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Be very careful. There is a lot of "wheat" available to you here in futures.io (formerly BMT). The fact remains that the wheat must be separated from the chaff. Getting good at that will likely be the first hurdle. To borrow from Yoda...in trading there is only do and don't do.
believe that at some point a journal would be a great idea. Let me suggest that prior to that you consider lurking around reading some other journals. Determining what will work, what will be interesting for you specifically will take a bit of time. Some of the input you will get in a journal will not be beneficial.
Let me be candid...and this is by no means directed at any individual.
futures.io (formerly BMT) is full of people that talk about trading. They read about it, they study it. They code indicators, they backtest. They dream and they pound away on their fantasy calculators. They wonder and they project. Some live and project with both feet planted firmly in reality. By that I mean that they actually grow wealth trading markets. You will need or benefit from the counsel of guys that have a wide range of talents. However the input that you will benefit from the most is absolutely, with out a doubt, from the guys who successfully trade real money everyday to grow net worth.
Figure out who is actually trading and then filter down to the guys that consistently make money almost everyday. Learn from them because they are who you want to be.
DB
if you are just starting out with 7k, I would definitely stick to forex if you can. Trading by cents. Maybe start
out with a $500 dollar account at MB. Mainly the idea to stay away from the temptation to large leverage that's offered by futures.
I had heard of a learning strategy. Start with a small account like that $500, then if 40% is lost, then no more live
trading for 3 months, regroup-sim only-whatever, then refill the account. if successful instead then at 125% of account one can add a little more to the account from personal capital, say 20%. And so on. Until reaching an amount say 10k or 20k, then finally trading 1 futures contract on a futures account. And then only using 1 contract per 20k (or 1k per 10k to be "aggressive"). Never averaging down or using more. Or you an use the same idea on a 5k futures account using micro , or a half emini contract instrument, something like that
Another way is having enough funds to use options with your stock trading. You could just use simple options and option spreads ( no more than 2 or 3 legs) to leverage your stock trading. free videos on learning simple option spreads. Great for part-time trading. But I think it only works when one is very good on their swing trading of stocks i.e. good and consistent directionally and/or non-directionally i.e. being able to tell when a stock won't be moving much for a period enough to sell some option premium from premium selling option strategies. Otherwise the losers can be big or often, and negate the gains.
Here's an "intervention" audio Big Mike posted. Where FT71 went over a struggling trader who overleveraged
and lost big , very good to be aware of the double-edged power of leverage for any new young trader imo.: FuturesTrader71 | Trader Analysis 2011-09-01
A public example of overleveraging is fmr govn'r Jon Corzine(look how he's disappeared from the media) who bankrupted MFGlobal using London "rehypothecation" rules to continually overleverage a massive losing position to the point where they started breaking the rules/laws and using customer segregated accounts to attempt to keep their levering going.
Edited as to not make it personal with you. I apologize I was too aggressive.
Nobody is well served by being told implicitly that 99% fail. I can't even have that debate. The kid shows up and wants someone to be interested in his interest in our profession, the appropriate way to encourage someone in perhaps the most competitive field in the world is, imo, not leading with how hard it is and that the chips are stacked tall against him?
I suggest that there might be a better tack?
Stop that.
The right thing to do would be to type or exemplify for the kid how to win...how to do it. That begins and ends in the belief that it can be done. A positive attitude at all times is absolutely requisite for anyone to have a shot. That and a supreme competitive desire to win are the hallmarks of success.
makes a good suggestion in MB Trading. On the spot forex their costs are very low. I have a guy there...MB is not a big firm but they are legit. They clear Knight Securities.
The one consideration you should really take a look at in the spot market is the quality of the quote feed. MB internal data feed was okay, but it was free. Kinetick, a NT sister company is a fantastic clean reliable unfiltered feed, but it adds to expenses. The ECN-like internal market there is pretty nice.
Lots to consider man, take your time and research everything.
This. This is my plan for a little while, I don't want to feel overwhelmed by going into day trading too early and not know what I'm doing or be able to adjust my plan at all.