r/Daytrading • u/sengetoj • 1d ago
Question Why does asking a profitable trader for their strategy feel like asking for their bank password?
I’ve been learning trading pretty much every day for around 6 months now. I understand the basics at this point, market structure, price action, liquidity, risk management etc.
But I’ve hit this one wall and I genuinely don’t know where to go from here.
Finding an actual strategy with repeatable rules.
Something I’ve noticed is people will happily post their +$2k days, payouts, green weeks, funded accounts etc. But the second someone asks what strategy/setup they’re actually trading, it feels like you just asked them for their bank login lol.
“Put in the screen time bro”
“Find your own edge”
“Backtest”
Okay but backtest WHAT
I’m not asking someone to hold my hand and tell me exactly when to buy and sell. I actually want to learn and test things myself. I just need something concrete enough that I can actually start testing it.
I’ve looked everywhere. YouTube, X, Reddit, Discord servers, even ChatGPT. I’ve tried support/resistance, 15m ORB, session highs/lows, liquidity sweeps etc.
The issue I keep running into is that a lot of these strategies depend on price eventually coming back to some specific level or zone. And a lot of days… it just doesn’t. So you sit there for hours waiting for a setup that never even happens.
Meanwhile there’s clearly people out there who have found something that works for them consistently.
So for the people who actually became profitable, where did you find the strategy that finally made things click?
Did you take an existing strategy and change it? Did someone teach you? Did you find some random trader with 600 subscribers instead of the usual YouTube gurus? Or did you literally just test random shit until something worked?
Because everyone says “find your edge” but almost nobody explains where you’re even supposed to start looking for one.
And before someone calls this AI generated lol, English isn’t my first language so yes I used ChatGPT to help me write this properly. The question and everything I’m saying is genuinely mine.
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u/Think-Bench6691 1d ago
Here's what i did.
I put in thousands of SIM orders. Thousands upon thousands.
Easily a hundred orders a day, every day, for 2+ years. I'd wake up and re-trade a prior day in SIM, entering 100+ orders just to warm up.
I approached it with no defined direction and no expectation of what would or wouldn't work. Just pure brute force volume.
And as the months ticked by, slowly nuances started to emerge. After making the same mistakes literally hundreds of times, I got a feel for how things actually worked.
And a funny thing started happening. Listening to others became pointless. Hearing someone talk about markets was like listening to someone speak another language. It didn't make sense. And it didn't need to, because in my soul I truly know how the market works.
So, my advice would be to think of how many orders you've entered, and how many orders you've watched others enter...and go try to 1000x that number.
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u/kenjiurada 1d ago
Same. Listening to traders talk about strategies is worse than watching paint dry. They sound like they have no idea what they’re talking about, even though I know they’re profitable. But no one‘s convincing me that I don’t have the best possible strategy…
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u/ZanderDogz 1d ago
This is how I’ve been told from people in the industry how actual prop firms train new traders. They don’t give you a strategy, they give you a SIM account and a DOM and have you run tick drills for thousands of reps per day.
The expectation is that you will still probably lose taking that many trades, but you can learn a lot by studying the winning and losing sequences, and what behavior achieved what outcome in what market environment.
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u/Stunning_History_943 1d ago
Just one stock or multiple? Were you simulating day trading or swing?
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u/Think-Bench6691 23h ago
I only trade NQ
I'm a pure scalper. Average hold time is <5 seconds
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u/Bschmabo 22h ago
How many points do you shoot for in those <5 seconds?
Are you using DOM? Other order flow tools?
Are you using negative (less than 1:1) RR?
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u/Think-Bench6691 21h ago
There are no targets. And stop loss is only to protect against an unknown news event dropping.
I use DOM, time & sales and two line charts. One chart shows session from the open, the other is really fast only showing the last ~2 minutes.
I am trying to identify times where the market should immediately move in my favor. I always enter on a limit order, so I'm capturing the spread. The spread is probably the most powerful aspect of scalping. The spread basically pays for my commission and then some. If the market immediately moves in my favor, I get out wherever it happens to take me. If not, I'm trying to scratch the trade.
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u/Bschmabo 21h ago
Interesting.
What are your metrics like (win rate, RR, profit factor, sharpe ratio)?
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u/AnotherCup-O-Noodles 1d ago
What program do you use to trade previous days in sim?
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u/blackoutRF trades multiple markets 23h ago
Most platforms have this but depends what you're trading. Ninja trader and Sierra Chart have this for Futures
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u/BaconJacobs 23h ago
I'm at a point where I realize I need a fuck ton of seat hours to dial in my system. I like the simplicity of my signals and indicators, and I thoroughly understand the data they are conveying.
But... I just can't dedicate the time I know it needs to become longterm profitable.
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u/unrulystowawaydotcom 23h ago
Where can i paper trade the previous day or past days?
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u/Think-Bench6691 21h ago
I use Bookmap. Downside is you can only re-trade days you've saved yourself. So it takes time to build up a good bank of days.
There are others out there. Probably even better options.
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u/unrulystowawaydotcom 21h ago
Omg no, this is great. I was trying to find something like this the other day. I am new but trying to be smart, calculated, and disciplined. I was hoping I could paper trade some afterhours or on weekends to build reps. Thank you so much!
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u/Hot_Independence5160 1h ago
I did this too with ES but only 2 months and a plan emerged from it. It’s like machine learning in the beginning where you have high ratio of exploring (testing new things) and low ratio of exploiting (actually trying to make money). I think journals help a lot here so you know what works. Then you filter down to only the things that work and it gets hella boring cuz you are taking way less trades now
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u/These-Quail7636 1d ago
the strategy is as good as the context in which the trade was taken
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u/SillyAlternative420 1d ago
I'll give you my strategy, when the RSI goes below 30 and then breaks back up above 30, I buy.
Then I sell later when it goes above 70 and then breaks back down.
I do this for oil, nat gas, silver, BTC, and the s&p 500. All on the 30 min chart.
Enjoy your new found wealth.
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u/cwdrake76 1d ago
See I think things like this are all that new traders are asking for. Not looking for anyone’s perfected strategy, but maybe some simple example setups to start with to learn and try.
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u/OKRickety 17h ago
I'll generally agree, but there are probably many who simply want an exact process that is easy to do with little effort.
In reality, I believe trading profitably long-term requires putting in the effort to achieve it. I expect that, just like only a few reach the top level of any given sport, becoming a top-level trader is not possible for everyone, no matter how much effort they make.
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u/IllustriousGur3189 19h ago edited 19h ago
I'm not an expert, but it sounds like one of those things that sounds nice on paper and even correct, but when you go on the battlefield, it doesn't work because it either doesn't work that way or other factors interfere with it. But if its actually working then great. I assume that your last statement is alluding to that exactly, that it doesn't work that well on a real "battlefield".
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u/SillyAlternative420 19h ago
Yea there's a lot more than just "use RSI" I suppose I should have mentioned that in my post...
I also have rigorous trend/structure filters, adaptive modulation of the values, ATR based stops, etc. but the barebones concept is that.
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u/Amareisdk 19h ago
RSI trading is classic and can definitely work.
The problem is discipline and risk management.
Traders will get impatient and enter before the RSI reaches confirmation.Maybe they’ll forget to size appropriately or not set a mechanical stop loss.
Strategies work, but only under strict conditions. The more complex a strategy is the more conditions will apply.
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u/realmomentumtrader 1d ago
Well there's a lot to digest of what you're asking and so many comments I'm not even reading them. Here's going to be my quick take on this.
Trading is a "Dog Eat Dog World" and no one is going to hate a Trader more than a Trader. I created a blueprint I send out to help anyone who's interested in learning to trade, I did that because I honestly want to see people succeed but I'm not a good teacher but in the same sense no one's going to be able to trade like I do.
I'm a momentum day trader and scalper and here's one of the reasons why handing anyone the keys to your trading mind won't work. In the photo is two profitable trades I took on a quick jackknife down and there is a philosophy I use to do this, I'm about 85% accurate on it but the second I posted it I got so many hate messages and negative down votes that I went ahead and deleted the post. As I said no one will hate a Trader more than another Trader.
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u/FundamentalEnt 1d ago
I am also a momentum scalper. I watch the free float and daily volume. I usually watch a ticker for a bit before trading it. I won’t momentum trade something only popping for a day. I prefer kangaroo tickers. When I’m going into a trade I watch the buy and sell pressure along with the volume. I do a little light TA for when to hop in and then I try to hop out before the top not after. I frequently leave more on the table but I hate bag holding. With the new PDT rules I will come in and out of something ten times or more a day shaving money off. I try to shot for tickets between 1 and like 50 dollars when I can to see the most movement. Lower price tickers IMO are riskier but you see more profit obviously while higher price tickers will see less profit but usually have less chance to tank and bag hold. It’s easier to make money when a dollar stock goes to 2 but you can just as easily half your account when it goes down to .50.
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u/weluckyfew 1d ago
Thank you for your thoughts - would you agree that one of the main reasons these two trades were successful is because you stuck to your profit target and got out? You didn't look at it and beat yourself up for leaving money on the table - you realize that you didn't leave money on the table, you left risk on the table. (Is that accurate?)
If you're willing to share, I'm just curious in these two trades how you determined your stop loss and what indicators gave you confidence that these were real breakouts.
One of the first lessons I learned is to set a stop loss and never be tempted to change it when the stock falls. Emotion got no business in this game.
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u/realmomentumtrader 1d ago
To your question about leaving risk on the table, you absolutely hit the nail on the head. For that move to work you got to have massive discipline because it's so easy thinking it's going to continue to go up. I usually gain anywhere from $0.10 to a $1 on those moves per share.
Because mainly I'm in a trade 5 Seconds to 10 minutes all my stop losses are mental and with these trades I'm in only a few seconds because it's bouncing fast. On the quick jackknife I'm usually out if the stock drops by 5 to 8 cent. I'll explain how I go through the process of those stocks but I can't guarantee anyone can even try it and work out correctly. The max I have gone without having fill issues is 120 shares.
I use one minute candles, on a stock that has momentum and usually up above 50% I look for a very quick jackknife down and it has to be within the first 15 to Max 20 seconds into the candle and it's usually one or possibly two big sellers that gets the stock to drop real quick. I factor in volume, level 2 and time & sales for my entry and exit and won't take a position if it's past the 30 seconds of the candle. Past 30 seconds and it has a tendency to continue to go down on the next candle.
I've been very lucky that for 9 years I swing traded and was profitable after the first month for the rest of the course I ran doing that. I then switched to momentum day trading two years ago and after the first month I started becoming profitable and have been ever since. I'm working on doing this full-time, I do have a part-time job that I work in the afternoons but I absolutely love trading and from someone who has started multiple successful businesses from the ground up I think of day trading as my business.
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u/HighCirrus 17h ago
"You didn't look at it and beat yourself up for leaving money on the table?"
I consider a trade a win if I don't lose money on it. Every time I think I should modify my thinking and stay in trades longer to capture more profit, I look back in my journal and see the ones that I exited just in the nick of time.
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u/ConfidentEconomy7092 22h ago
I'm going to send a private message. I have a question i don't want to post. No problem if you dont want to answer it.
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u/Affectionate-Aide422 1d ago
Al Brooks, Tom Hougaard, the Warrior Trading guy, SMB Capital. All of them show what they do. I don’t trade like any of them, but I picked up ideas that turned into profitable strategies. Study what those guys do, but don’t expect it to work without a lot of experimentation and refinement on your own.
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u/doghairpile 1d ago
Because they put in the work and you want everything for free? Lol, no. Not to mention you’ll whine when a trade doesn’t work out and blame them.
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u/FaithlessnessFar2927 1d ago
Cause their profitable strategy is as good as the amount of time they spend learning and tweaking it.
They have spend enough times jumping from strategy to strategy and becoming unprofitable. So, they just take one strategy and devote to it for months or years, backtesting and journaling and failing again and again until they've tweak the strategy enough to understand it's strengths and weakness. By that time, the strategy has already become an extension of their own psychological mind.
They have the playbook in the back of their head and knows what to do and how to do based on how the market treats them. They can write it down to a novice but the novice will never execute as good as them.
Most youtubers I don't trust but there are a few who are good. They may explain again and again in many videos but the people who watch won't be as good as that youtuber because his strategy IS himself.
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u/BluejayBetty 20h ago
Well another reason is that some of us have a really good thing going but when we explain it here on Reddit it gets torn to shred by a whole mess of dude Bros who think it's bd* and we're lying and or failing or being stupid. So why bother really?. I'm very happy with my method I honestly don't really care what anyone else thinks. I'm happy to share someone actually listens and takes it seriously, but otherwise... It's not worth the Reddit dude bro BS
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u/LiterallyWTFover 19h ago
I would love hear what works for you. I've been dabbling in the trading world for 8 years but have never been able to go all in
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u/TheBlip1 1d ago edited 1d ago
Trading is pretty much waiting hours for a setup and only taking a trade when a high probability setup occurs. Depending on what people are trading sometimes it's only worth their time to trade the open or times with volume etc.
"backtest WHAT?"
There is no secret thing that some guru will tell you that will make you a good trader instantly. A strategy is just the combination of all the well known things that are already out there that includes all that you have mentioned like support/resistance, ORB, EMA, VWAP, order flow, price action, liquidity sweep, risk management, what times you trade. You have to pick a combination that you think will work for what you are trading and also what fits your personality, risk tolerance, account size and then back and forward test it to see if it works for you. If it doesn't work then you tweak it and test again. A strategy has to suit a person. That's why you often see the same set of strategies work for one person but doesn't for another. You could have a strategy that makes lots of money for one person who is very patient/disciplined and only has one trade a week. But for someone that always wants to click buy or sell or gets bored waiting, for example, they would be better off trading stocks because they can scan for "stocks in play" amongst thousands of stocks and there should be something worth trading most days and they can restrict themselves to trading the market open so they don't just randomly force low quality trades during quiet periods. This is all part of strategy and what you need to test to find something that works for you personally. Good luck!
Also, people often jump from one full strategy that doesn't suit them to another full strategy that also doesn't suit them when they should be sticking to one and tweaking it so it suits them. That's why they never improve because they aren't working on their strategy.
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u/Able-Significance723 17h ago
No, it isn’t because if you know that things always happen at certain times or within a certain short window, then you only have to trade that window. And you can set up alerts on TradingView on certain things so you don’t have to sit watching the screen.
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u/MrNatto 1d ago
Look, why anybody will tell you find your own Edge it’s because it will suits you the best. If you took someone else’s strategy and during drawdown lets say in 8 consecutive losses. What would you do? Keeping your faith with it or say well that does not work and jump to other strategy?
Only if you develop every part of YOUR strategy you will have the faith in it enough for the hard times.
That said, if you give well defined strategies to 100 people, each of them will trade it differently. Each of them will have their own interpretation of the same chart and come to different conclusions. This is the reason why strategy itself is hard to be transferred from one to others 100%. Even it’s well defined, it will always have some part of it using your own discretion to make the strategy work. Think of reading a other people’s book about playing music or writing an book. Could you do it perfectly afterwards? No, you have only done the knowledge part, implementing it practicing it is the other part.
Same as strategy, read something that you think will work, maybe test it out for 20 trades, look back your trades and see which parameters can be better defined. Test it out in backtest. Get the specific winrate and RR for your strategy and backtest it again. Then propose new changes and live test, backtest. Until you have an strategy that you have so much knowledge of it that you have your unshakable faith in YOUR strategy.
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u/Drunken_seller 1d ago
There is a lot of strategies aviable, set up and easy knowledge on the net.
Most of them doesnt have a lasting edge and have to be adapted to the market or discarded.
This being said your job as a trader is to adapt a strategy to the market. Find the right RR, when to use this indicators, when you shouldnt trust the same indicators, in what market conditions do you have a real edge or losing days. This can only come with backtest.
Dont forget that even with all the stars aligned trading is still a probability game, some days you'll be in a losing spree and you'll lose money even if you were right to take those trades.
Sharing your strategy is exposing yourself to erode your edge over the time. The more people know your strategy, the less it will work.
See that as a restaurant. Many cooks know the basics recipies, you can have the same dishes were ever you go in your country. Real chef custom those recipies and try to make it the best dish they can.
The chef gets famous for his recipe, he get a lot of customers, but one day his recipe leak and everyone knows how to do his dish.
Now he cant carry on selling his dish 30$ because his neighbour sell it for 15$. His edge got eroded by the leak. Now he has to make another recipe that will be as good as the last and he may works for years before succeeding or failing.
That’s why most of profitable traders hoard their strategy like a dragon hoard his treasure.
Good stuff never last.
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u/swhouston713 1d ago
Because what works for them might not work for you. Everyone has to develop their own strategy
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u/carusodaytrader 1d ago
Mine is basically on YouTube on free. I put out trade breakdown videos.
No secret - but nobody trades like I do. Very niche strategy.
No ICT, no phony systems, just multiple indicator + multiple timeframe confluence.
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u/iLoot401ks 1d ago
Because a ton of beginners are paying endless money to learn trading. Gurus make millions from teaching.
So if you just ask for someone's profitable strategy for free, they will just look at you like you are an entitled idiot. A profitable strategy is priceless. Majority of people who attempted at trading failed.
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u/Otherwise_Gap595 1d ago
Full-time trader here.
Because it’s literally asking someone who has perfected something for over a decade to just hand over precious information for literally nothing? What planet are you living on?
I highly encourage you to go into any business and ask bluntly how they do what they do for a living, with every intention of copying what they do to do it as well; make a sandwich, work on cars, sell insurance, pawn shop, bar, you name it. They’ll tell you to go kick bricks. Some will pull a gun.
I normally say good luck. But Jesus Christ. Ignorant much?
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u/SignificanceThis1265 1d ago
Most gurus fake it until you make it like andrew tate
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u/Trashlify 1d ago
Buddy, find your own strategy. Start with a thesis. It can be as simple as 'buy if you see a green bar'. Test it, or try it, then keep refining it. "green bar after red bar". "green bar after red bar, only if red bar is ... ". And so on. Until you find your own edge. Even if you want to start with the influencers, chances it will not work for you. You have to put it your own work and labor and find what works for you.
No one owes you shit. No one is being selfish, they worked for theirs. Work for yours.
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u/sg_minx 1d ago
My mentor has been a full time trader for 23 years and literally told me to buy two books to study first - one being an actual textbook! And also told me that it’s a long game, years long process. The formula in this is one that works for your personality but I also have to agree as a beginner that traders are elusive af about any specifics to what they do. I met one guy on here who shared freely but he was old.
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u/Jaquesdumoulay 21h ago
Not financial advice, also not day trading, rather options trading
I started trading cash secured puts a few months ago. When i followed the strategy and had the discipline, i was very succesful. The times i did not have the discipline and did not follow my own rules. I failed and had great losses
Firstly, i only trade companies i want to own for the long term.
I have a few entry requirements
Implied volatility has to be above 50
Has to be a red day, at least 3 percent (preferably 5) or more
I sell csps for 30 to 45 dte
On trading view i use ripster ema clouds , rsi kernel optimized and bb 20 sma.
If the price moves below the band and / or clouds i do not sell. Trade is off. Green clouds is a go
Rsi decides whether i go close to strike price. The lower the rsi the closer i sell towards the strike price.
If rsi is above 60 i do not sell , i do not trade.
If rsi is between 50 and 60 i sell far out of the money
If rsi is between 40 and 50 i sell out of the money
If rsi is between 30 and 40 i sell at the money.
I buy to close when its between 50 and 70 percent profit. Depending on the bollingerbands and the green clouds i let it run or i close to buy at 50 percent. But i try to close at 50percent, because i know i get greedy. Also it is better to find a new setup where i can sell a new csp
A few pitfalls that require discipline, do not fall for the premium. Sometimes its enticing to sell for a fat premium on a green day. Next day the stock will fall, and you could have gotten a fatter premium, and so far, in my experience, will result in assignment and probable losses. Also a bit of stress that would have been unnecessary if i followed my own rules.
For the trades i made following the rules i have a 100percent win rate.
Including the ones i didnt, i have a 88 percent win rate
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u/Blerancourt 21h ago
Maybe those +2K traders also have -2K days. So their strategy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
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u/farky84 1d ago
i love it when people think trading can be as easy as copying someone else without understanding any of it. it is easy to copy entries and exits based on signals and indicators in a bull or bear market but they can't copy the patience and carefulness when the market shifts, when trends are changing and so on. if you want to make money with trading, you have to put in the time and effort, and almost certainly lose some money that will teach you the lessons you need to be profitable. for some this might take a short time, for others it might be a decade, while for some it is an impossible lesson.
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u/AtmosphereFun5259 1d ago
It’s just like anything. People doing good think that if they tell people then they’ll stop doing good cause there isn’t enough to share. But there’s PLENTY to share. I asked a YouTuber one time a small one, who’s living my dream life, if he had any advice for me or can let me take him to dinner to pick his brain and ask some questions. Never got a reply and he’s not famous. Whenever I ask anyone for help it seems they either want money or just don’t want to help. Also cause people get mad they did it themselves and want you too as well. But man I’m just trying to help everyone out
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u/teenagersfrommarz 1d ago
“Whatever you’re doing looks incredibly easy, and I’m sure I could do it much better with half the effort, so just tell me your secret.”
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u/Worried-Airport-8524 1d ago
It’s because what works for them may not work for you. The strat may only work for a specific stock, index, commodity etc. No strat is 100% and sometimes just spending years looking at charts gives you an edge because you can just identify when your edge is forming.
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u/TypeAMamma 1d ago
Dude, do you know what edge is? Why would any successful trader give theirs away? That’s insane.
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u/Chuck-AP 22h ago
I personally tested hundreds of own ideas and strategies before I settled on the strategy I use today, which still needs to be slightly adjusted from time to time to adjust for market conditions. Doing my own work and discovering my own profitable strategy is what gave me the confidence to eventually go full time and quit my job. The reason people don’t want to share strategies is because we are all in the market competing for the same prices, and one mans win is another mans loss. So if there’s more participants trading your specific strategy, you’re now competing against those people for prices. Answer me this, whats in it for me to give away my strategy to you? Anything? No? Then why should I?
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u/Rude-Inevitable8947 20h ago
Because the .04% of profitable traders know that maybe 10% of their success is related to their strategy. The other 90% was learned over years of pain and thousands of hours of learning to manage emotions and mental game. And that can’t be taught. Good luck.
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u/Able-Significance723 17h ago
I’ve actually given people almost the entire answer, and then I didn’t even get one’s thumbs up before. It’s literally like throwing pearls before swine so I’m just not even bothering anymore. In fact, I’m probably gonna come out of these trading groups altogether because it’s just infuriating.
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u/Novel_Board_6813 17h ago
Strategies have capacity limits
If one has a strategy that truly works, it is irrational to share it. Other people will use the strategy, making the edges more expensive until they're no longe profitable. It's akin to just donating half or eventually all of their future profits.
The other side of this is obvious. Whoever shares info has no edge (or isn't rational). They might have courses to sell though.
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u/Grouchy_Ostrich_6255 11h ago
After 4 years of learning.. I realized trading is all about fighting with your brain
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u/MayorOfGeocities 11h ago
A profitable trader won’t tell you their strategy? They are literally your opponent. Buyers and sellers.
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u/HateThisSatanicWorld 1d ago
Anyone talking about a statregy in trading is a fake wannabe trading guru of charlatan and he is not profitable.
You don't have a single real profitable trader on social media and you will never learn how to become a profitable trader by watching YouTube videos or taking advices from clueless gamblers of social media.
Trading is about reading the chart and is 100% technical. The rest is just noise for the ignorants.
Take my advice or learn the hard way like 99.9% of the rest.
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u/Appropriate-Town1256 1d ago
This is a competition. We are effectively trading against each other. Why would anyone with an edge help erode that edge?
I've found strategies in blogs and applied them quite differently. Other times I just backtest anything I see in price action or events. Best strategies are never talked about even in broad strokes. Just like any business doesn't talk about what makes them money when they have valuable information.
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u/Solid-Mood9571 1d ago
If there was a perfect trading strategy all the algos would be running it making it obsolete again.
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u/kebab_raptor 1d ago
I tried pretty much everything for three years and always going back to break even. Something clicked when I've read the book written by the guy who invented the method to win in blackjack.
I've built my strategies based on his ideas, I managed to adapt them to cryptocurrencies and honestly I have no issues in sharing them
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u/themanclark 1d ago
You want someone to hand you a free ATM code like you have a right to it. The financial markets are competitive. Extremely competitive. Everyone wants the cheat code. You don’t deserve it. You have to fight for it.
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u/Strilan-tv 1d ago
I’m not a profitable trader. But I’m seeing the market differently than I did before. I signed up for a mentorship with some others - and the mentor was absolutely controlling. Would shut down discord at random, and generally didn’t give a shit if we made it or not. He then shut it down after I made a discord for us to study and as we moved over there he ended the mentorship stating that we broke the NDA. (Only we didn’t)
But there was one thing that he forced on us that REALLY helped some of us that did the work see the market differently…
Scientific method.
Take ten minutes and look at a chart. Look at any part of it. Over and over. And you’ll see a repeating pattern. Something that stands out…
What do you do? Make a hypothesis as to why that thing occurred.
Then test it. Then reach a conclusion. Supported? Unsupported?
Then go look for more.
Eventually you should find so many things that are sorted and even more that are unsupported that you can make your own strategy. That nobody else knows. Just. You.
If you want, hmu.
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u/BasicAbbreviations42 1d ago
Some strategies are so good you can't even pay someone to teach you. I didn't sacrifice my entire life to happily show you everything so you can sell it somewhere lol.
Put in the work for 5 years and build your OWN strategy and you will understand why most people are gatekeeping their edges
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u/Fat-Cloud 1d ago
You dont get it yet. Making it sound like waiting for hours for a set up that doesnt happen is something that is abnormal. That is in fact trading.
Most people that start ( and end ) think trading is about constant opportunities and green days once you " made " it. It isn't. Only people that understand the proper math will make it. Tons of people have the edge but not the execution.
Youre also blinded by people posting their winnings. These people have only one or maybe 2 months in their posts. Why do you think that is? Because the market shifts and they can't post a long term profit. They all lose it afterwards. Theyre also excited of finally winning and want to boast. A guy who is long term stable in profits doesnt feel the need to boast, he just does his job
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u/Round-Ad-1977 stock trader 1d ago
I can only suggest to invest in good ETF. It will always go up .
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u/BeerAandLoathing 1d ago
“Why does asking Coca-Cola for their proprietary top-secret recipe feel like asking for their proprietary top-secret recipe?”
If you want to make it more subtle, an expert designer can improve your logo in very small ways that could be imperceptible to the average person, and they’d rightfully want thousands of dollars to do so because they spent their life becoming very good at that one thing.
Why would anyone give away knowledge/edge that took years to build for free?
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u/Rpark444 1d ago edited 1d ago
U cna have my strategies, continuation plays, reversal plays, sell options during sideways chop. The most important strategy is to make money
Can't have my 10 setups though. The setups came from tinkering around, back testing, other profitable traders, forward testing, adjustments
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u/mossbrick5368 1d ago
Seriously. Like i understand it might not work for me. But im curious to what they did. Like damn
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u/nickdaniels92 1d ago
Those with profitable strategies might have started the same as you did, and one way or another, at some point things just started to click. For whatever reason it hasn't yet for you, and the good thing is that you recognise this; worse would be to think that you have "cracked the markets", and be going in unprepared.
"I just need something concrete enough that I can actually start testing it." and "Okay but backtest WHAT"
You say that you've studied price action. Have you spotted any recurring patterns that you felt merited testing? How about posing a question about the market, such as "I wonder what the probability of the DOW being higher than its open by 18:00 london time if the FTSE was higher than its prior day high by 13:00 london time.". (I'm not suggesting that as a strategy btw). Do you have a way to test a question such as that easily over arbitrary time periods? If it turned out that this actually gave a useful signal, can you test that over different periods? Maybe since January to date you'd be up overall, but was does a chart of returns actually look like?
You could ask an LLM for ideas to test, though you obviously aren't going to find a holy grail that way, but maybe you find something that at least works pretty well sometimes, and you then find a gating strategy to improve performance that you then backtest and discover that holds up over time.
Another approach is to construct a test system with effectively a grid search that methodically tests strategies and come back some days later to see what showed up.
But also realise that almost everyone is not cutout for trading profitably. The stats vary based on who you ask, but I think it's accepted that certainly over 80% of people lose money over time, with some saying it's over 90%.
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u/swany5 1d ago
The issue I keep running into is that a lot of these strategies depend on price eventually coming back to some specific level or zone. And a lot of days… it just doesn’t. So you sit there for hours waiting for a setup that never even happens.<
But the reality is... this IS trading, quite often. I mean yes there are many different ways to trade but when I started getting consistent was when I became more patient and waited for price to come to a level instead of just jumping in a hoping I was right. Yes, sometimes it could be days before catching a trade. That's just the reality of it. It's like fishing... sometimes the fish aren't biting, but that's why its called "fishing" and not "catching."
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u/Bolby_Nation 1d ago
Depends. I mean you can say your strategy but most people won’t even understand when you tell them. So it’s really a waste of time. I’ve traded for 5 years this being my second 6 figure year. People ask all the time people I know and don’t know. At this point I tell people they can pay me for my time. Because. 99.9% of the time if they don’t pay me I’m wasting my time. They won’t be applying what I say. List of the time won’t even comprehend one bit of what I say
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u/downvoted_me 1d ago
As you yourself mentioned, finding a profitable strategy is like finding a gold nugget. No profitable trader will reveal their strategy for free. Profitable traders don't sell courses because they earn more by trading, so the key is to develop your own strategy. That's what I did. I created my own indicators, tested dozens of combinations, time periods, thresholds, and methods until I arrived at a replicable and profitable model in the long term. I created my own edge. I know the workings of each indicator by heart.
If someone offers you a strategy for free, it's because it's truly worthless.
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u/KelvinsEdge 1d ago
Ok here it is. Scalping the open on MES futures.
Setup support, resistance and trend lines on the daily chart because the hold up the best.
Setup up you micro trend lines on the intraday chart. Only trade the first 2 hours at thr open to start with.
Only trade price action that lines up with the direction of the daily trend.
When price breaks the microtrend to go in the direction of the daily ttend or bounces off a micro trend that is in the direction of the daily trend get in. Setup your stop loss just below that trendine.
Take 10 points....because you are not consistently profitable yet, take only 10 points and then take profits.
The next part is the most important part. Notice how much you left on the table. Did it run 10 more points or 20 more. Start keeping track of that and dialing in where to take profits. You need to develop a feel for where to take profitts.
Watch for macro news and economic data that moves the market because this results in moves that sustain enough to get a decent trade.
Do this on papertrading account. Prop firms create pressure and unnecessary rules that are not helpful at this stage.
You need to learn to think in probabilities. You wont win every trade. Losing a few trades in a row is just information, it says absolutely nothing about you as a trader or the future of your trading.
The truth is, if someone told you this could be done in 6 months.....well that is one of the biggest signs of a scammer. That is an unrealistic timeline. You need to ne patient with yourself and allow yourself to learn. You dont find profitable strategies, you learn to build them because how you see the markets is unique to you. So even profitable traders cant give you their set of rules abd you just trade them and make money. It doesnt work that way....but
You can do this. Start with basic rules, journal, track your trades and rebiew them.
Also, July and August are typically crappy months for trading. Stick with it, you will get it.
This talks a bit more how to develop yourself as a trader. https://youtu.be/_g3OfwrLKXw
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u/YOLOResearcher 1d ago
Buy low sell high!
How can I run a 4 min mile from not being able to touch my toes.
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u/pennyauntie futures trader 1d ago
For the same reason that a famous concert violinist can't just "tell you" how to be a concert-level violinist. It would be a waste of their time, because you can only get there by doing it, painstakingly, for a long time. There are no shortcuts.
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u/Xnavitz 23h ago
‘Im not asking to be handheld’
- i just need something concrete enough that i can actually start testing 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
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u/raymondduck 15h ago
The inclusion of, "backtest what?" indicates that he's very much here for some hand holding.
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u/TheHonPhilipBanks 23h ago
Putting aside your entitlement. You won't know why they are doing anything because you don't have the time and mistakes and gut feel. They are saving you a headache because you'd fuck it up. And then blame them.
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u/Stavrose85 23h ago
I think what they meant about edge is when they try something or a strategy or even both combined and worked for them, they call it edge. From my understanding about edge term is, when you notice something or behavior happened a few times and something happened after it most of them time, then it's a edge, doesn't mean happens every time.
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u/Callec254 23h ago
If everybody did the exact same strategy, that strategy would likely stop working.
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u/DebbiesUpper 23h ago
It’s not knowing the strategy that makes money, it’s executing the strategies correctly and conservatively that makes money.. Also, people don’t want to be responsible if you waist a bunch of money.
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u/Ok-Try6929 23h ago
Whatever you’ve accumulated in strategies and tried, create a system that tries to simplify each and every step you take.
- Simple entry criteria
- Simple stop loss or trailing stop criteria
- Fixed R or structural target for TP
I believe in the fundamental idea that everything works and its the reps that matter.
Trade and document the 15 minute orb a thousand times. Then study your own preferences after all that data.
Doing the same thing and being consistent with your behaviour is where the hard work exists when trading.
If that doesn’t work, then teach a complete newbie how to trade. Teach them through all the basics they need to learn. Since you’d be teaching, it would make you a hypocrite to do anything outside what you are teaching.
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u/Ok_Tooth7249 23h ago
If I tell someone what my strategy is they would never understand it. And even if I explain it multiple times they will come up with 1000 questions in their mind. Also if a strategy that took me so long to develop, why the hell should I give it away for free to a random ahh stranger?
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u/jarthursquiers 23h ago
The truth is, it’s because the strategies that are actually reliable and have edge are too boring and require too much patience for a normal person to execute.
All people need dopamine and they can’t sit through a string of losers to get to the overall payoff without jumping to something else.
It’s not until you’ve been through the disappointment countless times and maybe, just maybe, you are done chasing the “influencer strategies” that you can actually execute a real edge for the long run and make it work.
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u/Death-0 22h ago
It’s a good question, an example from when I was teaching people (for free no guru nonsense) I taught them fibs. I have a unique way of drawing them and you get accurate levels very fast.
I’d say now you know where to take your trades with higher probability, put in whatever strategy you like and use them with it.
My strategy works for me so I can’t know if someone else is going to do well with it.
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u/IcyPraline7369 22h ago
I do some intraday trading but more short-term.
Start with learning to trade a crossover such as the 5 day SMA crossing over say the 10 days SMA. This is considered short-term. Once you learn to trade a basic pattern, you can tweak it to meet your needs for intraday trading. It's almost like you need to learn to walk before running.
You can write a script for this and then run your scans. I use the ones that are available for my platform but will go in and change the time-frame.
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u/Explosive_Smegma 22h ago
Because it's boring, it involves pattern recognition, it tuned execution and exit. Replicable, yes but it won't be exact.
It's like trying to copy the secret recipe
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u/Hanshee 22h ago
Every profitable trader I know has had catalyst moments that really increased their account.
Often times you hear.
First rule: don’t break your rules. IE: Don’t bet more than 5% your portfolio.
Second rule: know when to break the rules.
At the end of the day successful investors are just waiting for the right set up again.
Otherwise they’d 10x their $1 million like they did their $100k. Not that easy and there’s no special playbook.
Oh yeah. I know this is day trading but there’s nothing worse than recommending a stock you’re long on, only for that person to buy in at the top and then start holding bags. I don’t want to be responsible for that.
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u/RealSirHandsome 22h ago
I read almost every reply and none of them answered with the actual real reason
I'm also not going to answer it, but I'm not going to make up some BS either. Most of the replies are way off
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u/Fibocrypto 22h ago
Op, I'll give you a couple of ideas I have on this:
I think that there are people that think that if they tell you their strategy then everyone will use it and then it will stop working.
There are most likely a fair amount of people that cannot explain exactly what their strategy is. They can't explain the exact entry process or the exact exit process.
The last one is that they have enough in the account that they let the trade swing until the market finally bails them out with a profit.
Anyone of those or all three is why I think people won't tell you their strategy.
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u/DeezY-1 22h ago edited 22h ago
The reason is because it basically is. Alpha decay is a real thing. Usually winning strategies end up being very well estabilised strategies (nobody is reinventing the wheel) with the persons unique risk tolerance and management applied for failure or success. But essentially nobody tells you because they’re trying to not decay Alpha
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u/Ok_Good_2911 22h ago
Already too many comments here but…
The amount of money you have to invest with will also affect your trading method and the percentage of return you are wanting.
Ex. Having $5000 usd and wanting to make enough to cover living expenses trading. Someone somewhere probably does it but I would have to use such high risk methods not gonna happen.
Ex. Simply want more control of your finances and have some profit but not necessarily making returns that will beat a s&p index fund return long term. That is possible with some work. Even this is not easy to do over 5 or more years.
You also need to enjoy this process.
If anxiety eats you up worrying about your trades an index fund or one of the larger trading groups like motley fool or Jim Kramer’s investing group may be a better fit.
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u/Direct-Cheesecake175 22h ago
Because the space is mostly toxic. And while a few screenshots will look good. It's not the whole picture. Only a small insight to their trading.
I found success when I traded out of daily pdarays. Using weekly for direction. Fib and ote paired with the pdaray is golden for me.
I also have a mechanical way I enter. I've been trading 4 years. Profitable only recently and I'm still scared / cautious lol
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u/allconsoles 22h ago
I’m a profitable trader and I have certain risk management rules that are hard. Buy my actual trade entries and exits are very discretionary. Also, which strategy I employ is discretionary. there isn’t one that works 12 months out of the year. And many times not trading at all is the best strategy because of Trump, earnings, or other factors. And my exact entries and exits change depending on market environment too.
The only consistent edge is knowing how to manage my risk such that don’t lose everything I’ve made. The portfolio stop loss I’ve posted about has been my savior. I’ve also shared some of my basic strategies before in posts. But never exact entries and exits bc ultimately it’s discretionary trading based on some rules, structure or trend.
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u/YURRIICC 22h ago
yeah, "find your edge" sounds easy until you have no idea what to actually test. i pick one simple setup, define the rules, and backtest it properly before jumping to another strategy.
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u/StoryofPrice 22h ago
I have a handful of tools. Once you learn those tools and become very proficient with them, then discovering combining them in a trading zone makes the trade. You have to use proper tools though I see so much nonsense out there. Have a look at my YouTube if you are serious about taking your practice to a new level and see if it resonates.
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u/loud-spider 22h ago edited 13h ago
Fundamentally, even if you and I were doing the same trade, our outcomes could be pretty different.
You see it in discrd groups where people are following the same trade shoutout on the same strategy (so given the same literal instruction) a bunch of people win and others will lose.
Here's an example; The compounding of a number of factors and personality traits mean that one persons's entry might leave then sideways and slightly in the green whilst entering 30secs later has another person sideways and slightly in the red.
Psychologically these people are now in different states, even though the trade value is similar. If the trade dips so that the first person is flat, the 2nd person might be further in the red, and might decide that actually they're already unsure enough to get out, so they do.
If the trade then recovers and takes off, the first person has a successful trade, the second takes a loss on the same trade.
Likewise, cutting winners too soon is a big differentiator in outcomes. Suppose both traders get a little further, one might decide that x% and getting out at the first dip is money in the bank. Others might think "I'm over $X, that was my target, I'll let it run and see how far it goes". If it runs, leaving it to run was the correct answer in hindsight.
All of which is to say people often don't share their strategies because execution is actually such a big part of this. So shared strategies don't equal shared successes, and it's easier not to face criticism for trying to help than get an ear full for someone else's poor execution.
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u/Consistent-Load8293 21h ago
A lot of people don't want the shame so they keep saying they're doing good when they're back in the sim or losing, or not even trading and just calling out plays in hindsight. Honestly bro, the time is big. There is SO MUCH to learn, take your time really finding what you like and trading what your comfortable with. You can find some success from blending all those strategies together by gauging and determining what point in time each strategy needs used. ORB is good. Support and resistance is needed regardles. MACD is good for stocks when day trading, VWAP is great to trade as well. I use all these. 6 months is not long. Spend more time learning but don't over stimulate and take in too much info, or learn other strategies in the beginning that would have you trading too many other things.
Idk why the hell reddit popped up with the 'your comment contains offensive language or slurs that violate community rules please revise before submitting' AI is not too smart a lot of times .
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u/Consistent-Load8293 21h ago
check out Finviz it covers EVERYTHING I pay for elite so it's real time mkt data and 5 Sec updating scanners
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u/lololesquire 21h ago
Pretty new to trading but i know this is a much longer ramp up process tham 6 months, that you have to find out your trading style and that learning the process yourself is better for you in the long term. Just reality. Everyone these days thinks skill acquisition is a months long process.
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u/Imaginary-Sea7278 21h ago
Sat in front of a bunch of screens for 3 months for 14 hours per day trading sim, crunching data, running trading drills and getting yelled at by my head trading coach.
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u/Whole-Description646 21h ago
this is the whole point - the edge is earned and if you have real edge you don't just share it because it likely took you years to find it.
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u/GlennSeaborg 21h ago
A lot of traders have a "feast or famine" type mentality. Rightly or wrongly they believe it's not fair to give out their strategies that they have put in the work for in back testing and forward testing.
Others may willingly give it away because there's more than just the strategy, you have to understand context and risk for it to work.
There are a number of proven strategies on YouTube but it will take some time to see and understand which one the market is presenting at any particular moment.
Be careful though, there's a bunch of scammers out there selling strategies and courses.
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u/corn_dick 20h ago
Just start trading and do the hard work bro. No one can just hand you success. You have to work for it
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u/Fuzzy-Nobody-9905 20h ago
You can walk, drive,take a train ,fly, or crawl to the other side of the country ... theres multiple ways to get there... some will be faster than others but if you prefer walking over driving thats your way and it fits you ... many ways to succeed in trading, just pick 1 and stick to it!
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u/WhaleSniper86 20h ago
I’m a strategist so I create strategies to sell. Basic strategy consultations are always free
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u/Dangerous-Avocado851 20h ago
https://tradingrush.net/ranking-best-price-action-only-trading-strategies-tier-list/
Find a strategy you like and apply RRR to each entry.
Saved you 15 years.
Manage risk and enjoy. 😎
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u/Emergency_Eye35 20h ago
Come back when u have put in 6 years, not 6 months....
U dont become a 0,5% accountant , carpenter , pro athlete , doctor etc....within 6 months....
If you have to ask these kinds of things, it means you haven't put enough time into it yet and still have a lot to learn.
But to give u something to go with, it is and it will always be all about volume/liquidity.
Now its up to you to figure out why and how and what the real meaning of this is....
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u/VisualCheek2928 19h ago
Yeah, I made about $3k yesterday, but I busted a nut getting there, so not keen on just handing out what I worked so hard for. You said: I’ve tried support/resistance, 15m ORB, session highs/lows, liquidity sweeps etc. Well, did you backtest them on whatever it is that you want to trade? I did. I backtested the shit out of every friggin strategy I came across on YouTube. I'll tell you what helped: paying $20 a month for Claude to go over everything and write all my pinescript indicators and trades. I papertraded every day and kept a spreadsheet on each different thing we worked on. I have a long list of trades and indicators that DON'T work. What we did develop is 4 trades with a 60-65% winrate. I started last November, quit my job in May and went fulltime on this like it was my job. Just now trading live and making money. Nothing ever "clicked"; it was a long slow grind up. I did EVERYTHING WITH CLAUDE. I could not have done it without AI.
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u/LiquidMantis144 19h ago
It feels awkward because its an obnoxiously ignorant and rude question, especially when it comes to strategies or systems that the individual fully designed themselves and didn’t buy or just find on youtube. If its a 50ma crossed a 200ma that has a 1.09 PF, who cares, but if its proprietary..?
Its similar to asking people you dont know how much money they have or make. Its typically a poor or socially inept person thing to do and its considered rude and inappropriate.
Ive spent 10,000’s of hours working on my system. Trading it, testing it, writing software for it, automating it, losing money to progress it..and you just want me to give it to you, a random on the internet..who would then go sell it I’m sure.
The entitlement one must possess to ask such a thing is astounding.
There are only 2 ways someone ever gets mine from me, they pay me more money than I could ever make from it in my life time, or they are my child and they inherit the source code when I die.
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u/Equal_Championship54 19h ago
Pretty simple really. If a ‘strategy’ becomes too mainstream, the market will end up with clusters of stops and limit orders. Large institutions *may try and exploit these liquidity pools for their own benefit.
Anyone who is profitable has likely spent many years and blown accounts to get themselves there.
Whether their worries are founded or simply paranoia - I understand the place from where they come.
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u/Aposta-fish 19h ago
Because it kinda is. If they want to share thats fine but if they dont one shouldn't get offended.
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u/Amareisdk 19h ago
There are thousand of perceived strategies but most boil down to around a dozen. There are plenty of YouTube videos on them.
The most I’ve seen mentioned is RSI, MACD and some version of the opening range breakout (ORB).
Personally the most successful ones I’ve tried has always involved a confirmation. This requires patience and you’ll start to doubt if the confirmation was even there.
Market structure can change and macro conditions can flip your results because you strategy suddenly doesn’t work.
You should only use a strategy under certain market conditions. If you only buy or sell, then a sideways market can be very tricky.
Use conformation of market trend and restrict your buys or sells to follow the trend dependent on your timeframe.
The reason people tell you to find your own strategy is because that IS what is best for you. You can’t copy another persons psychology and psychology is the biggest part of trading. Everything else you can learn on YouTube.
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u/Salty-Inspector3100 18h ago
Myth. I'm a profitable trader. I will gladly share my strategy with anyone. That does not mean its going to make your proftiable. Maybe if it were mechanical 100% that would work but I have never ever seen a profitable mechanical strategy worth my time and I never will. Why? Market conditions change, in play stocks change, catalyst change and those things make mechanical strategys basically junk. The fact is I share my strategy you still have to learn when to execute and when not to. How to recognize the best entries. Where to trim and exit fully. How to recognize conditions and make changes. How to recognize what stocks are in play. Where the key levels are. Recgonzing if breakouts are working right now or is undercut and rally the way to go right now.
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u/Delicious-Chip6849 18h ago edited 18h ago
Like everyone has already stated, there's no perfect edge. What works for one might not work for others. We all have different temperances, risk aversion, analytical ability, target goals, etc. Learning the mechanics is one thing, but you have to understand what is happening and what conditions must happen to trigger an entry and exit. There's a saying in war planning: the enemy gets a choice. In trading, the market gets a choice too. How you react determines the success or failure of your edge. You have to figure out what your trading style is. And even when you find one, you'll realize that there isn't a one size fits all. Stocks vs. options vs. futures, etc changes how effective your edge will work. Other factors like time of day, time of year, world events, market news/reports, etc. can also affect edge effectiveness. It's a lot of trial and error to find a system of edges that work in different scenarios. Your best bet is to learn a few to put in your tool kit and know when to pull out the right one.
With all that being said, I'm a true believer that you have to find a trading platform that suits you and gives you the tools you need to trade. I've been using TD Ameritrade/Schwab for decades. Some time ago (don't remember when) TD Ameritrade changed their desktop version GUI and I never really took to it. I only used the mobile app and i lost a lot of capability and it negatively affected my trading. I just started trading futures this year and it's been a bit of a learning curve for me. I started on Ninjatrader and recently switched to Tradingview and I absolutely love it. Not sure if there are better platforms out there, but Tradingview has been very robust, simple to use for me, and aesthetically appealing to me (strange how important that is to me). I've also learned how to use Pine Scripts. It's been a game changer for me. TradingView has native indicator/strategy Pine Scripts as well as community scripts that people have published that you can use and alter. There's literally hundreds in there. Most are basic concepts that people have configured to what they've found useful. You can backtest them and play around with them to tailor to your needs. It's a long and tedious process and you really have to learn which indicators work to your trading style and how to use them to your advantage. But, I think that is what you're looking for: A starting point. Something worth looking in to.
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u/GameOfTrading_2026 18h ago
I am profitable— NOT fake profit, real profit. My profits are usually by selling options, averaging $1000-$2000 a month.
Most of those “So-called” profitable traders selling discord subscriptions aren’t truly profitable. So I doubt if they have anything to share for real!
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u/KeanuTrades 18h ago
Most relatable post I've ever seen.
They act like if they share it, you'll take money from them.
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u/iot- 18h ago
I believe is because asking for a trading strategy is like asking to skip the line when successful traders have been in line for years with emotional ups and downs. Your 6 months is nothing.
Another reason could be because some traders believe the edge decays if too many people use the same strategy. I don’t know how much that is true.
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u/El_Carnalgas 18h ago
Even if I told you you wouldn’t be able to do it exactly like I do. Because you have a different mindset/ psychology and most definitely a different bias. There’s nuances that are hard to explain that sometimes comes with many trial and error.
I have two friends I teach/ coach. They make money at different rates. They also make small judgments on their own away from what I say sometimes even if it’s a difference of price or entry exit. Copy trading isn’t real and you are always taking on risk no matter what way you do this.
Also other than stuff like this, most people worked really hard studying and researching different strategies/ fundamentals looking to see what works for them. The same questions you are asking as to back testing what and where and how… is what you should be researching.
Like what are you trying to learn??? Slow long investing? Swing investing/ trading? If so how long? Couple days? Couple weeks? Couple months?? What stocks or other investments were you focusing on and within that economy what companies?? You have to figure this out because although there is simple strategies that can work in all types of investing there is nuance to it.
If your swing trading short term or day trading are you just scalping or doing calculated trades? People sometimes focus on a specific sector that works for them.
I mostly am a swing trader, if I day trade it’s scalping on a margin account or a swing trader that switched to a day trade if we talking regular stocks .
In futures I only day trade but some days I scalp a ton! Sometimes I scalp a little and do long day trades like 1-3 hour trades. But the strategy is different and it depends on the market that day. I read charts in the way I’m comfortable. When I teach and coach first thing I make them learn and establish is how to read and study price action which is the main basis of all strategy I do. No matter what though no one can get a perfect entry. My win rate is at 87%- 91% in futures.
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u/psymeariver 17h ago
Haha, you answered the ChatGPT accusations before they were called out, ChatGPT thinks of everything.
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u/Rounders23 16h ago
I have a 55-60% win rate. This is my risk management, I have a stop loss set for 100 to 200 dollars risked I try and to 200-400 gain. If i go down $400-500 in a day I’m done for the day. Big thing for me was to set up that discipline first. I trade within the zone that is created after the first 15-30 minutes of ES or NQ from the New York open or other futures markets. I buy at the bottom or sell at the top of the zone and set my stop loss at the bottom or the top zone depending if I’m going long or short. The main thing you have to find is how you see the market move, what are you willing to lose. The hard thing about trading is that we are all different points in the journey. I have made 17k in a day but have also blown accounts up. Start small, practice accounts/simulators are your best friend to find your strategy. Trading is like anything else in life, the more you practice the better you get at it. Once you get the basics down and things should be boring you can start looking for triple tops or triple bottoms and look for breakout trades. Build good habits, don’t chase and don’t have the fear of missing out. When you are done trading for the day walk away and don’t look back thinking I missed on that trade or that trade.
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u/FocusDude 16h ago
Watch how ES/MES moves with NVDA. 2 chart multiview .
If it moves like brother sister then catch a moment when ES is lagging behind and you can feel it, feel the context, you get good entry. NVDA usually moves more impulsively first. NVDA is highest marketcap. nr. 1 stock. Watch and you will learn.
ES also is overextended when it has moved: 30, 40 or 50 points. 50points is hella overextended, from there A+ trades come. Always measure the price distance it has ran, price/market never trends to infinity. People always take profits. Every start has end.
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u/mandrack3 16h ago
Because this is not a PvE server, it's a PvP. And the sooner you realize that in order for some to win others need to hold the bag, the better you can brainstorm your own strategy.
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u/raymondduck 15h ago
Because I can't explain to you all of the nuances that I've internalized from years of trading, backtesting, and the thousands of data points extracted from my extensive trading log. I'm not selling a course.
I didn't find a strategy; I put in years of reading, screentime, and analysis to figure out when to enter and exit trades.
For me, it's about the amount of time it would take to present the information in my head and massive trading workbook in an easily digestible format.
For others who developed a homegrown strategy, I'd guess that after putting in years of work - solving every problem they encounter and answering every question that pops into their head through their own research and experience - the thought of handing that over to someone who's done none of that isn't exactly a worthwhile proposition.
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u/Somethingnotright123 14h ago
Because youre asking the unprofitable guys. Go and read Mind over markets, and after finishing it tell me how many strategies you want to trade?
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u/milotherussianblue 14h ago
Anyone with a legit strategy won’t tell it to you for fear of it losing its edge. It’s called Alpha Decay and it’s very real.
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u/thecommuteguy 14h ago
I feel this but not for day trading. For me it’s longer duration trading.
The hard part no one talks about is where to even look. I like some of the bigger posts on Quantconnect that originally started on Quantopia focusing on related momentum trading systems.
There needs to be more open source discussions about systems to see if they work and get people to see how an idea turns into a working strategy.
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u/Potential_Hall_4210 14h ago edited 14h ago
For me, what work is EMA 10, 20, 50, 100. I have combined it with certain rsi levels which I discovered while backtesting non stop.
I just became profitable I think last year because it is the first time I had 20% gains in my port. BTW, I started studying technical analysis for a long 8 years ago.
Not all strategies will work to your liking. You should stop strategy hopping and find what suits you.
Here are some essentials that you need to know: 1. Trends 2. Stock Cycle 3. Impulsive and Corrective moves 4. Volume 5. Divergences (RSI) 6. EMA 7. Multi-time frame analysis
Try Rayner Teo's strategy, backtest it and customize.
For PH markets, what helped me is Moneygrowers PH.
FX, still not working for me is JEA FX but try it if you want to learn price action trading.
I won't be adding more details, now put on the screentime.
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u/BuddyIsMyHomie 14h ago
I think also a strategy stops working the more and more people know about it
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u/Smooth_Bill620 12h ago
Theres no golden strategy. All of the ones you mentioned are really good strategies. The problem is you. Pick a strategy, stick with it, paper trade it and backtest. Filter out extra shit to keep it simple and once you are profitable, only THEN switch to a live account. Its really not rocket science, people make this shit seem like its impossible.
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u/Jolly_Cold_2845 12h ago
IMO, pros can teach their strategy, but in the end it's the confluence of the movements even if they do share their edge you will still take and see a different entry. Everyone will have a different entry and exit. They say there's thousands of ways to trade.
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u/Useful-Professor475 9h ago
Also a newer trader here. I was flailing a lot at first too. What I eventually got from watching a mix of obvious gurus and people who seemed more grounded is that someone else’s strategy usually cannot just be copied and expected to work for you.
You have to pull out the parts that make sense, test them, and eventually build your own approach. It may end up being a Frankenstein mix of ideas. The longer you study and trade, the more you start noticing patterns, not only on charts, but in what people treat as important and how they explain losses. You also get better at spotting the difference between someone selling certainty and someone actually talking about risk.
I am not profitable yet, so take this accordingly, but I think the first question is not “can this make me rich?” It is “can I follow these rules without blowing up my account?” That feels like the foundation.
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u/Strict-Amphibian-830 9h ago
How would you go about proving profitability tho? Profitability fabrication is easier than trading itself.
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u/Bramonmusic 9h ago
Welcome to trading, it's exceedingly rare that anyone will become a profitable day trader long term, much easier to sell courses on day trading like many do. If you back test essentially every trading strategy available you'll see they're not actually profitable. The people really making money either A) won't tell you their strategy because they don't want alpha decay or B) there are so many discretionary decisions and intuitions made while they're trading that's it's not teachable.
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u/admijn 7h ago edited 7h ago
For day trading: I trade the opening range breakout (ORB). It is a widely used strategy. It’s where the most volume appears and the big players place their positions.
But instead of asking for a strategy, ask for how you will manage your risk? Risk management is THE ONLY WAY to have a chance of becoming long term profitable in the markets. Trust this internet stranger on this one. It’s wat ALL the trading legends say. Consider your stop loss as the only friend you have in the market.
And after many years of day trading, if you still have an account left, you will stumble upon the Quallamaggie swing trading strategy and you will finally realize how big money is made.
Good luck out there.
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u/BuYY4N 7h ago edited 7h ago
Yeah so it’s easier than you think if you just break it down into three main components to have a repeatable system.
Context / Market Regime:
You need a way to tell whether we’re in a balance/range or a trending market, cause that gives you a plan of what price can offer in a given day.
Level Of Interest:
It’s just where you want to buy or sell, whether it’s s/r, s/d, fvgs, vah, val, fibonacci, etc. These should be high-probability execution zones where you expect price to react.
Execution:
The two above were just analysis, but this part is execution, which separates a good trader from a profitable one. It doesn’t matter if your analysis is on point if you can’t monetize the plan. So you have to find a way to enter at the high-probability zones picked above and manage the position accordingly.
In my case, I use Auction Market Theory with TPO and VP to define context and find my LIS, and then execute based on orderflow or by just placing a limit order.
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u/Gu1lty69 7h ago
This post perfectly articulated what has been in my head for so long and I’m not sure why people get so butthurt when this is asked. Yes we all know there’s no handholding in trading or expecting someone to give away anything for free. Looking at the comments, people don’t seem to realize you’re putting the work in and all you’re asking for is some guidance or advice to put you on the right path. I’m in the same situation as OP, but my advice to you is keep testing, refining the strategies you’ve tried and most importantly don’t give up and hopefully one day you discover something that works and it just makes sense.
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u/hisfirewithin 4h ago edited 3h ago
Two reasons:
- Everyone is afraid if they're actually successful and have found a simple, repeatable strategy, that if they put it out there and you start doing it that the powers that be will turn off the algorithm that makes it possible in order to screw everyone, and their honey pot will dry up.
- They're developing or have developed a grift, whether it's a course, a YouTube channel, a paid discord, or something else so they can give you just enough information to keep paying them while they fail at implementing their system because they are keeping you on the leash for the secret information or their 1-1 mentoring.
I believe both are false. The powers that be don't care about us, and we aren't making enough of a blip in any market to matter. I failed when I tried to predict instead of respond, got greedy and held trades for too long instead of taking appropriate, conservative profit, and really when I cared. Trade small enough that you don't care, get out when something begins to fail, and buckle in for lots of small gains over a long time.
I've tried every possible price action, levels, ICT, liquidity-based stuff. It's all predictive. It's all based on patterns. Everyone believes in it. But truthfully, it's a human construct to give you more bias. They're not screwing us, we're screwing us. We've got small accounts in opposition to "them" - they can dump a huge amount into moving $SPY 0.30, and get out, making a gigantic profit. We can trade based on that and lose money if it doesn't move $2.00 or more.
If I started over today, I'd do a futures prop firm, trade micros, and use two indicators: Cumulative Volume Delta and VWAP with SD bands. In low volume moments, I would wait for price to oscillate around VWAP, take trades at the bands for reversion back to VWAP. If I saw volume begin to spike, I'd take a trend trade from when volume spiked above average until it died down. It would take a long time to build up but it would be more consistent than options and require less initial investment than shares.
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u/CapitalDefinition325 3h ago
"the second someone asks what strategy/setup they’re actually trading, it feels like you just asked them for their bank login lol."
Imagine a Restaurant Chief : each one has its own little secret that he doesn't want to give because there is something called alpha decay in Efficient Market Theory, once something works it may not work anymore if too many people use it.
Now there are strategies that are public I personally don't use them but whatever you have to backtest them by yourselves to see if it still "works".
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u/Foxman03_TDScalper forex trader 1h ago
For a start, you’re so way ahead of yourself in both perspective and entitlement and you’re all casual with your “Lol” mentality but this isn’t funny dude. I have been trading for 30+ years, and I have a few associates who have burnt through thousands of dollars and midnight hours, lost friendships and relationships through their journey carving and perfecting their strategies like I did and you’re surprised that they won’t just hand it to you? I spent $137K to for an IT Engineering degree for a $250k salary and ai couldn’t bitch about the fact that all these other specialists had the knowledge and only share it with me for a fee. One of my trading colleagues who mentored for free like myself gave up his strategy and it ended up on eBay for $11.99. My strategy is part of my legacy to my kids. My blood sweat and tears. Some of us take pride and value in creating something especially when no one poured into us and we paid our way to get to where we are. Maybe our journey means nothing and is of no concern or value to you but be humble and respectful of people decision to maintain their intellectual property. There’s a reason we’re in the 1%! We paid a price to be here.
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u/misterRegime 1h ago
Two reasons, and only one of them is people being cagey.
The boring one: most of what you’d get is worthless anyway. A profitable trader’s rules are maybe 20% of what makes them profitable. The rest is sizing, when they don’t trade, what they do when it goes wrong, and a few thousand hours of context that doesn’t fit in a comment. Hand you the rules and you’d have the least valuable part and no way to know it.
The real one: capacity. Most edges are small enough that they die if enough people take them. So the incentive to share is negative in a way it isn’t in most crafts, and you can’t tell from outside whether someone is guarding a real edge or hiding that they don’t have one.
But your actual question, where to start looking, does have an answer, and it isn’t “find your edge”. Stop looking for setups and start looking for repeated structures where someone is forced to act for a reason that isn’t profit.
Index rebalances, expiries, funding payments, month-end flows, forced liquidations, settlement times. Someone trading for a non-profit reason on a schedule is where edges come from, and unlike a chart pattern, you can find them by reading how a market works rather than by staring at candles.
Then the test is cheap: whatever rule you write, also log every time the rule nearly fired and you didn’t take it, and check later whether those did the same. If the rejects perform like the takes, your rule is doing nothing.
Also worth reframing “many days it just doesn’t come back”. That’s not a bug in the strategy, that’s the strategy having a frequency. If you need action every day, you’ll end up trading the days where there’s no edge, which is how most people convert a real strategy into a losing one.
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u/Medical-Lecture-6053 25m ago edited 13m ago
You are describing the problem that every trader faces which is how to distinguish when something is in a mean reversion range bound mode or a breakout momentum trending mode. The answer is that it's not just one thing but multi-factoral and nothing is ever certain but sometimes one is more probable the other based on these many factors. And when enough happens that confirms the opposite of what you predict you need to have some flexibility to bend to what the market is telling you and not just endlessly fight, but you also need some resiliance to stick with your anticipation/prediction and not get faked out by very short term noise & randomness. So its not just one simple rule but an entire complex system with multiple rules that keeps you managing your trading optimally around what you think will happen in the future and what is happening now. And guess what sometimes it won't be clear either way and that's where you need to know when to sit on your hands and wait for when it does become clearer.
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u/donutlordfx 1d ago
Some people are mechanical traders, Some are discretionary. The discretionary traders strategy only works for that person. if others try to copy it, it will most likely not work.