High School Trader Looking to Get Pretty Serious With Trading

http://tradermike.net/archives.html

go and read that blog end to end. You ll learn more from that blog than any book.

I dont want to be harping about trader mike's blog but imho its a complete blog that covers almost everything from end to end. I found it very useful and gave me good ideas so hopefully you find it useful too.

When I started I read over 100 books--almost everything that I could lay my hands on from library to amazon.com but none of them really helped. I just read Van Tharp's book Super traders and even though he is good and all that but it could all be summarized in probably 20 pages. For a new trader it might be insanely confusing too not to say he asks more questions than gives answers and that is essentially what you will find with most books.


Like others have pointed trading is a long road and very rewarding too if you are willing to persevere but it will take its toll on you. Thats why at a young age where you have advantage of a younger sharper brain you also run the risk if you quit after 7-8 years that you maynot aquire other skills. Make sure not to neglect your education whatever field you choose.
 
Rgilbert93,

The absolute worst thing you can do is “get serious” about trading at this stage. You are a punk kid, all of 16, without even a driver’s license (no offense but for your sake, I hope you get what I am saying here). You are so young you have no idea how much you don’t know, but unfortunately, think you do. You should be discovering girls and masturbation (or mastering it).

You really think you can compete with your very limited life and trading experience at this stage of your life? You can’t and are a fool to think you can. You don’t know what you don’t know. You have no plan, probably no idea about what money management or setups really mean and worse of all are severely undercapitalized. Of course you probably don’t even know what I am talking about and if you do only a vague perception of it. This is exactly my point. Get serious about your education and what you want to do with your life because soon it will be all on you with no safety net.

I didn’t say don’t educate yourself if you think this is something you may want to get into some day. But the odds are severely against you (as I would hope you already know). Get your education so you have some options if things don’t work out. Life experience will help your trading. The problem is 10 years of trading experience on your resume will not impress most hiring managers, especially in non-trading jobs. You need a fall back if this doesn’t work out. If after college you still want to get into this field, so be it. Trading isn’t going anywhere (probably). It will be there when you are ready to really get serious. Live. Learn. Then come back.

In 10 years remember this post and see where you are. Because being an adult is all about the choices you make and taking responsibility for them (those choices have already started). You are not even there yet but if you want to get into this field, taking responsibility is important to your future success. The only question is do you want to learn things the hard way or the easy way? Time will tell and you will be there before you know it. The first step to being that adult is learning to discern good advice from bad advice. Until you learn more you don’t know enough to discern between those two extremes. Welcome to adulthood. For an excellent example, rent Lions for Lambs. Listen carefully to the advice Redford gives to his student in his office at the beginning of the movie. Truer words were never spoken.

Best of luck

BM
 
Rgilbert93,

Contrary to what some of the other posts say, you actually have a great deal going for you in finance, even if only because you do not know what cannot be done. And, I'd like to also point out that, despite what others would tend to have you believe, you actually don't have all the time in the world to figure out what you want to do with your life. If you want to get into the financial markets in a major way, I say you should get moving pronto because -- although trading might be with us forever -- the window of opportunity for building a big business in the new financial market of the next twenty-to-twenty-five years will soon slam shut.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the financial market of today is actually quite young still. That spectacular behemoth, the international forex market, didn't even *start* to develop in most places prior to the 1970s. That's just thirty years ago, just slightly less than one working generation old. To be sure, there are certain fundamentals that will never change -- for instance, the markets will never be more than a zero-sum game, on net -- but otherwise no one can rightfully claim to know anything about what the next thirty years holds in store.

If there's one thing that never changes about the unforeseen future, it's that the future always surprises us -- and nowhere is this more true than in the financial exchanges.
 
Quote from Big Money:

Rgilbert93,

The absolute worst thing you can do is “get serious” about trading at this stage. You are a punk kid, all of 16, without even a driver’s license (no offense but for your sake, I hope you get what I am saying here). You are so young you have no idea how much you don’t know, but unfortunately, think you do. You should be discovering girls and masturbation (or mastering it).

You really think you can compete with your very limited life and trading experience at this stage of your life? You can’t and are a fool to think you can. You don’t know what you don’t know. You have no plan, probably no idea about what money management or setups really mean and worse of all are severely undercapitalized. Of course you probably don’t even know what I am talking about and if you do only a vague perception of it. This is exactly my point. Get serious about your education and what you want to do with your life because soon it will be all on you with no safety net.

I didn’t say don’t educate yourself if you think this is something you may want to get into some day. But the odds are severely against you (as I would hope you already know). Get your education so you have some options if things don’t work out. Life experience will help your trading. The problem is 10 years of trading experience on your resume will not impress most hiring managers, especially in non-trading jobs. You need a fall back if this doesn’t work out. If after college you still want to get into this field, so be it. Trading isn’t going anywhere (probably). It will be there when you are ready to really get serious. Live. Learn. Then come back.

In 10 years remember this post and see where you are. Because being an adult is all about the choices you make and taking responsibility for them (those choices have already started). You are not even there yet but if you want to get into this field, taking responsibility is important to your future success. The only question is do you want to learn things the hard way or the easy way? Time will tell and you will be there before you know it. The first step to being that adult is learning to discern good advice from bad advice. Until you learn more you don’t know enough to discern between those two extremes. Welcome to adulthood. For an excellent example, rent Lions for Lambs. Listen carefully to the advice Redford gives to his student in his office at the beginning of the movie. Truer words were never spoken.

Best of luck

BM
More...

To everyone:

I don't expect these things from my trading experience until much later in life

to make a lot of money
to necessarily make any money for that matter
to master trading in a short amount of time
to make trading my only source of income when i get older

I should have phrased my subject differently. I didn't mean THAT serious. At my age, "serious" trading is comparatively doing more than checking the status every month of some penny stocks I bought. I mean I want to learn, grow and work on trading. Not take two grand and make millions before I'm 20.

I KNOW I don't know much about trading.

thanks for all the advice and the help though. without you guys I might have been focusing on the wrong things for quite a while until I realized.
 
i am going to assume that since the age of 7 you were playing computer games, and at the age of 16 would be the perfect time to start daytrading with charts and data ,trading the market like a computer game, remember to do this with zero real cash in the game and play it as any other computer game built to sell and be played often, learn to beat it without any of the outside criteria from the papers or cnbc or the internet, or the major trading houses buy/sell recommendations. Not knowing any of this crap should give you a large edge...Be sure to use corresponding markets as your weapons power source and advance declne ratios in nyse stocks and volume as your time left...I'm serious...all the major firms and quants are doing the same thing, your way and age would be a lot purer and most likely less diluted,more successful
 
Quote from ammo:

i am going to assume that since the age of 7 you were playing computer games, and at the age of 16 would be the perfect time to start daytrading with charts and data ,trading the market like a computer game, remember to do this with zero real cash in the game and play it as any other computer game built to sell and be played often, learn to beat it without any of the outside criteria from the papers or cnbc or the internet, or the major trading houses buy/sell recommendations. Not knowing any of this crap should give you a large edge...Be sure to use corresponding markets as your weapons power source and advance declne ratios in nyse stocks and volume as your time left...I'm serious...all the major firms and quants are doing the same thing, your way and age would be a lot purer and most likely less diluted,more successful
More...

I actually take many things into consideration. I'm not a kid who thinks of it as a game or does it for fun. I do it so I can learn how to make my money work for me later in life. I have (probably too much so) comparatively, (to other people my age) extremely advanced systems for choosing, and finding an entry/exit point in said security. But I think I might start sticking to more basic things; just volume, price, moving averages and candlesticks. I definitely agree that when you overload yourself with indicators you hinder your chances of seeing what really matters.
 
Quote from ngarwood:

Rgilbert93,

Contrary to what some of the other posts say, you actually have a great deal going for you in finance, even if only because you do not know what cannot be done. And, I'd like to also point out that, despite what others would tend to have you believe, you actually don't have all the time in the world to figure out what you want to do with your life. If you want to get into the financial markets in a major way, I say you should get moving pronto because -- although trading might be with us forever -- the window of opportunity for building a big business in the new financial market of the next twenty-to-twenty-five years will soon slam shut.
More...

nonsense
 
Quote from rgilbert93:

I'm a sophomore and just took honors algebra 2 next semester. I HATE math and I'm not too great at it yet I'll be taking honors precal next year, then probably calculus senior year. I plan on going to UNCW because of their cheap price and great business school. Gonna major in business and then get an MBA afterwards.
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I wish I had access to a forum like this when I was your age...

Its great you're exploring your options but wow you are really young. Not that you can do anything about it but you haven't gone through the ups+downs of growing up; that 18-22 time frame can be a touch confusing to say the least. College is a lot of fun, women will drive you nuts, you'll learn a lot about yourself in the process mostly through trial and error... yada yada, your focus should be on the fun stuff and leave the career aside until you find something challenging and fun.


Keep a few things in mind though as you enjoy the process:

BS(BA?) in Business = bit of a "soft" major.

MBA = not worth much unless its from a top 10 B School.

If you want results from your career early on focus on the hard stuff and commit to it. Science/Engineering B.S.+M.S. then go to either PhD in finance or a solid MBA or an MFE from HAAS or Stanford. These are the routes to take if you want to be a quant.

Trust me, you want to go the hard math/quantitative route. The skills you will learn in the process are highly desireable and will actually put you into a trading role rather than back/mid office sales/IT type stuff.

Mike
 
Quote from Mike805:

I wish I had access to a forum like this when I was your age...

Its great you're exploring your options but wow you are really young. Not that you can do anything about it but you haven't gone through the ups+downs of growing up; that 18-22 time frame can be a touch confusing to say the least. College is a lot of fun, women will drive you nuts, you'll learn a lot about yourself in the process mostly through trial and error... yada yada, your focus should be on the fun stuff and leave the career aside until you find something challenging and fun.


Keep a few things in mind though as you enjoy the process:

BS(BA?) in Business = bit of a "soft" major.

MBA = not worth much unless its from a top 10 B School.

If you want results from your career early on focus on the hard stuff and commit to it. Science/Engineering B.S.+M.S. then go to either PhD in finance or a solid MBA or an MFE from HAAS or Stanford. These are the routes to take if you want to be a quant.

Trust me, you want to go the hard math/quantitative route. The skills you will learn in the process are highly desireable and will actually put you into a trading role rather than back/mid office sales/IT type stuff.

Mike
More...

i've gotten laid so everyone can quit insinuating i haven't

yeah i don't really WANT to get a business degree. what are quantatives in a nutshell?
 
also to everyone that says I should have fun now and worry about the important stuff later, I give you this quote:

"If you do for a little while what most people won't do, you can do for a lifetime what most people can't do."
 
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