“I could have saved myself so much time and money if I just invested first in my education,” Zach Kleinwaks told Business Insider about his start in day trading.
Now, Kleinwaks, 27, is a full-time day trader and posts his favorite stocks and hot takes with his 14,000 Instagram followers and 30,000 TikTok followers. He also teaches strategies for trading options and futures as an analyst at Stock Dads, a premium membership platform.
He shared his three tips for getting into day trading.
1. Educate yourself
Kleinwaks began day trading part-time in 2018 while studying at New York Institute of Technology and playing college baseball. His parents traded stocks when he was growing up, and he saw increasing numbers of people posting on social media about making money.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kleinwaks’ baseball career was cut short, so he decided to educate himself on trading before starting to do it full time in 2022.
But he wished he had done this sooner.
“You’re not going to make money unless you have the education behind it,” Kleinwaks added. He described his own approach as making connections and finding mentors, “kind of just like sifting through different people, different strategies, and kind of figuring out what was legit.”
2. Have ‘zero expectations’
Kleinwaks advised beginners not to enter the market expecting to make a certain amount within a specific period.
“Have zero expectations,” he said, adding, “Expect the worst, hope for the best.”
Kleinwaks said he thought that the recent meme-stock mania — where shares in companies like Opendoor, Kohl’s, and Krispy Kreme skyrocketed without an obvious catalyst such as strong earnings — was driven by investors who lacked a long-term plan and were eager to make money fast.
“They don’t have the confidence to make money in the market, so they feel like they need to gamble,” he said.
3. Try to improve every day
Kleinwaks also advised traders to improve “regardless of what step you’re at.”
“You’re going to make money, you’re going to lose money, but don’t try to make the same bad mistake multiple times,” he added.
He listed the most common mistakes as blindly following trades others say they are making on social media, putting in too much money at a time, and succumbing to FOMO, such as buying meme stocks now to make up for missing the GameStop frenzy in 2021.
“I always circle back every year like, ‘wow, I wish I knew what I know now, then,'” Kleinwaks said.