Here are a few ways you can get started. Research online for trading books, check out many of the free ebooks on offer. Livetraders.com offers a 70 page FREE ebook that is extremely detailed and informative about trading basics. Remember, reading a book will not grant you trading mastery, it simply fills your head with important information. Once you have acquired this valuable, yet basic information, you then have to make a decision if this is worth pursuing, which is something only YOU can decide.
If you choose to take the next step, then you need to decide what type of account is best for you. Retail, Prop or CAP. These choices can sometimes be confusing, so I broke them down into simple descriptions below.
RETAIL ACCOUNTS
These are the ones you see on TV: ETRADE, TD Ameritrade, Scottrade and more. There is nothing inherently wrong with them, except that they require a minimum of $30,000 to intra-day trade, usually charge more for trading commissions and they don’t offer very good leverage, typically 4:1 intra-day and 2:1 overnight.
PROP ACCOUNTS
As mentioned above in order to take an ‘unlimited’ number of trades you have to have at least $25,000 in an account, usually more, because if you go below $25,000 you can no longer take unlimited trades. This is called the “Pattern Day Trading Rule or PDT” and it is a government mandate, not an individual company thing. These types of ‘retail’ accounts usually allow 4:1 leverage intra-day and 2:1 leverage overnight. Despite these stipulations, there are many ways to get around this rule, and start day trading with much less money. They include, but are not limited to Prop Accounts and Corporate Accounts.
