I've been trading on paper for a couple years. I've been averaging 10 - 20% a day. I recently opened a Choicetrade account (with $500). I plan on putting an additional $500 - $1000 into the account each month.
I don't expect to make the same 10 - 20% a day when I am playing by the real world rules.
I have a couple questons for those with some experience.
1. Does Choicetrade have a limit on number of trades per day or week or how long you have to hold a particular stock? I opened a regular online account (not daytrade acount, 25K is a little steep). I've looked all over their site and read the user agreement but I can't find any reference to limitations. What if I attempt to buy and sell the same stock multiple times in one day?
2. Say I buy 50,000 shares of a stock at .01 (all 500 dollars) that has a volume over 10M. The stock price doubles to .02 and I sell all 50,000. Should I expect to encounter difficulty selling 50,000 shares when a stock is peaking?
Those are the concerns I've been mulling over while I've been waiting for the funds to hit my account.
TIA
Posted by Machiavelli on :
1. I don't know of any limitations... but then again im not a daytrader im a swing/position trader.... usually brokers have a 3 day cash settlement rule but i have yet to encounter it in Choicetrade.. usually when i sell a stock i enter another trade the same day.. but if i were you i wouldnt daytrade... not at first at least.. at first gain some experience as a swing/position trader... besides you can make the same money as in daytrading if you swing/position trade.. what is the rush? this isn't a get rich scheme/game... you will have more losses then wins.. but it's how you play the game that matters.. limit your losses and protect your profits and you should come out ahead in the long run... STOP/LOSSES!! STOP/LOSSES!! STOP/LOSSES!! ...
2. Depends.On the stocks' float, outstanding shares, volume etc. Sometimes you can "fill" the whole 50,000 (or whatever amount) and sometime's you can't.. like i said it depends on various factors...
Posted by jdog006 on :
Thanks for your help. It doesn't look like Choicetrade offers trailing stops. Trailing stops would be nice. I certainly don't expect to have more losses than wins. I am planning to do my homework to give myself some kind of advantage. I've charted out my potential stocks to find the short term low and high points that I plan to use as enter/exit points. We'll see how it goes next week when the funds hit my account.
Posted by Machiavelli on :
When I meant more losses then wins I meant most of your trades will not be winners not that your Monetary losses will exceed your monetary wins... more losing trades then winning trades is a accepted cost of business in this game... to think that you will have a majority of winning trades is to not be realistic... the trick is to keep your monetary losses at a minimum while maximizing your monetary winners.. even if only 30 to 40% of your trades are winners you can come out ahead by minimizing your losses at 7 to 10% ... as for Choicetrade and trailing stop/losses... no they don't have it currently.. they did have it on their old platform.. and i asked a Customer Service Rep about it and they said they will be offering it again within the next few months.. till then do your stop/losses manually on a daily basis after market hours or do a GTC order...
Posted by BuyTex on :
good post.
jdog, the Machster is right on. If you go in thinking you'll somehow beat the odds, you will be disappointed, perhaps so much so that you'll quit prematurely. Lottsa folks do. Out of 10 picks, only so many will actually move. I've had luscious looking charts reveal ... a stock...that...just sits there. Others may move up a tick or two, then start sliding. Others go up 20% nice and slow, so you quit watching--and they slide below your purchase price.
The cliche is: dump losers, ride winners. The all-too-human tendency is to hold losers--hoping, wishing for a turnaround--yet, exit winners too soon.
So, if you consistently drop losers at Mach's suggested schedule and exit winners at 20% gain, maybe you don't "make a big score," but you've protected capital at a gain. Success!
Suggest that course until your gains are enough to carve out a chunk to "take a ride" on the big one. Think of capital as a tool. Do you leave tools out where thieves can get to them? Or leave them out in the rain... or give them away?
Posted by jdog006 on :
Thanks for the tips. I'll let you know how it goes.