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On most days I will be in a trade within the first 3 minutes of the day, and I’m usually completely finished trading by 10:30am EST. Some days I’m done by 9:45am EST, if I get a couple quick wi ers. I keep my trading simple, which is something we teach at Live Traders, so that the learning curve is significantly shorted. I focus on only 2 patterns, and I typically only take 2-3 trades per day. Occasionally 4 or 5, but most days I’ll only trade 2-3 trades and be finished within 1-2 hours. I’d say that’s a pretty good lifestyle. It certainly beats working for ‘the man’ from 9-5 everyday, being told when to show up and what to do.

(Picture: Anmol and Jared on the NYSE Floor.)

Trading also allows me to travel and work from just about anywhere in the world. In fact this past year I spent 3 weeks in Japan, 1 week in Florida, 1 week in the Bahamas, 1 week in California, 4 weeks in Pe sylvania, 2 weeks in New York City and a 2 weeks in Canada as well. That’s over 3 months away from home on MY own terms. Will your boss let you take 14 weeks off? Granted I worked and traded on many of those trips, but that was my choice, not someone else’s. These are just some of the incredible benefits that trading can offer. To further belabor the point, I don’t have to drive in rush hour traffic everyday, I get to see my kids go to school in the morning, and I can pick them up afterwards as well.

When I worked on Wall Street in New York years ago, I left the house at 4:45am and didn’t come home until 7:30-8pm everyday, and sometimes on Saturday’s as well. I couldn’t imagine ever doing that again. The amount freedom, time and flexibility this career provides is something I’m simply not willing to give up. You ca ot put a price on time, especially when it involved being able to spend that extra time with family and friends, it’s truly priceless. But hey, some people still prefer the daily grind of rush hour traffic and bosses telling them what to do. To each their own. I wouldn’t ‘trade’ my schedule for the world.

SUMMARY

• Day trading using technical analysis is a serious business for dedicated professionals.
• Day trading is NOT gambling. It only becomes gambling when you don’t follow the rules and do foolish things, like cost averaging down on losing positions and risking too much money too soon.
• Day trading using technical charts is no different than using a fundamental approach to investing, but with a shorter time horizon and clearer parameters.
• When you begin your career, be sure to get an education. Don’t be cheap in this area or you will regret it later, because everyone pays. Whether you pay the market for experience or you pay for an education, you will pay regardless.
• Choose the type of account that best suites you: Retail, Prop, CAP
• Use a professional trading platform that has direct access and reasonable trade fees. Fusion, Sterling Lightspeed, Trade Station, Interactive Brokers etc are all good platforms.
• Start small, and DO NOT risk a lot of money in the begi ing. This is the #1 mistake people make. You earn the right to raise your risk. The market doesn’t care about you.
• Trust your trading plan. It is there for a reason. It’s just a game of odds.
• Never trade with scared money. This means keep your day job or part-time job until you can replace it with trading. It will be much less stressful this way.
• The timelines to success varies greatly. It can be as little as several months and as long as 5-10 years. From my experience, it’s typically 1-3 years.

CONCLUSION