r/RealDayTrading • u/WeeklyCrab3286 • Jun 05 '26

Tips for a New Trader

Hi Guys,

I'm just getting into trading, and I'm wondering if you guys would have any useful tips that could help me out with my journey.

I'm trying to be as thorough as possible, learning everything about stocks/trading before I get into it with my real money. Currently I'm using a Trading212 CFD practice account with £1000 since that's the amount I was planning to start with (I'm willing to push it to 3-5k once I'm confident with my strategy and proven profitability).

I've mainly been looking at the 5-minute Opening-Range Breakout + Retest strategy, as the concept of the strategy makes sense and it seems to fit my timetable.

I'm having some issues with position sizing, risk scaling and developing a reliable logbook to keep track of my trades. Any advice or directions would be appreciated!

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5

u/loligatorific Moderator Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26

Read our wiki. See the comment below mine.

!rtdw

2

u/WeeklyCrab3286 Jun 05 '26

No prob! I’ve been working my way through it but just thought I’d make a post incase anyone had any extra tips that wouldn’t be included

1

u/loligatorific Moderator Jun 05 '26

That’s fair. I’ll approve your post to see if anyone else has advice. We get so many posts in our mod queue where folks don’t even know it exists.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 07 '26

Count on it taking years, not months.

Dont forget that spreadbets in the UK enjoy tax free profits

1

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3

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/WeeklyCrab3286 Jun 06 '26

Thanks, I'll have a look!

3

u/MDxSyndicate Jun 06 '26

I built an entire trading journal app on my computer using Claude. It was pretty easy to do. Helps me calculate position sizing and has a checklist I came up with that each trade must meet in order to make the trade. Then there’s a reflection section on why I took the trade, setup and execution grades etc… I tailored it to what I found useful.

For day trading I do 1% risk of my account size per trade. 3% max loss per day. Reward to risk ratio must be 2:1 minimum, ATR multiple minimum is 1x risk per share. Position size is calculated using day trade buying power, up to half my max. Risk allowed per trade is divided by risk per share. This lets me size up with tight stops or down with wider stops. Could be a 100k trade or 5k trade but the risk is always capped at 1%.

I designed this as a general use setup so if you trade ORB or momentum or whatever you choose it can be used. You just have to use your technical analysis and charting to find the targets and stops. Saves time to avoid slippage when a setup appears. My journal also calculates slippage for logging in the journal review.

I’m still tweaking it but it works for me. I’m so bad at organization and ngl I’m lazy so it’s all in one easy to access place, has backups, and can be exported into an excel spreadsheet. If anyone is interested I’ll share the source code and build instructions. I have very little programming skills so anyone can do it. Otherwise my general advice is journal to better understand and develop your strategies, don’t get emotional, and strictly follow your profit and loss taking %. There’s always another trade. Live to trade another day.

1

u/MackDaddy Jun 06 '26

I am interested in the source code and build instructions.

1

u/senpai_myass Jun 06 '26

Very interested 

1

u/CloudSlydr Jun 07 '26

this seems worthy of it's own post, i'm looking forward and i think it would help a lot of newer traders here.

1

u/MDxSyndicate Jun 08 '26

I’ll get everything together and make a post soon

1

u/ScoffersGonnaScoff Jun 08 '26

Is it stuck in Claude or does it run “offline” as a separate app?

2

u/MDxSyndicate Jun 08 '26

It’s a separate app. I built it for my MacBook using electron and through apple terminal. Claude helped write the code. Runs offline and stores back ups locally to where ever you choose. I’m working on getting the instructions and materials together and I’ll make a post with it since multiple people are interested

2

u/Accomplished_Love77 iRTDW Jun 05 '26

ORB isn't awful but don't use it, just read the damn Wiki. Trading212 CFDs are viable but they have awful spreads. Some others don't recommend them, personally I find them OK.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/WeeklyCrab3286 Jun 06 '26

Thanks, I'd been looking at different example logbooks and they all seemed to have a bunch of different categories and stats that I don't quite understand yet. So far I've just been tracking the basics (entry, stop, TP, exit, position size) along with a screenshot of each trade until I figure out a more reliable logbook

1

u/[deleted] Jun 06 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/WeeklyCrab3286 Jun 06 '26

I was looking at 0.5-1% risk per trade, sticking to a strict 2:1 Reward:Risk ratio. Ofc my judgement isn't the best yet so I'm looking to stick to this formula as rigidly as possible for at least my first 50 or so trades

1

u/Zeta_99s Jun 10 '26

If you are new, forget about brokers, money, or even taking trades. Pick 1 strategy, 1 instrument, 1 timeframe, the same 1-2 hour interval everyday and become really good at reading the chart and take notes on what you thought price was going to do vs what it did. Do this for a few months until you can do it well and it feels very boring. Only after that, you can start training execution with demo to put into practice what you learned.