Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
Intraday traders, how many trades do you make per day?
that depends much on the system you use. I have a friend that trades 20 to 30 times a day. scalping a point at a time. He believes that no one knows where markets will turn. He also likes it that he can come and go random since all his trades last just minutes....he is more of a ticket tape reader.
My system was designed to take one to two good trades a day. My philosophy is that markets are predictable, and that fits my logical personality.
So each his/her own style and there are many different styles out there.
20-40 per day usually. I have an issue with forcing trades though. If market is slow and rangebound, sometimes its better to take no trades than a few trades. Instead of focusing on trades per day just focus on taking valid trade setups. Many of us have a deep held belief we need to be doing something, we gotta "make it happen" etc, which produces a sense of urgency which is horrible in trading... it reveals itself most during slow markets. Or thinking that we have some sort of control over outcome... trying to reach "x" amount of profit. If the market is slow and choppy, you will not make a killing. Fact. You got no control over market volatility or trend for the day. Fact. No matter how skilled you are, you have no control over any one trade. Fact. Performance is not the same as outcome. Sometimes performance means, not trading. It means preserving mental capital when markets are quiet, trading less (or not at all) and with small targets. And sometimes it means getting into more trades if the setups are there. You control your risk, when you are in a position and when you are not, and when you get out of that position. You control the mind you bring into trading. Never your profits or trade outcome. Giving up this illusory control, the "perfectionist" part of me, is what allows me to perform optimally. A bit off topic, but the point Im trying to make is you should only trade when you have edge, and the frequency depends on your trading criteria, what time-frame you trade off and how many setups the market actually gives you. There shouldnt be some sort of quota you have to meet, thats putting pressure on yourself and missing the point. I like to think of overtrading like a hamster running on a wheel. You try to force results by "pushing" forward but you end up either flat or more likely blowing up.
Understanding yourself is just as important as understanding markets.
Typically 1-2 trades on 2-3 different instruments a day. However, I don’t really manage my trades. (I set a predetermined SL and TP before entering).
While doing this I was able to achieve a profit factor of 2.165 but I doubt the PF will stand the test of time. It’s a new strategy and I’ve been extremely lucky as my backtested PF is a 1.38
I still don't have a final answer to this, but the more I trade the more I realize that there are normally only 3 to 5 really good trades per day per market.
I think that a good trade needs some time to play out and it really needs to have some difficulty behind it, if it's just a fast trade that lasts 10 minutes it's normally not a good trade.
Fast trades are really attractive because they look like free money, they look free because it seems as though it's " clear that something is going to happen....so you think are betting on something that will occur 80% of the times, the reality is that the 80% of the times, is more a 65% and that risk reward is poor.
I only take one trade a day, but it's always the best trade of the day!
But seriously, I find it better to maintain absolute concentration, albeit for 1 or maximum 2 hours in a day.
I was reading a book called 'The Shallows', but Nicholas Carr, which describes how the internet has drastically impacted human attention span,
even amongst University academics. It's a really interesting book, if you've got the attention span to read it !
Thats some really excellent advice and insight there.
Nobody ever knows where the market is going to go next, all it takes is one big hedge fund or whatever suddenly having to offload a large position and all your clever analysis flies right out the window.
Thats why micromanaging positions is nothing more than an exercise in futility whose sole result is giving you an illusion of control.
All you can do is put yourself in a position where you can benefit from movements that your edge allows you to partake in over a large number of trades.
As for number of trades, I look at it from a losing perspective, maximum three losses per day and I stop trading, advice I got way back when starting out to limit any possible emotional damage to the extent possible and the subsequent danger of revenge trading accounts to death. Removes a huge amount of pressure.
I trade the ES and €Stoxx futures where I don't get more than a maximum of say 5 or so trades on really well moving days anyway, often just 1 or two per day, and as in daytrading I stick to strict 2:1 reward : risk ratios - another element removing tremendous pressure as with over 33% winners that makes it virtually impossible to stop your account from growing - I find the 3 max losses a day rule has worked really really well for me.
To this day still grateful for that advice, one of the very first things I ever heard and still ignored to my own detriment far too long till it finally sunk in.
Trading isn't complicated, it's just a probability game.
I think one of the main reasons most fail is when we overcomplicate it thinking things can't be so simple, when we can't accept losses as an inevitable cost of doing business as a trader, when we start trying to catch every miniscule wiggle and every single move up and down, and start a journey of endless tweaking of methods, settings, timeframes and markets to reach that elusive, non-attainable goal.
I know I did that even though I'd learned some great stuff from some people who I knew were making an excellent professional living from markets, but still ventured off on a search for some holy grail instead.
Looking back at myself I think the main reason for that really dumb behaviour of mine - given the key to the mint and still thinking I as a total beginner would know better is just plain and simple pretty unbelievable stupidity actually haha - anyway, all that was basically just an inner unwilligness to totally accept the number of losses I'd need to live with to get to where I wanted my equity curve to go.
It's only once I learned to deal with fully accepting losing, went back to what they showed me at the very beginning some 20 plus years ago, that I became net profitable, the age old stuff of buying / shorting pullbacks in trends, in daytrades sticking to 2:1 r.r ratios, and, most importantly, having the patience, discipline and emotional self-control to do nothing else.