I'm always trading day and night 5 1/2 days a week, but I am also always feeding the birds, watering the plants, maintaining the aquarium, rolling, and smoking and trying to catch a mouse without hurting my guitar playing fingers which I need to play when I have time to sit and watch the market.
Well, I don't live in US(half a day ahead). So I have a lot of free time to spend. I trade forex and crude. I have to wait for around 6-12 hours for best setups to happen. That's my problem. I have a question. Do you not get tired or distracted? How can you stay at 100% focus even when doing a lot of other things in your spare time?
To daytrade, forecasting alone won't cut it. It's a combination of the right instrument, position size, time of day, and active trade management. Small traders who trade the same instrument everyday are clueless. As far as MA crossovers go, we all pretty much know how poorly that works at the micro level. Statistics and price action work, but difficult to implement. It takes time.
I don't get tired unless I am watching a bidding war over one or two ticks and the underlying isn't even trading. When my limit finally gets hit then I get focused again until I put in a new limit and it's time to go get the mail.
I usually get into the office by 830.. do some scans on the higher time frame and try to formulate a theme for the morning session. 930-1030 I'll be on full alert for trade setups. 1030 I usually run across the street to Starbucks or a local cafe if the market has slowed down. After 11 I'll have my charts in the background with audible alerts on for key setups. When I'm in front of the computer but not trading during RTH market hours: I'll just glance at a 5M correlation chart from time to time while I work on my strategy or do market related reading/research. At this time I tend to start programming indicators to help solidify my trading strategies. I'll work on some automated trading systems and run back and forward tests.
Restlessness and boredom are kind of big problems, or issues, for the day trader...because they have to basically just watch their screen...watch that ball move ever so f'n slowly. Feels like watching molasses waiting till how 'the game' plays outs. There's no easy or direct answer. -- just do a combination of different things. But try to calm your mind and body and soul...to almost like a monk. I use to be a quarterly earnings player...so i just place the bet...and Boom, you get an instant reaction when that event happens. But for the day trader, waiting and watching for the entire trading day...can feel excruciating boring. But profit-wise, I'm way more profitable with the latter.
I agree with this, but getting to that point still requires paying your dues watching those screens and building structure. Too many dreamers coming into trading with the part-time mindset which never really works for anyone trying to start a business.
Oh I love this post...and it is so obvious on "Undercover Boss".... where people making 8 bucks an hour make the owners who rake in about 800 bucks an hour look foolish and incompetent. I'm all for capitalism, but I don't think our present system is any reflection of that. Some has gone awry. I think it's caused by big government and big corps taking control...leaving little left for the small frys. 100:1 ? That's just a little crazy IMHO.
socialism = big government capitalism = monopolies/big institutions either way the small guy gets crushed
/////What do you guys do when you're not trading? /////////// It would appear many kill precious time opining and falling into childish banter on this thread: https://elitetrader.com/et/threads/questions-for-experienced-es-daytraders.302885/ If you like music dude, you should buy a cheap but decent acoustic for $150ish, learn the A,D,G,C,E, Am,Em chords.... and learn to play guitar whilst sitting in front of your screen doing nothing. Its easier than you think. It really is. Chicks will love ya, they always do.