Well let's start off with some basics:
- Day trading with $2450 is a mistake. I have no idea why you'd do this but it's a mistake regardless. I wouldn't day trade casually with less than $15,000 on single contract futures. For a living I wouldn't day trade without an account value of at least $75,000 with at least two years worth of expenses in the bank.
- Paper trading is worthless. It builds a false sense of confidence. It's better to trade small and learn than feel like a champ after punching a heavy bag for months and then get knocked out in your first fight.
- You have no risk management. Here are the rules I use: Each trade is limited to 5% risk of the account. If I lose 10% of my account value I stop trading for a month and watch the markets to try to understand what I did wrong and what I need to do to improve. Only after I have an idea on how to correct my problem do I return to the market.
- Stop thinking about entries and exits. They don't matter. Pay attention to what the market is telling you. Missing a decent fill but capturing 80% of the market's movement is better than getting a good fill and watching your money evaporate.
- If you're trading on candles only a useful method is to pay attention to consolidation. Watch the market. It will tell you where it may want to go. If you see a big drop and a sudden consolidation you should ask "has the market decided the price range it's in now is the lowest it will go? What could go wrong to keep the market going down?" You need to see the current movements in the context of the larger picture.
- Stop trading on 5 minute, 15 minute, 30 minute. It's just noise. Sure you can scalp your daily nut from ES catching a good break on the 5 minute but why? I'd rather let my winners run and cut my losers early.
I am not a day trader. I hold my trades for a long time. My average hold time for a single contract is over a week (sometimes I gamble in MES/MNQ/etc but not so much anymore), for a futures spread (my bread and butter) I hold them 3 weeks to 3 months, and for options I trade exclusively in LEAPS (on companies I want to own in my retirement portfolio) these days. Some people are successful daytrading. I pulled in 28% last year just sitting on my hands. I don't expect to be featured in Market Wizards, but at least I can say I'm not struggling to be profitable. I know many more big shot day traders who have blown innumerable amounts of accounts than swing/investors who've done the same. Day traders keep the brokers employed. They don't keep accounts growing (generally).
