I agree with Darkhorse...Once your money is on the line, all of the seminars and training will go right out the window...Every trader has a "different" personality in the markets...Some can only trade breakouts, others can only fade breakouts...It is so highly personalized that training, aside from the most basic information, often hinders rather than helps... And once you are in trades, you are far more sensitive to the trading environment than when trading on "paper" which does not simulate anything aside from fantasy...
Dark Horse sums it up well. You can read a book on swimming etc, but one day you have to enter the water and swim. So get off your butt and get to it. Toby
"3) Trade with IB in teeny tiny lots never risking more than a very small portion of your stake on any one trade." What does IB stand for?
You may want to consider working a "second job" while learning how to trade. There are internship possibilities for College age people who want to trade. The person who said to save up a few grand is right....heck, we have traders in Las Vegas who work (makes it easy, 24 hour town and all)..and trade as well. If you don't have $25K, then pick up $10K or so and work your way up to profitability. Don't get caught up in the "bad market" talk, but also don't get rushed into it either. This is a profession, and like any profession, it takes time to get rolling.
"You may want to consider working a "second job" while learning how to trade. There are internship possibilities for College age people who want to trade." Where can I find out more about internship possibilities? I've seen them with larger brokers and financial institutions, but very rarely with smaller companies - especially related to trading rather than investing
Let's not forget the Money Management ! Trading is like a business, you need a business plan. For example, you have 25K$ (your $$ or ... better...the trading firm's $$ ), and you give yourself at least 6 months go 'learn' to trade... 25K divided by 6mth = 4000$ / mth divided by 4 = 1000$ / week (200$ / day). You therefore have your weekly 'stop goal'. If you lost 1000$ per week everyweek, you'll be gone in 6 mths. If you wanted to stay in the game longer than six months, you'll have to avoid this 1000$ loss per week, i.e. if buy Tuesday, you're already down 980$, you stop trading for the rest of the week, and go thru' your trades to see how or why the loss , than head to the pub's terrace for a cool imported beer Personnaly, I have never met or heard of a trader who could make it in 6 mths. Cheers !