because it is inevitable... $100 is your little pinky toe-nail... lose the whole leg, and maybe half the arm too, then get back in here telling us all about your mental toughness and your states of preparedness! I think some trading room is just what you need - a much more gentle way of draining your account.
I"m not stupid enough to let my account drain. If I lose 25% of my capital, I'm out of the market, analyzing my trades and my journal to see how well I followed my rules, and paper trading until I either see a flaw in my tactics or regain confidence in my orders. Anyway, I'm not here to argue about what is going to happen when I open my account 5 months from now. Nobody here knows how I will react to trading, and nor do I. So, can anyone give me an analysis of what trading rooms can offer a novice trader? Thanks for your help!
mini-pikerville...???? Makin fun of my home town i see, eh Manglebutt. I wuz born there, you know. i still live there in the trailer park. You must know that Pikerville has a really huge population and most of us can be found right here on ET!! And, out of that hugh population I am way the absolute undesputed best piker. No one can come close to my piking performance - even here on ET. So, just knock it off .... you 'ol twat.
I re-read your OP and split it with inserted red labels above to gather a better picture of where you're at and what you want. I think you've recieved a lot of great hard won advice, but I'm not sure these are the answers you need at this point. In the end it's hard to accept advice at face value. The "Question" is easy - Just open an account and trade. Somehow I don't think that is what you need to know. Everyone here probably shares your "Goal", the challenge is how to find it. In my limited experience with ET, I've seen threads here that present successful approaches. The key is to find an approach and market that matches your account size, risk tolerance, trading availability, etc. The "Challenge" is the 64 cent question, what to do next.... My sense is that you're chomping at the bit with a lot of enthusiam for markets and want to get involved. Paper trading is an easy way to start. There are brokers who support "paper" accounts. Find one and set up an account. Print some charts, apply what you know, and see what can be learned. 6 weeks is not a long time, but this may prove to be time well spent. I think you could get better advice here if you provided more details about what you've studied so far. Perhaps outlining some of your underlying ideas on markets (up to this point). Programing / Backtesting is not an easy undertaking. There is more to it than meets the eye. If you've studied up on it at all there are more than a few pitfalls involved. Mechanical systems are a poor substitute for an ability to make trading decisions. Trading is not "easy" money. It looks simple (buy / sell), like playing checkers. Add a little leverage and the penalty for losing the game is that your house burns down. Despite the prevailing wisdom, I jumped in straight away and funded a small account. I blew it up in short order ( 30% DD) - I was smart enought not to burn my house down . I stepped back for a solid year of self education, before going back. It took me close to 5 years to become a break even (spare time) trader. When I was in college (engineering major), I took ~ 160 credit hours to complete my degree in 4 years (school 10 months a year). I didn't have time for much else. I think it will be hard balance the demands of college with market work, unless you are pursuing a financial major. You have great goals - Don't hurt yourself or damage your interest by getting ahead of your self education. I liked your comment regarding account losses with respect to a trading journal, trading plans, re-examination of losses, etc. Good ideas to grow knowledge and build a successful approach. With the exception of emotional impacts of real trading, trade journals & plans can work for paper accounts as a basis to critique your own performance.
Learning from books and DVDs is a great start for sure. But finding the right type of trading style for your personality is also very important for success. Many people get caught up in "I need to trade every day" but really that's the fasted way to lose your money unless you have a live coach watching over your shoulder. Finding the right style, trading vehicles and trading time frame is what you should be figuring out, then learn and fine tune the indicators, tools and trading vehicles needed to succeed for your trading. If you want to chat send me an email or message.
Learn the basics of technical analysis, no indicators! After that read how to trade stocks by jesse livermore. After that never look at another stock book or piece of advice ever again. Instead of following the pack start observing charts and figuring out the most profitable ways to make money in timeframes of months, weeks, days and minutes. If you do that for around a year straight about 5 hours a day with some obbession involved you will most likely consider yourself a guru by the end of it. Break away from the back as soon as possible.