so ive read about 1/3 of the babypips

i had my mind set on stocks to begin, but so far from reading that site, im honestly really interested in forex!

ive downloaded fxcm and started a fantasy account, started with 50k.

im still figuring out some buttons on the site, but basically im getting a lot better, making money, able to somewhat read the candle stick charts and have some sort of idea as to whats happening. im unsure of a few things on the trading page, but im sure ill figure it out soon.

anyways, if anyone does forex here, let me know if i can pm you specific questions that i have about it :)

i figure ill do this fantasy trading for the 2-3 months then see how i handle in the real world lol

jumping into forex first is sure way to wipe your account couple of times

a lot of trading tips have been covered by strykn and ulic

one of the main thing most starters should also know is dedicating enough time

use your time, do your research dont trust everything you hear/read
dont expect putting 30minutes a day will help make you money

i know this has been said like a million times but everyone has their own way
i was lucky to grow up in a family where my siblings and parents traded, so I was "taught" but even then I don't completely agree with their views (we all have conflicts here and there) but its because we are able to talk we get more insight/flaws

was always secretly mirin' your dad trading in the other room way back in elementary days LOL :fullofwin:

don't play with leverage yet.

yeah... just use forex as an intro... of how technical trading works etc.
you'll slowly figure it out and you'll realise you can apply those skills to stocks, futures etc. whatever.

as u can tell there's not one way to trade... just keep playing around.

i expect that, i wont be starting for a loong time, and when i do start, ill be pacing myself, giving myself limits, start with nano and stay there for a while. im in no rush to make a million lol, so just making a few extra dollars here and there would be a great way for me to learn and get involved more.

lots of tips have been covered in here, and i cant thank those enough for actually pointing me in the right direction :D

as for time, ive got plenty of it, im on a medical leave from work and i cant leave my house for the next year 6+ months lol.

i plan on playing around a lot before i actually do trade for real.

thanks for the info so far though! that babypips.com site has a forum for newbies, so i'll probably keep most my questions there.

Question for you guys:

How do you guys create your watchlists/screen stocks?

Strykn I know you're playing with the big boys so your current watchlist is probably quite straight-forward - AAPL/GOOG/LNKD/SPY/VXX/GS etc.
You said you were doing small-cap biotech companies before. Do you mind sharing how you chose which ones to trade?

Currently, I view other people's watchlists and form my opinion on their selection. It's nice and easy this way, but they don't always reveal their big picks (until after the move already begins, "XYZ just broke out" why you not on your watchlist :( ) and that's where I feel I'm losing out. Essentially, I want to learn how these guys even choose their stocks for the watchlist. I've sat through FinViz screening for a few hours, picked a few, some were fine but the majority of them went no where. Any advice is much appreciated.

Im not sure I want to give out my biotech strategy, I will have to think about that lol

Since I've been reading into forex more and more, on the demo account I have, I got a pop up saying theres a live demo starting in 5 minutes (this was at 11:55am). So I clicked it...was pretty awesome, had one of the guys from the site do an online video with chat so you could ask direct questions from them and he'd reply on the video by showing you where to click, how to get there etc etc.

Was pretty neat! If anyone is as new to this as I am, I'd suggest checking it out. They do them every second day, 3 times during the day and its offered to people who have pretty much very limited knowledge. So I found it perfect, the guy answered a few of my questions leaving me happy :)

I'm using the fxcm.com demo trader, the demo accounts last 30 days, then you gotta restart it. It gives you pop up messages when they'll be doing online tutorials and q&a video chats :)
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Sharing is caring man.

lol well no, I understand. I'm not asking for your full disclosure on your strategy, but more so some kind of directional lead into how you looked for them/other small-cap equities you played prior to options.

I've kind of just started and so far my interpretation is that trading is kind of like poker, the premise is simple, but the technical side can get extremely complicated. Ulic/ Strykn did you guys actually start with paper trading? I feel like the lessons you learn from losing money will actually stick if you lose REAL money. It's pretty hard to stay disciplined and I remember in grade 9 business class we were put in a virtual stock game and I made a 60% return in 3 months just buying 3x natural gas bear/bull LOL. An extremely nooby question, but how does one invest/short in subprime securities? Are there investment corps that specifically deal with it?

What Ulic said about simple strategies is actually really true. My moms been trading for almost 9 years now and shes done pretty well, and she doesnt even know how options worked.... How do some of you experienced traders feel about the stress/anxiety and fufillment compared to when you first started?

I can tell you have the right mindset, you will be a very good trader if u work at it IMO

technical can be simple too. depends what you want it to be. some ppl like to draw lines everywhere, some ppl don't draw anything.

yeah, lessons hurt more when you lose real money. doesn't necessarily stick.
it's like any bad habit you have in life. you keep doing it everyday even though you know it's wrong.

yeah everyone makes money paper trading... i think paper trading is good for learning how things work. u can fuck around and try crazy ass strategies. once u figure that they will work. you can use real money... and if you lose money then you know you're doing something different. real money affects your actions.

duno about your subprime question. sorry.

stress/anxiety only gets to you when you lose money and if you depend on this money to survive. i dont think its something that ever goes away. u just have to learn how to deal with it. that is part of a trading strategy too.

some ppl just slap their laptops shut and quit for the day if its not going well or whatever.

i've just learn to let go of the past. kinda like letting go of a good gf. just accept it and accept that you cannot change the past and it's done. don't let it affect your next decision.

Thanks for all the feedback. I have a couple more questions if you guys dont mind answering them. How long are your holds? Do you guys base it on a set percentage gained/lost before mandatory exit, the volatility of the industry?

Hypothetically, let's say you had $5000 to work with. You have to diversify into maybe 2/3 industries. Would you make 2-3 trades daily given the low capital and relative cost of making trades? Would you trade trade on a weekly/monthly basis betting on value and growth? I'm just curious as to what your perspectives would be when dealing with a low startup.

I use to be a longer-term ( 3-4 weeks) biotech swing trader... fuck that shit was EASY to what i'm doing now ( day trading options only jesus fuck it is hard mentally)

Man as an investor , yea you wanna look at value & growth.. and this is long term shit like 1 year+... but thats boring

what i'd do with 5k is figure your sector, figure the stocks you like, confirm the direction/trend you think it's gonna go and don't buy weekly options but options 1-3 months out, i'd back test this with paper trading first,

and about having "certain precentage , $ gains" as a trader this is probably the worst shit you can do, I always fuck up and do this gotta remind your self not to have these set targets, what i like to do is think of profits relative to time, if i buy a weekly option and boom its up 50% in 30 minutes fuck... I usually take money off the table... longer term hold you can let it ride, but if ur stock sees any big spikes, if there's no follow through within 5-10 minutes on a spike, i'd sell/take some off the table... i fucked up today and pissed away like $3k of gains because I had a "set" target on my GS calls!

and for losses well... since i intraday-trade.. my rule is 10-20% stop max but of course i always break the rule to average down... just respect your stops, you can always get back into a trade

I invest full time and how I started was to first study the best investors out there. Read everything they write, watch every interview they make (youtube). Learn not just about their investment strategies but also their investment philosophies. Every successful investor has their own investment philosophy. Those that have not invested the time to create their own philosophies probably aren't very successful. IMO this is one major reason why most amateur investors never make money in the long-term.

Investors that I think of as my mentors include: Eric Sprott, Rick Rule, John Embry, James Turk, Doug Casey, Frank Giustra, Marc Farber, Peter Schiff, Jim Rogers, and Chris Martenson. You may want to look them up.

In short, investing requires tonnes of work and is a life-long process and unless you are really committed, you will probably be better off keeping your money in cash (your downside is limited to inflation) or have your money managed by a professional that you trust. Good Luck!

Best Service to Start Trading stocks???.....I'm looking at RBC direct investing & they want like 10 dollar fee's a trade?.

^ No, RBC is $28.95 per trade unless you account is > $50K, or if you made >30 trades per quarter..

Also, RBC is glitchy and you do not want to trade on their platform

Wtf,i'm glad i heard it here first...

30 dollar's a trade on short term quick buck trade :fuckthatshit:

^ Questrade or Interactive Brokers

If anyone has interest in silentinvestments.com . Let me know. I'm a registered member and wouldn't mind someone sharing the info with me and tanking half of the fees.

He has pretty good track record for those interested in options & penny stocks. Good for low capital investors like myself.

edit: one of the silliest posts of my life

Hey guys. So I've been playing with the idea of getting into stocks for a few year now. I've read through the thread, and a few others in here and was just wondering a good place to start as far as "fantasy trading" goes. What program/demo did some of you use to learn? I doubt I'll be starting right away, as most of my income goes toward school fees, but it'd be nice to even have a year of playing around under my belt before I jump in.

as I was reading this thread, i found this on google Online Stock Market Trading Game & Simulator | Wall Street Survivor
maybe helpful?