Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
No problem buddy Just about everyone here is super helpful, it's a long arduous journey, good to be hanging out with high quality people on the same path.
fair enough, and I can relate. But, I think that your post was a bit "loaded" on whether it is worth it to start the venture of trading, and on such topics, you will get rather a debate instead of a direction. If you wanted a direction and guidance, skip the "is it worth it" part.
The challenge in giving anyone advice is rather the lack of a blueprint for trading. Some like day trading with very few and infrequent trades and some may like swing trading with a longer view. Even within these styles, there is a variety of ways to analyze things. In the final analysis, this journey is discovering your strengths and weaknesses and evaluating what is the ideal way to analyze the markets.
I have customers who are mathematically inclined, so they use more of a quantitative approach. There are those who prefer to look at chart formations because they are more visual, and then you may have guys who have a programming experience and were able to build their own algo. Everyone gravitates towards their strength, and if they are lucky, they discover their strength early enough.
Maybe you should start with a focus on risk management and cash management of trading. Look for books with these titles, and see if they have the content you are looking for. It does not matter what method you will choose, in the end, the risk management will determine how your account looks like.
All the best.
Matt Z
Optimus FUtures
There is a substantial risk of loss in futures trading. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Trading futures and options involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. You may lose more than your initial investment. All posts are opinions and do not claim to be facts. Please conduct your own due diligence. Use only Risk capital when trading Futures.
1 800 771 6748 local 561 367 8686 email [email protected]
I love everyone's responses and I want to let everyone know how grateful I really am for everyone who has submitted their advice. I can definitely see why everybody loves this forum. Just so everybody knows, I'm the kind of person that if you ever need anything and If I think I can help you, I will. God Bless and Happy trading!
@navionpilot well the good news is you're here. Most traders never find this place before they blow out and give up trading so there's a chance you can make it. The next thing I want to say is respectfully to others, trading is all about making money! Yes I said it and you will come across many who say you can't make it about money it's about psychology it's about markets and you cannot fall down that rabbit hole. We are all here to find our edge in making money, nothing more. That being said I'm going to suggest you take what you can from Al Brooks and move on to other materials. With all due respect I don't know any profitable traders that use his methods, I also have never seen Mr. Brooks share a verifiable trading statement or trade a live account, I've listened to him speak at several ever live and rarely came away feeling empowered to trade his rules, but that's just my $0.02 I'll leave it at that for now.
I would recommend learning Market Profile and Volume profile and basics of technical analysis, now there's another guy that pushes his VolPro methods, he goes by FT71, people love him here, Mike allows him to present, however I've talked to a few brokers in Chicago that swear the guy has never traded profitably and that he just loves to push his own brokerage and trading business. I don't know him and have never studied his methods as I learned volume strategies from other traders at my old firm so I cannot speak from experience I'm just giving you a heads up, be careful who you rely on to learn. That is the single biggest problem is there is little way to vet a company offering education, but BMT(IO) is definitely a good start and good home base to come back to. Now all that being said, there's an excellent free course at babypips.com If you were to pay for that course anywhere else someone would charge you $3k to $5k for it, so free is a steal. You finish that and you are in good shape; then learn one setup and trade it on a live account on one market, YM, NQ or ES pick one, 2 contracts not one. After you've sim traded a few weeks or more if you can take out at least 5 to 10 ticks per day and are net positive week to week go live following same rules have a stop and two targets first target you will always take one off and let your 2nd contract run with a trailing stop. Easy as pie right Tweak it as needed if you can stick to that you can make money now repeat every day. One of two things will happen in time. You will realize day trading futures is not for you or it is. Or you need a different strategy or market to trade. If scalping intra day doesn't fit your personality move to swing trading small to mid cap stocks. But in either case make sure you have at least $10to $15k for futures and $30k or more for stocks. Good luck I wish you much success in trading or at the very least enlightenment of the markets
Okay, so you've studied your butt off, watched 40 hours of webinars and bought an Al Brooks training course. What drives order flow and prices? (There are many things, but it is likely you haven't been taught even one).
You've gone through so much material but none of it can help you answer that question and you are no closer to doing this correctly.
The market is always trying to 'price in'. At times the market gets it wrong or misses and then they will have to 'reprice'.
What you're trying to assess is where the greater probability for price movement is, on a forward basis. To do this you will need two things:
1. Knowledge
2. Experience
Is the knowledge you are acquiring thus far useful? Will it help you become profitable?
The first thing you should do is learn 1 market. It doesn't matter which one, just go and study 1 market.
(You may not end up trading this market but studying it will be beneficial nonetheless. Your time will not be wasted. It will teach you things that can be applied to other markets). Find out what drives order flow and pricing in that market.
Seasonal?
Driven by central bank policy?
Driven by weather?
How do risk-on/risk-off flows affect prices?
How liquid is the market? When does liquidity drop off, daily/monthly/seasonal?
Who are the biggest players in this market? How do these players trade? What do they focus on? When do they trade?
What economic indicators are these participants interested in with regards this market? As time progresses do certain indicators get more attention than others? Why?
In addition to the above, try and be objective. It will be hard because you are geared toward subjectivity.
I'll give you an example of both below: Subjective: Which chart time frame(s) are best to swing trade? (Can you see the question is loaded already. You are implying with this question that there is some sort of edge in analysing various time frames? Objective: Is there edge in analysing various time frames? (Here you are getting back to finding the facts, what is truth. You are putting everything to the test!).
Trading isn't easy, even for those that have been doing it for many years.
It does though get easier as you gain experience.
You must acquire knowledge that is beneficial. That is critical.
Lastly, don't be shy to post on FIO about your journey. You can get lot of good feedback. If you are going to trade futures, this is the community to engage with.
You are never in the wrong place... but sometimes you are in the right place looking at things in the wrong way.
It all boils down to are you obssed with trading? Do you wake up and automatically start thinking about what could have happened over night. When your with friends and family and your mind starts to wonder is it about sitting on a pile of cash or about the market it self. Me personally I'm obssed with being right it's apart of my personality and I love applying it to the market's. You just have to be honest with your self, I've lost numerous friends and relationships due to the amount of time I put into my trading. I'd recommend anyone who wants to start to, start because they love the game because you don't always make your money back in reguards to the amount of time and effort you have put in.
Wow! Wow! Now that’s the kind of advice I was looking for! Thank you so much for that! That was awesome. I’ll have to re-read this a couple of times and make some notes. Thank you again!!!!