I didn't trade today because I was busy at work all day. I'm a corporate trainer. I teach people to use .NET applications. I was teaching all day... But I checked my Scottrade portfolio today and saw a nice loss in longterm investments. Ouch. I got in on SPY a few years ago at 117. Today it closed at 137.35. I don't like that seeing as how it was 146 a few days ago. I'm thinking about selling my SPY positions and picking up that 2x inverse S&P ETF. But I have to be careful with that. That's like automatic 2x margin there. However, today's candle shape (at stockcharts.com) for SPY suggets that tomorrow might be an up day. It's an inverse hammer, but following a downtrend... isn't that a bullish symbol? (In before Nihaba Ashi comes in here and tells me I'm wrong with my candle shape analysis)
You and I never had a discussion about an inverted hammer in SPY even though you didn't say we did. Just wanted to make sure someone reading your comments don't assume we did have a conversation about SPY. I do remember replying to your comments after you replied to cashmoney69 about his WAG chart. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=1331958 Here's the actual discussion... http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=85045&perpage=1&pagenumber=40 We will now have a discussion about SPY. Simply, the Inverted Hammer on your SPY chart is different (occurring after a down expansion interval) in comparison to your Inverted Hammer commentary on the WAG chart (occurring after a up expansion interval). Another way to look at it...the one on the WAG chart is involved in a Exit Method. The one you just mentioned on your SPY chart is involved in a Entry Method. Two completely different price action situations. What was wrong (as shown in your quote involving WAG) was that you called an Inverted Hammer a Shooting Star in your commentary to cashmoney69. You even put a question mark after the words Shooting Star to imply you were unsure. However, your recent commentary involving SPY and its Inverted Hammer occurring after a down trend... That's correct in that it is a Inverted Hammer (you didn't call it a Shooting Star). Is a Inverted Hammer that gaps down via its body in a downtrend a bullish sign as you implied above? I don't know nor do I trade such a pattern. Therefore, I cannot comment upon using such a pattern as a bullish reason to buy something. Once again, your wrong analysis had everything to do with incorrect terminology of a Japanese Candlestick line you called a Shooting Star in your reply to cashmoney69 when in fact it was an Inverted Hammer. Shooting Stars can only occur within or after a price rise that involved a expansion interval or volatility spike... They do not occur as part of a price pullback. Inverted Hammers can occur either in a price pullback after a price rise or they can occur in a downtrend that involved a expansion interval or volatility spike. Thus, inverted hammers are more dynamic than shooting stars. Just setting the record straight so that you don't think I was talking about price direction involving your commentary when in fact I was talking about you incorrectly labeling a candlestick line as something it was not. Mark (a.k.a. NihabaAshi) Japanese Candlestick term
Exactly. You are playing a loser's game if your commissions form such a large portion of your total profit, it will kill you in the long run.
I have to agree with the last post......you need a system to trade that you are comfortable with. "Playing around" will only lose you money.
Just reading thru this thread. First the whole "piker" thing. This is someone insulting you because in their eyes you aren't a bigshot trader ( whatever the f**k) that means. Your thread is asking for it, reread the title, is this a good title for an aspiring trader? A non-piker would have an issue with this because it shows you lack confidence in your ability. Second there are many methodologies, timeframes, etc. You shorted 600 shares around $20.00. If you are going to scalp make sure you're platform is direct access. If you don't know what this means stop scalping or you are a market maker's wet dream. You must keep and honor tight stops if you are gonna scalp. We have all been burned by a scalp trade gone wild. Maybe you want to look at pharma, and subprime for some short ideas. There is a book by John Murphy called "Intermarket Analysis", I would recommend it along with a better understanding of average true range with regard to profit targets. Good luck with your trading!!
^ Thanks for the reply. So is this considered scalping? I really thought scalping was going for 1-2 cent per share profit per trade and making 100s of trades per day. Direct access means you bypass the market makeers, right?