Hello guys, Great forum! I'm in PA. I've been agressively studying and learning about trading for over two years. I have no formal financial schooling. It is realistic for me to find a prop firm who would train me with little or no capital up front? I have living expenses. Thanks.
I have 3 things to say. Number 1: Try to put yourself in a position where you are comfortable to trade. What do I mean by that? If you are working part time elsewhere to pay your bills, you won't be under so much pressure to trade well. It's much easier when you can concentrate on the trade rather than the money. Another example would be to start with small amounts of money and even limiting the number of trades you do when you start. For several weeks, I even limited myself to 1 trade a day and got no complaints about it. Number 2: Consider getting into a prop firm only when you're pretty confident you're sufficiently prepared for it. I spent months to read books like "Mastering the Trade" by John Carter, "Tools and Tactics for the Master Day Trader" by Oliver Velez, "The Master Swing Trader" by Alan Farley, "The Market Maker's Edge" by Josh Lukeman, "Getting Started in Technical Analysis" by Jack Schwager and his three market wizards books ("Market Wizards", "The New Market Wizards" and "Stock Market Wizards"), "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" by Edwin Lefevre, "How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market by Nicholas Darvas, "Milliionaire Traders" by Kathy Lien (and much more) before spending months to examine different trade setups using technical analysis for hundreds of hours. It took me months to develop my method and I won't reveal at this time (maybe in two years or more) what the method is or even a hint at what it is. But, after getting a job in a prop firm, I started "tweaking" my method every weekend partly because I was not using live quotes to do my research and partly because of the peculiarities of the way their trading platform functions. (I'd rather not reveal right now which prop firm I'm working for. But I suspect when I wrote to them saying I had spent months developing my own method, maybe they decided not to train me because they told me I could do "what I want" after only showing me how to use the trading platform, lol.) Number 3: I would try to get information from various prop firms. But, try not to give them the impression you can't survive financially. I mean I was told during the first interview that they had some people leave after getting a job offer somewhere else. I suspect that if you say you have experience and you really want to make it, they may only ask for a small deposit. Just a note to those who might click to read my previous posts. After spending hundreds of hours examining trade setups using technical analysis and tweaking my method for the last several weeks since I got a job at a prop firm, many of my opinions have changed. So, I don't know how well some of my previous posts may reflect my real opinions. And I know this may sound absolutely crazy, but reading Feeling Good by David Burns and an university-level introductory textbook on psychology may help your trading. (I've even read textbooks on social psychology and sociology.) There's also "The Irwing Guide to Using the Wall Street Journal" by Michael Lehman and Investment Biker by Jim Rogers. I've also used "The Complete Guide to Investing in Short Term Trading" by Alan Northcott as a reference although I haven't had the time to read it all. And he said himself on this message board that he likes the books by Toni Turner.
I really appreciate you taking the time to reply to my post. I have already read some of the books you mentioned. I do have a system I like using. I don't have a job at all, my income is from another venture that I don't have to spend time on. I can and have been devoting all my time to learning and trading. There are so many prop firms out there I'm trying to narrow them down to ones that fit my needs. I would'nt mind one that gives me some training as I have no formal financial education. I'm assuming that won't look good. I'm a couple hours from NYC so a remote system sounds great. I just need more capital to work with.