Oct 30, 2009

Why Online Stock, Futures and Forex Currency Day Traders Prefer to Learn to Trade on a Live Account rather than a Trading Simulator

Online Day Trading is the only business out there today that lets you invest a small amount of money to get started as compared to most other businesses out there. It is also risky at the same time like any other business. It is also the only kind of business that does not require a lot of fixed time commitment, rules and regulations, employees and all other sorts of overheads that are typically associated with any other kind of traditional business. Online Day Trading is a very lucrative form of business that tends to attract people from all walks of life towards it. Yet it is a true but sad fact that only ten or so percent of people that are drawn to trading finally become successful at it and make it in the business and move on to become professional online stock, futures or forex currency day traders.

It all begins with the false notion that an online day trader can make a lot of money very easily and quickly. People from outside the world of trading think that trading is very easy and simple to do. That is because any individual with a few hundred or thousand dollars to spare and who has access to a high speed internet connection can open an online trading brokerage account and start trading like many of the the professional traders out there. That is by far not the way trading goes. There is a lot more to trading than just pulling the trigger to buy and sell securities. After all even a five year old can click on a Buy or Sell button and make a trade in a brokerage account. The outcome is anyone's guess. Trading is a psychological game mostly where only the mentally tough people survive. That is why it is so important to start off trading in the right way.

A trader must begin his or her trading career with real money. There are no other ways around this. The only way a stock, futures or forex currency day trader can start off on the learning curve in the trading business is by trading a small real money brokerage account. The money in that brokerage account is called "Risk Capital" in the trading business. A trader must always trade with money he or she can afford to lose without making an impact on them financially or mentally. They must never trade with money that they might need for their day to day living expenses or that they might have saved for some other purpose such as money in a retirement account or a college fund. They should never trade with money that has been borrowed from a friend or even a credit card. That is what is called Scared Money in the trading world. Scared Money rarely wins the game.

It is also not a smart idea to try to learn to trade on a trading simulator. A trading simulator, offered by many brokers out there today, just helps a trader form bad habits. Trading on a simulator does not condition a trader mentally as it is only play money he is trading with and he can afford to lose an unlimited amount of money without it affecting his emotions. By trading a small sized brokerage account with real money in it enables the trader to build his mental edge. Using real money will definitely help the trader be more cautious with his trading approach and force him to only take trades that have met his rules set out in his day trading business plan. This way he will prepare himself mentally for some inevitable losses that always come in trading and in any other business. He will also be able to trade more confidently as he will see real money added to his account in the form of trading profits. Starting with a small real money account helps build a strong and consistently profitable trading profession for the future.

learn more about the Watts Online Trading System for forex trading, currency trading and more from Ryan Watts of the Watts Trading Group and see how it can be used to profitably scalp, day or swing trade stocks, futures, forex or any other liquid market and any time frame. It is the only online trading system out there that we found works well in all trending markets. Add to you references to invictatrader.com/

by Ed Kingston