Getting Started Day-trading

As long as you can make your own system - ie. applying things you have learnt and suit to your personality, have a system with more than 50% accuracy and risk reward ratio of at least 2:1, and have the discipline to execute entry, exit, stops etc, you ll make it.

Good Luck and Happy Trading!
 
Quote from InvestorTerry:

Here are a few articles for you at www.stockdaytrading.biz
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EXCERPT:
"However in spite of tall claims no one really knows whether the day traders finally make any money or not at the end of the day. Nobody really publicly announces his balance sheet at the end of the day and there is no available statistics regarding the number of day traders operating in the market.

Most studies have pointed you the fact that the day traders on the whole lose money in the stock market but there are stray instances of successful trading too. The percentage of day traders losing money is higher in cases of those who are new to it. Apart form this there are some firms where day traders lose money for unknown reason. Only a small number of firms make little money and a very small percentage of day traders actually make big money. "

Excellent link. However, read ET testimonials enough, and you would think everyone is making $300,000 a year with little risk.
 
Quote from rcanfiel:

Excellent link. However, read ET testimonials enough, and you would think everyone is making $300,000 a year with little risk. [/B]
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Making $300k/yr with little risk is certainly possible depending on your trading Capital.

Uncontrolled risk happens when we break money management rules and have no edge.
 
First, I have to thank all that took time to reply.

As for developing a trading plan, I'm still studying DTU course and trying to understand market moving data.

I do have a learning plan mapped into a year to: 1. Complete DTU course; 2. Read "Cramer's" books and review others I have read previously; 3. Read some Psychology materials; 4. Paper trade; 5. Day trade to success.

I'm a mechanical engineer so studying and working hard is not new to me. I love the numbers, the charts, the challenge, and the potential to be my own boss and able to work anywhere.

It would be a great help to be able to look over a "successful" day traders' shoulder and watch them trade in real-time.

But, what I read about being a successful Day trader is not promising. 90-95% failure rates???? That's horendous.

However, I'm not discouraged and want to give it my best shot.
 
Read Bill O'Neills books....he has the most basic and thorough explanation of how the market works of ANY publication I have ever seen....

And for God's sake, don't read anything by Buffett or Livermore...One is a "buy/hold for a century" and 99% of what Livermore did is illegal or useless in todays world....

All, and I do mean ALL, of the other books, videos are just pure babble....

Stocks go up because of increasing earnings, revenue etc etc...hard cold facts....

That is the difference between GOOG and YHOO....really very simple....

Anything other than trading stocks is gambling......that is OK but just make sure you understand the difference.....

If you keep it simple you will be OK....

Watch CNBC and listen to what everyone says....absorb it....they may be right or wrong....but "they" are the market....

Good luck...

SteveD
 
Quote from rcanfiel:

Your honest post is something the "300% annual profit made easy people" should read more carefully. There is too much "Rah Rah, go for it!!!. The hell with your wife and kids and supporting them and your good job!!!"

When in reality, they should be studying the high failure rate of leveraged traders as possibly something that might apply to them...

As a famous quote once said, "everyone comes into this thinking they are the next Jesse Livermore"
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Most people are the next Jesse Livermore when they get into this...meaning they GO BROKE!
 
Should you day trade? Thats almost an impossible question to answer since we don't know anything about you... but I will give you my experiences and you can take it for what it's worth.

I started DT years ago and was a miserable failure at it. I lost a lot of money. I tried numerous "systems", read tons of books and nothing really worked for me.

Then about a year ago, the tide started to turn and I now consistently have winning trades over 90% of the time.

I stopped looking for the holy grail. I stopped reading the "experts"... someone else's system, ignored all the trading advice, ignored the newsletters, trading guru's, etc... I could go on.

I begin to relax, stopped playing with scared money and slowly developed a method that worked for me... something that was mine, not working someone else's system, but working my plan of action.

I began to trade in my own bubble... set up my own trading rules and stuck by them... no matter what. I DO NOT break these rules. I developed discipline.

It does no good for me to list them here because they probably wouldn't work as well for anyone else.

The point is... day trading is a personal business that depends on you developing your own personal style, discipline and develop an acute sense of when to filter out all the bullshit you read and hear on the subject.

Having said all of that, If there is one thing I would recommend is this....

Find yourself 5 or 6 big cap stocks across industries.... study them and how they trade. Watch them for a couple of months... watch how they fluctuate and react.. become intimate with them and know them like the back of your hand.

When I trade, I only watch these stocks and nothing else. I don't flit about looking for stocks or the hottest thing or bottom feed, penny stocks, gaps, etc... My focus is entirely on these 5 or 6 stocks... NOTHING ELSE. Develop confidence in them.

Slowly develop trading signals that work for you that fit around your new best friends.

When you limit your focus, improve your discipline and trade signals that you develop and that fit your personality... quit trading scared and believe in your positions... you will be successful. It really is that simple.
 
Quote from stock_trad3r:

You should never blow up more than once. Otherwise trading isn't for you.
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I guess Mr. Livermore should of given up the first time then. I can see why no one likes your comments.
 
Quote from stock_trad3r:

It sucks because you're constantly staring at a screen for 8 hours a day looking for setups to skim perhaps .2% profit off a trade.
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NO. If you are smart enough you can program your strategy and automate your trading. You don't have to stare at the computer 8 hours a day, and better yet the computer would even trade 24 hour daily and make profits for you. You probably don't believe that though, because either you never try hard enough or your attempt failed at that and you concluded that is impossible.
 
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