So today I traded about 10,000 shares for the day and only finished the day up $30. First I have to ask, why the fuck did I only finish up $30 on 10,000 shares. Well I can answer that very easily. The first reason is because the commissions are so cheap. It is 3/10 of a penny per share or .30 each way. That means I only need to make .60 or .006 per share to break even. I have found that this cheapness can lead to over trading. I think regardless of how expensive or inexpensive your trades are you need to treat them like a commodity. You still need to be selective, Otherwise you are just going to churn your account. To give you an idea on a normal day I only trade about 3000 shares to hit over $100 in profit. Not that I do not plan to trade this many share and much more as I gain more experience but I need to instill good habits now so that when I go live I don't just throw away money.
To put everything in perspective the experienced active trader is trading anywhere from 50-100k shares a day, but they are also making a few thousand bucks a day. It really all comes down to ticket average to see how efficient you are trading. To find the ticket average you take your total P&L and divide it by 1000. So if you are up $150 and you traded 3000 your ticket average or profit per 1000 shares traded is $50. Now in my case today if you traded 10k shares and you were up 30 then your ticket average was $3.
I think that SMB targets $15 or greater. On my good days I have anywhere from 9-50 TA.
Just thought I would share.
Sounds like progress. Is this your own money you're trading? SMB capital? Are those commissions lightspeed rate?
ReplyDeleteI started day trading this week and I've collected around $30-$10 with I think 1 down day of $20. BUT i've learned a ton from each and every one of those trades and that's what matters. Starting next week I'm going t be trying to at least hit $30 a day or average.
But I still have my swing and long term positions.
It is the commission rates for lightspeed throug SMB. I think it is 1/10 of a penny higher for retail traders. This is all on the demo right now and is not real money, but I am trying to treat it as if it is real money. I start trading firm capital in 4.5 weeks and counting.
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