paper,using the NT demo. As far as I'm concerned its no different, unless you the let the money have an impact on you when you start trading for real...which I don't plan to, but may happen haha. I trade for a couple hours a day as I'm in real estate as well.
I'd focus on AVERAGING 8-10 points a day not getting them everyday. A lot of newbies want to make money day in, day out.....you can't. When they have a down day it kills them and they put a lot of pressure on themselves to pay back the market. Heck, try having a monthly profit target. I think you have some good ideas and a decent amount of self-restraint. Perhaps you will be the exception but for the vast majority, paper trading is very different to live trading. If you have an unemotional or controlled nature, you'll be fine...most don't. I think Ninja trader is 50 bucks a month. I believe some firms offer it free. There are also some ok free options for interactive brokers. Good luck!
Good points.I'm coming to find out that having a daily profit target is...hindering in all sorts of ways. It almost requires you to "revenge trade" because like you said, you try to "make back" lost points which isnt good. Besides 10 points a day can mean nothing if it takes a zillion trades to do it...commish, I've also learned, is a real bitch. You are right about real money trading, I know it will have an effect, but I'm doing everything I can to damper it. I know it shouldn't. Thanks again for the advice.
No trading today. Other things took up my concentration. No point in trading without 100% focus right? Will be back on tomorrow.
Well I wanted to trade today. I just couldn't. I couldn't see anything worth pursuing. A couple times I thought I did. Then I would wait to see what else was going to happen and it just wouldn't make any sense. There was some decent stuff by the end of the day. Maybe I'm a failure. Anyways I will try again tomorrow. Hopefully the market will represent some opportunities that are easier for me to see.
Today was a good learning day. Results: +3.5 points I didn't get to trade for a as long as I wanted to, had some other things to do..but that's ok. Entered a short position at 10:48 because it looked like buying was exhausted and maybe even like the buying that took place before @10:44 was short covering...I don't know. Anyways price took a pretty nice dump from there and I stuck with it until it looked like the selling was over. Turns out it wasn't quite over, but I captured most of the move (5 points) After that I was waiting for smart money to come in and buy, but as of right now I'm not seeing it. There was a nice spike, but it wasn't confirmed by enough volume and follow through for me to want to buy. Looks like I missed the boat at 11:22, but thats ok. Like I said it didn't have what I was looking for. So I waited for a time to short. I got impatient and tried to jump in before It was obvious(11:33). It cost me 3.25 points. The first attempt I cut my losses to 1 point, the second time price jumped and stopped me out so quickly I literally didn't have time to react. If I would have just waited until it was obvious, I could have saved myself those points. Stupid. Anyways eventually I did get in when it became obvious to me (11:37) and I was able to get 2 points out of it. I thought the buying was exhausted at 12:29. It wasn't and I took my losses and ran. Lost 1.5 points on that one, but I'm proud of myself for getting out then and not hitting my full stop of 2.5 points. Looked like a freight train going up, so I entered a long position. Oddly enough when I did, things started to change. I exited out for a .75 point loss and went short. The short was a success as it made 2 points, however just as I need to be able to not hit my full stop loss, I should have sold when I saw things changing instead of hitting my trailing stop. I would have nabbed another point in a half if I would have sold when I saw the situation changing. Today's lessons: Wait until the trade is OBVIOUS. Never be afraid of missing anything. Did decently well on not hitting my full stop, but I also need to work on not hitting my full trailing stop when I'm in the money.