Day trading dont work if you want to make 500% a year. Making 50% is a realistic target for a day trader that doesnt want to give back too much of his profits (ie small drawdowns). With the help of compounding that equates to making just 3% a month. Problem is most people start out undercapitalised and try to make 3% everyday and when they cant (who can?) they claim day trading doesnt work.
1.Thanks for all you comments and advice, sorry I cant answer you individually as there are lots of post but thanks again.⦠Some have said I maybe a gambler, I can assure you I'm not!. I could stop this over night and never look back, ########################## 2.Yes you are correct. However thisnt working for Bill. Whats your advice for Bill who is losing is money? ######################## Dear Sir Try win contest by marketzar.com But you must not send any cent to marketzar.com ,you must try only receive money from marketzar.com You must win place better as 7 in small contest without charge .Place 4-7 give winner a right to play without charge day contest for 1500$ price If you perform that ,you would have a right to think that you are some better as 10-100 retail competitors in future market If you perform twice ,than relation would more better for you . If you regulary can be best 1 from 1000 another retail operators ,you chance to be profitable would very visible . For stock contest (only for USA resident and quote is delayed ,but money price is real) http://www.beatthestreetgame.com/ Your respectfully http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJmP_MBuD7w&mode=related&search= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVjh02RmMnc
Well I went back in, done 15 trades, trading ES end of day I was down $40 bucks so a good day, comistion in that to....I still think day trading is tough..I read a book once by Garry Smith, he ussed to call out these so called day traders to show him statments to back thier claims. He never had one offer, so it makes you think? I strongly feel not many are making money worth talking about, yes I suppose there are some making a little money on 1 lots, but are there traders on ET making money BIG MONEY, I know you get people who talk a good game and sadly not many will speak the truth even if they are loosing money. I have kicked EGO out, its best to be honest with one self. I will keep this thread going till the end of the year, showing everyone my good days and bad days. I hope I get more good days lol. Would anyone be interested in showing me for 1 day in ET chat room how they trade ES I don't want to know your method just see how it can be done Thanks Bill
You should post an actual daily statement for a bad day and let us go over it. The statement must include time of day trades were executed. the idea is it is much easier for other people to point out mistakes. This might really help you. Also, you should not be trading ER2 no matter what, especially if you are in an under capitalised situation. Er2 can be brutal if you aren't extremely disciplined... i know the dow mini isn't as sexy but it is a smaller mover and less volatile. You should also try trading the crude oil market.. the mini crude contract is 5 bucks a tick and it is electronic. If you progress positively you can move upt ot eh full contract at $ 10 a point. My reason for this is that you cannot turn on CNBC or open your newspaper and get your head full of crap.. like you can with the stock market. Try trading mini crude.. strictly on your own ideas and chart patterns.
i am not making "big money" but i do very comfortably trading 2-8 lots of YM (i don't trade YM) it took me a while (and some mentorship) to get profitable i LOVE trading. and i religiously take my intraday futures profits and put them into quality stocks and investments that i do NOT trade. i invest them. best of both worlds. trading is a great occupation, but most fail. most fail in ALL small businesses. trading is no different
you CAN do more. the question is - WITH WHAT AMOUNT OF RISK example: i have a demo account (in addition to my advisor and personal accounts) with IB i opened it with 100k and went HEAVY HEAVY long Nikkei futures, gold futures, oil futures, natgas etc. it went WAY over 400k. in about a month that's WAY over 500% annualized but at what risk? well, none because it wasn't real money, but you get my point return without an assessment of risk is meaningless. anybody COULD do 500%. go max leveraged a few days in a row in Natgas and get lucky. that could easily do it or lose it all, plus margin calls and forced liquidation
Lonely Trader, As one who has been down the same path I can appreciate what you are experiencing. I have been involved with the markets for about ten years now. The first five were with managed accounts, gurus, advisory services,etc. I finally realized that if I was going to make any money trading I was going to have to learn how to trade for myself. Having made that determination I proceeded to do the same things you are describing. It is easy to imagine success, and as you know very hard to achieve it. Once the grim reality of having to face the prospect of admitting that perhaps one might not be suited for trading the "big decision" finally has to be made. At what point will I decide that I don't have the aptitude/willpower to become successful? Setting a date might be one of them. Myself, I decided that I was only going to become a loser when I quit. Until then I was a learner. The downside of that decision is that the longer one holds that he is a learner, the bigger loser he is if he ultimately does throw in the towel. Not very comforting, that. I struggled with that concept for a while and finally came to the conclusion that I would succeed eventually. The point I am making here is I made a commitment to myself that I would learn this as a trade, realizing that it could take a very long time. I am self employed on a contract basis so I am intermittently out of work. My decision was this: I will work when I have to and trade when I can. So for the last four years I have spent every available opportunity at my computer during and after the trading day. So, where am I now you may ask? Just in the last year I have learned enough about myself and the markets to feel comfortable enough to have an opinion about what I think the market is trying to do. ( I should say that futures are all I trade, Indices mostly, and only on a day basis.) Guess what, I am starting to make money. And guess what else, my stress level has gone way, way down. I can put on a trade, have it go against me and be able to let it work for long enough to realize a profit without all the angst that is killing you now. And this is the result of finally being able to recognize 1) why I am in this trade, and 2) when I am wrong. If you can't do those two things you shouldn't be in the market. fwiw, most of what you will get from seminars, software providers, advisers, etc. are only going to clog your mind with things that work sometimes if at all. Someone earlier recommended Richard Wyckoff (Rollo Tape). Excellent advice. I would enlarge that to say this, go to the old guys; Dow, Livermore, etc. They figured out how markets work. Computers have just made it all happen faster. I am still on my quest to be able to realistically call myself a trader. I feel that the time is close. Good luck to you on whatever course you choose.
There are some good post from you guys, nevadan read you post glad you are now making money give me some hope. Well, Friday lost some more money, maybe I am going through a bad patch, or I just don't have the qualities to day trade, or the saying is true 95% lose day trading, who knows, only time will tell. I do real want this to work for me and my family, I think I got a little big headed at the start of the year, I was making money, only to give it all back to the market, I tend to have good days then a few days later the market takes it back off me and a little more. I would like to ask traders who do this for a living, do you work on ratios for you profits and loss, such as 3 to 1 or 2 to 1 or even 1 to 1 ratio?....Maybe you scale in to trades? maybe you scale out of trades? I like to know the mind set of a Pro. do you use targets and so on. is it better to have tight stops even though you get stopped out a lot, or is it better to have a larger stop to give the market some room? Thanks again fo your posts I welcome helpful post and criticism posts, I have broad shoulders so I can take it. Regards Bill