Well, my vote would be for Counselor Troy - she could "feel" when the market was turning. Just my $.02.
Que, That kind of treatment of members is unacceptable here. It does not take a seasoned trader to smell spam, its just as obvious to newbies. If you don't have anything of value to contribute, then don't. Kirk
Captain Kirk said it best....back off. Sorry still in Trek mode. Speaking of Que....what about Q. Might be a little easier to trade if you are an omniscient all knowing being with unlimited power. Or 7 of 9 could indeed fit the bill. She could assimilate the MM's into the Collective and know all their intentions before hand and trade with them.
having given serious thought to this important topic, seems we should not 'sell short' Kirk's potential as a trader.... what's that old saying(?): i'd rather be lucky than good? How many guys u know with a toup and a beer gut who , week after week, consistently bag the hottest intergalactic babes of every conceivable species? U could say Kirk's planets were properly aligned...pun intended. let Data do his analysis and back testing - the future is still full of unknown variables...i say give Kirk a Wall Street Journal, a set of darts, and full margin...
oh yeah, as if he did a great job with his priceline.com shares/options! ps I am officially a geek (having replied to this thread)
Why limit trading to only one? "Assimilate" them. Data does the research and backtesting, Troi reads the minds of the MM's so there are no hidden games, Spock executes each trade with emotionless efficiency, and Kirk keeps bagging the babes (for some reason he's always been my favorite .) ..the perfect trading team Sorry Alex, way off topic, but a nice diversion. I agree with Babak, lol, but I've never attended one of those conferences dressed as a Klingon... Kirk
neo, Just a reminder here. I don't know if you read my post in a previous thread you started. Again, for the swingtrader, the ultimate nightmare is the overnight gap-up or gap-down--which could be huge. Stops can't save you in such situations. With a small account, you've got to be doubly cautious. Since you've committed half of your capital to one single position, an adverse gap-up or gap-down could hurt you really good. (I'm speaking all this from my experience.) Personally, I'd rather go with options, which limit your risks considerably, that is, IF you do things correctly. stockoptionist
This is probably not as feasible with so few shares, but to avoid overnight exposure sell your position before the close and buy it on the open. I do this a lot, especially recently with the terrorist potential. Positives: You eliminate overnight risk, your stops are always working, you may be able to buy on a gap down and improve your position. Negatives Higher commissions and you may miss a gap in your favor. If the stock doesn't move much overnight then you lose only commissions and slippage (but you can minimize if you are patient). If you trade with IB, your cost would be $2 per day for 100 shares round trip. Of course 2% is a lot on a 100 shares. Use buy and sell stops, not mental stops. You can then walk away and not worry about it. Also, consider selling 50% when you're up 7% by putting in a limit order at your target price. scaling in and out is tough though with so few shares because of commissions.
Hi Stockoptionist although it's a bit off topic, since we talk about emotions and startrek here ;-) : how could one with such a small account probably earn the cost of spread + commissions inherent in daytrading of options while reducing his risk compared to stock-trading ? I'd say, although premiums came down quite a bit compared to 1999 / 2000 - you would be better off if you select strong trending stocks, buy the dips and hold your options as long as the trend prevails (also overnight ) in order to become profitable, wouldn't you ? If you have only 4K to trade with ( like NEO ) and not much other net worth - than you'd probably have a problem with opening an options account with your broker. 2nd. IMHO the so called "overnight risk" for a swingtrader is vastly overdone. The problem was, that many a daytraders carried huge positions ( compared to their account size , probably with extensive use of margin ) in high beta stocks. A gap against the trade the next morning could destroy such an account in no time. This is something the daytrading industry liked to spread in order to force daytraders to close their positions by the end of the day and reopen them the next day, thereby creating commissions. Swing trading is for sure not buy & hold ! But it's not scalping for a few cent with huge positions either. Infact - if you're in the right stocks, you can make quite some money by overnight holding and selling in the morning. Check the stocks in your trading list, how often they open higher the next day and keep on trading higher for some time before the ST trend reverses. Swingtraders carry typically much smaller positions than the daytraders / scalpers. Their goal is, to buy low ( weakness ) and sell high - going with the tide. This includes careful stock-selection, precise timing, tight stop-management and holding positions or parts of their positions overnight if the swing demands it, in order to squeeze the most profit out of the position. ( for a 4K account like Neo's, it's the only choice to trade when he wants to trade stocks rather than options btw. ) Swingtraders do not necessarily have to trade the same stocks with huge intraday volatility as daytraders. If they do, their positions are so much smaller, so they can manage the risk much better. If they start a position with 300 shares, they might take 1/3 to 2/3 rd of this position off the table once they made a profite and leave 1/3 overnight in order to participate from either a morning gap or from a further increase of profit on the next trading day. Just my opinion, of course.