Becoming a Day Trader

Summary

The Trading Farmer recounts his path to becoming a full-time day trader, emphasizing that trading brought substantial income but also severe emotional swings and losses. He says he earned about $500,000 in profits over roughly the prior 1.5 years. At the time of recording, he reported $194,000 earned year to date as of May 1, $300,000 in the prior year, and $75,000 in the previous month. These are his personal, self-reported results and are not a typical outcome.

He describes the risks alongside those gains. On the day of filming, he was down about $6,700, having been down $9,000–$9,500 at one point before recovering roughly $3,000. He also says a single trade lasting about 5–10 seconds cost him $9,000. In an earlier period, a $2,700 losing day was especially significant because his net worth was around $25,000. He recounts frequent cycles of building profits and giving them back, and says he sometimes overtraded after reaching his maximum loss.

Trading Approach and Lessons

• Started with little preparation: A college acquaintance introduced him to day trading and thinkorswim from TD Ameritrade. At the time, commissions were about $7 per trade. He initially traded real money without first using a simulator and says he was not profitable.
• Practiced in a simulator: After returning to trading, he practiced in simulation for about six to seven months, often trading daily. He later moved to real money.
• Reduced position size and targets: After reviewing his performance, he concluded that focusing on a small daily gain—around $1—would have produced better results than pursuing larger wins. He cut position sizes from 100–300 shares to as few as 5, 10, or 25 shares, aiming for quick wins and less emotional pressure.
• Prioritized consistency over large daily profits: He says this change helped him post more consistent, modest gains in November 2020. He frames the lesson as choosing a position size that does not trigger emotional decisions and avoiding the assumption that he needed to make hundreds or thousands of dollars each day.
• Recounted a high-risk exception, not a rule: After becoming frustrated on a losing day, he increased his position to 1,000 shares—an increase he estimated at roughly 10 times his prior risk—to try to recover his losses. One trade made about $80 (roughly 8 cents per share). He ultimately made about $300 that day, then $800 on Monday and roughly $4,000 over about six trading days. He describes this as a turning point, but also acknowledges that he was angry and should have walked away.
• Continued to face drawdowns: Even after becoming profitable, he reported a three-red-day stretch and an approximately $10,000 drawdown from his recent highs. He emphasizes that profitability did not remove the emotional difficulty or guarantee future results.

Markets, Assets, and Instruments Mentioned

• Stocks, including day trading and penny stocks generally.
• Squarespace (likely SQSP): He says he bought shares around $75 and saw them rise to around $100, making about $200.
• An unidentified penny stock: He says he later invested money in one while hoping for a major price run.
• TD Ameritrade / thinkorswim: Brokerage and trading platform discussed.
• No ETFs, bonds, commodities, or cryptocurrencies are identified.

Cautions and Disclosures

The speaker repeatedly stresses that trading is difficult, emotionally demanding, and not guaranteed to work. He says most people may not be able to make it work, and recounts breaking his own rules, overtrading, and taking excessive risk. No explicit “not financial advice” disclaimer appears in the subtitles.

Presenter

The Trading Farmer (the video’s first-person narrator).