I love being a day trader!  I love the thrill of the hunt in trying to find tradable stocks.  I love the cat and mouse games with the market makers.  And I like being my own boss and having the ability to determine how much I get paid on a given day by the decisions I make.  As a result, I look forward to getting up in the morning on trading days.  On those days when the market is closed, I often miss it.  There’s simply no other way I’d like to make a living.

If you’ve been trading for any period of time and you don’t feel this way, then this is not the career for you.  And that’s okay.  We certainly couldn’t have a country of people just day trading.  We need doctors, accountants school teachers, policemen, waitresses, etc.

And while I’m not sure that anyone should spend 8-10 hours a day doing something they hate for a paycheck, this is certainly the case for day traders because, after all, there is no paycheck; at least, not a guaranteed paycheck.  There are many days when I work all day with nothing to show for my efforts.  In fact, being a day trader is one of the few professions in which you can work hard all day and actually come home with less money than when you started the day.  Doing this job just for the money is a sure fire recipe for disappointment on all counts.

 After all, you probably won’t make much of a day trader unless you love it anyway.  This is the case with any profession.  The most successful people are those who have a passion for it.  You need a passion to get up when many people are sleeping and search the market for potential stocks to trade.  You need a passion to follow several different stocks at a time.  You need a passion to bounce back after a losing day.

And even if you are that rare breed of person who can excel at doing something you hate, I have to ask, “Why?”  And no, “the money” isn’t an acceptable answer.  For one, this is America.  There are countless ways to make money in this country.  Why choose a way that makes you (and likely, everyone around you) miserable?  Second, it’s only money.

Yes, you read that correctly.  It’s only money.  Now, I know that you wouldn’t expect to read that phrase from someone who makes his living in the market, but it’s true.  Sure, I like money.  I think it’s a good thing.  It’s necessary for many of the necessities of life – a home, a car, food, utilities, you name it.  Yet, money pales in comparison to some of the really important things in life.  I wouldn’t trade my wife for any amount of money.  The same is true for my children, my parents and my close friends.  And certainly, the same is true for you.

There are some things that money can’t buy in your life.  If that’s true, then you certainly don’t want to sell your actual life for money.  You don’t want to spend the vast majority of your waking hours doing something that you don’t love just for the money.  As I see it, when it quits being fun, you should quit. 

Now, of course, even if you absolutely love day trading, you run the risk of burning out from time to time.  This is why it’s so important to take time off.  Take a vacation with your family, go hiking in the mountains or just spend some time with a good book in your living room.  The important thing is to get away from your computer for a while.  These hiatuses from trading will not only prevent burnout but they will make you more profitable in the long run.

Many day traders think that the most productive thing they can do at any minute is to trade.  However, in some cases, actually the opposite is true.  Sometimes, the worst thing that you can do is to continue trading, particularly when you need a rest.  This principle is probably best illustrated by the old story of the two lumberjacks who had a competition to see who could saw the most wood in a day.

The first man was young and strong and no doubt had the greatest endurance.  The second was not as young and not as strong, but had years of wisdom on his side.  The first man worked furiously during the contest not stopping for a single break.  In contrast, his more seasoned opponent, would took a break almost every hour.  At the end of the day, the young man had cut down an impressive number of trees, but the older lumberjack had clearly won the contest.  The young man couldn’t believe it.  In his frustration, he asked the older man, “How could that be?”  The old lumberjack replied, "Did you notice that every time I was sitting down, I was sharpening my saw?"

Likewise, if you want to make the most of your day trading, you must stop to sharpen your saw from time to time.  You won’t believe the insights you will get about trading from not doing it for a little while.  It’s true.  Some of the best lessons I’ve learned about trading have come while I was jogging, fishing or [whatever hobbies you actually do].  The answers just seemed to come to me after I spent some time “sharpening my saw.”

The same will be true for you.  More importantly, taking a little time off will recharge your batteries and hopefully, give you renewed zest for getting back into the market.  And that’s really what it’s all about anyway.  After all, if you truly love what you do, then you never have to work a day in your life.  So let’s all go play, shall we?

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In a previous article, I strenuously warned against the temptation of holding overnight positions.  When I give my top ten rules of day trading “don’ts”, no overnights is Rule #1-5.  A close second (or I guess, sixth) is no dollar cost averaging.

As you probably know, dollar cost averaging is the process of buying additional stock after you’ve taken a prior loss.  The rationale for doing so is that, now that the price has been “discounted,” you can buy more of it and therefore, increase your chances of making a profit (or at least breaking even).

If you’ve ever dealt with a stockbroker, then you have very likely been introduced to this strategy.  That’s because dollar cost averaging is written on Page 1 of the Stockbroker’s Handbook under the chapter “They’ll Fall for It Every Time.”  It works like this:

Your broker calls and pitches XYZ stock.  According to your broker, this company has the greatest product, management and marketing strategy.  It is going to revolutionize its industry.  The broker is so excited about the stock that he has not only put all of his money into it, but he has put his dear old grandmother’s retirement fund into the stock.

You figure that he wouldn’t steer his grandmother wrong, so you buy 1,000 shares at $30 per share.  Over the course of the next few weeks, the stock price falls to $15 per share.  You’ve lost $15,000 or half of your original investment.  You think to yourself, “My broker’s poor granny.  Her retirement fund was wiped out!”  Well, perhaps that isn’t your first thought but you are distraught nonetheless.  You just sit in your office thinking, “How could I have been so stupid?”

Yet, you are awoken from your trance by the telephone.  It’s your broker on Line 2.  You can’t believe it!  After such terrible advice, you didn’t think you’d ever hear from him again.  You’re even more shocked when he calls to tell you the “good news” – that XYZ has lost half of its value.

“That’s good news?” you practically scream into the phone.

“No, it’s great news!” he responds, practically reading word for word from the handbook.  “If you thought XYZ was a good investment at $30 per share, it’s a ‘steal’ at $15 per share.  For the same $30,000, you can now buy 2,000 more shares of stock.  In that case, if it just goes back up to $20 you’ll break even.  If it goes back up to $30, you’ll be up by $30,000.  And if it goes up to $50 (and the broker is sure that it will), you will make … get this … $90,000!  You just have to buy more shares!  It’s a no-brainer!”

Now, here’s the weird part – you probably will buy more shares.  Why?  Because if you are like most people, you can’t stand the thought of cashing out a losing investment.  After all, the point of buying stock is to buy low and sell high.  Yet, up until now, you’ve done just the opposite.  However, by dollar cost averaging down the price of your investment, you increase the chances that you’ll eventually break even, if not make a profit.  So why not, right?

Wrong!   The poor house is full of people who dollar cost averaged away fortunes.  They kept buying stocks like Enron, Global Crossing and Worldcom all the way down to zero.  In many cases, they did so at the advice of a stockbroker, who, by the way, earned a commission on every trade.

Of course, as a day trader, you won’t have an outside stockbroker trying to talk you into dollar cost averaging.  Yet, you will have an “internal stockbroker” trying to talk you into doing so to avoid cashing out a losing position.  For example, let’s suppose you buy 1,000 shares of a stock at $19.00 and it falls to $18.10.  You’re down $900.  At this point, your internal stockbroker might try to talk you into buying another 1,000 shares with the thought that you can wipe out your loss if the stock just inches up another $0.45 to $18.55.

Hang up the phone!  Sure, the stock may very well inch back up, but it isn’t worth the risk.  Think about it.  You’re putting an additional $18,000 on the line to avoid a $900 loss.  In all, you could lose as much as $37,000 (remember, you invested $19,000 on the first trade) just because you’re unwilling to accept the loss of $900.  That just doesn’t make sense.

And, I know, you’re sure the stock is going to rise, right?  Or are you?  You didn’t have a good grasp on the direction of the stock when you bought it the first time.  Why do you think it will be any different this time?  Wouldn’t it be better to just consider it a lesson learned and be done with it?  In the overall scheme of things, $900 is a very inexpensive lesson.  Why make your loss almost 400 times greater to learn the same lesson?

One of my friends learned his lesson in the hardest way imaginable.  He bought 2,000 shares of a stock, which went down $2.00 per share.  His total loss at that point was $4,000.  Yet, this guy wasn’t willing to take this loss so he bought more shares.  The stock fell again so … you guessed it … he bought more shares.  He kept dollar cost averaging until he turned 2,000 shares into 8,000 shares and a $4,000 loss into a $75,000 loss.

But there’s more to the story.  Eventually, the stock came back to within 25 cents of the break-even point.  Looking at the charts, I noticed that the stock was near its resistance and asked my friend if he was going to take his loss.  I’ll never forget his response.  “Are you kidding, Fausto?  If the stock just goes up a point, I’m up $8,000!”

Well, once again, you can guess what happened.  The stock knocked against its resistance level and went into a tailspin.  It fell so far and so fast that my friend ended up losing $150,000, which included his wedding money.  In the end, he did not get married to his fiancé.

Think about this for a moment.  My friend’s entire future was changed, in part, by his unwillingness to take a $2,000 loss.  Don’t make the same mistake.  When you are wrong about a stock (and you will be), don’t turn a small loss into a big one.  Simply cash out the position, take your loss and move on. 

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Perhaps you’ve heard about a proposal to levy a tax on stock transactions. This idea actually began circulating about a year ago as a way to curb “speculation” in the market, subdue the market’s volatility, and raise tax revenue, according to its proponents. But, the notion resurfaced recently due to a push by the AFL-CIO to make such a tax a reality. Specifically, the powerful union would like to see a one-tenth of a percent tax on every stock transaction. According to union officials, doing so could raise as much as $100 billion a year in tax revenue.

Now, if you’re not an active trader, you might be tempted to think such a tax wouldn’t affect you. But, you’d be wrong – very wrong. Basically, this tax would impact you as long as you had money in the stock market – even if you’ve never made a trade in your life.

But, first let’s look at how it would impact individuals who trade from their homes, either as a hobby or as a career.

This tax would be on every stock transaction – meaning that if you bought a stock and then sold it, you’d be paying this tax twice.

On top of that, some of these proposals have the tax being applied to the transaction amount. So, let’s say you bought 1000 shares of Microsoft (MSFT) at $25. Your transaction amount would be $25,000. With this tax, you’d be paying a $25 surcharge on this purchase alone.

Imagine how this would penalize daytraders and other types of traders who make anywhere from several trades to hundreds of trades per week. And, remember, traders already pay taxes on every trade they make. But, you’re not a trader. So, why should you care what happens to frequent traders? Because the impact of the tax wouldn’t stop there.

Such a move would likely force many active traders out of the market. This alone would lead to less liquidity in the market – which would actually exacerbate the volatility in the market. And, the illiquidity would lead to bigger spreads – that is, the difference between the bid and the ask price. Which means that when you tried to buy a stock for your retirement portfolio – or when your financial advisor or mutual fund manager did the same – there would be a higher price to pay for that stock.

Speaking of mutual funds, did you know that mutual fund companies, brokerage houses, and hedge funds make an enormous chunk of their annual profits through trading – not investing? It’s estimated, for instance, that Goldman Sachs makes 70% of its annual revenue through trading-related activities. And, as for those staid, supposedly conservative mutual fund companies? On average, mutual fund managers turn over their holdings at a 93% rate per year.

Now, consider that under this tax, every time a firm such as Goldman Sachs or Fidelity or Charles Schwab bought or sold a stock, they’d be hit with an extra fee. When you consider the billions of stock transactions these and other investment firms make, the financial consequences would be alarming. Just think of the hit their profit margins would take. So, who do you think would ultimately pay for these fees? That’s right – their customers. And that means your neighbor, your co-worker, your best friend – and, of course, you. Maybe even worse, some of these firms might try to avoid this tax by rerouting their trading overseas, which would take away from the billions of dollars that the financial services industry generates for our country.

So, when you hear discussions about this proposed tax, pay attention. It’s not just some random tax that will impact daytraders – it’s one that will affect anyone who has money in the stock market. Including you. Fausto Pugliese is the founder and president of Cyber Trading University, a world leader in online education and training for traders and investors in the markets.

Bernie Madoff. Goldman Sachs.
Those two names don’t seem like they’d have a lot in common, do they?
Madoff is a despised figure, while Goldman Sachs is a revered firm on Wall Street. Madoff just received a 150-year jail sentence, while Goldman just recorded the biggest quarterly profit in its history as a public company.
So, what do they have in common, and what can you learn from them?
Most people don’t realize this, but Madoff made a large chunk of his money over the years not through his investments but by his market making activities. For those unfamiliar with market makers, these firms maintain a market in a particular stock by buying and selling shares in it, and filling orders accordingly. Madoff’s firm was known to traders under the symbol MADF.
So, Madoff accumulated much of his fortune through trading-related activities. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs operates in a similar manner.
You might assume that a firm that won’t even considering taking you on as a client unless you have at least $5 million to invest would make most of its money through its investments.
But, you’d be wrong.
Roughly 70% of Goldman’s revenues comes from trading-related activities; namely, through its role as a market maker and through its trading desk.
The takeaway here is that there’s far more money to be made by trading, not investing. Why else would Maddoff and Goldman be so heavily involved with trading? This is particularly true during chaotic, tumultuous times like those that we’ve experienced over the past few years.
As a trader today, you have far more advanced tools at your disposal than you did years ago. The opportunities are there for you. It’s up to you to use them as wisely as possible, and get the most profits out of your trading.
Granted, successful trading isn’t easy. But, I can teach you how to do so.
As Maddoff and Goldman Sachs showed, there’s a ton of money to be made through trading. So, why not grab your little slice of the pie?

Things are not always what they seem on the Level II screen — professional traders constantly engage in sleight of hand to fool unwary traders. But there are a few signs you can look for to avoid becoming another victim — and you can profit from this information, too. 

The Level II quote display allows you to see beyond the nearest bid and ask prices of a Nasdaq stock to the entire list of bids and offers, including firm and size.  Although Level II (officially called the “TotalView” quote display) provides a great deal of market information, it can also be deceptive — especially for new traders who are unfamiliar with the sleight-of-hand practices of Nasdaq market makers. The market-maker “trap” is a mirage conjured by professional traders to entice you into buying or selling a stock precisely at the wrong moment. However, if you know what to look for, you can position yourself to take advantage of these setups rather than fall victim to them.  

TotalView: The LevelII quote display Figure 1 shows a Level II screen for Glenayre Technology (GEMS), along with a time and sales window (right), from May 10, 2005. The Level II window has two sides — the left shows bids and the right contains offers . The bid and offer columns list the market maker ID (MMID), price, and size for each order.

For example, the first entry on the bid list is “SIZE,” which means it is an order placed through the Nasdaq Market Center. The bid price is $2.65 and the order size is 5, which represents 500 shares. The next three listings are ARCA#, ISLD#, and BRUT#, which are the IDs for the Archipelago, Island, and Brut electronic communications networks (ECNs). Next listed is UBSS, which is the market maker UBS Securities. (Market makers also sometimes use ECNs to place trades without showing their ID.) The right side of the window lists the same information, except the orders are offers to sell.

The various price levels for bids and offers are delineated by different colors. On the offer side, some of the colored bands are “tall” — spanning several entries — indicating a large number of offers at the same price; the bid side has many colors, indicating a wide range of bids below the highest bid. When there are many colors, as is the case with the bids in Figure 1, the quote is said to be “rainbowed.” In the time and sales window, executed trades are colored green if someone pays the offered price or red if someone hits the bid.

Head Fakes: Marker maker traps When market makers want to buy shares, they try to create the illusion the market is about to go down so they can purchase at a low price. To accomplish this, they place offers very close to the last price while showing bids (if any) well below it. This leads uninformed traders to believe market makers are looking for lower prices — the so-called “head fake.” Although the Level II screen offers a detailed view of the market, market makers create misleading pictures of supply and demand to trick inexperienced traders. Novice traders will often sell out any long positions in such circumstances because they do not want to be caught long because of the size being offered. The novice may even attempt to “front-run” the market makers and go short — to get a jump on what they perceive to be an imminent downtrend . Let’s look at this scenario in detail. Figure 1  shows the last price was 2.65 and there are twelve market makers and ECNs offering shares between 2.66 and 2.69. On the other hand, there is only one market maker showing a bid at 2.65. There are two ECNs bidding 2.63, one ECN bidding 2.61, and two market markets bidding 2.57. The time is 10:18:57. Looking at this Level II screen, you might think the market is vulnerable to a drop.

If any of the traders on the offer side decide to hit the 2.65 bid, the market could trade down to 2.50 in a heartbeat. Figure 2, a daily chart GEMS, shows the stock was trading higher for the second consecutive day on May 10 and was trading just above its February highs. Traders could easily think the stock has run its course, given the number of offers appearing so close to the last trade in the Level II window. In addition, the time and sales window from Figure 1 shows the trades are being executed on the bid — that is, traders are selling into the bid. The last seven trades were at 2.65 — market makers are being hit at 2.65 and are “refreshing” their bids (i.e., they keep coming back). Still, to the untrained eye, it appears that there are plenty of shares for sale and traders are hitting bids. This is precisely what market makers want you to conclude — the basis of their trap. Figure 3 is the one-minute chart of the stock roughly three minutes later (around 10:21), and Figure 4 is the Level II window around the same time. Figure 1 was the Level II window at 10:18:57, at which point the stock had just been down to 2.56 and then recovered. Figure 3 shows that following the quick break, the price action immediately ran to a new high (2.72) for the day, despite all of the offers shown at 10:18:57.

Web-based trading vs. direct access and payment for order flow 

When hen you use a standard discount online broker, your order is often rerouted to another source for execution — your broker is essentially functioning as a “middle man.” You are essentially sending your brokerage an order via e-mail, and the brokerage executes the order in the way that offers it the greatest benefit. Many discount brokers rely on “payment for order flow” to generate income. This is part of their business model and is one of the reasons discount brokers can offer low rates, especially for market orders. As a way to attract orders from brokers, some exchanges or market-makers pay your broker for routing orders to them — perhaps a penny or more per share. Payment for order flow is one of the ways your broker’s firm can make money from executing your trade. The firm can also make money by “internalizing” your order — i.e., executing it within its own internal order book. Payment for order flow is discussed at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Web site (www.sec.gov/answers/payordf.htm).

Upon opening a new account and on an annual basis, firms must inform their customers in writing whether they receive payment for order flow and, if they do, a detailed description of the type of the payments. Firms must also disclose on trade confirmations whether they receive payment for order flow; customers can make written requests to find out the source and type of the payment for a particular transaction. To learn more about the basics of trade execution — including order routing, payment for order flow, and internalization — read “Trade Execution: What Every Investor Should Know” at www.sec.gov/answers/payordf.htm. By contrast, direct-access order routing is what its name implies: Instead of being sent to a middle man, your order is entered directly into the electronic marketplace for execution. If you choose to lift someone’s offer, you are instantly filled. Or, just like a market maker, you can place bids and offers, be in the queue and wait for someone to take the other side of your order.  Figure 4 shows there are more offers listed close to the last trade price (2.69), while the bid prices fall away quickly from last price. The colored bands highlight the trap. On the offer side, the colored bands are taller than the bid side, and the bid side is rainbowed. Two minutes later, as shown in Figure 5, the market has again made new highs, despite the number of offers displayed in Figure 4.

These examples illustrate how market makers will set up the appearance of more supply than demand so they can attempt to buy at lower prices — in anticipation of a rally. Finally, the ECNs cannot be ignored because the market makers use them as well. For example, a market maker may offer stock at one price in the Level II window using the company’s ID, and at the same time place a bid through the ECN Island with the goal of actually getting shares.

Bearish traps When market makers are expecting the market to go lower they use the same kind of trap to entice traders into buying. Figure 6 is a daily chart of eCOST.com (ECST) showing the stock had fallen to new lows in a downtrend that began in late 2004. Figure 7 shows the stock’s Level II window.  Although there appears to be plenty of buyers from 3.11 down to 3.00, this is simply an illusion created by market makers. The bid colors are tall while the offer side is rainbowed; the offers are tight up to 3.15, then start expanding in 5- and 10-cent increments. Finally, the time and sales window shows most trades are being executed on the offer (green prices). An inexperienced trader might look at this screen and think, “If the traders on the bid get impatient, they will start to lift offers and the stock could easily leap to 3.40 or higher.” This trader could believe the risk is around 10 cents while the potential reward is 30 to 40 cents. Or, traders who are already long from a higher price might decide there is no reason to take a loss at this point. They can see how deep the bid is, down to 3.00, and any buying will rally the stock, which could lead to more buying because the market is obviously oversold. Figure 8 is the Level II screen less than two minutes later. The bid is building. The last price is now 3.10 and some new bids have come in at 3.07.

The bid appears to be very deep and the offers are thin. The offer side of the market is rainbowed. The stock should rally. The time and sales window shows more trading on the offer side than the bid side. The trap is set. Figure 9 shows the market 13 minutes later. The last price is down to 3.07 and the offer is at 3.06. Still, to the untrained eye, the bid appears deep down to 3.00, and many novice traders will conclude that the stock could still rally. Figure 10 shows the market less than 13 minutes later. The stock has broken down through 3.00, the best bid is now 2.82, and the stock is offered at 2.86. Throughout this example, the trap was the illusion that a good bid for the stock was here for everyone to see, while the offers were thin. While traders appeared to be paying the offered price in the time and sales window, the offer was being refreshed. The false impression is that if the players decided to start paying up, the price could rally. This is exactly what the market makers need you to believe so they can unload their shares on you.

The world of illusion Although the Level II screen offers a detailed view of the market, market makers create misleading pictures of supply and demand to trick inexperienced traders. The Level II screen should be thought of as a tool that requires experience and skill to produce useful results. If you are looking to trade a stock from the long side, look for the trap that gives the appearance the market is for sale. In such situations, the market makers want to buy stock in anticipation of an up move, so you want to be on the same side. Similarly, short sellers and traders who are already long should watch for traps that make it look as if the market is strongly bid. The scenarios are set ups for declines. For most traders, taking advantage of the trap is best accomplished in stocks trading below $30. Also, it is not a strategy to attempt in “brand-name” stocks such as Cisco and Intel, which have the best traders in the world. The trap occurs in these stocks, but it happens very fast — too fast for less-experienced traders.

Whenever I’m with a group of new day traders, it isn’t long before the conversation turns to trading vehicles – the mixture of computer hardware and software used to trade.  And just like tastes in motor vehicles, there is a wide variety of tastes in trading vehicles.

Some traders opt for the “luxury model” trading system.  They must have all of the latest and greatest gizmos and gadgets.  They outfit their systems with several monitors and all of the software bells and whistles you can imagine.  In fact, if you didn’t know better, you’d think these people were single-handedly landing the Space Shuttle. To the other extreme, you find the trader who insists on buying the “economy class” system.  They equip themselves with the bare minimum – a low-end computer, an acceptable internet connection and the least expensively priced trading tools.  They figure that it doesn’t matter how you look when you roll onto Easy Street, just so long as you get there.

Of course, in day trading, as in life, the best course of action is somewhere in the middle.  However, if you must veer towards any extreme, I urge you to steer clear of trying to enter into financial race in an economy vehicle.  After all, would you attempt to win the Indianapolis 500 driving a 1973 Ford Pinto?  Of course not.  Well, the same principle applies in the market.  The few dollars you save will pale in comparison to the fortune you squander by settling for inferior functionality.  At a minimum, your trading vehicle must have the following features:

A Top of the Line Computer By “top of the line”, I mean that your computer should have an excess of CPU speed and RAM.  If your computer is just powerful enough to run your trading software, then it’s performance is going to be sluggish.  And trust me, there is nothing more frustrating (or expensive) as being locked out of money-making opportunities because your computer has frozen up.

High Speed Internet Access This really should go without saying.  If you try to travel the information superhighway via dial up, you’re going to find yourself being run into a ditch.  This is particularly true in the market where millions of shares trade hands every second.  You must invest in the fastest (and most reliable) Internet connection available to you.

Level II Access Just as your access to the Internet must be timely, your access to current market information must be timely as well.  And while stock market information abounds on the Internet, it isn’t always timely.  For example, stock quotes posted on a web portal may be delayed by as much as 20 minutes.  Trying to day trade by relying on outdated information is like trying to drive a car by looking solely through the rear view mirror, it’s a recipe for disaster.

Of course, even having current information isn’t enough if the information isn’t also complete.  And by complete, I mean that the information must go beyond just the Level I information, such as the last bid and ask.  You want to be able to see how the market makers are positioning themselves with respect to the stock.  You need Level II information.

And don’t fall into the trap of trying to save a few bucks by getting “Level 1 ¾” access.  Some providers have begun selling access that lets you see the ECNs, but not the market makers.  Remember, you want to be able to play follow the leader and not follow the follower.  You need to know what the real experts are doing in the market, not the Ordinary Joes like you and me.

Bells and Whistles Ideally, your Level II execution system should be linked to your charting tools.  You don’t want to spend valuable time searching for current stock charts.  You want to be able to type in the symbol and have your charts pop up.  Also, you should be able to customize which charts are displayed.  I like to be able to see the 1-minute chart, intraday chart and 1-year chart at a glance.  You also want to have immediate access to the top gainers and losers of the day to alert you to lucrative trading opportunities.  When looking at these lists, I like to set my system to sort them by percentages and not just overall dollar amounts.

Of course, you should be careful to avoid cluttering your screen with too much information.  You don’t want to miss a good trading opportunity because the pertinent information was hidden behind a useless chart or graph on the screen.

Double Vision One solution to the problem of hidden information is to invest in a computer capable of displaying on two monitors at once.  That way, you can see twice as much information as you could view on one screen.  Of course, you don’t want to take this idea to the extreme.  Ten monitors won’t allow you to view ten times as much information.  From my experience, I’ve found that two screens are probably all you can watch at one time anyway.  If you try to watch any more than two, you usually end up not watch any.

That being said, you don’t want to scrimp on your trading vehicle.  That’s simply being penny wise and fortune foolish.  In fact, if the price of a solid trading system is a problem for you, then you’re probably like the person in the Mercedes dealership asking about the car’s gas mileage.  If you can’t afford the gas, then you certainly can’t afford the car.  Likewise, if you can’t afford an adequate trading platform, then you’re probably trying to perform on the wrong stage.

Fausto Pugliese. President and Founder of Cyber Trading University.

In a very familiar old joke, one gentleman asks another, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”  The second gentleman responds, “Practice.”  I believe the same advice applies to the person who asks how to become a successful day trader. The simple truth of the matter is that most day trading systems (at least the good ones) are not terribly complex.  For instance, my system is built on the simple premise of follow the (market) leader.  It isn’t rocket science.  After all, if it was, I wouldn’t be able to follow it.  Yet, all too often, my day trading students let the simplicity of the system lull them into a false sense of security.

The truth of the matter is that most things in life are simple.  It’s simple to swim, drive a car or hit the perfect golf shot.  It’s only a matter of taking very simple actions and putting them together in a specific order so that you produce the desired result.  Yet, very often, the ability to put these steps together requires practice and plenty of it.

Think about it.  If you had the good fortune of taking a private golf lesson from Tiger Woods, would you then immediately quit your job and try out for the PGA tour?  Of course not.  But why not?  After all, if Tiger told you everything that it took to be a PGA champion, then why can’t you just follow his advice and start raking in the big bucks yourself?  It works for him.  It should work for you, right?  Wrong!  The reason it works for Tiger Woods is because he has spent more than 20 years practicing his craft.

The same is true when you read a book or article on day trading or attend a live training.  Trying to translate that knowledge into day trading profits without practice would be like trying to learn to swim by merely reading a book.  It won’t work.  You can get an understanding of the basic techniques from a book but in order to really learn to swim, you must get in the water and splash around a bit.  Well, the same thing is true for day trading.  You must get into the water (in this case, the market) and splash around some.  In other words, you must practice what you learn.

Needless to say, when you first start out, you’re not going to be a master day trader.  You’re going to swallow some water.  For that reason, I always recommend that my students refrain from doing any live trading for at least the first 30 days after taking my course.  During this time, I ask them to set their trading software to training mode and simply practice what they’ve learned.  Only after they are consistently making a profit should they even consider “going live.”  If you’re new to day trading, I recommend the same thing for you.  Practice what you’ve learned until you can carry out the actions that will make you consistent profits.

In my experience, this is where many of my students stumble.  They can’t resist the temptation of getting in the game.  After all, it isn’t much fun to brag to your friends that you are making a killing in the market on paper.  And you certainly can’t use your paper profits to put a down payment on a new car or take your family on vacation.  Yet, paper profits are much better than the alternative – real losses.  After all, if you think your family will look at you funny when you tell them that you just made $7,500 in paper profits, then just imagine the looks you will receive when you have to admit that you are $7,500 behind in real money because you jumped headlong into the deep end of the market without first learning to stay afloat.

As I see it, if you’re going to make mistakes (and you will), it’s best to make those mistakes for free.  Over the years, I’ve met many day traders who didn’t heed this advice.  They were so anxious to try out their newfound skills that they ended up exposing themselves to significant financial losses.  As a result, they spent their first few years of day trading trying to recoup the losses they incurred in the first few months.

To demonstrate how devastating these early losses can be, let’s suppose you belly flop into day trading by losing half of your initial investment in the first few months.  With half the capital to work with, you will need to be twice as good as the average trader just to make the same amount.  Of course, you won’t be twice as good as the average trader because you’re just starting out.  Yet, the need for spectacular returns will force you into making spectacular blunders and before long, you will be dead broke or very close to it.

Trust me on this one.  I’ve seen it more times than I care to remember.  Yet, each time, it is equally frustrating because it is 100% preventable by just taking the time to practice the system you’ve been taught.

And how long should you stay in training mode?  Until you can consistently make money on paper.  A .333 batting average is great for a baseball player but it is disastrous for a day trader.  Therefore, you shouldn’t even think about lacing up your cleats and getting into the day trading game until you are able to make paper profits at least four out of five days.

I realize that this may seem like a lot of time spent on the sidelines.  Yet, if you ask me, “How do I get to Easy Street?”  My answer will be “Practice!”

Fausto Pugliese. President and Founder of Cyber Trading University.

Perhaps, the biggest misconception about day trading is that success can be measured in spectacular profits.  Yet, just the opposite is true.  The key to successful day trading (and successful living in general) is in avoiding major losses.  And while every trader loses money from time to time, the key is to minimize those losses.  After all, one or two really bad days can wipe out the profits of 3-4 weeks of good trading.

Furthermore, major losses keep you from making money in the future.  The less capital you have to work with, the less you will have available for trading.  Therefore, one of the keys to success is to preserve your capital base. How do you avoid major losses?  Some people would suggest that you set a stop loss order on every trade.  In other words, whenever you buy a stock, you place a sell order for those shares if the stock reaches a certain point (say a loss of $0.10 per share).  However, the problem with setting stop losses is that you very often will get “stopped out” in potentially profitable situations.

For example, if you set a $0.10 stop loss, you will often have times when you buy the stock at $10.00 and it immediately falls to $9.90, only to rebound within minutes to $10.50.  In this case, even though the stock rises $0.50 in a matter of minutes, you don’t make any money.  Instead, you lose money when your position is stopped out at $9.90.  This kind of thing happens all of the time to people who set stop losses.

So what’s the alternative?  Stay at your post. Yes, it’s that simple.  Instead of relying on an automatic computer trade, you want to constantly assess and re-assess the situation.  Have the support and resistance levels changed?  What are the market makers doing?  What major news has been released about the company?  This is the only reliable way to determine if a drop in price is a normal fluctuation or the beginning of a major downward shift in the direction of the stock.

Now, am I suggesting that you glue yourself in front of your computer never taking any time to stretch your legs, eat a meal or go to the restroom?  YES; at least when you have money on the line.  When you have an open position, you should watch it like a hawk.  After all, you can do these other things during the vast majority of the day when you don’t have an open position.

If you are like most traders, you will do most of your trading during the first 1½ hours of the morning and the last 1 hour of the day.  That leaves 4 hours when the market is relatively slow; not to mention the rest of the entire day.  Given that you only have money on the line for a small amount of time, why would you use this time to do anything else but watch over it carefully?

After all, you wouldn’t want to be riding on a bus with a driver who decided to get up and, say, go for a bathroom break in the middle of left turn, would you?  Likewise, you wouldn’t want to have your hair cut by a stylist who was busy wolfing down a cheeseburger and talking on her cell phone while simultaneously cutting your hair, would you?  Well, shouldn’t your hard-earned money get the same consideration.  While you have it in the market, your first priority should be to shepherd it, guide it and bring it home safely.

That being said, there are going to be times when situations arise that will take your attention away from the market.  For instance, let’s say that you get a call from your child’s school telling you that she has come down with a stomach ache.  In that case, I don’t expect you to tell your child, “Suck it up, Mommy’s trading!”

Obviously, in that case, you must shift your focus to what’s really important.  However, I am suggesting that before you head off to the school, you close out any open positions, even if you have to take a small loss to do so.

Now, I know you’re thinking that I’m being overcautious.  After all, it’s just a ten-minute roundtrip to your child’s school.  Why take a loss on a trade that looks so promising?  Because the risk simply isn’t worth the reward.

If you close out your position, the worst thing that can happen is that you lose out on the opportunity to earn a modest profit.  Alternatively, if you leave the position open while you pick up your child, chat with the nurse, and then run into the pharmacy for some Pepto Bismol, you run the risk of catastrophic losses.  In that case, your child’s stomach ache is going to pale in comparison to your “wallet ache.”

You simply can’t afford to leave your post during the heat of battle.  Therefore, whenever you have money in the market, be vigilant.  And when you can’t be vigilant, don’t have money in the market.  It’s just not worth the risk.

Fausto Pugliese. President and Founder of Cyber Trading University.

Like fishermen, day traders love to talk about the “big catch” – the trade where the moons, stars and planets aligned in perfect unison and we made more in one hour as a day trader than we’d make all month in our prior career.  Yet, while these stories are often entertaining (if not completely accurate), they shed very little light on what it requires to be truly successful as a day trader.

The simple truth of the matter is that the real key to successful day trading is not making huge profits.  The key is to avoid big losses.  After all, one or two really bad days could wipe out your profits from 3-4 weeks of good trading.  Furthermore, losses keep you from making money in the future.  The less capital you have to work with, the less you will have available for trading.  Therefore, if you are going to be successful as a day trader, then you must preserve your capital base.

One way to preserve your capital base is to get into the habit of quitting while you’re behind.  Now, I know that such a sentiment is almost un-American.  Yet,  the sad truth is that many day traders are successful 4 out of every 5 days, but they lose more in the one bad day than they make in the four good days combined because they don’t know when to walk away.  They can’t seem to leave bad enough alone.

They have a hard time accepting that everyday isn’t going to be profitable.  They think, “Hey, I have a sound system that worked yesterday.  It should work today as well.”  And that would be true if it weren’t for the pesky fact that you are human and you are acting in a market filled with similarly imperfect creatures.  People make mistakes and act in unpredictable ways; and so do you.  As a result, there are going to be days in which you can’t seem to do anything right.

This is the nature of day trading and it’s the nature of life as well.  In every profession, people have their good days and bad days.  We see it all the time in the world of sports.  A basketball player will score 50 points one night and come back the next night and score 10.  The same thing happens for writers and artists.  Some days, they are filled with inspiration and the ideas just flow out of them.  Other days, they sit all day in front of a blank piece of paper or a blank canvas.  It’s just the way life works.

The key is to not do so much damage on your bad days that you destroy your good days in the process.  The way to prevent this from happening is to set daily loss limits.  For example, you could set a daily loss limit of $200.  Whenever you’ve lost this amount of money, you call it quits and go take a nap (or whatever).

Also, I recommend establishing a maximum of three losing trades in any single day.  It’s like a “three strike” rule.  Even if the total combined losses are less than your daily limit, you should quit trading.  You simply don’t “have it” that day.  Consider yourself lucky that you didn’t lose more and resolve to fight another day.

Now, you might be thinking, “What will be so different about tomorrow?”  The answer is you.  For one, with some time to get over your disappointment about the last trade that didn’t go your way (and to hopefully learn from your mistake), you are less likely to do something rash out of frustration.  For a day trader, frustration can be just as deadly a sin as greed.

Over the years, I’ve seen many traders who couldn’t keep their tempers under control and the results ranged from comical to tragic.  We had one trader who would yell and scream whenever a trade went sideways on him.  Sometimes, he would even punch his keyboard.  I can’t tell you the number of keyboards we had to replace for him.  That is, until the day that he broke his arm by slamming it into a keyboard.  He learned a painful (and amusing) lesson about controlling his temper.  Other traders weren’t so lucky.  They kept stewing and boiling over bad trades until they developed far more serious health complications.

The financial costs of trading while in the throws of frustration are even more immediate.  You are more likely to do something rash in an attempt to “get even.”  Dollar cost averaging is an example of this type of behavior.  Also, you may be tempted to trade a stock that was successful for you yesterday even though the fundamentals no longer support trading it today.  Or you might do something completely out of character in the heat of the moment.  One way to avoid this danger is to set strict loss limits and stick to them.

Of course, this is easier said than done.  Yet, as I’ve said many times before, you can’t master the discipline of day trading without discipline.  You must develop the will to get up from your computer whenever every fiber of your being is saying, “Just one more trade!  Come on.  Those last three trades were just bad luck.  You can’t have bad luck forever!”

And that voice is right.  You can’t have bad luck forever.  Yet, you can have plenty more bad luck today.  In fact, you will almost certainly create your own “bad luck” by continuing to trade on a day when you just don’t have it. Therefore, when those days arise (and trust me, they will), use it as an opportunity to explore other interests.  Take a sketch pad into the park and draw the leaves.  Or go for a run or a bike ride.  Or just take the opportunity to take the kids to the ice cream parlor or a matinee.  In other words, get away from your computer and make the best of your “day off.”

In the long run, you will not only be a much happier and healthier person, but you will be a much more successful day trader.  In the immortal words of W. C. Fields, “If at first you don’t succeed, try again.  Then quit.  There’s no use being a damn fool about it.”

Fausto Pugliese. President and Founder of Cyber Trading University.

In a previous article, I strenuously warned against the temptation of holding overnight positions.  When I give my top ten rules of day trading “don’ts”, no overnights is Rule #1-5.  A close second (or I guess, sixth) is no dollar cost averaging.
As you probably know, dollar cost averaging is the process of buying additional stock after you’ve taken a prior loss.  The rationale for doing so is that, now that the price has been “discounted,” you can buy more of it and therefore, increase your chances of making a profit (or at least breaking even).
If you’ve ever dealt with a stockbroker, then you have very likely been introduced to this strategy.  That’s because dollar cost averaging is written on Page 1 of the Stockbroker’s Handbook under the chapter “They’ll Fall for It Every Time.”

It works like this:
Your broker calls and pitches XYZ stock.  According to your broker, this company has the greatest product, management and marketing strategy.  It is going to revolutionize its industry.  The broker is so excited about the stock that he has not only put all of his money into it, but he has put his dear old grandmother’s retirement fund into the stock.
You figure that he wouldn’t steer his grandmother wrong, so you buy 1,000 shares at $30 per share.  Over the course of the next few weeks, the stock price falls to $15 per share.  You’ve lost $15,000 or half of your original investment.  You think to yourself, “My broker’s poor granny.  Her retirement fund was wiped out!”  Well, perhaps that isn’t your first thought but you are distraught nonetheless.  You just sit in your office thinking, “How could I have been so stupid?”
Yet, you are awoken from your trance by the telephone.  It’s your broker on Line 2.  You can’t believe it!  After such terrible advice, you didn’t think you’d ever hear from him again.  You’re even more shocked when he calls to tell you the “good news” – that XYZ has lost half of its value.
“That’s good news?” you practically scream into the phone.
“No, it’s great news!” he responds, practically reading word for word from the handbook.  “If you thought XYZ was a good investment at $30 per share, it’s a ‘steal’ at $15 per share.  For the same $30,000, you can now buy 2,000 more shares of stock.  In that case, if it just goes back up to $20 you’ll break even.  If it goes back up to $30, you’ll be up by $30,000.  And if it goes up to $50 (and the broker is sure that it will), you will make … get this … $90,000!  You just have to buy more shares!  It’s a no-brainer!”

Now, here’s the weird part – you probably will buy more shares.  Why?  Because if you are like most people, you can’t stand the thought of cashing out a losing investment.  After all, the point of buying stock is to buy low and sell high.  Yet, up until now, you’ve done just the opposite.  However, by dollar cost averaging down the price of your investment, you increase the chances that you’ll eventually break even, if not make a profit.  So why not, right?
Wrong!   The poor house is full of people who dollar cost averaged away fortunes.  They kept buying stocks like Enron, Global Crossing and Worldcom all the way down to zero.  In many cases, they did so at the advice of a stockbroker, who, by the way, earned a commission on every trade.
Of course, as a day trader, you won’t have an outside stockbroker trying to talk you into dollar cost averaging.  Yet, you will have an “internal stockbroker” trying to talk you into doing so to avoid cashing out a losing position.  For example, let’s suppose you buy 1,000 shares of a stock at $19.00 and it falls to $18.10.  You’re down $900.  At this point, your internal stockbroker might try to talk you into buying another 1,000 shares with the thought that you can wipe out your loss if the stock just inches up another $0.45 to $18.55.
Hang up the phone!  Sure, the stock may very well inch back up, but it isn’t worth the risk.  Think about it.  You’re putting an additional $18,000 on the line to avoid a $900 loss.  In all, you could lose as much as $37,000 (remember, you invested $19,000 on the first trade) just because you’re unwilling to accept the loss of $900.  That just doesn’t make sense.
And, I know, you’re sure the stock is going to rise, right?  Or are you?  You didn’t have a good grasp on the direction of the stock when you bought it the first time.  Why do you think it will be any different this time?  Wouldn’t it be better to just consider it a lesson learned and be done with it?  In the overall scheme of things, $900 is a very inexpensive lesson.  Why make your loss almost 400 times greater to learn the same lesson?
One of my friends learned his lesson in the hardest way imaginable.  He bought 2,000 shares of a stock, which went down $2.00 per share.  His total loss at that point was $4,000.  Yet, this guy wasn’t willing to take this loss so he bought more shares.  The stock fell again so … you guessed it … he bought more shares.  He kept dollar cost averaging until he turned 2,000 shares into 8,000 shares and a $4,000 loss into a $75,000 loss.
But there’s more to the story.  Eventually, the stock came back to within 25 cents of the break-even point.  Looking at the charts, I noticed that the stock was near its resistance and asked my friend if he was going to take his loss.  I’ll never forget his response.  “Are you kidding, Fausto?  If the stock just goes up a point, I’m up $8,000!”
Well, once again, you can guess what happened.  The stock knocked against its resistance level and went into a tailspin.  It fell so far and so fast that my friend ended up losing $150,000, which included his wedding money.  In the end, he did not get married to his fiancé.
Think about this for a moment.  My friend’s entire future was changed, in part, by his unwillingness to take a $2,000 loss.  Don’t make the same mistake.  When you are wrong about a stock (and you will be), don’t turn a small loss into a big one.  Simply cash out the position, take your loss and move on.
Fausto Pugliese. President and Founder of Cyber Trading University.