appplejack003

Sick setups My setup is too ghetto compared to these even though I have two 24'' monitors.

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.

Hi guys, My name is Han. I'm from Toronto,Canada but live near Quebec City, Canada. I've been day trading since August 2017. My background is in IT and language teaching. I've been a life-long student of foreign languages. I know too well that it takes a lot of time and effort to be fluent in a foreign language but I didn't see trading that way at the beginning. I had some beginner's luck but gave it all back to the market and lost some more. At the beginning I had an unrealistic expectation about trading. I was chasing a pie in the sky, hoping to make $$$ and to start jet-setting around the world in less than a year. It probably came from my own ignorance, high hope and also not knowing any real trader around me who trades for a living. Also I was somewhat influenced by the people who are selling misinformation about trading while flashing their extravagant lifestyle (trader porn) on the internet. You know? The ones showing their fast cars, expensive champagne that they drink and model-like girls by their side while they can trade on a laptop with a parasol over their head on a sandy beach somewhere exotic. Also, like many beginners in search of hot stocks that will multiply their account size the next week, I subscribed to some paid newsletters that give stock picks. But I quickly learned that these people are mostly analysts and writers and not traders themselves. I guess it can be a lucrative business. If there is one thing I've learned during the last 6 months of trading is that we have to learn how to be a trader who makes his/her own decisions. You know? Learn how to trade independently, becoming someone who prepares and trades his or her own plans. When I read Andrew's book I was quite happy to find that he emphasizes this point as well. I think I didn't do too badly considering that I didn't fund my account by borrowing money and I haven't experienced a catastrophic loss (I feel really sorry for the people who mortgage their houses to buy bitcoin at the top in December,2017. That is a truly a sad way to go). Summary of the things I've learned over the first 6 months trading: 1. I've learned and practiced how to go both long and short. 2 . I've learned how to be quick with hotkeys on my platform. 3. I've learned some technical analysis and trading strategies and tactics 4..I've learned how to manage risk properly according to my account size 5.I've lost enough times to become more desensitized to being wrong and losing money. 6.I've learned that it's not what you know that makes you money but being able to manage your emotions and risk in live trading. Yet, I'm still a beginner and there's no guarantee that I will succeed unless I do my best to keep myself in check before I wreck my account. For me the hardest thing has been to reduce my shares size and trade as little as possible. Psychology (you can call it trading discipline) plays a major role and I admit that it's really easy to make excuses for over trading. Because of my reduced share size for trading, at the moment, I don't make much money nor do I lose a lot. My default share is 100 for now. Until I consistently produce bigger gains than losses, I see no point in upping my size. Fortunately, my broker Trade Zero costs very little for their commissions. My primary focus is to learn how to be a trader who makes good trading decisions even though I count my chips as soon as I'm out of my trades. I'm keep a journal of every trade to be accountable to myself and for recording my risk vs reward and how my emotions affected my trading. I do have a simulator account with TC2000. It comes with the package but there's no substitute for live trading. Simulator is good to learn the mechanics of trading and testing new tactics but I don't think it can psychologically prepare for live trading. Here are things I focus on getting really good at: 1.For my strategy for long I focus on getting good at ABCD and Cup and Handle pattern. 2.For my strategy for short I focus on inverted cup and handle and stock running up early in the morning and then putting lower high with lower volume. (trend reversal). 3.Reading level 2 and Time & Sales to have better understanding of the market direction. 4.When to take profit (entries are easier than exits) and not letting a winner turn into a loser. Usually I use tight stops because I mostly look for low risk vs relatively big reward (1:3 is the ideal ratio even though it's never this simple) but sometimes I know when to let my trades run without stops if the overall market trend is in my favour. I've gotten faster at getting myself out of losing trades with hotkeys. For my setup I use TC2000 Gold for charting, my broker is Trade Zero and Equityfeed is my scanner. If there are other developing traders or veteran who want to share ideas, please let me know. Because, we, day traders are lonely people in our job and I really do believe that putting few heads together is better than one. Thanks!