With one year in you're just scratching the surface. It's still not too late to give up. It's much harder to let it go after you've been at it for 5 years with nothing to show for it.
If you decide to continue, I think you're better off focusing on swing trading and modest returns as opposed to making a killing.
But the best advice you'll get is probably to give up, unless you're prepared to dedicate your life to this with the chance you'll go nowhere.
100%!
Don't trust anyone. If you figured this out after only one year, then good for you. It took me a lot longer and I'm now at the point where I pretty much don't trust anyone. There are a select few I think are the real deal, but at the end of the day I never saw any performance reports or broker statements, so I'm not really sure about anything.
The only traders I really trust are those that are verified in Market Wizards by Schwager.
Do NOT. I repeat. Do NOT fund a large account. You will lose it. A larger account just means larger losses. Trust me. There are people in this thread that blew a 100K account. The most famous trader in Norway blew a billion sized account and that was after years of successful trading.
I've been at this for well over 10 years. That's not 10 intense years of daily studies for 10 + hours, but periodically this have been my entire life and I've been a full time trader several times. To this day I still spend most of my free hours on this, but my day job is as an engineer. I also have a business education. Good grades and generally grasp things quickly. Academic studies and office work is easy compared to trading.
In some ways I already gave up on trading for a living or becoming rich from trading, but I keep plugging away like some weird hobby. Some people watch TV after work or hang out with their girlfriend. I spend my time trading and only give my girlfriend a kiss goodnight at midnight when I'm done with the day. She's lucky if she gets to spend some time with me on the weekend. Thankfully, she's busy and an introvert herself.
What's really weighing on me recently is the alternative cost of my time and time really flies by as you get older.
Trading style / method:
Day trading index futures primarily targeting the larger moves within the day, but trying to be content with a smaller move also once in a while.
I use predictive modeling / statistics which help me forecast/anticipate the day ahead. Sometimes I get it incredibly accurate, other days I'm dead wrong (like today). This is a statistical application written in C# which I spent many years to put together and hired a professional firm to build for me costing me I would imagine around $15-20K in total.
I also use chart based analytics mostly focusing on levels as I think the micro moves are less predictable and more noisy. If anyone else understands these consistently, then he gets my admiration.
Results so far this year:
Funded a small account in January:
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Off to a good start, but got sloppy and over confident like I often do when things are going well and losses just cascaded as I started taking more risk and was more focused on making back what I lost and getting back to equity highs than actually trading the market.
Closed down the account in the middle of February, took a breather and funded a new small account that I started trading medium March:
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Which means I'm up just below $2K in total so far this year.
I feel I have a good grasp of the market on a daily basis, but it's only too easy to mess up and do mistakes. I consider myself marginally profitable with a paper thin edge. If I can correct my major mistakes and learn to stay out when things aren't clear, maybe, I have a chance at getting somewhere, but I'm not holding my breath.
Just to give you some honest feedback about where I'm at after so many years. Maybe someone else would share their results, too.
My advice is still that you should do something else with your life.
