Daytrading - Thread on my experiences from being a professional trader for almost 18 yrs - a stream on thoughts and memories - will keep adding as long as I can think of additional stuff. Do I really mean swing trading? No talking about an avg holding period of maybe 2-3 hours

Why does professional trading aka “daytrading” get such a bad wrap? Due to allure of easy money and no barriers to entry, there are a ton of people who give it a try that have little to no chance of success and there are con artists around every corner to “help” cc @Guruleaks1

I personally know of only 5 people who can consistently make money daytrading and I “work” with all of them (I realize there are many pockets of folks here and there but believe the total might be shockingly low)

Why do I daytrade as opposed to something else? Bc that’s what I’m good at. I’ve never had a loss for a 12 month period (very likely not 6 months either, but haven’t looked up) and my longest win streak was being profitable for 32 consecutive months

What are the good things about the profession? - this takes very little imagination so not much need to elaborate. I do get a thrill out of solving a puzzle before enough others to be able to put on a winning position, especially in some sort of size

And degree of difficulty goes up exponentially with size. Example: If of wrong on a generic 1k share position I might lose $2 per share - if I’m wrong on the same with a 10k share position, I might lose $4 per share as I and others push the market away

Some bad things about my trading style - wake up every morning with a clean slate (good, forgot earlier), have to reinvent the wheel every. single. day. Worst part is it is only scalable to a point as there are a finite number of ideas and tradable volume every day

Re: scam artists - I’ve never known of a trading “teacher/coach” who charges for their services who could it it themselves or even really know what they are talking about. My path was from a starting place of being a stock junkie starting in high school (uncommon back then)

Eventually deciding (in college) stocks were my area of high interest and could be a career, state school MBA CFA - 8 yrs bouncing around regional sell side firms (job hopping for more $) burn out set in after Elliot Spitzer pissed in the punch bowl

Spitzer put rules in place that made it harder/more frustrating to get information to clients and firm I worked for did an especially bad job of streamlining = job was a lot less fun while future income potential was severely impaired.

At the same time I had a friend who appeared to have taught himself how to trade (highly profitable for 3 yrs) - I'm beyond grateful he showed me. Every morning he sent me research along with his ideas, then we spent 2+ hours on the phone talking thru entry and exit strategy

I didn't really expect I would be able to get the hang of it - even tho I had many years of amateur interest in stocks, education, and professional experience - I'm question if it would have worked out if not for my personality type. Most important is the "N" as opposed to "S"

for folks familiar with Meyers-Briggs. A lot of people believe Meyers-Briggs is garbage and I can't debate that. All i know is it makes a lot of sense to me in how people fit into each others lives and the world.

For the first 2 years I only used free stuff from the internet. Now my fixed cost (subscriptions and office space) are about 9k per month.

I have no employees. I have in the past and believe most employees are worse than having a boss, which I despise.

Quick guide to daytrading success: 1) learn how institutional investors make buy/sell decisions (bonus points if in a panic) 2) deeply understand true “buyside expectations” for each name especially if “thesis breaking” info 3) get in front of them bf they do what they do.

*none of this matters if the “daytrader” in question does not have solid money management skills which enable them to let go of losers

Sometimes (too often for me) it’s enough to live to fight another day.

If you keep betting the ranch, sooner or later you lose the ranch. —former professor and very avid investor (who bet the ranch often)

Mental capital is more valuable than monetary capital - gartman (he’s right this time)

No matter how good one is, there are a ton of bad days - this is just part of the deal. Trust your program. That is all u have anyway.

I started with what almost anyone would consider very little money - it grew. In the early months I had a couple really bad days back to back - gut check - how far will I take this? Me to myself: this is my one chance so all the way to ch7 - worked for me (not recommended)

I enter trades based on my perception (of inst investors perception) of change in fundamentals, and technicals - exit on technicals and tape action (or if it would be too greedy to try for more)

CNBC = 97% pure trash. Many yrs I watched right next to my screens. Now - haven’t had it on for 6-7 years. By doing this I miss something every once in awhile but more than make up In lack of distraction. I’d make an exception if I didn’t pay for news

A) What’s the dumbest trading mistake I’ve ever made? A lot of material to pick from - about 14 yrs ago HTCH reported in afterhours - buddy and I (moving fast) both misread the PR and confused current quarter w/yr ago - we proceeded to purchase about 15k shares

B) Once we figured out what we had done (and that current quarter wasn’t good, it was actually bad) we were essentially flushing at any Px. Lord knows where the volume came from to take back our shares (Not that liquid), but the bids were there and we essentially broke even.

Daytrading mostly isn’t about being hyper in front of a screen and clicking a mouse - focus material organized and ready to read

Highly predictable how this turn out... "SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son is personally directing a team of stock traders, using $20 billion of cash raised by the company in asset sales, to “bet on daily moves in tech names including Alphabet, Amazon and Netflix"