The dream of trading for a living is alive and well. The only question is can you survive the learning curve?
Stock traders, more specifically day traders, are attracted to the freedom and capitalistic opportunity of unlimited income. The barrier to entry is small. Open a trading account and you are in business for yourself. The sky is the limit.
Because of our natural enthusiasm, we fail to consider it’s challenging to make money trading.
The problem many traders face is they believe they can be a profitable stock trader, with nothing more than a chart and a direct access to the market. Reality is you need experience. To get trading experience you need to trade. This is self-evident. What is not so obvious is the need to preserve capital while you are learning.
When you begin trading, you should not be trying to make a living. You should be learning how to identify high-probability ideas. You should be making a big list of what doesn’t work (loses money).
If you follow this concept, you will get experience. Unfortunately most traders don’t pay attention. You will pay for the experience in time and money and continue to trade for profits instead of learning a skill.
I have witnessed this over-and-over again in my 15 years in the prop trading industry. Most traders begin to ask the correct questions when they have one month left on their “uncle point” before they need to go back to a real job.
Be smart, ask good questions from the start. Ask how to identify great ideas. Then learn how to manage a winning trade. Learn when you should add shares versus when the market is offering little and the correct trade management is to book profits into momentum. We are trading this “book profits” type of market in 2015.
If you follow this mentoring advice you have a shot. If you don’t, the next time I see you my answer will be “Yes, I will have fries with that…”
Leave your questions at the bottom. I would love to help you succeed.
