Unfortunately, what you will find is that most people in the markets are just as passionate about trading as you are. For the first ten years I thought I was special and that no one had the drive or the desire like me. However, the market attracts the best and brightest and I began to realize that I was really just like the other 95% that didn't make it. That being said I stuck with it and found a style of trading that suited my personality, worked on risk management, lowered my expectations, and went from there. Spend some time working on yourself, find a trading style that matches who you really are (not who you think you are), and trade small until you can consistently turn a profit (based on your trading style metrics) and go from there. You may need outside help, or you may figure it out on your own. Everyone is different. If you decide to follow in someone's footsteps make sure they really trade and they really do make money. That search may take you years. One of the most important things to do is probably what you don't want to hear. Keep a job until the profits from trading makes your salary seem silly. Your perspective is dramatically different when you don't need those trading profits to pay the bills. Lastly, don't swing for the fences just shoot for losing less. Risk management is the key.
Thanks for the detailed reply. Ill admit that I come from a pretty well off background so I dont need the money from trading as of now. But I am pretty hell bent on making it big while I am young like all the other black swans of this generation.
The idea of "having control" is, just my opinion, somewhat dangerous in terms of markets. You have no control over the markets. You do, however, have control over your decisions. You will require a trading system and the emotional strength and inner discipline to follow it. You will have to admit that you and your system is "wrong" and the market is right - many times. Judging by your desire for "control", my question would be if you can truly surrender your ego to reality ? If so, then trading might work out for you.
That will be your undoing. Given the language of your posts on the previous page, in recounting your experiences, I don't trust you to master risk-management like Dolomite mentioned he has, in the post you were replying to, there. You want trading to work out for you so you can control your own future, but that isn't going to happen until you learn that successful trading is about managing risk, NOT about maximizing profit. I don't know you well enough to be able to form any impression of whether or not you'll ever come to appreciate that and act accordingly, but (a) most people don't, and (b) you certainly don't sound like it at the moment - quite the opposite, in fact. Yes ... that's not helping you, either.
I give you credit for your passion and it certainly sounds like it's something you want to sink your teeth into. If that's the case it definitely can be something you do for a lifetime. Without passion you're dead in the water so at least you have that going for you. But what on earth makes you think that's enough to succeed right out of the gates? Isn't that kind of like a kid who is passionate about basketball, loves it through and through and tells you he's willing to do whatever it takes to succeed? Ok great, good for him, but the next step IS NOT to turn pro for three years and see how it goes. The next step is to learn and to actually GET BETTER. You don't turn pro until you're good enough to be a pro. Isn't that obvious? You're years away from putting your own money on the line at a prop firm. Simply put, you aren't a pro yet. You can't just skip all the initial steps of building up your abilities and jump right to the end of the process. You don't need to be a fortune teller to know where that leads...
I feel the same as you. I'm 19 y/o and I have been successfully trading. It took years of following the markets and a lot of money lost but its worth the journey. You can't be all about the money though, you need to LOVE what you do. You have to have the desire to beat the market, not get rich from it. As for tips, you need to find other very successful traders who started out just like you and I who will mentor/teach you. I have a few people who have taught me a significant amount to help me become a successful trader much quicker than most. Be careful "loading up" your account until you truly know what you are doing. Trust me I've blown up accounts.. its not fun. If you're like me you will feel as if everyone who surrounds you is just trying to "get by" and do the least work possible to get a degree and work a 50k/year job. That is what the 95% of people will do, and they will (most likely) become part of the 95% in terms of wealth. I'm 19 and I'm sitting home on a saturday night replying to this thread and going over charts for this upcoming week. Trading is not easy and it will consume your life. I am also working on starting 2 businesses, as i have two passions in life: business and trading. Now for some tips on the market: First, the market is not influenced by "randomness"... at all. If you truly believed that then how could you possibly think you can be consistently profitable? Second, don't trade the news, don't listen to the news, and don't ever trade fundamentals. Trade the chart. Anyone who tells you that charts are a "fools game" have no idea and they are the ones who have either a) Failed trading the charts and gave up because they don't want to put in the massive amount of work it takes to learn, or b) trade the news and lose money blaming it on "those damn MMs" or market manipulation. LOL My point here is if you work hard enough to achieve it, you will thank yourself later. Sorry for rambling on and my poor writing skills. Good luck
I agree with everything you've said, there. I don't quite agree with you there: clearly the markets aren't entirely random (as some people, bizarrely, allege), but I think they're "influenced by randomness", quite a bit. So I'm looking at it the other way round, and saying "If you truly believed that, then why wouldn't we all be winners 100% of the time?". It's statistical and probabilistic, and there's some randomness in there, too - which is why we need the math skills, to produce safe, satistical and probabilistic aproaches. Just my perspective.
I will have to disagree with you there. The market is made of supply and demand. If apple goes from 130 to 110 it is not random at all. It is because there is massive overhead supply and funds distributing shares. It can all be seen in the chart. The reason why people think moves are random is because identifying buying/selling in a chart is an incredibly difficult thing to do. I am not at the point yet where I can call every market move and i get stopped out occasionally. As i get better at reading price action and the dynamics of supply and demand my trades will become more accurate. To be 100% winners all the time is practically impossible because we as retail traders do not have the skill or resources to have 100% accuracy, and therefore we resort to "randomness" controlling market movement. There is a reason for every move in the market, it is never just random.
Disregarding fundamentals completely is a recipe for disaster in my eyes. Especially when certain decisions have massive impact on the price of an asset, more than any pseudo analysis of a trend/candle/support/resistance/dip etc.