Then & Now, Starting over,Sort of

[Siwash]

Quote from Brandonf:

To a point. I mean I can believe that my ass isnt killing me from having a bone marrow test but that doesnt change the fact that it's pretty sore

If your no good at technicals obviously you should look at either a fundamental or quantative approach so that you do find an edge. Each of us has to find which area's we perform the best in, what we are comfortable with and go towards that.

Fair point..I think I need to just take the plunge and start somewhere,lose small and learn.

thanks!

 

[Boib]

Siwash;

To start you need a trading plan.

Define your edge and come up with a method to exploit it.

You are well enough capitalized that you can day trade stocks so start with the DIA SPY or QQQQ. If you can be successful in that arena you can graduate to Futures.

Demo trading is OK if you use it to test your strategies. The problem is with no actual money on the line you tend to trade differently than when you are risking hard earned cash.

 

[Brandonf]

Quote from Siwash:

I think I need to just take the plunge and start somewhere,lose small and learn.

thanks!

Yes, you only learn to trade by trading.

 

[TraderZones]

Quote from Siwash:

I was pretty sure I was going to start trading bond futures,possibly YM or ER2 but thought I would ask for some advice.

Also I didn't state my goal as trading for a living "right now" I know I will need to grow my acct significantly before I can leave my day job, if I feel like it then. I actually enjoy my work and my job has some pretty good perks.

Thanks

Siwash

you can also get a laptop, with wireless internet (from sprint, verizon, at&t, etc.) and do a little from work, There are always periods of downtime. lunch or need for a mental break during the day.

Or you can trade before/after work. There are plenty of international markets, making trading 24x7 available.

You could concentrate on things that have a longer time horizon, rather than minute by minute monitoring.

 

[JOEY O]

Quote from TraderZones:

I completely disagree. Think and grow rich will not make a person wealthy. It only convinces themselves they are special, while they fork over $5000 to one more vendor, trying to learn how to get rich quick

Trading is like business. You need a competitive edge - SOMETHING that outperforms. It takes a LONG time to get there, and most never will. Most businesses fail; a much higher percentage of traders will also.

Trading is like going to Vegas. The house edge will grind believers down quickly. The cardcounter (may) have an edge.

I never remember meeting a successful trader who got there because he kept a picture of $10 million on his refrigerator or listened to success tapes. He got there from thousands of hours of screen time, or through some other paths to find his edge.

And even when you have an edge, you often need to find another when that one dissipates.

And you need advanced money management methods, or your edge is no help when you piss away your trading capital via broker problems, overleveraging just once too often, errors or other problems.

Believe, conceptualize and dream all you want. You just completed Step 1 of 850 steps.

Think and grow rich stresses the NEED for a definitve plan and an edge against any market. It also stresses that this definitive plan will need to be altered as time progresses, as it will encounter hurdles. There is NO easy button. Seeing yourself in the presence of money and having a succesful mindset will do nothing if it is not coupled with hardwork and unwavering persistence.

Having the dream is truly step 1 of 850.

 

[CPTrader]

A few suggestions:

1. Develop a solid and comprehensive trading plan: entry, exit rules, position sizing, portfolio design and allocation, risk managment, market selection, timeframe(s), etc. Robert Miner of dynamic Trading has in the educational section of his website good info on developing a trading plan.

2. DO NOT DAY TRADE

3. If you develop a technical or quantitative trding plan - BACKTEST it FIRST . Tradersstudio (www.tradersstudio.com) is a powerful portfolio backtester and quite cheap- approx $500/600.

4. After steps 1 & 3 find a trading simulator or a demo account at a good broker like OpenEcry and paper trade for at least 3 months.

5. On the basis of No.4 review points 1 & 3.

Only after points 1 - 5 should you even CONSIDER trading. with real money.

All God's Best,

CPTrader

 

[nkhoi]

you can't go wrong by checking out some of the most view or the most reply thread.

 

[Jayford]

You are one of the few people that sucked it up and put the finances in order before trying to trade.

makes trading MUCH easier when you have other income, and money you can afford to lose. Sometimes makes pulling the trigger harder however as you don't have to make a certain amount from trading each month.

Good luck.

 

[Thunderdog]

Quote from TraderZones:

...And you need advanced money management methods...

= risk small.

 

[TraderZones]

Quote from JOEY O:

Think and grow rich stresses the NEED for a definitve plan and an edge against any market.

Unfortunately, there is an unlimited supply of hotel seminars, spam, marketing email and postal mail, etc. etc.

'They get them excited with the message, sign them up, but leave out the details after step 1 of 850...