With all of this talk in the world regarding instability, lack of resources, future changes, working from home, mysterious disease, and climate changes, how is a person supposed to feel comfortable relying on a standard paycheck from traditional cubicle office work? Many say the days of commuting to a large office are over. Working from home is the new thing. But working from home has an interesting effect—job scarcity. In some industries, it seems that a person cannot find a job, that there are no opportunities, that everyone is sticking with some lofty position they found years ago. In other industries, they cannot find anyone! It is as if “no one wants to work.” Is that true? Where did the people go? Did they vanish into another reality to experience a totalitarian takeover apocalypse scenario? Who knows… Others have explored creative ways of starting their own businesses. But how many t-shirts on Etsy can you really sell in a day to produce a viable income? How are your designs going to stand out among all the other do-it-yourselfers? Yes, the creative or artistic pursuits can be highly rewarding, but a certain amount of luck and skill may be involved. Other folks have gone further and said, “Well, I am not sure if I want to compete with all these artisans and screen-printing companies. Perhaps in times where doom and gloom is pushed, I should think about those ‘last-stand’ resources the establishment uses and learn how to work with their tools. I bet the stock market will continue to be around for a while even if various industries go belly-up.” For these folks who are new to finance, stocks, and etc. the unknown, the learning curve, can be truly large unknowns. There may be gigantically wealthy apes roaming the concrete jungles of Wall Street, ready to chase away foolhardy adventurers. But is that truly so? In many modern U.S. cities, you can readily find retail storefronts for Schwab, E-Trade, Fidelity, and others. And certainly, there are thousands of day trading products and services marketed online. So, the next question is, “If I want to day trade, there appears to be many choices on the software for how to place trades and many types of markets for placing those orders. What’s best?” The above video from DayTradeToWin aims to answer both questions rather quickly. The answer is trading E-mini S&P 500 and other futures markets/instruments using a trading platform called NinjaTrader and doing so on your own computer. There are many reasons why this is recommended. Perhaps most appealing to beginner traders is the fact that it provides for a real-time trading experience. This means you can trade with your coffee and pajamas in the morning, with that “fresh start” mindset using a practice account. It will likely be the closest thing you can get to the real thing without using real money yet using a real, professional, trading platform at no cost. Look at more DayTradeToWin trading videos and then consider one of their courses that will teach you an actual price action method so you know what patterns to look for on your charts as they appear over time.

Do you know when to use that Reverse button in NinjaTrader’s SuperDOM? Many traders don’t bother with it. However, knowing how and when to use it can lead to many opportunities. John Paul from DayTradeToWin recommends using the close button because reversing can lead to slippage. Do large candles represent an opportunity to place a trade in the order of the big move? No. In fact, this could mean the move is exhausted and there may well be a reversal. John Paul’s expertise says the move is less likely to continue once a big candle appears. The next trading tip involves the number of contracts. Even if you have a lot of money, it doesn’t make sense to risk a large portion of it. Practice with real-time data, start off slow, and optionally increase contracts as you see consistent performance. Even if you have traded a lot in the simulator mode, using real money, even one contract, can produce a different experience. Real money may involve a different set of emotions, for example. The ATR (Average True Range) can be used for measuring volatility and deciding if the market is too fast or too slow. This has been covered quite a bit in the plethora of day trading videos available at DayTradeToWin.com. When it comes to placing a trade, is there a point where you should eventually close the position if the profit target or stop loss isn’t hit? Yes, certainly. Keeping a position open without a plan causes moment to moment risk. John Paul often uses four to five candles on 1-Minute or 5-Minute based charts. If nothing happens (no profit target or stop loss), then he’s out. That’s sticking to the rules and being objective. That’s a method of price action trading taught by DayTradeToWin. Cut the trade loose if it’s not making you money!