Making a living trading stocks/options and other investments.... and general advice

[anfern057]

I highly reccomend trading real money. Even if its less then $1,000. You'll have no idea how crazy a stock will make you think/act until you have your hard earned capital on the line. You will most likely lose money for a while, but those lessons you learn will stick with you forever. When I would lose on a simulator I really wouldn't care and I'd forget in a second. But to this day I still get haunted by the stocks that got away, or the couple stocks that doubled in price right after I sold for a nice loss.

To me simulators are like playing NBA Live on Xbox 360. Its very realistic and when you play your basketball IQ goes up. Sometimes it might look and feel like the real deal. But if you really want to get good at basketball you need to get into the gym and get worked by people who know how to play. Eventually your bricks will turn into swishes and you will start winning.

[mataspeed]

That makes sense aferno, but before that, I have to develope a system that works for me that I must follow. That is why I prefer technical analysis, exit when it tells me to, stay when it tells me to. But I think I should first be successful with the simulator, then go in for real with a money that I will be able to sleep at night even if I lose(less than 1k), then as I improve and gain more confidence, I can start investing with more money.

But as with every system, it requires a little human touch to it. So emotions are still involved, or else we would have computer programs trade the stocks for us. But with every mistake I learn, like how I ignore a sell signal just because I got greedy. ^^