How to learn to trade?
- Thread starter Mikkel
- Start date
You must not have been paying close attention in class then. Finance programs all teach that you can't day trade profitably and only those that "buy and hold good companies" make money.
More or less I know how to use the software, the problem is that I don't know what to do with the software, I don't know how to trade.
I'm a student of Universitat de Valencia. Is not a famous university, is just the university of my city.
I'm about to start second year so we haven't been told that yet. Nevertheless I've read it on forums a lot of times. I don't wanna be necessarily a day trader.
It's very simple.
Stay local (your country). What that means is that you have the famous IBEX 35 index of the Bolsa de Madrid. I think it has like +35 stocks...very active stocks. Learn as much info you can about that index and its stocks...learn about the history of that index and the history of its stocks. Do not trade, do not worry about trading.
If you don't know you're own markets in your own country...best you stay away from the markets as a newbie.
Also, you said something very strange. You said you don't know what to trade and yet you have Metatrader. That's a trading platform for Forex.
Therefore, you actually do know what markets you're interested in...you have an interest in trading forex currencies. Thus, learn about the Forex markets of your country. If you don't know anything about such...go talk to your professors and tell them you're interested in trading and that its the forex markets. They should be able to direct you to more info involving such.
Summary - Stop talking about trading...you're a year or more (several years) away from doing such. Instead, concentrate on learning as much as you can about your countries financial markets, IBEX, Bolsa, Currency so that you'll develop a good understanding of Spain's markets.
After that, somewhere in there, you'll begin to develop an interest about what specific markets you want to trade.
By the way, start a trading group at your University and city (Valencia). Others like you may be interested in trading too and may have more knowledge than you. That's what I did in college in the U.S. via putting it on all the bullentin boards at the University. Within a few months, had regular meetings with 15 other students that were interested in trading or careers in trading.
Today, I have a strong network of trading pals from school...a few are institutional traders at different firms in the world and consistently still give me advice 20 years later. My point...develop a network locally and in your country. It will pay dividends years later.
Good luck in your studies (University and Spain's financial markets).
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I am sorry to be bloody honest in my response to OP but I do not think OP is cut out for trading. To be a successful trader one of the required and important character traits is to be a self-starter, to be extremely self-motivated, and to be thirsty. Someone who comes on a message board and who has to ask how to handle a software platform, who has no clue even about the most basics of finance only demonstrates that he has done NO WORK ON HIS OWN WHATSOEVER. In 99.5% cases such kind of people are not gonna succeed in trading. Someone who needs such extreme hand holding is much better off in some finance job where the boss is gonna tell him what to do, how to do it and when to do it. Sounds rough perhaps but it is my honest assessment. Good luck OP, but I highly recommend you to look elsewhere. Most of the advice you gonna get on this forum (not all, I might stress) is from career and life losers, be careful whom you listen to. Some have already recommended you to jump into the cold water and commit funding to just start trading: Worst advice ever!!! (Trading new-grads at most investment banks are trained to fetch lunch and then taught how to model stuff on spread sheets and tested on their probability and basic math skills before they are let loose on anything remotely trading-related. Clearly, investment banks' sales & trading divisions know a thing or two how to groom traders (and even there a large percentage of trainees fail and give up or move to a different internal division). Do not listen to those who clearly have no clue what they are talking about.
If it wasn't, everyone would do it. There is no one size fits all
Thank you very much, I'll follow your advice.
About the trading group we have a trading club on the university but we are few people and it's not very active..
In my short life a lot of people have told me not to do some things because they thought that I wasn't made for it. Until now no one was right.
Judging someone by a message on a board without knowing anything from him is at least daring.
Thank you anyways.
You are really not that young, at the very least you are 18. And if you are too lazy or stupid or both to pick up a basic trading for dummies book or free material spread all over the net then you are simply not cut out for this career. Mark my words you will waste many years and money going after something you are clearly not driven enough about.