I cant make trading work for me

[RolloTape III]

Leaving a job due to mental pressures only to then go into un-backed, unverified independent trading - is jumping out of the frying pan and straight into the fire.

Like many on here have pointed out - you are completely set up to fail. Take the advice given before you lose your account - and possibly more in terms of the intangibles (mental health, strained relationships etc)

 

[tommcginnis]

Don't trade under pressure. If you have to trade to put food on the table, the pressure will color your judgement and forces you to make mistakes.

"Gimme a break." You are not the first one to post this sort of noise, but as a full-time trader, you are always struggling to put food on the table -- each and every day. (There are loud, odious, exceptions to that rule here on ET -- the ones who grow suddenly silent when their trades fail......)

There is nothing like a little responsibility to breed attentiveness, a desire to improve, and a dissatisfaction with failure -- aiming all of that at anything related to your trading.

"First, be a fiduciary to yourself."

 

[ironchef]

"Gimme a break." You are not the first one to post this sort of noise, but as a full-time trader, you are always struggling to put food on the table -- each and every day. (There are loud, odious, exceptions to that rule here on ET -- the ones who grow suddenly silent when their trades fail......)

There is nothing like a little responsibility to breed attentiveness, a desire to improve, and a dissatisfaction with failure -- aiming all of that at anything related to your trading.

"First, be a fiduciary to yourself."

All true professor for many traders.

There are exceptions though. Many traders who took this slow approach eventually made it. There was no longer any pressure when your trading gains overwhelmed your living expenses.

One non professional, but an amateur retail, did it this way.

 

[cervie]

“If you cannot define your edge in under 25 words you don’t have it” With the complexity of trading, comes every fathomable emotional toll that you can conceive. I just left a firm that was backing me this week because I got tossed around all year. I had burned through expenses and a small sum of capital, but what I was doing was unsustainable. I had a model and algo that they put significant capital behind in Jan 2020 and guess what, everything changed. This business isn’t just about being “adaptable”(I hate this term) it is about refinement, simplification, a little or a lot of engineering and ultimately breaking down an idea into small manageable parts, that which can be worked on, fine tuned, or thrown out. Success in this business takes time. I have thought about quitting dozens of times this week, as I have in my career, but I know that those are not my genuine thoughts and I will keep going.

• Quit until you have a sufficient clue as to what you are doing, such that you can provide a detailed question about where you might've gone wrong. (You have not provided any detail in your OP....)

• PAPER TRADE. Fergawdsakes. Get some consistency going before you go live.

• EXPECTANCY is your friend.

 

[777]

So... I've been trading since September 2020 with an account in which I progressively deposited 24000 USD. In the first 2 months of trading I was doing relatively well, I managed to earn a total of 1600 dollars. Then, as I got more knowledge and got into a quantitative analysis called The Strat, I stopped making any profits, quite the contrary. There are numerous other people who are doing well, but I suck so hard at it. Now only that, but I am also very scared of entering swing positions, or holding over night. It has now been over a month that I haven't got a single winning day. And this is devastating. It is not that I lose a ton of money, it is that I am really failing on a daily basis and my self confidence is currently at the worst level of my entire life.

Some insight/help ?

Most people can never become meaningfully winning traders, especially in day trading.

It is wise to seek council, as you are doing.

Your goal is to speak with believable people, especially if they are currently trading. Private conversation where the other person can better evaluate you and spend meaningful time with you is especially valuable.

It is not always easy to decide who is believable in this area or access them, but this is what you should strive to do.

Good luck.

 

[CDoubleUU]

You JUST started... Imo, have to set yourself up to be able to handle the losses for 1-3 years before you are able to be consistently profitable. I believe that if you don't do this, you will fail like most traders.

I started about a year and a half ago and I had about 10 or so months of mostly red days. Then I dialed in a strategy w/a couple edges and had a few months of mostly green. Then one day I had a 2 R loss... I then started to doubt myself again and went on to have a month or so of mostly red days. Confidence is key. If trading was so easy, everyone would do it. There is a reason most fail. Good luck to you!

 

[navyelite]

Nowadays, technology made entry in trading very easy. Entering in it is easy but the ultimate success depends on you.

You can start trading in a few moments but to sustain here you must have good knowledge, experience, patience and willingness to put efforts into it. Don’t discourage yourself, many people are making good profits from trading daily.

 

[cesfx]

I think one should learn the basic on how to invest first, then maybe, if succesfull, step into trading and its multidimensions.
I wouldn't advice any beginner to look at anything less than a daily chart, and start by working no more than 1hr, 2hr per day.
Most of the times newbies try to run and jump before they can even stand up, forget walking.

 

[murray t turtle]

I think one should learn the basic on how to invest first, then maybe, if succesfull, step into trading and its multidimensions.
I wouldn't advice any beginner to look at anything less than a daily chart, and start by working no more than 1hr, 2hr per day.
Most of the times newbies try to run and jump before they can even stand up, forget walking.

%%
That's logical;
if one is interested in profits.
Some are interested in thrills more than any business.

 

[Oualid_el]

Hello,

If you wanna be successful in trading (swing/ day trading or scalping it doesn't matter) you must have a whole system, and to do so you should have a precise criteria of selection for the stocks you want to trade, a strategy that you have backtested enough to have confidence in it and it's rules and which has proven it's efficiency with a decent winrate, plus a strict money management ( once you take a trade you know where's your target and you place your stop loss, once you are in you forget about it because if you have donce what i said before the edge is with you as long as you have taken the trade) that's the only way to succeed in this journey and to build that confidence

If you don't have them you better stop trading and go to the backtest and develop them or look for someone who's doing well to teach you, it's better than throwing your money from the window and living that stress especially in your current financial situation.