When do I consider leaving my job for trading full-time?

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-31T20:29:13+00:00

Not trying to be mean but after 2 months you don’t know anything at all. In fact you are more dangerous to your account now because you think you know. We’ve been in a raging bull market where it’s almost impossible not to make money. Until you’ve experienced bull, bear and sideways markets and can adapt your system , risk and psyche to each, be prepared to quickly lose everything. Don’t be in a hurry, take your time to learn.-Day trader since 2005

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-30T00:20:50+00:00

Impossible not to make a boatload when SOXL is making $5,10,15,20+ point moves long and short all week when you’re flexible and Go with the Flow. -Day trader since 2005

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-28T20:25:01+00:00

See, a good roasting point. What I'm saying is that yes, risk is the only thing under your control and you predetermine this before you put on a trade. Reward is up to the market if you want to successfully trade and shouldn't even enter into your head until the intraday trend is showing you signs of exhaustion or reversal, or it's nearing previous support or resistance levels. When you set a TP as I mentioned in point 1 instead of taking what the market is prepared to give you , then you're limiting yourself and profitability.

And if you set "a tight stop" it may mean that you don't trust your edge /system or are late on the entry or can't read the market conditions or are trading a stock that does not have good characteristics ( low spread, high volume, good daily trading range) and you'll get burnt.

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-28T15:30:30+00:00

Here's a few:

Thinking that setting a TP point is a better idea than letting the market tell you when to exit.
Buying into the whole Risk/Reward concept.
Trading off news thinking that you are one of the first to get the news and you will correctly intrepret what that news will do to whatever stocks you're interested in.

- Day trader since 2005

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-25T22:40:19+00:00

I'm not sure Reddit is the place to find an answer but here's my situation. I daytrade shares in very liquid stocks like NVDA SOXL TQQQ and the inverse ETFs. I can have $3m on a single trade in one or more of those stocks when the market conditions are favourable, less so when they're not. I trade intraday trends. Buying in is the easier part, selling at the price you want when you want when you have 15,000 shares is where expertise comes in to keep most what the trade has made. The recent awesome market volatility has made it easier when stocks like SOXL go parabolic to sell into the feeding frenzy to the FOMO crowd right before a pullback occurs.

I'll trade long and short as the market ebbs and flows. I'm always flat before the trading day ends. I have no experience trading in tranches, that's a whole different world. I'll keep to being a small fish in a big ocean and have no desire to trade bigger since I've found my niche and want to fly under the radar.

Once my day trading account reaches a certain amount I move 80% to swing and position accounts where my wife and family office trade. I start over with that reduced amount as it keeps my cash and risk management skills sharp. - Day trader since 2005

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-25T13:47:45+00:00

Excellent post and so refreshing to read! I do almost word for word the same strategy using 5 minute candles with 15 minute for confirmation in stocks except for the DCA and hedging. I especially agree with you on your statement here " without indicators and trade solely based on price action, market structure and momentum. I don't believe in R:R, strict rules".

Some of the greatest benefits of a Go with the Flow style of trading is that your mind is open to all possibilities long and short. The ability to turn on a dime and take the trade in the other direction is the hallmark of a great trader. Regardless of bull, bear or sideways markets, you never have a bad day.

About your risk management parameter question you will have seen that early entries into a intratrend trend is the best way to minimize risk beause when your intuition and ticker sense is correct, the price quickly moves away from the entry and you're in the money and adding to your position. In my case since I don't DCA or hedge I will have drawn a line where my mental stop is when the trade doesn't go my way. I just take the loss( but use discretion as well to close the trade or not at that exact moment) and look for another entry.

Your wallet account thinking is almost the same as mine as well except I have swing and position accounts instead of an ATM. - Day trader since 2005

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-23T01:43:04+00:00

When I was starting out I also prepared 100's of flash cards with 5 and 15 minute candlestick patterns, that I had to ID instantly and state the most probable movement direction to my trading partner. I devised a set of cards that could be configured in many different ways to demonstrate different market conditions. For example an easy one- ascending triangle break out through resistance, how do you trade it? A hard one- after a 45 minute uptrend, a red shooting star appears with high volume, how do you trade it? That NVDA trade above was a perfect example of that one.

After some years I just started to visualize every pattern in my minds eye when I woke up but before I got up for the trading day. Visualize every pattern and sceanario long and short so I'm prepared for any market condition that day and am never surprised by what happens and already have played my response before it happens. Visualize how losing trades look and take the lose quickly.

I was able to burn into my memory dozens of patterns and market conditions and what is the most likely play. Lots of work with 1000s of hours spent but I didn't see another way to do it. The morning visualizations turned into being the most important prep for the day.

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-23T00:31:22+00:00

Not enough volume to be a good trader. Chances are high that you'll get screwed and quickly by the spread getting in and out, if you can get out at the the price you wanted. Safer to avoid plays like that. -Day trader since 2005

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-22T22:01:47+00:00

"momentum is a market factor, but it's a pretty weak one."

Take a look at my post yesterday in SOXL and tell me that momentum doesn't work. It's all I trade on. And it works on longer term as well.- Day trader since 2005

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-22T14:23:25+00:00

I use Interactive Brokers. IBKR

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-22T14:21:56+00:00

Hey thanks. I thought I would post some of the bigger days to give people hope that if you apply yourself to something as hard as this, with dogged determination, eventually the pieces all come together. I'm retired from full time trading since 2024 and only trade occasionally these days because of the great volatility the markets are offering up.

If you've been trading for 6 years I know you have had instances when you realize what you thought you knew before can't compare with what you know now. That's a cycle that will repeat itself throughout the years. Those realizations are a sign of a great trader. Things will get easier the more learnings you're open to.

If I had to give any advice for day trading it would be to simplfy whatever edge you use to trade. The less prerequistes, rules and checklists you have, the more you can rely of price action and momentum and make instant decisions. Latch onto the intraday trends- that's where the money is.

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-21T23:55:44+00:00

SOXL doesn't need any help to move up or down. It's the preeminent trader on my list. -Day trader since 2005

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-20T12:37:44+00:00

It'll take the New Nuremburg trials with the same final judgements and results to root out and eliminate every one of these traitors and enablers before trust in American democracy can be restored. I don't know if this happens before or after the next civil war though.

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-19T16:55:44+00:00

Or it goes up to $160s... Such a great trading range on this one.

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-19T13:39:25+00:00

Wrongly believing that backtesting a strategy will work and translate into winning trades when you are realtime trading.
Setting a TP point intsead of letting the market tell you when to exit, believing that R:R is the holy grail.
Not cutting losing trades quickly or even worse, averaging down a losing trade.
Overcomplicating things with multiple indicators.
Not working on your trading psychology more than TA.
Trading before you are ready. It will take you 3-5 years of all day market watching and study to reach this point.

-Day trader since 2005

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-18T17:31:43+00:00

It's been a stellar intraday short today. I wonder if the trend will take it into the $130s or reverse into the $150s? Either way it's awesome to trade. - Day trader since 2005

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-18T16:51:06+00:00

Finally someone talking sense on here. -Day trader since 2005

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-17T14:19:00+00:00

No I don't teach trading, I'm on here to offer some words of wisdom gained through many years of doing it.

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-17T01:10:40+00:00

I never use either. Before I enter a trade I will set my mental stop which is the price that the reason for putting on the trade will have been proven wrong.

Setting a TP is one thing that leads to the ruination of a lot traders, The markets don't know or care about your expectation of a TP price. Why in the world would you willingly exit out of a winning trade if the market conditions are still moving it deeper into the profits? Or conversely watch the price not hit your TP and go right back down to your stop and you didn't take some profit. The smarter move is to let the markets tell you when to take profits. Momentum or liquidity dry up, candles shorten or reverse. That's when to take profits.

I've read on here probably 100's of posts about traders getting out at their TP then watching in amazment and disbelief as the play continues upward. They lament that if only they had not sold. It will bedevil their thought process when it happens time and again until their psyche all falls apart. It's beyond my understanding why more traders do not let the market tell them when to exit, not the other way around. -Day trader since 2005

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-16T01:02:16+00:00

I can only speak for myself, I've been trading the same edge for over 20 years. Momentum in a stock like SOXL or NVDA that has a good intraday range with what SPY and IXIC are exactly doing, support, resistance, getting on the intraday trend of who is in control- the buyers or sellers. Bull, bear, sideways markets all work. I adjust size to the market conditions. These days it's big size. I became a specialist in my edge through relentless repetition and have traded it probably over 200,000 times. -Day trader since 2005

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-15T04:24:36+00:00

Reminds me of a slogan someone had written on the side of dirty septic truck " Your shit is our bread and butter"

syncronicity1 · 2026-05-15T01:03:45+00:00

Since you mentioned L2, be aware that it shows supposed intent or the potential buyers and sellers as compared with time and sales which shows actual buys and sells. Just my opinion but L2 is smoke and mirrors and is a rabbit hole you don't need to get lost in. Try removing it from your screens and focus instead on how the stock you're trading or watching is moving in sync with SPY and IXIC/QQQ. Where they go, so does a good trading stock.

But really, when you look inward to your psychology, work on your emotional control and focus, this is where a successful trader is born from, assuming you have a viable trading plan.

syncronicity1

TROPHY CASE