Are you looking for how to start day trading is not something to take lightly. It is becoming increasingly popular as people seek to learn how to day trade because they're finding out more people are starting to do it for the convenience, freedom, rewards, and because they only have to do it for a few hours a day. With all these great benefits of becoming a trader, it also comes with risks. You see, the winners take care of themselves, but in day trading, it's not about the winners; it's about controlling the losses, and that is the most important thing to have a very successful career in day trading.
How to Start Day Trading?
Like all new businesses, day trading has to be treated like a business, or you will be part of a very high failure rate. That's because most people who try to day trade try to figure it out on their own. So let's start talking about a couple of techniques and strategies before you take the time and make a commitment to determine if day trading is for you.
Do you have the free time to trade at the most followed times of the market, which are the open and the close?
- Do you have the free time to trade at the most followed times of the market, which are the open and the close?
- Have you decided how much money you want to commit to this idea, that you can afford to lose?
- Have you started watching videos and reading articles about the success and failure rate of day trading?
- Have you attended any webinars and listened to mentors who teach day trading?
- Have you read any books on trading?
- Did you attend any trading expos where you can hear and listen to professionals who are gurus in this industry?
- Have you demoed any day trading platforms that are offered by brokerage firms?
These are just a few simple bullet points that you would like to do before you invest in trading.
Who Do I Trust?
This is probably the next most important investment that you are going to make into trading. I've been teaching for over 25 years. When I started, there were only a few of us that would teach people how to trade, and now there have been thousands of schools that have opened up teaching people how to trade. Unfortunately, it's big business just like any other college, and in the trading industry, there are a lot of bad ones out there, but there are also a lot of good ones too. Day trading has an almost 70 to 80% failure rate, and 99% of those people that fail are self-taught. That's because no one is going to teach you for free. And I expect you as a business owner would not expect anyone to work for you for free because that's all you got to get. What I mean by that, well, let's just say there's no such thing as a free lunch. So, if you want something for free, that's all it's worth. If you want to get something of value, you have to pay for it. So, who do you know who to trust and pay and not trust? It's quite simple. The first thing I was telling everyone is to make sure the mentor or school that is going to educate you is being endorsed by brand-name brokerage firms. Companies like TradeStation, Think or Swim, Tasty Works, Schwab, TD Ameritrade, just to name a few. These brokerage firms have a lot to lose, so they are doing their compliance more than you could even imagine in who they would endorse and not endorse. You see, brokerage firms want educated traders because if you know what you're doing, you'll be a client of theirs forever. The acquisition cost of a new customer for brokerage firms is very expensive, and they don't want to lose
What Trading School Do I use?
Once you have identified a few reputable trading schools that are working with reputable brokerage firms, you need to determine whether you can relate to that particular trading school. Not every school out there is going to be a good fit for you. Therefore, you need to listen to several different schools and their instructors to determine if their trading style resonates with you.
As we all know, going to school does not guarantee that you will become a professional trader in just five days. Trading takes time and patience. I always tell my students that they will lose a lot of trades, unfortunately. However, you need to learn how to lose first before you can start learning how to make money. You see, winners take care of themselves, but it's the losers that you have to control.
Here are a few tips for finding the right trading school:
- Check how long they have been in business.
- Find out which brokerage firms are endorsing them.
- Check if they have written any books and who their publisher is.
- Ask if you know anyone who has gone through the program.
- Find out if the students who took the course are making money.
- Check if they offer an inexpensive trial to sample their program.
- Ask if they will personally mentor and coach you.
- Check their reviews on Facebook and Google.
- Find out what their style of trading is.
- Ask where they learned how to trade and if they worked for a trading firm.
When Should I Start Trading with Real Money?
Once you have found the right educational school or schools and have taken courses with them, it's best to go with the recommended brokerage firm they are using. This way, you can apply the strategy that you were taught on the same platform that they're using. One of the biggest mistakes that I find traders make is staying on paper trading for too long. There will come a time when you need to start trading with real money. If you read any of my other articles, you will see that you should not be on simulation mode for more than 2 to 3 weeks. Being on simulation mode only helps you understand the platform and how it works. Once you see that you are understanding how to get around the platform, you need to start trading with small lot shares - no more than 100 - just to know what it's like to be in the game or even less.
Hopefully, your school taught you how to journal your accounts so that you can learn from those winners and losers. Remember, losing money is a good thing because if you know why you lost, you will not do that again. Making money could be a bad thing because if you don't know why you are losing money, how can you prevent it? Once you start seeing that you are consistent over the month, you can go to the next level, trade more shares, and then you should be on your way.
If you are not seeing yourself making money in trading within a month or so, a couple of things could be going wrong. Nine out of ten times, you might be getting too greedy and not taking profits, or the system that you were taught is just not working for you. Like I said previously, once you are taught and mentored on how to trade, you should be trading with that same group of traders that you learned from. If you find that you are not making money with that group, then it's time to quit and move on. That's okay because perhaps that program you were taught is not your style and not for you. That's why you need to learn from not one, but several different schools. But keep in mind that when you sample their style of trading, you are going to
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