IN my opinion if a person spends time on elite trader , the impression one gets is that most people trade futures.HOWEVER, based upon market data the vast majority of traders deal in stocks. CAN anyone clarify what the elite trader profie is? Possibly some poll taken in the past? THANKS
It could be that those who deal in stocks don't have much need to discuss strategy with others, because it's really always the same: sell high, buy low, sell high, buy low, sell high, buy low, sell high Futures traders usually try to identify optimal entry and exit points and use ever changing methods to do that. At least that's the impression I am getting.
The evolution of this site has been shaped in part by the PDT rule and the Nasdaq "bubble" bursting. Baron's original intent for Elite Trader was to provide a forum for daytraders. At the time of its inception, Nas, level II, and lifting offers, and scalping the spread ruled the day. Stocks that now sell for less than 10 bux were above 100, and intraday ranges were what we see in a week now. The PDT rule really put a damper on things, and forced many non-prop firm daytraders to cough up more cash or change markets.
More and more traders are shifting to futures according to recent research on frequent traders. I don't remember the name of brokerage firm which did it but it was published couple of months ago.
three reasons: -most of ET members are remote retail traders that have very small accounts -pattern daytrading rule and levarge in futures -everyone knows about es and nq, but not same case of +10,000 differnet stocks
alot of ET members switched to futures for various reasons.. tax benefits, lower margin, easy short sales, easier executions, the better technical response of indexes over individual stocks, etc etc.. topics havent changed that much though.. look back 2 years and you will see alot of the same thing we get today.. "how i will make 2763276 million my first month of trading.. (if my mommy will loan me 2000 dollars so i can open a real account)" threads.. then you have your.. "Im a brand new newbie trader who doesnt know anything about trading and havent taken the time to so much as read a single book on the subject and im far too lazy to do a search of the archives so ill just put my question out for more 'experienced' traders.. does anyone know the symbol for IBM?" type threads.. and of course the never ending.. "WHOA!! CHECK THIS OUT EVRYBOODY!! YHOO is trading near its 16 period moving average, what an obvious short!" type nonsense.. and the obligatory "I just made a fortune today/I just lost a fortune today" bragging/crying threads.. and my personal favorites, the threads started by such great thinkers as TradeRx, FasterPussyCat, and SuperEgo.. oh yes, and we had the unfolding drama of hitman and elusive princess.. -qwik