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Strategies & Market Trends : Are you considering quitting your dayjob to daytrade?! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: J. P. who wrote (43)	1/17/1999 12:42:00 PM
From: Mark[ox5]	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 611

J.P. I have come to the same conclusion.. the few days I have sat home and traded in and out following a daytrading thread, at the end of the day Im lucky if Im even... usually a loss. You can have 5 good trades, but 1 fast moving loser can wipe out the entire day's gains. Basically much of the daytrading threads is a bunch of sheep following a self proclaimed "guru" (i.e. Tokyo Mex) who is actually selling to his sheep as he shouts out BUY BUY proclomations. Eventually most sheep wisen up but there are always new people coming to SI or #daytraders or wherever who are new to the game, looking for the pot of gold, to take their place. That sort of trading is just a shell game... just pray your not the last one holding the hot potato. The best way in my opinion is shorter term position trades which you dont have to quit a day job to do. I myself have just started in on options.... about 1 month ago, and after 3 years of equity trading, I made more on my 2 option trades (DBCC, and YHOO) then I did in the previous 3 years combined. And these were only 3 week and 1 week trades respectively. Of course options can slap you around if you buy at the wrong time, but if you catch the right side of a rally you can make many many many more times percentage wise than in the underlying stock.

To: J. P. who wrote (43)	1/17/1999 1:35:00 PM
From: kaydee	Respond to of 611

J.P., Markox5; Exactly, I am with you 100%; Even I am in IT industry with 6 figure income... I tried to follow the market closely and tried to simulate day trader for a few days at home,,, but for every two successes, I ended losing more in ONE only. I started changing my decision with every tick, only to realize my brokerage fees are skyrocketing, without any net gain... More important, but with position trading (and options too), I am doing much better... Soon I want to start going short also,,, IMO, with a small base say 100K, it is difficult to earn 6 figure every year on a consistent basis at least in the initial period, unless one is very lucky... May be I will day trade, if I am smart/lucky enough to build a big reserve, but not for now... That is my thinking right now... All in all, I am happy to see a few others have similar experiences... DB

To: J. P. who wrote (43)	1/17/1999 1:45:00 PM
From: Sword	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 611

J.P.: Excellent post. I agree emphatically. Position trading is where the money is to be made. Furthermore, the psychology of human/market interaction makes it important to NOT watch the screen every second. But everyone should keep in mind that this means that you manage your money well. Keep the exposure small and don't bank your whole account on one trade. For 99% of the traders, this is the most profitable technique. Be forewarned, those of you who are considering making this your full-time job: I have received many messages from people who have lost not only their capital but their families as well, who have left in anger and disgust, their spouse, who being addicted and broke, looks evermore to "make it all back" through one last gamble. -Sword

To: J. P. who wrote (43)	1/17/1999 2:50:00 PM
From: Impristine	Respond to of 611

J.P., LOL, reading your story, had an incredible, complex, continuum of emotion, unbelievable, simultaneous, elation, euphoria, stomach dropping, feeling ill, going to puke, having diarrhea, going to have a stroke, chest hurts, eye's throbbing, brain is going to explode, oh my gosh, man, stop posting, please man, you are giving me flashbacks...

To: J. P. who wrote (43)	1/17/1999 10:41:00 PM
From: Ron McKinnon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 611

more thoughts don't trade options; period, end of story day trade a certain fixed amount; this may be 10k, or 50k or 500k, it varies for each person take all gains over that amount and put them in a position trading account, or longer term, or an Index Fund, or bonds, whatever you can only trade just so much in a day with out overtrading which is the kiss of death paper trading is maybe 50% of reality for reasons too many to go nito here; it is a way to learn to a degree but not like the real thing >>>One could argue that it is virtually impossible to lose money selling covered calls hmm, what happens when the underlying stock drops 10-50% ? >>>a consistent 1-3k per day would be delightful some/many do this but if you are new, try this; try to make $100 a day profit, no more, no less, for 18 of the next 20 days then look back and see if you think a consist $X000K a day is reasonable for you >>>we have all done the margin thing & sometimes putting money on a credit card etc .. these can really work well puke! do this and become a Greeter at WalMart day trading does not mean you HAVE to trade every day; although most of us do actually we would be far better of trading just the "right" 2-3 days a week do not confuse "full time trading" with 100% pure day trading as most on SI define it >>>And I find that more of my income is from short term position trades than day trading and I did try "pure" daytrading for a while. I could not agree more position trades pay the the bills and the future day trades are for fun, added incremental profit, competition, addiction feeding (at least for me) and over the long term but, there are days, weeks, and even months (like the past few) where damn near every day is winner; nail those when they are there, know when they are not >>In other words, do day traders provide a useful service and is this a profession in which to be proud? nope it's to make money, nothing more if you look at it in any other way you will lose over the long term cold? yup. reality? 100% >>>If you want to truly make a difference on this planet, take some time away from work & do some quality volunteering in your community right on and with some $'s and time freedom you can do it