That sadly is not the case.
February 28th was one of those days where the market just didn’t want to behave itself.
In a period of time were volatility and volume have spiked the movement we have seen in the market over the last week and a half has been near perfect.
February 28th definitely spoiled the party, in the morning session anyway.
When we try to quantify results we only include all valid trades in the morning session. The afternoon moved quite well and there were a number of opportunities to be had that would have brought a positive day.
These are the kind of days that we make sure to share because day trading is about the fundamental concept of winning more than you lose.
Stop losing money day trading
If our trades have a high risk verse reward ratio and high probabilities we should essentially have the viability of making money every day.
Due to economic conditions and the fundamental fact that the market is run by people it is not going to be rational every single day. There were great moves in the morning session but it was only whipsaw movement.
It was simply moving in a certain direction and then moving right back. It reminds us of the kind of movement we saw during the 2001 and the 2008 economic crises.
Have no fear.
There were a handful of traders, are graduate master traders, that were still able to make a profit. These are the same traders that help us run classes to help improve everyone in the training program. There was a funny situation during our morning live class where one trader only took one trade and called it day.
Our live market analysis class wasn’t even over yet and he sent in his chart.
A conservative trader at heart (and honestly one that will join our pros room shortly) he was able to navigate through the whipsaw movement and make a profit with one trade.
Many people discount losing days but they actually are the most important when it comes to education. It is important to learn how not to lose money but also how to manage our emotions and these kinds of situations.
Most of our in-house traders (LTD Project members and day trading center traders) and graduate master traders only have one or two losing days every few months.
The market has given us so much over the course of the last week and a half with double digit winning days that giving a little back was the least that we could do.
All kidding aside, losing days are the most important days for day traders. If someone wants to make a living day trading the first concept to understand is that losing money as part of the game. It allows us to gauge how effective and efficient our system is in addition to identifying how successful we can be.
The concept is that if we can win more than we lose and have our winning trades be bigger than her losers than the shifting market conditions won’t matter. One may read our 2012 beginner results and find that last year we saw a tale of extremes throughout the year.
We had significant range and market movements that included extreme volatility, the lowest volume on record since 2006/2007, and normal trending markets.
Click here to see the complete list of Market Recaps
Cool video Marcelo,
How often should beginner traders be using stop orders or stop limit orders? Is it something you recommend beginners use a lot or only on “whipsaw” days?
Can you make a video showing how you would use a stop limit in a specific trade, entry and exit points.
Every trader should always use stops and limit orders really depend on the strategy. But everyone should definitely use stops no matter what market they trade or what strategy they are using. The details of the management are limited to members of the training program Zach.