Good Luck on the Future. I've had difficulties in business and i'm currently taking a break from that life for awhile-hang in there.
Well, I've been given a 2nd life by one of the last people I expected to want to help me stay in the business, my Dad. I started putting out resumes right away and actually have a 3rd shift job working at a company that makes metal casts. After I caved in and told my parents that I had stopped trading and the circumstances I got a lecture along the same lines that I got when I quit the business world to trade for a living. Ah, how times change. Anyway while I was in college working on the finance degree, and for a few years after while working, I'd throw out investments to my Dad that I was researching at the time. He took 4 of those and bought 100 shares each and is still holding them. Those 4 that I guess I was most vehement about were MSFT, CSCO, CAT, and WMT. He did say I talked him out of DELL because I said there was no way they could compete against the big guys, ooops. Anyway he said he would give me a a chance to restart if I wanted out of a portion of those profits. At first I said no I need to get away, but over the last week I've decided to take him up on the offer. I set conditions though. I told him I will show him my trades daily as often as possible and at least weekly and explain why, while going through them on a chart. There are a few others related to my trade plan, but for me one of the more important ones is he can turn off my trading if I start to jump off plan, and start experimenting in real time again. The account will have both our names on it so that he can actually close the account. Some of it seems severe to me even though they are my ideas, but I know I can trade, I just lose the needed discipline. Part of the new plan is to walk away during the day for at least an hour to help clear my head as in the past I think boredom during the day was one of my devils. My job allows for at least 3 days off during the week where I can trade all day where I think I may have problems, otherwise it will be the 1st hour or two only, then time to sleep. Sorry for the ramble, but I may try a journal again, strictly daytrading futures for now and I'd thought I'd give a background on why I'm here again. And thanks to my Dad, I haven' always followed the best path, but I will figure it out. On this Veterans Day, thank you to all who have served and preserved this country and others around the world!
better choice: You don't need any capital to trade, basically trading 100 shares won't get you anywhere. So why trade 100 shares. Just open up an IB account and trade 10 shares of QQQ. Capital around $500-1000 Trade it till you can double it. Once you do double it, scrape up some money like $5k and join a prop firm and get buying power $100k Only way you can make money from 100 -500 shares is if you hold for years, thats not trading, thats investing. Don't waste your dads capital, its useless endeavor.
Thanks for the input, but success trading hasn't been as much of the problem as the loss of discipline while trading and going off on a tangent from my plan. I do like your idea though and sounds like a great idea for someone to learn in real time and not get hurt too bad.
tango..... Please allow me to give you some honest advice. don't start off trading to make big bucks. You should start trading to learn how to trade....the $$ will follow. Paper trade first.....if you cant make any money paper trading, how do you expect to make money using real account...with all the extra demons that come when you using real money. Tales of people starting out with 1K or 2K and turning it into 100K in a few years...are just that, ...tales. Even people that say they went from 10K to millions is only half true. Fact is they started with alot more money...but gradually lost it. Then comes a point in time , where everything "clicks" and they become profitable....with enough money left in the account where they can recover ......having the knowledge and experience to gradually bring it up. You need money to buy time......to learn and to gain experience. There is a 95% failure rate. Understand and respect that number and you will increase your odds.....for it will effect how you think and take on trades. Best of Luck fellow trader.
Not a rousing start. Had a hard time getting back to pulling the trigger. As a result only took 3 trades out of quite a few more. I need to review all tonight. So, add those 3 commissions to the loss.
If anyone was following I will be back to it in a week or so, I think. Wife tried to kill me and I'm out of business until I heal. I didn't know she had put a big, sharp knife in the dish water when I wasn't looking. Very sharp! Knew I had cut my hand, but didn't realize how bad until I pulled it out of the water and ran water on it to clear the blood and realized I could see bone, tendons, blood vessels,etc. Boy did I realize how much it hurt when I saw all that! Looks like everything still works and I should have full use, so now I just get to have fun bringing up how she almost killed me.