Hi Everyone, My "Dad" been teaching me how to day trade since last June. He's not really my Dad, we met at a Youth church group and he has spent time with me doing fun activities, homework and teaching me day trading. He is a kewl guy. Anyway, he says it is time for me to "put up or shut up" and no more tailcoating his trades. So he has given me $5,000 account and I will trade on my own. Am a bit scared, but got to try eventually. I am 15 & sophomore at high school, so I can only trade till 9:30am and maybe study hall and lunch. He said if my grades slip, he pulls plug on my account and 90% of profits, if I make any, go to college fund he will trade. I think posting once a day might be best? I want to concentrate most on trading, but of course any addional help from members here are welcome. And some days can't trade at all, have school extra activities to do. Will start morrow in Crude Oil, TF or ES. When you guys started trading, were you scared? I have done over 500 trades and mostly I have called out before Dad does, but now I feel alone. Wish me luck all. David
Today was my first day of trading by myself and it was fun. I was very nervous, but I stuck to my trading plan and followed the rules. I traded the Emini Russell. I use for trend close must be above last pivot high for uptrend and close must be below last pivot low for downtrend, I have diamonds to remind me, then wait for a certain kind of pullback, plus counter-trend signal that needs extreme indicator reading and increase in volume but only after a big move. Off to school.
Looks like your "Dad" is teaching you well. You don't need luck, just hard work and do what "Dad" says. Stick with it, at your age you will be a great trader. Remember, Most people don't start their careers until they are in their 20's so it takes until they are 50 or 60 to be tops in their field. People like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet started when they were your age... they have done OK. If life is a race and you get a 10 year head start who do you think is going to win? Keep us posted!
True Strength Index does well, but, maybe more importantly, consider eliminating the VOL indicator for a constant volume bar chart. Volume itself is no indicator, but price as a unit of constant volume will improve both your trading and timing. Consider automation. Those trades and that indicator have no extremum, so don't look for mean reversion as soon as it crosses over your overbought/oversold TSI levels, unless you have backtested and optimized those parameters. The best two datafeeds that support this are Barchart and E-signal, and this will also improve your results using the TSI. Have a go at the free trial of those, and also consider using Multicharts as your execution gateway.
Assuming your mentor is successful at this, do what he says. Do not change anything right as you go live. Bwol gave you horrendous advice. You practiced a certain way w/ certain charts based on your (successful) mentor's plan. Do that and do not change it. Just follow the plan your mentor has put in front of you. Sounds like you've been given a gift that adults on this board would do anything for -- the chance to follow a successful trader's plan. Good luck and use the forum as a journal if you want. Stay away from those like bwol already telling you how to change (or 'improve') your mentor's plan. Some here just love to think they know everything about trading and can't wait to tell you how to change. Note -- a blog might be better for your goals here where you can moderate comments.
I know intraday trading on anything but constant volume bars is inconsistent. There is no linear relationship between price and time, so using price as a unit of volume is going to be better. I would also know because my ergodic oscillator uses the true strength index, so it doesn't surprise me to see a new trader take what he's learned without making a more analytical approach that I'm sure no 15 year old is capable of making. DadsSon, don't ever walk away from your terminal without closing your positions. It seems you have an intuitive feel for your indicators without relying on automation, so if you must use discretion don't ever leave positions open if you can't watch your screen the whole time.
Thank you BarOpen, bwolinsky, and brownsfan019 for your posts and advise. My "Dad" had me do four months of charting by hand, first dailies doing the bars and figuring the indicators by hand on ten stocks, then he had me do two months of one minute bars by hand, like eight hours but gave me indicator and volume charts. I learned a lot by doing this. Then he lent me a laptop, cell phone, dsl and his account to do sim trading, via Internet and texting I would call out signals. I wanted to sit next to him and watch, but he said I would learn better by forcing me to think on my own and develop my own trading plan as I see it. But he has watched over my trading plan. We went bowling today, that was fun, I even beat him one game and it was close. He has a punishment if I violate my trading plan, I have to lift 5,000 lbs of weights each day at gym for every violation of my plan. This has made me realize how important this is. So past two months I have traded with his help and overall have made profits, but now on my own. I have had to do weights 3 days, don't really want to do more of that, besides what I already do at gym class. This is first computer I have had at home so it is really cool, of course have them at school. "Dad" has it set up with hidden coding I can't get to any bad sites as requirement of my Mom. But still fun games. I don't know much about programming yet, maybe next year I can take a course. My "Dad" been trading like forever, he doesn't have like a job to go, I don't think he has ever done any job, at least not told me about. I know he trades stocks and other futures, he has other students but much older. Yes, good advise about not walking away unless you have checked no open orders, lucky I only have done that in sim. Thank you again for all of your advise, very welcomed. Hope all of you do well in your trading too.
By their fruits you will know them. If your trading coach doesn't need a regular job, you are in good company.
I'm not one to be negative or cynical but this has to be a joke. The wording of the above post certainly does not reflect the mind of young teenager. It sounds more like a 30 year old man trying to be cute
Op, how can you trade until 9:30 AM? I have three Sons in High School, and they have to be there by 7:45 Am. None the less, best advice I can give is KEEP A WRITTEN JOURNAL of what you're trading, why you entered, why you exited, how you were feeling (what emotions), etc., You should do this every day that you trade.