Newbie with question - Thanks in advance

[tonykosack]

Good evening:

I hope everyone is doing well. I'm new to trading & want to become a full-time trader. But I'm not sure what the right process is to follow?

Should I try & join a firm that offers a training program? If so, which ones do you recommend.

How does someone who works from 8:30am-4:30pm EST eventually become a full-time trader if I can't trade during the "normal session", 9:30am to 4pm EST?

Is there enough volatility from 4am-6:30am EST trade? If so, would you recommend Futures or Forex?

This is what I've always wanted to do, but just don't know where to begin & what my plan should be to become a full-time trader.

I would really appreciate your thoughts & any advice you can provide.

Thank you in advance for your time,

Tony

 

[BataviaTrader]

Hi Tony,

Welcome to the board. I suggest you hang out a lot here at T2W and read up as much as you can. Another valuable website / forum is forexfactory.com To learn forex more in depth, do a course at babypips.com/school/

Also save money that you could possibly lose all (seriously! do not ...I repeat...NOT.. use your life savings). Fund a trading account, and start paper trading for a few years. Develop a strategy that works for you. Work on the greed and fear issue. Start...fail....repeat. Rinse and repeat. Repeat a lot. Until you build stability on your paper trading account. After that come back to this thread and let me know how you gettin on.

Regards
BT

 

[tonykosack]

Hi Tony,

Welcome to the board. I suggest you hang out a lot here at T2W and read up as much as you can. Another valuable website / forum is forexfactory.com To learn forex more in depth, do a course at babypips.com/school/

Also save money that you could possibly lose all (seriously! do not ...I repeat...NOT.. use your life savings). Fund a trading account, and start paper trading for a few years. Develop a strategy that works for you. Work on the greed and fear issue. Start...fail....repeat. Rinse and repeat. Repeat a lot. Until you build stability on your paper trading account. After that come back to this thread and let me know how you gettin on.

Regards
BT

Thanks BT. But how does someone develop a strategy if they don't know how to trade? How do you learn how to trade like a hedge fund manager? What is it that they do that other managers don't do? Why can they pick stocks that a mutual fund manager doesn't pick? I'm confused & just don't know where to start? I'm going to read up on this website, but I was also hoping to get advice on how to trade like a hedge fund manager. Is there anyone you could introduce me to or websites you would recommend I visit in addition to forex factory?

Thanks,

Tony

 

[fatowl]

Tony, I was once in your shoes: very excited to work for a proprietary trading firm and rise to the top. I ended up staying with my 9-5 job because I did not want to risk losing my career.

Instead, I focused on trading systems that I could do overnight or on weekends. My system I trade now has been profitable since I started in October 2012. I am up 15% since then. My daily routine is to wake up, open my trading programs, set up the algorithm, and go to my 9-5 job. The computer does the work at the close of the market. It's a wonderful thing to trade a system that I developed myself and backtested since 1990.

My system fits my personality because I am more analytical rather than intuitive. I'd rather sit back and analyze "why?" rather than get into the action and react to the market. What kind of person are you? Could you handle all the heat? Have you worked high pressure jobs before? Have you worked analytical jobs?

 

[NVP]

Tony

Tread the big forums, read the junk mail and videos, ask questions , practice on demos, and spend at least a year learning the basics

then you will have a lot more idea of what and how you will approach trading at that point

Experience cannot be bought in a tin or a box..........
N

 

[NVP]

Tony, I was once in your shoes: very excited to work for a proprietary trading firm and rise to the top. I ended up staying with my 9-5 job because I did not want to risk losing my career.

Instead, I focused on trading systems that I could do overnight or on weekends. My system I trade now has been profitable since I started in October 2012. I am up 15% since then. My daily routine is to wake up, open my trading programs, set up the algorithm, and go to my 9-5 job. The computer does the work at the close of the market. It's a wonderful thing to trade a system that I developed myself and backtested since 1990.

My system fits my personality because I am more analytical rather than intuitive. I'd rather sit back and analyze "why?" rather than get into the action and react to the market. What kind of person are you? Could you handle all the heat? Have you worked high pressure jobs before? Have you worked analytical jobs?

sounds a good strategy - good luck to you sir

 

[Tyger]

Tony,

Ask yourself what your competitive edge is going to be.

In mathematical terms, trading is a Complex Adaptive System - see Complex adaptive system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you have a PhD in Maths or Physics you can join a trading firm as a Quantitative Analyst and learn how to apply your expertise to the world of trading.

If you don’t have this expertise, then the other approach is to become competent at intuitive trading. In my experience, this requires about 20,000 hours of work watching the Charts and Time and Sales tape. After you’ve put in that many hours, you start to get a feel for what’s happening (read Matthew Syed’s book “Bounce”) and, in my case, can make around 150% ROCE (return on capital employed) per annum.

Are you still keen to become a trader?

 

[fatowl]

sounds a good strategy - good luck to you sir

Thanks!

the other approach is to become competent at intuitive trading. In my experience, this requires about 20,000 hours of work watching the Charts and Time and Sales tape. After you’ve put in that many hours, you start to get a feel for what’s happening (read Matthew Syed’s book “Bounce”) and, in my case, can make around 150% ROCE (return on capital employed) per annum.

20,000 hours? Wow! I would love to have that kind of feel, but I know that I don't want to spend 20,000 hours at it. This is why I don't do discretionary trading. Kudos to you, Tyger! And congrats on the 150% ROCE!

 

[lucas_king]

Good evening:

I hope everyone is doing well. I'm new to trading & want to become a full-time trader. But I'm not sure what the right process is to follow?

Should I try & join a firm that offers a training program? If so, which ones do you recommend.

How does someone who works from 8:30am-4:30pm EST eventually become a full-time trader if I can't trade during the "normal session", 9:30am to 4pm EST?

Is there enough volatility from 4am-6:30am EST trade? If so, would you recommend Futures or Forex?

This is what I've always wanted to do, but just don't know where to begin & what my plan should be to become a full-time trader.

I would really appreciate your thoughts & any advice you can provide.

Thank you in advance for your time,

Tony

Hi Tony,

I could go on forever with this one but the simple answer is that you will struggle to become a full time trader if you can’t dedicate a lot of time during markets hours to it. My advice would be to open a spread betting account with somebody (IG Index, City Index, CMC) and ‘dip your toe in the water’.

Start small, read a few trading (tech analysis) books to help you identify what you need to ideally look out for then trail it on your account. Many of these spreadbetting firms offer demo accounts so it might be worthwhile having a practice on a few of those.

I have been to many trading seminars and found them all to have the same agenda – get you to spend £1000’s on the ‘Secret’ to trading which they will only give you at a cost of something pretty hefty. I’d also avoid these so called advisory firms, I have heard many horror stories about then getting you in and out of trades very quickly to generate commission.

Forex has loads of liquidity and you can trade it all hours of the day and night but it’s also very volatile and has many many different factors that can influence movements. I started trading stocks and the indexes until I found my own formula, which is 100% perfect but is working well for me at the moment.

Good luck mate, hope that helps

 

[Steve]

Hi Tony,

I could go on forever with this one but the simple answer is that you will struggle to become a full time trader if you can’t dedicate a lot of time during markets hours to it. My advice would be to open a spread betting account with somebody (IG Index, City Index, CMC) and ‘dip your toe in the water’.

Start small, read a few trading (tech analysis) books to help you identify what you need to ideally look out for then trail it on your account. Many of these spreadbetting firms offer demo accounts so it might be worthwhile having a practice on a few of those.

I have been to many trading seminars and found them all to have the same agenda – get you to spend £1000’s on the ‘Secret’ to trading which they will only give you at a cost of something pretty hefty. I’d also avoid these so called advisory firms, I have heard many horror stories about then getting you in and out of trades very quickly to generate commission.

Forex has loads of liquidity and you can trade it all hours of the day and night but it’s also very volatile and has many many different factors that can influence movements. I started trading stocks and the indexes until I found my own formula, which is 100% perfect but is working well for me at the moment.

Good luck mate, hope that helps

In all my years I have never come across a 100% perfect formula and I do struggle to believe that this exists. Can you tell us more without revealing anything you don't want to? It would be great to be proved wrong.

 

[lucas_king]

In my experience, there is and will never be a ‘100% perfect’ formula to trading. The fact is that people, and therefore markets, are not always logical. What’s more, nobody can predict the future. However, I believe (and I’ve seen it proven) that you can find the right strategy to give you a return over the long term – the trick is staying disciplined, accepting losses and adjusting where you need to. Cut your losses, run your profits.

I’m tempted to say it’s an art, rather than a science…

I’d suggest trying new things and back-testing. Be prepared to lose money and make mistakes. However, once you’ve cracked it, you’ll have an income for life.

 

[Steve]

In my experience, there is and will never be a ‘100% perfect’ formula to trading. The fact is that people, and therefore markets, are not always logical. What’s more, nobody can predict the future. However, I believe (and I’ve seen it proven) that you can find the right strategy to give you a return over the long term – the trick is staying disciplined, accepting losses and adjusting where you need to. Cut your losses, run your profits.

I’m tempted to say it’s an art, rather than a science…

I’d suggest trying new things and back-testing. Be prepared to lose money and make mistakes. However, once you’ve cracked it, you’ll have an income for life.

Hi Lucas

So you meant to say that it was not 100% perfect! Makes sense and what you say here is sound advice, it is a shame that most people do the opposite then blame the markets or anything other than themselves.

 

[lucas_king]

Hi Lucas

So you meant to say that it was not 100% perfect! Makes sense and what you say here is sound advice, it is a shame that most people do the opposite then blame the markets or anything other than themselves.

What is it they say about workmen and tools?

 

[Eurex]

Good evening:

I hope everyone is doing well. I'm new to trading & want to become a full-time trader. But I'm not sure what the right process is to follow?

Should I try & join a firm that offers a training program? If so, which ones do you recommend.

How does someone who works from 8:30am-4:30pm EST eventually become a full-time trader if I can't trade during the "normal session", 9:30am to 4pm EST?

Is there enough volatility from 4am-6:30am EST trade? If so, would you recommend Futures or Forex?

This is what I've always wanted to do, but just don't know where to begin & what my plan should be to become a full-time trader.

I would really appreciate your thoughts & any advice you can provide.

Thank you in advance for your time,

Tony

Search for 6J and 6A JPY and AUD. Them you can trade in US night. Find out their highly liquid timing from there charts and trade during that time.

Another option is to become a Position trader analyse the market and hold position for day + so you can go on with work and not worry with trades. Contract symbol is ES E-mini S&P and 6E for Euro Fx on CME for Futures. Not favourable for a newbie.