5 things you need to know about this challenge
Learn more about the why, background, plan, strategy + screener, and the process by getting all the latest updates directly on the trade2win 25k challenge thread!
Now let’s dive into the details.
1. Why
- Focusing on perfecting something I’ve always done
- Sharing because there’s no point to be secretive about trading
- Growing my network (learn from each other)
In the first few years, I was pretty secretive about my trading. I think that was more of insecurity with myself. I wasn’t ready yet for everyone to judge each of my trades because I wasn’t yet sure about my trading. Today I know 100% what my strategy is and I don’t think my strategy will become saturated.
I’ve also learned the hardest part about trading is mastering yourself; while the patterns/scanners are just a small part of what makes a trader successful. By sharing my trades and journey with you guys I hope to grow my trading network/circle because trading is a very “You against You” game and it’s easy to turn into a hermit. Looking back, if there was one thing I wish I started earlier when trading it would be to network amongst fellow traders so now that’s one of my main focuses beyond my P/L. Plus I’ll feel more responsibility into sticking with this journey as you guys will hold me responsible.
Anyway, I look to learn just as much from you guys as hopefully, I can introduce to you.
2. Background
- Former trader in NYC
- Stopped to grow my Saas company
- Got into crypto to payout clients
- Understood that equity trading had several advantages
Basically, in 2013 I took my trading a bit more serious and for the next 2 years, I was making most of my income from equities small-cap trading. However, at the same time, I was busy with my brother starting a Saas company. So around 2015 – 2017 the company really became my main focus and trading basically came to a full halt. Around the end of 2017, our company started offering BTC as a payment method for our clients and because of that, I needed to buy BTC every week in order to payout our clients.
As you might have guessed my suppressed trading side came back in full swing and I started day/swing trading crypto. I’ve been able to make steady profits with it (I shared all of it on my trading channel) but overall the crypto market doesn’t favor day trading (market moves slow intraday, super high fees, no opening/closing bell vol) therefore I always considered diving back into equities trading.
Now, I have more time since I don’t deal with the day to day of my company and I’m fully liquid as the market is relatively high.
3. Plan
- Grow account past $25k (PDT Rule)
- Focus on risk management (Low # of trades forces me to snipe)
- Start paying myself (cash flows) after $10k
I want to start slow since I’m rusty with my equities small caps day trading strategy. I checked my TD account which had $1245.05 sitting in it and thought screw it, let’s just start with this amount and trade it past the $25k PDT rule. Which means I only get 3 sniper trades per week.
To help scale my activity, I’ll use a cash account (Roth IRA) and a margin account to at least give me a min of 6 trades per week. I’ll focus on rebalancing the accounts, weighted more heavily on the cash account so I can place more and more trades inside of that as it’s not limited to the PDT rule.
Example: $3k inside Cash Account and $1.5k inside Margin Account. That would give me the ability to trade 9 x 1.5k position sizes per week.
Side note, a margin account is required to short. Which means I would only be able to short 3 x per week.
The good news is that TD now offers $0 commission trades (although OTC stocks still have a fee & I often trade OTC). Just like with crypto trading I like to “pay myself” every month, it’s a good habit to get into but since this account is small I will limit removing funds from the account until we are past $10k at which point I’d like to start paying myself anywhere from 25-50% of my monthly profits.
4. Strategy
- Trading mostly mornings
- No swing trading & overnight rarely
- Morning Panics
- Small caps
Screener includes:
% change = 1% – Max% (Sorted by Ascending)
Volume = 50k – Max
Market Cap = $2Mil – Max
Last Price = $.01 – $10
Small-cap momentum trader, I’m looking at stocks that are moving and trading morning dips/panics and rarely afternoon runners as I usually only trade the first 1 hour of the market open. I live by support and resistance levels and rather trade a breakout bounce back at support than a blind breakout buy. Low float is key and ideally, 24/hr $vol no less than $250k.
I use TD Ameritrade‘s Think or Swim (TOS) platform and love it. Use OTCMarkets.com & Finviz.com a lot. I’m also in a discord group with several trading buddies that I met both in real life and online.
5. Process
- Daily Watchlist / Live Trading Videos (Started Monday, Nov 4th 2019)
- Lessons and Weekly Recaps Day Trading Stocks Lessons
To help me be as transparent as possible and make it easy for you guys to follow my trading activity I will be documenting everything on my Trade Journal Spreadsheet (In case you want to copy it go to TradeJournal.co for a raw google sheet template).
If you are interested to stay up to date on everything I do follow this thread as I’ll post my watchlist and trading recaps here. Also, add me on Twitter.com/MrAlexWinkler where I’ll post more about this journey!
Quick Links
Track All My Trades On Trade Journal
Follow the $25k Challenge on YouTube & Twitter
F.A.Q
What is the best small account brokers?
The answer (and this is common in trading) is it depends on you and your strategy. I personally like TD Ameritrade because of ThinkorSwim (TOS) but I know many first time trades use Robinhood or Webull. For offshore accounts, I hear CMEliteGroup is pretty good.
What trading journal do you use?
I document all my trades on TradeJournal.co you can find my portfolio here: https://www.tradejournal.co/winkler/