Day Trading Risk Management

Not risking too much money on any given trade is essential to succeeding as a day trader. Unfortunately, when most people start day trading, they do not think about the risk that they are taking - only about the potential rewards. Every day trading strategy must take into consideration the maximum percentage of the total trading capital that should be risked in any one transaction. In fact, a day trader's ability to limit his losses is just as important (or even more important) as his success in managing winning trades. Think about it. If a trader losses a small amount on every transaction, won't he stay in the game a lot longer? Taking huge losses is one of the primary reasons why so many traders don't survive in this business. Why do traders commit financial suicide this way, you may ask? If all big losses start small, shouldn't it be easy to prevent a small loss from becoming unmanageable? The answer is ""YES.""

Limiting losses when day trading involves a lot of common sense. To begin with, no trader should risk more than 2 to 5% of his trading capital on any given trade. Why? If a trader sticks to a 1% to 2% maximum loss rule, his chances of succeeding are greatly increased because it will take many consecutive losses to wipe him out and he will have more opportunities to make winning trades. If a trader would be trading a $10,000 account, he should not lose more than $100 to $200 (1% to 2%) on every position taken. Using the same reasoning, if we are dealing with a trading account that's $100,000 in size, the maximum allowable losses can be increased to $1,000 or $2,000 per trade. Based on these percentages and on the amount the price can move against the trader (determined from the charts), he can calculate the maximum size his position should have. This becomes much clearer with an example:

Position Sizing Example using Currencies (to learn more about currencies read this section) (NEW: day trading robot)

Assume that an investor can trade a lot of 100,000 USD with a 2,000 USD deposit (50 to 1 leverage) and that he has $10,000 in an account. With this account size, he can trade a maximum of 5 lots (5 x 2000 margin deposit = 10,000), but is this a wise thing to do? Let's look into this a little further. Let's say that based on his trading strategy, the day trader analyzes the chart and determines that in order for him to take a long position with a potential reward of $800 per lot, he must be willing to lose $200 per lot. He realizes that if he takes a 5-lot position and all goes well, he could have a gain of $4000 or 40% (5 lots x $800 per lot = $4,000). Using a position size of 5 lots would also require that he be willing to lose $1,000 (5 lots x $200 per lot = $1,000). Should he take the trade? Not with 5 lots!!! A loss of $1,000 represents 10% of his trading capital!!! How long will anyone be in business after a few consecutive 10% loses? In this example, his maximum position size should only be one lot. With one lot, he would be risking $200 (2% of his account size) to make $800 (8% return). While it might be tempting to try to make the $4,000 in one trade, it is not a smart thing to do so. Trading is all about your probability of survival. To survive, you cannot risk more than you should. Risking too much is not smart money management.

*In general, day traders with less than $10,000 should consider trading with a mini account. A forex mini account can be opened with as little as a few hundred bucks.

Position Sizing Example using Stocks (remember that to day trade stocks you need at least $25,000 in your account by law, so I will use an account size of $30,000 in the example below)

Assume that an investor has a $30,000 account to day trade stocks. He wants to trade Intel (INTC) stock, which is at $30 a share. Based on his strategy, he determines that the stock can appreciate $1.00 during the day, but to take advantage of the appreciation, he must risk $0.50. Since he has an intraday margin of 25% (4 to 1 leverage) he can take a $120,000 maximum position in INTC with his $30,000 (4 x 30,000 = 120,000). Should he do it? Let's do the numbers. With $120,000, the trader can buy 4,000 shares of INTC (120,000 / 30 = 4,000). If INTC moves up 1 point, the trader gains $4,000. If it drops $0.50 (his stop loss), he loses 2,000. A two thousand dollar loss represents 6.7% of his trading capital - much too big a risk for him to take. Consequently, a 4000-share INTC position is too large for his account size. Based on a 1% ($300) maximum loss, the day trader should not buy more than 600 Intel shares (300 / 0.50 = 600). Based on a 2% ($600) risk, the maximum trade size becomes 1200 shares.

Risk in day trading (or in any other form of speculation) must be controlled. One effective way of managing risk in trading is by not taking on a position larger than an account of a given size could handle. While some authors and ""experts"" have complicated ways of determining position size, these methods tend to confuse traders and slow them down. The 1 to 2% rule will keep traders out of trouble and it is simple to apply. It is common sense more than anything else. Don't become another day trading statistic - limit your losses all the time with protective stop orders!!! Read more about stop orders in the day trading basics section.

Read about the importance of using a specific strategy in trading.

Author is an established writer and arbitrage trader. Author makes it easy for any one wishing to start in trading.

Day Trading For the Beginner - The Three Most Commonly Asked Questions

It seems every day some new and up coming superstar day trader (ok wannabe superstar day trader) asks me the same questions. It always strikes me as funny that everybody always seems to have the same questions when to me the answers just seem so obvious.

I will admit I've been trading for a while now and I've seen and read all the doom and gloom numbers about how 90% of all day traders bust their accounts in the first year. Why? I mean seriously why does this keep happening over and over again? I think it boils down to a couple of really simple but important rules that too many new traders either don't learn soon enough in order to save some of their trading capital. Or they don't really understand the concepts. Let's look at a couple of the major ones that you have to understand and have mastered before you can really hope to earn a living at this day trading game.

First of all and I know this will ruffle some feathers, I am not a big fan of demo trading accounts. I know some old time traders swear by them. But the way I look at it, is if you want to demo trade to understand how your platform works, how to place different types of orders etc, ok do it. But if you honestly believe that placing fake trades with fake money is teaching you anything of value well you are going to bust your account and likely sooner rather than later. Why you ask, well because when you're in a live trade and you have "real" money on the line you react much differently to being in a loss position than when it's play money. Oh I can assure you as strong willed as you think you are, when that first trade moves in a hurry against you and you see the loss mounting I don't care how experienced you are panic does start to set in. So how do you deal with this and all the other head games that the market plays on you?

Rule number one, risk. Yes risk you never ever risk more money on any one trade than makes sense. Of course we all have different levels of risk tolerance that goes without saying. But if every time you open a trade you have your whole bankroll riding on the trade how many times do you think you can be wrong before your trading days are over and you're looking through the want ads again? I suggest you never risk more than 5% of your account on any one trade. That means whatever you are trading you set a hard stop loss that if hit would not eat any more than 5% of your capital. I know some people are even more strict and wouldn't suggest more than 2 or 3% but % is fine in my eyes.

I know of a couple of traders that don't think twice about putting 40 or 50% of their account on the line every time they open a position. Well all it takes is two or three bad trades in a row and poof they are finished, account busted. Let's look at some numbers just for the same of argument. I like to trade the S&P Emini, each point has a value of $50.00 so if I set a stop for 2 points, trading 2 contracts I am willing to risk $200. Using my rule it would mean that I want at least $4,000 in that account to open that trade. I know that might sound like a lot, but trust me on this it's more than possible to have four or five bad trades in a row. Then what? Well then you dig out those want ads again.

Which brings us to most asked question number two, losses. Yes everybody has losses, I do, you will even the most experienced trader on the planet will have losses. The sooner you accept that and move on the better off you will be. You can't beat yourself up over having a couple of losses. Try not to look at them as losses, look at them as business expenses. They are just a part of doing business, nothing more nothing less. You could see a market that looks setup perfectly to make a move all the planets have aligned and sure enough you jump in and get your fill. Only to have the market turn the other way and take off like a Jack Rabbit, it happens far more often to us than most traders would like to admit. You can't take losses personally you can't try to trade your way out of them and you can't control when they are going to happen. So just don't beat yourself up, take your loss chalk up to a learning experience and move on. Sometimes there isn't even anything to learn. You made the right move everything looked good, the market just turned. It will do that more than you care to think about.

Most asked question number 3, what's the best system for trading? Well the best system for you is your system. Let that one sink in for a bit. There are as many systems out there as there are traders. They aren't all perfect and what works for you might not work for me or anything else. The one thing I can tell you, there is no holy grail of systems. They all can be used by just about anyone; they just all need the personal touch of the user. A system working for a week or two or eight does not making it a winning system. All systems have their good and bad points; none of them seem to work in all markets. There is so much to choose from between systems and how to use them I think I'm going to make that a topic for an entire newsletter all by itself. The bottom line about systems is to do what works for you, learn what you like. Do you like swing trading, scalping, intra day...whatever you like there will be a system you can buy to get you started down the right path while you figure out all the nuts and bolts.

I hope this has giving you a little bit of insight into a long term successful trader's mind.

Check back as I'll post more once I have some time to put pen to paper a bit more. Take care and thanks for reading.

Robert Joseph is a full time day trader living in Canada. He has made his living for the last few years as a full time day trader. Seeing so many people that started trading with him now back in the workforce full time prompted him to write a very popular Ebook about day trading. Have a look I'm sure you'll take something of value away from it. http://www.day-trading-4-dummies.com

What is Day Trading? Day Trading VS Investing

What is Day Trading?

Have you heard of day traders? These are people who reap profits from Wall Street day in day out. They do nothing but trade, they answer to no one but themselves. Day trading is their livelihood, their bread and butter. Day trading is profit driven. If you have aims other than making money from the markets, you are probably reading the wrong article. This is not an article for gamblers who seek short term thrills in the markets, nor is it meant to be a theorectical exposition on day trading for academic researchers.

Why day trade? Is it worth the effort? Day trading offers the road to financial freedom. The day trader is independent. He is free from the office routine, not restraint by time or place, he works when and where he fancies. This is the power of day trading!

What does it takes? You don't need to be extremely smart to be successful in day trading. The most successful day traders are those who have the iron-resolve and solid discipline. Intelligence is certainly welcomed, but is not an essential criterion for success. I was never the top in my class and always scrapped through my exams. SO WHAT? I am making big bucks by just trading a few hours per day.

Don't get me wrong, I am not profitable from day one. This article does not offer another get rich fast campaign. It took me almost one year of daily trading to reach where I am now. Constantly revising and researching on various methods finally paid off. It is hard work and you are not going to get any richer just by just reading and not practicing. Can you drive a car just by reading the manual? You have to practice what you learn. I hope you can learn something from this article to jumpstart your trading.

Day Trading VS Investing

There is a distinct difference between day trading and investing. The main difference is the time frame and methodology used. Investing requires a much longer time frame than trading, from months to years to decades. Usually you want to select a good company that will not go bankrupt the next day you purchase it. You will also want to analyze the fundamentals of the companies, make sure it is in good financial health and has a competitive advantage relative to other companies in the industry.

Trading takes a different approach to making money. The time frame considered is short from a few minutes to hours to days, weeks or maybe a month. Specifically, day trading refers to strictly trading within the day. This means that you do not hold positions overnight. For example, if you buy at 10:00 (EST), you have to sell before 16:15(EST) when the market closes.

There are no rules against holding overnight but risk is minimized if trading is strictly restricted to within the day. The market often moves in reaction to news when exchanges are closed. Stocks usually do not have much liquidity and trade on light volume after market hours. Imagine what would happen to your long position when there is a sudden hurricane strike when market is closed. The market will drop but you might not be able to sell at a reasonable price due to low volume. I sleep better at night when I know have no open positions overnight. Whatever losses and winnings are strictly during market hours when there is enough volume to trade. How the market moves after the closing bell does not affect me and I start the next day with a new state of mind.

Michael Taylor is a professional trader and webmaster of http://www.daytradeemini.com He regular updates his trading blog athttp://www.daytradeemini.com/blog with educational articles and trading records.