What should a successful Trader's day/week look like?

[themickey]

And I believe fx is another step difficult again from intraday index trading yet newbs and other retail traders attempt it.

 

[comagnum]

So why would anyone opt to be a day trader if it is more difficult and the returns are less than longer duration approaches?

I am not hating at all, not one single bit on intraday folks as I have an extreme level of respect for anyone trying to make it as a trader...but I think day trading is popular due to the instant gratification we all desire as well as a possible lack of patience. From what I have seen and experienced myself, there is a higher concentration of new/inexperienced traders doing the intraday thing than longer duration trading.

Concerning difficulty...I consider being able to hold a winner for days, weeks, months is top-tier emotional control and an ability very lacking in most people. One might say: "that just isn't the trading style for me". Where I tend to say: "I need to develop my level of patience".

Our lord and savior Jesse Livermore said 100 years ago:
“It was never my thinking that made the big money for me, it always was sitting.”

Well stated, could not agree more! What feels the best is never going to get you the money, it's about managing discomfort.

 

[ValeryN]

I know each person's definition of success will be different but for this particular thread let's define it as the following: paying the bills with trading profits and/or consistent annual returns beating the market average.

I formally qualify since my trading profits are well above cost of living with better than market returns, but I don't consider myself a full time trader.

I love trading as an intellectual challenge as well as a way of self-discovery, but don't have a desire to trade whole day. So I confined trading to automated systematic approach. You can call it an automation of day/swing trading, as average hold times are <2 days. Most of my day is busy with building a tech business and self improvement/learning.

Weekday -

6am - wake up, listen to audiobooks/learn about something, have coffee. At home, at a nearby island's cafe or during a walk by an ocean
7:30-8am - prep a list of what's important for a day / start business related activities
11:30am - lunch / distractions
12:30pm - continue with business related stuff
3pm - look at model vs live executions trading report and get back to business
4 pm - some sport activity: hit bouldering gym / paddle-board in the ocean / bike to a mountain
6 pm - dinner / family
7 pm - look at generated trading plan for tomorrow
7:05 - 80% of days more business stuff and more reading/learning, <10% meet with a friend or to mentor, 10-20% family
10-11 pm - go to bed

Only ones selected in bold are directly related to trading, as well as watching out for alerts from automation (happens ~once in couple of weeks)

I read no news. Neither general or trading related.

On some Weekends I'll do everything related to trading strategies development or extensive reviews & look at $ account balance.

Monthly - Is Model ~= Historical Model? In other words - are models degrading or performing outside of expected parameters.

Quarterly - retrospect on adjustments made. +same as monthly on a bigger scale.

What I do was inspired by Ed Seykota, William Eckhardt and Marsten Parker.

Val

 

[HeSaidSheSaid]

I live in Europe and do two time slots trading, every trading day. The Europe open session and the Us open session.

This is how my day looks:
I wake up around 7 am.
I take a shower, get dressed and eat my breakfast.
I fire up the computer and leave it.
I take my kid to school and in the car on the way back home, I listen to an audio that inspires me to get my mindset right for the rest of the day.
At 8u50 am I sit in front of my computer.
I watch the levels of support and resistance of the instruments I trade daily (index, oil, gold, bond) on a MP chart and draw them into my trading charts by hand.
At 9 am, I look for trades. I use alerts around those levels. At 11am I quit taking new trades.
At 12 am I eat.
Around 1pm, I start looking at my emails and chat with other people that I mentor. I write something on my blog or do other administrative tasks.
At 2 pm, I go out for a walk or for a ride on a bike.
At 3 pm, I look what the instruments have done so far. I also look at other longer term positions or opportunities.
At 3.15 pm I make myself ready to trade the US open.
At 5 pm I stop taking new trades.
At 6 I review the trades I have taken and look if I made a mistake against my rules. I write in my journal how the day went. I take snapshots of my trades to put in my trading journal. If necessary, I do mind exercises to clear my day.
At 6.30 pm I eat with my family.
At 7.30 I talk to other people that I mentor.
At 9 pm, I usually relax.
At 10.30 pm, I read for 15 to 20 minutes, just before going to bed.

That is my routine daily at this moment

Weekly I review or research some ideas or trades that I did, that stood out. In the weekend, it is no market at all, no trading, but also no research.

The most important aspect I know of to become successful in trading are the right habits and balance in your life. If you have no balance, then your mind will play tricks with you, so you sabotage yourself.

I assume you have a trading account with a US broker?
or
your European broker routes your orders to US exchanges or ECNs?



I think themickey has insider connection with this company

 

[HolyGrailSeeker]

It took the greater part of my young adult life to get where I am today. I was dead broke, worked shit jobs and took whatever I had left to the markets. I think about 3 years to break even and another two years until I made ok money.

Most of that time I tried to figure out with kind of trader I can be. Took a while until I arrived at market neutral derivatives trading and market making.

The better question would be: Would you do it again? And knowing what I know today I'd probably say no. Way too many sacrifices and an insanely hard life until you make it. Probably the same like becoming an actor

Once you reach a certain level, it becomes very easy almost like printing money. So I say the pain and sweat for a few years to master it is worth it.

 

[danielc1]

I assume you have a trading account with a US broker?
or
your European broker routes your orders to US exchanges or ECNs?



I think themickey has insider connection with this company

I have several, but Interactive Brokers is pretty good for what I need.

 

[Laissez Faire]

So why would anyone opt to be a day trader if it is more difficult and the returns are less than longer duration approaches?

Good question.

My initial experience (and success) was as a swing trader in stocks. It was only after I decided to get serious about learning trading that I was convinced by someone I perceived to be smarter than me (and successful) to pursue day trading. It turns out he was not successful as a day trader, but that's another story...

Mathematically/theoretically, and in practice for a select few, day trading does offer much more points than swing trading. If you compound your account/profits, day trading puts that in turbo-mode. In addition, you'll usually be able to use more leverage intraday, too.

However, to become a skilled day trader who's able to extract enough of the daily offer I believe is far harder than becoming a skilled or proficient swing trader.

That's why I personally wouldn't recommend anyone to pursue day trading.

Personally, my main focus is on day trading, but I have a smaller account too which I use for swing trades. There's no rule against doing both.

 

[murray t turtle]

As far as I can tell - the difference in addition to time spent executing is that success or consistency in day trading is much harder to achieve than low frequency swing trading or investing.

That's not to say that swing trading is easy or does not require effort/research. But I do think the margin of error is lower and there's less pressure since you're not making decision in real time and so on.

%%
Good points/profitable points.
Market makers/specialists tend to do very well daytrading, so some pull it off very well/ I'm not a market maker. LOL Also as the high % trader Mark Weinstein noted , we can learn a lot about trading @ our bird feeder.
Even though zghorner question was most likely about trading stocks, ETFs;
markets are markets + any could learn plenty in WMT about trading/investing.[NOT a stock tip/LOL]
Something else interesting I learned about Sam Walton/ his wife said ''I am NOT moving to a big city!!'' He learned about quail hunting from his dad-in law.; + made many billions in small towns.

 

[JoeF]

Interesting seeing how other traders trade.

I can say with great certainty I would not fare well trying to emulate any of them.

You have to develop your own style that fits you.

 

[zghorner]

Interesting seeing how other traders trade.

I can say with great certainty I would not fare well trying to emulate any of them.

You have to develop your own style that fits you.

Would you care to share your own style?