Yep, my friend did exactly the same thing and after a year was out his $20,000. He learned his lesson and is now back at work doing consulting. It is very difficult for a novice scalper to beat professionals. In the meantime, the novice is just providing the professionals their easy money. Rich
There are a lot of people out there making good money in intraday trading. But it is extremely difficult. Ive found that experience is everything... At least for me. Some of the psychology reports Ive seen say that to be successful trader you need more good traits than in most other businesses. Meaning you need to work hard to succeed. To the guy offering 10k for mentoring. Offer a beer. pizza and a good movie and a laugh. Most successful traders need to get out more than they need 10k. And then ask them. OR
Your friend made the classic beginner's mistake of trading TOO MUCH SIZE. I don't even have to know his story to know this. Every newbie who starts from scratch and blows his account within a year is simply taking too much risk relative to his skill/knowledge level. There's no rule saying you must trade 1000 shares at a clip. The first goal of trading is ALWAYS to preserve your capital. NYOB gave good advice. Get a reasonable commission rate, trade the smallest size possible and learn by doing. Focus only on proper execution and developing and tweaking a trade plan. Keep good records, work hard, don't pass responsibility off to anybody else. If you can last long enough to figure it out, you'll be golden. Lasting means not running out of money. And if you need trading income to pay the bills, you're already sunk. Come back when you have a year or two of living expenses saved up.
Okay, anyone want pizza and beer in exchange for 5 years worth of tax returns and mentoring? ROFLMAO!
<i>"Okay, anyone want pizza and beer in exchange for 5 years worth of tax returns and mentoring? ROFLMAO!"</i> Well, I'm on my way out for a dozen wings and a couple of Blue Lites right now. If you can make it to the Middletown Tavern by 8:00pm est, it's a deal. If not, here's another offer: I'll show you how to trade eminis intraday, everything you need to know in one trading week. Five sessions, Monday thru Friday. One chart, simple rules, you bring the self-discipline and apply generously. That in exchange for your $10k. I'll fly to your home / office, put myself up in a local hotel and pay for my own meals. If I'm not profitable by at least +20pts ES for the week, you keep your money and it costs you nothing to watch me fail. Simple approach, basic rules, your self-discipline required and full access to visit with me as your developing education mandates. * A five-year track record means nothing. What if someone just started making money one year ago, six months ago and will continue forward for the rest of their career? What if someone has a five-year track record of success... built on a method = approach that works great in low volatility conditions only? What if their success was built on averaging down on long trades into dips only? ** Risk-free offer to you stands on its own live performance merit
I believe trading profitably intra day can be achieved. I myself can not seem to make a dime intra day though. Its weird because I am very profitable swing trading and position trading but when I try to day trade it all changes! Regardless though it is possible (have seen many traders trade intra day and profit huge)
trading is a business. the vast majority of businesses in ANY industry fail trading is no different. the primary difference between trading an other businesses, is that in almost any other business you do not need to directly risk capital to make money. in trading, no matter how good you get, and how much capital you amass, every time you want to make more, you HAVE to risk capital. thus, in trading - risk management (and this includes money management, not overleveraging, being patient, respecting stops ALWAYS etc.) is far more important than in most other businesses. are the setups important? sure. but a trader w/o a good business plan, the proper psychological approach, etc. will still lose money with my setups. when i invest, i buy stocks for the longterm. i've had AAPL (for instance) for several years. i've had PG for a decade. etc. i may trade around a core position intraday, use covered calls, protective puts sometimes, but in general, i just buy good stocks on weakness. i'm 50% buffett, and 50% labrador retriever (obscure reference) when it comes to TRADING, i trade futures almost exclusively. imo, if you can't CLEARLY define what your edge is, you don't have a rock solid business plan, you don't understand risk, etc. , and you don't have the patience to wait until you have an EDGE before you enter a TRADE (i strongly distinguish trades from investments) - you will almost certainly lose, like most traders. futures, unlike stocks, are zero sum. on ANY day, there is exactly the same amount of money won vs. lost in terms of overall positions. every tick that causes an aggregate of $$$$ lost among 50% of positions, is correspondingly benefiting the exact same # of positions (contracts, specifically) with the exact same $$$ gain. that's math, and its incontrovertible. so, SOMEBODY is making money. research reveals that most of the volume in futures (90%) is less than 10% of the participants. you need to understand what moves markets, how to find it, and where trades are most opportune. you MAY be able to trade successfully (stocks) using neato keen indicators etc. . i don't know. that's not how i trade. i do suspect that the vast majority of profitable futures traders (myself included) are not using much if any lagging indicators ( i don't), . let retail traders play with moving averages, oscillators, and whatnot. i don't see an edge there (for me), so i don't use them. chances are if you are doing what everybody else is doing - you won't make money. cause they are losing money. trust me on that. find your edge, develop your trading/business/risk management plan, then trade. as for mentors. ime, generally speaking, the ones who seek mentors are already demonstrating a professionalism - a willingness to invest in their education. the average trader thinks he can do it on his own - and most can't. they'd rather throw away thousands of dollars "learning" (*learning how to lose) than invest in learning how to make money. their bad. but in brief, if you are 1) undercapitalized 2) unable to manage risk with ROCK SOLID discipline 3) don't have a business plan 4) don' t have a clearly defined edge - you will most likely blow your account out.
Iam not going to flame you for trying to help a guy out. But"And no, I won't show you my tax returns" = you don't make money. Not everyone is an idiot and if you been in this game long enough you would know this and wouldn't post something like that. I read Mr Bright post and he is dead on. Alot talk but can't walk.