Day Trading Stocks : Progress Thread

[Xyros]

Welcome Austin!
Your strategy looks a lot like the strategy I had when I used to daytrade a year ago (I was a trader for 3 years).
I traded only crude oil futures and usually 2-3 trades a day, and not a single trade more.

May I ask why you chose stocks over futures?

 

[The-J]

Care to share your current experience? You don't sound like a newbie at this.

How long have you been doing this? How did you start?

We've got a lot of people who will be interested. Also, for keeping a progress thread I'll give you some speed+

 

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[SeanKelly]

Wouldn't it be a bit unrealistic to turn 19k into 100k in one year when you're fairly new to trading? I'm not saying that its not impossible, just highly unlikely. If you do manage to complete that ambitious goal, why would you switch markets instead of continuing to tend to your money tree? I wish you best of luck regardless.

 

[Jonleehacker]

Can you explain how trendfollowing and just trading the first hour goes together?

Are you looking at trends on very short timeframes? If so do you base decisions off of Daily charts at all?

 

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[bmw335isedan]

Wouldn't it be a bit unrealistic to turn 19k into 100k in one year when you're fairly new to trading? I'm not saying that its not impossible, just highly unlikely. If you do manage to complete that ambitious goal, why would you switch markets instead of continuing to tend to your money tree? I wish you best of luck regardless.

Good question. Right now when I see the buying signal in stocks, I buy 90% of my equity. So for example, when samsung stock signals me then I buy about 18K of my equity for quick profit.
Since I only have 19K right now, I have no problem buying and selling at any time, but when the money get large like 100K, there might not be enough liquidy available for me to get in and get out on time. South Korean market is very small compare to American market. So it is the liquidy issue that I will be facing in the future.

Can you explain how trendfollowing and just trading the first hour goes together?

Are you looking at trends on very short timeframes? If so do you base decisions off of Daily charts at all?

South Korea market starts at 9:00 AM and ends 3:00PM so I only trade 9:00AM ~ 10:00AM. I usually target high volume liquid stock with high volatility and I use 1 minute candle bar. I glace at daily chart for possible resistance.

 

[Xyros]

Well as a trader nothing is impossible.
I also used to be a trend follower but only on Crude Oil futures, and when I had certain targets for the week/month that I thought I would never achieve but it happend.

It's funny because I also always used to trade first 2 hours after opening, that's one of the best parts of the day.
So it seems like you kinda have the strategy I had.

 

[loop101]

I am expecting about 1% daily profits assuming 4 weeks (20 trading days) as a month

Your end result is certainly possible, but I do not think you will get a steady 1% each day. I wrote about trading in these threads:

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/in...ane-100k-turned-into-105-million-4-years.html

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/investing-trading/45277-howard-bandy-trading.html

 

[bmw335isedan]

Wow, you did really well today!

Could you explain why you chose to buy and how you predicted the big rise? Was this considered a risk in your eyes?

Looking forward to tomorrow's update!

I am little embarass to talk about my strategy because it is way too simple. I just look for stocks that go down a little bit and move up and when it moves up I simply join until the ride is over.

Whenever I enter, I automatically get 2% risk, but as stock rises, my risk diminishes very quick. Of course, it had a risk in fact every position will have a risk.

 

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[Xyros]

It's really funny to see that you have exact the same strategy as I used to have, because my strategy was also the breakout of the opening bar.
Goodjob bmw on your win .

Did you back-test this strategy for month or weeks?

 

[SeanKelly]

Actually, it is pretty common for someone to run an account from $5k to $100k in a short amount of time. You can take risks and use leverage when you don't have much to lose. Making the next 20x increase from $100k to $2M is an entirely different story. No one trades $1M like it is $1k. After they run their account up to $100k, they get very defensive, and usually churn or give back their profits.

I doubt that it is "pretty common"

 

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[InLikeFlint]

Unlucky day, but it's really good to see you stuck to your plan and didn't get discouraged.

Tomorrow is a new day!

 

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[HD_edacity]

keep it up man you're doing well, just stick to your plan and don't get emotional

 

[AlexV]

This is normal to happen. Don't let this pull you back, if you do the average you are still ahead of your plan. I gave you some +speed for encouragement and for the value that you bring.

 

[bmw335isedan]

Result of March 28, 2013

Hello guys

Today I made 0 trade. Simply, I did not see any premium stocks (setups) even though I saw couple mediocres that lack liquidity.

Anyhow, this is pretty common, once a week or so I get a market like this and last week I had nothing on Wednesday.

This is another reason why I wanna join Wallstreet in New York cause there will be no days like since there are 12,000 stocks to choose from! 6X compare to South Korea.

 

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[InLikeFlint]

PS. I want to know if the OP knows SNSD and if so, who is your favorite?

I don't know the individual members, but I love Run Devil Run

 

[Era]

Great thread Austin! I will be following your progress. All the best!

 

[AlexV]

I have made 2 trades today

015020, Bought at 1335 and sold at 1350 = 0.79%
043710, Bought at 2565 and sold at 2575 = 0.06%

Not much of profit, but at least I did not lose!

Now I have about just under 20K

After I made 015020 trade, right away, I saw 043710 opportunity so I got in right away

For off-topic, I recently bought starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm, which is very popular in South Korea. I played that until 3:00AM and I almost struggle to get up by 8:45.

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 ;-)

 

[bmw335isedan]

Just from a learner's perspective, how will using leverage benefit you? Will it make your returns larger because you are using a larger portion of your money?

Leverage will only benefit you if you make right decision. It is a double edge sword. It lets you buy more with less money resulting more higher profit. Currently USD/KRW gives me about 22 times leverage meaning i can buy $220000 worth of dollars with $10000. However, currencies are much less volatile for example, it usually moves at most 1%.

By the way, I did make trades today but I had personal business to take care of so I had to leave right away. Will update later on tonight

 

[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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[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]

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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[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

 

[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?

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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!

 

[bmw335isedan]

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?

I believe that the starting price is the most important indicator of all.. If price is above starting price, I only think about going LONG. If price is below starting price, I only think about going Short. So in that case I was looking to go LONG when it shows nice bullish bar with heavy volume. However nothing really showed up until 9:43 when it went below starting price with huge bearish bar with nice volume

What was your parents reaction?

I keep it secret

 

[Mr_Candyman]

Awesome Thread ! I'm trying to check it each time I do have any free time, the progress is great ! Good luck for the future

I have been trying Day trading, but only with Demo Account, I don't have enough courage to try it with my own money yet ahah !

Keep up the good work, The ferrari is worth it !

 

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[bmw335isedan]

Result of April 16, 2013

Hello guys

I made 2 trades today

I bought it at 1125.10 and sold it at 1125.50 = 4 ticks
I bought it at 1125.50 and sold it at 1125.50 = 0 tick

So I made 4 ticks x 36000won = 144,000won = about $125

Now I have about 24.5K

I did miss a huge breakout, but it did not meet my criteria so no regrets

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/2800/4162013usdkrw.jpg