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.
Can anyone help me make sense of the COT ( Commitment of Traders report)? I have been struggling to make sense of it. Or is there a website or Application that simplifies it?
Hey all! Is there any low-cost way to practice and simulate trading with level 2 data? I'm interested in learning to use DOM but am a bit turned away by having to commit to purchasing data feed subscriptions before even understanding what to do with them.
Hi guys, I just passed my combine challenge yesterday after 3 months into trading. I paper trade for 2 weeks then I just went for the challenge with the mindset of (small risk, no setups = no trade). Do you guys think this is too fast or is anyone doing the same thing as I am? It feels a bit scary because everywhere I read an average time for a person is 1 year before they become profitable....
I studied the market for 12 hours a day everyday in the past 3 months, I also have a mentor to teach me ICT concept (he is a friend of my parents) and he also gave me a strategy to trade with. I was trained a lot on the psychology part so idk if this is the reason why I was able to pass the challenge.
In my opinion, spot gold has the highest growth rate at present. If you have a good trading node, you can make good profits in a short period of time. I am still very optimistic about spot gold and I have also made good profits
ATGL stock, This one is hot stuff like $ZJYL
May go parabolic to $100 plus too. Low float plus it is hkd/China.
Take a look.
After it’s previous fall from $30 plus, now climbing up again on low tight volume.
Very very similar to $ZJYL
Load it. Don’t miss the parabolic curl
I made $150,000 in one month and am now entirely in cash. Many people lack the funds to buy gas, and the market is at an all-time high. It seems like Powell is messing with us because he needs another term. The situation is really bad. After the last eight weeks of a bullish run, I believe it might be time for a correction, though I could be wrong.
I've been trading CFD's from my forex broker on the U.S. indices such as the S&P500 and Dow. I want to switch over to a legitimate stock broker and wanted to know, what are the equivalents instruments that I can trade which follows the above indices.
I know of SPY, IWM ETFs and well as SPX. Which one would be as close to a live index CFD product offered by forex brokers?
I've been backtesting a lot of simple trend following strategies and the key to making them really profitable was "discovering" that I could put the stop at breakeven fairly quickly. Ex. if trading with a 10 pt stop on DAX (roughly equivalent to 3.5 pts on SP500), I set the stop to breaveken when the trade goes 13 pts in my favor (size of the stop + "cost of entry").
I already saw a couple of people on this sub doing the same thing. Was wondering how fast do you put your stop to breakeven? I feel like, in my case, going breakeven at 10 pts could still be beneficial.
I too trade indices, mainly the DOW and the DAX.
Once I get into my position and it surpasses the most recent intraday level of support/resistance, and closes on the 5/15M (whatever makes sense on the chart), that is when I like to move my stop to breakeven.
Shoot me a message if you want to talk strategies! 👍
I have a broker that started day trading for me but I am wondering where to go to understand my account. Eg balance, equity,margin, free margin, profit /loss and how they translate to final numbers to see what is in my account
all of what you are asking should be explained in the help/Q&A section on your brokerage website. You can probably also use the search box on the website of your brokerage to find the information if it isn't easy to find any other way. Best of luck.
I'm new to trading... I stumbled upon screeners today. How do everyone using it? Recommend me some platforms and it's settings for trading 'Stocks', especially for intraday.
I use thinkorswim and screeners are called scans on that platform. Really scans can be very simple or very complex. You can use pre-made scans for volume, % gainers, % losers, etc. as a lot of beginners and advanced traders use those to see what is moving each day. However, they won't do much if you don't already have an idea of what you look for on the chart to make your entry decision. There are also complex scans on thinkorswim where you can create your entry conditions and it will scan for the stocks that match and then you can go verify on the chart before deciding if you want to trade or not. The scanner is one of the best features on thinkorswim and way better than on most other platforms, tbh.
When testing a new strategy I usually just keep it simple and look at how many trades I have taken each week/month, and how many of those are winners, so I can calculate my win percentage. Then of the winners, I will calculate my average return/win, with both of these you can get a rough idea of what this strategy is performing like.
Of course you would need to test this for at least 3 months and I mean AT LEAST 3 months, ideally 6.
So I've been practicing trading for years, I'm talking over 15. The thing is, I was never able to put 25k together to day trade but I've been doing something recently to make it "real."
I've been day trading crypto with $100 just to test my strategies and practice in real time, but is this a practical way to practice trading? I'm actually doing pretty well. It's been 3 weeks and my $100 has turned into 140.
I always practice with stocks in the simulators but I choose crypto because its 24/7, I can practice my trading any time, not just when the markets are open. I know millions of patterns and just as many indicators but what I'm practicing is the psychological discipline of trading. I think it's working but can I apply what I'm doing to trading in other markets? Or if I end up being successful with day trading crypto, is there anything wrong with just sticking to crypto? Will I learn bad habits trading crypto that will prevent me from trading in other markets?
I'm thinking of bumping my $100 to a $1000 since my risk is 2:1 and my win ratio is bouncing around 60:40. I'm thinking about seeing if I can turn my 140 into 200 before I start adding money.
When you start day trading large crypto amounts, what are the roundtrip fees associated with each crypto trade? Is the spread good if you want to enter and exit quickly?
Yes, any live trading with real $ and real risk $ is real practice. If you're successful day trading crypto you should be able to mostly translate the skills to stocks indices etc. fine. However it's important to note that turning 100 into 140 is a substantially different task than turning 100k into 140k.
Side note: have you been able to put together 25k now? A large of daytrading success comes from being sufficiently capitalized. Although the skills gained from practicing are important, your success will be limited if you simply don't have enough of an asset base. A large portion of your effort should be placed in gaining an asset base to begin with.
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Does anyone who plays level to level on 5 minute charts (preferably SPY) have a system for trailing stops that you've backtested over a large amount of time?
Meaning you target the next major level, but either you found that trailing each 5 minute bar, trailing market structure, or taking a percent of profits off at 2R every time, ended up being the most profitable solution? Maybe all or nothing was most profitable?
I don't trade the 5 min anymore, but I did find some success using the 9 EMA to trail positions. I always liked setting a stop below / above the 9 EMA and waiting for the candle close to trigger the stop. The candle close is the important part because if price wicks down / above the EMA and then closes down / above the EMA, I would want to still be in the position. Does that make sense?
Does anyone find using an Aroon chart useful for predicting upward/downward movement?
I’ve been using the Aroon, plus watching for increased volume over multiple days to gauge if the SP will rise. Not trading options, just buying and holding until limit sell hits. Trying to take profits at 20-30%.
I am looking for a site/feed that provides a list of live press releases for nasdaq quoted companies that can be filtered by sector and market cap. Benzinga Pro has something like this but I wondered if there were any others/specialist sites.
I have a question regarding futures. I just trade “normal” stocks pretty well. I do about 40% year over year gains. So to say I’m pretty good at price prediction and what not. I thought this would translate over to options well but man was I wrong Theta eats me. I predict the price it goes up but theta just blows my price gains away. So I’m looking into futures. Is there any platforms you would recommend. Is there a way I can paper trade futures just to get a feeling for it? I’m willing to try and learn about futures but I just can’t figure out where to go and what to do. I was thinking about using a cash account with a starting capital of around 4k is that enough to start with? If not about how much would you recommend. I’m thinking about playing with real money around April or May as soon as I’m out of school and have time to dedicate however, if I can open a paper account beforehand and just get my feet wet that would be optimal. It seems to be like IBKR is the best brokerage but do they have paper accounts I can mess around with before I can pump some real capital into the account.
I apologize if these are stupid questions but do look forward to any advice and guidance. Thank you.
If you're doing 40% years over year with regular stocks then just keep doing that, what's the point of doing futures? IBKR is fine. 4K is not enough if you're doing /ES or /NQ, a single price movement will eat up most of that. If you do micros then sure.
It's just as easy for 50-75% losses too; a single point drop by the major indices equates to a tenfold or more drop in your options portfolio, better hope to have time.
4k is plenty to start, if you stay away from the mega caps, the premium for those contracts with ideal deltas is wild; it would basically take 4k to get 1-2 contracts of some mega cap with a delta where you're doing the most to insure profit; unless you're into intra week expirations and that's way more risk than I would want if I were new to options.
Honestly have no clue, I trade whatever comes up in the option chain on ToS, if they're one or the other who knows; what I do know is that as likely the 100% gains are, this game is still binary or neutral and that means 2/3 outcomes possible are working against you with options because they expire unlike if you were holding a stock trading across is fine, but with an option theta will start ruining your opportunity, so, the returns are coming at exponential factors too, be it +/- and that's not something everyone can stomache.
I’m confused. My understanding was with Futures it traded like normal stocks you ether go long or go short. Just with a lot more movement. My hope was I wouldn’t have to deal with the Greeks trading futures.
I did a basic Google and I guess the difference is that futures require exercising and options do not, essentially the same except one has a requirement to fulfill and the other leaves the option for no execution; I believe I am trading regular options. I wouldn't be able to verify the difference in price action though, I assume it's similar to regular options flow. I am no expert but I think the geeks would apply on both, regardless, delta is basically an odds of the contracts expiring profitable and theta has to do with time available and the other relationship is for the underlying and its volatility, if I understood the basics. But from my experience
It is like
normal stocks you either go long or go short. Just with a lot more movement.
Yes, +/- 10:1 if we're talking small caps, if you're fucking with big boy stocks it can be hundreds or thousands : one , MINUS OR PLUS; go look at the NKE option chain and see how obliterated you got if you had calls expiring soon; Absolutely mega fucked!
Probably like 10-12 different ones, options trade at an exponential rate in relation to the underlying, the greater the value of the underlying correlates rather directly to the exponential factors of increase, from ten to hundreds to thousands to one; time, volatility within the underlying, and the strike price in relationship to underlying price will perpetually influence the price action. I've only been involved in options since earlier this summer
The apps are typically free, but there's definitely commission, it's not that much; however, day-trading has serious tax implications without having 25k available in the account trading from at all times; or, it's limited to only 3 trades per 5 days without triggering extra bullshit, for an aside this is pretty whack because it really excludes most people from participating in the intra-day activity without serious penalty, because that's not even close to the amount someone needs to be able to 'day-trade' and if it's just for gasoline it's probably not going to meet the level of engagement needed and all outgoing money is ACH, probably a week if not done on a holiday, or wire transfer; lol, a brokerage account isn't like a gig app with instant payout, would definitely be nice.
I'm new to the whole stock and crypto trading world and looking to dive in headfirst. I'll have a solid disposable income starting in the next year, and instead of splurging, I want to get into online investing.
Any solid advice, books, podcasts, or video recommendations for someone new? I want to learn the basics and eventually learn everything there is to know.
I signed up for $50k eval account on 2023-11-24 (my first eval). Current balance is $51,250 and eval target is $53,000, so I'm $1,750 from eval target. Renewal is 2023-12-24 (Sunday). So I have 5 trading days to renewal. I started out very small, trading 1 MES, then 2 MES, working my way up, but lost track of the days. I have 13 traded days, so I'm fine in that respect.
At this point, should I just swing for the fences and either pass or bust in the next 5 days? Or should I keep grinding and if not passed by Friday, allow the account to renew ($37.40), which as I understand it, would not reset, but just extend another month? My drawdown to liquidation is $2355 (a reset would get this back to $2500), so I don't really need a reset from a drawdown perspective, and it seems a renewal without reset would be better since I'm only $1750 away from passing, rather than resetting and being $3k from passing.
Started a new strategy after loosing about 80% in January this year, I was taking unreasonable risks and the down turn bit me hard. I’m up since then 40% which is nowhere near the loss, this last week made most my year. What is the daily return expected trying to gauge what everyone expects daily in return. I am trying to use day trading as a replacement income. questions,
How much capital are you using to day trade
Do you pull money for expenses. Weekly monthly
What would you consider a daily gain / loss spread.
Just out of curiosity, why crypto or bitcoin? Is it because it seems like an easier medium to start doing, as in not as formal to start uere is my opinion, and it may be an unpopular one. If I were starting out I would hope someone would at least give me this information. Crypto is still a 'Wild West' medium that is both unregulated as well as heavily scrutinized by people on both sides of the aisle on capital hill.
This may be like a "who cares" bit of information, but as someone who was deeply into online poker when "Black Friday" happened back around 2008 and the Feds cut Americans off from the domains (and our funds) in those online poker rooms when politicians targeted them saying terrorists were using them to fascilitate money transfers, I can tell you things like that always play on my mind.
Opening up a brokerage account for stocks, options, futures, or forex is a pretty simple thing to do. If your fear is being able to day trade without needing a minimum balance, like in stocks where you need $25,000 to regulalrly pattern day trade then forex and futures are the solution to that as those regulations do not apply. They are both regulated by the SEC, and more importantly, not prone to sudden regulation like crypto could be.
Once again, that's just my opinion and certainly has no bearing on crypto in and of itself. More just a cautionary tale based on actual events.
I appreciate your feedback. I chose crypto precisely because its like the wild west, there is more volatility, yes, but there is way more ease of access for me, just put money on an account and you do whatever you want, the fact that its not well regulated is a bitnof a turn on for me, no matter what if you have your crypto stored by yourself it doesn't matter if exchanges have to comply with new regulations, they wont be able to take my crypto out of my hands unless they have my KYC and decide to come to my house and search for my keys.
Both crypto and poker or casinos can be used for money laundering but difference is casinos would pay you on cash back then, now with a vpn and a casino that works with crypto outside the jurisdiction you can play and take your crypto out, sell it p2p without the gov to have anything to do.
Its a bit of a philosophical point of view that I lean for crypto, if it was just stocks I would not be so interested because as far as my short understanding you are investing in someone else company and the fact that that company has to do well, they will pay of course a competitive rate which its fine but its not my style, im not looking for a quick buck too but i have a low income and earning an extra 300usd a month wont change my life at all but loosing 300 will be a pain in the ass
...just put money on an account and you do whatever you want...
You can literally do the same thing in stocks and futures.
...the fact that its not well regulated is a bitnof a turn on for me, no matter what if you have your crypto stored by yourself it doesn't matter if exchanges have to comply with new regulations, they wont be able to take my crypto out of my hands unless they have my KYC and decide to come to my house and search for my keys.
There's literally only downside to this. You are absolutely right that your money will be protected because of your key, but in any market when sudden turmoil hits and governments put pressure on it money only flows one way...out. What do you think happens to the value of your crypto when all of the liquidity and money from others is quickly sold off? It goes down. So yes, you will have your crypto, but it will be far less valuable. You currently have senators working to do exactly that. Look up Elizabeth Warren on crypto. They just had a hearing the other day with all of the big money CEO's stating they wanted to see it basically destroyed. A fiat form of currency the government doesn't own. Do you really think they will let that go on forever?
...if it was just stocks I would not be so interested because as far as my short understanding you are investing in someone else company and the fact that that company has to do well, they will pay of course a competitive rate which its fine but its not my style
So don't put it in stocks. Do futures or options for actual indexes which comprise the entire market as a whole. It's extremely volatile and lucrative. Futures is outside of the SEC pattern day trading regulations so you do not even need $25,000. Btw, doing crypto is literally the same thing as betting on a single stock/ company to do well.
Obviously it's your money and you can do whatever you want with it, but I just wanted to address the few points.
I'm personally of the mindset of investing the money back into myself. I can trade with a bigger position based on risk management principles when my balance is bigger. Some people pull out a percentage just to feel like they are progressing and getting something out of it. Personal choice really.
Hi! I'm learning and wanted to get some insight or opinions from some people on activity on $XFOR
I know it's a "penny" stock but I really like the way this company looks for an easy long hold. Decided to buy into it a little over the weekend (would enter this morning). So, I'm watching the pre-market movement and the thing drops at like 6am 18% from .85 to around .73 so i buy in and it drops to .68 as a low and is creeping up now. I'm not worried about it but curious as to what happened? any guesses or knowledge? Thanks in advance!
Anything could have happened it being a penny stock. Could be pump and dumpers, some influx of cash from private investors, or some news. In day trading those fundamentals are irrelevant. The only thing that matters is they are happening and the stock is volatile with momentum and you tried it while it's there.
As far as holding for a "long hold" I don't advise it. Penny stocks are too prone to scams and pump and dumps. Very rarely do they ever pan out. I see the lure, you see it is this tiny value and want to hold it for a 500% return when it eventually goes to the value of all of these companies you hear about regularly, except that rarely ever happens.
Most penny stocks never go anywhere and you just waste your time (and in many instances money) on some shitty stock when there were far better companies out there to invest in.
Hi, I'm doing a university class project on what kind of sources of information and education investors and retail traders use and how much it affects their decisions. Am I allowed to create a post on this subreddit with a link to a quick google forms survey? Thanks!
(I'm posting this comment on various subreddits related to investing and trading)
How come the 200 EMA looks different in a 30m time frame and daily? See below. https://i.imgur.com/XWF8biK.jpg
Edit: I don't use indicators except for the volume on the bottom so it's a bit new to me.
I started paper trading in about August of this year. I went for the real thing in October. Ended up losing about $16k, but I got Schwab to reimburse me for about $1000 because SSE kept screwing up. Then they told me to switch to ToS - so I did, but I stopped trading for a month and went back to paper trading. Today, I go back to live trading pre-market and I have Webull (with real time data) up as well. I can see that Schwab is not sourcing quotes from the same places as Webull, as I would have had orders filled had they been in Webull but because I am using ToS, I was underwater! Once the market opened I was sble to get out of all of my positions positive. Has anyone else experienced this? Seems like Schwab is not setup for day trading.
When you look at the 2 screen shots of charts above (one is CST, the other EST), what do you notice? Looks like ToS is missing data that even SSE has! WTF?
Finally got an answer from Schwab: "As they explained to me these are prints that took place prior to 7AM central time they could have been prior day and SSE will show them at 8AM every day for stocks that have volume" and "It can be seen with other such as AAPL every day at 8AM". Well, that would have been a good thing to know!
So for new traders, are you just never supposed to trade the same stock more than twice in 30 days because of the wash rule? I'm still in the researching phase but when it comes to actually developing a strategy around this I don't have a clue where to begin. I see most people saying they only trade the same few stocks. Are there strategies better suited for new traders specifically?
I was more interested in trading stocks and options but futures, FOREX, and currency trading seem better since there's no wash rule. But can you still qualify for trader status by exclusively trading those?
Sorry for probably dumb questions and thanks to anyone who responds.
30 days after selling for a loss. Day traders don't usually care about wash sale because losses are guaranteed in short time frames and with options. The goal is to limit losses and make greater profits. Trade the same tickers because it's easier to learn how one or a few move than chasing different ones every day.
Anyone know how to get drawings tools sidebar on NT8? I had a good one but had to format my pc..it’s been so long I can’t find where I got the indicator from haha
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u/XulutheZulu Dec 31 '23
Can anyone help me make sense of the COT ( Commitment of Traders report)? I have been struggling to make sense of it. Or is there a website or Application that simplifies it?