Does anyone do that? Seem like some masters can really do high frequency manual day trade by looking at live price, bid and ask prices. Any book/article/research/people suggestion?
Lots of books on this topic from the 90's...it was a popular trading technique amongst stock traders during that market boom. You can still find these books on Amazon and local libraries...probably can get them on courtesy loans at the library if they don't have them. Tons of online articles, live demonstration youtube videos, webinars and so on. Just use Google.com, Youtube.com and Amazon.com because its all there to keep you busy for many years. There's even several in-depth old threads here at Elitetrader.com on this topic with lots of explanations. Just scroll down further below your message post to see a list of the old threads with similar like topics.
Yes, I've been trading mostly by watching on quotes - bid/ask. Here some vidoes you can take a look: https://www.youtube.com/user/PolishDayTrader
arna, You going to do the translation in this thread of the foreign (polish) language videos or does Gloria speaks polish ?
There are subtitles in most of videos. But it is not the aim - just wanna show that trading using tape reading is something normal. But all in all need to spend some time to prepare strategy for this kind of trading.
In the 90's, its was very common especially for stock traders. Yet, new regulations in the early 2000s changed that for stock traders...many of which then moved into futures. Yet, its still being done by folks that trade stocks but just not as popular as it use to be. There's even some old stuff out there by successful former stock traders as they tried to apply it to futures.
tape reading makes great sense-- knowing what will likely happen before it does by studying the book, and being able to tell real activity from spoofing, etc. I like this style! It makes so much more sense than using charts of price. Remember you only see the past on charts-- tape snd book reading allows wise anticipation of what will happen as you are seeing the orders prior to execution. Then learning from the actual executed orders what on the book was spoof or real--- its difficult , but some can do it. surf
That's my concern with it right there: one ends up investing a great deal of effort trying to guess icebergs and fakes vs legitimate bids and offers, reducing the amount of attention available for the rest.
Everything in speculation is guessing. Only the deluded think otherwise. I just prefer to base my guesses on whats about to happen rather than some kind of historic record.