Does anyone on here day trade? I am thinking about learning how to day trade. I’m reading that only a very small percent of people actually succeed at this. So, I was wondering who day trades and what are your results? Please be honest.
Does anyone on here day trade? I am thinking about learning how to day trade. I’m reading that only a very small percent of people actually succeed at this. So, I was wondering who day trades and what are your results? Please be honest.
Denali Rods
I daytrade some. I'm not the best at it, but I do profit when I do it. It's actually the way that I prefer to trade, I just don't have the time to do it normally. One rule that I have learned is don't be greedy. When the stock hits your target, sell it and take the profit. The main problem with daytrading is that you have to spend a lot of capital for smaller gains, which is kind of annoying to get used to also at first. If you're daytrading in a cash account, coordinating funds to avoid good faith violations is also annoying. Margins the pattern rule under $25,000 is the main catch.
If you are considering day trading take a look at options trading. You can do that with much less capital but you do have to understand it. TD Ameritrade has free online classes to get you started.
Thanks for the info! I am not sure I want to spend to a lot of time learning to day trade. I may just do a little swing trading.
Denali Rods
Swinging is fun too. If you do want to try daytrading, you could start out by playing big news events, such as earnings. Listen in on a conference call and know all of your stuff ahead of time, and then flip the run up really quick whenever good numbers are announced. It's risky and tough sometimes, but a lot of fun.
My accounts would be so much better if I had just bought good stocks and held for several years, vs trying to make a quick buck by day trading. IMHO, swing trading is probably the best thing to do in regards to active trading. I day trade but only for fun and a couple bucks here and there. I might go several trades with profit and then several with losses. I'm better at reading a chart and building a position over time.
There are very few successful legitimate day traders. Everyone I have ever seen on social media was a con, or only successful for a short period of time. The good ones, aren't selling anything.
The only one that I think is a successful long time day trader has enough capital to average down his losses to turn trades into gains or break even. Someone who has the ability to adsorb big losses
Thanos was the hero
For a good lesson on day trading look up Dave Portnoy on twitter. I think he founded barstool sports. He just started day trading with a few million. It's hilarious
Thanos was the hero
I laughed watching that. If Boeing was a person the Id punch him in the face. Oh yeah I use margin. The traders were cracking up.Originally Posted by boneil
Not quite a day trade but sold my Chevron today. May have been one of my shortes holding period ever. I think it was about a week
WowNot quite a day trade but sold my Chevron today. May have been one of my shortes holding period ever. I think it was about a week
I looked Dave Portnoy. Too funny! He doesn’t seem to be upset about losing 1 mill. It doesn’t appear he is day trader though. A day trader would have sold around a 1% loss. Or a 1.5-2 % gain. He seems to be a swing trader.
Denali Rods
I day trade, do so every day of the week. I swing trade too and let my financial advisor handle the retirement. There is money to be made but it takes a very hands on approach, like not looking away from the monitor for a second. I lost money in the beginning, by beginning I mean for six months. I was seldom on the plus side of any trade, but I was determined to fight for as long as it took. Took another 23 months just to get back to break even. After that, I took it slow until I got above the PDT rule, another 13 months to get there. A slow, long grind to what is now a 62% success rate.
The way I do it is I minimize my losses, and dont kid yourself, there will be losses. By that I mean a loss as a percentage of my overall portfolio. For instance, you have 100K portfolio, invest 10K in a stock, you lose 10% on the stock and cash out for a 1K loss. However, that 1K is only 1% of your entire portfolio, leaving you 99K to fight another battle. Keep in mind, some of these day traders are winging a 100K at a stock, they get 1% gain, they are gone and onto the next one.
To day trade, and not swing trade, you need volatility...a dangerous game to play, but it can be done. These stocks will move for absolutely no reason, and that move is in both directions. I have three computer monitors, once I go in on a stock, one screen has think or swim, screen two has level 2 quotes, third screen is monitoring all the social media for any news on that one stock. Well, I could blabber on forever after two decades, lessons were hard, victories in the beginning were so few if was deflating.
Advice....paper trade at first and do so for months. Keep a journal, log, something so you can look back. Evaluate why you went in, why you gained or lost, learn from yourself. Swing small, miss small and gain small. Once I got back to break even, my first goal was 50 bucks a day based on a 5 day average...once I met that goal, I moved it up in small increments.
Good luck.
What we cannot obtain from intelligence, we can learn from experience.
Excellent advise.
When do you normally buy and how long do you normally hold?
The majority of my buying happens between 9:30 and 10:30'ish. I have and still do buy in pre-market, but not very often. As far as how long do I hold, my first goal on any stock is 3% to the upside on a 10K buy in, if it crosses 3% I set a stop loss at that price. If it continues to move up, I will follow with stop losses in 2-1/2 to 5% increments, depending on momentum and volume. I will keep doing this until I get stopped out. Most of the stocks I day trade, highly volatile sub $5 stocks, I usually will get stopped out before lunch, sometimes longer. Some days they are moving so fast to the upside I just hit the sell button and move on with anything above 3%, my fear is being a bagholder when it dumps, been there and done that.
On a normal day, for me, it is all over with by noon. I spend the rest of the day doing research for the next day. I do use scanners, low float scanners, volume scanners, momentum scanners, etc.I love twitter for social sentiment because it is instant news. I use stocktwits too, but not to read just to see the social sentiment, positive or negative, and their heat map. Buying attracts more buying, same with selling.
A couple of times a year I hit a homerun, but that is like a unicorn. My current goal is 500 bucks a day over a 5 day average. I will say, compared to day trading, it is easier to have success swing trading...much much easier to chart a swing trade with indicators, macd, ema's, etc., and those stocks move for a reason. A strong, healthy stock with decent daily volume, the chart has a tendency to repeat itself so you know your downside risk. That being said, day trading is a rush for me and I enjoy it, it is an addiction...LOL.
What we cannot obtain from intelligence, we can learn from experience.
It sounds like we like to trade a similar way. I've been using the stop loss strategy that you were talking about and I like that a lot. Swing trading is definitely easier, but there's no rush like you say. How do you handle losses? Do you normally set a stop loss a certain percent under your buy point, or do you just watch it?
This is where I sometimes get burned, but normally, about 90% of the time, I will set a downside stop loss as soon as I buy. As far as a percentage, I usually look at implied volatility and recent momentum, social sentiment and then calculate a downside dollar loss I can tolerate and whatever that it is in percent, so be it. I have this calculated before I purchase.
Now, the other 10% is when I get delusional and just watch.
What we cannot obtain from intelligence, we can learn from experience.
The last part is spot on for when I don't set a stop loss or hold a swing too longThis is where I sometimes get burned, but normally, about 90% of the time, I will set a downside stop loss as soon as I buy. As far as a percentage, I usually look at implied volatility and recent momentum, social sentiment and then calculate a downside dollar loss I can tolerate and whatever that it is in percent, so be it. I have this calculated before I purchase.
Now, the other 10% is when I get delusional and just watch.
Any daytraders, take a look at MITT. There's been some awesome daytrading swings today
If anyone wants to practice virtually, check out OnDemand on TD Ameritrade thinkorswim. I just learned it was a thing, I've never paid attention to it, but it is absolutely awesome.
Also, is there a good way to see P/L on each trade for a day on thinkorswim? I can see the total P/L for each ticker during that day, but I'd like to see short/long and P/L for each buy/sell if possible.
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