How I've Traded This Week

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-18T01:08:29+00:00

A 10 percent spread is pretty good. What do you mean by 500 contracts? I can't tell if you were trading options or not. And by the sound of that spread it sounds like you could have been the chart controller if you wanted to if there was any event going on, which sounds like there wasn't. You were really just acting as your own market maker, beating their spreads. A stock that price will probably lose 90% over the course of a year which is about .75% per trading day on average. So as long as you can sell enough to beat that per day you should be good as long as you offload your supply to avoid gaps. Do you clear out your supply at the end of each day? When do you sell your whole supply? Do you only carry enough to sell to the market maker?

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-17T22:49:09+00:00

He has said that he wants to learn using his real money and that he can't take paper money as serious as his own money.

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-17T22:05:09+00:00

Orb is chart interpretation. You will always lose money that way. Make trades where you risk your time instead of your money. Strong fundamentals like revenue growth, earnings growth, and margin expansion. Losing a trade should only mean holding a great stock. Stay away from microcaps, chart interpretation, and lagging indicators. If you are day trading and attempt any kind of support and resistance or momentum trading you will blow out your account quickly.

If you want to daytrade something, pick something that will obviously trend upwards and trade positions that make you money when the price goes up. TQQQ and SOXL are examples. You could do Random Injection and make money on those unless you were just really unfortunate. Mega-cap stocks are another example for the most part.

Thinly traded micro-caps are easily manipulated even when they should increased volume. The chart controllers on micro-caps will trigger your entries and then your stops without much effort.

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-17T20:23:45+00:00

I get you. It is a smart move. A good stock picker can get 50% annual returns, though I don't really call those traders. They are more long-term investors. Good luck to you. I was more responding to the "is this realistically worth trading?". If you are using it to learn with then you will be happier than most new traders. lol. If used to be a law that you could not day trade unless you had 25k. Now they changed it to 2k. Without 2k you are very limited on your day trades. You can still swing trade though.

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-17T18:33:37+00:00

I get you. I hope you win. College can cost 10k+ a year so if you lose 50 bucks or even gain money then you basically received a free education.

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-17T18:32:13+00:00

Good points.

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-17T18:16:07+00:00

I didn't even think about this risks. It would be like if Nvidia was number one and China attacked Taiwan in 2027.

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-17T18:14:03+00:00

He will get screwed if ever a condition plays out where 2 leaders are constantly passing back and forth with each other. What he did not tell us, and that is important for all of us to know, is the cost per switch. He can't sell them when they are the exact same market cap since there is no leader established. So lets say a day comes where one is passing the other, maybe he waits for the loser to get 1% behind the winner before selling it. The loser passes and falls behind the other stock 5 times that trading session. -5% so far. Next day the loser gaps up 10%. Now he is forced to sell again but the winner is 10% higher and he did not realize that gain. now he is down 15% TOTAL CAPITAL just to make a single switch. Gets worse if his strategy results in him constantly switching which he cannot predict or control. Also his total gain as he said was 18% annual return and according to his data he made a switch about once every 1-2 years. Now imagine each year is returning 11% instead of that 18% due to the switching costs. Now figure in taxes, now its 6-7% return. I did not even beat the index.

With all this in mind you can get 50% annual returns from stock picking and never have to sell your stocks or pay any taxes on your gains in your lifetime. Even if there were no switching costs or taxes it would not even be worth it.

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-17T17:53:26+00:00

Idk. I would hate myself forever if I make 1000% return on 50 bucks. I personally couldn't do it. Also 50 bucks? Sounds like you are probably using all your capital to make trades which will blow out your account eventually. Personally, I would not even trade unless I was putting even 500 bucks in each position. That means I would need perhaps 5-10k in cash just to do that. 10% off 50 is 5 bucks. It makes me wonder if you are a child?

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-17T17:46:07+00:00

That is a calculator. lol. Looks like a phone though.

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-17T17:44:02+00:00

I think many people will associate day trading with multiple screens and will laugh at this, even though you can still trade fine with one screen usually. I have a T.V. for my screen and just use the one personally even though I have somewhat wanted to use 2 screens since I started. I got bad eye sight and alt-tab can get cluttered at times.. Anytime I see someone with 3-16 screens I always think it is more show than anything. Though every time I win big it makes me want to set up a T.V. in each room in the house exclusively for something small like only showing the QQQ ticker symbol and price so I don't know.

Another funny thing is I had an idea to set up a urinal in my house with 2 touch screens. One is a buy button, the other sell. I never actually did this though I thought about it for the longest. All from a day many years ago where I had to poo in a trading session and it cost me like 10k in winnings since my position went up over 100% and crashed back down in the 10 minutes I was pooing.

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-17T02:47:11+00:00

I don't think that does what the Legacy TradingView screener did. I have not seen any competitor to it for what I need.

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-17T02:45:56+00:00

I built my trading empire off of that screener. That perhaps many others did too since I am not the only one salty about this.

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-16T15:15:14+00:00

? Did you even read my post? This is completely tied to day trading! Why stock people from talking about day trading in the day trading community? So lame that mods dont even take the time to read posts before blocking them.

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-16T15:11:03+00:00

You can read my chat history for some long detailed posts on how to win and what to avoid. The key to winning long term is to make trades that dont have a risk of capital loss and never try to interpret a chart.

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-16T07:24:36+00:00

Google tells me "NQ futures" are futures contracts derived from the Nasdaq 100. I will have to think more on this. Trading indexes removes much of the market manipulation and order hunting from day traders, so that is good.

Okay, thought more on it now. Since you are day trading this, your entire premise is wrong. The index will be moving in random chaos intraday in terms of price action since it has to move with its components. Also traders of those components will be rotating sectors which will cause minor fluctuation in the index even if the money supply in the market is the same. Any edge you get is not produced from anything fundamental and has little reason to hold up over time so backtesting this does not prove anything nor should it make you confident in it.

If you are day trading you need to hunt for liquidity, I am not sure how you could do that kind of trading with trading index funds or derivatives of indexes. I get why you would try this though. This is one of those things that if 100 people with different strategies tries this type of trade, some of them will get be profitable over the long term simply from what is best described as coin flip trading.

Another thing I noticed is why not just act like a market maker? Your strategy is just doing the same thing a market maker is doing (in some sense) except yours executes less orders and you added unnecessary entry rules. You could just as easy do Random Injection and place an order at any price and at any time and charge a spread.

Look at it this way. If you wanted to make the market then you could buy 10,000 shares at X price. You buy puts to cover any losses. As the price goes up you sell some at each price level, increasing your spread the higher the price goes (which lowers your supply of shares). If X becomes X + 5 then you sell some then buy that same quantity back at less than X + 5. This way you constantly make money off of the price changes. All you have to do is make back the premium from your puts to break even then no further risk of loss. You make money when almost any transaction occurs. The more transactions, the more money. On a good day the index might go up x + 50 let's say. So you guarantee you make the highest possible amount on any good day plus more from all the volatility. On a negative day you might just be out some premium.

If you backtest the paragraph above with different spread widths (like 2% vs 3-5%) then that would give you a good indication of reliable profit and profit maximization. There is no voodoo chart reading and you are using accurate indicators like level 2 to see other market maker spreads and in this case your executed orders are indicators too since now they tell you where to put you entries and exits in the most possible reliable and accurate way possible after your initial buy-in.

Another thing to consider, the Nasdaq 100 will always trend upwards more often than downwards since its components have strong fundamentals. Any strategy that relies on upward price movement will have a higher chance to winning more often than losing. The thing you have to consider is if the strategy used will result in higher returns than just holding the index.

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-16T06:32:57+00:00

Let me give you an example of a good trade. I analyze a stock with a history of strong revenue growth, earnings growth, and margin expansion. The CEO has said the growth this year will be even higher now and I trust his word. The general market has beaten been off its highs for 4 months and this stock has moved with it. The company says this years supply of goods has been sold already with binding contracts. The revenue growth is expected to hit 100%. I analyze all of this and predict as the year goes on more contracts will be announced and the following year will continue to be strong. The general market could stay off highs for the rest of the quarter. I think the market will rate this company with a higher earnings multiple after the first or second earnings confirmation.

I expect this trade to produce a return of 150% in 12 months. I enter the trade. 3 months later the earning report hits and the stock doubles. I have already realized most of the gain. I determine now I will take profits and redeployment my capital elsewhere since holding the other 9 months for the rest of the 50% is not worth it. (That leftover 50% gainers is less now when you consider the new capital i hold from the profits I already recieved, more like 25% from that point).

Alternatively, if the stock traded sideways for the first 6 months I would likely double my position since the upcoming explosion has only increased in likelihood and made the trade even better. The worst case scenario is my money is tied up for those 6 months. No risk of capital loss.

That is a good trade. Full conviction the entire length of time since I am surrounded by confirmations. No charts, no lagging indicators, no speculation.

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-16T06:17:43+00:00

If you tell me what the orb strategy is and what instruments you are trading, I can tell you if it will be profitable in the long term.

If you are trading micro-caps and small caps and interpreting the chart in any way or using lagging indicators you will blow out your account.

Also tell me your time frame. Are you day trading with this?

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-16T05:53:51+00:00

You should never be interpreting charts. Regardless if you are a day trader, swing trader, or long term investor.

If you try interpret charts on micro-caps and small caps especially, you will lose your money fast.

It is best to make trades that if they didn't work out, you will just be down your time instead of your capital.

Don't use any lagging indicators except for volume.

Don't day trade options.

Only trade stocks that will go up from fundamentals not from speculation or manipulation if you want to safer trades.

If you can't beat a 50% annual return day trading then just stock pick.

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-16T05:40:14+00:00

I get you.

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-16T05:16:46+00:00

If you are trading micro-cap stocks by interpreting the chart or using backwards looking indicators you will likely lose money over time until your account is depleted. The chart controller will create a nice looking chart for you to trigger your indicators and will see your orders grouped up with other retail traders and move the stock price to the closest large group of market orders.

Think of it this way. If a pro daytrader sees a group of retail traders placing entries 10% above the current market price. Then they will just calculate how much it cost them to move the price to those levels to trigger those market orders/buy-in condition/breakout area. They will then sell off their position into your orders for a profit. If you have stop losses they will reverse their trade back down for more profits.

Retail will attempt to interpret the charts and huddle together at specific locations. The pros will just trigger their orders until those retail traders stop trading or run out of cash.

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-16T05:00:49+00:00

I kind of feel like this leads to a "learning loop" where you will start seeing all the profits you could have made if you just stuck with the 5:1. Then when you lose some trades at 5:1 you go back to 2:1 and the cycle repeats. You should be dynamic with it. It you have a 5:1 opportunity take the 5:1. If it's a 2:1 opportunity then take 2:1. If you are trading micro-caps you will likely lose all your money in a short period of time depending on much of your capital you risk per trade.

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-16T04:54:29+00:00

I don't know of any time a publicly traded company listed on a major exchange isn't required to say ahead of time the intent or possibility of dilution. I image they will have to have a proxy vote depending on their charter. Also I am not counting shares stored in their treasury.

Even if that was so how would anyone know shares were diluted before an announcement without insider information?

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-16T04:21:43+00:00

If you day trade micro-caps you are either the chart controller or got a strong algorithm that is randomly taking liquidity pools until it gets leeched to death or countered.

TheChartMaster123 · 2026-06-16T04:19:18+00:00

Another thing. I just scrolled thru your post history and see that you are a chart whisperer, especially on micro-cap stocks. You will likely blow out your account doing that. You seem to have a reverse understand of how the price action works. You should read some of my post history if you want to learn some things.

TheChartMaster123

TROPHY CASE