How much money do day traders really make?
If you’re new to trading or just been contemplating on getting into day trading, you must have
wondered, can you really make money from this career? This seems like gambling. Is day trading
real or… a scam.
You see people on social media posting big profits, and very rarely, any losses. All
of this seems extremely surreal. Maybe sometimes overly glorified, but risky at the same time.
And thats why many people with their newly received stimulus checks are pouring them
into the markets. Signed up to Robinhood, and ready to turn that $1000 into a million
in six months.
In this video we’re going going to discuss the topic of day trading profits and losses,
known as PNL’s, specifically why seeing regular PNL and posting them could be a positive
or a negative thing. And finally, the question of do I really make money day trading.
Im going to be sharing some personal stories from my six years now going into a 7 years
journey of day trading. So lets get comfortable, sit back, get your popcorn ready, make sure
no one else is touching your trading account, and most importantly, remember to destroy
that like button.
First of all, lets answer the number one question most people have regarding day trading. Is
this real or is it a scam, is day trading just gambling?
The short and sweet answer is, its a real, and very profitable career for only less than
5-10% of the people. The rest of the 90-95% treat it like gambling, and they lose big,
therefore thats why to most people, day trading call it a scam.
I'm certainly not saying everyone should day trade. No its the opposite. I think most people
shouldn't day trade, because rather than treating it as a serious business and career, most
people are lazy and will treat it like gambling. They see it as a quick way to turn that $1000
stimulus check into lamborghini money.
Like my little brother said in my live trading with family video. Its a risky career and
most people should stay away from it.
Good, because I personally don’t want my brother to day trade. Because just one disgrace
in the family is already enough. And also, I need to make sure someone is around to help
me troubleshoot geeky computer tech problems. I'm still having trouble restarting my Windows
98.
Now let's talk about wins and losses in trading. And yes I did say wins and losses. Believe
it or not everyone loses in day trading. Its just that less people are willing to share
their losses. I mean, Its the same reason everyone wants post images of themselves wiht
Lamborghinis. Why would anyone want to be seen with a 2003 corolla or show up on YouTube
videos with barely any make up.
Now back to the topic of how much money do day traders make. Well the answer to that
is, it depends. There are traders who make hundreds a day, thousands a day, and some
who make 5. 6. And even 7 figures a day. Now before you go all crazy excited “omg you
could make taht much money? i need to quit my job now to day trade”. Please listen
to the full story here first.
To make that money in trading, you have to be comfortable with losing first. Losing money
in order to make money is a concept that is very unique to this day trading career. Day
trading is probably the only job where you can show up at your office computer, work
very hard and give it all, and at the end of the day after 8 hours, you actually lose
money.
I remember when I used to have a conventional 9-5 job, 9-5 who am i kidding it was more
like 9-7. When I used to have my 9-7 job in the VFX film industry, I go to work for the
8 to 10 hours working on those blockbuster hollywood movies. Im proud of some of the
films I worked on, and there are some that ill never mention.
But whether I worked hard or slacked off and played ping pong all day, stayed busy or not
at work during the 9 to 7 job, Im guaranteed a paycheck at the end of the day. I never
had the risk of losing money, just the risk of losing my soul.
While you see people post big Profit screenshots on social media, its important to know that
while both you and I may want the same big wins, we probably don’t have the same kind
of risk tolerance.
It takes money to make money in this business. Day trading is a business that requires you
to leverage your capital, risk losing it, in order to come out ahead. To make that first
$100 you may have to risk $20 to $50. To make those $1000’s you may have to risk $500.
And to make that five figures $10,000 you might have to risk $4-5000.
And that brings us to the next point. Everyone’s wins and losses are relative in day trading.
If you are making 100, a day consistently thats amazing. Then if you had a $500 profit
day this week thats amazing. Thats considered a big win relative to your account size and
your experience.
But for someone who is using 100 times your size, and making couple thousand usually per
day, their big win would be maybe a twenty-thirty grand win. Abut again at the same time, their
small loss might be 2k, and a big loss would probably be in their five figures.
The point i'm trying to make is, don’t compare your chapter 1 to someone else's' chapter
20. Everyone's big wins and losses are relative to their share size. If you see someone else's
big wins today, and decide to double or quadruple your size in order to make the same big profits,
that’s probably not going to work out well.
That is actually a mistake that hits really close to home over here. Around 3-4 years
I was already profitable and making consistent gains from trading. I was on a win streak.
Momentum was picking up in my performance and I finally felt like I had figured myself
and my trading set ups out.
Then i started seeing other traders who are making 2 times 3 times or even 10 times my
gains on social media. And many of which traded the same tickers. At first the effect wasn’t
clear to me. But if you start seeing them on a daily basis and over a long period of
weeks or months, it would start to have some psychological effect on you. At least it did
on me.
So guess what, one day, after a very nice win. I see another more experienced veteran
trader post his PNL that is 10 times bigger than mine, on the same ticker.
I was wtf, i traded the same stock, same price action. Im smart. Im a profitable trader.
I could have made the same as him. But i piked out. Im loser here being proud of my $1000
when I could have make 10k or more.
Next day I decided to add a 0 to all my positions sizes. And like I mentioned earlier, to make
1000 you have to be comfortable risking 300-500. To make 100K you have to comfortable risking
20 or 50K.
While I wanted to make 10 times my daily consistent profit. I wasn’t prepared mentally and emotionally
to take 10 times the risk. And when you start becoming nervous and about every single red
tick on the stock, that leads to some very emotional trading decisions.
You probably know how the story ends, I ended the day with more than 10 times my normal
pre-determined loss. And that blew out over 50% of my account, I essentially blew up.
Even though that story was not my biggest loss ever, it was the biggest loss relative
to my account. This is an experience I still hold very closely to my heart. And i have
a feeling, many of you guys feel the same way, and have experienced the same thing.
And this is the reason I do not post P&Ls.
Im not saying its wrong to post profits or your performance. Its the same as sharing
your tax returns or personal information online. Whether you decide to share your trading performance
pnls or not, its nobody’s decision but his or her own.
So lets talk about the pros of posting personal PNLs, some people may find that it keeps them
accountable by sharing it to online social platforms. Maybe it helps you connect with
other traders and grow a following. And for some people who have day trading education
programs, big profits would be a great marketing tool that would most likely lead to more sales
and revenue.
All of those are fair reasons for posting your trading profits. Like I said, it's a
personal decision and everyone has to weigh the pros and cons themselves.
But Think about it closely, do you learn more about set ups and trading from charts like
these, and perhaps recap videos with commentaries and executions, or a big fat pnl screenshot
like this?
For me personally, seeing others’ pnls did not help me learn as a beginner trader In
fact it had caused me to fomo, trading on tilt, and blow up my account like the story
i had mentioned. And that was entirely my own fault by the way.
You should never blame your losses on other traders. Whoever clicked the buy and sell
button, following someones trade alerts or not, is entirely responsible for their own
outcome.
Since seeing big pnl posts did did not help me as a beginner trader and nor is it helping
me now 6 years later, I'm not going to post it.
Actually have shared a loss before and then a profit much later on. And of course somebody
would leave a snarky comment that my 5 figure loss was nothing. Then later on my 4 figure
profit while trading remote in the quarantine hotel was crap. Honestly I don’t know which
world I have to live in to experience a life where 4 or 5 figures of US dollars isn’t
worth a lot.
But do you see what i mean? Posting and seeing PNL’s dont do myself any good. I don’t
feel any gratification nor fulfillment from praises saying wow 6K good job, but at the
same time the snarky remarks on both my profits and losses affects me and my trading negatively.
Since we’re traders, this risk reward ratio in this situation just doesn’t make snes.
In trading, the most precious thing after capital preservation, is your mental capital.
You could probably tell that Im an extremely optimistic and positive person most of the
time. I do find that having a positive outlook in life overall, does make a drastic difference
in your trading trajectory.
Social media could be beneficial but extremely draining at the same time. Yes I get that
if i start making videos with title and thumbnails like “how i made $5K within 30 min day trading”,
or “make $1000 a day easy with this strategy” i could probably get a lot more views, a lot
more subscribers, and make a lot more money from my trading chat room sales.
But if i do that, i would be sacrificing my mental capital, that would affect my own trading
performance, and also that would just be betraying who i really am. And i'm just not willing
to do that so i can make a few more bucks.
This channel has grown the way it has from a little more than 5000 subscribers a year
ago to now over 400k. And all of that is from just me standing here sharing some of my honest
insights, tips and opinions on day trading.
Im not a guru, I still have losses in trading and I'm not 100% right all the time. And I
share my charts executions and discuss my thought process in my recap videos. To me
and from all the feedback I’ve received, these recaps are way more valuable than screenshots
of PNLs. I just tell things as it is, no bs marketing like the lambos, only the reality.
And also last but not least. I’m still single. And having these numbers out there in public
eye has and will affect personal relationships, whether you are a man or a woman.
If you enjoyed this video about the insights regarding both the potential profits and risk
involved in day trading, please remember to drop
like on the video.