Do you guys think it'd be smart for someone like me with no formal financial education to invest in the market? i'm 20 i still didn't start college (can't decide what i wanna do) and i've been following the market for some time now but i don't have any formal financial education. i got that cyberX simulator and trading seems to be a pretty eazy thing to do. i'd really appreciate if you'd tell me do i have any chance of making profits or financial education is a must to make some real money. and also which broker is the best (if any)? i see most of you use NDB and CYBERTRADER. i've seen NDB's site and seems kinda complicated while cyberX seems eazy. thanks very much.
Not without giving it a lot of serious thought. I've been to college and school was a piece of cake by comparison. On some days trading is just like taking a college calculus final with no sleep... and with someone smacking you in the back of the head while you're doing it! It REALLY is not as easy as it appears! ~EC
No reason you can't do both. Go to college and while getting a degree develop or find a system to paper trade. Then schedule your classes around your trading time slot and start trading for real. Another reason to consider college is they might want you to fight arabs soon, and considering what people think of daytraders, they'll want you on the front lines. Or you could take a year and see if you can make it trading and then evaluate your situation later. You might consider swing trading, which doesn't require you to sit at your computer all day. I believe you can make more swing trading than day trading, but many will disagree. You need 25K now to day trade so you have to consider that. Since a lot of people fail at trading, an education is good to fall back on.
You need something to fall back, day trading is very hard, most fail even though they work hard and are dedicated to trading. Learn about the markets while you are in college, and swing trade small share lots to gain experience.
If you don't know what you want to do there or whether you even want to be there I see no reason to go to college. Not having been to college would in no way imply that you have less chance of being a successful trader. Provided you are reasonably intelligent and can learn, I think your chances are as good as a college graduate. However, consider this. If you have the money to go to college and you risk it trading, be well aware that most traders fail and you may blow the chance to get an education. However, some traders do become fabulously successful and very wealthy. On the other hand, get a degree and it will open up employmnet opportunities that will serve you the rest of your life. It's not for me or anyone else to tell you how to handle your life, but think very carefully. If you want to be a successful trader, be prepared to study as hard or probably harder than if you were in college, learn from your own experiences in the market as well as studying what others have written, understand your strengths and weaknesses and be prepared for disappointments and boredom as well as periods of euphoria. After I started swingtrading at the end of 1999 I went 7 months of + or - 15% in my trading account while I developed understanding of what worked for me and what didn't. I then made 68% in the last five months of the year. This year, although I trade primarily long (anyone got a good refence to short setups?) I am up 21%. Again I was treading water from Jan to March and Jun to July, but April and August were really nice. It requires tremendous perseverence and self-discipline to stick to your plan during months of sideways performance waiting for the right conditions to come together for your strategy to work for you. I am sure daytraders have similar frustrating sequences of trades, but over a smaller timescale. If you are easily frustrated and prone to impetuosity, trading is probably not for you. I doubt that you have a lot of capital, so you will probably have to take a job that allows you to trade also, as don't think for a minute that you can take $10,000 and be a good enough trader to live on your gains. Working the nightshift at McDonalds also will not be a lot of fun. When you have $50 - 100,000 built up and have been successful for 2 or 3 years you might consider going full-time trading. Try reading the book "How I trade for a Living" by Gary Smith to see the multi-year struggle he went through on the path to becoming a successful full-time trader. Be prepared for a similar stuggle - it ain't easy.
Most importantly think of all the women at college. I'd go just for that again. You can use the pickup line "Hey babe, I'm a daytrader," and then have her pick up the tab because your broke. So the positives of college are: 1) Most likely make a good income for the rest of your life 2) Avoid the coming military draft 3) Women in large numbers that need a tudor. 4) You'll probably save money you'd burn day trading full time. Negatives: Homework
Good Trading and a Good Education have nothing to do with each other. In fact, Victor Sparandeo once paid a guy he was training NOT TO GO TO COLLEGE.