Day Trading: Go It Alone Or Pay For A Trading System
There is certainly no shortage of vendors on the Internet
, each hawking day trading systems that cost more than $5000, some as much as $10,000. With a price tag that high, it is tempting to try your own hand at day trading and see how it comes out. Unfortunately, the results are generally the same for novice day traders who go it alone; complete and utter failure.Then again, you could take a year or so and read every available text on day trading and then put together a system, back test it, trade it on a demo, and see if it works. Crazy as it sounds, I have done this on several occasions with day trading systems I have designed. It is a lot of work, but you get to know an awful lot about the ins and outs of day trading systems and the computer programming that goes into a day trading system.
So you are left with two very challenging approaches to day trading; you can spend a ton of cash on one or more day trading systems and eventually find one that suits your needs; or you can spend a ton of time monkeying with oscillators and indicators and price action, find a program that can back test the system design and see if it works. If your day trading system doesn't work, it's back to the drawing board. Neither one of the choices sounds very enticing, nor is either choice glamorous. They both entail a lot of hard work and money.
There are several skills that must be mastered in order to become a successful and profitable day trader. I would place your trading system near the top of the list of important items to learn. Of course, there are other very important skills that go into it day trading; like money management, psychological and emotional control, and mastering the software you will use to trade futures contracts. But you must have a system for trading, and the system must work, and you must feel comfortable and confident when you trade the system. It is nearly impossible to day trade successfully when you do not trust your trading system methodology.
There are several systems which are successful and reliable that are free for the asking on the Internet. One in particular is especially good. (Due to conflicts of interest and article marketing rules I won't be able to name the specific system, but it shouldn't be hard to find because it is very popular) The problem with overly popular systems is the herd mentality of the followers of the system. Often times, followers of these popular trading methodologies tend to pile into trades at an alarming rate and volume due to the sheer popularity of the system itself. No, my personality does not allow me to be part of a herd mentality system of trading.
So when choosing a system a day trader needs to be mindful of exactly what day trading methodology is being employed. A casual perusal of the available day trading systems will bring to light a number of different styles of trading. If it were me, I would trade a system that has gotten favorable reviews on the chat boards and is within the mainstream of current day trading methodology. I should warn you, there are a number of odd day trading system designers out there and they promote systems that truly border on the bizarre. For instance, one very famous technical trader is currently promoting a system based upon astrology. There are other systems based on biorhythms, the weather, and just about any other odd occurrence you might be able to dream up. As I said at the beginning of this paragraph, stick with a system that is in the mainstream of day trading thinking and master that system. You should know your trading system top to bottom, inside and out; you need to be able to execute your system without thinking, it should be second nature.
I did mention earlier that you could self-education yourself and design your own trading system. I don't seriously recommend this option, because you are likely to burn through several trading accounts before you settle on a system that truly works for you. In short, self educating your self is generally a very expensive proposition. On the other hand, you will know much more about day trading systems than the average trader. I designed several systems after I had settled on a system I learned at a major investment brokerage house. I do believe that working with some of my own trading ideas was a great idea, as it gave me some real insight into how systems for day trading are designed and implemented.
In short, you have two options from which to choose and I highly recommend investing in a trading system and mastering the system. I also recommended that the system that you settle on is within the mainstream of day trading methodology and comes with some favorable recommendations from third-party sources.
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