Trading is not for everyone, you can lose lots of money trading and trading can make you lots of money, if you plan, study and work hard. The appeal of day-trading and its overwhelming popularity of late stems from its easy accessibility, and promises of easy money.
Trading is a game of probabilities and at any given point in time a move may happen out of nowhere that was totally unforeseeable.
There are few jobs at which it is more difficult to make a living than trading!
Estimates are that 80% to 90% of all those who begin trading today will lose their trading capital within the next 12 months.
However, if you study diligently, read the works of "the masters," plan your work and work your plan, you can make a decent living trading right from your desk at home. With your computer, that is.
Officially, "day-trading" is the act of trading during the daily market hours and closing all of your trades before the market closes each day.
To make a living at day-trading, you need the large daily point moves. This is referred to as volatility. Without volatility, a day-trader cannot make money.
You only need to make $100 per day starting with 1 lot. No need to overtrade or be greedy. As your account increases, add the number of lots.
Predicting where the market is going to go.
Not even the professional trader has an idea what is likely to happen to a particular trade, whether it will go in his favor or not. You will never be able to predict the market. So, your best bet is to follow the market, because you certainly aren't going to lead it.
It is very risky for inexperienced futures traders who try to predict the market and speculate without having enough resources or experience.
Lack of understanding leads to rumours, false belief and wild stories.
New traders with PhDs and new traders lacking high school diplomas succeed and fail alike trading.
Once you realize that the market is not a thinking entity that has an evil streak that doesn't want you to succeed, you can learn to trade "in the moment".
The markets are always producing information. That information is always what "has" happened, not what "will" happen. The trader, on the other hand, will take this information and then arrive at some bias or belief as to what "may" happen, or what "should" happen, or "will" happen. No two traders are likely to come to the same exact conclusion although the market is providing them all the same information.
Over the years, system traders have worked out the most important things that bring trading success - it should not be surprising that they have achieved the success they have because it has taken them a great deal of time to learn how to trade well.
Learning from scratch by personal experience is very expensive in all walks of life and especially so in commodity trading. It is therefore surprising how many new traders choose this perilous alternative.
Your trump card in day-trading consists of two components: discipline and method. The most difficult practice for every trader is discipline.
Having "No Fear" to take the next and the next and the next trade no matter what. If you can master this single element, you will be ahead of 99% of all traders. Having the discipline to repeat your proven strategy, day after day, is the single most important facet of successful trading.
Above all, you need to be able to trust your system not to make a hash of things. You have to feel completely comfortable that your system will not make a hash of things.
If you have a simple method that will produce a steady, though small, profit regularly - and follow it religiously - you will be the trader who walks away consistently winning.
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About The Author:
Linda Wainman is author of the "Keeping It Simple Day Trading System"
The system that teaches you how to make money with day trading. Visit http://day-online-trading.com
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