Tips for a Begining Day Trader

[vikkktor]

Hello everyone,

I've studied a lot about day trading and I'm about to really commence day trading.
I would love to receive general tips on how to accelerate my learning curve.

Also, I have some specific questions:

Please, does anyone know links to sites where I can obtain:
- templates of trader's journal, dairy, evaluation forms or sheet etc.
- free historic data (yearly, monthly, weekly, hourly) for equities, futures and other markets
- free real time market data (NOT delayed)
- free important market data (eg GDP growth, unemployment rate, VIX, open interest, 52 weekly highs/low) all available at the same website
- free open source software that can be used or adapted in analyzing the financial markets.

I realize I may seem ridiculous wanting to have everything free but every penny I save is a penny I can use as capital for trading.

Thank you

[brownsfan019]

While trying to pinch pennies so you have more capital to trade with, expecting to outfit your new business for free is ridiculous. As with any business, you have to spend money to make money.

[Tams]

Originally Posted by vikkktor Hello everyone, I've studied a lot about day trading and I'm about to really commence day trading. I would love to receive general tips on how to accelerate my learning curve. Also, I have some specific questions: Please, does anyone know links to sites where I can obtain: - templates of trader's journal, dairy, evaluation forms or sheet etc. - free historic data (yearly, monthly, weekly, hourly) for equities, futures and other markets - free real time market data (NOT delayed) - free important market data (eg GDP growth, unemployment rate, VIX, open interest, 52 weekly highs/low) all available at the same website - free open source software that can be used or adapted in analyzing the financial markets. I realize I may seem ridiculous wanting to have everything free but every penny I save is a penny I can use as capital for trading. Thank you

lots of free stuff on the web...

including lots of the stuff you are looking for,

most importantly, you can find lots of the free stuff right here in this web site.

[ekshay]

Originally Posted by vikkktor I've studied a lot about day trading and I'm about to really commence day trading. I would love to receive general tips on how to accelerate my learning curve.

OK. Considering that you are asking about real-time market data, here's the first tip...

"Recognise that you do NOT know ANYTHING about Day Trading, until you actually do it."

It is kinda like bicycle-riding. Studying a lot, without doing it, only gives a false sense of knowledge.

Originally Posted by vikkktor Please, does anyone know links to sites where I can obtain: - templates of trader's journal, dairy, evaluation forms or sheet etc.

This depends on what you want to track, how many markets you are trading, and how many different trading strategies you are working with.
When starting, its better to keep it personal, and keep it simple.

Originally Posted by vikkktor - free historic data (yearly, monthly, weekly, hourly) for equities, futures and other markets - free real time market data (NOT delayed) - free open source software that can be used or adapted in analyzing the financial markets.

{This is totally NOT a broker recommendation.}

For most markets, MetaTrader brokers like GCI, Windsor and Broco, would be a nice start for "free real-time charting tool loaded with past data".

If you know exactly which market you want to trade, and someone on this forum is sim-trading it and posting their charts, just ask them what they did. Like I am freely real-time simming Emini Futures on NinjaTrader [software], thanks to Mirus [broker].

I don't know about the Open Source part. Hope you have Windows.
For anything else, just Google.

Originally Posted by vikkktor - free important market data (eg GDP growth, unemployment rate, VIX, open interest, 52 weekly highs/low) all available at the same website

I am not much of a Stocks guy, have a Forex background, but isn't this kind of information freely available on media websites [like Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg, CNBC, etc.] ... and on Exchange websites [like CME Group].

There is a Toolbox at the top of this very page ... I think you will find the Economic Calendar and the Derivatives Report useful.
Personally, I also like the ForexFactory Calendar.

Originally Posted by vikkktor I realize I may seem ridiculous wanting to have everything free but every penny I save is a penny I can use as capital for trading.

Oh no. It would be even more ridiculous if you spend money on the wrong things.
It is true that the best stuff ain't free, but you are just beginning to Demo-trade yet. That SHOULD be as cheap as possible.

What if ... like many ... in a few months ... you reach a conclusion ... that this day trading business ... is really ... NOT for you ...
... You'd be better off finding that as cheaply as you possibly can.

[electroniclocal]

If you are really serious then you would invest the time and money to give yourself a chance to succeed. I haven't yet met a doctor, lawyer or accountant who learned his trade for free. This is a competative business with lots of well capitalised people who you want to trade against. There aren't too many David's around but there are a lot of Goliaths.

[uexkuell]

Originally Posted by vikkktor ... may seem ridiculous wanting to have everything free but every penny I save is a penny I can use as capital for trading.

Good idea.

Have seen many guys that spent much on pricey feeds and other information sources and failed more or less because of this.
If you spend say 100$ per month on a feed this puts you on a big pressure to start trading with real money pretty soon (this sums up to 3600$ in 3 years which is about the minimum time horizon most people need to get profitable).


It's still astonishing to me that nearly all the really valuable information comes more or less for free on the internet (like here on this site). But you'll have to spend a lot of time searching, reading, thinking, trying and judging on your own.

On the other hand many of the information sources that charge you around 100$ per month give mediocre quality or are even misleading.

[JEHs]

Originally Posted by electroniclocal If you are really serious then you would invest the time and money to give yourself a chance to succeed. I haven't yet met a doctor, lawyer or accountant who learned his trade for free. This is a competative business with lots of well capitalised people who you want to trade against. There aren't too many David's around but there are a lot of Goliaths.

The investment is in time. As has been said here, everything you need is available for free.
The thing is though, you can't really compare this to the professions of doctors or lawyers, because to do that all you need to do is invest the money and time and you pretty much know you will come out the other end with a career that pays pretty well.
In this trading business, you have no idea. You could put in 20 years or the rest of your life and never really make it. If all I had to do was pay the money that it costs to be a doctor and put in the time and I would be a trader, even a mediocre one, I would do it, but the fact of the matter is, there is no way of knowing.

These days everything you need to trade is available for free. You need to put in the time and see what happens. No guarantees. Everyone starts off thinking they are the exception to the rule, but most of us end up not being the exception.

[Tams]

there are 2 things that a successful trader must have, but not a requirement in most of the "professions".

the first requirement is a killer instinct...
you can be well educated and well read,
you can be rational and methodical,
you can be calculated and have all the bases covered,
but if you don't have a killer instinct,
you won't be able to pull the trigger at the opportune time.

[sevensa]

Originally Posted by Tams there are 2 things that a successful trader must have, but not a requirement in most of the "professions". the first requirement is a killer instinct... you can be well educated and well read, you can be rational and methodical, you can be calculated and have all the bases covered, but if you don't have a killer instinct, you won't be able to pull the trigger at the opportune time.

If you have a well defined edge and know the probabilities, there is no need to have a killer instinct to pull the trigger. You are just executing your plan then and have no need for any kind of killer instinct; just the ability and discipline to follow your plan.

You said there are two requirements. What is the 2nd?

[Tams]

Originally Posted by sevensa If you have a well defined edge and know the probabilities, there is no need to have a killer instinct to pull the trigger. You are just executing your plan then and have no need for any kind of killer instinct; just the ability and discipline to follow your plan...

you can call it killer instinct,
you can call it discipline,
or you can call it cool-calm-execution...

call it whatever you may,
the name doesn't matter,

the fact is,
despite all the good intentions,
educations,
preparation,
calculation,
some people just cannot pull the trigger at opportune times...

be thankful if you can,
have pride in knowing that you are a selected few...




I will leave the 2nd one for people to chime in...