This definitely is the roomer out there. I look at it this way. Trading of any sort can be dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. I recommend that if you’re going to trade options to sink some serious time and study into it before you invest any of your hard earned money. I would say that most successful traders don’t begin to consider themselves profitable until at least a year or two into their education. And these folks didn’t just sign out some books at the library. They likely had a personal coach or mentor or paid for formal education…for example, I recently completed my PhD level of trading through a company called Investools.
Then, a successful trader will study, conduct research on-line reading articles and even blogs like this one. Someone serious about trading is probably always carrying around a good book and the beginner will be trading with a paper trading account. Some brokers have a tool on their web site where you can trade just like it’s real but use fake money so to speak. That would be a paper trading account. For example you can open up a fake $100,000.00 account and trade away. You’ll soon see whether or not your skills will keep you in the green.
I would say that once you begin to make a few profits or even break even over a period of time that it’s ok to throw some real bucks into the hat of a real brokerage account.
Finally, the successful trader will be very disciplined in the area of money management. For example, this $100,000.00 you have, you would never risk more than 5% of your account on any one trade. In fact, I think most traders keep this down to 1-2% risked on any one trade. This keeps you from wiping out your account in a short period of time. If you begin to lose too quickly in your real account you can take a break and go back to the paper account for a while.
If you have any specific questions about the dangers of trading options feel free to send me an email and I’ll do the best I can to get you headed in the right direction.
One final note about the danger. Life is full of people who point out the danger or negative in life. It’s usually the people who go for it that become significant and the others just keep talking about it. So with that said I encourage you to go for it. Just move slow and smart. If you believe in yourself you’ll eventually come out on top. Keep getting your advice from those who believe in you and stay away from the negative finders.
Best wishes.
Rich Strehl is a self made success story who jumped in feet first into stock market education. A year and a half ago he did not even know what the Dow Jones Industrial Average was. Today he trades full time in the market. Strehl claims most of his success comes from a positive attitude, persistence and a solid goals program. A belief in oneself is paramount in succeeding in life. Believe in yourself and you can do anything you can vision… journey without this key ingredient and you simply self yourself short.
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