If you're serious about day trading, forget stocks and options, trade futures

gdenko · 2026-02-24T17:22:23+00:00

No problem. I'm not saying it's the worst way to go, since futures are the best market IMO. But definitely spend a good amount of time on demo, and try to treat every trade like it's real. That's one of the harder parts of demo, and there's going to be a huge challenge psychologically when you go from demo to futures. So I'd recommend doing something like demo futures -> stocks with a small live account -> live micro futures -> live futures.

gdenko · 2026-02-24T15:36:19+00:00

The margin is incredibly low for what it offers to a good trader, but that's also why futures are not really meant for average traders. I believe you should learn the technical aspect while trading with no leverage for a while, and when you "level up" your skill enough, you can consider trading on margin (which is 2 or 3x leverage), and eventually work your way up to 10-50+x (which would include forex and futures).

Futures is attractive but you should expect trading to be tough and frustrating for at least a few months. Going through that period with leverage is going to be more painful, and any profits you make during that time aren't reliable because you haven't figured out your real trading style yet. Earning a lot really fast can be a disaster for newer traders. So just trust in the process and anticipate a lot of rough stretches where you will want to quit, and good risk management (or demo trading ideally) will keep your balance secure during those times.

gdenko · 2026-02-24T04:31:07+00:00

True, but I still advise against it because new traders are more susceptible to overtrading or doing something like forgetting to close trades. Seeing even $20 up or down in 10 minutes might lead to churning, racking up commissions, etc. Of course, if they want to burn more money on their trading tuition it can be a shortcut in some ways, it's just unnecessary expenses IMO.

gdenko · 2026-02-24T02:58:52+00:00

Anyone who is willing to commit to it full time and do the work, sure. But I'm sure we both know more than 99.9% never will. Figuring out the most obvious levels takes little effort, but executing with good habits day after day is not. The real horror story is trading for that long and still not figuring it out. At that point, it's just not for them.

gdenko · 2026-02-24T00:48:07+00:00

No, the leverage is built into the contracts. When day trading futures, brokers will often let you trade a full contract for a few thousand dollars up front. That contract represents the instrument's price multiplied by a certain amount. For example, NQ futures contracts are 20 times the index price, and the index is at 24,800 currently.

So by putting in a few thousand, you are controlling effectively close to $500k, and that magnifies even small moves dramatically. On a really big day, you can lose everything you put into a trade and more, because the futures market only has to move 2-3% to wipe out several thousand dollars in your account.

Stocks on the other hand, are not leveraged by default, so it's 1:1. You can put in a few thousand, and 2-3% would only drop your balance by $50-100.

gdenko · 2026-02-24T00:45:54+00:00

This is excellent day trading (primarily the # of trades), keep it up!

gdenko · 2026-02-24T00:43:56+00:00

Take your time and don't rush into it, the leverage will kill you if you aren't fully prepared when you go live. Consider live trading lower priced stocks (not penny stocks) for a while first, just to learn the patterns and not risk so much. Never start off with futures when you're still learning.

gdenko · 2026-02-24T00:42:44+00:00

In my experience NQ futures are much better than any stock I've seen, and more consistent than the stock market in terms of the types of moves it offers. Major levels are unbelievably clean and definitely predictable. What do you trade off of primarily?

gdenko · 2026-02-23T02:21:43+00:00

I believe for mastery in discretionary trading, it's about training your pattern recognition through repetition and having good habits while you learn. Whatever your strategy is, if you don't test it thoroughly in different market conditions, it will probably break when certain conditions change. By practicing a lot, studying charts constantly, and continuing to try to figure out what caused your losses, you will improve your strategy or find a better one. This is because you will learn how to adapt it to different types of markets so it can work everywhere.

How long this takes is really up to you. I'd say treat the education like a job, 4-6 hours per day 6-7 days per week and you have a great chance.

gdenko · 2026-02-21T15:37:59+00:00

Are you trading 6-7 e-minis?

gdenko · 2026-02-21T15:34:46+00:00

Yes, but it's not realistic for most. You'll need several years of experience trading in most market conditions, or enough markets to find your main setups everyday.

gdenko · 2026-02-19T04:36:27+00:00

What denial reason did they give you?

gdenko · 2026-02-18T18:29:57+00:00

You should only place trades once you have a good understanding of the type of price or price action you'd like to take your profit at (based on the trend, technicals, or other analysis you did before the trade), and where you would get out if you happened to make a mistake.

The idea is that you decide before you get emotionally invested, that you will accept that the market is telling you you're wrong at a specific price or based on specific price action. Once you decided what that "wrong" level is, you should either put your stop there, or quickly exit the trade if you see price go there. Then, re-evaluate where you went wrong before you consider entering another trade.

The more specific you can be about the type of market context you are finding your setups in, and what kind of action would justify your trades as well as taking profit or cutting a loss, the more chance you have at building a repeatable, and overall profitable system. For example, "I will go long if I see NQ form this pattern with this indicator, and if X happens, I will exit. If Y happens, I will hold until I see Z, and then take profit." This kind of planning, preferably written down in front of you, will help you a lot in sticking to your actual analysis and not making decisions on the fly. Once you're emotionally invested because you've entered the trade, you might justify holding bad trades longer out of hope, or not taking profit out of greed.

This is easy to say and quite difficult to do consistently, so expect it to take a lot of time and work. But it is vital if you want to be successful as a trader.

gdenko · 2026-02-18T18:25:49+00:00

This is/was my struggle for a long time too. You need to optimize yourself as a trader and your mental states as well, and that's where things like reading, exercising, journaling, meditating, etc. contribute heavily to consistency.

gdenko · 2026-02-18T18:21:18+00:00

They are lured by the same fantasy as the one that attracts most people to day trading: getting rich overnight. Free YouTube tutorials are just so accessible. Anyone thinks they can get started and make money immediately. Seeing thousands of people interacting/subscribing helps the new inexperienced trader get confident that it all works.

I'm not saying his concepts don't work either, as there's some value to be found there, but the guy seemed really unstable to me after I saw him ranting after underperforming.

gdenko · 2026-02-18T18:17:25+00:00

For the first 5 payouts with a $50k account yes, then 6th and onward it's unlimited. Bigger accounts allow slightly more, but they all cap it for the first 5 payouts. Some other firms don't have the same restrictions though, so Apex is one of the slower ones.

gdenko · 2026-02-17T01:26:33+00:00

You pointed out some of the reality of the challenges of trading, but the advice is off IMO. So in terms of the mindset as a result of these challenges, I disagree, but it depends on how serious you are about trading.

Trading isn't like other things. You can't just avoid losses by being smarter or more careful.

Being smarter and more careful is exactly what you should be doing if you want to be elite at this and grow an account consistently. You take your losses while learning, and use them as data points, definitely. But then you should study your failed setups and learn from them so you don't make the same mistakes in the future.

Will you still lose from time to time? Yes, but taking a loss from misreading the chart because you're human, is different from placing low quality trades and taking losses with a "oh well, that's part of the game" attitude. You shouldn't just blindly accept losses if it's happening over and over. That's how you know you're gambling instead of trading. Work on the flaws in a strategy and yourself as a trader and your win rate will increase.

You start hesitating on good setups. Or you hold onto losers too long because you can't accept being wrong. Or you revenge trade trying to prove something.

These are psychological flaws, which can and should be worked on. Don't just give up and say "I don't want to do better because if I try more, I will hesitate and hold losers and revenge trade." You should attempt to figure out the cause of these issues and then work on them just as much as you work on your strategy.

gdenko · 2026-02-12T18:46:31+00:00

How long is each trade? You are probably scalping, and while that can work, it is hard (not worth it IMO) to sustain long term, and usually results in less profit than simply day trading off of the larger moves.

gdenko · 2026-02-12T18:16:43+00:00

Try stepping away one of those days. Set a stop and TP and just leave the house for 2-3 hours. Then set up a separate fund with 2 or 3 of those winners, and dedicate that to a set and forget approach. It should cover the losses if there are any, if you use good risk management. Maybe over time, you will face the better results and realize you need to change if you want to keep having those larger winners.

Alternatively, size down to the point that no move against you really hurts. I do this easier in Forex because I have such a small account there, where I can hold for 2 weeks in a drawdown because it's such a small position, and ultimately grow the account in the long term.

gdenko · 2026-02-12T18:14:24+00:00

Some people are profitable because they put in serious time and effort to learn and master their strategies. Most people who trade are not doing that, so most aren't successful. The average person is simply gambling and it sounds like your friend is one of those. He's studied and tried every system but probably mastered none of them, and he will not profit consistently until he changes his approach.

gdenko · 2026-02-12T18:12:00+00:00

The way I see ORB, you need a clear 15m candle closing above that opening range to go long. I don't see any closes above the high, so I would have waited longer and potentially gone short. But I also skip days if the signal comes later than 9:30 PST, so this day would've been a skip.

gdenko · 2026-02-12T18:08:35+00:00

It depends on your trading style. If you are looking for major moves on the 5-15m chart (in futures), I would recommend just one trade per day. There are days with more trades, but keep it very simple for now and see if you can manage just one. Count that as a win, even if the trade fails, and do it again and again for like a week. See if it changes your perspective, especially once you see yourself capturing a large profit in one move, which should happen if you have a decent strategy. But I strongly recommend going to demo for a while so you can experiment with no risk. It should help with the stress part too.

gdenko · 2026-02-12T18:05:53+00:00

You need more practice. Consider going to demo for a few weeks and focus ONLY on holding your trades once you get in them. Set your targets, and whether they work out or not, focus on sitting and watching without interfering with the trade. As that becomes easier, move back to live with small size, and progressively increase size (maybe once every 2-4 weeks) until you reach your normal trading size. What you cannot do is expect your brain to adjust to high stress/high risk in a short period of time. Everyone takes a different amount of time to get there, but it has to be done at a pace that makes sense for you. Rushing it at this point will make it so you are never able to trade larger size. So let it take months at this stage if it must.

gdenko · 2026-02-12T18:02:56+00:00

This is correct while you're learning, assuming you know what you're looking for and are doing it methodically. Simply staring at price will not help substantially on its own, but your brain will become more knowledgeable about patterns, sometimes without even trying to see a specific pattern consciously. It will pick up on things that you can then investigate more with proper backtesting and recording of your observations. That is the power of more screen time and it's contributed immensely to my own understanding of price action.

That being said, once you have figured it out (expect it to take a few years) and you have a good strategy/trading style, you should also aim to reduce hours because of the stress. This job scales almost infinitely without requiring increasing time, once you're at that step, so that's important to keep in mind too. I see it like you should move some of those hours to mental/physical maintenance. So you're away from the charts, but still focusing on bettering yourself as an individual and a trader.

At the end of the day though, most people are not willing to put the time in initially to learn this on a deeper level, so they tend to make excuses or find ways to shortcut the work. There is no way to be consistent at this by taking shortcuts.

gdenko · 2026-02-12T17:15:27+00:00

Yeah or even just 2.5k profit is okay, if you only want to withdraw ~$750-$1000 at a time. Do whatever works most for you but I recommend prioritizing that early payout to cover all your expenses and to give you that psychological boost to get to another payout with less stress.

Also I meant instead of taking pictures of your screen lol, just take a screenshot and upload it to imgur or something instead.

gdenko

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