I don't think you need much effort to trade stocks; unlike like futures or fx. There are several strategies; swings and channel trades (best); pullback, and reversal... Most of these methods will work really well with TA especially MACD but always keep in mind for PA when things are looking a little fuzzy. If you need some intro on price you can go to Dan Zanger web site for the brief training video. Good trading, sg20
guess i can put in 10 - 12 hr days. But I dont know what to do with that time. --------------------------- Piece of cake. Here's the plan. Pick one stock. Decide in the morning, if it is going up or down that day. If it goes up, write down every reason you can think of why it went up. If it goes down, write down every reason why it went down. Part two; If you guessed wrong, write down every reason you are wrong. Part three: If you are right, write down every reason you are right. Repeat this process until you have a large stack of papers. You can then write a book that people will buy and throw out, or not write a book and throw them out yourself. Drinking is something to do until one gets drunk. Trading is something to do till one goes broke. (all in fun) good luck.
Depends on what kind of results you want. Put some more time and effort, you'll get more results. Question is, how far are you willing to go? How determined are you? Give-up-your-wife-and-kids-determined? No joke, it could come to that if you are that deadset on succeeding. For someone already with a steady career and a family life, the key word for you is going to be -sacrifice-. Be prepared.
If trading is your passion, you will be obsessed with ideas rattling around your head and will delve into trying to figure out problems and test new ideas. It will consume you. It's what's on your mind when you go to bed and what you think about most waking moments. You just have to keep banging away until you have an epiphany of some sort. If it's not in your blood like that, I think you have 2 strikes against you already. Once you are experienced and comfortable with what you are doing, then it's more like cruise control. But the learning curve can be tortuous. The trick is to last long enough until the light bulb goes on.
The trick is to last long enough until the light bulb goes on. ------------------------- Friends and family with words of encouragement "You still doing that?" "Give it up." Me - mumbling to myself "Well, they've never been to OZ, how would they know".
It's not really about the number of hours. Just like what lescor said, it's more about what kind of PASSION do you have for trading. If you are really passionate about trading, you will end up putting in enough effort and make it work. If you half-ass it because you're not sure, then more than likely whatever effort you put into it won't matter.
Not only is not just about the hours or in the passion, its also about ability. You could work 24/7 for the next 5 years and still not "get it". While there is no magical formula that makes a good trader and theoretically everyone is equal in their ability to succeed or fail, you really need to take a hard look at yourself and decide if you are cut out for it or not.
Well stated Corey. To the OP the problem with trading is twofold. First, there are hundreds if not thousands of ways to win. But will they hold up? There is a lot to be said for the golden handcuffs of a job. Uncertainty is the jedi mind trick of trading. Can you deal with it? Thats why the rewards are so great if you win Second, your mind (the human mind) seeks perfection and in trading there is none. When you win, You will never buy the low tick. You will never sell the high tick. And when you lose it seems that as soon as you get out, the market turns around. If you dont have the passion Corey talks about, the frustration will break you. The single biggest thing imo to surviving this racket is learning how to take the loss while developing your methodology Understand this... Even the greatest running backs in the NFL wear pads. Why? Because they're going to get hit. Hard. There is no running back so fast, so strong, so agile, that they cant be tackled. Obvious right? But believe me, a hard hit trading can be MORE troubling psychologically, emotionally, mentally, and physically than a broken leg playing ball. There is nothing worse than a trader who cannot trade. You cant trade if you're trading scared of losing money. Who has lost more money than Warren Buffet? Who has struck out more than Babe Ruth? Yet you dont remember them for that do you? It's a mind set. Can you control the loss well enough to allow yourself time to perform? Dont neglect your family. Or your health. Trading is my life but there is no success without those two things. What you want is few trades but better set ups. Follow a handful of stocks. Everyday work on a methodology that will allow you to anticipate their movements. Because that is all you can do. Remember there are no gurus and there is certainly no magical indicator that never fails. Would you rather be "right" or make $ ? The two are not the same thing. Good luck.
trades made 5% or more - 21 trades made 0 -5% - 13 trades lost 5% or more - 16 Trades lost 0-5% - 11 Analysing the trades only 3 or 4 trades were responsible for pretty much all of my losses. One of which was Asti. I bought lot more shares than i should have near 10.50 watched it go down to 7 and unloaded all of them. And watched it zoom to 24.