If you can abide by these rules when trading live, you will be successful. The first time you violate one of your rules, no matter what the outcome of the trade is, send me $1000. Second time, send me $2000. Shouldn't be a third time. You need to maintain a $25K minimum in your account to day trade equities.
Howdy Sir, What NOD stated reminded me of one of my truisms A normal citizen can screw up at their 9-5 job, and as long as they donât get fired, they will get a pay check every week⦠We screw up even a small amount, and it is immediately reflected in our P/L. (and please donât confuse screwing up with your normal distribution of profitable / non-profitable trades) Did I trade, and do I trade by myself â Yesâ¦. But I would be stupid, and selfish, to say I became profitable on my own My wife and kids went through the hell with me and all along my wifeâs support never waivered one bit.. I would tell her I lost money â sheâd tell me to remove my head from my neither region and figure it out As it turned out the answer was staring at me the whole time⦠I was just to blind (wrapped around the axle) to see it I purposely do not trade with others now â too much ego and BSâ¦. Please know â Confidence will make you money⦠Ego will break your account.. Please learn the difference I would also like to say I was well funded â but I canât (it would be a lie) â I started out with 40K, lost 2/3 of it and refunded my account againâ¦. The best thing I can say is â No matter if you start out with 30K or 300K â trade real small size (50 or 100 shares) until you are consistently profitable⦠and can manage losing trades 100% of the time with out second thought or hesitation Then you can start working toward making a living I remember my first 5 trades well â made decent money â worst thing that could have happen â because it will mess you up in the long run A comment about following and reading the markets I read a thread today where Gnome posted back in 2005 â he stated âYou only make money when your position is in tune with PRICE. Either it is, or it isn't. I recommend traders learn to trade off of "PRICE ONLY". They will make more money and do so with less risk. â I will say this again â it does not matter what I think â it only matter what price is doing and that I trade it accordingly 100% of the time... While also knowing eack trade "could" be a loser No one.. and I mean NO ONE Can out think, out strategize, out guess or call the market consistently â No One Anyone tells you they can is lying The price of whatever youâre trading will do exactly what it will doâ¦. To that end â Please read Gnomeâs quote again Sir and follow it Regards RN
It took me 10 months out of my first year trading to undo the damage caused by the trades I made in the first 2 months, all of which were huge winners. The eventual cost of those first 2 successful months was staggering.
Having day traded in the past (two months), I will share the following bits of advice: - Do not expect to make money in the short-term to medium-term, and ensure that you have either savings or alternate income. This would apply to starting any form of self-employment. - You will see many on these forums state that you require "x" amount of capital before even considering trading full-time. Some of those amounts are quite simply unrealistic for most people. - As others have stated, do not expect to receive good training at a day trading firm (though it is possible of course that you might). Additionally, it is quite possible that those with influence in the firm might actually reduce your probability of success. - It is easy to calculate a daily profit target, but much less easy to consistently hit that target every single day. Expect to have crappy days, marginal days, exceptional days. - Start small, grow your confidence/knowledge, then grow your size. - The ability to be dispassionate while trading is invaluable. My first venture into day trading was relatively short, but extremely valuable. I concretely proved to myself that I have the aptitude for trading (I was profitable my very first month, and my profitability was growing with experience and size). In short, I now have the numbers to prove this aptitude. My next venture into day trading will most likely require joining some form of professional firm (as opposed to retail), but that is not necessarily a negative. These types of firms exist to provide leverage for traders that cannot put together $50-100K+ to trade retail. There is also something to be said for the ability to start a business with a relatively small investment (e.g. initial deposit at a prop firm). To summarize, I would encourage you to pursue trading if you are truly passionate about it, and would also caution you to ensure that you are adequately prepared before jumping into it on a full-time basis. Very few people have the right mix of attributes to be successful in the business. Feel free to PM me if you would like to discuss any of this privately, I would be happy to share some insights.