A Retail's Day Trading Experiment

Sprout said:
Do what you want but going for higher R:R and lower WR is a better path.

Many think day trading means you have to be pushing buttons all the time when in reality, as a successful trader, you’re sitting on your hands most of the time.

Maybe you’re the exception.
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I actually agree with you @Sprout because that is exactly how I trade options, high R:R and low WR.

This is an experiment at day trading. I came up with this from rereading some old threads, then paper tested and now going live in a small way.

I want to let it play out, then if this is a failure, I either quit for good or will make adjustment in your direction.

Thank you for the coaching.
 
ironchef said:
Yes. I followed your advice, went live last Friday, with much reduced size trades.

Profitable but I don't like the win rate.

Not going to change anything, just press on and see what outcome I will get.
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Hi ironchef.

Not being an options trader myself,
can you tell me what the cost/fee structure is for a typical "much reduced size" trade?
What kind of "move" do you need for NET breakeven? Just the garden variety day trade you do.
I'm just curious.

Thanks
 
Illini Trader said:
That makes "Position Bias" the worst trading sin in my opinion. BB hits it right on target, when you can sense that the trade has mostly downside potential. Get Out. Enjoy the feeling of being flat and out of a risk position. Then look for another entry.
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Great advice @Illini Trader, I will take it to heart.
 
tiddlywinks said:
Hi ironchef.

Not being an options trader myself,
can you tell me what the cost/fee structure is for a typical "much reduced size" trade?
What kind of "move" do you need for NET breakeven? Just the garden variety day trade you do.
I'm just curious.

Thanks
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My option trades are completely different and I won't talk about them here.

To answer your questions:

1. For day trades, I trade names, i.e., individual stocks and there is zero commission @ Schwab, so other than bid/ask slippage, no cost/fee. As for slippages, I found the live trades were actually better than paper because on paper I used bid for sell and ask for buy.

2. What is the size? On paper, I used a notional $50K per trade. For live trades, I cut it down to under $1K per trade. I am trading for a free McDonald breakfast every day.

3. Looking at the statistics of my paper trades, most trades ended in small losses or small(er) gains. Profit came from catching one or two good runs every day. The 7 losing days (out of 50) came from not able to catch good runs.

4. Live trades data not sufficient to draw any conclusion but a glimmer of hope.
 
Jzwu2017 said:
I agree high R/R ratio is way better than high win rate. Much easier trades and fewer trades.

In order to achieve a high R/R ratio you got to trade a significant trend. It is mean reversion (reversal) vs. trend.
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How do you id a significant trend? What instruments trend the most?
 
Bad_Badness said:
Practice taking a loss early and small. There is always another trade in the future. Early is the hard part. Better to get close to BE on a trade that has mostly downside after the entry, even if it *might* go positive, and unlikely it will go big positive. Let that sink in. Seriously.
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:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Sounds like you really know what you are doing.

Thanks
 
Illini Trader said:
Do you trade one stock and follow it closely or do you watch multiple stocks and try to find the trend in particular one?
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I trade stocks in my long term portfolio, about 10 stocks.

I do switch targets when things are not going well.

Sometimes trade more than 1 at the same time.
 
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