I like that term, position trader. I guess I am a full time position trader these days. But I am really in between jobs though. I would happily do it full time if my balance sheet was a bit larger.
If you would like to share. Why does having a longer term position on robbing your sleep (even if you would reduce the position size as suggested)?
Just curious. Where you always a position trader or was that something you developed into? Started you with a big trading account or a small one and worked it up through position trading?
I was being somewhat facetious, of course long term position trading can work. I just prefer to trade intraday and end each day flat. Personally, I don't like to expose myself to overnight risk and the instrument(s) I trade are very thick so I can trade sizeable positions intra-day and be satisfied. Of course, I won't deny that this approach doesn't allow me to catch extended runs up or down on the macro level but then again my system was not designed to hold overnight so it really wouldn't matter anyways.
Took me a few years to learn my style just like anyone else. I think it would be difficult to really classify the way I trade as position trading because I will take a position in something that I think is bullish or bearish and then I will "day trade" around it. An example would be I think gold and the gold miners are a fantastic buying opp right now. So the last couple weeks I have been establishing positions in many of the miners. Today, actually 15 minutes ago, I started to hedge and basically cut my positions in half without lifting the original position. If I'm right and my hedge works I'll add to my long gold positions and rinse and repeat. I started pretty small but if you pick one or two decent trades a year and are able to use leverage you should be just fine. The key is picking trades you really believe in over the medium term and then just slam them for all you got.
Day trading takes patients, courage, discipline and a clear mind which is why I am a position trader . I was never able to accept I was wrong within 5 or 10 mins of placing a trade now I have a few days for it to sink that I'm wrong. I also couldn't handle b/o failures and retests in real time. I wish I could day trade because I just love watching price action. I also have a better chance of learning to speak Arabic than learning how to program so that is off the table for me. The one benefit of position trading is you have time to trade many different instruments and strategies. So for me it is fun to hunt for trades which is what I spend most of my time doing instead of just watching the same 3 or 4 futures contracts that I liked to day trade.