Inventory of your beliefs about you and the market. Set clear objectives of what you want to accomplish. Find a low risk idea that fits your beliefs. Understand R distribution and position sizing. Have a model to understand in which market environment you are right now. Have several trading system based on a low risk idea and know in which market it works best.
this thread just prove that most financial advisors doesn't know anything about day/swing trading stonks and use cookie cutter etf for their clients.
so you were a financial advisor for most of your life. and you wanna go into trading now? and yet you said you want to devote your time to hobby like golfing or fishing or what have you since you are in retirement and want to enjoy life. it seems like you don't want to put in 10,000 hours of screen time. why don't you stick with investing since that's what you have been doing most of your life? you see, most ppl don't know what they really want. you see i enjoy trading because that's what i do. i do screening after the market is closed for new opportunities, doing daily entry for my trading journal during the week day after market is closed. on weekend, i look at hundred of stock charts cause that what i enjoy doing. do you enjoy looking at stock charts Monday - Friday from 9 am - 4 pm est? and then looking at it some more after hours and weekend? if no, just put your money in etf like what you do with your client and enjoy life.
I enjoy market action. I enjoy looking at charts. More important, i enjoy learning. It was one of the reasons i was successful as an Advisor. Trading/learning to trade/looking at the market on a daily basis keeps me engaged and keeps my brain working. Right there are enough reasons for me to learn to trade. I am still a long term investor. But at the same time, i have been using what i have learned about reading charts and looking at shorter to intermediate term trends to help me manage risk in my long term portfolio. If i had been just buy and hold, i'd probably be down this year a few hundred thousand more than i am. My "trading" is being done with a relatively small percentage of my total investable assets. For what i am looking to do, I dont need to be in front of a screen from 9AM to 4PM. I do a lot of reading, follow a few traders both via subscription and via Twitter, and i look at a lot of charts, while reading books by guys like William O"Neill and Mark Minervini. Hope that answers your question. In case it didn;t, heres the TLR version: I enjoy it, am learning enough to satisfy my needs, if i can make a few bucks WTF not.
Now THAT is profound LOLOL. A more serious response, it was just a rant, needed to get it off my chest and call my own attention to the fact that i need to be more disciplined and that sometimes its better to just sit on my hands. Thats all. Nothing more, nothing less. I am, if nothing else, very transparent, both on internet forums, and in real lfe. ;-)
reading is not enough. you have to practice or put in the hours for trading. that's why you get the saying, "those that can't do, teach." how many trades do you plan to do per day/week? if you are planning to do one or 2 trades per day/week, how long do you think you can gain enough experience? also don't mix long term investing with trading. those are 2 different things. have separate account for those 2 strategy. also what is a earning a couple of bucks good enough for you? would minimum wage $15/hour good enough for you for your trading endeavor? how about losing for a few years? how many losing years before you call it quit on your trading career?
Sorry but this is exactly what ((they)) do. I wouldn't be surprised if they rug pull. My suggestion is just play one trade setup which makes you 0.75 on SPY for every 0.50 you lose with a 50% win rate. Then you don't need to guess whether this is the bottom or not and you don't need to do anything but wait for your setup. In a bull market it can be buy the dip. In a bear market it can be sell the rip. We are in a bear market, so your job is then to figure out what is the rip? Yesterday's high/low/close could be a good level for an entry. Etc, etc.