My high school summer job: trading the NQ
- Thread starter zdawg164
- Start date
You do realize, of course, that any trader who ever became profitable, including the gliterati of the trading world, have lost a whole lot more, in both time and money, before they became anywhere near consistently profitable. Unless you are operating on a higher plane than the rest of us, I suggest that you come to terms with the reality that you will very likely lose a lot more before you start making money at trading. And that's even assuming that you are suited to, and have an affinity for, trading. So, even of you are on the right track, you had better develop some more resilience.
In any event, I wish I had developed an interest in the markets earlier in life as you have, and I wish you well. But, come September, I'd hit the books if I were you. Good luck.
I think you should take the rest of the money in the account and wine and dine these girls. You might get lucky before the summer is over.
Now the serious stuff, dont feel bad even if you walk away now. $500 is pocket changes for good traders and you will be one if you keep at it but not now. Now you need a new plan. I have been there, done that and I can tell you that you are taking the long way to the promise land. As soon as I stop scalping, things turn around for me.
Scalping may work for you but why make it harder? You are sweating it out every minutes. Shoot for points in one of many runs the market offers. Here you can walk away for hours waiting for stops/targets to hit. Less commissions, less stress, more time to do other stuff. What would be a better strategy of the 2? Like I said before, I've done both. Observe the intraday moves and know where the turns will be. If you cant read it then you are not ready yet. If you can time the turns with 80% accuracy, then and only then you should come back and trade again. Other than that, good luck kid.
Now the serious stuff, dont feel bad even if you walk away now. $500 is pocket changes for good traders and you will be one if you keep at it but not now. Now you need a new plan. I have been there, done that and I can tell you that you are taking the long way to the promise land. As soon as I stop scalping, things turn around for me.
Scalping may work for you but why make it harder? You are sweating it out every minutes. Shoot for points in one of many runs the market offers. Here you can walk away for hours waiting for stops/targets to hit. Less commissions, less stress, more time to do other stuff. What would be a better strategy of the 2? Like I said before, I've done both. Observe the intraday moves and know where the turns will be. If you cant read it then you are not ready yet. If you can time the turns with 80% accuracy, then and only then you should come back and trade again. Other than that, good luck kid.
I have been on the sidelines observing this journal for a bit but havent commented. Now I simply want to reiterate that you shouldnt expect to be profitable at first and you will prob lose many hundreds of minimum wage hours at CVS before you even break even. The absolute minimum losses I have ever heard of for day trading before making money is probably 5000. Usually its around 20K or more. Its just the nature of the business. When I was about your age I learned that. I was trading PCLN, LU and FRNT at $2 a share and generating 66% return in 3 months. Then I put all my 5K into PCLN at $7 a share and sold it at $2 a year later. It took all of my college years and more capital to get to breakeven(and later profit). By this time I was addicted.
Daytrading after college took a year before I saw some consistency, but by that time I was burned out, stressed, depressed and on the verge of losing my mind for nothing really.
Now, besides dabbling into auto trading FX which I do as a hobby with less than two percent of my capital I TRY not to touch the markets. I havent really gotten this to work as planned see my journal LOL.
You are 17 and have your whole life to invest for the long term (THIS is where my real money is). I have found that an all ETF portfolio works quite nicely to diversify me as much as I want and with things like EEM (held it since $70) and a but of GSG I have easily been beating the markets.
My point is this, you if you keep daytrading expect much harder times than this, not better. Expect losses of 1000 in a single day, (even seconds) not just 500 in a week. Eventually you will get it, but there is a cost associated with it.
Enjoy your life now, dont stress on things you dont NEED to stress on. Get girls, go to parties, have fun with friends make good memories cuz thats what will be valuable when you are old, not wether you made $500 or lost $500. Most girls your age dont even care about money yet, they are just as inexperienced/nervous and whatnot as you and there is no need to buy them diamonds and yachts to get their attention, you would be surprised at how far a movie and starbucks would go with a girl that you click with.
Just my experience and my two cents take it or leave it.
Daytrading after college took a year before I saw some consistency, but by that time I was burned out, stressed, depressed and on the verge of losing my mind for nothing really.
Now, besides dabbling into auto trading FX which I do as a hobby with less than two percent of my capital I TRY not to touch the markets. I havent really gotten this to work as planned see my journal LOL.
You are 17 and have your whole life to invest for the long term (THIS is where my real money is). I have found that an all ETF portfolio works quite nicely to diversify me as much as I want and with things like EEM (held it since $70) and a but of GSG I have easily been beating the markets.
My point is this, you if you keep daytrading expect much harder times than this, not better. Expect losses of 1000 in a single day, (even seconds) not just 500 in a week. Eventually you will get it, but there is a cost associated with it.
Enjoy your life now, dont stress on things you dont NEED to stress on. Get girls, go to parties, have fun with friends make good memories cuz thats what will be valuable when you are old, not wether you made $500 or lost $500. Most girls your age dont even care about money yet, they are just as inexperienced/nervous and whatnot as you and there is no need to buy them diamonds and yachts to get their attention, you would be surprised at how far a movie and starbucks would go with a girl that you click with.
Just my experience and my two cents take it or leave it.
on the subject of girls being nice goes a long way. Talking about wanting to f*** them will work too but only with girls that will give you diseases.
As I mentioned previously, the most important lesson being learned is the emotional part of trading.
You are learning what it's like to have real money at risk and how hard this business is.
If it was easy, everyone here would be a millionaire.
You are learning what it's like to have real money at risk and how hard this business is.
If it was easy, everyone here would be a millionaire.
Which, of course, we are. As it happens, my calling card (business cards are so '90s) shows the requisite GL designation following my name.
Quote from zdawg164:
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Well guys, it's been a shitty day.
I like I mentioned in my earlier post today, I didn't have the balls for some reason to pull the trigger on my setup,
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I need to hear some opinions guys, for now I am going out and hanging out with hot pieces of ass (who like in my first post I said) who I will try to fuck
Hi there,
Good on you for trying.
I have not read your journal but I have glanced at your attached chart.
If this is typical of your trading then you do not know what you are doing and it is no wonder you are having problems.
My suggestion is stop trading for real and definitely do not go near the sim.
Go back to your chart, turn off everything and just watch price.
You will need to go beyond looking at price, you need to read it and eventually you will be saying to yourself "price is about to turn".
Once you recover from the shock of watching price fulfil your prediction, do it again and again and again until it becomes a part of you.
And then spend a very short time on the sim becoming accustomed to entering stops, clearing stops and booking paper profits and then go live.
You must fade ES in order to keep your risk low and realistic.
What you are trying to do is be one or more tics ahead of the big boys piling into the market behind you and surfing you along on the front of the wave.
Goodluck and never give up
regards
f9
Hmm... so are you saying that this "riding the wave" strategy is a good or bad thing in your experience. Guys, your comments have been very helpful, and it really got me thinking about my strategy. If you look at my charts, you can tell that I have a very low profit target, and very little patience. I think the best thing to do right now is that come Monday, I will go on sim for one or two weeks, using the same strategy, BUT: I will heavily increase my profit target to 3-6 points instead of the usual 1-2. I realize now that the NQ does a lot of bouncing around, but in the bigger scope it make pretty big moves which I am always missing out on because of my low profit targets. So like I said, I think I will test out this new method on Sim for a week or two to see how it goes, and if it succeeds like I think it will, in one or two weeks I will be able to make up for my loss faster than you can say "resistance was hit"
Double tops and bottoms against a trend deliver good trades at their 2nd and 3rd attempt from a corrective top or bottom, and have 5 waves each. You'll get your 4-6 points on the second double top or bottom; and on average 10 points or more on the 3rd. The fifth directional change heading into the 6th off any of those corrections will either be the 3rd or 5th and final wave of the movement in the direction of the term trend. They're cash cows, 10, 15, 20 points.
Play with that awhile. You'll be surfing in no time.