Create a Day Trading Routine to Avoid Mistakes (2024)

Mistakes happen in day trading. They often occur because too much information can come in all at once, causing you to become overloaded, panicked, or frustrated. Sometimes, mistakes occur during quiet/boring times when your guard is down. Then, there are random mistakes, suchas hitting the wrong button—such as buy instead of sell—or entering a wrong position size. Even automated strategies can cause problems if there is a mistake in the parameters or a program causes a problem.

Before every trading day, it can help to take a few minutes to run through a pre-trade routine or checklist to help minimize errors throughout the day. Depending on the market you trade, you may wish to add a few additional steps to the ones shown. The process of running through a routine only takes a couple of minutes, but might save you some frustration and money.

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Check Economic Calendar

High impact economic events can cause price spikes/gaps, creating significant slippage (a price change in-between the time you purchase and the transaction finalizes) on stop-loss orders. It's best to avoid being in trades for the few minutes surrounding high impact scheduled news events.

Check your economic calendar before trading, and note the high impact news-times. For U.S. stocks and futures, Bloomberg is a decent choice for news. For Forex, check out the DailyFX economic calendar.

You should always have an event calendar for the stocks you are trading.

If you trade individual stocks on a regular basis, check that the company doesn't have earnings or other announcements due out that day. The Yahoo! Finance earnings calendar works well. Be aware of these times, to avoid trading before announcements.

Launch Platform

Launch your platform. Make sure quotes are streaming (not lagging or sporadic) and that the program is running smoothly. Most brokers provide reliable data feeds, but problems can arise. If the data feed is intermittentor seems inaccurate, don't trade until the issue is fixed. If it looks right, proceed.

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Trading Correct Account and Contract

In MetaTrader and NinjaTrader (for example) you can log in to multiple accounts using the same platform. Make sure you are trading the correct account. Be especially vigilant if you practice day trading in a simulated account, and have live accounts. You don't want to end the day thinking how profitable it was, only to realize you traded in simulation instead of with real capital.

If day trading futures, make sure you are trading the correct highest volume contract. Be aware of expiration dates on the contracts you trade.

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Write Text Notes to Yourself

On your chart, put text notes stating when high impact news releases are. If engrossed in a trade you may forget about one of these events, costing you dearly. Write it down on your chart.

If the event occurs later in the day, scroll over and put the text note near the approximate time of the announcement. That way you will see it when the time comes.

Triple Check Your Automated Strategies

Even if you day trade manually, you may have some automated orders. For example, in NinjaTrader and MetaTrader, you can send out stop-loss orders and targets the moment you enter a position. Make sure these stop-loss orders and targets are set appropriately.

If trading with a "robot" or scripts, make sure all settings are accurate and scripts are loaded before starting it.

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Default Position Size

If you trade with a default position size, make sure it is set appropriately. Adding an extra digit to a position size could spell disaster. Dropping a digit means you trade a fraction of what you could have, and you missout on an opportunity.
If you manually adjust your position size based on your entry point and stop loss locations, note your account balance before trading.

Proper position sizing limits the risk to a small percentage of account capital, such as 1%. If you have a $35,000 account, you can risk up to $350 on a trade. Keep this maximum risk in mind throughout the day (or write a text note on your screen) to remind yourself this is the most you can risk on one trade.

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Key Thoughts

You could make entries in a trading journal every day, to be able to remind yourself of mistakes you may have made. Remind yourself of any problematic tendencies, and how you will handle those situations should they arise. Go over your key trading thoughts and strategies.

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Market Conditions

Make a quick assessment of trading conditions pre-market. Is it showing any volatility, or is it sedate? Are there any trends or specific tendencies you notice?

Such an assessment lets you know how to proceed, and whether you should be trading your system at all. This is especially important if using a subjective system—a system that varies slightly based on market conditions.

For example, in volatile conditions, you may have a larger expected profit target than on a day when there is almost no volatility.

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Create A Quitting Time (Optional)

If you notice a time of the day you typically lose trades on a regular basis, write a note to yourself to stop trading at that time. Many day traders tend to lose money in the time surrounding (and including) the New York lunch hour if trading U.S. markets.

If you notice this tendency, try to stop trading. Write yourself notes, set reminders or alarms, and make sure to include it in your routine as a reminder every day.

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Start Trading With Your Key Thoughts in Mind

You're set to trade. This process should help eliminate some mistakes related to position size, trading the wrong account or contract, trading during news or just not preparing your mind to trade.

As you start looking for potential trade setups, keep your key trading thoughts in mind. This will help keep you out of trades that are not in your trading plan, keep you alert and ready to pounce on good opportunities.

Create a Day Trading Routine

Your day trading routine may vary slightly from this, depending on your trading style and the market you trade. However, it helps to create a routine. It only takes about a minute or two to go through and can save you a lot of frustration.

Create a Day Trading Routine to Avoid Mistakes (2024)

FAQs

What is the 3 5 7 rule in trading? ›

What is the 3 5 7 rule in trading? A risk management principle known as the “3-5-7” rule in trading advises diversifying one's financial holdings to reduce risk. The 3% rule states that you should never risk more than 3% of your whole trading capital on a single deal.

What is the daily routine of a day trader? ›

Day traders spend much of their days scanning the markets for trading opportunities and monitoring open positions, and many of their evenings researching and improving their trading plans.

How much money do day traders with $10000 accounts make per day on average? ›

With a $10,000 account, a good day might bring in a five percent gain, which is $500. However, day traders also need to consider fixed costs such as commissions charged by brokers. These commissions can eat into profits, and day traders need to earn enough to overcome these fees [2].

What is the secret to successful day trading? ›

Success in day trading requires a deep understanding of market dynamics, the ability to analyze and act on market data quickly, and strict discipline in risk management. The profitability of day trading depends on several factors, including the trader's skill, strategy, and the amount of capital they can invest.

What is 90% rule in trading? ›

The 90 rule in Forex is a commonly cited statistic that states that 90% of Forex traders lose 90% of their money in the first 90 days. This is a sobering statistic, but it is important to understand why it is true and how to avoid falling into the same trap.

What is the 80 20 rule in trading? ›

In investing, the 80-20 rule generally holds that 20% of the holdings in a portfolio are responsible for 80% of the portfolio's growth. On the flip side, 20% of a portfolio's holdings could be responsible for 80% of its losses.

What should you not do as a day trader? ›

What Should You Not Do in Day Trading?
  • Don't trade without a plan: It is critical to have a well-defined trading plan before entering any trade. ...
  • Don't overtrade: One of the most common mistakes made by day traders is placing too many trades in a short period of time, which is also known as overtrading.

What is the best timeframe for day trader? ›

It is an easier strategy to manage risk while it is a good thing to identify trends. Therefore, for scalpers, we recommend that you use extremely short timeframes like 1-minute, 5-minute, and 10-minute. For regular day traders, the best time frames are 5-minute, 15-minute, and 30-minute charts.

How do day traders consistently make money? ›

Day traders often buy and sell stock the same day, buying at a perceived low point during the day and then selling out of the position before the market closes. If the stock's price rises during the time the day trader owns it, the trader can realize a short-term capital gain.

Can I make $100 a day day trading? ›

You're really probably going to need closer to 4,000 or $5,000 in order to make that $100 a day consistently. And ultimately it's going to be a couple of trades a week where you total $500 a week, so it's going to take a little bit more work.

Can you make $200 a day day trading? ›

A common approach for new day traders is to start with a goal of $200 per day and work up to $800-$1000 over time. Small winners are better than home runs because it forces you to stay on your plan and use discipline. Sure, you'll hit a big winner every now and then, but consistency is the real key to day trading.

Do day traders pay taxes? ›

How day trading impacts your taxes. A profitable trader must pay taxes on their earnings, further reducing any potential profit. Additionally, day trading doesn't qualify for favorable tax treatment compared with long-term buy-and-hold investing.

Why is day trading so hard? ›

Day trading can be hard because financial markets can be very volatile. This makes it hard to manage and balance your different trades. The market is always changing and it's not always possible to predict the direction the market may go. This makes it hard to know for sure what may happen after you've made a trade.

Does anyone get rich day trading? ›

Roughly 10% to 15% could make some money, but not enough to make it worth their while to continue trying to do it for a career. Of the 4% who make a living, that doesn't necessarily mean a good living. If you want to rich you'll need to be in the top tier of that 4%.

What is kiss in trading? ›

stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. This acronym is as applicable to the field of Forex trading as it is to any.

What is the 60 30 10 rule in trading? ›

This reinventive basic rule to portfolio structure means allocating 60% to equities, 30% to bonds, and 10% to alternatives. The exact percentages may vary by portfolio, but the key idea is that Alternatives should be an integral part of every portfolio, in some percentage.

What is the golden rule of traders? ›

Let profits run and cut losses short Stop losses should never be moved away from the market. Be disciplined with yourself, when your stop loss level is touched, get out. If a trade is proving profitable, don't be afraid to track the market.

What is the 3 30 rule in trading? ›

This rule suggests that a stock's price tends to move in cycles, with the first 3 days after a major event often showing the most significant price change. Then, there's usually a period of around 30 days where the stock's price stabilizes or corrects before potentially starting a new cycle [1].

What is the 6% rule for pattern day traders? ›

Who Is a Pattern Day Trader? According to FINRA rules, you're considered a pattern day trader if you execute four or more "day trades" within five business days—provided that the number of day trades represents more than 6 percent of your total trades in the margin account for that same five business day period.

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