I just noticed your comment about "what did you learn in college that would help with trading'....well, since I happen to teach trading in our local college, and have students from other Universities tell me that they never, ever, heard about any of the things I was teaching...it backs ujp my feeling that there just aren't many courses designed for actual trading. Many courses are retail orientated, customer motivated, and taught by academics who have never even seen a trading floor. In our traders class, we teach the basics: how markets work, how trades are executed, how the Specialists work, how MM's work, how ECN"s work, and then we finish by saying that this is all just one big game...and shouldn't be taken too seriously. A game played by experts and novices alike, and I bet on the experts!! Don
On the job training was my best teacher. Also, reading books on technical analysis and picking the brains of the best traders. I don't think the courses you took in college has any bearing on trading success. I think better indicators are a high degree of competitiveness, strong self-discipline and a great work ethic.
rtharp. Just a quick question, "It took me over 2 years but I am now a graduate of IITM's master trader program" How much money did this cost you? Are all of these classes done independently? Wondering
My advice: 1.Open an account with IB 2. Start buying or selling 100 shares of stock $25-40 a share with liquidity over 250,000 s./day . 3. Regarding strategy, all you have to think about is CUTTING LOSSES. The whole purpose is TO TRADE. Do not think too hard. Too much thinking is detrimental to your trading. 4. Observe yourself,your trades and write the observations down. 5. After 30-40 trades go back and study what happened. You should have some idea what it is all about. P.S. If you find out you really cannot cut the losses STOP trading. If you still cannot bring yourself to CUT LOSSES later on, go to college! That's really all you should do.
Sounds almost identical to what i said.....except i suggested paper trading first. But I agree with all you say here (especially since it is essentially what I said...look back to the first page of this thread..and my follow up on the second page)
Sorry...when I said "know the rules of shorting" I was not refering to this. I merely meant that he should understand the regulations regarding shorting....upticks on NYSE, uptick bids on nasdaq, what a zero plus tick means, stuff like that. How to avoid a short squeeze? Totally different question, and I wish I had a pat answer. They can be painful for sure. All I can say is sometimes you just have to cover into up movement. Unpleasant; but sometimes it's the only way. Remember, you can always re-enter a position you believe in. Taking a loss doesn't mean you can't try the same strategy on the same issue again later. NO ONE has perfect timing all the time.
At CME, I worked for a trading company which when they got a new guy into the pit, all they wanted to see him doing was take a trade and get out over and over again. Making money, at that point, was irrelevant. First thing was learn to take a loss and move on to the next that's it. Simple stupid but really the wisest thing newbee can do.
Interesting that so many concentrate on "cutting losses"...which is akin to going in to play a baseball game, and saying to the team..."just be careful not to lose by too much"..... I plan on my people having more profitable trades than losses...and since it is 'just money" why can we not assume the positive, and still watch out for the negative ...if and when it happens (of course we will lose sometimes, but don't go into a trade with that as your primary plan). Don
Don is right. I mean you have to be able to cut losses but your main goal should be profit not how slow can you lose your account.
OK...you are correct. I over-reacted. But you are wrong if you think teenagers are not impressionable....perhaps you were not, (or are not), but for the most part......well why do you think the armed forces want young guys to train their way? (just one example that comes to mind). What set me off is your dismissing the value of education. Saying it is over rated! I went to college. I went to grad school. I learned nothing there about trading. But I learned things that are important to me in my life. Trading is not life. It is just how I make money. But my education opened doors to me. Most likely I never would have gotten into trading if I hadn't gone the circuitous route I did. But that is something I will never really know. I do know my life would be different though without my education. And NOT for the better! Read what guys like Darkhorse or Stu or Commiso said in the thread about Superstition. These are educated people. They can express their views coherently and concisely. They can construct sentences. They avail themselves of vocabularies that are born in education and reading. Look at how rtharp can express himself. EDUCATION PAYS!!! And I don't necessarily mean with dollars. So excuse me for getting upset with you for minimizing the value of education. I felt it was inexcusable to discourage a 17 year old from pursuing an education. Sorry I let loose on you. You are entitled to your opinion. Just some opinions seem to me to be inappropriate in certain circumstances. I thought this was such a circumstance. I see now that Kastro is probably someone who doesn't need much of a push to avoid furthering his education. He seems set in his plans to be what he wants to be and forego an education other than one that will help him in his one specific goal. That is fine. It is rare to find a 17 year old that KNOWS what he wants to do. Perhaps he can just learn spelling, grammar, and self expression through charts and trading courses and experiences like using a level 2 terminal.