Thug Life "Electronic Day Trading --- David S. Nassar Rules of the Trade -- David S. Nassar Yet another satisfied customer" This is a crap what you wrote. The guy lost simply because he was clueless. You obviously have a personal problem with D. Nassar and I think you should take it out of this board. Other thing, his books are not bad. You probably know it. P.S. Not affiliated with Nassar in any way.
advise like that is PRICEless!!!, and its worth exactly what you paid for it. For some of us, we didn't pay anything for Nitro's advise, unfortunately, should your story really be real instead of hypothetical (don't take offense, but some of the things said here are unbelievable), then that advise is worth the $70k loss. Your problems (motas) are exactly what motivated a number of traders and wanna-bees to get licensed, associate with a professional firm and environment, and learn from those who do succeed. After all, if succeeding in this environment were as easy as opening an account, reading a book, and listening to CNBC, or some other Financial TV show, then, well, you're intelligent to fill in that blank, as it suites you. Cheers, Look up GeneW, he seems genuinely interested in new talent. There are other firms that traders praise also, look into these, interview with them, see if your expectations are within their business goals.
I take it all back! Below is advice that is _CLEARLY_ better, and it didn't cost you anything either! Had I not been _SOOO_ blind and not realized from your post that you were so clearly "new talent," I certainly would have sent you to limitdown. Just think, you can go from one idiot giving advice to another! nitro PS Gene _IS_ a good guy...
Book knowledge never taught a surgeon how to operate. Book knowledge never taught a trader how to become successful. These dynamic markets are trecherous. All's that's left in the pool is the sess (sesspool). IOW, after the waters evaporated, then all that's left in the markets today are the professionals, some very, very harty individuals and the MM/Specs. You would probably have had a significantly different outcome in more favorable market conditions, where most traders made their monies (read 97, 98, 99, 00). One of the most important fundamental lessons that those books of reference teach is to learn the environment. Big Picture / Little Picture; I believe they almost always call it. The Big Picture right now is dreary, after the (fundamental) collapse in Tech Stocks, which spread to other segments of the marketplace. Add to that the Declaration of War and the other events. Add to that the unusual circumstances of the market disruptions (physical phone, cables, building and infrastructure damage to the firms on Wall Street) and the usage of their hot site backup facilities. Add to that the unusual activity of the Fed regarding interest rates, market stimulus and direct Treasury stimulus packages (Airline bailout, Auto Mfgr bailout, etc.). Simply put, the last 6 months were so far off the charts, that having started in this environment, and then having lost your nest egg, doesn't seem that difficult. I personally regret hearing about your loss, and wish that someone at TDW would have spoken with you to warn/prevent/suspend/interrupt your losing streak. They also have complixity in this, however, the agreements you signed probably exclude them from any liability. Have you seen a lawyer?
All: Thanks for all the positive advice. The conclusion I am getting from this post is that I am clueless and needs to work on my day trading skills (soon, today, now) but all I really wanted to know if the MM/SP are FAIR/HONEST game. Please let all the suggestions coming in, there may be lot of new traders like me in the market and will be able to pick up the pointer (hopefully early in the game) from this post. This post is just like a spell checker otherwise most of us will be dead. Thanks
Complixity you say? At least his loss is explixit at this point. If he hires a lawyer, then who knows how much more it will cost.
Motas, IMHO, the answer is yes (I am only talking NYSE.) However, there are specialists that are less "fair" than others. Part of learning to trade is to get to know which ones are and which ones aren't. As you may be aware, a specialist is responsible for several stocks at his post. I have even seen a specialist be "fair" in charge of one of his stocks, and not "fair" in another. He/She is trading just like you or me. That is why it is so important, that if you are going to trade NYSE, that you try to be on the side of the specialist as much as possible. This is not foolproof, and there are subtleties, but once you get it, you will forever be grateful that he is there. nitro