I'd like to first wish everyone a Happy Holiday and Happy New Year. Lay off grandma's secret nog... I'm obviously new around here, and from what I've gathered - there are some impressive strategies, systems, minds, etc. Being a newbie not only on this site, but in terms of trading, I've realized that from reading on so many different strategies - I've suddenly become confused. My ultimate goal would be to get into scalp trading. But before I jump into any unknown waters, I would deeply appreciate some feedback. I have no formal training in trading, whatsoever. I'm from south Texas, and thus the idea of finding any firms down here is out of the question at this point I'm not sure how to go about studying, training, etc., for this sort of trading. I know and understand that this type of trading, like any other, is a huge risk - and the chances of me holding a cup out in front of Wal-mart is a possibility should I choose this path. I would like to start with about $15K. Thus, I'd like to read what anyone's thoughts on scalp trading are. I greatly appreciate any input. And again, Happy Holidays to all.. JFN
Thanks, 1/ Scalping is for experienced only, not for you 2/Put your money in the bank and educate yourself first. 3/ Pick one market , develop trading method , backtest it then trade it on a simulator . 4/When you think you are ready open 5K account and if you lose it do not trade till you save another 5K. DO NOT use 10 K left in your account ! Walter
After the 1st of the year I'm going to start a journal for newbie traders. This should help to speed up the process of the learning curve for newbies.
make lots of sense I am going to forward this to some one asking the same question and Brandon site is good for education too.
Better advice ...... Go to work for a professional firm and let them train you, THEN go out and trade. There is no substitute for this type of experience and it is far more useful than the numerous books, videos, "systems", backtesting software etc being hawked by hundreds of firms and individuals. Most of the noise you will hear on this board and at trade conferences comes from people selling products or training and you need to be realistic about all these people and firms and acknowledge that msot of them would be trading using their own product or service if was valuable. Trading is really quite simple and once you learn how to do it and have the proper capitalization to get into the business the odds that you will be successful increase.
Yes and no. I had no credentials when I started and I just happened to know someone who referred me to the right people. This was all before I had credentials. "credentials" are just excuses to exclude. If you know the right people and are willing to stick it out by starting at the bottom of the ladder - even with "credentials in order to get in the door - you can get into the business. I used to work on the trading floor with the now president of the cme and their clearing house. This fellow had bounced around various jobs and exchanges working at the lowest level clerk jobs - He had an MBA and some experience already. He came to the merc and took a job lower than his job at the CBOE. After a few years he managed to wrangle a job in the clearing house at a level more commensurate with his experience and has proved to be a valuable leader at the exchange.
then you need the right connection, which most newbie lacks. But I understand what you mean, you gotto start somewhere, ok.
Newbie will be a great example for anyone starting up. South Texas is like anywhere USA. Newbie started out a while back and is drawing a lot of conclusions. Too bad in a way. But that is where it is for him. I recommend that he get a pal to help him out. sort of check out the local scene to find out the names of a few locals who are getting the job done. He probably will not find too many scalpers though. several have suggested that there are other ways to learn to make money prior to the scalping modus. Two things can happen: he can find out there are other very high reward approaches besides scalping and or he might determine scalping is not for him after all. 15k in equities can make him about three grand a month with an abvove average mentor who gets it done in equities. It would be like a slow motion prep for getting into trading. To start right off in scalping at low risk, he could pair up with someone who uses a technique of trading the ES as a lagging index of YM or DJ relative to INDU. Just do the "squeese"/"stretch" monitoring on YM vs INDU and trade the ES using the time lag to make plays. Today the squeese is -5 to -3, neutral is -2 to +1, and stretch is above +1. (the offset is -30, so 0 is a 30 point shift). This is a simple way to use a leading index to give you trades (scalps) on a lagging index.) You only get about 40 trades a day this way and that's having to buy 10 points of spread right off (nononsence needs to read this so he is oriented properly for my comments). But you make 40 times 2 or three ticks net after that. A one contract beginning level for about 45 days will get the ball rolling. After that, he could do some non scalping trend stuff and practise some scaling in and out too.