The OP must realize that TZ constantly posts about how he doesn't trade, and 99% of traders cannot make money. Yet, he still spends an exhorbant amount of time on this trading message board. Mostly scanning for spammers and ratting them out to the feedback forum. Clearly he has a lot of time on his hands. Don't worry, TZ, you will not be unemployed forever. Things will pick up for you, keep the faith.
It's not about encouraging or discouraging. THE OP wrote "I have about 5k that I'm will to risk to see if trading is the future path for me, I strongly believe it is so I am willing to take the risk." Then there's people telling him blowing-up 5k is nothing. The problem is the OP hasn't yet decided if trading is his fit, something he wants to do for rest of his life. Because if he decides it's not for him, then 5k is one heck of an expensive lesson. If the OP isnt serious about wanting to be a trader for rest of his life, then he should invest or gamble, not "trade"
if you are going to day trade, scalp, etc you can pretty much kiss it good bye - not to say you cannot become a good trader but odds tell me from past experience in prop 95% will fail w/i first 2 years. I have blown my account more than once in the beginning years. Sorry but $5K isn't much to learn with. Might be better off taking a longer term position or core trade (multiple week or month horizons) to try to pad that number a bit then start trading the shorter time frames like 5min, etc.
Thanks for pointing out your consistent inability to grasp reality. When you find any solid evidence of this, you have a chance to move up to the bottom of the barrel
right now 5k is a lot for you, im also in college and have been doing this since freshman year of highschool. 5k could obviously pay for a couple credit hours or books for a few semesters.. or beer ; ) ... but if you start trading live then even if you lose it all you have 1. the experience and 2. some good war stories : ) but it all depends on what you are planning on trading. with 5k total it is pretty difficult to day trade stocks, and you would probably need to subscribe to NASDAQ Totalview for better quotes than the level one. i would say just go for it, but remember good things take time, if your the type of person who wants to become filthy rich by day trading then this is not for you. if you DONT make or lose money after the first 2 years, essentially break even then i would actually say that you did pretty good.... but 5k of kegs would be a sweet party haha ; )
Thanks guys, a lot of good comments. (sorry its been so long since a post, exams have been keeping me more than busy the last week) I have been trading US equities with positions of about 20-25k. I figured if I would go the prop trade route that is about the amount of capital I would be able to be trading from day 1. I've been using scottrader elite, so its real time data, very similar to a live account with the only difference being my orders don't actually get filled, but just wait for the last price to hit where I put in my bid. I've learned quite a bit from doing this. I absolutely WAS overtrading for a while was understandable for a kid who feels like he has to be doing something to be working. I have changed my ways though. I kept a very detailed trading journal so at the end of each day I could go back and analyze both the moves I made and the moves that I didn't. I was actually thinking about making it a blog so some people could follow it and chime in with their "you're gonna fail" comments. I've only been making maybe 4-5 round-trip trades in a given day ( keep in mind I do go to class so thats only been 2-3 hours market time) and never hold a position over night. My feeling is I'm young, committed, and smart (although don't all young people think theyre smarter than they are ) and I want nothing more than to go live, so with that in mind what is my best option to get to the amount of capital that I need to trade consistently? It seems a lot of people say wait, don't do it, but if I do decide to do it (what can I say I'm stubborn) what should be my first move? I'm sure a lot of you have been at this stage before, what did you do?
Its all about risk management is one thing I've learned. Other than that its just time in front of the screen seeing opportunities and making mistakes. Learning to be patient, learning to cut losses on losing trades, not holding on to shares hoping they will go up when the scenario that caused you to buy in has clearly changed, accepting small losses as a cost of doing business and not getting tied up in the emotional aspects of losing money, etc etc. Its just experience really
if you can take all that and keep your head in real time,you have a good start,have you found an edge, can you read charts,volume spikes,congestion areas,do you know which other instruments correlate with the one your trading