Thanks... you verified my impression. I currently have a small bag of tricks and am constantly developing more. Different axeman, I dont gamble Anyone else care to share? peace axeman
"Different axeman, I dont gamble " For a trader, that's a serious personality flaw. Most great traders have a history of gambling.
Axeman, I am always adding good techniques to my arsenal. However, at any given time (e.g., week, month) I tend to favor one or two that I think best fit(s) the personality of the current market.
hi axeman, interesting thread this one. just wanted to contribute my little bit to it. i 'll get to axe's question in just a tic.. i started just under year ago trading equites retail. at my peak this year i was up 42k. made a big change up in strategy (thought i was really onto something..) and gave back 5k. had some family probs lately and haven't traded for the most part of the last two months (hence the big number of posts!). results are nothing to write home about, but considering i take very little risk (in dollar terms, typically much less than $100/trade) i'm pretty pleased. i'm in this for the long term and don't mind taking my time to increase size. to axeman, i basically trade only a couple of techniques, although i have a few variations of them. i came up with some different ones mid year, but they didn't pan out all that well, so i'm putting them on pause until i can develop them a bit further. to dotslashfutures: i'll say it again. you really do need start getting a clue about daytrading. it seems as though you put it down every chance you get, and yet, to me, it's obvious you know precious little about trading on an intraday basis. (you know what's pretty funny? you harp on about the importance of letting winners run, and yet trade options. and seem to have only recently realised that you can indeed be right on direction and still lose money with them. congratulations sherlock.)
quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Originally posted by dotslashfuture Brandon was right, the average trader will lose money, not make money. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Originally posted by NasdaqTrader Trading is very simple.What i do is follow the futures tick by tick,trade liquid Nasdaq stocks,and cut losses fast.You have to be quick to admit when you're wrong and get out.I know that most of the time,stocks will trade toward size as well as toward whole numbers.So by positioning myself before it gets there,i'm able to make a quick 20-30 cents numerous times throughout the day. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I do the same thing. I usually play KLAC, MSFT or a few other high volume TECH stocks that still move a $1.00 or so a day. I am in and out for as little as $0.20. I take more if it's moving, but happy when I move positive by $.20. I make more Short trades than long. If you can't or won't short I would agree that it would be difficult to make money. I don't get greedy, and I bail quickly if it starts to reverse the direction I am trading. As for the guy in the article making 25% for the year, I don't see how he can be successful. I often make that in a week. Unless he has a huge account, which would not make sense with what some brokers are paying in cash accounts, I could not live on that, much less build a real "big boy Portfolio" I still hear lots of negative remarks, and warnings about shorting stocks. For most of the last two years if you are shorting you are very limited. Back this summer it was well over 30 days before the market saw any kind of up day. Forget the exact time frame but towards the end of spring. Also I read a lot of guys still trying to daytrade using Online brokers. In my opinion it can't be done without a direct access broker. Don
Don, How do you measure success for the guy making 25% a year? How large (in dollars) is a "huge account" ?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ originally posted by m22au How do you measure success for the guy making 25% a year? How large (in dollars) is a "huge account" ? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I would say someone would have to have 500K and plus in their account, as a minimum. Which would gross $125K. Minus the expenses of broker fees, computer equipment, kept updated, as well as fees for connections a few good news sites etc. Most brokerages are not paying anything or very little so it makes no sense to keep that kind of extra money in one's account. With margin 4 to 1 I would think 1/5 would do the trick. A day trader with 30K making 400% to 500% a year, putting the other cash into high yielding bonds and short time frame CD's would overall do better. Don
Don, How do you measure success for the guy making 25% a year? Also, this guy, if he makes less than $125K (minus trading expenses) a year, may live very happily. Just because you could not live on $125K (minus trading expenses) a year does not mean others cannot. Curious, you said that you often make 25% in a week. Is this a return on your equity or buying power?