Posted: 6/24/2010 9:51:44 AM EDT
| Would actual day traders please stand up. I gots some questions I need to ax |
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I'm an average trader. I do a lot of option trading. Mostly selling naked puts. I would like to do some actual day trading but I really need to get better at reading charts and fundementals. Where did you guys learn this info, any good books that are tailored to day trading.
And most importantly, do you make any money at it? What I mean is, anytime I ask somebody what they do sometimes they will say "I used to do some day trading" and I always ask how they did and it's always the same reply "Lost my ass". Just once I want somebody to say "oh yeah, I make a killing at it". 
It's the same ole crap.......can a person educate themselves and make income at it or is it simply a matter of luck? |
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Most books I've read say that a majority of day traders will lose money. They think that people don't give it enough time to get really good at it. Instead they just try it for a little bit, lose money, and never get to the skill level where they might consistently make money. |
| I never got involved in Trading. But before the Dotcoms went bust. I used to watch Fox Buisness and they would talk about a stock and you could watch it's trading jump by 5 to 10 dollars a share in a min. People were making money hand over fist just by a Stock Trader mentioning a stock on TV. It was amazing. |
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Quoted:
I'm an average trader. I do a lot of option trading. Mostly selling naked puts. I would like to do some actual day trading but I really need to get better at reading charts and fundementals. Where did you guys learn this info, any good books that are tailored to day trading. And most importantly, do you make any money at it? What I mean is, anytime I ask somebody what they do sometimes they will say "I used to do some day trading" and I always ask how they did and it's always the same reply "Lost my ass". Just once I want somebody to say "oh yeah, I make a killing at it".
It's the same ole crap.......can a person educate themselves and make income at it or is it simply a matter of luck? It's not a matter of luck. Yes, most people who "decide to day trade" lose money. They simply don't have the training and dedication/time. I think it would probably be akin to "deciding" to be a doctor or an auto mechanic...all by having read some books and articles on the web. It's not all that hard...more of a "knack" than anything else. I think if you take a lot of time you could learn slowly what works for u and what doesn't. The very best traders, and I know several I would put in that category...tend to fly under the radar, you won't typically find them doing seminars or writing blogs. You can make a lot of money doing this...life changing money, but I really think it takes years to get to that level on a consistant basis. I typically do extremely extremely well, but I've spent over a quarter century doing it. If you want to begin...begin slowly. Very best to you... ETA...I hope I didn't come off too negative...I'm just tied up today. One great thing about trading...I know they say Sam Colt made all men equal (something like that), and I guess it's true. But, trading really is the great equalizer...doesn't matter if you're black, white, purple, man or woman, or anything else...you just have to be good at it and you can do very very well... |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
I'm an average trader. I do a lot of option trading. Mostly selling naked puts. I would like to do some actual day trading but I really need to get better at reading charts and fundementals. Where did you guys learn this info, any good books that are tailored to day trading. And most importantly, do you make any money at it? What I mean is, anytime I ask somebody what they do sometimes they will say "I used to do some day trading" and I always ask how they did and it's always the same reply "Lost my ass". Just once I want somebody to say "oh yeah, I make a killing at it".
It's the same ole crap.......can a person educate themselves and make income at it or is it simply a matter of luck? It's not a matter of luck. Yes, most people who "decide to day trade" lose money. They simply don't have the training and dedication/time. I think it would probably be akin to "deciding" to be a doctor or an auto mechanic...all by having read some books and articles on the web. It's not all that hard...more of a "knack" than anything else. I think if you take a lot of time you could learn slowly what works for u and what doesn't. The very best traders, and I know several I would put in that category...tend to fly under the radar, you won't typically find them doing seminars or writing blogs. You can make a lot of money doing this...life changing money, but I really think it takes years to get to that level on a consistant basis. I typically do extremely extremely well, but I've spent over a quarter century doing it. If you want to begin...begin slowly. Very best to you... ETA...I hope I didn't come off too negative...I'm just tied up today. One great thing about trading...I know they say Sam Colt made all men equal (something like that), and I guess it's true. But, trading really is the great equalizer...doesn't matter if you're black, white, purple, man or woman, or anything else...you just have to be good at it and you can do very very well... That is what I was hoping to hear. I know you can't get rich quickly doing anything but I am happy to hear you can do good with hard work and effort. I want to learn all I can, where do I start? 
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So I have been dabbling in the market since about 1996. Usually doubling my money, taking it out and spending it and then putting something back in again. Nothing big, 1k here and there.
Most of it has been luck, finding some stock, I thought I knew something about, because I knew the company. Over the last 4 years, I started playing with my IRA money. Made 20 percent for the first few years, then like everyone lost about 50 to 60 percent in that last big correction. Got lucky again and quintupled my money, and am now down another 25 percent. Still ahead, but not as much. I started reading and checking out everyone's make money in stocks programs. I have listend to optionetics, jim cramer, robert kirosoki(sp) and looking at others. Cramer stresses the fundimentals, optionetics just points out ways you "can't" lose and how to pick fast moving stocks, regardless of what the company is. I started out just based on the optionetics and have learned a few things not to do, and modifying it with what cramer tells you to do, I am on another path now. Due to the market and some poor understanding of what I was doing, plus limits on how you can trade in an IRA, I am down as I said 25 percent from my high. Lost another 5 percent today. Betting big(well 10 percent) that BP will continue to go down with just straight put buys. The fact that I can't do ratio's or naked options at all, also limit me a bit. The rich dad poor dad also gives some other stratagy. While optionetics is all about only buying options, and always buy 60 to 90 days out, and hanging on for a while, I have noticed that the movement can be much faster. I started trying stradles, but there are several places you can be in the middle depending on what you bought the optoins for. So neither the put or the call make any money. Strangles are even worse. There is a huge dead zone, where not only do you not make any money, but you are out most of what you paid for both. So I started buying only a call or a put depending on where I thought it would move, and that is a bad choice too. My next idea is to cover stock buys with a put. Any downward movment on the stock is covered by the put, so I am never out because of downard motion. But on the upside, it takes longer to make a profit because I have to "pay" for my insurance that it would not go down. Still not full proof yet, but working on it. The bonus is I am trying the dividend paying stocks for this. So if they keep going down, I can buy more, and pick up more puts to off set my cost bases. These will be long term holds just for the dvidends. I have also decided to modify the stradle. The system makes it so the call and the put are the same. But in real life, you are out of the money on the put already if you are in the money on the call. So I am trying a reverse strangle where my put and call are both split by 1 to 5 points and both are in the money instead of the otherway where one is out of the money. I am also betting on the day after apple stock drop, and will see how that goes. |