I'm 35, a full-time salaried electrical engineer and I don't need the money. However, I don't like being an employee. My wife is self-employed and I envy her freedom to be with our children and still make a living. Also, I really don't like the mediocre returns that conventional vehicles offer. We own and manage 8 rental units and I see real-estate as our primary retirement plan. To me, the stock market is simply a means to an end.
I made my first day trade on January 10th, 2019, so I've only been at this for about 1/2 a year. From what I've gathered, this means that I'm barely scratching the surface. Because of my schedule and personality, I have concluded that day trading (for me) is preferred over swing trading. I consider holding over night to be far more stressful. Although I can imagine that I may prefer swing trading some time in the future, I'm 100% convinced that day trading lines up better with my lifestyle as it is now. Being in the Pacific time zone, I can make a few trades and still be to work at a reasonable time. For now, I'm sticking with stocks straight up - no derivatives.
When I made my first trade, I made $9. Second trade I made $568. Third trade I lost $1114 and the fourth trade I lost another $514. It was clear to me after trade #4 that I had no clue what I was doing. I then began investing in my education and I am now tailoring my own personal plan / strategy. I decided to bite the bullet and allow myself to become PDT on April 11, 2019.
Although I am not yet profitable, I can see the potential. However, it is unclear to me how to set realistic goals. When discussing actual profitability, I've heard people say "trust me, you can make a lot of money." Some say they've turned $500 into $5M (ha!). Most say it's gambling and we're all doomed to fail. From what I've endured over the last six months, it is no surprise that it is rumored that 95% of traders fail. While it is both easy and simple to click the "buy" and "sell" buttons, it is actually quite grueling, complicated, and at times exhausting to soldier through this learning curve.
One complaint I have with this entire industry is the general fog when searching for actual long-term average profit expectations. This may not matter to most people, but I already have a tolerable job. I'm looking for growth. "Trust me, you'll make more than you ever dreamed" is not good enough. I already make enough money to live on. I should only be risking that hard-earned money if there truly is a real-life potential for the reward (which I would define as consistent profit that justifies continuing to trade on a regular basis). So far, I have been unable to find proof of this potential reward, and I suspect that my own success or failure will be the only way for me to really find out for sure.
I have attached a normalized graph of my account over time. Oh, how I desperately wish that I could see this type of chart from others. It begins with my very first trade before I knew anything about the market and includes every trade that I've made since. To date, I've made 168 round-trip day trades. I generally only make between two to four round-trip trades per day. My latest discovery is that if I had restricted myself to trading only after 9:50am EST, this chart would look much better.
The purpose of this post is not to request advice (although I'm very thankful for anything offered!). Rather, as a brand new member, I'm wondering if this community is willing to convince me of what is realistically possible. I figure that if I can win 4R per month (which seems quite conservative if I'm risking an amount that would allow for 75 consecutive losses before reaching the PDT limit of $25k, which works out to be 1.33% of the portion of the account that is greater than $25k) and increase my risk each month according to my account growth, then my account would grow from $30k to $1M in about 12 years.
Am I delusional? Can anyone offer their own real-life normalized graph of account value over time?
I made my first day trade on January 10th, 2019, so I've only been at this for about 1/2 a year. From what I've gathered, this means that I'm barely scratching the surface. Because of my schedule and personality, I have concluded that day trading (for me) is preferred over swing trading. I consider holding over night to be far more stressful. Although I can imagine that I may prefer swing trading some time in the future, I'm 100% convinced that day trading lines up better with my lifestyle as it is now. Being in the Pacific time zone, I can make a few trades and still be to work at a reasonable time. For now, I'm sticking with stocks straight up - no derivatives.
When I made my first trade, I made $9. Second trade I made $568. Third trade I lost $1114 and the fourth trade I lost another $514. It was clear to me after trade #4 that I had no clue what I was doing. I then began investing in my education and I am now tailoring my own personal plan / strategy. I decided to bite the bullet and allow myself to become PDT on April 11, 2019.
Although I am not yet profitable, I can see the potential. However, it is unclear to me how to set realistic goals. When discussing actual profitability, I've heard people say "trust me, you can make a lot of money." Some say they've turned $500 into $5M (ha!). Most say it's gambling and we're all doomed to fail. From what I've endured over the last six months, it is no surprise that it is rumored that 95% of traders fail. While it is both easy and simple to click the "buy" and "sell" buttons, it is actually quite grueling, complicated, and at times exhausting to soldier through this learning curve.
One complaint I have with this entire industry is the general fog when searching for actual long-term average profit expectations. This may not matter to most people, but I already have a tolerable job. I'm looking for growth. "Trust me, you'll make more than you ever dreamed" is not good enough. I already make enough money to live on. I should only be risking that hard-earned money if there truly is a real-life potential for the reward (which I would define as consistent profit that justifies continuing to trade on a regular basis). So far, I have been unable to find proof of this potential reward, and I suspect that my own success or failure will be the only way for me to really find out for sure.
I have attached a normalized graph of my account over time. Oh, how I desperately wish that I could see this type of chart from others. It begins with my very first trade before I knew anything about the market and includes every trade that I've made since. To date, I've made 168 round-trip day trades. I generally only make between two to four round-trip trades per day. My latest discovery is that if I had restricted myself to trading only after 9:50am EST, this chart would look much better.
The purpose of this post is not to request advice (although I'm very thankful for anything offered!). Rather, as a brand new member, I'm wondering if this community is willing to convince me of what is realistically possible. I figure that if I can win 4R per month (which seems quite conservative if I'm risking an amount that would allow for 75 consecutive losses before reaching the PDT limit of $25k, which works out to be 1.33% of the portion of the account that is greater than $25k) and increase my risk each month according to my account growth, then my account would grow from $30k to $1M in about 12 years.
Am I delusional? Can anyone offer their own real-life normalized graph of account value over time?
