Try trading slower moving stocks like S or MOT. Go for a penny first, then as you gain confidence move to stocks that move 2-3 pennies in a 1min candle. Repeat....
Anyone trying to tell you to get out after 2-3 pennies a damn tool using you to stack up commissions and sucks at trading. Now, if the stock is low price like AMR, that's different, because 2-3 cents represents like .25-.4%. It's not meaningless on stock that price. 2-3 cents is arbitrary number as meaningless as 2-3 cent gyrations in prices. Bottom line, your training sucks horribly. You need to evaluate risk/reward, not count pennies. If you went down 4 cents, but then it went 25 in your favor, should you be worried about the 4 cents? How did that affect your profitability? Daytrading over pennies is wack. It's a total jerk off. Try to look at things on a percentage basis, that's what means something. Wilt
Don't know what his problem is... but don't listen to sh*t like this. Here is what I know from your post, your doing standard prop churn and burn scalping. I know exactly one guy who can make money doing this. Most people, myself included, can not make money like this, I've also heard that the very best scalpers will be lucky to bring in <200k, that is good money but we are talking a very small population of traders. When scalpers are making this kind of dough their equivalents using more risky/other strategies are making high 6 or 7 figures. By the way they have great rates which I doubt that u have cause you just started. So my advice to you is: talk to the guys that you KNOW are making money or are big traders, ask them questions (try not to be annoying) party with them etc. Also, after a few more months u need to ask management for some leeway, try strategies with multiple postions, don't be scared of what they think its your money. If you really want to learn then you have to try everything, it will cost you money but u will learn. Try basketing the economic numbers, try fading crazy moves, trade news stocks; just keep your size small, and puke out when you know your wrong. You have to get used to volatility, which is going to be tough under the present conditions. Just DO NOT CHURN your account away scalping!
Get a real job before this kills you. Hopefully, you majored in something useful. As a trader, you're up against some of the greatest minds in the financial world. You don't stand a chance.
Don't listen to these fools telling you to give up just because they have nothing better to do, if you want to do it, just do it. How many traders have failed many times just to succeed, make sure you treat it like a business and just be consistent no matter how little you're making. Enjoy the fact that you can live at home pretty much rent free and try it out, then if you feel like it's not for you then whatever but don't give up. I trade prop and graduated from college recently as well so I'm in the same boat.
First of all, thank you everyone ( almost ) for the positive replies. Ok for the current economic conditions I cannot find a normal salaried job, therefore I am trying this to get some type of experience / do something with my life. Second of all, I cannot trade less than 100 shares, thats the minimum I can trade with. The firm tells us if we are down 2-3 pennies we should try to exit the position to keep our losses minimal, there's been a few times where I lost 10 penies on a move. Our current max DAILY LOSS allowed is 50$ before we get stopped out. Basically my problem is that every time I get on a stock, it pulls back, every time I short it, it pops up, I dont let my profits run, and when I do they turn into losses, also when I sell my losers, it turns out that if i held on for a little longer i would have broken even / made money if I waited a little longer, but I had to sell because of uncertainty and they tell us to try to minimize our losses. yes the training sucks, but it was free so what else can i expect ? Also, I do not know any successful big shot traders that I could actually talk to in person, I only saw/heard of a few guys here on ET like MilleniumMan JJAAPL RedInc Szeven etc... that are legends. In real life I dont know anyone, but I would love ot meet someone successful. I live in the NYC Queens area. Also to the other negative posts....please dont post stuff like that save yourself the time and energy typing on the keyboard because you will not influence me with your hatin' and bs. Go do something constructive. Thanks again, for the replies.
Also, the firm said once we prove ourselfs to them, they give us more leeway like bigger stop losses, more bp, more shares, more volatile stocks, right now we can trade any stock up to 20$ with about 35 cent intra day spread. I have been trading AMAT AMD AA AMR DAL UAUA HL and some others...
Listen kid , go get an engeneering degree or something , watch out for Indian or Chinese guys they gonna eat your lunch. Daytrading is losing proposition , go get a real job , and once you feel that pressure is off , money will follow.
I have seen this type of trading before (i.e. unrealistic expectations re: stop losses), so I sympathize with your situation. That said, it is also important for you to realize that stop losses of an amount that is fairly close to that in a relatively tame stock are actually quite important. For example, nobody is going to be able to trade a stock like AAPL with 0.03 stops, but there are many stocks (with reasonable intraday moves) where 0.05 to 0.10 would be a fairly reasonable stop, and anticipated moves are a small multiple of the stop (i.e. good risk/reward ratio). You need to find a small number of stocks that you can become comfortable with, offering tradeable intraday ranges that are like the Goldilocks and the Three Bears story - neither too hot nor too cold. And yes, they do exist.