No offense intended, but you began this thread with "please clarify something for me" and you're working toward 200 posts, which suggests that you are instead looking for multi-mentoring. How much preparation have you done for all this? What have you read? What have you studied? How have you prepared? Do you have any idea what it takes even to begin?
Stephen, with due respect, the above is still valid in your case. Having bulldozed my way through close to 2000 trades, I would not wish for you to be on the receiving end.
Quote from Lamont_C: How much preparation have you done for all this? What have you read? What have you studied? How have you prepared? Do you have any idea what it takes even to begin? ************************************************ This is why I come here. Is there some maximum number of posts I am allowed per day? At work there is a saying: "There are no stupid questions, just stupid people." I thought ET was all about learning and throwing out ideas for constructive criticism. If people don't want to answer my questions due to time constraints or for any other reason, that's fine with me. Confused, -Stephen
There is no maximum number of posts per day. And the issue is not whether people are willing to answer your questions. The issue is the adequacy of your preparation, and if you're planning on learning everything you need to know from message boards, you're going to be in big trouble. So, I ask again, what if anything are you bringing to the table? Or are you looking to be tutored from square one? If the latter, there's no law against it. But you should at least be honest about it so that posters know what they're getting into.
Stephen, we all sincerely want you to be a successful trader. However, it is a case of having the right foot forward first. One only knows what it is like to cross a mine field, after one has crossed it. It can be done the easy way or some other way.
Unrelated to your recent post exchanges: -There are stupid questions. Sometimes people just take the easy path of asking, without firstly giving it a thought. They waste other people time, and don't learn much either. I'm not inferring in any way that this is the case here. -On ET and other message boards, quite often people ask questions then start arguing when they get valuable answers they don't like or don't understand. Again, I'm not inferring in any way that this is the case here. -The person who asks for knowledge should recognize his pupil position and be respectful. In no way I'm inferring that there's a high probability to get a valuable answer on a message board, but it happens once in a while, and unfortunately it gets wasted.
Thanks for the replies. I guess I should say some about my level of understanding, and so on. Recently I've been thinking about trading a lot. Enough to actually get into posting here and such. Being a trader is not at all a new thing to come into my mind however. I've been trying to understand what I call the nitty-gritty aspects of trading over the past week or so. Placing orders on-line, etc. The Ninja videos have been very helpful,the DOM and all that. As far as charting goes...I had a stack of charts at least 10 (maybe 12) inches high a long time ago. I threw them all out. I could understand the analysis after the fact, but that served no purpose. I suppose I have to get back into charts again. I don't think I could write a 'system' in some programming language. I might post some more tonight. Probably little or none after that until Wednesday though. If/when I ask a stupid question, you all will have to remember that I have never traded. -Stephen
In that case, it is better to start with options rather than futures. Reason being, that you only put down a premium with options, as opposed to futures, where your stops are going to keep on getting hit. Also you learn the time game, and how to take your profits once you have made it. An analogy would be: it is better to be the co-pilot while you are learning to fly.