Help with day trading

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rtucek

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Hello,
I am not new to trading, but have time now to spend more time on it. I have been trying day trading with inconsistent results. I have allocated a $30,000.00 account for this purpose. My intent was to keep that as my principal and draw off the profits. I use ThinkorSwim as a trading platform and have written many thinkscript studies and strategies that seem to work for a short time and then fail to perform. The drawdown on my account has brought me very close to the $25,000.00 pattern day trading account minimum. Sorry for the long post, but I thought a little history might help.
What I am trying to accomplish is to only trade 3-4 stocks per morning session, preferably from 9:00am to 11:00am cst. I would like to average at least $200.00 per day. I would only need to scalp 1 to 2 % to accomplish this.
If there is anyone with information on any strategies, screeners, stock lists to pull high probability stocks from, services, newsletters or any information at all, it would be greatly appreciated. I am not trying to get rich quick, just earn a few extra bucks to supplement my SS.
Thank you in advance
 
switch back to demo accoubts and find something that works for YOU ......one size does not fit all in trading

you are placing to much pressure on yuorself .......your words are screaming out that every trade matters .........

so go back to basics ...........go live again when you have solidly backtested a system and traded it live on demo for a lot of trades in all market conditions

or you may as well flush the $25k down the toilet now

N
 
You started day trading. I don't know whether you used Future and option in your trade. But these aspects help us to reduce the loss more effectively. You lost more. It's poor result. Try these two in your day trading. Along with these stop-loss is also there. Put the stop-loss if you bought a share or stock in the market. I am doing good with these. You too try it. It will results better.
 
In my opinion, new traders should always avoid day-trading. Find a simple strategy to help you select longer-term trades, learn how to manage losing trades, risk and position size, stop-losses and draw-downs that way, with minimal position size. If you become consistently profitable, increase position size. Don't think about day-trading until you're already a winner.
 
tomorton said:
In my opinion, new traders should always avoid day-trading. Find a simple strategy to help you select longer-term trades, learn how to manage losing trades, risk and position size, stop-losses and draw-downs that way, with minimal position size. If you become consistently profitable, increase position size. Don't think about day-trading until you're already a winner.
Click to expand...


Trading is a battle of traders armed with information (data that affects sentiments). The less information you have the smaller is your edge. In light of this long-term works against you as information inflow may break current sentiments, reverse price etc. You have to stay always on alert to adjust your position in case of important data pops up etc.
I would suggest TS to learn thoroughly the company he bets on. I mean starting from general sentiments (fear/greed) and go into specific details from Twitter important persons to financial analysis data, vendors, buyers of their goods services, i.e. full picture.
 
Hi rtucek,
Welcome to T2W.
rtucek said:
. . . I would like to average at least $200.00 per day. I would only need to scalp 1 to 2 % to accomplish this.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately for you, the market doesn't care what you want. Not only that, but loads of other traders out there want the same, seemingly reasonable, and modest returns that you do. That means that someone somewhere - or lots of people everywhere - will be disappointed. At the moment, you're in the latter camp.

To achieve your goal, you're going to have to develop a trading plan that works in theory first, then works in demo and, finally, is put to the test using the smallest possible amounts of real money. If your current methodology doesn't pass steps 1 and 2, I would advise you stop trading immediately until it does. Otherwise, your account will continue to trickle away. That's not just probable - it's a cast iron guarantee.

rtucek said:
If there is anyone with information on any strategies, screeners, stock lists to pull high probability stocks from, services, newsletters or any information at all, it would be greatly appreciated. I am not trying to get rich quick, just earn a few extra bucks to supplement my SS.
Thank you in advance
Click to expand...
There are any number of stock screeners, strategies and newsletters out there - some of which are very good. However, none of them will be of any use to you at all if you don't have a sound methodology in place. They are merely tools which may make you slightly more efficient, but in no way will any of them ever replace having a proper plan in place. The plan comes first, everything else is subservient to that.

Sorry not to offer a quick fix cookie cutter solution to your problems - but there's a good reason for that: none exists. It will be a long hard slog to achieve your goal which could impact your job, family, friends and any other interests you may have. If you don't have the necessary time to commit to day trading, then I recommend you take the advice offered by others above and develop a swing or position trading approach instead.

Good luck,
Tim.
 
gerryg said:
Trading is a battle of traders armed with information (data that affects sentiments). The less information you have the smaller is your edge. In light of this long-term works against you as information inflow may break current sentiments, reverse price etc. You have to stay always on alert to adjust your position in case of important data pops up etc.
I would suggest TS to learn thoroughly the company he bets on. I mean starting from general sentiments (fear/greed) and go into specific details from Twitter important persons to financial analysis data, vendors, buyers of their goods services, i.e. full picture.
Click to expand...


Well, we differ here. In many roles in life, at work or in a career, the most knowledgable people earn the most money. Think of the professions like doctors, teachers, lawyers etc.

However, in business and the business of managing an organisation, it is the person who takes responsibility (the risk of failure) who earns the most money. So, e.g. the CEO of an engineering company cannot know as much as their engineers about engineering, but he/she takes responsibility for who is going to be recruited or fired, where the company should re-locate, which market to go into, which competitor to target for market share etc. He cannot know the outcome of these issues but he takes responsibility for decisions based on what he does know.

So the information needed for the decision drives the process, not the information available. Knowing more just on its own does not always correlate with a higher income.

In trading, identify what data is needed for the decisions on the trade and just gather that, nothing else. Let your trades drive your research, not vice versa. There's no point being the cleverest poor person with a busted account.
 
Lots of good advice here. Day trading is very hard and you are competing with retail traders with big money to burn on fancy systems and analysis. I would suggest lots of practice paper trading before you burn through your cash day trading.
 
A few ideas to ponder.

1. Have you taken any courses? If you haven't, I suggest you stop right now and do so.
2. Go back to the simulator and backtest your strategies until you start making money consistenly for 1-2 weeks or within 30-50 trades.
3. You can open a forex account with a few bucks and push a few buttons risking literally pennies on a trade.
4. Get the hang of things and preserve your capital before moving to other instrument classes like equities and futures.
 
If trading stocks then make sure you're trading the most liquid ones I.e. those with the most volume. So I'm guessing that's google and amazon amongst others.

And here's the thing. You only need to trade one stock to be successful. Obviously have other related markets displayed to know whether the market in general is selling off, but one liquid market is all you need. Look up volume profile and how to use it.

And finally and most importantly, trade against trapped traders. These can be identified at major swing highs and lows where price reverses. People trade the breakouts and get caught out.

Then learn to trade the trend that occurs after these trapped traders are forced to exit their positions.
 
Always try to do Daily Candle stick trading thus you will avoid false trend of the market and will be in the majority of the traders of the World.
 
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