Valuable Lessons learned from trading

Those are great points Mazedonia. I look at stocks about 7:30 am and see whats moving or should move based on analyst research notes, upgrades, as well as stocks showing good technical set ups. I usually sell stocks just below resistance or buy if they break above. I also like double bottoms on a one day chart.
I made good money on ZM near the open, about 9:31 on a strong buy initiation. I made 2 points in about 5 minutes. Do I wish I held to capture about 10 points? No because I would have deviated from my “ take the low hanging fruit” strategy and thats a bad habit. For me, 2 points is a home run. Im usually a .50-1.00 trader.
 
gunner_trader said:
Those are great points Mazedonia. I look at stocks about 7:30 am and see whats moving or should move based on analyst research notes, upgrades, as well as stocks showing good technical set ups. I usually sell stocks just below resistance or buy if they break above. I also like double bottoms on a one day chart.
I made good money on ZM near the open, about 9:31 on a strong buy initiation. I made 2 points in about 5 minutes. Do I wish I held to capture about 10 points? No because I would have deviated from my “ take the low hanging fruit” strategy and thats a bad habit. For me, 2 points is a home run. Im usually a .50-1.00 trader.
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Well said; and for last 100 trades, what was you aver P/L per $500 trade? What is the definition of "get a loss too big"? What is P/L in about 5 min aver? What is definition of "low hanging fruit"?
 
For my ZM trade I mentioned yesterday, I had 400 shares. I do not go heavy and my stop losses are usually around .40-.50 cents. Sometimes I will hold and buy more if I suspect the selling is bs and it will rocket higher after taking out stops. However, you need to be careful. That happens a lot with low volume stocks. I try to stick with stocks that trade at least a million shares per day but mostly stick to higher volume than 1 million. I made a nice trade on PFE today and made .60 on 700 shares. Its the last trading day of the year and things wont get rockin and rollin until Monday. Next week will be very telling in my opinion.
One last note: my biggest strength is that I have my own business and dont need to rely on trading. That is a HUGE advantage because I dont need to force trades in order to pay bills.
Thats my opinion though. In fact, I walked away after my PFE trade today and I do that alot as I tend to give back when I over trade. How do I define over trade? When I continue to trade after a successful trade. Its hard enough to make money day trading, why give a penny back after a good trade. Thats just me though. Think about how much money everyone would have if they simply walked away after a good trade that had them green for the day ?????
Do I make money every day? Of course not but most days I do even if its only $200. I am not looking to make 5k per day. $200-$600 is fine. Some days are more such as yesterdays trade in ZM.
A good baseball player will have a batting average of 350 with a lot of singles and doubles with just a few home runs. Many home run hitters also have a lot of strike outs.
One final note. Dont get influenced by another trader who plays heavy and drives a $200,000 car. Thats great to admire but be more concerned with finding your own “ comfort zone” and stay in that zone until you are 100% ready to move to the next level. Do NOT compare yourself to other traders, only the trader you were yesterday.
 
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gunner_trader said:
Hi Guys
Just sharing a few lessons I have learned over the course of many years that I have turned into my own rules. This is mainly for new traders. They work for me.
I never buy pre market.
I never buy after hours.
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I agree, never buy in extended trading hours, but it can be a damn good time to short a big move if you have the experience to know when that particular move is an over-reaction based on something stupid.
 
gunner_trader said:
Hi Guys
Just sharing a few lessons I have learned over the course of many years that I have turned into my own rules. This is mainly for new traders. They work for me.
I never buy pre market.
I never buy after hours.
I never buy a big gap up at the open.
I never buy at 9:30, I wait a minute or 2 and sometimes longer. You would be surprised how this in particular has helped me.
I dont trade low volume stocks.
I usually dont trade stocks under $20.
I never let a loss get too big. If a trade fails, I bail..
Again, these rules work for me.
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All but the ones in bold could be adjusted to the type of trader you are.

Personally, I do make trades at 9:30 am from time to time. I trade options so the dynamic is much different if you just trade the underlying. (Def not for newer traders tho.)
 
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