metatron

Probably the best bit of advice on here so far. Let us not forget trading isn't just about trading electronic contracts for commodities or currencies etc but anything including cars, property, horses, tools, cats, dogs, computers - I'm sure you get the picture the point is if you've only got 5K it might not seem like a lot to trade with but imagine being broke then that 5K starts to look like an awfully large and useful chunk of money. Other than that I would add go to your local bar or strip joint and spend it in there because at least your have some fun losing your money.

It's all horses for courses at the end of the day just use whatever works for you.

I also think that it is an extreme waste of time using the trading forums for reading about other peoples strategies as I can guarantee you they will be of no use to you and will just tire your brain reading all the posts which are written for the most part by unsuccessful traders. This will clog your brain with useless garbage, trust me. You have to stop listening to the guru's (most of which who can't trade anyway) and you have to find your own simple techniques to use. You have to find your own way! Find something you like and backtest it by hand using a spreadsheet, you will soon see if something has merit. To me the forums like this one have been a tremendous waste of time over the years but do have value in answering basic questions.

When you say you are now an active trader I really hope you haven't quit your job to trade full time. The score is this - to become 'reasonable' at day trading will take you 3-5 years(at a minimum) full time trading with real money to find your style that you are psychologically suited to of course this takes resources in and of itself not to mention lost earnings if you quit your job. The best advice I can give you is: To trade technically off price action. To read books but NEVER follow what they say just incorporate bits into YOUR style. To trade using EOD signals, stop-limit orders and continue working your day job(once profitable here consider day trading). Remember that lots of pro traders risk 2 to make 1 the opposite of what newbies do and still make lots of money. The total cost to me to learn day trading was £200,000 which included lost earnings as I dedicated night and day to trading which was a huge mistake, I really should have swing traded to start as I would have learnt how to trade just as quick and been much richer for it.

We're talking strictly for futures here - I wondered what other TL members thought about which broker has got the edge out of these two, especially for scalping?

Highstakes, your in the identical position to me and it is incredible just how much stress choosing markets and a timeframe can be! I've been trading three years and I still haven't decided what markets and timeframe I'm going to stick with! I think the general delimma is: do you apply one setup to many markets or do you apply many setups to one market(or simply one setup for one market). I've recently completed(wasted?) three months research on a swing trading system based on EOD signals which had good results but when it came to pulling the trigger on it I just couldn't do it because I didn't feel comfortable with the system when it came to real money. Now my natural inclination is towards scalping but the problem I have with this is the setups I use only produce 1 to 2 trades per day max and if I literally don't stare at the charts all day I will miss them and if I do miss them I'll flip out and turn into the angry trader which doesn't help matters. I know I get mentally tired really quickly watching more than one market so I think energy conservation is a factor that must be considered. Either way choosing your market(s) and your timeframe are the most important factors in trading and once you've found them then trading should really become boring repeating the same setups in the same markets albeit hopefully profitable. Easy to say but very, very hard to do.

Might also be worth checking out prorealtime.com for free end of day charting and scanner. I've used them for a year for UK data and I'm very happy with them.