Carlos G.

I've been there, Fernando. I know the pain of a big loss. My first live day, I completely broke every rule imaginable. I traded the entire day (something I never did in the sim) and ended up losing $3,400! Yes, you read that correctly. To add salt to the wound, I was on track to get my account into the green, but held on to a loser and gave most of my winnings back. It sucks, but I haven't thrown in the towel because I know I can do this. Don't let it keep you down. Now, most of my days are green. As long as I keep my red days small, I'll be alright. You will too.

I just saw the results video and noticed quite a few people with some massive gains. Congrats to those traders, but I have a few observations. Some people appear to have traded risky low floats to get to the top spot with little regard for protecting their account. The results reminded me of how I traded in the sim. I had some big days as well, but that didn't necessarily carry over when I started trading live. There's no way that I would use 100% of my BP on a low float stock for the slim chance of hitting it big. How many could really stomach a -$10k swing? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the PDT rule was active for traders who dipped below $25k in the challenge (at least not the entire contest). I think there needs to be more risk involved. I suggest making the challenge as real as possible. Start with $30k ($5k cushion), and if you drop below $25k, then you're out (PDT rule) unless you have an open position that brings you back above $25k. I know what it's like to drop below $25k in a real account and I definitely wasn't up for taking huge risks when I was sitting on the edge of being locked out again. I know it's hard for the sim to capture how to feels to trade a live account, but we should strive to make the contest as accurate as possible. Your future live account will thank you for it.

I'm in Houston and can meet up anytime after December.

This is great! ha I was too busy trading CNET to see his reaction.

Hey everyone, I'm Carlos G. I've been a member for a few weeks now and I love it! I served in the Marine Corps, worked on helicopters afterwards, and now I'm a senior pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering. I've been a NASA Pathways Intern at the Johnson Space Center for the last few years, and I don't plan on giving up my career anytime soon. However, I really enjoy day trading and hope to supplement my income knocking out a few trades in the morning before work. I'm currently saving up $25k to get past the PDT rule, so I'll be in the sim until then! Good thing, too. I probably would have lost all of my money by now. lol, I'm getting better though! I hope to go live by the end of the year. ; )

Great post! I was just thinking about this today. I exited my position and, what-do-you-know, there was a moving avg right above me that I missed. I'll change my margins before tomorrow!

Great setup, everyone! I custom-built my PC for gaming, picture/video editing, and engineering. Turns out it also kicks ass as a day trading station! ASUS Maximus VIII hero Alpha motherboard Intel i7 6700k 4.0 GHz processor Overclocked to 4.6 GHz EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 FTW Graphics Card 16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 DRAM 3200MHz 2 x 256 gb SSD, 1TB HDD, 3TB HDD Blu-Ray drive Corsair H115i liquid CPU cooler EVGA 850W G2L PSU 3 x Corsair ML140 140mm LED fans 1 x Corsair ML120 120mm LED fan Corsair 760T full tower with 2 x front 140mm LED fans Corsair Strafe RGB keyboard Corsair M65 Pro RGB mouse LG 34" curved 21:9 ultrawide 3440x1440 monitor