Young investors... are you out there?

[Ageo]

Just turned 25, started when i was 18 and lost over 90k within 5yrs of that time (talk about learning the hard way). My suggestion as others have mentioned, learn alot (you can never learn too much) go slow and be patient. Build your bank slowly and enjoy everyday as it comes

 

[M34N]

So, from general consensus from the few 'young' investors that have posted, losses seem to be normal.

Read this whatever way you want Daniel, but remember we're all still here and investing. Essentially you will know in the first few months whether the market is for you or not, and again, only invest what you are comfortable losing.

BTW, are you going to be actually investing or trading? I initially started off to trade, but gradually moved towards investing and do that most of the time, with the exclusion of some short-term trades. Found it to be easier, less stressful and made it easier to set stop-losses and not having to worry every few hours about if you're at a loss.

 

[mazzatelli1000]

Ill add that once you have got a good foundation in your education of the markets, the next step will be to backtest and live test with fake money extensively. Once this is done, only risk very small amounts of money to get a feel for the market.

In my experience, I didnt try be a hero and trade 10 lots of option contracts, I traded 1 and 2 lots and lost about $3k during my first year. The loss was small because I traded so litte and the fact I traded spreads which had a lot of margin for error. While trading with real money, I still had paper trades running as I am consistently testing strtaegies and portfolio management of options.
HOWEVER, I will add, the $3k loss as a percentage of the margin required was very LARGE..
Slowly I became more comfortable and consistent with the strategies where it became second nature before I upped my capital.

Patience is the key. I always thought about how much I WOULD have made if I put more money in during my practicing stage, but hindsight shows I would have lost alot more.