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New to the world of trading (options specifically ) using Think or Swim for under 2 years. Progress: Learning and doing OK - I still need to learn more of everything from greeks, lingo to eventually making this residual income.
Question: Who can give me some names of companies that train you and eventually let you trade with their capital?
I searched and came across mainstreetamerica.com where they take $800 to train you then give you a test where after you pass you can trade (options, forex, futures, stocks) and start with a $100k account. Split is 65-35 after you keep the first $4k profit. Its meant to be done part time like 2 hours in the morning or night.
ps - ive searched this forum and being a tech geek just couldnt see a post like this.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
You should never ever pay a firm to "train you" ... Also, they don't give you 100K. Their margin requirement for that is tiny, a fraction of that and they pay for it with the income they receive from other $800 per pop applicants who don't make it. Stay away IMO.
Usually these are trading arcades or grinders imho. they take you in for a few hundred. May let you trade their capital or your own capital with some fees attached. Eventually waiting for you to fail their rules and fire you or if you have your own capital to blow out and they net the fees. Its a pretty cut and dry rotational business. I agree stay away. If you really want to work in the industry, start applying with legit firms for internships or entry level jobs. Maybe get back to school to get your resume and education in order. these types of shops will never lead you to the big boy path, as real institutional investing is not what they do as a business model. Rather they make money from fees, desk rental/IT service, kick back from commissions, and just wait for you to be replaced by the next guy.
Josh and Treydogg - thank you for your responses, i sincerely appreciate it.
My current status : I'm 35, and a management consultant making just north of six figures but have a terrible work life balance and I have limited personal capital. I want to use trading as residual / additional income and I am willing to put in the time to study, understand and put in the effort to do this part time for now. As I see other traders on this forum making $500-1000 a day, if and when that day comes for me I will for sure think of making this as a full time role.
So the question then comes down to: How can I learn as much as I can and then perhaps for someone part time till I get my own capital?
Honestly joining this forum was a great first step. Just learn as much as you can by asking questions, reading books, watching the webinars and just being active in the community here. You can begin to develop yourself as a trader and trade some simulation while you figure out what kind of trader you are and what kind of trader you want to be. Its a long road and a very personal discovery process. Also this will give you time to save up your risk capital. But welcome and I hope to see you grow in your time here.
Just beware, don't come into trading for the wrong reasons. You really need to evaluate if you want to pursue this further, especially if you have a family to take care of. A 6 figure consistent salary is not something to dismiss off hand. Really consider if the ups and downs of having trading be your main source of income is something you can stomach.
thank you Trey. i really really appreciate the gesture and response. For me the eventual goal is to use trading as a supplement to my income. The biggest lesson I have learned is risk management, to say to my soul that today I will not trade a penny more if I lose $500 (in virtual money of course). This is a marathon and not a sprint and this forum has tons and tons of materials.
Now that I the basics of what I like to trade - options and futures - do you know of any good bible or starting point? I'll do my own search here but any direction from your end will just help me.
Personally I am an algorithmic trader for the most part. I do have a discretionary system as well but thats more of a side project. I would start with kevin daveys materials for algo development. Ft71 has good stuff for volume profile discretion based trading. All in the webinar section.
How can you make north of a 6 figure salary (+$100,000) per year and not have your own capital? Just curious as to the amount of savings one has in making such a salary!
Seriously--please bigger font. That is extremely easy to save $0 every single month. Undergrad and graduate completely paid by the student with loans and then living in a city like NY, DC, San Francisco would easily leave you with almost no money to go out if you wanted to live in a half way decent apartment, own a half way reliable car and then dress as required by your profession/clients. After I graduated from undergrad, I paid all of my student loans, needed a loan for a car (not an extravagant loan either), and lived in the DC area--I didn't want to live in a rat trap, so after all of those expenses, including paying for the appropriate clothing, I did not start saving money until I was over 100 (I do not have a graduate degree, so that would put me even further north of 100K if I did until I started saving). Unless you want to live in a terrible place or live 2+ hours from your client/job, there is no way people can afford to live in certain areas for less than 100K (assuming they paid for their own education).
To the real question, @apextc, read as much free stuff on this forum and I would suggest some of the most popular trading books (see what Fat Tails suggests--I have read them all and suggest his list). After that, study charts for many, many hours (no specific number--until you are comfortable....comfortable means you can look at a chart and everything comes to you like muscle memory for a quarterback). If you are studying historical charts, then you have an added layer of studying charts in real time/trading sim in real time while you build your starting capital. For me, things that helped me when I went live was to look @ everything in ticks/points instead of dollars. Do not over leverage yourself--you will surely fail. If you go on a losing streak and feel yourself getting depressed/making really bad decisions, take at least a week or two off--I wasn't able to mentally change my mindset the next day if I was on a losing streak (either too much money lost or too many days lost), I needed at least 2 weeks to get my mind right before trading again (each person is different).
