Thanks to everyone for replying. Just turned 29 and have been working for the past 3 years trying to map things out before I jump in. Been trading since '98 so i've had my share of experience (ohhh the pain!). I lean more towards options trading, and I will have a six-figure account should I decide to do this one day. Deciding to trade for a living is actually nerve racking.... this is literally the hardest game to play on the planet.
Don't start using max leverage. Theoretically you should use no more than 60% of you total margin account to trade. And if you start with small size you can make more trades, gaining more exposure and accumulate invaluable experiences. After all there's no point in trading huge size if you don't know full well what you are capable of: once you know you can make money with 100 lot, then you can increase.
rimshaker, There are some fellas here in ET that know their options..they are going to kill me for this, but here goes...Riskarb and Maverick. I think you should talk to them and at least know half of what they know about options before getting back "in" to trade them, at least you will not be undercapitalized, from what I read. Another guy writes books...McMillan or something like that..Larry McMillan. I traded options back in the days when he was faxing his reports to me... The fact that I lost money then with options has no reflection on him or caused me to conclude that options are not profitable. Actually it caused me to realize that you must UNDERSTAND options. Wifey trades options with an advisory named, Optionsmart and her broker AutoXecutes the signals. Its been hands off for her for nearly 1.5 years. And get this! She is outperforming my Forex System! She put 7k in and took out 12.8k out and has 3.2k of house money left in the account. So she is not even trading with her money now and has 5.8k of clear profits after getting back her original 7k to boot! Michael B.
As a young canadian this is also not an issue for me. If your young and single, why not get out while you can there are some great spots up here!
Where are the great spots in Canada ? I want to buy a house up there before they close the border. Seriously.
I would suggest a HSA. I believe that stands for Healthcare Savings Account. Iâm not exactly sure of the name because I started mine out years ago when it was a test program named Medical Savings Account (MSA). The basics are: Get a health care policy (shop around) with a high deductible (mine was $3,000). It is not necessarily a âcatastrophicâ policy. Itâs just a standard policy with a high deductible. The average cost of the policy for me (40, single, no kids) has been about $100 dollars per month over several years. The way it works is you fund the account for up to twice the deductible. All of it is tax deductible (you also can earn interest on it.) You receive a check book just like a bank account (which it basically is) and anything under the deductible, you cut a check for it. Anything over it and the policy kicks in. This works very well for someone who is young and/or does not visit the doctor for every cold, hang nail,etc. I go to the doctor about once every two years for a check up and to get a prescription refilled. I generally donât even go to the same doctor twice. Now with all that being said, I have been fortunate and have only needed to visit the doctor for anything other than a check up once in the last ten years (stitches, $500). Either way, if I had to go once a year for the â$500 visit,â Itâs still a pretty good deal. As for life insurance, be practical. If you are young, no wife, no kids, then you really donât need much. A small term-life policy would work. And I do mean small. Think about what the cost of burial (sucks to think about but you must) and how much you have in debt (could be more once you start trading), and that is all you need. Anyway, just my .00002 centsâ¦