The Rules of Day Trading.

[mark04]

The Rules of Day Trading

Note: These Rules Are Only For Day Trading, Not For Long Term or Position trading.
A trading plan is essential for success. It is utterly impossible to succeed at trading without a concrete plan. The following are suggestions, some general, some specific, that I think will help traders achieve their goals.
GENERAL POINTS
• Homework:
The study of specific scripts and their relationship to the overall market is essential. It is suggested that the trader work at least one hour outside of market hours on familiarization with scripts that could be traded the next day. As time goes on, the trader will have greater understanding of the widely traded scripts, and will be able to better judge information for potential opportunities. Weekends require at least 2-3 hours of study to setup for the following week. The trader should be prepared to spend a minimum of 10 hours a week outside market hours on this planning and study.
• Schedule:
A standard schedule is essential. The trader should arrive at the trading center 45 minutes before the market opens (or more) and plan on being there all day. Before the market opens: The trader should have a list of potential trading scripts from his homework from the prior evening.

He should look at these as to how they traded intraday the day before, and draw conclusions as to whether or not he will follow them when the market opens. The trader should have his attention on the market, and on nothing else, be rested, and be ready to attack the market. If there is some outside influence that could take attention off the market, the trader should cease trading until the situation is addressed and handled, and he can trade without external influences that could have a detrimental effect.
• Taking heat:
This is the term used for watching a trade go the wrong way. It is the number one reason why traders lose money. Losses are inevitable. Nobody makes money every day. The key to winning overall is to limit the losses and offset them by winning trades.

The trader should never take more than a set limit of heat. In our personal experience, it is extremely difficult to set a number limit on how much heat, such as one-half a point, etc.
• Maximum Shares per Trade
Traders with little experience get wiped out by trading large amounts of shares. Until the trader is making money consistently, i.e. 10 trading days in a row with no losing days, the number of shares should be limited
• Mistakes
Traders make mistakes. The most common mistake is to sell when one wants to buy, and vice versa. The computer can go down, the feed to the exchange can be interrupted. There are a lot of things that can go wrong. The trader must assume full responsibility for any mistake that occurs. Open positions should be exited immediately (almost always at a loss) when a mistake occurs.
• Number of Trades Per Day
Trading too much in one day is the third reason why traders lose money consistently. There is absolutely no reason to trade more than 5 trades per day. The maximum number of trades should be limited to 5 per day.
• Maximum Positions at One Time:
The trader should try and limit himself to one open position at a time. Two positions is acceptable, but three is not. This is more of a general rule

Holding overnight is usually done to try and avoid a loss. Holding overnight for an expected gain is too risky for the trader.

keep in mind this is for day traders All rules are made to be broken. All rules can be safely broken under certain circumstances. But in my experience, breaking more than one rule is a grave mistake, and reduces the possibility of success to less than 25%. It should not be done.
• Trading Regimen
Every trader has a regimen; a style or set of rules that he follows to choose trades. For example, most day traders use technical analysis as part of their personal regimen to form conclusions.

The personal regimen would include the specifics of what indicators are used and why. These regimens are constantly being refined and polished, due to the fact that the market changes all the time, and what worked 6 months ago may not work now. The trader must have a personal regimen, a specific set of rules or guidelines that he follows.

This must be in writing. These guidelines must be his own, in other words, he must not use another trader screaming or some computer program, or anything else, to make his FINAL decisions.

He must make his final decisions himself, and he can't do it without a personal regimen.

The personal trading regimen helps the trader refine his skills and learn what works and what does not. He can change his regimen at any time, of course, but he must have something to change.


Best Regards
Mark,