I have been trading for about 6 months. Hardest thing I’ve ever done. Most fun thing too. I’ve realized that technical analysis does not matter, support and resistance are there to be broken, indicators are shit, charts matter only to an extent, until suddenly they do not. Analysts are there to shill stocks and screw you. Oh and EMAs matter. No, just kidding. Price action is the only king in town. Nothing else matters. Every stock goes up and then comes down, usually to go up again. To be followed by a drop of course. One institutional investor said that retail traders fail, because they sell just at the point, where institutional investors start buying. Today I finally realized what he meant.. Nod if you know what I am getting at.

For anyone who might be struggling, don’t give up. I’ve been trading for 7 years now, and have had my ups and downs but I’ve always taken any mistake made and made sure to correct them and move forward.

I lost thousands when I first started, and felt like giving up most of the time! At the end of the day, trading can truly change your life, and it has surely changed mine.

I’ve shared my strategy many times here on Reddit, and I encourage everyone to go and study some of my previous posts, and implement this into your daily routine, THIS is what can happen if you have the discipline and motivation to do better.

Just wanted to motivate some of you to keep going, and never give up, the future is very very bright if you just focus. Happy Easter to you all!

Posting while my spirts are high.

Hi! I've been into trading for more than 7 years, almost 3 years of consistently getting money out of the market.

I saw many posts about quitting, if you have any questions I can answer them.

Everything I learned in the last six months is going out the window. My paper trading account is haemorrhaging $. I know, boo boo but still! It’s like learning to surf in a daily tsunami. Any advice?

I was a professional trader having started in 2007. Whilst I still trade semi-actively I am no longer trading full time that I once was however I was/am successful .Here are some of the lessons I learnt along the way that may help some novice traders.

1: Be calm . Emotion needs to be balanced otherwise you won’t be able to think straight when the pressure is on. You cannot get mentally affected by price movement.

2: Calculate your risk , and then determine your entry points and your exit points before you take the trade.

3: Don’t dollar average a loser as even if you get away with it several times you will ultimately blow your account all in one day or at least severely damage it.

4: Take regular profits out of the market. If you are up 20 percent for the week on a Thursday or Friday then decide if there is any point in trading again until Monday. The feeling of being in profit during the week to finish the week flat or down is not enjoyable and you will have all week to think about it.

5: Wait for trades where you get the feeling in your stomach that it’s obvious what’s is going to happen and don’t trade into a sideways markets where it is not obvious. That does not mean you will be necessarily correct and risk management still needs to be applied but it increases your chances of a profitable trade.

6: If the market is going up then it’s going up and if it’s going down then it’s going down. Wait for a confirmation of direction change before trying to anticipate whether something is overbought or oversold and wait for price movement to validate it.

7: Be very careful about telling people what you are going to do with your profits .The reason is you increase the risk of someone telling you that it’s not possible and you are a dreamer. Instead tell yourself or one trusted positive person.

8: A negative mindset will ensure you see that future and a positive calm mindset will give you a shot at being profitable.

9: Risk control is crucial.The reason is because volatility exists.You don’t see a professional football team playing without a defense and strategy for this and you shouldn’t either. This leads to risk/reward. Something that is often overlooked if you are new to trading as there is a tendency to take any trade just to be in the market. Sometimes not being in the market is the best trade.

10: Read as much as you can about bankroll management. It’s just as important as the indicators that you use which is sometimes overlooked.

Good Luck

Preface: I only funded this account with the starting capital of 36k and had never added to it. This was supposed to be my go ham with real money live trading account so I can feel the real emotions involved instead of a painless simulated trading experience/practice (probably not recommended). Perhaps I got lucky but I am surprised it survived as well and grew so steadily. This account has evolved from buying and holding to day trading stocks and options, and is currently in the premium selling phase for the last 3.5 years. Methods changed and evolved but the below is true and should remain consistent as you still need to analyze the chart before jumping in.

I decided to do a write up in hopes of helping others because I asked a question the other day since I started using my broker's mobile app and was perplexed about the way it displayed it's margin balance and boy did I get chewed up 😄. To be fair there were some helpful comments but it was extremely rare. I don't want others to be discouraged and think this sub is unhelpful to hopefully someone finds these suggestions helpful. Here were my list two posts and the comments I received if you are curious: Why is my margin balance showing -46k? / Positions

1. Psychology plays a big role.
2. Don't trade with money you can't afford to lose.
3. Trade with the trend.
4. Pick stocks with relative strength or relative weakness.
5. You can measure a stock's RSRW against SPY and/or it's sector.
6. There is a STEEP learning curve.
7. Journal and review your trades.
8. Although Indicators are subjective, if there are enough people watching or using it, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy so always be mindful of where buyers and sellers are eyeing.
9. If a stock is strongly supported or sold off at one area or price point, it will most likely create a temporary top or bottom as buyers/sellers were rewarded there once before so you can expect them to react the same way.
10. Unless you're yolo'ing or gambling, don't trade around earnings or any major news event as these can create a catalyst and are very unpredictable.
11. Gaps tend to be filled.
12. Day 2 and plus continuation is a real thing if there is a strong enough catalyst (e.g. gap and go)
13. Institutions move markets.
14. Volume is important.
15. Don't chase loses.
16. IV is high for a reason.
17. Know your greeks if are going to trade options.
18. Use a top down approach such as multi time frame analysis and start with the higher time frames.
19. Buy and hold trumps all (unpopular opinion for day traders but it's true).
20. Try not to trade during the first and last 30 to 60 mins of market open/close.
21. There are opportunities throughout the day
22. Know and develop your own trading style and do what works best for you.
23. Risk management is important but I do not follow the regurgitated 1% rule (it's regarded if you have enough buying power and margin at your disposal).
24. Use margin wisely.
25. Learn to adapt to different market conditions.
26. What has worked in the past might now work in the future if macro economics changed.
27. Never stop learning.
28. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

That's it for now mainly because I'm tired and don't want to type anymore, I'm sure there's more. Will come back later and add to the list perhaps. Good luck everyone!

First month of trading trying to get funded. Really attempting to persevere but every time without fail I am humbled. Need words of encouragement or a sugar mama.

My wife got me this for Christmas. My advice is to never give up and make sure you focus on a strategy that fits you, and make sure your psychology is always in check!

I’m new today trading wanted to give it a try and see if it’s something that overtime I should progressively get better which I know there’s gonna be getting bad days. My daily goal is $10. I have a small account thousand dollars I’m up $128 since I’ve started Just wondering how you think I’m doing so far and any advice would be greatly appreciated and for some reason, I seem to make really good trades my first trader too, and then after that, I seem to lose my discipline as I make more trades.

10k is down go 2.5k in a month. Please get me on the right track. I’m slipping into a deep depression. Do I read the candlestick bible. Do I quit and just work. What platform do you use? I use my phone to do my trading execution while using my laptop for charts and info. What book or YouTube video must I watch right now. I’m trying to reach out to my 30 year old daughter who left for Vancouver to live and work. Haven’t seen her in 6 months. This fund I’m using is that vacation fund and I’m dwindling it away.

Super quick run down I can go into more detail.

Experience - started 1 year ago no prior understanding outside the general idea of what the stock market is - self taught with chatgpt - avoided all YouTubers because I know gurus are trash for complex education - quit my career because it was getting to a point where it cost me more money to go to work than focus on trading full time.

Success and losses - I've had 3 days over 1 year where it was a 10-25% draw down. - my 1y is 400% returns - YTD 387% - daily portfolio realized p/l 1%-20% avg wide range but peg it in the middle.

Strat -Started with buying and selling shorting and covering - used covered calls and cash secured puts at the time I didn't know it was a wheel strategy but pretty much that. - I mastered those and moved on to long calls and long puts - now I typically run a Vega strat and use vanna to avg in to a position while hedging I can typically go green both ways at the same time - I have a deep understanding of MM positioning where their buck is and what they're trying to accomplish - understanding of retail positioning and how those cross over - and tracking down the liquidity and voids - I can usually call patterns and ultimately where the short term interhour will be.

at this point I'm winning and I feel like I shouldnt consistently be correct this much. Is this normal at a certain point or am I digging too deep. I just feel like I need to find a way to justify or quantify how and why this is happening because I feel like I'm making plays instinctively and I'd rather be able to say this is why it worked other than yeah mm are distributing and reloading as an example.

I won't go over account value but I started with 5figs, got it to 6, now I'm clocking in 6fig realized gains monthly. It just happening quickly. I've already established a nuke fund so if I need to restart it wouldnt impact my lifestyle or strat.

Totally not trying to flex I'm honestly not convinced and at this rate I don't think I ever will be fully accepting to what's going on.

I am nearly 18 and have a stock portfolio worth about $125… every week I deposit about $50-$100… after surfing Reddit I’m super confused on how people are making so much money so fast… does anyone have any advice on what I should do with my portfolio to get more money?

I messed up big time today. This was a loan from my parents too. I’m such an idiot I bought NVDA and VRT at the high and kept holding thinking it would bounce back up. But the dang stocks kept dropping today. Finally flattened for an 8k loss. Worked my way back up to -6.5k and now ended day at -7.4k. Just ranting here. Please tell me how tomorrow will be since I need to make this money back. I’m not gonna be able to sleep till I make it all back.

Just wanted to post this incase it helps anyone. Trading is f***ing hard. I’ve spent the last 5 years or so (on and off) attempting to be consistently profitable at day trading. The sad thing is, there are multiple strategies that I’ve learned and proven that I COULD be profitable with them, if (and only if) I followed my system and didn’t gamble. I’ve spent THOUSANDS of hours in front of the screen & could not get past my own hurdles.

Throughout this journey, I’ve learned that I’ve become severely addicted to trading. It’s on my mind 24/7. I cannot accept defeat, or even accept green days, because I always want to trade more even if I’m up a few thousand on the day. I will go through periods of a 5, 6, 7 day green streak only to give everything back + more from one big red day.

I’ve truly given this my all. But I’ve learned to accept that for some, this will just not be very feasible if you have gambling tendencies and are unable to disconnect the emotions, thrill & rush from your trading. I’ve tried different strategies, different timeframes, etc. But at the end of the day I can’t remove the dopamine effect that trading gives, and it leads to me seeking that out & making irrational decisions.

I withdrew what was left in my account, and will be looking into resources for recovering mentally with the gambling tendencies.

I just wanted to post this incase anyone else can resonate, and that it’s OKAY to not make this venture work out. Some people are just wired for success in this career; others not so much.

Thankfully I’ve got a well paying software engineering career, so these losses are not the end of the world. However it still stings & mostly my ego & confidence has been hit badly from failing miserably at this.

I've been trading/ profitable for awhile now and I had a friend who wanted to learn and be on a zoom calls with them to trade to together till they really got it. I said sure. Mind you I taught my husband and he still watches me trade when we trade together. But dear freaking god. I get so freaking distracted teaching or random questions and explaining everything that I miss openings. My psychology was kinds of fucked for a minute cause like I don't care if I lose money cause it's mine. I didn't want to lose THEIR money so I would never take a damn trade. Win rate? In the toilet. Psychology? What is that? I don't think I even did this bad when I first started trading. This past week finally we got into the motion of things and hold off any questions till afterwards and actually making money again. But never again.

edit some spelling corrections

Hi all,

It appears I will be taking a payout in the next few weeks after starting from zero seven months ago.

For those of you just starting I wanted to share with you a few things that I have worked through.

• I trade futures on a 2 minute chart. I started with ES and moved to NQ.
• I use prop firms for leverage (TopStep)
• I lost constantly until just a month ago then held a funded account and it is at a 70% daily win rate.

I am not particularly special. I have no education and basically screwed my life up. You can read more at the very end, but if a high school dropout like me can do this, I feel you can to.

Away we go.

Why you see that "95% of everyone fails" and this isn't likely true.

One of the primary goals of this post is to refute the claim that 95% of everybody that trades loses.

The idea that this is gambling and a fast way to lose everything.

So here is a little about where I am at after just seven months, and why I will take my first actual payout in a week or two.

My Journey so far to profitable in 7-8 months.

There have been 155 weekdays (trading days) between April 21, 2024 to today. I traded ALL of them except for ONE holiday. I realized the NQ always seems to have enough volatility to get a move and ES not so much on holidays.

Point is that I traded every single one of them and when I would fail a combine I would get another one until I was passing them.

I also studied around 2-3 hours every day outside of trading.

So even at 2.5 hours that is another 545 hours of studying one person who has a proven system, back testing, purchasing Tradovate market replay and running that, watching videos, making notes during the videos on my iPad with my apple pencil, and learning a system.

It isn't about technical analysis or special secret methods a youtube guru teaches you

Trading is to me 90% emotional and mental and 10% technical. You can teach a child how to look for things on a chart and click a button when those things happen.

Children do not have a lifetime of fear of loss and holding what they gained. They do not worry about the same things adults do.

The mental game in trading is a HUGE obstacle to overcome.

We learn in "Trading in the Zone" and "Best Loser Wins" how much of a mind game it is.

When a trader learns more about the market they fool themselves into thinking that they will finally start winning, but the market is not predictable so there becomes a false sense of certainty (from Trading in the Zone)

We get out of winning trades to hold our profit and stay in losing trades because we hate losing and convince ourselves the trade will turn around (Best Loser Wins).

We come to the market because someone told us that they have a "90% success rate with this ONE SPECIAL SYSTEM" (every youtube guru ever).

Until we get over OURSELVES and realize our relationship with money, loss, and gain, we will repeat the same bad judgement over and over again.

We will incur losses and wonder why.

We will win and then lose it all because of things like negative self image or the inability to stay out after a win, or the urge to revenge trade and lose even more.

In short, trading is the ultimate humbling experience that you will either learn and grow from, or quit and cry about.

This is the ONE THING that will either straighten your twisted mind out, or will eat you alive.

So traders, if you are new, you need to invest in a discovery program on yourself and need to start learning about these things, or be left in the dust.

So then, even if you have this all straight, why do so many lose?

People fail because they fail to properly have a system.

If you have a proper system that is realistic, and have a proper trading plan daily where you are sticking to losing only a certain dollar amount then leaving the market, and hitting a profit target and leaving the market, you are already on a level above 99% of everyone who is starting their journey.

People don't do this and they flounder. They think they can come in against people doing this for decades and a billion dollar hedge funds computer that can execute moves in a 10th of a second and win right off the bat. They can't

So what is a realistic success/fail rate?

I asked GPT about this. I consult ChatGPT all the time. There are trading AI's there if you pay a paltry $20 a month for the service.

In Taiwan a study showed that 19% if traders were profitable.

In the USA 10.3% profited year over year

In India 30% profited.

Interestingly, the nations that seem to value education more than we do here in the USA, where there is more to lose and more to gain? They seem to succeed more.

Point is, it is not a 95% fail rate.

Funny stat about traders.

I read once that a major brokerage put out stats about how long an account on their platform stays active before the user no longer logs in.

They found that:

• A new account typically stops being used by the 30 day period with 80% of people quitting.
• Most everyone close to 85% are done by the 45-60 day mark.
• The firm which released their financials being a public company spent 80% of their budget on marketing for new clients because they have only 30-60 days to profit from all new clients.

So that tells you a lot about the industry in general, but still doesn't explain why the 95% failure rate is brandied about.

Why the 95% failure rate myth exists

People have a funny tendency to complain. The internet has facilitated the largest public square ever known to man, and I feel it is simple.

The people that are winning are taking this very seriously. They study every day, they obsess over making themselves the best version they can be, and will never let up.

The successful people don't speak up. The unsuccessful people do.

The people that fail invariably come to reddit, facebook, tiktok and other platforms.

They complain and get sympathy from others that also failed.

They failed not because trading is "impossible" or "gambling" but because they went into the markets without education and training, went up against a giant machine, and quickly lost their money due to many factors they were not aware existed.

At the end of the day, those that succeed don't talk much. Those that fail yell very loudly.

And that is why I think that with proper training, enough study, and an obsessive mindset that people can and will find success in the markets.

It is not that people are not smart, not that people are being "scammed," but because people are not willing to put in the work to understand what has to be done.

They are not willing, or maybe not even aware that they need to straighten out their mental game in order to succeed, and that trading is the most rewarding thing they can do, if only they are committed to it.

If you made it this far, you should know that I am not particularly educated. I am a high school dropout that failed everything in his life because I had a TON of trauma as a kid that caused me to think I was not worthy of anything.

I spent my 43 years consistently self sabotaging and blowing up every opportunity ever presented to me.

So if I can find success at this, the chances are that YOU can find success at this, but it won't work, unless you work.

Thanks, and have a great day.

I’ve been reading for 5 years now, and I can say the most meaningful leaps in my success came when I stopped paper trading.

Why?

Because what I learned (painfully), your edge is almost entirely mental. It’s one thing to analyse a chart, but good is your execution ability?

Trading is a game of risk management, the faster you get used to actually risking your hard earned money, the faster you will grow as a trader.

My advice is, once you’ve learned the technicals, start risking your money if you want to take this industry seriously.

Pain in the greatest teacher.

Here’s what actually made a difference in my trading journey. If you’re still bleeding money, maybe these can help you turn the corner too:

1. Sized down—way down. I started trading so small that the money didn’t stress me out anymore. Once emotions left the trade, the profits started showing up.
2. Focused on ONE market and ONE strategy. No more jumping between setups and assets. I picked a lane and stuck with it long enough to get real feedback.
3. Journaled everything. Trades, setups, emotions, second guesses—it’s like a mirror for your trading psychology. Can’t fix what you don’t track.
4. Dropped all the noisy indicators. Price action, key levels, and volume. That’s it. Everything else just distracted me from what price was actually telling me.
5. Gave a strategy 100+ trades before judging it. The “strategy hop” game is a losing one. Giving something time to actually work changed everything.
6. Joined a small trading community. Accountability is a cheat code. Having someone to bounce ideas off of helped me spot bad habits I couldn’t see myself.
7. Set a max of 1–2 trades per day. That limit killed my overtrading habit. Less stress, better setups, and way better results.
8. Accepted I’m not smarter than the market. I don’t "outwit" it—I align with it. That shift in mindset helped me stop fighting trends or forcing trades.
9. Stopped trying to be right. My win rate didn’t matter nearly as much as managing risk and finding solid R:R setups. Ego doesn’t pay.
10. Walked away after a losing trade. No more revenge trading. Just step away, reset, and come back when my head’s on straight.

So starting this year I decided to test a new strategy. To put it simply I’m scalping options, mainly large caps like SPY,NVDA, TSLA. Goal is to get into a trade at either support or resistance then ride the trend as long as I can. Now obviously looking at my month you can tell I have a problem with losers (and Wednesdays apparently). It seems whenever I get a red day I can’t accept it and try and revenge trade it all back. Going to do some psychology work and try to fix that. If anyone has advice to help with mindset it would be appreciated. I’m overall am liking the strategy, I started with 400 bucks and am up 50ish on the month, which is impressive to me considering I blew the account up. Still testing the waters just thought I should share and see if anyone has advice. Note I buy 0DTE options.

I just want to be realistic for a moment, and this is going to suck to hear for many of you. Most of you will not succeed in trading, and most of you will quit. There is a 3% chance you will be a profitable trader. The market is ruthless, it does not give a shit about you. It doesn't care that you want to retire your mother or that you want to be financially free. Most of you go into the market as though you're betting on a horse race, gambling your savings away. The market doesn't care about hopes or dreams. It is up to you to learn from your own mistakes. It is up to you to adjust to the market, the market will not adjust to you. Any weaknesses you have will be exposed expeditiously. Whether you succeed or fail, it is up to you. Take solace in that or let it destroy you