Last 3-4 days have been crap for everyone
screenshot below is ummm thursday I think.
(What’s that? A Freaking zebra head?)
Most days this year have had enough clarity.
As long as you are willing to switch back and forth
day trading so far this year has been easy peasy . . . but it won’t last.
Maybe six months maybe six years and the market will be back to the normal conditions which cause day traders to lose their pants and go back to their day jobs.
That’s pretty much what my friend says. He’s been day trading for about three years. I don’t have the luxury now to day trade, even if I had enough money. I’ve never understood why the SEC requires minimum account sizes to day trade. Everything is paid up front, so I can only lose what I pay up front. I’m sure they have a good reason. For now, day job it is for me… Funny thing, my boss prefers I not trade on his time…
That’s a great system too. Wish I had started that system out when apple and Netflix were low. Was trading apple when it was under 10 bucks, never thought to buy back then.
Below is a chart from a QQQ-related stock on the first week of October. (not long ago)
On the 1st week of October if you quit your job and watched the market and said
The market is like a battleship, whichever it goes for 15-30 mins it will continue to go," and invested in 3x fund accordingly you would have made a large sum of money at least 3 and probably 4 of those days.
If the market is up-down, up-down all day, (“choppy” aka a “zebra day,”) you will lose money that day. Freeze your losses and in place and watch Netflix
This year in the market, there have been a lot of days like that, there have been a lot of weeks like that. If you are not stuck on bull or stuck on bear, making money has been easy.
Should you quit your job and do this?
No because in 3 mos the market might not be like this any more.
Thanks… Probably the biggest reason I all but quit even swing trading. The constant ups and downs. That’s why I switched to covered calls. I rarely will do them too far out of the money, I’ve had stocks called away a couple times under my buy price, typically in such cases I had made money on them before I lost them. But starting last November, literally every stock I own began a slow descent, until now I won’t risk covered calls at such low premiums. I won’t sell them until they go back up, and I’m buying more of those to reduce my cost basis. I can start covered calls again at much lower stock prices and hold onto them until retirement. I’ve added some stocks too that are bargains right now. Shooting for some good dividend stocks that also have options…
I’ll look into these, thanks. Need good bear market advice. I’m doing some buying, but more or less on the sidelines right now… Getting too close to retirement age to sit out much longer.
Good advice. I learned trading with my dad. In 2005, he paid for 5 week long seminars with a company called teach me to trade, the last week was just me and my dad and a full time day trader. Learned a lot about trading but I’ll never forget the things learned in the first hour of the first seminar. The instructor said the market runs on primarily two things, fear and greed. If you can’t control your emotions you will lose. He also said that he wasn’t there to teach us how not to lose, but to control our losses and produce more winning than losing trades, and the other thing was NEVER TRADE WITHOUT A STOP LOSS!! And as you said, never invest a lot in any one trade. I think he recommended no more than 2%. Great advice and I learned a lot of the technicals of chart reading and the different strategies. I’ve forgotten most of what I learned which is why this strat trading looks very interesting, it removes the necessity of remembering all the strategies and really simplifies trading. I may jump back in, but probably not right away. I like the idea of buying and holding and maybe a swing trade now and then, until I gain back the time necessary to watch my trades closely. Good luck, hope you make good money while you can…
… now humming Gilligan’s Island theme)
