I quit my job and skipped education to pursue Forex fulltime!:) What now?
- Thread starter Johnny
- Start date
Hey guys.. I want to become an neurosurgeon. Which books should I read? OK, please forgive the sarcasm, but I just had to make the point.
I've spent years of my life and thousands of dollars on books and DVDs. I wish I could erase everything I learned in them and get my money back. Most aren't worth the paper they are written on. Which books are worth it will depend on you, your trading style and your goals.
What you want to do CAN be done, but will probably cost more time and money than you can imagine right now. But it will be worth it in the long run. Having very low living expenses increases your chance of success exponentially.
1)The most important thing is to learn about yourself. What type of trading will fit: your personality? your schedule? your risk tolerance? your risk capital? your goals? If there is conflict between any of these, it will adversely affect your wallet.
2) Lose your ego. Some of the replies in this thread indicate that this is a problem area for many. Do not assume that because you are successful outside of the markets that you will be a successful trader/investor. They have absolutely nothing to do with each other. In fact, the single greatest source of "fresh blood" in the markets is engineers, closely followed by doctors. Your whole life you have been taught that 90% is an A, 80% is a B, 70% is a C, etc.... and anything less than 50% is failure. Shoot for an A in the markets and you will get slaughtered. Shoot for 50% and you can get rich.
3) Know when to trade and when to wait. It's OK to miss the train, another will be along any minute.
4) You will NOT turn $5,000 into a Million, even if you do turn out to be a very good trader. So you will need another means to build your trading capital, which will need to be in the area of $100,000 at a minimum. This is the absolute #1 piece of advice I can give from my experience. Ignore this one & you have all but assured your failure.
5) Trade small. Most people severely underestimate this one. In fact, it is the number 1 cause of failure for new & even not-so-new traders. Personally, I only risk 1/2 of a percent per trade. I even feel this is a bit risky, but I am still in the growth phase of my trading plan. My target is 1/4% or even less. If you can not trade with extremely low risk, then you have not accepted item #4 above.
6) Trading is a business, not a hobby. (Unless you are satisfied with "hobby" income). Make a trading plan and a business plan just as if you were building a brick and mortar business. Keep excellent records. Skipping this step reveals a lack of discipline and diminishes your chance of success.
7) Becoming a professional trader will require major changes in other areas of your life as well. If you lack discipline or patience in any area of your life, it will show up in your trading. I literally am not the same person I was several years ago. Enough so that those close to me can attest to a radical transformation. It was all necessary to become a profitable trader.
8) Get help. Find a trading partner or mentor. This may be more difficult than it sounds. There's a lot of predators out there willing to "mentor" any aspiring trader.. for the right price. If you have a close friend or someone your senior who is on the same path as you (preferably ahead), cherish that relationship.
9) Have a life outside of trading. Trade to live, do not live to trade or you will burn out.
10) Are you a happy person in your life right now? If not, more money will not make you happy. In fact, quite the opposite. Money is like a magnifying glass, it will amplify whatever your life is right now, for the better or for the worse.
11) Ignore any of these points at your own risk. As one pit trader says, "If you continually break the rules, one day they will break you".
*Everything I have said here may be bullshit, gospel or a mixture of both. You will have to discover them for yourself before you REALLY believe any of it. Just don't give up before then and you may be successful. It took me 6 years. It may take you less or possibly more. Be prepared to make the investment & you will be rewarded.
I've spent years of my life and thousands of dollars on books and DVDs. I wish I could erase everything I learned in them and get my money back. Most aren't worth the paper they are written on. Which books are worth it will depend on you, your trading style and your goals.
What you want to do CAN be done, but will probably cost more time and money than you can imagine right now. But it will be worth it in the long run. Having very low living expenses increases your chance of success exponentially.
1)The most important thing is to learn about yourself. What type of trading will fit: your personality? your schedule? your risk tolerance? your risk capital? your goals? If there is conflict between any of these, it will adversely affect your wallet.
2) Lose your ego. Some of the replies in this thread indicate that this is a problem area for many. Do not assume that because you are successful outside of the markets that you will be a successful trader/investor. They have absolutely nothing to do with each other. In fact, the single greatest source of "fresh blood" in the markets is engineers, closely followed by doctors. Your whole life you have been taught that 90% is an A, 80% is a B, 70% is a C, etc.... and anything less than 50% is failure. Shoot for an A in the markets and you will get slaughtered. Shoot for 50% and you can get rich.
3) Know when to trade and when to wait. It's OK to miss the train, another will be along any minute.
4) You will NOT turn $5,000 into a Million, even if you do turn out to be a very good trader. So you will need another means to build your trading capital, which will need to be in the area of $100,000 at a minimum. This is the absolute #1 piece of advice I can give from my experience. Ignore this one & you have all but assured your failure.
5) Trade small. Most people severely underestimate this one. In fact, it is the number 1 cause of failure for new & even not-so-new traders. Personally, I only risk 1/2 of a percent per trade. I even feel this is a bit risky, but I am still in the growth phase of my trading plan. My target is 1/4% or even less. If you can not trade with extremely low risk, then you have not accepted item #4 above.
6) Trading is a business, not a hobby. (Unless you are satisfied with "hobby" income). Make a trading plan and a business plan just as if you were building a brick and mortar business. Keep excellent records. Skipping this step reveals a lack of discipline and diminishes your chance of success.
7) Becoming a professional trader will require major changes in other areas of your life as well. If you lack discipline or patience in any area of your life, it will show up in your trading. I literally am not the same person I was several years ago. Enough so that those close to me can attest to a radical transformation. It was all necessary to become a profitable trader.
8) Get help. Find a trading partner or mentor. This may be more difficult than it sounds. There's a lot of predators out there willing to "mentor" any aspiring trader.. for the right price. If you have a close friend or someone your senior who is on the same path as you (preferably ahead), cherish that relationship.
9) Have a life outside of trading. Trade to live, do not live to trade or you will burn out.
10) Are you a happy person in your life right now? If not, more money will not make you happy. In fact, quite the opposite. Money is like a magnifying glass, it will amplify whatever your life is right now, for the better or for the worse.
11) Ignore any of these points at your own risk. As one pit trader says, "If you continually break the rules, one day they will break you".
*Everything I have said here may be bullshit, gospel or a mixture of both. You will have to discover them for yourself before you REALLY believe any of it. Just don't give up before then and you may be successful. It took me 6 years. It may take you less or possibly more. Be prepared to make the investment & you will be rewarded.
Hi Ranger,
Excellent post, there is not one single piece of advice I would disagree on.
Two observations, though:
1) Learning to trade is not like learning to become a surgeon: you don't have independent or self-taught surgeons, and you don't have/need a trading degree to trade - successfully or otherwise.
2) Neurosurgeons *do* read books - lots of them. The difference is that to write a book or paper on neurosurgery you have to be, if not a "successful" surgeon (whatever that may mean) at least a "respected" one, whereas any jerk can write and get published a trading book, regarding of its quality, as long as it sells (usually a reverse function of its quality). Still, no book, no degree, no course, no seminar, no dvd can give you either the will to put in the effort when everybody else is having fun while you work your ass off, the steadiness to cut (a living person's body or your losses) when you start to see blood or red numbers, or the mental stamina to endure, after giving it your very best, the pain of losing (money or patients' lives).
Oh, and excellent as all your pieces of advice are, I'd read them before... in books
Best trading,
Jorge
Excellent post, there is not one single piece of advice I would disagree on.
Two observations, though:
1) Learning to trade is not like learning to become a surgeon: you don't have independent or self-taught surgeons, and you don't have/need a trading degree to trade - successfully or otherwise.
2) Neurosurgeons *do* read books - lots of them. The difference is that to write a book or paper on neurosurgery you have to be, if not a "successful" surgeon (whatever that may mean) at least a "respected" one, whereas any jerk can write and get published a trading book, regarding of its quality, as long as it sells (usually a reverse function of its quality). Still, no book, no degree, no course, no seminar, no dvd can give you either the will to put in the effort when everybody else is having fun while you work your ass off, the steadiness to cut (a living person's body or your losses) when you start to see blood or red numbers, or the mental stamina to endure, after giving it your very best, the pain of losing (money or patients' lives).
Oh, and excellent as all your pieces of advice are, I'd read them before... in books
Best trading,
Jorge
any update on this?...trading with real $$$ yet?Quote from Johnny:
Hey guys,
I have been playing around with stocks the last year and have learned a lot.
However, I have to admit that most of my success can be attributed to a strong bull market. In other words, I have a lot to learn
The initial plan after quitting my job was to go to school and specialize in finance, but I have now made the decision to work 100% for myself from the start and make a wholehearted attempt at making a living on Forex.
I`m finishing up a project now and when that is done, I will have all the time in the world to learn Forex.
How do I proceed?
I have bought a load of books and gone trough the excellent "School of Pipsology" at babypips.com once already. Repeating that one for sure.
I have also opened a demoaccount at Northfinance using Metatrader, even though I have traded virtually nothing yet.
Are there any resources on learning how to use Metatrader?
Should I read as much as possible before even starting to play around with my demoaccount?
I have the feeling that as I get to read a lot in the beginning, the path I need to take will become clearer. I.e, what I need to focus on. Balance between study and demotrading.
I would appreciate it a lot if you guys could help me out to get started
Thank you in advance!
Rangerdoc,
Thanks for writing. Good stuff.
Increasenow,
No real money on the line yet. I will probably continue reading only until February. Then I will start observing the markets more actively and eventually start demotrading.
I hope to start trading with real money in June.
I started a journal that was moved to the "Career trader" section on the forums. I will update it.
Happy Christmass fellows!
Thanks for writing. Good stuff.
Increasenow,
No real money on the line yet. I will probably continue reading only until February. Then I will start observing the markets more actively and eventually start demotrading.
I hope to start trading with real money in June.
I started a journal that was moved to the "Career trader" section on the forums. I will update it.
Happy Christmass fellows!
wow...you have amazing patience to wait that long...I would imagine you have had to get a job again after you quit your job as your thread title declares..correct?working now?best to uQuote from Johnny:
Rangerdoc,
Thanks for writing. Good stuff.
Increasenow,
No real money on the line yet. I will probably continue reading only until February. Then I will start observing the markets more actively and eventually start demotrading.
I hope to start trading with real money in June.
I started a journal that was moved to the "Career trader" section on the forums. I will update it.
Happy Christmass fellows!
I guess I am patient, but in some ways I feel that I`m taking the right approach so it really is not a problem.
I want to become profitable as fast as possible and if staying away from the markets in order to do my homework is the fastest route then so be it
I have not gotten a job yet, but I`m close to broke now so I will have to get a full-time job next year.
The short-term plan as I see it now is to find a job that I`m comfortable with and then scalp the living daylights out of the U.S session after work(I live in Europe).
I don`t expect to be making a living trading as fast as I initially hoped, but I will get there eventually.
Best of luck to as well!
Johnny
You should at least be demo trading and getting the mechanics down.
Trading is more like learning a musical instrument than anything. You can be book smart in music theory all you want but you're still going to sound like ass if you've never actually played and practiced with a real instrument.
If you can do well demo trading, then get into micro lots. Even a dime a pip is night and day from demo. If you can't maintain profitability on a small scale you'll fail miserably on a larger scale. On the flip side, a dime or two a pip going for small wins consistently can still add up to more income than a part time job flipping burgers.
As it is with musicians.. being a bedroom guitar hero is tantamount to squat if your nerves get the best of you on the real stage. Doing well when it's on the line also takes time/practice. That's why game time minutes are crucial for athletes.
Unlike most endeavors, trading does not reward those that work harder and try and muscle their way through. In fact it's quite the opposite. Trading rewards those who can trade with minimal effort. ie those that are with the flow of the market. Being with the flow has nothing to do with indicators and everything to do with being in sync mentally vis a vis psychology and discipline. Psychology and discipline are products of not only understanding in theory but understanding through practice and experience.
Trading is more like learning a musical instrument than anything. You can be book smart in music theory all you want but you're still going to sound like ass if you've never actually played and practiced with a real instrument.
If you can do well demo trading, then get into micro lots. Even a dime a pip is night and day from demo. If you can't maintain profitability on a small scale you'll fail miserably on a larger scale. On the flip side, a dime or two a pip going for small wins consistently can still add up to more income than a part time job flipping burgers.
As it is with musicians.. being a bedroom guitar hero is tantamount to squat if your nerves get the best of you on the real stage. Doing well when it's on the line also takes time/practice. That's why game time minutes are crucial for athletes.
Unlike most endeavors, trading does not reward those that work harder and try and muscle their way through. In fact it's quite the opposite. Trading rewards those who can trade with minimal effort. ie those that are with the flow of the market. Being with the flow has nothing to do with indicators and everything to do with being in sync mentally vis a vis psychology and discipline. Psychology and discipline are products of not only understanding in theory but understanding through practice and experience.