I have no experience as a day trader but I trade regularly with E*trade. I am making a career change to become a day trader but I do not know where to start and what tools to use. Is E*trade a good place for beginning day traders? Your help is valuable and very much appreciated. thank you.
I drive my car pretty good. I havent ever been in a race before but I'm thinking about entering the Daytona 500. What do you think of my chances?
My advice: get several books on day trading. read them but realize half is bs. check out web sites with info for daytraders, like www.mtrader.com, www.daytradingstocks.com, www.hardrightedge.com. read this site every day, particularly hitman's journal as he is top pro daytrader. you cannot daytrade with etrade. too slow and unreliable. get an account with a direct access broker. papertrade for several weeks. keep records of how you do. decide if it's for you. if it is , start trading with very small size, ie 100 shares of low priced stock, no matter how much money you have. understand you will not make money most likely for months. 90% fail at this.
Before you even start, I'd recommend two books: Reminiscences of a Stock Operator - will teach you about the realism of the market. Trading in the Zone by Douglas- will help to find a mindset that is proper for traders. As for tools, styles, setups, or whatever, everyone will have a different opinion on what is best and I'll leave that to other posters and it usually is an endless debate. I guess main point: Don't just jump right in. Do a little observation first of your current perceptions of the market and how it differs from what the market reality is. Each day we uncover something new about the market that preconceived ideas have hidden from our view. The market is easily the best mirror of ourselves on any given day. I may not have helped much, but the beginning I feel can be the hardest part as there is so much to weed through to find what is finally comfortable to you and this is really important. Ask questions when you find specific ones to ask. Plenty of great posters here will give you straight answers. Respectfully, Chris
Thanks for the link Vinny1. I'll check it out. Also, thank you Nicodemus for giving me a clear picture of what lies ahead. I know it will be a very difficult job. I know that I will lose everything if I am not careful.
Thank you very much AAAinthebeltway and ChrisRT. Someday, I hope to be able to pay your suggestions forward. Cordially, MGochuico
I wish somebody had been able to convince me how hard it is to make it when I started out. I would have prepared myself much better and saved several thousand dollars in the process. I didnt listen and you probably wont either. Good luck.
Dear MG, I am putting myself in the line of fire of the more experienced senior members but Id like to give it a shot and give you a sound advice.....as I was and am still looking for it. I dont know what your level of expertise is but there are a couple of points I think should be the same for me (beginner swingtrader/daytrader) and a guy who moves 50k shares a day. 1. WRITE A PLAN!!! Absolutely crucial! -What setup(s) will you be trading? (breakouts, gaps, Tony Oz'...) What timeframe (intraday patterns, swing, scalping, ...)? What time of day will you be trading? How will you trail stops? 2.ENTRY/EXIT CRITERIA -What will your signals be? Triggers? Indicators? 3.***MONEY MANAGEMENT*** -How much of your capital will you risk loosing on any one trade? (I hope not more than 2%) How much of your equity will you tie up in a position? How will you handle profits? And losses? 4. WHAT TOOLS WILL YOU USE? -This will actually differ acording to your style. If you are going to swingtrade intraday, not volatile stock and like 100 or 200 shares then you can do just fine with QQL realtime charting package for 30$/mo. If you wanna be hyper-frenzy-scalp-a-dime-every-10-seconds like Praetorian then you need top notch software like Real Tick III (300$/mo) 5. BROKERAGE Well, there is a firm that charges 1c/share but since couple of days ago were not allowed to promote it on this board anymore he he... (PM me and Ill tell you) Some brokerages offer RTIII if you open an acct with them and give it for free after like 50 trades or so in a month. 6. STICK TO THE PLAN -You will surely fail here...right, thats what I said also, started trading like a couple of days ago (like 4 weeks) and am doing it!!! 7.DONT LOOSE MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Warren Buffet If I can help you in any way, feel free to use e mail feature and ill reply when I can. 230$ please Alex
By the way,go to www.tradingmarkets.com , sign up for a free trial, save all the lessons from archives to your PC, print them out or whatever and READ THEM, RE-READ THEM like at least 32 times, lots of excellent stuff there. Although I think the quality is somewhat decreasing since Jeff Cooper and some of the guys left... Daytradingstocks.com also awesome. I got like 1000 pages of material. Nicodemus- do you think that Ayrton Senna or Fangio or Schumacher (even though I cant stand him) would have become best Formula 1 drivers in the world if they didnt start somewhere? And ask such silly questions? Alex