If you draw out 50% of your profits each month and be able to pay all you bills times five, and be able to do that for two years, very possible you have made it in day trading. What many traders do each month is try to build up there accounts without taking money out and then they get sloppy. Another topic not covered is making very good profits ending in December, then losing in next three months of the next year, and if you have not taken money out to cover the taxes for preceding year, your account might have to be closed out to pay the taxes. Don't need any surprises at the end of the year. It is much easier to make money when markets are trending nicely without huge volatility, but you can't survive on this to happen each month, week, day. You can't rely having one method to play the game. You need rules to tell you when not to play the game at all and other methods when there are many 2-3 tic bars. I recall all the trend traders cried when markets got tight cause they need bigger swings to get there profits, but to become an all around day trader, you have to be able to adapt to average range days and very tight range days, and staying away from hugely range bar days, then it is just guessing where the market is going. I agree with "the1" of the two books he recommends. Also one must do exercise each day as well. Day trading puts huge stress on the mind and especially the body. Day trading is about many aspects because of the speed. One has to learn to ACCEPT, accept your rules which have been backtested well, and then have the nerves of steel to follow your rules no matter what. Some days I have taken 30 trades and all I can get is 1 tic per trade, to some it was a bad day, but to me it was an outstanding day, I have learned to accept what the market is willing to give me. You gain much confidence thru the years in learning your craft well, where upon you just wake up knowing you will be profitable each day. Long term trading is like landing a Piper 4 seater with a 3 mile landing strip, day trading is landing in the middle of a moonless night on a aircraft carrier. You have to trade like the Pros or you will crash and burn.
Anyone remember Y2K? Wasn't that long ago. I lost my account in the tech bubble when the newbies like myself thought the market was a way to print money! I went back to working and saving and started investing, then swing trading and got back into day trading. I've finally got to where I'm comfortable. For me the big difference was when I quit trying to make money... I just tried to trade my best and the money followed. Now money management is a huge factor. Part of my profits stay in the account so that I increase my income (money makes money), part of it goes to my investment account. There I keep lower risk and longer term trades such as div paying stocks and writing covered calls on them. I also always have 6 months income set aside just in case it takes a while to figure out the next big change in the market. I'm convinced that is it the ability to understand that the market is always right no matter what and to never argue with it. It is also to realize that I will be a student or rookie or whatever you want to call it as long as I'm trading in the market... The market in my mind is very much like a woman... wonderful and mystical and the second you figure them out... THEY CHANGE! Cheers, Mel
You misjudged. Don't reread. There are stages that lead to success. I had to think a moment to put them in an order. Each of these, you experience regardless of your personality or sucessful style of trading. There is no "If". 1. The standard of performance is paralleling the market's offer. 2. Money is not involved when measuring success. 3. The standard emotions are: support, comfort and confidence. 4. It is understood that traders do not make decisions, the market provides the decision. The trader obeys. Success is a growing tree that stems from two ingredients: Always being on the correct side of the market, and compounding profits after the original capital is removed. Success turns out to be a continuous extraction process. Some notable milestones are: Original capital is removed; only profits are traded. Trading is a hold/reversal process. Enter/exit is only used when capital is rotated from one instrument to another. Recognition of the fact that markets follow an order of events related to dominance/nondominace instead of up and down anything. (Movement is measured right to left and vice versa) The most important aspect of the treader/market partnership is the division of responsibility. The market decides and the trader obeys. Finally, in terms of success, the emotional setting is comfort, support and confidence. Feelings of anxiety, fear and anger are tells that the trader is in an unsuccessful condition that precedes and prevents partnering with the market. Succeessful traders do not place and protect bets. Trading with certainty all the time is the status of a successful trader. You know if you are a successful trader as soon as you recognize that you have immunity to the econometrics of your given culture. As a wrap on my commentary, think about the definition of a full time trader. This is a definition that includes being in an unsuccessful status. Success comes AFTER being a full time trader for a while. Commissions are a trivial cost of trading. Any trader on the way to success notices that his commissions are larger than his possible professional salary at some point.
You seem to feel you are competing with others in the market. Unless you are a really big player, your trades go unnoticed. If you are not a significant player, you are competing against only yourself. I don't see any advantage or necessity of having a unique strategy. Your ability to program (as is mine) is a rapidly depreciating asset when it comes to testing strategies. New tools coming online using a GUI permit quite rapid development by the non-programmer. Your knowledge of statistics is a great asset. You are less likely to fool yourself into thinking you have something better than it is than someone without this advantage. Your ability to program and your knowledge of statistics in combination may give you an advantage in coming up with ideas worthy of testing. It would seem that this advantage is primarily of benefit when trying to discover a unique strategy. It is my opinion that you don't need to develop a unique strategy, but you may want to for personal reasons. I wish you continued success. __________________ Author - "These Seven Trading (Investing) Secrets Will Explode Your Account: All I Know About Trading (Investing) I Learned in Flight School"
jack hershey, You seemed to have hijacked my response to a paragraph from an earlier post to an end that I cannot fathom. I can't figure out what point you are trying to make or how it relates to the original paragraph. __________________ Author - "These Seven Trading (Investing) Secrets Will Explode Your Account: All I Know About Trading (Investing) I Learned in Flight School"
Oh my...All the superfluous writing one can be entertained with here on ET. Just watch your account balance. It will tell you everything you need to know/do.