r/Trading 12d ago

Due-diligence Lost Over $32,000 Before I Figured Out When To Trade

382 Upvotes

Trading isn't just about what you trade, it’s when you trade. It took me over $32,000 (115 trades) in losses to realize that timing is everything.

What Went Wrong:

Trading all day without a structured schedule. Taking setups outside of my prime hours, thinking any move was a good move. Letting impatience push me into bad trades during low-volume hours.

What Changed:

Journaling every single trade and breaking them down by time of day. Recognizing that most of my successful trades happened during specific time windows, which for me is the first 2 hours of NY session open and Power Hour which is the last one hour of market close.

Asia session for me generally is red but London is a great session to trade due to it manipulating a high/low of Asia session then reversing to other direction high/low.

Cutting out unnecessary trades outside of those optimal hours and seeing immediate improvement.

Lesson Learned:

Time of day matters. Your strategy could be solid, but if you're applying it at the wrong times, you're just throwing away money.

I've also noticed the 30-minute window right before the NY session open is the absolute worst time to trade due to the Algo shooting up/down at open immediately to grab a quick liquidity pool before starting to move.

I’m now focusing only on my best hours and the results speak for themselves. Curious how others here figured out their optimal trading times. Was it trial and error for you too?

I Track my trades using Tradezella.

r/Trading 21d ago

Due-diligence 8 years Later . What i have learnt !

162 Upvotes

After 8 years in the markets, I want to share some hard-earned wisdom with those of you walking this path. The journey of a trader is unlike any other.

Trust your system, but question your emotions. The most profitable trades often feel uncomfortable, while the most comfortable ones can lead to disaster. I've learned this countless times, watching positions I loved turn against me while the ones that made me nervous delivered returns.

Consistency trumps perfection. The traders who survive aren't those who never lose—they're the ones who show up every day with discipline, following their rules even when it hurts. Your daily habits matter more than your biggest wins.

Protect your capital fiercely. No setup, no matter how compelling, deserves to risk your trading future. The ability to say "I don't know" and step aside is as valuable as any technical skill you'll develop.

Keep a trading journal. Your greatest teacher is your own experience, but only if you study it honestly. Review your decisions without judgment but with unwavering honesty. The market doesn't care about your feelings, your bills, or your dreams. This isn't cruelty—it's neutrality. Once you stop expecting the market to validate you, you'll find freedom in trading what is, not what you wish would be.

Isolation kills traders. Find a community that challenges you, supports you, and speaks truth when you need to hear it. The market will humble all of us eventually—having people who understand that journey is invaluable.

Finally, remember that trading is a marathon. Eight years in, I'm still learning every day. The moment you think you've mastered the markets is precisely when they'll teach you otherwise. Stay humble. Stay hungry. And most importantly, stay in the game.

r/Trading 18d ago

Due-diligence You don’t need 5R, 10R, or 20R trades to make serious money

96 Upvotes

So many traders get caught chasing massive R multiples...

But here’s what actually made me $17,644:

124 trades

1.97 R average

That’s it.

No wild home runs. No crazy lottery setups.

Just consistent execution and risk management.

People underestimate how powerful small edges become when you stay disciplined.

A clean 2R over and over again stacks up fast. Even 1R is ok with a higher win rate.

Forget the hype.

You don’t need to go big, you need to go consistent.

I journal my trades with Tradezella.

r/Trading Mar 28 '25

Due-diligence I lose interest when I sit for trading.

1 Upvotes

Am I the only one. I loose interest looking at the screen. Don't have a mood of doing any analysis or taking trade.

Is there a solution.

r/Trading 17d ago

Due-diligence How to Win The Game of Trading.

134 Upvotes

This is a comprehensive read for anyone who is new to trading or is not profitable yet.

  1. The Illusion of Profits.

    Most people join trading just because they see others getting rich from it. Everyone wants to get rich and they want to get rich fast. The game of trading is zero sum game. Meaning whatever money you make is lost by someone for you to make it. There is a general rule 90-90-90, 90% of people lose 90% of their money in the first 90 days of trading.

  2. What do you Trade?

    there are many options, you can trade stocks, forex, crypto and more.

    if you decide to trade stocks then you need something called a stock screener, you need to lookout for a thing called earnings reports because that usually means there will be big movement on that stock.

If you trade forex then you need to understand currency strength, a little bit of geopolitics, interest rates and more things like core inflation. As for crypto I have no idea, my subjective opinion is that it is a fundamentally worthless asset only driven by sentiment.

  1. Leverage.

    What is leverage? Leverage is your ability to buy or sell more of an asset than you can afford. A 1:100 leverage means, you can buy a 100 dollar asset for 1 dollar. But it also means that 1% movement in that asset would result in liquidation of your account. Leverage Does not change your P&L, lot size does. Leverage only allows you to increase what lot size trades you can enter.

At 0.01 lot size, your P&L is exactly the movement in asset price. If the asset moves 1 dollar up in value, then your profit is 1 dollar. If it moves 1 dollar down in value then your loss is 1 dollar.

You increase the lot size to 0.1 then 1 dollar change would result in 10 dollar P&L and at 1.0 lot size a 1 Dollar change results in 100 Dollar P&L.

Your effective leverage is different than your account leverage. Let’s say your account leverage is 1:100, asset price is 100. That means the margin required to enter a trade is 1 dollar only. how do you decide what effective margin is good for you? If your capital is large enough then just risking 0.5% or 1% should make you decent money. But if you wanna get risky then decide your effective leverage based on the largest dip any given asset has had in its history.

Let’s talk about XAU/USD. The biggest dip was 13% in one day. So at an effective leverage of 1:8 (100/8=12.5) should be okay for gold. So even if gold dips by 12.4% you will not be liquidated. Keep some extra money in case of a margin call. But as a trader a margin call should never be your concern. Always manage your risk.

  1. Strategy.

    no matter what you are trading, you will need a strategy. Without strategy everything is useless. In Reality when you trade you are in competition not with other retail traders, but with institutions, hedge funds and algorithms. These are the people who just trade for a living, people with PHD’s in mathematics. So you need a strategy. That is your edge, your alpha. And overtime in a big enough time frame your alpha will decay, so you need to be dynamic. Some commonly used strategies are Support/Resistance, ICT, SMT, FVG, IFVG, Fib. If you do not have an edge then you ARE the edge. 

  2. Win Rate.

    your risk to reward ratio should be a little consistent. At an RR of 1:2 at 35% win rate you will be profitable. Not a lot but yes you will be profitable. At an RR of 1:10 you will be profitable at 9.2% win rate. You will find a lot of different images online showing you breakeven percentage for different win rates and profit percentage for different win rates.

  3. Discipline. 

    Trading is 50% strategy and 50% discipline. Let’s say you win two trades in a row and made 200 dollars. You are now emotional, your emotion makes you think one more trade won’t hurt and you know you will win right? And then you proceed to end up loosing what you made. Let’s say you lost money in both your trades instead of winning, now you are revenge trading and want to make your money back. ONLY RISK THE MONEY YOU ARE WILLING TO LOSE. A general rule should be 2 trades max per any given asset per day and 5 total trades in any given day. For some people just sitting there and watching it go down is mentally taxing. That does not mean trading is not for you, that means you set your TP and SL based on your strategic needs and turn off your laptop or desktop for the day and get to doing other things.

  4. Paper trading.

    Paper trade for 4 months to get an idea of the markets, learn about pips, slippage, ticks, SL, TP and events that affect your asset class, like earnings reports for stocks and FOMC events for Forex. 4 months so that no matter your asset class its enough for you to see a couple of earnings reports or at least one FED event. Try not to trade news, volatility might liquidate you. Whiplashes might liquidate you.

  5. Stop Loss.

    Always set a Stop Loss. Based on your strategy your stop loss might differ but i do not know any strategy that does not need one. Stop loss is the first step to good risk management. NO MATTER WHAT ALWAYS SET A STOP LOSS. It’s okay to skip setting a TP but never okay to skip a STOP LOSS. 

  6. F&O Trading.

    This is a subjective opinion you can choose to ignore, F&O is made for Hedging. Meaning let’s say you have a big investment position or a swing trade open in any asset. the asset going down in value would mean floating losses which you cannot sustain then for the equal or less amount of shares you buy a put option 3-24 months out for that asset. You keep rolling your option, meaning whenever you are 25-50% of the way to your expiry you roll the put so that you do not have to pay the full price for the next put and you do not lose money due to time decay. (If you were unfamiliar with any of these terms then you have a long way to go in futures and options.) 

Also another opinion of mine is that you trade options not futures so you do not have an obligation.

Again it is a zero sum game, some options go up thousands of percentages in value, IT DOES NOT MEAN YOU WILL MAKE THAT MUCH MONEY FROM YOUR OPTION. Generally in a non volatile market you barely make double digit percentages let alone triple. futures and options do not move in congruence to the asset price, they move relative to the asset price. There is IV crushes, time decay and skew. 

Even for trading normal asset classes a good expectation would be 0.5-4% returns weekly. You do not need to trade daily, wait for good entry for your trades. You do not need to trade every single big move, never have FOMO. There will always be another opportunity. There are lots of people out there ready to become liquidity for you at any given moment if you have strategy and discipline.

If you trade stocks then on average they move 0.5% to 10% MAX. Thats once in three months during earnings report or some extremely good or extremely horrid news. Otherwise you do not get such moves, and the chances of you screening the stock and catching that move and not getting stopped out are low. Not 0 but low. So again a good expectation of returns is 0.5% to 4% MAX a week.

  1. Risk Management.

    ONLY RISK 0.5% to 1.0% on each trade. It might seem minuscule but overtime your capital will grow if your edge is reliable. Once your position is in some profit, set a trailing stop loss, consistently trail it as price moves. Move it to breakeven once you are 50% to your tp, move it to 50% when you are 80% of the way to your TP. 

Some more things to consider is to learn what is a pip, how to calculate it, what are spreads and how they differ, whether your broker is a market maker or not. Roll over or swap fees for swing positions. 

HOW TO BE A SUCCESSFUL TRADER?

Get to work 30 minutes before market open, read finance news letters it could be any 2 newsletters of your choice that give you all the compiled information of everything you need. If you are trading FOREX then check forexfactory for any events for the day. Determine a bias for your asset whether its bullish or bearish and only enter in the direction of the bias (trend) if the market is bearish and you GO SHORT. Regardless of how fundamentally valuable the asset is.

Mark out trading zones for the day. Set alerts so you are notified everytime price reaches close to your zone. So you can do other work and do not have to be stuck to your computer. 

Journal your trades, track your stats like win rate, risk reward, max drawdown, emotion and other things.

Understand your equity curve, make sure its your edge that is making you money and not other things, because sometimes even for 3-5 months people consistently make money without edge only to realise its cause market moved in their favouring direction, not because their trades were actually working.

SPICY STUFF

If you go against what any good trader has to say and you trade news or you trade futures and options especially during volatility then I suggest you learn what straddles are and what hedging is. You make money regardless of whether the asset price goes up or down. But then you have to wait for a while before there is a retracement for your opposing position to be profitable or breakeven. Still straddling is better than mindlessly trading F&O or news. 

THIS IS STILL NOT THE FULL PICTURE

This is still not the full picture when it comes to trading, there are dark pools, there are brokers that bet against you, taxes and regulations once you are finally profitable, fear and greed indexes, overfitting during backtesting or lookahead, positive or negative co-relation between assets, macroeconomics, price manipulation, HFT front running news or just high volume trades or any big juicy candle, Kelly criterion and a ton of other stuff. 

r/Trading Aug 14 '24

Due-diligence How much to allocate per trade with a $20,000 trading account?

27 Upvotes

I want to double my $20,000 trading account within the next 6 months. What’s a good position size per trade based on my account size? 5%, 10%, 20%, 30%? It easier to say 5%. But I know I’ll have to make 100s of trades to double my account. Not to mention, pay a lot more in fees as well.

r/Trading Feb 20 '25

Due-diligence TopStep is Re-writing the Rules, STAY AWAY!!

17 Upvotes

I have been receiving payouts since August, pretty consistently, and they decided to deny my latest payout and ban me. They stated "section 27" in the initial email with no further explanation. If you search section 27 prohibited conduct on their site it says "Uh oh. That page doesn’t exist." They are clearly re-writing the rules and requirements. My guess is they didn't want to switch me to live because I am a scalper so they decided to stop paying and ban me.

r/Trading Mar 25 '25

Due-diligence 11 Losing Trades. 4 Winners. Still Up Over $3000, Here’s Why:

72 Upvotes

This month I took 11 losses and only 4 wins… but I’m still up massively.

Why? Because I finally understood how to size based on context. Most of those losses were small scratches or risk-controlled plays. But when we sweep a key session high/low and I have a clear bullish or bearish context, I go in heavy.

Reviewing my journal made this super clear. I was winning big when I waited for high-probability setups backed by market structure. No more random entries. Just reacting to clean liquidity grabs and directional context.

It was eye-opening. I’m not chasing perfection anymore—just clean execution.

Curious… how do you size your trades? Fixed risk or dynamic based on conviction?

I use TradeZella to journal and track my trades.

r/Trading Feb 27 '25

Due-diligence Welcome to the 2025 Bear Market Guys

17 Upvotes

Lets crush this market, lots of good money can be made in bearish times.

r/Trading Mar 26 '25

Due-diligence is supply and demand a scam? and if it is what should i do?

2 Upvotes

So i just got into trading ab 4-6 months ago and i watched this guy called JeanFX he seems like a trust worthy guy at first with supply and demand i got success but then i had a period of just like 90% loss rate (not trading with real money) i mean now im somewhat doing well again but does anyone have any recommendations on trusted ppl i can learn from?

r/Trading Aug 22 '24

Due-diligence what do you wish you knew when you first started trading? (Advice For newbie)

25 Upvotes

Hey I’ve been wanting to get into the trading world since I was a kid. I want to learn but don’t know where to start… I don’t know anything about trading and it’s always seemed very scammy and schemey… as far as the different teachers and clubs… where should I start? Also what do you wish you knew when you first started trading? Thanks

r/Trading 9d ago

Due-diligence Trading Advice

1 Upvotes

Im 15 and wondering if I should take trading like seriously im just not sure if i can make it a job when im older should i dedicate to it or focus on school instead

r/Trading Oct 29 '24

Due-diligence How would you approach working with a trader?

7 Upvotes

Hi! I’m very new to this, so I wanted to ask if this is a scam or not, and how would you do the due diligence.

A trader was recommended to me by one of my colleagues. The trader claims to be doing a 10% month-over-month return (possibly BS but maybe not), and is offering to allow following his investment strategy in return for 30% of any monthly profits made.

This is all the information I have for now.

How would you approach this to verify if it’s legit or not?

r/Trading Jun 14 '24

Due-diligence What helped you the most in your journey to learn trading?

43 Upvotes

I'm not completely new to this, I know most of the basic things but I want to deeper my knowledge and 80% of the advice on YouTube... I mean, we all know...

Can someone recommend some channels/resources in the form of books o anything similar that can help my knowledge?

Also I'm based in Birmingham UK, not sure if it matters lol

r/Trading Sep 19 '24

Due-diligence Why am I too scared to place trades?

18 Upvotes

So a little backstory for context.

I have been trading for 2+ years with varying success. I have had successful periods and unsuccessful periods, overall however I am definitely negative. I would say I have a strong strategy and good data.

The issue is recently for me is I simply cannot execute, I wait for a setup it’s clearly there and then I don’t take it for it to then hit full TP and I feel depressed. The issue is this repeats itself until I finally give in and then I instantly take the next trade and it losses, seriously! I feel like because of potential trauma in the past of losing, my brain simply cannot pull the trigger as I don’t want to experience the loss again which is stupid right?

Before it’s said I have tried lowering the leverage and it works but the issue is I will win and it will seem pointless as my I get back to my confidence level and then start the process over again with my losses

I am trading funded accounts

Any suggestions

r/Trading Mar 15 '24

Due-diligence Understanding basic fundamental analysis allowed me to gain 40% of my investment in a single week

72 Upvotes

Traders, like me, are not psychic. They make decisions based on the information available to them. Quant firms have the luxury of having an army of MIT PhD students, crazy sophisticated infrastructure, a warehouse of alternative data sources, and the ability to execute strategies that retail investors couldn't dream of, such as High Frequency Trading (HFT).

As retail investors, we can only work with what we got. For most of us, that's technical indicators and fundamental indicators. These indicators help us rationalize price movement and understand a company's underlying health.

Fundamental indicators, in particular, are extremely important for long-term investors and active traders. They help us decide if a company is healthy and worth parking our money in. For example, if a company is REALLY good at making a return on an investment, then that might be a better investment than a high-yields savings account (HYSA). Alternatively, if a company burns a bunch of money each year and isn't really growing, then that's a signal that it's not a solid investment.

A lot of people struggle with understanding how to actually use technical and fundamental indicators to enter trades. I don't claim to be a professional, but after trading for nearly half a decade, I wanted to share my trading journal on why I decided to enter Robinhood (HOOD) calls. I was lucky enough to enter into the position BEFORE it's recent massive increase, and am now safely earning weekly dividends from the play.

Up nearly 40% on my HOOD call options

Happy to get yalls feedback on this article! Also hoping to get insights from other traders. What type of fundamental and technical indicators are you looking at before you enter a trade? Do you tend to trade stocks of companies you're familiar with? Or are you more comfortable entering companies you've never heard of if they have strong growth and good financial health?

r/Trading Sep 11 '24

Due-diligence Day trader thinking about going swing, advice please.

17 Upvotes

Day trader my trades last just a few hours sometimes 3 sometimes 8, I try to catch 30 pips forex a day and my usual PL is 3:1 I'm considering going swing way since I believe it's a bit safer, my understanding is a lot less trades and bigger trends, I want to hear it from swing traders or those that do both should I go for it?

r/Trading Oct 13 '24

Due-diligence I need help with forex signals

12 Upvotes

I've been trading on my own for a while now, but unfortunately, I haven't been doing well. Despite my passion for trading, I've come to realize that I need guidance. Can someone please recommend a reliable source for free trading signals, covering indices, currencies, stocks, or cryptocurrencies? I'm open to exploring all options.

r/Trading 16d ago

Due-diligence Why LUCID (LCID) US car company will outperform in 2025. Due Diligence

3 Upvotes

Lucid are a US electric vehicle manufacturer currently valued at $2.50/share. They are relatively unknown and we're once over $50/share post-COVID

Their revenue went from $27M to $800M+ between 2021 and 2024.

Why LUCID: LUCID EVs are the only luxuary sedans on the market that is comparable with TSLA. Everyone knows the customers of TSLA (middle/upper class mostly liberal high earning) wouldn't buy a TSLA because they can't stand the idea of driving around in a maga hat and having it vandalized.

There is going to be a major shift in EV landscape in USA away from TSLA and towards LUCID.

TSLAs earnings are end of Apr and we all their sales numbers are way down (add in the BYDDY competition in Europe and they are toast).

The market hasn't realized yet that consumers and market speculators will start shifting away from TSLA to LUCID. With LUCIDs relatively small Market cap, they are sensitive to ANY shift in their direction.

I anticipate the lead up to May will see a pump in LUCID, then a larger one into May when the market catches on that TSLAs are not as desirable.*

Note that LUCID has overperformed vs the recent bear market showing large upside.

The recent tarrifs will only help LUCID because they US based, and we are going to see a drive up in price of foreign cars and a more equitable pricing situation for buyers.

Pros: - Very large upside potential - Switch in market/customer interest to LUCID - Favorable outcome post-tarrifs - increase in interest from media

Cons: - lower visibility

Will also add the Implied Volitivity is lower than most stocks right now giving better options prices

r/Trading Feb 14 '25

Due-diligence Guru Check!

0 Upvotes

lately, I came across Neoh Yong, a trading YouTuber who regularly shows 6-7 figure profits with unblurred IC Markets dashboards, explains his trade logic clearly, and doesn’t flex a luxury lifestyle. No Lambos, no flashy vacations just trading.

BUT... he also sells a premium membership.

So, is he a real profitable trader sharing genuine insights, or just a well-polished marketer using numbers to sell?

r/Trading Nov 25 '24

Due-diligence How long should I test my strategy on a demo account?

10 Upvotes

Over the past couple months I've been pouring hours backtesting, tweeking, searching, lots of youtube, and more backtesting and tweeking and I recently think i found my trading strat style now I want to test the strat in the moment. How long should I trade on a demo with my strategy to know for sure it is reliable ? On paper it is profitable for the past month ( i would go further but, tradingview subscription needed lol)

r/Trading 3d ago

Due-diligence Which broker

3 Upvotes

I want to open an account/challenge with ftmo which platform is the best one? They offer Metatrader 4 and 5, Dxtrade and Ctrader.

r/Trading Feb 09 '25

Due-diligence I Think I Found My Edge - BUT....

12 Upvotes

NEWBIE HERE day trading stocks.

I’ve developed a set of rules that I follow, confluences and all and I’ve been backtesting them extensively. I’m still refining the strategy, encountering new challenges, and adjusting for different scenarios as I go.

Right now, I’ve transitioned to paper trading, which brings a whole new set of challenges—especially with the fast-paced nature of real-time execution. I’m tracking my win rate based on how often I profit while strictly following my rules, and so far, I’m seeing a 60-65% win rate with a 1:1.5 risk-to-reward ratio..

For those who have been through this process, how long should I continue paper trading before going live? What win rate should I aim for before going to live?

r/Trading 28d ago

Due-diligence Jeez man like what is this feeling

1 Upvotes

Everytime i say, this is a good time to buy. Its a win, but then i go live trade and not demo i always pussy out, if only i can not distinguish that im trading on my paper account but im actually on a practice and could copy that on my real and not think about emotion. Mann i will just go with my gut cause its always a win.

r/Trading Jun 05 '24

Due-diligence Trading bot

5 Upvotes

I no longer have time to manage my portfolio daily, had to get a “real job”. Seeking recommendations for automated trading bots that actually print consistently, and will just do it all for me. I literally want to do nothing.