What got you into trading? Reason/Why

[WillGeorge]

Hi all I'm new here but just wanted too see how others became interested in trading and the story as to why. Ill start with my story but would also be nice to read others and how their experience went on the first few months.


So, my journey goes like this. I became interested after a fellow work colleague told me why he always checked the stocks on his phone. (After i asked him) The reason, he traded of course. Long story short over the 15 years he has been doing so he admitted to making £100,000. He started when the big internet boom happened and went from that.

I started with a demo account at £10,000 with his advice. He told me to look at it as £100 and to stick with £1 bets, solely to discipline myself and keep it as realistic as possible.

I made small £5-£10 profits jumping in and out on 5 minutes charts. All my bets where placed on the RSI being below 30 and the Slow Stochastic matching. I was making £50-£80 daily while still accepting losses that averaged £10 over a day.

I went live after disciplining myself to stick with the demo for two months even though my ego was edging me. I discovered a whole new ball game. I went from £100 to £230 in 5 days then lost £100 a week later as I forgot to set a stop. I had a busy day and it cost me to not pay attention.

As it stands now I've educated myself on learning more and have a broader understanding on trends, candlesticks and the overlays/studies. In a way I feel like I've over complicated my winning ways and started to change how/when I place bets but managed to continue small, multiple profits to total a larger sum.

Its been 2 months live now and even after loosing £100 and being knocked down to £20 I continued with just that twenty and I'm up to £300. Its not much for 2 months and to some, may seem pathetic but regardless of the amount a profit of any size is positive.

 

[tomorton]

Got into trading as a possible alternatice surce of income while planning exit from my chosen career of 20+ years. This coincided with the internet boom so it was an obvious area to research.

Of course I made a lot of money in the bubble and then lost it as the bubble imploded over the next 4 years.

Learned a lot about TA, markets, company finances etc. But learned a whole lot more useful stuff about myself.

 

[verial]

I met a guy who made enough money to last a lifetime playing put options during 2008. I wanted that. He taught me. Nuff said.

 

[tomorton]

Great example verial - how did your friend pass the last few years and what's he doing now?

 

[NVP]

in my blood as father / Grandfather were bookmakers and also professional gamblers during their lifetimes...........also working as a back office accountant alongside the Shell Oil traders in the 80's was like giving a kid a job in a sweet shop

N

 

[richieforex]

Whilst at University my lecturer recommended that I spent the summer doing an Internship. It was a ten week programme and I was hooked on trading ever since!

 

[timsk]

In the 90s I worked in the print trade. A customer wanted to place an ad' in a freebie paper and brought a copy of it in to my firm so I could get the dimensions for the display ad that he wanted. One of the ads in the paper caught my eye: it was for an options course based in Somerset - and I ended up buying it. I read the manual - but I never traded options - and I still haven't to this day.

A little time elapsed until one day I happened to be in Morrison's supermarket and there was one of those makeshift promotional stalls with a member of staff offering free samples (cheese I think!). He was waaaay too cheerful for my liking and, when I asked him what he was so happy about, he told me he'd just made a month's wages in two days on a stock trade. He said if I came back the next day he'd give me some literature about how he did it.

I duly went back and picked up whatever he gave me (I don't remember) - but this lead to me joining a local investment club - where I met Tom, above. Soon afterwards I opened my first spread betting account. Then I found T2W and then . . .

 

[0007]

Maggie Thatcher gave me some Gas shares & I just went on from there.

 

[alexaherself]

My father was doing this for a living before I was born, and still is.

I started looking at it and learning about it when I was 13, and began playing with demo accounts when I was 14. Luckily (and perhaps unusually) my parents were very encouraging, and wanted me to have a way to earn something when I went off to university a few years later so that my father wouldn't have to pay all my credit-card bills for ever.

So I'm partly "home-schooled", but have also learned from Joe Ross and of course through gradual experience. I was lucky enough to get in my "10,000 hours" relatively early on.

I started off on indices, but since I was 18 and have been using my own money, I've only ever traded forex, which I far prefer.

 

[tomorton]

Hi Alexa - I'm strictly trend trading at this point in my trading career / trajectory ( / decline?!?) but enjoy learning about complementary approaches for some day in the future.

Your breakout journal dried up a while ago - are you still trading breakouts on forex?

 

[alexaherself]

Hi Alexa - I'm strictly trend trading at this point in my trading career / trajectory ( / decline?!?) but enjoy learning about complementary approaches for some day in the future.

Likewise, Tom (which is part of the reason I think threads of this kind are potentially so valuable/interesting).

Your breakout journal dried up a while ago

Yes - apologies. I was "in a mood" (then, as indeed now) about the forum's moderation policies.

are you still trading breakouts on forex?

Yes - all my methods involve forex breakouts. I don't really like or trust many "indicators", and this is all I know.

I've been trading that "system" ever since that thread, and have now incorporated into it most of what I mentioned as "potentially interesting changes" in the very first post there. At +266 pips for the month, what's shown there was still actually a slightly above-average month for it. Over the last 12 months, it's had 10 profitable and 2 losing months (the losses were very small). I believe that it's realistic, practicable and based on sound underlying principles. It isn't my only method, and forex-trading isn't my sole income.

 

[newspreadbetter]

Had been working at a large Pharma supplier and watched their share price daily, as had a large holding for my age and loved watching it grow by a few ££ a day. Over time learnt the support and resistance levels, and took the plunge. Sold £10k worth when they hit a long term resistance level, then bought back 20p lower at support. Made maybe £100 ish after fees, and all in less that a week. I was hooked. Continued to do the same for a couple of years, read a few books (those in layman's terms as I'm not that technically minded) and followed a particular traders blog and done very well over a couple of years (IMO anyway, 40-60% up per year on 3 shares)
Then stumbled on a spread betting book by the same guy, and wanted to try it.

Still working in Pharma, focusing on spread betting the indices and over an average month, making 60-75% of my salary again my SB'ing. Doing so for best part of a year now...

Hope to go full time one day, but want 4-5 years solid performance behind me before I make the leap

 

[drtro]

It started with watching the Wall Street movie with Shia Lebeouf when I was in college. It got me into wanting to become a banker. I started Googling ways to "sim" invest and that's when I got a bunch of results about day trading. I got into it that way. I started sim trading on ThinkOrSwim, joined a chat room and met a couple successful traders. They were both Futures traders, so I got into futures. It's been that way ever since. I started making money consistently, quit college, and have been trading and learning ever since.

 

[Windlesham1]

Option prices used to be quoted on BBC2 Teletext some years ago and I watched Hanson stock go from 90 to 105,but the 90 call went from something like 8 to 25 made more sense to use options if your goal is to make money. First trade in 1999,but Full time in 2003
I only trade the UK index these days but love it and make money-1-4 trades a month, 40%+ per year profit but could easily be 200% if I had a few trading buddies

 

[lawrence-lugar]

It started with watching the Wall Street movie with Shia Lebeouf when I was in college. It got me into wanting to become a banker.

Wall Street, both 1987 and 2010,...those movies motivated Alot of people to want to Trade or be Traders or work on Wall St -- me included.

some other good related movies are:
Rogue Trader 1999
Boiler Room 2000
Other People's Money 1991
Trading Places 1983 (my personal favorite)
Margin Call 2011
Arbitrage 2012
Limitless 2011

 

[drtro]

Wall Street, both 1987 and 2010,...those movies motivated Alot of people to want to Trade or be Traders or work on Wall St -- me included.

some other good related movies are:
Rogue Trader 1999
Boiler Room 2000
Other People's Money 1991
Trading Places 1983 (my personal favorite)
Margin Call 2011
Arbitrage 2012
Limitless 2011

Search Traders Millions By The Minute. Good 2 episodes following traders ranging from a hedge fund manager on CNBC to a woman selling kittens to raise money to spread bet.

 

[Pat494]

A bit like treasure hunting ( done that ) or prospecting for gold, precious stones etc. ( done that ) whilst never leaving your own comfy armchair ( slippers on and rareing to go ).

 

[drtro]

A bit like treasure hunting ( done that ) or prospecting for gold, precious stones etc. ( done that ) whilst never leaving your own comfy armchair ( slippers on and rareing to go ).

Are you that delusional guy from Shark Tank who wanted $2M to hunt for sunken pirate ships?

 

[Pat494]

Are you that delusional guy from Shark Tank who wanted $2M to hunt for sunken pirate ships?

I should be so lucky
But be fair they did find Blackbeard's sunken ship.
I see that the Shark Tank videos are not allowed to be viewed by people outside the USA ?

 

[drtro]

I should be so lucky
But be fair they did find Blackbeard's sunken ship.
I see that the Shark Tank videos are not allowed to be viewed by people outside the USA ?

MURICA

Idk why it's that way though