In trading, it’s you against the other guy or the other gal. There’s many ways to get a jumpstart to success. Today I’m gonna tell you how.
So, today I’m gonna talk about daily routine and I’m gonna talk about mine. You can modify yours a little bit, depending on your day. Maybe you’ve got other commitments. But I wanna give you the foundation of what I think is the best way to become a successful day trader and I’m gonna be focused on eastern time, so, again, if you’re west coast, if you’re in Hawaii, if you’re in Australia, you’re gonna have to modify this a little bit, but everything I’m gonna talk about is Eastern time, because the market is based on Eastern time.
Table of Contents
Gettin’ Up Early
In my opinion, and I’ve been doin’ this since I started day-trading in 2007, 2008-ish, I think there’s great value in gettin’ up early. I know it sucks, I know nobody likes doing it. I’m a big fan of Jocko Willink. Be sure to follow him on social media if you wanna get inspired.
But, I’ve been gettin’ up, back then at 5:00 a.m. These days I get up at 4:30 a.m. to get really started on the day, and a quote from Jocko is, “You want to be up before the enemy.”
I think that there is a huge energy that you get knowing that you’re up when the other trader, the guy or the gal on the other side of the trade is laying in bed, lacking the prepare. Because I think that energy, that out-there, when everyone is asleep, you absorb that, and you get that energy and you’re ready to rock, okay?
So, as early as you can. I like 4:30, 5:00, listen, the later you get up, the less time you have to prepare, the less time you have to prepare, less likely you are to be successful.
Do Something Physical
So then, first thing I want you to do is, do something physical. Get up, get moving, wake that body up and wake that brain up. I’m not gonna quote studies. You can google it, there’s been thousands, maybe tens of thousands of videos that relate to that idea behind exercise, waking up the brain, and productivity.
I’ve read tons of books on it, trust me. Tons of writers do this, they go for a walk, they get those writing ideas. You’re trying to create that, get that creative juices goin’ because that’s a lot what trading is.
You’re trying to be creative and find an angle, an approach. You’re trying to find that trade that someone else hasn’t found yet. So that creativity aspect is something I don’t really, heard talked about. Immensely powerful.
Now, what do you do? Really depends on where you are in life. If you’re young, you’re healthy, do some hard cardio, lift some weights. If you’re older, if you haven’t exercised in a while, just go for that walk.
Walk around the block, walk down the road and back. But get awake, get ready to go.
Get a Good Breakfast
And then, it’s such a simple thing, but so many people lack to do it, get a good breakfast. And what do I mean by a good breakfast? I mean protein, vegetables, keep the bread, keep the donuts, keep the Cocoa Pebbles away.
If you’re just ingesting all that sugar, if you’re runnin’ on sugar, and you’re eatin’ that at seven or eight in the morning, by the time the market open comes around, you’re gonna crash.
You’re not gonna have that sustained energy, and something about day trading that is, again, unpopular opinion, this is quite frequently an all-day thing.
Find a Trade
Now, ideally, you find a trade, you’re in and out, and you’re done by 10:00 a.m. But there’s not many days that happens. Sometimes, you’re stalking a trade all day long.
Today, actually, the recording of this article is August 12, 2020, RKDA. Look up that stock, that stock spiked early in the day, and exactly right now, going into that 3:00 p.m. window, it’s breakin’ to new high days, and it’s gettin’ ready to spike to all-time highs. Some days, you gotta wait around all day. You need that sustained energy.
So, after you’ve done that, you’ve taken care of yourself, you’ve probably had some coffee. Hey, it’s America, we run on caffeine, but keep the sugar out, keep the junk out.
Research Process
Now, you start that research process. And what I do is, some of these are paid services, but you gotta be aware of what’s goin’ on in the world. I read The Wall Street Journal, I check out CNBC.
I’m lookin’ at all the major news feeds to know what the trend is because, again, back to RKDA, it’s an agriculture stock, soybeans, corn, this is a trend with the China tariffs as of right now, so ag stock. So now you’ve identified a trend.
You need to know what’s goin’ on in the world. You need to read the press releases, you need to read the SEC filings. So that’s that 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. window.
Not sayin’ it’s gonna take you two hours. Some days, there’s not that much goin’ on, there’s not that much news, it takes you 10 minutes. But other days you have to spend that time to digest to run your scans in pre-market and prepare for the day.
Now, as we come into 9:00 a.m. Eastern, you’re getting, actually, now you’re really getting ready to let that rubber meet the road. You’ve seen pre-market data shake out, if you’ve got stocks to trade, Oracle is a great tool.
Oracle is giving you that 15 stocks to watch into the morning, into the market open.
Trade Plans
Now is when you write your trade plans. Check out the other articles, I’ve probably got 5 articles on trade plans. I think it’s one of the most important things you can do. Now, you start making your trade plan based on the support, the resistance, the breakout breakdown levels, the chart patterns. Write those trade plans down.
Then, as you move into the day, you’re getting ready to actually execute.
So, once you’ve prepared, once you’ve planned, once you’ve done all this work, I think your odds of success are that much higher.
Now, it’s not fun, it’s not glamorous, but listen, if this was easy, if it was fun, then everyone would make a million dollars a year day trading.
It’s difficult, you gotta put in the work, you gotta put in the grind. I’ve been doin’ this for 12 years, gettin’ up at 5:00, 4:30 in the morning, but that’s why I’m here 12 years later.
So, let me know below, give me a comment.
Do you get up early?
Do you trade your plan?
Do you try and get some exercise and do all these things?
Or do you wake up at 9:29 a.m. and try and trade?
So, thanks a lot everyone, and we’ll see you in the next article.
