Any daytraders here?

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I've been trading futures for the past two months and had been earning a little bit of income scalping for small profits on each trade. Unfortunately, the vast majority of my profits were wiped out yesterday morning as I stubbornly held onto losing positions which kept going against me, doubling down, and not taking profits as the market did manage a few reaction rallies in my favor. I got greedy. Takes a lot of hard work and energy and time to grind my way to profitability(sometimes from 2 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon), but takes a matter of minutes (half hour to an hour yesterday) to screw up. Too emotional. Now i am paralyzed and am afraid to trade. I thought I had found a way out of my hell hole life. Same old failure as usual in my 4 decades on this earth.

My boyfriend is thinking about getting into this. We're still wondering if it's worthwhile.

I do no day trade but I follow my stocks on a daily basis. Some people might argue that selling and buying stocks every day creates a lot of transaction fees that eat up profit over a long term basis. Stocks trading should not be looked on as a career unless your working for an institution or other people's money. It should be looked at as a way of preserving and gaining a small % over a year.

The difference between investing and gambling is very fine in the stock market and many people cross it with out even realizing it until they are too late.

I've tried day trading... Didn't work out too well. I made back the money I lost and then some more to taxes... Super confusing. What I do now that works is copy Berkshire Hathaway's stock transaction and its been working. I made a good chunk of money on the Burlington Northern buyout.

What I found more profitable is buying foreclosed properties and turning them into rentals. Thats my two bits!

I have family members who do it. They scratch out $500-600 a day on $30,000 trades ("Dont buy a few hundred, you need to buy several thousand shares"). For me, the risk is too high and the gains too few.

As a previous poster stated, income from distressed / rental properties can be done also. Plus it's a way of being able to walk away (for the most part of a year/month) and not having to worry about the market or economic conditions.

But to each their own.

MACD, Elliot Wave, etc. The learning curve is harsh and steep.

DO NOT DAY TRADE.

If you care about your financial wellbeing, do not day trade. Most day traders actually exchange the possibility of tiny gains for the probability of massive losses. Although it may be likely for them to make those small gains, the large losses are inevitable. Time and again, in practically all markets, day traders get suckered in and then wiped out. All of the “tools” like MACD charts or Elliot Waves or weird non-geometrical triangles et cetera are simply a means to feed your active imagination. You see what you want to see and end up acting on adrenaline fueled bravado.

The problem with losing money is that it actually fuels the need to keep trading. Like the gambling addict who knows that Vegas is bad for them, day traders will go to extremes to feed their trading needs. Give yourself some space and stay away from the market. Observe yourself carefully and take note of how it feels to bear the loss and then to shut out the stimuli from the trading screens. As you parse out the complex emotions, you might just see how emotionally charged and irrational you have become.

I work part-time in financial communications, and strongly advise anyone away from day trading. Especially derivatives. Those traders are very rich and very sophisticated.

As someone with financial experience I would not recommend day trading, though I have actually been reasonably successful with it. The taxes on capital gains are brutal, and the fees of the brokers really add up if you don't make good picks. It's better just to get a job and put some of the savings into good safe stocks that have a moat and stick with those stocks through the rough patches. Generally that is a lot better than just leaving it in a bank account. Play long term.

I just started working for a hedge fund.. my boss (the fund manager) was a former day trader during the 90s and early 2000s.. Although he made some money, he still strongly discourages the practice since his returns were so unpredictable (he'd maybe have several winning days in a row only for it all to be erased the next day when the market went against him for no rational reason.

If you're interested in short term trading, try learning swing trading instead (holding positions for a few days to a few weeks.) You may not get such stellar returns but your profits will be more consistent once you get good..

Also, pay very close attention when you repurchase a stock you sold due to a loss (b/c of the wash rule, you won't be able to deduct the loss on taxes if you repurchase too soon.)

I advocate swing and position trading in commodity futures. The emotional aspect is difficult to control. I traded for seven years on a shoestring budget before being wiped out by what was an unforgivable lapse in discipline. (Slept through one and a half trading sessions while way ahead but with a very loose stop; lost it all back and then some.)
I was undercapitalized and, until my error, was doing better than most novice traders (90% get wiped out in their first year). I would love to get back in but I don't see ever having my financial s**t together AND twenty grand of risk capital on top of that. Getting back in with less than that would be another crapshoot, which I don't want.

I'm currently training in all this and the following is NOT expert advice. I'm just commenting on an approach that might suit Aspies more than NTs in a general way.

I find this work suits me as an Aspie if I take a Technical Analysis approach (over fundamental analysis) and use a mechanical trading system with bare minimum indicators. Taking medium to long-term positions work better for me since I don't want to be glued to the monitor all day. Also, the temptation to overtrade is diminished.

Setting stop losses are a must on every trade to protect your profits and position sizes to protect your portfolio. Expect more losses than wins. The thing to remember is that you minimize the losses and maximize the wins. Still, this is psychologically painful for most. Mark Douglas addresses the successful trader's disciplined approach, psychology and emotions in his book, Trading in the Zone

A trading plan should be in place with your position size rules and portfolio heat max. This setup appeals to me because I trade when the indicators dictate a buy or sell. It's robotic. Your stops limit your losses while you let your profits run. I don't rely on instinct, business gossip, financial news, etc. I like the solitary work as well.

The biggest thing is to conquer fear, greed, etc and trust the numbers which I find easy as an Aspie.

These trading approaches seem to be popular with people who trade Futures, CFDs, Forex, and shares.

For what it's worth, I found a couple of books helpful as a newbie. These two are Australia-based:

Smart Trading Plans by Justine Pollard and Real Traders - Real Lives - Real Money by Eva Diaz. Each book recommends other books.

I liked Curtis Faith's Turtle books, but found Justine's to be immediately applicable.

I got the idea that private trading might be a good fit for Aspies when I read Michael Lewis' The Big Short. He talks about Michael Burry who was diagnosed with Asperger's in adulthood. He's not a savant. He just puts in the diligence to learn the trade -- it's a special interest.

i just today read about Micheal Lewis. he is a great guy.

My suggestion:
1. when everyone tells you not to do something cause it don't work and they or some one they know tried it failed. and you know that people out there are making money off it understand that you will have to do something very different to succeed.

2 Do it. you can try paper trading without money try thinkorswim free download to practice. people you think are good at it and post on sites about it actually either are just repeating what useless books are saying or just posting and helping people instead of trading hoping in the back of there mind you'll pay for their info.

3 find some one real you can talk to even with no experience to double your learning power.

4 learn on your own to start once you develop an idea only then find out what the term of what you learnt is and search it on the web. this will give you a fresh out look and also encourage you to develop new ideas keeping you away from the 99% of useless info that is out there.

5. understand that it will probably end up being a gamble. the idea is to find a strategy that works more often then it fails.

6 dont let people convice you that you can only make 1 % a day if your lucky. Get that out of your head. you can get what ever you want if you are willing to figure it out but to figure out how to get 30% a day my require alot of reseach and you probably wont study the fields needed deep enough to get there. BUT IT IS POSSIBLE TO MAKE 30%!

i am not close to making 30% a day and wont be ever probably.

use negative cirtisism as your fuel.

study and practice atleast 12 hours a day

dont go on the net or forums for advice, you will notice they will get you to use a system but that for some reason even if you are willing to do everything they do you will not be able to duplicate their work.

devote your life to making alot of money

and understand that their is nothing wrong with gambling if you know you the odds are in your favor and what kinda of loosing streak you can have. people play poker and make money over the long run. where 90% of players loose. its the same thing

I do not know much about trading. However, do not get disappointed and give up easily. You may be the best trader or have the potential to be a great trader. Yet, there are explicit considerations that you have to take into account. To name a few, make sure that you have done your research and have a solid understanding of whatever you are trading ( stocks, forex, futures ). Have an inflexible proven strategy with rigid take profit and stop loss in place. Trading is neither a game to win nor a gamble, but rather it should be treated as a business. Practice and practise on a demo account for a few months till you develop the right strategy with consistent results before jumping into a live account. Research and learn consistently and scale in your trades. Start with a small position, and if it goes your way, then add to it... Find out what kind of trading suits you the best, scalping, intraday, swing trading and so on. Do not forget trading with the trade is the most powerful chance most traders will ever have to make money. Consider learning price action trading the best that you can. I am sure that you could make it happen and do not let emotions ruin your chance of success. No trader will benefit from every single trade. That's why stop loss and take profit are very important to follow rigidly without exceptions, no soft or mental stop loss or take profit should be considered. Good luck

Daytrading is not worth it for 99% of people.

There are millionaires and billionaires who have computer programs, bots and hired employees helping them manage their funds. As a beginner, you can't expect to compete against them.

Daytrading is how many people lose their money; it only takes 1 bad decision to get lots of your wealth wiped.

I was thinking about trying it last year, but I don't think I'd be able to wrap my brain around all the ins and outs of it.