Okay now not only am I schizophrenic but I must be a wacko because I don't know who the following screen names are: 1) NeedtoSucceed 2) Raviraman 3) JIM Who's are First and whats playing second. I don't know ---he's pitching.
I and Ravi work for the same broker. We are in the development division of the firm, and are not allowed to have accounts elsewere. We share an office, and I used his workstation while replying not realising , that he was already signed on. I trade 1000 shares since the min. commission is $13. So when I pare out, the commission costs add up... cheers, Jim
It sounds like you probably can't do anything about it, but I think .01 per share commission and small size are two of the most critical factors for a beginning trader's success. When I first started trading in '97 I was faced with the commission/size struggle you are having. When I started trading again last summer I actually started with 10 shares at a time! Once I was consistently profitable I went to 100sh and so on. I can't tell you how much difference it made. Anyway, good luck, it looks like you'll get it all worked out.
Don't let the commission cost stop you from parring out. Once you refine your parring out on trades that are going in your direction it will more than pay for your commission cost.
Placed opening orders on the following: AOL, JNJ, IBM,WMT, LLY, TXN, STM Got filled on the long side for WMT. (1000sh) But the stock was acting weak, so exited for a 10c/sh loss. -126 When the S&P started selling off. I shorted SPY (600sh) on the 30 min bearish reversal, but the market turned back up and lost 20c on this. -146 Can anyone give me some tips on how to confirm reversals. I'm tired of getting whipsawed. For example, this morning, the S&P made a lower high and lower low on the 30 min. bars. The NASDAQ was weak, etc. What else should I be looking at ? I took it easy for the rest of the day, since I needed to run some errands in the afternoon. Down -272 for the day. cheers, Jim
To answer your question a person learns how to spot a reversal through time and experience. You become familiar with typical looking bottoms and how they are put in. In takes a while to get familiar with the patterns of the market. And then you still wrong a lot. When I am trading well I get the feel for the fact that we just saw a lot of volume and emotion and then I say to myself this is the prefect squeeze opportunity and then I look for an excuse to get long. Looking for tops is still another look all together. When you are trading well you see double tops and H&S patterns but tops are different than bottoms. I do not think I spot top reversals that well. I look for setups off resistance. By the way I left a ticket charge place for a penny a share type place and it still took me about a year to get consistently profitable.
I will attempt to impart some knowledge on you in terms of reversals. First of all let me give you a few tips on the SPY: SPY's are tough, as the S&P futures are controlled by locals ( pit traders ) and they are not a weak bunch. Shorting breakdowns and playing obvious setups are tough. With the SPY's you need to do your work ( charts ) and trust support and resistance and set stops that are not obvious. If you plan on trading these you must be smarter than the average trader as the best moves come of fake breakdown and breakouts. One suggestion, use stochastics on a short term chart 3 or 5min and when you see weak highs being made or weak lows then you can take a shot at a fade play. Now, as far as reversals, I believe the best way to play reversals is waiting for the confirmation of a double tops and bottoms. These occur everyday in many stocks. They require patience as you must take a little higher entry than you may like off double bottoms and lower than you may like of double tops but waiting for the confirmations will set you up for gains more often. For example, watch a low, then bounce, a retest low and buy when the bounce high is broken. The logic here is as follows, after the low is made short sellers move in and start shorting the bounce, as the stock moves back to the lows short sellers with profits move their stops to break even ( high of bounce off lows ), now as the price breaks above this on the bounce off the second low shorts are forced to cover thus pushing the stock up and bringing in buyers that see the double bottom form. I will give you an example on the SPY: 5 minute chart from 1/31, look at the 14:00 bar low of 112.18 (valley #1) , 14:25 bar high 112.69 (peak#1), 14:50 bar low of 112.22 (valley #2), now entry is taken once 112.69 is broken. This occurs into the 15:05 bar and continues higher into the end of day. check also the action between 12:30 and 12:50. You must set your own stops and targets, but add this to your arsenal. Hope it helps. __________________ "Plans are nothing, planning is everything" ----D. Eisenhower