Just wanted to get some of your opinions as to whether I should start trading now or wait until the new year, so I can elect mark-to-market status. I've recently sold my business and I guess...unemployed. I've got enough cash to last me 10+ years and am pretty bored. I'd like to start trading, but don't know if I should start now or wait until the new year. Any suggestions?
Paper trade until the New Year.. market going through a transition right now and you'll benefit from honing your craft without psychological pressure.. there will be enough of that later
If you can trade it should not matter if the markets going up or down. A good trader will go long or short, so any volatility is a good thing. This market is certainly volatile.
I am a long term investor educating myself prior to trading, so I am not qualified to respond to the technical aspect of your question regarding trading. If you are a newbie as well, I would like to share what I have learned to date. If you are experienced in trading then the following may help another newbie who chances upon this thread. If you do not have trading experience, it is highly recommended by most sources that you thoroughly educate yourself prior to trading. This includes determining your trading style, day, swing position, equities, options etc. Then you must develop your trading system, risk and money management and paper trade until you are consistently profitable. Then and only then should you trade "live" real money, and initially only small amounts to reinforce your discipline and emotions. This is not learned in a short period of time, 6-months to a few years appears to be what most people take just to obtain the minimal amount of understanding. Regarding this website, you will find a variety of personalities. There are some extremely intelligent and helpful individuals who post here, but unfortunately as in live there exists a tremendous amount of negative and abusive individuals. This will become quite evident in a short period of time. My suggestion, is to learn as much as you can be reading past posts and formulating intelligent and specific questions. The more effort you show, the better quality the feedback. I hope this may be of some help, Safe trading
1. Why do you want to trade? (boredom?) 2. What do you want to trade? You might want to try position/swingtrading first and yes, paper for practice...
I've been paper trading stocks & etfs for the last 2 months. Seems like I've got it down But then again, everything seems easy from the sidelines. I opened my account with IB today (25k) and we'll see how it goes. No one really answered my real question, as far as, does not having mark-to-market status debilitating enough to put me at a serious disadvantage. I guess I'll find out soon enough. P.S. Please...no more emails asking to borrow money. LOL Who the F* would lend money to anyone they don't know? Hell, I don't lend money to the people I like/love....let alone complete strangers on ET. :eek:
You have to request Mark to Market status in the previous year for the following year. Have you looked into that? You also need significant trading activity. Why not trade a couple of years first. If I read your post correctly you have been paper trading for TWO MONTHS? It's gonna take a lot more than that to tell if you can do it.
i know I'm not "ready" to rake in the $ just yet....but I'm well versed in economics and finance and have read numerous books the past year.....I don't plan on trading lots bigger than 100-200 shares for the time being. I'll probably lose a good chunk of my initial funds before "getting" it......which I'm completely willing to accept. (Hell, it'll be a whole lot cheaper than all the damn private school and university tuitions that was spent in the past). I've been quite successful in all of my business ventures to date (don't get me wrong...there have only been 2, but then again I'm only 28). I figure this 25k is somewhat of a "tuition" LOL I have no problems with failure, as it will be a learning experience in an of itself. Wish me luck... P.S. About the mark-to-market status.....I figure I'll start trading now....and elect m2m status when I file my 07' taxes to be eligible for 08'.