16 year old new to trading

[Zodiac4u]

Hello everyone! I'm new to the forums and I am absolutely in love with stocks. I opened a custodial account with my mom on ETrade and since then I have been obsessing with checking the prices. So far I have 25 apple shares which I made $100 on but that was just luck. I have a few K to spend on other stocks but not sure on what yet. I plan on going to college for this so I figured I minds well get a head start. My dream job would be working at a big bank in NYC. My question is where can I learn how to start trading now? Is there a particular website or should I just learn by experience? Are these forums good for helping each other? Just wanted to introduce myself and thank everyone for their help!

When I first started working on the CBOT 4th floor many decades ago, I asked an old timer who had a seat on the exchange the same question. The only thing he said, was you have to be here. Now that the pits are a thing of the past, the only thing you can do is read good financial news papers, monitor prices and get to know the breath of the market. Learn the mechanics of platforms and chart by hand. Don't waste your time on how-to books. People who write books don't make money from investing, they make money selling material. Determine what kind of investor you want to be. Investing is as simple as turning on a light switch, the hard part is making money. Obsessing over prices at a time when you should be obsessing over higher grades. Keep your priorities in order, focus on school first and let this be a hobby for now.

 

[Michael J. Fletcher]

That's super weird, 16 is time to have fun, you'll have time to earn cash later. Though I have to applause you.

 

[big mac]

That's super weird, 16 is time to have fun, you'll have time to earn cash later. Though I have to applause you.

figuring out things is fun too..

disclaimer: i got aspergers

 

[kent]

The thread poster might be disappointed:
may be he was expecting some encouragements on concentrating on developing below the belt "muscle", as vanzandt was conditionned to do ( not knowing who conditionned him and for what agenda).
And here he is being advised to do some schooling first, and some serious one.
Rsoxs19 : you are far too old. Nowdays, traders start at 10 years old. So your age is no longer a real selling point.
Then wait that third world countries realise that they have a trading edge ( they don't need massive profits in $ terms), and the trading arena will be flooded with super qualified third world traders making in mass a killing.
I should add my advice: get yourself into a 10 days dhamma (dot) org retreat : this will open your mind, and
most importantly understand why you did not discuss that with the people who raised you first.

Do you think 10 is a good age to start learning about trading? And dhamma retreat for a 16 yr old? I would think meditation is good and it will be good if it started at earlier age but not sure how many Americans would be interested in sending their 16yr old to a meditation retreat.

 

[SimpleMeLike]

I would suggest learn:

1. The benefits of trading stocks vs futures market

2. Learn the different styles of trading (discretionary, mechanical, or algorithm trading) traders perform to make money.

3. Learn or read about the different ways to make money from step 2. Price actions, trend following, counter trend trading, math trading, flip a coin trading, scalp trading, etc.

4. Pick a style

5. Set a goal(s)

6. Ask here for help.

As others as said, heavily consider Computer Science degree with a minor in Stats and Math, if you are interesting in trading long term for a company. The benefits are great.

 

[algofy]

That's super weird, 16 is time to have fun, you'll have time to earn cash later. Though I have to applause you.

Agree it's weird....weird is good though.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

Read Reminiscences of a Stock Operator and Market Wizards first, to get an idea of how successful traders think. The books are dated, but general principles remain the same, regardless of what anyone else tells you. Beyond that you would be well advised to do your own research and find a path that suits you. That's when the journey begins. Good luck.

 

[qxr1011]

I am absolutely in love with stocks.

come on,

heave you ever heard a guy in the constructions said that he is absolutely in love with the hammers?

stocks are just the instruments ( financial)... nothing to love here really

My dream job would be working at a big bank in NYC

why a smart kid would want to sell his life for mere salary + bonus ??

if you really into trading - dive in (forget about college and other crap like working for somebody, unless you want to eat )

remember movie "swimming with the sharks"? - "Ask yourself a question: what do you really want?" one of the most profound questions, most of the people can not really answer it until they are in their 40th....

My question is where can I learn how to start trading now?

to progress in big banks(and not only there) one needs to know how to deal with people (not with stocks): who to kiss in the ass, who to stab in the back...

your trading ability is really irrelevant , what will be relevant are some chachkas [what college u attended, with what grade graduated (major is mostly unimportant)], most important will be the fraternity you belonged, who did you drank with, whom did you fuck with , what sports did you played and with whom.. etc, etc

Is there a particular website or should I just learn by experience?

web sites are for morons who believe that there are people who know how to make money and instead of making them themselves teaching others to do so...

Are these forums good for helping each other?

to a degree...

we all competitors,

everybody building his own car to the future,

but if you need a specific wrench you can ask here where to get it and how it works, if you looking for a blue print - good luck

 

[algofy]

I'm impressed with all the great advice for this kid....lots of good stuff here.

 

[SimpleMeLike]

I was also trading at your age ... (on demo, at first) ...

If it helps, this was how I learned ...

(a) By reading well-recommended, well-established, mainstream, orthodox trading textbooks, published by well-recommended, well-established, mainstream, orthodox publishers (i.e. "peer-reviewed" and "quality controlled") and avoiding internet "information";

(b) By getting in thousands of hours of screen-time after understanding all the basics of probability and statistics that any trader has to learn, to become profitable (so that my first 3 years' experience was genuinely 3 years' experience rather than the same one month's experience repeated 36 times over);

(c) By remaining aware, at all times, that in a field of endeavour with a huge turnover of participants very few of whom ever achieve profitability, most of the readily available "information", and especially the apparent consensuses of opinion, are always far more likely to be misguided than helpful;

(d) By having expert tuition available (from a successful family member in the trade);

(e) By NOT trading with real money until I'd proven, repeatedly and exhaustively and exhaustingly, on demo accounts, that I could avoid the five classic mistakes of aspiring traders, which are ...

1. Not having a genuine edge (for which a common reason is reliance on inadequate, defective or mistaken "information": aspiring traders quite commonly seek short-cuts, imagining that if they just copy something that "works", they'll be able to bypass most of the actually-required education and experience phases);
   
   2. Confusing entry-methods with trading systems (for which a common reason is the deeply mistaken - but widely-held - impression that if one enters at a good time, everything else will somehow, magically "work out well" even without specifically considering trade-management subsequent to the entry- it won't);
   
   3. Under-capitalisation (for which a common reason is a misguided belief-set about what's typically achievable and over what time-frame: most people significantly overestimate what they can achieve quickly and easily, while significantly underestimating what they could achieve slowly and with difficulty);
   
   4. Excessive position-sizing (for which a common reason is just a general lack of statistical/probabilistic knowledge - most people aren't mathematically gifted, and it's really, really difficult to make a success of trading without some real understanding of the statistics and probabilities involved);
   
   5. Lack of patience, discipline and "psychological aspects" (on which I'm far too Aspergerish to be able or willing to comment further, myself, as I happen to have more patience and discipline than almost anyone else - and nearly pathologically so!).

Those five may also overlap, to some extent. I can't prove a word of it, needless to say, but I very strongly suspect that combinations of these five reasons, collectively, probably account for about 99% of all "aspiring trader failure".





These are the books that most helped me, and enabled me to trade profitably ...

Profitability & Systematic Trading (Michael Harris)

Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom (Van K. Tharp - an outstanding starting-point, especially the second half of the book)

Beyond Technical Analysis (Tushar S. Chande)

Understanding Price Action (Bob Volman)

The Mathematics of Money Management: Risk Analysis Techniques for Traders Ralph Vince (we all need some reliable understanding of what's in this book, although not necessarily from this specific source, before trading with real money)

Naked Forex: High-Probability Techniques for Trading Without Indicators (Alex Nekritin & Walter Peters - worth reading even if you don't intend to trade forex)

Daytrading (Joe Ross) (this is an updated re-issue of an earlier book - "Trading by the Minute", I think it was called)

Trading The Ross Hook (Joe Ross) (I keep coming back to this one again and again, because it's simple and logical and helpful, and the whole concept is based on one of the soundest principles of price action trading, namely "buy the dips in an uptrend and sell the rallies in a downtrend")

A Mathematician Plays The Market (John Allen Paulos)

Fooled By Randomness (Nassim Nicholas Taleb - very worthwhile!)

Why People Believe Weird Things (Michael Shermer) - this book and Taleb's, just above, are hugely helpful - albeit indirectly - for "understanding what's going on in forums"!

Trading Price Action Trends - Technical Analysis of Price Charts Bar by Bar for the Serious Trader (Al Brooks)

Trading Price Action Trading Ranges - Technical Analysis of Price Charts Bar by Bar for the Serious Trader (Al Brooks)

Trading Price Action Reversals - Technical Analysis of Price Charts Bar by Bar for the Serious Trader (Al Brooks)

"Warning": Al Brooks' set of three textbooks is kind of badly written and very badly edited (especially considering who the publisher is), and pretty difficult to plough through, but their content's excellent and was super-helpful to me, so those are a kind of "mixed recommendation": I actually think his online video course is much, much better and more helpful and more approachable, but it's also more expensive ($250, I think - but that's still very good value, in my opinion, for about 37 hours of instructional videos).

This advice is sooooo good i feel like scrapping everything I'm doing and starting over.

Definetly added those books to my list.

Thanks Xela.