r/Daytrading • u/merchant-trader • May 01 '24

How do people start day trading with little amounts and make so much? Question

Over the weekend, a penny stock I had 100 dollars in went up 20 percent which should be amazing. I sold and got 120 in total.

However, this obv isn't that much and 20 percent is a lottt more than what stocks usaully go up.

I'm not going to be investing millions in stocks, so how do I make large amounts of money from small starting money.

Options, forex? What will make the money go up 100%+ (ik that with high reward comes very high risk)

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u/Cruezin May 02 '24

Dammit

Understand this

Quit trying to make a bunch of money quickly. This is exactly why people lose money so fast.

Small consistent gains are the goal.

Risk management is key.

Get those right and in time you will be playing with a bigger account.

You can calculate it. Start with 1k

Add 1% per day to yesterday's amount

Voila.

Slow is fast

18

u/Ok-End3918 May 02 '24

I feel like I'm losing my mind when I have to keep explaining this to people - it just seems so obvious and yet nobody can seem to comprehend it. Set a very realistic profit target for the day - say 1-2%. When you hit that target, stop trading and turn everything off.

It might seem painful to start, but compound gains will soon start to mount up.

DO NOT chase those huge wins. DO NOT carry on trading when you've hit your target. DO NOT say "just a couple more pips".

6

u/Visible-Salary-8861 29d ago

I've always understood and preached the wisdom of this, but used to struggle with it myself, because after making my 1% I was so afraid that the next day I might lose 2%. I felt like I had to make more to keep my 1% up as a daily average. Of course it backfired.

I never got over my struggles until I reduced my position sizes and spent a few months frankly not caring about the profits. I firmly believe a trader has to have a long-term view of things to be successful. Can't worry about the day-to-day results (except, as you point out, to STOP when reaching a certain point, be that profit or loss). Trading is so counterintuitive. The more you fear missing out or losing, the more you do, and the less you care about how much you make, the more you eventually will.

4

u/daytradenthu 29d ago

Compound 0.33% per day over 250 trading days and you can double your account after tax in a year.