Trading stocks is making me bald

Daniel--- Now you know what some of us go through day after day...after day....LOL. I'm a derivatives trader for over 18 years and regardless of how successful you are, the mental fatique is beyond belief....I get on average of 3 hours sleep a night and my ulcer pills are as much a part of my daily staple as my daily vitamins.

As far as day trade goes, man....that's like picking up pennies in rush hour traffic. Unless you are disciplined in picking your entry&exit point (and even that....) the big fund traders will beat on you like somebody else's bad dog.

 

John, do you have AIM or AOL?



-DC

 

It sounds to me that if you are asking for real time charts then you maybe don't have the right software. With the right trading plateform you should have all of that. I use tradestation and it is great. You can trade 100 shares for just $1. 1000 shares only costs around $8. You should be starting small 100 or even 50 shares at a time that way you won't be trading scared. You can enter a trade and see if the stock behaves the way you thought it would without freaking out. If you enter 1000 share trade and it goes against you real fast you could be down $500 bucks before you know what hit you. First see if you can make money trading 50 or 100 shares. Then when you can do that you can try to make real money and up your lot sizes, 200, 500, 1000, etc. You first rule every day should be to protect your trading capital. 90% of daytrading is just sitting back and watching.

 

AIM name: JSinNOLA

Translation: John Suarez in New Orleans Louisiana

 

Bravo I jumped on to SIRI just a little over a buck and share and dumped it when the market started to correct at $3.10. But looking at it i am now kicking myself in the a$$ as it is now up to $3.75

Oh well that is life on the stock market.

Rob

 

Recently i have backed away from day trading since my schedule at work and not being able to access online brokerages at work has forced myself back into a short term to long term trading pattern.

The main thing here is that you need to do a lot of researching before you make a decision. if you factor all of the time you spend researcing a lot of your free time is now gone. day trading is not for everyone.. plain and simple.

 

Option sellers be aware; you can only make the premium you recieve from selling said option, losses are unlimited. Option buyers can only lose the premium paid.
It's by no means a one -way bet selling options and your clearer will charge you more initial margin because of the inherent risk.

 

Normally, I don't give advice because I really have no idea regarding the knowledge base of the target (read "message boards can blow the big one as we've seen F chat in the past").

So, given that, here are a few statements worth considering (or not)... If you are really interested in getting involved in trading, you may want to consider taking a few courses (or getting a degree) in Financial Markets, perhaps with an emphisis on financial engineering. Some may consider this overkill and maybe it is, there are other certifications which are worth while, but the names escape me at this time.

You may also want to think about getting your 'foot in the door' of a trading firm so you can see what goes on behind the scenes and how folks make a living at it - without reinventing the wheel and making costly mistakes.

Generally, this isn't a get rich quick scheme - remember you're probably trading against a bunch of computers; by the time you reach for the mouse you're too late.

This isn't to say "you'll never make money and shouldn't get invoked", I have a relavitve who has made some good money trading long term, but day trading can be an entirely different story.

Good Luck.

 

Let's not over-egg the pudding here !
For what most of these guys are talking about, scalping stocks intra-day, you don't need a Degree of any kind.Common sense, a good grounding in Economics, a decent trading and charting system and balls will do just fine.
If you want to trade for a blue chip Wall St firm/ hedge fund, then a Degree is a must have.