There is a lot of information on the web, in any area you pick up. Especially trading wise, there's so much information out there that most of it is bad information. You can learn anything on Youtube, but trading is tricky as you could pick up a lot of bad habits, useless info.
The problem with these sub-par quality channels (or twitter accounts for that matter) is that they are very confident and also deliver their content with that kind of confidence. Being a noob, we have no clue and we look at their confidence and believe them to be the real deal.
There's nothing wrong with being amateurs. I am an amateur at a lot of things, and I am still an amateur at trading, investing, etc. I am decently humbled in business by the market, and experienced enough to talk about running a business at a small scale level.
What's wrong is staying an amateur. I am an amateur, but I am constantly striving to become as experienced as possible, losing as little as possible in money. But the mindset of valuing money has shifted from when I was 22 to now. Now I value my time more.
The reason I value my time more is that once you're married your life starts moving at 10x speed. Imagine a youtube video. Your life when you're a bachelor is a youtube video at 1x speed. Your life when you get married is the same video at 10x speed. When you have kids, it's 50x.
I am at the 10x stage now. There's so much to do, amidst constant interruptions, and the work never ends. There's always more to do, and you're never sitting and taking a breather "ok, now i am free, let me watch a movie".
There are more books to read than I can spend time. There are more milestones to fulfill than I have time for. So, one thing I have come to place prime importance on, is time. The reason why I do twitter is because of @david_perell and recently @brandonthezhang.
I am an amateur doing my best to become as experienced as possible, bring out my personal best in my own career, and sharing the things I learn is a way to help people who are one or two years behind in the learning curve, an accelerated path to get where I am, at any time.
So, in my own effort to shorten the learning curve, I am going to keep sharing top quality books, and content in youtube channels, etc., that will accelerate your learning curve. No, it won't be giving you shortcuts, but it will at least reduce your time to success by 10-20%.
Another thing to note is what I wanted to add here. Don't give up or lose heart. Trading is a tricky field that plays with our psychological biases. But like any other field, if you truly want it, would do anything for it, you will be able to find a way.
Intraday trading wise, there were a lot of days, especially when you lose money, and it's due to silly mistakes (like intervening with your system, taking gut based trades, etc), the inner voice is BRUTAL that if anyone else spoke to you that way, you'd stop talking to them.
That's also why I advise people to start with higher timeframe trading (which is what I did initially - mostly swing, holding positions for few days back in 2017-18). I made good money riding trends in few many stocks. I also made classic mistakes and lost ~50-60% of what I made.
And, it's absolutely possible to make superior returns with swing trading. The equity curve won't be as smooth as a good intraday trader, but atleast you won't have self-defeating talks with losses in intraday. Once you're successful in swing trading, then you can start intraday.
A lot of people may advise you to start with intraday trading, but what I advised above is just my opinion. I always welcome difference in opinions, so different opinions can co-exist, at least with respect to this advise. I can't advise on what didn't work for me.
So, when I suggest something, these are things that worked for me, that helped me grow and get to the next level. I would strongly suggest you do the same too. Share your findings, what you learn, what you research about and find out. That's the quickest way to fix mistakes.
At least when you're wrong, the twitter audience will jump into pointing that out and you will be able to use that as the fastest feedback loop to correct your mistakes and grow. You should only be worried if no one is pointing out any mistakes in your thinking.
Trading wise, alongside your trading and focus on improving, spend an hour or two every day studying companies, and improving your knowledge on fundamentals. Assume that you'll get to 50 crores and beyond in the future, in your career, with your capital.
At that capital level, 95% of the successful traders at least partly turn investors, and proceed to lose a lot of their money, or at least get paltry ROI that they'd have been better off trading. But some are smart enough to recognize their weaknesses and biases and learn things.
So, start learning accounting, learn to read book of accounts, learn to read annual reports and look for discrepancies. Learn to research about a company, even about using personal/professional sources to find out information that's not easy to obtain.
When you strengthen yourselves in aspects like valuation and accounting, it also will translate to superior understanding of companies and you will find it easier to navigate the wild west of investing once you're at a level where scaling your trading is difficult.
A lot of these things - I have only heard as advices from people who are far more experienced and accomplished in this field. Of course I haven't gotten to that level yet, but I am positive I'll get there.
If you have to survive in this field, at least for the first few years, you have to ignore naysayers, learn to catch BS, and have oodles of optimism to do what you do. Whether you're a systematic or a discretionary trader, there are going to be times you'll feel like giving up.
But remember. Being the best is very easy, because it has very little competition. 95% of all traders blow up within 6 months, and give up within a year. If you just put efforts into trading and investing every day and cross the 2 year mark without giving up, that puts you in 5%.
Within that 5%, only 1% ever truly become successful. To get into the 5% takes only 20% effort. You just have to stay positive, survive, not blow up, by avoiding dumb mistakes. To get into that 1% of 5% takes 80% effort. It's like going from 25 to 12% body fat and from 12 to 10%.
The 80% effort involves a lot of smart decisions, protecting your capital, and just executing like crazy. Trading is just like business. Most businesses fail within the first 3 years (like 75%). 20% fail within first 5 years. Of remaining 5%, 4% do somewhat well and go bust.
Only 1% in business truly become successful and enjoy the riches. This 1% also took the highest risk by putting in time after time despite things not looking like they will make it. Luck favors the brave and the street smarts. That's what I have come to understand.
So, treat your trading like a business you have started. Keep your books properly. Manage your risk first and know your downside first before putting any money into the market. Be prepared to operate under loss or breakeven for the first two to three years when you grow.
Have some cashflow through other sources coming into the business. Reinvest the profits from the business within the business itself. Don't take money out from the trading account. Compounding is the eighth wonder, let it do its work.
Finally, despite what the situation is, don't stake all your money on one trade. You have to live the play the game long enough for the odds to work in your favor. Don't go bust trying to take on a hero or zero trade, at least in the initial few years.
