Hello. I would like to take this time to introduce myself. I want a lot of money. I'm 24 and I want to be a millionaire by the time I'm 30 and over 10 million by the time I'm 40. I have no debt. I currently trade with the 23,000 that I have in my Scottrade account. Just 2000 more and I get 4:1 leverage. I could use the 6000 I have in my bank account to get that stupid 4:1 SEC rule requirement, but if I can't make 2000 with 23,000 with 2:1, quite frankly, I don't deserve that 4:1 leverage. At this point in my life, I would consider myself a "loser" for a lack of a better word. I still live with my parents (lame excuse #1: Want to save every bit of money I have so my trade account get's bigger and bigger). I have no car (lame excuse#2: Same as lame excuse #1). I have no girlfriend (lame excuse #3: Same as lame excuse#2). My first goal is to turn from a loser to a winner. In order to do this my first target goal is to have at LEAST 200,000 in my account by the end of 2008. You may ask yourself, how in the hell I'm going to make that kind of cash in that short of a time period. One word my friends: LEVERAGE. As soon as I increase my 23,000 account to 30,000, I'm going to get a loan for 30,000. Since I have good credit, I can get a loan for less than 8%. Put that 30,000 with my other 30,000 and now I have 60,000 in my account. With 2:1 leverage that's 120,000. If have enough experience to scalp by then, I might decide to use the 4:1 leverage. By that time, I obviously need to find a better platform than Scottrade, one that has low transaction costs for high volume traders. You guy's got any suggestions for any good platforms? Anyways, that's my plan for the time being. I'll give updates from time to time. Thanks for reading.
Welcome to the forum. Gawd.....I hope your wearing your helmet with this kind of first post. Just wait and see, you'll know what I mean.
It's great to have goals and drive and you probably think you are smarter and tougher and you'll work harder than the 576,857,956,245 people that have failed to make even a dime in the markets. While you may be better than those others, I'm betting against you achieving your stated goals. But if you said "I'm going to try a few stock swing trades using only 5% of my account for each trade at first, while I learn. My goal is to make 12% on my account the first year..." I suspect you would get a lot more help and I'd give you a high probability of making it. Remember, you are only 24. The markets WILL be here tomorrow and the next day and the next... Good luck in your efforts.
oh god where do i start? okay lets start with your goals: assuming u have 50,000 in your trading account now. You want to turn that into 200,000 by the 2008. okayyyyy By my calculations thats: FV = PV(1+r)^n Assuming n=2 so well give you a full 2 years to make it. 200,000 = 50,000 (1+r)^n r = 1 so therefore you would need to make an annual rate of return of 100% compounded over 2yrs to give you your 200k. If we assume the benchmark S&P 500 index returns 20% pa over the same period your outperformance of the index will be 80% p.a i'd say 0.5% of ET traders here could match that and i for one couldnt. Most ETers would be happy with 1-2 standard deviations above the S&P or about 30% PA. Best hedge fund ever Renaissance technologies Medallion Fund returns 35%pa after fees or about 60% before. Therefore you who have had no/very little trading experience are trying to mix it with the very best in the game most of whom have taken 10 or more years to get to that level. What makes you special? Look at yourself and your trading history, Do you really believe that given your current level of experience you can outperform the index by a massive 80%? Just from your post i can say your overconfident (like every chump who wants to be a milliionaire stock trader), undereducated(u obviously have done no work as to which method ull use to trade, ur even unsure as to whether ull be scalping) and lazy (u havent even used the search funciton on ET), a perfect combination to lose 100% pa, not make 100%pa. You make excuses for the fact that your a loser. Judging by that ull probably make excuses as to why u made losing trades instead of logically analyzing what went wrong. U will end up trading on emotion, the most fickle indicator every built. and by then ull bankrupt urself and ur 50,000 Seriously judging from the attitude in your post id recommend u jsut buy teh S&P index at 4:1 leverage and dont look at it for 2years. u might end up with mroe that way than u will by trading. Even better, use that 25k, buy a car, get some good dating guides and pick up a girl. That is a much better way of spending 25k rather than gambling it, which is what ur proposing.
agree with above post. great to have goals and honestly - what you see as a negative:at home, no girlfriend - is actually a positive to begin with in this game. less pressure is better and the more you can focus the better as well. my advice is to track your trades diligently. and using a small % of your capital as risk until you build a positive expectancy ie over ten trades - you net money. then you focus on building size.... i played a bit of pro hockey in europe and there used to be a saying "never be in a hurry to make a bad pass". it translates a bit different from swedish - but basically means you have to create time to be able to do the right thing....this is a vicious game and in my experience take people 5+ years to master... have fun and good luck. nne
It's what's in your head that makes you a winner or loser, regardless of your place of residence, mode of transportation, social contacts, or trading account size. If you think you're a loser, then you are a loser -- changing any one of the above is not going to help you at all. You are, however, very fortunate that debtors' prisons no longer exist.