1. Find your niche. Based on your past experience, identify the sector or financial instrument that you know best. You'd be surprised at how much you don't know that you know, and how applicable it is to trading. For example, if you worked for the electric company, focus on utilities. Worked in telecom? Focus on service providers: AT&T, Verizon, etc. Mechanic? GM, Caterpillar, John Deere. A jeweler? Focus on precious metals. Etc. 2. Focus on your niche. Get really good at understanding your slice of the market. Work to understand its ebb and flow. What moves the needle? Listen to the quarterly calls for companies in your niche. Read, read, read!!! If you do this, it's surprising how you start bumping into familiar names in the market. You'll get realizations like, - "I know them! They're a great brand. It was a workhorse at my job seven years ago; never let me down." - "Oh crap not this brand. That stupid thing never worked right. I remember when I got called in three weekends in a row because it kept breaking down. I would never do business with that company." 3. Place your bets based on this understanding.
First and foremost: don't read books, follow trading courses and avoid the crowd, as if you do like most of the traders you end up like them, losing. Paper trade for as long as it is necessary to understand how price move, best done by focusing on one market and one instrument. Get to know how price move by hart. There is no shortcut and no substitute for screen time experience read lawrence-lugar post and follow his very good advice! Good luck!
1. Watch some videos and read some books. (1,000 hours or more) Continue reading and studying the subject the rest of your life. I've been trading 48 years, and I still study and learn every day. 2. Paper trade. (2-3 months minimum) 3. When you're ready to commit real money, find a mentor and pay him/her a lot of money (whatever you can afford) to teach you. I'm not talking about classes or CDs. Find a real person who trades and pay them for one-on-one mentoring. (1-2 months)
Trading newbies should stick to one particular play at first, then expand into others. For example, start first on trading stocks that are moving because of earnings. Then next, start trading stocks that are making new highs or new lows. Etc.
Capital Preservation , Make a plan so at least it takes a long time to blow up account . Max the time to learn before you give up in despair before you work it out , experience all that will get you through to consistent profitability ...