Cheetos, You might want to know that Ameritrade IZone (www.izone.com) offers both $5 flat trades as well as $3 flat trades with an annual fee (something in the area of a very minor $80 I think). It's no Interactive Brokers by any stretch, but as part of the Ameritrade family, it uses the same tools you're using now, so it should be familiar to you. Taking the $3 flat trades route alone would save you a ton of $ in commissions over the $7 you're paying now given how much you trade on a daily basis. By the way, they don't mention the $3 flat trades + annual fee thing on they're website since I'm sure they're not keen on too many people knowing about it. However, if you mention it to them in an email, they'll confirm it and set it up for you, as they did for me back when I was using Ameritrade. Anyway, just thought you'd want to know...good luck
That sounds like a great deal on commission from AMTD, which I was unaware of. That would be the best deal I've seen anywhere actually if your trading in size, especially if your trading 1-50k shares at a time. I like to trade small caps under $10 for short term trades sometimes and the commission has always been a reason to hesitate using both AMTD and IB. I like AMTD for the big short list and customer service, while I like IB because of the commission and quick order entries. For IB I use the API with quotetracker, which is really great, although there is a small millisecond delay for the tranfer of information. It would be nice if IB had there own streaming T & S window like every other broker, but I guess that's what the API is for anyway. If I can get hooked up with $3 commission on unlimited number of shares at AMTD, that is a steal. AMTD could still do better on the options commission though. I would have to buy 80 contracts to be equal to IB's $1 per contract on options. Although I've never exercised options or been assinged options(I'm not sure who would), but the $30 fee seems ridiculous, considering IB doesn't charge. Does the AMTD i-zone have advanced order entries like iceberg orders or OCO? I'll be emailing AMTD soon about this. I'll also be emailing IB, to see if they can match these rates.
cheetos, good jobs. I enjoy reading your posts each day. I just began trading few weeks ago, and I am now tradeing very small sizes. What I believe is the more information we observe, the better chance we could win. I am wondering if you could tell me what kind of information you observe and which one(or more) do you think is the most useful one?
doubt u will ever take any money from me; i call me trades in chat and i capture ranges much bigger than yours and always at least a full percent...with fewer trades than u i can smack u arse anytime. edit; many come here with outrageous claims just to recruit 'students' for paid serivices, it's natural we are deeply suspicious...still, looks like i might been wrong 'bout u: congrats on what u doin'.
Hey guys, Thanks for all your replies and advices. I really think you guys helped me keep things in perspective while I was going through this wild transformation in trading. I kept the mantra of not getting too greedy and thereby avoiding big blowouts that many of you warned me about. I probably won't be making new posts here for some time. Without saying too much, I have been contacted by someone who knew someone running a hedge fund in the city and it looks like I will working there starting sometime next week. I was in the process of negotiation all this weekend and pondering whether to take the job or not. But its hard to give up a job with salary and good benefits. Plus, my sense is I will learn a lot about trading in the process. Thanks and good luck to all of you with your trading!! Cheetos
"edit; many come here with outrageous claims just to recruit 'students' for paid serivices, it's natural we are deeply suspicious...still, looks like i might been wrong 'bout u: congrats on what u doin'." Well, I should have come forth with my evidence earlier but I really did not know how to capture the screen. I looked online and all I found was softwares you have pay for. So I put it off until a friend told me about the "print screen" key. Bitstream, no hard feelings here. Good luck with your trading!
Cumulative, "I am wondering if you could tell me what kind of information you observe and which one(or more) do you think is the most useful one?" Here are some things that help me with trading: a) Follow lots of stocks with big volatility and heavy short interests. I follow about 50 stocks on my streamer and these stocks flash colors like crazy all day because of the volatility. I always try to short these stocks after the MMs pull one of the orchestrated short squeeze. SNDK and RIMM were some of my favorites. They often pull monster squeezes in the first hour of trading out of thin air but you have sit and wait until MMs destroyed all the shorts and then you go in. When the MACD and Stochastic Slow meets and the stock is cracking the top of the band, watch level 2 to see whether MMs are still moving the stock up. Its hard to really describe in words except if you watch level 2 and last sale for a long, you get this sense when the stock is about to croak. b) Do the reverse when these stocks fall quite a bit after the short squeeze. Because once the shorts realize the stock won't fall further, they will again cover in droves so you can go long and take quick .1 to .3 per share profits in sometimes less than a minute. c) With these trades, you have to be very quick on your feet. You snooze you lose. Don't chase opportunities after it passesby. I done that in the past and its the beginning of crappy trades that can lead to huge losees. That is go in when your gut tells you but get out fast too when it does not go your way. By going in early, you will have more leeway to get out fast in case you're wrong. d) Entry is the key. I would say 70% of my trades, I make profit the instant I am in. So you wait and wait and fight for pennies before going in. A penny better means you can get out quicker with profit. I think I have kinda mastered the entry. e) Exit when it does not go your way. I think many will agree here that this is probably the hardest thing to do. Getting out of bad trade is key to winning. Its a psychological battle but you have to conquer it win. Take some loss, even occasional big loss, its better than a huge loss. I guess the best thing to do is get out BEFORE something goes wrong. That means getting out if it the trade is not going your way. Don't wait for it to go wrong. Anyway, this is much easier said than done. I still have a problem with exits and it costs me quite a bit of money in the afternoon trades but I am managing it much better than before. I think you have maybe get burned several times to have it etched in your brain before it really sinks in. That is all I can think of at the moment. Hey, good luck with your trading!!
Just out of curiosity.... let's all be honest here... how exactly did your account hold up during the past few trading days, when a real correction finally hit??
Got through maybe a quarter of this thread. This site is around for pure comedy. So dude comes on and says he has been day trading for a while and almost gave it up. Got some backing and is now making some decent cash. And everyone comes on board and claims it can't be done and the whining and calling BS begins. Maybe the issue was resolved over the lat 50 posts I didn't bother skimming. Bottom line. Just because YOU can't do it. Just because YOUR friends and trading environment can't do it. Doesn't mean OTHERS aren't doing it. The pontificating on this website is borderline scary. Everyone knows everything and usually the people that know everything struggle to net 6 figures a year or puddle around barely positive. As always, thanks for the laugh ET.