I wannabe a day trader

[#1]

Like Kwagga suggested, take a week's leave and try to make your R 1000 a day target, every day of the week. Perhaps it is possible to do it; but do you have the skills to do it - that is the question.

[Jim_Bean]

Okay so where do you day traders get all the info from? OST? How much does the different news feeds and stuff cost? Simon, any chance of doing a one week workshop on day trading, where everyone comes with their own cash and we trade in real time and get a feel on what day trading takes? The Oracles from this forum can also help the rest of us wannabe traders!

[HateGauteng]

Morning all. I second this suggestion.

[dookie]

Better idea. Simon brings cash.

[SimonPB]

you'll learn nothing in a week - just loose money ..

[SimonPB]

so everybody wants to be a day trader (can't imagine why - but anyways).
first step, put all your money into a money market account and spend the next year reading, learning, researching, planning and plotting. Then get together enough money to live on for at least a year AND large pot of cash to trade with. Then quit your day job and start trading - and still - expect to fail ..
now everybody is in a hurry, so they will ignore this advice (just as they all ignored my comment as to how much to trade with) and rush in - and loose it all .. becoming a successful trader (whether day trader or just trader) is easy, very very easy .. but not without work and effort ..

[Theater_Cat]

You see, if it was so easy to make money, even the clever people like Simon and Yonatan Rom etc. etc. would leave their day jobs and just trade.

[#8]

cant imagine why anyone would want to be a day trader? Come one Simon that question is disingenuous to say the least....I wonder where failed traders end up?

[SimonPB]

cape town ???? an I stick by the wonderment of why people want to be day traders .. glued to a screen having to act in seconds doing hundreds of trades a day ???? why when a nice gentle lazy system that requires maybe at most a coupe of trades a month (if you really want to step out - or for true lazy maybe ten or so a year) can deliver perfectly excellent results ?? my issue is that very few people understand the distinction between different methods of trading .. everybody just assumes they want to be a day trader when they are ignorant of the options ..

[john_1]

What Simon is saying is the same for any time consuming business...You would have to do exactly the same thing if you were giving up being a corperate hoha..to start Joe's coffee shop.. Small business fail because of a lack of cash flow..the whole point about trading is you can profit and still keep your job..The point is 70% of small businees fail..trading is just the same..that does not mean that all small business fail or that if this is your dream that you don't take it..its just with trading unlike Joe's coffee shop there is another way. Having a kettle 2 cups and a jug of milk does not a coffee shop make.

[#11]

Simon ...i restrained myself from stating "at the bank" but I see that was misguided as u have taken the gloves off.....so u seriously wanna tell me that sitting in JHB traffic for god alone nows how long being surrounded dealing being surrounded by a corporate culture like SBK (yes I know u claim u dont work for a bank but actually u do)...reporting to a boss and having to deal with a holes like us on a forum playing netnanny is fun? maybe the netnanny part is the most fun...this may explain the extreme diligence?

[SimonPB]

hmmm, the cape town comment hit home ?? for the rest - ya.ya ..

[dookie]

I can certainly relate to that... have cash to live on for a year - and a stack to trade with - and then fail :-0 But I think I'm getting better... I'm doing way fewer trades than I used to and am reducing my risk.

[dookie]

And I wasn't even trying day trading...

[john_1]

I think the point is we all want to make our money from the market,...I know I do...but do you have to spend 8 hours a day to achieve that goal...or can it be done with an end of day system.

[SimonPB]

that john is exactly ht epoint .. you have a post of mine fro way back when I comment on that fact .. and there are as many ways to trade a market as there are people trading it ..

[Brazen]

Yip, many ways. My way and then all the other wrong ways.

[SimonPB]

brazen, you sound exactly like my m-i-l with that statement .. two ways to do everything, her way and the wrong way .. you have 2 choices, do it her way - or death ..

[Brazen]

Perhaps you could hook her up with C?

[olilau]

i am with simon on this. day trading is burn out material and while some are cut out for it, i think most will struggle. i for one am new to the trading world, have a good job which i don't love or hate but certainly have better things to do (visualising chartist sitting with or without pool boy at pool with or without "lap top") during the day. but i won't quit my job and have the luxury of doing more than maybe just checking my account balance in a day. perhaps with time and education comes more gravity on the trading side. we'll see. i think someone in a hate relationship with their work wanting to become a day trader smacks of desperation. i had a friend who i was unable to talk out of becoming a professional gambler for a while. (lol, he was a banker). guess what, he is back at the bank today. gambling in this context is a step from purgatory to hell. desperation is never a good rationalisation tool. baby steps...