Day two ...

Again .. nothing too exciting.

I learned about a few of the different strategies the trading company teaches in order to make money. In the coming days, I am going to have to decide whether I want to trade as a scalper or as a position trader.

A scalper is someone who is in a trade any where from 15 seconds to 15 minutes. They are able to discover imbalances and capitalize on them in the short term. From hearing the instructor speak about this, the majority of the traders at the company are scalpers. There is relatively little risk involved and you can do it all day long. Get in ... get out ... get in ... get out. For those people who are very risk averse, this is the type of trading they perform. It is mainly speed in pattern recognition and execution of the trade.

A position trader is one who looks at intraday technical charts, looks for support and resistance on the charts, and trades accordingly. A position trader will have anywhere from 30 to 70 open positions at a time and will have to stomach through some very difficult situation when a trade goes against him/her. A postion trader always has to allow for a little wiggle room, so there is a lot more subjectivity in decisions than with a scalper.

Honestly, I haven't decided yet which way I am leaning. I think I would enjoy the position trading more, but initially, I think I would be more successful as a scalper. Regardless, I will have time to try both "styles" out and see which will work the best for me.

I got to paper trade using the software and a fake account the last hour today as well. I ended up down about $60, but two of those trades I pressed the wrong button and shorted the stock instead of buying long (or vice versa). Doh! I held onto both of them just to see what would have happened. Both went against me pretty hard right from the start. All in all, it was pretty fun and it was great to learn the software by using it. I made sure I used as many of the different features of the software as they taught the past two days in class, as well. I still have a loooong ways to go! Like the instructor says, it is like being told to fly a 747 with barely any training. I definitely feel that way at times, and time is the only thing that can help with that.