Speedracer, Sounds like you and your wife have each found your ideal mate. Life shouldn't be a limbo contest....how low can you go...
Hitman, Thanks for your informative response and I congratulate you for being willing to present your thinking and motivation in an open way. I think this is useful to others, like me, who are reading this thread. Honesty, as you can see, often comes with a price - but I hope that some of the recent off-color posts are just meant as a joke. Trading is stressful as you know and some traders use humor as a pressure valve. Here are some answers to your questions about my trading: I have been trading full time for about 3 years now: stocks, options, futures. For the last year or so, I have concentrated on futures, mainly because of the leverage available in that instrument, but also because I find that trading the S&P and Nasdaq futures is as close to "pure technical trading" as a trader can get to. I have taken many seminars and learned to use most of the popular trading tools and methodologies you see marketed out there. Gradually, my style has focused on trading off the 1-3 min charts, and taking 5-15 trades per day. A typical "good day" for me gives me 4-10 s&p points, 10-30 Nasdaq points, and, if I'm lucky and I work extra hard, .5 - 1 stock points. If my day starts badly and my first 2-3 trades work against me, I tend to take the day off and attend to my other occupation which is writing science fiction stories. As you may remember, I've been trying to decide whether it might be better to join a professional trading company, and that's why your perspective is valuable. Stll thinking on that one
Well, it is rare that you get this kind of all-you-can-eat-buffet's, as when the market throws you a second super rally almost a carbon copy of Friday's, you have to score big. While I could have most definitely scored more had I been more aggressive, I will take those numbers every single day. 17400 shares each way on 12 of 14 shooting, +2307 before commissions, +2019 after, no bullets. Pre-Market: No real news that caught my eyes. 9:30: I actually tried the Don Bright open order strategy with a 0.50 envelop this morning and I was filled on AOL short, got like 10 cents out of that. Since our software doesn't allow you to automatically enter all of the orders, I actually made some mistakes when I put those 40 orders in and was filled on JPM, TXN, and MRK longs. Out for flat on MRK, made 10 cents on JPM (wish I held lol), made 50 cents on TXN (again wish I held but I knew I made a mistake when those orders were filled). Very interesting strategy, if I have no obvious go-to plays I will definitely try it again tommorrow, just that without automatic order entry software, it is just too much trouble to put every order by hand every morning, as I like to wait until 9:20 get the final print of S&P futures just to be precise. I did not enter open orders for GM/HD/WMT because of news. I should have had just one fill this morning, AOL, which would have been a winner. 9:40: Took CRA for 60 cents and went long SPF, shaken out of SPF for flat and missed a big move. I liked the daily's of KCP/GBP which I found from high volume scans in First Alert and went long both, got 20 cents from GBP, 50 cents from KCP. Those thin stocks are really handy as they move very slowly and I can just leave them there without stops (or stops under nice BID's) and check once every 30 minutes without worrying too much, the advantage is I can trade a few of those AND do other positions at same time. 10:05: Went long SGY and lost 20 cents, made it back in the afternoon however. Went long AMD/WDR/ALK/MMM and market ripped as I got 25 cents from ALK (didn't move for a long time), 40 cents from AMD (could not move), 50 cents from WDR (should have held), and 1 point from MMM (nasty shakeout's, should have held, as I had it when it was down 40 cents on the day). 2:00: Sitting on a big lead took AMD again but it could not go as I churned. Traded conservatively as I wanted to take what I had home. A very nice boost, if Nasdaq can reverse its trend, and eventually move to the high of its 2002 range like Dow, it could be a new bull market, and I know I will have the front row seat to the show with my profession and reap great reward from it. Unfortunately it may all be wishful thinking but I haven't see the market making a move as strong as this in a long long long long long long long long time. In the mean time just hope our team can put together more games like this Team Stats: 7 of 9 active traders 58700 shares on 37 of 58 shooting (63.7%) +4886 before commissions (5 of 7 traders positive) +3596 after commissions (5 of 7 traders positive)
A very draining day as again I could not score down the stretch and watched an ok open fizzle before my eyes. 16400 shares each way on 7 of 14 shooting, +602 before commissions, +150 after, 3 bullets (all losers). Pre-Market: Some retailor downgrades 9:30: Got HON/BMY filled on open play and scored 15 cents a piece, wish I held a little longer but futures looked weak at the time. I will play with 500 share lots for a little longer and see what happens, I definitely like this strategy but I gotta cut down on the number of errors. I had the wrong price for FDX and was filled any way and made 35 cents on a short, not exactly the way I want to trade this strategy. I think I need to start putting in orders at 9:10 and use 9:25 - 9:30 to do a quick check and make sure all the prices are right. Overall definitely promising, but currently I am a little bit slow between closing out those open fills and switching to my main weapon, I tend to be stunned for a couple of minutes right after I get out of my open fills, as my brain has to load up my primary attack plan. 9:46: UHS has a really nasty looking daily and I bulleted it when a seller showed up, squeezed the hell out of me as I churned him all day and lost $150 after commissions. Tried to bottom pick SFA when futures ripped and out for flat. Missed two critical fills on GS & DNA. Went long BEN for a quarter. CBE and PH had nice daily's and I took both, out of PH for 5 cents loss but got 50 cents from CBE. Liked ALK's daily chart too but airlines were too weak and only got 10 cents pop. 10:25: Bulleted SPF on S&P futures running out of juice and home builders selling off, damn stock sooooooo strong today and with it hitting new high's & home builders hitting new low's I lost $250 after commissions in him for my worst loser of the day after many tries to short. 11:00: Thought futures will sell-off and bulleted BEN, what a waste, churned him and gave back half of my morning gains on him. 12:00: Long ROK/SPG on daily charts, SPG got 10 cents ROK lost 10 cents. 3:00: Tried to bottom pick LOW and short SPF, more churns. Team Stats: 8 of 9 Active Traders 82500 shares each way on 33 of 74 shooting (44.6%) +2205 before commissions (6 of 8 traders positive) +160 after commissions (5 of 8 traders positive) Top 3 Symbols: MYL, DYN, MDT Bottom 3 Symbols: MI, PDX, SPF
Really, you need to wait for Globex to close at 9:15 NYT. Even then, once in a [blue moon] while, something goofy will happen between 9:15 and 9:30 that will cause you to modify an order(s.) In addition, beware of stocks that aren't opening at the "normal" time they are supposed to open [keep a log of when they open.] I have found that it is prudent to not play these if they are "too" delayed [not only that, but the Futures have been trading for a "while" now also.] The correct way to do OO orders is with software. At Bright, they have Excel software that automates most of this. Not only is it faster, it is less error prone. I use IB, and I have written my own software to enter them [plain limit for now until they come out with the real thing.] I hope to make the software even more intelligent in helping me out with OO orders. I do not know what software you use or if you have an MIS department that can code this for you, but, IMHO, it is a _MUST_ in order to do 20+ OO orders. I know what you mean about gettting in the "other" frame of mind But eventually you will see that it was the same frame of mind after all, just a little weird [cause you are trading off of abstract info as supposed to what you see.] nitro
Nitro, I think IB now does OO orders. http://www.interactivebrokers.com/html/User_Manual/Release_Notes/Notes_Index.htm I haven't tried them yet, but would like to start. Are you using Excel to to what you have so far? If you are, any chance I could see a copy? -Johnny