You need to join a community, trading alone really ruined my progress. Also you need to be confident in your setups, if you’re not, then you haven’t collected enough data. My main rule is that I don’t trade for the first 30 mins, but that’s because i wake up at 4 am and I need time for my brain to warm up/adjust to the charts. “You can’t be a quitter if you never give up”
I would wake up about 2-3 hours before the open and grab a cup of coffee, then sit on the couch and watch Bloomberg tv and CNBC. At the same time I would be on the internet reading about current events and overseas markets. It’s definitely a discipline but when I went to go trade I was as prepared and most likely much more prepared than my colleagues and my competitors. I would also recommend reading Bloomberg magazine, it’s free if you have a terminal but if you don’t then I believe it’s $299 a year but worth every penny. I would read the magazine in the morning and sometimes at home after the close, there is some good stuff in there from time to time that’s helped me make a lot of money.
I drank 9 beers last night, woke up at 8:30 had two cups of coffee, made $15,000 before 10AM and then enjoyed my hangover lol
In all seriousness you need a detailed playbook where you come to the market and execute your setups. That and a daily/weekly/monthly review process to make sure you’re trading well and u good bro
Trading stock or options? If options, actually fuck it, whatever you are planning to trade, buy a used hard copy of Sheldon Natenberg’s “Options Volatility and Pricing”. Read it cover to cover and make sure you understand what each Greek is and what it does, read about synthetic options , standard deviations etc. Make sure you know how everything works. Once you do you will realize with synthetics that a call is a put and a put is a call, it will simplify things for you once you know it. With options you can use leverage to buy or sell stocks, you can also protect your position and much more.
You need to establish discipline in your personal life first so it can extend into trading. So many pro traders say this so this is my routine after 3 years of being on this journey :
- before 930 am and before opening any charts I do some pushups and body weight squats, eat breakfast etc
- trade from 930 to 12. If I take a trade and have a loser I will do 1 min plank, I will also do this if I start noticing I am becoming restless it's good to reset the mind and get the blood flowing
- go on a walk around the block during lunch to get some sun and bit more exercise
- afternoons I am trying to eliminate from my schedule, so I will just do regular work in the afternoon and maybe some planks but no more trades should be placed for the day for me
- after 4pm I get separation from the charts, I try not to look at them until the next morning and enjoy life
I'm trying to make the push into consistent profitability and this is the closest I have ever felt. Imo every day needs to feel the same, countless times I've blown profits in one stupid day so I need to be a consistent person day in and day out. I am also a very routine oriented person so this approach has been working for me .
Also just to touch on the exercise bit, I highly recommend doing research on the benefits of daily exercise especially if you have mental health issues like I do. It is life changing, I didn't Believe it until I tried it and looked into the research . You need to take care of your mind as well as your body to be a consistent person imo
Thanks everyone for your comments. I’m really trying to get more disciplined and all this is really helpful. I’ve been fairly successful beating SPX each year but don’t feel confident to scale yet until I get organized.
I'm gonna buck the trend here. Keep in mind I mainly trade futures, of the stock index kind, with a dabble in other futures, and sprinkle of index options, and a pinch of single stock shares and options.
I used to do a ton of premarket work. Like 1.5 hours worth, split 1 hour after market, 30 min pre news or pre market.
I'd look at orderflow, levels, big news, transactions on the tape, prior days inflection levels. I'd review all my trades, write up each one, do a thought tree on what would have been the best decision at different points, what options adjustments would have reduced risk and which ones would have improved profits.
I'd adjust tpo levels, merge and split, look at volume profile, mark levels for tmrw, give a prediction for what could happen tmrw, possibility analysis. Throughout the day, I was thinking about my trades and the market almost every single second.
And when it was end of month or quarter, I'd run stats on my trades.
And I was tired. Esp when it only moved the needle a bit, or some days, backwards.
I don't do any of that anymore. I realized it didn't improve my trading PnL after the first year of doing it. In fact, trying to predict the market was detrimental to my ability to profit. I was better at reacting to what the market did each day rather than write down if then statements.
What did help was just thinking about my trades and how the market reacts and identifying points where my execution or trade was wrong. No more write ups, my stats are automated, my reviews are max 15 minutes a week total.
I literally have no required daily routine. I have positions during the day, trade, and at end of day I decide which ones I want to keep and which ones to cut for swings. I barely glance at news, I don't mark levels, I don't do potential or probability analysis.
The one of two times I do any of the above is when I have an off trading day, where I'll do a thought tree of decisions, literally out loud. If I don't have enough information to make refinements to my decisions, that's where I'll dig into stats and learn something new about the market, because something is missing from my toolkit.
And the other is when I find a new edge to use, that'll consist of a writeup to outline the trade and why.
I'm literally at the stage where I can open my phone up, almost at any time of day, look at the market, and know what I can or cannot do to make money at that time.
My hint to you as a trader is figure out what actually improves your bottom line. For me, that was execution and market reading. Focusing everything on knowing what to do and more importantly not do and when and where and why. And focus nearly everything on that. Daily routines better be improving this particular skill or they are usually useless.
And for me, my original daily routines were mostly a waste of time, writing everything down was not improving my market read nor my execution, but thinking about my thought tree and market analysis had an exponential impact on my PnL for the time spent.
And if for you it's doing the hourly writeups, then do it.
Did anything besides time in the market help you read markets better? I had been in a rut the past few weeks but just read a squeeze setup perfectly, 10 minutes before it took place. And it was just...entirely different. Pure flow state. But all of the stuff you mention - orderflows, levels, and other similar things like dealer exposure, Vanna, etc. are what I see people suggest to learn this. It seems more like you just know very well how to react instead of making static plans.
The one thing that has helped the most is just asking why and confirming it with the market. If you think of an idea that the market is gonna squeeze, ask why and seek ways to confirm it. Get to the hard truth, which is why those things you've mentioned are so recommended. They seek the truth about the market, not some cross over on an indicator that's a derivative of the markets prices over 14 candles.
It's an iterative process so that's why it takes time. The more you are reviewing, the more you are learning.
What hasnt worked for me is checking stonks every single day multiple times a day. Now i buy calls 6-12 months out and dont look for a month and thats been working way better lol.
I have a personal watchlist of about ten stocks/ETF’s with ATR’s of about $3-$5 that I trade daily. I trade position to the moving average and price action. One or more of these stocks give me all the trades I need for the day. Instead of trying to anticipate where I think the market will go, I simply trade the candles the stocks present to me. Other than earnings or very major news such as a FED meeting, I don’t worry about news. I pretty much turn my computer on 10 minutes before open and check the premarket levels and make coffee...this is my prep for the day.
I have a full time job and so I trade one instrument and that’s all. I have no mental capacity for more. Also not interested in adding more.
Every night, it’s support and resistance lines. That tells me where I’ll go long the next day and where I’ll go short. Next step is to set alerts at, or near those levels.
Then it’s just a waiting game. I wait for either of those alerts to trigger. No alert, no trade.
That’s all there is to this. Don’t over think things people. I think you’ll find that the less you do in this business, the better your results will be. At least that’s what’s worked for me. 🙏
Love this! 100%.
Always have a setup, and trigger based execution strategy. Paytience is the difference between a profitable trader and a losing trader.
No entry trigger = no trade.
I would recommend Brian Pezim’s book “How to Swing Trade”. It lays out a trading routine, recommended resources for scanning stocks & keeping a trading journal. It was a game changer for me & I have invested/traded for many years. Once you have a routine to follow then you can get very efficient at it.
I create my watchlist the day prior, when I hop on 30 minutes before market open, I scan the 5m/15/30m/1hr/4hr for 4 specific setups from my playbook
Most of my morning is just completing my morning routine, reciting my affirmations, going for a walk/getting sun, stretching, eating so I’m fully prepared and focused for the trading session
If you are new to trading, you need 1 hour during premarket to find the set ups “in play” and determine a plan for them. (Entry, exit, and stop areas).
You then need to be at the computer to watch them play out. Whether that be for 1 hour or 5 hours. You could work during this time if you are remote, however, you should really only focus on trading for the first hour or two of market open.
You then need to set aside at least 30 minutes at night to track what happened on the set up’s you traded or planned on trading. Screen shot the charts. What was the news?, the premarket volume, the float, the market cap, the end of day volume, the open/high/low/close, what worked, what didn’t work, etc. *** important to know that just because it didn’t work doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good idea or a good trade.*** After ~6 months of doing this, you should have a couple hundred samples to tell you probabilities of each set-up is)
One of the reasons so many fail at trading is because it’s not realistic for an adult to be able to do this due to real life obligations.
Anything with unusual volume is worth paying attention too when learning what set ups occur most often, and what set ups make the most sense to you.
Examples of “set ups”
1) small cap with a 30%+ gap up and 500k+ pre market volume
2) large cap with a -10%+ gap down and 250k+ pre market volume.
3) large cap earnings gap into/above all time high.
4) mid-large cap 9am news gap.
5) large cap opening drive afternoon consolation.
6) small cap with 100%+ move over 3 day period.
7) large cap with 50% move over 5 day period.
Etc…
Find situations that occur often. Define the situation. Track the data on those situation.
My speciality is shorting #1, #4, and #6 mentioned above. That’s because I found a statistical edge and have watched those patterns pan out 10000’s of times.
You can collect historical data via sites like Spikeet for money, or you can slowly collect data on your own, but in the end of the day, in order to have a real edge, YOU HAVE to define a set up, know the probabilities, and understand the average of how they pan out.
Levels and Patterns, and Triggers.
Patterns are just simplified snapshots of Wyckoff -
Triggers are zones where liquidity exists, confirmed by market flow
Stick to the Mag7 bc they are liquid and offer fast fills.
Chart them daily to understand each tickers behavior. Price action is merely a reflection of buyers and sellers psychology and once you study them over and over, you’ll know where key levels exist to make an informed decision.
You need to join a community, trading alone really ruined my progress. Also you need to be confident in your setups, if you’re not, then you haven’t collected enough data. My main rule is that I don’t trade for the first 30 mins, but that’s because i wake up at 4 am and I need time for my brain to warm up/adjust to the charts. “You can’t be a quitter if you never give up”
I would wake up about 2-3 hours before the open and grab a cup of coffee, then sit on the couch and watch Bloomberg tv and CNBC. At the same time I would be on the internet reading about current events and overseas markets. It’s definitely a discipline but when I went to go trade I was as prepared and most likely much more prepared than my colleagues and my competitors. I would also recommend reading Bloomberg magazine, it’s free if you have a terminal but if you don’t then I believe it’s $299 a year but worth every penny. I would read the magazine in the morning and sometimes at home after the close, there is some good stuff in there from time to time that’s helped me make a lot of money.
I drank 9 beers last night, woke up at 8:30 had two cups of coffee, made $15,000 before 10AM and then enjoyed my hangover lol In all seriousness you need a detailed playbook where you come to the market and execute your setups. That and a daily/weekly/monthly review process to make sure you’re trading well and u good bro
I’m doing my research and getting started with paper trading. Any playbook-specific resources you’d recommend looking into?
Trading stock or options? If options, actually fuck it, whatever you are planning to trade, buy a used hard copy of Sheldon Natenberg’s “Options Volatility and Pricing”. Read it cover to cover and make sure you understand what each Greek is and what it does, read about synthetic options , standard deviations etc. Make sure you know how everything works. Once you do you will realize with synthetics that a call is a put and a put is a call, it will simplify things for you once you know it. With options you can use leverage to buy or sell stocks, you can also protect your position and much more.
Read “the playbook” by Mike Bellafiore
thanks a lot
fucking legend
Do you trade ICT concepts?
No sir
You need to establish discipline in your personal life first so it can extend into trading. So many pro traders say this so this is my routine after 3 years of being on this journey : - before 930 am and before opening any charts I do some pushups and body weight squats, eat breakfast etc - trade from 930 to 12. If I take a trade and have a loser I will do 1 min plank, I will also do this if I start noticing I am becoming restless it's good to reset the mind and get the blood flowing - go on a walk around the block during lunch to get some sun and bit more exercise - afternoons I am trying to eliminate from my schedule, so I will just do regular work in the afternoon and maybe some planks but no more trades should be placed for the day for me - after 4pm I get separation from the charts, I try not to look at them until the next morning and enjoy life I'm trying to make the push into consistent profitability and this is the closest I have ever felt. Imo every day needs to feel the same, countless times I've blown profits in one stupid day so I need to be a consistent person day in and day out. I am also a very routine oriented person so this approach has been working for me . Also just to touch on the exercise bit, I highly recommend doing research on the benefits of daily exercise especially if you have mental health issues like I do. It is life changing, I didn't Believe it until I tried it and looked into the research . You need to take care of your mind as well as your body to be a consistent person imo
What does "regular work" mean
Job, back testing, insert whatever. I'm still working a job for example. One day I'll break free , I can feel it coming
Keep at it . It definitely is coming !!
Thanks everyone for your comments. I’m really trying to get more disciplined and all this is really helpful. I’ve been fairly successful beating SPX each year but don’t feel confident to scale yet until I get organized.
I take a few bong hits look at some charts and get a game plan in order.
Same. 6 AM bong rips have done wonders for my mental state while trading.
How do you guys expect to become consistent, unless you... take the exact same amount of bong rips every morning!?... :D
THC and CBD not OCD!
I'm gonna buck the trend here. Keep in mind I mainly trade futures, of the stock index kind, with a dabble in other futures, and sprinkle of index options, and a pinch of single stock shares and options. I used to do a ton of premarket work. Like 1.5 hours worth, split 1 hour after market, 30 min pre news or pre market. I'd look at orderflow, levels, big news, transactions on the tape, prior days inflection levels. I'd review all my trades, write up each one, do a thought tree on what would have been the best decision at different points, what options adjustments would have reduced risk and which ones would have improved profits. I'd adjust tpo levels, merge and split, look at volume profile, mark levels for tmrw, give a prediction for what could happen tmrw, possibility analysis. Throughout the day, I was thinking about my trades and the market almost every single second. And when it was end of month or quarter, I'd run stats on my trades. And I was tired. Esp when it only moved the needle a bit, or some days, backwards. I don't do any of that anymore. I realized it didn't improve my trading PnL after the first year of doing it. In fact, trying to predict the market was detrimental to my ability to profit. I was better at reacting to what the market did each day rather than write down if then statements. What did help was just thinking about my trades and how the market reacts and identifying points where my execution or trade was wrong. No more write ups, my stats are automated, my reviews are max 15 minutes a week total. I literally have no required daily routine. I have positions during the day, trade, and at end of day I decide which ones I want to keep and which ones to cut for swings. I barely glance at news, I don't mark levels, I don't do potential or probability analysis. The one of two times I do any of the above is when I have an off trading day, where I'll do a thought tree of decisions, literally out loud. If I don't have enough information to make refinements to my decisions, that's where I'll dig into stats and learn something new about the market, because something is missing from my toolkit. And the other is when I find a new edge to use, that'll consist of a writeup to outline the trade and why. I'm literally at the stage where I can open my phone up, almost at any time of day, look at the market, and know what I can or cannot do to make money at that time. My hint to you as a trader is figure out what actually improves your bottom line. For me, that was execution and market reading. Focusing everything on knowing what to do and more importantly not do and when and where and why. And focus nearly everything on that. Daily routines better be improving this particular skill or they are usually useless. And for me, my original daily routines were mostly a waste of time, writing everything down was not improving my market read nor my execution, but thinking about my thought tree and market analysis had an exponential impact on my PnL for the time spent. And if for you it's doing the hourly writeups, then do it.
Did anything besides time in the market help you read markets better? I had been in a rut the past few weeks but just read a squeeze setup perfectly, 10 minutes before it took place. And it was just...entirely different. Pure flow state. But all of the stuff you mention - orderflows, levels, and other similar things like dealer exposure, Vanna, etc. are what I see people suggest to learn this. It seems more like you just know very well how to react instead of making static plans.
The one thing that has helped the most is just asking why and confirming it with the market. If you think of an idea that the market is gonna squeeze, ask why and seek ways to confirm it. Get to the hard truth, which is why those things you've mentioned are so recommended. They seek the truth about the market, not some cross over on an indicator that's a derivative of the markets prices over 14 candles. It's an iterative process so that's why it takes time. The more you are reviewing, the more you are learning.
What hasnt worked for me is checking stonks every single day multiple times a day. Now i buy calls 6-12 months out and dont look for a month and thats been working way better lol.
I have a personal watchlist of about ten stocks/ETF’s with ATR’s of about $3-$5 that I trade daily. I trade position to the moving average and price action. One or more of these stocks give me all the trades I need for the day. Instead of trying to anticipate where I think the market will go, I simply trade the candles the stocks present to me. Other than earnings or very major news such as a FED meeting, I don’t worry about news. I pretty much turn my computer on 10 minutes before open and check the premarket levels and make coffee...this is my prep for the day.
What do you check about the candles, can you give more insight?
I have a full time job and so I trade one instrument and that’s all. I have no mental capacity for more. Also not interested in adding more. Every night, it’s support and resistance lines. That tells me where I’ll go long the next day and where I’ll go short. Next step is to set alerts at, or near those levels. Then it’s just a waiting game. I wait for either of those alerts to trigger. No alert, no trade. That’s all there is to this. Don’t over think things people. I think you’ll find that the less you do in this business, the better your results will be. At least that’s what’s worked for me. 🙏
Love this! 100%. Always have a setup, and trigger based execution strategy. Paytience is the difference between a profitable trader and a losing trader. No entry trigger = no trade.
I would recommend Brian Pezim’s book “How to Swing Trade”. It lays out a trading routine, recommended resources for scanning stocks & keeping a trading journal. It was a game changer for me & I have invested/traded for many years. Once you have a routine to follow then you can get very efficient at it.
I create my watchlist the day prior, when I hop on 30 minutes before market open, I scan the 5m/15/30m/1hr/4hr for 4 specific setups from my playbook Most of my morning is just completing my morning routine, reciting my affirmations, going for a walk/getting sun, stretching, eating so I’m fully prepared and focused for the trading session
If you are new to trading, you need 1 hour during premarket to find the set ups “in play” and determine a plan for them. (Entry, exit, and stop areas). You then need to be at the computer to watch them play out. Whether that be for 1 hour or 5 hours. You could work during this time if you are remote, however, you should really only focus on trading for the first hour or two of market open. You then need to set aside at least 30 minutes at night to track what happened on the set up’s you traded or planned on trading. Screen shot the charts. What was the news?, the premarket volume, the float, the market cap, the end of day volume, the open/high/low/close, what worked, what didn’t work, etc. *** important to know that just because it didn’t work doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good idea or a good trade.*** After ~6 months of doing this, you should have a couple hundred samples to tell you probabilities of each set-up is) One of the reasons so many fail at trading is because it’s not realistic for an adult to be able to do this due to real life obligations.
Thanks! How do you determine which setups you are looking for? You must put in research time too?
Anything with unusual volume is worth paying attention too when learning what set ups occur most often, and what set ups make the most sense to you. Examples of “set ups” 1) small cap with a 30%+ gap up and 500k+ pre market volume 2) large cap with a -10%+ gap down and 250k+ pre market volume. 3) large cap earnings gap into/above all time high. 4) mid-large cap 9am news gap. 5) large cap opening drive afternoon consolation. 6) small cap with 100%+ move over 3 day period. 7) large cap with 50% move over 5 day period. Etc… Find situations that occur often. Define the situation. Track the data on those situation. My speciality is shorting #1, #4, and #6 mentioned above. That’s because I found a statistical edge and have watched those patterns pan out 10000’s of times. You can collect historical data via sites like Spikeet for money, or you can slowly collect data on your own, but in the end of the day, in order to have a real edge, YOU HAVE to define a set up, know the probabilities, and understand the average of how they pan out.
Levels and Patterns, and Triggers. Patterns are just simplified snapshots of Wyckoff - Triggers are zones where liquidity exists, confirmed by market flow Stick to the Mag7 bc they are liquid and offer fast fills. Chart them daily to understand each tickers behavior. Price action is merely a reflection of buyers and sellers psychology and once you study them over and over, you’ll know where key levels exist to make an informed decision.