Day Trading

markowitzman said:
charttrader are you making aliving from day trading?
Do you have a weekly/daily goal and once met do you leave it at that for day/week?
Click to expand...

I'm doing well from trading (not just day trading - sometimes hold for days/weeks) and devote most of my time to it but I do have income from other sources. I wouldn't like to be solely dependant on trading - not every week is a pretty one.

I hope to make a certain amount of money each week but I don't stop trading if it's met. Take what the market gives you. The volatility in early August meant I was often making in 15-30 minutes sums of money that would ordinarily take a day or more. The opportunities were fantastic and it would have been dumb to stop trading just because I had made a certain amount of dollars.

Besides, you're not going to make money every day/week, therefore you need to compensate with some exceptional weeks.

I try to stop trading if I lose a certain amount of money on a given day or if I've had a number of consecutive losers. Losses make you do stupid things (revenge trades, etc). In fact, I've heard of some traders using software to shut their platform down for the day if they've lost x amount of money. If you're losing, it's generally better to take some time off to clear the head.
 

so basically its like gambling, if you are losing you leave the casino
 
Have to fill out a w8 ben form to stop US authorities taxing you (everyone with a US account has to, not just day traders).

Re. Irish tax, normal income tax arrangements apply once trading becomes your main source of income. If it's not your main source of income, just pay CGT on your gains (that's what I was told anyway).

Joe Sod - your casino comparison puzzles me. I was talking about the need for discipline and keeping a clear head rather than blindly thinking about the money. If you're feeling frustrated or angry because you've lost money on a few trades, then you turn off your computer and stop trading. Trade when the opportunity is there and when your emotions are in balance, not because you want to get your money back.

I'd give the exact same advice to any trader/long-term investor. An 'investor' acquaintance of mine lost money on Smart Telecom. Bruised from the experience, he was itching to 'get his money back' asap and immediately bought other stocks. He should have waited for an opportunity to arise but he let his ego and his finances dictate his actions. People do this the whole time and it's dumb as hell.

That aside, 'gambling' is a subjective word anyway. The notion that all investors are prudent and all active traders are gamblers is a silly one. Much of what passes for investor analysis is little more than idle speculation, full of 'coulds' and 'shoulds'. Just look at the newspapers - full of fortune telling and talk about how stock xyz 'is worth a punt for the long term'. Little assessment of risk, no talk of stop loss orders - it's just amateur speculation.
 
charttrader said:
Have to fill out a w8 ben form to stop US authorities taxing you (everyone with a US account has to, not just day traders).

Joe Sod - your casino comparison puzzles me. .
Click to expand...

Charttrader,

Would'nt hindsight be a wonderful invention. You seem savy enough to make it work - Well Done!
 
I was told by accountant if I was trading it would be income tax rather than cgt and like you charttrader it would not be my primary income source.
 
I'm not a tax expert but that was the advice I was given. If you check the forums at trade2win.com, you'll find a section on trading and tax. Many differing opinions there, including conflicting advice from diff. accountants. Admittedly is a UK site but am guessing that a lot of confusion exists in Ireland also. In any case, I don't think revenue officials are going to get too hung up about the issue.
 
so charttrader - how are u getting on these days?

Still at it?
 
Well ya - but presumably you must pick the correct direction too.

Out of curiosity - if you were to sum up your trading strategy in 2 lines what would it be?
DOe sit following moving averages or is it fundamentals or what?
 
I tend to trade with the trend, ie, if the market is down sell bounces to resistance areas, if up, buy dips to support. Intra-day exponential moving averages are very useful indicators, otherwise I mainly look at price and volume.
I don't have one strategy. If the market is choppy - as it often is - I'll trade differently. I don't look at fundamentals as my time frame is extremely short.
 
A question for charttrader and other day traders.. do any of you trade FX or is it purely equities ?
 
charttrader - where do you get all your info i.e. resistance points etc. support points etc
 

What kind of Strategy do you use?
 
No, I don't trade forex. Sometimes stocks, mainly index futures.

Re. support and resistance, you will notice how certain points are watched by traders as the day progresses. It might be the previous day or week's high/low, it might be the morning high/low, it might be the top or bottom of an hour long trading range, it might be a moving average on a five minute chart. You use it to try and get a good entry or to guage where might be a good place to take profits. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Re. strategies, like I said earlier, I don't have one strategy and I trade differently on different days. The current market is completely different to the market of, say, a year ago.

Anyone looking for more concrete and detailed info should check out some trading blogs. Here are a few resources, some of which I mentioned earlier;

[broken link removed] -


[broken link removed]

http://www.traderjamie.blogspot.com/

For specific questions, try out www.trade2win.com
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register