[HighStakes]

Hello everyone!

I`m a young man from Norway that was stupid enough to delve into the world of trading a few years back instead of going to school

Hopefully, I will not regret that decision in the end

I think I will enjoy my stay at these boards. My impression is that there is a tremendous amount of valuable knowledge here, while keeping noise levels and negativity low.

Since the pursuit of trading is a lonely one, it is nice to have some like-minded individuals to share and discuss with.

Best regards,

John

[chaotic1]

Good luck friend. Since it sounds like you have been doing this a few years now, how have you been doing and what type of trader are you (ie stock, options, futures, fx, short/longterm, etc)?

I just like to hear about what makes other people tick and what kind of trading they do.

[HighStakes]

Thank you, chaotic!

I started swing trading stocks on OBX along with my daytime job in late 2007. During the first two quarters of 2008 I was very successful and I more than tripled my account. I did not know much then, but I had a very simple method and I always used a stop loss.

As happens sooner or later, one highly leveraged trade went badly against me and I could not pull the trigger and get out when I should have. I held on for a few days and then sold close to the bottom. I then went into revenge trading since I obviously wanted to get my money back. Buying at tops and selling at bottoms again. Hope and fear were my two dominant emotions at the time.

Very textbook actually.

I lost probably close to 70% of my account before I withdrew all my money.

With what I had left, I naively quit my job by summer to start studying the markets full-time and hopefully go live by the end of the year.

Of course, I had no clue what I had gotten myself into, so my plans changed quickly. I did study full-time for 6 months or so before I got back to full-time work though.

Since then, I have been studying books and the markets whenever I have the time. Looking back, I would have done things very differently and I would not have read as much as I`ve done.

I`ve read probably over 80 books and there is so much garbage out there. I feel that I have a pretty good overview now of what works and what suits me though, but I could have saved myself a lot of time and money not wading through all that stuff.

My trading plan and all my preparatory work is almost complete, so I will start exclusively demotrading by the end of May.

Hopefully, I can go live by September with a small account.

I am not quite sure how I will break into trading yet, but I think my best option would be to trade part-time in the evenings.

Oh, and yes. I will most likely be daytrading CME futures. Equity indexes, currencies, crude oil or bonds. I have not decided yet, but will know more as I start demo trading.

Best regards,

John

[chaotic1]

Good luck going live. Sounds like you have a plan to meet your goal, I hope you stick with it and find your dream.

I hope to be able to go live daytrading in a few years myself. Although I would rather take a furlough for a few months each year when everything slows to a snails pace and they don't really need me around. It would be a great break. I don't think I have the focus to daytrade full time year round. I have found trading in the late winter early spring to be the most profitable. Trading this time of year has generally been bad and sometimes I give back the winter earnings.

[HighStakes]

Thanks, chaotic!

You have made some very interesting observations about your own performance. Knowing when not to trade and being disciplined enough to follow it, is definitely an edge.

Good luck to you as well!