If you want to see the entire evolution of a beginner turned professional, I suggest reading nexial_1002002's comments by searching the forums at wl4.wealth-lab.com.
I strongly suggest Fidelity as your broker of choice. WL is the single greatest backtesting platform known to man. TS is only useful for intraday trading, and has no portfolio level backtesting.
That said, couple that with courses on finance and economics, and I think you'll be all set. It's not that simply backtesting gives you a strategy, more than it is about that it teaches you how to manage money from a mechanical perspective. The truth is, every professional when he allocates a client is required to have a reasonable and adequate basis. An analysis, if you will, is a pre-condition for taking investment action. The path to learn "how to analyze" is the secret of backtesting, and is essentially required study if you plan to make it as a trader.
I have no interest in recommending Fidelity, other than that they have been a consistent, objective broker during the seven years I have used them, for both WL and fundamental research and data. I strongly recommend them. If anything, for the first three months to be "testing" strategies like MACD crossover with StochD>80 type bullshit. What you'll find is that while they might be profitable, they aren't necessarily something you could stomach actually trading.
It's all about risk and reward, and it is only through backtesting that you'll understand risk and reward in terms of how you rate as a trader. Giving yourself the benefit of hindsight is one of the easiest things to do, but only if you understand its limitations.
This bullshit about "be on the right side of the trade" is what they call the holy grail. However, you'll find that even the holiest of holy grails loses from time to time.
I hope this helps you see the gargantuan task in front of you. Here's a tip: lie about how often you trade for the first three months at fidelity. This should get you enough time to experiment to the point that you have something you "might" be willing to risk hard earned money at, but, obviously, this requires at least $25k. And this is a very decent amount to begin trading with. Enough to make it worth your time while you learn, and, the real bread and butter amount that gets you passed the day traders rule on the NYSE and NASDAQ.
The benefit I want you to get from reading my early comments is to understand that knowing that you don't know will take you to the next level. It may not be profitable yet, but it will help you understand what you don't know. Then, when you learn what you do know, you can have confidence enough to bet your future and your family's future on your day to day trades. This is a stage that only a handful of traders get to, and, really, there's very few on here that have. A lot of them can say they have, but not many have verifiable proof.
I'm pretty sure you've caught that I'm someone that knows what he's talking about without being questioned about my background or credentials. At this point, only the most uninformed or simply arrogant traders would question my comments on this subject. You'll find that the single greatest breakthrough in modern finance and in my own personal trading endeavors was learning about how to exploit volatility. Adding standard deviations to indicators and formulating a theory on how to use them was one of the keys to my success. CAPM, APT, these are all variations on volatility and how to use them. Just look at how SuperBands with Linear Regression Analysis turned out more than 3 years after releasing it at
http://wl4.wealth-lab.com/cgi-bin/WealthLab.DLL/getpage?page=Top25APR.htm \. I did a whole lecture to the Kentucky Math Association on this strategy, and while it wasn't anyones bag but my own, it was instrumental I think in taking me forward in my development.
At more advanced levels you'll begin to notice mean reversion is the only absolute in modern finance and any price chart. This may be beyond your understanding of trading now, but once you "get it", coming up with profitable strategies will be your true passion. It has become mine after years of development, some heartache, and extra money for the future.
LOL