Good Reminders!

Hey everyone! A lot of people go into the market with the thought of making a lot of money and end up just doing the opposite and losing money. You should always remember all of the things you learned and all of the things that you should be doing. Today I made just a small list of things I still need to work on while trading. 

I will list out what all I have put on these 5 sticky notes. 

• "Be patient and wait for the right setup."

- You always want to wait for the setup that YOU are most comfortable trading. Do not trade other people's trades. What I mean by that is, don't trade a security because someone else is trading it. This is a sure way of losing money. 

• "Manage Risk"

- This is common sense really, but some people forget. Manage your risk right and only trade as much as you can afford to lose. 

• "Cut loses quickly"

- This is probably one of the most important rules in trading. If you fail at this, you might as well save the money you have left and stop trading.

• "Small position size"

- This one is really for me personally because I go into every trade with WAY too much size. I try to make a quick scalp trade but am always on my toes if the trade goes backwards and this can leave a big dent in your account.

• "Stay green my friends"

- Just a little quote I kinda copied from the Dos Equis commercials. (Stay thirsty my friends). But anyways, your main goal should be to be green at the end of the day. Better to be green than to be red. 

I hope you guys liked this list and it is very easy to forget even these simple rules when it comes to making money. But take a couple cheap sticky notes and stick them either on your monitors or on your desk and it will help a lot! 

Computer Specs and Setup

Hey everyone! I will be talking about my computer and my setup. I built my own computer a long time ago and it works perfectly for my trading platform. 

Here is a picture of my computer.

Here is the list of what is all in my computer. All of these have the link to where you can buy these components. 

Case

• BitFenix Prodigy Arctic White

Processor

• Intel Core i5-3470 Quad-Core Processor 3.2 GHz 4 Core LGA 1155 - BX80637I53470

Motherboard

• ASUS Intel H77 mini ITX Motherboard - P8H77-I

Graphics Card

• EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SUPERCLOCKED 2048MB GDDR5 DVI HDMI DP Graphics Card 02G-P4-2662-KR

HDD and SSD

• Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB SATA III 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive - WD5000AAKX
• Samsung 840 Series 2.5 inch 120GB SATA III internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7TD120BW

Power Supply

• Corsair Builder Series CX 500 Watt ATX/EPS  80 PLUS (CX500)

DVD drive

• Asus 24xDVD-RW Serial ATA Internal OEM Drive DRW-24B1ST (Black)

RAM

• Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model 996988

Let me just state that I did not build this computer for trading. It was just a summer project, but this computer is still great for trading! I love it!

Here is the picture of my desk setup. 

Monitor

• Asus VS247H-P 24-Inch Full-HD LED-Lit Monitor
• The second monitor I got on craigslist for a great deal! Also a 24 inch. It is a Sony Playstation 3D tv. They do not make these anymore but still a great monitor, has a little glare on it though but doesn't effect me much.
• Third monitor I just use for quick scans on finviz and just some quick browsing. 

Dual Monitor Clamp Stand

• Mount-It! Articulating Dual Arm Computer Monitor Desk Mount for 27-Inch Monitors (MI-752)

So this is it! If you guys have any questions, feel free to email me or tweet me! Would be glad to answer any questions!  

SureTrader Review

Hey everyone! As many of you know, I got tired of the dumb PDT rule and switched to SureTrader. SureTrader is a online discount broker that is located in the bahamas and is regulated by the Securities Commission of the Bahamas. I get a lot of questions about if someone from the US can open an account with them. The answer is yes, yes they can. I believe SureTrader is not allowed to advertise in the US because of the SEC. I could be completely wrong but that is why you do not hear about them in the US. I just want you guys to know that I am NOT an affiliate of SureTrader and this review is based on my first week experience in this brokerage.


Pros of SureTrader
What the biggest pro of SureTrader is that you don't need 25k to day trade. SureTrader allows you to open an account with margin in a little as $500. Since they are located in the Bahamas, you do not have to worry about the PDT rule.

Second pro of SureTrader is the leverage you get. 6 to 1 leverage is pretty big. For example, if you put in $1,000 you can get $6,000 buying power and so on. I highly recommend you do your research on margin before you start using it. The 6 to 1 leverage is for intraday only. If you want to hold overnight position, you only get 2 to 1 leverage. Please do not use leverage if you do not know what you are doing. That is a sure way of blowing up your account and paying more on top of that.

Third pro of SureTrader is the commission. A lot of people don't think they have great commission rates because $4.95 for 1000 shares and then it's 0.00495 per share after. But on the bright side, if you are a member of Investors Underground or have bought the InvestorsLive DVD then you get some special perks. Such as $4.95 for 10,000 shares, 20 free trades, and DAS trader pro with level 2 free for the first month.

Cons of SureTrader
There are not many Cons for me but other people may have a problem with this. First of all, SureTrader is not a great broker for penny stocks period. They will kill you with all the commission fees.

SureTrader Platform
The only platform I recommend in SureTrader is the SureTrader Pro, which is DAS Trader Pro. The bad part about this is that it costs anywhere from $49 to $170 depending on what you need on your platform. For me personally, I do not trade OTC or Pinksheet stocks or do not use Level 2. So for me it only costs me $49 a month. I have not used the web based platform and I do not plan to. I heard it is horrible and you will just end up losing a lot more money.

Best Features

• No Pattern Day Trading (PDT) rule.
• Open an account for $500.
• 6-1 intra-day and 2-1 overnight leverage.

Final Thoughts
For me, I think this is the best broker out there. Since I only trade Nasdaq and not penny stocks this broker is perfect for the small guys out there like me. The number 1 reason I switched to this broker is because of the PDT rule. I think I will be with this broker for a while unless they screw me somehow, but I hope that does not happen. That being said, who do I recommend for this broker? People who are wanting to ditch the PDT rule and trade as frequently as they want. Who do I recommend stay away from this broker? People who are always trading OTC markets, because commission fees with this broker will just take all the profits away.

Thanks for reading this review guys, and I hope I helped a lot of you guys out. If you have any more questions, just shoot me an email or tweet me. I will be happy to answer!

Question - "How do you create your watchlists?"

Hey everyone,
I got an email from a couple people who wanted to know how I do my scans at night. Well I am obviously a new trader with a small capital still. So I limit my stock picks with good volume and price between $0.50 to $10.00 stocks. This helps my make the most of my trades. I use two tools to create my watchlist, Finviz.com and Thinkorswim Platform. When you are a new trader, you want to keep your overhead costs at the very least. You don't want to pay for every gadget to help you find stocks with momentum. The scans I will show you today will do a good job with finding the stocks you want to put on your watchlist and it is free!

This first picture would be my main scan. This scan really helps me find what is moving on the day and what has great volume. I usually look at this scan every night to see if anything new is moving and also look at most of the stocks that have a price under $10. What I look for is great volume, price, and the ABCD pattern that is right out of the InvestorsLive DVD.

This second scan is my swing scan. This scan helps my find if there are any good swing trades out there that I can take advantage of. I usually look for stock that have been holding trend for a while and have a solid support and resistance area. Since I am a long biased trader, I like to buy these stocks when they are barely bouncing off the support line. I don't trade much from this scan but it still gives you a good idea on the scans that I look for. 

After finding a couple stocks that I am interested in, I go to my thinkorswim platform and pull up the chart and draw the resistance and support lines. I also put alerts on the stocks that are starting to gear up and perk. This will allow me to watch different stocks while the market is open and the platform will alert me when my stock is getting close to where I want to enter the trade.

This is basically my current routine of how I prepare for the next day and how I find the stocks I like to trade. I hope you guys enjoyed this one and please don't hesitate to ask me any questions you may have! I will try my best to answering the questions.

One more thing I would like to say. Patient is the key to this game. As soon as it's gone, you will start losing money. Wait for your setup and don't try to force a trade! Good luck in the markets the rest of the week!

Changing Discount Brokers

Hey everyone!
Today I have decided to switch brokers. As many of you know that I have a small account with less than 25K in it. With less than 25K in my account, I can only have 3 day trades in a five day rolling period. Which really really sucks. Just think about how many potential trades you are missing out on! I am currently with TD Ameritrade and they are not a bad broker and after I hit the 25K mark, I might even switch back to them. As of now, I will be switching to Suretrader. The benefits of Suretrader is that you can day trade all you want without getting flagged and the SEC disabling your account for 90 days. Suretrader also has cheaper commission fees, which means more profits for us small guys out there. I know, I know... You're probably saying that after the first 1,000 shares they charge you 0.00495 per share. But that is not true for me. Since I bought the InvestorsLive DVD and also am a member now on InvestorsUnderground chatroom, I get some benefits. First benefit is commission. Commission for me will be $4.95 for 10,000 shares! Second benefit, I get 20 free trades! The third benefit is that I get DAS software for free for 1 month. Usually the cost for the software is anywhere from $49.00 to $150 depending on what you get in your software.

Anyways, the main reason for switching to Suretrader is for the day trading aspect of it. So I will be going live a lot sooner than I had hoped! So stay tuned for more great content! I will be providing a lot more charts and my personal trades that I have traded!

March 11, 2014

Hey everyone! So let me just recap the last couple of days. Didn't really do much trading just watched the markets and $PLUG had what a run. Unfortunately that great run came to a stop and if you shorted the stock today, you would have great gains!

So this morning I woke up to a email from my online broker (TD Ameritrade). That my account was approved for margin! So I was excited and went straight to my computer to see what stocks were hot today. Checked Twitter and everyone was talking about $CDTI. So I checked the stock and yesterday that stock had closed at $2.82. That same stock was trading like crazy in the pre-market! The high was $4.88 in the pre-market! Crazy! So my plan going into this trade was to wait for the stock to washout at market open. It washed out alright, but not as much as I wanted it to... The stock shot up from $4.25 to $5.73 in a matter of minutes! At this point I wasn't even going to enter this trade. But some time went by and I decided that I wanted a piece of this yummy apple pie! So I started trading it.

(This chart will show you when I entered the stock and when I exited. Yes I did trade this stock 3 times in one day and my day trades for the week were done.)

As you can see, I kind of blindly went into this trade without a plan. But now I have learned from my mistake. The third trade was the only trade that I actually had a plan for. As you can see the stock had a top at $6.95 and everyone wanted it to hit $7 dollars. Right when it hit the yellow resistance line, I went into this stock and sold it on the pull back.

What I learned from today.

Always have a plan. 
      - You always want to have a plan before you enter any trade. I just got too  greedy and wanted a piece            of this damn pie!
      - Always know what price you want to enter at and better yet what price you will exit at! Do not change          these points unless a new support or resistance line form.
      - Know how you want to trade this and always have a setup planned. The first two trades for me were            really bad. Luckily I profited from the first one and the second one I knew I screwed up and exited the          trade as soon as the price started dropping.
(This was my P/L for the day)

For those of you who are wondering what company this is...
"Trade the ticker, not the company" - Nathan Michaud

New and Young Trader Challenges

Being a new and young trader can be hard. Especially with school and a college kids bank account. It is hard to trade while going to school and because I got into trading in the middle of this semester, and I cannot really do anything about it. Starting next semester I will be trying to move all my classes in the afternoon so I will have plenty of time to trade during the day! Hopefully it works out for the best! With school it is also hard to paper trade because of all my classes and studying for tests and various projects we get in college. Another big issue for a young trader can be the amount of capital to trade. As of right now I only have around $1,000. I don't think it is enough for me to trade and get profits. Because of TD Ameritrade's $9.99 commission fees for each trade, it can be hard to scrap even a small profit together. I have decided that I won't start trading until I get at least $5,000. With that I will have $10,000 buying power with margin trading. With this account I feel that I can get a couple good profitable trades in. Another problem with a small account is the dreaded PDT or Pattern Day Trader rule... PDT is a rule that is enforced on accounts that are under $25,000. If you do not keep at least a $25,000 in your trading account then you can only trade 3 day trades in a 5 day period. This is another big problem for small trading accounts because after the 3 day trades you CAN buy more stocks but you will not be able to sell the stock within the day or they will freeze your account for 90 days. So you are basically stuck with that stock until the next day. I wouldn't recommend that unless you are certain that the stock is going to gap up the next day. Well that is basically my daily rant! I want to write everyday but it is obviously hard... Feel free to email me with any questions you guys have, It will also give me more content to put on this blog! Thanks again everyone!

March 5, 2014

I try to keep up with the stocks that are on my watchlist the best I can, but sometimes it can be hard due to the fact that I have classes in the mornings! After my 9am class, I usually go to the library with couple friends. We all play around with stocks with the MarketWatch game, but I am the only one who is really serious about trading. Today we were in the library and I was doing some scans. I came across this one stock, $XGTI. This stock was trading great volume and was about to break the resistance line and go for a breakout. I went straight to my ThinkorSwim paper trading account and drew the ABCD pattern, which I learned with the dvd. This was a Textbook Pattern!

The picture may be hard to see but I took it on my phone, sorry about the quality! Anyways, the pattern that Nathan teaches you is the gearing/perking action as you can see above. You can see I drew a line from the last top which was @3.14. You can also see the higher lows and that is when you know that this stock is going to breakout. I immediately get my order ready @3.15 for 1000 shares. Right when it breaks the resistance line I pull the trigger and buy the stock. This stock shot up right when it passed the resistance line. I was so excited because this was the first stock that I found by myself and I really wished I would have put real money on to this one. But like I said this is a learning experience. I decided to ride the stock for a while and then finally I thought the stock was at the top and I sold @3.92 for a $770 profit! Of course the stock didn't stop there, but I took my profits and ran. The stock ended up closing @4.98. I wish I would have rode that stock until 4.98! But just to be safe I still locked in some solid profits! Today I really felt that I can do this and can actually succeed at this journey! Anyways guys, hope you enjoyed this blog and more content to come soon! 

The Journey

If you read the short introduction of what this blog is about then all of you should know that I am a full time student. I have always had a interest in the stock market and always wanted to be as great as Warren Buffett. I used to read about his accomplishments and how he got started. About three weeks ago, I started searching the internet about day trading. I came across this guy named Tim Sykes. Tim Sykes is a trader and is well known for his penny stock picks. Tim Sykes took $12,000 of his Bar Mitzvah money and turned it into 1.65 Million dollars by his freshman year in college. This was quite a story, but could it have been true?!? That is crazy right? But it was true, it is a great story and everyone should look him up on YouTube. He may seem cocky and annoying at times but the truth is, this guy is a marketing genius! Well anyways, after doing some research on him, I came across this website.(http://profit.ly/)  I did some research on it and turns out, it is a legit website for transparent traders. Transparent meaning that all of their trades are verified! You can see how much they have earned and each and ever single one of their trades. I also created a profile on this website and will be posting every single one of my trades on there. http://profit.ly/user/patel94shyam

I was instantly hooked on the idea of becoming a day trader. Day Trading gives you the freedom you want and the life that you want. You can travel anywhere in the world and all you need is a computer and internet to do your job. If you are good at it, it also can make you lots of money! I decided this is what I want to do for the rest of my life! Then I met Nathan Michaud from profit.ly. He is one of the gurus from the website and also has one of the most successful traders chat rooms out there. It is called InvestorsUnderground. The subscription is a little expensive but it is definitely worth it for the full time traders out there. Nathan Michaud also has a DVD for everyone who wants to get into trading. It is called TextBook Trading. The first day I bought the DVD, I watched the whole thing. I am actually watching it the second time and I swear that you learn something new every time! I have considered Nathan to be my mentor in this long and rewarding journey. After watching this dvd I have learned the tools I need to succeed in this market. He teaches you the essential patterns to go Long and Short! I am a new trader but I do know a lot of the terms and rules of the stock market. I have not become comfortable Shorting yet but the Longs, I can do all day! I believe to have learned a lot from his dvd but I am not going to go out just yet and blow my money away. I want to prove to myself that I can do this without losing a lot of money. I have had a TDAmeritrade account for a while and I have downloaded their ThinkorSwim platform. They offer you a free paper trading account with 100k. Obviously I won't have 100k to invest when I really start so I have reduced the account to 5k and see where that takes me. I hope to write on this blog everyday and hope to improve my trading skills. I will be posting watchlists, charts patterns, and also the trades I make on my paper trading account. I will hopefully start trading live during the summer when I have a lot more time to research and study. Hope you guys enjoyed this blog and come back for more! Feel free to email, tweet, or add me on facebook! 

Email - shyam.patel94@gmail.com

Twitter - @Patel94Shyam