While the "smart money" people do take large positions, betting big does not put you in the smart money community automatically. So "big money" is not necessarily a synonym of "smart money". A billionaire can trade big and still be a clueless idiot.
I've always understood the spikes, but what I've never been able to find out is how to spot them real time. Is there any free program that can scan stocks and tell me when there is a big spike decreasing a stocks value? Or is there any way to find these stocks?
TradeStation might be able to spot spikes and alert you in real time, assuming you program it to do so. For example the program could read like this : alert me if any 1 min bar is at least 5 times longer than the average size of the previous 20 bars.
Thanks for the reply, I might check it out. Not sure if I totally want to switch brokers though. This trading strategy doesn't only apply to futures, it applies to equities too right?
You can use these parameters with any financial instrument you want to trade, stock, futures, Forex, you name it. If you trade the equity market, you can let software like TC2000 scan thousands of stocks each day, in real time, and alert you if it detects any kind of "unusual" activity, like a sudden increase in volume and/or price. And let me tell you, this should keep you busy all day, every day !
Thanks elite I appreciate all your help. I was checking out TC2000, looked very solid. However, I'm an engineering student currently and just don't have any extra cash to spare (markets suppose to make me the cash haha). However, I did find a free program called JStock. Ever heard of it?
You are quite welcome. Yes but JStock is pretty basic, with just a few indicators like Macd or RSI. Still, it's a good place to start for traders with a limited budget.
I have always looked at spikes, no matter what timeframe as exit areas. To me it tells mass excitement whether going up or down. Time to take profits and get out, cause fast movement for me normally means just as fast retracement. Stock is a local endeavor, but have done well with it.