My suggestions: (1) write up a business plan as you would if starting any other type of business, (2) be prepared for losses and how you'll react (i.e. can you pay the bills, etc.) (3) find what works for you and stick to it until it's not working ... and that likely will happen as the behavior of the market changes over time. So you need to be adaptable and implement other trading methods if the situations dictate such. (4) realize that the market doesn't owe you anything If you work hard and persevere you can enjoy the freedom you mentioned ... and it's awfully nice.
1/ pick what you want to trade. 2/ choose daytrading as your training time frame. 3/ pick a method , use "search " button in upper right corner. 4/papertrade Or hire someone to teach you, always ask for a free trial. Walter
Thanks for the replies all. Since my aspirations are to someday do trading on a professional level, would you guys recommend attempting to start at a professional level in a more professional enviornment? Or attempt to trade my own accounts in my freetime as more of a hobby? Thanks again.. happy 4th!
I am also an engineer that got interested in this about 18 months ago. My personal recommendation would be to keep your day job and try short-term to intermediate trading (which will allow you to keep building your trading account as your learning curve and your donations to the market shrink). I started that at wcom of all places and knew that my time was coming to an end there so I started trading pretty much full-time while working. I always felt a security by having a job to replenish my trading account while I started learning. It's much worse now since I'm doing this full-time when I have a loss and it affects my account. The pressure is alot different too when u are relying on this as income rather than a cool hobby. After 18 months, I'm still learning and probably needed another year at wcom trading full-time to be completely comfortable...but the layoff axe came and I was glad to be out of that crap hole. If you swing trade or momentum trade you can get away with having something run in the background on your work box and then sending real-time alerts to a pager or a cell phone when your immediate attention is required. Also depending on your trading platform, you can automate alot of the orders on both sides so that you are covered for stops and for price targets and can just let it ride. Hey, maybe I should do that instead of cutting my winners short