Lessons of retail day trading

Trading
1

Hello

I am trying to understand the journey and lesson of a retail trader who is into day trading… - and someone who has been at it for more than 3 years . Sharing some of my lessons…and facts learnt over a period of 3 years…

  1. Am I in profit - hell NO - after 3 years that is

  2. Got rid of most indicators after 2 years of trading… just keep 2 moving averages now.

  3. Still impulsive on many trades

  4. Still hope for miracles when the trade is going against me…

  5. Mostly catch a very small part of a very huge market move !!! and that stings

  6. Enjoy and have a laugh at the videos of trading gurus and those posting live profits on youtube and on all the calls received on telegram channels - sometimes makes me feel light

  7. Tried multiple trading and charting platform,… and understood that it is my trades which are failing and not the platforms

  8. Developed a huge load of patience waiting for the trades to come to my decision levels

  9. Attended a couple of webinars & seminars on day trading and understood the bullshit being sold

  10. Tried to turn my strategy into an algo and learnt i dont know shit about coding

  11. Again having a laugh at youtube videos of trade gurus…

12 ) Tried out derivatives, got some initial profit and then got screwed

  1. Learnt not to predict and select stocks for next day - trading now with only a set number of stocks with an eye on nifty

  2. Still making a loss - but the way i trade has improved since when i started out this journey

  3. Do i intend to continue - oh yes…

Do share your thoughts and lessons so that retail traders may benefit

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I rarely post ,but seeing how you have missed a very big point in day trading. I am motivated to help you.

Contrary to what most people “believe” that day trading is possible for retail is kind of a joke.

So now you are think what is this guy saying? is he crazy or what? who would make such rubbish/Foolish statement when people here minting money in day trading.

OK , so here me out.

One of the main reasons why it is hard to make money in day trading is the DAILY volatility.
(vol)

So now you ask who cares about DAILY volatility , right?

Lets , look at some figures. Take nifty or any stock and do basic volatility analysis and you will know 80% of the time or days , the volatility is in range of 0.2%-0.3% , the rest of the 20% is when the real moves happen and that’s where there real money is made. (Hint: long term investing)

Now consider that 80% of days in a year i.e approx 200 working days in a years , DAILY VOL is in the range of 0.2%-0.3%.

Now , is it possible for an nonprofessional(read no salary) retail trader to capture any part of that 0.3% on daily basis?

Now, consider the brokerage and taxes on top of that for 200 days.

Now , do the math and see how much returns can you SQUEEZE out of day trading on any kind of capital.

Not calculating daily vol and taxes/brokerage on your returns is one of the most overlooked aspect in this business.

of course no one will highlight or even consider such a foolish thing when you can mint money in day trading.

The reason broker/Educators don’t want you to know this is because , well it hurts their bottom line. So all brokerage firms only want you to day trade as much as possible KNOWING VERY WELL THE DAILY VOL OF MARKETS.

So brokers make guaranteed returns , while retail traders struggle to retain any money.

This is why day trading is uphill battle to retain any profits even if you do make some.

Now , i have no interest whether you are successful in day trading or not.I am neither a broker or an educator. I m only here to throw some light on this subject without which many day traders fall into the darkness.

But then i m may be completely wrong, as people here are simply minting money in day trading.It just amazes me that you can squeeze so much profit with so little vol.

In any case, Good luck with your journey in day trading.

STAY FROSTY!!.

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Curious to know, were you doing it full time. If not how much time you actually dedicated in a day to trading?

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4 hours a day on an average is what i have spent over the past 3 years

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I don’t think day-trading is an uphill battle, it just you can’t do it even if have the slightest temptation of greed.

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Do day trading once in a while. Move out immediately after you either make a profit or loss.
Better trade in cnc.

The stress in day trading is too high.
Plus the time to be devoted is 100% screen time till trade is squared off.

In cnc just place order 1…then place square off order and get off the market. Just watch once in an hour.

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Start concentrating on volume which drives the price …thr wnt be any good in trading in stocks which dnt have rht reason of price mvement

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How do you identify that in live market??

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Identify stocks with institutional activity …coinage academy yt channel

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Have developed my own system based on institutional vol … giving 70% accuracy with 1:2 rr … shall soon start trading

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I am a newbie.

Presently Studying Zerodha Varsity (pdf)

My ambition is Option Trading.

This info is very useful, thanks.

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For how long have you been into Swing Trading?

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what is that?

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Hi
i hope you are not trrading options as a newbie… way too risky

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Institutional volume is whn some institution lke mutual funds, banks or traders like jhunjhunwla.etc is accumulating or selling a particular stock in huge quantity …always trade in such stocks with 1:2 rr n you ll always be in profit even w 40% accuracy

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@free_spirit

I don’t do swing trading because you don’t have RETAIL instruments to hedge your positions. I know you have FNOs for hedging ,but that is meant for institutions. Huge margins. Its crazy.

Also remember here , you are leveraged in FNOs , so you better expect to make 4 or even 5 times that of normal unleveraged investment like MF. that means you should aim for atleast 80-100% on your returns. For that kind of returns , the risk is very high for a retail without proper hedging instruments. We need smaller , flexible & low margin contracts for retail.

on buy side since your unleveraged , so hedging don’t help much and doesn’t add much value to your portfolio. I just go with MFs.

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How to identify such stock??

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Many ways chartink.com vol scanner (stocks with rising volumes) this filters stocks whose todays vol is greater than previous 2 or 3 or 10 or 20 days avg. volume 2nd way is open account with prostocks, upstox n some other brokers too - they provide excellent softwares with volume scanners, watch coinage academy yt channel beginning videos … provides all info on inst. Vol

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Someone said daily volatility is in the range 0.2%-0.3% on an average. While I can’t corroborate that number, daily volatility itself has no bearing on intraday trading as that number takes into account daily close price only (not OHLC). What really matters for day traders is intraday swings (high and low range).

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