Hey All, Check out my really rough video on how I currently use the Stream Deck and a simple grid print-out to manage risk and share size. Polished version coming soon! Let me know if this is any help. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Jzd8pXp0afvFEFZhG8d7mcCiwIF38li8

It all depends on knowing what you are doing. They can be a 2 edged sword. Inherently, they depend on an underlying stock or other instrument. You need to be a good trader at basic. Learn that. Options come after that. they can be used to lower risk, or hedge investments besides being pure speculative derivatives as well.

Thanks for sharing @nassarsyed I've eard that options maybe less risky comparing to equities when well known. Do you think it's true? How to learn about options trading please?

There is no loan or interest paid for intraday positions. However, if you end the day with negative USD and don't exchange funds to zero this balance owing, then there is interest. This is why I ensure I always have some USD per step (3) above.

I stopped trading AMD a while ago. With the consistently high volume of this stock, and the somewhat erratic behavior, it would seem to be manipulated heavily by algos/HFT. However, it may be that only beginners should stay away, since Andrew seems to have great success trading this stock...

As far as AMD is concerned,I’m also finding really difficult to trade,I keep on getting stoped out on it. I’m considering to stop trading it.

Nassar great recaps and you seem very focused at what the problems are and the solutions. I find very helpful.

When you scale out at a .10c move, are you moving your stop (physical or mental) to break even? I ask because I changed scale-out strategies in August (SIM based) and took a huge hit (30% winrate, -$4000 on the month). I wanted to "let the runners run" and wait until it got near my price target. I was able to review the data at the end of August and noticed what was going on (what wasn't working). Like you, my numbers showed that my avg loser was way bigger than my avg winner, per trade expectancy was negative. I think the biggest (good) changes were the scale-out and the risk-based share sizing. Obviously, each person needs to develop their own strategy, but my current strategy is this: 1) Risk Based Share Sizing (see dynamic calculator in DAS area of forum) factored for confidence (e.g. if I'm not confident, I use smaller size than my max-risk allowable). My share size is based upon the stop distance. 2) When the stock reaches 1R (if my stop distance is $0.13 away, it'd need to move in my favor $0.13), I sell 25% and move my mental stop to break-even. I repurposed the Fibonacci tool (since I don't use it) to be a 1R, 2R, 3R levels indicator. 3) During the trade, I scale out some more where I see resistance forming or near known resistance levels (moving averages, half dollar, whole dollar), or at 2R, 3R, or the price target. Using my sell 25% hotkey. 4) My mental stop tends to float, so if a moving average that has been respected recently (bounced off of) is above my break-even point, I'll watch it as an indication for a change of direction (it can go past it a little bit to allow variance) and use that as a trailing stop. 5) Once my shares get down below 100, I usually measure the last two pullback distances, add a few cents to it (as long as it doesn't place it below the break-even point), and set it as a trailing stop order. Move on to the next trade. What really helped me refine this to my personality was a few data points that I record with every trade: - Highest Price in Trade (this is price related, not direction related, so highest price seen for either long or short) - Lowest Price in Trade Those aren't prices you executed at, but prices that the stock reached while your trade was open. From there, I can calculate the average R-movement, updraw%, and downdraw% for every trade. When I reviewed August's losses, the data told me that: 78% of my picks moved in my favor. I was simply not scaling appropriately and letting winners run against me. My position sizing and $risk was all over the place. For September, I implemented the new strategy listed above. Winrate is 76%. It has a lot of "small" wins. I'm working on releasing a few custom tools to the community to help people narrow down their strategy and refine their edge. One is a data-focused journal (does most of the work for you) and the other is a backtester (allowing you to automatically replay all of your trades with different scale out approaches you want to test).

As we progress as traders, we all develop our own ways of managing risk, establishing our rules and deciding on what trades to take. As part of my decision process, I have fairly unique way in which I decide my trade sizing that fits with my philosophy. So, let's start there. Part of risk philosophy is that I always want to take the same dollar risk on every trade, no matter the stop loss I set (or the price of the stock). In order to manage this, I have set up a simple spreadsheet (as part of my trade log) that allows me to quickly calculate the number of shares I should take to maintain a consistent risk target. A couple of notes. First, I do not take a trade based on my account size, the price of the stock or the capital required. I focus solely on the amount I am risking on the trade. I believe this allows me to balance my risk across my trades for the day and not find myself with something like 4 winners and 1 loser, but negative on the day since the loser was huge. All trades should deliver the same value, and carry the same risk. Some other traders do much the same using a concept of "trading units" or "risk units". Second, the risk I take on a any trade will always be consistent for the day and be part of my daily trading risk profile. Once I set these values pre-market, I will not change it for the day. I decide the values based on my previous performance, how I am feeling on the day, what other distractions I may have, and how long I am trading that day. (These parts of my philosophy I can explain at another time.) Here's an example. Assume for the day I have decided upon a profit target of $500 with a daily max loss of $300 and per-trade max loss of $100. Below is a sample chart. Let's say I want to go long $SQ off of the ABCD pattern presented and I am looking at taking a maximum of $100 risk (ie- max loss) on the trade, as per my plan. The current price is $90.35. A reasonable, but tight(!), stop-loss would be $90.05 (the bottom of the ABCD candles), or $0.30. Using my spreadsheet (below), I have set for the day my max $100 loss in cell C2. I simply plug the $0.30 loss target into cell C3, and cell C4 tells me I can take 330 shares. No more, no less! To deviate from this number would skew both the risk and potential reward I could expect from the trade. The only way I can change the share size is to either tighten my stop-loss (increasing the chance it'll be hit, but decreasing how far the stock has to move before I take profit), or loosening my stop-loss (which has the opposite effect). But, no matter what I decide, once I enter the trade, I WILL stick to that stop-loss target. My sheet has auto-calculated the target profit as I will always look for a trade that, at a minimum, delivers a 2:1 risk-reward ratio. This does mean that I have to be confident that $SQ has the possibility of going up at least $0.60. If not, I will pass on the trade. ) I keep this spreadsheet open in a small window on a secondary PC all day. This way, all I have to do is punch in the loss target number into C3 and it'll give me the shares I can trade. While simple, I find this keeps me focused and consistent on my share sizes and ensures I do not take a huge dollar risk on one trade and a lower risk on another. Because, as we all know, it'll be the big one that usually ends up to loser! I hope this helps. If you have questions or comments, please post them! If you have other calculators, please share! Below is a link to the spreadsheet. Remember to set your expectation low! It is simple. The spreadsheet also has a daily p&l log, a calendar that will trade you winning and losing days, and a couple of other tabs in case you find them useful. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qqTPpgUU2sDf-t8-yKso33KIwdfmL2rF Happy trading!