My day trading has improved substantially since I quit looking at level II. That is, I am actually profitable now. When looking at level II, about all that I could do was break even. Yes, I read and paid attention to the books on scalping, level ll, and market maker manipulations. Most of my trading lasts from a couple of minutes to a couple of hours. Any comments? Norm
Watch time & sales, thats much more important.. Executed trades is a statement instead of question marks from bid and asks
Here's a question on T&S: Oftentimes the underlying market index is ticking up, and, according to T&S, there is buying pressure (significantly more shares are going off at Ask rather than Bid), but the inside market for the particular issue continues to move down --- what is the cause of this? I have noticed it both on the Naz and the NYSE, though perhapse more often on the NYSE.
Think about it, if the stock was going to go up at that moment, the bids would step up and asks would step back. If the reverse is happening, then the stock is probably not going up at this point in time. Also, the specialist can only buy on downticks so if he wanted to get long, he'd have to have the stock move down and collect shares that way and THEN take the stock higher. Plus, just because the market is ticking up doesnt mean that all stocks will go up at this time. If trading was this simple, we'd all be swimming in pools of money.
So, if the stock is downticking despite a predominance of executions on the ask, it's a possible indication that the specialist/market makers are attempting to go long? I do understand that stocks move independently of their underlying index -- I was just eliminating that as a possible explanation. Thanks for your insight!