Beginner's Trading Blog

[kid hustlr]

No its a MONEY THING

Then its a time thing

To make lots of money youll need to trade lots of Contracts
So youll need lots of margin
So youll need lots of cash to provide that margin particularly if trading
lots of instruments.
Around $100k would be the minimum if you want good return.
Twice that for a chance at serious money.

There are ways of acquiring currency tech.

Agreed you need a strong starting capital base but that's the least of my worries considering i dont have a positive expectancy to even trade it yet!

 

[kid hustlr]

So yesterday all the SPI wanted to do was run, so naturally today I looked for breakouts only to run into a day of mean reversion.

Glad its on the SIM!

 

[kid hustlr]

Got up this morning and caught the last 2 hours of the US markets.

So glad I did.

Had the ES and the NQ ladders up and that was it. I really like the NQ it seems to be a more volatile version of the S&P and I feel like there is some lead/lag benefits of having them both there. I can also use them for confirmation.

As far as sim trades went my first couple were for small losses but I was actually pretty happy with them. Both times I shorted the ES and I felt like my reasons each time were good. It wasn't as if I was just clicking buttons and I think the risk/reward set ups on them were good.

Then in the last 30 mins or both the ES and the NQ both went bonkers, the NQ especially as they just smashed through to the highs of the day. I actually picked up 2 4 tick trades on the NQ but I must have fat fingered or something because next thing I knew I was in another trade on the NQ and it took me a minute or 2 to work out what had happened, as a result I gave back most of the profit.

Anyway next stop is the SPI at 10 oclock although I must say it's definitely not my preferred instrument. Then I'll watch the Nikkei at 12.

Does anyone have any suggestions about other ladders I can have up whilst trading the SPI? I was thinking maybe the AUD/USD or something? Same question goes for the NIkkei maybe the USD/JPY?

 

[kid hustlr]

A couple of big companies reporting today as well as a couple of economic indicators coming out. I guess wage prices at 11.30 is the biggest but I wouldn't know to be honest.

I think BHP and WPL is the big news today.

Yesterdays cash hours high was 5064, 5056 would also provide some support it seems if we go for the morning gap fill however I'm not sure me sitting here and trying to guess which way we will go today will achieve anything.

On a longer term basis all the sub index's look healthy, you would think there has to be some profit taking on the XFJ soon but I've been thinking that for a while!

 

[kid hustlr]

Another day.

Couldn't really look at the US markets this morning but I did see the last few mins of trade, looked pretty ugly for all the longs.

Plan today is to not trade the SPI. I'm going to continue to search around for volatile markets on the Asian time zone. I know the HSI is pretty lively but I wan't to check out all the other ones first. I really do find the slow markets, the SFE bonds just dont move, the SPI seems really slow, even the NK has been a little slow for my liking. maybe I'm just being picky but when I compare these markets to the NQ and the ES there is just no comparison.

It's a shame the SPI is so boring because it's definitely the market I know the most about and I can do the most 'context' work for it, that being said maybe I should just worry about reading the tape.

Plan is to stick with STW today and see how I like it, once I get a feel for an asian market which I enjoy then I'll stick to just one of them but until then I'll just practice reading depth across a range of different tapes.

Dont know what happened at the close of the NQ but looks like one seller got owned.

 

[captain black]

Plan today is to not trade the SPI. I'm going to continue to search around for volatile markets on the Asian time zone. I know the HSI is pretty lively but I wan't to check out all the other ones first. I really do find the slow markets, the SFE bonds just dont move, the SPI seems really slow, even the NK has been a little slow for my liking. maybe I'm just being picky but when I compare these markets to the NQ and the ES there is just no comparison.

It's a shame the SPI is so boring because it's definitely the market I know the most about and I can do the most 'context' work for it, that being said maybe I should just worry about reading the tape.

Plan is to stick with STW today and see how I like it, once I get a feel for an asian market which I enjoy then I'll stick to just one of them but until then I'll just practice reading depth across a range of different tapes.

I did the same thing you're doing now a few years ago and found the Kospi worked best for me. Might be worth a look. Opens at 10:30 am and closes just after 4:30 pm (SA daylight savings time). I'm a swing trader and pick up some good swings most days. Days like yesterday where it's all one way traffic are difficult to swing trade but if you can learn to recognise early that it's a trend day then you can adjust your trading style to suit.

 

[theinvestorguru]

Hi Kid Husler

Very good thread, I m newbie. Similar to your situation a year ago, just start reading for Stan Weinstein and Dave Landry, using free version of prorealtime program, and opened optionsxpress account as well.

I didnot thought it is that hard to trade, but I m displayed and happy to spend the months and years in learning, I wish I can cut the learning stage to level start to make some money in one year.

Did you trade options? What do u think best start in paper trading or really starting the trade? Is 2000-5000 enough

Thanks

 

[Trembling Hand]

Did you trade options? What do u think best start in paper trading or really starting the trade? Is 2000-5000 enough

Thanks

Why are you starting with options? Especially with so little capital. Thats a long way from anything that looks ideal.

 

[kid hustlr]

theinvestorguru,

I haven't intra-day traded with real money yet. I plan to soonish. I have never traded options, they seem far more complex. With regards to starting capital, generally the more the better. 5k seems too low. I'd spend $100 bucks on a couple ofgood books then come back in 3 months time when you have more money behind you.

Captain,

Agreed, I watched the Kospi on Friday and it seemed pretty thick and liquid. Also looks to have a bit of action which I like. Granted markets change over time and I've only got a small sample of viewing time on the Kospi but it looks to be a winner if I choose to trade intra day on the asian time zone. Take all these remarks with a grain of salt because as I've said I've only had a good look at the intra day activity over the last week or so. Any market I choose to trade with my capital I'll do a lot more research into things like average trading range, commissions etc etc.

This week is going to be pretty quiet on the trading front, a couple of things have come up which I need to attend to.

Finished the NO BS basic course today. I highly recommend for anyone considering trading futures.

 

[theinvestorguru]

Why are you starting with options? Especially with so little capital. Thats a long way from anything that looks ideal.

Hi trembling Hand,

I m thinking of trading options as less money needed, there are more risky , I do know that.
I m still reading about stock, as I need to predict thre direction with T/A and fundamental A.
I m reading way to trade them, I m thinking I will do spreads in them.
For me at this this stage( still reading and not practicing) it is similar to go long or short of the share itself with less money and less time to reach target sell.
I will do at least 3-6 months paper trading to test my strategy

You seem do not like option trading, is it the risk that you do not like or something else

Thank you very much for the post

 

[tech/a]

Hi trembling Hand,

I m thinking of trading options as less money needed, there are more risky , I do know that.
I m still reading about stock, as I need to predict thre direction with T/A and fundamental A.
I m reading way to trade them, I m thinking I will do spreads in them.
For me at this this stage( still reading and not practicing) it is similar to go long or short of the share itself with less money and less time to reach target sell.
I will do at least 3-6 months paper trading to test my strategy

You seem do not like option trading, is it the risk that you do not like or something else

Thank you very much for the post

Why??? do you call yourself theinvestorguru?

 

[theinvestorguru]

Why??? do you call yourself theinvestorguru?

Hi Tech/a,

Good q, I call myself theinvestorguru because this is where I want to be in nov 2015. I set goal to learn to trade stocks , and use stock as long term investment vehicles , and property investment as well.

I went to course online on wealth creation, after we set goals,short,medium, long term, personal and proffisional with choosing our rolls in each of them, so one of them was myself being theinvestorguru. Plan is to use 10% of income for the compound effect and diversification of wealth

I am big fan of your post, although donot understand some of the t/a specific strategies yet. I started to like the T/a and I think iris way to go in trading stocks.

Good luck for all

 

[Trembling Hand]

Hi trembling Hand,

I m thinking of trading options as less money needed,

I'm sorry but you have that wrong. You're not likely to get far that way.

 

[theinvestorguru]

I'm sorry but you have that wrong. You're not likely to get far that way.

Hi Trembling HAnd,

I m not sure what do u mean? Do u mean need more money to start with, financially I am able to start up to 20 k but I m worried that I will loss them all.

Can you please give more specific adv, I would highly appreciate your time thank you

 

[Trembling Hand]

Hi Trembling HAnd,

I m not sure what do u mean? Do u mean need more money to start with, financially I am able to start up to 20 k but I m worried that I will loss them all.

Can you please give more specific adv, I would highly appreciate your time thank you

You are attracted to options only because you can control 100 BHP shares for a next to no capital - that is the reason you are looking at them. BUT you cannot position size your trade, you expenses with the spread are massive, the option delta is less than 1 so even good ideas/trades don't payout, a few moves against you will destroy your inadequate capital and on and on.

Basically you are thinking about options because you know absolutely nothing about trading and correct practical application of trading - just the idea of leverage seems to good to pass up. IMHO.

 

[theinvestorguru]

You are attracted to options only because you can control 100 BHP shares for a next to no capital - that is the reason you are looking at them. BUT you cannot position size your trade, you expenses with the spread are massive, the option delta is less than 1 so even good ideas/trades don't payout, a few moves against you will destroy your inadequate capital and on and on.

Basically you are thinking about options because you know absolutely nothing about trading and correct practical application of trading - just the idea of leverage seems to good to pass up. IMHO.

Hi

Thank you for the adv, you are right in term I m looking for better leverage doing options,and I do not have experience ( at all). Hmmm, I will start in stocks which is still big deal to master it.

Thank you for the adv.