The blog · Trading
Trading
Risk first, and reading any market.
Trading gets sold as a shortcut, so this section starts with the odds instead: why most traders lose, what position sizing actually decides, what a stop loss does and does not protect you from, and how long the learning honestly takes. I trade, I journal my losers in more detail than my winners, and I would rather talk you out of a bad start than sell you a fast one.
What actually happens to most people who try day trading12 min readYour first month went well and you have the screenshots. Complete records of everyone who tried, in two whole markets, answer what those screenshots cannot.Swing trading vs day trading: let your calendar decide8 min readYou are comparing the two as though the choice were yours. Your calendar already voted: one of them wants attendance at the hours your job owns.How much money do you need to day trade? The rule and the real number9 min readThree tabs, three confident answers, all quoting a $25,000 rule that is being retired while you read them. What limits an account now, and what never changed.Paper trading vs real money: what the simulator cannot teach8 min readYour practice account is up and you cannot tell whether that means anything. What a simulator teaches, what it cannot price, and how to switch across by size.What is position sizing, and why does it decide everything?8 min readBeing right about the stock is not enough if you staked a third of the account on it. Size sets the price of being wrong, and being wrong is routine.Stop losses: what they do, and what they do not8 min readYou set a stop at $46 and the shares sold at $41, with nothing malfunctioning. A stop is an instruction, not insurance, and the difference shows up once.How long does it take to learn trading? Count in trades, not months9 min readYou are eight months in and feel behind a schedule nobody set. Real trading records say the unit of learning is trades placed, not months survived.