New to Trading?

Getting started in trading can feel overwhelming—tickers, charts, broker APIs, margin, Greeks… Where do you even begin? Here are a few steps to help you get on your feet:

1. Learn the basics

   • Understand what stocks and ETFs are
   • Learn order types (market vs limit vs stop)
   • Get familiar with margin and buying power
   • Go to the resources and look at the books/courses for python and trading.

2. Open a practice account

   • Many brokers offer paper‑trading or simulator modes. Look at the resources/brokers page.
   • Try placing dummy orders to build confidence. This is very important.

3. Pick a simple strategy

   • Start with basic trend‑following or mean‑reversion
   • Most of the big funds use very basic strategies - dont try to overcomplicate your strategies
   • Backtest historical data before risking real capital
   • Do not overfit the data. Overfitting and cherry-picking timeframes is a common mistake.

4. Manage your risk

   • Never risk more than 1–2% of your account on a single trade
   • Use stop‑loss orders and position sizing rules
   • Remember you do not want to lose your account and have not capital left to trade in the future.

5. Automate and iterate

   • Learn a bit of Python and use a broker API (e.g. Alpaca, Interactive Brokers, Oanda)
   • Build scripts to fetch price data, calculate signals, and submit orders
   • Log every trade and review your P&L to refine your approach

6. Be patient and persistent

   • Never give up. If you’re not making progress, don’t give up. Many times I run into issues and with a bit of patience, I’m able to solve them.

7. Never stop learning

   • Take your time, build your playbook, and never stop learning. Happy trading!