Total Noob Journal

S

sjonas50

So,
I have been around the financial markets a little, and new years resolution is to get into trading stocks. I have traded a little bit in the past, but just off of hunches, you know, the typical moron way of trading. So, I registered with a free technical analysis training course that runs for 4 weeks. I have heard from a friend that did it, that its supposed to be good. (I dont want to seem like I am promoting it, so I'm not going to mention the name)

We had the first class tonight, and it was pretty basic, but it was good. Got me motivated to start trading and to learn to do it the right way. They recommended to set up a paper account.

So, This journal is going to document my travels from a noob, to hopefully a decent trader who has some knowledge.

I will be trading with a paper account, so the emotions aren't the same, i know, but I will try to document reasons for entry and exit, and with what I have learned.

Hope it helps someone else to get motivated to learn the right way of trading, and it will keep me committed.

Look forward to posting more.
 
Ok, so we had the second class, and it was good... It got me excited about trading.

So the class is about technical analysis and being a trader, not a buy and hold investor.

I do have a question:
What brokers are good for paper trading?

I am thinking of either Interactive brokers, optionsexpress or mbtrading.

Any thoughts on the 3?

More on day 2 later... Need to get a paper account set up first.
 
I ended up setting up a paper account with MB Trading. They have direct access ECN and its like $5/trade when I want to go live., and they have level II quotes.

The second class was good. It was an introduction to technical analysis and showed the difference between being an investor and a trader.

We got into different types of charting and how to read bar charts & candlesticks. The cool part is when they started teaching about plotting support and resistance lines, which they jsut touched on briefly, because that is the subject of the next class.

They talked about the herd mentality of people and how stocks are not predictable, but people are, so when a stock comes to a support line, people who have seen it hit support a few times and go down, will probably get out. Same with resistance.

Teh second class was pretty basic as well, but great for a beginner like me. I'm excited for the 3rd class, which is monday, to delve deeper into reading charts.

BTW, these guys do like a team training approach, and both seem very knowledgable. I asked them if they are full time traders, and how do I know they are, and not just teachers... They actually have a website where they show their trades in real time. Pretty cool.
 
Ive got a question for everyone.


What is the best piece of advice you have received about trading the markets?



Thanks for your replies.
 
Dont let your emotions get in the way.
Always know where you are going to put a stoploss to get out if your wrong. If not your emotions or refusal of being wrong will get in the way.
 
I know that is one of the big things with paper trading and trading with real money, is not to let your emotions get in the way.

One thing the instructor is telling us is not to over trade. I guess they will teach about that as well.
 
DO NOT MAKE PREDICTIONS!!

and if on good days you make 1k and on bad days you lose 2k you either need to make more on your good days or lose less on your bad ones.
 
Tonight was the third class of the 4 week foundations of stocks and options class. this was about short selling and drawing lines. Last week we learned about support and resistance which seem to be the basis of technical analysis and reading charts.

they gave some pretty good examples of how to draw lines on charts. Its pretty cool that this is a live webinar and not some crappy recording. I was able to ask questions and he stopped and explained why he was drawing a line where he was. Start with line charts then move to candles to confirm your lines. I never would have thought of that!

the class is turning out to be really good. they get a lot of interaction from everyone, and actually make it really personal for a free course!

Our homwork is to pick a few stocks and practice drawing support and resistance lines, and try to find channels. Then in our paper accounts place one long trade and one short trade.

I'll keep updated on the trades I place.
 
Wednesday I took class #4 which was an into to options trading. They went throught he basics again of shorting, and answered questions people had from the previous class to make sure people understood the concept of short selling. Then on to options.

They explained it as a way to make money from stocks you currently have in your portfolio, or also to work as a hedge against open trades you may have, and just an overall good strategy to employ.

they exlained the 4 basic types of options trades, buy a call, sell a call, buy a put, sell a put, and detailed the difference between them.

I am still a little confused about the difference between selling a call, and buying a put. but they are supposed to go into more detail about this monday.

Anyone have a good explanation of the difference?


btw, they are having another free class start on feb. 8 if anyone is interested.
 
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