Stock Trading - Topics

Lockup expiry is the first day insiders can sell and the float can triple A forex broker quotes a tight spread then charges swap on every night you hold A stock split changes no value yet retail volume still jumps on the news Dark pools handle a third of US share volume and print no quote the public can see Margin interest is charged on the daily balance and compounds against a losing position Circuit breakers halt the market for fifteen minutes and the queued orders set the reopening price Short term gains are taxed as ordinary income and that is the real cost of a day trade Size the position so a 10 percent stop costs one percent of the account Holding a winner over the weekend takes on risk the strategy never tested An option loses value to time decay even when the underlying goes nowhere A prop firm's drawdown rule closes the account before the strategy gets to recover The best backtest usually comes from a parameter set that only worked in that sample The volume in the last five minutes is real and the midday chop is not Leverage of 20 to 1 turns a 5 percent move against you into a wiped account The pattern day trader rule freezes accounts under 25000 dollars after four day trades in five sessions A stop loss becomes a market order in a gap and fills well below the level you set A limit order that never fills means the price you wanted did not exist Ten losses in a row is a normal streak and 10 percent per trade cannot survive it Borrow fees on a short squeeze can exceed every dollar the short ever made Payment for order flow is why the commission on your trade is zero Averaging down on a losing day trade is how a small loss becomes a margin call The bid ask spread on a thin stock costs more than the commission you saved Overtrading is the most common reason a working strategy still loses money A journal that records why you entered is the only way to find your losing pattern Position sizes quietly double after a big win and that is when accounts break