Took out a loan to transition to full-time trading. 24 years old.

Day 10:
Beginning of day: $37541.04
End of day: $37698.41
P/L: $157.37; 0.42%

Boring day today. It was a hard market to make money. Played with NFLX, AAL, FB, and FCX today. AAL just did not bounce; FB was alright; NFLX was the deciding factor today of whether to make money or not. There was a good chance for a good rally upwards but NASDAQ just wasn't helping the entire day. So much down-pressure from the overall markets that NFLX just did not get the proper environment needed to get couple percents. Made a quick buck from a rally in FCX.
Overall, 2+ stars for today's trading. Nothing was wrong and I thought I traded everything pretty well. Just gotta work on position sizes a little more. At the end of the day, what matters is the P/L and today's small gains was partially due to the market environment but still, not satisfied. Looking forward to tomorrow.
 
Day 11:
Beginning of day: $37698.41
End of day: $40441.29
P/L: $2742.88; +7.28%

Started the day with a bounce play of FCX. Then went on to bounce play of DDD. Could not get into JBLU, did not think the bounce would be that big. Near end of the day, got a little bounce from FB.
Giving myself 2+ stars for today's trading. Traded okay today. There was a lot of home-run opportunities but I couldn't get my profits to run. Focused on not losing money and staying safe, I sold my positions way too early. Could work on my entry points a little more but the real problem today was not letting my profits run. I could have easily made double the amount of money I made today - that was how good the market was in the beginning of day.
 
I have a list that I scan in the morning. Mostly namely big name stocks that has a lot of volume. I look for big changes in the mornings and watch the ones where I think has a lot of clear direction + volatility. If those don't play out well I search through my watchlist again to see if there are other good setups happening. I also use stocktwits to see which ones people are talking about a lot.
 
Day 12:
Beginning of day: $40441.29
End of day: $40926.56
P/L: $485.27; +1.20%

Started the day with positions in NFLX and FB. Played the bounce well but had to cut it short because I had to get ready to go to work. I don't like to have positions open when I'm not watching it so I cut it short even though it looked like it could go up a lot more and I wish I waited just 20 mins longer... it did go up a lot more. ..... Went to work and while working was searching for opportunities. Thought FB was setting up for a bounce so went in but it just wasn't happening. NASDAQ was killing FB the whole day even though it had a lot of room to the upside. What I totally left out of my head was the Fed Rate decision. I knew it was today and I was waiting for the results, yet I couldn't make out 2+2=4 and was just wondering why there was so little action. Right after the Fed announcement, there is a lot of volume and things happening. Should have taken that into account and time my trades better but it was busy at work today... I had a lot on my mind. Sold FB for a small loss. Thought it was setting up for a high end of the day run. Went back in. It just wouldn't budge. I got scared. Didn't want to lose the profits for the day. Should have sold half and kept half on but nope, decided to sell all. And now I'm just watching FB make that end of the day run. I don't see an entry point so I can't go back in but wow... why why. If you decided to go back in at such a risky point, why not just risk a little more. I saw it coming... I just couldn't ... I don't know. Just have to learn from this. Positioning is still very tough for me. NASDAQ was just messing with me all day today; it was like a hyper little kid just running around the place. Wore me out..

Giving myself 2+ stars for today's trading. Could have done a lot better. Should have done a lot better. Just didn't have the extra skin to stand behind my calls. Overall I followed my game plan and made money, and didn't make any big mistakes that cost me a lot of money, and called the run on FB with good logic so being generous with the stars but it should be more like 2 stars. Disappointed in my patience, execution, but going to blame omfg still watching FB go up... omg I'm hating this. I really thought it was going to break even and hit green before EOD. I really hope it doesn't. W/e. Can't wait for tomorrow.
 
S2007S said:
Why didn't you just save $11,000 and start trading without borrowing $11,000.... with your salary you could easily save about $10000 in 6 months...
Unless you eat out every night and drive a 6 series BMW.
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Wabu27;
its possible, but your own post shows the big difference between paper[[v...] trading + real money. 2% per day for a year is much more than a couple thousand real money, profits.

We will also know how bad you want it, is your car paid for??[2] What kind of ratio is your housing-rent..... to $60,000[3] If you are eating out much-you dont really want trading profits much.And even if it costs you much more than $11,000 , most likely will -go for it anyway.
Carl Ichan averaged about 27%/+ ; but he is real mature + real good@ markets.
Hope this helps; it helps me............................................................
 
Not consecutively... there was a day in between the two 9% losses. Haha..
It was me not following my trading plan which factors in a lot of different things, such as:
1) Having a killer 1st week of making 15% return.
2) Daytrading live after not being able to for years
3) Underestimating the power of 4x leverage.
I think the dollar amount I was making got into my head and I was not seeing the numbers as percentages and was getting greedy. Only 2 weeks has passed since I started daytrading again so still working couple kinks out. Personally, the first 9% loss was acceptable to me because I had to blow steam and calm down. I was way too excited to trade for my own good. However the second 9% loss was just horrible and I have no excuses, I just couldn't control myself that day.
 
wabu27 said:
In case (slight chance?) there are people wondering how I am doing... when I put in my loan into my brokerage account, I had a total of $19,700. From there, I went to the low point of $16,750 and to the high point of $21,210, and now am back down to $17,400. Extremely volatile and dangerous...right? Yes, I know. Sometimes I'm not sure if I'm trading stocks or just straight up gambling. So I decided to change it up.

I truly believe I am good at daytrading, but having less than $25,000 is not allowing my to do just that. I'm okay on swing-trading, but not something I would bet money on. So to make this ridiculous thread even more ridiculous, guess what I decided to do? I applied for another loan. I really thought I wouldn't be able to since I'm drowned in loans already (have college student loans too) of little over $50,000, yet I was surprised to be approved for another $18,000! The catch is the APR is 28.62%, which is higher than my previous loan but I'm getting more money. I think I'm doing to get about $17,500 deposited into my bank account next week, or the week after. Hopefully next week. That will take my account to over $30,000 so that I can finally..............................................................................................................................................................................................................finally................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................finally....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................finally.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................wait .........................................................................................for it.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................finally............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................day trade!

I always considered myself as a risk taker, but right now I'm asking myself if this is taking risk or just throwing myself under a bus and hoping I come out alive. And from my experiences from trading, once you start hoping, you better get out. I honestly don't know if I'm hoping or am just confident in myself right now, but I am sure of one thing: This is the most riskiest thing I've ever done in my life.


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Once I deposit my new loan into my account, I'm planning on coming back here to post my daily results. I am hoping to get constructive feedback from other and also use this space as a journal to go over my daily trades. Whether I make money or not, I'll keep on posting until A) I quit trading; or B) I don't feel the need to keep a journal anymore.

If I feel I am not cut out to make a career out of trading, I will accept and stop trading to focus 100% on my career. Probably go study for that CFA lvl 2 I'm currently procrastinating about...

Wish me luck! I really do need it. :)
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I missed this post...

All I have to say is you are taking on major major risk playing with money that's not even yours to begin with..
 
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