I am 22 years old and currently I have worked all manual labor jobs. I have always been good with computers so I know I should use that to my advantage. I also know the best places to learn things is on excellent forums. So I am curious, where should I begin? Is there a certain website I use, how much money should I have set aside to begin? Anything I should know? I look forward to the responses, any information is more than what I currently have at the moment. Thank you for reading.
Check out the free videos on http://www.informedtrades.com. It will take you DAYS to watch them all. *mods if i'm not allowed to post 3rd party websites, please kindly remove them for me. Thanks
spend a month and go thru all of these,pick something that suits your personality ,peeks your interest ,open an account at think or swim to be funded later,use there tools and free education,and trade it in simulation for 2 years,in the meantime keep your job,save, and look at this as a college education for free,if you trade live now ,which we were all anxious to do,you will likely lose your startup capital,which we all did, which makes it an education you paid for,plan your trade,trade your plan ... http://www.trading-naked.com/Articles_and_Reprints.htm
It would help ET to help you if you could tell us what you mean by "trading." Are you thinking investing for months or years, swing reading for days or weeks, or daytrading during one day's session only? Those three styles are very different IMO in their overhead cost structures. (BTW, I think ET is a terrible place to ask for help, but I can't think of anywhere better.)
Can't comment on the website (never used it), but this is a good starting point. Also, are you trying to trade for a living, retirement account, or work your current job and trade/invest on the side?
And as long as we are asking YOU questions, how much can you stand in monthly trading infrastructure expenses, computer infrastructure investment, and initial brokerage account deposit?
The fact you've worked manual labor jobs improves your odds of success, because most likely you aren't supporting the voracious appetite of a massive ego. The most successful novice trader I've ever met (3500% ROI over a couple years) works a minimum wage job. If you're interested in day trading, read Bob Volman's "Forex Price Action Scalping". The fact that he trades Forex and the fact that he's a scalper is irrelevant. The lessons in price action, risk management, and psychology are the key to success and presented with a clarity (and quirky humor) I've not seen elsewhere. Then register for a practice account with OANDA and practice the price action tactics until trading this way is as comfortable and automatic to you as driving a car. If you're interested in swing trading, I'm not sure if there's a book comparable in its clarity and precision as Volman's book is to intraday scalping. Alan Farley's "The Master Swing Trader" is an incredible resource, but it's like the Calculus of swing trading, and difficult for a beginner. I've found these links to provide a solid foundation for technical price action education (applicable to all trading time frames): Price action primer: http://www.daytradingcoach.com/daytrading-candlestick-course.htm Price action setups: http://www.daytradingcoach.com/daytrading-technicalanalysis-course.htm Every resource I've posted here leads you to consistently profitable trading if applied in combination with generally accepted risk management principles.
the short answer is open a demo account. I trade with www.interactivebrokers.com. I have never used their demo and have heard it is not exactly like the real market, but it's a place to start. After you figure out how to enter a few symbols and buy and sell you can start asking more knowlegeable questions. the reason I suggest the interactive demo is you can put on some gold and some oil and some individual stocks and options and forex currencny pairs and some stock indexes like the dow jones or s&p and see how they move and how much money realistically it takes to trade them. after you do that a while, you will be able to ask better questions once you settle down and find something that interests you, you will be able to search more relevent info on the internet it is still way too early to ask how much it costs to get started fool around in that demo and just ask questions about how to set up the demo, that is good enough for now (the other good thing about demos (as opposed to sim or paper accounts) is, they are available on the weekends when most people that have real jobs have time available for learning)
I'm young as well and would like to get in to day trading myself. I've been trading with marketwatch for 2 years with a virtual $100,000. Don't I need $25k to day trade with most online brokers?