Lost $900 bucks? That's nuthin'! I once lost over $1300 one night gambling, drinking and messin' with loose wimmin. But at least I didn't waste it!
It's a good thing that he's young otherwise he would have had to cut back on the money spent on drugs and alcohol and use some of it to buy a woman ;->)
Take lawrence-lugar's advice and start your own Trading Academy website. Sell memberships and packages for $500, 1000, and the Platinum Package for $5,000. Make sure to give ET traders a hefty discount since we're your mentors. And please remind me to take the other side of your trades.
That's my plan if I ever win the big lottery or Powerball. I'm going to spend 95% of it on booze, drugs and women and I'm going to waste the rest!
If your disclude my account which I'm likely to blow at any second doing something stupid, I'm actually down to £45 left in total, nothing else anywhere, to last me till Wednesday next week. So $960 sounds a lot to me right about know, that'd be GREAT infact. Entire account 6K blown over night on a massive gap up. I've seen loads of people blow 100K+ in a few months, your not alone. Back to Paper trading, find a consistent simple small repeatable think scalping plan, repeat, repeat, repeat and you'll get there, long term holds on FX 100% gambles to manic.
I fully realize that it takes years to write code or trade proficiently. Not only do I have degrees in Computer Science and Economics, but I wrote part of Nasdaq's trading platform. I gave up my software career 8 years ago, when I started making much more money trading. My niche is that I wrote all my trading-related software myself. But I do not sit back and let the computer do all the work. Instead my software allows me do things that other traders find it difficult or impossible to do, or that I can do much faster. Coding is just another tool in the trading arsenal, not a be all.
Three pieces of advice for you: 1) NO forex. RUN away. 2) "Money management" -- code for capital preservation. DO it. 3) Exponential thinking: humans have it over other animals in that we can draw lines -- 'think logically' -- but we forget that most of what we observe day-to-day is only accidentally linear. Einstein remarked, "Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it ... he who doesn't ... pays it. Compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe." That means... finite math, algebra, calculus; econ (micro + macro); basic accounting (understand the GAAP chart of accounts); world history + anthropology. And while we're at it, start a running habit: exercise/fitness will be in short supply, should you proceed. But the bottom line? We're all jealous of you. You've done well. Keep it up.