JrKob mentioned downtrends and ; while we are in mostly uptrends long spanish stocks could be an advantage. Frankly dont care much shorting strong/long stuff, like homebuilders, and that is a personal decision; like to find something like INTC sector, with historical weakness. You can see on a 1 year candle chart,INTC has had a some good downtrends; including a good polar bear gap last July. And that polar bear gap down could happen to any swingtrader; however and while INTC is now uptrending again, that downtrend gap happened to a historical weak sector stock. And have ''Intel inside'' my computer, they are a fine company; hard to buck a weak sector all the time,and they sold it for several more days after the down gap.
If you system is any good you should be able run up say 20 or 50K to 100 or 200K in two or three years. Then you will have proven to yourself that you have what it takes to trade for a living, also you will have the cash to support yourself.
As far as ''Spanish stocks , you can only go long''; sometimes that s a blessing in disguise. Like for educational purposes NYSE spanish bank stocks, SBD,STD, have had some good bear downtrends; but with the average daly volume, they can easily run those up in a persons face 7-10% plus, if you could borrow them. On a stock or ETF with liquid derivatives on them, yes some have good downtrends; like to trade smaller shorts than longs, in a bull market anyway.
Your on the right track with your reading list. To that I would also add Weinstein, O'neil, Boucher. Brandon
Well first lets get your winning trades up from 45% to 50%. Its a real simple strategy....reach into your pocket, pull out a quarter(or a peso) and flip it. If you get heads, buy. If you get tails, sell. Picking the right stock is a little more difficult. First you have to tape up the Wall st. journal on your wall. then throw darts at it. Whatever the dart lands on is the stock you should trade. Thats a great way to get 50/50 on winning trades.
Whether you are flipping peso or quarter/dollars; still like to watch/move for strong bull or bear patterns . Like at the end of the day saw a whole herd of bulls running thru Spain; true its simple, but try for sure to stay on right side of strong bull moves like that.
Good suggestion. Then, the next step is to make sure you can quickly recognize bad trades. It looks like you're on a good start with that. How do you recognize a bad trade or what gets you out fo a trade?