Day Trading Stocks : Progress Thread

[bmw335isedan]

Result of April Fool's Day

004920, Bought at 1480 and sold at 1550 = 4.38%
900050, Bought at 3680 and sold at 3750 = 1.57% (Same company that I made trade couple days ago)

So today I actually made little over a grand. As a result now I have about 21K

 

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[bmw335isedan]

Now I will tell you what happened yesterday. Remember? I wanted to add USD/KRW to my watch list? Guess what my current broker only let me buy and sell stocks and mutual fund only because I am a forienger. Anyways, I was so disappointed. I went to International Finance center and jumped from broker to broker to see if they accept foriegner to trade Dollar futures. Finally, I found one and they are one of the major broker with market cap of about 2 billion USD. They offered trading stocks as well. I decided to change my broker.

One problem though, I need to wait 3 days before I can move my fund from my previous broker cause money has to settle from the latest trades I made.

As a result, if I want to change then I won't be able to make trades until Wednesday. I went through all the paper work with the new broker and I will be depositing it and start trading on Thursday morning. That means no trades today and tomorrow

 

[InLikeFlint]

004920, Bought at 1480 and sold at 1550 = 4.38%
900050, Bought at 3680 and sold at 3750 = 1.57% (Same company that I made trade couple days ago)

So today I actually made little over a grand. As a result now I have about 21K

WOW! You killed it today, hopefully you will have more days like these!

Look forward to your updates on Wednesday!

 

[bmw335isedan]

Keep up the good work, I registered just to follow your thread!

Thanks, nice to meet you!

I'm totally digging this thread. I love love love talking about money

Same here

How do you decide to exit a position? Do you look for anything in particular, or do you just try to ride it up as you said earlier?

Usually, I exit when I see a giant candle going opposite of my direction or see very big positions showing up on Level 2. Or when it goes limit up to the ceiling.

 

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[bmw335isedan]

WOW! You killed it today, hopefully you will have more days like these!

Look forward to your updates on Wednesday!

Actually that was yesterday, please read my previous post

 

[bmw335isedan]

A lot of people are asking me same question so let me answer it here.

What books do you recommend for trading stocks?

-> My short answer is, ALL OF THEM, you should read all books related to trading stocks. (I am reading daily at the rate of one book per week or sometimes one book per two weeks)

Think about it, whatever business you get into, you have to be the best of the best to make a top dollar in the industry. Do you seriously think that you can trade successfully by reading one book? Not a chance and it will never happen. Even if you read let's say 200 books, aren't you worry that someone else write a new book that might become so successful? I understand that most day trading books suck, but in order to find what strategies or market that suit you best, you have to explore everything. It does not have to be about day trading, it can be about psychology, long term trading, biography, etc.

You just do not have a clue what you are capable of.

Just think about becoming a medical doctor. They spend hundred thousand of dollars in tuition, 10 years ++ time spent learning and reading countless books to make $100k ~ $300K a year working 10 hours a day if not more. Obviously, there are people who want to become doctors to cure disease and more, but I am just look at the dollar value since we all love money.

You and me are into a business that potentically make over one million dollar working comfortably at home at most 4hours trading. If I were a person want to learn how to trade successfully, I would not mind preparing for at least one or two years.

Please do not look down on trading business, they are just as hard as any other business OR harder!

 

[Wendy]

Hi Austin. I tried day trading too but I gave up. I traded forex. Mostly EUR/USD, some USD/JPY.

I went into forex because of the high liquidity, recession-proof-ness (money can be made in any market condition).

I had a strategy (also embarrassingly simple, involves EMA/candle crossovers). My trailing stop/ stoploss points were all set. My commission was just on spread, extremely low, almost negligible.

However I stopped... why?

Firstly, I am in a GMT+8 timezone, to trade NY I need to trade at 9pm-5am my time. This is the most active market but the timing is so bad for me. If I traded Tokyo (around the same time zone as me), it's so slow that not much happens. Also, I hold a day job which makes it hard for me to monitor the charts in the office.

Next, my capital was just too low. I risked 2% per trade, but the total "investment" in my account just around $2500. That's what I felt I could afford to lose without feeling a pinch. Leveraged 20 times, that's around $50K. 2% of $50K is $1000, and to make 1-2% profit per normal profitable trade makes me $10-20... way too low. And that's only when the trade is profitable. And how many profitable trades are there in a day..? Not too many.

Thirdly, I need to monitor really closely to act on entry signals fast (maybe within a minute of the signal). What does this mean? It means I sit at my computer during the 3-4 hours I trade every night (9pm onwards), watching the ticker for a possible entry sign. But of course, it's when I need to go to the bathroom, or when I receive a call, that the signal appears. Once, I was called away from my desk when the JAPAN EARTHQUAKE happened, along with a price spike so huge that I could have made XXXX% profit even with my peanut investment. That was just... I don't even. Anyway many nights go by where entry signals are missed or happen outside of my trading hours.

I had no problem with the psychology/greed part which supposedly is the pitfall that ruins many traders. I stuck to my strategy religiously and wasn't tempted to take profits early nor let losses run. Maybe I'm a robot ha. But I still quit after 8 months of trying.

For me, I realised that it required INTENSE focus (even a minute away could mean 100% of the day's profit gone), required late nights (for good health I want adequate rest), and the rewards were too meager for amount of time and energy I'm spending on it. Yes I could probably scale it up over time with accumulated profits, but small % on small capitals just take a LONG TIME to build up. Not worth it.

Well just some points to consider for people who want to day trade like Austin. Well done on your profits, by the way!

I would go back into trading if

1. I could develop a system that can trade automatically for me, making the income "passive". Yes there are existing auto-trading systems but their parameters are not sophisticated enough for those affordable to me, and too expensive for those that are.

2. I reach a point I feel I can afford to throw $20K into the ocean and it would make little difference to my life.

PS. Agree with you on reading every book (before I did my first trade, I have been reading books for maybe a year).

 

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[andyredsox]

[FONT=&quot]- [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Welcome Austin, is nice to hear from you and your progress. Keep up the good work, and hopefully reading more about your business.[/FONT]

 

[bmw335isedan]

Hi Austin. I tried day trading too but I gave up. I traded forex. Mostly EUR/USD, some USD/JPY.

I went into forex because of the high liquidity, recession-proof-ness (money can be made in any market condition).

I had a strategy (also embarrassingly simple, involves EMA/candle crossovers). My trailing stop/ stoploss points were all set. My commission was just on spread, extremely low, almost negligible.

However I stopped... why?

Firstly, I am in a GMT+8 timezone, to trade NY I need to trade at 9pm-5am my time. This is the most active market but the timing is so bad for me. If I traded Tokyo (around the same time zone as me), it's so slow that not much happens. Also, I hold a day job which makes it hard for me to monitor the charts in the office.

Next, my capital was just too low. I risked 2% per trade, but the total "investment" in my account just around $2500. That's what I felt I could afford to lose without feeling a pinch. Leveraged 20 times, that's around $50K. 2% of $50K is $1000, and to make 1-2% profit per normal profitable trade makes me $10-20... way too low. And that's only when the trade is profitable. And how many profitable trades are there in a day..? Not too many.

Thirdly, I need to monitor really closely to act on entry signals fast (maybe within a minute of the signal). What does this mean? It means I sit at my computer during the 3-4 hours I trade every night (9pm onwards), watching the ticker for a possible entry sign. But of course, it's when I need to go to the bathroom, or when I receive a call, that the signal appears. Once, I was called away from my desk when the JAPAN EARTHQUAKE happened, along with a price spike so huge that I could have made XXXX% profit even with my peanut investment. That was just... I don't even. Anyway many nights go by where entry signals are missed or happen outside of my trading hours.

I had no problem with the psychology/greed part which supposedly is the pitfall that ruins many traders. I stuck to my strategy religiously and wasn't tempted to take profits early nor let losses run. Maybe I'm a robot ha. But I still quit after 8 months of trying.

For me, I realised that it required INTENSE focus (even a minute away could mean 100% of the day's profit gone), required late nights (for good health I want adequate rest), and the rewards were too meager for amount of time and energy I'm spending on it. Yes I could probably scale it up over time with accumulated profits, but small % on small capitals just take a LONG TIME to build up. Not worth it.

Well just some points to consider for people who want to day trade like Austin. Well done on your profits, by the way!

I would go back into trading if

1. I could develop a system that can trade automatically for me, making the income "passive". Yes there are existing auto-trading systems but their parameters are not sophisticated enough for those affordable to me, and too expensive for those that are.

2. I reach a point I feel I can afford to throw $20K into the ocean and it would make little difference to my life.

PS. Agree with you on reading every book (before I did my first trade, I have been reading books for maybe a year).

I feel your pain Wendy. I did not really talk about FX on this thread, but I am trading FX as well.

You actually picked the right pair EUR/USD and USD/JPY. I live in +9 zone so New York Start at 9:00PM (summer time). One major mistake that you made was that you traded sooo long. There's no way you can trade 9:00PM to 5:00AM.. It will simply kill you mentally. No one can stand that. Humans are designed to sleep at night.

What you should have done is that you only trade first 2 hours or so. Maximum should be 9:00PM to 1:00AM (Max 4 hrs). In this period, you should only trade EUR/USD. You should trade USD/JPY in the morning starting 9:00AM ~ 11:00AM (+9 zone).

These are my standards and let me repeat there's no such thing as answer in trading, but trust me it will increase your odds.

For me, I do not believe in automatic trading unless you can afford a super computer with a right algorithm placed right next to New York Stock exchange. <-- same thing as Goldman Sachs, JP morgan, etc are doing.

I think $10K USD is enough to make a difference

Good luck in what you do!

[FONT="]- [/FONT][FONT="]Welcome Austin, is nice to hear from you and your progress. Keep up the good work, and hopefully reading more about your business.[/FONT]

Thanks

 

[Wendy]

What you should have done is that you only trade first 2 hours or so. Maximum should be 9:00PM to 1:00AM (Max 4 hrs). In this period, you should only trade EUR/USD. You should trade USD/JPY in the morning starting 9:00AM ~ 11:00AM (+9 zone).

Hi Austin, just to clarify on my trading hours since you appear to have misunderstood! I did not trade from 9pm - 5am! That would have killed me haha. I only did 3-4 hours a day. But that was after my day job so it was too many hours in total for me. It was taking a toll, I felt so exhausted at the end of every night.

Thanks for your tips! Right my focus is on my business which I find I have enough energy to do on top of my day job, with better returns and lesser involvement.

One day I hope to re-enter forex trading, cos I actually enjoy the activity! Feels like a game, only that it earns real life money haha. Hopefully when that day comes you have become a legendary multi-millionaire trader.

 

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[bmw335isedan]

Result of April 4th

Alright guys, I have made a trade today, but I am facing some problem.

I thought I could trade both stocks and USD/KRW Future in one account, but my broker told me that I need two separate accounts. Meaning if I buy stocks then I won't be able to buy USD/KRW. So I decided to try out USD/KRW then if it does not work out I will go back trading stocks. For couple weeks or so I will only be trading USD/KRW

Let me tell you little bit about USD/KRW.

Each tick is 0.10 Won. Each tick is little less than $1.

For easy math, I will just use $1 = 1000won, in reality it is $1 = 1124won

Minimum purchase start from $10K USD.

So when I buy 1 unit (10K USD) and I make 10 tick I make $10.

However, I get about 22 leverage. so for now I have buying power of 21K USD x 22 = 462K (46.2unit)

But for margin requirement, I will be trading 350K USD (35 Unit)

so each tick will be worth $35 and 10 tick is worth $350 gain.

Also brokerage fee is 1 tick (buying and selling)

Absolutely no taxes Yay! No capital gain tax, no ecn fees nothing

Alright let's get it started

I bought USD/KRW at 1122.40 and sold at 1124.10 = 17 tick gain = 17tick x 35unit = 595,000Won about $530

so In total I have about 21.5K

Oh yeah, btw there's no broker fee for 90 days as promotion!


http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/9434/442013usdkrw.jpg

here is a chart image

 

[InLikeFlint]

Wow that's awesome Austin!

So now will you make a separate account so you can trade both types, or will you just alternate trading between the two?

 

[bmw335isedan]

Wow that's awesome Austin!

So now will you make a separate account so you can trade both types, or will you just alternate trading between the two?

I already made two accounts one for stocks and one for EUR/KRW futures, but I have to choose one. I cannot trade both unless I divide my fund, but I will make less amount if I do that so for now I will be doing EUR/KRW.

 

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[Jonleehacker]

http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/9...2013usdkrw.jpg

here is a chart image

This trade looks different than your others. Previously you seemed to be trading over one of the opening bars, this one seems to be later in the day, and also, counter trend.

Can you explain what the thinking was with this trade?

 

[bmw335isedan]

Result of April 5, 2013

This trade looks different than your others. Previously you seemed to be trading over one of the opening bars, this one seems to be later in the day, and also, counter trend.

Can you explain what the thinking was with this trade?

Hello actually it looks very deceiving, but I was following the trend. Originally it gapped up meaning, it is trending north, but it is ideal to see some selling pressure prior to going up higher. There are a lot of people who want to sell right away when gapping up because they made profit over night. Also i bought it when the price was higher than all the moving averages so actually i was following the trend.

Also I was trading starting price breakout

Anyways today's trade

I bought it at 1125.50 and sold it at 1126.70 = 1.20 = 12ticks = 35 x 12tick = 420,000won = $373

now i have just under 22k

here's the chart http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/7984/452013usdkrw.jpg

 

[bmw335isedan]

Forgot to mention, have a great weekend guys. See you guys on monday

 

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[InLikeFlint]

Really enjoy reading the daily updates from this thread! Thanks for staying so consistent with your postings, Austin!

 

[thehawkman]

Stop the crap with Starcraft. Focus on what helps, even if a Starcraft player is seen as a rockstar in Koreea, it will not bring you far ;-)

Actually, one of those players made 200,000 USD dollars in one year.And he is in his 20s, I think. And he is not the only one pulling 6 figures.

 

[bmw335isedan]

Actually, one of those players made 200,000 USD dollars in one year.And he is in his 20s, I think. And he is not the only one pulling 6 figures.

Actually top players make more than 500k, after sponsors and advertisement, it grows a lot.. 200k is just for earnings when he wins a tournament.

Anyways but these people play games 24/7 !

 

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[thehawkman]

Actually top players make more than 500k, after sponsors and advertisement, it grows a lot.. 200k is just for earnings when he wins a tournament.

Anyways but these people play games 24/7 !

Well..."10,000 hours", remember? As for 500,000 dollars, could be. I got my figures from here: SC2 Earnings - Home Page

 

[AlexV]

Actually top players make more than 500k, after sponsors and advertisement, it grows a lot.. 200k is just for earnings when he wins a tournament.

Anyways but these people play games 24/7 !

What I said and what you get. :bgh:
Let's say it this way. Can you get in the top 10 to make 6 figures income in one year? Mostly no. A year has 8760 hours, so that 10000 hours would not make it. Can you make 6 figures income sticking to your plan. Probably yes. How many SC2 players are there? I think more then daytraders. How many of them are successful? Not so many as the daytraders.
Play SC2 only to relax. You need to recharge of course but try not to loose the view. Keep up the good work till now
Don't chase more then one rabbit cause you might end up catching none.

 

[bmw335isedan]

Hello everyone

Today I did not make any trades cause market went sideways and gave me no good hands.

Take a look

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/5697/482013usdkrw.jpg

 

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[Captain Scarlet]

Hey Austin, you must have balls of steel! It's not something I would do personally, but fascinating to read what you are up to.

I hope you achieve your goal and much more.

 

[bmw335isedan]

Hey Austin, you must have balls of steel! It's not something I would do personally, but fascinating to read what you are up to.

I hope you achieve your goal and much more.

Thanks

 

[bmw335isedan]

Result of April 9th

Until 9:42, I was extremely disappointed. No good signal, same as yesterday, boring sideway action.

I was like not again! I have to report no trade to the forum?? ahh

Guess what at 9:43 I got a reliable signal so I got in right away.

Check out the result

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/6622/492013usdkrw.jpg

Short at 1141.70 and covered at 1136.80 = 49 ticks, 49 ticks x 35000won = 1,715,000won about $1500 !!

Now I have about 23.4K

I guess patience is the king!!

 

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[FiveOone]

Really enjoying your updates, keep up the good work. +Speed

 

[Dreamon988]

Why did you join the stock market at such a young age?

 

[bmw335isedan]

Really enjoying your updates, keep up the good work. +Speed

Thanks.. I am not familar with speed. What happens when my speed goes up?

Why did you join the stock market at such a young age?

I want to buy a Ferrari and that is pretty much it haha.. Dumb reason sorry

 

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[FiveOone]

Thanks.. I am not familar with speed. What happens when my speed goes up?

Speed is a reputation system on these forums, while nothing really happens when it goes up, its kind of like a badge for the value that you have added/people that you have helped out or inspired. I gave it to you as a way to say thanks for your post/blog.

I want to buy a Ferrari and that is pretty much it haha.. Dumb reason sorry

I like it. At least you know what you want!

 

[Jonleehacker]

Care to explain why you entered at that point?

It looks like a break below the open price was a good short - there was a nice wedge with a flat level there, as well as that big rejection bar (the 2nd bar of the day)... curious what you saw when you did enter that you liked?