And yes, I'm a newbie trader, just as seth said...... and I have gotten my tail handed to me, and it has been some of the biggest tests of emotions and determination ever in my life, and just now have started to change things around. I know that there are so many people that just can't hack it, and I know that so many thousands of people have quit and even not gotten this far. All the odds are against the newbies to the markets. Control of emotions is what trading is all about. From personal experience, the one thing that you can not change easily is how emotions will affect you during trading. It took me awhile to get over fear of executing, and fear having a bad trade, or to even hesitate, but just act. Patience is also a key thing you will need. I'm not the most patient person in the world, so I've had to work hard to try and develop patience. It is not easy. It will test you. It's a test of yourself. You think you are trying to outsmart millions of people in the market, but beyond even getting there, you have to be able to control yourself, otherwise you are just another person handing away your money to the markets. That's just the way it is, and that is why so many fail. I didn't believe that less than 5% made it at first, but you slowly learn how it works. Now for reading.... i'd strongly recommend The Disciplined Trader. It was a very good book that helped me out a lot and really was the start of my turning my trading around. It's not easy, but the challenge of the markets is what keeps me going. And look around at older threads, there is a ton of great information on ET, just a lot of crap on it lately.
JM ... let me at least say your writing skills are decent and you might have more maturity than alot of us "old timers" out there hope your trades and skills and advise giving improves in 2006 ps Mark D wrote another book called "trading in the zone" ... some people like that one as well. Cashmoney ... you might want to practice swing trading using a baskets of stocks ... FolioFN is one broker that lets you do this and I believe there are more now. make sure whomever you choose that your account is safe ( i.e. refco ) although the odds are much higher you will blow up than any firm you do due diligence on if you wish you can daytrade stocks using single stock futures .. .but this might require a learning curve on your part ... plus the liquidity is nowhere near as good as in the underlying equities. I would advice you not to trade futures as the leverage is really high ... and one or two mistakes on your part could leave you with a big drawdown.
I think you should trade stock indices as rydex funds 'till you can prove yourself that you 'got it' after that you can trade index futures but wait a while till you get the game down otherwise leverage will kill you in tandem with overtrading.... you can trade rydex funds ( I use Scottrade) with 2:1 leverage long and short, take your pick of russell, s&p, dow, nasdaq - no short term trading fees. keep the winners - chuck the losers at 2-percent.... I would avoid 1) prop shops 2) daytrading just my .02
Thanks seth, I have all the respect in the world for the "old timers" who do this for career. I try my hardest to hopefully accomplish the same in the future. And your post is right on. Futures again, the reward is increased greatly, but the risk is mind blowing.
DO NOT START WITH FUTURES. You must pay for education, so do not worry about commission. Do not get overly excited and jump into day trading. Prop shops are bad idea. They teach you how to generate commissions (Pair trading, open orders). Best education is live trading. (people experience different emotions trading simulator. simulator bad idea). DO NOT USE SIMULATOR. trade 50 shares of qqqq instead. Simulator only for people who know trading and testing new strategy. Do not think about money at first, work on your technic. JM is a good person but he doesn't trade his posts are very sincere but he doesn't have any experience yet. I traded at prop shop and now I trade on my own. I trade stock and futures and two are apples and nuts (not even oranges).
Swing trading. Stock selection is the key. buy strongest in up trending market and sell weakest in down trending. You could follow this guy http://wishingwealth.typepad.com/report/ He doesn't give any stock picks or recommendation. Great information to start on swing trading.
cashmoney ... have you ever heard of IBD newspaper or publications ? you might even want to read "thestreetdotcom" website ... and see what suggestions they have for newbies ... gosh ... there is nothing wrong with going "slow" some folks will tell you ( perhaps not on ET ) that the tortise wins in the end ... here is a tip ... read some of Buffet's annual reports ... even if you only understand 1/20 of it you are way ahead ... here is another tip ... maybe buy a few shares of the class "B" stock and fly out to Omaha for the meeting or buy a few shares of the BARON ( mutual ) FUNDS and get invited to the annual meeting in NYC they throw a wild party ( in a good way )
take your money.... pay for a good business school get someone else to pay you to trade and to show you what the street is REALLY like. after to understand the basics you will be about 30-35. then take 10% of your money as risk capital, and you will actually know what you are doing at that point, and have a resume in order to recover if you happen to lose it. focus on your education and learning about how the market works first!
Thanks everyone I'll check out esignal tradestation IB and refco Experiance is the best teacher and the only way i'm really ever going to learn is to just try, lose money, and try again lol. I dont think emotion will get to me, so thats good
you better stop now son ... do a google on refco ... and tell us what you found out about them -Thanks everyone I'll check out esignal tradestation IB and refco-