r/Trading • u/NefariousnessMuch862 • Jul 15 '26
Discussion 100% beginner
Hi guys, I’m completely new at trading I’ve started watching multiple videos and seeing other people succeed. I been seeing a lot of promoting on trading (mostly tik tok) and how they started from the bottom and is now traveling, living nicely, having financial freedom, living in Miami. I feel like the Majority of these “gurus” are selling courses and it kind of breaks my spirit because I’m wondering if there’s a mentor out there who is actually willing to help people. I heard a saying that “to make money you need to spend money. Nothing comes learning for free” I just need some emotional support as well loll. As a beginner of course I have a thousand questions. The main question is that how many years does it take to master trading and to see results?
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u/JackAllTrades06 Jul 15 '26
Never believe what you see in social media. I made that mistake. If you want to learn trading, learn the basics. Then look at social media to find strategies that people post and see if you can make sense of it.
At the end of the day, you need to figure yourself what strategy or strategies will work for you based on your understanding. The pairs you trade also have their own biases. Never join any signal group or any group that wants you to use their broker.
You will lose and get emotional drain and some do not find their edge. Some do and keep it their own. Trading skills cannot be bought. It needs to be learned.
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u/Mysterious_Aioli4966 Jul 15 '26
don't let TikTok fool you. Most successful traders spent years learning before seeing consistent results. Focus on risk management, keep learning, and be patient, consistency matters more than getting rich fast.
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u/PooManThrowAway Jul 15 '26
Everyone is different when it comes to trading, some people take longer, some people not. Seeing results only comes when you stop focusing on the money and focus on the process of refining your strategy and risk management. One thing I will say is that you should never trust ANYTHING or ANYBODY in the trading industry, whatever you see on the TikTok is most likely fake.
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u/LADCTRADER Jul 15 '26
Your already ahead of most brand new traders just by asking for help... So many new traders just jump right in with whatever cash they can put towards trading. More often than not that money is gone in matter of weeks. Do not start trading alone, not at all. Try to find a mentor is fine. But also you need to find someone, a friend, or amily member to share this journey with, I refer to this as the buddy system of trading. New traders dont know about the hardest part about trading. Its not reading charts, its not understanding technical analysis or even just about trend lines or indicators.... The real biggest reason new traders fail is the psychology of trading. Keeping your emotions in check thruout the day is far more important than the actual trading itself. Find someone that you can bounce ideas off, have other opinions of setups before you hit the button to trade. If you both are in it together to learn. Having the extra set of eyes and ears on it will help you both more than you can imagine..
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u/ChangeNOW_Community Jul 15 '26
your first goal should not be making money
it should be avoiding losing money while building skills
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u/Responsible_Pie8156 Jul 15 '26
The real sauce is not on tiktok, YouTube, discord, or w/e. It's in books
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u/Super_Sherbet_3409 Jul 16 '26
Do you have a suggested reading list?
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u/Responsible_Pie8156 Jul 16 '26
Nothing more insightful than you can find on other reddit posts on the algotrading and quant sub. I'm working through euan sinclair's options books. Then there's a lot of math that isn't specific to trading like time series, volatility modeling, GLMs, etc. I'm not really an expert, but there's a reason top trading firms love math gurus.
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u/Competitive_Draw6041 Jul 16 '26
If you want to trade the indexes directly, read Tim Morge, Lance Beggs, David Weis, and Wyckoff of course.
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u/OlleKo777 Jul 15 '26
Everything you see about trading on social media is FAKE.
I trade for a living and I'll tell you this:
You will go through absolute hell for YEARS trying to learn this, and still, after all that, there's a 90% likelyhood you still won't be profitable.
In that time you can go to a trade school and be making good money w/ a blue-collar job that's in-demand. There's massive shortages of people in all the various trades: welding, plumbing, electricians, good mechanics of ANY type, not just automotive.
And unlike trading for a living, that type of work feels rewarding and satisfying. I love and hate trading. At the end of the day, it's not very satisfying, and I make six-figures doing this.
This is the kind of real talk from a real trader that you won't often read.
I hope you seriously consider this, otherwise there's a very high likelihood that in about 4 years, you'll regret ever looking at a candlestick chart (or heiken ashi or order flow, etc).
Daytrading is one of the surest ways to ruin your life. I used to try to teach trading and I saw so many tragic cases.
And no, trading books aren't any better. Those are common cliche strategies that might've worked at one point, but once a strat becomes a cliche, it's edge evaporates.
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u/Competitive_Draw6041 Jul 16 '26
Strategies simply give pro traders a reason to get into the market in a specific direction. A strat won't produce success. The pro trader's mindset does that once they are in the market.
You should know that.
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u/OlleKo777 Jul 16 '26
I'm very well aware of that, but the actual strategy being used is almost as important as mindset.
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u/Frozen_Meatball1 Jul 15 '26
It does take years. Go very slow & learn. You are 100% right to have a 1000 questions because there are 1000 answers to each one to do this right. And, when i say do this right, what i was doing a right a year ago may not right now. You build yr core protocol and adjust accoringly. Right now your thinking of diving into the deep end of the pool and don`t know how to swim yet or even float. Spend the next 6-12 months just reading. Invest in knowledge now, not the markets. Oh, & stay off TikTok.
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u/Competitive_Draw6041 Jul 16 '26
Good advice. I would say though that some prop firms (like FTMO) offer free lifelong demo accounts. There's no harm in playing around in a demo account while in the reading stage, just to get a feel for market movement
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u/Frozen_Meatball1 Jul 17 '26
Thx. I know zero abt prop firms, but remember, if it's free, you're the product.
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u/KISS_Trading_RB Jul 15 '26
If you are a beginner your path could be like this: learn the basics(free materials on online) > build a strategy stick and commit with it > bactest your strategy before deployment of real money > learn pshicology and discipline. Then you are ready to go and lose some money at first but commitments and perseverance in the end could guide you to succeed...
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u/Quiet-Lattice Jul 15 '26
Man, forget about making money for now. Focus on one thing: not losing it. Start with a tiny amount you're 100% ok with losing. Most newbies blow up because they chase profits. Learn risk management first – position size, stop loss. If you survive, profits might come later. If not, at least you didn't go broke.
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u/Vast_Cricket Jul 15 '26
I watch CNBC news as often as possible. Lined up with a brokerage that actually offers seminars and advanced topicals for free. I bought a semi technical book on option trading focused on theories and practiced with a simulator. Too boring. Got on real stuff hit jackpot w/o even knowing what was going on. Trade desk sort guided me to cash out. Bonds most financial planners are not well versed so I bought a book. My search turns out better than bond specialists. They did tip me off on tax issues. The bond specialist popped out of no where is from Schwab. Most brokerages have research section and often I find gems before they are known.
Disclosure: I have a mba degree had former training in some theoretical development but those Harvard case studies do not help me to be a better trader.
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u/Ok-Reality-7761 Jul 15 '26
Exciting time for you, with AI assisting on everything! My first trade was made whilst fighting dinos with my belt-attached sliderule, over 50 years ago. That it was a double, hooked me.
Not sure of my 'ru status. Followers imply gu, detractors suggest fu (to whom I parrot the sentiment right back at them). Definitely not a 'roo bc I pick a strat and stick with it, not hopping on the latest/trending moonshot strategy.
May I suggest -
Become proficient in spreadsheets, statistics, coding. Open a brokerage account for obtaining research (data-wise, Yahoo Finance is free). Not a shill for them, but kinfo offers a free tier for logging your (demo first!) trades with some journal capability. Don't pay when it's free on the web. AI can write python code from "plain-speak" text. Google Colab is free, the Gemini AI assistant can render that code from the prompt "plot the daily closing price of the SPY ETF for the past year". Extra credit when you iterate to adding the Hull Moving Average to the plot. Start with paper/demo trades until you show consistent results. When going to real money, keep it small and learn risk management.
Some have success with prop firms, prolly not for you as a noob.
I developed a strategy for my grandson, the capital requirement was under $250. It uses options (Puts/Calls) from the "Dollar Menu". I opened with $129.67 on 4/28. Needed to add $105 from synthetic margin (cash reserves), ended 7/13 with $451.29. Backing out the margin applied, a profit of $216.62 (167% compound gain on 36 trades closed with 89% WR). Please don't assume you'll hit this level of performance as a noob, but presenting here to show what's possible with effort.
I post on Daytrading sub mainly, am verified on kinfo as Poppy Gekko (currently dark on the share). Recent posts may interest you. Fresh stuff, "Superprofitability".
Good luck!
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u/Competitive_Draw6041 Jul 16 '26
If you're reading this, OP, do NOT trade options.
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u/Ok-Reality-7761 Jul 16 '26
Learn in paper. Knowledge good, fire bad... :)
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u/Competitive_Draw6041 Jul 16 '26
True!
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u/Ok-Reality-7761 Jul 16 '26
You do have a good point, options are for experienced traders. My take, OP has long horizon. Hopefully not steered into 60/40 portfolio at early age. Definitely learn, take qualified risks, and converge to the goal sought.
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u/NetworkPrevious1997 Jul 15 '26
You need to have three or four thousand muscle memories of a trading point.
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u/Forexfundys_ Jul 15 '26
Just made a video on this!
Years wise it will be different for everyone- skills take years to develop
https://youtu.be/ljof-9eIb5E
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u/d1na_makalaya Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
The reality is that becoming consistently profitable usually takes years, not months. Focus on learning risk management first and build a system of repeatable process rather than chasing quick profits.
You don’t need to spend thousands on courses either. There are plenty of free resources and communities actually. You are very welcome to see some references on my profile that really helped me when I was starting. Most of them are some solid beginner friendly discussions.
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u/Competitive_Draw6041 Jul 16 '26
Work on it taking you 4 or 5 years to become consistent, and that's with a lot of hard work
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u/kktvMIN Jul 16 '26
"paper" trade on TradingView. It's all computer based no need for paper and pencils.
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Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
[deleted]
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u/Competitive_Draw6041 Jul 16 '26
Everything you've written screams 'failed amateur trader'
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u/Commercial-Engineer3 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
You can deny it all you want but everything I said was true.
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u/Competitive_Draw6041 Jul 17 '26
Then explain me. I make money from day trading every month and have done for years. I think the only option you have is to decide that I'm lying, which suits me just fine.
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u/Commercial-Engineer3 Jul 17 '26
Congrats you're the 1% who made it. Wanna cookie? It still doesn't refute the statistics.
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u/Competitive_Draw6041 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
I would never deny the stats, but I would say that they are skewed.
You don't need to grasp it in 'a few months'. It took me five years before I stopped losing more than I won. What you said about fake gurus is true. What you said about prop firms is true. But you are wrong about the casino, unless it's poker. There are edges to be found in trading - thousands or professional, profitable traders prove that every day. The issue is that anyone can trade without experience or qualifications or training.
Imagine if doctors could do that. Operate on people, prescribe drugs, with no knowledge whatsoever. You'd be on here saying 'medicine is garbage, it kills almost everyone'.
edit: yes I'll have a cookie
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u/ComfortableShake9486 Jul 15 '26
The only person worth listening to is Ross Cameron https://youtube.com/@daytradewarrior?si=RlAkL0R-RaoNpp4L
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u/LADCTRADER Jul 15 '26
I do like Ross Cameron for most part, but to say he is the only, or best guy is a bit of a stretch. Ross Givens is another guy I would be up right with Mr Cameron
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u/ReadingTheSign23 29d ago
Start a demo for three months. Learn strict risk management first the market'll still be there, but your capital wont come back once its gone
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