The Truth About Day Trading Stocks by Josh Dipietro

I normally don’t write reviews about stock trading books here, but The Truth About Day Trading Stocks by Josh Dipietro easily applies to day trading commodities and futures.

Successful day trading is not something that comes easy and the author doesn’t dance around the issue. He had his struggles just like most new traders. I’m sure many traders can relate to DiPietro’s mood when he left his first trading class. He thought he had a roadmap to riches and couldn’t wait to start collecting his money from the markets. You might have experienced something similar to this or you likely will once you begin trading.

Josh Dipietro stresses one point over and over – trade small. What he means by this is trading a size that is small and manageable so your emotions won’t conflict with your trading decisions. This also keeps you out of trouble, as your losses will be manageable and one destructive trade won’t destroy your confidence and trading account.

The author recounts a couple stories from his own trading where he would increase his trading size to an unmanageable level and it almost always led to destruction. You don’t miss a beat when you lose $100 on a $25,000 account, but losing $5,000 on one trade will undoubtedly cause you emotional distress and your trading will suffer.

He recommends 100 shares of stock for each trade and he will normally make 20 plus day trades every day. This could translate into 1 futures contract for those who trade commodities. I completely agree with this philosophy especially for new traders. Additional contracts can be added, but only when a certain comfort and account levels are reached.

The Truth About Day Trading Stocks stops short when it comes to specific trading strategies. Many people who read trading books jump right to the trading strategies to see if they can find something new that works. Josh Dipietro vaguely describes some of his trading strategies, which seem to focus on fading moves above and below yesterdays high and low price levels. As the day progresses, he seems to also fade other support and resistance levels and he has an objective of just a very small move.

Day trading strategies are not the focus of this book. Rather, the author wants to tell his story on how he struggled in day trading and how he overcame those struggles to finally make money day trading. It is more of a process than just looking for simple trade setups. This is one of the few books on day trading that gives you a real world view of what it is really like to learn how to day trade. It is not easy, but The Truth About Day Trading Stocks will likely give you a better understanding of what it takes to make money consistently.