Day trading

[Paradox]

Is there anyone here making a living daytrading?

To daytraders:

How do you find your stocks?

How much do you have invested?

Do you use special software for trading?

What service do you use (charles schwab, e-trade...)?

 

[SmoothTalker]

No but my dad did full time for a while before. Worked pretty well until the economic **** really hit the fan. Of course day traders can make money in either direction, but things just became way to unstable and unpredictable.

 

[STR8UP]

Man, you gotta have nerves of steel to sling $50k around every couple of minutes or seconds. I did it for awhile and couldn't handle it. Definitely a rush though!

 

[Gaucho]

Is there anyone here making a living daytrading?

To daytraders:

How do you find your stocks?

How much do you have invested?

Do you use special software for trading?

What service do you use (charles schwab, e-trade...)?

Don't even bother until you are going to dedicate years of your life too it or you will end up like Smooth Talkers dad.

The financial crisis was FREE MONEY to good day traders. Actual professionals, not just amateur mums and dads who were 'trading' a bull market. Knew plenty of them who used to love bragging, unfortunately, the fact they had no idea what they were doing finally came to light.

Your safest bet is probably scalping if you are going to learn and is what most professionals use. This way, you can scalp futures, with smaller risk and still maintain huge leverage. You can do so through IB (Interactive Brokers) which provides the fastest execution and cheapest brokerage for a retail trader, but you will still get OWNED by legitimate (not the bum) prop traders who use TT (Trading Technologies, an execution platform). Unless you become extremelly good, then IB will do fine.

For charting, most professionals use CQG, but a package like E-signal will do just as well. But to scalp the DOM (Depth of Market or otherwise known as the Price Ladder), is the most important thing to master, learning to read the flow of price action.

Used to have guys like WutangFinancial around here, who really had no clue about trading, was going to run his own hedge fund, had many offers to work at Prop firms, but really was too arrogant in his quant analysis to understand how most guys make $$$ in the markets.

BibleBelt maybe able to add his piece, he has done this for a living before.

I have been doing it for a living for a while now and work with some of the biggest traders on the planet, it's no game, it's serious business, so if you are going to learn it, it's not easy and takes your time, dedication, soul and mental preperation and ability. Don't take it lightly.

 

[SmoothTalker]

I don't think that was really called for Gaucho. I didn't say my dad got cleaned out or doesn't know what he's doing, it was just getting too stressful to do full time so he went back to consulting work. Keep in mind, I'm sure your perspective on stress and risk tolerance will change when you're twice your current age.

 

[speakeasy]

Don't even bother until you are going to dedicate years of your life too it or you will end up like Smooth Talkers dad.

The financial crisis was FREE MONEY to good day traders. Actual professionals, not just amateur mums and dads who were 'trading' a bull market. Knew plenty of them who used to love bragging, unfortunately, the fact they had no idea what they were doing finally came to light.

Your safest bet is probably scalping if you are going to learn and is what most professionals use. This way, you can scalp futures, with smaller risk and still maintain huge leverage. You can do so through IB (Interactive Brokers) which provides the fastest execution and cheapest brokerage for a retail trader, but you will still get OWNED by legitimate (not the bum) prop traders who use TT (Trading Technologies, an execution platform). Unless you become extremelly good, then IB will do fine.

For charting, most professionals use CQG, but a package like E-signal will do just as well. But to scalp the DOM (Depth of Market or otherwise known as the Price Ladder), is the most important thing to master, learning to read the flow of price action.

Used to have guys like WutangFinancial around here, who really had no clue about trading, was going to run his own hedge fund, had many offers to work at Prop firms, but really was too arrogant in his quant analysis to understand how most guys make $$$ in the markets.

BibleBelt maybe able to add his piece, he has done this for a living before.

I have been doing it for a living for a while now and work with some of the biggest traders on the planet, it's no game, it's serious business, so if you are going to learn it, it's not easy and takes your time, dedication, soul and mental preperation and ability. Don't take it lightly.

This just made my head spin. Is there a day trading for dummies book out there?

 

[Gaucho]

I don't think that was really called for Gaucho. I didn't say my dad got cleaned out or doesn't know what he's doing, it was just getting too stressful to do full time so he went back to consulting work. Keep in mind, I'm sure your perspective on stress and risk tolerance will change when you're twice your current age.

I used your dad example because it is the blatant truth. When they say 90% of traders loose, it is no joke. Many will claim they have an edge, and most will be lying. If they have an edge, they should not be overly stressed, it will only take time for their positive expectancy to come to light.

If your dad was a professional day trader, he would have been in heaven, not stress, over the financial crisis.

Volatility and volume to dream of!

Speakeasy, that's my point, learning about day trading is a career, not a hobby. Learning the terminology alone takes time, but finding an edge, is a HUGE task.

 

[Bible_Belt]

BibleBelt maybe able to add his piece, he has done this for a living before.


Yeah, for a few years for prop companies that kept folding. I always had an account that was positive, but I never really made a lot of money for myself. Back when I traded, it was a frat house atmosphere. We played a lot of foosball, and the beer was usually flowing before the 4:00 close. More recently, I did scrape up my own account, but I found that it was not very much fun to sit at home alone and obsess over numbers on computer screens. I could probably eke out a living at it, but it's just not what I want to be doing any more. My hat is off to you, Gaucho, if you are doing well. I know it is not easy.

For Paradox, here is a good book about day trading the modern financial marketplace:
http://www.trading-naked.com/library/jesse_livermore.pdf

 

[Gaucho]

Yeh, the atmosphere as a trader in a Prop shop is fantastic!

Watch sports all day and play computer games against eachother. Go to the beach or paintball other days when the market is quiet.

Can't say we are allowed beer though!

Personally, can't say I could scrape out much of a living with my current style at home, need the lightening fast connectivity as a scalper. Unfortunately.

 

[OzyBoy]

I am trading forex but not for a living though, just a part time thing i'm doing at the moment. I am not making too much at the moment because of small lot sizes(to reduce risk) and i am still learning but one day i would like to do it for a living. Imagine it working at home and making like one hundred grand a month. :rockon:

 

[Teflon_Mcgee]

What's the education route for trading?
Or for making money in the market in general.

I own a library of books and have advanced quantitive skills but I still feel clueless about most stuff.

What classes/areas of study or legit resources are there to learn?

 

[Paradox]

Wow, I didn't realize it was so involved. I opened a trading account and I made 2 quick trades on my account. I bought palm at $5.55 and sold at $6.22. I bought Sprint/Nextel at $2.23 and sold at $2.38.

I made a little cash and I thought to myself "How hard can this be?" but now I see it's pretty intense.

I found that it was not very much fun to sit at home alone and obsess over numbers on computer screens.

Now that I think about it I probably don't want to do that all day either. Thanks for the link Bible_belt!

Here is your book link speakeasy Day Trading For Dummies

 

[AAAgent]

i was learning as much as a could about trading in general and watching the markets every move and trends. did that everyday and watched news that woudl affect the market. i was really involved in the market and i barely had 3k in it. i really wanted to learn so i could make money but it just takes too much time if your trying to do it part time because ti requires alot of research. I know good buys out there are mos/pot/ and any of the solid companies out there like mcd's, aapl, ko,pep, and visa.

 

[Alle_Gory]

Man, you gotta have nerves of steel to sling $50k around every couple of minutes or seconds. I did it for awhile and couldn't handle it. Definitely a rush though!

You were risking your entire account on a movement??

 

[STR8UP]

You were risking your entire account on a movement??

Things might have changed since I was in the game, but generally you traded 1000 share blocks of stock on margin. trading lower quantities isn't worth it. So say you bought a block of 1000 shares at $80 each, you would be risking $40k of your money.

That's how it worked back then.

 

[Wiesman44]

I don't think that was really called for Gaucho. I didn't say my dad got cleaned out or doesn't know what he's doing, it was just getting too stressful to do full time so he went back to consulting work. Keep in mind, I'm sure your perspective on stress and risk tolerance will change when you're twice your current age.

I trade futures for a living. ES is what I specialize in.

Your dad was a terrible trader. he didnt want to tell u that he lost his a$$. When the market was hitting the crapper in sept, oct, november every good trader was making a killing. With that kind of volatility, all you had to do was scale down your size, and scalpe for seconds. The price patterns were easy too. Plenty of failures and reversals going on.

Frankily, its when the market is doing well, is the time when most traders fail out b/c there is no volatility.

And to the OP, don't even bother. Trading is very easy to get into, people see big $ signs, but hard to make $ from.

 

[Alle_Gory]

Things might have changed since I was in the game, but generally you traded 1000 share blocks of stock on margin. trading lower quantities isn't worth it. So say you bought a block of 1000 shares at $80 each, you would be risking $40k of your money.

That's how it worked back then.

Current mantra is to keep margins low to avoid a call, and don't risk your entire account.

 

[SmoothTalker]

Funny, guess I didn't know that scalping was THE ONLY and I mean ****ing ONLY day trading strategy. I am sure you also know more about my family's financial situation than I would (what, no doubt your psychic powers are better than my observation of family that I am very close to), and I'm sure the reason my parents are looking to buy a bigger house now that prices are coming down, going on a nice vacation this month, and still looking to retire in 5 years is because he 'lost his ass' this fall.

I'm not going to argue about this **** on the internet, but you guys are off the mark. If what you're doing works for you, good for you, enjoy. And I guess you're proof that money doesn't get girls since you're all such mindblowingly good day traders and yet here you are.

 

[Amazing]

I traded for myself since college, so a few years now.

Like you I asked "how do you know what to invest in?!" and basically what I can tell you now is - I have a list of 15-20 stocks that I look at over a period of time 3-4 weeks before I decide what to do. Sometimes longer. Out of those I invested in 5 or 6 over the last years. I tended to stick to same stocks and buy when they are low sell when they went up.

I would not recommend sitting and holding - IMO that is a stupid idea

My second year trading I lost 30% of portfolio in one day, should have had stop loss in. It took me until a month ago to get that back (if you do the math you have to make 60% back to get back to starting point) What I did instead was throw more money in, and make 15% on that getting me back.

I majored in finance, and I can tell you I do not want to do this for a living. Sitting in front of a PC looking every sec at tics is no way to spend your life.

And definitely check out this book, it is pure gold. http://leveragedsellout.com/

Also, after the crisis, IB jobs are nothing to be elitist about IMO.

 

[Wiesman44]

Funny, guess I didn't know that scalping was THE ONLY and I mean ****ing ONLY day trading strategy. I am sure you also know more about my family's financial situation than I would (what, no doubt your psychic powers are better than my observation of family that I am very close to), and I'm sure the reason my parents are looking to buy a bigger house now that prices are coming down, going on a nice vacation this month, and still looking to retire in 5 years is because he 'lost his ass' this fall.

I'm not going to argue about this **** on the internet, but you guys are off the mark. If what you're doing works for you, good for you, enjoy. And I guess you're proof that money doesn't get girls since you're all such mindblowingly good day traders and yet here you are.

you're impossible to talk to. Nobody said scalping was the only strategy. Perhaps 'losing his ass' was the wrong word. He probably lost more than he was willing to risk. W/ a mortgage and a family to support he did the right thing. Very few can make a living off trading.