There are three words that many of us have experienced when first getting started in trading (well... at least I have), "this is easy." We make our first trade, it is profitable and we think that we have it all figured out. Chat room member Nate ("etan") tells us about this very relate-able start to his trading journey and where it has gone from there after reality smacked him in the face. Notes: Etan got his introduction to the stock market in high school while doing some paper trading for a finance class. After seeing the exponential nature of penny stocks from various message boards, Etan decided that he was going to park his money in a few very low cost names. Early in 2015, Etan did some investigating regarding options so that he could trade the larger names without putting up large amounts of capital. Realizing that he would need to be more consistent in his trading, Etan decided to invest in education to help solidify good trading practices. Etan decided to go back to paper trading and solidify his strategy and risk management before putting real money back on the line. The important part of this is that he is keeping his paper size realistic and inline with his real account size. Quotes: "After Ralph suggested I make my money work for me, I funded an eTrade account the following week." tweet this quote "I had somewhat of a plan but I didn't have the knowledge of why I should be buying here or selling here." tweet this quote "This is easy I thought. The next week I was losing thousands of dollars each day." tweet this quote "There is a lot that is involved in options. It's not just pick a price and pick an exit. There is other stuff to take into account." tweet this quote "Losses used to make me want to rip my heart out. Now I close my loser's quick." tweet this quote