Young Blood Seeking Advice

Welcome Lockstock23,

I just want to point out this is only my belief, and not a reflection of anyone else out there, as we all trade differently based on our risk profiles, products used, goals/outcomes of our trades, and most importantly time horizon. Some seek capital return, others yield, others may want to hold for 24 hours, and others more than 10 years. You as an individual need to determine what you want out of your trading, establish your risk profile, and most importantly, trade accordingly. Only after establishing you’re your risk tolerances, will you be able to determine an expected relative return value. So "Consistently making good returns" is a little skewed if you catch my drift.

The second thing to note, risk and return are highly correlated, so the greater the risk, the greater the expected return. So determining your equilibrium point, allows you to optimize return for a set level of risk.

My advice to you (I’m no professional either btw), is to determine your risk profile, and research investment strategies that best suit you (not what others have told you). Identify the strategies that will give you the best downward protection, yet maximising return over your investment horizon. Once you have found these, study them, know them, and paper trade on historical information (if it’s a buy and hold strategy) or monitor the market if it’s more short term. Screen time, in my eyes, is very important, as you will learn with time what the market is thinking, and expecting, which can provide opportunities for an individual. By looking at alternative markets, such as bonds and currencies, you can obtain an insight to how the market perceives a country to be doing, and if you invest in other countries, allows for carry trades to occur providing greater return. Finally, I believe this is the most important thing, as an investor you need to be psychologically ready, otherwise your probability of failing is significantly higher. There are a large amount of books out there on this, so have a solid look through. This will be paramount to your success I believe. Some authors for this are Mark Douglas and Alexander Elder

So overall I haven't told you what I trade, what hasn't or has worked for me, BUT I hope I gave you some concepts to take away, and further your research. Be open minded about all strategies. Ohh and never get to greedy. Best of luck in your research and future trading!

DW101