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"It doesn’t matter how successful or unsuccessful you are right now. What matters is whether your habits are putting you on the path toward success. You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results." @JamesClear

Okay! Let's go i am ready now! Or am i? That the questions i keep asking myself, what more do i need now, and what do i have.... So let's start from the beginning. This is what i have right now! Soon i will begin my journal, of trading, an i am ready, to hit it! But right now, let's go into step buy step, why i have all those things, and stuff. I got this (Note book) because i want to (leave) and (keep) my journey, in mind, so i always, can look back, from where i was. I also have this because, i want to keep tracking my trades down, but i am not going to use it like a (log book) but more like a diary, to keep my emotions down there, and everything that i will learn, and have done for the day, what i would fell after the day, what i have learn and son on. I got this book, to track my trades, every single one of them. to see how it's going, and could go back and see if/or i did take that set-up/trade before, and did i go well. The map, i have this, because i want to (keep) making rules, and set in. I want to have my (strategy) close to me, and can change it buy the time, i delivery more experience day for day, and to see what it started for, maybe the ABCD pattern, will be change after 3 days, because i found out that i need, some more (conformation) in that strategy, and then i can change it. Just some of my rules, wanna say thanks to Andrew, Robert, And Peter for those great informations about risk, control and psychology! Keep the good work guys! Thanks. I got this, because i don't now what to set as target for the day, and will change it for day for day. Why? Because,i think its important, to set the goal, for what you day have been, (are you tried) (did you have a bad day) (are you feeling strong) (do you have some emotions going on) and so on. But the MAX loss pr day will always be the same! Thinking right now to set it at ( 250$) its 1 % for the totalt amount of my account, i know its not a lot, but still new, and i know its only a (demo). But want to keep it like it's was my job, and real money! And Max loss pr day trades will always be the same! 3 trades! And that will also be my MAX loss pr day. so 1% of the totalt amount of my account. Stoploss pr trade: it would change buy time, for RR, but would keep it for 83$, so i can lose 3 trades. before i hit my MAX loss pr day. - Also want to say thanks to the great article Peter D, and the good excel ark! definitely gonna use that! And this! Yes MAN! How the week going so far? Let me see, just buy that, keep my trades and the overall (P/L) day for day. Thank you! Can't remember is name, but did see this on the (Members day trading recap) But thanks! I think its very important, to have this! 1: Just so you can see what the week is going so far. 2: Its about the psychology , behind it. You need to type it down, and when your are sitting there you dont want to let it be red. Just like the (bonus, on the day job) Or the every month, (journey) How much, did you make? What did you do wrong? How fast was you? 3: are you green for 3 days? Then you can see how the day was before, you began to trade, in my (day trading journey) was i happy, did i have a good day? Maybe i got a lot of sleep? AND of course the (hot key pad) i want to do it fast, don't want do fumble around and make those (hotkeys mistakes).. So i did buy this, will do update on this. It's my own (howkeys) right now, i just need to (log it in) das if i can.. I like you see on picture (2) i can open Trade ideas, facebook and so on.. If i click on (bear bull traders) it will open another (hot keys) So i easily can open some of those websites. And if i click on (Das) it will open another ( Hot keys) and there will my hot keys, now i just need to set it in das, if i can. The Excel ark, to make my positions size fast and easy, to keep my (stop loss) in my 83$. for every trade i take. So yeah, i think i mid be ready to go out, and do some trades. Do i need more? Did i miss something? - I will not post here every day, i think, but mostly like every week. (sunday) for all the trades i took, and so on. Maybe it will be every day, if not, i will do it the way, i was saying up there. Still need to set up, my Das demo account, so will start it next week. Can you all have a great week! Mads From Denmark!

https://www.tradezero.co When I started day trading 6 months ago I opened an margin account a broker (in Canada) who charges about $10 for a round-trip execution. Having a rather small-sized account this was somewhat of a threat in the long run for a new trader who needs to learn the rope. Also their data package and charting were being sluggish not to mention poor hotkey executions. The most disappoint thing, however, was that I'd have to call them before the market hours to locate shares for shorting. They have shorts available for a lot of the well-known stocks like apple,IBM,coca cola but there were also a lot of stocks that they don't have shares available for shorting and they'd have to borrow them from other brokers. I started looking around and at that time I belonged to another chatroom and I got a recommendation for Trade Zero. I've read some reviews before I decided to open an account there and also asked their support team some questions. Unfortunately, this broker is not available for US residents. Pros: 1.If you put a limit order (for minimum of 200 shares) and you don't remove the liquidity from the market, they commission is practically zero. You might get some tiny fees which is a beyond the scope of my knowledge but overall, it can only cost few pennies per trade. 2.Up to 6:1 margin if your account balance is above $2500USD. 4:1 margin for accounts under $2500 and 1:1 for accounts under $500. 3.Short shares are easy to borrow with execution 4.Nice platform (it never crashed or froze on me). Cons: 1.The customer support team sometimes don't seem to know all the details of the operation and they take some time to answer your questions. But overall they have a good support team. 2.Brokerage is located in the Bahamas and for some people this can be a deal breaker (not for me). 3.Wiring cost is rather high. ($30 inbound and $75 outbound) 4.You must keep paying for their platform every month as long as you have an account with them (which is not really suitable unless you are an active trader.) Being an active trader, I found that the pros outweigh the cons significantly and executions are fast. If you think you're getting chewed up by commissions, consider opening an account with them. I don't regret switching over.

Great script! I've been looking for information on the user defined variables but can't seem to find any. Do you know if it's possible to define variables for price? Basically, instead of a b/e hotkey, i wanted to create one that allows to keep half/quarter of your winnings. For easy math, say you went short at $100 per share, the current price is at $90. You want to let it run buy want to protect at least half of your current winnings.. to do so, you need a stop order @ $95. If the DAS scripting allowed for parentheses, you could just do StopPrice=AvgCost+((AvgCost-Bid)*.5) which would equal StopPrice=$95; $100+(($100-$90)*.5)=$95 If I could define 2 variables I could do: DefVar1=AvgCost-Bid; DefVar2=DefVar1*.5; StopPrice=AvgCost+DefVar2; However, I can't seem to get the variable definitions to work, any thoughts? Thanks.

Hey Kyle: I tested it out. This seems to be the configuration that works best for IB short. Shorting with 1% account risk with AUTO size based on selected stop price DefShare=BP*0.8; Share=DefShare*0.3* Price * 0.01; Price = Price - Bid + 0.02;SShare = Share / Price; Share = DefShare - SShare; DefShare = DefShare + SShare; SShare = Share; SShare = DefShare - SShare; Share = 0.5 * SShare; TogSShare; ROUTE =LIMIT; Price = Bid - 0.05; TIF=DAY+; SELL=Send; DefShare = 500; IB requires 30% equity as margin for short, and 25% equity as margin for long. Therefore, the discount on BP should be 0.25/0.3= 0.833333, so I just used 0.8 to be safe. For the same reason, I used 0.3 instead of 0.333333333333333. I just want to say Thank you again for figuring this out. Smart people like you are hard to find. If you ever need help with anything, pm me and let me know. BTW I just finished set up the new Genovation 48 key control pad. I highly recommend it. It's nicer than the 24.

OMG you are so smart. I'm gonna testing this one out right now. Thank you so much !!

I wouldn't take one for the team testing it, use a NASDAQ testing symbol. It sends the order in to the market, but they don't actually fulfill with anything (as it's not a real company). These: TEST TESTB TESTE TESTX ATEST Additionally, a few different ways to test it to wait until the market closes and switch the "SELL=SEND;" to "SELL=LOAD;", click a price really close to the current. See what it puts in the share box, as that's likely to be the maximum-affordable calculation. That's how I tested a lot of it, with the market closed you don't have to worry about the price jumping around and can consistently click different stop distances (e.g. .10c back, .20c back) to see what it is calculating. I assume that DAS is likely using the buying power for long for both calculations (since it doesn't know you're planning to go short when it loads the values), so you'd need to factor that into the hotkey, 0.33 should be the right number on the short side. **EDIT** I think I may have figured out how to go about this: Example Numbers: Equity: $25,000 Buying Power Long 4:1 - $100,000 : $25,000 Buying Power Short 3:1 - $75,000 : $25,000 Assuming $10 stock and that DAS is going to use the LONG number for both: BP = 100,000 / $10 = 10,000 "Shares" 10,000 * 0.25 [equity] = 2,500 [at account equity] BP * 0.75 = 75,000 / $10 = 7,500 "Shares" 7,500 Shares * 0.33 [equity] = 2,475 So try this: DefShare=BP*0.73; Share=DefShare*0.333333333333333* Price * 0.01; That opening DefShare=BP*0.73 is saying "Calculate using 73% of Buying Power [assuming it's using the LONG number]" (It's 75% minus 2% for a buffer for price fluctuations/spreads). Please let me know if you test it and if it works or not. If it does, I'll add it to the configuration and instructions.

Great post, I really like your statement at the end, "what do I need to change to succeed?" I going to add this to my Trade Journal routine as the last thing to do before closing it out.

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?"

I would like the time scale on my charts to reflect 12 hr time instead of 24 hr. Is this possible?

Wow Made Dane, you put a ton of effort into all this. You know we need to convince Elagato company to release a larger StreamDeck to allow for more custom hard stop keys...maybe 5 across, 5 down. I use hard stops of 5c but run out of room with 1 device and have to make folders for additional keys. I agree stick with the 1% perhaps 2% account risk per trade and if you want to make more money, you will need to grow your balance not risk more...always remember that. Remember to log the days you break your rules and review them so you do not relapse. The way I am doing that now is living the cube life 'outlook and excel' all day long at work. Never again am I going to blow past my stops. I'll make a post about that sometime for anyone here not respecting proper risk management. Your trading is so dependent on your external life factors, so make sure nothing will interfere with your performance, i.e. sleep, stress, money, bills, kids, wife, hubby, etc...all of that WILL affect your performance to some degree. Very unlike other jobs and things we do during the day. Thanks for the detailed post bruh.

SpeedTrader (www.speedtrader.com) is offering our members a flat commission rate of $2.95/trade, regardless of share size. A minimum of $30,000 is required to open an account and PDT rules apply. SpeedTrader uses DAS Pro as their trading platform. They offer day trading margin of 4:1 and overnight margin of 2:1. If you generate $450 or more in monthly commissions, the SpeedTrader Pro platform fee is waived. Please mention Bear Bull Traders as a referral in your application to receive the discounted rate. UPDATE: March 28, 2018: $500 in free trades or 1 month free (whichever comes first) from SpeedTrader for us https://speedtrader.com/bearbulltraders/ also $2.95/trade flat fee or 0.0039/share

I'm switching to speedtrader after this earning season. I have a detail comparison of how IB vs Speedtrader base on your size. Long story short: if you trade more than 3000 share per entry. Speedtrader is a far better. If you trade 2000 shares per entry, its about the same, because when you scale out you end up making 4 trades anyways. Here is the catch, if you trade a lot of stock in the range of $5-$20 , you gonna have to trade a lot of shares and your per entry shares are way above 3000. Speedtrader is better. If you mainly trade mid price stocks like MU and AMD, and your position is about 50k-100k dollar wise, both broker are about the same. because after trading 300k shares, IB gives you a discount to 0.0020 per share. I was overtrading in Sep and hit that after the first week. So for the rest of the month, my commission was 0.0020 per share. And the total amount was about the same as if I used speedtrader. If you only trade high price stock like TSLA, AAPL, then IB is far better. but i dont know anyone who only trade those high price stocks. And as for speedtrade dont have much stock for short as IB, Most of the time, you dont short those stock anyways. Shorting low float stock is one of the best ways to blow up your account. So there you have it. I will report more after I switch.

@Dima how has your experience been with Centerpoint? Fees, fills, ECN, short availability etc. thanks!

i believe a daily profit target is one of the most important things you can have on your side as a day trader. to me it is almost as important as your technicals and everything else. like everything there must be a goal or a limit you are trying to reach. in life we set goals for ourselves, like where do you want to be 1 year 5 years and 10 years from now, without goals we are just living life with no purpose. same as trading in my opinion, without a goal you are just trading, we do not trade to trade we trade for skill. as a day trader we should have daily goals as well as yearly goals and so forth. the reason we set goals is to see where we are and try to improve from there, there is always room for improvement. when i first began trading i would just trade not having any goals set in mind, i would trade just to see how much i can make looking at my P/L trying to out do my last trade. but in reality i lost more then i actually gained because of over trading and revenge trading. daily goals and max losses go hand in hand. they are parameters or rules we should set within ourselves to keep us successful in day trading. greed is a motherfu#$@%. one thing is for sure the market will giveth and the market will taketh lol meaning if you can find yourself profitable keep your profits because at any moment if you are not smart with your profits the market will take them. its always best to keep what you got then you lose what you could've had. time of day to me is all on personality of the trader, personally i like the morning because its fast pace and more profits can be made. some might like mid day because the risk is not as high because of it being much slower. you have to find your comfort zone, tell yourself how much you would like to gain and what your max loss would be. the important thing is being realistic with your account size. many people like going in with large share sizes because the profits are bigger but same goes with your losses. practicing set it and forget it rule or mentality is essential for a day trader. set a goal of what i would like to gain in a day and how much you would like to lose in a day. set it and forget it, remember the goals do not have to be perfect just close enough.

As a new trader, it is a challenge to walk away once the goal is met, and I debated with myself what is the most effective way to learn the market, price behavior, and developing efficient and effective skills. I asked myself, should I be more liberal with my trades, even if this means over-trading? By doing this, I can learn price behavior, recognizing and taking entries through "reps" (the more I trade the more experienced I will be)? Athletes take this approach to fine tune their game. On the other hand, I asked myself, should I be more conservative with my trades, ending my day with a profit goal/loss, even if this means decreasing the exposure I have to the market? In the end I opted for the latter. I believe being more conservative mimics the behavior of trading in a live account, and reduces the likelihood that I will develop bad habits and inconsistencies. I played video games competitively throughout my life, playing in tournaments and leagues for money. I find that there are many similarities that day trading has with competitive gaming and sports. One thing I try to really avoid during competitions and day-trading is stat checking because the more I check my stats, the worse off I am. Mentally, I feel that when I lend my attention to my stats, my performance decreases because I take away attention from the game at hand. Even behaviors such as celebrating and complimenting myself early can impact my performance (conditioning). In the end, I minimize my account window and focus purely on trading as much as I can. As a researcher in psychology, I understand that there are many psychological theories that may explain this. Research has demonstrates the effects of mental load and fatigue, inattentional blindness on performance (Boksem et al., 2005; Hyman et al., 2010). As traders, we are required to process a significant amount information at once that will ultimately inform our decision. We constantly monitor price action, Level 2, historical evidence, indicators, emotions, etc. Processing this much information requires a significant mental load, which our brains can withstand so much of. After analyzing pre-market behavior and technicals, and taking our profits after analyzing opening action, we are mentally fatigued, despite our motivation to continue trading. Once fatigued by our initial trades, we stop perceiving things as clearly. Mix mental fatigue with high emotions (prolonged sympathetic activation), we might be easy to lose sight of details and misinterpret information, resulting in potential drops in performance. While I believe that trades are independent of each other, I don't think our perception and biases are independent. I believe there are carryover effects that leak from one trade to another. We bring our biases from one successful trade, and might apply it to another trade, for better or worse. For example, in one trade, we might have take a trade on a VWAP hold that proves successful. In the next trade, we might see similar VWAP hold pattern, take the trade, and lose. Maybe we didn't perceive the lack of volume in the second trade? Whatever it may be, we may have been highly influenced by the first trade, which may have distorted our perception in the trades, ignoring details that might indicate otherwise. In the end, while I believe that there is a correlation between # of trades and performance, I don't think there is a single factor that contributes to decreases in performance, but, rather, all factors collectively contribute to losses from overtrading. There are other things such as time-of-day, lack of volume, proportions of retail traders vs. institutional later in the day, etc, that may also have an effect. Maybe an internal study could be conducted on this. I'd be happy to volunteer

I think having a daily profit goal is incredibly important, not only for the obvious reasons of income to live on and invest further, but psychologically, it sets up a framework that minimizes risk and maximizes the chances of success. Assuming you have been successful at historically hitting your target profit, having one serves to set an attainable goal and ultimately, a daily "reward". Conversely, consider the concept of "more", in our little monkey/reptile brains, "more" acts like a short circuit that can lead to illogical and impulsive actions. More is almost always perceived as better, at least on the surface, but it has a vague and nebulous value, more is always more, when you get more, you want what? MORE OF IT ! In trading, this is a recipe for disaster as the amount of risk is infinite and entails almost no chance of success, this of course is what we traders seek to reduce, not enhance. I'm no psychologist so please pardon my rather primitive explanations below and also, the following is ONLY my opinion and personal perspective on the topic. We humans are reward vs threat based creatures who despite different ways of going about it, are simply looking to have our needs met with as little exposure to risk as possible. Setting a daily goal accomplishes this through first off, setting a benchmark at which (X) amount of daily profit meets whatever daily needs we require. You hit your goal, you get the dopamine reward, you've accomplished what you set out to do, life is good right? So why push it further which simply invites risk and loss? Not only that, how many solid trades can you find in a day? To some extent, its a numbers game with the opportunity limited by our capacity to find the good ones. Also, in our heads, taking a loss after meeting a goal can feel far more devastating than simply having a loss/random difficult day, while this pain/anxiety is good in the sense that it is how we learn what NOT to do, how many times do you need to go through this to learn that it was NOT the right path to take. Again, setting up a rule that says, when I hit (x) dollars for the day, I walk away, creates the framework in which this risk of highly minimized. Now, let's consider one possible scenario of what MIGHT go through the mind of a trader who does not set a daily goal. He starts the day with the concept of some nebulous dollar figure in his head that has no upper limit, it's something unattainable, he has no goal other than "MORE", what is more? More is always more and you always want more of it because it is scarce and hard to come by. It's a bit like the idea of doing something you need to do, but saying, you will do it tomorrow, tomorrow often never comes, just like more is never enough, more is always more, it ultimately becomes greed, carelessness, and drastically clouds sound judgement. Setting a profit goal allows us to attain a finite, acceptable, and definite value of what "more", is. I mean it is more than you started with right? I think most of us have noticed that, and I have for sure recognized, that the more you trade, the more chances there are of a loss, and possibly a big loss, and worst feeling of all? unnecessarily losing a previously attained "reward" , which is something we all strive to avoid, so why do it? Psychologically, we are always scanning the horizon for the thing that will meet our needs, we scan endless candlestick patterns, our scanners, etc. left unchecked, these "needs" become exaggerated, endless, and grow into expectations we will never meet, and hence, create disappointment and end in failure. So lets break this down into the base psychological components, (Reward): Rewards drive us to do the things we do, ((rewards being the serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin, etc. released in our brains when we do something positive towards our survival), these chemical responses are incredibly short lived, which drives us to continue to seek them and hence, repeat previously successful behavior in order to get yet another "reward/winning trade". Over time, we come to expect these rewards and along the way, we learn how to best attain them. Creating these behaviors takes time as the brain adjusts to it, positive change is always difficult, a bit painful, and never comes fast enough as it MUST be repeatable over time, however, it is a critical component to our survival/trading success, we need to do it over, and over again for it to become a learned and natural response that we can then do without expending much effort. Applied to day trading, setting a daily goal sets a baseline that at the fundamental level, accomplishes 2 things we all seek, meeting a need/reward/feeling good, that is repeatable as often as possible, and minimizing the threat/risk of loss. A daily profit target is a line in the sand that says "this is a goal I can hit daily with the maximum amount of success while still meeting some external financial need with the minimal amount of financial risk of loss". Basically, a profit target is an optimal balance of practical need, reward, effort, and risk aversion. The other side of the equation is (Threat, risk/anxiety/pain), the 2nd primary driver of our actions. Think back to a time when you ended a trading day with a large loss, think about how you felt then, and how it makes you feel now. Now do the same exercise and think back to a day when you had highly profitable trading day. Which experience do you recall with more intensity and emotion? If you are like most of us, the loss will trigger the stronger emotion as it has made a larger impact on your psyche and is more committed to memory. This makes sense because our ultimate goal is survival, and despite our technology, glitz, glamour, and advancement, our base brain, the limbic system (sort of like the little lizard part of our brain), is still driven by the same primary survival driven goals as our ancient ancestors, we subconsciously see a losing trade as a threat to our existence regardless of what your HUGE cerebral cortex says. In nature, rewards and acts of survival are continually necessary and short lived and while you may not reach every reward you seek, you usually still live to fight another day. Threats however, one is enough to mean that no, you don't live to fight another day. A trading loss has this same psychological effect on us which is why they are so much more intense than the short lived pleasure responses we get from meeting a small goal. Given you only survive so many threats, if at all, the memory of such events creates a more intense response. Now bringing this back to trading and applying the same concepts, this is why listening to your gut is so important and why a daily profit is such a critical tool to ultimate success. A single bad loss has the intensity of five nice profits. We humans are the only creatures that can make a single mistake yet relive it over, and over, and over again, sometimes for our entire lives. As traders, we need to accurately assess risk vs reward with a clear head, allowing anxiety to cloud our judgment through experiencing excess and repeated losses is entirely detrimental to our success, confidence, decision making, and emotional well being, etc. So again, setting a daily profit that maximizes the probability of maximum repeated success over time with minimized risk is more than just financial protection, it is psychological protection. It creates a psychological environment where we make the most of positive reinforcement all the while learning the most we can from a minimized number of risks and losses. Now granted, a set profit target will be fluid over time, not static, and will increase as our skills grow, which is truly the beauty of the way the mind/brain works and why I find understanding these concepts is beneficial to advancing the very complex skill of day trading. While this explanation may seem rather tedious, which it can be, I truly believe that understanding these primary drivers as they apply to not only trading, but life in general, gives us control over outcomes and truly puts us in the drivers seat of our actions, emotions, and ultimate success. Now, aside from the goal of making money, which is why we do this to large extent, setting an attainable daily profit provides value beyond the simple matter of providing income to meet our need for resources. For me personally, the way my trading day ends sets the tone for the rest of the day for either good, or bad. For those of us on the West coast at least, day trading is the first thing we do on a weekday. When I have profitable mornings, I'm left with a feeling of accomplishment and financial security that colors how I perceive the rest of the day and in the best way possible. More than that, when the next trading day starts, I recall the previous days success, I start the morning trading with confidence, optimism, and a positive outlook, I'm better able to pick out good trades and execute them efficiently, success breeds more of the same, its a vicious cycle of achievement we all strive for. Now, When I end the morning with a loss, its very easy to brood about it, ending with a loss sets a far less desirable tone for the day. Even more detrimental is that the next trading day can also be colored by the previous days loss. I may start the day with a feeling of anxiety, fear, and apprehension, which ultimately clouds my judgement and successful trading becomes inhibited, something no trader wants. So to put some perspective on this, on days that that started with hitting my profit goal, im not thinking for the remainder of the day, ""oh I COULD of made $750 instead of my daily $500 goal"", I'm thinking ""hey, I had a profitable trading day, and that's enough"". There will always be money left on the table to some extent and as psychologically healthy traders, we need to be ok with that and as Andrew always says, DONT CHASE IT Ultimately, we are all seeking happiness, if setting and reaching a reasonable daily profit goal can provide this on a near daily basis, why would you NOT do it. Bottom line is this, money is simply a means to an end, there is never "enough" of it, even many Billionaires continually seek more of it yet, are they really any happier than the man who sets realistic expectations, has his basic needs met and experiences many small rewards over the course of the day vs. the billionaire who continually has to seek ever larger and even harder to attain rewards for the same chemical reward response in his brain? I believe the former has the more desirable life. Almost no one is going to make so much money in a short period of trading that you can take the rest of your life off, so why NOT set a daily profit goal and then go on to enjoy rest of your day with a sense of accomplishment and well being vs. not having a set goal and chasing that ever elusive and never ending psychological rabbit hole of "more"? As traders, we have a huge number of tools in our arsenals to achieve success and I believe a profit target is a critical factor in the pursuit of that goal. Andrew, I hope this helps you, Scot

See this post for a Hotkey that calculates # Shares based on max dollar risk:

See chapter 3 in 1st Andrew´s book or Chapter 7 in the new one (position sizing): Step 1: 1% of your account (max risk per trade) Step 2: Risk per share: (this depends on strategy) Step 3: Step 1 / Step 2 = Max number of shares you are allowed to tarde You can risk less per trade as you are a begginner...

A better example is taking 1,000 shares with a $25k account. Since your buying power is typically 4:1, you can take a position up to $100k using leverage. 1% of your account is $250. This means 0.25/share on 1,000 shares. The important part is to find a stop loss at a technical level, and figure out the per-share loss. This will determine the maximum share size you can take. Stop loss first, share size after. Using the same numbers above, a 0.50 stop loss would mean taking 500 shares. And so on and so forth. The 1% rule is a maximum. You can always risk less, but never more. When I traded 100 share lots, I pretended that my account was $2,500. All risk management and daily goal/loss calculations were based off $2,500 and not the full size.

You can try: https://tradingsim.com/blog/top-5-day-trading-podcasts/ https://www.desiretotrade.com/podcast/ https://www.trade-ideas.com/category/podcast/

@Jason W do you have problems downloading file to ControlPad? Usually connecting the device to a different USB port worked but now I can´t donwload in any port...

Sorry bud I just saw this notification today. Hope this reply is not too late. I use two fast key pad. I have a Razor one for buy and sell. it's programmed as +100 + 200 +500 +1000 +2000 shares, and -1/10 position, - 1/5 position , -1/3 , -1/2 and sell all. Then the opposites side of the trades. I use Genovation Control for setting stop loss -5c , -10c, -15c, -20c, all the way up to -50c. and the opposite side of the trades. This way I can get in a position and set a hard stop loss right the way. It's very useful when you manage multiple stocks.

With the help of Raymond W, we’ve been able to define a single hotkey for flipping an open position: Simulator: ROUTE=MARKET;Share=Pos*2;TIF=DAY+;SEND=REVERSE Interactive Brokers: ROUTE=SMRTM;Share=Pos*2;TIF=DAY+;SEND=REVERSE Note that this hotkey will send a market order.

Not being able to close your positions - how is this not a deal breaker for you guys?