How Many Trades Is Necessary To Gain Good Experience?

[Andrew28]

How many trades does a new trader need to take in order to learn the mechanics of the markets? Is there a specific amount of trades that one should aim in order to gain real "experience?"

[carter]

There is no such number. But a 1000 trades is good for starters.

[Reaver]

Nothing is concrete. Everyone is different. That's like asking how many times do you go into combat before you're considered experienced.....could be one time, could be ten. From the outside perspective, maybe after once....but only you will know for sure. That's what is important.

[torero]

	Quote:	carter
	There is no such number. But a 1000 trades is good for starters.

When reaching 1000 and you still haven't blown out, you're doing pretty good! It's an indication you're either learning money/risk management or you've found your style that fits your personality.

[MrPaul]

one.....billion trades....(dr evil gesture) haha:p

I would have to agree with torero, If you haven't blown out after 1000 trades you have a fighting chance.

[rwalkerx]

noooo its 853!

[TinGull]

I've gotten almost 70 trades in on the YM since I started tradeing it last month, and I'm almost starting to understand a couple of things! For me, I'm wanting to have at least 150 trades under my belt with a nice win/loss ratio before I start thinking about adding more contracts. I'm by no means comfortable yet...though getting there.

[journeyback]

1.) Every trade is a learning experience.
2.) Trade only after careful, meticulous research.
3.) Prime directive----Preserve your capital.
4.) Don't be afraid to ask questions.
4.) Have Fun!

[ezduzzit]

You are probably not going to like this but here is my answer to how many trades it takes: If you still have to ask, then it's still not enough.

Only you will know how many trades it takes and you won't know that until you feel truly comfortable and confident in taking them. No one else can even give you a good hint.

One other thing... Most of it has to be real trades with live money, even if it is a single contract, or it won't mean a darn thing.

The road to trading success is littered with the bodies of thousands of failed traders who made hundreds and even thousands of demo trades only to have their confidence irrevocably shattered when finally making the switch to having real money at stake.

Learn about and observe the instrument you are going to trade to get a good feel for when and how it moves, select the timeframe that matches your own personality, trade demo til you are truly proficient at executing trades on your chosen trading platform and then switch to live money and one contract until you get your emotions under control, regardless of the strategy you decide to trade.

Happy Trading

[Kiwi]

Something relevant borrowed from Ryan Watts (he has a book with chat and yahoo group
support that's very good value IMO; google Watts Trading Group if you're seaching for
"something" and haven't found it yet):

Practice

There are two things every trader must do to succeed. He must trust himself and trust his system. These may sound like minor details to some but I believe these two items lay at the core of most trading problems. The important thing to realize is that you need both. One without the other is an imbalance and trading results will reflect it. You can trust yourself all you want but if you don't have a system that you can follow and trust then your overconfidence will drive your account into the ground. If you have a good system but don't trust yourself enough to execute it then you will do exactly the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time. The challenge is to grow both together and really that is the only way to assure success.

In my experience the way to grow both is through the four part cycle of (1) practicing your system after market hours in as real a manner as possible, (2) executing your system in real-time, (3) evaluating your results to identify weak areas that need work and finally (4) continue to practice over a large series of trades working out the issues along the way. Those who have read my articles before know that I am big on practicing outside market hours so this should come as no surprise. I just believe it is too costly an exercise to only limit your trading experience and growth to real-time market hours. Not to mention that the learning curve will be at least five times longer than if you were to practice every day on a scale of five trades for every one you take in real-time.

Within a year of doing this you will have covered your market and your system by executing maybe thousands of trades in real and practice sessions. Even after just a few weeks of doing this you will notice a growing trust in yourself and your system and the process will become a habit that hopefully you will never break.