New to Trading, looking for advice

[DanielJB]

I have been day-trading U.S equities for about five months and am having some difficulty breaking out of a range. I have not made money yet, but instead have fluctuated between my principal balance and five percent down. After a string of losses, I began trading small positions in an attempt to improve my strategy while mitigating my risk. I gained some confidence after doing this for a month or so, and since the new year I have been opening what I consider full position sizes for my account. Regrettably the past few weeks have not gone well and I am hovering dangerously close to five percent down.

I am working with a sufficient account (greater than 50,000.00) and I have been focusing on momentum stock, such as AMZN, BIDU, WYNN, NFLX, etc. I use TradeStation and as indicators I focus on Volume significantly breaking above a 4 period average and OBV Volume crossovers (1,4). Additionally, I am aware of support and resistance lines and some candlestick patters. My goal with this approach is to catch intra-day trends after the opening range (first 15 min to half hour), and potentially intra-day reversals.

I have had difficulty with risk management, as I set a .5 stop and have been stopped out repeatedly to see the trade work a half hour later. Additionally, with losses such as these I grow defensive and make the mistake of taking a small profit too early.

I know these are typical trading issues, but I am just wondering if anyone has advice for a beginning trader. I am not really sure how long it typically takes to become profitable. Also, would I be better off with a different trading approach, or in trading other markets? Should I add another indicator to my system?

Thanks, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Rhody Trader]

The immediate thing I would say is to consider not using a fixed stop, but rather one that is more determined by market volatility. Chances are you are getting stopped out so frequently because your stop is too tight for market conditions.

 

[intradaybill]

You can try 2 x ATR to start with.

 

[Bint_Crusher]

You could also try no stop but I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[DanielJB]

Yeah I think I am going to stick with a stop. I am thinking of trying the 1 x ATR based on my five min charts as my stop for now. I'm trying to limit my losses, but I also do not want to continually miss winning trades because my stop is too tight. I think as a minimum though ill stick with the .5 even if the ATR is less than that. I'm going to backtest this weekend and try to get an idea if this makes sense.

 

[Bint_Crusher]

Another thing with tight stops is that the price can gap past it and your stop loss order might not get filled at that price resulting in potentially greater losses.

 

[fayalac]

I would say that you have two problems. A tight stop and you dont seem to use a limit.
You can change the value for your stop and use a limit. Everything seems to on the right track except for those two details.
Good luck.