DON'T RUSH INTO THE MARKETS! Take your time, learn the markets and create a strategy! This should take a few years before you invest a dime. Good luck, -Kastro
The first thing I'd do is work on changing that attitude. All of the best, most successful traders I know are extremely risk averse. The three goals of trading you have to work on, in order of importance, are: 1. preserve your capital 2. earn consistent returns 3. earn large returns Most new and unsuccesful traders are only interested in #3. They make up most of the 90% who don't last in the business.
Well I won't even call myself a trader, just a guy interested in the markets. You say you don't know nothing at all. You say you've got a few months before you want to start to trade. That's good. I say only one thing for now : read. One good (free) place is www.investopedia.com . Free site that will teach you at least the basics about the markets, they got lots of basic and advance tutorials about pretty much everything. So you won't end up spending money on a book that will brainwash you into only one way to see the thing. The internet is full of sites (like this one) that will help you learn. Be sure to do all your homeworks before risking any real money. Be open minded on all investments types, and then you can make up your own mind after and find where is your niche depending on your personnality, goals and risk aversion.
I'm a french PHD, i'm a specialist in forex market volatility. I'm cheking a job as a trader to represent any company in france. Please, if you are interested contact me at lord1977@voila.fr REGARDS
My friend, I would suggest you read alot and understand the overall markets. Then decide what you wanted to trade: equities, options, forex, etc. If you decided on trading stocks, my best bet is to spend alot of time paper trading. There are a few good websites out there to help you prepare. Be aware that paper trading is much easier to make money than trading your own money. Once you feel comfortable with the market, I suggest you look into a prop firm. It would be better if you sit next to an experience trader who makes consistent money. This is the best way to learn, otherwise, you will lose all your money trading remotely. Best of luck! Sizestrader
JMowery is insightful. I don't know what his reasoning about FX, but mine is: 1. It's an OTC Market, which means no demonstrable order flow and MM's constanly run stops. There's no tape to read, so you're at an automatic disadvantage. Remember: Always expect the unexpected. This is the only constant I've found in the market - and it runs completely counter to most TA. 2. There's no opening range. MM's will pitch the FX market never closing as a benefit. My opinion is it's what makes the market impossible to trade. To the 30yo who's considering trading... 1. 10k is not enough. It might be enough for a 23yo who has the time for a false start or two and can go back to work in the meantime to save up his next stake, but you're too old for that. You need 50-80k to get in and survive for 8-10 months without making a penny.
When you start researching most books and websites will tell you that you can make money from home short term trading using simple technical analysis like moving averages, support resistance and a bunch of other tools that come on all the standard trading packages. Don't believe the hype. The people that make it in the long run (5years) using these simple tactics are few and far between. Maybe 1 out of 100. My advice is to accept the fact that you are probably among the 99 out of 100 who will lose doing this. Save your money, Start getting more money out of your work by going into a more performance based job like sales where you can drastically increase your income for instance. Going into a performance based job is probably a better use of the limited time you have left before you have to start a family and all that other crap. Educate yourself mean while on how to make investments based on longer term fundamentals (Moves that last from 6 to 16 months) in all different types of asset classes. Learn about bonds, stocks, commodities, real estate and etc. Make sure to study finance and to learn basic economics. At the very least learn how to read company accounting statements and understand how basic supply demand work. Remember through the power of compounding interest you can turn your small sum of money into huge sum over a 20 year period.
Nice post Johnny - I agree - I would stress that if you are starting out trading you need your trading capital AND capital to live off for at least a year while you learn. IMO 10k is nowhere near enough. __________________ Dan