Hey. What kind of trianing did everyone do when they started Day Trading, Like did anyone go to college, or courses, workshops, Internet learning, What.?????? Thanx
I thought I'd be the first to give this answer, which likely fits many successful traders. My only training was reading books and the school of hard knocks... ;-) I've never been a believer in paying someone thousands of dollars to 'teach' you how to trade. If they were so darn good at it, then why are they 'teaching' for a living? Granted, some educational outfits are probably excellent, but I suspect the bulk of them will only help you to lose your money in the markets. -Eric
I could give a glib answer here too, but my real advice is to start watching a few stocks and get a "feel" for them. Pick say 4 or 5 stocks in 4 or 5 different industry groups. Make sure they are actively traded. Watch what these stocks do relative to each other both within their own groups and compared to the other groups. Watch what one group does compared to another. Watch what they (both the stocks and the groups) do relative to the markets as a whole.....s&p, and nasdaq. I don't think the Dow, which is only 30 stocks is all that important to watch, but watch it anyway....doesn't take much time. Look at charts of the stocks you follow. See if you recognize any repetitive patterns. Do paper trades...keep score for yourself. (Make sure you buy at the offer and sell at the bid!...it will be worse in real life, so don't cheat by going by last price). Go over your trades when you are done. See if you can spot what the winning trades had in common. What the losing trades had in common. (other than results). Don't buy stocks that are moving up very quickly. Don't try to short stocks that have sold off dramatically. Know what rules apply to shorting stocks! Don't buy stocks that are laggards. Buy the strongest stocks, short the weakest. Successful day trading consists of (IMHO) 1. Discipline 2. Timing 3. Stock Selection Hope this helps....best of luck!
You are very welcome. I tried to keep it simple, and really, it is. Notice that #1 on my list of 3 is Discipline. It is what seperates the winners from the losers. All the other stuff comes more naturally. I know it is hard to admit you are wrong and get out of a loser. It is also hard to take a winner sometimes because of greed. Set rules for yourself and stick to them. You can always change your own rules, but if (when) you do, then stick to the new ones. If you want to be a trader, you cannot be an investor (at least not with your trading money). Don't have opinions. Act and react quickly. Don't predict what tomorrow will bring. Don't be afraid to lose. It is part of the cylce. Everyone loses. The idea is to lose less. I know there are guys here that say they virtually never lose.....don't believe them. I lose frequently. I have a lot of losing days overall. But at the end of the year, I make a very respectable living. I have mentioned this before....I average maybe 1/10th of 1% per day. This means I have a high percentage of losing days. You will read on this site about the guys that make 3,4, 5% a day every day. or at least average that. ....it doesn't work that way. Why am I entrusted to trade millions of dollars and they are not if they are that much better than me? Does it make sense to you? Again, good luck and be patient. Learn from your mistakes!
Sorry I missed this.....yes, most of us went to college. I know I did. DON"T skip school to trade!!!!!
What did u take in college that helped you in day trading. Do most of day traders go to college as a back up incase you fail as a day trader.???? or Do you take college courses that help you in day Trading. Cause i thought it would help you understand day trading more if you constantly watch the markets, and learn from VERY SKILLFULL traders over the years, and learn everything they know. Cause i am very lucky i think. Im only 17 and been learning since i was 16 about the stock market, and i have 2 sucessfull traders teaching me everything they know. Is this a good start.? Cause thats what im aiming for, i wana learn Day Trading for about an extra 3 and half more years, ontop of the 1 year iv been learning now, and right now i have saved about $24,000, and by im 21 (3 years) ill have estimated close to $60,000 to start Maybe more if wages increase. What do you think Thanx for your help by the way, its helping me out alot.
Some guys will offer up tons of advice about getting a mentor and what to read and watch, etc. So I thought I would offer up this which might otherwise not get said right away. Here is what I would recommend based on what I did. First of all don't fall into the technical analysis thing. I did that....wasted 6 months probably. It can be very seductive when you are starting (I don't know if "you" are starting out so this is for everyone "new") out but the shorter the time frame the less you can trust various chart indicators. I know Jap Candlesticks and a plethora of indicators cold but the less indicators you watch or have on a chart the better. Having traded on a retail floor for a while I can tell you that their appears atleast to me to be a very high correlation between profitablity and quantity of indicators that successful traders are using. In short....less is more. The guys that use too many of them can't make decisions quick enough because they are trying to process too much information and inevitabliy one indicator will always support your position. Having said that....what worked for me is pretty much what someone else posted. Figure out whether you are better suited for scalping, or holding for a bit and then learn to specialize on one or two things. That is the only way to really get good at something quickly. I learned to specialize in one thing or two things, and eventually started to "train myself" because when I started the training was mostly based on trying to game the level II. You could specialize in a particular pattern that you see playing out repeadily or a couple of stocks or whatever but you want to specialize. Those are the guys that make $$$. For example. It is very though to trade homebuilders one day then semi's the next then a day later you are in MSFT or SEBL. They move too differently. In general what helped me is I pulled up every company in the SOX.X to start and I broke them down at home after hours. i.e. AMAT, NVLS, KLAC, etc....are the Cap Equipment companies. Then you break out the RF companies, the foundaries, the memory chips, the IC companies, the PLD's etc. One you know them....you start to get a feel about how the stocks relate and you can start to trade one stock off another...(a crutch pair). Also you will get a feel for which stocks are the leaders in that index and can pull it up or down swiftly. For example I know it is basic but the larger mkt cap stocks usually run things. However by learning them all you set your self up with a huge advantage. You know which stocks move off of wireless news, which semis go into broadband networking products, which go into printed circutboards for say Dell and SUNW products, etc, etc. For example if RFMD all of a sudden rips but you don't want to chase it, you won't just know, hey it's a semi....maybe I should buy AMAT and it will follow. You will know....hey I don't know why RFMD just ran a half point but TQNT and AHAA and CNXT sell chips to the same companies as RFMD...so I'll look to buy one of those. Belive me....it sounds subtle but it will shift the odds in your favor. After you know that index....then you add another one if you even need to. Some guys literally trade 2-3 stocks. But take any index. Or take and ETF, breakdown the components in it and you give yourself and edge. The bottom line is that you want to narrow your focus while you learn but at the same time you want to have plenty of opportunites. So keep your universe of stocks small to start. Hope I wasn't too confusing. Cheers.