Alex, I really feel for you. I feel for all the traders that this new regulation will affect. I don't see any reason why you can't swing trade as you mentioned, though. I have no doubt that this can be just as educational and rewarding for you, given that some of the most successful traders I know began trading off the Daily and above and are still there. Thatâs where I started. I started small. 5K. I traded commodities long before trading was a household word. I traded small, small, small. I was focused on learning, not making money. It took some time but I developed consistency and I built my account balance slowly. I would be willing to bet you can do the same. I wish you only the best. If you need anything, email me. I hope I can help you.
neo_hr, Hello from UK. How are you? We are actually in the same boat. The new Reg T and 25K min will of course affecting lots of new traders. But please don't give up, for it is your responsibility to make your dreams come through. Nothing can stop you if you have the desire to make it happened. Wish you the best and see you at the top one day.
first, thanks, hitman & others for a great thread! this i don't understand -- are you saying it is illegal to go long XYZ if you believe the company is going to be aquired in the near future? to me it seems so absurd that i think i'm missing something here. could you elaborate on this, please? - jaan
My story is fairly typical, but I will share... By the summer of '98 (age 21) I had been actively trading my Fidelity account, and had found a love for trading stocks. So, I sent out some resumes to the large borkerage houses to see if that would be a career that I might be interested in. Dean Witter here in SF was the only place to reply, and I was hired as an intern for the VP of Investments at $6/hr. As it turned out the VP's assistant had recently daytraded the previous year and made $200k+ in 3 mos! He tried to explain how it worked with MM's and specialists etc, but I couldn't understand what he was trying to tell me. So, after 3 months at MWD I decided that being a salesman was not for me, and I would try my hand at daytrading. My first account was with MB Trader in late summer of '98. I funded it with $15k that I had saved up through my Fido account. 3 months later my account was cut in half. I didn't even understand the concept of having a trading plan at the point. Looking back I was doomed. My second attempt was when my dad offered to have me trade his account in early '99. We had a great office setup ( http://www.iwinfree.com/tradingdesk.jpg ) and to my amazement I was able to break even with his money! I realized later that I traded safer with his money than my own which kept my head above water, but after a few months that became a problem. I found that I couldn't make any profits while trading his $ because I was too nervous to take any risk. And on to the third attempt... I set up my account with Cybercorp in early 2000. For the first six months I continued to just break even, and since I was paying rent with the money in that account, my money started to dwindle. By early June I was pretty frustrated, and considered getting a real job to get me through the last couple years of college. Up until this time I still didn't have a real trading plan. So I decided to try a plan and stick to it. My favorite stocks at the time were JDSU & JNPR. I chose to just try trading JNPR every day. My first week with this strategy I made $8k. I thought "Wow, I wonder if it's a fluke." Then the next week I made $6k...and so on. My high point was a 13 day streak of $83k in October. You know in the Matrix when he gets in the zone and kicks everyones ass? It's corny, but that's how I felt! By December of 2000 I turned $22k (June) into $230k (Dec). I felt like I had made it. I still feel like I am trading well but these "summer doldrums" are driving me nuts. The most stressful part of trading for a living is not knowing if you will be able to make money tomorrow. Anyways, that's my story... Dustin
jaan- This is the part your missing from what he said... "I was assigned to the M&A group" ...M&A stands for Mergers & Aquistions.
Dustin, Congratulations! Could you elaborate just a little bit on exactly what turned things around for you. What is your current trading plan? I assume that by now you do have a solid plan of attack. Thanks!
I still have a plan (actually more of a method) but it doesn't work well in this light volume, low volatility market. Now I'm just been waiting for summer to end. The turning point was when I just concentrated on one stock. I'm sure any volatile stock would have worked at the time. There's not much else to it, sorry I can't elaborate more.
Without actually giving away your strategy, could you at least tell us what type of trades you're doing? I mean, are you strictly day trading, or swing trading as well? What is your typical point gain on a winning trade, etc. That would make your posts much more educational for everyone. Thanks
I've gone into detail a few times in the past: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=1330&pagenumber=3 http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=1232 http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=426&pagenumber=3 Obviously these posts were in the past, and some things have changed since then, but the main trading ideas still apply. Also you can check out my wesite for an example of RSI trading: (scroll past the first chart to "RSI Lesson") http://www.iwinfree.com/notes.htm
Since we're doin show and tell, I might as well give my history. Phase I- I got interested in the market in 1998. That interest rapidly snowballed, and by feb of 1999, I had opened my first datek account with $6200 (my life savings). I remember making 32 bux on my first trade of 88 mmm shares. I figured trading was a joke. By the end of may, I only had 2k left. I realized that I didn't have a clue, so I paper traded, and practiced on stock simulators (I got second place on the tscm investment challenge making 3000% in 2 months) After that, I was able to convince my dad to loan me 20k so that I had the money to trade like I wanted to. At the same time, he said I couldn't trade anything volatile (I missed the whole tech move as a result). Instead I was trying to kinda invest. At this time, he made me run all trade ideas by him. So to make a trade, I'd first have to call him at work, and wait 15 mins while his secretary found him. I somehow got obsessed with NITE/EGRP (ET), I figured if I was paying so much in commish and slippage, they were a great investement. Unfortunately, they just kept going lower, and I just kept loosing. I tried some stuff with buying on trendlines, and had a few nice wins on MCD (see support at 40 back in 2000). Eventually, these support lines broke, and the stocks started to tank. I was long a few hundred of mcd and ip. My dad refused to let me sell. He told me they were solid companies, and that they'd recover. He even deposited another 10k into the account so I could continue to average down. I knew enough about technical analysis even at that time to know to bail, but he wouldn't let me. Finally, I just pulled the plug, and I didn't tell him. I would calculate the portfolio value as if I had those positions still. 5k later, I told him I had sold 2 weeks earlier. He was so happy that I had saved him the 5k, he decided to let me take over all the trading without him. (as you can see, mcd and ip both lost another 30% from where I bailed on them, and have still not come close to where I sold in the last 18 months)(at this point I had 17k in my account. Phase II- I saw the head and shoulders in the nas, and knew what it meant. I had told everyone that tech names were overvalued, and I tried my hand at shorting. At about this time, I also discovered that stocks often lost half their value in the week or so after a lockup expiration. I started playing these, and started to really clean up. I remember taking 140 pts on 70 shares of rmbs on one trade. I basically doubled my account in 6 weeks playing lockups, and shorting biotech. Over the next 6-9 months I used a breakout strategy to double my account again, but as the decline got more severe, fewer and fewer worked, til I finally gave up on them. About this time, I came across the basic idea of the great new pattern play. As you can see on the thread, it was a running idea that I thought out on the go, and slowly improved on it. About 2 weeks into trying it, I lost almost half my account by buying macr and averaging down for almost 8 pts. Since then, it has been a slow, but steady climb up. I will stick with the GNP type play (both intraday, and on the daily). I really think I have found something viable. I constantly tweak that pattern and try to improve it, and I am trying to learn from my mistakes. Conclusion: From my account low to its current level, I've made over 1000% in 15 months or so. I realize that I have found something that is viable as a successful career. I have one more year of college, but I find it pointless as it will only distract me from my trading. Hopefully my parents let me drop out. I am a roman history major. I would like to wish everyone else success on their trading, and keep posting your stories. I had no idea how much we all have in common, and I enjoy reading them.