I have been on ET for a couple of years, mostly reading, and I am frankly getting disgusted by most members' attitudes towards aspiring traders and, well, virtually everyone. Now, many newbies come in here and expect to have their hand held also, and I can see a reluctance of more experienced members of handing over information they took years to aquire. However, "you're never going to make it", "99% of traders fail", "take the analyst job", "that prop firm is a scam" type of comments aren't too helpful either, except in some cases. Being smug and saying price action followed by the obligatory without offering explanations is dumb as well, nearly as much as saying spend 10,000 hours in front of a screen and it will all make sense. Where should an aspiring trader start, in your opinion? Rather that what they shouldn't do, what should they do? Surely there must be a better way than trying everything on your own (every indicator, gimmick, strategy etc). Besides reading up on the basics from various online sources, I think the best place for a new person to start is at a no deposit or low deposit aka training fee prop firm, in office. I see many anti-WTS, Title or Swift threads, and frankly, I don't get it. Yes, it may or may not make sense for someone experienced, but for a newbie? People complain about a $1500 "training fee" from WTS or a shitty payout from Swift etc? Give me a break! Throw a newb with a 10K account in front of a screen, having never traded a share in his life, and on average he'll lose a lot more than 1.5K, mostly trading God knows what penny stocks (I know I did 10 years ago or so when I bought my first stock). At least the aforementioned places will teach or force you to have discipline. And more importantly, keep your size low until you progress. Anyways, I kind of rambled on I was hoping that we would have a thread (and maybe a sticky with consolidated resources, CONSTRUCTIVE advice etc like I see on other boards (T2W etc). It would save frustration of older members of dealing with the same questions over and over- to some extent anyways- and it would cut down, in my opinion, on unnecessary and unproductive bickering that has become commonplace on this board.
Choose a mkt and watch it for long enough to see it's tendencies and start to formulate a strat around that. Don't come in and say "i'm gonna risk 1 pt to make 2 pts". Don't try and create a cookie cutter strat. Let the mkt show you how it trades and try and figure out ways to take advantage of it that way. There is no substitute for experience and the 10,000 hr rules stands. Your mind needs to be completely immersed in all things price. Things need to become second nature to you and the only way to gain that is through time spent in front of the screen. Noobs don't want to hear that because it makes it seem like a long journey but it's the truth.
It boils down to what are you trying to accomplish with your trading? Are you embarking on a career, is it a glorified hobby or do you need a job? If you want to be an engineer, you know you are going to go through many lean years where you might have to live at home and work part time jobs to eat while you put in your time. The thing that sinks new traders is that they figure they should be making money right away and earning a living. You need to trade the smallest size possible when you are learning. Just refining and executing your plan, without regard to how much you make. The goal is to last long enough until you figure it out, then take it up very slowly. You should be prepared to go a year without an income of any kind from trading. And if you are starting with a small account, way longer than that, as you need to build your account up to a size it can generate enough income to live off of. Sure, take a job at Swift and learn some things on their dime. But also don't expect a paycheck for a long LONG time. If it was easy they'd call it 'winning'.