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I got into trading through Russ Whitney's extremely expensive seminar training called TMTT (teachmetotrade).
I read many books, my favorite were the Jim Cramer books. I lost a TON of money. The one trade that I lost the most including most of my home equity loan which contributed to my divorce, was a hurricane stock, I forget the name. But it was a successful trade at first making a good profit, they made money repairing houses after a disaster and were predicting a busy hurricane season. So I went all in. Well, some foul play like pump and dump, somebody in the company involved in bogus press releases to drive the price higher while shorting. I lost it all. It went down so fast there wasn't time to get out. I remember the date. 6/6/06. Just my luck.
I did some commodity trading thru a broker thinking that was a quick way to make it back. They knew what to do with my money lol. They love commisions, they don't give a damn about your investment.
Now most of my education is done thru YouTube, that's how I found Pats price action trading.
I'm in my first year of trading taking a self-taught approach, which is how I built my IT career.
After months of "Click & Lose", I've shifted to algorithmic trading. While new to trading, I'm not new to data management and analysis. As I gained some experience and insights into the markets and how it's reflected in data, I began to structure a plan.
For me, I'm focused on building a data platform to support trading. So I'm learning two new programming languages (C# & Python) while dusting off some of my old technical skills ( I used to be a decent engineer).
While building my technical ecosystem, I'm also studying books on trading and modern data analysis techniques. Some of the books have been recommended here on FIO. That includes:
Mind Over Markets: Power Trading with Market Generated Information, Updated Edition
Dalton, James F.
Systematic Trading: A unique new method for designing trading and investing systems
Carver, Robert
I've even found some good academic papers to help my self education. Stuff like this:
I've stopped my Click&Lose trading while I build my system and get educated. I do have a couple automated trades running against a sim account using the SharkIndicator tools.
Initially I thought of some paid courses, but I'm finding ample free material on-line and in relatively low-cost, but high-value books.
Regardless of your educational approach, time and focus will be necessary to be successful. I built a successful IT career without an associates degree. That includes being a CIO. I focused and became skilled in technical and business areas that directly supported my goals. I had to be ruthless in my focus to get the best return on my time.
So, that's the approach that generally works for me. Your milage may vary.
I studied finance in college.
I did an internship at an investment management firm, under the mentorship of former wall street flow and prop traders.
I worked in fixed income sales and trading at a large broker/dealer.
I went back to investment management where I went on to run a team of traders and manage multi-billion dollar bond funds.
I studied for and earned my CFA.
Nowhere, in any of this, did I ever learn how to become a consistently profitable speculator / trader.
For me, my trading began to improve when I stopped trying to gather information from others. It left me completely open to focus 100% on just developing my own complete method of trading. During that process, I really learnt what kind of trader I am and where my strengths and weaknesses lie. Up until then, I always thought I wanted to be an intraday trader but during my process, I found that I was a much stronger swing trader. I feel way more comfortable as a swing trader. That is something I don't think I would have ever discovered by trying to trade someone else's method.... best of luck to everyone and have a wonderful day.
I read all the books, joined multiple trading groups and chat rooms, surfed YouTube and the internet. But the biggest difference maker for me has been to find a trading mentor and getting a mindset coach. Both have been absolute life changers for me. I highly recommend stockoptioncoach.com.
