|
Quote: |
|
 |
|
|
I recently came upon this website and forum and have found it to be a great learning tool and resource. A couple of questions for any of you seasoned traders when you have some free time. I've been a short term and long term investor for some time (about seven or eight years now) and have always wanted to dabble or day trade. I've read quite a few books in the last three years on the subject. I tend to be a good short term and long term investor, but I fully understand this is a totally different animal. I'm willing to pay some 'tuition' in learning the trade and perhaps find a way to make a living doing something I've always enjoyed. In the next year I will have an equity account that approaches around 100K to begin to trade. I have accounts at AMTD and also Scottrade. Fine for what I do, but in looking into day trading I realize I'll need a much stronger platform. Best choices available? In the next year I am going to 'paper' trade. I've followed about 50 equity symbols for the last few years some liquid enough to daytrade and some not. I'm comfortable trading stocks. Is it more important to trade stocks you follow closely and know or seek out momemtu.m each hour, day, week, month? Of the fifty I mentioned above, I probably know twenty like the back of my hand, trading patterns, the business, the expectations, the growth patterns, and business cycles. I would be comfortable enough trading them, and have been, just not on a day to day basis. Is 100k account enough to survive, paying some learning tuition and perhaps turn a decent years profit? I'm not going to quit my 'day' job until I can prove to myself I can stand on my own two feet. Thanks for responses, and thanks for the resource of information here.
MPBigley |
|
|
|
|
Well first off welcome to the forums MPBigley!
I don't know if I'm seasoned quite yet, perhaps still marinating :p . I can throw out a few answers none the less.
As far as your broker is concerned you might want to look into direct access brokers for intraday trading, those such as Interactive Brokers, Tradestation, Thinkorswim, MBTrading etc.
As far as it being more important to know the companies you trade, thats ehh..up to debate really. Some folks don't mind the alerts and the scanning etc. some loathe it (like me, although I only day trade index futures). The other things mentioned don't really apply to intra day trading imo, thats more of a swing approach. Day trading is more about psychology and hardcore technical analysis.
100k is more than enough, really. If I were you I might even take 65k and put it in a money market account and start with 35k (you'll need at least 25k to meet pattern day trader status)
Most of all, be patient with yourself, day trading is hard. Focus on execution of your trades, your money management, and your mind first. Profits come from those things. Stick around here and you'll find more than enough people to help you with those aspects.
Have you looked into e mini day trading at all? They do offer advantages over stocks.
Hope that helps a bit, if you have anymore questions feel free to keep askin'!