Daytrading setup questions

Discussion in 'Professional Trading' started by newguy05, Feb 11, 2008.

  1. Hey guys, got a couple more questions. I been making ok progress on my daytrading learning, but still tough with a fulltime 9-7 job.

    I plan to daytrade equities only, just the regular stocks on nyse/nasdaq.

    1) TOS doesnt cut it, i have switched to NinjaTrader. For its market data feed, i read zen-fire is the best. But is zen-fire for futures trading only? or does it provide regular stock data feeds too?

    Also anyone have recommandations which company to use that are relatively cheap/good for zen-fire feed, only need it for stocks


    2) If you cut through all the bs about training/be in a team etc.., the only real difference between putting money to join a prop firm vs trading by your own using ninjatrader and say IB as broker are:

    - Prop firm lets you borrow much more money to trade with vs just your own captial if doing it alone
    - Prop firm requires you to have series 7 license
    - Prop firm provides you all the trading softwares needed to do in office or remote trade

    Is this correct? Since i am just starting out trading only 100 blocks i dont really need to extra leverage, and assume i am happy with the trading software i am using (ie: NT). Is there any advantage to join a prop firm?

    3) What do you guys daytrade? do you all start daytrading futures or normal stocks? what about most prop firms, i heard they only daytrade stocks?

    4) If i am daytrading stocks only, i have a system of when to enter/exit a position based on chart etc. But how do you PICK which stock to daytrade with? Right now i just have a few symbols like ebay, mer, yhoo etc.. that are very liquid.

    Is there a better way, how do you pick which stock to trade with for each day? Is it by the top 10 highest volatility? biggest gain/loss?

    thanks
     
  2. 1) futures only
    2)There are firms that don't require licenses to use their capital. The true firms do require them, but they will pay you a small salary and not require your own money ( of course these are extremely difficult to get into).
    3) I daytrade both. Some firms will allow you to trade futures, although it really isn't necessary because of the amount of leverage you'll have with their funds.
    4) This is a bit relative. Everyone has their own strategies. I trade momentum, so I scan for volume and price patterns.



     

  3. dang if zen-fire is futures only, what's a good(and relatively cheap) data feed provider for normal stocks? need level2 and market depth too. Here's the list ninjatrader support:

    DTNiQ
    eSignal
    FuturesBetting
    GAIN Capital
    Interactive Brokers
    MB Trading
    OpenTick
    Patsystems
    Track Data
    TradeStation
    Trading Technologies
     
  4. I switched from stocks to FX, back in late 2007. I'd like to get back involved in stocks, but fx is better for beginners I think because you can get in for little capital, and if you use it right, it will last you longer.

    but for stocks, I recomend that you subscribe to briefing.com