I wrote, once you know how to read a chart, then look for some holy grail trading method That was supposed to say then forget about looking for some holy grail method. Holy Grail methods don't exist and don't work, they are scams. Remember, back and forward test your trade set up to know its expectancy. This will give the confidence to execute with time.
============ mikeRex Be extra polite/helpful to roomate [Uncle] ; even if you do want to work a trading business yourself. Take your college rule notebook & write down every day; open ,high , low ,close , ..........symbol BST price, [bear] you should learn some thing, & that helps separate you from herd. And if you are not lazy, write , study & study/ponder every BST monthly close [all data, & i mean all data]. Jack Schwager 3 top trader books are pretty much king of the trading books. Profitlogic is right do NOT treat trading as a hobby, its not a hobby; wisdom is profitabke to direct
To trade, a necessary knowledge of the market is necessary. Hence the need for the WSJ and CNBC. Granted, I guess you could trade on pure technicals or buy a "system" and just point and click. But, you don't learn jack shit and you're pretty much useless to any actual trading desk or hedge fund. It sounds like the original poster is coming into this with practically no knowledge, thus the WSJ is a very good starting point. With a paper trading account, you can leverage what you've learned to a trading environment without the blowups so common with daytraders. Treat trading as a hobby meaning don't get emotional about it. The second you get emotional about your trades, your positions, the market, the second you stop thinking rationally and you start making stupid decisions. 90% of trading is risk management. Paper trading allows you to build your risk management skills without actually risking capital. Granted, there is an added emotional factor once you actually start trading your own cash, but buy making your mistakes early, without risking capital, you're far better off. I'm not saying you randomly throw cash at a trade and hope it produces information. In fact, that wasn't what I was implying at all. I meant to treat the paper account like a real account, and make trades as you would in a real account. Everything takes time, especially trading. Bottom line, DO NOT expect to live off of daytrading if you have no experience. Get a real job, daytrade in your spare time (such as the asian market when you're not at work). If trading is really for you then transition from your full-time job into something that will get you noticed on a trading desk.
I dont know Check the USAtoday business school rating Penn State is top 15 And with a 60M dollar new business building - that is surely to bump us up.
http://collegeadmissions.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/laissez-faire-1999-2000.txt laissez faire rankings. Its dated. However, if you think that NYU, UCLA, or georgetown stand a shot against amherst, williams, or swarthmore, you'd be sadly mistaken in some graduate application process (law, doc, ect...some kind of non-science/non-phd program) with that said, I think actual employers, HR, in non-academic related fields pay more attention to other things. like if they know the name of your school. Schools with a local reputation, despite being ranked lower on absolute terms, seem to be able to make shit happen for their graduates. Think University of Michigan vs. Vasser. I doubt anyone in good ole michigan gives a flying fuck about some elite school in NY. Except of course U of M law, business, med, ect. But employers?? I'd be shocked.
This is absolutely the best advice ever posted towards college kids interested in trading. All you have to do is set aside 1 semesters worth of tuition aside as risk capital, read the trading literature classics, seek out a veteran trader to guide you, and give it a shot for 1-2 years. If you like it then you can finish the remain college credits part-time taking night classes. If you find out trading is not for you then you can finish college and go on to do something you really enjoy. I was I had read this advice while I was in college during the 98-00 boom years. This is the easy path. The more difficult path is to finish college first, get a job to pay off college debt and save up risk capital, quit your job, and try to teach yourself how to trade - you may call yourself a "trader" but your really just unemployed. You only become a trader once you start making money consistently almost every week/month just like you only become a lawyer once you actually start practicing law and a doctor once you start practicing medicine.
Bottom Line: You've gotta do what you are passionate about - this is with regard to anything - not just trading. If you feel that you would wake up everyday excited to go to work as a daytrader, then try it. Active market involvement is so hard and provides such a thin margin of error, that I advise anyone who isn't 100% passionate about it, to try thier luck elsewhere for a steady paycheck. The reality is that you probably won't know this until you go work for someone and hate it. That said: If you are 100% passionate about trading for a living and aren't doing it solely for the money, the experience is like none other. I'd also like to echo previous posters who alluded to the abundance of dubious operations and shady firms out there. You must recognize that any schmoe can open an account and start an LLC and call themselves a trading firm. You've gotta approach the firm you choose as your first trade. See the forest from the trees - if it looks/seems like obvious hype by a con-artist it probably is. Stacked bids are often a contraindiction of upward movement.