Yes, you are correct. I had a very extensive background both in the mortgage banking business and the securities business when I started. I walked in really cocky, because I had "day traded" for a couple of months using a broker and made a little money. I paper traded for two days and started. I got hammered in a very serious way. I refused to listen to the excellent advice that two very successful traders were giving to me until I lost almost half my money in less than two weeks, the majority of it on one trade. Both of them said I was doing better than most people, which makes me think most new people go broke.
One thing I did that really helped: every week I go over the trades I made. I look at the winners and why they won, the losers and why they lost, the things I did right and the things I did wrong.
The problem as I see it with "courses" is that no course can tell you what your style is and what you do right and wrong. I sit next to a guy that is the best shorter I have ever seen. He makes an obscene amount of money; not because he shorts stocks, but because he is really good at one thing. Once in a while he will mention that some stock looks like it is "about to go up". I listened twice, and paid.
Now, I only listen when he says, "If it moves up to XXXX, short it." He is always right.
I guess what I am trying to say is that I agree with you, you have to have a business plan, and you have to be realistic. It's easy to see someone make 27 grand in an hour and say, "I could do that", but the truth is, you need to make 270 bucks in an hour for a while first. And not lose 470 bucks the hour after that.
One step at a time. |
