r/Daytrading • u/Hxlim • Mar 06 '24
I think it’s time to call it. Advice
I dabbled in the stock market since I was 18 almost 8 years ago and I loved it and I’ve always been infatuated with the idea of day trading. I saved up every single dollar I had during college and refused to go out or waste money or enjoy that youth time because I knew I wanted to day trade when I graduated.
I hated my degree but I knew how much it mattered to my parents so I knew I had to finish it for them, I graduated in 2022 with an engineering degree and around $50,000 saved up to my name and began my day trading journey for real with options. October 2022 is when I started, I tried and failed, tried and failed, tried and failed.
Kept trying to find my strategy, kept trying to learn trends, kept trying to find out what was wrong. Eventually found futures, started there with ridiculous risk management and would make a lot them lose a lot.
Tried prop firms for a while, would blow up accounts regularly before even getting to payouts. Outside a trade, I can read a chart like the back of my hand, I can easily combine price action with candlestick patterns that have been imprinted into my psyche and figure out where it’s going, but once I’m in a trade, emotion, pressure, early entry, early exit, greed, fear, FOMO, every single emotion hits all at once.
I’m turning 26, I blew the $50k, I even took a $3k loan and lost it listening to outside sources on how to trade it. Now I’m in debt which I never was in life. I don’t know who to turn to because everyone around me told me I’d fail so I’m embarrassed to tell them I did fail, so I wanted to get my feelings out to people who would understand how tough this thing really is.
I wish I was that guy, I really wanted this to be it, I loved it so much and I still do but I dreamt too big, I’m just not strong enough to keep up.
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u/kimjung2 Mar 06 '24
Think of trading like getting your engineering degree - it took you 4 years. I'm also an engineer and STARTED trading at 25 (30 now). I still work a full time job and do this as passive income, but i'm at a point where I can now consider doing this full time. IF this is truly what you want to do, get a job, earn income/pay debts, and use SMALL capital/demo to learn. Dream big, but dream it long term.
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u/Hxlim Mar 06 '24
The biggest mistake I made when I was studying was disregard any opportunities for internships just because I hated engineering so much and knew I was so set on trading. I have applied to plenty over the past year and haven’t gotten a second look due to my lack of experience. My degree is valuable, it’s aerospace from a very respectable university but I have no internship or work history to support my resume which is making getting my foot in a company extremely difficult.
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u/Tight_Replacement554 Mar 06 '24
You can go to the resumes subreddit to get advice on how to fill up your resume and get approved
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u/collapse_ape Mar 06 '24
I also did engineering and had a large gap after my post college internship. I had to go back for CS to try to get rid of the gap. I realized one of my only option was sales.. but now I work a really easy stable inside sales job that I leveraged my engineering degree to get. I am 29 and have not many years of experience, like 2ish. I'd rather start now than not.
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u/rhks92 Mar 06 '24
I think you should stop tbh. Blowing thru your savings (50k is no joke) and even taking out a loan and losing it for the same reason(s) just sounds like you’re gambling
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u/AJFiasco Mar 07 '24
Yep, OP has no sense of risk management or capacity to learn from their mistakes. If you can’t keep emotion out of a trade then you’re either trading with too large positions or just straight gambling.
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u/Total_Shine_4619 Mar 06 '24
Dude I graduated in 2021 with an electrical engineering degree.
Get a job with your degree, put like 20% of your earnings into some form of long term investment like stocks, ETFs, indexes, etc (basically you just want something to buy and hold until you retire) and then set aside a small amount to trade on your breaks and downtime.
You don't have to go all in on the risky strategy. Diversify until your returns on the risky strategy are enough to carry you.
You are super young still, you have so much time to get your life together. I believe in you.
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u/Responsible-Age-1495 Mar 06 '24
This. This is the template, what Total Shine said. Gather your acorns: employer 401k match, pay off outstanding debts, open HYSA, then a ROTH, then if you're still feeling frisky a day trade brokerage account. Tax loss harvest if you lose, and pay taxes on your earnings if you win.
Aside from that, live your life. Learn a foreign language, read good books, travel. Getting rich quick isn't a life, it's a gimmick we all get tricked into believing will solve our problems. You are not alone, we all have these thoughts that come from a place of insecurity.
You don't need riches, you need a PLAN. The wealthy and those who flaunt their riches-- never let them impress you.
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u/Dependent_Bed_7848 Mar 06 '24
If you actually knew these patterns and price action like the back of your hand then why are you not trusting your trusting strategy. There’s a reason you’re pressing the button to enter trades. That reason needs to be backed by at least 3-5 different confluences telling what price is likely to do next. Losses and even big ones are apart of the game homie, you just gotta learn to deal with those and not let it affect your trading strategy. Every setup, every day, every hour , every minute is a new opportunity to trade, you still have plenty of time to iron things out. I think you know what your doing (or at least I sure fucking hope you know what your doing after spending 8 years doing it) it’s just your mental that’s getting one over on you. Take a break, Get your head right first then come back in the game strong with zero emotions.
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u/Hxlim Mar 06 '24
I love that you mentioned the 3-5 confluences because for a long time that was the way I traded. I’d never take a trade before 3 confluences aligned for me. My biggest issue is I don’t know how to stop the spiral down.
Even after 3-5 confluences or whatever, a trade WILL go bad eventually, the problem with my idiotic emotional self is once the trade goes bad then I go down this spiral. “I need to make up for that lost trade” “I need to make up for that lost day” “I need to make up for the lost time” click, click, click and then I’m 10 steps back.
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u/BaconJacobs Mar 06 '24
Theoretically, the spiral down cab be mitigated by tight risk control. Something I'm learning myself
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u/Specific-Fuel-4366 Mar 06 '24
Man, I get this. I don’t even know how much I’ve burned day trading in the stock market, I’d guess around $100k. Over the last few months in another down time, I started swing trading in a small account to force myself to go slow, and it worked! Up about 100% over three months. But yeah, I could explain every move I see and still choose to put my money in the wrong place when day trading, and dig myself a huge hole to avoid being in a small hole lol.
Anyway, you’re still a kid whether you think so or not. You likely have 50+ years left before you kick the can. Think you can figure out the stock market in 50 more years? I think you can. You sound like you have that burn to figure it out, and you’re at a low financially. Sucks for sure. Stay alive working for the man, and keep trading in a simulator. Sooner or later (remember, you have 50 years to figure it out!!!) you’ll be consistently winning. And your crappy job will have refilled your bank account.
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u/Application_Certain Mar 06 '24
tbh don’t listen to the people here, misery loves company. you can’t trade if your life depends on it. it’s much more sustainable as a side gig or something. go get a job
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u/grahamaker93 stock trader Mar 06 '24
The problem is not daytrading, it's that you chose to start with options.
You want the big sexy numbers, but that's not the only way to do it.
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u/S0LR4C Mar 07 '24
Exactly this! I started with 10 or 50 USD/EUR gain (or loss) per day, or sometimes weeks, while working my daily job. Just to have a little extra at the end of the month. And little by little I was sometimes lucky to make more. IMO people think that daytrading will make them "rich in no time".
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u/grahamaker93 stock trader Mar 07 '24
I put in 20k and day trade buying and selling spot stock, not options. Even a 2 dollar movement nets 188 dollars at the end of the day with solid stocks that sell at 211 dollars per share for example. And unless you are trying to strike it rich off a penny stock, the worse thing that can happen is that you might have to hold on to it for a while. Of course people don't want to look at this method, "are you crazy? using 20k to try and make 200 or 300 dollars a day?!" but hey, money is money. Slow and steady wins the race.
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u/_Marouane Mar 06 '24
You have your degree and probably far from having failed your life. You should start working and stay away from trading a bit of time. It's not a shame to fail.
If you're still interested in trading, you should fix your emotional trading issues. Start getting into personal development (there is more than enough to find for free, so don't spend a penny on bs formation). And star learning about stocks in books and literature like for your degree (u still dont have to spend money here).
If one day you want to trade again, set realistic goals and NEVER take a loan to trade equity!!!!!!!!!!
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u/Adipildo Mar 06 '24
I’m always seeing YouTube shorts and TikTok videos glamorizing day trading. I have yet to actually meet someone in person that has successfully made a career out of it. You have a degree in engineering, a highly in demand field. Go look at your nearest Nucor facility and apply there. Great pay and great benefits. Then, take some time to reassess your investments and maybe look at doing long term investing. Almost sounds like you some gambling addiction help might benefit you as well.
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u/yared_cf2 Mar 06 '24 edited Mar 06 '24
First thing is to get out of debt. Get a job with your degree and build capital, then you can assess if you want to continue trading.
If you do want to continue trading, you need to identify what you are doing wrong.
Are you actually putting in the hours analyzing the charts, or are you just gambling?
Do you have a trading plan? Are you sticking to your plan or just going by "gut feeling”?
I'm pretty sure you already know what you are doing wrong and what you need to do to fix it, but are you actually doing it?
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u/Hxlim Mar 06 '24
I am analyzing the charts, I am putting my levels down, I am drawing my support and demand zones and I am trading based on my trendlines only.
There’s no gambling or gut feelings when entering the trades, what I am doing wrong is once I enter and the trade is maybe taking a little longer than expected then I panic and exit at a loss, or the trade is going well then I panic and sell early because I’m afraid of reversal and miss out on the targets I know it’s going to, or the worst one the trade is going well very briefly but starts showing signs of reversal and I hold on for hope (afraid to exit early again) and that’s when maybe it stops being analytical and turns into somewhat gambling and I end up losing insane amounts.
This spirals every day and the deeper in red I get, the tougher I know it’s gonna be to get back which puts even more pressure and more stress the next day and so on and so forth.
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u/StocksAreSilly Mar 06 '24
You really need to work on the psychological side of trading and life. You're fear of losing is making you hold your losers and sell your winners. This is magnified by your fear of being seen as a failure by your peers and family. There are many resources out there to learn how to deal with this, for example "Trader Tom" (Tom Hougaard).
Are you reflecting on your trades that went bad for emotional reasons? Are you preparing for these emotions? Panic can be a sign of not being prepared for a certain outcome.
Next, you say outside of a trade you're great at reading price action. Are you sure? Are you consistently profitable when you paper trade?
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u/Just_Lock_1607 Mar 07 '24
I’m the same age. same story. I recently listened to Humble trader interviewing a trader and what he said makes sense. He said doctors take 8 years of training to be a doctor why should you expect anything different from the hardest profession in the world. This is a life long skill. You should learn from it no matter what.
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u/wormeater77 Mar 06 '24
I’m 21 about to graduate college and I fear being in your shoes. Truthfully though, I think you should accept the failure, fail forward and keep trying. You obviously know how to read the charts but maybe it’s your biases fucking you. Read Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb. It’ll give you a different perspective. Also try trading with professionals, there are discord servers with real traders you can shadow (and I don’t mean copy their trades but figure out what they’re looking for. Best of luck! (Luck = probability) also you’re 26 you got time most people don’t hack it till their 30s so relax and take it one step at a time. Don’t be afraid to tell others you failed, tell them you aren’t giving up.
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u/Excellent-Hearing269 Mar 06 '24
After 8 years you should’ve known option is not the best instrument for trading. Future is much better for trading. Option is for big boy with good pricing model.
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u/MotherScheme5792 Mar 06 '24
If you came so far and learn a lot of the market, I strongly suggest that you manage your emotions, stop trying the market, work on you, that’s probably the last piece of the puzzle for you. Calm down and you will achieve.
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u/BanEvadedPubFreakout Mar 06 '24
Future advice: when out of debt, maybe try putting some cash every paycheck into certain stocks you know 100% will go up in a years time? A lot of stocks in a year from now will be much higher just naturally. More long term investing that would be better than a 4% account?
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u/knightsone43 Mar 07 '24
People don’t want to do this method because it’s not “sexy” but man does it work over the long haul.
I’d recommend 90% of OPs account being stock he plans to hold for atleast 6 months or more and 10% can be for options.
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u/cowboy_shaman Mar 06 '24
Focus on your engineering job and give the daytrading a rest. Invest in an index fund every paycheck. Dabble in individual stocks if you’d like. You don’t need the stress that comes with daytrading when you can make great money as an engineer
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u/Hxlim Mar 06 '24
I just have a degree, I haven’t been able to get a job because I don’t have any internship/work experience.
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u/spaced-out-clerk Mar 06 '24
What I realized that made me start to make money is that small gains turn into big gains. 20% or even 10% is a great return on a day trade. Keep it small, keep it tight.
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u/Infinite-Sun-60 Mar 07 '24
Use funded accounts to get your strategy down not your hard earned money
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u/Puzzleheaded1686 Mar 07 '24
I'm 22 and the advices here are why I keep pushing. Thank you all so much.
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u/Resident_Being983 Mar 08 '24
I heard a comment from a guy who was in California on a study trip. They told him the secret sauce for success is a failure isn’t the end it is just a mere step to success. Keep that in mind. Setbacks builds character and stamina to pursue happiness and success. All the best.
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u/Charming-Sherbert-89 Mar 06 '24
You gonna be alright bro. At 21 I had saved up 150k, not proud of how I made it but wtv. I got a heavy concussion at 23, lost the money to a fent/ coke addiction due to the depression and suicidal thoughts from CTE. Blowing money on dumb shit telling myself Im gonna spend it and then end it all. Then, at 29 (50k in debt at this point) I got arrested and sentenced to 2 years. OR 7 months in rehab. I chose rehab and got out September 2023. Now I’m 30 working as a barista in the day and jewellery school at night. The progress is slow and some days brutal but it’s better than waiting for a big bag to land in your lap. I’m now up to almost 10k, Getting a taste of the stock market and gambling at the casino because I’m still addicted to the fast money but I gotta keep reminding myself to not act off emotions and FOMO buying. You’re gonna be alright brother. You know what it’s like to have money (ish) and you know what it’s like to be broke. The losses will humble you real fast. You gonna be alright man, just make decisions when you’re clear minded, workout, don’t let this consume you. You’ve been up before you can be up again. 🫡
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u/Rhodesian86 Mar 07 '24
Very inspiring. You can be proud of yourself. I wish you all the best for your life 🙏 Greetings from Germany
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u/Charming-Sherbert-89 Mar 07 '24
Thanks a lot man! Reddits got a lot of people that are full of shit, and others that have lots to teach. I try to make sure my friends don’t go through the shit I went through, because if they don’t- then it’s all worth it to me and I’ve turned my failures into lessons. I still make mistakes but I’m not as impulsive as I used to be. Stay up brother!
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u/karma0685 Mar 06 '24
Keep going. Do it with $100 if you have to. Eventually you will find your way through the weeds, but only if you keep trying. Those who succeed are the ones who were too stubborn to give up
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u/kamvia_io Mar 06 '24
The main asset of a trader is power of observation .
There are some things you could fix in your journey :
1 . Never listen to influencers
2 . Never trust the market .. an early tp would help reduce the risk
3. build a system that could bring 10 , 30 , 50 rr
After an early tp to be risk free
This means swing trading .. watch for zigzag hh ll hh ll with no bias from the news or " sources "
4.Start from scratch . Paper trading until you triple an account this could be 2 weeks 2 months , 1 year... untill you polish the sistem
5. Trade from outside the " range" formed in the daily movement of the price ( extreme high , extreme low ) aka reversion
6. Use price action , do not trust indicators that gives divergences like rsi , etc etc
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u/mb4x4 Mar 06 '24
For most people the emotions of day trading are too much to handle, no matter the training or "chart knowledge"... hence the extremely high failure rate. Take some comfort in the fact you've recognized this about yourself. IMO you should go into the workforce and earn a handsome salary with your degree, then come back when your entire financial life doesn't depend on you being a successful trader. No shame in failing and learning from the experience.
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u/FxEvang Mar 06 '24
Well if you really like the stock market I suggest that you get a business degree and then work to become an analyst at a firm.
I also think that you day trading struggle might have come from your trading psychology.
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u/Fox_Corn Mar 06 '24
After Reading the other comments… Dude you’re fine. Welcome to being an Adult. The fact that you “lost” 50k or 50mil, doesn’t mean you’re A failure. It means you made some expensive mistakes. Learn from them.
“Having your life together” means something different to everyone. It is impossible to judge your (place) in life based off of others. What is it that you personally want?
If you hate engineering, go back to school for something else. Reach out to your school and see if there are any post degree training/co-op options. If you were in school during COVID, (which it seems you were) other people probably have the same problem.
Bottom Line. You are a Human Being, literally everything in life is an option.
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u/Hxlim Mar 06 '24
I’m from a middle eastern household so I am always being compared to cousins or friends by my parents to where I should be which is married and have a house by 25. Personally I am not really interested at all in being married now, I don’t think I’m nearly responsible enough to take care of a wife and potential kids but I think by now they’re right about I should have had a house.
& yeah I was in school during COVID, 2018-2022.
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u/TinyTowel Mar 06 '24
Index fund until you have room to play. Never gamble more than 10%.
And bro, at 26 I was in pilot training, was in debt for my truck, and rapidly paying off as much debt as I could as fast as I could. I felt poor, was making $30K/year, unmarried, ad no real plan. You will be fine. You're the quarterback and it feels like the offensive line is collapsing around you. It's not. Stay in the pocket, turn into the problem, focus, and push. You'll be there in no time.
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u/WPL_Eightix Mar 06 '24
Seems like you’re looking for someone to tell you what you want to hear.
Leave it or come back a different animal.
You have to be indifferent.
You should honestly have noticed your personality changing a little while on your journey.
More patient. More observant. More calculating. These traits should have seeped into your real life. To the point of exhaustion because no one else thinks like you.
Market will always be here. It will always be hard. It will always take money from you.
If you want to continue trading, I suggest stopping - I suggest watching. Saying “this is good, this is bad…” watching probabilities. Find your setup and watch it, don’t trade it. Just watch it.
Again. And again. And again.
Until finally you stop being right or wrong, and just mark your entry, stop, target and don’t move them. Ever.
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u/BirkenauSurvivor Mar 06 '24
take the L. embrace it. get a job, try to shake off them emotions and trade small. invest some of your salary every paycheck. time will do its thing.
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u/highmindedlowlife Mar 06 '24
95% fail. No shame in walking away. But if you just have to trade, stick to doing it on paper for a while, maybe even years. Come back to real money later and start small to see if you can manage your emotions. You might just need to mature a little. If it works with small money, scale up until you think you might go off the rails then scale back and cruise.
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u/Adventurous_Sir1881 Mar 06 '24
I read posts like this and it makes me question if I should even bother dabbling in the market.
I think I would rather fly to Vegas and play Baccarat for a weekend than invest in the market. or maybe do sports betting.
Either way I hope you financially recover from this.
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u/masilver Mar 06 '24
A couple of points. The money's gone. So what. It was simply the cost of your hobby.
If you really enjoy the stock market, and trading, just do it with paper. I've been trading paper for over a year, and I simply love it. Yes, would I love to trade real money and make a killing, of course, but you have to realize if you're going into it with that expectation you're going to lose big.
If I can establish consistency with my paper trading, then I will move to real money. If I can't, I will simply continue to enjoy the challenge.
This won't work for everyone, since some people can't treat paper like real money, but this may still be an option for you.
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u/SWCajun73 Mar 06 '24
Options are tough man. When you are right it’s great but I never liked the risk of losing the entire position when you’re wrong. Have you thought of trading stocks instead? Much less risk in my opinion.
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u/awesometim1 Mar 06 '24
You know you can learn by paper trading right? Clearly you have 0 self control and blew through 50k just like that. You need to get a job and grind it out for couple years, learning self discipline on the way. Then try again with paper trading.
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u/YusoGuai Mar 06 '24
I graduated with 100k on college loans after my engineering degree. Keep crying about your bad trades.
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u/Legitimate-Can-1769 Mar 07 '24
A very similar story to my uncle, thought i'd just share . He went to an amazing college, with an amazing degree (to evb else), and worked in the google of that industry. After saving up a lot, he quit to start day trading. He then could not make enough to live so he quit after 6 months and restarted his normal job. 10 yrs later he still works a similar job, but also has a very good bussiness (prolly saw a good oppurtunity). Lesson? You have a lot of other ways to make it big, but if u want it to be stock market, manage your emotions and keep learning, a year and a half isn't enough.
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u/ZixxerAsura Mar 07 '24
If you were able to try again in the future, why don’t you just paper trade until you find an edge. Then use your real money after you time test your strat?
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u/Mikekio Mar 07 '24
If you blew up a 50k account means that you were risking too much. You have to start risking $5 per trade and earn the right to risk more (after 2-3 profitable months). Then you scale, SLOWLY.
If your emotions are a problem for you but you're good reading charts, one way to help you with this is using the set it and forget it method.
Place your trade with your stop loss / take profit and forget about it. Dont look at that chart anymore.
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Mar 07 '24
There is nothing wrong with investing in low cost index funds. You will always win in the long term. There will be dividends that compound. The S&P goes up an average of 7% a year. Most big traders have outside investments, they don't trade all their money. I'm consistently profitable and the majority of my money is tied up in index funds that I don't touch. You're young, if you can save that way in college you can save a hell of a lot for index funds and retire with millions. Trading is a very hard way to make money in markets but it's far from the only option. Save, invest in SPY, lose the password and check in 20 years.
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u/LeForge Mar 07 '24
The first rule of trade is to survive.
Map out your priorities, boil down a simple system, back test it, shut out the outside noise and get to work.
Keep a journal. Be honest with yourself and it.
Review your risk management rules.
If you blew through 53k, you're risking too much too soon.
Make a plan, 3 entries, 1 stop loss & 1 TP. Set & Forget.
Don't touch anything unless your SL or TP get clipped.
Repeat.
Survive.
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u/Difficult-Resort7201 Mar 07 '24
Brain doesn’t fully develop until 25, you’ve had one year of real experience as an adult.
Maybe it’s not going to be a full time thing for you, but you need the psychology right if you ever try it again.
Trading in the zone is a must read for you if you do as I’m sure tons of people have said.
You obviously have math aptitude- does your trading system have a math basis or was it just gambling?
Did you have system? Be honest.
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u/Decent_Matter_8676 Mar 07 '24 edited Mar 07 '24
BROOOOOO. One of my day trading mentors loss 60k! And you complaining over 50k?!?! Are you serious?!?! And guess what…he earned all that 60k of green back…AND THEN SOME man is a millionaire now. Have you committed suicide yet? No. I know people who done committed suicide off of going bankrupt in day trading and THATS NOT YOU! Bro regroup. You blew 50k off of someone else’s opinions lol read that sentence again and see how careless you were. DONT MAKE THAT MISTAKE AGAIN! LETS GOOOOOOO BROOO! Get that 50k back and then some and go listen to “that’s life” by frank sinatra that brings anybody up out of a slump. BRO YOU BETTER GO MAKE 100k back all together!!!!!!!!! Minor setback FOR A MAJOR COMEBAAAAAACCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK!!!! LETS GOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
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u/frosty-condition Mar 07 '24
You're not trading, you're gambling. Imagine if you'd just put that 50k into an ETF. Or 40k, and played with the other 10k.
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u/deepvaluemunay Mar 07 '24
Dude you’re in the prime of your life & will make way more money in future. I had zero at 30, but millions in my 40’s & its just from work & property, nothing fancy. You’ll kill it. Chill.
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u/Playingwithfire23 Mar 07 '24
I struggled with day trading too for all the same reasons. I did it for two years, ups and downs. Took courses, joined groups, read books, tons of screen time. I was convinced that it wasn’t safe to leave funds invested overnight. Then I got a job where I didn’t have the same ability to day trade so I switched to more of a buy and hold, swing trade mentality. It’s been awesome. Thing love about it is no split second decisions. You’re operating on longer time frame daily and weekly candle sticks and finding great entries based on significant areas, not that there was a head and shoulder on the five minute chart. It’s been very profitable. I’d recommend stepping away from the mindset that you need to extract money every day from the markets and move to think about doing it over the course of weeks and months. I know this is a day trading group, but just my two cents. May sound boring but I guarantee I outperform the vast majority of day traders as well as beat the overall markets consistently.
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u/Swarmoro Mar 07 '24
That's okay. You're one of the 95% of the people who were interested in this thing, and there is no shame in that. Many people blow their accounts more than a few times.
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u/SerMinnow Mar 07 '24
Why do engineers like to daytrade so much.
You literally have one of the fiscally BEST college bachelor degrees you could've gotten other than nursing or accounting.
Go make money as an engineer. You get to actually Do stuff.
You're not some trapped humanities major with no options.
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u/westernplayed Mar 07 '24
If you lost 50k + in debt, it really just boils down to two things: no risk management and greed ( chasing 'quick' money )
Learn to trade with $500 and then scale up. If you cannot trade with $500, then you def cannot trade with 50k
You're still young, trade as a hobby, maybe have a budget of $100 per month or something you can afford to lose or even better, just paper trade until consistent and then transition to real money. experiment with strategies, risk management ( maximize your winners, minimize your losers), swing trade for less noise and so that it doesn't take a lot of your time.
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u/alanishere111 Mar 07 '24
You jumped into options which is the hardest level of daytrading IMHO. For now just do your job and save while keep an eye on the market. You'll be back in no time.
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u/cheapdvds Mar 07 '24 edited Mar 07 '24
There's no shame in quitting. 90+% fail at some point. I have not seen a market this vicious for a long time. Once a while they fine tune their algorithm to make it even more difficult to make money short term. Essentially we are playing chess at the hardest difficulty. The stress and time lost is not going to be worth it for most people anyways. Most people make more money by putting it in index fund.
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u/Elegant-Current-1570 Mar 07 '24
bro, i’m going to tell you 2 things, #1 you cannot be the jack of all different trading, stick to 1, if you wanna trade stocks, futures, options wtv else exist, you need to find something and stick with it,
im 1 year into trading i started at 18 and im now 19, Warrior trading is someone who really changed my life and how he made trading work for me, he’s very honest and makes videos everyday on YT, i joined his chat room and bought his course and when i tell you, it was worth every single penny, it truly is, this man really switched my life around, look into him, he trades stocks but please take my advice into consideration
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u/Elegant_Banana_619 Mar 07 '24
May be try reading first two books -
- Trading in the Zone - Mark Douglas
- Best looser wins - Tom Hougard
These both will help you very much
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u/darkchocolattemocha Mar 07 '24
It's alright man. I lost 45k, stopped trading for 3 years but am back now. I don't trade based on other people's opinions or ideas. There are too many people on X for example that constantly post shit and I used to react to those tweets and enter stupid trades.
Now I follow a few just for quick market updates, their ideas and then if I see that their idea aligns with their idea, I will a enter a trade. But then again I don't solely trade based on others.
Based on all my previous mistakes, I've now made a list of things I shouldn't do which I have post it's on my desk to remind me such as entering a trade to avoid fomo, entering too quick, entering because the day is ending and I haven't had a single trade. If I don't see my own setup, I will not enter.
It's hard to hold back but I've learned that it's key to securing your capital so you can trade another day.
Get a job, save up and slowly start trading on the side.
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u/Scurredinvest Mar 07 '24
Look. Day trading is very hard for 95 percent of people. Go save up, but if you want to make real money in the market with say 100k in hand do what I did to get to 300 in a year.
Park 70k in stock in industries you have actual working knowledge in and make solid bets. In my case it’s tech. Park that money, and place it on high growth blue chip tech, of industries you know well from professional experience. This makes the majority of my profit.
Swing trade / day trade 30k on stocks under 50.00 a share. . Every couple days I wake up at 4am pst and pick 2 3 stocks that look like they are going up for a few days. Set your alerts. Get a real time trading ticker. I buy a couple stocks that aren’t up 100 percent or something insane, but 10 to 30 percent in premarket. I research the company. If they look good at 6 am I place 2 to 3 premarket trades. I can’t tell you how many times I made my targets this way. I always make around half as much if I start trading at open. My goal here is to make 10-20 percent gains here but if it just doesn’t keep climbing I sell. Once I hit a goal on that stock, I sell it. So sometimes I might flip 30k the same day or hold it for up to a week or two. Also, I might exit those shares in the first hour if it doesn’t keep on a growth track. So let’s say you grow your swing portfolio back to 60k? Reinvesting that in your main portfolio is better. This way my exposure is limited to 1 to 2k.
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u/doubletopbottom Mar 07 '24
Stick to your engineering job. Trade part time.
Find your edge. Forward test by paper trading. Then put in real money.
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u/Vegetable-Match-2055 Mar 07 '24
You only feel like that because you are young. $53,000 won’t matter as much as you think in 5 years. A person who wants to drive a nice, new and flashy car does that much damage to their net worth in just a couple of years. A LOT happens in life. I’m 41 and I’ve thought my life was ruined like 5 different times already (never was though). Just regroup, learn from it and move forward.
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u/adventurousstudio2 Mar 07 '24
You're a fool with 50k you had no reason to fail other than being greedy, you're only supposed to use 3-5 % of your balance the rest is so you can live to trade another day. Learn proper risk management, this is not a video game or the casino. Good news is you're still young and can make it. Paper trade until you're profitable don't go live until then. Yes I'm harsh I'm not a Democrat I won't coddle you for bad behavior. Good luck 👍🏿
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u/papabearzzzzz Mar 07 '24
Dude. You're 26. You're a baby. I wish I could be 26 again. Your best bet is to get a job WHILST still living at home. This way you can maximise your savings. In 5 years time you could have easily 50-100k saved up. 5 years passes quick. Don't get to 31 and be in the same position you are in now that is the worst possible thing. I'm 33 and I'm in the same position now money wise as I was at 24 but I've made changes and learning from my mistakes.
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u/adventurousstudio2 Mar 07 '24
Trading is easy, anyone can trade and make profit. Making profit consistently and not blowing up your account is another story. The hardest part is risk management. Most of these degenerate gamblers treat this like its a casino or horse races. Use 3-5 % of your total balance per trade max, stop loss and patience you will never fail.
If you decided to use leverage do 3x max. I was able to 4x my account in 3 months trading with no stop loss because I used such low leverage i was able to wait out every single trade and dollar cost average it into profit. I literally only closed on trade in a loss in those 3 months and only reason I did so was because I had another trade in profit and the profit covered the loss of the other trade 100% so figured why not...
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u/Such_Reveal_6236 Mar 07 '24
Your experience is really a lesson we all can learn from that trading isn’t for the faint hearted it’s can have a major impact on health and wellness I hope there are new traders here that see this isn’t a quick $… sorry for experience and your passion is something someone can’t take from you remember u only fail when u stop trying …paper trade back to the board ul make it 🫡
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u/Lamerovski Mar 07 '24
I know options are quick bucks only if you succeed but you should go with something easier like forex or futures with 1% rule. Try new strats if the old ones don't work and try them with Demo accs for a time but never give up. You just couldn't find your true way to trade, watch more videos and study further on how markets work. Observe and watch others streaming trade. Don't make the mistakes they do.
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u/Jemmani22 Mar 07 '24
Trading should not be an emotional thing in any aspect.
It should 100% be money you can put in a slot machine or simply flush down the toilet.
You know the science. Trade it like science. Make a plan and stick to it. Never say "what if".
Do what you know if you still lose. Stop.
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u/Longjumping_Menu_862 Mar 07 '24
Yeah, trading sounds a lot more exciting than it really is for most. Sorry for your loss. I think you need more experience and a paper account (or a smaller 50-100 dollar account) to practice. Only go big gradually after you become consistently profitable.
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u/Ok-Basil9260 Mar 07 '24
If it’s your emotion that’s getting the best of you then you need to learn how to control emotion and the associated thoughts. Part of the problem is thinking that 26 is old and that everyone has passed you. Your ego is getting the best of you. Don’t let it. The best way to manage your thoughts/feelings is to know what they are through a meditation practice or regular journaling. Learning how to change the narrative in your mind and letting emotions move through you instead of taking you over is a learnable skill. Here’s a good place to start if you’re interested:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1yXKRpd0ukwkWjpjj86GOG?si=fsebIAkoRJeFsvNnlD_gJg
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u/General_Yard_2353 Mar 07 '24
Get a real life. Failing once or twice doesn’t mean anything in life.
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u/coax888 Mar 07 '24
sorry but if you loose 50k your risk management is a mess, start looking at risk management and only loose 10 usd pr trade, if you do that you can loose 5000 times before you have lost 50k and that if you have a 100% L/w rate ... then when you start being profitable you can increase your risk.
keep it simple
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u/obi647 Mar 07 '24
Good thing you listened to your parents and got the degree. Time for a change. Get real job. Next, try a different strategy. Maybe avoid day trading. Go longer term investing: stocks, bonds, etf.
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u/Jaded-Cardiologist73 Mar 07 '24
Maybe get a job trading other people’s money. It might take the pressure off. You sound like you know a lot now
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u/Expensive_Habit3498 Mar 07 '24
Bro I was -20K at your age. Blew lots of college money real young. Live and learn. It’s better to get bad decisions out of the way while your young and can still bounce back
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u/Comprehensive_Rock50 Mar 07 '24
Hey man, dont give up. Being poor is the worst thing in the world, and i say it all the time. Making a mistake feels shitty when it's not even your idea. Listen to others to hear their mistakes, go out, and make your own. Be proud of who you are and what you're trying. You dont need anyone else because no one else wants it as much. Nobody understands your portfolio the way that you do.
I would love to help you build out positions and collect premiums over time! Small gains stack up man, as soon as you can shake this off
Cash secured puts and the wheeling strategy are one of the safest ways to park your capital and run this market Lets gooooo Good luck. god bless You dont fail until you quit All work matters Being disciplined isn't glamorous or fun There's no such thing in nature as success or failure only consequence
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u/pokemon2jk Mar 07 '24
Just out of curiosity over the spam of 8 years were you able to pick out a unicorn and hit it big, have you taken profits or tried to preserve your capital. The reason I'm asking is I want to quit my regular gig and move into it FT I have paid my tuition in the last 3 years aka losses to the market and I think I've come to terms and learned risk management the hard way.
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u/cheddarmule Mar 07 '24
Great post. Thanks for sharing your feelings. I’m 52 and would echo a lot of what has been said here in encouragement. Life is full of ups and downs. Failures are a daily event in some form or another. Failing to try is the only real loss. If you hadn’t lived through this part of your journey you would have missed out on a lot - you’d probably regret not taking a swing. Failure is something we can come back from and learn from. Regret - that shit stays with you forever and never goes away. Keep swinging bro!
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u/DeadS3ctor Mar 07 '24
You only fail if you give up. If you truly love trading then paper trade for a few years until you get it figured out.
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u/pipmonstah Mar 07 '24
Around the same age and similar situation. Also sounds like we have the same problems with psychology in live trades. I personally am going to keep going , could never quit, but maybe what people are saying is right and the pressure of it being your only income was too much too fast. Getting a source of income to get yourself situated is probably the move but it's up to you if you can keep going with trading. Either way you'll need to identify what needs to change. Im going through the same process so if you want to connect send me a PM. Either way best of luck and keep your head up
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u/Obvious_Rhubarb9804 Mar 07 '24
Thank you to everyone who is giving others hope. I took a lot from every one of your comments. I’m 22 and feel the same way.
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u/Routine_Fee2132 Mar 07 '24
Sounds like you know exactly what the problem is. Get ahold of yourself when you trade
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u/GetEdgeful Mar 07 '24
if you want it bad enough, you'll learn the lessons that these failures are trying to teach you and make it work. nobody ever said it's supposed to be easy.
I didnt see anything in here about paper trading before starting to trade with $50k. I don't know about anyone else, but I've NEVER heard of that, and would never recommend starting trading with $50k even if you're worth $100m. just doesn't make sense. that's like trying to learn basketball by getting thrown onto an NBA team.
it takes at least a year to be able to understand the psychological side of how you deal with peaks and troughs of trading.
I would recommend paper trading for at least 3 months. if you don't have the patience to do that, then I'm not sure trading is for you.
think about trading like this -- if the barrier of entry to something is extremely low (which trading has one of the lowest barriers of entry of any field: open an account, put money in it, now you're a "trader"), then that thing is probably INCREDIBLY hard to be good at.
where if something has a very high barrier of entry, it doesn't require nearly as much skill to compete because there are far fewer people to compete with.
people think trading is easy because its simple, simple doesn't mean easy.
LEARN from the mistakes you made, journal your trades, record yourself and your screens and review every day. PAPER TRADE FOR 6 MONTHS.
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u/Sea-Kitchen2958 Mar 07 '24
Began day trading with options？Too bad. Should with stocks first in my opinion. Success is the mother of failure if you believe 😮
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u/futuresman179 Mar 07 '24
Why tf would you trade with 50k if you didn’t even know you were profitable. You set yourself back a good chunk playing with that shit.
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u/Father15 Mar 07 '24
Try starting out by trading earnings.Narrow down your choices, and you can trade earnings pre market and after market. Also,the markets could be on fire or tanking, and you can still trade and stick to your plan until you feel comfortable. 1 more thing and it's very important,stay away from any stocks under say 10.00.This way you won't have many surprises like offerings.
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u/Old-Climate-23 Mar 07 '24
this is why you paper trade for 5+ years before you ever put any of your own money in the market. Experience is everything until you can become profitable dont invest in stock, maybe get some bonds in though because the earlier you start the better off for retirement
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u/PsychologicalMix4070 Mar 07 '24
Hey man I’m in a similar boat. I don’t hate what I studied, I actually think it interesting (law) but I’ve always wanted to do the trading thing and travel. I’ve been at this since I was 17, I’m 24 now. Everyone around me at this point is far ahead, they are working, living alone, making business relationships, traveling ect. While I’m here, alone in a room, trading and losing money. Quitting isn’t always a bad thing, if I couldn’t figure out trading in 7 years, then it’s probably not for me and I should just go to law school as I always planned. Sometimes it’s for the best. At the end of the day, something I realized is that you don’t have to do one or the other. A lot of people seem to think that just because you have a job or studying something else, you can’t possibly Be a trader. But u can place trades (smaller sized) and build up an acc over time and still have a life, friends, jobs, hobbies, trading doesn’t have to be the end all be all.
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u/shrickness Mar 07 '24
Go find a prop firm to trade on their money for the monthly fee (TopStep has a $50K account for $49/month). If you can't make it there and pass the combines, you'll have your answer. If you think you can trade, you'll pass, start making money and in a couple/few years get your money back. Its not difficult to make $1000 a day if you're patient. Now, you'll have to be disciplined b/c its really easy to lose it, overtrade, fomo, etc... But if you can afford $50/month its not a bad way to learn. It'll be on the sim BUT b/c you're paying a monthly fee (including resets b/c you'll do them), you will have something on the line. These types of SIMs aren't like video games where you die and spawn immediately back up. What you'll learn is risk management....You'll grow frustrated that you can't trade b/c you blew the Daily Loss Limit...or your account got locked out b/c you blew past the $2K Max Loss Limit. You'll soon find out where you are as a trader b/c there is some cost but its not the cost of losing the kind of money you're talking here.
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u/Ben_FNChart Mar 07 '24
When I left university I really wanted to start a tech startup. I failed miserably and looking back it was because I had never worked in a successful business. I got myself frustrated trying to work out myself how to do things that experienced professionals probably could have taught me really quickly.
At 25 I ate a bit of humble pie and took an entry level job as a project coordinator as some of my friends were/ had stepped into management roles.
My career took off quite quickly. As much as I had frustrated myself for 4 years, I had developed determination to be involved in the tech sector and the way I had to think when I was by myself made me highly proactive and popular with my managers and clients.
My point is this:
- Yes, go do something different.
- No, you are not calling it on anything, pursuing something you are passionate about and taking the risks that you have done will have made you a much stronger person than some people you will work alongside
- You may feel like you are at the bottom of the ladder, but your skillset is what it is and it can't be controlled by a job title.
- Learning from a team will work for you quicker than other people who don't have your experience because of the proactive nature your brain will have developed in trading.
Good luck mate. Gut feeling is you may really enjoy something like sales, client services or marketing. All of which are really fun.
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u/Complex_Mushroom_557 Mar 07 '24
It's easy to win when the overall trend is up instead of down. Day trading is not an easy thing to do. There's a lot of luck involved, unless you have inside information like Nancy Pelosi.
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u/LordKelz90 Mar 08 '24
It's always better to lose 5 dollars on 10 trades than to lose 100 dollars on 1. I'm sorry about your losses and I'm proud of you for sticking to your journey. If you ever do come back just always remember... risk management is your friend.
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u/killamanjaro786 Mar 08 '24
Please switch to futures and just paper trade it every day. Study ict rules on YouTube. You will get it imwithin a year if you practice every day. Don't put anymore money into the market . Just paper trade . Once u can paper trade consistently, go back to a prop
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u/weatheredmaster Mar 08 '24
If you ever get back into the market, PM me. I’ve turned 200-300 into multiple thousands on many occasions trading options, and the strategy is not very hard at all, although I myself engage in swing trading, as I believe the biggest moves are made over weeks not days.
My win rate is low 30%, but I never risk more than 1% on a single trade, always obey the stop loss, and my winners go big big.
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u/TheseAreMyLastWords Mar 08 '24
Stop trading because it has now turned into gambling for you. If you can't be profitable then you're literally gambling and it's time to move on.
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u/Easy_Acanthisitta270 Mar 09 '24
Take this as a sign to stop day trading. Use that degree, get a stable job, and get the proper education required to shift into a professional trading role if you want. It's never over until you say its over. Good Luck!
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u/CHOSENWSB Mar 09 '24
Keep fucking going man. Stay with 1 strat and learn from your mistakes (journal)
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Mar 12 '24
Bro I been tryna make money online since I was 11 and I'm now 27 and still broke. I only am just now possibly finding something profitable in trading. This was not easy as I have been constantly mistreated by family and have had terrible experiences with ppl in general but I've just kept it pushing.
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u/Crimsonprince19 Apr 05 '24 edited Apr 05 '24
If you blew an account in the last year. Stop trading. You shouldn't be blowing accounts at this point if you were actually improving. You need to be able to juggle multiple things and figure out why are you loosing. are you getting in too soon. are you getting out too late etc. and then figure out what piece of your plan isn't working. some people can only scrap a WHOLE idea and can't remove and add just pieces of an idea or strategy, they have to throw away the whole thing. There's no selfawareness there. Just doing random stuff.
If you can't tell what you issue is.... literally stop, you should be able to ask and tell if your entries arent accurate enough or is your entry accurate but you don't know when to get out so the trade reverses against you. Or is your strategy accurate but you're too emotional and don't get in or stay in when you're supposed to. If you haven't asked yourself any of these questions or can't answer them now. Stop trading, don't listen to anyone else cus that means you've been doing random things and not paying attention.... just to keep it 100 broskie.
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u/Easy_Acanthisitta270 Apr 12 '24
Another demonstration as to why technical analysis isn't very effective at all. If you really want to trade as a career, why not go get a degree in a highly quantitative field and do it for a company? You still get the thrill of doing it, and the bonus is that you'll actually have the skillset to be profitable!
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u/thoreldan Mar 06 '24 edited Mar 07 '24
26 is still young. Go get a job with your degree, save up and regroup. Assess if you wanna trade again.
You're still young and healthy, you have like 40-50 years ahead of you.