i trade using tymorapro through their llc and use its tools not only to "read the tape", but to find the best stocks to trade. in the end it still boils down to the psychology of it - and if you don't feel up to trading, go take a nap! i've found that trading is mostly about having the patience to stay away from the hairy stuff and focus on setups that are slowly and steadily trending. if i pick the stock right, all of a sudden these stocks just explode upward and run into a frenzy. when i start feeling a bit too good about myself, I dump the position, and take a little break. tymorapro also has some great indicators that really keep you on the right side of the tape if you miss something. it's amazing to see some big offer sitting there with its stochcci returning to oversold, but price still holds steady and maybe even upbids. then once the indicators turn, and i see the bids coming back in, i grab what is left of the big offer and watch it run. get in slow and steady and dump into the frenzy - then stay away! they post potential setups and examples throughout the trading day at www.yourika.com/vucam. Some of the charts and examples they post should give you an even better idea of what i'm talking about. oh yes, and having a reliable platform and low fees is an absolute must! active trader magazine also has an article about it in the june issue.
Steve, you don't trade for point moves like Maverick do you? What would you guess to be a typical winner for you, 10 cents? I don't see how anybody could tape read for point moves in the current market.
I actually laughed when I read this. In my opinion, you should be just as weary (or more so) of the people posting at 2am or 3am. Its scary to think these people are sleeping only 3 or 4 hours before trading a Live account. Maybe they just wake up really early, only problem is they're usually posting at 11pm too. Let's analyze this, shall we? That was quick, I've got it. They're probably in Europe, Asia, Africa, or Australia. No that couldn't be it... I'd guess 2/3 of my posts are during market hours. I'm not scalping or anything like that, but I get bored around lunch time when my BP is usually 50% or more cash. I usually trade 90% + of my BP in the morning, so I rarely focus on anything other than open positions then. Plus some of my posts are really long, I start some at 10am, but don't finish them until 1pm. Boredom mostly drives me to do it, like on choppy trendless days. I can only watch CNBC for so long before I start going insane. But with three 19" monitors, I can usually find 600x400 pixels of screen space for insulting people here on ET when I'm bored. And at 0.6 posts per day, you could pretty much figure out that I don't make it a point to spend my day posting on ET. Here's the thing that really gets me though. Guy signs up in January, has over 500 posts in late February. WTF? Those are the one's I'd be very weary of. Them and the paper trading advocates... You have aroused my curiosity as well. Could it be Maverick specializes in GOOG or CME?
i still try to go after full percentages and that means enterin' at open and get out at 2o'clock or at close, or get lucky and ride 10thick candles in 1hour but yeah..lately it has been very hard to make decent money because of lack of interest and bots fadin' the crap out of any stock that tries to trend therefore the risks durin' retracements don't justify much holdin' trades for so long...just a couple of yrs ago it was pretty easy; just pick up an item in the news because of positive earnings, buy and let it ride...now usual suspects dont react as they did back then and profit margins are squeezed big time, u gotta be way too surgical in your choices to get it right and that's why those who are makin' serious money get in and out for 10c with huge leverage...that's the way to go now, no 2ways about it...easy money are gone.
No, I definitely dont catch points often. Although I'd like to But seriously, my normal range of profitable trades is probably something like .05-.30. Thats my guess.
Ok serious question here from a up and coming n00b. I keep searching for ways to capture nice moves of 1 point plus in stocks. I read from the "hard core" day traders that they usually make just a few pennies per trade sometimes as much as a dime or 2. So is my search of trying to time the market so I can get 1-2 points on AAPL a waste of time? Should I be learning how to spot the big boys buying or selling huge amount of stock so I can scalp my way to riches?
here's a link for T&S - just enter the symbol & click on time and sales- http://data.inetats.com/ds/data/stockstats/stockstats.jsp?symbol=SEAC&links=true&html=true&width=555
It's about time scales and risk. You want to get in and out fast and make sure that your losses are never more than a couple cents? Well, your profits are probably not going to be that big. You are comfortable holding for hours or days and potentially taking bigger losses? Now you can target .50 - 2.00 or more. It's my impression that people who trade for points instead of cents generally won't trade the same stock day in, day out, but identify a few setups that they like and scan a universe of stocks looking for that. If you're trying to develop the perfect system that will consistently get the full range of any arbitrary stock... Well, maybe you can start by trying to capture 10% of its movement, then 20%, then 30%. If you can consistently take 30%, I think you'll be doing extremely well, and it'll give you an income while you work on your Magic Strategy.
There is a simple substitute for T&S for trading ES. It comes in a couple of forms. Google DOM and button. To make money with it, only use it when necessary at turning points. On the attached chart for intermediates this is where the orange dots occur. For experts there are intervening points where it can be used to increase the daily profits.
OK guys, although I don't follow listed stocks much anymore I decided to throw out an example here of what I'm talking about. Now keep in mind I don't have a time and sales in front of me. But I will walk you through a trade I would have made today. As you know, I traded mostly earnings stocks. Today Heinz reported before the open (HNZ). This is a great stock btw. I don't even know what the numbers were, I just looked this up real quick on yhoo finance. So let's take a look at this stock. I would have this stock on my screen along with 15 others. The stock gaps up on the open .80 and opens at 43.15. Now this is going to be very general because I can't show you the exact prints. I would be long right off the open. I guarantee you this stock was bid on the first print. I would lift the first offer I saw and probably would have been filled close to the open print. The next thing we would see is some plus tick bids come in. That means we have a real buyer here. I would keep adding stock as that bid stepped up. As long as I know the buyer is there, I'm buying. Remember, I want to sell all my stock when the buyer gets filled on a spread up. I'm just looking at the chart here but it looks pretty clean from what I can tell. I keep buying and buying. I am not looking for pennies here guys, I'm looking for dollars. Sure enough the stock trades up a buck from the open and the high of the day is 44.15. I'm sure the stock spread up to the print. When you see the specialist spread the stock I immediately go to market and sell. Just hit sell immediately. You will get that high print for sure. At this point the stock starts to sell off after that high print. I have no reason to buy the stock back yet and no reason to get short. I'm looking at the tape to see if I can find the buyer coming back in. My guess is he is no where to be found. The stock keeps selling off. Now the stock is selling off really hard here. Do I buy it? Of course not. Why would I? Do I see the buyer back, probably not. Do I short it? Not yet. I'm still watching. Now the stock is approaching the open and the low of the day. This is my best trade right here. Now I'm looking to get short. This shit is classic. Stock gaps up, trades higher. Now it rolls over and is going through the open. This is a lock at this point. I am getting short stock right before it trades through the open at 43.15. The reason I do this is because I'm afraid once we trade through it the stock might collapse really fast. And sure enough, it does just that. Now look at this chart. Anyone who got short this stock has an easy ride here. This stock can barely uptick at this point. My guess is we have some nice size offers stepping down. We have some offers on a minus. Do I cover? Of course not, why would I? I have no reason to buy this stock back yet. I am not looking for pennies. This stock could come in 4 pts from here. This stock is beautiful. Trades all the way down to the low at 42.13 which you will notice is a cleanup print. Once I see the specialist spread the stock down I immediately go to market and buy the stock, all of it. You will notice the volume spike. That is a cleanup print. Now what I do? Do I get long? Jesus no. Do I sell it again? Maybe. If I see the seller come back. Looking at the chart I doubt he came back. The stock pretty much traded sideways after that. No reason to touch this stock again. You made a nice buck on the upside off the open and you caught a buck on the downside. So you made 2 points in this stock and you never had to sweat. Guys, this is how I use to trade. These stocks still exist today. This isn't even earnings season. There are plenty of dollar and two dollar moves to catch. No need to tick fuck stocks for pennies. Just read the tape and watch what's going on. There was clearly a buyer in this stock on the open, that is obvious as day. And there clearly was a seller. That is what we trade off of. We are long with the buyers and short with the sellers. We are not trying to sell the top or buy the bottom. We are not trying to trade in and out of it all day for pennies. You could have made 2 pts in this stock today and this is just one stock. I would trade 15 of these. I can look all over and find these stocks for you guys every day. They are out there. You just need to go through the news every single morning. Read every single headline. Do not be lazy!!!!! HNZ was easy money today and I mean easy guys. No reason to trade AAPL or GOOG or HANS. Find the earnings stocks, or the earnings revisions, and watch their competitors. I hope this was helpful.