Thanks Mike for your recent comment. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83605&perpage=6&pagenumber=241 The more we know, the more we know what we don't know. Out of respect to Elite Trader, here is and edited post from another site about my background. "As a young boy of about 7 years old, I dreamt of making a lot of money in the stock market and real estate. About 3 years ago, we were about to sell our condo and start flipping houses, but a bump on the road came in. We became victims of a leaky condo here in British Columbia, Canada. We almost filed for bankruptcy but decided against it. We said, instead of filing for bankruptcy, let's keep our credit clean and try the stock market. The plan was: I'll work overtime so that my wife could learn how to trade stocks. It was going to be her full time work so that she could look after the kids. The company that she was working for closed down. We enrolled at TMTT. She got pregnant with our third child. Her health was not very well due to her pregnancy,stress from the previous work, and other factors. I ended up learning how to trade stocks primarily. Stress was high as I had to deal with my full time work, learn stocks, deal with the leaky condo problem, family obligations, etc. Currently, the leaky condo problem is fixed and the value went up. People tell me that playing the stock market is gambling. I tell them if you don't know what you're doing, yes. (Or even though you know what you're doing but you let your emotions cloud your analysis.) Otherwise, it's a profession. Almost everything in life is a gamble if you really look at it. I bought real estate thinking I got a good deal at that time. Got hit with about $60,000 for leaky condo repairs. Thought that I got a bad deal and was tempted to sell or just walk out. Now, it feels that I made the right decision not to walk out. If we sell our place right now, we would be in the plus. The place feels like it's getting smaller(because my family is getting bigger). To me, buying real estate is just like buying stocks. I buy it because at that point of time it looks good and sell at a later time because it doesn't look good anymore. Buying and selling real estate or stocks you have control if you want to sell it or not. Gambling on the other hand, depends on chance. You hope for that dice to land on your favour or get a good card. Hope and chance is just some of the difference between gambling and trading. When our third baby was born, we had to decide whether or not my wife should go back to work. We decided for her to stay home and look after the kids. We have 3 boys ages 14,7,and almost 2 (as of February 19, 2007) Our reasoning was: Money could always be earned one day but we cannot turn back time (this was the reason why she became so upset with me. I ended up spending more time learning stocks than having quality time with my family.) My wife is feeling a little better now and is planning to look into trading the stock market. Financially, it's tough to be a one income earner. But, I would rather do something than to wait around for things to happen. I don't want my children's children to go through what we went through. One of the experience that comes to mind was the feeling I felt when my family were inhaling the fumes while the condo was under repair. Our privacy was invaded and we felt like prisoners (the mesh that was covering the building was blocking our view and the sun.) I was really concerned for my wife's health, the baby (that was still in her tummy at that time), and my 2 boys. One of my goals for writing this is hopefully, someone else reading this will not make the same mistake I did. I would be really happy if I found out that even only one's family is spared from breaking up."
Thanks Elite Trader for all the help. Nkhoi, those video links really makes learning easier. The volatility expansion with a volume spike seems similar to the volume exhaustion that I saw on the puretick video. It seems to coincide with John Bollinger's momentum low too. The wolfe wave targets of 1.27% and 1.62% fibonacci retracements is still a grey area to me because there seems to be conflicting interpretations. Would the buy points (on a bullish WW) be accompanied with a volume spike. What I've observed so far is: Within a descending channel, an FTT is formed and becomes point 1. The point 1 could be the 1.27% then it FBO. (most of the time I notice that it goes lateral after that at first then) Another FTT is formed inside the descending channel and becomes another point 1 which could be the 1.62% (which eventually BO's and forms the new uptrend channel.) Fanning this new channel formed would create a better angle of attack that is more sustainable (not too steep). I decided to ask questions in this thread because I don't know if a volume exhaustion question would be relevant to Spydertrader's journal. I start to read Spydertrader's journal then I see another post that I can't easily ignore like the puretick videos. This would also be an efficient way for me (or anyone) interested to gather information from experts in their different fields. Too many good things here in Elite Trader - I'm having problems concentrating just on 1 thing. Looking forward to your comments and answers.
I know what you mean, the way I deal with it is setting aside this year to do channel only. If Jack has been doing channel for many many years then I think I can take at least 1 year out of my life to learn it, not that I have anything else better to learn any way
True. I'll try my best to concentrate on channels for building wealth first. My 14 year old son wants to learn more about stocks this summer. Those video links you provided will most likely make his learning experience easier. Thanks again. Ares
Still on the search for a common thread among traders. I really like the idea in Spydertrader's Journal on how to enter and exit the trades using channels. For now, I'm still not quite sure if the stock has to be over $10 to profit from the channeling method with gaussians. From what I've read, one of the requirements during culling is for a stock to be above $10. I'm really having a hard time focusing only on his journal. I sat down to re-read the channeling for building wealth ( in more detail this time - after scanning through it) then I noticed a post regarding Swift Trade :eek: (Thank goodness for the video links.) I've read the book titled: "Swift Trader: Perfecting the art of day trading by Charles Kim" a few years back (and I liked it) so, sure enough when I saw the post - it caught my attention. I then searched for Cyber Trading University ( a course that I've taken on line a few years back) sure enough, there's a thread about it too. After re-reading my notes, I came across kidPWRtrader's comment on May 25, 2007 that I liked. Elite Trader just keeps on surprising me. I'm sure there is way more for me to learn in here - I'm just not sure if one lifetime is enough to gather all the information that I'm looking for to find the common thread - maybe, I'll have my children continue what I've started So far, it seems that a lot of traders have a problem controlling their emotion. I know for a fact that emotion - the battle of fear and greed is my main challenge. Would the common thread be buying people's fear and selling into their greed? Another common thing that I noticed is, a lot of traders pay attention to PRICE and VOLUME and indicators (MACD, Stochastics, RSI,etc.) are just secondary. I keep on coming across posts that states: Price is king and volume never lies. This may be in the form of charts or level 2 information with time and sales. In order to find that common thread - my goal is to learn and see how professional and experienced traders see things. Currently, this is what I'm looking for: Stock under $10 ( that preferably captures the attention of fundamental and technical traders - from scalpers to long term holders). Recent interest ( unusual increase in price and volume in the daily chart or premarket activity). Intraday break out, pullback or panic selling.
More nice surprises. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=1369781&highlight=Pugliese#post1369781
I'm currently observing FFHL right now. Interesting that the pivot of yesterday's info is 8.42 and the 0.618 of today's high and low so far is 8.41. I wonder if FFHL will make a new daily high with volume higher than yesterday's 118,000 today. Note: This stock has not fully met my criteria. This was not a premarket mover and has not traded over 100,000 shares yet. Another observation is, it traded at least 2.5% above the open. I'm also observing how the channeling method works on a low volume stock like this.
In addition to the observations on the previous post, I'm also watching the 5 minute MACD with the 1 minute stochastics. Level 2 set up is currently not that great. I'm also watching time and sales if it matches the market maker's intentions.