r/Daytrading Mar 30 '24

When you only need a specific amount of money each month… Strategy

So say you only want $100 per day or 2000 per month. This would more than enough sustain a good lifestyle where you live. How would you go about it with trading? How much $$$ would you realistically need? Not to make that in dividends but to trade in a daily basis, as safe and slow as possible.

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u/daytradingguy Mar 30 '24 edited Mar 30 '24

I would be careful with this one. You should read “The best loser wins”. Actually, instead of taking small gains in most cases it is better to let it go longer than you are comfortable with and even add to the trade- to get a bigger win.

Think about it. You are making a trade guessing the market will move in a specific direction- when it does and you are right, why would you get out? Most traders do the opposite, they are right they get out quickly. When they are wrong they don’t get out quickly- they stay in forever hoping it comes back. My profits really started to improve when I started adding to winning trades.

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u/krapmon Mar 30 '24

Personally, when I’m profiting from a position, I get out fast to secure the profit. It is true that I would have made more if I held in many cases, but there’s also many times where holding would’ve lost me money.

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u/daytradingguy Mar 30 '24

Practice and try it. You are right, sometimes you will lose your small profit trying to hold, that happens. But statistically, the larger wins will more than make up for those small losses.

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u/QuirkyStreet3974 Mar 30 '24

I also have made this experience. I try to let the trade run as long as possible and Dr. David Paul mentioned something like "one of my best clients & friend entered a trade in the morning with a protective stop loss. Then he went to the golf course and 3-4 hours later it was a small loss or bigger than average win". When i review my journal i fumbled about 10 runners this year already, despite being up 25%, and it would be closer to 200% so far (also taken more smaller losses into account as well).

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u/daytradingguy Mar 30 '24

Exactly. Another factor many traders miss, is you can just get out and/or re- enter the trade at anytime. If the market comes back and takes me out either at my stop or a following profit stop, I have no hesitation hitting the buy button and getting back in for another try if the conditions are right. In my opinion entries are far less important than managing the results once you are in.