Well, trading changed a lot since then, so I would not recommend those books I've read back then, except maybe "The disciplined trader" from Douglas and his "Trading in the zone". He oversimplifies trading a bit, attributing succes almost purely to psychology. It's not like that, however his books were helpful to me. Apart from that, really, go look for a prop firm where people make money and see what they do.
I never tried to scalp stocks, tried this afternoon on Forest Oil, my rationale being that oil jumped on Bernanke's vagueness and this company is a sufficiently liquid small cap so the price would be more jumpy than an Exxon or BP. This is paper trading still. I'm thinking I'll keep a daily journal on my paper and eventually real money trades for anybody who may be interested [crickets chirping]. I'll make the first ledger post in this thread after market closes, afterwards I'm making a thread in the Journal section for those unfortunate few who may care to follow my journey.
----I never tried to scalp stocks, tried this afternoon on Forest Oil, my rationale being that oil jumped on Bernanke's vagueness and this company is a sufficiently liquid small cap so the price would be more jumpy than an Exxon or BP.--- way to go!
Day one ledger, paper trading: FST 8/31/12 11:56a 8/31/12 11:56a Short 12865 $7.54 FST 8/31/12 1:13p 8/31/12 1:13p Cover 12865 $7.49 FST 8/31/12 1:19p 8/31/12 1:19p Short 19518 $7.46 FST 8/31/12 1:23p 8/31/12 1:23p Cover 19518 $7.42 FST 8/31/12 1:42p 8/31/12 1:42p Buy 15280 $7.43 FST 8/31/12 1:45p 8/31/12 1:45p Sell 15280 $7.45 XIV 8/31/12 1:55p 8/31/12 1:55p Buy 7636 $13.81 XIV 8/31/12 2:03p 8/31/12 2:03p Sell 7636 $13.79 CHK 8/31/12 2:10p 8/31/12 2:10p Short 5552 $19.41 CHK 8/31/12 2:15p 8/31/12 2:15p Short 4692 $19.44 CHK 8/31/12 2:20p 8/31/12 2:20p Cover 10244 $19.49 CHK 8/31/12 2:21p 8/31/12 2:21p Buy 5343 $19.47 CHK 8/31/12 2:22p 8/31/12 2:22p Sell 5343 $19.48 CHK 8/31/12 2:24p 8/31/12 2:24p Short 12751 $19.47 CHK 8/31/12 2:29p 8/31/12 2:29p Cover 12751 $19.46 FST 8/31/12 2:30p 8/31/12 2:30p Short 16531 $7.50 FST 8/31/12 2:51p 8/31/12 3:01p Cover 16531 $7.48 CHK 8/31/12 3:16p 8/31/12 3:16p Short 4962 $19.39 CHK 8/31/12 3:19p 8/31/12 3:19p Cover 4962 $19.40 FST 8/31/12 3:20p 8/31/12 3:21p Buy 15076 $7.47 FST 8/31/12 3:28p 8/31/12 3:28p Sell 15076 $7.44 Notes: Towards the end of the day when volume died I tried to find trades that weren't really there, tried to force it. Short FST at 7.50 at the second peak of a double top, covered when the trade became profitable, should have held until a sign of reversal appeared around 7.40. P/L: Up approximately 1.33%
What's a good prop firm for 2.5k risk deposit? I've emailed back and fourth with Capital Traders, seems good I was just curious as to other options?