Shorteee, I understand your confusion. However, I have been to the trading course and I fully understand what Don is saying. I know that doesn't help you, as to you it sounds like a bunch of gibberish. FWIW, I have modified what I learned at the course, doing my own resarch, but taking at face value what was said there and modifying it . The result - I am astonished. It is almost as if I am witnessing the buidling blocks of market movements in a statistical sense. A kind of fundamental building principle, a kind of String Theory or a Quantum Mechanics of the markets. Am I recommending the course? Only if you get what I got out of it! It is funny, but I saw people confused _AT_THE_COURSE_ the way you are here! If you want to take the course, how can you prepare? Simple ways are learn to play poker for a living, bridge for a living, etc. Don't want to do that? Learn some basic statistics, maybe by playing liars poker and winning at it consistently - I can only tell you that you will come away with what you came with. Did this make me into a profitable trader? __YES__BUT_IT_IS_NOT_ENOUGH_IN_ORDER_FOR_METO_MAKE_A_LIVING_DOING_IT. It is amazing to me, but knowing all this, seeing it happen, still does not necessarily make me a profitable trader. I need at least two other skills, 1) good tape reading, and 2) something that I have not being able to put into words, yet I know I lack it at this point. I would like to say experience, but then that would be too vague...I have read Hitman's post elsewhere, and one can sense that he has it - a kind of experience that only being in the trenches fighting for your life can give you...Not indicators, not strategies, nohing but pure INSTINCT. Finally, I do not trade at Bright, or Echo, Worldco, etc., I trade with IB. But rest assured, as soon as my situtation changes, it's off to one of them. Regarsds, nitro
Geez, just when I thought I could head off for New Years..... (oops, forgot to hit submit...so here goes). 1. "Post opening" is the few minutes after the stock opens. 2. "Acting well" is read from the tape as it relates to the overal market...indicators, group, etc. 3. This would be crutch pair if it falls within an acceptable range of contraction and expansion for the current week's trading of the pair. We try to always cross the "zero-position" line every 3 days (this insures that we are "trading" rather than "hanging on and hoping"... 4. We try to never predetermine our exit pricing, preferring to simply find good exit points based on overall market conditions (this will generally run in the $.25 -$.75 range, however). Regarding scalping and/or daytrade: We treat the trade as any other after we are in it. Looking for proper exit points based our own trading guidelines.
Here are my opening play's for today: Trades: UNH, long at 70, exit at 60,95, looser (looked kind of heavy) BBY, long at 73,80, exit at 74,05, WINNER MMM, long at 117,03, exit at 117,36, WINNER Paper trades from watchlist: WINNERS: via'b, C, ABT, FDC, OMC, UN, WMI, STM, ADP, RSH, PX, MU, MER, MTG, DNA, FRE, FRX, EP, DE, LOOSERS: JPM, STJ, CL, XL, WFT, SII, AET, BCR, CSX, CVC, CAM, FRX, IRF, ANN 19 winners, 15 loosers
Don, have you done a study compairing your gain and losses vs that stocks relative volume for that day? Could prove interesting. See thread "Estimating today's volume". JJ
Here is my opening play's for today: Trades: UTX, short at 64,80, exit at 65,05, LOOSER PG, long at 79,31, exit at 79,56, WINNER VIA'B, long at 43,32, exit at 43,05, looser Not too many fills on 20 orders, but in terms of winner/ratio statistically "correct" over the long haul.
Filled on 4, 3 profitable (other one could have been, I covered too soon). Made $940...(I hope I don't get "jinxed" by posting this stuff)
Here is my opening play's for today: BBY, short at 74,4, exit at 74,57 BA,short at 39,65, exit at 39,72 UN, long at 57,05, exit at 56,96 AOL, long at 31,23, exit at 31,15 None of the stocks today would have given me a 1/4 profit as projected. BA was close with a 20 cents paper profit until turning sharply up. At least I have a good sense of the tape in turns of losses, all the openings today would have been stooped out with a 1/4 loss, instead I managed to reduce my losses to an average loss of 10,5 cents per trade. But what a poor day for openings!! Don, I researched my watchlist in terms of an envelope of .4 instead of .5. Today that would have yielded 3 times more loosers than using the ordinary .5 envelope. With an .4 envelope my P/L ratio was a meager 37,5%. With a .5 envelope the ratio would have been 44%. Comments appreciated!!