Completely new to trading

hey everyone, Im completely new to trading, been wanting to do it for sometime and probably won't be live for a while yet.

just wanted to get some opinions from all of you on where i should start looking. going to be doing a lot of reading but somewhere to start always helps.

Was reading an article saying that since have a full time job there are possible benefits for me in forex and swing trading. What are my best options in terms of types of trading and markets , was always more interested in indices...no real reason just seemed to be what i tended to look at but will go with which ever is (if any) a better market for me to start on and more accomodating due to my time contstraint. Reading the first steps sticky it said the usual root for most new people is through spreadbetting but then i see a lot of people slagging it off.

You can trade anything you want if you use a long enough time frame. There are people on here that trade forex or US stocks in the evenings. There are people that swing trade longer timeframes and only look at the trades once a day or less.

It is really completely up to you what to look at. Indices will also be OK for swing trading.

From a personal experience, i am trying to trade US stocks in the Afternoons/evenings whilst rearranging my working hours to give me 2 afternoons a week at home for the NASDAQ open.

It's hard going as it is like having 2 jobs. My colleagues laugh at me for going home so early but i work more than they do as i get home and start the second job as a trader. If you value your evenings and can't rearrange your hours at work then i recommend a slower approach like trading of the Daily charts and looking at charts etc for 30mins per day.

The downside of this is that in the same amount of time, the day trader will have notched up a mass of experience and made lots of mistakes (which he can learn from) in the same time it takes the swing trader to enter and exit one trade.

All a bit difficult to advise with so little info to go on.

My best advice for any new trader is to start practicing! Some people are against paper trading, but I think it is much more productive than reading book after book, if you take it seriously. Saying that, you do need to learn some basic principles, and you do need to learn and master a trading method.

Check out TradingVideoGuide.com, they have a ton of free youtube videos, outlined into chapters. This would be a good place to start learning about trading without spending a dime.

Top of my head…

-Intraday is harder than 2/3 days+ (entered on 1-4h time frame)

-Spread betting is not so suitable for sub-1hr time frame due to transaction costs.
(but fine for longer term)

-Stay on demo until you are consistently profitable, or use a micro account/smart live markets (10p a pip)

- Read some good books, go to some free seminars by top traders, then pick and choose and mix and match the parts of their methods you like the best and recreate your system.

Get in lots of screen time.

Do not read too much into threads on trading Forums (there are so many differing thoughts on how to trade and everyone thinks they are right)

Golden rule: stick to using about 2% of your account on any trade.

Don’t ask what I can make at any time, but what could I loose in order to make.

Instead of picking the absolute top/bottom, wait for confirmation of any turns if you decide to trade turns.

Don’t believe anything (even this, until you have looked into it yourself.)

Trading is long term game, a marathon not a sprint. A tiny step, % at a time.

Make (real life) friends with better traders than yourself.

Simple systems are better systems.

Do your own thing, no two people will trade exactly the same way.

Do not chase a late trade, there will always be another one.

If you only take one thing from this then this one:

Golden rule: stick to using about 2% of your account on any trade.

Jason

Make the timeframe work for you. I have a full time job from 8-5pm. But I wake up at 4:30 and trade forex from 5am - 7am.