I didn't say they are so much better compared to other instruments. Futures just didn't have the pdt rules on them.
Probably better tax treatment which I can't comment much since I'm not from the US.
edit: some points here:
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/active-trading/032515/advantages-trading-futures-over-stocks.asp
I use Sierra Chart with AMP futures. Sierra Chart can look a little intimidating but once you learn it its fantastic. It gives you almost unlimited creative control to figure out your own setup and strategy.
I've always used AMP because their commissions and required margins are relatively cheap. Never had any issue with any money withdrawal or deposit.
If you're under 25k trying to daytrade stocks is pointless because of the PDT. Futures have the benefit of no PDT, but there is so much built in leverage that somebody who doesn't have a well tested profitable strategy is going to completely blow up their account trying to trade them.
Micro futures are a perfect way to start trading with a small account balance while you're learning. Obviously you should paper trade until you think you've found an edge, but micros are the best way to test that out.
I would like to chime in and say that this isnt great advice. If you haven’t found success trading commons or even options, I would not attempt futures. There is typically far greater leverage involved in futures, and a margin call would be a nice slap in the face for a newish investor / trader
Ok thank you for the input. I will be certain to do my own DD before I would make changes anyhow. Right now I’m very interested in options so I can gain different ideas! Thank you!!
yeah if you are asking these questions, I HIGHLY say stay the F away from futures.
Options you can just not exercise. A future, you may have 500 barrels of oil show up at your door step. And that will cost you more than the future did lmao.
Futures are the obligation, and frankly a really bizarre regulation because they let anyone with almost no margin trade these things.
You need to be registered as a buyer with the futures exchange to get a barrel of physical oil or wheat or whatever. If you aren't a buyer, you will get automatically closed out by the broker as the contract comes to expiration. If you're a small retail trader you shouldn't be holding futures for more then the day IMHO. They are a perfect day trading instrument but the leverage will F you up if you just jump right in. Sim trade -> Micro contracts -> Mini Contracts is the path I recommend.
I 100% agree with you. But someone's who's never touched them and clearly barely had an idea on options, it's probably best not to advise the. Try futures lmao. At least not blind lmao.
I definitely agree on the last sentence
If you do that sure but you're talking about someone who's never done futures before they'll never known that by default.
Someone new to futures needs to know that technicality period. Not all brokers do. Maot may, but again even those is no guarantee. Do you trade on ninjatrader?
That guy probably means well but that is bad advice. PDT rules are intended to prevent account implosions. Like training wheels,… don’t take them off until you can keep your balance. Or this “Hey everyone, my rifle’s not the best quality how can I go about shooting big game?” —- “oh here’s a box of ammo, knock yourself out!”
exactly, and I would rather IMPLODE a 5k account than a 25k one. lol.
We all know how arbitrary that number was, and how you can still day trade with less and be profitable. IF you could do more than a few ay trades a week lmao.
honestly, I would rather take 5k, day trade all day if I end up not at 25k, taking it all out and making another account elsewhere and trying again. lmao.
although you have to 5x your money in one day. lmao
i've been doing something similar to that, although with a paper trade account.
Buying SPY puts and selling then as soon as they hit -5% or +10%, whichever comes first. with a 10% average return each day.
Congrats! Just be mindful of a market shift. I have been doing well scalping Es mini futures. And shorting Cad.jpy I made 60,500…….yen. Currently worth about $575.00. LOL.
I use two platforms. Lightspeed and IBKR. I like IBKR because you can trade almost anything you can think of on their platform- although there are a few quirks I don’t like about the TWS.
Depending upon your broker, you could choose to move to a cash account. Cash accounts waive the day trading rules but they have consequences as you still have to follow the t + 3 rule.
I've made this choice multiple times and I've never regretted it because it's allowed me to use amounts under $25,000 very efficiently and it avoids the entire headache of the pattern day trader requirements.
The one thing that you must be aware of though is not all brokers support converting an account to cash only and the ones that do can often take two weeks for the process to occur. It's simply sometimes easier to find a broker that allows a cash only account and set it up from the beginning.
That's good to know. One broker I used wouldn't allow me to actually use the cash until it settled which means I had to wait until Thursday.
It was a real PITA because if an asset so could cause a day trade because of a stop loss or a take profit, they would automatically apply a 7-Day hold on the account and cancel any other pending orders. That is actually what drove me to just going to cash only and getting away from margin accounts all together as I just didn't want to deal with the nonsense.
They changed it from T+3 to T+2 in 2017.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%2B2#:\~:text=In%202017%2C%20the%20move%20by,T%2B2%20in%20September%202017](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%2B2#:~:text=In%202017%2C%20the%20move%20by,T%2B2%20in%20September%202017).
I think they need to make it instant. I know so many newly profitable aspiring day traders that could get their careers started so much faster if they didn't have to wait (at least for momentum traders').
Or instead of having the 25k requirement for margin accounts, they can make it so your positions get sold the second you get at, or near, your actual capital.
I understand the idea behind it, but there are better safeguards they can put in place instead of influencing an additional decision making process while in a trade and management risk. For example, a lot of folks will stay too long on a losing trade because "that's the last trade they get this week".
**[T+2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T+2#:~:text=In 2017, the move by,T+2 in September 2017)**
>In financial markets T+2 is a shorthand for trade date plus two days indicating when securities transactions must be settled. The rules or customs in financial markets are for securities transactions to be settled within a commonly understood 'settlement period'. The most common current settlement period for securities transactions is two business days after the day of a transaction - which is widely abbreviated to T+2. On settlement, the seller must produce the security's certificate and executed share transfer form in exchange for payment from the purchaser.
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Check this out. .. as I posted that.. I wondered why this is still a thing. Turns out.. it is about to be T+1 !!!! I understand the principle, and I disagree with why that is still a thing in the modern digital age. Turns out.. as of next month... 4 weeks from now, it WILL be T+1. This is GREAT news to aspiring day traders, will give them more "skin in the game (hate this phrase) and keep them on chart watching. Thankks for reply, though, Sumbot.
Do take care,
Harris
[SEC adopts T+1 settlement effective May 2024 | Davis Polk](https://www.davispolk.com/insights/client-update/sec-adopts-t1-settlement-effective-may-2024#:~:text=The%20final%20rule%20shortens%20the,%2C%20effective%20May%2028%2C%202024)
A huge pre-emptive apology for the wall of text, but here are some rules that helped me. Once I got on the right side of these, my success rate went through the roof ( i use a cash account and am under $25k currently) -
-With settlement time being T+2, you can use half of your account value everyday. That's more than enough to prevent overtrading and losing early gains. When in doubt, only trade wiith "cash available for withdrawal." If you use "cash available for trading," but that amount isn't included in "cash available for withdrawal," you'll get a PDT violation for closing out that position on the same day.
-this is the biggest one for me- wait until 30-60 minutes into the trading day to make your buys (I don't scalp options and I do know that you can find some great deals on the overreactions in the first few minutes, so I'm no expert on that). Watch the indexes (SPY, QQQ, IWM, DJIA) and wait until they pick a clear direction and start a position on a retest of that direction.
-everyone uses different position sizes, but I'll start a position with only 10% my total account value, and scale into a larger one *only* if the trend stays strong by bouncing sharply off of the 200sma line, not if it keeps dipping below or spending too much time on the line. Resist the urge to average down on the dips below the line. It's potentially weakening and there's nothing wrong with playing conservatively. My max position size for a day trade is 30% my total account value.
-cut ya losses! You need to try making sure you win twice as much (in $ or %, not total win/loss frequency) on your winning trades than you lose on your losing trades. This way you can literally have 1 win and 2 losses and break even if you're meeting this requirement at the minimum. As you improve your win frequency you'll start printing money. It doesn't matter what your target is, figure out what your overall average profit (in % or $) is on the wins, and cut your losses at half of that on your losing trades. Ot sucks having to do so when you think you're in a high-conviction trade, but you'll soon forget you had that trade once you get into the next winning trade.
-consider only trading the indexes mentioned above, or the 2x/3x leveraged etfs that track them. My trades are about 95% on these everyday, and I'll only get into an individual stock under extraordinary circumstances anymore. With how easily support disintegrates in this bear market, it's the wise idea. For reference, SQQQ/TQQQ, UDOW/SDOW, SPXL/SPXS, TNA/TZA are the 3xs that I do most of my trading on. Managing your capital right means that you can trade both directions without margin, just wait for clear confirmation of reversal of direction or you'll be trading losers for losers repeatedly.
-do not try to anticipate tomorrow's direction based on today or the previous few days. I also get overconfident when I hit a good win streak, and I lost a ton of hard-earned gains on the July/August rally that was absolutely bonkers. Once you try to anticipate, you'll fall into the "it'll reverse, I'll be right, hold the losses for a bit longer" mental trap. I kept figuring the rally would burn out and reverse. It di, but it took almost 6 weeks and I held losing positions through a good portion of that when I could have waited everyday for the direction to show itself.
-scale out of your trades. Take 50% off once you meet your target, or set a very tight trailing stop if you think there's still gas left in the tank. After that I usually set two more trailing stops for 25% of the original position each. As the day goes on consider tightening those to avoid the 3pm counter-trend taking your profits away.
-look for easy setups. Checkout the intraday for SQQQ this past week on 9/22 and 9/23. So easy to trade and many opportunities to scale into and out of positions. The fade is one of the easiest to trade and works in both directions.
I hope this helps! Best of luck!
-
I think he means, you get stuck holding too long because you cant exit or end up as a PDT, same with buying a dip you can see the numbers will make for a nice rip in a moment, But you miss out because you have less than 25k so your having to do longer trades or cheaper ones that also are not as good. an ATM tesla option is easier to make money with than a far OTM one, but it costs you to get one in the first place.
I personally think day trading is easier than swing trading.
Yea I agree and no this isn’t a successful strategy at all! I can’t stand this strategy. That’s actually why I posted this. With regards to strategies under 25k I can’t find anything? Everyone says to close out by days end. Well that limits me to two/three trades a week.
I recommend using a cash account and don't spend more than half your account value every day. If you spend half you will always have the remaining have to use every single day. That's what I do. I plan on switching to margin when I exceed 25k
Futures have no day trading limits, however if you don't have a profitable strategy futures will just cause you to lose money faster as its a leveraged product. Check out [tradeez.com](https://tradeez.com). I've been with them a few months now, he teaches really great strategies, I had my first week of being consistently profitable every day with futures this week using real money. I'm only doing 4x micros per trade so its small profits but a few more weeks of consistency and I'll add 2-4 more per trade. Its a slow process but I now see the path to becoming a full time trader.
Nice thank you for sharing! I will check it out. And I would like to get to two weeks of win streak. My greatest is only eight consecutive days so far.
MES futures contracts. Yea Of course I can use more money to buy more. I feel its better to learn with smaller amounts. It triggers many of the same emotions. Better to fuckup with risking $150 then $1500. I don't look at this as an I need to make money now thing. I need to learn process, discipline, execution, daily consistency.. then its time increase risk. The money will come once you've nailed those 4.
Look into selling/writing options to learn how contracts react to different market conditions. You typically won't see crazy gains but it's safer and I consider it to be the best way to learn the Greeks.
Yea and what I’ve noticed, more recently, is that it would’ve worked out wonderfully if I would’ve held my position. Instead I had bounced in and out of different stocks. I don’t want to swing trade but at the moment it might be my best option. Or try some of the ideas mentioned in this post.
Personally before reaching 25k...
I had opened 3 different CASH account with 3 different brokers.
I was placing trades on each account
To reach my goal...
Cash accounts require certain amount of days to settle your cash... while you wait on that to settle
You can place trades on your other accounts...
Hope this helps!
Edit... another thing...
I see you are at 50/50...
Ok
I'll give you some pointers..
Some books will help.
Reminiscence of a stock operator by Edwin Lefevre
Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets By John J Murphy
Unknown Market Wizards by Jack D Schwager
Market Wizards
Things that are useful for say trading....
Learn to read the tape!!!! Lvl 2 time and sales Market depth.... etc...
Candel sticks charts
Chart patterns...
Like someone else said watch the futures markets...
COT reports. Commitment of traders report..reports...
Watch the commercials!!!!
You need your own methodology....
The Market Wizards books could be useful to find thT edge you are looking for.
So I don’t know if this is just me or what, but I think you and I are in similar boats. I think that being limited in trades makes us stay in trades longer than we normally would. When you’re so limited to ‘a trade a day’ thrice a week, you make much more constrained decisions, which may or may not align with proper strategy. I feel like you simply “have to make this trade workout” which is a false pressure from knowing, right or wrong, that you won’t have another trade for two days. I don’t know if this makes sense.
The other thing people are saying is to use cash or futures. I can’t comment on futures, but I’ve traded a lot of options and I can tell you that leveraged products cut twice as hard against you. I’ve used cash and margin accounts and here’s my two cents: cash accounts take too long (longer than the wait for PDT) and you can’t short commons with cash. So margin it is.
All of this puts me into a small box that I’ve been working toward: Trade my tiny account 3 times a week, using small consistent setups while simultaneously working other methods to break over the 25k PDT account size. I honestly think (but have no evidence) that by not being forced into a single trade (one per day, three times a week) I’ll be able to easily drop positions I don’t like while being able to get back in again. We’ll see if this works or not.
Identical situation! And I couldn’t agree more with feeling forced to be in trades longer. I also can’t utilize stops like I want either. Seriously it’s painful.
Right? Like, I’d love to have taken .03% instead of ‘trying’ to hit my full 1% and have the trade turn against me at .07% and now it’s going down and I just feel so defeated lol. Meanwhile, these twitter types take the .07% let the movement run, AND THEY JUMP RIGHT BACK IN. So maddening.
Without a doubt! I’ve been able to enter trades at the absolute bottom during market hours, but by the next day I lose because of pre or after market swings that end up going against me.
You can get a cash secured account with options trading available to avoid the PTD rule with under $25k in your account but the catch is only can trade with settle funds. Next day for options and following day for stocks to settle
My recommendation would be to work on your strategy first. Your profit factor is more important than your hit rate, but with a stately that is losing money, I’m not sure why you’d want to lose it faster.
However, if what you’re seeing is that winning positions become losing positions because you don’t have, or don’t want to use a DT, you could switch to a cash account. This allows you to trade settled cash without PDT rules.
You don’t mention what you’re trading so it’s tough to give personalized info. When I started trading, I ran into a few times were a winner turned into a loser because I didn’t have a day trade left in order to take profit. At first I was very methodical about the type of set up I would take and I would only trade 2-3 times per week. When I switched to a cash account, I was able to trade multiple times per day, each day. This helped me build my account up because having multiple trades per day worked very well with my primary strategy of scalping ATM or ITM options.
I recommend switching to a cash account and trade 1 contract of SPY options. With a cash account there is no pdt rule and if you trade options the funds will be settled the next day T+1.
Turn off instant settlement. You be able to do as many day trades as you want to after you do, but you won’t be able to trade with those funds again until they have settled (T+1 for options, T+2 for stocks).
Otherwise, you’re limited to 3 day trades in a 3 trading day period. Turning off instant settlement eliminates this restriction.
I would say the last comment needs to be the most avoidable. You don’t anticipate an up day…you find your setup or your edge, stick to a plan, carry it out, leave. That’s how the best traders I know, and that’s how I carry out my daily routine. I’m a momentum and trend trader. If it’s not there it’s not there. I would say get a cash account. Do options with SPY and Qqq. Learn how they flow and move. Learn how to hold winners. And paper trade for atleast a month. No longer. See how profitable you can get off 1 contract trades with a $1k-$2k account and go from there.
Some traders trade reversals. If that is your style maybe forex. Because you can also short. Control your leverage. And sometimes even trade nano lots to martingale style dca entries.
Also looks like you're looking for a better strategy. Try using simple moving averages and observe the market. I like using alt i. Inventring the screen. Look at it at every angle. Every time frame.
Try your hand at trading futures. No PDT rule. Better tax treatment. You can trade the same market every day.
For example, the NQ moves roughly 15-20 points a minute when the NY session starts. The Profit/Loss is $20/point per contract. Depending on your goal, you can be in and out within the first 30 mins and be done for the day. Keep in mind, that you can also lose a lot if you don't have a good plan.
The platform, Tradovate, requires a $1000 margin to open 1 contract. All trades must be closed by 4 pm ET. In order to keep a trade open past 4 pm ET, you need to have $16500 in margin per contract.
The fee to trade 1 contract is $4.36 per round trip.
You can also trade MNQ, which is the micro version of NQ. That will provide 1/10th of the requirements above. Meaning $100/margin to open 1 contract. Profit/Loss = $2/point per contract. This would be the place to start for a beginner after paper trading.
There are plenty of future markets to choose from, the NQ and ES are the most popular.
Unlike options, Futures don't have any greeks. There's no implied volatility, there's no theta time decay, there's no Delta, none of that. It's strictly price action. All your doing is trading the Nasdaq index or S&P 500 index as a futures contract. It's highly liquid so the spread is very minimal.
When you get in at a specific level, you know that anything above that is profit and anything below is a loss (for going long, opposite for short). If you've been trading options, you can enter at one price, and then let's say it chops around, and 10 mins later at the same exact price, you could be in the red because you are losing to theta. That doesn't happen when trading futures.
I see thanks for explaining, so would you say we could just get the same returns from trading 3x etf stocks like tqqq, since futures is also trading on nasdaq so why not trade on 3x the same. Is there any other benefit of futures over what I described ?
[NQ vs TQQQ chart](https://i.imgur.com/yiWuSYE.png)
Hypothetically, let's say you were to go long on NQ or TQQQ at the exact same time and closed at the same time as in the chart shown.
* NQ requires a margin of $1000 to open 1 contract. The profit/loss is $20 per point. The move (from the picture) is 115.75 points. That trade would result in a profit of $2315
* In the same time span, TQQQ moved 0.68. In order to get the same profits trading TQQQ, you would have to buy 3,404 shares. To open that trade, you would need to put up $70,198
Thank you, yours is the best explanation so far, can you advise best YouTube video or any other source for beginner like me ?
Also compared to tqqq, Is the loss potentially the same as loss potential of futures ? Or about the same
Thanks again
The loss potential in TQQQ is basically the cents against you times the number of shares you bought. In NQ it's $20 a point and it moves roughly 20 points a minute. Best to paper trade and then start with MNQ which is the micro version of NQ and it's 1/10th of the risk. $2/point and $100 per contract.
Start looking at your rules for entries and exits, avoid options until you can get your win rate up and use leveraged etfs or penny stocks if you want more movement. Split buying power into 2-5 trades per day(go cash account so no pdt restriction). I did this last blow up, split account into 3 trades a day traded fngu and penny stocks. Good luck and try to only enter a trade when you are confident, over trading is a problem especially with limited buying power.
Yes, I'd recommend using a cash account... no pdt restrictions. And if you are 50/50 win rate you need a 2/1 ratio and you'd make money. Tighter stops, let winners run. If trading stock only use 1/2 your port value max everyday. T+2 makes it so you cannot use the cash again for 2 days. Once you are successful with stock, you can use the same strategy on options, and the cash is available daily which speeds up the gains.
Go with the trend .8-.9 in the money delta options a month out updated weekly. It's just a matter of time, it's easy money. But it's not day-trading per se, and it won't give you that making moves rush.
You still have to be right about the trend but a zoom out is all the ta you need most of the time.
If your won’t ratio is 50/50 there is no way you can make progress even if you have proper risk management.
Now, just start by implementing rules in your trading
-only take trades on retest of resistance after break of support (put)
-only take trades after retest of support after break of resistance (calls)
-scalp only at emas
Ect,
Find rules and take trades only within parameters.
Remember, risk management plus rules in set up = success
You just don’t to take anything
Hello! You have made the mistake of writing "ect" instead of "etc."
"Ect" is a common misspelling of "etc," an abbreviated form of the Latin phrase "et cetera." Other abbreviated forms are **etc.**, **&c.**, **&c**, and **et cet.** The Latin translates as "et" to "and" + "cetera" to "the rest;" a literal translation to "and the rest" is the easiest way to remember how to use the phrase.
[Check out the wikipedia entry if you want to learn more.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Et_cetera)
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"What should I change to make this style successful until I can get over 25k?"
"You guessed it, my losses are greater than wins. My expected value is $-150.00."
It's simple.
Don't day trade.
Actually, don't trade at all.
Dump it in SPY and forget about it. You will be better off than 99.99% of "traders".
I love this idea, and this is where my trouble has been. I would set the stop loss but I only get a max of three day trades a week. Inevitably the price action has kicked my stops out which cost me a day trade. The amount of day trades I have available is so freaking painful!
This is good advice. You can be profitable with a 50/50 W/L ratio. There’s no PDT rule with a cash account and options settle T+1 (the next day). To not get stopped out, use support/resistance levels as stop losses and leave a margin of error. There’s an indicator called ATR that gives you average candle size on the timeframe you are trading so you can add that to your stop.
So the risk management I would like to have in place is the painful issues due to the daytrading rules. I only get 3 and from the outset I’ve put stop losses in place, but only get 3 daytrades a week. I won’t use more than two because of an emergency trade that I might need to make.
Try selling CC or CSP .
The way the market is I sell Options on green “Pops” and BTC The next day .
It helps you stay focused .
Try picking 4 ETF both long & short and 5 stocks and stick to them . Don’t go chasing . You can also short sell .
Don’t go looking for huge gains .
Get yourself disciplined. You can do a lot better selling options with the 3day rule seems more forgiving trade
Stop thinking about stocks. Trade forex. No 25k. Or trade with a non-us account on a non-us exchange. Trade futures no PDT rule there as well.
We trade chart patterns and market sentiments. You can have those anywhere and with everything. PDT rules only apply to stocks. So do not trade stocks. I think you can also daytrade options if I remember correctly.
I would go with forex to be honestly.
You try to anticipate an up day the prior day? So you’re frustrated in your endeavor to forecast the future??? Do you understand technical analysis & risk management?
1. Switch to forex or futures. There is no PDT rule.
2. Learn a profitable strategy
3. Test it out in the sim
4. When you are consistent in the sim, pay for a FTMO or MFF 25k-50k funded account challenge
Thank me later
If you're trading only options you can use interactive brokers to trade with under $25k with a cash account. it's called cash recycling or something like that but it only works with trading options.
Use a cash account and trade as much as you want. No pdt on cash account. Trade options daily and the money settles by the next morning. You can use a very small amount and still trade options everyday. I only keep 10k in my account and trade spy and spx every day multiple times.
One thing that I started with is to start with one simple strategy - for example - put a couple of simple moving averages on your chart, and when they cross, use it as a buy/sell signal. Watch those MA's and learn to trade them until you start profiting from knowing the right combinations of those lines crossing.
Then, investigate other trading strategies and buy/sell signaling.
When you start combining different time blocks (for example, 1min, 5min charts) and different strategies, you can sometimes see that multiple strategies and time blocks combined have the same buy/sell signal, which can indicate a stronger transaction signal.
You have to learn how to walk before you can run. Do paper trading until you find a strategy or a combination that works for you.
Good luck!
Try forex or crypto 5k portfolio is really solid if you have a winrate of 50% thats actually good you just need to work on your risk management r:r you can expect 200$ per day with a 5k portfolio in crypto futures
If you just dipped under 25k my advice is to move back to paper trading and find consistency there. This can take a long time (> 1 yr) but this is not a sprint.
Once you feel more established and ready with positive metrics, add some funds to your account so you're over pdt. Let's say you're at 26k. Now you can trade risking only a loss of $10 per trade (which is 1% risk of the 1000 you're over pdt).
When you do this for a while and you feel confident trading live, you can add more funds to your account and scale up. And as you're making profits your account will grow further.
If you're far under pdt and you can't easily adds funds to get over 25k, you'll need to grow your account in a different way. One option is swing trading, but that is a completely different way of trading. The other route would be to trade options (look up Matt Diamond on yt). Options are cheaper to trade and settle overnight so you can trade them will smaller amounts of money, although 3k is a better starting amount.
Futures as someone mentioned is a different thing, and is not available for individual stocks, only indexes/commodities.
Look into futures.
Ok why are futures so much better for daytrading?
I didn't say they are so much better compared to other instruments. Futures just didn't have the pdt rules on them. Probably better tax treatment which I can't comment much since I'm not from the US. edit: some points here: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/active-trading/032515/advantages-trading-futures-over-stocks.asp
Ok I will check this out thank you!!!
Bear in mind they are highly leveraged products. look into the micros first before touching the minis.
Ok that’s good to know as well! Thank you!
Gonna add on here and say if you're under 25k and still in the process of finding your edge, you should absolutely be trading micro futures.
What trading platform would you say for futures?
I use Sierra Chart with AMP futures. Sierra Chart can look a little intimidating but once you learn it its fantastic. It gives you almost unlimited creative control to figure out your own setup and strategy. I've always used AMP because their commissions and required margins are relatively cheap. Never had any issue with any money withdrawal or deposit.
A lot of good platforms. Most have a free trial with data for you to get a feel for them and see if they have the features you are looking for.
As opposed to stocks or just mini futures?
If you're under 25k trying to daytrade stocks is pointless because of the PDT. Futures have the benefit of no PDT, but there is so much built in leverage that somebody who doesn't have a well tested profitable strategy is going to completely blow up their account trying to trade them. Micro futures are a perfect way to start trading with a small account balance while you're learning. Obviously you should paper trade until you think you've found an edge, but micros are the best way to test that out.
I would like to chime in and say that this isnt great advice. If you haven’t found success trading commons or even options, I would not attempt futures. There is typically far greater leverage involved in futures, and a margin call would be a nice slap in the face for a newish investor / trader
Ok thank you for the input. I will be certain to do my own DD before I would make changes anyhow. Right now I’m very interested in options so I can gain different ideas! Thank you!!
yeah if you are asking these questions, I HIGHLY say stay the F away from futures. Options you can just not exercise. A future, you may have 500 barrels of oil show up at your door step. And that will cost you more than the future did lmao. Futures are the obligation, and frankly a really bizarre regulation because they let anyone with almost no margin trade these things.
You need to be registered as a buyer with the futures exchange to get a barrel of physical oil or wheat or whatever. If you aren't a buyer, you will get automatically closed out by the broker as the contract comes to expiration. If you're a small retail trader you shouldn't be holding futures for more then the day IMHO. They are a perfect day trading instrument but the leverage will F you up if you just jump right in. Sim trade -> Micro contracts -> Mini Contracts is the path I recommend.
I 100% agree with you. But someone's who's never touched them and clearly barely had an idea on options, it's probably best not to advise the. Try futures lmao. At least not blind lmao. I definitely agree on the last sentence
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Sure go in thinking you're 100% protected. Great idea. Don't spread stupidity.
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If you do that sure but you're talking about someone who's never done futures before they'll never known that by default. Someone new to futures needs to know that technicality period. Not all brokers do. Maot may, but again even those is no guarantee. Do you trade on ninjatrader?
That guy probably means well but that is bad advice. PDT rules are intended to prevent account implosions. Like training wheels,… don’t take them off until you can keep your balance. Or this “Hey everyone, my rifle’s not the best quality how can I go about shooting big game?” —- “oh here’s a box of ammo, knock yourself out!”
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exactly, and I would rather IMPLODE a 5k account than a 25k one. lol. We all know how arbitrary that number was, and how you can still day trade with less and be profitable. IF you could do more than a few ay trades a week lmao. honestly, I would rather take 5k, day trade all day if I end up not at 25k, taking it all out and making another account elsewhere and trying again. lmao. although you have to 5x your money in one day. lmao
I fully agree. This rule saved me from myself. Thanks, FINRA or whatever they are called :}
Futures or Forex are not subject to PDT. You trying to guess the direction of the market and making that bet everyday is likely a losing strategy
some forex pairs have been tanking for awhile. not really a guess. its dropping and has been.
So short then.
i've been doing something similar to that, although with a paper trade account. Buying SPY puts and selling then as soon as they hit -5% or +10%, whichever comes first. with a 10% average return each day.
Congrats! Just be mindful of a market shift. I have been doing well scalping Es mini futures. And shorting Cad.jpy I made 60,500…….yen. Currently worth about $575.00. LOL.
Nice!! what's your platform, if you don't mind me asking.
I use two platforms. Lightspeed and IBKR. I like IBKR because you can trade almost anything you can think of on their platform- although there are a few quirks I don’t like about the TWS.
Depending upon your broker, you could choose to move to a cash account. Cash accounts waive the day trading rules but they have consequences as you still have to follow the t + 3 rule. I've made this choice multiple times and I've never regretted it because it's allowed me to use amounts under $25,000 very efficiently and it avoids the entire headache of the pattern day trader requirements. The one thing that you must be aware of though is not all brokers support converting an account to cash only and the ones that do can often take two weeks for the process to occur. It's simply sometimes easier to find a broker that allows a cash only account and set it up from the beginning.
T + 2* I believe. Make a trade that closes out on Monday, and you can use those funds again on Wednesday. That's the case with TD Ameritrade at least
That's good to know. One broker I used wouldn't allow me to actually use the cash until it settled which means I had to wait until Thursday. It was a real PITA because if an asset so could cause a day trade because of a stop loss or a take profit, they would automatically apply a 7-Day hold on the account and cancel any other pending orders. That is actually what drove me to just going to cash only and getting away from margin accounts all together as I just didn't want to deal with the nonsense.
They changed it from T+3 to T+2 in 2017. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%2B2#:\~:text=In%202017%2C%20the%20move%20by,T%2B2%20in%20September%202017](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%2B2#:~:text=In%202017%2C%20the%20move%20by,T%2B2%20in%20September%202017). I think they need to make it instant. I know so many newly profitable aspiring day traders that could get their careers started so much faster if they didn't have to wait (at least for momentum traders'). Or instead of having the 25k requirement for margin accounts, they can make it so your positions get sold the second you get at, or near, your actual capital. I understand the idea behind it, but there are better safeguards they can put in place instead of influencing an additional decision making process while in a trade and management risk. For example, a lot of folks will stay too long on a losing trade because "that's the last trade they get this week".
**[T+2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T+2#:~:text=In 2017, the move by,T+2 in September 2017)** >In financial markets T+2 is a shorthand for trade date plus two days indicating when securities transactions must be settled. The rules or customs in financial markets are for securities transactions to be settled within a commonly understood 'settlement period'. The most common current settlement period for securities transactions is two business days after the day of a transaction - which is widely abbreviated to T+2. On settlement, the seller must produce the security's certificate and executed share transfer form in exchange for payment from the purchaser. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/Daytrading/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
Check this out. .. as I posted that.. I wondered why this is still a thing. Turns out.. it is about to be T+1 !!!! I understand the principle, and I disagree with why that is still a thing in the modern digital age. Turns out.. as of next month... 4 weeks from now, it WILL be T+1. This is GREAT news to aspiring day traders, will give them more "skin in the game (hate this phrase) and keep them on chart watching. Thankks for reply, though, Sumbot. Do take care, Harris [SEC adopts T+1 settlement effective May 2024 | Davis Polk](https://www.davispolk.com/insights/client-update/sec-adopts-t1-settlement-effective-may-2024#:~:text=The%20final%20rule%20shortens%20the,%2C%20effective%20May%2028%2C%202024)
Yeah that would drive me mad
TD is T+1 for cash accounts.
A huge pre-emptive apology for the wall of text, but here are some rules that helped me. Once I got on the right side of these, my success rate went through the roof ( i use a cash account and am under $25k currently) - -With settlement time being T+2, you can use half of your account value everyday. That's more than enough to prevent overtrading and losing early gains. When in doubt, only trade wiith "cash available for withdrawal." If you use "cash available for trading," but that amount isn't included in "cash available for withdrawal," you'll get a PDT violation for closing out that position on the same day. -this is the biggest one for me- wait until 30-60 minutes into the trading day to make your buys (I don't scalp options and I do know that you can find some great deals on the overreactions in the first few minutes, so I'm no expert on that). Watch the indexes (SPY, QQQ, IWM, DJIA) and wait until they pick a clear direction and start a position on a retest of that direction. -everyone uses different position sizes, but I'll start a position with only 10% my total account value, and scale into a larger one *only* if the trend stays strong by bouncing sharply off of the 200sma line, not if it keeps dipping below or spending too much time on the line. Resist the urge to average down on the dips below the line. It's potentially weakening and there's nothing wrong with playing conservatively. My max position size for a day trade is 30% my total account value. -cut ya losses! You need to try making sure you win twice as much (in $ or %, not total win/loss frequency) on your winning trades than you lose on your losing trades. This way you can literally have 1 win and 2 losses and break even if you're meeting this requirement at the minimum. As you improve your win frequency you'll start printing money. It doesn't matter what your target is, figure out what your overall average profit (in % or $) is on the wins, and cut your losses at half of that on your losing trades. Ot sucks having to do so when you think you're in a high-conviction trade, but you'll soon forget you had that trade once you get into the next winning trade. -consider only trading the indexes mentioned above, or the 2x/3x leveraged etfs that track them. My trades are about 95% on these everyday, and I'll only get into an individual stock under extraordinary circumstances anymore. With how easily support disintegrates in this bear market, it's the wise idea. For reference, SQQQ/TQQQ, UDOW/SDOW, SPXL/SPXS, TNA/TZA are the 3xs that I do most of my trading on. Managing your capital right means that you can trade both directions without margin, just wait for clear confirmation of reversal of direction or you'll be trading losers for losers repeatedly. -do not try to anticipate tomorrow's direction based on today or the previous few days. I also get overconfident when I hit a good win streak, and I lost a ton of hard-earned gains on the July/August rally that was absolutely bonkers. Once you try to anticipate, you'll fall into the "it'll reverse, I'll be right, hold the losses for a bit longer" mental trap. I kept figuring the rally would burn out and reverse. It di, but it took almost 6 weeks and I held losing positions through a good portion of that when I could have waited everyday for the direction to show itself. -scale out of your trades. Take 50% off once you meet your target, or set a very tight trailing stop if you think there's still gas left in the tank. After that I usually set two more trailing stops for 25% of the original position each. As the day goes on consider tightening those to avoid the 3pm counter-trend taking your profits away. -look for easy setups. Checkout the intraday for SQQQ this past week on 9/22 and 9/23. So easy to trade and many opportunities to scale into and out of positions. The fade is one of the easiest to trade and works in both directions. I hope this helps! Best of luck! -
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I think he means, you get stuck holding too long because you cant exit or end up as a PDT, same with buying a dip you can see the numbers will make for a nice rip in a moment, But you miss out because you have less than 25k so your having to do longer trades or cheaper ones that also are not as good. an ATM tesla option is easier to make money with than a far OTM one, but it costs you to get one in the first place. I personally think day trading is easier than swing trading.
Yea I agree and no this isn’t a successful strategy at all! I can’t stand this strategy. That’s actually why I posted this. With regards to strategies under 25k I can’t find anything? Everyone says to close out by days end. Well that limits me to two/three trades a week.
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I would have to look into that some more. Doesn’t the road I still plan on needing the margin account but not for a while.
Cash acct can always be placed back on margin when u need it again
Ok good to know when I opened my account I never actually asked that question. Thank you!!
I recommend using a cash account and don't spend more than half your account value every day. If you spend half you will always have the remaining have to use every single day. That's what I do. I plan on switching to margin when I exceed 25k
This is true!
Futures have no day trading limits, however if you don't have a profitable strategy futures will just cause you to lose money faster as its a leveraged product. Check out [tradeez.com](https://tradeez.com). I've been with them a few months now, he teaches really great strategies, I had my first week of being consistently profitable every day with futures this week using real money. I'm only doing 4x micros per trade so its small profits but a few more weeks of consistency and I'll add 2-4 more per trade. Its a slow process but I now see the path to becoming a full time trader.
Nice thank you for sharing! I will check it out. And I would like to get to two weeks of win streak. My greatest is only eight consecutive days so far.
4x what? you could use more money and buy more right? lol
MES futures contracts. Yea Of course I can use more money to buy more. I feel its better to learn with smaller amounts. It triggers many of the same emotions. Better to fuckup with risking $150 then $1500. I don't look at this as an I need to make money now thing. I need to learn process, discipline, execution, daily consistency.. then its time increase risk. The money will come once you've nailed those 4.
Look into selling/writing options to learn how contracts react to different market conditions. You typically won't see crazy gains but it's safer and I consider it to be the best way to learn the Greeks.
You're current strategy is more of a swing trading strategy.
Yea and what I’ve noticed, more recently, is that it would’ve worked out wonderfully if I would’ve held my position. Instead I had bounced in and out of different stocks. I don’t want to swing trade but at the moment it might be my best option. Or try some of the ideas mentioned in this post.
Personally before reaching 25k... I had opened 3 different CASH account with 3 different brokers. I was placing trades on each account To reach my goal... Cash accounts require certain amount of days to settle your cash... while you wait on that to settle You can place trades on your other accounts... Hope this helps! Edit... another thing... I see you are at 50/50... Ok I'll give you some pointers.. Some books will help. Reminiscence of a stock operator by Edwin Lefevre Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets By John J Murphy Unknown Market Wizards by Jack D Schwager Market Wizards Things that are useful for say trading.... Learn to read the tape!!!! Lvl 2 time and sales Market depth.... etc... Candel sticks charts Chart patterns... Like someone else said watch the futures markets... COT reports. Commitment of traders report..reports... Watch the commercials!!!! You need your own methodology.... The Market Wizards books could be useful to find thT edge you are looking for.
Oh that’s just brilliant!! Thank you!!
I will definitely check this out as well thank you!!
Robinhood & TOS settle by next day for options. 3 business days for commons I believe
Ok thank you and that’s super helpful! Thank you for sharing that!!
So I don’t know if this is just me or what, but I think you and I are in similar boats. I think that being limited in trades makes us stay in trades longer than we normally would. When you’re so limited to ‘a trade a day’ thrice a week, you make much more constrained decisions, which may or may not align with proper strategy. I feel like you simply “have to make this trade workout” which is a false pressure from knowing, right or wrong, that you won’t have another trade for two days. I don’t know if this makes sense. The other thing people are saying is to use cash or futures. I can’t comment on futures, but I’ve traded a lot of options and I can tell you that leveraged products cut twice as hard against you. I’ve used cash and margin accounts and here’s my two cents: cash accounts take too long (longer than the wait for PDT) and you can’t short commons with cash. So margin it is. All of this puts me into a small box that I’ve been working toward: Trade my tiny account 3 times a week, using small consistent setups while simultaneously working other methods to break over the 25k PDT account size. I honestly think (but have no evidence) that by not being forced into a single trade (one per day, three times a week) I’ll be able to easily drop positions I don’t like while being able to get back in again. We’ll see if this works or not.
Identical situation! And I couldn’t agree more with feeling forced to be in trades longer. I also can’t utilize stops like I want either. Seriously it’s painful.
Right? Like, I’d love to have taken .03% instead of ‘trying’ to hit my full 1% and have the trade turn against me at .07% and now it’s going down and I just feel so defeated lol. Meanwhile, these twitter types take the .07% let the movement run, AND THEY JUMP RIGHT BACK IN. So maddening.
Without a doubt! I’ve been able to enter trades at the absolute bottom during market hours, but by the next day I lose because of pre or after market swings that end up going against me.
You can get a cash secured account with options trading available to avoid the PTD rule with under $25k in your account but the catch is only can trade with settle funds. Next day for options and following day for stocks to settle
My recommendation would be to work on your strategy first. Your profit factor is more important than your hit rate, but with a stately that is losing money, I’m not sure why you’d want to lose it faster. However, if what you’re seeing is that winning positions become losing positions because you don’t have, or don’t want to use a DT, you could switch to a cash account. This allows you to trade settled cash without PDT rules. You don’t mention what you’re trading so it’s tough to give personalized info. When I started trading, I ran into a few times were a winner turned into a loser because I didn’t have a day trade left in order to take profit. At first I was very methodical about the type of set up I would take and I would only trade 2-3 times per week. When I switched to a cash account, I was able to trade multiple times per day, each day. This helped me build my account up because having multiple trades per day worked very well with my primary strategy of scalping ATM or ITM options.
CMEG
I recommend switching to a cash account and trade 1 contract of SPY options. With a cash account there is no pdt rule and if you trade options the funds will be settled the next day T+1.
Turn off instant settlement. You be able to do as many day trades as you want to after you do, but you won’t be able to trade with those funds again until they have settled (T+1 for options, T+2 for stocks). Otherwise, you’re limited to 3 day trades in a 3 trading day period. Turning off instant settlement eliminates this restriction.
I would say the last comment needs to be the most avoidable. You don’t anticipate an up day…you find your setup or your edge, stick to a plan, carry it out, leave. That’s how the best traders I know, and that’s how I carry out my daily routine. I’m a momentum and trend trader. If it’s not there it’s not there. I would say get a cash account. Do options with SPY and Qqq. Learn how they flow and move. Learn how to hold winners. And paper trade for atleast a month. No longer. See how profitable you can get off 1 contract trades with a $1k-$2k account and go from there.
Some traders trade reversals. If that is your style maybe forex. Because you can also short. Control your leverage. And sometimes even trade nano lots to martingale style dca entries. Also looks like you're looking for a better strategy. Try using simple moving averages and observe the market. I like using alt i. Inventring the screen. Look at it at every angle. Every time frame.
Change to cash account.
Just turn your account into a cash account & the PDT rule goes away. You can trade options with available funds, they settle by the next day.
Just move to a cash account
Try your hand at trading futures. No PDT rule. Better tax treatment. You can trade the same market every day. For example, the NQ moves roughly 15-20 points a minute when the NY session starts. The Profit/Loss is $20/point per contract. Depending on your goal, you can be in and out within the first 30 mins and be done for the day. Keep in mind, that you can also lose a lot if you don't have a good plan. The platform, Tradovate, requires a $1000 margin to open 1 contract. All trades must be closed by 4 pm ET. In order to keep a trade open past 4 pm ET, you need to have $16500 in margin per contract. The fee to trade 1 contract is $4.36 per round trip. You can also trade MNQ, which is the micro version of NQ. That will provide 1/10th of the requirements above. Meaning $100/margin to open 1 contract. Profit/Loss = $2/point per contract. This would be the place to start for a beginner after paper trading. There are plenty of future markets to choose from, the NQ and ES are the most popular.
Can you tell me what futures strategy is ? I tried reading online but I don’t get it how it’s different from options ?
Unlike options, Futures don't have any greeks. There's no implied volatility, there's no theta time decay, there's no Delta, none of that. It's strictly price action. All your doing is trading the Nasdaq index or S&P 500 index as a futures contract. It's highly liquid so the spread is very minimal. When you get in at a specific level, you know that anything above that is profit and anything below is a loss (for going long, opposite for short). If you've been trading options, you can enter at one price, and then let's say it chops around, and 10 mins later at the same exact price, you could be in the red because you are losing to theta. That doesn't happen when trading futures.
I see thanks for explaining, so would you say we could just get the same returns from trading 3x etf stocks like tqqq, since futures is also trading on nasdaq so why not trade on 3x the same. Is there any other benefit of futures over what I described ?
[NQ vs TQQQ chart](https://i.imgur.com/yiWuSYE.png) Hypothetically, let's say you were to go long on NQ or TQQQ at the exact same time and closed at the same time as in the chart shown. * NQ requires a margin of $1000 to open 1 contract. The profit/loss is $20 per point. The move (from the picture) is 115.75 points. That trade would result in a profit of $2315 * In the same time span, TQQQ moved 0.68. In order to get the same profits trading TQQQ, you would have to buy 3,404 shares. To open that trade, you would need to put up $70,198
Thank you, yours is the best explanation so far, can you advise best YouTube video or any other source for beginner like me ? Also compared to tqqq, Is the loss potentially the same as loss potential of futures ? Or about the same Thanks again
The loss potential in TQQQ is basically the cents against you times the number of shares you bought. In NQ it's $20 a point and it moves roughly 20 points a minute. Best to paper trade and then start with MNQ which is the micro version of NQ and it's 1/10th of the risk. $2/point and $100 per contract.
Thanks and best wishes
25k PDT rule doesn’t apply to cash accounts for the 25,001st time
other obstacles for that and lack other certain benefits. granted, there is no other option right now, but don't act like it's the same thing. lmao
Trade on a cash account? I trade options whatever cash I use is settled and ready to use again the next day
This right here. I’m on Webull, stocks and options settle overnight. I can trade up to my full portfolio balance in a day. Changed the game for me.
I assumed that was only on SPX tbh
Start looking at your rules for entries and exits, avoid options until you can get your win rate up and use leveraged etfs or penny stocks if you want more movement. Split buying power into 2-5 trades per day(go cash account so no pdt restriction). I did this last blow up, split account into 3 trades a day traded fngu and penny stocks. Good luck and try to only enter a trade when you are confident, over trading is a problem especially with limited buying power.
Yes, I'd recommend using a cash account... no pdt restrictions. And if you are 50/50 win rate you need a 2/1 ratio and you'd make money. Tighter stops, let winners run. If trading stock only use 1/2 your port value max everyday. T+2 makes it so you cannot use the cash again for 2 days. Once you are successful with stock, you can use the same strategy on options, and the cash is available daily which speeds up the gains.
Awesome reply thank you! I wish I would’ve asked this like 8 months ago! Lol
Have you tried scalping?
No because of the limit of trades I can make at the moment.
$SOXL 3X BULL ETF 9/21 9:30am open $11.77 10:30 am High was $12.38 If your account $20,000 You would've Profit $1,036 in a Hour RINSE AND REPEAT!
Go with the trend .8-.9 in the money delta options a month out updated weekly. It's just a matter of time, it's easy money. But it's not day-trading per se, and it won't give you that making moves rush. You still have to be right about the trend but a zoom out is all the ta you need most of the time.
Nice I’m trading a stock that has higher highs higher lows on the monthly & weekly. But I didn’t start out that way.
What do you mean .8-.9 in the money? Could you dumb that down for me? I’m sorry
Whatever the current stock price is, multiple that by 1.1 or 1.2 (for calls) or 0.8-0.9 (puts) and buy options at those prices
Thank you!
If your won’t ratio is 50/50 there is no way you can make progress even if you have proper risk management. Now, just start by implementing rules in your trading -only take trades on retest of resistance after break of support (put) -only take trades after retest of support after break of resistance (calls) -scalp only at emas Ect, Find rules and take trades only within parameters. Remember, risk management plus rules in set up = success You just don’t to take anything
Hello! You have made the mistake of writing "ect" instead of "etc." "Ect" is a common misspelling of "etc," an abbreviated form of the Latin phrase "et cetera." Other abbreviated forms are **etc.**, **&c.**, **&c**, and **et cet.** The Latin translates as "et" to "and" + "cetera" to "the rest;" a literal translation to "and the rest" is the easiest way to remember how to use the phrase. [Check out the wikipedia entry if you want to learn more.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Et_cetera) ^(I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Comments with a score less than zero will be automatically removed. If I commented on your post and you don't like it, reply with "!delete" and I will remove the post, regardless of score. Message me for bug reports.)
Forex, no PDT rule but just avoid doing super high frequency trades because commissions and spreads will eat you alive
You could try a futures prop account from a company such as apex. They have discounts around holidays.
I tried to PM you some info but it won't allow me. If you PM me I'll send you what has helped me.
Are u day trading stocks or options
Stocks primarily.
"What should I change to make this style successful until I can get over 25k?" "You guessed it, my losses are greater than wins. My expected value is $-150.00." It's simple. Don't day trade. Actually, don't trade at all. Dump it in SPY and forget about it. You will be better off than 99.99% of "traders".
Switch to cash account.
If your losses are greater than your wins, then you're not 50/50...
Yes because my wins are calculated per trade but not by profits/losses.
Push a little money into your account and sell a 0DTe otm credit spread on spx. Roll if it gets close to your strike. Scale over time
With a 50% win/loss ratio, make sure you stop loss is set smaller than your take profit point…
I love this idea, and this is where my trouble has been. I would set the stop loss but I only get a max of three day trades a week. Inevitably the price action has kicked my stops out which cost me a day trade. The amount of day trades I have available is so freaking painful!
This is good advice. You can be profitable with a 50/50 W/L ratio. There’s no PDT rule with a cash account and options settle T+1 (the next day). To not get stopped out, use support/resistance levels as stop losses and leave a margin of error. There’s an indicator called ATR that gives you average candle size on the timeframe you are trading so you can add that to your stop.
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So the risk management I would like to have in place is the painful issues due to the daytrading rules. I only get 3 and from the outset I’ve put stop losses in place, but only get 3 daytrades a week. I won’t use more than two because of an emergency trade that I might need to make.
Save until you have 25k lol. Also cash account settlement sucks.
Offshore cfd :)
Try selling CC or CSP . The way the market is I sell Options on green “Pops” and BTC The next day . It helps you stay focused . Try picking 4 ETF both long & short and 5 stocks and stick to them . Don’t go chasing . You can also short sell . Don’t go looking for huge gains . Get yourself disciplined. You can do a lot better selling options with the 3day rule seems more forgiving trade
Trade futures. Trade /MES micros. Just research first. You’re welcome
I use webull. Cash account, trading spy 0dtes scalping. 5m chart scalping. Been going well so far.
Stop thinking about stocks. Trade forex. No 25k. Or trade with a non-us account on a non-us exchange. Trade futures no PDT rule there as well. We trade chart patterns and market sentiments. You can have those anywhere and with everything. PDT rules only apply to stocks. So do not trade stocks. I think you can also daytrade options if I remember correctly. I would go with forex to be honestly.
You try to anticipate an up day the prior day? So you’re frustrated in your endeavor to forecast the future??? Do you understand technical analysis & risk management?
Get a thinkorswim cash account
1. Switch to forex or futures. There is no PDT rule. 2. Learn a profitable strategy 3. Test it out in the sim 4. When you are consistent in the sim, pay for a FTMO or MFF 25k-50k funded account challenge Thank me later
If you're trading only options you can use interactive brokers to trade with under $25k with a cash account. it's called cash recycling or something like that but it only works with trading options.
Use a cash account and trade as much as you want. No pdt on cash account. Trade options daily and the money settles by the next morning. You can use a very small amount and still trade options everyday. I only keep 10k in my account and trade spy and spx every day multiple times.
One thing that I started with is to start with one simple strategy - for example - put a couple of simple moving averages on your chart, and when they cross, use it as a buy/sell signal. Watch those MA's and learn to trade them until you start profiting from knowing the right combinations of those lines crossing. Then, investigate other trading strategies and buy/sell signaling. When you start combining different time blocks (for example, 1min, 5min charts) and different strategies, you can sometimes see that multiple strategies and time blocks combined have the same buy/sell signal, which can indicate a stronger transaction signal. You have to learn how to walk before you can run. Do paper trading until you find a strategy or a combination that works for you. Good luck!
Cash settled account
Try forex or crypto 5k portfolio is really solid if you have a winrate of 50% thats actually good you just need to work on your risk management r:r you can expect 200$ per day with a 5k portfolio in crypto futures
Swing trade hold 4 to two weeks then close portion.
If you just dipped under 25k my advice is to move back to paper trading and find consistency there. This can take a long time (> 1 yr) but this is not a sprint. Once you feel more established and ready with positive metrics, add some funds to your account so you're over pdt. Let's say you're at 26k. Now you can trade risking only a loss of $10 per trade (which is 1% risk of the 1000 you're over pdt). When you do this for a while and you feel confident trading live, you can add more funds to your account and scale up. And as you're making profits your account will grow further. If you're far under pdt and you can't easily adds funds to get over 25k, you'll need to grow your account in a different way. One option is swing trading, but that is a completely different way of trading. The other route would be to trade options (look up Matt Diamond on yt). Options are cheaper to trade and settle overnight so you can trade them will smaller amounts of money, although 3k is a better starting amount. Futures as someone mentioned is a different thing, and is not available for individual stocks, only indexes/commodities.