1)      The first step you must take is to get educated on e-minis. There are courses out there that will teach you pretty much everything you need to know to make business profitable. Education is the number one thing I stress to all beginning traders.

2)      Create a plan. This is just a basic plan of stuff like how much time you will spend trading, learning, etc. Make sure your plan is clear and you stick to it.

3)      Trading Psychology. This is a big one that can really change the direction of your profits and your health. When you start trading you must have a clear head so that you can think straight and make wise choices. If you go in stressed out and unable to think clearly then you will start making bad choices and eventually lose money. Also, in the long run you may have health problems due to the stress if you’re unable to control it.

4)      Download your trading platform, which is where you will be trading from. Commence to paper trading, follow your rules, and do this until you get the hang of it. Paper trading is where you place trades without real money.

5)      Continue with your education and keep using the simulation account to do your paper trades. Keep track of all your profits, losses, etc. When you feel like you’re ready to enter the live market, start slowly and keep building. If you feel too uncomfortable and find yourself hesitating too much, go back to paper trading and practice more. Don’t risk it if you’re not ready.

6)      Keep building up your confidence and experience. Never stop learning or taking advice from more experienced traders. Stay positive and good luck.

If you’ve been trading for a few years now, you may have gone through a time where you felt like you were constantly fighting the market and couldn’t see any consistency in your trading.  In my opinion, you can’t learn this business over night. It can take weeks, months, or years to see daily income in your trading.  Fortunately, there are many great resources for learning how to trade.

I get asked this question almost every week: “Is Emini Trading for me?” Trading is not for everyone, but for those of you who have the commitment and dedication to trade, I believe you can succeed. It’s very important to be a well rounded person who is ready to become financially independent and eager to learn. From personal experience, Emini Trading is a great way to boost your confidence. Investing in someone’s Emini Trading Course is a great tool that could make you a successful trader. Nothing makes you feel like a million bucks like conquering your toughest goals. Also, you have to learn to keep yourself accountable and hold extremely high expectations of yourself. Always keeping a positive mental state is very important as well.

After attending a webinar recently, I can’t tell you if they are technical traders or if they trade news.   The presenter explained that they use a few lines, but trade on fundamental analysis.  Needless to say, it was quite confusing.  She bashed her competitors quite a bit, then explained how she could not give us a way to manage our risk.  From what I understand, that’s something “we have to work out on our own”.

They seem to have another person who’s a successful trader that teaches their students.  Apparently, she made so much money one day that the CME called her broker to see what she was doing.  No matter what day trading course you choose to take, you should have all the facts before investing in the program.  Make sure the type of trading fits your comfort level.  Even if the ShadowTraders course works for them, you still need to make sure that it can work for you.

I recommend searching for a reputable trading education company on Investimonials.  They provide unbiased, honest trading reviews on everything from brokers to newsletters.  This is just another great tool when doing your due diligence in searching for a trading training resource.

Their typical pitch is to get you to come to a free hotel seminar to learn some “secrets” of the stock market.  Then, they usually pitch a 2-day seminar for $2,000 – $3,000.  From what I’m told, they’ll try and upgrade you to a higher end trading course that goes for $4,000-$6,000.

There has been both positive and negative feedback online about this company.  The most important thing when deciding if you should invest in BetterTrades or any other trading system is to make sure you do your due diligence.  Make sure whoever you’re learning from actually trades and has a proven track record.

So, my Better Trades Review gets a B- for having good education material, but only having mediocre feedback from their students.  Make sure you enroll in a day trading education program that is comfortable for you.

Chances are you have received a “special invitation” to visit one of their locations for a free trading seminar, or maybe you saw an informerical on television advertising their Pro Trader Course.

The Online Trading Academy has been in business since 1997 and claims to teach people how to trade the stock, futures, options, and forex markets.  However, there has been a lot of controversy around the level of education they provide, and if they really do deliver on what they promise.

The Good:

- They offer on-location training with an instructor available to answer questions.

- They cover a lot of good educational material in their Pro Trader Course

- They seem to have a relatively good reputation online

The Bad:

- Their courses are relatively expensive for the level of education they provide.  From what we’ve been told, much of their course material can be purchased in any day trading 101 book.

- After their 7 day class, there is little to no follow up education unless you enroll in their $10,000 interactive training room.

We recommend investing in education with unlimited support and follow up from a trading academy that will not try and up sell you after you buy their basic packages.  Some traders have told us they’ve spent anywhere from $10,000-$20,00o with the Online Trading Academy.

You should really do your homework when trying to determine if there is an Online Trading Academy Scam or not.

There are many Day Trading Tactics available for you to choose from when looking to make money in the stock market.  You can opt to trade an automated trading strategy, or decide to use a disctretionary trading strategy.

It doesn’t matter which route you choose to go.  Professional e-mini day trader, Chris Dunn said, ” The most important thing is that you choose a day trading tactic that fits your personality, time frame available for investing, and risk tolerance.  If you try and trade at a pace that’s too fast, like scalping, then you will likely get overwhelmed and not trade the right way.  On the other hand, if you are swing trading, but like to have a lot of action, you may end up getting bored and taking trades out of boredom.”

So, when deciding on which strategy is best, make sure you do your due diligence.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of scams out there.  You need to make sure you work with a trading education company who has a solid reputation and works personally with their students.

One popular methodology is a “trend trading” method, which relies on capitalizing on pullbacks in price during a trending market.  This is a very high probability way to trade, because you already have an established trend (direction) in your favor.

There are also systems that focus on break-outs, range bound markets, and reversals in price.  More importantly than the technical aspect of trading, is your risk management plan.  If you have a nice technical tactic, but you can’t manage risk, then you will most definitely lose money.

There are hundreds of books, courses, dvds, and programs on learning how to trade.  It’s best to make sure you learn from someone who actually trades, like Chris Dunn from the Emini Academy.

Is there a Pristine Trading Scam?

Is there an Pristine Trading Scam going on or are they a legitimate professional training program?

When determining a legitimate trading training program, you need to do your due diligence.

This is an online trading academy that certainly offers many different avenues of training.

The key is finding a method and training that suits you. They have several options which may be a bit overwhelming.

If you are considering Pristine Trading, really look into what they are actually teaching and make sure it suits you.

The general consensus about this company is that they are way to commercialized.

In your search for training you may want to look for an actual trader or traders that also train people to day trade. An example would be Chris Dunn from Emini Academy or others like him.

Again, really do your homework. The type of training you select will determine whether you succeed or fail. It is just that important.

But this is a decision you will have to make for yourself.

Most agree that it is usually best to get personalized training from an actual trader or traders.

There are many trading software applications that allow traders to sim trade. Here are a few of our winners:

1. TradeStation – The top execution package we’ve seen, but the execution isn’t very “real”. If the market reaches your price, then it will fill you right away. As you may know, your limit order goes behind all the current orders at a certain level. It’s feasible that the real market could touch your price a few times before getting filled.

2. NinjaTrader- This is our favorite! Their trading dom (or price matrix) is user friendly and gives very real executions. You also have the option to trade from the live chart using “chart trader”. They also have market replay where you can practice trade any time as if it were the live market.

There are some companies who sell unprofitable trading systems, or teach people general theory and information that they can use to get themselves into big financial trouble.  Most people in the financial markets lose money, and all of these day trading scams are partial to blame.

How can you detect if you’re dealing with a scam?

First, ask the person who’s offering to teach you to trade, or trade for you, if he trades the strategy the company sells and teaches.  If he doesn’t, then chances are they’re not making money in the markets and just looking to prey on new day traders.

Education companies like EminiAcademy.com, and others like them, will answer any questions you have about trading and getting into the business. They have an excellent support staff and reputation.  Why would you want to learn from someone who doesn’t have a solid reputation or who hide behind fake names and phone numbers?

Also, make sure to look out for unrealistic claims and hype.  If someone is telling you that you can earn huge profits overnight without doing any work, then run away!  People who try to lure you in with false claims and empty promises often don’t have your best interests in mind.

If you want to avoid getting ripped of by a scam, then do your due diligence by asking questions and getting help from an ethical company.

Click here for more information about the Emini Academy.

So how do you know which to use?  From my experience, most automated trading software packages are complete garbage.  Many of these systems are over-optimized for past performance, but that doesn’t guarantee future results.  We recommend getting a trading platform that supports professional day trading software packages.  You can find standard software and indicators, or invest in proprietary indicators that have been developed by day trading education companies.

For a day trading software platform, I recommend TradeStation, which is the industry leader when it comes to reliable execution and top-level charting.  This platform comes with hundreds of standard indicators, and also allows you to plug in third party day trading software indicators from other venders.

I highly recommend the MAP Trading Strategy from the Emini Academy.  This strategy uses high-probability trading methods in the e-mini futures markets.  Their day trading software package “removes the guessing” when it comes to taking and managing trades.  I’ve been using the strategy for about 8 months and couldn’t be happier.

Keep in mind, there are two primary points to consider when looking for trading software.  First, the charting… how functionable and customizable are the charting features?  Can you add and remove indicators?  Also, can you draw trend lines, arrows, and text on the charts?  Second, you need to test the execution, or speed, of your orders.  If you’re using a direct data feed from the stock market exchange, then you need to make sure you have a fast and reliable connection.