Actually, when I first started trading, I *did* make money. I doubled my initial investment in under two years. Looking back, I realize that I did everything right at that time: 1) I studied and studied, reading books on psychology, trading system development/testing/optimization, trading methodologies, technical analysis, and fundamental analysis. I read I think around twenty or twenty five books on the subjects. 2) I paper-traded and watched charts for more than a year, testing my ideas and developing them into full-fledged systems or methodologies. 3) I absolutely didn't trade until after I had sufficient proof that I would turn a profit. Lately, I lost most of my account when I switched to futures from stocks. I had gotten lazy and overconfident with my success at stock-trading and simply didn't do the things I spoke of as being so important. My best system was easy: scan through a list of recent high-performing stocks (usually gotten from the news or websites). My programs would run a mechanical system on each stock's chart of daily OHLC bars and select the ones that were in tight consolidation just after rapid movement. All I had to do was put a long bracket on top and a short bracket underneath to catch the inevitable explosion out of the consolidation, and voila, I'd invariably make small but steady money (about $250 on a $3000 position, over the course of 2 weeks per position). To those in the know, I was basically trading a straddle but using the underlying stocks instead of options. That way, I could avoid the nasty loss of time value that option traders face and have an essentially unlimited amount of time until the long or short bracket triggers a position entry. That's it! I tell people my system freely because what I use has been common knowledge for years. Besides, I know that even if they use it, they may or may not actually succeed at using it thanks to the more important factors of psychology and process.
Just jump in and get your feet wet. That's what I did. It'll put some hair on your chest. I've become a walking gorilla after everything I've been through. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Good Luck ozzy
======= Typhoon; Like technicals more & liquid stocks more, however; still mostly in harmony with William O'Neill CAN SLIM/book. And while i prefer stair stepping volume, also; lots of observation time, study,recording prices focus on a few stocks /ETFs seems to help even more. Buying at right area may eneble to cut some losses below 7%; certainly do aim for less than that, NYSE.