Thanks bro, and just one final q. Do you think being good at math is a definite must to become a good trader, or have a trading career? I'm not the best at math, which is scaring me.
%% NO, not if you can read charts; but hedge funds/banks may require it simply because of number of job applications .
Just my opinion but someone that has never traded before will have zero chance of making it! Now if you are talking buying and holding for a longer time period then I could see that but actual trading be it swing or day trading takes skill and a mind set that must be trained for!
You need to decide what you're really looking for. A) Trading career as an independent retail trader (trading from home) B) Trading career working as an institutional trader for a financial institution C) Career suitable for your current major (economics) in college The B) can easily be researched online and talking to your business school academic requirements and requirements to get an internship. The A) you obviously need to understand basic math but yoiu need programming/coding skills if you're looking to become a quant. You can easily answer that question if you have a trading account and already have done simulator/real money trading. The issue is you're already at a university and you need to decide what you want to do before deciding on which route to go. At least go talk to a career counselor at your school. You can then determine if your current university is suitable for your career goals. If not, you will then need to research and transfer to a suitable university...about 37% of students transfer from one university to another due to career goals or family/relationship needs. wrbtrader
Isn't it too much risk taking going real without any former practice like on demo account?. There is a reason demo trading was made whether we like it or not, it sure does help.
%% A help, not as much as paper trading. BUT money changes everything, and again it helps some.................................................................................................
Depends upon the overall context. For example, lets pretend the OP (thread starter) has 500k in his trading account and he's real money trading with only 1 contract in Oil futures in a university trading room surrounded by experience/successful Oil futures traders. In comparison, someone at home with 3.0k in his account trading real money with only 1 contract in Oil futures...not a single experience trader helping him. He'll be at more risk via his 3.0k trading account in comparison to the trader in a trading room at the university with a 500k trading account. My point, the OP (thread starter) is at a university that may or may not have a trading room and if not...he can transfer to one that has such to increase his probability of success assuming there's fellow sucessful traders/professor/TA (teaching assistant) at the university trading room. Simply, the OP is in a different context than the typical retail trader eventhough your reply is to kmiklas and not to the OP. Reality, if the OP transfer to a university with a trading room...traders are not allowed to use the university trading room for real money trading experience. Yet, I was looking at details of one of the link I posted earlier... http://universityfinancelab.com/finance-lab-stats/ (scroll down to the bottom at the link to the section called "student manage funds") I was shocked to discover some of those universities allows experience successful traders in the MBA program manage millions of dollars in trading accounts set aside by the university after I called one on that list. One in particular has the largest account of all the universities...50 million dollars in the market being traded for the university. I do not know if they started on demo or a small trading account before being allowed to move up to the big league. Of all the ones documented...there's > 300 million dollars under student management although I dont know if its investments or trading. wrbtrader
Actually "Perfect practice makes perfect" -- cit. Vince Lombardo. So basically until you have some background on markets, instruments, your mindset and trading platform mechanics, it is better you save your monies.