becoming a trader!

im 22 year old and im just about to graduate form NUIGalway(ireland) having BA in civil engineering but i want to become a trader.
i am highly interseted in probability and quant analysis as i play alot of poker and these skill are really my bread and butter.

could any body suggest the best way to begin? such as interships and trainee programs offered by different firms not just in ireland but perhaphs london to. im willing to travel to persue this as my career.

thanks!

open an account and start trading with your own money.

if you cant make money for yourself, you will not be able to demonstrate that you can make money for anyone else.

best of luck.

cool thanks! could you possibly direct as to how i start(via what site)? and as to how much i should invest?

thanks

It depends what kind of brokerage you are after and the amount of money.

(I don't know if i can recomend brokerages as it may be classed as advertising) - however on this forum there is a broker review section which you may be interested in looking at.

For example a normal trading broker where you buy the shares and have ownership of them (and pay commisions and stamp duty/taxes).

Or you could open a spreadbetting account where you don't pay taxes but you lend on margin (and have to pay lending costs such as roll over fees for the number of days that you lend every day - in most cases) but don't own anything tangible.

It could be argued that if you are trading you are not investing as such - but that argument can go eitherway and i would agree with merits on both sides - I guess if your making money it does not matter what you call it.

As jiggy says above if you can't do it with your own money then chances are you can't do it with anyone elses - however because its not your own money you would be more likley to take bigger risks as you won't hold the bag when its down as banks/taxpayers have found out.

For the amount of money it should be the amount you are can afford to lose both psychological and financially. The more you input in an account the more "leeway" you have. Don't be afriad of losing, you need to cut your losses short and run your profits - you can then lose more times than you win, but still win financially which is what counts.

Also with being an engineer and gaining your degree (congratulations by the way) be warned against being a slave to the maths - it can give you an answer but it does not mean that its right - even if your calculations are the market may not "add up/act" to what you have calculated. A lot of trading is psychological - fear and greed being the main ones.

I would recomend having a maximum loss of 1% of your account capital each trade - however that it just me. It can give you an idea of how much you need.

However the above are my opinions and they can be greatly disagreed on - the person disagreeing would be neither right or wrong.

Most of all remain humble with your trades and the market - your trades react with what the markets do, the market does not react with what your trades do.

thanks benji!

No problem and good luck.

And remember if you blow your account first (lose all your money). Most traders have failed multiple times - so your not alone.

Also be warey the 50/50 chance (going up or down) when you start as it is deceptive and can make you think you know what you are doing when your just getting lucky - it makes people make bigger bets as they are sure of themselves and think they are going to get richer faster with minimal amount of work and research, which then can backfire and blow your account when your recieve the other side of that 50.

You will learn through experience and its a lifelong process.

cool. i understand the importance of managing my capital and varience.

could you direct me as to how to open an account?

thanks1

Sure.

There is a list of broker reviews here on this forum:

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/broker-reviews/

It depends what markets you wish to trade.

In general what you do is you go to the online site. You fill in details under "open an account" and it will ask you things such as age, job, savings, location etc. (Age/location for law) - (Job/savings for collateral so that they can get their money back if you go under your account). They can claim it back by law.

The accounts are usually opened within minutes. They should then send you some documentation through post and some will ring up to check everything is fine and you are who you say you are. - You don't have to fund your account till its open.

I assume you already know what they are but heres an overview:

Forex is currencies.

Commodities is energy/food/metal etc

Equities is shares.

Bonds is debt.


Each has different swings in price ranges on a fast scale.

It also depends whether you want to own the underlying asset or spreadbet. (I can't recomend any as i think it is a against forum rules - it could also be conflict of interest as i could be anyone giving you any link/scam).

Spreadbetting are basically "Book-makers" for lack of a better term and should give you access to a range of markets together for example forex/bonds/commdities/equities - some more-so than others. They make the money primary through the spread and if you lose (or so i believe).

Spreadbetting allows you to bet that prices are going down as well as up - however you have to pay any dividend payments from your account if you are betting down when the dividend has agreed to be paid.

However the link above that links to a different section of this forum should help.

darby88 said:

im 22 year old and im just about to graduate form NUIGalway(ireland) having BA in civil engineering but i want to become a trader.
i am highly interseted in probability and quant analysis as i play alot of poker and these skill are really my bread and butter.

could any body suggest the best way to begin? such as interships and trainee programs offered by different firms not just in ireland but perhaphs london to. im willing to travel to persue this as my career.

thanks!

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You are 22 and you are on a right way. You can be done with money till 30 and that would be great!

I will recommend you to keep playing poker.

Btw... what poker service do you use?

Joseff said:

You are 22 and you are on a right way. You can be done with money till 30 and that would be great!

I will recommend you to keep playing poker.

Btw... what poker service do you use?

Click to expand...

thanks dude. i play ipoker fulltilt and stars depends wat good game are running or if i want to play HU

darby88 said:

thanks dude. i play ipoker fulltilt and stars depends wat good game are running or if i want to play HU

Click to expand...

I do like full Tilt also!

Hi are there any seasoned successful traders out there who would be willing to pass on there skills to a 41 year old apprentice. This is something I would really like to get into and develop it to become my primary source of income but after trading on a demo account for the past few weeks I am already 10% down on my initial 10K I had at my disposal! I need a mentor!!!

Hi Dave.

My best advice would be to read the forum and some books on what you are interested in. Then go slowley.

It can be said arguably that trading can't be teached but it can be learned (through experience) as it is not an exact science.

Benji871 said:

Hi Dave.

My best advice would be to read the forum and some books on what you are interested in. Then go slowley.

It can be said arguably that trading can't be teached but it can be learned (through experience) as it is not an exact science.

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Cheers for that, i know this is no easy place to be and i dont expect to make good straight away! I understand the basics of trading i.e risk management, money managemet,strategies etc but have only made 3 successful trades although my limits have been reached at some point during the day but wiped out before they got there quite frustrating!!!

Don't worry about it. It happens to the best of us. (As far as i know anyway).

What you have to remember with getting hit before the limits is that they could have gone the oppersite way in a far greater distance if it is any consolation. (Something i learned the hard way a few years back when my "limit" never materialised but i expected it to and wouldn't take a small loss - which turned into a "school of experience" type lesson at my great expense in a very short amount of time).

I now understand the saying: Experience is an "influential" teacher, you take the test before you learn the lesson.

In regards to the first paragraph - I always like to think that when the trade goes against me it is soley because of the fact that i was wrong at the time it hit the "stop" place (this may seem wierd to you/others, but for me accepting that i am wrong is the first step to doing something about it and that there is a problem - it removes denial) as there is/was no guarentee that it was going to get any more favourable. (The trade could have gone the oppersite way in a greater direction which would make the place you wish you got out at look not so bad). - Remembering this helps me greatly when i am out of the trade and it goes the way i'd/you'd hoped.

If the "stops" are small enough i think of it as a minor and "not too bad" as it means your not going to get whiped out in one/or a few goes and you should be able to make it up in the future.

Also if it makes you feel any better:

Psychologically, mathematically and realistically the less you lose of your account the greater chance you have of winning overal - you have to actually get to the end to win the race (so to speak). Having half your leg blown off (big account loss) in the process makes it far harder to get to the end - and it is the end that matters in a race - if you don't get there you don't succeed - if you had no real intention of getting to the finish line then why expend the effort. (btw this ending is not aimed at anyone in paticular - even though it may sound a bit hostile its not meant to be - i'm just summing up the end).

Dave Jones said:

I understand the basics of trading i.e risk management, money managemet,strategies etc

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After losing 10% in a few weeks, i somehow doubt that. Reading the first few sides of almost any trading book would have told you that your RM or MM was somewhat off.

Saying what markets, timeframes etc that you are interested in might help you get the mentor you are searching for. Don't expect one for free though. Everyone who replies will probably want paying for their services to cover the missed trading time.

This site is a big pool of vendors who all have "amazing systems" to teach you. Beware

Good luck

darby88 said:

cool. i understand the importance of managing my capital and varience.

could you direct me as to how to open an account?

thanks1

Click to expand...

Jees Darby,

Google
Search criteria: Trading Account

Or search further on T2W, Forex Factory, Elitetrader....

As you're new, you are forgiven this time, but why not do some of your own research and ask more specific questions afterwards.

Eg...

"I want to Day Trade the ES Mini on a 5 Minute Timeframe and have found this company that seem to have a good trading account for my style of trading. Does anyone have experience with this firm?"

...would be a better question that more people would likely answer. We have no idea of what you actually want to do so how can we answer? There are too many variables.

No offense. Polite criticism thats all. Good luck

darby88 said:

im 22 year old and im just about to graduate form NUIGalway(ireland) having BA in civil engineering but i want to become a trader.
i am highly interseted in probability and quant analysis as i play alot of poker and these skill are really my bread and butter.

could any body suggest the best way to begin? such as interships and trainee programs offered by different firms not just in ireland but perhaphs london to. im willing to travel to persue this as my career.

thanks!

Click to expand...

Have you heard of a company in Cork called Solas Financial, i know they have courses and a full trading room.

This is a sham. The exact same text has been posted before by another member with 7 posts. Ari.Gorian

not a sham dude!