What Kind of Tools Do You Need to Start Trading?

Whether you are studying trading on your own or in a commercial trading education class, there are essential tools that are a prerequisite for success. This article only scratches the surface of the many devices professional traders utilize, but it should get you off on the right foot in your quest to become a full-time trader. Preparation is crucial any time you step in front of the computer whether it is your first day of trading or your 20th year of trading. You just can't be too prepared.

One of your foremost concerns will be the computer with which you choose to trade. Your six-year-old laptop computer with 2Gb of RAM will probably not be a good choice for trading. I have a distinct preference for desktop computers for my work. They are robust in comparison with their laptop counterpart and stand up over a period of time. Further, a desktop can utilize cross-firing graphics cards so you can expand the number of monitors you decide to use. I don't want to jump the gun on monitors, which we will discuss later in this article. For your first trading computer, I would lean toward a business-oriented box and avoid the commercial variety computer that is loaded with all sorts of social media-oriented programs and multi-media programs. The more barebones the computer the better. These are the minimum specifications I would look for:

· Intel i5 or i7 processor or comparable AMD processor (I actually prefer to use AMD gaming chips in my computers)

· 8Gb of DDR3 RAM and 16Gb would be even better.

· A good quality motherboard, I prefer ASUS motherboards because they are workhorses and are relatively inexpensive in comparison to Intel. The point is to get a quality motherboard that will stand up to long hours of use

· I would put my OS on a solid-state drive and store data on at least a 500Gb physical drive.

· A high-quality graphics card, tho you don't need anything near a $200 gaming card, just a good quality card. Most sound cards are on the motherboard and that is just fine.

· A good quality surge protection unit, and I don't mean the little plug-in strips. I am talking about a surge protection unit that will actually protect your computer.

I prefer to trade on 4 monitors, but two monitors are sufficient to start with. Acer makes some great 21" monitors and they are priced right. A second monitor allows you to look multiple time frames without having to switch a single screen back and forth.

I am a firm believer in carefully tracking your trades so you can review them and learn from past mistakes. There are several great commercially written spreadsheets available and which one you use is a matter of personal choice.

Finally, locate a nice quiet workspace where you can work uninterrupted. Trading takes tremendous concentration and interruptions generally cost money.

Proper preparation will mean one less detail you have to worry about when the trading gets hot and heavy, and you will have a computer set-up that you can count on. As always, best of luck in your trading.

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Day Traders

In the world of finance a trader is defined as someone who buys and sells financial instruments like stocks, commodities, derivatives and bonds in the capacity of an agent, speculator or hedger. A day trader, then is a trader who specializes in buying and selling these instruments within the same trading day. Trading begins and ends with the opening and the closing of the markets and may include a few or into the hundreds of orders per trading day.

Day traders belong to one of two groups, institutional and retail. A trader who is an institutional part of the equation works for a financial institution like a bank an has access to many resources, tools, and equipment, not to mention a large amount of capital with which to trade. They can trade continuously throughout the market day since they always have fresh fund inflows at their disposal.

On the other hand, those on the retail side of things use retail brokerages and trade with their own capital. It is easy then to see how institutional day traders have a certain advantage over their retail counterparts.

If you have ever watched the market you will know that it goes up and down throughout the day. World events have a lot of influence on which way the market will go. They are trained to take these little price movements and make them into something big, like big profits for their clients. When you are only trading within a day period the experts say that the more volatile the market is on a given day, the better a day trader will do. If the market is flat or not moving much on a given day, the opposite is true, and a day trader may not be able to work those great deals.

To be a day trader you need a certain know how of the markets, and the proper equipment, tools and insight to trade the right platform every day. The successes go to those with the most information on any given day. Traders also have to know when to move, when not to move and when to get out of a trade which can be a thrilling experience or one fraught with stress and panic, especially with a new trader.

Trading is a tough world to get into and is one that is often associated with burnout among its members. You can win big or lose big, it's all in the markets and how a trader works them.

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