I've had several setbacks in my journey to becoming a full time day trader. I sim traded for 4 months, finally gained some momentum, reached a level of sim trading that was consistently profitable, made some small gains in real trades to start building thicker skin trading real money... Then I lost my job. It wasn't because of trading, but it did result in me needing to empty my trading account. It's amazing how long it takes to establish something that can go away in an instant. I didn't blow up my account, but it felt the same. Two months of unemployment later and I was back in an office working a consulting contract for more money than before, but a lot less time. In the office by 8am. No time to trade or even watch the chat. No point maintaining a DAS or TI subscription. No point even studying or reading because I know myself enough to know I won't retain it if I don't get to practice. I didn't quit. To me quit means never going back. I prefer "when should I reevaluate my approach?" I think that is a question a day trader should already be asking themselves every day and every minute because that's the nature of trading. So I re-evaluated my approach. I knew my contract was 6 to 9 months. 6 to 9 months of no trading, so I adjusted my trading plan: 1. Find a job with enough flexibility to allow me time in the morning to trade; 2. Rebuild my trading account. 3. Re-develop my long term plan to reach full time trading. It took 6 months but I found the new job. I started 4 weeks ago and for the last week I've been able to join the chat through the open. Right before I started my new position a pipe burst and flooded our home, so now we're dealing with that, which will definitely delay my account funding again, but I'll deal with the setback. The upside of the flood is the owner of our home wants to sell it, and offered to sell it to us. Another setback financially, but long term a good thing. I didn't quit. I don't want to quit. Personally for me I've decided that day trading tics all the boxes of what I want to do to earn a living. I know 90% of traders fail, and I know many of the reasons why. I think self-reflection is THE key skill a trader needs, and unfortunately I don't think many people who approach day trading appreciate that. Self-reflection counteracts self-deception and reinforces self-reliance. To me, the time to quit is when you've been honest enough with yourself to accept that you either don't really want to be a day trader, or, more likely, you fell in love with the idea of day trading and found the work too daunting. Like any career, it isn't for everyone. But if it is for you, don't ask yourself when you should quit, ask instead "what do I need to change to succeed?"

Hello Fellow Traders, After reading the email from Andrew about “When to Quit Day Trading” I wanted to offer my perspective as I am in almost the same predicament as the trader Andrew referenced. My current trading career is (1) planned live trade, 2 unplanned live trades due to not realizing I was not in simulator, and about 4- or 6-months simulator depending on if you want to count the 2 months I spent just watching charts. I am an active duty United States Marine who is about to transition from the military after 22 years of service. I originally planned on becoming a Forensic Accountant upon retiring from the military. I have acquired my bachelors in accounting, Master in Forensic Accounting, and achieved a Certification as a Certified Fraud Examiner; however, after being introduced and reading Andrew’s book I have decided to invest all my time to becoming a day trader prior to my retirement from the military in December 2019. I found myself continuously asking the same question as the trader referenced, “Is there any criteria to determine when to quit trying to learn day trading?” I believe the answer to the Traders question is, “When you as a trader and your family no longer have the desire or ability to accept failure as a possibility.” As long as you and your family have the desire to learn, work, and sacrifice for this career than you should pursue it. During my time in the service I have been away from my wife, son, and daughter more than I have ever wanted to be. I currently work away from where my family lives. Monday through Thursday it is easy to focus on Day Trading and learning; however, due to connectivity issues in the hotel rooms, I spend at least 10 hours on the weekend watching the Mentorship webinars, classes, reviewing my journal, and developing the next week’s trading plan. I have found the best thing is to communicate with your family on why you are doing what you are doing and get their acceptance. My family views my time spent learning to day trade as a way that they will get to see me more in the future. They honestly have become more upset with me when I don’t put forth my full effort on the weekends to learning Day Trading, as they have bought into the fact that becoming successful in this business will allow me to spend more time with them. I could easily retire from the Marine Corps and become a Forensic Accountant Intern; however, this career path would still keep me away from my family, so we (My Family and I) have decided that $x amount is worth risking to learn to Day Trade. If I lose that amount, then oh well it was worth it and I will move on to something else; however, if I don’t then my family and I will have a great life day trading while getting to spend more time together.

Thanks for the recap Nas, Like we discussed before $NIO and $PBR never really offered a good range to justify any of the trades if you are trading low floats, but if we look into the technical aspect we can see some goods and bad. $PBR Great short on the ORB and below the double bottom at 15.39$. Entry was good, but could've been better right at the low of the previous candle or even back at the "double top" that actually failed to make new highs. (Been a perfectionist here, don't mind me). Would be great if you can post the 5m chart as well next time. $PBR reversal was a great trade, really good, besides the exit where you bailed too early. I often tell people to keep the stops tight and cut losses early, but there are a few things to consider at this trade. First you got a good entry and on a very clean setup above vwap and a "bullflag". Your exit should've been below the vwap, now was support or at worst the low of entry candle. Secondly, the nature of $PBR. This thing dosent move much, has millions of float so the max your really risking there was .6 cents. I would say hold a bit longer ONLY when the float is high. But on this specific case you have no reason to bail. 3 trade you FOMOed, nothing there at that point maybe, later when it conso a bit. $NIO first trade FOMOed, cant see a F.A set up there. Again, would be nice to have the 5m chart so we can compare it better. Second and fourth trades on $NIO were very valid, both after a decent move and PB creating a bull flag and well defined risk, its all interesting to wait for a pb, even if a micro one on big moves. Great execution on the 1st but very poor on the 4th, maybe sell 3/4 when profit is decent. 1st and 3rd trades, there's no technical backup there. Avoid it and focus only on clean setup like 2 and 4. On 1 you FOMOed and on 3 there's nothing, a hint of that is the lower highs trend. Great trades on the good set ups and even better, self control and keeping loss small. When market dosen't offer you anything, dont trade. stick to your niche/ strength. You can lose money on good days/ set up, but you will lose more when you trade and should have actually sit on the side lines. The most important thing to do you did, which is the recap, journal, log and the work after hours. Thats how you get better. Keep it up. Best, Fernando.

Agreed, I am not as experienced as Andrew nor have the temperament yet (Will get there in a year) - For someone like me, I should have just taken a back seat earlier or not trade at all. See, if you make like 100 or 200 on a good trade on a $5k account, and you only do 2 - 3 trades a week, you still end up with 450 which is 9% F'ing brilliant!!!! I will do a personal journal update on my learnings here as a post later tonight. I am glad I got out with a relatively small loss (140) vs blowing my account and sill up 226 for the week.... 3 more days to go!

Yup today was garbage at the open except for KR, around 10AM things settled a bit and we had some good setups in AMD and BABA, SQ ehh. I lost early on getting stopped out on huge swings near the open (MU), a lot of traders experienced the same chop. On days like today it's best to sit on your hands for a half hour and see what's going on. If you are thinking to yourself, it doesn't look good out there, don't go out, better black than red. If you watched Andrew, he experienced the ichiban also with AMD but he stops out on a dime and survived, never fails to amaze.

Red Day - there was volume but no volatility today.Took some trades. I cut some to late and some too soon, so added to my losses, but with Low Floats you need to protect your account. I managed to contain revenge trading and avoided blowing my account (Today). Had a good day yesterday, so still up for the week. Was only down $60 today but commissions got me down further. This is the real world. No biggie, good thing, even though I knew I should have bailed early for a net loss of $10.00 but got into FOMO and went down to $142. Interesting, I noted in chat that today was not a good day. and should have sat on my hands, next time listen to your own advice. We have 3 more days!!! 0.48 Profit factor and a 25% win rate

Hey guys, I will try to make a tutorial video on my hotkeys for the streamdeck asap. I have updated the software and had no hiccups. I plan of making a combined video showing how I manage risk, share size, hard stops, all with hotkeys on 'deck'. The only time my strategy starts are become difficult is when the stock is moving too quickly to place appropriate stops (takes about a 1 or 2 second delay) at the technical levels so I am selective in what I trade.