day trading: keeping busy

The market since Jan 08 has not exactly been on fire. The majority of my friends that trade stocks for a living have all said the same thing, “gotta grind it out right now.” Ok so that being the case what should a new trader be doing while the market is in a funk? Of course new traders are hungry to place trades and earn enough money so they can quit their night jobs, but what are they supposed to do when literally nothing is obvious for hours at a time?

Ask questions to the senior traders or mentors you have. Cycle through stocks or sectors you normally don’t trade but see if you can spot order flow. Spend time looking at price action, what is the phase you are in? Trend or pause? Are you in break out mode because you are consolidating or are you trending?

Look for swing trades. Look at daily charts and see if any swing trade from last night followed through. If it did could you have built a nice position that you could be sitting on right now?

The point is this. Do NOT sit there bored complaining the market isn’t moving!! You should be at your desk at least 8 hours every trading day, use it wisely. Use it to learn. Remember a very important fact that most people in this industry have a hard time understanding, you are not being paid for your time. You are not being paid dollars per hour by the market. You are earning a living for your skill as a trader.

We are always looking for new talent to trade our capital. If you think you have what it takes to trade as a professional trader send us an email inquiry info@keystonetradingconcepts.com

 

Tags: day trading, forex, investing, online stock trading, stock trading, swing trading