How long does it take to learn to day trade and how to learn day trading? Also, how long does it take to become a profitable day trader? Like learning anything else, day trading is a skill that depends on how hard you learn and how well you remember and internalize the information.
Some could learn to be profitable in day trading in just six months, while others it might take three years. It really depends on how committed you are to learning to day trade. Learning the things is not all of it; you have to also know how to use the basic skills like technical analysis.
Also, if you have not previous experience in financial instruments, the learning might take longer. Having some background knowledge about the topic can help a lot, but is not necessary, everything can be learned.
How important is technical analysis in day trading?
Technical analysis is an important aspect of day trading. However, you don’t necessarily need any indicators if you can read the candlesticks well enough.
Most of the day traders use indicators and technical analysis to determine when to enter or exit a trade. However, having your strategy in order, meaning having rules to enter and exit trades, is not even half of the trading.
I would say an even more important aspect of day trading is psychology. It can be very stressful to see your positions lose all over again and stick to your strategy. You will have to learn to manage your emotions and stick strictly to your strategy.
You will have a lot of losses. The way day trading is supposed to be profitable is to be profitable over 50% of the time, if your risk-to-reward ratio is 1:1. If you disobey your trading strategy once and move your stop loss, end up taking a bigger loss, that might be fatal to your overall win rate.
Losses are a very big part of day trading. You will have to learn to handle them well. Technical analysis is to create your trading strategy, but sticking to it can be even harder.
Is it hard to become a day trader?
Becoming a day trader is quite simple. You just open an account and start trading. However, becoming a profitable trader can be very difficult. Some estimates say that 95% of day traders lose money in the long run.
The statistics speak for themselves, and it is really understandable. If it was easy to make money just trading daily in the markets, everybody would do it, right? Day trading has a very low barrier of entry, but it is very difficult to master.
How to learn day trading?
Day trading can be learned through reading books related to day trading or watching YouTube videos. That is a good way to start getting some basic information. After you have some knowledge about trading, you can start by trying paper trading.
Paper trading means you don’t risk your actual money. A lot of different brokers offer demo accounts, which is a good way to paper trade. You don’t have to manually write your trades on paper. You can take them with “fake money” online.
When starting with paper trading, even if you ended up with profits, that might not continue when you start using real money. It is very different psychologically to trading with real money. Sticking to your strategy with fake money is easy, but watching your real money positions turn losses can be difficult to watch at first.
Before you start using real money, you should really backtest your strategy well. This means spending weeks or even months validating it through different market conditions. After you start using real money, start small. And stick to your strategy right from the beginning, no exceptions.
Another tip I would give is not to start your trading journey with 1-minute charts. The longer the timeframe you trade with, the more time you have to analyze the data before entering a trade.
How long does it take to learn swing trading?
Swing trading can be easier learned than day trading. Swing trading means doing trades on longer timeframes, such as daily or weekly charts. This gives you more time to analyze the data, compared to trading with 15-minute charts, for example.
Don’t get me wrong, being a profitable swing trader is difficult to do as well. It still takes time to learn all the technical analysis and create your strategy. And like any other skill, it takes thousands of hours to master a skill. Some could learn to swing trade in just a few weeks, while others it could take months or even years.
When you have more time to analyze the data, it can be easier to stick to your strategy and not hesitate.
The downside of swing trading is that it can take a really long time to get in and out of trades. However, it can be a better way to start trading for someone who has a day job and wants to start trading along with their day job.
Final words
Day trading like any other skill, takes a long time to master. If you already have some knowledge of the financial markets, that can be useful, but it is not necessary. Everything can be learned.
Swing trading is not as hard as day trading since you have more time to analyze the data and determine entry and exit points for trades.
Other day-trading related posts can be found here.
Hopefully this was helpful to you, have a nice day.
This is not financial or investing advice. Some estimates say that 95% of day traders lose money. Always do your research before risking your hard-earned money.