Quote from gblnking:
First off, thanks for all the replies, next concerning Apexâs second reply
âLet him blow up and reset his $100 real, non-paper account -- with exactly the same functionality (if not psychology) as a $1M account -- 2, 3, 6 times in a year or two, before he either begins to "get" it or decides to pursue a slightly more conventional career, after all. As opposed to blowing up his $2,000-$10,000 futures account (currency, emini, bond futures... what have you), to learn the exact same lessons, but with a forced degree of risk at least an order of magnitude greater on every trade, by any measure.â
Youâre dead on right. I would much rather for the short term find a place to trade small, checking different strategies and systems before deciding where to go from there. But the Forex is not for me. This much I know. Iâve skydived in the past and enjoyed it very much. I hope to go again soon (too cold here in Minnesota at the moment) But Iâll be damned if I ever do any B.A.S.E. jumping.
My trading profile is probably best described as⦠30 something full time manufacturing manager/material controller. Single father of a teenage daughter who is rapidly approaching college. I have long term stocks set up for her first year of college as well as a good portion of her second year. She will be slowly weaned from daddy during that second year but I do have financial provisions set aside for that. This I have done over the years on my own without child support or any other financial support from others.
My trading history is as Iâve already stated I have stocks, bonds, and etc set-up about 16 years ago for my daughterâs education. They have done well but took a hit early this decade. I did a little online trading with a discount stockbroker with the intention of more long term but again took a hit early this decade. Started researching and learning more about the futures market and plunged into it a couple of years ago. As I stated in my original post I did so-so. Made some money and lost some money. The firm changed to a strictly Forex system where I quickly learned that avenue wasnât for me.
In the next couple of years Iâll find myself much more financial secure and would like to start getting back into âitâ But again Iâd like to do it in a somewhat controlled fashion. Iâm not looking to be the next Thurston Howell the III although being stranded on an island with âMary Annâ wouldnât be so bad. (Come on we all know she would have gone for the guy with the money) Iâm not looking for a get rich quick scheme, but I want more than just long-term investing. I see everyday my bosses face as his 401K is slowly collapsing.
Maybe Iâve been overlooking another avenue. What are your opinions on Swing Trading?
The firm changed to a strictly Forex system where I quickly learned that avenue wasnât for me.
Well if Forex wasn't for you then, then it certianly isn't for you now. Trust me. I know the other posters are trying to persuade you to go Forex, but don't listen, Forex is just.... not going to cut it.
Swingtrading.
You could either swing trade futures on a long time frame, probably on a daily.
Or you are going to go with stocks, in which case you don't have to worry about the PDT rule. Swing-trading does not allow many opprotunities in Forex and/or Futures. As it is risky. But with stocks, you have thousands of opprotunities on a given day. So that is why I'd suggest stocks for swing trading, ONLY because of the fact you'd have more opprotunities, maybe set up a few alerts from a software to locate lows and highs.
With Forex, you have a few currency pairs, and they apparently "trend" well, but still, why would you do something like that? Go with stock trading. Go with IB, paper trade Futures and Forex and trade 100 shares of a stock swing trading it.
It just makes sense to trade stocks if you are a swing trader. So many more opprotunities on a daily basis.