"Hell, someone could even recommend a book that outlines the necessary steps one should take to develop their own personal trading method which suits their own needs." http://www.edwards-magee.com/ Trading for a living by Dr. Elder
open an account with a good broker that offers u a papertrading facility; IB should do just fine. read the various pdfs instructions on their website, there u'll understand how tws [trader workstation platform] works...learn about orders routing and try to place a few trades to get a feel for it. only way to learn how to trade is by spending countless hours of screen time and by trial and error [losing trades].. books, seminars are all useless crap, even for a beginner. u got a long long road ahead of u, good luck.
I tried posting the following as an attachment but all the formating disappeared. Let's try it again: The following spreadsheet template is for backtesting an eod stock trading strategy. The first 7 columns are the free eod stock data from finance.yahoo.com "999" is just a sample last-row number, not necessarily your actual last row. The numbers of greatest interest are L4 (must be >=30 for statistical significance) and P4 (must be >1 for a useful strategy). Cell Description ---------------------------------------- A1 âXYZâ { stock symbol } A3 âDateâ A4 { most recent date in backtest } ... ... A999 { oldest date in backtest } B3 âOpenâ C3 âHighâ D3 âLowâ E3 âCloseâ F3 âVolumeâ G3 âAdj. Closeâ H3 âTypical Priceâ { ... slippage from the open (ideal trade price) } H4 @AVG(B4..D4)*G4/E4 ... ... H999 @AVG(B999..D999)*G999/E999 I3 âStrategy being testedâ I4 { buy signal, sell signal, or hold (no action) } ... ... J3 âMarket Positionâ { number of shares owned } J4 @IF(I5={buy}#AND#J5<=0, @INT(O4/H4), @IF(I5={sell}#AND#J5>=0, @IF(B4=C4#AND#D4=E4, 0, -1*@INT(O4/H4)), J5)) ... ... J999 +100 K3 âTransaction Priceâ K4 @IF(J4=J5, K5, H4) ... ... K999 +H999 L3 âCompleted Trade Countâ L4 @IF((I5={buy}#AND#J5<0)#OR#(I5={sell}#AND#J5>0), L5+1, L5) ... ... L999 +0 M3 âEquity, last transactionâ M4 @IF(J4=J5, M5, O4) ... ... M999 +J999*K999 N3 âEquity, last completed tradeâ N4 @IF(L4=L5, N5, O4) ... ... N999 +J999*K999 O1 { completed-trade commission } O3 âEQUITYâ O4 @IF(L4=0, J$999*H4, M5 + J5*(H4-K5) - O$1*(G4/E4)*(L4-L5)) ... ... P3 "Buy-&-Hold Index" P4 +O4/(J$999*H4) ... ... Q3 "Winners Minus Losers" Q4 +Q5 + @SIGN(N4-N5) ... ... Q999 +0 R3 "% Winning Trades" R4 @IF(L4=0, 0, 50*(Q4+L4)/L4) ... ... S3 "Gross Profits" S4 +S5 + @MAX(N4-N5, 0) ... ... S999 +0 T3 "Profit Factor" T4 +S4/@ABS(N4-S4) ... ...