Try the average daily range/your stocks for stops.Position size accordingly.Noobie advice,but it's helped me.Was always too tight.
i used to think i could profit from day trading. i would have a great month or 2 or 3 and then go up on the contracts and a week of bad moves and back where i started. i dont see how many can be successful at it, ad i DO know the indicators. pick a high flying trender and swing trade. i watch price action and candle formations. trend and price are king. everything else tells you what used to be. is that really important ?
My advice for unsuccessful day traders , newbies and marginally successful day traders is to step back and learn to position trade first. You will have more time to think about decisions and research them as well. You should start seeing your account grow instead of languishing or diminishing. It is my firm belief that there is a higher percentage of day traders who lose compared to position traders.
B1S1, Agree wholeheartedly with your advice. Right on the mark. And if I may add, that daytrading can complement longer-term positions as long as it's a small percentage of the total account. Cariocas
Yes, --this is one of the advantages of position trading. More time to analyze, communicate and live.
Bottom line--You have a better chance of removing significant money from the market with position trading. Can you be successful with day trading? Certainly! However, you will most likely do better with longer term trades.
B1, how the devil r you? I got a Q. Since you operate 7/8? digit account, what sort of ROI have you been averaging upto now position trading?
Doing just fine! Hope you are as well. ROI in the trading account is typically between 50 and 80 percent yearly although one particular year it was 145%. The trading account represents 20% of my portfolio. I base my leveraging on my total portfolio, not just the trading account. The rest of the portfolio is spread between cash and mutual funds (I do not trade individual stocks). Recently I was 100% cash in the 80% portfolio and I have started dollar cost averaging back into mutual funds when the daily bullish divergence was forming.( I had sold off the rest of my mutual funds in late April of this year and was totally in cash during the market decline).
Excellent. How did you get into trading BTW? I mean what is your background? Always meant to ask you that.