I'll throw in my 2 cents....you seem like a good guy and seem to be taking the correct path.
Learn the markets on your own. Absolutely do not sign up for any BS vendors selling the greatest trading system of all time. If it was that good they would be trading it and raking in the bucks, not hawking it to others. Read Market Wizards I, Market Wizards II, and Covel's book Trend Following. Basically they are interviews with the best out there. While there are a gazillion how to make money in trading books, trading is a complete mind game. The guys in these books do a great job explaining not only how they made it, but talk about all the msitakes they made and the mental roller coasters traders go through. What other job can one week you be on top of the world, and the next be completely wrong and have your confidence tested big time.
Whatever strategy you have, make sure you have a game plan. Surf's little proclomation about having a plan will never work could not be further from the truth. Like DB mentioned, look at his journal. It's a disaster because he has no idea when to take profits or when to take a loss. Basically trading a la deer in the headlights. The markets don't give you the luxury of deciding afer the fact what to do. Come up with an out (stop loss) and where you want to take profits on EVERY trade. Take the emotions out of it. Make it so there is very little thinking to do after you put the trade on. The downside of profit targets is you will miss moves that go through your level and could have made more. But if you have a good risk reward (Somewhere around 3:1 is very good) and a decent win loss ratio you will be very succesfull. The downside of using a stop loss is.......there is none. Without a solid exit plan on losers you will eventually get wiped out. 99.9% of guys who don't make it is probably because they don't know how to take a loser. Surf's other little proclomation about having to take huge risk to make huge rewards is horrendously wrong. Again....see his journal for the evidence. While it is repeated 10000000 times in the trading world......Cut your losses and let your winners run is the name of the game. Is there a time to take more risk and go for more reward? Sure...when volatility kicks in and heads north. But you have to know when to do that. You can't say I am going for 1000 dow points when the Vix is at 50, then do the same trade going for 1000 points when The Vix is at 14. Is assinine. You will never take winners.
At the end of the day like others said, sit in front of the screen. Learn on the simulator. Take your lumps and go through the mental rollercoaster of trading. Stay on the sim for as long as you need to come up with a good strategy/game plan. But when you do go live trade very small. Trading live is a LOT different then trading on the sim. Ramp up your size as your account grows, but do it in a smart way. Don't go from a 3 lot ES guy to a 20 lot guy. Take your time. Good luck with everything.
Learn the markets on your own. Absolutely do not sign up for any BS vendors selling the greatest trading system of all time. If it was that good they would be trading it and raking in the bucks, not hawking it to others. Read Market Wizards I, Market Wizards II, and Covel's book Trend Following. Basically they are interviews with the best out there. While there are a gazillion how to make money in trading books, trading is a complete mind game. The guys in these books do a great job explaining not only how they made it, but talk about all the msitakes they made and the mental roller coasters traders go through. What other job can one week you be on top of the world, and the next be completely wrong and have your confidence tested big time.
Whatever strategy you have, make sure you have a game plan. Surf's little proclomation about having a plan will never work could not be further from the truth. Like DB mentioned, look at his journal. It's a disaster because he has no idea when to take profits or when to take a loss. Basically trading a la deer in the headlights. The markets don't give you the luxury of deciding afer the fact what to do. Come up with an out (stop loss) and where you want to take profits on EVERY trade. Take the emotions out of it. Make it so there is very little thinking to do after you put the trade on. The downside of profit targets is you will miss moves that go through your level and could have made more. But if you have a good risk reward (Somewhere around 3:1 is very good) and a decent win loss ratio you will be very succesfull. The downside of using a stop loss is.......there is none. Without a solid exit plan on losers you will eventually get wiped out. 99.9% of guys who don't make it is probably because they don't know how to take a loser. Surf's other little proclomation about having to take huge risk to make huge rewards is horrendously wrong. Again....see his journal for the evidence. While it is repeated 10000000 times in the trading world......Cut your losses and let your winners run is the name of the game. Is there a time to take more risk and go for more reward? Sure...when volatility kicks in and heads north. But you have to know when to do that. You can't say I am going for 1000 dow points when the Vix is at 50, then do the same trade going for 1000 points when The Vix is at 14. Is assinine. You will never take winners.
At the end of the day like others said, sit in front of the screen. Learn on the simulator. Take your lumps and go through the mental rollercoaster of trading. Stay on the sim for as long as you need to come up with a good strategy/game plan. But when you do go live trade very small. Trading live is a LOT different then trading on the sim. Ramp up your size as your account grows, but do it in a smart way. Don't go from a 3 lot ES guy to a 20 lot guy. Take your time. Good luck with everything.
