Just noticed the new book, "The Master Swing Trader", by Alan Farley. This fellow posts on another forum, and I see the book is sold by Amazon. Any comments on the book? I sometimes think swing trading might be safer than day trading.
I would also like to see more comments from Swing Traders.. Which forum are you talking about ? I do not know this particular book though. I do mostly swing trading. It can become daytrading depending on the conditions . But I use day trading sometimes to offset the recent market volatility going against the swing positions temporarly. I do think swing trading is safer, but anyway it is a question of style and confort with the trader. Daytrading is fine too. The only objective advantage of swing trading is the fact that you let your winners run, for days or weeks at times. Strict daytrading will let go huge profits. That's what made me decide for swing trading. But I can understand others prefer a situation where every trade, every day, is a new adventure. there is no history and no overnight risk.
I used to trade a momentum system that did swing trades but it doesn't work anymore in this market, like the old bull market months back. I noticed that the biggest point gainers at the end of the day were also the biggest point gainers in the morning. I'd buy a few minutes after the open with a close stop. My figuring if this stock has this big of a gap, something is going on and it might continue for awhile. MY stop was a few points, which I adjusted after the close by the same amount. These trades could last for a few days. I had a few really big trades from trading this system. During this market I put this system on the shelf and now just daytrade on news, trade a tight channel on MSFT during the slow hours, and trade serious support resistance breakouts on high volatile stocks. If you understand stops, R multiples, position sizing, and your expectancy it doesn't matter what timeframe you trade. In fact the expectancy of my daytrading systems are a lot less than the swing trading/ position trading systems I use. A book that explain this was written by my trading coach Dr. Van Tharp one of the famous Market Wizards called Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom (yes I'm related to him). It tends to sell out in book stores so I would try Amazon or Traders Press. Another book that might interest you is coming out in a week or 2. Financial Freedom from Electronic Daytrading by Brian June and Dr. Tharp. They are both coaching my trading currently. http://communities.msn.com/rtharpsland Rtharp
hey, I have done a breakout strategy for 6 months now.. but it doesn't work lately... It doesn't loose per se... but im breaking even mainly. I started swing trading and have done very well. Look for the volume blow offs... buy the next day with a tight stop if it makes a new high... nuff said use the ema daily to get you out if there is trouble.
swings, break outs etc.. they all still work now. The issue is to remember the trend and avoid fighting it. If you believed in the countertrend rally in the Nasdaq before christmas, and played the short term break outs, you are likely crying now. However, swing traders who did remember the actual trend, did short NAZ above 2500 or when it broke out the low again [depending on your system]. And THAT was the break out to play. It still all works. But many, and I was among them, forgot why it worked during the bull run and the mania : thanks to the trend. The same is working now, but the trend is reversed for the Naz, that's it. Many confuse hope and reality. Trade the reality. If you use a system which is biased by your hope [let's say Nasdaq should go up], you will systematically (!) trade your hope, not the market. And if they are different [hope and market] you loose.
Swings work but actually keep an eye on tradingmarkets.com as one of the traders tests how many breakouts failed and how many worked and then how the working breakouts did. It's less than 20% of the time for working breakouts, and the returns are a lot less. When we have another bull market it will be the best way to trade but till then other strategies are doing a lot better. rtharp
Connors is a founder of tradingmarkets.com That site has a bunch of stuff on momentum breakout trading. They are Bill O'Neill groupies. And they follow Bill's advice to NOT even TRY to trade breakouts unless the indexes are in a bullish mode. Hence, O'Neill's "follow-through day" test for market conditions that signal whether one should even make a stab at it. So its no surprise momentum setups are failing in here. BTW Robert, read your book a year ago, and its a favorite. Probably helped sell a few for you by recommending it. regards
Win actually the book is by my coach. Dr Van Tharp. My name is Robert. I am recommending it because it's one of the better books I've read. http://content.communities.msn.com/isapi/fetch.dll?action=view_list&ID_Community=Rtharpsland&list=1 is a website of books I recommend, and a lot have nothing to do with my coach. Actually some momentum strategies I know of that Brian June does of trading off of the news are still working quite well. He rates the news on how significant it is, and then looks at the how strong the move is. He will either fade the move if it's weak or if really strong jump on board but turn sides when the market makers start fading the public. (advantage of Level 2) rtharp
swinging really seems to be working lately actually. I have stopped doing breakouts and started swinging only. Just look for 2+ days down followed by heavy volume on the last day. The next day get long if the stock makes a new hod after the 1 hr bar. Then scale out on the way up using the fib retractment numbers mainly. Though you can scale out any way you want. For example, I had great trades on friday on the long side in BUD, CAH, WLP, UHS, WGRD and APC. My only looser was RKY. and I'm still long KP. Not to hype stocks, and not to say that I will even take them, but RKY, PDLI and LPNT are my three favs for monday if you want to watch them for possible swings. If anyone wants a more complete list of what I'm looking at each day, just email me at hkuppy@aol.com I honestly think that this is the best strategy out there for the time being. Just rembember to keep moving up your stops as you scale out.
Praetorian2 Sounds like a great strategy. This set up is also described in that new book Sixth Market by Ken Johnson with the only difference being that instead of the high above the 1 hour bar he just went in at an 1/8 above the previous days high. How have you been doing with this strategy? How many points each day? What percent return, etc? On what web site or software are you running this screen to come up with these stock candidates "where you look for 2+ days down followed by heavy volume on the last day. The next day get long if the stock makes a new hod after the 1 hr bar. Then scale out on the way up using the fib retractment numbers mainly." What is the exact language/parameters you have to enter in the software or web site to come up with these exact stock candidates?