{"id":20073,"date":"2022-09-02T07:30:20","date_gmt":"2022-09-02T11:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jeffclarktrader.com\/?p=20073"},"modified":"2022-09-02T07:30:20","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T11:30:20","slug":"a-day-in-the-life-of-a-successful-trader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-successful-trader\/","title":{"rendered":"A Day in the Life of a Successful Trader"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Andrew&rsquo;s Note:<\/strong> My colleague Larry Benedict is a legendary trader and editor of <em>The Opportunistic Trader<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In February 2020, the market had fallen 3.5%. Nobody knew what would happen next&hellip; but Larry told CNBC, &ldquo;There&rsquo;s much more [losses] to come.&rdquo; And that&rsquo;s exactly what happened. Within a month, the market was down 34%.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Larry is predicting <a href=\"https:\/\/signup.opportunistictrader.com\/?cid=MKT667853&#038;eid=MKT670667&#038;step=start&#038;plcid=PLC152857\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">another event that&rsquo;s guaranteed to shock<\/a> the markets. According to Larry, the steps you take beforehand could determine whether you end up &ldquo;in the black&rdquo; this year&hellip; or fall deeper in the red.<\/p>\n<p>He&rsquo;s sharing all the details in an exclusive broadcast on Wednesday, September 7 at 8 p.m. ET. <a href=\"https:\/\/signup.opportunistictrader.com\/?cid=MKT667853&#038;eid=MKT670667&#038;step=start&#038;plcid=PLC152857\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here to join this opportunity<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And below, read on about the daily trading routine that makes Larry a &ldquo;market wizard&rdquo;&hellip;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>It&rsquo;s taken 35 years, but I&rsquo;ve finally cracked the secret to becoming a world-class, highly profitable trader.<\/p>\n<p>Ready? The secret is&hellip; hard work and consistency. Who could&rsquo;ve seen that coming?<\/p>\n<p>That might sound boring to you. You might think that the world&rsquo;s best traders owe it all to one big home-run trade or a fancy algorithm they invented. But the reality is success requires dedication.<\/p>\n<p>Everyone has a different approach, but today, I&rsquo;ll show you exactly what I&rsquo;ve done for 35 years that&rsquo;s made me a success&hellip; and unveil a critical market event in the coming days that I want all my readers to be ready for&hellip;<\/p>\n<p>But first, it all starts with a breakdown of a typical trading day&hellip;<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center\">A Day in the Life<\/h2>\n<p>For most folks, the trading day starts when the market&rsquo;s opening bell rings at 9:30 a.m. ET.<\/p>\n<p>For me, a typical trading day actually starts <em>the day before<\/em>&hellip; right when the market closes.<\/p>\n<p>Here&rsquo;s what I mean&hellip;<\/p>\n<p>The only way to get a leg up on the countless other market participants is to be as prepared as possible.<\/p>\n<p>So as soon as I hear the closing bell, I&rsquo;ll look at how the stocks on my watchlist closed, go through charts of trades I&rsquo;m in or looking to get into, and how the market finished overall.<\/p>\n<p>This takes anywhere from one to a few hours depending on how many trades I&rsquo;m in.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, I spend at least 30 minutes going over what I did right, what I did wrong, and what I might need to improve on for the next trading day.<\/p>\n<p>Then, I&rsquo;ll leave my office around 5:30 p.m., get home, and wait for the Japanese market to open at 7 p.m. ET. Intermarket relationships are huge because markets can impact each other drastically.<\/p>\n<div class=\"text-center mb-4\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.jeffclarktrader.com\/JMU\/images\/202209\/20220902-jmu-01_vfa568.jpg\" alt=\"Chart\" class=\"img-fluid\" \/><\/div>\n<p align=\"center\" style=\"-ms-text-size-adjust: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;font-size:17px; line-height:24px; margin-bottom: 20px;\"><em>My trade station<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I also always keep an eye on the futures market, which is open from 6 p.m. on Sunday to around 5 p.m. on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>But my prep the night before the next trading day is more about paying attention to the news and market action than anything else. I&rsquo;ll usually watch the market action, on and off, until I fall asleep.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, I&rsquo;ll even trade through the night. But when I don&rsquo;t, I&rsquo;ll still put in call levels just in case something big happens. (A call level means a firm will call me and wake me up if the market makes any big moves so I don&rsquo;t miss it.)<\/p>\n<p>Depending on how things look, I might get up at 2 or 3 a.m. to trade the European markets. But I don&rsquo;t do that often unless it&rsquo;s really active and busy.<\/p>\n<p>The next day, I get up around 6 a.m. and prepare for the U.S. market open. That&rsquo;s mainly reading through research and news headlines.<\/p>\n<p>Today&rsquo;s market is a very reactive one. It can move off of the slightest bit of positive or negative news. And it doesn&rsquo;t matter if that news is factual or not.<\/p>\n<p>The trading day itself is just executing on the plans I put together from the previous day &ndash; and occasionally overnight. I&rsquo;m in and out of at least 50 positions a day.<\/p>\n<p>That might sound like a lot, but I trade differently from a lot of people.<\/p>\n<p>I take small gains on a large number of positions throughout the day. This slowly grows my pile of capital, so when I see a home run lining up&hellip; I can make a big, profitable bet.<\/p>\n<p>Those don&rsquo;t come around often.<\/p>\n<p>Most days, I&rsquo;m just taking those small gains over and over. But when they do come around, I pare down the number of positions I trade each day and focus on the big one.<\/p>\n<p>Then, the preparation continues again after the close of the U.S. trading day.<\/p>\n<p>All that&rsquo;s left is analyzing my current positions, making sure our P&amp;L (profit and loss) from the day before is right, and adjusting where we need to.<\/p>\n<p>Then, the cycle repeats&hellip;<\/p>\n<p>This habit of constantly consuming information about the markets is part of why I&rsquo;m successful today.<\/p>\n<p>But a big part of that success also relies on my insistence on taking small profits as soon as I see them.<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s all about having the proper mindset&hellip;<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center\">The Right Frame of Mind<\/h2>\n<p>I&rsquo;m not focused on getting the home run.<\/p>\n<p>I just want to capture gains when I have them. Home runs aren&rsquo;t necessary if you&rsquo;re slowly, consistently letting gains trickle in.<\/p>\n<p>That might not sound as exciting as hitting doubles and triples on every trade you make, but it&rsquo;s <em>realistic<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Here&rsquo;s what works for me: Have a number you&rsquo;re not going to go past on the upside or the downside and execute &ndash; no matter what. Don&rsquo;t let your emotions interfere with that plan.<\/p>\n<p>With this strategy, you&rsquo;re slowly pulling in profit after profit. That&rsquo;s how you size up your pile of capital, eventually take on larger and riskier position sizes, and see exponential growth in your trading account.<\/p>\n<p>And when you start trading, the gains might not look huge on a percentage basis&hellip; But when you have a big enough cash pile, those small percentages can amount to millions of dollars.<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s all about <em>using the money you have to make more<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center\">An Urgent Briefing<\/h2>\n<p>The good news for traders is that now I do all of this hard work on my readers&rsquo; behalf.<\/p>\n<p>My research and discipline have helped me spot incredible opportunities &ndash; and predict sharp falls &ndash; in the markets.<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s how I helped my clients profit even during the 2008 financial crisis&hellip; and how my readers avoided a bloodbath in the 2020 crash.<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s also why I was one of the few to anticipate that 2022 would be a tough year for the markets.<\/p>\n<p>And now I&rsquo;m preparing my next prediction for my readers&hellip; an <a href=\"https:\/\/signup.opportunistictrader.com\/?cid=MKT667853&#038;eid=MKT670667&#038;step=start&#038;plcid=PLC152863\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">urgent warning<\/a> that I&rsquo;ll share at my upcoming briefing on Wednesday, September 7 at 8 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n<p>There, I&rsquo;ll explain what I see coming around the corner &ndash; a market event that&rsquo;s going to create a &ldquo;shock&rdquo; on Wall Street.<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s headed directly for the market&rsquo;s largest exchanges&hellip; and it&rsquo;s going to catch almost everybody by surprise.<\/p>\n<p>And the steps you take ahead of this shock could determine whether you end up &ldquo;in the black&rdquo; this year&hellip; or fall deeper in the red.<\/p>\n<p>I&rsquo;m determined to help my readers be in the former category. So please, <a href=\"https:\/\/signup.opportunistictrader.com\/?cid=MKT667853&#038;eid=MKT670667&#038;step=start&#038;plcid=PLC152863\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">go right here to RSVP to my September 7 briefing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Regards,<\/p>\n<p>Larry Benedict<br \/> Editor, <em>The Opportunistic Trader<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is exactly what I\u2019ve done for 35 years that\u2019s made me a success\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"service":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"publication":[10],"person":[58],"newsletter-type":[],"ticker":[],"class_list":["post-20073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-minute","publication-market-minute","person-larry-benedict"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20073"},{"taxonomy":"publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication?post=20073"},{"taxonomy":"person","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person?post=20073"},{"taxonomy":"newsletter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter-type?post=20073"},{"taxonomy":"ticker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ticker?post=20073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}