While i am not new to stock and the market, i am new to PDT (pattern day trading).. My goal is modest... to make 100-200 a day on average in the beginning and grow from there. Some days i can do better (occasionally doing real trades), but i am still mostly doing paper/sim trading to build up experience I was trading over day periods before, and doing ok. but recently lost my tech job of 15 years, and am not a spring chicken (more featherless biped) so hoping to earn a low modest living and grow from that.. have lots of personal resources from being bronx science guy, an applications engineer in programming, and so on and so forth... and hoping to apply that while i look for new job as well. i do not expect to get rich quick, this is not the way to do that i do expect to get better and better till i can earn with some consistency (baring the jarring days)...
Very important to keep in mind the market conditions though. The way markets are right now, you couldn't have lost being on the long side. And conditions change all the time. This is the finest of the bull market. Everything is going up. This is NOT normal. And it will change. I think a lot of people are going to get wiped out in the coming year.
I agree... i am 55.... so i have been in and out since the first discount brokers... prior to that, you needed to buy drips, or have 50k or so to open a brokerage account... down jones terminals, were expensive... bloomberg eventually replaced those.. i have also for short periods did some software work... right now, when this came in, i was looking over my database of literally thousands of companies daily prices... i was thinking of updating it and getting parts filled in.. software is easy for me, so is math... physics geek.. if Trump is not elected be ready for a crazy drop.. if warren gets elected, and she writes off student loans get ready for crazy to seem small i shudder to think of tomorrows and what will happen to oldsters who do not actually monitor, or participate in their portfolio management... in a way, i want to train before the storm, as one can trade short or long.. but one cant acquire the skills instantly no matter how hard the need or how fast the learner
I really read a lot and I knew that making money by trading was not easy, but deep down I had a hope of winning very soon, but it is not so, I still practice with a demo account to find a good strategy. it is a matter of analysis, perseverance and it really takes emotion management
My humble suggestion: Look for another tech job and trade on the side to hone your skills. Day trading is not for someone who just lost his/her job, does not have a profitable system and then looking to put food on the table from trading. Day trading is for someone your age who does not need a job or trading profit to put food on the table but has a system.
I am practicing like crazy... paper... but doing ok when i do trade... mostly spreads. did nice yesterday for couple hundred... My ACHN investment just came through... that netted a nice egg.. 6 figs not too shabby.. though it took years of holding to get that end... on the side i am writing python code to trade, and am looking for work too.. i keep busy... [have an interview Monday] wife sells kopi luwak on amazon and i am working hard on a website that may earn when completed in a year I always do well on stock... especially longer term.. i managed to parlay my current account from 13k to nearly 200k... when the ACHN deal is completed it may pass 250k we dont take money out ever its for our retirement and living later... but given its not a tax deferred account, if necessity requires it, we will dip into it... this doesn't include my retirement accounts we have to transfer from my last employer for the record... Ive been an applications engineer for over 30 years Bronx science... Barnard Baruch college... have lots of skills and abilities acquiring more is not hard... i am autodidactic by nature, always learning.. and math is a good friend... did a great Monte Carlo simulation on the key to success in day trading.. and its not being good at picking or reacting... it has to do with money management with great money management you can throw darts at the board and earn it was a fun simulation to do too... not very hard... as every trade has a 50/50 outcome... however, trades dont exist with only symmetrical payouts.. they are combined with asymmetrical payouts that make them work as no one can pick enough winners with a symmetric payout and earn!!! today i just did a nice two day bull put spread. its way out of the range of the stock movement if it reaches my mark, i will close it today and not wait. low risk of loss...
Looks like you know what you are doing, better than many of us here, myself included, so disregard my advice and continue to follow your own plan. Welcome to ET. Looking forward to your future posts.
I know enough to know i need to know more and need to share in a community of like minded people... thats the most important thing... (that and money management!!!) I am probably not going to end up doing day trading in the sense of sitting and entering and exit trades in minutes (at least not all the time)... though i may end up doing longer trades, probably swing trades where its easier to capitalize on a whole days movement rather than part of a days movement, and actually easier to make more (in the general sense) my trading is more of a mixed bag... i have positions i am long on because thats where the most money will come from... like with KKR... they are a great long long investment (so is RPM).. to get the most out of that kind of company, you find it early enough and buy and hold pretty much forever... the ones i like the most to work on are those in which i can put a good sized lump in, then take back 50% of it when it goes to 100%.. i bought into VLO around 40... when it hit 80, i sold half my stake... getting back my initial investment... the rest are to be held forever, and great because regardless of outcome they will be profitable, and they pay a dividend... same thing i did with CSX... regardless of what they do, they are profitable to me because i sold off half after 100%... KKR though i dont want to sell any... even if it doubles... so for that stock, i need other trades to pay off my investment there... in this case the ACHN run... the company wont exist any more, the money is in account, and everything will be full paid up... ACHN is paying for my 2k share stake in KKR... right now i am looking to do the 100% and sell half in the fuel cell area.. why? as i pointed out in another thread... lithium cost is going up faster an faster that is not a good sign for sustainability and affordability of the solution but hydrogen fuel cells are a good tech, will get cheaper, last long and are clean in fact, many companies want to go to that because of the pro con variance from batteries not to mention some state governments are looking to mandate they be considered (NJ for one)... so in truth... my investing trading is a mixed bag as one kid feeds other kinds and margin ability helps utilize value of other kinds to one kind.. (money management again!)
are you shorting the index futures like ES and NQ stuff Shorting individual worthless garbage for the shorts they've done well. shorting those stocks As for Tesla, it's too hyped to short it and it's more money laundering of money into their shares. the company it self is just hyped up penny stock or promotion stock like the pot stocks..etc. for shorts the easy money is shorting stocks in the OTC or nasdaq or short retail stocks that have bad fundamentals and shares go to zero..like oil company stocks..are trading lower and worse than bottom of 2009 so if you invested in oil and gas sector,,,you did worse than the 'market't the 'market' is jus the fortune 500 and nasdaq 100 ... that is it. a bull market at this stage of the cycle doesn't rise all boats. investors have lost billions investing in oil and natural gas and pot stocks..or solar stocks etc. and the infamous scam OTC stocks where 99% is worthless garbage.
My expectation was : 100%win x 5%gain - 0%lose x 100%loss = 5% Unfortunately I got the probability wrong.