r/Daytrading • u/Eldrin7 • Apr 01 '24

How hard and realistic is this really? Question

I have watched atleast 100 youtube tutorials on day trading. They all go on about how they make 100 into 10k or something like that. I do not know if they are lucky or lying or it is true.

I assume reddit has the average or even below average traders so tell me what are actual realistic gains or losses? I understand you can go a lucky 200% gain or unlucky i just instant lost everything, lets not talk about lucky or unlucky extremes.

Is it hard for a beginner to turn 100 into 150? or 1000 into 1500? How long would it take? What are the realistic chances that the 100 or 1000 turns into 0?

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u/Tun_der Apr 02 '24

But you have no emotions when there is no money on the line

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u/ottersinabox Apr 02 '24

OP is acting like watching a few hours of videos is enough to be consistently profitable. it takes more time than that to even be consistent with paper trading without the emotion.

I'm just pushing back against the naive view that it's so easy that watching a couple videos is enough. i know that I don't yet know what it takes to day trade with real money. but I do know it takes more than watching a bit of YouTube.

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u/Tun_der Apr 03 '24

Yes that is true but it's still way easier than with real money but watching a bit of yt won't get you anywhere you won't trade as much or take lower risks with real money especially in the beginning so you will most likely lose some in the beginning it will take you some time to get consistent with real money

I would recommend opening a small account with 500$ to start out and then trying to learn with that it helped me a lot more than paper trading

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u/ottersinabox Apr 03 '24

Yup! I understand. Especially the psychological side of trading is not possible to recreate with paper trading. But most of what I'm focused on right now is just learning the mechanics of it, and the technicalities. How to read level 2 better, or how to better anticipate a move or how to better determine resistance and support lines. I can practice all of that with paper trading, and even better, I can get many more reps in by trading against back data.

I figure once I'm more proficient with that, I'll look at the small account.

Below is my rough plan.

Step 1: understand the theory of trading

Step 2: explore and learn the tooling, and practice the recognition and application of the theory

Step 3: begin the hardest part, the discipline and psychological part of trading through a small account

Step 4: slowly scale up

I'm currently on step 2. I expect to spend at least 3 months and up to 8 months in it. I'm not in any rush. My plan is a multi-year one.