Introduce Yourself Here - Don't Be Shy!!

[Tiobingo 10]

It's true what WorldTrader says. You can take advantage of leverage with less risk. But the idea of risking less can still be a dangerous concept. If you risk less but still lose 100% of your risk, that's certainly not good either. It is very important to know how to select the right options and/or options strategy and to have your stop loss in place so you can get out of that option with an acceptable loss. It's still a trade and you should always plan your trade and trade your plan.

[HerQuLe 10]

Hello

 

I'm a young Java/J2EE ingineer / developper, who would like to work in

a financial/trading env.

To give me some chances to find a good job in IT/finance i'm trying to

learn finance by myself but i must admit i don't really know how to

start...

 

 

Just wanted to know if some of you have advices...

Has someone here also learnt by himself finance while he was a

developper? How?

And then how to valorize what you learn by yourself?

[CathyM 10]

Greetings Traders!

 

I'm here, I'm new, and I'm learning (mostly through helping Traders and their Mentors who use hotComm to conduct "trade school".

 

Wanted to let you know of two useful sites. One is OnlineTraderCentral.com where you can attend free trading webinars. The other is a United Kingdom based site for traders, and even great networking for traders, sort of akin to a LinkedIn.com as there is info there for traders also still working or looking for a new career.

 

I hope you enjoy those links and would like to be invited to stay a while.

 

Always, I'm a big fan of NetPicks.com that is a company that was a pleasure to do business with. Highly recommended!

 

~Cathy

~ TradeWell Forum Readers ~

[CathyM 10]

Might help you if I gave you all the URL of the networking website: PlacingTraders.com. Doesn't do you much good when I mention it, then don't give the site itself. Hope all had a good day!

 

Went to the beach so just got back and sitting now down to computer to see what I've missed. Curious, since it was a busy holiday, wonder how that affected the markets.

[JonathanJohnson 10]

Wow! Thanks guys. That really helps out. I have been playing around with the Think or Swim software lately and I am going to start trading options with a paper portfolio. I'll see how that goes. Everyday I learn more and more info through this site! It seems like a great community.

[mtdavs 10]

New here to the forum. And "somewhat" new to trading. By profession, am a truck driver. Was "hoping" to get into trading as a means to get me out of truck driving. Obviously, time and much "experience" has taught me, there's much more to it that originally thought. But, am hanging in there and joined here to learn all I can; one pip at a time. Thanks for allowing me to be a part of this...

[bootstrap 47]

after taking almost 2 years off for personal reasons, i am back trading. for those that know that i sail, i finally did it....took the plunge and sailed the world.

 

and for those that wonder the roaring 40's is not for the faint of heart. they make a black monday or a flash crash look like childs play.

 

but its time to get back in the saddle. enough of the lounging around like a pirate on the beach.

[zdo 20]

Welcome back Bootstrap.

Glad you had safe passage...

[macrylinda 10]

Hello,I love reading through your blog, I wanted to leave a little comment to support you and wish you a good continuation. Wishing you the best of luck for all your blogging efforts.

[Yader 10]

Hello everyone,

 

26 from WA state. Been in the market for oh, 3-4 years. Have a biochemistry degree, enjoy charts, indicators, inferences, etc. Don't use the biochemistry anymore but the artful science of it still lives in me. The market is a great outlet for it.

 

I took the first 7-8 months to read and learn and watch the market and paper trade. Then I jumped in and well 2007 came along. I take it as a great learning experience to have first hand experience of what craziness looks like. Glad I had some money management ideas in my head at that point.

 

Currently I'm reading "Technical Analysis" by Kirkpatrick and Dahlquist. It's alright. Great overview, and I mean overview. Not much in the way of trading strategy. I find the book nearly humorous. Came out somewhere between 2005 and 2007, before the crash. So sure they are that we were not headed for an implosion. It really has solidified in me that markets are not always rational, they do not "behave." Systems will not work in times like these unless you're going with market direction.

 

That being said I'm highly interested in systematized trading. I'm afraid at this point that TS is a bit out of my price range. Anyone have suggestions as to what I could use to get started? So far all I've known is stockcharts.com, freestockcharts.com, and thinkorswim.

 

Look forward to getting to know everyone!

[zapisy 10]

TS is free, you just have to place few orders during the month.

[MadMarketScientist 11]

Yader, first of all a big welcome to TL. Thanks for joining the trading conversation.

 

I'll echo the prior comments that you can get Tradestation for no charge - they have a promo now I believe where it's free through the end of the year - though you would need to fund and trade an account there. However, it is quite powerful and probably would satisfy almost anything you'd want.

 

There are many other options of course -- if you were a forex trader you could focus on a broker with the Metatrader platform which is free of charge.

 

Or, think about Ninjatrader which can do quite a bit on charting and order management and can be very close to free depending upon the data provider and also where you trade.

 

Most of all, do not let free or low cost be your decider on trading platform. I've been in this business working with and trading along individual traders and one of my biggest pet peeves and source of failure I've seen is people trying to cut corners on things like data and charting, then without hesitation putting hundreds or thousands of dollars at risk with the click of the mouse. With a solid platform it will pay for itself many times over.

[Yader 10]

Thanks for the TS recommendation. I took a look at their site again this morning.

 

Here's a little more information about what I'm looking to do. So far my trading experience has been a hodge-podge. I've found I don't like massive amounts of digging trying to uncover fundamental longs. Nor do I care to earn a degree in finance, although I can read basic financial reports and regularly do my own DD on Edgar. I don't have the time to day trade as I do have a fairly demanding non-profit that I direct. In the evenings I get time to check over the market and so with well placed stops I feel relatively safe not being able to monitor the day's activity. Swing trading seems to be my forte and I seem to have a knack for shorting.

 

That being said, everything I've done so far has been manually done. Each trade has been evaluated on it's own merits taking into account as much information as possible. This unfortunately leaves many decisions up to my own bias at the moment. I'd like to continue to minimize my subjectivity, although I do feel I'm well disciplined.

 

Ultimately what I would like a program to do is scan say 100 stocks of my choosing and give back buy and sell signals based on set parameters of my design. They're going to be pretty simple parameters to start (eg: buy on the 6 day MA crossing the 12 day MA when stock price is above the 50 day MA, sell when the 6 day MA moves below 12 day). Before using the buy/sell parameters of my choice I would like to backtest it on the S&P, Nasdaq, and individual stocks so for the past 30 years. MY parameters may stay quite simple or they may get more complicated, that'll depend on what works I suppose!

 

I'm only trading with a small amount (~5k) so I'm not looking to spend a massive amount in commissions, nor am I looking to trade 5000 shares/mo. TS seems a bit prohibitive with an account of my size. I would like the ability to learn and figure this all out and come up with a system I'm satisfied with before beginning to trade with it.

 

What's everyone's opinion?

[MadMarketScientist 11]

With Tradestation you'd have Radarscreen (I think that's what it is called) available to you which definitely could monitor those 100 stocks to your criteria and let you know immediately which ones qualify.

 

Maybe you can also look at Think or Swim which I think would have the capability to do the same as a scanner and has a good reputation.

 

Did you ever consider straight calls or puts for your stock swing trades?

[jo0477 10]

Peace to all the newbies and thanks in advance to all the vets who are willing to shepherd us through the valley of death!

 

I've been trading equities and options in uni - our little investment club lived the high life until we got clobbered in the tech boom :crap: and realized paper profits don't pay for the Dom!

 

So I currently run the day to day operations for a midstream gas marketer. Trading OTC physical nat gas and manage a small regional book. We relocated a few years ago (I love it but my wife not so much...) to a beautiful but expensive city. Since our first little guy just had his first b-day, it looks like we're going to be heading back to our hometown to be with friends and family. Unfortunately, my "skills" are pretty niche so I'm guessing job opportunities will be sparse at best...

 

So I'm finally going to live my dream and trade full time for myself. I've been reading non-stop about day trading strategies, techniques, plans etc. I've been testing some strategies and devising a money management plan with some pretty decent success. Not sure about you guys but I'm going to skip paper trading for the most part, (Its never seemed to benefit anyone I know - Long term, swing, or day traders). I know myself, and I need skin in the game to stay focussed and perform at my best.

 

I've socked away a decent amount of cash - enough to get started I think. My plan is to start really small and create a consistent profitable system. I won't need the $$ to pay the bills so I won't have that pressure hanging over me which I think will be beneficial.

 

So best of luck to everyone out there and I hope I can learn from the best and maybe pick up a couple of trading buddies along the way! :beer:

 

Happy trading!

[KajolThappar 10]

HI guys

 

How are you? I would like to introduce about myself as forex trader. I am here in this board newbie and I have huge knowledge of stock. I hope that i will get more information from this forex site and also give you more information lots of users. I hope that everybody keep with me and share lots information.

 

 

thanks

Kajolthappar

[lencoo12 10]

Hi! I'm from London!

Thanks for sharing this information!

[tanalysis 10]

I suppose that you are interested in creating good software for trading (charts, technical analysis, trading etc).

 

First of all I would recommend a book: "Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets" by John J. Murphy. It is good starting point to learn technical analysis.

 

Then you can read more about technical analysis (indicator's calculation etc):

1. StockCharts.com - ChartSchool

2. Incredible Charts: Home Page

3. Investopedia.com - Your Source For Investing Education

4. Technical Analysis Guru

 

Hope this helps

[Snowbear 10]

Hey guys. I'm new around here and I'm looking to learn what I can. I wouldn't call myself a trader at the moment, I just hold some managed funds and ETFs in small amounts. I'm 27 and I can't get enough of the markets (all of em) and economics in general.

 

I'm not looking to get rich, just looking for some extra side money and the experience along with it. I'm a former sports gambler, so I have an iron stomach and I know how to take losses. Hopefully that's enough of a psychological foundation for a trader, but I don't know as much as I should to do anything useful at this point. I check my positions every day, even though I have next to zero intention of changing them, just because I get so excited when I see even the most modest gains in the portfolio.

 

So what is everyone in to? I want to learn whatever I can. Any suggestions on some moves to do that don't require a huge amount of capital? i.e. like $5,000 in expendable cash? Even if I lose it all, that's the cost of education I suppose, but I hate to think of losing 5 grand in a snap.

[MadMarketScientist 11]

Welcome to TL Snowbear. Good to have you here.

 

A long time ago in a galaxy not so far away I also dabbled in the sports betting arts. So, the fact that you've done that, and can take the frequent losses that goes with it is probably better training than most have in that side of the equation. Most people come to trading always wanting to be right, or certainly not used to being proven wrong on such a regular basis.

 

You are going about the right way -- learning the markets, trading some ETFs, not looking to get in and out in rapid fire succession. Good for you on that.

 

As for the $5K there's a lot of ways to get an education in trading, and usually that education does come with some losses. It's hard to make a perfect recommendation since I don't know if you want to just spend 5-10 minutes a night, or even once per week, or if you're looking to trade an hour per day on a day trade. So much of that depends on what you would more specifically be looking for.

 

Keep sharing your experiences, ask questions and stay involved here on TL. Those that do learn a ton about trading, and sometimes even themselves.

 

MMS

[Snowbear 10]

I can devote hours a day to learning whatever I need to learn and researching decisions before I make them. I'm looking for something that requires a little bit of monitoring, maybe taking a glance every day and making adjustments throughout the week, but not to the point where if I get up to go to the bathroom I miss my exit point and I'm left holding the bag.

 

Do you have any suggestions on a good starting point based on my style and my funds available?

[MadMarketScientist 11]

What you describe to me sounds like swing trading for sure. Not daytrading.

 

With $5K you are looking at either trading call or put options on stocks -- looking for swing moves on those stocks.

 

Or, you can trade forex on a swing basis.

 

That's the two I would look at -- and only swing trading.

 

I would definitely follow a technical approach not try to fundamentally predict either a stocks movement or a forex market - in my opinion anyway way too complicated. You'll likely want to look for something that gives you the odds in your favor maybe 65% - 75% of the time though in the 60s on a percentage basis is fine as long as you can maintain above 1:1 on the reward to risk.

 

That's at least a starting point in your investigation.

 

MMS

[sundaram iyer 10]

all the best for ur trading

[WealthFluctuations 10]

I'm still in college. I love investing and anything to do with it. Here to learn as much as possible so I can one day educate. I have a blog at . Would love for you guys to check it out and give me suggestions and feedback. Look forward to getting to know everyone.

Edited October 26, 2010 by TLAdmin
Promotional URL removed

[cjflorida 10]

Hello Everyone,

 

I am new to this site but have been trading for about a year.

 

I am struggling with my trading and I am hoping to gain some insight from those of you who have been able to make a living from trading.

 

Over the past year I have read a few books Mastering the Trade, One up on Wallstreet, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, Stock market Wizards, and one of Toni Turners. I have take about 800 trades mostly intra-day equities.

 

The reading I have done, everbody talks about taking losses is part of the learning process, as is just learning through your mistakes.

 

My question, for those of you kind enough to share your insight are:

 

What did you do that helped you most to get to the next level of trading??

 

 

Are there any books, videos, or classes you recommend that have improved your trading??

 

 

Thanks