Stock Market for Beginners

I started seriously trading in November 2006. For about 2-3 months, I woke up for the market every day at 6:00 AM (I’m on the west coast) to trade for about an hour or two, then went back to bed. I’d wake up a little before noon and trade the closing hours from noon to 1:00 PM when the market closed. While I was trading, I’d keep MSNBC running in the background. For the rest of the day, I would try to go to Barnes and Noble or Borders at least a few times a week to browse through trading magazines and books. Classes fell somewhere here and there in between all the trading chaos.

You’d be amazed how much you could learn about the market simply through experience. I soaked in so much more knowledge about the stock market in those few months than my parents have gained in their lifetimes.

Although I happened to perform very well, the most important thing I learned was how to deal with myself emotionally when it came to the market. I know that you’ll hear this over and over, but it really is one of the most important lessons to be learned to become a great trader. You can have the best strategies and ideas in the world, but if you can’t control yourself emotionally to follow the system, you’re bound to fail. Part of the reason I adapted so well is that poker players require the same emotional aptitude in order to succeed. The moment you go on tilt is the moment that you can say goodbye to your bankroll.

After those few months, I realized that I couldn’t keep it up. It was too emotionally draining and required a lot of sacrifices - the main one being my beauty sleep. On top of that, I had a lot of other activities going on in my life, so I decided to change my strategy. I now trade at the close of the market and swing trade (2-12 day trading periods), whereas before I looked to close out my trades within 2-3 days. There really are many, many ways that you can trade successfully, but remember that the true road to success lies with managing your emotions.

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