Yes this is true but before you can develop your own style, you need to learn how to trade first. Once you do that, then you can develop your own style and see where you fit in. It seems like they are doing this in the reverse.
Shan, let me throw you a bone here since you are not getting much help over there. I use to trade with this guy at Worldco. http://www.youtube.com/user/banotradingraw http://www.tradingraw.com/ I have no affiliation with his services for the record. But he is an old school tape reader. I'm sure you can learn some stuff for free from his youtube videos.
Net P&L= +48 Shares Traded=600 Today was my first positive day since starting at the firm. Took three trades today...1 winner, 1 loser, and 1 scratch. You will see a similar mistake made on the last scratch as was made in he COST trade! Trade:1 WAG Long=42.35, stop= 42.22, target reached at= 42.94 +$59.00 WAG was down on a gap close to 7-8% on a gap and bounced off the lows on high volume. Came back to the lows and consolidated and held. Took a long targeting near the highs of the day. Target reached. Trade 2: SPY long 129.37, target =129.53, stop=129.9 -$6.50 SPY was grinding up in a solid uptrend all day and made the first pullback of any real magnitude. Saw an area where the pullback held and got long. Saw some volume spikes on the 1-minute near this area as well. Stop was hit and SPY pulled back to the 129 level. One thing I've noticed is that during a trend day there is sometimes a pullback that starts about 3 hours into the day. This is also an area where volume tapers off... I will put this in the back of my mind going forward. Trade 3: WFT long 17.33, stop= 17.29, target 17.46, exited with a scratch -$0.00 I have attached the chart for this trade and the SPY trade in the next post. Saw that SPY's were coming off of the lows on high volume and thought we would at least get a test of the highs. Oil service names were out performers all day...got long into the consolidation low in WFT. Market grinded higher and WFT paused... I exited the trade at a scratch. One reason was because I was looking at the level 2 and the there was an extremely heavy offer. There were about 70,000 shares offered at the 34 and only about 2000 at the bid! I exited and shortly after WFT proceeded to take off and reach highs. HONOR THY STOP AND DO NOT EXIT UNTIL THE PREMISE OF YOUR TRADE IS WRONG! Nothing more to say...
Question for you or others experienced on the matter. The trader in one of those videos makes an interesting comment. He says that he finds it easier to read the tape in a stock that is "inefficiently priced". By this he means a stock with news but little activity in pre-market action(no gap). He says that it flows more and it easier to see the action! I've been watching the level 2 and looking out for general things and getting the "feel". I will definitely incorporate a stock with the ineffecient pricing characteristic into my watchlist tomorow! Will see if there is a difference. I havent traded the open, but the head trader in my room gave a me a suggestion to try it tomorow morning.
You can't really read the tape on a stock with no news. The news brings in the bigger plays and they leave bigger foot prints. Stocks with no news leave prints so small it's almost impossible to read them.
The distinction wasnt whether the stock has any news or not....I was referring to what the trader said in the video. He said that he likes to trade stocks with news, but that are not opening on gaps(up or down). Stocks that are not opening any different from where they closed the day(give or take)...meaning that market participants haven't already found a price given the new info
That's not why prices gap. Prices gap because traders who are short are getting squeezed on the open. You will notice stocks with the highest short interest will have the largest gap on the open. Remember this, when prices gap, it's because someone has lost the optionality on price, whether long or short.
Shan, when you get some time, read through this entire thread. I basically wrote a book on tape reading. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56373&highlight=short+selling+chat