Hopefully I'm not going into uncharted territory, as I see there are not many advice threads on this website. I'm a high school student and I plan to trade for a living (and then move on to real estate and a car wash). I do not plan on going to college because there's nothing I'm interested in other than trading. I plan to treat educating myself about trading like one would in a college. My father started an a trading account over 10 years ago with his friend and he got cocky and ended up blowing their account. About 2 years ago he started another account paper trading for awhile then live trading. He's been teaching me so much and I'm really fascinated with trading. He cannot teach me as much as I'd like because he works nights and after he trades he usually goes to sleep. I really want a mentor because I want to do this for the rest of my life but, from what I researched a lot of the mentors are expensive and their reputability is constantly challenged. I know I can read as many books as I'd like but that my real knowledge will come from consistently trading. But for now I'm looking for any advice and things to do until that point. Right now all I really know about is the emini S&P but I also want to learn about other markets and trade those too. Thanks for your time
There are several dozen Universities across the U.S. and a few in Europe that offer classes in trading. In addition, most of these Universities have real trading rooms for their students. Simply, I highly recommend you go to college that offers trading classes, degrees and trading rooms if trading truly is your interest. These past threads should help you with the list of many universities. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2991209 http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=217485 Most of these universities are well known (e.g. Univ. of Texas, Rutgers, Tulane, MIT, Penn State business school, George Washington Univ. and many well known MBA programs). Therefore, go revisit your high school guidance counselor for help about college or tell your dad its time to fill out applications to all of these universities and plan for some campus tour visits. P.S. Something weird about your sentence... Trade for a living --> next is Real Estate and then to Car Wash
Hi, I don't want to sound like that idiot emg but frankly I would suggest you plan on becoming a 'professional' trader, doing it on your own is like trying to be a doctor out of your bedroom. Go to college, study in a math/science field, apply for internships at the bulge bracket/middle market banks and go from there. I'm in college myself but I am going the computer science route while trading on the side. If you truly insist on going it alone, well, don't. Your best bet is finding a mentor who is profitable and wouldn't mind taking you under their shoulder, which may be hard to do. And even if they are profitable, who knows how long the edge you'll learn from another independent trader would last. If you are as fascinated with trading as you say, you should be just as fascinated with getting a high GPA in college, being a top contender in interviews at a bulge bracket bank, get an internship in a sales & trading department, and eventually becoming a trader at a bank yourself. There you can learn the edge from an institution and maybe go trade at a hedge fund or start your own. If you are in high school you have time on your side. Check out this website, www.wallstreetoasis.com, you'll find all the roadmaps to becoming a 'real' trader there. I know some guys in school that have done an internship or two and are on there way to getting full time sales & trading jobs out of college, as long as they don't fuck up. They all used that website for guidance/ideas. With 1 post, hopefully you aren't a fuckin troll and i wasted my time typing this.
No, it makes sense. First you try to trade for a living, then you have to sell your house, then work at a car wash :eek: XXXOOO
try to trade with 5,000....lose. try with 10,000....lose more. go back to school. try to trade with 5,000....lose. realize the only skill you have is "this is support and resistance and this is a moving average. and look at this volume!!" and since you lose at trading you don't even know what that means. now, 10-years later....the only thing left....become a VENDOR. lol now get out there and get good experience losing.