Hi Folks, my first post here so take it easy on me i am living in Ireland but would like to open a trading account trading USA stocks, over the last few years i have read up as much as possible , some good stuff tony oz, elder, o neill , nison etc and read quite a lot of crap too i have played around with a few of the papertrading simulators LS ,IB ,MB to try and get used to charts/time and sales and trailing stops etc i have a university diploma in Electrical Eng which will prob be as much use to me as teats on a bull! i guess there is nothing like actual trading v papertrading to educate the hard way.i would like to start with 10K trading (in the evenings) a few times a week and see how i fare out over the year and get a good trading plan operating, i f i can preserve my capital and manage my risk ,after the year i would ramp it over the 25k so i could trade any time i wanted. Any last minute advice appreciated. regards Steve
Hi there Irishbaker, I've been trading full time for the last 19 years, both for myself and managing funds for others. My entire experience is in the US market, trading futures, options, stocks, and FOREX on the international front. As someone else already stated, papertrading would be REALLY good for you. You had mentioned that you "played" around with the papertrading simulators, but you didn't elaborate on that. I will assume that you meant that you learned to place orders using those simulators, what I would like to know is how much of that playing around included following a set of rules and keeping a trading journal of your trade ideas plus your trade results. You stated that you read up on a few good traders, have you put together a full trading plan based on what you learned from those traders/writers, that included rules for entries as well as exits and how you would manage the $10k according to those rules? If you are going to take trading seriously, you'll see it as a real business, you'll make a full business plan for this new business of yours. Including all the costs that go with trading (new equipment, software lease, data subscriptions, commissions as part of your NET). You should have realistic projections for your business according to the research (testing you've done) for the system/method you'll be using for your trades. Think of how much time and energy you put into studying EE, before you could get a job with that degree. Then think of what experience you gained before you got some real pay for the work that you do now. That being said, trading is no different than any other profession. You'll need to dedicate the same amount of effort and time to get something worthwhile from trading. The upside is that in trading your income, if you did it right, will compound instead of getting simple raises every few years. John
thanks for the encouragment folks and Daotrades for the comprehensive reply .i know it isnt easy and will require work on prior stock screening,charts etc . i have always been up for a challenge in the past and got through em all eventually. i have used the demos to mainly become familiar with the whole operation , support,resis,trendlines,MA's. i also had a copy of metastock for a while and looked into the indicators(but im convinced now most if not all of em are lagging.) i kinda have an idea of a plan & strategy in mind including risk/reward ratio. i didnt even try to implement it to date as most of the demos either wont let you sell short or implement trailing stops which was frustrating so i didnt bother. i should prob take your advice though and try to implement it now just for the discipline. i have a decent enough paying dayjob which i wont be giving up anytime soon but id love to do this on the side, not purely to make money but it would sure be a challenge and 10 years down the road- who knows