Day Trading for a Seasoned Swing Trader

[systematictrader]

ive been swing trading 10 years, last 2 or so been successful, dont plan to quit or change anything

all along and still i maintained a job (unrelated to trading) that i do very well in on top of swing trading, which always been 40 - 50 hours a week or so.

never took a serious dab at day trading.

iam at a point though where my accounts are sufficiently large and since my positions are swing trading i always have ample margin available if i ever need to use for anything; ie day trading

iam starting to think that if i quit my job and dedicate the same 40 hours or so to day trading i could make a living off of it and be able to replace my job, iam not expecting day trading to replace my swing trading, iam simply expecting it to replace my job and iam also not expecting to get rich off day trading, simply make a consistent living.

any opinions???

the second question here where do i begin to learn structured day trading and get myself entrenched in it and see its feasibility for me being iam already a successful swing trader,, there are bunch of "academies" online but i cant say i found one thats dazzling they all seem appealing to the average guy and newbies as they are charging 1-3k to "teach you" i dont mind paying if its the right one but i cant say i found one and they all come off to me as too confident and more selling than trading. should i self teach? or find a structured one,,, i do believe based on my experience in swing trading that following a structured one is faster to learn but if thats the answer where do i find the one academy or person thats willing to teach?

 

[systematictrader]

ive been swing trading 10 years, last 2 or so been successful, dont plan to quit or change anything

all along and still i maintained a job (unrelated to trading) that i do very well in on top of swing trading, which always been 40 - 50 hours a week or so.


CLARIFICATION, the job is whats consuming 40-50 hours

 

[Overnight]

Be careful, for combining successful swing-trading with day-trading could get you mentally down a slippery slope. I am on that slope right now and it is, well, mentally painful, trying to scalp my meager day positions with the swing positions. I am sure our individual situations are very different and so this statement is obviously not absolute.

I would just advise caution in attempting to break into the day-side of it, because if successful in swing you might let the day bleed into swing, and get caught up in forgetting your risk exposure.

 

[systematictrader]

Be careful, for combining successful swing-trading with day-trading could get you mentally down a slippery slope. I am on that slope right now and it is, well, mentally painful, trying to scalp my meager day positions with the swing positions. I am sure our individual situations are very different and so this statement is obviously not absolute.

I would just advise caution in attempting to break into the day-side of it, because if successful in swing you might let the day bleed into swing, and get caught up in forgetting your risk exposure.

overnight, before i begin, i was joking with you on that other thread since every one there was too serious,,

meanwhile,, tell me what u mean i could meager day positions with swing positions??? i can have the accounts separated if need to be,,, what iam saying is i spend 40 hours at a job,, if i direct it that to day trading, would i possibly succeed? or would i be like a professional baseball player trying to become a pro football player (ie; not gonna happen)

 

[Overnight]

overnight, before i begin, i was joking with you on that other thread since every one there was too serious,,

meanwhile,, tell me what u mean i could meager day positions with swing positions??? i can have the accounts separated if need to be,,, what iam saying is i spend 40 hours at a job,, if i direct it that to day trading, would i possibly succeed? or would i be like a professional baseball player trying to become a pro football player (ie; not gonna happen)

K, I'll give you one last chance. Daytrade positions to me are meager compared to the larger swing positions I hold. In day, I'll try to scalp 10 tic here, 20 tic there. In swing I am trying to capture larger moves, 50, 100+ tic. But as my brain tries to work the swing, and see where to enter and exit for larger profits, my brain has to also try to see the smaller moves and scalp them for profit while preserving the capital for the swings. Getting too caught up in preservation of capital on both trading methodologies at the same time becomes a tangled web, FOR ME, because I am working with limited capital. You may be in a better capital position than I and your brain may (and most likely does) work differently from mine and can handle it. There are too many variables to describe and quantify, but I am just giving you a heads-up on what I go through. If it helps you, great. If it does not, then just discard the comments and do what works for YOU.

 

[systematictrader]

K, I'll give you one last chance. Daytrade positions to me are meager compared to the larger swing positions I hold. In day, I'll try to scalp 10 tic here, 20 tic there. In swing I am trying to capture larger moves, 50, 100+ tic. But as my brain tries to work the swing, and see where to enter and exit for larger profits, my brain has to also try to see the smaller moves and scalp them for profit while preserving the capital for the swings. Getting too caught up in preservation of capital on both trading methodologies at the same time becomes a tangled web, FOR ME, because I am working with limited capital. You may be in a better capital position than I and your brain may (and most likely does) work differently from mine and can handle it. There are too many variables to describe and quantify, but I am just giving you a heads-up on what I go through. If it helps you, great. If it does not, then just discard the comments and do what works for YOU.

overnight first and foremost thank u, hang with me as more questions arise and i can narrow it down,, in my swing trading iam all 1000000% systematic, i dont do any brain activities or trading during market hours, in matter fact 90% of the time iam not even watching the market when its open, so i understand what u mean when u saying ur brain keeps picking up the swing trades but i believe based on our differences i wont have the issue, what u think?? now what i believe i might have an issue with is, can i systemize day trading, i dont mean make it do itself, but i mean get it set down to concrete rules and boxed up where the thinking involved is minimized? or it wont work the same way iam thinking as in swing trading,,,,

iam with limited capital as well but i have plenty of margin avaialble as i dont use much of it in swing trading, i mean plenty enough to deploy 10 mini es contracts comfortably if needed, i also have portfolio margin on my account so my swing trade positions specially when i short options that usually require massive margin it doesnt for me,,, any ways the point is not to gloat the point is i have plenty of margin NOT capital thus for day trading it wont absorb anything from the swing trading and it wont affect my size at allll in swing trading,,,

as far as my brain handle it i doubt it unless i can view it very systematically and from an overall picture, ur success in the market discrionary tells me ur better than me in that sense, i didnt succeed till i turned to systems developer,, in terms of the rules for trading and exits,,

lastly and back to the simple questions, how does someone like me new to daytrading but seasosned in swing trading learn day trading? where do i start?

 

[algofy]

And to answer your question if you have a year or two saved up and highly employable go for it ( on trading )

 

[systematictrader]

And to answer your question if you have a year or two saved up and highly employable go for it ( on trading )

whats ur best recommendation on where to start to learn day trading? self research, some sort of online program free? paid? any other possibilites?? tell me what u think?

 

[algofy]

whats ur best recommendation on where to start to learn day trading? self research, some sort of online program free? paid? any other possibilites?? tell me what u think?

Depends on what your method and timeframe. Systematic or descretionary. What works well for swing trading, is it based off of chart patterns? If so maybe those patterns exist in lower timeframes. If swing trades are based on fundamentals, likely won't help you on a day trading level so you'll need to find something new.

 

[systematictrader]

i see that makes sense, my methods in swing trading are purely technical and systematic, no discriotn and no fundamentals at all,,, iam in the process of having someone build me a back testing software to be able to back test MORE stuff and faster, and day trading (lower time frames) is part of it since there are obviously more signals there and are faster,,,

of course i will backtest my methodologies and if they work in shorter time frames then i will deploy them before i learn anything else since i believe in them more than anything and since they worked for me in swing trading,,, if not then what the thought? academia? self teach? or other