References for a 17 year old looking to get into Day Trading?

[whacked]

Originally Posted by HgaleK

Are you unfamiliar with the huge change in the way that trading works at the institutional level? Between the volume and regulations, it's not possible to simply scale up retail investment work.

Aside from working at one, I guess not.

Look, excuses are just that... excuses. Liquidity has grown by leaps and bounds the point where $10M+ blocks would barely leave a dent in most markets; not to mention at that level we're talking top producers at large funds. In any case, if your strategy is so great (EASY 15% IRR just from writing vanilla options), I'm sure there are ways to take your talent to the bank.

Come on, you can double your money/net worth/portfolio every 4.9 years EASILY... why waste your time on SF?

 

[NameBack]



I admit, I'm not above day trading every once in a while under certain circumstances....like when there is some ungodly overhyped tech IPO, I'll buy at 8:30 and sell at 3:55, but, mostly, no.Anyway this is a good book to start with, explains the technical analysis tools well, and is very good of letting you know what you are in for.Hopefully this book can talk you out of daytrading lol

I always thought it was notoriously hard to get in on a hot IPO? I like econ but I'm quite ignorant when it comes to finance. I, in my ignorance, would happily buy Zynga or Groupon or Livingsocial or whatever other over-hyped social-tech companies are about to go public, and flip them at the end of the day. I always was told this was basically impossible to do for individual investors, though?

 

[javyn]

I always thought it was notoriously hard to get in on a hot IPO?

I hear that too. I was buying on the secondary market. My broker (Fidelity) offered to get me in on the IPO for Yandex, but I wouldn't have been allowed to sell for 15 biz days. I said no thanks, I'll wait and buy it myself in a few mins heh.

I made 10% on all the IPOs I traded except Pandora, where I took a little bit of a loss.

Yes, I know that's nuts, and no, I don't normally, and would never normally do **** like that. But....what was that you were saying in another thread about making money off peoples' irrational expectations?

 

[Steve9999]

I’ve been day trading for about two and a half years while working a “real job” full time, and I’m on the verge of being able to make a living at it. Most people fail at trading because they don’t realize how much time and effort it takes to become consistently profitable. You should plan on needing at least two years experience of trading everyday until you can become successful. The problem is that you have to find a method that fits your personality, learn it, and at the same time get the discipline required to implement it.

Here’s my guide for the new wanna be day trader.
For the new trader I would recommend learning price action. Buy the book “Reading Price Charts Bar by Bar” by Al Brooks. On his website brookspriceaction.com he has daily analysis of the S&P e-mini and links to his webinars. Read his articles in Futures Mag as well. Spend a few weeks studying, then start a forex account trading 10 cent pips off of the 10 minute chart. Forex is too choppy to trade off the 5 minute chart. Do this for several months, refilling your account after you blow it as needed. Then move up to 1 dollar pips. Keep this up until you stop losing money and more importantly, stop making marsupialed, emotionally driven trades. After you feel confident enough, open a futures account for $5000 and start trading 1 contract on the Euro futures and the S&P e-mini off of the 5 min chart. When you are consistently making money and you take your account up to $8000, start trading 2 contracts. Keep adding a contract every 3 or 4 thousand. At this point you have gotten your bachelor's degree from the traders school of hard knocks. Unlike new graduates from traditional schools who are unemployed and deeply in debt, you should be making about $150 per contract, per day. Then move to Europe were you can trade currencies at normal hours and spend the rest of your life trying to get as rich as possible.

 

[Quadcammer]



Originally Posted by whacked

Easy tiger, the Buffett comparison only concerns your walk in the park 15% annual returns. Say you put in the SF minimum of $100K now at age 20, by the time you reach WEB's current age, your net worth would be a mere $440 MILLION. And since getting 15% IRR is so EASY, my advice is to reach for something more challenging. A 20% per annum return (moderately easy, right?) would take you where few men have reached.Why not drop out of college now? Even if striking out on one's own is not your thing, fund managers would lust after your investing skill like they do after NY museum board seats.
Are you unfamiliar with the huge change in the way that trading works at the institutional level? Between the volume and regulations, it's not possible to simply scale up retail investment work.

I've known plenty of people who wrote options and got slaughtered when the market changed. I don't think the real risk of writing options is truly understood by most amateurs.

Limited return, unlimited risk assuming that they aren't covered by owning the underlying, or not protected against by another option component. A naked write of any sort is incredibly dangerous and quite simply shouldn't be done.

The var on naked options is significant. But I've found consistently impressive returns by writing naked options on a handful of stocks that I know well. They tend to be stocks that have substantial volatility within a certain range. Especially around earnings, the premium is abnormal on strikes that are miles away from the current price. I'm talking $100 away in both directions on $300 stocks. That said, hell yes it can be risky. I got boned last year when the SEC announced its investigation of GS the day of options expiration. Luckily I was able to take ownership and the stock came back nicely. You pays your money and you takes your chances...but day trading will only make your b/d rich