Tell me why I can't grow my account to $1M in 12 years

[ironchef]

Have you considered only trading stocks that are "one-off"/"in play"? For example, stocks that are gapping, trending strongly, unusually high momentum, etc. They tend to have much clearer signals than random stocks that are just moving with the market, no catalyst, have ho-hum daily charts.

Short answer: No.

 

[CharlesS]

into problem-solving mode

... one attempts to understand the market by debugging one’s earlier attempts to do so

 

[ironchef]

... one attempts to understand the market by debugging one’s earlier attempts to do so

What I have been doing the last couple of months.

 

[jeffbader]

Yes, a day trader learns to trade in any environment. However, there are period when trading is difficult...constricted ranges lacking directional impulse but from contraction comes expansion. Patience and discipline need to be in your tool kit. Knowing when not to enter a position is a trading decision and often a good one.

I opened up an account with tradingsim to help me with this. I'm hoping that it will scratch the itch to reduce the likelihood of bone-headed trades due to impatience / lack of discipline. So far I think it's helping.

Oh and pay little if any attention to those who sound like stock brokers and not traders.

I don't really know what a broker sounds like, lol. I try to chew the meat and spit out the bones - not to say I'm good at it, but that's the goal. I think your advice is very good for me right now. It's just so tricky because we also need a healthy amount of "grab the bull by the horns" mentality. You've got me thinking.

 

[speedo]

I opened up an account with tradingsim to help me with this. I'm hoping that it will scratch the itch to reduce the likelihood of bone-headed trades due to impatience / lack of discipline. So far I think it's helping.



I don't really know what a broker sounds like, lol. I try to chew the meat and spit out the bones - not to say I'm good at it, but that's the goal. I think your advice is very good for me right now. It's just so tricky because we also need a healthy amount of "grab the bull by the horns" mentality. You've got me thinking.

 

[Adeel06]

brokerage industry stats - 1% of retail accounts make enough to live on... you need talent and 5-10 years of hard work to make it into the 1%.... are you ready to put in 10000 hours of work? so this should be easy to explain to an engineer... why bother when there is a high probability way to make 1.7m

you can paper trade... heck, in the beginning even paper trade is meaningless.... like where do you even start....

if you still want to ... you need to find a mentor who is proven to be profitable, with the trading style you are looking for, to point you in the right direction.

otherwise it will be years before you even find 'what to work on'...

so yeah it is a waste of time.

How is it a waste of time? I’m up nearly 100% on the year and trade full time. Now mind you, I have read about 40 books on trading, trade full time as mentioned, spend about 4 hours Pre/post market charting using auto charting tools but it is possible. Don’t believe all the 95% of traders fail hype; I think that applies to the mom and pop guy that just tries trading for a couple weeks with $2000 or through their IRA without researching. Also, all I use are VWAP with standard deviations and 2 exponential moving averages and 1 simple moving average. Using trailing stop losses to let your winners run, and use ATR to determine where to place those trailing stop losses. I like 2x ATR for the day, but you can use what works for you.

Let’s build each other up! It was my dream to live off my trading revenues and now, I do. And I am 100% sure there are others that can too!

 

[Adeel06]

I'm on the Pacific Coast. Wake up at 5am, complete my morning routine, begin the process to select FOUR stocks to watch / trade.
2) I'm looking for +/- 2% gappers with news that also have an attractive daily chart. >100k volume premarket with a good price flow, >30M float, >$0.50 ATR, between $10 and $500 price.
3) Indicators: volume, daily and pre-market levels and VWAP (still have more learning on Level 2 before I trust myself with it) - I've lost interest in moving averages and the more "clever" indicators.
4) Charts: 1 min, 5 min and 15 min.
5) I've recently started refraining from trading within the first 15 minutes unless something really jumps out at me.
6) I have a few setups I'm learning, but so far this is my favorite: Wait for the stock to indicate that it has chosen its direction and then wait for an entry near VWAP upon a pull-back.
7) Once an attractive region of entry has been established, I calculate my entry point and share size based on the stop loss and profit target. I always risk a fixed $R per trade, which will be lost if the stop is hit. My nominal profit target in this calculation is always 2R. The R and 2R values both account for commissions. Both the profit target and stop loss are based on technical levels in hopes of minimizing the likelihood of loss and maximizing the likelihood of profit.
8) Enter the full position order (no partials or scaling in) as a limit if I suspect a bounce off or near VWAP, or possibly, and rarely, as a stop if it crossed VWAP and I'm expecting it to come back.
9) Upon entering the position, immediately place the stop-loss order.
10) Once the stock is in profit territory, convert the stop-loss order into a bracket order (or OCO), again for the full position size, no partialling in or out. I have found yet no need to add the complexity of partialling in / out of trades.
11) Depending on the price action and my P/L for the day, I may adjust the profit target on the fly at my discretion after being in the position for a bit. I may also ratchet up the stop at my discretion. I monitor the historical success of my discretionary adjustments. This strategy too often yields greater than 2:1, so I have adopted on-the-fly ratcheting and so far I'm not disappointed with the aggregate results.
12) I make no more than four trades per day and stop entering positions by 12pm EST. It's quite rare that I enter a position after 11am EST. The obligation of my day job helps with this. If my first two trades are winners, I'm done for the day. I may very well stop if only the first trade wins. If I lose the first three in a row, I will only enter a fourth trade if something really attractive shows up, and on that trade I will move my stop to break even as soon as it enters profit, rather than taking a full loss on the fourth trade. I have considered capping the daily loss to three trades, but so far this has proven to work well.
13) Enter every trade into my journal for review.
14) Continue education / trade review during evenings and weekends.

Amazing well thought out plan!

 

[dozu888]

How is it a waste of time? I’m up nearly 100% on the year and trade full time. Now mind you, I have read about 40 books on trading, trade full time as mentioned, spend about 4 hours Pre/post market charting using auto charting tools but it is possible. Don’t believe all the 95% of traders fail hype; I think that applies to the mom and pop guy that just tries trading for a couple weeks with $2000 or through their IRA without researching. Also, all I use are VWAP with standard deviations and 2 exponential moving averages and 1 simple moving average. Using trailing stop losses to let your winners run, and use ATR to determine where to place those trailing stop losses. I like 2x ATR for the day, but you can use what works for you.

Let’s build each other up! It was my dream to live off my trading revenues and now, I do. And I am 100% sure there are others that can too!

Amazing well thought out plan!

no... none of these will work long term.

 

[S-Trader]

no... none of these will work long term.

Curious -- why do you say that? I know of more than several examples who are pretty "public"/"transparent" with their trading, and who more or less use the same approach/indicators cited. I've observed them doing this for years now to varying degrees -- subbed to chat, studied their methods, etc. Have fairly close trading buds who've traded with them in person.

On Friday, one of the traders I'm alluding to made $86k -- for the week, he was up over +$150k. His many vids are on YouTube, but I won't post a link because I think it might be regarded as "promo." Also, although I'm not affiliated with his service in any way, I suspect I'll get accused of being a "shill," or get challenged to defend his method, my own trading, etc.

 

[dozu888]

Curious -- why do you say that? I know of more than several examples who are pretty "public"/"transparent" with their trading, and who more or less use the same approach/indicators cited. I've observed them doing this for years now to varying degrees -- subbed to chat, studied their methods, etc. Have fairly close trading buds who've traded with them in person.

On Friday, one of the traders I'm alluding to made $86k -- for the week, he was up over +$150k. His many vids are on YouTube, but I won't post a link because I think it might be regarded as "promo." Also, although I'm not affiliated with his service in any way, I suspect I'll get accused of being a "shill," or get challenged to defend his method, my own trading, etc.

if trading were that simple - throwing a few indicators together and wala the money falls from the sky.... why do 95% lose... it's a true stat.

basically these things fall into 2 categories - trend follow or counter trend... all that ATR blah blah is just smoke... sure you can make money in certain market phase for so long until it starts to bleed and then you are out.

I've said many times - trading is not about finding something 'hidden treasure' that somehow all the other guys have missed.... you see the front page - 'found and edge'... 'found an edge now what next'.... lol.... people haven't found shit.

check my thread 'trading is easy'.... you are sitting at a poker table dealing with ever dynamic situations.