About 16-18 years ago I tried day trading, was using Scottrade I think it was but, I was in my early 20's and had no idea what I was doing. I ended up giving up back then and went into another career field. Now Im just at that point in my life where I desperately need a change. I worked hard for people all my life and I want to break free. I started to look into day trading and upon starting some research I found a reddit thread saying that this is the place to get good recommendations. Over the years I kept thinking about trying to get back into it. I think now is the time, I hope! I am looking to start off with $1000 but if I know I can do this, I can up to $5000. This would be the max for me at this time which if I lost, I wouldnt want to jump off a cliff. It would certainly set me back and I have a new family now so I really am vested in learning a strategy that I can repeat for a sustainable income but my experience is limited to my experiment in my early 20's which didnt last long, a few weeks at most. I feel like I need to start from the ground up and learn lingo and concepts, basic workflows but I just dont know where to start other than Youtube and I am unsure how much on there is really accurate and up to date. Appreciate any words of wisdom. Thanks!
Hate to break it to you but you aren't going to be day trading with $1000, bud. Equities requires $25,000 to avoid limits. $100,000 for portfolio margin iirc. Even the micros would require more to day trade (as in, taking and living off of the profit). Don't let that discourage you. You could start small on the micros to build a bankroll or something. Just know that you won't be able to quit your day job with $1000, or $5000 for example. RE: prop firms - avoid all the ones with "combines". It's more-or-less roulette odds and their risk management is funny. Ping @bone for more information on reputable prop firms and what it takes to get into one.
I live on the west coast so I dont plan on quitting my day job, rather Id just put in the extra time early on and transition from markets to my job, which I work at home so I have the perfect opportunity to embark on this. I seen videos on youtube with people starting with $500 and growing them to 300k in a year, they call it the small account challenge. Is this just hype? I read that you can find firms to get started with that you can buy in and use them to get away from the 25k requirement for day trading. When you say micros, are you meaning OTC stocks? Sorry I am really green but genuinely interested in getting into this. @bone please oblige.
No money, new family, ton of responsibilities and no clue what you should be doing. A snowball in hell has bigger chances of making it as a daytrader. Do something else to make your change. Forget trading
Yeah, you should have mentioned that you have a job and work from home. The above is correct. You can do it, but understand that the guy doing the small challenge is a pro so you will not be able to do the same, at least not immediately. It's like watching professional boxer fighting average Joe with just one hand - he has enough skill to win even with the handicap. You, on the other hand, will most likely be KO'd. Trade Sim until consistent. Sim is not real trading, especially for low floats, so don't make rush decisions until you are consistently profitable with real money. Good luck.
Look guys, I'm really not trying to be an asshole here. It's just that everyone who decides to go for it must realise how insanely difficult trading is. The barrier to entry is basically zero so your competition is the entire world. So if you're not prepared to sacrifice everything, you won't make it. The biggest red flag in OPs post, however, is his motivation to do it. He wants to daytrade, because he wants a change in life. He wants freedom, he wants independence, he's sick of his old life and therefore he wants to trade. How many people do you know who made it big anywhere because they wanted to get away from something? The only way to really pop off is when you trade because you love to trade. And that's it. So @Fabes, no offense, but I feel like I can save you a lot of pain and trouble by being a bit harsh. Try to get away from everything for a week or so and deeply think about what you really love to do. What you like doing, even if you don't get paid for it. And then try to find a way to make a living out of it. Most likely, trading is not it
My advice would be to open an account with 5K. Trade either fractional shares or micro futures. Be your own prop firm. Keep the moneyyy.
Not to mention disposable money. I threw 10k at an experiment here and blew it up within weeks https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/intraday-trend-following.339997/page-10#post-5026085 I don't give much of a shit, but don't have a wife to explain it too, and have no problem living on a shoestring, though I don't. Also, if this was a 6-7 figure account, or my last slice of bread, I'd be on it like flies on shit. Many here will disagree, but 1/2 the knowledge you need cannot be acquired without real money on the line, and it can't be taught since much of that is based on principles and respect for risk. This won't be acquired for years, or never, since newer traders wash out rather quickly.
Great advice thanks. Ill just remember not to come here for motivation haha. Tough crowd. Ok so I made my initial post pretty desperate. I work for a software firm so Im not living on pennies, but I want a better life, where Im not reporting in to anyone or have anyone over me. I can cut costs to reduce overall cost of living but my current sticking point is my cash flow is tight because I have a lot of stuff on credit atm. I could just sell stuff off, but id rather build up. People said I also couldn't flip a house with no experience, but I have two under my belt already. I used hard money loans and got my flips done and closed within 4 months on each cycle from purchase to close. Unfortunately instead of investing all that money I used it to buy my house and truck to set myself up for awhile. Other than that, I have coordinated and managed integration platforms between major software deployments that serve millions of customers daily. I think the best advice given so far was from @Sekiyo thanks for something with substance.