Forget short term trading. You want a challenge? do this: Work part time, and finish college. Invest your money every month in the index. Once you're out of college, get a six figure pay before you turn 25 and continue to invest. Get a property or 2 by the time you're 30.
I don't think it makes sense to index with that short of a time horizon. $5K initial + $1K monthly add at 450 beeps is like $80K in 5Y. If the goal is to trade then he's no business in passive index. Buying index in 2008 and you BE in 2013.
Your mindset is the same as a high school football jock (a brain only developed for 18 years). You think you are invincible and the potential dopamine hits from winning are driving your decision making. once you go down the retail trader path, there’s virtually no going back. This site is riddled with LARPers. The smart people who have responded to your thread all have a common story. Figure that out and mimic that.
What you are asking is actually to give you a profitable trading system on your plate and babysit/micromanaging you. My question is what someone who willing to do that get in exchange?
The best advice you'll ever get (and may end up ignoring) is to forget about short term directional trading as a retail trader without a mentor (unlikely). Even if you had a mentor there's no substitute for experience and that's thousands of hours of screen time and experience through multiple market cycles and market regimes. Forget everything you heard or have been led to believe by false gurus in this space. 99 % of people you see online ain't making money and the easiest way to make money in this game is by selling the dream, i.e., mentoring, courses and subscription fees. In summary, the best advice you got so far is to either forget about it completely or go down the professional route and actually get a job in the industry as a professional.
Alot of people in here saying Short Term Directional Retail Traders can't make it. Let's see how this Wannabe goes after just a lot of Research and Testing.
Not saying it can't be done. Just saying it's about as realistic as... "Hello guys. I'm in high school and decided I want to be a Formula 1 driver. Any tips? Which books do your recommend?"
Challenge accepted. We shall revisit this Thread of skeptics ...let say by Xmas (this Year). Bookmarked.