Best way to learn QUICK!!

[rosey89]

Iv just started a new job as a trainee broker (cfd's & sb), I knew nothing on the markets before apart from what I saw on the news every so often. Having just completed a months training, reading the papers everyday and watching the news religiously I am now familiar with how it all works and the products.

I am fairly clever (1st degree at university) however haven't got the best memory and always been rubbish at tests.

I have been starting off slowly testing myself different ways without overloading too much info. been doing stuff like every night picking 5 companies from the ftse100, looking at what they do, what industry they are in etc.

Its becoming obvious that the more knowledgeable I am on the markets then the easier I will find my job. 'Knowledge is Power'

How did you first learn?
What do I need to know?
Whats the best sites/news/papers/books to be looking at?
What's the quickest way of learning?
Should I know everything about 1 thing or a little bit about everything?

Thanks

 

[zammitman]

Iv just started a new job as a trainee broker (cfd's & sb), I knew nothing on the markets before apart from what I saw on the news every so often.
Having just completed a months training, reading the papers everyday and watching the news religiously I am now familiar with how it all works and the products.

One month and he knows it all now.

Don't worry rosey89, you will spend the first 12 months mindlessly cold-calling people to get your client base.
Learn to blow smoke up their 4rse and you will be fine

 

[EulerFourier]

The best way to learn quick is to lose all your money

 

[rosey89]

Oh so this forum is full of smart arses is it? thought I might get a sensible answer

 

[PollyM]

Oh so this forum is full of smart arses is it? thought I might get a sensible answer

Rosey89

A useful place to start is to understand where money comes from, how it was first invented. I've done some posts on the Where do I start? thread. Have a read through, pick out the parts which you feel comfortable with, and explore further.

Try not to get caught up in the surface information, eg news stories, 'hot picks', 'next year's predictions', and the like. Economies operate on wavelengths much deeper than those you mostly hear and read about.

Learning a bit about everything is useful as it helps you to find a common sense, a context into which you can put each jigsaw piece of your new knowledge as it comes along. Do the breadth, then you can specialise in those areas you feel most suit your personality.

Once you work out the following puzzle you will know that you're making progress: When I was doing economics at college, a progressive cycle was taught which started with agriculture, then industry, then services, then ... well, at the time, it seemed to stop there. Why? What comes next. Try to work out what the fourth age is?

 

[The Leopard]

You're a broker. Why do you need to know about markets and the fortunes of individual companies to do your job?

 

[rosey89]

Rosey89

A useful place to start is to understand where money comes from, how it was first invented. I've done some posts on the Where do I start? thread. Have a read through, pick out the parts which you feel comfortable with, and explore further.

Try not to get caught up in the surface information, eg news stories, 'hot picks', 'next year's predictions', and the like. Economies operate on wavelengths much deeper than those you mostly hear and read about.

Learning a bit about everything is useful as it helps you to find a common sense, a context into which you can put each jigsaw piece of your new knowledge as it comes along. Do the breadth, then you can specialise in those areas you feel most suit your personality.

Thanks this is the kind of advice I was after.

Rosey89
Once you work out the following puzzle you will know that you're making progress: When I was doing economics at college, a progressive cycle was taught which started with agriculture, then industry, then services, then ... well, at the time, it seemed to stop there. Why? What comes next. Try to work out what the fourth age is?

Im guessing technology.

 

[rosey89]

You're a broker. Why do you need to know about markets and the fortunes of individual companies to do your job?

The main reason being to be able to hold a conversation with my clients about their positions and the markets in general. I don't have to be a market guru but I feel that the more I know the more comfortable I will be at my job.

 

[EulerFourier]

Oh so this forum is full of smart arses is it? thought I might get a sensible answer

There is just not an easy way to learn quickly.

You might find the book Trading and Exchanges: Market Microstructure for Practitioners, by Larry Harris to be of some use. Though it is a tome.

 

[The Leopard]

The main reason being to be able to hold a conversation with my clients about their positions and the markets in general. I don't have to be a market guru but I feel that the more I know the more comfortable I will be at my job.

If all you want to do is bullsh1t people who haven't got a clue one way or the other, just read any of the punditry websites like zerohedge or whatever. Or watch any of the financial shows and news programmes.

It's all boll0cks but most people prefer that to reality anyway.

If you're serious, try reading something like Reminiscences and thinking hard to reach your own conclusions.

But it will be a lot easier just to regurgitate the received opinion crap you see everywhere. As I say, I imagine that stuff would go down a lot better than the truth in any case, so why make work for yourself?

 

[deebee1]

If all you want to do is bullsh1t people who haven't got a clue one way or the other, just read any of the punditry websites like zerohedge or whatever. Or watch any of the financial shows and news programmes.

It's all boll0cks but most people prefer that to reality anyway.

If you're serious, try reading something like Reminiscences and thinking hard to reach your own conclusions.

But it will be a lot easier just to regurgitate the received opinion crap you see everywhere. As I say, I imagine that stuff would go down a lot better than the truth in any case, so why make work for yourself?

true, sometimes people need to here the garbage, because when you try to explain the honest truth, they question it!!!

 

[PollyM]

true, sometimes people need to here the garbage, because when you try to explain the honest truth, they question it!!!

There are some interesting points being made here.

Amongst other things, markets work on belief systems which are born out of natural desires for having and doing things. Sometimes these can go haywire (look at tulipmania in the 17th century), but because a herd mentality can develop about such things, particularly through the media, means it's a catch 22 trying to explain things in a different light.

It's often best therefore just keeping it to yourself and adjusting your position to benefit from any fallout. Others who know will also do the same, and the ones who are wavering will soon begin to see the changes as they happen and adjust their position. Those who are caught in the belief systems whose tails are beginning to wag the dogs, in other words focusing only on the money and not its source, will start changing their minds when the losses become too great to bear. And those who can see no other way than keep pressing on the accelerator will ... well, I'd rather not think about it. You wouldn't drive a car that way, so why should a market be any different.

 

[DionysusToast]

The main reason being to be able to hold a conversation with my clients about their positions and the markets in general. I don't have to be a market guru but I feel that the more I know the more comfortable I will be at my job.

Well, they'll be mostly clueless, so I'd just brush up on the blowing smoke part...

 

[PollyM]

Well, they'll be mostly clueless, so I'd just brush up on the blowing smoke part...

Rosey89, in a roundabout sort of way, I think what is generally being said here is to be selective as to the belief systems you let influence your own mind. You will know what you feel comfortable with, and run with that the best you can.

Remember, price moves geometrically. Look at charts with a logarithmic y-axis and you will see why things can get carried away with themselves if just looked at arithmetically.

 

[Gaucho and Nelson]

Well, they'll be mostly clueless, so I'd just brush up on the blowing smoke part...

and mirrors, don't forget the mirrors......convex, just to be safe......

 

[MoonRocket]

.............................. I feel that the more I know the more comfortable I will be at my job.

You may find the very opposite will happen. The more you know the more uncomfortable you will be.
I'm not being a sm@t@ss to you.
People will feel comfortable holding a company or a position that is popular and losing rather then the oposite.
Imagine this......The customer holds Apple and they are an Apple fanboi but for the sake of this conversation lets say Apple shares
are in a downtrend and you are of the opinion this downtrend will last for years. You will have no trouble in convincing this guy to buy more even 'tho you are certain this would be a bad idea.
He will buy them quicker then a flash even 'tho you may have some downtrodden share that is hated in the media but you consider a smartbuy.

 

[VielGeld]

You want to learn quick, eh?

Take out a mortgage, and live on it while learning to trade with the very same money. Your style should first start out as a scalper to get an idea of market fundamentals and why price moves.

The rest is practice, experimentation, and making sure you don't collapse in a nervous, self-sabotaging wreck.

Good luck. I'm not kidding.

 

[vergis92]

Iv just started a new job as a trainee broker (cfd's & sb), I knew nothing on the markets before apart from what I saw on the news every so often. Having just completed a months training, reading the papers everyday and watching the news religiously I am now familiar with how it all works and the products.

I am fairly clever (1st degree at university) however haven't got the best memory and always been rubbish at tests.

I have been starting off slowly testing myself different ways without overloading too much info. been doing stuff like every night picking 5 companies from the ftse100, looking at what they do, what industry they are in etc.

Its becoming obvious that the more knowledgeable I am on the markets then the easier I will find my job. 'Knowledge is Power'

How did you first learn?
What do I need to know?
Whats the best sites/news/papers/books to be looking at?
What's the quickest way of learning?
Should I know everything about 1 thing or a little bit about everything?

Thanks

More knowledge is better, but definitely requires a judgement system to deal with conflicting indicators. In my trading I use a long checklist that has many indicators and many different techniques, but I made the effort to rank them in an order, according to the weight each one carries, and it took me several years to learn just that. And this is about checking with as many as 20 different indicators, where I would have to narrow them down to 2-3, one indicator would completely override some other indicator during that phase in the market.

Conflicting indicators are a certainty, and there's no perfect solution.

One such weird indicator is volume, conventional wisdom teaches that more volume is supportive of trends, at the same time these very teachers say that volume represents the actions of the crowd, SO WHICH IS IT?

Just about every indicator has such inherent ambiguity and the way it's being taught in many books and seminars is lame, and you certainly have no easy way of figuring out who's causing all that volume.

 

[jungerns]

Oh so this forum is full of smart arses is it? thought I might get a sensible answer

Buddy believe me there's far too many smart arses on here and the only way is to put them on ignore.

I probably belong to around 25-30 forums covering a huge variety of subjects but only on here will you get your **** chewed over nothing.....

Just go with the flow because as always the smart arses are lifes failures...

Happy Trading...:clap:

Edited....How come I can quote a post containing the same word thats deleted on mine !!

 

[The Leopard]

Conflicting indicators are a certainty, and there's no perfect solution.

Oh, I don't know. I can think of at least one.