Mark Twain once said "It ain't what you don't know that gets you in trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." I believe these words of wisdom apply to trading, as well as life in general.
After doing some day trading and making a few nice profitable trades here and there, followed by a couple of losses that cut my profits in half, I remembered that quote by Twain and I had to admit to myself that many of the things I thought I knew about trading were wrong. I decided to visit Amazon to find a good introduction to the subject of day trading. There were so many books, most of them looked like they would take me weeks or months to study, and I wasn’t sure if I was prepared to take on that kind of learning curve. I’m not lazy, but I have a lot of other projects going on.
Then I stumbled upon Andrew Aziz’s book “How to Day Trade for a Living: A beginner’s Tools and Tactics, Money Management, Discipline and Trading Psychology.” This book seemed to cover everything I was looking for, and with only in 232 pages; I felt I could handle that. I wasn’t looking for an encyclopedia on trading; I was looking for information on what day trading is, how to get started, and pitfalls to look out for. Based on the long title and the mostly positive reviews, I decided to go with this book. I am very glad I did.
I should mention that I’ve not yet completed my first reading of the book; I’m taking my time to let the information sink in; that’s my preferred learning style. However, a bit more by half way through the book, I can say that I really enjoy this book a great deal. At first it was a little uncomfortable, because as a middle-aged finance professional with an MBA and many classes in finance and investing, I felt that I should know a lot more about day trading than I actually do. Well, the first thing I learned from Aziz’s book is that day trading and investing are very different subjects. I also learned that what I had been doing was not day trading, but “swing trading,” and that they are very different trading modalities that require different education and practice.
By far, my most important take-away from this book is that day trading is not easy. The author of reinforces that point throughout the book. This is probably why 84% or so (depending on which study you read) of those of us who give day trading a try end up losing money. We think we can just jump in, get lucky, and make lots of money. We ignore the fact that having consistent success as a day trader requires skills that are usually only acquired through practice and over time. We like the making money part, but we don’t like the steep learning curve, so we start trading with no education, no practice, no skills. In other words, we dabble in day trading. Then, as often is the case, when we lose our trading capital (or most of it), we call it quits and blame day trading as being a sham. That’s the 84% of all traders. Of course, there’s nothing magical about the 85/15 or 80/20% rule; it just happens to be true in so many areas of life. If more “wanna-be day traders” would only be willing to educate themselves and approach day trading with the seriousness and respect it deserves, treat it as an actual business, they could be successful too! And then the ratio of successful day traders in these studies would probably increase by quite a few percentages. Maybe this will happen one day, I don’t know. I say probably not, because despite our amazing potential, human beings tend to be lazy, and very predictable. That’s why the 84% failure ratio for day traders is probably going to remain fairly constant. That doesn’t mean that an aspiring trader willing to humble themselves (a bit) and commit themselves (a lot) to learning the skills can’t be part of the 16% of successful traders!
In the beginning of this book, the author talks a bit about the rewards of day trading, and why so many people pursue it. Successful day traders can work from home, make a very decent income, take time off when they want to, work from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. You have no boss to answer to; you’re basically your own CEO. I learned from this book that a successful trader who has acquired the necessary trading skills, strategies, tactics, money management, discipline and psychology can sometimes make between $500 to $1,000 per day, on average. That’s a lot of money. It translates into $120,000 to $240,000 per year, before taxes (assuming on average 20 trading days per month). The author mentions how he knows traders who consistently make $2,000 or more per trading day; but he does not hold himself out to be in that category. In fact, he admits to having lost money, and he still has losing days or streaks of losing days, but on average he is consistently profitable. The point I’m trying to make is that becoming a successful trader can be very rewarding, for someone willing to go through the learning curve and acquire the necessary skills and mindset.
If the potential rewards of becoming a successful day trader is so great, and since it appears to be very doable, then why isn’t everyone day trading? I believe the author provides the answer in his 11 Rules of Day Trading. “Rule 2: Day trading is not easy. It is a serious business, and you should treat it as such.” If I understand the author correctly, the day traders who are making $500 to $1,000 profit are traders who have taken time to educate themselves and apply the strategies and principles outlined in the book. They have practiced in a simulator for at least 3 months, achieving a favorable ratio of profitable vs non-profitable trades before trading with real money. Then follows several months with “small trades” made with real money, because trading with real money is different from trading in a simulator. So even if you have a talent for day trading, it’s unlikely that you’ll be getting rich quickly.
In addition to teaching the general principles of day trading, risk management, money management, several day trading strategies, discipline and trading psychology (very important!) this book also provides a step by step process for people who want to become successful day traders. The author says in the beginning of the book that the book is short on purpose; it allows the reader to understand the basics of day trading and enough information for someone to decide whether they want to pursue day trading as a profession.
After reading about halfway through the book, I’ve decided that I would like to continue learning about day trading. Some of the sobering facts outlined in the book almost caused me to put it down. However, based on what I learned from this book, I do believe that becoming a successful day trader is indeed possible. Also, the potential rewards of acquiring the skills of day trading are a great motivation to me. Another reviewer expressed that they really liked the book, but that they had decided not to pursue day trading at this point. I really respect that reviewer, because it shows that the person was willing to read the book and find out what day trading is all about, before making an informed decision. This reviewer then for their own reasons decided not to pursue day trading at this time, but still took time to leave a favorable review of the book. I think that says a lot about a person’s attitude in life and toward learning. In fact, this was one of the reviews that contributed to my purchase decision. As for me, although I am committed to continue my studies of this book and taking the next steps to continue my education, I still don’t know for sure if I will eventually become a day trader and pursue this as a livelihood. After a few months of trading in a simulator, I might reach the same conclusion as the other reviewer who decided it was not for them. However, in my case I feel this is the right time in my life to learn a new set of skills; I find day trading very interesting, and I want to learn more. Not everyone is cut out for day trading, and there are so many factors that come into play. However, I feel I owe it to myself to at least continue to explore and learn more about the subject matter. If I don’t, I will be forever wondering if I made a mistake by not learning more.
I’d also like to point out that although I think this book on its own is a great introduction to the subject of day trading, you are getting a lot more than just a book. The author invites you to join his trading community, where you can watch him trade and get trading advice and tips from other traders. You can find the website if you enter the author’s name in Google; the website will have a lot of information about the trading chat room and other day trading education resources. The trading chat room is no longer free, from what I understand all the participants in that community recently collectively decided that there should be a $30/month fee to cover the expenses of the chat/teaching platform. However, it is possible to sit in on several chat session for free by signing up for a 7 day free trial. Personally, I don’t have a problem with this, as I’ve been pitched $5,000 trading “academies” – week long courses that promised me I’d be profitable my first month in trading. Unfortunately, the day trading education industry is infested with vendors preying on people’s hopes and dreams, and many fall for such false promises. I feel that the author of this book is “the real deal.” I must admit that one of the questions I had initially was that if a person is good at day trading and making money with it, why would they teach others? That question was answered after I attended a couple of the author’s trading room chat sessions. It became very clear to me that the reason he’s conducting these training sessions is because he loves trading and he also loves to teach. I know, anybody can say that they love teaching others, but if that statement is actually true, then I believe it will shine through. With Andrew Aziz, it does shine through. In any case, I consider $30/month to participate in the chat room to be a very reasonable fee, and I feel that if I can’t afford that, then perhaps I shouldn’t be day trading at all.
If you are joining the author’s trading room, I also recommend that you budget $120/month to cover the cost of trading in a DAS simulator, where you will “paper trade” for at least three months. So all in all, I budgeted $450 for my three month introductory education with this program. I believe that the simulator can be ordered separately from the chat room directly from DAS, but the simplest option is to order it all through the trading community web site. That way everything will be set up for you and you can participate in an on-boarding session where the author teaches you how to use the software. I am mentioning these costs because I think people who are considering joining this path to day trading education should know about the costs up front. No doubt, some people will conclude from my review that the book is just a bait for more expensive courses, and if these thoughts are going through your mind you should be aware that the main cost of this program goes to cover the DAS platform, which is separate from the author’s chat room. I did some quick math based on the number of people in the chat room, and concluded that monetary gain is definitely not his reason for conducting these training sessions.
Finally, I will disclose that this is an unsolicited review and I’m not receiving any benefit from leaving it other than the satisfaction of knowing that perhaps I’ve helped another prospective day trader make an informed decision about whether or not to invest in this book. My advice is that if you’re not sure whether this book is for you, get the Kindle version. It’s only $3.75 and you can download and read it immediately. That’s what I did. However, I just purchased the paperback version of the book as well. I know that this is a book that I will be referring to often, and I like to be able to highlight sections and add my own notes. I hope some will find this review helpful, and whoever you are, I wish you the best of luck with your decisions about day trading!
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Popular Highlights in this book
It is extremely important to stay away from stocks that are being heavily traded by institutional traders.Highlighted by 12,847 Kindle readers- The stocks that are gapping significantly up or down are going to be the stocks that retail traders are watching.Highlighted by 11,786 Kindle readers
- Profitable traders usually make only two or three trades each day. They then cash out and enjoy the rest of their day.Highlighted by 5,990 Kindle readers
From the Publisher
Andrew Aziz and Bear Bull Traders Flag and Traders on the Trading Floor of the NYSE in 2022
Internationally Recognized
In both 2021 and 2022, Investopedia has commended Andrew Aziz and Bear Bull Traders for providing the “best overall” online day trading course. They have specifically praised Bear Bull Traders for being the only community that retains clinical psychologists and performance coaches on staff in order to assist traders with the very critical psychological side of trading.
- Highest quality educational material
- Worldclass traders and mentors
- Only program that covers psychology
From PhD in Chemical Engineering to Trading
Trader, Author, Investor
Andrew Aziz is a Canadian trader and official Forbes Business Council member. He has ranked as one of Amazon’s top 100 best-selling authors in the category "Business and Finance" for the past 7 consecutive years. To date, his books on finance have been published worldwide in 13 different languages. In 2016, Andrew Aziz founded Bear Bull Traders, an online community of independent traders that offers an award-winning learning track to help traders build their own successful strategy.
Highlights:
- Comprehensively covers all aspects of day trading
- Recommended by tens of thousands of traders
- Easy to read and understand
- Continuously updated
What are the 3 Elements of Success in Day Trading?
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1st Pillar: TechnologyThe first element of success in trading is having the right technology. In How to Day Trade for a Living, Andrew Aziz walks you through the necessary tools and technology required for active trading, including the most suitable platforms, brokers, simulators, and scanners. |
2nd Pillar: StrategyHaving the right technology is not enough though. You also need to master at least one sound, well-defined, and tested trading strategy. In How to Day Trade for a Living, Andrew Aziz explains in great detail some of the most proven strategies out there, all amply illustrated with real examples from his own trading. |
3rd Pillar: PsychologyYour psychology and mindset for trading is the most important element for success in trading. Traders without the right mindset are no different from gamblers and can face severe losses. How to Day Trade for a Living helps you to get into the right mindset for trading. |
Mentorship and SupportAndrew Aziz, the founder of Bear Bull Traders (www.BearBullTraders.com), guides traders from all around the world via his chatroom as well as his weekly educational webinars and mentorship sessions. In addition, Andrew Aziz heads up quarterly training boot camps through his Canadian-based proprietary trading firm, Peak Capital Trading (www.PeakCapitalTrading.com). |
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Reviews with images
BEST Trading book I have ever read. Andrew is spot on and this book is your gateway to Day Trading
I have NEVER written a review on Amazon but this book deserves a great review!!I first bought this book in 2017. I have read multiple books on day trading prior and post to reading this book. This is the best.In this book, Andrew walks you step by step through the whole process of day trading. I would recommend this book to a person who has no experience or to someone who has been doing this for a while. In the book, he talks about the basic computer setups, candle stick patterns, trade strategies, trade management and execution in simple language anyone can understand. I have read this book multiple times over the years, got the book tabbed and very sections highlighted and browse through it every so often.I have a MSC in engineering and I thought day trading would be easy, but its not. It requires a lot of education, patience and guidance. I started day trading in May 2023 and joined the Bear Bull Traders. The site hosted by Andrew and others. Just like his book, the site and the moderators are amazing. Plenty of classes (probably well over 100hrs of recordings) on everything discussed above and trading psychology (I believe this is the key to success). You will see great traders like Andrew, Paras, Brian talking about the trades they are taking and their though process. Andrew is are very transparent in the trading room and the book about his wins and losses. Its a great community for traders and you will learn a lot, I am and it has been a game changer for me and my executions.
Top reviews from other countries
Patrick Lamontagne
Most helpful book for beginners like me
Reviewed in Canada on January 30, 2024
Rodrigo Pérez
Una genial introducción al mundo del day trading
Reviewed in Mexico on June 13, 2023
