Get Started Trading Now!
What You Will First Need To Do and Buy
Personal Research You are the one Responsible for your own Success! As with any new business you may be contemplating, it is of tremendous importance to do your own Due Diligence. You must really become somewhat of an expert in the area you wish to eventually master. This implies many hours of digging into source materials in order to see if this business is really for you or not. Fortunately, when you spend time learning more about something that holds a lot of interest for you, the hours invested are a pleasure and not what you would really call “work”.
In order to profitably analyze a stock, commodity or other financial market, you will need to use some sort of price charting software. Some software is free, some is inexpensive and other software can cost many thousands of dollars. Once again, you will need to do a thorough investigation of what is available for the type of market analysis you plan to do. In my great enthusiasm to get started with a big bang many years ago, I went out and bought the most expensive software I could find at the time. I purchased TradeStation 2000i for $5,000 and have been happy with it ever since. I still use TradeStation every day. Since then, I have also discovered other software that I like very much and that I use nearly every day as well. For example, I use the free version of Wealth Lab a lot. I purchased a copy of Wave59 several years ago and use it VERY extensively in my research. I love applying a little Elliott Wave technique and so I purchased ElWave software several years ago. Great stuff. What you need to start off with is likely something very simple and either free, or inexpensive. As time passes, you will better be able to decide on a software package that will perfectly suit your needs and interests.
Data Sources
Once you have decided upon a specific software package that looks interesting to start off with, you will need to find out what type or types of price data are compatible with that software. Many software packages allow you to use a variety of data types including ASCII which is often free and easily available. This is something you must look in to before deciding to invest any serious amount of money in a software package. There are some software packages that require expensive and inconvenient price data. I have made it a rule to stay away from these.
Broker Accounts After choosing the type of market that you are interested in trading, you must then find an appropriate broker who meets with your needs and standards. There are many brokers from which to choose. Once again, you must do your own research and make your own decisions. I use two different brokers and I am extremely happy with each of them. I use InteractiveBrokers and MB Trading . They each have excellent reputations and ratings. I have never had one problem with either of them, even after many years and thousands of transactions.
There is always more to learn, no matter how many years you have been trading. And there is always someone out there who knows more than you do. I always enjoy listening to my mentors and hearing their ideas and opinions.
That said, at the end of the day, you must finally learn to make your own decisions about your own transactions. No mentor that I know of ever repays a student for any of the student’s market losses. You must learn to do two things that may seem contradictory. You must learn to maintain an open mind and be teachable when new and better ideas come along. And also, you must trust in the methods and systems that you have developed or which you follow. Don’t allow yourself to be swayed in a different direction by each passing breeze.
Lesson 3 will be about “Set Yourself Up for Your First Simulated Trade”. It will discuss the following issues:
1. Setting up your software 2. Setting up your data feed 3. Investigating and setting up your technical indicators 4. Setting up a trading system with trading signals 5. Broker account is open and funded 6. A written trading plan is in place 7. Practice with a simulated account until you are ready
Click here for Course Introduction
Click here for Course Conclusion
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