yeah, that's what u should be lookin' for...best odds for big, long lastin' trends are found in those 15-30% gaps down [usually big earnings misses or legal issues]...tech and bio tech are usually punished and keep tumblin' 'till the closin' bell, while larger caps involved in anythin' else are more likely to be bought. futs direction and, more importantly general sentiment also play a role in determinin' trends.
Livinston1, how are you? I made $38 today, how about you? I have been doing the research you suggested and your notes are making more sense daily but I am still stuck on a few points. 1. Do you just jump on stocks with meaninful bids/offers? What if you don't find any, do you trade on trends, other strategies? 2. My screener returned about 35 stocks to watch based on your criteria. How many stocks can one handle a day? 3. Where do I find historical print data to go back to the tape and look at the prints? 4. You could perhaps throw in some of your daily trades in this post so that we can follow you better and comment on.
$38 is a very good start for doing 100 shares. I am just starting as well and I just want to be consistent in profits and progress on moving up in size. I do not speak on behalf of livingston1 obviously but I'll throw in my 2 cents. 1. Depends on lots of factors. The size on the bid/offer must be aggressive, if they are not aggressive, it can get pulled when the market is on the opposite side. It can be a specialist fake to stir up some interest. If you see stacked sizes....say 4 in a row, make sure you watch all 4 as probably 2/4 is fake. The logic behind this is that if there is a seller, and indeed needs to sell some stock, the size would not be behind the big size, it would be in front trying to get sold. 2. Again, I'm a beginner, and I tend to just watch 2 stocks. All stocks behave differently but they all work with the same rules, as eventhough the specialist controls the stocks, he has to obey strict regulation rules. By watching just a few stocks, one can see some of the things and situations that will likely to happen on other stocks as well. 3. That depends on your charting software. I use eSignal and there is a time and sales function that stores data for quite some time and you can review it. Reviewing the prints is good but watching it real time is of course better. 4. well.....you can take that one livingston! FF
Can anybody answer this question? Thanks Usually how many cents will you let the price move against you before you take the loss? FastandFurious and Trader56, Thanks and welcome for previous posts Brazilianwonder, Most of the data providers will have historical time and sales. The more common ones are Esignal, DTN IQ, Qcharts. In terms of speed of pulling historical time and sales, then it will be Esignal.
I tend to look for no more than 5 cents. Actually, it's not about how much you can let it lose because if the size prints, it's done, there's no more demand on selling/buying (at least in the short time) and you can lose substantially so in turn, it's not really about how much you will lose until you get out as that seems more like a trend/position approach but rather if the size prints, it will be gone, and you gotta get out FAST while it prints or before. I have left so much cash on the table as I was 10 cents + in the money, but when the size prints, it goes so fast and I was not fast enough to get out, and in turn, not only did not get a single penny, I lost a couple because the size/demand is gone. FF
Fastandfurious, Thank you. What I have noticed also is that if my entry is good, it will usually not retrace more than 5-10 cents before taking off (usually less than 5 cents). At times it is better to enter at market (at least this is what I think) as it will immediately zoom off. This is when I will seldom take any heat ie price will seldom retrace to my entry price. Of course the flip side is my entry price is not that great. My biggest problem I guess is that I suck at taking profits or cutting my losses. I am always thinking whether this is just a small retracement and price will go up again or should I exit immediately. Same goes for when price goes against me almost immediately (ie when price rises by 2-3 cents from my entry price) then turn back and goes below my entry price. Have not figured out how to deal with this problem yet. Currently I seem to be usually exiting at all the wrong timing ie exit for a loss and price turns up again (for long scalp) or letting a 10+cents profit slip through me and I exit for a 2-5 cents profit before price turns up again (for long scalp) Also another problem is getting chop to pieces when price moves a few cents up, then a few cents down etc. ANy insights, any help, anyone?? Thanks
if u have trouble lettin' run your profits and cuttin' your losses i strongly suggest to open your pos with a predetermined stop and lmt [bracket] and let it run 'till one of the 2tgts is reached...other approach [works wonders] is to do the same but without lmt: get away from your pc and come back at 1:30pm/2o'clock max [typical time for trend exhaustion]. this worked well for me on gaps the showed a clean cut trend...watchin' your pos tick by tick can be detrimental to your profits, messes up with your mind and clouds your vision, makin' u forget and ignore the macro picture and overall potentials for the stock u are tradin'.
Bitstream, Have always enjoyed your posts and help. A question pls. 1) If for scalping, wouldn't bracket orders to get you out of a trade be unsuitable? Usually market makers will try to trigger the stops? TIA
Thanks FF, On my first question, I wanted to know from Livinston1 if in case he does not find a stock within his strategy of looking for meaninful bids/offers, what does he trade? Gaps, breakouts??? I am trying to see if Livinston1 trades only when he's got an edge over the specialists. On question number 3, I have times and sales functionality but it does not last all day unless I let the computer on and on that same screen. I was wondering if there were something like nasdaqtrader.com that shows historical times and sales.
thx. sorry i was talkin' about position trades...longer time frames, from half a hour to a full day. on the other hand on index futs it works pretty well, maybe better without the stop bracket for the reason u just posted.