I've sat next to great traders. It doesn't work unless you can match their volume, willingness to take the pain and have the capital to take the pain. I could not follow 3 traders making over 300K a year. I used their methods on lighter volume, but the great traders are using 5000 - 10000 shares per trade. Are you able and willing to hold that much. 10 cents against you is a $1000 or more loss in seconds. Are you willing to do that? That is what it would take. Take a low cost claas like Bright offers. You will not learn how to trade inthe 3 day class, but you will get exposure to the many trade techniques available and try them yourself until you find some that work and build from their.
The problem here is that you are asking the wrong question. Rather than seeking to find a mentor, you should be seeking to be someone's apprentice. The question isn't what can you do for me, it is what can I do for you? Any trader who makes bank does not need to waste his time or have you pay him to watch what they do. What do YOU bring to the equation? I am willing to be Miyagi to your daniel-san. But like Miyagi said, you will do everything I tell you without questions or hesitations. Something tells me that you do not possess the determination for such an arrangement, which is why ultimately you will fail. Can you prove me wrong? p.s. Nothing sexual LOL.
gptrader, my sentiments exactly. Many would be traders can't "copy" what their mentors do because they are either not ready mentally or financially.
First off.. you have to decide why you want to trade, other than make money. Do you NEED to make money? If so, go get a job, cuz the need to pay bills will overwhelm you in the early months. If you WANT to make money, and can afford to take 6-12 months to really give yourself a chance to learn, answer this question. Cay you do anything someone else can do, given the same opportunity and tools? If you answered yes, and truly believe it, then you'll succeed, eventually. Your inner self won't allow you to give up. Forget about a prop desk. You're gonna spend 5K doing some "intensive " training. Then, you're gonna trade the firms money, on a very tight leash. Even at that, you'll probably blow out your account and be gone in a few months or sooner. No way, they let you trade down past your "tuition". Take the 5K, put it into a prop account, with a legit firm, that has good risk management. This will keep you from losing too much too fast. Have them set your daily loss at say $100 to start out. Get a quality pc, at least 2 monitors, more as you progress. Read, Read, READ. Everything trading, your gonna live and breathe trading. Get the books on technical analysis, psychology, methods, read them all. You'll find dozens of indicators, read about them, try to understand how they work, then ignore most all of them. Just use stochastics or macd. They will suffice. Watch EVERY video you can find, youtube is full of them, I'm not recommending any specifics. Start making some trades, 100 shares at a time. Keep it simple, know how much you're willing to lose, and adhere to that stop. If you want to risk $25...then don't trade AAPL, IBM, XOM, etc. Stay with some less expensive and slower, like MSFT, GE, etc. You're gonna learn by trial and error what works and doesn't. Ask yourself each time, why am I getting in, and when do I plan to get out. You're gonna break EVERY trading rule known to man, you have no choice. It's human nature, but if you learn from each mistake, you'll be the better for it. Keep reading, learning, everything you can, never assuming that you've learned all there is to know. You're still losing money and don't know why. Your account will dwindle on down, and you'll get discouraged. But every night, you'll read or see something, the same thing you saw 3 months ago, and a light will come on, you'll finally get it. And the confidence will go back up. That process will repeat itself day after day after day, until you sit down one morning, and it all clicks. Sure, you lost your $5K, had to deposit another $5K, lost part of it, but now, you're seeing a lot more green. Chatting with different traders intraday has helped you become more aware of what's going on around you, you've picked small pieces from everywhere you could, to complete your own trading puzzle. You start making a good living, you finally did it. You're one of the 5 out of 100 who succeed at this..the few, the proud, the successful Daytrader.
I agree. It literally took me several years before I figured out how I wanted to trade - everybody needs to go thru the beginning stages. By the time you figure it out, you will have met traders and maybe then you will be able to pick the RIGHT person that will LET you be an apprentice. Probably gotta know somebody or impress somebody for it to happen anyway. Spend a little money and go get some exposure one way or another so you aren't a complete knucklehead. There are a lot of driving classes that need to be taken before you are handed the keys to the ferrari.
spades434 is right on to the point. (good job spades434) You have to learn by yourself.I just want to add the real time simulator. Spend as much time as you can.Set your charts,hot keys.... Look at the market structure.Don't ever fight the trend. Don't be stubborn. Don't hope.Hope in trading will kill you. You have to think fast. You have to react fast.You have to have discipline that is beyond imagination to cut your losses quickly.(This is the "hardest part" and it will take the longest to implement because we are so human and we hope and in trading hope will destroy your account) You must practice to be mechanical with no emotions. Practice that and don't cheat yourself on simulator.Bring it as closest possible to reality (I was buying at the offer and selling at the ask to make it harder)You must invent your own strategies. Test your strategies one at the time.It is long time process and extremely frustrated but each day try to learn from your mistakes and try to fix it the next day. If the time comes that you are in green 20 times in 20 days and you have ability to cut your losses quickly and keep it small than start to trade with real money with100 shares at the time for several months before you rise to 200.
Your looking for something that does not exist. I too was in the same perdicament as you about 6 months ago. I realized that the only way to become successful at trading is to do it on your own. You need to lose every which way before you can become a good trader. Having someone who has taken a beating and made it through will not help you at all. You need to take your own beats. Every trader is unique and has their own style, you cant expect to learn from someone who might have a different mentality to trading. When I first started trading, there was one trader who was making the most at my branch, at first I thought he knew what he was talking about, and I even asked if I could shadow him. I never did get to shadow him, but as time went on I did my homework, and am still getting better, but I have realized that he doesnt know anything. He trades on pure emotion. His profits have declined significantly since I first started. I have lost any respect I had of him, and I know its only a matter of time before he is out of the game completly. If I were to ask a good trader one thing it would not be how to make money, but what was the most difficult thing they had to overcome to become successful. good luck with your trading.