The Mind of a Day Trader

The beginning stages of this game are brutal. You’re going to be horrible at it. You're going to feel stupid. You’re going to put in endless hours of work, and you’re still going to lose money and make the same mistakes over and over again. In just about anything else when you are learning…if you put in lots of hard work, you’ll get better at said task at a rate of time relative to the amount of work you put in. The harder you work, the faster you'll get better. Trading is not one of those things, so don’t burn yourself out at the beginning of your journey staying up until 3am every night thinking the answer to all your problems is "I just need to study harder" or it's in some book or DVD or online. It’s not. You just need screen time & experience.  There are ups and downs. In the beginning, more downs than ups. There will be moments of clarity early on when you're going to feel like you’ve “turned the corner and finally figured it out”…….you have

I was having a discussion with one of my guys the other day…he saw some others in the room making some really nice trades, and he said to me “Dante, what are they doing that I’m not doing?” Putting in the time outside of market hours…in addition to screen time. Going the extra mile. I told him he needed to be more dedicated and put in more time – and his response was simple, and fairly logical when taken in context, he said: “Put in work how? I don’t know what to do.” And at first I was frustrated with that response…but after contemplating it for a minute, it made perfect sense for him to say that. If you are a newer trader, the market is a very scary, fast moving and overwhelming place. Everyone tells you to “go find your niche” but they don’t really tell you how to do it. Just that you have to do it. "Figure out what you're good at, and then go through charts every night, seeking out your strong setups, and study them. See which ones worked, which ones didn't, and why.