{"id":15608,"date":"2011-11-16T17:10:32","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T22:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/?p=15608"},"modified":"2013-03-12T09:40:01","modified_gmt":"2013-03-12T13:40:01","slug":"start-slow-start-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/start-slow-start-fast","title":{"rendered":"Start Slow? Start Fast?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last night I had drinks and apps with two experienced traders.  After some catching up we got into a discussion\/argument about the best way to start your trading career.  It has been written here that no one ought to trade 200 shares live until they can make money with 100 shares.  You are the worst you will be as a trader so you ought to start slowly.  Your loss limit should be restricted so you do not start your career in a hole. \u00a0About last night&#8230;&#8230; \u00a0I found either an experienced trader playing devil&#8217;s advocate or someone who just disagreed.<\/p>\n<p>This experienced trader felt that it was better for the trader to trade more.  He argued this is how you learn.  This trader thought a larger downside for a new trader was in concert with this trading more.  I must note that this trader also has never held a negative six figure mark on a trainee.  I would note that this trader has never staked numerous traders who have lost a cool 100k plus learning their craft.  But I do remember chatting with a visiting prop firm owner this summer who advocated letting a new trader let it rip.<\/p>\n<p>When you start slowly and with a restricted downside you may encounter difficulty quickly sizing after you build your base.  There is a danger that the trader will be afraid to lose money.  It is possible that while they will respect risk that they will not risk enough.<\/p>\n<p>I fall in the camp of starting slowly with a focus on trading skill.  At SMB we built a trading simulator for trainees that allows them to practice.  The simulator allows trainees to practice\/trade very specific set ups.  In 08 a huge advantage for new traders was their ability to trade often.  This sped up their learning curve.  Without the ability to sim trade I might be in agreement with this other trader.<\/p>\n<p>For the new retail trader you probably have to start slow since you cannot handle a significant drawdown.  At many firms if you are a new trader you must start slowly because you will not be allowed to experience a noteworthy drawdown.  Risk on discretionary traders is being cut at many houses. \u00a0I hear a lot of anecdotes about traders of many years having risk cut. \u00a0But if you are at a deep pocketed firm that encourages high risk then this other trader has a path that can also work.<\/p>\n<p>Bella<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/One-Good-Trade-Competitive-Proprietary\/dp\/0470529407\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1321480311&amp;sr=8-1\">One Good Trade<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/smbcapital\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/twitter-badges.s3.amazonaws.com\/follow_me-c.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last night I had drinks and apps with two experienced traders. After some catching up we got into a discussion\/argument about the best way to start your trading career. It has been written here that no one ought to trade 200 shares live until they can make money with 100 shares. You are the worst you will be as a &#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/start-slow-start-fast\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[29,1828,1193,653,1354,1349],"class_list":["post-15608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-comments-2","tag-prop-trader","tag-smbu","tag-trader-education","tag-trader-training","tag-trading-coach","tag-trading-mentor","no-post-thumbnail"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Start Slow? Start Fast? | SMB Training<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/start-slow-start-fast\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Start Slow? Start Fast? | SMB Training\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last night I had drinks and apps with two experienced traders. After some catching up we got into a discussion\/argument about the best way to start your trading career. It has been written here that no one ought to trade 200 shares live until they can make money with 100 shares. You are the worst you will be as a ... 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