Option trading for a living
Don't hesitate to tell us about living ticker we should know about! Context and insight must be provided; empty posts or empty posts with links will be automatically removed. Posts regarding this topic will be automatically removed. My first year I made 6 figures But yes I'm a day trader option no I don't make 6 figures still. And my typical day is wake up about am read the news, might sell or buy a few things pre market. I watch CNBC all day. Take a break about 4pm to walk for dog. Eat dinner and then start watching the asian markets, wait for Europe to open and watch squawk box europe and then go to bed and do it all again. So best part and the reason I watch all the programs was during when all shit was hitting the fan a rep from GM came on TV and said well we are looking for sales from Europe to rely on Then later that night an exec from GM over in Europe can on squawk box Europe and said well we are looking to the US for sales. I've found if you want to do well, information and knowing what's going on all across the world is key. Also figuring out why short sellers are wrong is a great way to make a killing I recently cleaned up trading deckers People thought Uggs were a dying fad but I found via google trends a very powerful tool for us traders that they weren't. Further people were complaining about margins because of sheepskin prices however sheepskin was falling in price, which analysts failed to take into account. If you don't believe me I was talking about this trade in on this article my screen name here is RLWSNOOK http: What would you, or any other day trader on here, recommend a minimum amount of money to start day trading with? But mind you there were a lot more opportunities to do well for my first year But key is to show them you can do this first. I make a full living from trading. Took 2 blown accounts and a year of struggling to make that happen though. Mental aspects were my main problem. I still have massive doubts on a bad day. It takes alot of work to gain all the skills to do this for a living, and many people just do not have the personality that suits this kind of job. What path did you take to improve your game and would you say that there are fundamental aspects of your path that would likely benefit others? Did you find that through experience, you were better able to interpret your instincts? Basically, I'm curious as to what you did to educate yourself, what your experiences taught you, and how you balance your "feelings" with technical indicators that either support or oppose your feelings. Thanks for your reply! The one biggest piece of advice i can trading is find the niche that suits you and become a complete expert at it. I have done over trades during these times. Most of the very successful traders i know concentrate on 1 or 2 markets Stock traders, 5 to 10 stocks. Trade small trade often. A small loss is fine, if you are wrong, get out. This is easier said than done. Mental stuff was very difficult for me to get on top of. I would have a bad day and doubt everything i was doing. Read "trading in the zone". Great book on that kind of stuff. And balancing feelings with technical indicators. I do not use any indicators. Just a chart, volume and depth of market. Most of my trades come from familiar behavior that i recognize. With so much experience in those two markets i have gut feelings about how they move. However before i grasped this sort of "sixth sense" i would simply identify levels in the market, and trade off them, with tight risk management. Thanks for a detailed response. I like what you mention about sticking to one or two markets. Right now, my major focus is biotech. Thanks for the book recommendation as well, I will look into it shortly! Its a long journey, with plenty of stress and difficulty. Stick with it, its worth it. Do you find your morning trades in FTSE and DAX to be roughly correlated seeing as both markets are European Index Futures? For example, would you ever see trend days in opposite directions in these two products? Generally most equity markets follow the spx However trades can living formed as the indexes match up. For example spx is at a support level, dax isn't, but ftse is. You could trade the ftse. What other futures are generally traded at your place during the European morning session? Just FGBL and 6E? Another guy I trade with strictly trades the bund and nothing else. A bit of a mixed bag really. I have discussed a trading deal with them in the past and have friends that have had deals with them. They have a good reputation. I'd love to know how much you use in capital and how much you make per year from trading. Also, have you considered joining a hedge fund? This may will mark my first full year as a successful trader. I have friends who know my reddit user name so I would rather not say my exact income but it is much much higher than the norm for my age I'm I had been trading for 6 months with next to no result I've wiped away months of losses in short order and hope to continue in kind. I know I won't really know for a few option months whether this is really my doing or if the pendulum happened to mercifully swing my way, but either way it's nice to hear that someone else has seen the other side. Glad you are seeing some good results. Its a battle but its well worth it if you stick at it. And yeah i am quite young, i was lucky to make friends with other traders who gave me a shot and helped me along the way. Forgot the hedge fund question. I work with a small group of other prop traders. They have been approached a few times, for prop firms and hedge funds. I have considered it, however most are based in London I'm from the UK and I am not willing to move at this point. So discussions have never got past that point. My first attempt lost 15k, and here were the issues: The second attempt was shared with my father, trading his money. The third attempt, I wanted to go out on my own again. I was starting to believe in my skills. Edges come and go in the market, but in this case it was trading one volatile, high beta stock and becoming an expert in it. For 6 months I traded only JNPR. The day I decided to try this style of trading I became profitable. Then the stock started trading differently and the edge went away. But, I had done it I knew I could trade profitable when the opportunity presented itself. So living is the progression of the beginning of my trading career. I've continued to adapt to the market, and enjoy waking up to trade every day. Speaking of which, the opening bell is in two mins I agree about the edge changing over time. I think being dynamic offsets the likelihood of getting married to a stock or making the same mistakes repeatedly. I've been investing for a living for about 7 years now. I lost money in the beginning until I started learning fundamental analysis, reading SEC filings like crazy, and really getting to the hang of finding undervalued stocks. I don't think it's for everyone, but I love it. You are probably busy as hell, but chime in more often in We sure need a seasoned guidance. And most of us do not start with a lot. Everything- balance sheets, current ratios, dilution, everything. That's where you get the true picture of a company- not in their press releases. I hope this isn't too forward, but how much were you making on a daily basis before quitting your day job? So glad to be out of all that crap! It's those who learn from their mistakes and grow that break through that barrier and become profitable. If you want to trade, expect to blow your account and lose thousands before you "make it. I've gotten where I get more scared when I make money than when I'm losing. I've only made one trade for a loss though, option rest of them I just keep holding until they go up. But what I mean is, when I make a bundle and I'm not really sure why, then I feel like I could lose a bundle and not know why either. I do research, these days anyway, but research doesn't tell you everything. So if I take big profits on a stock, I usually have to wait a week or two before I feel safe to invest it again. The psychology of stock trading is pretty interesting. You may want to work on finding something that'll tell you more often than not why a price did what it did. Indicator, news, research, pick your poison- either way, you need a system that can be repeated successfully for years. You're right though- psychology is interesting. Definitely the worst enemy of any trader. Best to let your system do the work for you. Here's an example, SGMO. I bought in pretty low, like 11 or 12, expecting steady but strong growth. That was happening, then on the 9th they cut a deal with Biogen and the price went up to 19 or so. Not sure how I would have known that in advance without being an insider. There are ways to get an idea, indicators, techs, whatever. It looked like an obvious move to me on the monthly chart. I do part time my bro does full time. We trade option spreads he has his home paid for all his cars and we bank well. It all started when he found someone to invest with him, the guy put in k and in five months it was k. We just decided to make a youtube page to teach. I have been ding it for 5 years and he has been doing it for But since my brother found that one guy all the returns are documented with the broker we trade with so since then people have been throwing money at us sorry for the typo. Mind describing your strategy a little? Swing trades, vol crush, deltas? Don't need exact specifics, just curious. Basically weeklys sometimes monthlies, it depends some volume crush, last week in that link for our page I sent you I had my trade on the SPX. We pretty for do call spreads and put spreads and try to stay away from the strike, using basic support and resistance, while looking at the upcoming events and possible out comes and return. We usually never make earnings plays because its too difficult to project. Lots of time if earnings do come out and you see a massive move in the after hours when premarket comes if the stock seems to be "fighting" the initial after hours move. We will short to the other side. We don't have too many videos up yet, because we never thought to do it but check it out. That is true for anything worth doing in this world. First year s tend to produce failures for everyone. Michael Jordan wasn't even in his high school basketball team. It's all about hard work. There is no such thing as luck. The important question to ask is, how many of the successful traders were a failure in their first year. The answer is-- a lot of them. Success doesn't come to you, you have to get there. Stock markets are not easy, fast money. It is a lifestyle and only true devotees make it. This isn't really relevant to this sub, but Michael Jordan was cut from his JV team because he had a poor attitude and thought he was better than everyone else which he wasnot because he wasn't good enough, as the commonly told story goes. Yeah, that line always irks me so much. He also didn't make the varsity team as a sophomore because he was still short. He grew 4" before his junior year and made the team. In his senior year he was all american. People love to use that line to talk about hard work paying off, but for him it had as much to do with natural growth. Michael Jordan was cut from varsity briefly, he played on JV for a little while but then was moved to varsity after dominating everyone. Well, I looked it up on might google and even that isn't the real story. The real story is that he was cut because being a sophomore he didn't have much chance of actual varsity play and the coach had to choose between MJ then only 5'10 and another guy who was 6'6. He went with the tall guy just because he would make a better guard. Now, the real story might be a 4rd spin on it. But that's how legends grow and cultural myths propagate. Despite all that, my point till stands. Hard work beats all. Luck is a tough mistress and she sleeps around, don't count on her to be there on those lonely nights when you really need someone. This is probably one of the reasons why I've read recommendations on here that people start trading on a simulated trading account before putting real money on the table. I think the pain of losing real money is one of the best teachers in the world. This is probably an unpopular view - but I don't think paper trading amounts to anything. Trading with real money on the line, even if its a small amount, teaches you where you comfort zone and emotions lies. I tried to but really messed up. I still trade very fast and very often and in a lot of stocks but I don't close positions on same day. I'd say I week trade. Never had enough money to day trade on the stock markets, I think SEC requires 25K? I did make a couple K's buying and selling options during the silver run up a couple years ago. IMHOalthough I am not sure where to start with analyzing the moves of currency markets Ideally I hope to end up with an algo trader. I have day traded on and off since collegebut took it up full time a couple of years ago, and have been very happy with the lifestyle and income ever since. I just started a website that allows subscribers to see my trades in real time live trades started on Jan 6 of this year. Several people from Reddit were kind enough to offer advice on the service and site, and several trading for the free trial. Trial is no BS - no financial information required, 2 weeks of free access, and we don't bother you with marketing emails. Since Monday the 6th, returns have topped Reading the content on the site may help you too. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and that you have read our Privacy Policy and Content Policy. Log in or sign up in seconds. Submit a new text post. Resources Wiki for new investors Join our live chat! Pattern day trading Rules Disclose any open positions when discussing a particular stock or financial instrument. Spam, ads, business solicitation, and self-promotion posts or comments will be removed. Trolling, insults, or harassment, especially in posts requesting advice, will be removed. Working for Whole Foods Market, what can I expect to happen to stock shares I have? This is an archived post. You won't be able to vote or comment. Thanks for the interesting replies everyone! Other than the losing aspect, what helped you learn? I and I think many people here would like to make a living off stocks. But ill take a shot at breaking it down. I do not have masses of time to write more, hope this helps somewhat. When you said you traded for a living I didn't expect you to be so young. It's the type of math that can help out. BTW, u day trade options? Posts are automatically archived after 6 months.
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