For a fresh person, AMD is like a Normandy Landing, only in markets. Recent few days - an example. Previous members gave honest-great insights, still if you're not one of those, who give up so quickly, here's a little bit more : https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/where-do-i-learn-day-trading.328291/page-2#post-4796833 Best of luck V. p.s And raising 3 years old, that's a challenge in itself
If you are using Linux or Windows, look and see if there is a "PrtScr" key on your keyboard. That's the quick and easy way. No apps required. Then if you want to redact stuff like account number etc you can just blop it out with an image editor. Not necessary, though, IMHO.
There's no way to fix this because you're not posting enough info to reveal the entire story involving your trade decisions.Therefore, its impossible to know if its a psychological problem or a strategy related problem. In 6 months of trading, you should already be keeping statistics about your trading even if its just basic info like symbol name, entry/exit price & time, duration of trades, chart time frame used of your trade signal and such. Heck, you should already know how often (%) this happens when you say my 3% stop is hit and then it shoots back up. How many trades have you taken so far in these 6 months ? What's the % of your trades so far in these 6 months such has happen when they go back up after your stop has been hit ? Simply, you're now in the camp of trying to post info at a forum via the fewest words as possible while asking for help with your trading. Good luck with that. wrbtrader
I agree with the sentiments of your advice to the OP but you present trading as comprising day-trading only. For 90% of new traders reading this forum day-trading will never make them any money. But long-term investing is not the only alternative to day-trading. I have always traded off the dailies. Almost every trade I've ever made has been opened via entry orders. Forces the trader to plan ahead, think through their strategy, learn self-discipline. It is profitable but also teaches the skills which a few go on to use when they gravitate into day-trading, except this group is now of experienced traders not newbies. Votke2310 - give up day-trading until you're a consistently profitable long-term trader. Forget long-term investing until you're wealthy (from trading).
Using a stop loss of 3% seems pretty arbitrary, unless I guess your stats support that. Consider using price action, setup pattern and technical support-resistance levels/areas to set your stops instead. Maybe it's not so much about "timing" as it is about your stop selection. Also, consider using MAs for timing. If you determine which MA the trend appears to be most closely conforming to (i.e, "riding"), then in general, the best entries occur when price is at or near the "controlling" MA. The MA should also be sloped in the direction of the trend you seek to capture, and should be positioned relative to each other ("stacked") appropriately. Finally re: timing -- avoid entering when the trend is "extended." On your primary trade timeframe, one way to help assess this is to generally observe how many consecutive green or red bars have occurred prior to your entry... as well as their relative sizes and corresponding volume. If you're taking entries that are consistently after say, ~ 3 or more average-sized bars have occurred in your direction... and/or if the recent bars are large ("wide range")... and especially if the wide range bars (WRBs) are associated with exceptionally high volume (relative to prior volume) -- then it's likely that the trend is temporarily extended/exhausted, and likely to reverse short-term. For pullback entries, you'd generally prefer to see a brief series of countertrend bars with correspondingly low/decreasing volume, and no extreme WRBs or unusually high volume. Maybe try looking at your entries relative to the two prior criteria I mentioned, and see how they compare. Also, look at where/when the "ideal" entries occurred (in perfect hindsight), and also compare them to those criteria. Perhaps you'll notice some patterns or tendencies. Good luck!