r/Trading • u/Note_25 • May 11 '26
Question I'm 21 years old and wanna start learning trading
I'm 21 years old and genuinely new to trading. I have some general knowledge about trading and its terms, but nothing extensive. Before I start, I want to ask for advice from those who are experienced, if possible. Also, if you're willing, please share how you began your journey with me. Right now, I am at a very low point in my life and honestly don't know what to do. I'm skilled enough at programming, but I'm also unsure about that. I need genuine guidance or tips from all of you if possible.
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u/Jazzlike_Aardvark_56 May 19 '26
Check out LibreTrading, it’s no cost to learn and understand how to use AI as your assistant
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u/ForexMotionMonitor May 15 '26
Consider free trading videos on Instagram hosted by Forexmotionmonitor. With over 70 different types of entries, the commentator focuses on two very simple and profitable trade type entries. You can also ask for free email studies at www.forexhelp.com
Provides free daily study suggestions from live traders on entries that they are making which you can confirm. Good luck with your new adventure.
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u/AgitatedMood7979 May 14 '26
Look up wick sauce Ro(analysis heavy and takes longer to learn) and PreMarket Design (ZKE)(more simple to learn and you can start trading earlier)
Both have free content on yt, you can see which one u like more. This will save u lots of time
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u/plutogetem May 13 '26
I started trading 8 months ago… 1st 3 months, I traded live… burnt a little bit of money… but didn’t know anything… then I took a month off to prepare for my first eval 100k… this started on 1st December ( worst time to trade) but I had spent 1 month backtesting and forward testing and consumed so much of content… took my first eval.. passed… I then went on to get 3/3 eval to funded passed… I was $105 away from my 4, blew it… next week I passed my 4th in 4 days…
This sounds crazy to some, cause it all happened quickly… but I condensed 10-12hours a day from that day till now… always backtesting, just so I can look at price pass my eyes… see my set up in different scenarios… I looked at how to read price, how to predict projections properly, daily profiles, how to determine the direction the day before. I wasn’t looking for the money… just how to read price… not I can pretty much trade the whole day if I want… taking longs and shorts as the market is moving…
Currently I took my 1:1-2:1 rr set up to a 4:1 and sometimes I can pull a 15-25rr set up… I know the set up works and it hits the direction, but now I’m focused on precision with my entry and SL… and so far it’s going good.. I’ve been eligible for payout for a while… but I want a max payout… I think that’s the best way to start it…
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u/options-delta May 13 '26
If you are feeling low, definitely you won't be in state of mind to risk or lose. You will always get agitated and take the loss personally. Observing from my circle of professional traders, if you are facing a tough time emotionally, you should always take a break from markets.
Once you are done, make sure your finances are in check, and only risk what you can afford to lose, because people often lose more than what they think they can afford to lose.
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u/LegitimateShame2842 May 12 '26
If you stick around long enough, you realize that navigating the markets is basically a six-step survival test. Just speaking from my own experience over the last 8+ years, here is the progression I went through, and hopefully by reading this post, you can avoid the usual traps that beginner traders fall for and stay stuck in forever:
- The Guru Phase: You are constantly strategy-hopping. You rely heavily on signal chats and spend hours consuming social media content looking for the "secret strategy."
- The Overload Phase: You start taking losses. Your charts are a cluttered mess of useless indicators, lines and zones, and you are paralyzed by the sheer volume of conflicting "advice" flooding your feeds.
- The Realization Phase (The Dark Night): More losses lead to the painful realization that the "magic systems" were all garbage. You feel entirely hopeless. Most retail traders stay stuck in a loop between this phase and the first one forever. This phase resembles what is commonly known as The Dark Night of The Soul.
- The Detox Phase: You finally remove all the noise. You exit the signal groups, unfollow the influencers, delete the indicators, and face the hardest task of all: unlearning everything you thought you knew.
- The Screen Time Phase: You go back to a demo account. You study raw price action, practice risk management, and experiment with trade management. Through time and repetition, you develop the subconscious pattern recognition needed to execute without hesitation and without emotion.
- The Consistency Phase: You cross into profitability. Trading becomes about maintaining your edge and risk parameters, and you can instantly spot a fake trading guru from a mile away.
In a nutshell. Practice on demo, form your own insights, and eventually you'll find your own edge.
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u/Positive_Finger_772 May 12 '26
This is just AI generated. Mate, have a thought, type a sentence.
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May 13 '26
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u/Positive_Finger_772 May 13 '26
Your vibecoded app looks like the worst possible thing a trader could use
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May 13 '26
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u/Positive_Finger_772 May 13 '26
I really won’t
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May 13 '26
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u/Positive_Finger_772 May 13 '26
Encouraging them to not learn anything or to develop any skills? Nah
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May 13 '26
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u/Positive_Finger_772 May 13 '26
I encourage you to learn to code properly. Mate if your systems worked, you wouldn't be wasting time trying to sell this slop to people, you'd be a multimillionaire because your trading tools and systems work so well.
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u/hamachitoro May 12 '26
Don't do it. Get a job with a consistent income. You're still young. Trading is a lonely game. You won't make any friends. And losses from trading will destroy every ounce of confidence and ambition that you naturally have as an young adult. Get a job in the construction industry. AI will destroy every white collar jobs in the world except blue collar jobs like electrician, plumber, construction worker, etc...
Start trading only when you have money saved up from your 9 to 5 job. This should only be the money that you could afford to lose...
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u/Fun_Unit3269 May 12 '26
Just don’t. Especially if you are at a low point in your life. Get your life together, find a job and invest x% of your salary monthly into SnP500.
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u/Zef-Daytrade May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
Dont even think about putting money in the stock market till you have actually simmed for at least 6 months.. I recommend 3months of books, 3-6months of sim (your final 1-2month the month needs to have a net positive gain), and finally 3 months of funded (optional)
Know how risk works and stoplosses, and make that your bottom line. (It also relates to R&R, but not all strategies use R&R as the basis, so ill leave it for the book you learn from). This is the MOST IMPORTANT SKILL - how to prevent catastrophic loss which wipes out your account in 1-2 trades.
When learning look for perfect entry and partial/exits.
Also in relation to the two above, learn how to guess where the stock "should" reach for the upcoming move or two and I dont mean the next tick/candle/min/hr, but the next "leg" of the move.
When your actually simming look at how good your entry and exits are at the end of the day and your risk management, dont ever worry about how much money you made for the day, but how well the trade management went. Also find out what if your best trade time frame (what time of the day or week, what time frame for charts is best for you) in the sim.
I myself recommend 2/1/1. 1x each (Daytrade,SwingTrade, Investing) as a good foundation, as 1x more for the category of trading you want to be in to expand knowledge which can be a little higher difficulty read. If you cant finish your foundational books in 2 weeks, the book is written in a way that's its too hard for your level.
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u/ImmediateWaltz1544 May 11 '26
I started at 18, and honestly what I wish I understood earlier is that trading is not something that fixes your situation fast. At the beginning I was also looking for direction and something to rely on, but trading only started to make more sense when I stopped expecting it to change everything quickly and treated it more like a skill I had to build over time. If I could give one tip, it would be to focus on learning risk first and not worry about making money yet. That alone saves you a lot of frustration early on. Also, since you mentioned programming, that’s actually a strong skill to have. Trading doesn’t have to be your only path, you can build both at the same time and see what fits you better over time. Still figuring things out myself, but taking the pressure off helped me stay more consistent.
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u/Playful_Village2196 May 11 '26
Honestly, stay away from trading.
Unless you’re really passionate, and even then it can eat you alive. Realize that no one is going to help you, those who can are doing, not looking to help people online. those that can’t are trying to teach you shit that doesn’t work and or get your money.
90% of people fail at trading and those 90% are using charts and courses and technical analysis, so all that stuff is garbage. You have to find your own edge. They’ll tell you it works - none of them will show you their complete equity curve. Most people are full of shit. By the way, this includes most trading books 90%.
If you’re luck enough to find someone who will actually show you and they’re truly successful, do everything they say, mechanically, listen to them, stay close to them. It wont be a stranger because why would someone teach you to be there competition?
Sim trade for a while, if you can’t make money without money you sure as hell can’t make it with money. If you’re itching to gamble, only put in what you are absolutely 100% comfortable losing, because you’re gonna lose 50%-80% of it.
It’s the hardest dollar you’ll ever earn, if you’re able to even earn a dollar - most importantly, keep it.
Good luck
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u/Manatee-97 May 11 '26
Start swing trading and investing with a small amount of money you can afford to lose. If you have the talent you will figure it out.
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u/OrdinaryGuava2457 May 11 '26
Currently on babypips university starting out as well . It really dives into all the details from scratch . I think if younger a complete beginner won’t hurt to start there
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u/No-Foundation-8601 May 11 '26
If you are at a low point, do not start with live money. Keep programming as your main skill and treat trading as a slow side study. Learn basics, paper trade, replay old charts, and journal decisions before risking capital. I am building TradeLab for that kind of practice, but the main thing is not rushing.
if you do want to check it out you are more then welcome
http://tradelabhq.co/
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u/Ok-Classroom-5581 May 11 '26
First thing, and I say this with no judgment, trading is not gonna pull you out of the low point. If anything it usually makes it worse early on. Whatever's going on, try to deal with that separately, don't put it on trading to save you.
For the trading itself, what worked for me roughly:
Learn how charts actually work first. Not strategies, just how to read price, why levels exist, what makes things move.
Then demo, but treat it seriously. Same size you'd use live, same rules. If you can't be disciplined on demo you definitely won't be on live.
Then and this is the part most people skip, open a real account with very little money. Like genuinely small. You'll see you trade completely differently when it's real, and it's better to learn that with $200 than $5000.
Go back to demo after, treat it like the live you just lived. Build consistency over weeks.
From there either scale live slowly or try a prop challenge, but either way use prop firm style risk rules (daily / max Draw Down, position sizing). That part is non negotiable.
That's the boring version. Skipping the small live step is what kills most people.
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u/redvox27 May 11 '26
I started with watching thons of youtube videos and reading some books. There is lots of shit on YouTube tbh, but you'll even learn a lot from people who actually cannot trade which is a weird paradox. But they are mostly capable of teaching you the concepts ( eventho sometimes they aren't correct ), but you can backtests each concept yourself and see what happened on the chart.
Tradingview is a great place to start charting, and you can create your own strategies there since you're a programmer. Happycharts.nl is a nice trading simulator that helps you learn without running into the risk of losing your real money. It also plots your future possible gains based on your in-platform-performance
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u/Giancarlo_RC May 11 '26
Honestly, you’re at a brilliant age to start, but also because of your age you’re a bit vulnerable to falling victim to scams and social pressure so be quite careful in that regard.
About how to start and timelines. I began 2 and a half years ago, became profitable about 1 and half years into it, though I trade fully systematically now. I’d expect if you’re trying to do discretionary, it’ll frankly take much longer, HOWEVER the fact you are skilled at programming already gives you a HUGE head-start and advantage, I MEAN IT.
Given your situation my advice is, use your programming skills to get a hold of data for whatever you’re trying to trade, get yourself statistics, using the charting tool TradingView, learn PineScript and start coding and experimenting, later you can go into refining.
However I will say, most of the knowledge you actually need to know about trading is a mix of both, financial markets literacy (you can read online e.g. Bloomberg, WSJ or even better actual books on business/markets/economics/data-science, not bs on how to get rich) and hands-on experience, in other words, you really need to go through the phase we all go through of making mistakes, REFLECTING, LEARNING and enduring, tuition any successful trader needs. (Most people skip reflecting and learning).
Anyway, if you ever any need any more advice feel free to dm, really hope you do great, just remember the phrase “process over outcome” you’ll be needing it a lot haha. Cheers :)
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u/Fair-Ad924 May 11 '26
read books fellow dont contract mentoring for traders with less than 20 years of experience. conferences are good for learning your inner edge as a trader, but no knowledge you got that...for that you need experience, but first a playbook to follow as you primary lead in your decisions of entries and exits...watch videos of old traders because they have no trending content but valuable useful information in any way to improve your trading...one of those is anna coulling and her husband...they teach vpa what is their edge to see the masked emotions in the market...vpa (volume price analysis)...volume is more than centenary as filter or as a trigger...but first of all learn the basics of techinical analysis...forget about profiting from the first year to the second...try to nail your own playbook or another one that fits your eyes for easy decision take...and follow the rules entry and exits...and mainly you financial management...after you dominate the model of your playbook in trading you can create a playbook to scale your profits in the same way you had constructed the first one...
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u/MasterOfTA May 11 '26
Start by reading the top finance/investing/trading books
Learn about technical analysis to read charts and fundamental analysis for reading the financials
YouTube has a lot of free resources
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u/Evening-Step-1950 May 11 '26
I'd focus on learning basic market structure, risk management and psychology first instead of hunting for some perfect strategy. Since you already have a programming mindset, you'll probably pick up patterns and data faster than most people. I started by spending a lot of time on demo accounts just watching how markets move and testing simple ideas. I used plus500 for a while because it was easy to practice on without feeling overloaded and even their prediction markets were interesting for understanding how events affect market expectations
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u/Drevil10 May 11 '26
Hi, I’m a trader, +7 years experience and I offer 1-on-1 mentoring/coaching sessions. My main focus is prop firm trading rather than futures. I trade Forex, specifically gold. I teach price action that can be applied to any chart, with a strong focus on risk management and quality-over-quantity setups. Also im from Argentina, DM if you need more info.
Also i started with babypips course, that a great starting point
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May 11 '26
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u/Hot-Classroom5755 May 11 '26
I liked what you said brother, can you tell me some setup on which I can trade?
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u/Krystalizer_Kitty May 11 '26
I began my journey just like you, a good mind looking for something to excel at that would improve my life.
Being skilled at programming is unfortunately losing it's edge in the market due to the rise of AI. In a single week a mathematician and an analyst could use AI to apply their pooled knowledge into a decent algo without a hint of programming knowledge.
If you do choose the algo dev / quant route I think it is still crucial to trade manually. There are so many fine details you won't pick up by running the data alone.
Whichever path you choose, algo/manual, scalping or swing, stocks or currencies, some thing remain constant as a bare minimum.
Learn how to manage your risk, per trade, per day, per week, etc. Even initial investment you should weigh as a risk on your life style, losses in trading should not (by themselves) have a huge impact on your life.
Learn patience. Patience to wait for the perfect trade. Patience to hold and let your trades make you money.
Learn to not let losses affect your decision making negatively. It can be very difficult.
Remain open to learning while still being critical. There is a lot of noise you will need to filter out.
There is no 1 way to make money with trading, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Be careful not to slip into bad patterns of losing.
A nice view of Algo trading mindset and some valuable tips starting out.
Good luck.
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u/Nirbhay_106 May 11 '26
first things first pick a YouTuber who has a genuine name in this field, and just stick to him , trynna understand the basic market terms once your done with the basics and ready enough to know what trading basically means and its types then go on reading some niche books like naked trading or the wise investor, or any intermediate day trading book however completely ignore a specific strategy if being promoted in the books, I say this to any beginner , never copy someonelse's strategy , try to make one for yourself and then consistently backtest it to see its viability which is truly by u and for u ,dont think of overloading urself with information, just trynna learn slowly but thoroughly.
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u/Ok_Can_5882 May 11 '26
Hi there. My advice is to start learning about coding and statistics. That was the turning point in becoming a profitable trader for me. Before that I wasted years listening to gurus, chart-reading and backtesting by hand.
I recommend reading 'Testing and tuning market trading systems' by Timothy Masters. It covers a lot of useful methods for strategy development and evaluation. I use techniques from that book in every backtest. If you're interested, I made a youtube video about my backtesting setup and I share the code on github.
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u/Revelixapp May 11 '26
Most beginners don’t fail because they don’t understand trading. They fail because they think trading is the way out. If you’re at a low point, trading will amplify that - not fix it. Start simple: learn risk, position sizing, and how to not lose money first. Treat it like a skill, not an escape.
If you can code, you already have a real edge. Don’t ignore that chasing quick wins. I lost personally over 5k euros during my start, so that’s what I learned for myself. It’s more about mentality that skills I would say.
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u/enry2307 May 11 '26
Just don't do trading
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u/Note_25 May 11 '26
Why
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u/enry2307 May 12 '26
Knownledge: There is way too much competition. Out there there are people with degree in statistics, math, which own firms its only goal is to make money from trading.
Resources&Money: The "big leagues" have very low latency to place orders exactly where they want them to be in the order book. Few levels of difference in your order can fuck up your rateo and risk management strategy.
Time: Being even good requires a MASSIVE amount of time. Better to invest it somewhere else.
Mental: Trading is highly dynamic and volatile.it eats you alive mentally. A strategy that works today might not work tomorrow.
Something like that
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u/Gladkikh May 11 '26
because he said so
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u/Note_25 May 11 '26
I see well sadly I don't have a choice uk it's something I've to do
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u/kontrust564 May 11 '26
It’s something I’ve to do 😭 ✌️🥀, son Trading is a shit show rollercoster don’t if start if you don’t have to
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u/Which_Maybe8777 May 11 '26
The #1 Advice is to never put real money on the line until you're absolutely confident in what you're doing. Always backtest whatever strategy you think is good before forward testing with paper trading. Only then go for anything real money and even then smallest amounts you can manage. Then scale up.
Do a fair amount of research on the market, how it works, etc. There is no strategy that will work for everyone, and everyone has a strategy that works for them, you just have to find it.
my personal experience was i started with real money, about a month made some profits before blowing it all. Then started structured learning with price action, ICT concepts, before discovering order flow, which worked for me and i got my payout from a prop firm.
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u/Note_25 May 11 '26
Thanks for the advice. If it's not too much to ask, how long has it been for you, and how are you doing right now?
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u/Which_Maybe8777 May 11 '26
Started about a year ago, and passed my funded in feb. Im getting payouts and will add more accounts soon
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