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Lucky So Far...


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Lucky So Far...

  #1 (permalink)
LuckyTrader
Santa Clara, CA
 
Posts: 7 since Jul 2014
Thanks Given: 29
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Hi All!

I'm new to day trading. I'm a stay at home mom and I've been day trading for a few weeks using TD Ameritrade PaperMoney software. I have a BA in accountancy so I took a few finance courses in college but I'm still kind of lost when it comes to trading terminology, Investopedia has been my BFF as of late.

Anyway, I've been having what I consider to be a lot of success, averaging about $600/day in net profit (really, I'm averaging $600/day in realized gains but I'm not sure what the correct terminology is here ((and again I'm only using paper money so far and not the real stuff, I'm conservative but dang, I'm thinking about using my own moolah pretty soon here since I feel like I'm making decent fake money doing this!)). So while I'm making (fake) money pretty consistently I don't really know what I'm doing. I've been making my own averages and just using a consistent but conservative set of rules when buying and selling but everything says that day trading is supposed to be really difficult but it hasn't been for me, yet. It's actually been really exciting and fun and easy (that's not to say that I haven't made mistakes, I bought WAY too high after Amazon released their crappy Fire phone and I sold way too early with GoPro yesterday). So maybe I've just been super lucky so far, maybe $600/day is chump change and it's just wowing me or I don't know what's going on.

Soo….I'm thinking I need some formal education because I don't have a trading background. Any opinions on day trading schools? What is the best, what should I stay away from, are there legit free ways to learn about charting?

TIA!!

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  #3 (permalink)
 kevinkdog   is a Vendor
 
Posts: 3,645 since Jul 2012
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Don't pay for education at this point. Read all you can on the internet, attend all the free webinars you can, borrow every trading book you can find at your local library or university. Do this about 3-6 months, just trying to take in the knowledge you can. Make no judgment about what you read - just try to absorb the information.

After that research phase, you'll be able to make some smart decisions about what pay material is good, what is junk, etc. You'll see that most of what is out there for sale is garbage, or just repackaged stuff you can find for free.

Another route you could take (possibly concurrently) is to trade with real money, but a very small amount. If you lose, just consider it education "tuition." You won't learn chart patterns, etc. from this exercise, but you will learn a whole lot about your emotions, your psychology, fear, greed, hope and a whole host of other things.

Good Luck!

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  #4 (permalink)
LuckyTrader
Santa Clara, CA
 
Posts: 7 since Jul 2014
Thanks Given: 29
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kevinkdog View Post
Another route you could take (possibly concurrently) is to trade with real money, but a very small amount. If you lose, just consider it education "tuition." You won't learn chart patterns, etc. from this exercise, but you will learn a whole lot about your emotions, your psychology, fear, greed, hope and a whole host of other things.

Thank you! I'm definitely learning the emotional side of it. Even though it's paper money I still get a high from a high gain day or anxiety from a big (unrealized) loss day. I'm currently trading a tiny amount of money, a thousand dollars, with penny stocks and that's fine. The risk isn't very great there but it's difficult to watch my paper money and live accounts at the same time so everyday I just put in an order to sell the penny stock when it hits a certain price point and walk away from it…which isn't really day trading at all.

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  #5 (permalink)
Turveyd
Birmingham UK
 
Posts: 336 since May 2014
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Keep doing what your doing if it's working, trading is hard cause we over think it.

Woman suffer less from fear and greed of real money so maybe you'll be fine, start off with a small account you can afford to lose then increase it if it all goes well.

I'm a demo rockstar but fall apart with real money, we'll did at first!

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  #6 (permalink)
 Underexposed 
Calgary Alberta/Canada
 
Posts: 934 since Feb 2014


LuckyTrader View Post
Thank you! I'm definitely learning the emotional side of it. Even though it's paper money I still get a high from a high gain day or anxiety from a big (unrealized) loss day. I'm currently trading a tiny amount of money, a thousand dollars, with penny stocks and that's fine. The risk isn't very great there but it's difficult to watch my paper money and live accounts at the same time so everyday I just put in an order to sell the penny stock when it hits a certain price point and walk away from it…which isn't really day trading at all.

I would caution you on what you are doing.

First of all, you admit that you do not have a plan.
Second, you are playing with the most risky class of stock, Pennies...I assume it is the bad pennies (that is the cheap ones ....Don't even think of sub-penny stocks....those are 95% scams and they love fresh bait like you.
Third, you are setting a sell order and walk away from it .... that is a recipe for disaster.

This is not a great way develop a trading style....luck does not last forever

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  #7 (permalink)
LuckyTrader
Santa Clara, CA
 
Posts: 7 since Jul 2014
Thanks Given: 29
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From reading some threads on here last night I feel like a HUGE part of successful investing is being able to 1. Understand your emotions and then 2. Make healthy decisions despite your emotions.

Well, I'm very conservative in that I don't react I respond. I do feel anxiety when I see a loss, but I would never dream of acting on that anxiety. Problem is that the concept of a STOP is new to me and I still don't understand how to place one on an order. I order with limits exclusively though.

I don't usually do penny stocks. I pretty much stick with stocks with large market cap (well into the billions), big volume, and a good recurring daily spread in price deviation, and I try to keep each order at or under $10,000 - Amazon is the exception to this rule, and Tesla. Twitter has been my darling and gives me a yield of $120 - $300 a day.

I read about daily price pivots and it's basically the strategy that I use but I didn't realize I was using a strategy until I read about it and said "hey! That's what I do!"

My original plan was to make $120/day because $120 seems pretty darn decent compared ton the $0 that I currently make. And this is not meant to really be income because I'm lucky in that I don't need to work, but it sure would be nice to bring in an extra $600/day in REAL money for a vacation home!

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  #8 (permalink)
 
Scalpingtrader's Avatar
 Scalpingtrader 
Hanover, Germany
Legendary Amateur Trader
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: NinjaTrader
Trading: ES
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especially with pennystocks, only having 1.000$ in the account, doesn't mean you can only lose so much.
Make sure you understand this statement and the mechanics behind how that can be.

If you dont, stop trading real money - it's like driving a truck without a license then.

Other than that I wish all the best for you!

Good Luck and trade well,

ST

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  #9 (permalink)
 
Fritzk's Avatar
 Fritzk 
North America
 
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If you haven't read this already, start here.


Head up and keep your stick on the ice!
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  #10 (permalink)
LuckyTrader
Santa Clara, CA
 
Posts: 7 since Jul 2014
Thanks Given: 29
Thanks Received: 0



Scalpingtrader View Post
especially with pennystocks, only having 1.000$ in the account, doesn't mean you can only lose so much.
Make sure you understand this statement and the mechanics behind how that can happen.

ST

I don't understand. Beyond losing the initial investment and then paying commissions on top of that... Can you point me to the place to find the answer to this or give me a hint? Thank you!

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Last Updated on July 2, 2014


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