How to Start Trading

The Definitive Guide to the Best Trading Tools

Updated Nov 15th, 2020

Are you looking for a free, easy, step-by-step guide on how to Start Trading ?

This Definitive Guide will show you how to get started and become a profitable trader, all in a step-by-step tutorial (with pictures and videos).

You’re looking for a side income, you’d love to quit your day job. Or maybe you need to invest for retirement … but you have no clue where to start. You’re overwhelmed.

Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned trader, I’m sure you find it difficult to choose a strategy, or pick the best stocks or forex pairs.

You need the best free charting software, a good broker with low costs and a great platform, but there’s just so much to choose from….

You’ve watched youtube videos, read blogs, seen countless websites, downloaded ebooks, but you’re lost, you just don’t know where to start.

I’ve been there.

My name is John Treadle, I’ve been a trader for over 15 years, now making a consistent income from my trading strategies.

I’ll share with you what has or hasn’t worked for me over the years and the best tools I’ve come across.

Hopefully I can fast track your learning curve.

This free guide will take you step-by-step and provide you with all the tips to start trading and grow as a trader.

You don’t have to go searching hundreds of websites, it’s all here, made simple.

If you’re ready to start the simple step-by-step tutorial, you can Click here to go to Step 1 directly, or keep reading if you really don’t know where to start.

Start by learning what trading really is

In short, trading is the act of profiting from the Financial Markets.

In its most basic form, you buy financial assets (stocks, currency pairs, bonds, indexes, cryptocurrencies,..) at a certain price and hope to sell them at a higher price and pocket the difference.

To do that, you have to open a trading account with a broker, usually online.

Your brokerage account is like a separate bank account, so opening a broker account is just like opening a new bank account.

You will have to make a bank transfer of the sum of money you want to invest in that brokerage account and that money will be used to buy and sell assets.

At any given time, your broker will then tell you what is your cash balance and the value of your invested sums.

Know the difference between Trading and Investing

Trading and Investing can seem quite similar, but there are actually differences.

The main one is the time horizon. An investor will usually buy and hold assets over an extended period of time. A trader will have more frequent operations and could just as well buy or sell assets.

But another difference is your market participation, meaning the way you intervene in the market.

Some forms of trading are extremely active, like Day Trading (getting in and out of your positions within the same day).

Scalping is even more extreme, with trades that last only a few seconds or minutes, multiple times a day. I’ll dig into Scalping a little further along.

Decide if you prefer to be a long or short trader (or both)

As a trader, your aim will be to buy an asset hoping its price will rise (that’s called going long).

But you could also borrow it, sell it and buy it back hoping its price will drop (what we call going short).

Going short is a counter intuitive way of trading and cannot be done on all assets. It’s also extremely regulated, because losses can be unlimited.

For example, if you go short on a stock worth $100, your losses will accumulate if the price of that stock goes up.

Therefore there is no limit to your potential losses.

However, if you go long that same $100 stock, the maximum you can loose is that $100, so that’s a big difference.

You now understand why speculating on the decline of an asset is quite an advanced strategy, and should only be undertaken by experienced traders.

Going LONG	Going SHORT
Means Buying a Stock	Means Selling a Stock
Unlimited Gains (Stock goes up)	Limited Gains (Stock goes to zero)
Limited Losses (Stock goes to zero)	Unlimited Losses (Stock goes up)

If you’re interested in short trading, then I can tell you some traders are making a killing out of it.

Check out Alex Temiz on Twitter, he’s a fantastic short trader.

Some stocks are also the most shorted due to their volatility and liquidity, Tesla (TSLA) being one of them.

I have an article if you want to learn how to profit from a Stock Market crash, something that has proved quite useful in these testing Covid times…

Make a decision: is trading for you ?

OK, so the first question you have to ask yourself: is trading for me?

Starting to trade can feel a bit overwhelming and quite intimidating. Most of the time you won’t know where to start.

The questions you should ask yourself:

• Am I capable of being a good trader?
• Should I start trading Forex ? or Stocks ?
• Where can I learn, do I need a course?
• Can I start trading with just 100$ ?
• What are the risks? Can I loose all my funds?
• What about cryptocurrencies ?

All of these questions are very valid, and I’m going to answer them in this Guide.

But also keep in mind that you won’t really know if trading is for you unless you give it a try. As Ingvar Kamprad, founder of Ikea, famously said: “Only those who are asleep make no mistake”

How much money do you need to Start Trading ?

Such an important question. I’ll cover this in a lot of detail in Step 1, but if you’re going to try trading and have no experience at all, you have to be very careful with your funds.

Rule #1 : don’t commit too much money upfront if you’re a newbie.

Just set aside a small amount from your salary, or your savings, and give it a try.

There’s one rule to judge whether you’ve chosen the adequate amount to start trading:

You have to be comfortable with the idea of loosing 100% of that amount

If you’re not comfortable, then it means the amount’s too high. Reduce it.

For some people, it will be 1% of their savings, for others it will be 10%, that depends on your appetite for risk and your funds.

You can start trading with as low as $100, many Robo-advisors will allow you to open an account for such an amount.

Step 1 of this guide will help you define your startup funds depending on your goals and time horizon.

Before you start trading, make a commitment

Do yourself a favor. Don’t try trading just for fun. Do it seriously, I mean really. Commit.

It takes a lot of hard work, and discipline, but it can be hugely rewarding. Don’t just gamble all your money in one go, take it step-by-step, methodically, this is what works.

There’s a book considered to be a bible among traders covering all the psychological aspects, it’s called Trading in the Zone, by Mark Douglas.

Douglas uncovers the underlying reasons for lack of consistency and helps traders overcome the ingrained mental habits that cost them money.

In short, to be successful in trading, you will need two things above all else : passion and discipline.

But why go through all that trouble ?

Good to know: trading could be hugely rewarding

Depending on how successful you’ll be, the upsides of trading can be pretty life changing:

• Generating a side income on top of your salary;
• Setting aside some funds for retirement;
• You may even quit your day job if you manage to be consistent.

The great news is that there are so many tools available to aspiring traders, you can really get started with little or no money spent on courses, strategies, etc… and this step-by-step Guide is here to do just that.

If you want to learn more about the most successful traders, I have several resources for you:

• The Great Big Success Page: all the best traders ever, with links to their strategies, net worth, etc…
• 17 successful Forex Traders you can Emulate: follow the best Forex traders

Ok now, let’s get to it: how do you start trading ?

We’ll take it in 7 easy steps.

Here are the 7 simple steps you should take to start trading

Learn how to Trade and use the Best Trading Tools following these 7 Simple Steps:

1. Define Your Goals
2. Choose a Market to Trade
3. Consider Robo-Advisors
4. Learn Trading (12 easy tips)
5. Find a Broker and Demo Trade
6. Use Free Stock Chart Websites
7. Find Profitable Trading Strategies

Now let’s get going with Step 1: defining your real goals. What do you expect from trading?

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Roundup video : How to Start Trading in 2020

Here’s a short video summarizing what we learnt