Day Trading

Of course, it all depends on what you want to do.

IncredibleCharts - its free and its quite good. Data is provided but I'm not sure how accurate it is. good for doing basic stuff. You do have to pay to get more features. The scanning/filtering is a bit limited

Amibroker - more expensive (but still cheaper than many of its peers eg. Metastock). Big learning curve for a newbie. You need to learn the programming language. Good scanning and backtesting. Very powerful and flexible. Data not provided. You can import all sorts of data into it, though many (the free ones) aren't accurate.

Brokers - Interactive Brokers is very cheap but I think you need about 10K to open an account. Not as simple as your Aussie online broker. A must if you are trading frequently.

As you are fairly new to it, I'd recommend starting simple. Try IncredibleCharts and a local broker. Best to paper trade first to be sure you plan/method is ok.
 
Thanks xanh. Programming language? Sounds even more involved than what I was expecting...

I used to have Metastock and then switched to Amibroker then stopped trading just before the GFC.

I found that there were forums for both, just Google, and people were always willing to share their knowledge as long as you had "tried yourself" to create your search.

If you explain what you are trying to do, post your attempt at it, usually someone will rewrite it so that it works.

There also used to be a guy in SA that would write your search for you for a relatively small cost.

Both programs used to come with a variety of searches already include, you will usually only need these to start, it is only when you start tweaking things that you want to get creative.

If you intend to buy and hold or maybe hold for 6 months, you may find you don't need any software at all.

Please consider that you are taking on people who have every intention of separating you from your money, it is quite demanding to trade rather than invest. Your expenses are far more than theirs and they are set up to constantly watch their trades, they can react in a split second, you can't.

Paper trading is helpful to establish your methods but only having money in the market will tell you of you like it or not.

I found I did not enjoy it, I made money at it and then dodged a bullet so I quit while ahead. My reading is that the day the USA actually raise the interest rate by 0.01% the markets will reverse so I have stayed out.

If I was much younger and investing for the long term I would use LIC or funds that track the indices. It has been proven that the majority of funds do not beat the index yet they charge more to get a worse result.
 
I would suggest not over complicating your trading. There are thousands of different angles and strategies/indicators/time frames/markets that you can play around with, most of which simply wont suit your trading personality (risk profile) and many of which will confuse most and make the process more daunting and inaccessible.

For charting - Incredible charts is very good and cheap, perfect as a starting point. Keep it simple.

Paper trading - yes there are some benefits to this, but don't put too much emphasis on your 'results', paper traders tend to be excellent traders.....on paper. Get some skin in the game, but start slow, the markets will ensure that you wits and your thought process are tested. Keep it simple.

Personally i think straight shares in blue chips or mid cap stocks are a great way to access the markets and get a feel for trading. They move a bit, but are not overly volatile (generally), there is plenty of liquidity and setting up a trading account is simple and straight forward. Keep it simple!

Look are some basis charting concepts - candlestick charts, moving averages and volume. These 3 are the backbone of almost all other chart indicators. Keep it simple.

Work out what timeframes suit you, day trading (1-5 minute charts), short term trading (hours to days) or medium term positional trading (days to weeks/months). Keep it simple.

Start with a small trading account, build up your experience and knowledge before you build up your capital. Keep it simple.

Don't trade derivatives, options, CFDs until you are comfortable with simpler markets. Keep it simple.

And most importantly - Keep it simple! So many people get WAY too involved with complicated trading programs, indicators, markets and sub markets. Trading doesn't need to be complicated, at the end of the day the markets operate in a similar way to the property markets - supply and demand and flock mentality tends to drive prices in both markets. Learn how to read these waves of emotion and ride the wave.
 
I used to trade options and futures in the mid 90's and lost a bit of money. I studied technical analysis, trend lines, etc however, emotions are hard to control and greed caused a lot of my losses.

So a lot of winning positions went to losses. Its a roller coaster of emotions :p
 
l day traded fill time for a bit over 3yrs so l wasn't a vet but my 2 cents worth.!
You can do quite a bit with a few 2k buys but more is better . Depends if it's a living or just part time. Part time , fun , doesn't matter.
Around the time l was quitting because l just wanted to get back out into the real world again and away from screens and numbers, l got bit pretty badly in the crash. Just a nice going away present :eek:

lt does do your head in though if your not built for it.
And one of the hardest things is staying focused on your own personal strategy .
You do need to find one you like that suits you and then become disciplined and good at that , focused.
Well that was my way anyway and while l stayed disciplined and focusing on only mine , l did quite well.
But if you start to wonder and stray to all the other strategies out there and there are 1000s of them , that's when you start to lose it . None of those matter, only your chosen strategy.
And if your not happy with that and can't see it working , then you carefully choose a new one and hone in on that , or 2 or 3 , but you have to focus on them alone or you just start bouncing everywhere aimlessly and very expensively
Some people seem to be able to cope with bouncing about mixing and matching and making them work. However l personally found that to be the worst thing you could do , especially starting out.
Maybe not for a vet but that's a lotta yrs in the business first.

PS , and def' everything everyday T said .
 
So has anybody here actually had long term consistent sucess trading, say 8+ years?
Seems like many have done well short term, but they have crashed sooner or later.
That's got to be sign right?
 
So has anybody here actually had long term consistent sucess trading, say 8+ years?
Seems like many have done well short term, but they have crashed sooner or later.
That's got to be sign right?

Only few years for me, I found it more useful for getting out of stocks than getting in. I had too much analysis paralysis, I would over analyse the stocks with candle sticks charting.
Only did close of day trading though!
Being emotional type I don't think day trading is for me! That's why I really like property. I analyse is heaps before buying, so once bought, it just requires maintenance or set and forget. This investing in RE suits my personality much better!
 
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