Great post, Are you able to recommend any worthwhile material/books/authors that still hold up today?
These have been the most helpful to me, out of everything I've read ... Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom (Van K. Tharp - an excellent book in spite of its sensationalised title) Beyond Technical Analysis (Tushar S. Chande) Profitability & Systematic Trading (Michael Harris) Understanding Price Action (Bob Volman) Naked Forex: High-Probability Techniques for Trading Without Indicators (Alex Nekritin & Walter Peters - don't be put off by the title: much of the content applies to futures/options/indices/stocks, as well as to Forex) Daytrading (Joe Ross - I originally read the earlier edition of this same book, which was then called Trading By The Minute - don't buy both, because they're 95% the same!) Trading The Ross Hook (Joe Ross - I come back to this again and again and again. It's "basic" and "fundamental" and "just works" because it's based on totally sound and reliable underlying principles to do with buying the dips in uptrends and selling the rallies in downtrends.) A Mathematician Plays The Market (John Allen Paulos) Fooled By Randomness (Nassim Nicholas Taleb - which you've probably already seen) Why People Believe Weird Things (Michael Shermer) - this book and Taleb's, just above, are hugely helpful - albeit indirectly - for "understanding what's going on in forums"! And these next three go together ... these are the books without which I probably wouldn't be making a living at all, but one wouldn't want to read them "cold", without having read some other Price Action texts first: the content is great but they're hard to read if you're new to Price Action (don't say I didn't warn you!): Trading Price Action Trends - Technical Analysis of Price Charts Bar by Bar for the Serious Trader (Al Brooks) Trading Price Action Trading Ranges - Technical Analysis of Price Charts Bar by Bar for the Serious Trader (Al Brooks) Trading Price Action Reversals - Technical Analysis of Price Charts Bar by Bar for the Serious Trader (Al Brooks)
Automating my stop loss has made a tremendous difference for me. I set the trade and let it run- with a fixed cost (potential max loss) and unlimited potential revenue. It has definetly made me a better trader.
The problem with trading stocks is that you need high capital to make money on moves, unless you're trading penny stocks but to be completely honest penny stocks is a scam because it lacks liquidity meaning when you want to sell, you might not always find a buyer. You should consider trading forex, because brokers offer you leverage meaning you can make money with small amounts of money. The hardest part for me when I started trading 10 years ago was that information was scarce, and even when you did come across information,90% of it was either garbage, or it was so called "mentors" trying to sell you the dream of getting rich fast, and duping people into buying their system or course. Think about it, if you can make thousands a dollars a day, why are you selling a course lol. Add me on facebook or email if you want to connect, have been doing this for 10 years and hoping you new comers don't get scammed by these bs gurus selling courses, I went through the same things when I first started, and to be honest, the hardest part of starting to trade is knowing what information is "correct" or "usable". The last thing you want to do is read 20 books and find out none of that stuff is applicable or effective in the markets and you endup just wasting your time.
In my opinion it's worth to start demo trading as soon as possible. Start collecting screen hours, execution habits. Also while same time continue reading/learning will have better feeling what about books are talking. Bu the way, Xela, great info, respect.
There is a lot of gold in this post. Some get it after months, some take years, most never do. In the end the only thing we can control is the risk.