On behalf of myself, I'd like to share a piece of advice for any new trader out there.

First, I'm going to discuss my background and why I decided to get into trading so you all have an idea of where I come from, and maybe some of you can relate.

I'm just your average 20 yr old in college who has no clue what to do with their life. Sure I enjoy a lot of things, but nothing that can really make me a significant amount of money. So, it was my natural instinct to research how to make a crap load of money without having a job. I spent 1-2 years researching and came across some videos suggesting that I start an e-commerce business (selling products online). I won't go into complete details, but I followed through and created my first e-commerce business in 2016 and I've sold over 700 products nationwide to this day (shooting for a goal of 1000 products sold this year). With that said, e-commerce was definitely not making me a "crap load" of money like I pictured, so I kept researching and eventually came across some videos of young guys with nice cars who said they got into penny stocks. Seemed convincing enough, so I gave it a shot. I probably watched like one or two videos about trading penny stocks and before I knew it I funded my etrade account with $2500. Tested etrade and made a small gain on some $AAPL shares and thought hey, I could do this! I could make money through blue chip stocks so why not penny stocks right? All I need to do is diversify and buy some penny stocks and wait for them to uptrend. So, I added an extra $2500 in my etrade account. Worst mistake of my life. $5000 in my etrade account, and in two months it dropped to $3000. I was scared shitless. I was entering the STUPIDEST trades ever, and taking on HUGE positions (I'm serious, check my trades). So, 2017 started and I started studying every day. I continuously traded each week and still kept losing. My $3000 account dropped to nearly $2000 in a month and a half. So, I ramped up my studying and that brings us to the present. Today (03/10/17), I made my first official trade with a gain over $100. I don't feel like I'm the shit or anything, but I definitely feel like it's possible to make gains IF YOU STUDY. 

 

So with all that said, here is my advice to all you new traders out there:

1. Educate yourself. I failed to educate myself before trying to trade and I lost several thousand dollars QUICKLY.

2. Paper trade. Understand chart patterns and test them by paper trading. No need to enter real trades with your own money yet. You need to test your theories and figure out what works for you.

3. Don't think you need to know everything. What I figured out my problem was during the education process was I thought I needed to know EVERY pattern. Wrong. Focus on 1 or 2 patterns and master those, then branch out and try trading different patterns.

4. Don't feel like you NEED to trade. Wait for the PERFECT plays and trade those. Don't feel like you NEED to make money everyday. Chances are, you'll end up losing money by feeling like you NEED to trade. Thats how I lost nearly an extra $1000 this year so far. I kept feeling like I needed to trade and make my lost profits back asap. It just lead to more losses.

5. Don't trade with heavy position size. When you make your first few educated trades, TEST your theories with small positions. What I did for awhile was not put in more than $600 into a trade (averaged about 200 shares) and although I took small gains or small losses, I was learning.

6. You don't need a lot of money to start. Pay attention to the market and look at these top gainers. Stocks spike big each day and if you put in $100 or 200 into an account and play these supernovas, you'll grow your small account. It may take a long time, but it's better than what I did (put in $5000 and lost $3,000).

 

I know it might be hard to trust me because I'm in the red and I barely have any gains, but I feel like it's important that you all follow this advice if you're new to trading so you don't end up where I am. I have a long way to go, but I'm going to continuously study each day and hopefully get out of the red. 

Thanks for reading, and best of luck!

- C.J.