Chris,
Heard the interview on Day Trader Radio today and was impressed. Never traded before and I am having information overload on all that is out there. My current career is stalled out until the economy comes back and that is my biggest reason for looking at other options. I have years of training and education in a field where I have no control over my income. My question is this; Do I need a basic level of knowledge to start this and if so where do I get it? I am coming from a construction management background and have no clue about trading or even the language used in it. I know that can be a benefit in some fields because there are no bad habits to unlearn but I would think having a basic understanding of terms and markets would help. Where do I take this desire I have from here?
Clay

Here’s my response to Clay…

Hi Clay,
You’ve asked some really great questions in this email. I think a lot of new traders are in the same boat; you’ve heard about the incredible opportunity day trading can offer, but there’s just so much information out there you don’t know where to start. I’ll be the first to tell you that most of the trading “education” out there is regurgitated theory that can’t make you money in today’s market. You can go to any book store and learn the basics (terminology, tools of the trade, basics of analysis, etc.), but none of that will really put you in a position to make money trading.

What you really need is a solid trading strategy that will take the guessing out of what trades to take, how to manage the risk on your trade, and when to take profit. You can do what I did back in 2002 and invest the time, money, and effort into developing your own strategy (which can take years), or you can invest in someone else’s system. Most people choose to buy a system since it can offer an income opportunity in a much shorter time period with less effort on your end. The problem is that most systems being sold on the market today just don’t make money. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of people selling these “automated trading robots” that promise you’ll make $1,000,000 while you sleep. And the truth is, those systems are a total scam. Every fully automated trading system eventually fails. For example, I know group of highly intelligent traders who invested years of their lives and hundreds of thousands of dollars into creating a trading system that was fully automated. It worked for about 6 months, then became worthless.

If you want a sure-fire way to make consistent profits in the market, then you need a solid educational foundation and a strategy that can adapt to market conditions. Also, the system needs a statistical “edge” over the market. This “edge” is basically trades that have specific rules and pre-define the risk on every single trade. For example, if you have a system that wins 75% of the time and has winners that are 2X bigger than losses, you’re going to be profitable by default. Here at the Emini Academy, we do both. First, we teach you all the basics of day trading and e-minis, then we teach you how to master a trading strategy that has a very nice “edge” over the market. I’m obsessed with risk management and have incorporated a pre-determined risk strategy into our system.

Best regards,
Chris Dunn

Click here to register for our LIVE TRADING SESSION tomorrow!  https://eminiacademy.omnovia.com/registration/33631266700869

Also, we met up with some great friends and partners.  A special shout-out to Corey Rosenbloom from Afraidtotrade.com, Matt Zimberg from Optimus futures, Ryan and the team from NinjaTrader, Steve & Paul from candlecharts.com, the team from Traderkingdom.com, John/Brian/Dac from daytradingradio.com, Kenny from ino.com, and Shane from Benzinga.com.

Well, January is over and I couldn’t be happier with what we’ve seen so far in 2010. The first two weeks in January started off a little slow. I guess it was the market trying to figure out if it wanted to break the highs up around 1,150 on the S&P 500. Anyway, since then we’ve seen some INCREDIBLE opportunity! This market reminds me of late 2008 when everyone was screaming bloody murder and we were cleaning up. January 22nd started the first bearish movement we’ve seen since early 2009. Could the top be in? I don’t give a shit… All I know is the market falls a lot faster than it rises, and that’s proven to be true over the past two days.

Take note of the spike in the VIX and the increased ATR of the S&P 500 Emini daily chart… more volume & volatility means more opportunity for us traders!

Here’s what I’ve discovered about options exirations week:

1. The volume and volatility is hit or miss. Sometimes the morning session will be slow, then pick up in the afternoon. This is different, where usually we’ll see nice volume and volatility in the morning, then slow down in the afternoon.

2. The market will sometimes “thin out” for short periods of time, which can spike the market in one direction (basically clear a bunch of stops), then head back in the original direction. This actually happened to us on our first trade of the day today.

3. There can be great movement when the emotion and opinions flood the market. This afternoon, we had some incredible opportunity. We were 3 for 3 in the PM session with a minimum of a 4-5 point potential.

Check out this video…

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Untitled from Chris Dunn on Vimeo.

I thought it would be beneficial for other traders who hear Jim’s story and allow him to give some advice to those looking to earn a nice income through day trading… Enjoy this 30 minute interview!

(EXPAND FOR FULL-SCREEN VIDEO)

Jim Steel Interview from Chris Dunn on Vimeo.

Ok, I’ll admit it.  I’m a bit of a geek.  I love gadgets and gizmos, and my favorite device this month is the Amazon Kindle.  When I first heard about it I was really intrigued at the idea of having a light, portable “reading device”.  Here are the top 3 things I absolutely love about the Kindle:

1.  It reads just like paper- I used to spend countless hours reading PDF’s and Ebooks on my desktop and laptop.  After 10 minutes of reading, the glare of the monitor would bring on piercing pains in my eyes.  It also made me very tired.  The Kindle doesn’t use any back-light, and looks just like paper.  Say “bye bye” to squinty-eyed monitor reading!

2.  It can hold about 1,500 books.  This is a big one for me… since I travel quite a bit, it’s nice not to have to carry around thick ass books everywhere I go.  Weighing in at 10.2 ounces, the Kindle makes it extremely easy to carry your entire library in the palm of your hand!

3.  Most books only cost $9.99.  Before I bought my kindle, I estimate that I spent around $500 a year on books.  No mas!  Thanks to the Kindle, I’m going to save about 50% on my books.

Super-bonus benefit- I almost forgot to mention that you can download books, newspapers, blogs and magazines in about 30 seconds.  No more driving to Barnes & Noble and waiting in lines to get your next read.  Oh, and if you want to preview a book before paying for it, you can download the first chapter for free!

In my opinion, the Amazon Kindle is the best thing since Wordpress.  And, at $259, it’s become very affordable.  I’d love to hear from you if you own a Kindle… how do you like it compared to regular paperback?  Likes and dislikes?

Since Thanksgiving, we’ve seen a little decline int he volume on the ES.  In this video I show how the volume is around 1.5M contracts and how we can adjust our strategies to preserve our capital and continue to pull points out of the market every day.

Feel free to post any comments or questions in this post!

Have a great Christmas…

I can’t think of anything cooler than day trading on the side of a volcano, then surfing in the Pacific the next day… that’s definitely the life for me!  And we’re already planning an extended stay back down there.  I always joke about trading from a tiki-hut in paradise… well, it’s come true.

Here’s a quick video with some pictures… and life lessons.

Untitled from Chris Dunn on Vimeo.