Good day, I haven't posted here in a long time. When I joined ET I was blown away, here was the life work I had always wanted, being my own boss, unlimited income potential, trading from a beach with a Laptop, a way to get out of the job that I knew was beneath me and my talent and intellect! LOL! I found the emotional/psychological issues fascinating.I really enjoyed Mark Douglas' books and I'm re-reading them now. I am a big believer in belief systems and how we can create our lives by what we believe etc.. All the usual stuff. studied and read old threads. I read alot of books, bought books I still haven't read! I spent almost everynight reading websites about trading. I started but didn't finish a course on Market Profile. I met with local traders through the hook up forum who were only too happy to answer all my questions. I built a trading station, bought a bunch of monitors, got a line of credit for $10k. As I neared the time to open an acct and get my datafeed going. But what was I going to do? How was I going to trade? I thought I would just stare at the screen for a month watching Bond Futures and get a feel for the market, Set up the market profile, plug in some pivots and start surfing the profit wave! Luckily I started to pay attention to this funny feeling in my gut, what is that I thought??..then I realized..It was sheer terror, I came to the following conclusions, 1.I was undercapitalized 2. I had no idea what I was doing. 3. This was a recipe for disaster I stopped daydreaming about trading eventually. However I still believe that this is my future. Fast forward 4-5 yrs I have doubled my income and now have a job that has great flexibility and allows me to work from home alot,and I really enjoy it and can see doing it for several more years. I have a few more of the material things I wanted and my financial house is in better shape than ever.I'm more mature and realistic about how long the learning process here will be. So now I'm back, with $25K, money that I would hate to lose but if I did it wouldn't put me on the bridge if I did. So that's my background, what i am hoping to get in this thread is some solid advice/conversation on which markets and what type of strategy would work best for me. I am not a strong technical person, I think my strengths are in my pschological awareness,patience,and a healthy fear of blowing up. What would be better, stocks,futures? position size? I really feel like I'm starting with a clean slate but a decent level of basic info. I think swing trading,trend following is more my style, I watch the ES on a simulator and it looks like crack for traders! I am a bit embarrased that I have never placed a trade, but feel good that I didn't blow that 10K on trading. I've busted my ass the last few years to put myself in this situation and I am really looking forward to joing the ranks of trader! TIA Siwash
Congrads on doubling your seed $. Most people would've blown that wad 5 yrs ago. This is a very unusual post. Never read nothing like it. It brings to mind that ...... well..... Do you think that gut feeling you got 5 years ago could've been you 5 years from now, going back 10 years to give you a warning? If so the warning worked, because you kept the 10k and indeed now have 25K. Do you think if you begin trading and slowly lose it, till say 5 years from now and end up depressed and in dept, that you could go back in time and warn yourself not to get into trading??? makes you think
Give it a couple of years of intensive work, you will crack it. Trading is like a nut, before you crack it, nothing works; once you crack it, it's so easy.
I completely disagree. Think and grow rich will not make a person wealthy. It only convinces themselves they are special, while they fork over $5000 to one more vendor, trying to learn how to get rich quick Trading is like business. You need a competitive edge - SOMETHING that outperforms. It takes a LONG time to get there, and most never will. Most businesses fail; a much higher percentage of traders will also. Trading is like going to Vegas. The house edge will grind believers down quickly. The cardcounter (may) have an edge. I never remember meeting a successful trader who got there because he kept a picture of $10 million on his refrigerator or listened to success tapes. He got there from thousands of hours of screen time, or through some other paths to find his edge. And even when you have an edge, you often need to find another when that one dissipates. And you need advanced money management methods, or your edge is no help when you piss away your trading capital via broker problems, overleveraging just once too often, errors or other problems. Believe, conceptualize and dream all you want. You just completed Step 1 of 850 steps.
I agree with everything you've written, my referance to belief systems is more about if you can't believe it will happen for you it probably won't... I never called it an edge..I know I need a real edge,system etc. thanks for your reply.
To a point. I mean I can believe that my ass isnt killing me from having a bone marrow test but that doesnt change the fact that it's pretty sore If your no good at technicals obviously you should look at either a fundamental or quantative approach so that you do find an edge. Each of us has to find which area's we perform the best in, what we are comfortable with and go towards that.
Wow thats a different kind of post. Not the typical I quit college, so I can trade forex for a living post. It goes without saying, but you need to get your confidence up. When you see a good trading opportunity, you need to be thinking I would walk 10 miles to my broker just to place that trade. Honestly though, its a bit disconcerting that you dont know if you should trade futures or stocks. Your goals arent realistic either. Despite with some ETers might say, you cant trade for a living with 25k. Add a zero and the answer is maybe.
I was pretty sure I was going to start trading bond futures,possibly YM or ER2 but thought I would ask for some advice. Also I didn't state my goal as trading for a living "right now" I know I will need to grow my acct significantly before I can leave my day job, if I feel like it then. I actually enjoy my work and my job has some pretty good perks. Thanks Siwash