Your subject "Day Trader" implies you are capitalized with a minimum of $25k and that you go home flat every night. If indeed that is the case, here are my thoughts. Wiser traders than me will point out that it only makes sense to expect larger gains on some days than others because the market moves more on some days that it does others. That makes perfect sense, but I do not employ that line of thinking / practice. Instead, I look at my progress for each day. Unlike conventional wisdom, I have a % profit target for each trading day, which is 1% (Stop Loss 2%) hence if you have 20 trade days in a month, you'd expect roughly 20% per month. Most days i can realize 1% within the first 90 minutes and other days i may struggle to reach that amount while taking an extra hour to do it. Often, I can do 3% per day in the same time, but it's easier to just stop at 1%. Again, I know setting the bar per day instead of fishing when they are biting will most always be frowned upon. My approach clearly don't appear optimal, but it fits me. I need smaller measurable goals. I trade volatile stocks / ETFs and they are gonna move plenty. My job is to be sure I'm on the right side and keep the winners a tad longer than the losers. A daily goal requires you screen when your favorite instrument goes sideways. You can almost always find a mover, if not take a 10 minute walk and come back. Don't be married to one instrument.
AR15, You are 10,000% right. If I am making money day trading, the very last thing on earth I would be doing is taking precious time out of my day to make video on how I make money day trading.
thank you for sharing your experience, if I understood correctly, you say that 20% per month is feasible compared to the daily volatity, one day + 3% and other -2% .... etc until that we would receive the 18-20% of the capital per month.
If you trade stocks you do need 25K to daytrade. But I guess most traders here trade futures and forex, therefore there is no requirement for 25K and flat very night. You only need to be flat during 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm. The second day starts at 6:00 pm at night and you could leave your position ovevnight. If anything undesirable happens overnight, you have stop loss to protect your position.
Depends on what you are trading. Look at the average returns (pa) for any particular market over a five year period for instance.
My favorite parable about Wall Street. If you plan on quitting after making 5mm, You will never make 5mm.
To be honest you have to change the way you look at this business. You are not running some garment manufacturing plant, making pants for Levis by putting 5% net profit on 500.000 pcs of order at 6,50$/piece FOB and try to book your other production belts to 2 or 3 more brands and close the year fully booked at 15% net profit margin 18 months prior. This is different business. There are Wars,Viruses,Funds,Algos,Governments, All sorts of s**t. Instead of watching youtube on trading; I advice you read Peter Lynch's books, The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham and The Dark Side of Valuation by Aswath Damodaran. Before reaching the 30-50% trading performance, you need to look at this business from the other side of the Iceberg. It takes years, not some 5-6 months of watching video or reading. And yes there are people who do those returns, there are people who only go short once or twice a year (Big time) There are people who only rotate with 2 or 3 papers. There are people who buy 2 million, 5 million shares of one specific company in a day and get flat at the end of the day. Everyone got different strategy and risk appetite and no one gonna post them on youtube, let alone tell his friends even. They would fold their notebooks or minimize their windows when someone passes by, are they gonna show to some random strangers online ? For what ? It is like asking a Sales manager of some company in the wood&paper business, his total 25 years worth of progress, sweat,blood and total client portfolio list with contacts to some critical persons in the buying department of IKEA or Ashley homestore. Capiche ?
What were your sources? My sources: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/t...a-profit-are-lower-than-you-expect-2016-08-19 https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-106srpt364/html/CRPT-106srpt364.htm https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2469/faj.v59.n6.2578 https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/20/attention-robinhood-power-users-most-day-traders-lose-money.html http://www.econ.yale.edu/~shiller/behfin/2004-04-10/barber-lee-liu-odean.pdf https://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/odean/papers/Day Traders/Day Trading and Learning 110217.pdf I would suggest you not day trade, especially since your due diligence seems lacking serious scholarship.
Been scalping since mid 90's, very seldom day traded till last couple years. Percentages never entered my mind trading futures which highly leaveraged. I first had goal being profitable every month, then week then most days of every week. This did not take a few years to accomplish, more like 10-14 years. After 7 years, I was profitable but long term stocks and futures did far better. Consistency I think is best for goals, not money or percents as this represents stress. I learned more from my winning trades than losers plus most stats I generate from winning trades. I generate equity curves as when drawdown was due then cut back size. You work at a job long enough, you find gems, be sensible on volume so world don't discover what you are doing. If I knew 25 years ago what I know now, concentrate on hedging long term commodities till you can get risk extremely low. You make more, have a life instead of staring at screens fourteen hours a day and have a life. Also, Learn how to trade commodity spreads. Learn how to chart.