Read Andrew's Book + 1st Week Sim Trading--now what?

[wis3135 4]

Hey everyone!

I know I'm just getting started, but I thought this was a good time to check in with the community for any guidance on next steps.  I finished reading Andrew's book How to Day Trade for a Living, started trading on a paper trading account, and nailed $9.99 in profit my fist week (lost almost $500 though)! 🤣

So I'm looking around for those of you who are a bit further along than me, which should be just about anyone, who have started down the path and have felt they've been making progress.  Any suggestions on where to go from here?  I figure I'll go through all of the Stock Trading courses offered in the Education Center.  I signed up for a full year membership, so I want to get as much out of my membership to start.  But I want to be careful about going too far down the rabbit hole of watching videos and reading books and falling into the thought trap of needing more knowledge or "maybe in the next book."  How long did folks stay with Andrew's book before branching out?  I'm using his Advanced Techniques more as a reference right now and am SUPER interested in Thor's book.  For now I'm listening to Trading in the Zone because figure a book on trading psychology would be pretty safe.

As for community resources, I've been listening in to the pre-market BBT sessions, which has been great, but I feel I'm SO new to this at I don't really know what to ask or don't want to bog down the chat with newbie questions.  I also really liked my first week of trying to trade the open and experimenting with ORB strategies, but I know that once I'm back to work (been on vacation this past week) that late-morning is probably the better session for me to trade, and I'm nervous that most of the trading focus is at the open and there aren't as many good opportunities to trade late morning or over lunch.  If anyone knows of some good material (videos / resources) to take advantage of post-open trading, that'd be really helpful.

Thanks!

[peterB 327]

as you anticipated right, there is more to discover. see this  and especially this

good luck!

[Brendon 146]

Hey Wis, welcome, I am curious how you 'almost' lost $500, it sounds that that may have been a trade/s that you let go beyond your initial stop. The #1 rule I ask myself everyday when a trade starts to go against me is 'does this make sense'. I did this today! When I say 'No' I exit the trade. Losing money hurts but staying in a trade that does that make sense hurts move, even if you don't lose money on it. The feeling of not being in control is much worse. Suggestion, downsize your max loss risk to under $50 per day for a couple of months. See you in chat!

[wis3135 4]

Thanks for the pointers @peterB.  I found the advanced course "Your First Three Months as a Trader" that I'm going through now, which is super helpful!  I especially liked the recommendation to start with learning for at least the first month - I take it as a bit of a grace period to absorb information to serve as a baseline for what strategies to test.

@Brendon - poor grammar on my part.  Mean to say I lost nearly $500.  Looking back at my paper trading account, I lost $271.25 to be exact...so not nearly as much as I thought.  Thought I'd double down yesterday and take a position on CHWY...stupid!  And THERE went another $304, so if you count that one, my total losses were $575.25.  I've actually been really disciplined about following my stops so far--even if I see it coming, I'll let the trade stop out vs. adjusting my stop loss.  I don't want to get into the habit of irrationally relaxing my stop, and I'd rather get stopped out right now and analyze what I did wrong than exit the trade early.  It is sim after all.  I'm now starting to develop supplemental spreadsheets to help me more easily identify my entry, R1/R2 positions, and my stop loss, and so far that's been really helpful.