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Are you an intraday trader as a profession?

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Lammii

Joined
26 November 2008
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hey everyone
i'm new here and wondering do any of you intraday trade as your primary source of income? (as in you're your own boss, not work for a trading firm)

if so maybe you could give me some insight into what you trade and what kind of ballpark figure you could put on your yearly "salary"? (if you feel comfortable)

i'm 22 and just graduated uni. i have around 10k to play with and am wondering if i could earn a living from being an intraday trader. i have read a fair bit and heard mostly stories of people like me with dollar signs in their eyes that get badly burnt in the money markets. any thoughts or feedback will be greatly appreciated!
 
I would suggest $10k is nowhere near enough capital. It could be gone in a flash.....Go and get a job + some experience first, then have a think about it later.....

Cheers,

Beej
 
Not an intraday trader, but have tried and have around the same small capital as you. Very difficult as your unlikely to have, or want to pay for, the tools to help you. Your biggest problem is that you will take on sooo much more risk than others. You put on 10K which is your entire position (which would be a no-no in most professional eyes) and you would need .2% gain to cover costs. Other people could put way, way more, and have way less proportion of their capital. My view is 99.9% chance you'll get burnt. Probably not your entire worth, but you'll lose 2K before you come to your senses.

Your thoughts of making it your day job, is not unique, such as the very beginning of this video attached to this post:

https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13549

You can look into CFDs which give you more leverage, but you will most likely get burnt there if you have no market experience and wouldn't suggest it.

But saying that, just simply trading some stocks and trying intraday gives you some great experience, and lets you see how often what you think will happen.. doesn't.
 
Beej - are you saying that your a day trader and you dont think its enough? or are you just saying you dont think its enough? Have you tried it ?
 
$50,000 min IF you're experienced and have a tested method with positive expectancy and land it big time lucky with a market that suits your style.

If you want to do it properly I would say you need $200,000 capital + $50,000 in cash for living expenses to see you through the first year.

$10,000!!! you have to be friggin kidding. even an experienced trader would be up against it.
 
cbacamden said:
Beej - are you saying that your a day trader and you dont think its enough? or are you just saying you dont think its enough? Have you tried it ?
Click to expand...

I have a lot of experience in this area, and made my living day trading for a time (don't at the moment). In my view you will never reliably make any reasonable amount of money (consistently) trading with that small amount of capital, as the amount of leverage required (as others have stated) would mean you risk way too much and are more likely to loose all your money than make any. You'd have a better chance betting on the horses....

Cheers,

Beej
 
Did you graduate in trading? If not, why would you think that you have acquired the skills required to make a living out of it.
It's like saying: "I've heard about surgeons making big money. I've got a big sharp knife. Do you think I could make a career out of being a surgeon?"
 
ohh thx for all your replies!

@rub92me: i graduated electrical engineering. my thesis was a trading algorithm. it wasn't great, but it got me interested. it was an oscillator that thrived off sideways markets and was often fooled by trending markets. using past data (2003-mid2008 [before the crash i had finished writing it]) it was only beating a compound interest (7% over 5yrs) formula by around 8%.

i suppose the consensus is that i have too little capital and experience. but i am your willing student!

would i be right in thinking for something like intraday trading you would need to try it to ever become "experienced"? hence i wanna start young. so far i've only programmed simulations for end of day trades.
 
If you are a systems trader you are going to need even more capital. IMO

Yes you need to try it for about 3 years. 1st year on sim/back test.

You, at the moment, have no idea. You need screen time. 1000's of hours of it.
 
Trembling Hand said:
If you are a systems trader you are going to need even more capital. IMO

Yes you need to try it for about 3 years. 1st year on sim/back test.

You, at the moment, have no idea. You need screen time. 1000's of hours of it.
Click to expand...

1000s! well i guess i couldn't expect less.

is there any free real time platforms out there for ASX stocks? or maybe cheap-ish?
 
if u r super keen Lammii, i suggest u take a look at $1 index CFDs.

very challenging intraday index trading, but $1pnts will minimise loss and if u r sensible, give u a couple of years training (full-time) with your capital

at the end of which u could conceivably come out with $5k of your 10k still in tact, which is ample if you have developed some skill and consistent profits to move up to $5 pnts and multiples of.

myself i spent about $2500 in my first 12 months as a student of full-time (14hr days) intraday index trading. Now after 12 months I have weeks where I brake even, sometimes take a small loss and sometimes a decent profit, ie. after 12 months I’m no longer going backwards financially, but forwards, and it only cost me $2.5 grand for the training.

So, in sum, intraday index trading does not require a huge stash of cash to get started, if u do the maths, you’ll see this for yourself. Rather its more about working your butt off, and being sensible about your trading.
 
I have the same question but this time directed for Forex intraday traders as opposed to stock traders. Would having a capital of around 10k be enough to get you started on intraday Forex trading with leverage at around the 100:1 mark?

I'm thinking of taking advantage of the 100:1 leverage that will enable me to purchase a 100,000 lot for $1000, with each pip movement equating to roughly $15 AUD.

Currently I'm working full-time so I'm hoping to start intraday trading at night for 2-3 hours a night in a couple of months. I've been playing around with GFT's dealbook 360 application and besides the fact it crashes if you play around with its indicators too much it seems to be pretty good.

Wondering on your thoughts =)
 
BLOODY HELL this question gets tyring!! I know you are a newbie and you have the same right to ask it as the last Newb But!!!!!

Leverage has absolutely FRIGGIN nothing to do with how much you can or should trade. NOTHING.

You can't trade $10,000 like it's $100,000 no matter how much marketing Bull the bucket shops feed you.

Have a good read of this,

https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10621

some more stuff on my blog about daytrading and position sizing/leverage etc.
 
LOL Hey TH! I guess I didn't communicate my post clearly. I was actually after people's experience in succeeding as an intra-day trader on the FOREX starting with a capital of around $10k (More around $7k for me). Also wondering what people's salaries are as a FOREX intra-day trader and what leverage, number of trades they make per day.

In regards to your link and leverage, are you trying to tell me that I should consider risking no more than 2% of my equity per trade? So for example, if I have capital of 5k, then for each leveraged trade, I should risk no more than $100 which would (as a very rough figure) equate to 7-9 pips? That's currently how I'm paper trading atm.
 
It doesnt matter what your trading, 10k is not enough to make a living from.

Sure you can do it in your spare time and grow your capital, but dont expect to be able to pay the bills with it. Especially if your just starting. After 5 - 10 yrs parctice you might know what your doing and by then have enough capital to go full time
 
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