Greetings from Germany

[ataocarujr]

Hi there, some 39 y.o. software engineer here. I'm completely new to trading and financial word in general. A friend made me curious about trading futures, and since I'm somewhat fed up with my current job and my perspectives as software engineer I thought I give it a try. I put my other hobbys at rest anyway so free time shouldn't be that a problem now.
Reading the posts on this forum is quite a difficult task for me, so many new abbreviations and terms to learn, I feel completely lost at the moment but I wont give up easily and I found a good friend called investopedia
Right now I have a Ninjatrader licence and some money at dorman. My plan is to become elite member here and buy a Ninjatrader lifetime license, simply to have that covered.
I like the idea of automated trading and hopefully programming Ninjatrader should be the easier thing to learn for me. From what I read here so far its important to focus on one instrument and since ES is mentioned often I think its going to be my choice. I hope to learn about indicators soon since I often see screenshots discussed here and I'm far from understanding whats going on there, I hardly recognice the indicator, not to speak of interpreting it. I've read about money management, risk management, business plans, trading journals ... and I wonder what that all is worth as long as I don't have the slightest clue of predicting a trend as it seems completely random to me. I guess thats the magic and everything comes down to this. I'm thankful for any hints and comments and maybe someone has a good Do & Don'ts for trading noobs

[ateyeteifiq]

A few hints

- don't invest real money until you can prove to yourself that you can win on the sim, ninjatrader has a great feature called SIM, you can just follow real-time price and 'practice' yourself, but not wining/losing real money. if you can make money during a period of at least a month, then you can give it a try.
- I read in your intro, 'predict' the future. I would suggest concentrating on following the trend, that is already hard enough. If you see the price action going in a certain way with certain dynamics, the odds are better that it will continue for a bit, than trying to predict what the price will do.
- don't invest it too much commercial miracles or trading rooms or other. once you are a elite member on futures.io (formerly BMT), you have access to the equivalent of thousands of euro commercial things, for free and with more documentation and explanation how to deal with it.
- read, read, read, there are many very good books.
- know that there is more than IT to trading, a big element in the equation is 'psychology', at least if you do discretionary trading, if you do full computer (strategy) trading, the that's less of a topic, but if your strategy loses money for 1, 2, 3, 4 days in a row what will you do ?
- trading is serious business. you need to do it professional with a lot of discipline.

hang around on futures.io (formerly BMT) and read what people write, say and explain
don't rush into trading, take your time.

I would say, good luck and happy trading !

[atucagugebe]

First of all, Welcome to futures.io (formerly BMT) and good luck with your just beginning journey !

Well, and besides all the useful things which @rleplae already stated, it's always a good idea to approach the markets by trading in SIM mode ONLY and taking the time needed to study only ONE instrument until you are familiar with its behavior.

I highly recommend to read this thread as well: https://futures.io/elite-circle/1112...-question.html

In addition, take a look here and don't hesitate to ask any question in the German language section of futures.io (formerly BMT): https://futures.io/german-traders/

Oh, and before I forget...becoming an Elite Member is definitely one of the best investments you'll ever make.

[atqnadajga]

Feel free to ask whatever botheres / puzzles you - someone usually knows an answer.
I too highly recommend becoming elite! About 80% or more of my personal activity on futures.io (formerly BMT) takes place in the elite section (partly cause I got my own Journal there)

Which leads me to my second recommendation: Make a Journal about your trading development. And be as open and honest as possible with it. That really can steepen your learning curve by a lot imo.

All the best

[Augusttela]

I agree with everything that has been said.

- By all means, become an elite member. There is a wealth of material available in the elite section, and many people who are willing to help. (Including relating to software.)

- Learn everything you can, and remember that you have to find your own way. No one will ever trade exactly the same way as anyone else, even if they are trying to. What matters is how you see the opportunities of the markets.

- As soon as you have the confidence, try out the simulated trading in NinjaTrader. Do not risk actual money until you have given yourself a chance to learn; money can vanish very quickly in trading.

- As was suggested, it helps to start a trading journal and record your progress, even if it's learning and asking questions and not trading. People will be happy to help you here.

Good luck and welcome.