Chat room reviews

stock_punter · Dec 8, 2001

Huby,

Those are interesting stats. I like how you broke it down month by month and looked at drawdowns. Good layout.

Probably worthwhile to point out that those numbers are of most concern if you trade a fixed number of shares on each position (ie, 1000 shares of a $5 stock, as well as 1000 shares of a $70).

If you trade a fixed dollar amount per trade, such as $1000, then I think you'd be more interested in the % return on that $1000 per trade.

-- Punter

stockoptionist · Dec 8, 2001

Turok,

I didn't mean to steal one of your subjects. It's just that we just need to be a skeptic when people claim such results.

Stockpunter,

You're really good at math, which is not exactly my strong suit.

Turok · Dec 8, 2001

>Turok, I didn't mean to steal one of your subjects.

The comment was meant in humor.

>It's just that we just need to be a skeptic when
>people claim such results.

ABSOLUTELY!!!

JB

Don Bright · Dec 8, 2001

I would like to do an article about the various chat rooms, their results (real or otherwise), and am asking if those of you who have posted mind if I reference your comments. I won't use any real names (or aliases for that matter if you don't want me to)...but I would like to add to my prior years notes on the subject, and make some additions.

Please let me know if you have any objections.

ProTrader1 · Dec 8, 2001

I would hate to see my comments in your article as an example of stupidity.

ProTrader1

RockTheLurker · Dec 8, 2001

Don,

I have NoProblem with YOU using mine....Stupid or otherwise.

I stand by what I POST!!!

....as always,

GoodInvesting, Rocky

Threei · Dec 8, 2001

Originally posted by huby
Reality trader is excellent for learning, but some of the calls are quite vague.

Huby,

let me try to address this, not trying to defend or promote something but rather to understand your point and, if I get it, maybe correct something in what we do.

Like you said, our main purpose is education, so we do not call the stocks just because. Each call is based on certain setup. We have setups defined, with description of how they should be played, what serves as a trigger, where stop should be placed etc. So when our scanner finds opportunity, alert looks like: ABCD, JBE setup, trigger 20, stop 19.75. In this kind of cases it looks to me like everything is defined for those who went through setup description.
Now, here come parts that can be more vague. First of all, closing of the trade. We usually do not have targets set in advance because our approach is tape reading which means we are looking for certain event rather than price or percentage. Usually fast buying with volume spike signals first partial out (sell in full for scalpers), so if stock is getting slow buying with steady volume we will continue to hold, and we will alert to sell/partial out on that spike no matter where it happens, 20 cents or 2 dollars higher. I do believe that this might seem somewhat vague for a trader who is new with us but that's natural process of learning the method (unless the method of calling is plain "buy here, sell there" which is not our idea of chat room).
There is one more case when we might be vague. See, trading is live process, and no trader is always experiencing the same level of confidence in every situation. It happens sometimes that we see activity that does not match the setup exactly... I mean it resembles setup, but has some elements lacking, or just broad market situation is unclear, or some inner feeling is not speaking loud... it's highly liquid world, trading is. In this kind of case our alert might sound like thinking out loud rather that definite call. I don't think we need to weed this out, it shows the process of thinking, trade evaluation, and many traders are interested to see this. After all, our purpose is not just calls making money. Our purpose is traders learned to make money. Pretty often we observe this process of trader finding HIS/HER way to trade the setup: some trade it directly, some fade it, some scalp it. That's the idea of setup: to bring the structure in the chaos, showing the points that serve as triggers for different reactions, or if you will, as IFs for trader's THENs.

Concerning the question of "if anyone makes consistent money with chat room"... well, we have many traders with us that joined us more than year ago when we launched, so I guess it speaks for itself

Please let me know if I left out some of points that strike you as being vague. I am really interested to see whether it's just misunderstanding or we really fail to express ourselves sometimes. Or I should say not "we" but "I", because Chris is usually more particular about trades than I am... Hard to tell why it happens, probably it reflects the fact that we as a traders are what we are as a human beings, with all our uniqueness. If we do it somewhat different from each other, I take it as added benefit... pick what you like, or graduate from one approach to another

Best regards,

Vadym
More...

Turok · Dec 8, 2001

>Reality trader is excellent for learning, but some
>of the calls are quite vague.

Again, anyone can read my comments on RealityTrader T/A in the post that began this thread, but I would like to comment on the above.

RealityTrader T/A has not been vague even once since I've been in there. They call entry prices, stops, partial points and exit points. Oh sure, there is an occasional problem with the guys getting lazy with terminology and leaving us newbies a bit confused, but a quick question will always be rewarded with a quick answer.

From what I've seen with RT-T/A, MT-T/A and Alfa, compared to my experience with UT and Huby's comments regarding RT, it appears much easier to be precise with swing trades than with quick scalp and day trades. In the RT-T/A room, they will give us the risk/reward ratio at the open of the trade (usually 2/1 or greater) so we can use this ratio for position sizing. With this ratio stated, we know where our stop and first partial will be.

I scalp throughout the morning on AMAT and of course I couldn't give you a ratio, partial or exit if my life depended on it. I have an ultimate stop (-.25), but I don't think I wait for that stop point more than one out of a hundred trades.

This is not an endorsement or defense of RT (I've not used their daytrading room) but I commend anyone who could both day/scalp trade and provide un-vague typed commentary throughout.

JB

ProTrader1 · Dec 8, 2001

What's the "bottom line" on RT....how many points a day are you consistently pulling out the market playing their calls?

After all, THAT is the ultimate measure of a method's or a room's value, is it not?

huby · Dec 8, 2001

Before replying to Threei, I'd like to just say: Ya gotta love this board! Where else can you speak directly to the owners of chatrooms and the other well known people in this business. We've got Don Bright here, Tony Oz, now Threei and many others. Thanks for running a great board Barron.

Anyway Threei, in fairness to you and your room I need to clarify something. I've never been a fulltime member with you. I did a trial week with you and one with the T/A guys. I had been with Allen at Mtrader all year and your styles are just different that's all. Allen is extremely precise with his calls. Ie: "long vrsn 40, stop 39.5, looking for 41 for an exit...I just got filled at 40.05". When I was with you guys it "seemed" vague to me perhaps because I wasn't used to your style. You guys could have made the same call by saying "vrsn looks like it's breaking out, above 40 looks like a long to me". It's the same call but just different wording. I guess I just wasn't used to that style. Because I wasn't used to it I guess I wondered a few times: "well is that a call or not?" Does that make sense?

I was very impressed with your overall room and I'm sure if I spent enough time there I'd like it. Hope that clarifies what I originally said.