It seems every day some new and up coming superstar day trader (ok wannabe superstar day trader) asks me the same questions. It always strikes me as funny that everybody always seems to have the same questions when to me the answers just seem so obvious. I will admit I've been trading for a while now and I've seen and read all the doom and gloom numbers about how 90% of all day traders bust their accounts in the first year. Why? I mean seriously why does this keep happening over and over again? I think it boils down to a couple of really simple but important rules that too many new traders either don't learn soon enough in order to save some of their trading capital. Or they don't really understand the concepts. Let's look at a couple of the major ones that you have to understand and have mastered before you can really hope to earn a living at this day trading game.
Or anywhere in their strategy either. In fact, your trading strategy should be completely devoid of this otherwise very excellent personality trait / quality. So with that, let's get to the heart of the matter, the real reason why you're reading this article today. We are all familiar with Neil Armstrong - that, or our elementary school teachers are failing miserably. Just in case you don't know, Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. This was an amazing feat for a fledgling space program, and demonstrated our country's dominance and superiority over the rival USSR. Neil Armstrong was a dedicated and confident American figure. He was determined, and more importantly, he shot for the moon....and amazingly enough, he hit it! However, the ideals and character strengths exemplified by Neil Armstrong don't work for day trading. In fact, they are downright disastrous. This is where you start to see these day trading secrets and to learn day trading. Neil Armstrong shot for the moon, and he made it. Day Traders who shoot for the moon are liable to end up crash landing right after take off.
The advantages of day trading as a job are numerous to say the least; there is no boss to answer to, no customers to satisfy, no suppliers to let you down, no waiting for invoices to be paid, I could go on. In fact, I will: trading is a location-independent activity - I can work from anywhere with an internet connection, which effectively means anywhere in the world with a telephone line. I regularly trade from my laptop whilst travelling. I can trade when I feel like it, and take time off when I like, which means I can spend quality time with my family. Now let's get this straight, trading can be a risky activity, there is no doubt about that. So is driving a car to work, but the risks of getting from A to B on four wheels are well understood and are managed accordingly, to the point where we don't think twice about getting behind the wheel. And in the same way, provided a trader is disciplined in their approach to the job at hand, and understands the associated risks of the work, so those risks can be managed.
Instead, why not aim lower, set your sights on modest returns, and gradually grow your trading account in a much safer way. In fact, if you shot for a measly little 15% weekly return (which is easily obtainable, if you know EXACTLY when the market is going to move like I do), and you compounded your returns back into your trading contracts, after one year, your trading account would have grown from $1000 to well over $1 million. Of course, it is unrealistic to continue to trade more and more contracts after reaching a certain level. But you get the point of this day trading secret.
And that brings me to the most satisfying aspect of trading for a living; money. On an average day trading the Nasdaq, it is not unusual to make more money in a couple of hours than I used to make in a whole month working full time as a wage-slave. There are bad days of course, days where things just don't work out, but they pale into insignificance over the course of a week or a month. It certainly took some intensive studying and a lot of practise before becoming a consistently profitable trader. But the end result of that hard work is an immensely valuable life skill that nobody can take away, and which allows for incredible freedom.
Most asked question number 3, what's the best system for trading? Well the best system for you is your system. Let that one sink in for a bit. There are as many systems out there as there are traders. They aren't all perfect and what works for you might not work for me or anything else. The one thing I can tell you, there is no holy grail of systems. They all can be used by just about anyone; they just all need the personal touch of the user. A system working for a week or two or eight does not making it a winning system. All systems have their good and bad points; none of them seem to work in all markets. There is so much to choose from between systems and how to use them I think I'm going to make that a topic for an entire newsletter all by itself. The bottom line about systems is to do what works for you, learn what you like. Do you like swing trading, scalping, intra day...whatever you like there will be a system you can buy to get you started down the right path while you figure out all the nuts and bolts.
Or anywhere in their strategy either. In fact, your trading strategy should be completely devoid of this otherwise very excellent personality trait / quality. So with that, let's get to the heart of the matter, the real reason why you're reading this article today. We are all familiar with Neil Armstrong - that, or our elementary school teachers are failing miserably. Just in case you don't know, Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. This was an amazing feat for a fledgling space program, and demonstrated our country's dominance and superiority over the rival USSR. Neil Armstrong was a dedicated and confident American figure. He was determined, and more importantly, he shot for the moon....and amazingly enough, he hit it! However, the ideals and character strengths exemplified by Neil Armstrong don't work for day trading. In fact, they are downright disastrous. This is where you start to see these day trading secrets and to learn day trading. Neil Armstrong shot for the moon, and he made it. Day Traders who shoot for the moon are liable to end up crash landing right after take off.
The advantages of day trading as a job are numerous to say the least; there is no boss to answer to, no customers to satisfy, no suppliers to let you down, no waiting for invoices to be paid, I could go on. In fact, I will: trading is a location-independent activity - I can work from anywhere with an internet connection, which effectively means anywhere in the world with a telephone line. I regularly trade from my laptop whilst travelling. I can trade when I feel like it, and take time off when I like, which means I can spend quality time with my family. Now let's get this straight, trading can be a risky activity, there is no doubt about that. So is driving a car to work, but the risks of getting from A to B on four wheels are well understood and are managed accordingly, to the point where we don't think twice about getting behind the wheel. And in the same way, provided a trader is disciplined in their approach to the job at hand, and understands the associated risks of the work, so those risks can be managed.
Instead, why not aim lower, set your sights on modest returns, and gradually grow your trading account in a much safer way. In fact, if you shot for a measly little 15% weekly return (which is easily obtainable, if you know EXACTLY when the market is going to move like I do), and you compounded your returns back into your trading contracts, after one year, your trading account would have grown from $1000 to well over $1 million. Of course, it is unrealistic to continue to trade more and more contracts after reaching a certain level. But you get the point of this day trading secret.
And that brings me to the most satisfying aspect of trading for a living; money. On an average day trading the Nasdaq, it is not unusual to make more money in a couple of hours than I used to make in a whole month working full time as a wage-slave. There are bad days of course, days where things just don't work out, but they pale into insignificance over the course of a week or a month. It certainly took some intensive studying and a lot of practise before becoming a consistently profitable trader. But the end result of that hard work is an immensely valuable life skill that nobody can take away, and which allows for incredible freedom.
Most asked question number 3, what's the best system for trading? Well the best system for you is your system. Let that one sink in for a bit. There are as many systems out there as there are traders. They aren't all perfect and what works for you might not work for me or anything else. The one thing I can tell you, there is no holy grail of systems. They all can be used by just about anyone; they just all need the personal touch of the user. A system working for a week or two or eight does not making it a winning system. All systems have their good and bad points; none of them seem to work in all markets. There is so much to choose from between systems and how to use them I think I'm going to make that a topic for an entire newsletter all by itself. The bottom line about systems is to do what works for you, learn what you like. Do you like swing trading, scalping, intra day...whatever you like there will be a system you can buy to get you started down the right path while you figure out all the nuts and bolts.
About the Author:
Frank Miller has a Debt Consolidation Blog & Finance, these are some of the articles: Having Gold IRA For Retirement Planning You have full permission to reprint this article provided this box is kept unchanged.
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