Day trading from home

SailorSam

JohnRo wrote: »

Simple, just double down to win it all back the following month... what could possibly go wrong.

How to make a small fortune by day trading,
Start off with a big fortune.

brasso

£highflyer wrote: »

I was thinking along the lines of 10k starting balance, and aiming to steadily increase this on a daily basis. I was just wondering what would be a simple platform to use as a beginner

"Aiming to steadily increase this on a daily basis". You may be aiming, but what's backing up this daily success? What expertise do you have that makes you think you can consistently stay ahead?

It's easy to be seduced by the stories of day trading but do the maths. Doubling your money in a year would be a great performance for most I suspect, but in your case this would mean only 10K to compensate for all that stress and vitamin D deficiency. And the chances of repeating that performance in Year 2 are tiny.

10K seems nowhere near enough once you factor in trading fees and the cost of research tools. The truth is that you are very likely to end up losing your money. Very likely. Don't say you weren't warned.

Thrugelmir

£highflyer wrote: »

I was thinking along the lines of 10k starting balance, and aiming to steadily increase this on a daily basis. I was just wondering what would be a simple platform to use as a beginner

What do you know that the market traders don't?

Access to Company management, analysis of financial data, real time prices, best prices.

As with any market. There's only 2 sides to a trade. A winner and a loser.

chronicsaver

I'm part time. Pretty much do it as I work. I've made about £1000 this month. With that said, when the market tanks and you're on the wrong side, it can really tank. I lost £350 yday on the sharp DAX sell off and started chasing my losses, ended up being £500 in the end. Made a bit of it back today with a £280 profit. Just got to make sure you keep stop losses tight and don't take silly risk. FYI, I started off with £3,000 in my account.

I don't trade individual stocks, but trade major indices FTSe, DAX, DOW

bigfreddiel

£highflyer wrote: »

I was thinking along the lines of 10k starting balance, and aiming to steadily increase this on a daily basis. I was just wondering what would be a simple platform to use as a beginner

Rather than worry about the platform worry about your trading strategy. In fact could you let us all know what it is please?

Cheers fj

Annisele

£highflyer wrote: »

I was thinking along the lines of 10k starting balance, and aiming to steadily increase this on a daily basis. I was just wondering what would be a simple platform to use as a beginner

If you're thinking of generating enough money to live off, that's nowhere near enough. I think bowlhead is right; £200k might be enough if you're lucky and if you're prepared to live like a hermit.

If a decent sized position goes against you, you can get a fast loss of £5k even with stop losses. If you don't place guaranteed stops, you might lose the entire £10k when you gap through your stop. If you do use a guaranteed stop, that'll cost you.

JohnRo

I spread bet the major indexes and have for about twelve years but only as a somewhat less than enthusiastic amatuer.

Another problem with stops, even when they behave impeccably is that tight stops limit the downside but often get closed out by a relatively minor movement against the position, even if the prediction was eventually right at the end of the day. Where as longer stops run the risk of a significant market shift going against the position for several days, weeks, months with all the rollover costs that involves. Ladders help but it's still the same problem, it just means the open position(s) don't look as bad at any one time.

I never risk more than about 1% of the account balance in open positions and set trailing stops at around 5%, no limits but sometimes weaken and close them too early. I find the whole thing complete and utter tedium for the most part if I'm honest, the days of feeling like I was going to make a fortune, hanging off the edge of a cliff with all euphoria and anxiety at every gain and loss on wildly over extended positions are long gone.

When markets are quiet is the worst time because the tempation (for me at least) was to try and force gains with larger bets and that rarely ends well, and even when they're not quiet and I'm making a few steady gains the position sizes won't ever make huge sums.

The only reason I still trade the indexes is to hedge my investments against a major correction or sharp fall with short positions, while also playing with the volatility a little.

In the past every time I got greedy and placed larger bets, almost without fail, I either escaped by the skin of my teeth or got burned.

I have managed to make a fairly steady if somewhat lumpy return for the last few years but that return hasn't been anything my investments aren't doing, without almost all of the hassle.

I don't spend all day, every day staring into the screen, studying charts or reading the news and don't kid myself I've discovered the secret winning formula either. I just hold 2 to 5 positions open typically and eventually take a decent profit or more likely a relatively small hit or just about break even if it's a multi.