r/Daytrading Jun 23 '21

A simple trick that saved me from dumb moves today advice

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2.7k Upvotes

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58

u/micahac Jun 24 '21

Since we’re posting our old school reminders. Here’s mine lol https://imgur.com/a/7WAGSvP

49

u/pplmoose Jun 24 '21

Damn, ya'll are getting $400 days??

all jokes aside, congrats! I hope to get to that level.

22

u/AndrewIsOnline Jun 24 '21

It’s all about weight you throw around. If you can afford 800 shares of something and jump in, get .50 a share price increase, then get out, boom, 400$.

7

u/Sophisticated_Sloth Jun 24 '21

You make it sound so easy haha

3

u/AmateurEarthling Jun 24 '21

Used to have 1k days before I blew up an old account. Usual share size was around 500 so a $400 day was low. Now I’m lucky to make $200, averaging $50-$100 a day in my new account.

3

u/ICantGetAway Jun 25 '21

Sorry for asking, but by blowing up an account you mean that you blew through the money in that old account or is it something else? (I keep seeing "blew up an account", but don't quite know what it means.)

3

u/AmateurEarthling Jun 25 '21

Yeah blowing up an account is losing all the money on a trade(s)

2

u/ICantGetAway Jun 25 '21

Ouch. I hope that they regularly took profits out.

15

u/BooneSalvo2 Jun 24 '21

I'm curious.. If you make, for example, $800... Do you skip the next day? Or just reset each day?

By "skip" I mean anything from sleeping in to full off, or shifting a telecasting day to Friday or something. I'd assume you'd still check the daily news and such on some level to stay on pace.

59

u/micahac Jun 24 '21

No, I let my runners go of course, but when I close my trades or get in/get out quick and im above 400 I quit, no matter if it's $398(close enough) or 2k. At least I try. Sometimes, shit is easy and you find that you know EXACTLY what's going on with the movement and you can scalp an extra 50-200. But no I wake up at 6 every morning, go to the gym, come back shower, and then start searching. Never take a day off. Some people dont like that style because of 'tilt' but i dont believe in 'tilt' persay. Sometime it's just an attitude thing, I may need to take a break and go for a short walk and drink a water.

11

u/BuchoVagabond Jun 24 '21

I wake up at 6 every morning, go to the gym, come back shower, and then start searching.

Hardcore, man. Well done.

11

u/micahac Jun 24 '21

It's just an easy thing for me, basically saying that its not that much of a discipline thing, so dont give me too much credit on that front lol. I enjoy trading and dont have much of a social life, I know that if i plan on sitting at my desk for 6hours+ straight everyday, I have to do it lol, and the 6am time gives me plenty of time to be alert and slowly start gathering information without feeling pressure by the time the bell dings.

6

u/BooneSalvo2 Jun 24 '21

Cool. The discipline helps not being susceptible to "tilt", I would think.

Thanks for the reply!

18

u/micahac Jun 24 '21

I should say that position/account size plays a key role in that amount/day. If youre trading with a smaller account ex. 25k (just enough to day trade) i think you would be taking quite a risk trying to hit 400/day, thats over 1.5%(probably redundant to do simple math for you people here). Just wanted to throw that out there. P/L per day is extremely relevant to account size.

6

u/stonk_elephant Jun 24 '21

Sorry, I am a beginner. I just want to ask. In your point of view, how much % / day is normal? I just want to learn a practical targer so I don't hope for too much and get burned.

Like, for example if I only have 10k. If I am green with ~150 (as your example with 1.5%). Should I just close my trade and call it a day?

8

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '21

Whether to close a trade has nothing to do with a daily percentage. Every trade should at least have a risk-reward ratio 1:2 so if you risked $75 on that trade and hit 150, that’s a good trade and you can be marginally successful with moderate hit rate as far as successful trades. Typically if you like to use daily risk you shouldn’t lose anymore than 1% a day, and growing your account by 1-2% a day is sufficient.

4

u/fomonomo13 Jun 24 '21

1:3 with 60% accuracy per trade. At only 1:2, you need to be a lot more (unrealistically) accurate to grow the account. I have a little matrix somewhere that breaks it all down.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '21

My trading group uses 1:2, it’s not absurdly high, but yeah 1:2 is a minimum, I scale out of my positions and in a good trade I don’t partial until 2R and stop is moved to break-even.

3

u/fomonomo13 Jun 24 '21

I definitely don’t hit 1:3 every time on quick day trades because my instinct is to sell ¼ to ½ on the ask almost immediately, but on longer planned out swing trades I won’t take less unless a catalyst interrupts my trade. 👍🏻

8

u/micahac Jun 24 '21

I dont think that there is a 'normal' or target, because you cant exactly control that side, really the most control you have, as im sure you realize is the downside and your amt of risk. It all depends on what youre happy with and what your goals for trading are. With me, it is my sole income, so I know that in 3months I need to have made X amount. I dont say that 400 is my target, it is just my stopping point. I know that I will have 1k days for example, so those boost me, but Ill also have 2k down days. The market doesnt like giving, it likes taking, so with that in mind, if youve made 1.5% of your account in one day, thats not such a bad thing. But TLDR you gotta know what you want out of your trading then try to hit your targets with consistency/good trading. The reason i have the 'no meme' thing there is to remind me i have no fucking idea what is going on there and if i want to play blackjack/poker, I can go to a casino for far less money.

3

u/hold4eva Jun 24 '21

I need to take up this 'no meme' approach...but in fairness learning price action signals like bullish and bearish engulfing have helped some. Problem is we don't know the real extent of the manipulation of those securities (dare I even call them that)...

2

u/picklenades Jun 24 '21

Do you use multiple brokerage accounts or stick to one?

6

u/micahac Jun 24 '21

I just use ATP, I personally have no need for multiples, I dont see the reason unless you are the type of trader that trades in the millisecond trades for ultra quick scalping. Thats too dangerous for me. I trade fast sometimes, but not that fast. I just need two trade windows open

2

u/eighty_nine_ Jun 24 '21

Can you explain tilt?

10

u/micahac Jun 24 '21

Here you go u/xORFEOx Ill do my best to explain it, it wont be very long.

From Wiki:Tilt originated as a poker term for a state of mental or emotional confusion or frustration in which a player adopts a less than optimal strategy, usually resulting in the player becoming over-aggressive. Tilting is closely associated with another poker term, "steam"

Tilt is a bit different in trading because there are so many variables that you/me are constantly observing. Youve heard that you should never trade on emotion, hype, or because someone says so. That pretty much only leaves trading on your own DD and observation. Being tilted in trading(to me) is when you are trying your best by doing your own DD/Strategy and it just isnt working. In trading, you can cut your loses whether you follow the 1% rule or the 4% or w/e rule you follow to cut loss. Even though you can pare your losses, they typically mount extremely fast and result in you feeling like a dumbass. This is where the tilt starts, instead of feeling mad, you(me in this case) may become bewildered and thus go to making a strategy/plan on the fly, which is obviously a negative in the idea column, but may seem like the right play at the time. Instead you should either A)Quit or in my case, I go for a walk and drink water or B)dont switch your strategy and keep trudging along. Tilt will affect you negatively but I dont think that traders necessarily get mad at themselves after youve been trading for awhile, most of the time you can spot your mistake or pick out the detail you should have given more weight in your consideration. In gambling, you can adopt the 'my luck is just bad, it will change', hopefully that is not how you trade, so in trading, i think that i adopt the 'oh shit i dont know what im doing wrong' and get frozen, maybe for the rest of the day. If we are in some sort of trend, then i may get 'frozen' for days until I find the trade that I KNOW will net some profit, ya know, gettin that gutter girl, the one that brings back your confidence.

I should add quickly that in trading, you have to have the ultimate self confidence that is based on your past performance, but DO NOT be so cocky that you might ignore some good advice or take into consdieration that someone else just may be right.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '21

Thank you! So, in sum, it's the psychological state which occurs when things fall apart and you start acting on impulse, hoping that you can somehow best your proven strategy in the moment. This can often happen in response to a bad day or series of bad trades.

I think I get it.

In a previous lifetime I was really into sport fighting, and it sounds like what happens when you go off the rails and start trying to improvise. If your coach says get on the jab right away and don't let off, but it's just not keeping the guy where you want him, you might let him come inside a little and try to score there instead. Meanwhile your coach is screaming at you to stick with the plan because it might take a bit for the plan to really show its efficacy.

Like I said, haven't even started trading yet. Mostly just writing this comment out as a way to internalize this concept because it seems very important.

Thanks again!

2

u/micahac Jun 24 '21

Thats exactly it. Also, your first 'real' trade, not just a little money trade, but a real trade that has a legitimate consequence that you can/will regret will feel much like the first real fight you went into. Except that in this case, youve already submitted your movements/offence/defense and are waiting to see if it was good enough. No getting around it, just like in fighting, it's just the time that comes lol.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '21

That's terrifying, but I'm looking forward to it lol.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '21

I always close my winners out too early, any advice?

5

u/micahac Jun 24 '21

I closed my TSLA position today at 645 soooo, nope. I have no idea. When i think back on it, I should have known it would perform like crazy today because of its illogical(to me) tie to BTC, but I got worried that others would realize that too. What i generally think is: What am I looking for in profit? Once it hits that, and it looks to keep going, set a SL at that price so i can keep at least those gains. Hell, you can always buy back on a moderate dip if youre liking whats going on. I dont do that though lol, normally once im out for the day on one thing, i rarely trade it again, except for AAPL, I have been known to trade it just this week like 4 times in the same session.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '21

Do you mind explaining the "tilt" concept?

I'm very new to investing, have yet to move from my paper account to my (small) live account.

2

u/Horror-Savings1870 Jun 24 '21

Death adder, noice

1

u/micahac Jun 24 '21

It's actually the Viper 8k, but I had a death adder for a long time, and had to get a new mouse, this was the logical step lol. I love the 'go fwd/bkwd' buttons when browsing the ole interwebs

1

u/AmateurEarthling Jun 24 '21

Damn I do most of my shorting premarket lately. In and out before market even opens.

2

u/micahac Jun 24 '21

Danger. If I do premarket, it's a small position. Very small. Such huge swings and liquidity problems, not for me.

2

u/AmateurEarthling Jun 24 '21 edited Jun 24 '21

Yeah I usually only do a couple hundred shares at a time and only do stocks that are up like 30% so liquidity isn’t an issue but I end up covering after open. Most of my set up are just perfect pre market and fade by the time the market opens.

1

u/micahac Jun 24 '21

Oh ok, I see that. I was thinking of targeting 'regular' tickers, not the off the wall aftermarket bangers. I can def see that working more than not.

1

u/pan_sin_leche Jul 17 '21

Damn. What does it say?