I’ve been trading for six years now, and I feel like I’ve aged 20 years. Ive made
all the mistakes in the book. Here are the 4 things I wish I knew when I first started
day trading.
There's a huge learning curve involved in day trading. No, it's not as simple as getting
up 10 minutes before the market opens, and start banking lamborghinis within 2 weeks.
But believe it or not, when I first started… that's exactly what I had in mind.
I thought I knew it all, buy low, sell high. How hard can this day trading thing be? Well
long behold I blew up a couple of accounts by following chat room alerts, buying high
of the day breakouts on low float penny stocks, adding to a loser… not hitting the like
button on this video…
That was the biggest mistake. And that could have saved myself from blowing up .
All jokes aside. After six years of trading… i’ve definitely learned a lot about myself.
but in trading, the more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know. Here are the
top 4 things I wish i knew when i first started day trading.
The first and most important one is… there is a no “secret” trading strategy. I wish
I realized that sooner. I spent months when i first started jumping from one chat room
to the other, one DVD to the next, and one course after the other, just looking for the
secret thats missing. The one thing that will allow me to start banking right away.
In fact, the “Secret” to day trading. That doesn't exist. Im just gona drop that
right now. Im sorry if that just shattered your dream or your hope of finally finding
the buy button for my non-exisitng lamborghini DVD.
There’s no secret indicator that will automatically top tick and bottom tick for you, and there's
no secret set up or strategy that will guarantee you 100% success rate all the time.
Everyone’s trading set up and strategy are going to be different. A trader can hand you
his set ups from steps A to Z on how to buy or short a set up that he is extremely good
at. Let’s say that strategy gives him 80% success rate. You take that and try to copy
it, it’s not going to do the same for you.
We are all different traders, while I can share certain set ups and strategies I like
with you in these YouTube videos and in my private Discord chat… it’ll still require
you to practice and adapt to that strategy. And see if that fits your personality, and
whether you need to improve on it and make it your own.
Because at the end of the day, we are different traders. You might be more patient than I
am and a great trend trader, but at the same time, you may not be able to analyze headlines
and react to the volatility and price action as fast as I do.
Thats why there is no one “secret” set up or strategy that wil provide 100% win rate
for everyone. Thats not whats missing in your trading. Whats missing, is your own personal
experience and screens time, and whether you are putting in the work to actually learn
and perfect your set ups.
So stop shopping around for that perfect strategy like we do shopping shoes. Stop looking for
a secret DVD that will print money for you on day 1, and stop hopping around from one
service to the other hoping that one day, you will find that one person who will give
you the secret that will solve this whole trading game for you.
Its up for every single trader to constantly learn, and yes put in the work to make any
set up or strategies their own.
I know the truth isn’t pretty. But hey, it's better to have someone like me, a Canadian,
break it to you. Sorry to shatter your lamborghini dreams. But you’ll be ok. YOu can rent one
for $4k a day.
Now that we got the hard truth out. The second thing I wish I knew when I first started:
Make your own trading plans. Do not follow others.
But when i first started, I was a follower, aka a sheep. And guess what, sheep get slaughtered.
Well that person say to buy this stock NAKD great I’ll do that. But the other person
says to short ACB. maybe ill tyr that too. Oh oh theres that trader on stocktwits saying
that when you put these 5 secret indicators all together, it’ll give you the awesome
100% win rate signal to buy the stock.
anyways , i think you get the point. Whether a stock should be a buy or sell, that decision
should never be made because you see other people doing so. And same thing for following
chat room alerts or signals. Do you even know why the stock is running in the first place?
Do you know their float number and do you know if they have any dilution?
Its fine to read, and observe what others are doing for ideas that can potentially lead
to your own set ups, but dont be a follower.
And thats why if you may have noticed, I never do any of these, “5 stocks to buy right
now” videos. Nothing wrong if someone else makes those videos and i understand why people
like watching them.
But the reason I don't do those videos and in my own Discord chat I never give alerts,
is because i truly think that in order to be profitable day trading, you need to be
thinking for yourself.
Its ok to read ideas and see what other traders have to say. I get tons of ideas from other
traders I trade with on a daily basis. And I provide tons of trade ideas of charts that
look like they are going to breakout, or due for a pull back after parabolic.
But its up for you to take those ideas, and filter them out and see if there is indeed
a set up for you to go long or short. That’s called finding a stock idea, but creating
your own plan based off the idea.
Not just going all in and buying with your max size blindly just because you see the
alert to buy at $2. You have no idea what the trader alerting the buy is planning to
do. Is this supposed to be swing, or a scalp, how much is he or she risking per share, and
can you really afford that risk with your small account under PDT?
And that goes the same for choosing what to trade and trading style as well. For me, I
like to trade US listed stocks, both large caps and small cap penny stocks. And i trade
them long and short. Because thats what Im good at. And therefore, thats what I talk
about on this channel. Im simply sharing what works for me.
But if you find trading stocks to be difficult or a scam, then I mean, why would you click
on a video that says day trading on it and waste your own time… My point is, the videos
and set ups I share, are meant to be ideas for you to perhaps try out and implement.
But they’re not the holy gail of day trading. Because liek we talked about earlier, there
is no one single strategy that will fit everyone.
If buying breakouts on low float penny stocks and following chat room alerts work for you,
then by all means keep at it. Do your own thing. Im not a guru, im no expert, and I’ve
never said Im 100% right all the time.
Just from my own experience, alert sand buyin breakouts usually lead me to losing money
and holding the bag. Observe, listen, and learn from others ideas, but at the end of
the day, Stick to what works for you as a trader.
Now the third thing I wish I knew when I first started day trading…is i should have hit
the like button first on these YouTube videos, especially when the jokes are so hilariously
bad.
Just kidding, but not really,third thing I wish I knew when I first started day trading
is, focus on reading the chart first before anything else. Reading stock charts and candlestick
price action is perhaps the most important key factor to understand in day trading.
I know there is a huge learning curve involved with day trading. When I first started I was
so overwhelmed. Theres the charts, the indicators, long/short, analyzing news earnings, reading
level 2 and the tape, sec filings etc etc.
I believe, the most important thing to focus on first and foremost is chart reading. Daily
chart and intraday. Without knowing what a bullish or bearish chart looks like… nothing
else like news alerts and reading l2 will help you ever.
Understanding what the sentiment is like for the stock almost always starts from the daily
chart. If the daily chart looks sluggish and all the spikes look like they failed miserably
like my math exam, then perhaps there would not be a good breakout long during the intraday
chart.
And it's only after learning to read the charts and the price action, then you can determine
possible buy entries and profit taking targets.
If you are investing long term, maybe you can just throw some dough in a stock and never
look at it again till 5-10 years later. But if you want to day trade and swing trade,
chart reading skills is the first thing to learn.
And everything else like i’ve talked about… reading L2 and the tape, understanding earnings
and sec filings, are just additional research tools that will add to your trading edge and
conviction.
The fourth thing I wish I knew when i started six years ago… man six years thats a long
time, but still not enough to learn. I wish I gave myself more time and patience to learn.
I wish i understood that… hey there’s no rush here. Learning to trade will take
months and years.
I think a lot of new traders are joining the market right now because of the lockdown.
People are working from home and in front of their computer. But 90% of all new traders
starting to trade, treat this like a hobby, just gambling.
While i didnt think that was what I was doing intentionally, looking back, I definitely
treated trading like a hobby too when I first started. I paper traded for about two weeks
only. I thought I knew it all and was ready to make lamborghini money. It's simple right?
Get some alerts, Buy low sell high.
People like humbled traders are just being a downer, they say trading is hard and will
take years, nah im smart, i have straight A’s in high school. I'm gonna start banking
5G’s a day within a month.
This is a perfect example of Dunning-kruger effect. Its a cognitivae bias where people
who are incompetent in certain areas believe they are smarter and more capable than they
really are.
And it’s the same in trading, brand new traders entering the markets, myself included,
often wrongly overestimate their knowledge and skills in trading, because they simply
dont have enough experience in the market to see all the inefficiency and volatiltiy.
Basically, new traders simply dont know what they dont know.
And now even after 6 years trading, even though I do know what im good at in trading, im still
learning every single day. The market is ever changing. The more time you spend learning,
the more you realize you don’t know .
So if you’re relatively new to trading, give yourself and your own trading account
time. There is no rush. If you think about it, we go to college for years just to get
a degree and finally start working and making money.
So what makes you think a new trader brand new to the market can start banking without
putting in months or years of hard work and education first?
The more eager you are to start banking right away, the faster you’ll be likely to lose.
And If you’re in a rush to make money, then you have better chances just buying the lottery
ticket.
I think most of us have seen those marketing ads where they show you the fast cars, the
girls, and chilling on the beach and making it rain millions just from clicking a few
buttons. That kind of advertising encourages fast and easy money, and really just adds
fuel to the fire to new traders blowing up. Its unfortunate i know, but its the truth.
I'm gonna sound like a broken record by now. Trading is not easy, but it could be learned
slowly if you put in the time and work. These are just some things I wish I had ingrained
in my own trading behavior when I first started.
Stop looking for “secret strategies” they don't exist, its up for you to adapt and make
a strategy fit your own style and temperament. Stop following others to buy and sell. Its
fine to listen to ideas, but always form your own trading plan before buying a stock. Focus
on reading charts and most importantly, give yourself the time, and patience you need in
order to observe and learn from screen time.
Hopefully some of these tips help you out, especially if you are just starting out in
trading. Let me know in the comments below what are somethings that you personally wish
you knew when you first started. Feel free to share with me below.