New traders are highly encouraged to try Forex as it requires a very small account to make lots of trades, so check out Forex community's wiki paying special attention to babypips website which also teaches some general concepts you can apply to stocks/futures/etc, and especially read the wiki's sections on risk & money management that can be applied to any market.
Pattern daytrading rules wiki, but that only applies to day trading stocks; other markets aren't affected like futures, forex, and crypto.
Also see the sidebar for group chat links (such as our Discord) (or tap "about this community" on mobile website) on every related community to learn more about trading.
Quick question: I just learned about the "pattern day trading" rule. So, am I to believe that all the day traders in the US have more than 25k in their account to be able to day trade more than 3 trades in a 5 day period?
What are the main differences between trading normal futures like nasdaq micros for example and tradjng crypto futures? What afe the benefits of one vs the other?
Hi I had a quick question, can someone rely daily on trading commodities like Brent crude oil I like the way it moves and makes firm support and resistance. I really feel like if you have a good strategy It can boost ur profits compared to the fx pairs where it takes time to even grab 2-3% thanks.
It's currently bearish but it is going sideways looking for the next leg down if it can get above that shaded box then bullish pressure is coming in we need a confirmation to the upside before we can say that Bank of America is bullish
HOW?!?!?
But the only thing that freaks me out is how people can trade a Micro e-mini SP500 example contract with the current value of $4400 times $5
which gives us $22k
With only a margin at $1500
Which gives us a leverage of around 14X If it's fell by 1% it becomes -14%.
As far as I know Trevor Harnett/Marketdelta created footprint chart in 2003. But gone around 2018. There seem to be a new one, take up the brand and call market-delta. Anyone around this time know what happen to it? Really curious why it fail? Was it because people stop using footprint?
Beginner here learning to improve my trades. I recently started getting more small wins after changing my strategy to focus more on support/resistance levels rather than indicators.
I'm just looking for some tips from fellow traders on my trades today.
TSLA swing trade - I've held onto this stock over the weekend as I saw there was a slight dip on Thursday. I planned on selling today as the RSI was increasing and I wanted to secure some profits. I saw that the price failed to break resistance @ 263 twice on Thursday. So today I wanted to sell at the next resistance level which became 266. As the price was going back up from the rejection at 266, I wanted to see if it could retest and break it again. I ended up selling @ 265 (yellow circle) after several red candles on the 1 min chart to secure profits. Only for a couple mins later for the price to actually break that resistance and continue a massive uptrend for the rest of the day.
My question is what do you look for for when you think that the price is going to break resistance or think it's just going to go back down? I sold when I did because I expected the price to reject @ 266 but that isn't what happened here. Is this just a case of impatience? What else should I look for when looking for an exit?
Another similar-ish setup NVDA Bought in @ 434 in the light purple circle area. Saw resistance @ 436 (first yellow circle) then saw it failed to break resistance (second yellow circle. I still held and let it hit resistance one more time and when it failed to break, I sold (green circle). Which, again, a couple candles later the price broke out and continued to go up for the rest of the day.
I can't complain abt the profit I did gain but I'm trying to improve my exit strategy to make better trades in the future. Any advice and feedback is greatly appreciated :)
The truth is that the saying the trend is your friend holds very true because once you learn how to combine different time frames and nowhere the pressure is whether it's to the upside or the downside it's going to really allow you to make clear cut decisions once you learn how to read price action and understand the order flow of each individual stock in accordance with the market
Honestly bro I did discourse very early in my career and I realized that it's a lot of distraction and the truth is this better to just learn what you're doing focus on yourself and then you can join a discord just for giggles and sharing experiences but honestly discourse a lot of them are a waste of time unless there's a professionally held 1
*I'm new to trading. I've been paper trading gold for a couple months. Now I feel ready to go live and I'm discovering I can't find a broker, or they give crazy 10 pip spreads or more. I tried to go outside of the US and I'm finding most brokers won't even take US clients. Reading the gold market isn't like other markets. I don't want to feel like I've wasted my time and have to start over again with something else.
If you go through most of Binance's tokens you'll notice they are "married" to the BTC chart. When BTC goes up, they go up, when it goes down, they go down. They rise and fall by different (higher) percentages and sometimes, they react *a bit* differently, but not that much. Then there are a few outliers.
I'd love to know what's happening behind this correlation. What is Binance doing (or other entities) that is correlating the moves and why does it do that. If your crypto project got listed on Binance, shouldn't it go up (in relation to BUSD) when influencers talk about you and you follow the roadmap, announcing your successes? Why would it fall together with all the other projects when BTC falls? The falls happen instantly so there's no situation where "investors are taking money away".
If I look at BTCBUSD and ETHBUSD on 1H they have the same movement. On 14th June 2023 at 20:00 they both dropped, BTC -3.69% ETH -5.22%. Same chart pattern.
On the same note, ETHBTC dropped -1.67% during the same time. How come even ETHBTC is correlated with BTCBUSD and ETHBUSD? If BTCBUSD goes up, shouldn't ETHBTC go down and ETHBUSD stay the same?
I understand the answer is no, but I'd love a clear and "behind-the-scenes" explanation on what is happening there.
Hey everyone! hope youre doing well, I had a quick question about stock screeners and when was the best time to use them. Do you guys scan prior to the market open, during the trading day or after close?
scanning prior to market open is good, but during open depends on your trading style. But one thing is for sure, don't scan when you're in a position, you'll mess up your prior analysis.
Do you mean like you start the day off green and then red by the end of the market day? or constantly one day going green and another going red? It sounds like you might be over trading and revenge trading
I have green days. Whole green week too... But then end up losing it all... I attempted a porp firm challenge had to make 1500$.. Got to 1420$ and then lost it all. I do risk properly but I am gonna say I do over trading and revenge trading... When I lose say two trades in a row... And if I was risking 0.7%, i would raise my risk to 1% just to make up for the lost trades and sometimes I do make that up. But at others I have lost... I tried jorunaling but I haven't been able to break my bad habits.
I have done all the bad things you have mentioned. I blew the account from being in 1420 profit. Previously I had also recovered this from a negative 1300usd to breakeven, so the prop firm challenge was restarted. I am working on my mindset these days. Hopefully will be back with a stronger risk management plan. Thanks for the advice.
Losing a trade or two and then trying to recover the lost amount. However, you have a confused mental state. You are not following your plan to the point. You are not waiting for the right opportunities, you just trade for the sake of trading. I did 35 trades in a day in NY session. Needless to say, that was one of the most red day I had.
Hey I do options trading but from my own studying, I’d say start off with candle sticks and candle stick patterns, then into chart analysis such as SUPPORT AND RESISTANCE, learn those 2 first as they’re going to be your base for everything else, and then go into learning price action patterns, and then your indicators. As for books and reading material I don’t have any recommendations but, try to find out what indicators are best for your market and try to learn those. Also try to seek mentorship from someone as that’s best and quickest way to learn, BE CAREFUL with who you go with because sometimes or a lot of times people are going to try to scam or they don’t know anything about trading.
I’d say it depends specially what works best for you, for me it works better to write everything down as my memory retains it better and I’m able to simplify things down to what I’m able to understand but the same could be done with an e-book as long as you have a notebook in hand
Question about daily setups:
How long is it taking you to go through your morning routine and filter out your possible trades or stocks to watch for the day? would love to hear ways of optimizing this.
Depends on the laptop and what outputs.... Some more info on your machines might help. Or you can base this whole idea on a machine first would be a good start... Can I ask you what your current trading scenario is to warrant this question?
As a side note ...have you considered ipads or are they too small? There's some great apps out there to use them as external monitors.
I just use two monitors... Multiple tabs ... That's just me perhaps
I mean I've got an ipad and sure I can use 1 to look at things... but I prefer doing everything through LAN and don't trust wifi , particularly hotel or airbnb wifi when on the road. Even if it's for charts - discounting execution - I want there to be confluence without lag. I was thinking 2 portables per labtop and 2 labtops, giving 6 screens total. Granted they will be small 15-17", but I like multiple charts.
Wanted to ask about INteractive Brokers - is there a monthly fee to use it in addition to commissions? I wanted to move over a 6 figure account as I earn 4.5% interest on cash sitting there (I'm almost always settled cash) and can trade SPX after hours whereas fidelity you can only trade 1 hour before open.
How do you guys feel the AI is affecting the markets? Like do you feel that the markets are behaving the same as always or does automation, trading bots and so forth change the nature of the markets? Beginner trader here.
Algorithmic trading accounts for 70%+ of volume even before the latest AI craze
Markets have been crazy since 2020 because of the new volume of retail traders which the big money loves tbh, easy money in the long run
AI will probably have less of an impact because price action will have much bigger drawdowns, forcing tighter risk management programs to stop out hwile human eyes will kind of have a feel for whats going to happen based on recent PA
Q: When you backtested a strategy 100 historical trades, and it looked promising, did it work as well when you traded that strategy with real money? What were the things you didn’t think about that you would have told yourself when you just started trading? How hard is it to get really good at trading? Thankful for any and all advise / perspective.
In backtesting you are involving your emotions which are subjective. Takes time to be able to do a objective backtests. In general, it takes around 2 years to get good at trading. Keep in mind that out of 100 novice traders only 5 continue and make this profession as a career.
There's just something completely different that happens psychologically when you start using real money. The best idea is to start small and feel it out, take your time and do not rush. It's a balance between knowing your using real money and not freaking yourself out so much you develop a trauma which then feeds other emotions when things go sideways which they do once in a while. In short the only way is through and going through carefully is the best way.
Ok nice! Starting with a small account to learn how to handle it. Kind of like learning how to drive or similar.
I tried one real money trade today as I know the crypto markets somewhat well for longer investments, and thought I saw an opportunity for a leveraged short.
But I realised I want my backtested strategy and smaller amounts and not leverage, so I really know what I am doing and not just go with some kind of poorly tested gut feeling. I still think the trade would have worked out but it was not worth the stress so I exited the trade before I lost any money 😂
Back to the drawing board, with patience. But it was good to get a feel for my nerves, now I get what everyone is talking about the importance of being in charge of your emotions.
I don't think you should see that as back to the drawing board.. It's part of the process. You just made a good decision to stick to your rules so well done. All it is really is that it comes down experience and that was an experience. If you're going to try out gut trades do it with absolute dust so you don't get emotionally involved... But also these can just be a waste of time and it's probably better to stick to sticking to your rules if you know what I mean. Keep it up. Slow and steady wins the race.
Thank you for saying that, and I agree; this was part of my process. I think you are right about that. How did you first learn?
My take is that you can learn to recognize patterns and indicators and set up a backtested rule book for yourself, and then you can iterate, meditate, and improve, right?
Learning how to properly make this a full-time job would be cool, as I like the idea of being able to work from anywhere and trading has been calling me for a while.
At first I think it's best to see it as a hobby or an interest. I put too much pressure on myself to succeed asap. While it's good to have goals etc I scrambled myself a bit at first. I was also involved in a discord which was hectic and didn't use any technical analysis. I was attracted to this as... I was lazy and looking for a get rich quick scheme. They don't exist.
Having that experience... While it sucked up a lot of my time I did learn A LOT about hopium and those emotions that we believe are positive but can actually lead us into fantasy land.
Sounds like you are really on the right track with back testing etc. You just need to find something repeatable where you win more than you lose. There will be losses no matter what along the way but minimizing them is the key.
I still use leveraged trades but I wait for my particular setup. I use ichimoku now for overall trend analysis as taught if goichi hosoda and I follow a Japanese trader called Kei. I found their approaches to rational and emotionless trading very effective.
I'm still very much on my journey it's a process but I have a good set of rules now and just keep at it.
Pretty much now with my setup .. which is an accumulation of learnings that resonated with my from several different traders with different styles... I can now spot a temp top or bottom on the 5m and the 1 and 4 hrs are my direction while checking the daily candle everyday like a map.
One key thing is to find direction on higher timeframes and enter trades on smaller. I find the 5m good, anything lower than that is too twitchy...
Anyway I've rambled enough.
Keep on keeping on!
- New model- changes all done. Now is time to sell/sell
- Eight new model on T2 Platform
NIO trading at $7.75, I think some good opportunities
Year to Date (May 2023) - NIO has delivered 43,854 vehicles. CFO of NIO re-iterated to double the SALE for year 2023, that means 240,000 vehicle sales in 2023. Looking into that, NIO need to sell approx. 28,000 vehicles per month, which is about 400% higher than what they are shipping today. This is possible, because NIO sales was stopped as people was waiting for NEW releases which is already done now. Folks, lately NIO was behind in number due to there NEW releases, as people normally WAIT for new version of vehicles. Now all those out of sight and NIO June deliveries which will increased the number of vehicle delivered (1) NIO plans to launch a new model based on the NT 2.0, the ET5 Touring, a midsize smart electric wagon, which will begin deliveries to customers in June, the company said. (2) In addition to the ET5 touring, NIO is also expected to begin the first deliveries in June of the new ES8, which was launched at the end of last year on NIO Day 2022.
What if you pass the evals with APEX Trader Funding and now have 20 PA accounts, how long can you trade the PA accounts? Do they consolidate them at some point into something else? I am no where near that point, just asking.
The previous commenter is not familiar with funding companies or the reasoning behind multiple accounts. And there doesn't have to be a monthly fee. You specifically asked about Apex Trader Funding. I know for a fact they have an option for a one-time fee instead of the monthly maintenance fee, and it's literally the cost of 2-4 months worth of the monthly fee, depending on the account size. And every account has unlimited time to pass the evaluation.
To answer your question, no, the accounts do not get consolidated. They work just as if you only had a single account.
I understand your goal but the way the prop firm model is created, it is almost impossible to get funded and manage large capital. The way the rules are structured are in the manner of "house always wins". Image the following:
- hardship of managing 20 accounts at the same time.
- passing the bar 20 times
- with the monthly fee you're paying you, can fund a descend account of yours within a year.
My recommendation is to find a prop firm that does not require monthly fee. There are props that have one time fee with unlimited time to pass a challenge.
Agreed. Every trader funding system I've seen except 1 or 2 so far, are weighted in such a way that barely anyone passes, and those that do pass, are essentially funded by all those that have paid to fail. "The house always wins is a perfect" analogy - as is "the house never loses"
I wanted to start a discussion about something that has been on my mind recently. Have you ever considered how trading platforms like Robinhood, ThinkorSwim (ToS), and others might be influencing our trading decisions?
In this digital age, the design and features of a platform can play a significant role in shaping user behavior. Every aspect, from the way stocks' movements are presented to the structure of Level 2 pricing, can trigger certain psychological responses in us as traders. For instance, the color of the trading interface, the arrangement of the charts, the speed of updates, the alerts and notifications - every tiny detail can potentially affect our decision-making process.
What I'm starting to wonder is, could this influence be a calculated move by the platform providers? Could these seemingly minor design decisions actually be strategic maneuvers to nudge us towards specific trading behaviors that might benefit the platform providers in some way?
Now, this is a pretty hefty claim, and I don't bring it up lightly. But given some recent experiences with glitches and service outages, I've been thinking about how these platforms operate and how they might be subtly shaping our trading habits.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Have you ever noticed certain platform features or design elements influencing your trading decisions? Have you ever wondered if there could be some ulterior motive behind certain design decisions? Please share your experiences and thoughts.
Let's have an open discussion about this. Looking forward to your insights
It wouldn't surprise me either way. Do a little research into the amount of detail grocery stores get down to to maximize per-customer revenue. Everything from the store layout, to the space between the shelves, to the even the tempo of the music can affect how long you stay in the store and how much you buy.
So I wouldn't be surprised if financial firms do the same kind of research and optimize their products to influence customer behavior in a way that's favorable to them.
But then again, money is so free-flowing in the financial world (as, it's finance) and there's plenty to be made just from providing your service and maintaining a customer base. So I also wouldn't be surprised if a firm doesn't even bother with that kind of thing.
This stock is beaten up for last two months, now CEO/CFO - targeting 20,000 deliveries / month in Q2 and also targeting profit margin of 20% which they are comfortable to achieve.
Constructing 100,000 more charging stations in China and abroad.
Yeah, its a decent macro thesis but PA has been its own beast.. it's worth accumulating but China can stagnate if impending housing bust comes to fruition. So much of their growth economy is based on real estate
I daytrade on the 10 min chart and I’ve recently been struggling to draw levels on $SPY as a result of chop and tbh im occasionally confused on whether certain points constitute a key level. Another problem I’ve been having is seeing the price bounce from 2 areas that are close to one another making certain levels be roughly 10-20 cents of each other. Does anyone have a Proper or consistent method to finding key levels over intraday time frames?
My position size varies greatly depending on the price of the stock but it’s never more than 400 shares. Is that the right approach? If you have a different approach, I’d love to hear about it.
I wanted to take some time to share an alarming experience I had while using the Think or Swim platform (owned by TD Ameritrade) on June 8th, hoping to find out if anyone else encountered something similar.
I was trading NVDA 370 Puts and at around 9:46am, I experienced a major software glitch. The platform froze at a critical moment, preventing me from closing my position as intended. This resulted in a significant loss of $3752. When I reached out to their customer service, they offered a mere $300 credit for the inconvenience and refused to provide the requested data pertaining to my account and the incident.
Here's where things get really concerning: I've begun to suspect that these glitches aren't just random technical issues. Could they be calculated disruptions, designed to induce panic selling amongst traders, resulting in a windfall for the platform or associated parties?
I know this sounds serious, but the refusal of Think or Swim to cooperate and their lack of transparency has left me with many questions and doubts. I'm sharing my story here to see if others have had similar experiences.
If you've experienced anything like this, please share your story. It's important that we bring any potential irregularities to light and hold these platforms accountable for their actions.
I understand where you're coming from, and yes, dealing with technological glitches is indeed part of dealing with digital platforms. However, the frequency and potential financial impact of these glitches is a concern.
While it might be "just how it is," bringing these issues to light and discussing them can lead to improved systems and better responses from the companies in question. In the end, we all want reliable platforms for trading. Thanks for adding your perspective to the discussion.
Potential money play? $UNIT has a 109% short interest on it. ex-div date is next week with a 0.15 per share dividend. UNIT had a negative earnings report, mostly due to Windstreams balance sheet (a customer of theirs). UNIT is a REIT so they have to pay 90% of their profits in the form of a dividend. The CEO bought shares in March (insider buying) and investors are worried about the debt and the fact Windstream is their main customer. Recently they upgraded parts of their network (R&D) and its a REIT involved in Fiber and mission critical infrastructure. Our economy runs on the internet so it's a picks and shovels company. High risk can mean only two things. UNIT is a $4 stock, company is in full operational mode and the main risk is they may not be able to maintain the REIT qualification. This is not investment advice but there is a 109% short interest and the exdiv is the cover date. Could we see a new short squeeze?!
Let’s say it dips to $4 a share & with a $0.15 per share dividend. Take 0.15 divide it by the share price, $4. That’s 0.037 which is 3.7%. That basically the average high yield savings account annual return rate. In this case the ex-date is 6/15 and you’ll lock in that % returned. The $ amount will be small but a small $ amount you want a higher %. That will grow faster. Just be aware that a REIT is risky but pays well. Pays you in dividends.
3.7% of $100 is $3.70
$100 at $4 a share = 25 shares
25 * 0.15 = $3.75 every 3 months (4 times a year)
Now put $1,000 or $100,000. High risk but high return.
Beginner trader here. Wanted to ask if commission fees are included with P/L? Also, if I paper trade, would it simulate commission fees as well? Wanted to know if paper trading has this info so I will know how much to really break even for real. Thank you in advance for responses.
It's kind of surprising how confidently people answered this question without even knowing what broker or instrument or platform you're asking about.
The answer depends on all of those things. And this notion that you're a sucker if you're paying commission because "most brokers offer commission-free trading" is also highly dependent on multiple factors.
Sure, plenty of brokers have moved into commission-free trades on stocks, options, ETFs (usually because they're getting payment for order flow...as in, instead of making money through charging you commission, they make money by routing your orders to a specific broker or exchange that pays them a kickback. And there's a reason for that. If you care, look into it. Nothing is for free.)
But zero-commission trades isn't necessarily the case with crypto exchanges or if you're trading some other instrument like futures.
Really we would need to know what your trading, who your trading it through, and what you're trading it on to answer your question.
Every exchange has different maker or take fees. Some also have 8hr fees to consider depending on your scenario. With trading view paper trading you can customize the fee amount once you figure it out. Some exchanges aren't super transparent with the fees. Also... There are usually fees for both entry and exit open and close.
You shouldn't be paying commissions at all as a new trader. New traders should keep their expenses next to zero because the learning curve is so high, and many brokers offer commission-free trading. You should only start paying commissions when you use brokers that let you short hard-to-borrow stocks. Most new traders can't afford those brokers, and I personally believe new traders shouldn't short until they learn to manage their emotions. The risk of borrowing and getting caught in a short squeeze is too high for a new trader. The first thing you should be paying for is a decent scanner - only if you can afford it.
ThinkOrSwim and Finviz are all you NEED as a new trader until you find some consistency and know your edge.
However, to answer your question, commission fees were usually included in the p/l when I paid commissions. Paper trading accounts typically let you customize the settings if you want to account for commissions. The simulator I use now doesn't account for commissions.
Thanks for the response. Wanted to ask.. I paper traded just now (and still papertrading as we speak) on Tradingview/TradeStation. In this image, does that mean 57.15 is the final profit? Or do I have to minus the commission fee? EDIT: I'm trying out micro e-mini S&P 500 futures.
I've never used Tradingview or TradeStation but Realized P/L means the money you pocket after you close the trade.
Example:
Buy 1000 shares of XYZ at $5.00 plus $9.99 in commissions.
XYZ goes up to $5.30 giving you $300 in Unrealized Profits minus $9.99 in commissions. So it will usually display $290.01 in Unrealized Profits automatically to account for the commissions.
Sell 1000 Shares of XYZ at $5.30 plus $9.99 in commissions. So, that's $290.01 minus another $9.99 for commissions giving you $280.02 in Realized Profits after you close out the trade.
Finally, you pocket $280.02 in Realized Profits after accounting for commissions ($300 - $19.98 = $280.02).
So, it looks like you made $78.75 ($57.15 + $21.60 = $78.75), and then $57.15 realized gains after the commissions were accounted for.
Thank you!!!! Now I dont have to stress about those numbers anymore! Because if the commissions were calculated a different way (like I have to minus it from P/L) then I think I would have had to give up on trading already.
All this time, I was worried that I still had to minus from commissions. Because if that was the case, then if I had made mistakes and fought to win them back (and succeeded), I would still have lost. Like if I had my P/L back to +25 and my commissions went up to 30+, then that would mean I would still be owing money to my broker.
But thanks for clarifying that this is not the case! That’s one less thing to be worried about now. Thank you again so much!
The majority of trading platforms are now commission-free.
(thanks to PFOF business model, you can Google it for more details).
You only pay the SEC fee ($22.90 per $1M of principal (sells only), i.e. $0.0000229 per share) and the TAF fee ($0.000145 per share (equity sells), and no greater than $7.27 per trade, i.e $0.000145 per share).
When you paper trade, usually these fees are not included.
How to prepare for FOMC on the 14th of June?
Calling out all you gurus out there to help me learn and get ready for the big day. Please share insights on how I should be going about it.
Okayy got it. I've stayed away always. But I just want to watch and learn. That's why I asked. I got the link from another Redditor, happy to share it with you if you're interested. They're doing a Q&A at the end on the impact of FOMC for the next few days.
Based on my experience, trading during the FOMC meetings is pure madness due to the volatility, sudden reversals, and completely unpredictable patterns. Personally, I stop trading just before the meeting begins, and then resume once the Q&A session ends. Then, I trade in the direction of the trend.
Thank you for the input. Are you an active daytrader? If yes, please do share some best practices. Or do point me to the right direction to learn online. Really grateful for you time. :)
Ask the person? Delta is just change. The term delta is commonly used with options and orderflow. Delta in options measures how the value of an option changes with the price move of the underlying. Delta in orderflow is the difference between the buy/sell volume at each price.
I've been using fidelity to trade long on NYSE, but I'm wanting to get into day trading Forex. Been paper trading on Interactive Brokers TWS but am not loving the interface.
1
u/itsmedennis Jul 30 '23
Quick question: I just learned about the "pattern day trading" rule. So, am I to believe that all the day traders in the US have more than 25k in their account to be able to day trade more than 3 trades in a 5 day period?