Tuition costs

Well, I paid some more towards my tuition today. $50 to be exact. Losing is getting kind of old, but as I was talking late this afternoon to the guy who sits next to me, he said "get used to it." He has been there since October. He said he didn't have a clue for his first two months. He started doing better his third month. I know he has had a couple of $1000 days while I have been there, but today he finished down the same as me ... $50. I don't know if he has become profitable yet or if he is still paying back for months of fees, etc. He seems to be well on his way though, so I am going to try to keep learning from him.

I got to try out my new ticker today. My very first trade with it, I made $90. I thought ... Wow, this is going to be easy. Every trade from it after that was a loser. I think I am on to something but I need to refine my entry criteria. The only way I can do that is to come home in the evenings and run back tests on the day's data and modify the parameters. However, in order to do this, I need the market data, and I ran into a bit of a roadblock with that today.

One thing I am really bummed out about is the fact that I am now considered a "Professional" by brokerages I have accounts with. Let me tell you ... this sucks! What this means is I now have to pay professional fees for market data if I want to do any back testing or personal trading on my own time. What is the cost difference you might ask?
Non-Professional: $10/month
Professional: $200/month
So, I closed my account with one broker this evening. I may have to do the same with another one tomorrow. I have to say this is the first real negative of the whole job switch. I wish someone would have mentioned this before hand ... one of those hidden little details.

I don't know what I am going to do yet, but I am not paying $200/month for the same data I was getting for $10/month. A bunch of crap if you ask me. Now if I was making money regularly, I could see it, but I am starving here .... cut me some slack. Stupid SEC rules!

Travelling to Atlanta for volleyball tomorrow and Friday, so I will be taking a break from trading, but not from reading. I am still going to be reading, researching, and learning as much as I can while on the trip. I hope everyone has a great weekend and I will be back on Monday to begin Week #5. Man ... time is flying!