Looking to get into trading

[Adcfighter]

First off let me start off with telling a little background of where I'm at in life to get some proper feedback. I am 20 years old and I am leaving for the U.S Army in Jan. I am looking at starting to get into day trading and have a few question to know how to approach this path(if I still decide to after what people have to say).

What is a suitable amount to have set in an account to use? Are we talking a few $100 or should I be looking at haven more around $10,000?

How should I treat the money I have in my trading account?

Should the money I have set aside for trading be money I can count on never seeing again?

Is day trading something that can turn into a suitable "job" that will pay bills and the necessities to live on?

What is a good test timeline to figure out if trading is something I am good at or it's just not for me?

 

[HillaryDale]

First off let me start off with telling a little background of where I'm at in life to get some proper feedback. I am 20 years old and I am leaving for the U.S Army in Jan. I am looking at starting to get into day trading and have a few question to know how to approach this path(if I still decide to after what people have to say).

What is a suitable amount to have set in an account to use? Are we talking a few $100 or should I be looking at haven more around $10,000?

How should I treat the money I have in my trading account?

Should the money I have set aside for trading be money I can count on never seeing again?

Is day trading something that can turn into a suitable "job" that will pay bills and the necessities to live on?

What is a good test timeline to figure out if trading is something I am good at or it's just not for me?

When you invest in trading, you should also be prepared to loose the same amount. You should understand that although trading can be very promising when it comes to making money, it is also very risky. Just a piece of advise, don't use your savings when you invest in trading. Use your extra money instead.

 

[D70]

Your best bet is to get a job and trade in your spare time and see how you get on.

Trade a demo account to start with, (no money required).

Once you figure out what you are doing, then start with your own money (10,000dollars will not be enough to make a living from).

 

[D70]

More colour for you.

First off let me start off with telling a little background of where I'm at in life to get some proper feedback. I am 20 years old and I am leaving for the U.S Army in Jan. I am looking at starting to get into day trading and have a few question to know how to approach this path(if I still decide to after what people have to say).

What is a suitable amount to have set in an account to use? Are we talking a few $100 or should I be looking at haven more around $10,000?

$10,000 is not enough to "make a living".
For your first 2 years have enough in a deposit account to cover all living expenses as you will be unlikely to earn anything from trading.

How should I treat the money I have in my trading account?
Should the money I have set aside for trading be money I can count on never seeing again?
Never to be seen again (helps with mental detachment)

Is day trading something that can turn into a suitable "job" that will pay bills and the necessities to live on?
Of course.......

What is a good test timeline to figure out if trading is something I am good at or it's just not for me?

Many are obsessed with it. Others approach it like a business. If you are the latter, you will do ok. Best thing you can do is find someone that makes a living from it already and get them to show you how.

 

[goonior1]

Good advice to get a job and learn to trade on the side...many markets are virtually 24 hours (and fairly active for say 12-16 of those...London & US sessions) and it's so much easier to trade when you have a stable income backing you up rather than clinging to every dollar you have. If you assume you need to live on $30k, you have to turn a 300% profit per year just to meet your needs.
Ask yourself how long it would take you be able to support yourself in some other field if you were just starting out now and you should get a decent idea of what's involved and why you need an external job to start.

 

[cycletracker]

HI Adcfighter,

I suggest you take that 10k, do some research on trading schools, and get yourself a good trading education. Next, take your education and develop a plan. Then, paper trade your plan until you are consistently profitable for a least a couple months. If you can't make money consistently on paper, you will never be consistent trading with real money.

Hope this helps.

Andrew

 

[tradefxlive]

First off let me start off with telling a little background of where I'm at in life to get some proper feedback. I am 20 years old and I am leaving for the U.S Army in Jan. I am looking at starting to get into day trading and have a few question to know how to approach this path(if I still decide to after what people have to say).

What is a suitable amount to have set in an account to use? Are we talking a few $100 or should I be looking at haven more around $10,000?

How should I treat the money I have in my trading account?

Should the money I have set aside for trading be money I can count on never seeing again?

Is day trading something that can turn into a suitable "job" that will pay bills and the necessities to live on?

What is a good test timeline to figure out if trading is something I am good at or it's just not for me?

Hi ADCfighter,

I juts want to wish you good luck dude.....

Bhav

 

[everyonerich]

ask Santa to trade for you and retire to the Bahamas!

 

[PokerBrat]

I would advise you take that $10k, invest it in something secure which compounds the interest, then go and join the Army and get on with your life. Then from your pay packet, take 10% each month and put it into your investment vehicle. You are 20 years old now, if you do this for 40 years you will be a rich man when you come to retire.

If you start trying to daytrade, you will spend countless hours in misery and frustration, until you either a) blow enough money to convince you that the pain just isn't worth it, or b) eventually reach the point where you are consistently profitable. Consider that approx 95% of people experience a) and even if you do get to b) you will have spent years and thousands of dollars to get there and you still don't have enough capital to make a living out of it.

Many people think they can make a living by trading. Very few people actuallly do.

Most people here will tell you that you need to learn how to trade to be successful. You don't. You need to learn how to be a trader to be successful. These are two entirely different things. You can be an expert in trading strategies and still fail because you do not have the right mindset to succeed.

People look at trading as a way to make easy money. Believe me when I say that this will be the hardest money you have ever earned. That is of course, if you do actually make any.

Think about it like this: if you have a bad day at the barracks, or make a mistake, does the Army still pay you? Or do they say, actually we are not going to pay you today, in fact, we are going to dock you yesterdays pay as well?

Well that is what the market will do if you have a bad day. And how is that going to make you feel? Are you going to be able to watch 50% of your hard earned money disappear into someone elses pocket and still maintain your discipline? Are you going to be able to work for weeks if not months with nothing to show for it and still maintain your discipline?

Do yourself a favour Adc - go out and enjoy the life that is on offer to you. Work hard, play hard and invest for your future. And avoid this obsessive, destructive and ultimately fruitless endeavour that so many of us are struggling with.

 

[spreader_legger]

I'd be interested to know what the stats were like in trying to become a successful poker player? Something tells me that they would be very similar to trading. This magic 5% level extends to almost everything ..... % of successful businesses? .... 5%. Almost seems like a natural law ...... I suppose most of us need to be content with working for the minority 5% of winners in this world

I would advise you take that $10k, invest it in something secure which compounds the interest, then go and join the Army and get on with your life. Then from your pay packet, take 10% each month and put it into your investment vehicle. You are 20 years old now, if you do this for 40 years you will be a rich man when you come to retire.

If you start trying to daytrade, you will spend countless hours in misery and frustration, until you either a) blow enough money to convince you that the pain just isn't worth it, or b) eventually reach the point where you are consistently profitable. Consider that approx 95% of people experience a) and even if you do get to b) you will have spent years and thousands of dollars to get there and you still don't have enough capital to make a living out of it.

Many people think they can make a living by trading. Very few people actuallly do.

Most people here will tell you that you need to learn how to trade to be successful. You don't. You need to learn how to be a trader to be successful. These are two entirely different things. You can be an expert in trading strategies and still fail because you do not have the right mindset to succeed.

People look at trading as a way to make easy money. Believe me when I say that this will be the hardest money you have ever earned. That is of course, if you do actually make any.

Think about it like this: if you have a bad day at the barracks, or make a mistake, does the Army still pay you? Or do they say, actually we are not going to pay you today, in fact, we are going to dock you yesterdays pay as well?

Well that is what the market will do if you have a bad day. And how is that going to make you feel? Are you going to be able to watch 50% of your hard earned money disappear into someone elses pocket and still maintain your discipline? Are you going to be able to work for weeks if not months with nothing to show for it and still maintain your discipline?

Do yourself a favour Adc - go out and enjoy the life that is on offer to you. Work hard, play hard and invest for your future. And avoid this obsessive, destructive and ultimately fruitless endeavour that so many of us are struggling with.

 

[cycletracker]

..Are you going to be able to watch 50% of your hard earned money disappear into someone elses pocket and still maintain your discipline? Are you going to be able to work for weeks if not months with nothing to show for it and still maintain your discipline?

PokerBrat makes some good points, but in my opinion there's absolutely no reason to expect you'll lose 50% of your account if you take it slowly, find the proper training/mentorship, and develop and follow a sound plan that includes strict risk management and trade management rules. If you can control yourself, you shouldn't have much trouble following such a process.

Andrew

 

[PokerBrat]

The proportion of consistently profitable poker players is about the same from what I have read. The two are very closely related and require a lot of the same skills.

I managed 4 profitable years at the felt, until this year which will be my first losing year. And I can tell you that it is a hard thing to deal with emotionally. I am yet to have a profitable years trading, although this year was break even, which I view as a huge improvement from last year.

The thing about poker and trading is that they are constantly evolving. This is what makes them so fascinating and challenging. It is also what makes them so difficult to be consistently successful in.

You can find a profitable strategy in both pursuits, and these will work for a while and you think that you have it cracked and look forward to endless riches. But then the game/market will change and suddenly you are in the middle of a big drawdown and scratching your head trying to figure out what happened.

cycletracker - you are right, there is no reason to expect that you will lose 50% of your capital. But by the same reasoning, there is no reason to expect that you wont. The point I am trying to get across is that this is a very real posibility, and until you have fully accepted the risk of losing all your capital, you should not be trading.

The problem for all new traders is that you cannot know how it feels and how you will react emotionally to losing money, until you have lost it. And at that point the damage is done - you have lost mental and emotional capital, as well as financial capital. The first two are a lot harder to get back then the last.

All new traders get into trading thinking about how much money they can make. Whereas they should be thinking about how much money they could lose, and preparing for how they are going to deal with that.

I would recommend that all new traders put 10% of their capital into a spreadbetting account and then just take trade after trader until it is all gone. Then see how it feels and see if you can handle it. If you can handle it - go and learn about trading. If you can't - take the 90% you still have and go and do something else (and think yourself lucky that you still have $9k in your bank).

Learning how to take losses is the most important part of playing poker and of trading. It's the one thing that separates the successful from the rest.

 

[spreader_legger]

Limiting your initial capital involvement to 10% is quite sensible IMHO. I would also gradually increase your capital following consistently profitable months .... i.e. I don't know whether I would put all my money down based on a 3 month period of time.

In the event that you should lose more than 30% of your account, scale down or go back to demo. Oh ... & keep risk per trade down to around 1% of your total capital. I think that trading should be seen as a marathon rather than a sprint to the finish.

The proportion of consistently profitable poker players is about the same from what I have read. The two are very closely related and require a lot of the same skills.

I managed 4 profitable years at the felt, until this year which will be my first losing year. And I can tell you that it is a hard thing to deal with emotionally. I am yet to have a profitable years trading, although this year was break even, which I view as a huge improvement from last year.

The thing about poker and trading is that they are constantly evolving. This is what makes them so fascinating and challenging. It is also what makes them so difficult to be consistently successful in.

You can find a profitable strategy in both pursuits, and these will work for a while and you think that you have it cracked and look forward to endless riches. But then the game/market will change and suddenly you are in the middle of a big drawdown and scratching your head trying to figure out what happened.

cycletracker - you are right, there is no reason to expect that you will lose 50% of your capital. But by the same reasoning, there is no reason to expect that you wont. The point I am trying to get across is that this is a very real posibility, and until you have fully accepted the risk of losing all your capital, you should not be trading.

The problem for all new traders is that you cannot know how it feels and how you will react emotionally to losing money, until you have lost it. And at that point the damage is done - you have lost mental and emotional capital, as well as financial capital. The first two are a lot harder to get back then the last.

All new traders get into trading thinking about how much money they can make. Whereas they should be thinking about how much money they could lose, and preparing for how they are going to deal with that.

I would recommend that all new traders put 10% of their capital into a spreadbetting account and then just take trade after trader until it is all gone. Then see how it feels and see if you can handle it. If you can handle it - go and learn about trading. If you can't - take the 90% you still have and go and do something else (and think yourself lucky that you still have $9k in your bank).

Learning how to take losses is the most important part of playing poker and of trading. It's the one thing that separates the successful from the rest.