for those of you who trade listed, do you use the open book? I used the open book a ton when I scalped things like lu and nt. But at my current shop, we are allowed to trade anything. It can be a 10 second scalp, to full day position trade. I just so happens that my boss never used the open book and doesn't believe in it. He mainly likes to scalp the NAS. So for all you who prefer listed stocks like ibm or pfe, whatever the case may be, do you use the open book in any way? If so, are you mainly a short term scalper (1 or 5 min chart) or do you like to hold for longer time frames (15-60 min charts)
I rarely can hold for 5 minutes unless I have tons playing on the stock. Most times I can jump in and jump out with in 10 to 60 minutes. If I get into a situation where I'm long a stock and it's not going anywhere but down, I'll sell and cut my losses and look for something else. It's just one of those days. I look at my trades as a monthly gain or loss. What did I gain for the month versus what was lost. I try not to get worked up on a loss and realize it's part of the game. I've found I lose more on the Nasdaq than I do on NYSE. I think each person has to live by a set a rules that works for them. For me I follow some like these: I daytrade higher cap stocks I don't get greedy. A gain is a gain. Higher volume Don't chase or get suckered into momentum (sometimes) Save the love affair for stocks as investments not trades.
what kind of evidence do you need slipcity? some guy coming over and handing you his statements and P&L? Why wouldn't you be able to make money off these stocks? Seeing that you are the greatest daytrader in the history of mankind, please enlighten us. I suppose the money we've made are just illusion, right? To be honest with you, it's much much easier to make money off high priced high volume stocks than your rinky-dink stocks. Go to traders P&L and you'll see lots of people with their blotter and what stocks they trade in and out of. Of course, that would never be enough for you as evidence seeing that 90% of people are better than you and you refuse to believe that.
I use the Open Book as a reference, but always looking at the Prints. I don't like IBM or PFE because they are in the Dow Jones, thus they present "thickness" in the bids and asks. I look at a 1 day chart with 3 minute bars in which I only put 1 moving average which I use as a reference. No DMI, RSI, Bollinger Bands, MACDonald's or any of the interminable list of studies that service providers offer. Technical Indicators look nice in past term, but the market always finds a way to screw them. I only use charts to see the stock/market direction.
I dont buy this. NASDAQ MM's are extinct for the most part. ECN's have all the order flow. The days of MM's manipulating stocks are done and supersoes killed their edge. I know this b/c I was one.
good stuff. I've been tinkering around with line charts at times...just to see price better. Some traders I know that focus mainly on price seem to scalp. Do you scalp or hold out for longer? (by scalping i would mean...hm....lets say the first leg down on a short on brcm is usually 40 cents...so maybe taking 10-15 cents on that is a scalp. Theres a guy in my shop that focuses more on price and levels than anything else...but he still has 1 chart with all these indicators on it, and he mainly position trades. Just curious. Thanks.
I won't argue with you about the NASDAQ, is not my field of expertise (I don't have any), but if you feel good in the NASDAQ that's good for you.