Few months as a Day Trader

[Xternity]

So lets start this of with apologizing for my grammar. English is my second language and I moved to USA when I was 12. Im 23 years old and all my life I knew working for someone is not my thing. Every job that I tried I had been worked like a horse and simply never appreciated. I never been fired always just quit on my own terms.My whole life I been telling my parents I need to be my own boss. When I decided to quit working for my father and at the time working almost 90hours a week. My only way to get out of that job was to promise getting into something better. I decided to jump into a real estate in NYC. I did all my hours but half way through it, I started to hate it and then i simply failed the state exam. Deep down I think i only did this to get out of working for my father.

As soon as all that happened I went on vacation to Europe with my family, lets just say I partied pretty hard. All of this took 2 weeks and the party didn't stop when I came back home. I came into a sort of a depression. I noticed that I'm 23 and reality hit me. That same weekend I decided to party for the last time. I partied so hard I ended up getting a little heart attack. To me that was the biggest wake up call ever. Not many people know this happened to me only close friends, my family never found out. Since February I haven't had a sip of alcohol and haven't even partied. I knew I needed to do something about my life. I never wanted to go back and work for someone again. For some unknown reason I decided to get into trading. I tried little bit of it in college and kind of though I have an idea of whats going on. Making a long story short I decided to paper trade. Out of nowhere the success of that, got me out of depression and put my ass back in the gym. I finally thought to myself I have my calling in life. I was able to make steady $500 a day with just using 30k of paper trade money. I think I only had one loosing day through out the whole month. After that first month I broke the news to my parents telling them this is what I need to try. I had some money saved ended up selling my car and my motorcycle which was my private enjoy. My account balance came to $31,400 when I put it all together.

I'm not gonna get into details of how my parents weren't really happy with what I was doing. My mom has her own business and some of her customers lost a lot of money on the stock market. My confidence from paper trading and just the idea of being my own boss was so high that my parents at the end were like " You know what if this is what you want, just go for it" I remember my first day of trading April 24 I was so excited but ended up loosing $200. I wasn't thinking much of it I knew this happens. Since then I had my ups and downs. My best day so far was 7 days without loosing any money. Today my accoundt is at $26,129. I lost little over $3,000 today on a stupid little mistake that should of been avoided. I'm not gonna lie I'm pretty bummed out. I think I'm writing this just to talk about how unpredictable the life can be.In the past weeks I learned about the stock market how manipulated it really is. Sometimes I feel like every time I get in a stock, it just begins to drop like it knows I'm in it. I know this is just the beginning and I'm not giving up, tomorrow is another day. I put everything to the side partying drinking and socializing. Literally all i do is trading stocks and going to the gym.I hope sacrificing this will pay off. My only worry is that life needs balance and I define happiness by the amount of money I have. I have a great family, my friends are awesome. I'm very healthy and I'm in the best shape of my life. With money my life would be too perfect. In life we cant have everything and sometimes, I think being wealthy on my own may not ever happen with keeping all the good things life threw at me.

If you guys want me to write more about how I trade etc. Let me know!

Sorry for my Boring Rant...

 

[tomorton]

I really appreciate the honesty. Trading is a game against yourself, not against the market, no matter how dishonest it is / appears to be, 'they' are not your opponent, you are.

Work at the trading. When you're consistently profitable without stupid levels of risk, that's the time to think about how you want to enjoy your life. And it might take so long by the time you get there you'll want different things from life anyway. So be it, I say, life's a journey and you can never walk the same stretch of road twice.

A most interesting rant. good luck.

 

[Xternity]

I really appreciate the honesty. Trading is a game against yourself, not against the market, no matter how dishonest it is / appears to be, 'they' are not your opponent, you are.

Work at the trading. When you're consistently profitable without stupid levels of risk, that's the time to think about how you want to enjoy your life. And it might take so long by the time you get there you'll want different things from life anyway. So be it, I say, life's a journey and you can never walk the same stretch of road twice.

A most interesting rant. good luck.

Thank you for the response! I feel like its not about the knowledge about the stock market, its more about making the right call and controlling your emotions. No one knows if the price will go up or down. I saw few stocks literally tank on great news. It doesn't make sense but its true. Hopefully with time I will be able to make enough of money to be able to invest into other things. For me Stocks is a way to expand into other businesses.

 

[counter_violent]

Thank you for the response! I feel like its not about the knowledge about the stock market, its more about making the right call and controlling your emotions. No one knows if the price will go up or down. I saw few stocks literally tank on great news. It doesn't make sense but its true. Hopefully with time I will be able to make enough of money to be able to invest into other things. For me Stocks is a way to expand into other businesses.

The best piece of advice I can offer is to keep stakes small relative to acct size....this is a marathon not a sprint. Reduce all your living costs to the bare minimum and reward yourself when you stay disciplined and profitable. First rule of trading is to maintain your capital. No capital and you go back to work.

 

[Xternity]

The best piece of advice I can offer is to keep stakes small relative to acct size....this is a marathon not a sprint. Reduce all your living costs to the bare minimum and reward yourself when you stay disciplined and profitable. First rule of trading is to maintain your capital. No capital and you go back to work.

You are correct, it took some time to realize this is a marathon and not a sprint! Very wise!

 

[options-george]

I would recommend that you try to find a mentor or somebody who has been trading for a long time already. This will increase the chance that you will make it as a trader, as they can shorten your learning curve.

And there's also a lot of good material on this forum!

Good luck

 

[arigoldman]

Thank you for being honest. Now, if i can be honest with you, i wanna say that i think you're kind of missing the point. To be focused on making money only means that you don't appreciate the game, you don't respect it and you are missing the most important thing - you should trade to win, not to make money. If it's only about making money, you have a greater chance to fail. Your mindset means everything. If you focus on playing the game and winning, then will you see success. Don't wait to be rich to be happy. Happy is free. My 2 cents.

 

[alexaherself]

Sorry for my Boring Rant...

It was interesting, not boring.

And welcome to the forum. I think CounterViolent gave you the key advice, just above. Your primary responsibility, every day you sit down to trade, is to be able to sit down again the next morning and trade again: successful trading is mostly about capital-preservation and loss-control, not so much about profit-maximisation.

 

[NVP]

hey dude

ok - thanks for laying it on the line..........that takes guts in a forum

you are clearly open and honest and ready to learn .......you are ambitious and want to work hard ..all positives

now stand by for the home truths

this is a hell of a business to try ..........the rewards are there but there are many many easier ways to make a living ............its brutal

you seriously sold up everything to trade after just 1 month of practice ? - seriously ?

ok - I suggest you

1) get a day job to supplement your income
2) spend 6m to a year researching the business of trading
3) find a niche in that time and work on your edge
4) demo demo demo for months
5) go to live trading on small microlots - for months

until you are consistent month in month out don't raise the stakes ........think of it that you will trade for the rest of your life.........that allows you to be realistic re goals and building that income

good luck :smart:
N

 

[NVP]

Thank you for the response! I feel like its not about the knowledge about the stock market, its more about making the right call and controlling your emotions. No one knows if the price will go up or down. I saw few stocks literally tank on great news. It doesn't make sense but its true. Hopefully with time I will be able to make enough of money to be able to invest into other things. For me Stocks is a way to expand into other businesses.

can you expand on this ?...........what are those businesses ?....trading is trading ......its a lifetime vocation......perhaps you don't need to take the time / pain of trading to get to these businesses you want to do first ?

if you trade poorly then those businesses will never get off the ground ?

believe me ...once trader always a trader ......

N

 

[peakoil]

Dear OP, re this comment "I learned about the stock market how manipulated it really is."

From experience, and from all available evidence I definitely can't agree with you.

In other words, and with no disrespect, please reconsider what you've said there! The stock market as a whole couldn't possibly be manipulated by any one entity, nor by even a few participants, acting in consort. It's just too big, in its vast entirety, and too much money would be required for anything like that! Moreover, when you write that you've learned how the stock market is [sic] manipulated - it just reads, to the rest of us, like you're likely looking to find an excuse for any of your losses. you have to learn from your mistakes. So please get over thinking like that, and learn that the stock market as a whole is definitely not manipulated. That is, don't look for external excuses for any loss you make - simply look to yourself - because you are the only person who can change your ways to profit from the market. If ever you find yourself blaming anything external (e.g. manipulation) for your own losses, then it's time to take a break from it all, and reconsider. Agreed?

Please don't lose sight of the fact that the market is pitilessly indifferent to all its participants - be they whales or minnows: all are relatively alike. It's all zero sum - one man's exact gain is another's exact loss. Be patient too, and certainly don't even consider the possibility of quick success. For it really is, just as CV says, 'a marathon not a sprint' - there is no short-cut to experience! GL to ya

 

[lazydave]

Very interesting post by OP - wonder how you have been doing in the meantime?
Your $3000 loss (10% !) is a big no no. I know you said it was caused by a mistake but you need a system that limits your losses to maybe 1% of your account - or trade smaller.
Also google "risk of ruin" you can use your sequence of profits and losses to calculate the chance you have of going broke. It's based on the percentage of winners and the relative size of winners and losers.
Obviously a risk of ruin more than a few percent is bad and you should go back to paper trading.

 

[lawrence-lugar]

Trading (successfully) is a long road of self-discovery.
Not many people have it in them to be the Karate Kid :idea:

 

[Daniel Stuart]

I would recommend that you try to find a mentor or somebody who has been trading for a long time already. This will increase the chance that you will make it as a trader, as they can shorten your learning curve.

And there's also a lot of good material on this forum!

Good luck

There are many great brokers that are more then willing to make you better and enjoy this great game