Dashboard

My evolution

As a trader is a personal journey that encompasses various stages of learning, development, successes, and challenges. Below is my own reflection on and documentation of my progression as a trader.

Introduction to Trading

I was initially drawn into trading and stock market post 2020, the Great Lockdown period- when we were undergoing massive changes in our working culture, and delving into something new, that is, work from home.

After seeing series of peeping and pestering Youtube Ads or digital Ads, advocating about the profits that can be earned by sitting at home. But me being an Engineer, that too, an inquisitive one– with lots of questions, before diving into it, I began watching and learning from online videos, following some youtuber religiously, who later turned out to be Furus instead of Gurus- that’s another long tale to tell.

Learning Phase

I started following few youtubers such as Abhisekh Kar, Subhashish Pani, Pushkar Raj Thakur, Ghanshyam Tech, etc. and learned from their videos and live session- There is a saying for learning there is no excuse. And I learned about options first, then later about stocks/cash in markets.

Bought some books too, such as TRADING IN THE ZONE – MICHAEL DOUGLOUS, and many more. And started with Option Buying with some raw skills- and a attitude that I will master in a month, and as beginners luck on my side, I made some decent profit. This added more fuel to my egoistic learning phase all the more. It felt like I am a master trader now, but then, market has its own way of teaching us to be humble as a trader.

Developing a Trading Strategy

After few set backs and humbling time, begun, to spent more time testing out various brokers, various strategies that spread out in the trading universe across by the so called trading Furus/Gurus in Youtube.

Initial Trading Days

Initially traded with options buying and made some decent profit, then, after a series of losses, I went back to my learning board, analyzing- but the good part of me is journaling my progress, tenacity to learn and learning all the way. Tried my hands on Stock options, NIFTY 50, Banknifty, Scalping, etc. During this phase, there was nothing that I didn’t tried my hand on. Once during my learning phase, I learn about theta decay, and option selling is the easiest way to earn regular profit- I got swayed to it. As the market was trading with a high VIX around those time- option selling gave me some profits.

Option Selling Begins

With option selling in mind I needed funds to meet the margin demand, I started my journey to break FDs and savings to invest, and to trade with collateral, as some one from Youtube had advised so. And started deploying the most hyped directionless strategy that is selling OTM Strangles at 9:20am. As VIX was high and I was again earning in the initial selling phase. And as VIX dropped, during the Low VIX period I begin to struggle and falter to maintain my profitability.

Trading with Dhan

After swinging between Zerodha, Fyers, Dhan, Kotak, FInvasia, mStock and Upstox I finally settled to focus only with Dhan Platform. And I diversified my investment into SIPs, Top stocks of Large Caps, with the collateral of these stocks/ETFs I begin to settle to my early years of trading style and strength– that suited me the most, that is scalping but as with experience I refined and redefined it with time.

Characteristics of My Present Day Trading Style

Invested 80% of my capital in quality stocks spread over various sectors mostly the best stock of those sectors, some into ETFs and Index fund. This gave me a long term financial gain, as I always invested whenever market crashed specially during Ukraine Russia War- when stocks nose dived. And 40% of capital is kept in cash to absorbed any losses over the period to avoid penalty.

To learning I have prioritized, decided to- at least read 1(one) trading book in a month. Focused on long term gain rather than the short term, even though I traded almost daily. My main focus today remains learning, protecting my capital, lastly, with the least priority to make some profit with target of 1% daily, and loss of 0.5%.

After a series of testing, trials and failures, I am finally at a break even, now- at least I have became profitable in my long term investments. And Finally I am back to Scalping and day trading after a series of set back from positional trading.

My Trade selections- on a very convincing days I carry positional trades which are risk defined, that is, mostly credit spreads.

On daily basis I begin with directional trades which later converted to strangles or straddle depending upon the market scenario.

On short span I mostly carry out scalping, where I sell ATM/ITM options- advantage we get the time decay as well as good premium if it goes in my favor.

Future Goals and Aspirations

Maintain the same strategy, and focus on long term goal, rather the short term gain. Lastly my advice to any upcoming and budding traders, ” Summarize your journey by reflecting on the most important lessons learned and the key factors that have contributed to your growth as a trader. Consider how your experiences can inspire and guide others who are on a similar path. By organizing your thoughts and experiences in this structured manner, you can gain deeper insights into your evolution as a trader and create a comprehensive narrative of your journey”.