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I found this forum when a thread from it came up in a Google search I did. I was intrigued at the statement many made about most Day Traders not being profitable.
I'm on disability, made a horrible husband choice (which I quickly remedied) and wound up having to raise a child with no financial/physical/emotional/moral support. Consequently, he grew up in poverty. My mother and I took out PLUS loans in an effort to stop the generational poverty, but the employment market is still dismal and he's only getting half of what he was told to expect in salary with his Bachelor's degree. Now we have $200K in PLUS loans and no way to pay them off. The only good thing we having going for us is my mother's house being underwater. There is literally nothing for the government to take.
The only thing I have going for me is my borderline OCD and focus to the point of ignoring everything around me. This helped when I was healthy - unfortunately I wound up burning the candle at both ends. A bad surgery ended my ability to work at a normal job.
I've tried a million other traditional ways to make money without results. I guess one more won't hurt. I like the idea that I can paper trade to see whether I have any aptitude for it before spending any money. I am just going to jump into the beginners files and see if anything sticks.
You are in no financial position to be a trader. You need to find another source of income, get your finances under control, then save up money you can afford to lose before you even consider trading.
I thought we were supposed to be more positive in the forum, but I defer to your wisdom in the matter. I wasn't really planning on spending any money until I had enough simulations under my belt to prove I was capable of making good trades.
Unfortunately, there is no way to get those finances under control until I find another income stream. Although after watching "investment" newbie videos all night on YouTube, I don't know that I'm cut out for this anyhow. The newbie vids (from the UK) exposed where all the corruption takes place in Corporate America (EBITDA and the higher numbered footnotes in the Balance Sheet?). Add to that the fact that the same Corporate Directors who are taking millions upon millions of dollars in personal incentives are the same ones deciding what the dividends for the company will be. Isn't that a little like putting the fox in the hen house? How does anyone profit through investing?
At least I learned a lot of things I didn't know about business. I enjoyed Money Week's "10 Signs A Company Is In Trouble" video the most. It really opened my eyes.
Don't let anybody tell you what you can or can't do. Being on disability means that you have enough time to find out if this is something you can do. It's hard learning to trade while employed, and it's equally hard to take time off without pay.
It's also hard to succeed at this without truly loving it; just wanting to make money is rarely enough. If you happen to devise a profitable system, or become convinced of your ability as a discretionary trader, you might want to look into Learn to Trade, Trading Coaches, Simulated Futures Trading (I have no affiliation with them) as a way to get started. It seems like a nice way for the underprivileged to get started. Just be sure that you've thoroughly tested your idea before risking any money...
I'm new to this forum & will look forward to learning & sharing knowledge from everyone.
I've started trading since 1 year ago on a part time basis, and have many frustrations in the 1st platform (MetaStock) that I've bought. It's easy to learn but lack the flexibility & power of NinjaTrader which I've recently switched over.
I am working on sharpening my saw and will appreciate any help, advice or guidance from this community.
You should create a new thread to discuss, as this is meant only for introductions and nothing more. But I will briefly say, you need to be realistic. Everyone in the industry will tell you that you cannot succeed if you are trading with scared money.
So yes, absolutely you need to have a positive attitude, but that alone isn't going to contribute to your success. Only a well thought out plan and positioning yourself for success and not failure stands a chance of actually working.
Sorry about your situation. As for trading, unfortunately there are likely going to be initial losses , some due to bogus trader education. So looking at your situation here's what I would suggest.
Of course start out with sim, but realistically. Start out simming with simulated funds similar to your situation. This would mean simulating a very small lot of Forex most likely maybe like $500 initial account.
A platform I would greatly suggest is TD Ameritrade's ThinkOrSwim. If you're able to start an account there but only for simming and learning purposes then you can get access to the desktop software which has both the live and paper version. The paper version is fully featured and allows simulation of all kinds of markets. It also simulates the spreads much more accurately than it used to. Without seriously practicing simming at first you could start with their default $100k account and just learn about how to trade the different type of markets i.e. stocks, options, futures, forex etc. It's all encapsulated. That's why I like Forex in ToS. They have to accountable not just for Forex but for everything else so it's not just another isolated forex bucket broker shop. They also have free webinars and ongoing chat rooms where some big time traders make their calls. And you can do it sim as long as you like. No extra fees for the platform or all it's data feeds. And futures.io (formerly BMT) is one of the best resources out there. It has great practical information, library of non-fluff indicators and files, reasonable vendor ad/spam control , and realistic examples of trading trials & journals and a generally fun warm vibe.
In your situation, imo being a sim trader is the best way to go for now. Not to worry, a lot folks here are sim traders. As you can see in the journals. Here's a realistic nobull interview about trading, video, good luck: Joe DiNapoli Interview Part 1/4 - YouTube
update: Just saw this on a thread. But linking the video here too. Great interview by Tom Snosoff , formerly of ThinkOrSwim.
Amazing success story of a retail trader; options trading on the indexes isn't easy.
I am no different from most of the new bees who lose their capital several times trading markets with a casual approach . I found this forum very informative and some serious stuff.