Greenleaf's Journal

Wow! Just looking at the picks you've recommended the past couple days and most of them made pretty big gains. Nice little formula you got there. Please keep posting your top picks each day - it makes for good study material.

I'm just starting to get my feet wet this week in the world of day/swing trading. I've only got a $5000 cash account with Ameritrade right now, but I don't suppose I need all the bells and whistles of a direct access broker while I'm just learning.

I'm trying to swing trade right now as I don't have the necessary funds ($25,000) quite yet for day trading account. I'd like to switch over to IB or maybe Tradestation once I get enough cash together.

I've been reading a lot of books lately too. I really like Tony Oz's style. Was his 4 CD stock trading course worth the $400? There's one on eBay right now I'm thinking about getting.

Thanks

 

kramer, you don't need 25k to have an account at IB or Tradestation. I would highly recommend that you switch now and use small lots (this is exactly what IB is for!), like 100 shares, to start with. actually, i'd recommend paper trading first until your are a master at what you are doing. i had an ameritrade account when i started and looking back what a joke that was!

 

congratulations!!!

one other question that i don't think you've answered so far...what are your setups? i notice that you have been using a pullback setup, where you're long when it makes a higher high. do you have other setups? do you short? thanks!

 

I liked Tony Oz's books, Alexander Elder's books, Lukeman, Stridsman, Darvis, Tharp, Kaufman, Douglass, Nison, Landry, Lefevre, Crabel, McMillan, Natenburg, Teweles, etc. It's not necessarily that the books are all great from cover to cover, but it's more of immersing oneself in everything to do with trading. One advantage I've had is that when I approach things, I do so with the ardent desire to be the best. I will do whatever it takes.

I would say my trading strategy is similar to Tony Oz and even margo_trader from this board (without all of the lines and indicators). Support and resistance. I also based this strategy on some of Landry's breakout patterns from his Swing Trading book.

I am always thinking about how I can mechanize my strategy, but for now it's pretty subjective and very discretionary. But a longstanding goal is to make the computer do more of the work for me.

I got a chuckle out of the irony of TRAD last night when I looked up the company name for fun. I didn't even realize it was Tradestation.

Thanks for your continued support on this thread.

 

I agree with funky about IB. Ameritrade, at $20+ per round trip, will chew through your account in no time. I don't use any fancy IB bells and whistles. I do everything through "SMART", meaning it picks the exchange for me.

Tony Oz's CDs were worth the money for me. I learned that line drawing technique for stops, which helped the CDs pay for themself in one good trade. They're also good to play for motivation now and then, even if the material is not new.

 

For longs, I look for stocks that have been in a strong uptrend (preferably not a bounce from a downtrend). I look for this on the weekly chart. Then I look for a pullback and some consolidation at a certain level, indicating a good support level and a reduced risk of further huge drops. Then I look for signs that the stock is going to move higher again, such as higher lows, white candle bodies, and narrow trading ranges. I don't do enough with volume I don't think as I don't factor it in much at all.

I try to enter on a break of the day's high or the previous day's high, or on some consolidation in the intra chart.

For shorts, I look for stocks in a strong downtrend on the weekly chart, a bit of a rise, some consolidation, and then a break of the support level like it's going to fall off a cliff.

When some short candidates start showing up, you'll see.

-- Dickie Greenleaf

 

Here were my executions today. I scaled out of TRAD, as you can see.

 

What exactly is ADR...I'm assuming in your formula you are not talking about American Depository Receipts.....or meant to say Average True Range (ATR). Sorry for being stupid..but it's killing me that I don't know what this is???

 

Sorry for not explaining this... It's Average Daily Range. I don't like the ATR because it counts gaps as part of the bar's range, which I think is misleading.

So, the daily range is just the High - Low. The ADR(n) is the average of this number for n days.

Thanks for reading.

 

lol...I had just figured this out on a search right before your reply. Thanks for the quick post. I enjoy your journal greatly and am very impressed by your results so far. Good Luck Wednesday! Can't wait to see how you do the rest of the week