Roger, I just looked at these and I think the chart Jens posted is a little off as you suspected. I show the NQ peaking in the 9:55 candle at 1500 and AMAT peaking in the 10:00 candle at 44.15. Also, even this much of a lead for the futures over a stock like AMAT is quite unusual. It looks like the $SOX was lagging a bit on Thursday morning. If your feed doesn't include the NQ, you can watch the QQQ. They are quite close. You can also probably still see the NQ for free using Quote.com livecharts or the free version of NexTrend. -v
sorry guys, the chart is shifted. I cant seem to adjust that in my charting platform. I always use 2 seperate charts when comparing in realtime. I posted that chart more to show the generall idea, that stocks follow the futures. Sorry again, Jens
JSkeldon, My picks would be AMAT and NVDA ... the charts and explanation can be found here: http://www.geocities.com/rangecontraction/marketsynergy.html Click on the link (the full URL is not shown) By trading AMAT and NVDA in lot sizes commensurate with your risk profile, your risks can be controlled, and you will be able to benefit on the upside from the occasional parabolic move of these stocks, relative to QQQ. If you haven't traded them before, I would recommend starting out with lot sizes of 100 to 200 shares, until you become more comfortable with their behaviour. P.S. If you have a single monitor, scroll across to find the second chart.
Guys, don't recommend a 'wet behind the ear' newbie trade these stocks (NVDA,AMAT). He's going to crash & burn. Only experienced professionals should attempt these. You can be down 30c or more in the blink of an eye. If you truly trade these you should know this. And they don't always follow the QQQs or the NDX. They get very squirrely more than occasionally. New traders should stick to INTC or MSFT, and for some time just watch before accepting the greater risks of an NVDA. It's enticing to jump right into the fast stuff but don't do it. Good change can be had trading INTC with much less risk. "Know when to hold em, and know when to fold em, know when to walk away, and know when to run..."
When a move is cash-led then tier 1 stocks will actually lead the futures not follow them. As for recommending NVDA to a newbie as a trading stock I would agree that that's a bad idea. AMAT, however, is a rather slow mover, highly liquid and thus definitely suited for a beginner. Dave
Turok <I>I traded amat exclusively for 3 months mid year. Made over 3500 trades in that amount of time keying off the futures. Was making 10 grand a month on lots of 500 shares Finally decided I had graduated to "faster" stocks and moved on to a basket of about 10 additional stocks. Haven't made that much money since. Why the hell did I stop?</I> 12 weeks was a good run, I find that my trading strategies degenerate in 6-8 weeks and have to be constantly developing new ones. I thought the reason degeneration happened, for me, was over confidence. Now I tend to develop a style/stock and dump it as soon as degeneration creeps in. Ken
I traded INTC today by using the Nasdaq futures. I thought that it would mimic the NQ futures more closely than it actually did. I noticed many times when the futures were selling off, INTC was remaining relatively steady and was reluctant to sell off. I thought that maybe this was due to INTC being part of the DOW and the DOW ended in the green and was much stronger than the NDX. Wish I could just trade the QQQ's again. I might try another liquid NDX stock tommorow that mirrors the NDX futures. Maybe AMAT or SUNW. What do you think?
VRSN IMHO in a great stock to trade,but naturally I might be wrong since I've been trading for only 4 months. But really ,VRSN gives you daily chances to make profits . Yes,today we had very high trading volume :NASDAQ 1.95 BILL. and a good trading range. Finally after swetting for so long,we had followthroughs trades. Check out VRSN today. Good short spot 10am under yesterday's low (and 5dl) and just ride it down . Sorry ,in days like today I get carried away . . Angela.
I have had a horrible last three days trying to trade INTC profitably. Trying to sell breakdowns or breakouts seems very difficult. The stock seems to oscillate back and forth a lot. My trading methods have not worked at all with this stock. Maybe it is just the trading conditions over the last couple of days. I think next week I am just going to sell the 3 MA High and buy the 3 MA Low as long as 28 period momentum is negative or positive. A method I read in Jake Bernstein's day trading book. Has anyone used this type of method. Works great if a stock is just trading in a tight range. Do any of you experienced traders have any thoughts on a better method trading a liquid stock like INTC. Thanks.