New and Young Trader Challenges

Being a new and young trader can be hard. Especially with school and a college kids bank account. It is hard to trade while going to school and because I got into trading in the middle of this semester, and I cannot really do anything about it. Starting next semester I will be trying to move all my classes in the afternoon so I will have plenty of time to trade during the day! Hopefully it works out for the best! With school it is also hard to paper trade because of all my classes and studying for tests and various projects we get in college. Another big issue for a young trader can be the amount of capital to trade. As of right now I only have around $1,000. I don't think it is enough for me to trade and get profits. Because of TD Ameritrade's $9.99 commission fees for each trade, it can be hard to scrap even a small profit together. I have decided that I won't start trading until I get at least $5,000. With that I will have $10,000 buying power with margin trading. With this account I feel that I can get a couple good profitable trades in. Another problem with a small account is the dreaded PDT or Pattern Day Trader rule... PDT is a rule that is enforced on accounts that are under $25,000. If you do not keep at least a $25,000 in your trading account then you can only trade 3 day trades in a 5 day period. This is another big problem for small trading accounts because after the 3 day trades you CAN buy more stocks but you will not be able to sell the stock within the day or they will freeze your account for 90 days. So you are basically stuck with that stock until the next day. I wouldn't recommend that unless you are certain that the stock is going to gap up the next day. Well that is basically my daily rant! I want to write everyday but it is obviously hard... Feel free to email me with any questions you guys have, It will also give me more content to put on this blog! Thanks again everyone!