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When you enjoy something, then it is always worth it.
Do NOT go into this for the money. To succeed at this, you need a much deeper motivation, you gotta love it.
If I had to do it all over again, I would have turned off my charts, burned all the classical technical analysis books (Al Brooks included), and just watched the order flow.
You are never in the wrong place... but sometimes you are in the right place looking at things in the wrong way.
I totally understand about having a deeper motivation but on the other hand, you wouldn't still be trading if the money wasn't good! As for totally new beginners, that's all we see is that if somehow you can learn how to trade the amount of money you can make is endless. That's pretty good motivation to me.
Ok, suppose that is your motivation (and it was for many of us in the beginning, myself included.)
What's gonna happen when you go through a rough patch in your trading (and everybody does, usually many times, if they are stubborn enough or good enough to stick around) and you are hemorrhaging some serious cash?
Well, people try to trade their way out of the hole... and dig themselves deeper in. And then they usually quit in disgust. I wish I could tell you that this is not the norm, but it is. And wrong motivation plays a huge part in that.
Most of us came to trading expecting easy and fast money, once we find the secret. Nobody told us there was no secret. There was good trading. There was work. There was strong emotional control. There was picking your spots and having absolute patience and discipline. There was focus on the process and never-ending improvement.
But fast and easy money..... secrets......... LOL.
You are never in the wrong place... but sometimes you are in the right place looking at things in the wrong way.
These are all good examples of why people are attracted to trading.
I'm no expert, really just scratching the surface myself, but after 18 years of being self employed and doing something I love, trading is the first thing I've come across that has really captivated me and compelled me to look beyond. I spend just about every waking moment of my free time pursuing it, and if I didn't have a business to attend to, I'd spend more without thinking twice. Easily.
Since joining FIO, I've discovered it really requires full commitment, not only to the external aspects of the markets and motivating forces behind them, but also to deep introspection and self reflection; it's a journey of growth and development, a blend of science and art. I don't think it's possible to master the markets without mastering one's self.
A monumental challenge, and a monumental opportunity! The guys here who have made it happen and are really good at it will likely tell you it's the most difficult thing they've ever done. Even then, some feel as if it is not worth the cost.
Sounds like you just need to spend some time discovering whether you could possibly feel passionate about it. You've found a great place to start, FIO is awesome and the people here are very helpful. Keep asking questions, give it some time, you'll eventually figure out whether it is something for you to pursue or not.
My big question for you is why intraday trading, specifically, interests you so much?
Anyway, you've had some excellent and insightful responses above (especially from Kevin and Matt).
That's a good thing to have, and to do. I'm not quite sure it's such a good thing to have and to do at your stage of the proceedings, though.
You got the first part of that right, almost certainly, but that doesn't have to be the outcome, if you postpone funded trading until you really know what you're doing, are on top of the focused education and screen-time practice you've had, and don't use real money until you've evolved a method of trading that gives you a genuine, proven edge (that means first learning how to identify reliably when that's so, which is neither an easy nor an intuitive skill to acquire!) and have recorded and analysed the results of a few hundred consecutive trades (on a sim account) without losing money and without having any frightening drawdowns.
That would be a very bad and inappropriate "only reason for continuing", in my opinion.
It might be suitable for you, then. It can be that. As long as you go into it with appropriate expectations, and not wanting to make steady income quickly. There's almost no realistic chance of that.
If it helps, the "one big thing" I wish I'd understood clearly at the outset is that trading isn't about how much money you can make and how quickly: above all else, it's about how you can learn to manage risk and preserve capital.
Ok, I get what everyone is saying. So let's say after hearing all of this I still want to dive deeper into learning how to trade. With so many experienced traders on here, how would you lead me down the road of learning how to day trade? Where should a beginner start? I know that's a loaded question. Everyone has there own opinions but there have to be a few similar ideas that each experience trader would say. Their cant be that many different ideas on how to train a beginner.
Some questions that I have is
1. Which market should a beginner start out trying to learn first?
2. Which books or courses should a beginner start out with?
3. Who can a beginner trust to learn from?
4. What should a beginner start learning first?
5. How can a beginner find a mentor to learn from?
The reason I ask this is because if I had someone come to me and say, hey I really want to learn more about what you do. Would you teach me how to do what you do? I would be like sure I will teach you as long as you are willing to learn and do what I ask you to do. Before we start, go read this and go study that and Be ready to start at 8:00 am.
How come nobody does this? Is it because nobody wants to be liable?
Maybe some people don't like the idea, but if I were you I'd do the demo every single broker out there. I think each platform demo can last you between 10-30 days or more if you ask for it.
Reasons:
1. You get familiar with different platforms.
2. You get familiar with different brokers.
3. It's free, why not.
I think after many of them you can decide if you want to go trough with this or not.
Note: open up new email address, because they will swarm you with many promotional stuffs.
Read. Read as many books as you can on trading. Use your library as a free source of books. Read any and everything you can. Different styles of trading, topics, etc.
Make no judgments about what you are reading. Just take it all in.
After a while, you will start to see:
1. what kind of trading that appeals to you (discretionary, scalping, arbitrage, algo, etc).
2. a lot of books are full of crap - ideas that don't work, cherry picked examples, overly optimistic returns, etc.
Once you get to that point, when you know what you like and you have a feeling for what is realistic, then dive deeper into your area of interest. Maybe find a mentor. Just beware: most people selling trading info cannot (or no longer) trade!
Then start trading, but take it slow. Trading is a marathon, not a sprint.
How come this industry is so negative towards beginners? I guess that why i cant decide if i should down this path. It's like you here everywhere that you can't trust anybody or you cant trust anybody to teach you, you can't trust anybody's course, you have to learn on your own (Which I think is totally crazy since there are so many experienced traders out there that could show you how to succeed.) I mean if you want to be a Doctor the first place you go is to Collage. You don't go to youtube and learn on your own. It's just crazy to me.
Dude, a successful trader don't want to share or teach you because that's their edge, imagine many people trading the same exact way as you do, how can you make money from it?