You people are losers. If anyone thinks they need to blow up an account to learn how to make money, you obviously did not do your homework before starting to trade. Since no one here can offer advice because they all lose, here's how you can start with 5k. *Open a margin account with a discount broker *read, read, read, study charts, study the overall market, all this you can get from your broker. *Learn about money management, you can search posts here or better yet just do a google search. *You'll need a strategy/edge to be profitable, you need to backtest it and make sure its profitable in the past, doesn't mean it'll work in the future but its a good start. *Papertrade your strategy for 30 trades. *tweak, optimize and perfect your strategy. *Start trading for real. *Keep your eyes open and don't get greedy. Good Luck
Great post for someone who wants to learn how to trade and is willing to put in the time and effort, but the original question was for something that can happen "in a relatively short amount of time".
Yea well, short amount of time won't happen. But there is a start, that should keep him busy. Unfortunately it takes time to make money """Consistently"""
You need two elements to trade and make money, an edge(that is a strategy or strategies that will yield a positive result), and money management! (A little bit of luck wouldn't hurt either!) With your small account size, you should look more towards trading longer time frames (approx 6 months), and paper trade shorter time frames until you have both the capital and experience to make consistent money in the great game!
Do you know where that story is from ? I'm taking a stock trading class and the instructor made a reference to that a couple weeks ago. I wouldnt mind reading the full story. Thanks, Tony
Take yout 5K to Amazon.com and buy: The Complete Day Trader The Compleat Day Trader II by Jake Bernstein Trading for a Living by Alexander Elder Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom by Van K. Tharp Trading to Win by Ari Kiev Electronic Day Trading 101 and Trading 101 by Sunny J. Harris Day Trade Online by Christopher A. Farrell Electronic Day Trading to Win by Bob Baird and Craig McBurney Electronic Day Trading Made Easy by Misha Sarkovich The Complete Idiots Guide to Day Trading Like a Pro by Jennifer Basye Sander The Mind of a Trader by Alpesh B. Patel Pit Bull : Lessons from Wall Street's Champion Trader by Martin Schwartz The Microtrading Revolution by Lawrence Black, Todd Hawley, Hawley Todd The Day Trader by Lewis J. Borsellino The Day Trader's Manual by William F. Eng The Tao of Trading, Bulls, Bears, and Millionaires, and The Intuitive Trader by Robert Koppel The Inner Game of Trading The Outer Game of Trading, and The Market Savvy Investor by Robert Koppel and Howard Abell The Day Trader's Advantage and Digital Day Trading by Howard Abell Those who say you don't need to read any books to be a better trader is lying because they don't want you to read and accumulate knowledge.
Why don't you just do another auction on ebay Rip? Or have you decided to actually read the books now?
OK, lets suppose the guy doesn't make any losses, and indeed makes a positive return in his first year... unless he is some kind of outlier, the return he can generate on $5k would barely be enough to buy a nice suit...