This Newbie needs good advise on

Quote from jaymz1:

just another newb. im new to the game, and even newer to the board. i have been reading through some of everyones posts, llooking for suggestions and such. i have a couple questions, without starting a new thread. i've looked at a couple of online trading companies(is there a better name for these?) and i see the usual signup/membership fee. then most have additional services you can pay for, and different markets you can subscribe to for info and such..my question is do you usually find yourself needing these services or are they just flare? And, what is a minimum and reasonable dollar# you can get away with investing for a starting daytrader?
thanks
-james
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sign up/ membership fee.. some are very good, some are worthless.. Realitytrader.com chat room has an excellent team with some truly top notch traders running the show.. its a great place to learn the basics.. other sites that i have been a member of (which shall remain nameless) were quite destructive because i learned bad habits/thinking while there that i later had to unlearn..

some services which offer stock picking or "stock alerts to your pager" type offers are BS plain and simple.. thats not for traders, thats for sheep looking for a good place to get sheered..

hmm.. ok, minimum.. however much you have, probably it wont be enough.. thats the bottom line.. most people dont make it in this biz.. the amount of money you start with has nothing to do with your success.. success is only available after you get humility.. humility is what you get when you have failed so many times that you realize that you, as you are, cannot be a trader.. then you will have the opportunity to change.. how much money will you burn before you come to this realization? thats how much is reasonable.. of course, as a newbie, this is mumbo jumbo..

you will need a minimum of 25k to daytrade stocks without severe limitations on the number of trades per day.. you can trade futures with far less.. probably 5k is a minimum for a one contract dow daytrader.. this has much more to do with your strategy and its R/R ratio so that you arent risking too much on each trade.. you need to read Van Tharpes books for this info..

there are probably 1000 newbie threads on ET.. do a search and you will have more advice than you can deal with.. good luck and welcome to trading :)


-qwik
 
fan27's signature:

"The test of success is not what you do when your on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom."
- General George S. Patton, Jr
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I LOVE THIS QUOTE! Patton was a great man.
 
thanks for all of that info. i've looked into some of those sites, and looks solid. my parents stock broker suggested www.sharebuilder.com
anyone know anything about that site? or would anyone like to second that suggestion? it has no minimum account balance, but some of the commissions seem a little high, that could be because of the low trading requirements?
thanks again,
-james:cool:
 
yes i did actually and it looks like one of the better ones i've heard mentioned with only U.S. Dollars (USD) USD 2,000 required to open an account.
its looks like me to do any active trading i will need a little more money. so would you suggest something like sharebuilder.com until i can save more money for trading, and this will also get me a little more familiar with the numbers and a feel for the traffic?
thanks,
-james
 
imo, i would not attempt to invest with sharebuilder while saving to enter the trading arena.. nothing like watching your money dwindle away in some stock while you are trying to save.. maybe open a demo account and paper trade until you have the money.. this is an excellent learning tool and wont cost you anything.. good luck :)

-qwik
 
can you compare IB and sharebuilder right here and explain why sharebuilder is better? i did not see any single point, why i should go with sharebuilder(maybe i'm blind?)))))
$20 dollars for limit order? suppose you open account with $2000, you want to trade something on all your money(which is crasy already)-you have to pay $40 in comm for round trip in sharebuilder which is 2% of all your money. that mean, if you stock did not move you will lost 2% of your money. or stock must move 2% in your way in order for you to get even. think about those numbers..5 flat trades-you will be down more than 10%.
compare to $1 for 100 shares in IB no matter what type of order + solid realtime trading platform..
 
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