Hand Backtest theories and ideas, find a profitable one, and then throw money at it cautiously. It's really that simple.
Send me US$1295.00 (WAIT! Today only, and for you only {or for anyone else you know or have ever met}, a special price of US$795.00) Then, re-read Palindrome's post. Weekly.
I don't think it works this way. I think you start trading (paper or small amount) based on what you currently know. You see it's not quite working. You start looking for answers. You read and watch YouTube and see how others deal with similar issues. Your experience trading will start guiding you as far what fits your personality and what doesn't. Some say use large stops, and they are right. Some say use tight stops, and they are right. Keep an open mind, but don't trust/believe anyone ... just add ideas you like into your trading. Once you know what your believes are, search for people with similar believes. This will take years, btw. There is a faster alternative (short cut) ... find a guru/mentor that you think knows what he/she is doing. Remove all the garbage you have in your head and fill it with whatever they teach you(possibly garbage as well). Commit to their style 100%, don't question it, and just perfect the execution of it. Almost any style can be made to work once you start getting the feel for the market. Automation is a tool, not an edge. You need to know what you are doing first and maybe later think of automating it. Now if you like to program and look through the data, then yes, start playing with data and looking for what works and what doesn't work. Again, this is finding your individual little niche ... which rabbit hole will you enjoy the most?
https://www.youtube.com/user/duomoinitiative/featured + https://www.youtube.com/user/Trading212/featured & a MUST : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdnzT5Tl6pAkATOiDsPhqcg/videos?sort=da&flow=grid&view=0 + mobile app ,,TraderTrainer'' ( for practice while in bus etc ) & forget all of the indicators for a while, then focus only on price action, see what happens. IB has a good demo, with few flaws, TDAmeritrade probably too ? ( not allowed in my country ), NinjaTrader demo, few flaws as well, DasTrader ( speedtrader ) , 14 days free trial. How many trades per month on avarage you do ? ( me > 800 ) How much of the screen time you got ? ( me > each day premarket, and all day long till market closes ) Have you got trading journal ? ( me > yes ) http://picdeer.com/media/1919137317202955318_4371330990 It helps a lot to reflect on your risk managment. Check the life stories of the great ones, Ray Dalio ( Bridge Waters ), P.Tudor Jones, Mark Howards ( Oak Tree ), Ken Fisher ( Fisher Investments ), Bill Ackman ( bad move on Herbal life, whatever ) etc., Because it is quite lonely in this road, so that will keep you inspired, for a greater vision. Best of luck Curious.
I would like to recommend you to start your trading as a long-term trader or less risky trader. You have to plan for a week or month if you want to stay secure. Day trading is quite hard as the market behaves badly during a day. Am I right folks?
Recently based on KO and FB ( and not ), it behaves even worse(( or better if one is aware, on what's about to happen )) after the hours. There should be correlation, on how fast one learns it & how much screen time/trades he make. If avarage investor is making 10 trades a year ( less/more ) and has zero to 1/2 hours of screen time per year ( but has 5 hours with zacks ,,news" ! ), & in second hand , you have someone, whos, looking at stock behavior in premarket, during the day and afterhours, every single day, ( loooong, unpayid, ,,holidays" are required for this ) and makes 500 trades per month, also checks balance sheets for each stock, then there should be no surprise why some, ,,got it" much faster.