Hello, all, I live in US and I started day trading in March this year. I don't have a margin account, so I put $3000 in my Robin hood account, I initially played $300 on single trade so that I could buy and sell for more than 3 times a day without needing to have a margin account with at least $25,000, I played up to 3 times a day, if I won 4%, I would just stop trading on that day, and I won mostly, about 80% wins, if I was not winning, I got out with roughly 1% loss. I made a rule that I will only move to trade $600 on single trade once I make 20% profit on the $300 per trade, it turned out that I reached 20% too soon in about 20 days, then I changed my mind and only allow myself to double the money on each trade if I can reach 40% profit, eventually, I was able to reach $120 with $300 per trade and I started to use $600 per trade starting May/2018 with a total fund of $6000. This time, it was much quicker, I reached 40% profit in 3 weeks, got $240 in total profit on the $600 trades. I started $1200 per trade, so far, I have gained another $200, it has been 3 weeks. I do think I am probably doing well(I am still doing a lot of paper trading every day) but I am not an expert of day trading, if you could give me any insight, opinion, it will be very helpful to me and very much appreciated. Thank you so much in advance!
freeman311122, Continue on your journey. You seem to have a controlled risk plan. As long as you have a defined amount you are willing to lose from the beginning of the business plan, just stick to your plan. Keep on trading and managing your risk if you are comfortable. If you are not comfortable with the risk, you can always paper trade starting with $3000 to double your account, then go back to live with $3000. But keep on going would be my suggestion as long as you comfortable with the risk.
SimpleMeLike, Thank you so much for your comments. I will continue what I have been doing. I have also used my IRA fund to day trade when there is good opportunity. I was able to make roughly $5000 without a single loss trade, hopefully, it is not just luck. I know that most of the people are probably trading much much more fund than I am doing, but you all started with small amount money, right? I figure that I can double the trading fund in a month, there is possibility that I can do 25K per trade in a year.
Read this: https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/my-trades.315067/ This gentleman started with $2K back in November 2017, he is at >$120K now, so $3K is sufficient if you know what you are doing. We can all learn from him.
Sigh, Starting a "no commission" cash trading account with $3,000.00 with the purpose to daytrade is not responsible. Stop trading immediately and figure that you made your profit from going long in an overheated market. You must think like an investor at this juncture in life not a trader...put your money in an index fund and "add to it" as you get paid from your real job. If your index fund goes down view that as a time to add to it (follow the flow of the market with dollar cost averaging). Build it up (this will take about 7 years with the current cycle lengths) and when you get 25k or 50k...start diversifying. When you get over 100K allocate 25K to your gambling needs in daytrading with a real broker. DO NOT TOUCH THE OTHER 75K. freeman...your story is touching and positive...so get out now to preserve your good experience please. ES
Without knowing more cant be too specific. If you are not retired hopefully you have a source of income while you are learning to trade. You don't want to be in a position to have to make $500 by Monday to meet the mortgage. Try to find a semi-retired professional trader (one who made a living trading) and work for that person. If you ever join a trading room talk to their clients first. Don't believe track records.
You need to be buying 500 sh of a $4 stock and make 20 cents or $100, trade only in the morning at 10.30 and trade bounces. Try to do 1 to 3 Trades of the stock runs up more stay with it and watch for the reversal. What you make in the morning you will give back in the afternoon. So find a few stocks around you price level to trade. Once you are up you need to trade 1000 shares and make the same 20 cents Our more. Then you are good to go.
It sounds like you are controlling your risk, but I would ask why you are stopping for the day once you reach a certain profit point? If you are stopping because you are tired, or lack of focus, or time is running out... that is different, but in my opinion you are limiting your gains as a daytrader simply because of a profit target. A better choice might be, once over $400 profit on the day, you stop if profit declines 50%. Some days give us better opportunity than others, like back in February.. why would you stop because of an arbitrary profit target which doesn't take into account current market conditions. Lastly, are you up $1400 in profit? I'm not sure... but wherever you are, I would recommend pulling that profit out, and put it in your bank account and start all over again with the original $3000.