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<p>Preface xiii</p> <p>Acknowledgments xvii</p> <p>Introduction: The Wholehearted Amateur 1</p> <p><b>Part I Psychological Truths and What to Do about Them 5</b></p> <p><b>Chapter 1 Truths about Yourself to Know First 7</b></p> <p>How Often Do You Trade, and How Profitably? 10</p> <p>How Much Are You Trading in Capital and Leverage? 10</p> <p>How Long Have You Been Trading? 12</p> <p>What Financial Instruments Are You Trading? 13</p> <p>Are You Trading Other Peoples’ Money or Your Personal Capital? 13</p> <p>Are You a Licensed Trader, or Trading Independently? 13</p> <p>How Were You Trained? 14</p> <p>Rules to Remember 14</p> <p><b>Chapter 2 How Emotions Can Destroy a Trade 15</b></p> <p>The Fear Factor 16</p> <p>Greed Is Not Good 18</p> <p>Rules to Remember 21</p> <p><b>Chapter 3 Preventing Overconfidence 23</b></p> <p>Ignoring Your Predetermined Stop/Loss Price 24</p> <p>Holding Too Long 24</p> <p>Rules to Remember 26</p> <p><b>Chapter 4 From Impatient to Cool, Calm, and Collected 27</b></p> <p>The Waiting Is the Hardest Part 29</p> <p>Deciding to Learn More 31</p> <p>Rules to Remember 33</p> <p><b>Chapter 5 Taking Breaks 35</b></p> <p>Break When Your Confidence Is Low 38</p> <p>Break Because It’s Just Not Working 38</p> <p>Break and Then What? 39</p> <p>Rules to Remember 42</p> <p><b>Part II The Truth about Your Risk 43</b></p> <p><b>Chapter 6 The Importance of Risk Management 45</b></p> <p>The Amount of Trading Capital Allocated to Each Trade 46</p> <p>The Timing for Allocating Capital to a Trade 47</p> <p>Overexposure to Risk 48</p> <p>The Stock or Company You’re Trading 49</p> <p>The Time of Day You’re Trading 49</p> <p>Gambling 50</p> <p>Rules to Remember 51</p> <p><b>Chapter 7 Why Overexposure to the Market Can Hurt 53</b></p> <p>Time versus Timing 54</p> <p>Rules to Remember 58</p> <p><b>Chapter 8 Budgeting: Knowing Your Financial Limitations 59</b></p> <p>Don’t Quit Your Day Job: Catch- 22 60</p> <p>Crunching the Numbers 62</p> <p>Cushion Cash 63</p> <p>Rules to Remember 64</p> <p><b>Chapter 9 Minimizing Your Risk with Stop/Loss 65</b></p> <p>Making Stop/Loss Automatic 65</p> <p>Rules to Remember 71</p> <p><b>Chapter 10 Averaging-Down: A Skilled Strategy 73</b></p> <p>To Average-Down Successfully Takes Mastery 74</p> <p>Know-How Doesn’t Grow Overnight 75</p> <p>Rules to Remember 77</p> <p><b>Chapter 11 Gambling versus Day Trading 79</b></p> <p>Rules to Remember 82</p> <p><b>Part III Intraday Trading Truths 83</b></p> <p><b>Chapter 12 Why Some Traders Make More Mistakes 85</b></p> <p>Pick Your Stocks Carefully 86</p> <p>Focus, Focus, Focus 87</p> <p>Pay Attention to Market-Moving News 90</p> <p>Rules to Remember 91</p> <p><b>Chapter 13 Trading Consistently All Day 93</b></p> <p>Rules to Remember 98</p> <p><b>Chapter 14 Stock Picking: Simplifying the Process 99</b></p> <p>Your Stock Should Have an Average Daily Volume of One Million Shares or More 100</p> <p>Choose Stocks between $10 and $ 100 101</p> <p>Pick Stocks That Display Tradable Intraday Price Swings 102</p> <p>Don’t Trade Stocks Affected by Strict Federal Regulations 102</p> <p>Beware of Stocks Directly Affected by Current News Headlines 104</p> <p>Rules to Remember 105</p> <p><b>Chapter 15 Why News Can Be Just Noise 107</b></p> <p>Trading on News versus Monitoring News 109</p> <p>Rules to Remember 111</p> <p><b>Part IV The Truth about Training and Preparation 113</b></p> <p><b>Chapter 16 About Those Training Programs 115</b></p> <p>Seminars for the Greenhorns 116</p> <p>Training Programs for the More Experienced Trader 119</p> <p>Tips for Selecting the Right Program 120</p> <p>Rules to Remember 123</p> <p><b>Chapter 17 Picking the Right Online Broker: Pay-per-Share versus Pay-per-Trade 125</b></p> <p>Starting Out with Pay-per-Trade 125</p> <p>Transitioning to Pay-per-Share 126</p> <p>High Leverage Pros and Cons 130</p> <p>Hang on to Your Pay-per-Trade Account 131</p> <p>Rules to Remember 132</p> <p><b>Chapter 18 Paper-Trading Strategy 133</b></p> <p>Paper Trading for the Amateur 134</p> <p>A Word about Advanced Paper Trading 139</p> <p>Rules to Remember 140</p> <p><b>Chapter 19 Trading for Skill versus Trading for Income 141</b></p> <p>Building a Foundation of Trading Skills 141</p> <p>First Level 144</p> <p>Second Level 146</p> <p>Third Level 147</p> <p>Summary 148</p> <p>Rules to Remember 150</p> <p><b>Chapter 20 The Perfect Trading Day 151</b></p> <p>Early Morning Activities 151</p> <p>Pre-market Trading 153</p> <p>The Opening Bell 156</p> <p>Midday Activities 157</p> <p>The Last Hour of Trading 159</p> <p>The Closing Bell 160</p> <p>After-Market Trading 160</p> <p>Homework 161</p> <p><b>Chapter 21 The Worst Trading Day 163</b></p> <p>Early Morning Activities 163</p> <p>Premarket Trading 164</p> <p>The Opening Bell 166</p> <p>Midday Activities 166</p> <p>Last Hour of Trading 167</p> <p>The Closing Bell 168</p> <p>After-Market Trading 168</p> <p>Homework 169</p> <p>Conclusion: Parting Words 171</p> <p>Appendix: Rules to Remember 175</p> <p>About the Author 181</p> <p>Index 183</p>

<p><b>JOSH D<small>I</small>PIETRO</b> has been day trading stocks for ten years. He operates a web site (www.daytraderjosh.com) and provides training programs for aspiring day traders. DiPietro's trading approach involves making many trades every day, taking small profits, exiting losing trades quickly, and minimizing transaction costs. He is a critic of the educational paths offered by the established trading industry and is dedicated to providing an alternative educational approach for aspiring traders.

<p><b>The Truth About Day Trading Stocks</b> <p><b>A realistic guide to day trading today's stock market</b> <p>In terms of the potential for heavy financial losses, day trading is a high-risk profession. No one should contemplate day trading without giving thought to the ways he can lose, and all the ways to lessen or avoid them. Yet many people enter the game with unrealistic expectations, unaware of what it takes to succeed. Seminars and software alone do not make a successful day trader, cautions author Josh DiPietro. Instead, a trader must learn hard lessons of self-discipline, consistency, and staying in the game for the long haul to have a real chance of success. In <i>The Truth About Day Trading Stocks</i>, DiPietro offers the amateur day trader a brutally honest look at the pitfalls of day trading—and how to hopefully avoid them. <p>Written in an engaging and sometimes humorous tone, <i>The Truth About Day Trading Stocks</i> draws on the author's own experiences as a day trader to offer a clear-cut departure from typical "golden goose" strategies promising instant wealth. Instead, he attempts to slow down the dangerous fervor of the average amateur and demonstrate the ways you can become a professional and not lose your shirt in the process. <i>The Truth About Day Trading Stocks</i> shows how trading decisions are bent and shaped by emotions, and why it is critical to know yourself, understand risk, and remember that increasing your skill level is a gradual, ongoing process—there's always more to learn! After dispensing with popular illusions, DiPietro proceeds to offer realistic, practical trading advice—comparing pay-per-trade with pay-per-share brokers, determining which works best and when, offering suggestions on how to avoid the prospect of perfect trades turning ugly, and more. At the end of the book, he also includes a section called "Rules to Remember," a list of over eighty rules, simply stated and easy to grasp, to benefit amateurs' performance. <p>Throughout the book, the author describes his development of acute self-awareness while figuring out how to succeed. Through that blunt self-portrayal, the goal of <i>The Truth About Day Trading Stocks</i> is to help you create a disciplined mind-set and apply it to your own successful trading style.

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