Once you’ve learned a strategy and are trading it profitably in a simulator, you can now start to look at trading in a live account.
Here are the steps you will need to take:
- Open a brokerage account and transfer money in
- Have a written trading plan you can review every morning
- Make your watchlist in the morning
- Trade your plan and stick to it
- Review your trades at the end of the day
One of the biggest pieces of advice we can offer new traders in a real account, is take it slow.
Don’t dive in head first and trade max size. Ease your way into it until you are comfortable.
Trading in a real account adds a lot more emotion and pressure to your trading, which is something that will subside as you gain more experience.
Besides, you don’t want to blow up your account and lose all your money on day one!
This leads me to our next topic: how much money do you really need for day trading?