protecting your capital/risk mgmt is primary. a newbie trading stock should really pay attention to postion size. maybe trade on a real time sim like Das Trader Pro. Possibly in conjunction w: -a very good tradet who practices good risk mgmt. If you are not profitable on a real time sim (with better fills likely and no pysch issues) no way will you make $ in real life
Patience and steady progress. Stick to timeframes that allow for distractions, loss of concentration and reduce impulse trading during the early stages. Give yourself at least 30mins to 3 hours to prepare your trade. A 3hr TF is good because it doesn't glue you to your monitor all day.
Patience is key for intraday traders, because there are many more temptations when doing intraday. Do not hesitate to skip trades, or even trading days: it is ok to trade once in a while.
NOPE. Psychology as applied to trading first. Then Edge. Finally Discipline (only comes through practice as a trader practices their edge coupled with their psychological training). Size of account can be an after thought (even though many place it at the forefront) but it does have to correlate with the edge (the profitable strategies..techiques...tactics..etc) that a trader has developed or discovered, and which gives an edge (probabilities slightly in ones favor) in extracting profits from the markets. We all operate in probabilities and edges are small..fleeting..narrow and not super highways to riches. It takes proper psychological training to maintain discipline in an environment of narrow tiny edges. Sorry. Size of the account WILL NOT bail you out. As says Handle123 says you will just lose more of your money. Start small. Hone your craft and abilities and skills. You will lose money. It is part and parcel with the package. Settle that in your mind. BUT the potential to MAKE money does exists. Settle that too. It just takes time..training..practice..preserverance..testing..adaptation. After a while the need to focus intensely on some things will get less as the skills are internalized and become second nature. Testing ..practice..adaptation will always be at the forefront and essential activities to engage in. To me risk management is part of and inclusive in all three of the concepts above.
Strange, then, that so many financial institutions are employing people, worldwide, to do it every day with the house's money, and paying some of them 7-figure salaries and bonuses? The fact that you (and maybe some others you know) can't make a living from it doesn't mean that everyone else also can't ... and some members here actually do. And by the way, expressing your opinion like that in such a big, prominent typeface doesn't actually enhance its validity: sometimes it just turns it from nonsense into big, prominent nonsense.
Employee's that work at a "trade desk" is very different than day trading. Prop firm uses day traders, losses come from trader seed money. Financial institutions includes banks, mutual funds, hedge funds, insurance companies have trade desks. The rules are different. The title says "day trading" ... If you're receiving a salary plus bonus you're most likely working at trade desk. If you're require to put down your money, for example 5k to trade 100k. Or any seed money. You're most likely working at prop firm with strict day trading rules. No holding over night, pre programmed stop loss, all losses come from your seed money. No salary, and you pay commissions on your trades. there's much more. Guess who the winner is. Hint, it's not the day trader.
Maybe he did? But if he didn't i never said you don't need an edge but you need all three things starting with proper psychological skills or the rest is nigh impossible to execute. Most traders sabotage themselves regardless their edge or attempt at discipline.