The inside story of a 17 years old trader

83purerange1

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The inside story of a 17 years old trader

Constantly going up and down; constantly worrying about positions; constantly thinking about the market. Doesn’t it sound miserable? The funny thing is I am still doing it now.

Most people believe trading in the stock market must be cool and easy. Wrong. My experience has proven to me that in fact it is an extremely painful, emotionally exhausting and lonely. The only reason I am in this ‘game’ is money.

Five years ago, I started up trading with a seed capital of GBP490 and now my current balance up to 21/9/11 is GBP1288.92. Annualized return of 21.341%. There is one word to describe the result: astonishing. Five years ago, I had no knowledge of what blue chips stocks are but now I have to pay attention to the Dollar Index, Fed’s action, FTSE100, CDS basis point of different underlying assets and…

The purpose for me to write this article is I just wish other teenagers who are starting or have started trading to know how trading is like in reality. Paper trading does not equal to real trading simply because you never test your emotions. Without testing your emotions, you never know your ability in the real markets where everyone is behind the computer screen and waiting to take away your hard-earned money without feeling sorry or bad. In the past five years of trading, the market has been the greatest teacher so far in my life because every day I learnt something new from the market and constantly learning does warn me out. I am a human and therefore am subject to human weakness.

At this point, you may ask why don’t you just leave and enjoy your last year of teenage life. The answer to the question is trading is like taking drugs and it is very additive. Today, you made GBP 100; tomorrow you would want to make GBP 200 and the day the after you would want to make GBP 1000; and so on. There is no ending to it.

I am sure you have heard the phrase ‘greed is good’ from the film: Wall Street money never sleeps. To a certain extent, I do agree with this statement but excessive greed leads to a problem, which could be disastrous. Moreover, there is a cost for my success in the equity market.

While most teenagers are going to party; talking about girls; getting drunk; revising for their tests; I am reading financial times, using technical analysis to analyse trends and reading financial books to enhance my skills. It is lonely. Most successful traders are very lonely because the crowd is always wrong. Jesse Livermore, the most successful speculator is famous not only because the money he gained from the great crash in 1929 but also his loneliness. Not many people would able to withstand the loneliness because it is against human nature. No one would like to be a loner including myself, however in order to be gain capital we must be a loner, which is emotionally painful.

Gaining capital is not the important part of trading because it does not teach us how to avoid losses which is actually the killer in the market. I always remember trade that I lost money in but not trade that I gain because I cannot afford to make the same mistakes. In reality, I lose money too even I endeavour to minimise the possibility of losing because I am a human too and thus subject to human weakness.

In conclusion, I just wish everyone would be fine in this bear market caused by European’s debt crisis. There are many aspects in our lives, which is more important than trading. For me personally, is to get a girlfriend. What about you?
 
well I'm a libra and my girlfriend is a scorpio.....
 
Thank you for writing your story. How did you manage to open an account when you were 12 years old only? Did your school education interfere with your trading? Did you manage to achieve good GCSE and A levels results?
 
Hi 6am nice to meet u.
I used to my dad's account and the money was all my pocket money.
Trading does affects my school life especially the social part because I do not know what do teenagers talk about.

I Just started year 12 so I haven't got any A level result yet but I did achieve pretty good GCSE grade with 2A* 5A 4B.
 
I'm 17 and more enthusiastic about trading than many....

My advice (hypocritical!): get the **** off trading forums and ALWAYS try and go out over staying in for the close, luckily i'm a daily chart trader, trading 4-5 times a month so it doesn't affect my going out that much, but I agree...it's a mindphuck
 
Well for me after 5 years of it is enough because I have missed out far too many things in my life, for example a normal teenage life.
I won't stop trading but I put emphasis in other aspects.

Anyway nice to meet you and good luck to you.
 
Well for me after 5 years of it is enough because I have missed out far too many things in my life, for example a normal teenage life.
I won't stop trading but I put emphasis in other aspects.

Anyway nice to meet you and good luck to you.

I don't care what people on this forum say: I know someone who started trading at 16/17 and within 2 years made millions, day trading. He told me to STOP trading, be a normal teenager and come back to trading after university,getting laid, being a ****, got a job...IF it's genuinely the right thing to do.

I've half taken that advice... I have plenty of time to be a ****, booked magaluf , getting **** faced on the weekends.

I think you should just trade the daily charts, it's where a lot of top traders end up anyway, less subject to the daily butt-phuck by algos than scalping is. Honestly, Just trade the EOD charts, forex, stocks, ags.

I trade 5 major FX pairs,gold and silver, and trade rarely (4 times a month) but made 40% this year, with 2% risk per trade, 6% maximum drawdown, and actually have 3 months until 1 proper year (started december 1st). Before that i'd tried trading H1/H4 and it was a ****ing nightmare, trying to keep focused on school-work and social life while not being ****ed off because I missed that setup during school, then i'd check markets in school, all in all leading to average multi-tasking really.

There's no excuse :)
 
Well I assume you having a pretty good life then.

I know why you're trading, it's not to make money, it's because, like every other teenager, you've got massive insecurities; goofy, spotty, awkward with girls, you name it.

Your trading , at least for the last few years, hasn't been to make money,not directly anyway, it's been to try and subsitute whatever fears you're having about your future with success in trading. For example, I used to have anxiety about failing in a real job, scared that my apprently good grades wouldn't equate to real world success and it would be a great shock and i'd end up depressed and alcholic, what's the solution?

Make money trading! That's why i've been learning to trade for the last while, although initally it was just curiosity but as time went on I've realised why I actually put myself through so much psychological shift.

Tbh it's just part of being a teenager, and you know what, i'm proud to be a awkward **** who gets pissed on weekends and eggs houses and gets slapped by girls when I come on too strong....join in dude, lighten the **** up and be a tw4t now, revise for exams and all that. swing trade!!!!!!!!!1

That's what I think anyway...
 
I know why you're trading, it's not to make money, it's because, like every other teenager, you've got massive insecurities; goofy, spotty, awkward with girls, you name it.

Your trading , at least for the last few years, hasn't been to make money,not directly anyway, it's been to try and subsitute whatever fears you're having about your future with success in trading. For example, I used to have anxiety about failing in a real job, scared that my apprently good grades wouldn't equate to real world success and it would be a great shock and i'd end up depressed and alcholic, what's the solution?

Make money trading! That's why i've been learning to trade for the last while, although initally it was just curiosity but as time went on I've realised why I actually put myself through so much psychological shift.

Tbh it's just part of being a teenager, and you know what, i'm proud to be a awkward **** who gets pissed on weekends and eggs houses and gets slapped by girls when I come on too strong....join in dude, lighten the **** up and be a tw4t now, revise for exams and all that. swing trade!!!!!!!!!1

That's what I think anyway...

Get a life or you'll end up looking like a quant trader (according to the BBC at least). Seems they had to copy their photo from a stock photo website, maybe the real thing looks even worse.


BBC News - Quant trading: How mathematicians rule the markets
Geek In Server Room Royalty-free Stock Photo | Getty Images UK | 80510159
 
83,

if you are neglecting drugs and girls for trading, you are doign it wrong - the latter is supposed to fund the former. otherwise what's the point, seriously?

True...

My guess is he has a spare screen on his setup and that's what's keeping him 'UP' all hours...

If the internet had been around when I hit my hormonal peak, I think I'd have w@nked myself into an early grave,
 
Well I don't do drugs and one of the reason why I trade is because the success it brings to me helps me to overcome all the insecurity I felt and somehow I can't get out of it. Sometime I feel tired of it.
 
Well I don't do drugs and one of the reason why I trade is because the success it brings to me helps me to overcome all the insecurity I felt and somehow I can't get out of it. Sometime I feel tired of it.

"Success is hollow - hollow like a dead tree." Ms. Crabtree from South Park
 
Well I don't do drugs and one of the reason why I trade is because the success it brings to me helps me to overcome all the insecurity I felt and somehow I can't get out of it. Sometime I feel tired of it.

You sound such a nice boy. Any girl would be lucky to have you as a friend.
 
You sound such a nice boy. Any girl would be lucky to have you as a friend.

It's common knowledge that any guy that holds a woman as his "best friend" is probably getting a manicure with her at the same salon and talking about fashion and pink clothes. :eek:
 
You sound such a nice boy. Any girl would be lucky to have you as a friend.

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Well life is not easy and I just wish everyone can enjoy their life outside trading :)
Life outside the financial circle is more important than money even though it is very attractive.
 
Well life is not easy and I just wish everyone can enjoy their life outside trading :)
Life outside the financial circle is more important than money even though it is very attractive.

Everything will work out for you buddy. Just be thankful you already have 5 years experience with trading. That's a huge leg up when your trying to get investors for your hedge fund in a decade or so. As far as the social problems go for you, The less you worry the better. Just live the life you have.
 
Everything will work out for you buddy. Just be thankful you already have 5 years experience with trading. That's a huge leg up when your trying to get investors for your hedge fund in a decade or so. As far as the social problems go for you, The less you worry the better. Just live the life you have.

Thanks for your encourage and I wish 2012 could be an easier year for all of us.
 
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